buffynpcs-cursed

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"Unless you believe in monsters."

She didn't, and she'd have scoffed a little louder if Pru hadn't been such a good friend. Still, it was evident that Kaya wasn't in the mood for anything she couldn't shoot down with her Smith & Wesson or slap a pair of handcuffs on. She wanted something finite. "So, it's a bear then. A deformed one, but a bear." In her mind, the death certificate was already signed and sealed. There was a brief pause before Kaya added, "Talked to Jay the other night. He's got the lanes back up and said they should be working just fine for next week." Just in time for the start of this year's bowling league, where Kaya, Pru, and Laurie—the Ally Enforcers—spent every Wednesday night bowling turkeys. "Who's ready?"

It was a social scene for a few minutes afterward, once the body was covered up again. She could sense Laurie had something else on his mind. Magdalena would be her guess. As much as she was sorry that Magdalena got attacked, she was still a little suspicious that it was a bear that did it, especially the same bear. Joe was big; Magdalena was not. If anything, Kaya had her pinned as a liar. But most people who hurt her friend were pinned as something along those lines—the distrusting ones.

After wrapping up and driving back out to the reservation, Kaya locked up and holstered her guns before she heard the familiar call of her father calling her into his study. She passed her grandma, kissing her briefly on the head, before joining him and closing the door behind her. "It's a bear." He looked at her like he wasn't quite convinced, but in the end, it was his reply that mattered, and he simply said, "Okay."

The hot water seared into her skin harder that night, mostly because Kaya was desperate to get the smell of the morgue—the smell of death—off her, before she climbed into bed. After pulling on a tank top and a pair of underwear, Kaya slipped under the covers and turned over. She dreamt of monsters and woke up in a cold sweat.

— END —

There was a subtle twitch of the brows when Pru refers to Joe as 'Bear Food'. It had more to do with remembering the look on Joe's wife's face and her uncontrollable sobs when they'd delivered the news than it was a reflection on Pru's character. To her, it was probably just another dead body. Meanwhile, Laurie struggled to detach himself from the case, especially when all he could think about was how this could've been Mags. So, he silently accepted the report and flicked through the pages instead of focusing on the body.

He looked at Kaya at the mention of 'thumbs', to see if she was thinking what he was thinking, then to Pru, for an answer.

"Mags--" He stops, then corrects himself, "Magdalena Sparrow." Everyone knew of the Sparrows, a nice family who lived by the forest. "She was attacked last week. A bear, is what she said." It was hard to remain controlled, to put his personal feelings aside. His grip around the file tightened. "She, um, she has similar claw marks to this." He nods towards the deep gash that went along the shoulder, which he assumes is how she deduced the 'thumb'. "They're too big to be a man's, aren't they?"

Perhaps he'd hoped for signs of foul play, or even suicide, and a lucky animal happened to come across the body. The probability of being attacked by a bear is so small, less than 1% if he remembers correctly. The fact that two could've happened within the space of a few days is something he struggled to grasp. There's a higher chance of being killed by a bee, even higher to be killed by a human. So, he has to ask, "There's definitely no other cause of death?"

@prudenceisawitch

[buffynpcs-cursed]

Callum Turner as Anatole Kuragin · War & Peace 1.02

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The wind rips through the tunnel, scattering the empty can that her partner had just kicked to the side. "Should we tackle Mr. and Mrs. Stewart first?" She pauses, a thought hitting her like a ton of bricks. "You know, Laurie, pretty sure he's got a kid now… a fucking baby." She hated this part of the job. Anyone who said they could handle it was lying. Of course, their training had prepared them for it—at least on paper—but it all fell apart when you had to go and tell someone's wife and kids that their husband and father wouldn't be coming home.

She felt sick again, but this time, making sure she breathed out through her nose and in only through her mouth wasn't going to fix it. "I'll… I'll call Pru." It was a lot. She knew Laurie knew it too. She was glad she'd been friends with him for so long, because she didn't have to worry about him following her back to the car and pulling her into some makeshift, awkward hug in an attempt to make it all better, when in reality it would only have made the whole thing worse. For more than just Joe, but she wasn't about to get into that.

Leaning into her half-wound-down window, Kaya picked up her radio and called her uncle—the sheriff—up. "It's a local. It's Joe. We need to organize to get his body sent to county tonight. Put a rush on it. It looks like we've got a bear attack here." She paused, waiting for her uncle to speak his thoughts and outline their next plan of action. He told her what she knew he would: he'd send a few of their own people out tomorrow to scout the area. He wasn't referring to her and Laurie either. She hung the radio back on the hook, thinking about what her own dad might make of it, what he'd suggest they do. And just like that, she felt like a child again—naive and, worst of all, scared.

— END —

Laurie's hands are on his knees, getting ready to stand up to go and help Kaya if she needs it. But she was okay. He knows she can hold her own. Her reaction triggers a gag of his own, but he instead swallows the churros back down. She didn't need to further bad news that he'd demolished them. "I don't-- I don't know. Yes, maybe?" He grimaces slightly. "If he's been here for a while, then at the very least the rats have gotten to him." Which wasn't what Kaya was asking. But... God, he couldn't even think it. Those were some big chunks that'd been ripped out of him.

"Yeah..." Laurie says quietly, glancing back at Kaya. "Fuck." He looks at her for a moment, trying to see what was going on behind those eyes. He had a pretty good guess. It wasn't right, to have such mixed feelings about someone who'd died so horrifically. As nice as it was to be back in Salem, surrounded by so many familiar faces, this was exactly what he worried about. The stack of missing persons cases whose names he all recognised, whose families he'd grown up with. Now, a death, of someone he hadn't even been close to, someone he'd actually hoped would just die when he didn't know any better, and here he was hoping Joe had made the positive changes in his life so that he could rest peacefully.

At Kaya's cue, Laurie follows suit. "I have no idea. I don't remember any happening when we were growing up. Do you?" Laurie exhales heavily, again, when the light is back on Joe's face. He reaches down, and with a gloved hand closes Joe's eyes. "I think so. Look at that--" He points his light to a deep gash, "--Way too big to be a coyote. Definitely not clean enough to be a knife." A beat. "I hate to say it, but it would be like Joe to try and fight a black bear." It was, at this moment in time, the only explanation for why a bear would make an offensive attack.

A flashlight shines in the opposite direction. He shoves those mixed feelings to the back of his mind. as he looks around the area. Another can, kicked to the side. "I don't even want to know," he replies, voice echoing as every word bouncing off the dirty stone walls. "Nope. Nothing here either." He starts making his way back to her. "Let's get this written up and send Joe to Pru." After that, they'll have to make the dreaded visit to his family.

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The weather outside matched the young deputy's mood: somber. If their earlier assessment was correct—a bear attack—local park authorities would have to be called, and they were an absolute pain to work with. She'd much rather keep it in the family. Her father could track down any coyote. Bear? No problem. It was all the same. Animals didn't think about their unfortunate victims, so they didn't think about covering tracks.

"The tracks disappear here," he said. She asked what he meant, picking up her pace because she had fallen behind somewhere over the ridge while trying to ignore the comments about Calian and her. She wasn't in the mood to explain why she wasn't interested. Why she'd never be interested. "They stop..."

She was confused, unsure what he was talking about. He leaned down and traced the outlines of something only a tracker like her father would recognize. He'd tried to teach her, but she had been a bad student. Distracted. She knew she had. "I need to speak with the other elders."

Now she had weird on her brain, and Prudence didn't help. "What did you say... thumbs? Are you saying it was a man who did this?" She wanted to be sick. A human—a human that could tear into a grown man's flesh and leave him like he'd just been run over with a sit-down mower—was not what she had in mind when she came down here. Whatever she had thought she'd hear, it wasn't this.

who: Investigation Squad ( @prudenceisawitch, @buffynpcs-cursed ) when: 2nd June 1989 where: Coroner's Office

As the sheriffs walk, the soles of their boots produce a resonant thud, each step amplified by the acoustics of the long and narrow hallway. The air is thick with the musty scent of neglected corners and old paper. It's hard for Laurie to keep his comments to himself, especially when the lights overhead flicker intermittently, clear that some of the bulbs have long since burnt out.

The coroner's office is tucked away in a forsaken corner at the bottom of the hospital, where Judd the Janitor moves along the corridor with his clunky cleaning machine, as if searching for something lost. Laurie still doesn't say anything, but instead shares a knowing look with Kaya that reads: So creepy.

After knocking on the door, Laurie holds it open for Kaya to enter before stepping into Pru's office himself. "Hey Pru," he greets with a small nod. Then, as he stands with his hands on his hips, he directs his attention to the body on the cold steel table. "What'd you have for us?"

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Was he having her on? If it had been anyone else, she might've taken a moment to consider it, but if there was one thing about Laurie, it was that he never joked on the job. At least not about the job. She was a free-for-all. "What are you—" She walked up, the smell ripping into her nostrils, making her turn and try to hold her stomach down. Yeah, that wasn't a fresh corpse… she'd say Laurie was on the money about it being a little over a week old. "My God…" She held it together, spitting a little food out that had resurfaced, before making her way over to him. "Fucking hell, Laurie. Was he eaten?"

She took out a pen, a spare glove, wrapping it over it, and then reached forward, lifting bits of skin flaps up in an attempt to work out if she could make out who it was just as Laurie seemed to translate her actions and supply an answer to her… Joe. "Joe?"

For a second, she was back there. Back at school as Joe slapped her and Laurie's lunch trays out of their hands with a laugh; not his worst, but regardless, it was the memory that she pulled up to piece together the sitting, deconstructed lasagna in front of her and the bully that had once made it his mission to make Laurie and her life hell. "Fuck." Even she wouldn't have wished this on him. On anyone.

Backing up, she took out her flashlight, kicking a can with her boot as she tried to look for evidence that might help them put it all together. "When was the last time we had a bear attack, Laurie?" She knew coyotes were far more prominent, but no way did a coyote do that. "It has to be a black bear, right?" She turned her flashlight to the deep scratch marks down the side of his face. "You don't look like that after a coyote." Of course, it was all just speculation now. They wouldn't know until they got the body down to the county, where Dr. Acrement would spend a day or two drawing her own conclusions.

Turning back to the tunnel, Kaya shined her light toward the ground as she continued to walk toward the end. "What the hell was Joe doing so far out?" She yelled, stopping when she realized the only thing her light was illuminating was dirt and trash. "I've got nothing down here. How about you?"

"God, these are good," Laurie whispers blissfully, as he rips out another chunk of a corn dog like a man who hadn't eaten in weeks. "Can I have another one?"

Jerome laughs and prepares another corn dog for Laurie with the ketchup and mustard poured in two straight lines running from top to bottom alongside each other rather than the messy squiggles. "So, how long have you been together?"

"Eight years now. Coming up to nine," Laurie replies, mouth half-full, absent of all the excitement one usually has when talking about their relationship. If anything, it's clear the twinkle in his eyes is from the corn dog. "And before you ask, yes, I'll probably marry her."

Enough corn dogs for you, pudgy. A smile lights up his face at that, as he accepts the second corn dog from Jerome. Thank God, no more girlfriend talk. Saved by the--"Kaya," he mouths, pointing to the radio he'd placed on the table top. But his mood quickly takes a sombre turn as she explains what she's dialing in for. A stern frown sets on top of his features. The drug problem was just as bad in Boston as it was in New York, and he'd seen so many lives and families be ruined because of it. "Copy that," he speaks into his radio. "And you can say goodbye to your churros. See you in twenty."

"I gotta go," he tells Jerome, finishing off his corn dog as he stands from his seat. "Keep this between us." The incident. "Let's catch up another time, properly."

Laurie is crouched over the body when Kaya arrives on the scene. His face glistens with droplets of water clinging to the skin, hair matted from the wetness. The way he looks up at Kaya with a heaviness they rarely put into words answers the question for her. "No, this is- This is brutal, by the way," he warns as she approaches them. Half of a face had been mauled off with the insides spilling out from the body, clothes torn apart with large deep claw marks slashed against pale skin. It was a miracle that he didn't throw up those damn churros he's shoved down his throat on his drive here.

A wallet in hand, it'd been the only way to identify the person. "I've never seen something like this before... Must be a sort of animal attack? I'd say, around a week or so ago." It definitely wasn't recent. He takes a deep breath. "Kaya, it's--" A beat. "It's Joe." A guy who hadn't been particularly nice to either of them back in high school, but Laurie would never wish this fate upon anyone.

[buffynpcs-cursed]

WHO: Laurie Lewis and Kaya Canowicakte WHEN: 2nd of June, 1989’ (Friday Night) WHERE: A Storm Drain (Outskirts of Salem). TYPE: Closed

With Laurie manning the carnival for another night—sorry Laurie, he really had to catch on to the fact that all the straws she had cut up in her hand were the dreaded short ones—it left Kaya manning one of the phones in Essex County's Sheriff's department. The night was, well, she refused to say it or even think it, because the moment she did, she knew—ring, ring. Damn. Curses. "Essex County Sheriff's department, Kaya Conow—" She was cut off. The frantic voice of her caller made it hard to get a word in edgewise. "Ma'am, you're going to need to calm down. What did you say you found?" She paused. A body? Around here? Had to be some druggie from New York, surely. Though, what had he been doing so far north? "We'll be right over. Don't let anyone come near if you can." She hated leaving the public to protect a crime scene; they were always so touchy, so curious.

Knowing she wouldn't be allowed to investigate a crime scene alone, she left her desk and dipped her head into her uncle's office. "I just got a call from out near Rosie Atwell's place. Apparently, she's come across a body in the storm drain. It's probably just a drug addict from New York who overdosed, but do you want me to bring Laurie?" She watched as he acknowledged her and her request with a wave of his hand and an unspoken reminder to tread carefully when entering the reserve if she decided to cut across it to save ten minutes. She wouldn't, but she knew.

After checking her gun, she hopped into her car and radioed Laurie, "Enough corn dogs for you, pudgy. We've got a body rotting in a storm drain twenty miles north of the carnival. Let's go and confirm it's another lost druggie from New York so you can get back to cleaning vomit off those shiny boots of yours." Yes, she'd heard all about that incident the other night. "I'm leaving now. I'll meet you there in twenty."

With the car's radio playing the latest call-in request to Stevie Wayne, Kaya shifted her car into gear and turned the dark roads yellow with her headlights. What a way to end her Friday night. Nothing like latex gloves, a rotting corpse, and the possibility of a few rats to kick her weekend off. Well, at least she had Pizza Planet on speed dial back at her trailer.

Pulling up at the scene, Kaya let the sound of latex hitting her skin with a snap join in sync with the rain that had decided now would be the perfect time to fall. At least the body was somewhat covered in that storm drain below the bridge she'd pulled up on. She looked up, connecting eyes with Laurie, who'd arrived first. "So what have we got here? Another one?" She'd thought New York was supposed to get better this year… cleaner… well, call the mayor again, because this was her third overdose in two months.

[buffynpcs-cursed]

JESSICA MATTEN as Bernadette Manuelito Dark Winds - 2x05: Black Hole Sun