xp_logs | Sam, Marius, and Mel

Marius and then Sam, find Mel trying to sleepwalk through a window.

There were disadvantages to keeping a nocturnal workout-schedule, Marius considered, and at the moment the most glaring was the lack of a second witness to verify the evidence of his own eyes.

At the end of the hallway a glowing apparition was levitating several inches above the floor. He did not panic; his senses told him he was looking at a mutant. This granted him some brief reassurance before he recalled that the mutant signatures he detected did not necessarily require the flesh in question to be living. Still, upon closer inspection he realised the figure was clad in an oversized sweatshirt. This lent more credence to the likelihood what he beheld was a living woman and not the ghost of a Civil War widow or similar. It seemed an inappropriate wardrobe in which to spend eternity.

However, it was cold. Marius told himself this was likely attributable to the half-open window she stood next to rather than a spectral cold spot, but at the mansion it never hurt to check.

"Er . . . you all right there?"

The river? The river. It was right there, she only need to jump and them she could swim. ‘What d’you want t’swim so badly for little missy?’ ‘Go on, git. The river’ll clean you off.’ ‘Watch me Josh, be sure to watch me!’ One jump and she could swim. They were all swimming, she had to join them.

The woman’s face barely moved as she talked. “I’ll be right down.. be sure to watch.” Fingers clumsily pried at the window in what seemed like an attempt to open it further.

The girl didn't seem to be talking to him. He recognised her now: one of the Guthries, and the only one he hadn't met in the last world. Unacquainted though they were, her blank expression and glassy eyes indicated it would probably be unwise to allow her unfettered access to the great outdoors.

"Oi, hold on there." Marius swiftly closed the distance between them and put a firm hand on the windowsill before she could raise it further. "Stay here for a bit, eh? You all right? Not having a medical situation, are you?"

“My feet are stuck…. Why are you walking? I’m not scared!” She urgently tugged on the window. She couldn’t jump, why not? The water was clean. ‘Don’ be a scaredy cat Mellie!’ The earth was holding her down. She had to get unstuck so she could swim. Or, as urgently as she was able.

Still holding the window closed, Marius glanced down at the aforementioned feet. They were manifestly not in contact with the floor.

"Didn't say you were," he replied as he mentally paged through potential scenarios. Medical emergency, recreational drug and/or alcohol use . . . potentially something with her powers, he supposed, although he could detect nothing that had the flavour of something like Marie-Ange's precognition. Hadn't he once been shown some infamous anti-drug PSA about a man who'd jumped from a window because he was convinced he could fly? Clearly falling to her death was not a concern for this girl, but who knew where she might end up. Marius tried a smile.

"Why don't we go to the Medlab?" he asked cheerfully. "Perhaps they can resolve the mystery of your stuck feet. I, alas, am not so aerodynamically gifted, and thus have no choice but to walk."

’Go to the lower one if yer scared!’ Lower. Lower. That’s why she couldn’t swim, she was too high. The girl abruptly abandoned the sill and floated to the next window over, clicking the latch open with surprising speed. Her feet wouldn’t be swallowed by the lead here. She could jump easily.

"Oh, so this is how it's to be, is it." Marius quickly latched the abandoned window and started to move to intercept her again, then stopped. There were several reasons not to lay hands on a strange woman, and he disagreed with not a one. Still, she was clearly a woman on a mission, and that mission was defenestration. Something needed to be done.

The supply closet was right next to him. Marius pondered.

A few moments later the head of a broom interjected themselves between Mel and the window. Gently but with great insistence, it began to nudge her hands away from the latch.

“I need the lead off my feet.” She was on the lower but she still couldn’t jump. Was she not supposed to? Her feet were so heavy. ‘Hurry up Mel-belle! The water’s real nice.’ ‘It’s fine to watch if yer scared.’ The water was deep and clean.

"Yes, of course," Marius said agreeably. Moving with great care, he maneuvered the handle of the broom beneath one groping hand. "Here. Take hold of this, I'll pull you up."

Yes, she should just watch. It was much too cold for swimming. The hand grasped the handle in a white knuckled grip, but the girl attached to it paid it no mind. She was so happy to be at home. The river was rushing like music. She should sing something to pass the time and make everyone else happy. What likened to a humming noise began to flow from her throat.

Now in possession of a totally non-responsive Guthrie, Marius assessed the situation. Pro: The girl was now in a somewhat controllable position. Con: She had begun to make a sound unpleasantly evocative of multiple horror franchises. Surely this could only end well.

"Let's just move this way, shall we?" the Australian suggested, giving the broom an experimental tug away from the windows and their alluring two-storey drop.

She moved when he tugged, fingers still encircling the handle like a vice. It was so so nice. Everyone was swimming and she could be there too.

Had he ever towed a luminescing twenty-something down the halls like a balloon float so she couldn't hurl herself from a window? No. Was it the worst thing Marius had ever found himself doing after midnight? Not even remotely. He was just pondering whether it would be more efficacious to simply prod her into the freight elevator to the Medlab when a third party appeared.

Sam felt like he was eighteen again in the worst way possible. Come home from work, make sure the kids (read: Paige) are fed, get ready for bed, check the hallway for Melody’s sleepwalking form so she didn’t fall down the stairs or out of a window….occasionally panic because Melody wasn’t sleepwalking in her usual part of the house.

Much like he was doing now, frantically walking around different hallways looking for his sister’s sleepwalking form. That was the downside of the mansion- there were way more places for a weirdly evasive sleepwalker to hide.

He rounded a corner and sighed at first in relief and then in dismay at the sight before him. Sam immediately stepped forward to approach the man who seemed to have managed to contain Mel inside the house. “Oh….. it’s escalated…. I’ve got her now, thank you. Sorry you had to keep her still.”

Marius glanced over his shoulder, then did a double-take. The newcomer was younger, and mercifully not identical, but the genetic signature was easily identifiable as one of the Guthries he had been previously acquainted with. The older man found himself briefly speechless before reminding himself not to dwell. It really was no one's fault but his own that Marius was on his second reality. Fortunately the perfect distraction for this thought was clinging to the opposite end of the broom.

"No worries. I judged letting her through the window would've rapidly become a much larger problem than any inconvenience suffered by my intervention." Marius carefully swiveled the broom towards Sam, pulling Mel along with it like a fish on a hook. "She all right?" he asked. "She seems a bit out of it. I was on the way to Medlab to have her checked out."

“She….. gets like this. Uh oh- I’m Sam, her older brother. I’m just…. Gonna do our usual, take her back to her room and then hold her until the restlessness fades and she actually stays in bed.”

Sam breathed slowly and then moved to gather Mel into his arms to carry her back to her room, just like he had for years.

Mel, who had been humming lowly during the entire exchange, was suddenly silent. He was there now. ‘C’mon Mel, I’ll hold yer hand an’ we can jump together!’ But he didn’t jump, he fell and she couldn’t move. ‘That damn mutie bitch!’ Something was wrong. ‘Don’t move! Or I’ll- I’ll shoot!’ There was a hole and the water wasn’t clean anymore. The broom handle cracked against the ground. Where was everyone? They were just there in the river? It was bubbling and red, not clean and deep. “They shot Sam. I have to go to the river but there’s still lead on my feet.”

Mel's words touched the memory he'd already been uneasily edging around, and suddenly Marius could hear again the soft thunk, thunk, thunk of semi-solid energy tearing through flesh, and the scent of blood sharpened by a borrowed mutation, and the sight of a body going limp in its shackles. His flinch took him a sharp step back, gloved hands snapping back as if Mel's proximity had burned him.

Sam sighed and gathered Mel into his arms, holding her close to his chest like he had just the other night when he'd had to carry her back to her room. "No Mellie, they shot at you, hon. I'm okay. Everyone's just fine, rest now okay? I'll sing for ya back at yer room."

Turning to Marius he offered an apologetic look. "Sorry 'bout that. She ain't usually a talker but she also aint' ever flown while sleep walkin' before."

In truth, Sam was terrified and had to fight to keep his arms steady. The last time Mel had strung together a coherent sentence in her sleep, Daddy had just died.

I made a picture. I’m gonna surprise Daddy when he gets home.

He pressed a kiss to Mel's hairline and whispered more to himself than his sister. "It's okay Mel, we're all okay."

Watching Sam's tenderness with his sister made Marius feel like a trespasser. Happy families had never been a feature of his home life; this sort of familial display of affection struck him as almost surreal. Nor was this impression helped by Sam's own cryptic comment.

"No Mellie, they shot at you, hon."

Marius' mouth, for once making a better decision than the brain it was attached to, declined to interrogate this and instead simply offered, "Anything I can do?"

"If you'd be willin' to get the doors for me that'd be great." Sam said quietly, hoping that Mel wouldn't fight him on the way back to the room. "And thank you, really- she's never done that before- just up and floated like a booger. Jay'd have lost his shit if he'd seen it."

"Ah, right, Jay." Marius was grateful this interaction had been so disorienting the concept of re-encountering Jay now seemed positively banal. Recovering some of his normal aplomb, he grinned at Sam whilst following the other man back to his suite. "Well, just give him a few months more living here. He shall long for a time when his biggest concern was a levitating sibling. I've found those are actually quite common."

Sam frowned and swallowed hard. “He only moved up here cause his fiancé got murdered and he tried to -he…He’s already got bigger concerns, thanks. It’s my job to try and stop him from gettin’ anymore.”

To his great pride, Marius narrowly managed to keep himself from saying the first thought that crossed his mind, which was What the actual fuck is going on in Kentucky?

Nor could his second thought be vocalised. It seemed there was no world in which Jay had any luck with love. Marius could say only:

"I'm sorry to hear it. My condolences to yourself and your family."

“Thank you.” Sam said quietly. “I’m…. Sorry, I never caught yer name.”

The older man inclined his head. "Marius Laverne. A pleasure to meet both yourself and your sister in the flesh."

Mel, still glowing, was trying to float out of Sam’s arms, though not with much force. Everyone was gone they were all gone. She could see the hole in the bubbling river.. She mumbled “Please,” before trailing into something unintelligible.

Marius watched Mel's token fight with gravity for a moment and amended, "Or so I hope."

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xp_longshot

Two grown men vs. a floating, haunted girl? More likely than you might think.

There's a lot of great work here — I grinned at so many individual lines, but Marius's internal monologue matched with Mel's creepy, glowing visage was wonderful all the way throughout.

"Con: She had begun to make a sound unpleasantly evocative of multiple horror franchises. Surely this could only end well."

I laughed.

Of course, Marius (and I) can only get a tiny bit of levity before poor Sam has to deal with everything (and then Marius gets haunting memories).

A very fun read.