We Can Explain...
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We Can Explain…Chapter Twenty Five (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply
cla class=MsoNormal>A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST
WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta… How goes it?
hostinchivchiving.
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Wingdings'>J
Lance spat
a curse and flung his arms over his head in frustration.
Remy stood
stock still. “C’est impossible…”
sign of life and apparently so for a long time. Empty barrels of what was once fuel oil stood with drifts of
cigarette butts and crushed cans around their base, pumps rusting on their
islands. The truck stop was
abandoned.
“Dude, this
is fucking insane… I just fucking saw three fucking trucks here! And people!”
circle, his arms out wide. “There were
fucking people here!”
“Je sais,
je sais,” Remy muttered. He did not
admit to being scared often and rarely, he knew, if ever felt that way in
actuality, but this was pushing his reserve to the limits.
heel and squeezed his eyes shut as if willing the vision to change.
vaguely over his shoulder towards the busy bus terminal, “dis place had
customers…mais…”
“Hey!”
noise. “What the Hell?”
dust, panting from her jog across the multiple lanes of traffic.
Remy
narrowed his eyes and peered at the two girls intently.
startling Jubilee.
She had
been expecting a sigh of relief or at least a smile, not accusing tones. “Where
the Hell ou tou think? The bus station
across the fucking highway!” She gestured behind her, one hand still covering
the spot on her neck. Next to her,
Amara swayed on her feet, pale and silent.
“Remy, what’s going on?”
“You weren’t
there a second ago,” he said slowly. “I
was jus’ lookin’ over dere an’…”
“Dude,
forget it. You were distracted,” Lance
huffed in a spate of logical thought. “What’re
we going to do now?” He finally saw
Amara, really saw her, and the color drained from his face. “Princess, what is
it? You feeling sick?”
“I…I do not
feel exactly right.” She inclined her head rds rds Jubilee.
constant warm glow she had felt since before she left Nova Roma was gone,
replaced by a heavy solidity, a cold seeping in her veins that made her feel
stiff. “She has…a…a..thing…”
the pitted and broken concrete parking lot. “Ow…”
Jubilee
dropped to her knees beside the Nova Roman, Lance and Remy joining her on the
ground. “Hey, you going to be sick?”
she asked with false calm. “You’re
breathing kind of funny…” She leaned
closer, trying to see Amara’s eyes, but was pushed out of the way by Lance.
“Princess,
say something.” He shook her
gently. “Amara?”
“Shake me
again,” she wheezed, “and I will hurt you.”
Her eyes lit on Remy as the one person not crowding her and reached out
for him to help her up. “Thank you,”
she muttered as he tugged her gently to her feet. “We need…the phone…” She
was trying very hard not to scream. She
was afraid, if she did, she would not be able to catch her breath again.
chest, choking her, and each breath was a new agony of cold fire.
Jubilee
narrowed her eyes in an unwitting imitation of Remy’s intense gaze and nodded
firmly. “I see it over there.
in her pocket as she set off at a jog, part of her wondering how much a call to
Bayville would be and the rest of her silently freaking out.
throat and mouth as she reached the single pay phone on the outer wall of the
abandoned truck stop. The cord
connecting the receiver to the phone itself was dangling free, broken.
she shouted, startling a singrackrackle into flight. Her hand shot out and she grabbed the receiver, yelling wordlessly
and beating the broken phone with it, cursing in every language she even
vaguely knew before rearing back and throwing the piece of heavy plastic through
the dirty window of the store portion of the truck stop.
echo, falling in a rain of shards as she finally gave in and sobbed her
frustration. Her throat and neck ached
and she suspected whatever was under her skin might be moving.
cried, not objecting as Remy came up behind her and turned her to press her
tear-soaked cheeks against his chest. “Damn
it to Hell!” she cried.
“Shhh,
chere,” he crooned, though his heart raced in betrayal of his own fear.
Lance
crunched up beside them, carrying Amara’s slight frame easily.
Amara
stiffened suddenly and gasped. “Do you
hear that?” she cried, silencing anything else that might have been said.
“I don’t
hear anything,” Lance replied softly, glancing worriedly at Remy.
“No,”
Jubilee said quietly and urgently. “No…I
hear it to. Sounds…slow and kind of
dancey…” She sniffed delicately, pulling away from Remy and frowning as she
strained her ears. “And people talking…”
'> Amara
nodded, squirming to be let free. “Maybe
they’re parked around back!”
Lance tightened
his grip on her, refusing to let her stand.
“I don’t hear anything. Remy,
want to walk to the road and see if we can flag someone down?”
Remy opened
his mouth to answer but it became a muted sound of surprise as Jubilee took off
jogging again, disappearing around the side of the truck stop.
and Amara to their own devices as he followed.
“Shit,”
Lance groaned. “Damn it, you’re heavier
than you look,” he muttered, setting off after his two friends.
“Maybe,”
Amara huffed, “you’re just weak.”
Lance bit
his tongue, declining comment. They
rounded the corner as Remy disappeared into a small shed, Jubilee’s shout of
surprise filtering out to them. “Fuck
fuck fuck!” Uncertain of what they
would find, he set Amara on her feet. “Do NOT move!” he ordered, poking her in
the chest.
“Do NOT
order me!” she snarled, though it lacked her usual conviction and was tainted with
a tremor.
Remy’s
wordless yell drove Lance to move. He
gave Amara one last, sharp glance before sprinting towards the shed.
mayhem when he skidded through the open door, but what he saw instead made him
gasp and very nearly trip over his own feet.
Instead of a small, musty storage space, an enormous bath lay before him.
gilded pool, her jaw nearly to her chest, and Remy simply stood near the end,
shaking his head in amazement. “Roman
baths,” Amara sighed behind him, making Lance jump. “How…unexpected.”