wyatt-rhys

[wyatt-rhys]

Two Months Earlier...

Moonlight Mysteries, a little too trite for the Frenchmen, but the forum did offer a wealth of information that just could not be passed up. It was after all where he'd first got the evidence that had brought him, his sister, her husband and their children to Newfane. Of course only with his sister privy to the exact reason as to the why. As much as he might've approved of his sister's choice of life-partner, he had sworn her to secrecy on the matter, just as their parents had once sworn them to, before their own untimely and violent deaths. Tied to their métier by blood of their distant grandfather, Jean Chastel, Olivier and his sister, Alizée had given up more than just time in the pursuit to rid the world of something truly monstrous.

He looked at the latest speculations or whispers as he liked to call them, reading, analysing and casting aside ones he deemed fictitious. It was hard sometimes. Annoying really, to have to sift through all the fiction, and worse, the naivety of people who had a deep fascination and desire to become one of the very beasts he hunted. He knew they had no real idea of what it was like to come face to face with one, but still they almost disgusted him as much as their own gross obsession did. They were as sick as the people who sympathised with the likes of Charles Manson or Ted Bundy. And if he hadn't just accepted a coffee from his dear, younger sister, he'd have felt the urge to spit.

Scanning for a common phrases and words, Olivier found himself pausing at the mention of a flower. Something foreign. Something weed-like, that had recently been introduced the Washington area and some of the forum users were suggesting it was making Werewolves turn without the aid of a moon. "Olivier, mon frère.. we're heading out for dinner, you sure you won't come?" He thanked her, but waved her off, this rumour needed verification, because if it was true.. their world was about to get even darker.

Present Day...

Some freak accident. He found himself once again back in Bakersfield, tending to a wound that had miraculously healed almost completely overnight. As he ignored his mother's voice drifting in from behind his closed bedroom door, he focused on the news report detailing a tragic accident that claimed the life of a young senator's daughter. The report omitted any mention of Seb or the other attendees from the party, perhaps because they were deemed undesirable—a motley crew of outcasts unlikely to attract much attention. A part of him had hesitated to accept the finality of his friend's demise so quickly. Yet, even amidst the fog of pain clouding his mind, he couldn't deny that the nightmare he thought he had dreamt last night had become his new reality.

He'd have forced himself to break away from the memory, if she hadn't made it clear she no longer wanted to be trapped in her own; at least with him lingering about. Instead, he stayed there and shrugged his answer back to her, "let's just say all I know about whatever the hell this is, is that he considered it a gift to him and the rest of them. He used my mom's life against me and manipulated me to help convince people to come to his 'Full Moon' party once a month." He looked up at her eyes, pleading with her to understand him, "I just wanted to keep her safe. I didn't want to hurt anyone." But, he had, hadn't he? A kiss, a bit of weed, and an homemade pamphlet to his Alpha's hunting den. And then, once the moon hit its peak, he had torn into their flesh, just as a few months earlier one of his new 'brothers' had torn into Seb's. "I'm sorry you had to lose her and than yourself all in the one night. It doesn't seem fair, but what about this does?" He stole a glance at the clock on the wall, remembering when the movie was supposed to end and seeing that their time was nearly up, "we should probably get back." He was kind of hoping Jeremy had taken the moment to slap a wet kiss on Kelsey's lips, so he wouldn't have to spend the rest of the night explaining to them why he and Leah, hadn't come back after he'd followed her outside. He didn't like his chances, as he took out a few rolls of cash he'd shoved into his jeans earlier and left them in the middle of table. Enough for both milkshakes and decent tip for Rosie too. He might've not been very rich, but his mom had put herself through nursing school waitressing and he wasn't about to shorthand the memory.

Stopping just short of the front doors of The Curtain, Wyatt reached out and took up Leah's elbow with a few of his fingers before dropping them almost as immediately as he had, "I'm not going say anything.." You know, just in case there was even a slither of doubt in her mind that he was about to go off and tell Jeremy and Kelsey about her complicated, fragile past. Watching as the doors to their cinema opened up from behind the glass of the entrance, Wyatt stepped around her and walked back inside, crossing over to Jeremy and Kelsey and their curious but also confused faces. "I'm not feeling the best.. can we go?"

The way he said her name felt like sandpaper as he weighed the taste of it upon his tongue. Part of her almost lashed out, almost entirely blinded by the fact that he’d never come to know how precious something as simple as the girls name was, but she was also offering up pieces of her life without giving too much away. And even she couldn't damn him for that. Afterall, it was her way of ensuring that no matter how much she held out to him within her open palm, it would never be enough to cause enough harm to matter. After so many years - decades, even, it was the only way that Leah knew how to remain in the present, while also, subtly, living in limbo that an immortal life would forever encapture. 

Hues flicker upwards in an instant as he asks for more and it coils around her heart and squeezes, barbed thorns threatening to pierce their way through if she doesn’t give him something. But he isn’t a threat, and Leah knows that. Although she was, for all intent and purpose, purely human sitting there in that diner, she’d been around long enough to know she could reach out with a singular claw and carve a wound in his throat so deeply that he’d bleed out in a matter of minutes. It’s just a question though, and Leah has to reminder herself of that a few times before her gaze softens just enough to no longer be clouded by the need to keep everything close to her chest, “I don’t know,” she mutters, brows knitting together as she mindlessly drinks from her straw, “They tried to figure it out, but they never did… Said it was just some freak accident,” What she’d suspected, and she was constantly talked out of, was that it was set by something other than natural causes. Magic. The feeling of spiders crawling hot across the back of her next, and a voice echoing quietly in the cavern of her ear wasn’t something she’d ever forgotten, nor the figure within the flame. She wasn’t crazy, no matter how many times her brother and father swore to her there was nobody else in the building. “or whatever.”

Please stop., she pleaded, somewhere in the back of her mind as she decided she didn’t want to talk anymore, choosing instead to focus rather intently on how quickly she was now getting through her shake. One glance, and she already sees Rosie setting about making more - there was nobody else inside the diner, bar a few stragglers who were clearly more interested in their coffee intake than a milkshake. Does fire shift all of us like that? “Fuck,” it’s muttered beneath her breath, in something of a raspy laugh, “Your alpha really didn’t teach you shit.” And somehow, Leah is quick to believe that the responsibility of teaching him something now falls into her lap as Rosie brings about the next two shakes. Briefly, she thinks back to the night she’d attacked and bitten Hunter, and the guilt she carried for it even now. Despite not being the greatest role model in the world, there’s been at least some effort made to offer up any kind of advice that might keep the other alive. Whoever had ripped innocence from Wyatt between their maw clearly hadn’t put much weight into guilt. After almost a century, she only wished she could be so carefree - even if she’d perfected the art of pretending. “Right, well.. No. Not exactly. Fire isn’t really something we have to worry about anymore than anyone else.” It still burned, and scarred and killed. Smoke still filled their lungs in an attempt to choke. “You were bitten, weren’t you? I figure you’d probably know at least something if you’d grown up born this way.” Unless his parents really were fucking assholes - not an improbable possibility.“It wasn’t the fire that made it happen, or well..-- maybe in some roundabout way it was, but usually when we’re born this way and not created…” Try as she might, it was always difficult to talk about this kind of thing without giving listening ears something worth listening to, and the longer she thought on it - pausing to chew at this inside of her cheek, the more irritated she grew. What, the asshole in the trench coat at the end of the counter was going out her? It settled a slight growl in the back of her throat as she lent in a little closer to the table between them, “The moon dictates what happens to the ones like you,” if she was correct at least, “And me? It’s usually an emotionally significant event that makes it happen.” And maybe that was the most heartbreaking thing of all - something so significant would stick around to haunt each and every one of them, until they took their last breath.

A crushing thought, that most of them felt their heart break well before their body ever did.

[wyatt-rhys]

During the short walk from The Curtain to Pop's, he found himself mulling over his earlier response. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay." It wasn't an entirely new concept for him; to care, but it had been awhile since he'd cared so sincerely for someone outside of his own tiny circle of friends and family. He hadn't missed the jab about her friend though. Maybe, if anything, he'd lingered on it a little longer than he should've. Was she jealous and would he have cared if she was? The scent of a bottle of cologne he got two years ago and hadn't opened till tonight told him, yeah.. he would've. Even so, he decided it was wrong to focus on that when she wasn't. He could think about what she said vs. what she actually meant another time. Another time, when it would be okay for him to throw back something about, how he'd come to see her not Sarah.

Wyatt thought back to Bakersfield and the plethora of girls he'd shared more than just a few joints with. He remembered shrugging away more than once at the touch of unwanted perspiring skin, after he'd got whatever they were willing to give him for a bag of weed and a smile and chance that maybe he'd liked them back. Maybe a few of them he had. At least enough to keep them around for a repeat show in the back of his old Subaru. This wasn't that though. He could tell because he didn't want to pull himself away from her. As they neared the diner, Wyatt let his head shift a little, so it was easier to look at her. It was an confusing thing to feel when he also kind of felt responsible for what she may or may not tell him tonight. He sensed the turmoil beneath her composed exterior, a turmoil that mirrored his own in some obscure way. He took a breath and turned back around to face the door in front of them both, as he leaned forward and held it open for her first. Her accepting his offer was a small victory, but one that felt significant amidst the weight of their recent less amicable shared history.

He picked up his straw, twirling it around in his glass, as he watched her retreat further into herself. Her gaze lingered on him, searching for something he couldn't quite decipher. And as she spoke the name "Alice," he sensed the weight of her words, a glimpse into a past haunted by loss and immeasurable grief. The kind you don't get from turning down a date or your dog getting run over by a stranger's car, but the kind that left wounds and scars that had you climbing over two people to escape just the memory of it. She breathed and opened up, her voice tinged with nostalgia before fading into the shadows of her memories. It was a reminder of the innocence they had both lost, a stark contrast to the pain and sorrow that now defined their lives. Though, he'd be foolish to claim to anyone that he'd felt this kind of pain before. This was ancient. Something he'd only read about in books. The kind of pain that left the protagonist hollowed out and unable to ever return to who they'd been before.

Leah's confession came in fragments, each word heavy with the weight of her regret. The image of her running into the inferno, fuelled by desperation and determination, lingered in his mind like a ghost haunting the edges of his consciousness. And as she lowered her chin to rest upon her folded arms, he felt another surge of empathy wash over him. In that moment, Leah seemed smaller, more fragile than he had ever seen her. And yet, there was a strength in her vulnerability, a quiet defiance that refused to be extinguished. He wondered if she knew that.

He wanted to tell her about Seb. To lean across the table and tell her in his own words that he was more like her than she realised. That he too, had lost his best friend. Would a movie about some underground night club have sent him crawling over his friends tonight too? He didn't know. What he knew was there wasn't a night that went by him that he didn't get trapped there again. That he didn't smell the scent of sweat, metallic undertones and blood. That he didn't hear the same band, monstrous growling or screams that had him fleeing to the tunnels beneath. He told himself he'd grabbed Seb. That they'd both been there together, running, scrambling through the dark till they found that open water pipe and managed to squeeze their bodies through to safety. But, his dreams told him something else.. that after seeing the men fall to the ground and against everything he and his favorite science books knew shifted into what could only be describe as some kind of nightmarish beast, that he'd left Seb, standing there and ran. And if that was true, how was he supposed to tell the girl who'd just told him, she'd burned herself alive to try and save her friend, that they were one and the same. His eyes fell back down to his milkshake. Suddenly turned off by the very sight of it.

"Alice…" he echoed her name, allowing it to linger between them once more. If Leah had summoned the courage to bring her memory back tonight, he felt impelled to at least honor it. "How did the fire start?" Was he wrong to ask for more? "Does fire shift all of us like that?" He felt horrible that he'd allowed his own curiosity and naivety to slip in between them. Especially now. However, he was still new and the last thing he wanted was to one day burn himself making macaroni and cheese for his mom, shift and rip her heart out over the burnt leftovers.

Unbeknownst to either of them, Mr. Joubert occupied a booth a few tables away, his presence unnoticed as he listened intently, jotting down tiny notes in a well-worn notebook. He had been observing Leah for a year, and this conversation unfolded exactly as he had imagined, now becoming a tangible reality before his eyes.

It’s almost enough to laugh. Very clearly, she isn’t going back in. Whether she was expected to or not. She’d failed to meet the expectations of her friends, family - herself, more times than she would ever be able to count. Once more doesn’t feel like much of a downward spiral. Even if Leah can’t quite piece together the differences between the past and present as she feels the ghostly chill of fire licking at her ankles. She bites the inside of her mouth to keep from reaching down to pat out the flames that her mind tells her aren’t there, even if her body feels the blistering as if she were surrounded by the burning foundations of a home long since lost. “Oh, I know..” It didn’t matter if the scene was over. She didn’t need a visual to have it live long in her mind. “I fucking hate movies.” Her knee bounces, and it’s clear that Leah doesn’t really know what to do with the attention garnered the second he followed her out. That was what he’d done, wasn’t it? “Why did you follow me out here?” It’s mottled somewhere between curiosity and confusion. Leah knew she hadn’t exactly been very accommodating or helpful to him since the day they’d met. Though, she supposed - he was alive, which maybe counted for something. She could have killed him. “You don’t owe me anything. I’m sure Sarah is waiting for you.” A dig, maybe. Anything to no longer feel like she might be under some kind of microscope being analyzed. But she’s already asked too many questions, encouraged him to linger maybe just that little bit longer. Teeth draw over her lesser lip and she laughs, a humourless sound as her hands slide beneath her thighs and she rocks backwards, and then to her feet. “Just a few,” even if the tone of her voice makes a few seem like an army.

The one thing that his voice does, hand in hand with the thrum of his heartbeat, is give her something more to listen to. Something that wasn’t the crackle of flames, or the splintering of glass beneath the heat that somehow also resides in the thick of her throat. Clawing it’s way into the same cavern that holds her heart, and the memory of Alice. It can’t take what’s left of her, but she knows it threatens to all the same. Too quickly, she agreed and for a moment she hopes he knows that its the chance to get out of here, and not that he asked, that has her jumping for a chance to leave The Curtain. To see the glow of moonlight, instead of the haze that hangs just as thick as smoke in the air. “Milkshake? Yes.. Mhm, let’s do that.”

“Vanilla.” It’s quick, definitive. Her choice, one that hasn’t changed in decades and Leah is pretty sure the waitress already knows by the time they’ve sat down. Much like everywhere else, Leah feels too at home here, lent back in the booth with her knee pressing into the edge of the table - a hint of pain as it leaves an indent enough to keep her from slipping back into memory and nightmare all at once. The guilt, she’ll sleep with to keep her warm later on. Comfort in familiarity, however, doesn’t extend to her company yet. He hasn’t pressed and yet she feels like she’s under a bright light, being squeezed for information on a life too long, too painful to relive in the way of telling a story. And yet, the scrape of her upper and lower jaw tells her she should give him something.

Hues linger upon him as he swirls his straw around within the glass, long enough that her vision loses all focus and he becomes a blur. A fuzzy silhouette, shrouded in the glow of street lights through the window that look eerily like a figure in the flames. She blinks, feels bile rise in her throat, and speaks, “Alice.” A name doesn’t feel like enough. It wasn’t enough to get him to see who it was. Who she was. “She was my best friend when we were kids.” A ghost of a smile lingers, but it slips just as surely as she found it. It’d never made sense, where Leah was wild, rebellious and Alice was a light that always shone through the darkened cloud that Leah took with her everywhere. She leans back, slouches a little, jabbing her straw into the bottom of the glass with what looked like no intention of even drinking any of it in that moment. She didn’t remember the last time she’d ever spoken with anyone about Alice. Maybe Jax? No, definitely not. The memory of her was far too precious to share with someone as rough as her ex. Wyatt wasn’t like that though, was he? She remembers the shock on his face, the terror that bounced around in his chest with every thundering heart beat the night they’d both turned. “I tried..” Leah pitches forward, putting her milkshake down, folding her arms over each other close enough to lower her chin to rest upon them. Whether it was a way to make herself smaller, make this seem less… important, or just because she felt like if she squeezed herself tightly enough in that moment, she might just cease to exist, she didn’t know. “Ran right into the house.” How stupid it sounded now, when one considered running into a burning building - most would fear the worst, and yet she’d never thought twice about it. Not then, not now. “I think she was already dead when I found her but…”

But that never accounted for the sound her her voice echoing through the home - in between the crack of every beam breaking under the weight of it’s own destruction. “My brother pulled her out and… and I shifted.” It was far too matter of fact, as if it  concluded everything that had happened that night. Never mind the way her heart broke into the thousands of atoms that it was created with, and spit more than half of it into the earth to be long forgotten, right alongside Alice’s body.

[wyatt-rhys]

Wyatt noticed his mind's heightened awareness as he read her reactions, meticulously processing every detail. This wasn't like her... Do you even have the right to judge that? C'mon you've known her a whole week. Who says you have any authority on the moods of Leah Grey? And yet, he just felt it somehow. Weakness was not something this girl-- woman, was accustom to. She'd been honest about that at least. And even still, it was hard for Wyatt to fully accept that she wasn't just some seventeen-year-old teenager. Not that now was the time to go down the immortality path. At least not when he still needed to get to the bottom to what had pierced the tough exterior of the brunette shaking in front of him. "Well, we don't have to go back in..."

Of course he knew that had been a lie, but he was willing to play her game for now. There was no point forcing her open. Truth never results from that kind of prying. So, outside of a head nod or a few voiced 'okays', Wyatt kept the space between the two of them for her own words only. Waiting for her to let him in and realise he wasn't a threat to this image she'd carefully constructed for herself. Reason told him that that might not be tonight, but he didn't mind just as long as the thumping in his ears and the pain in her chest faded.

She must've known that he had? No one just shifts without losing someone close to them. "Yeah," a flash of Seb's dirty blonde hair entered his mind's eye before he was forced to squeeze the memory away and focus back on her own memory, "have you?" he was stating the obvious of course, but he wasn't really expecting her to reply. just simply acknowledge that the path they were on now was the right one to set her free from her current entrapment. "Fire?" So, that had been it? He thought back to the scene they'd both just watched a few minutes earlier and felt a wave of empathy settle in and around his own heart. The movie had done just about everything to make that fire as convincing as it could've been. He stole a glance back through one of the circular windows on the doors behind them and noted that the fire was still ripping across the screen. He needed to get her away from it. "Hey, uh let's get out of here. The drinks here taste like syrup--- I need a proper one." She surely had to be wondering how a boy like him could possibly convince a bartender to give him a drink and that's when he let a small smile spread across his face, "let's get a milkshake."

Like everything else in town, Pop's place was just one asbestos inspection from being shut down, as Wyatt slid into one of the booths and smiled at the waitress that came around to ask what she could get them, "strawberry milkshake and..." he waited for Leah, to fill Rosie, in on what she was having before his fingers tapped against the plastic menu in front of them, "you don't have to tell me about it, but what was their name?" He pulled back, smiling again as Rosie handed out their milkshakes, that was fast. Though they were the only customers here right now, "thank you." She let them know she'd be around for any second rounds, before she walked away and left Wyatt with just Leah and his unanswered question again.

If there was anything worse than feeling like a psycho, for eternally relieving the fire that took the one person in this world that might have truly understood her - it was looking like a psycho, choking back panic and tears and pain. It wasn’t her greatest moment, and considering the plethora of moments she’d had over the centuries, that was saying something. The leather screamed beneath her knuckles, burning white hot as she shifted across barely an inch, as if it would have made any difference to what Wyatt saw there and then. Only weeks prior - they’d ripped apart an entire family, and she’d not taken a moment to blink an eye over it until she’d been well enough alone within the chamber below her family home. The soundproof room drowning out any sound of her screams as she allowed herself to process the fact that and entire family was now gone - and the worst part was that she felt more grateful than she did horror. If it hadn’t been for that family - she’d have ripped Wyatt to shreds. What was it that made his life more than theirs in her mind? She’d drowned it all out and hadn’t looked back since. It was the only way she could get through. One moment. That was all she ever allowed herself. She’d drown otherwise. Drown. Like she was now, gasping for air in a world that only ever sought to draw it from her lungs with such ferocity, she had no doubt her lungs held the scars. Incredulity broke through, a freeze frame in the way her insides felt like they were melting as his first question. Are you okay? How did she even begin to process the truthful answer - even if it’s not that serious. He didn’t stand there, hoping she’d tell him all the things wrong with the world she lived in. It wasn’t that deep - and yet the wounds that reopened only moments earlier might argue otherwise. “I.. – yeah..” She nods, and though she’s well versed in lying and hiding more things than she has hands to hold, Leah knows that she’s lost track and perhaps a few things are dangling from her fingertips at that moment. “I’m just not that good with horror…” The cop out feels like rocks falling from her lips. Clunky, sharp and double edged. Already, she knows, there’s no way he’s buying it.

And why would he? Her heart still hammered within her chest and in truth, she could barely hear it beyond the emanating sounds beyond the doors now closed behind them. Still, she hears the crackle of air bubbles that give to the heat of the fire onscreen. Still, she feels the heat as if it’s stained her skin. Her knuckles loose from their rigid position, stretching her fingers out across her arms as if the chill had swept in against them somehow. Still, she can feel the hands of her brother trying to keep her from the flames as the home second to her own, is engulfed. The most detailed artist in the world couldn’t capture the horror reflected in near onyx hues. She laughs, almost. It’s void of all humor and life - hollowed out in the way that a reflection in a mirror never quite looks right. “Not my finest moment,” Leah quickly points out as she wipes at the hollow of her eye, capturing anything before it fell too deftly to be ignored. It doesn’t ease the way her throat tightens. “I’ll admit that.” And maybe it’s just enough to fill the void with something else other than the frantic cacophony of noise that she can’t fully shake. A heartbeat stronger than those beyond the doors, less erratic than her own. Only just. “Have you ever lost anyone, Wyatt?” She asks, her voice rather matter of fact and almost entirely out of place for a moment that might have revealed Leah as something other than made of stone and marble. Did he know that the life he led now was rife with that which ripped at her now? Loss - and guilt. So much fucking guilt. Looking at him now, she truly felt centuries older. Pock marked with tiny holes torn from flesh and soul with each and every life lived and suffered through - and he still had this one. This one life that marked the beginning of all else for him - that still held enough of a mouthful of hope that maybe, just maybe, he’d make it through this one with even a sliver of innocence.

She swallows thickly, and while it feels next to impossible, Leah knows that the worst of it is subsiding. The fear always overwhelmed - reliving the night that changed her whole world and snatched said innocence from between her fingers. It meant the guilt was looming ever near, and the days that followed would be brutal for a mind constantly at war with itself. “I don’t do too well with fire.” It feels like razor blades in her throat, eyes clenching shut even as she says the words, watching the smoldering house flash against the inner flesh of her eyelids. “It’s just.. One of those things, you know?” What would he know? Nothing, she reminded herself - because she’d given him nothing. The bare minimum - knowing that he would never survive on the bare bones of knowledge in a world sworn to tear him apart. Her lips roll together and it’s near enough to set her heart racing again, as she seeks to find the words that might explain everything that had just happened in there. “That’s how it happened for me.” Lips purse, eyes fixate on a point somewhere beyond him, “There was a fire.”

[wyatt-rhys]

"We're going to be late..." Whatever sense of urgency he'd been hoping to get across to his two best friends had gone unnoticed, as they continued to scramble around in the backseat of Jeremy's car. "Is it this one?" ---

"Oh my god! That's where that disappeared to! But no, look harder." With a defeated sigh, Wyatt leaned back against the passenger door of the BMW, as Jeremy and Kelsey continued to look around in the back of his car for one of her earrings. He'd contemplated leaving the two to it and going on alone, but then that would mean facing what laid ahead alone and truthfully, he wasn't sure he was up to it. Life had been complicated lately. Which-- sure, life had been complicated since last summer, but this was different. Messier. Somehow. Tuning out the bickering over some girl's bra, Wyatt found his thoughts heading in an all to familiar direction as of late. Heading towards her. Wyatt thought about French class Friday, where the two of them had been forced to pair up, and start preparations on an almost comedically ironic subject, 'French Folklore: The Beast of Gévaudan. When he'd taken up the opportunity to ask about truth over their fictitious report. What had he managed to pull from lips that didn't want to open? Not much. Just a few words that added to his confusion; omega, blood moon, mortal immortality. Not the place. Is what she'd told him. When, then? Where? Had been his reply before the bell rang and put an end to that. He had managed to convince her to let him put his number in her phone, even if his reasoning had come down to the project that neither of them had managed to make too much headway with. If actual answers had existed in those folklores he would've found Google a lot more useful than he'd had.

And truth be told he hadn't been expecting to hear from her until a few nights before the paper was due, so when an unknown number appeared on his phone tonight, asking him and his friends out, he'd been surprised to say the least. Were they friends now? Like, he knew her friends and her were somewhat friendly with, Jeremy and Kelsey, but that was mostly through Jeremy's weed supply.. and they could've got that without having to ask them all out to see some horror movie. So, this was weird and this had Wyatt overthinking just about everything about the text and what had led up to it, before he even got around to texting her back a simple 'Okay. Sounds good.' It was also why he'd taken so long getting ready and his mom had made a quip about a date. Which, "no, mom. it's just a group of us." She walked up to him, taking a smell, "cologne? Okay..." He kind of hated her. Just a little.

"I GOT IT!"

"Jer, that is a Cheez DoodleO..." Ugh, they were never going to make it in time.

Finally, like after what actually felt like an eternity, Kelsey had her missing hoop back in her ear and they were walking across the half lit parking lot, and into The Curtain. Jeremy had his arm around Kelsey and despite not being a thing, Wyatt had never not got the impression that both of them were kind of waiting for one of them to make a less obnoxious and more obvious move by now. Ignoring the two and their debates about ditching everyone and seeing a reshowing of Dirty Dancing--no, Star Wars! If they could only just agree on something then they might actually be able to change the world someday... he thought, amusing himself, a small smile sliding across his face as he came face to face with Leah, well her red-haired friend, who'd jumped between them and made some comment about his snack-less hands. Oh, yeah right.. popcorn. "Uh, yeah sure.. what do you recommend milk duds or red vines?"

After he paid for everything, he'd asked if Sarah could take his snacks inside, while he made a quick break for the toilet before the movie started. He stole another glance across at Leah, as he awkwardly placed his popcorn and jumbo cola in between her friend's hands, before he broke away and made his way to the back of the theatre. In the time, he came back to the foyer the crowd had dispersed and he was forced to enter blindly into the already darken theatre room, as he made his way towards Jeremy's messy bob. A truly heroic beacon in the night. "Uh,--" He'd been about to take a seat beside Jeremy at the end of the row, when he heard Sarah, mention she'd saved him a seat next to her. Well, he supposed she did after all have his snacks. He excused himself pass Jeremy's long legs and Kelsey's all-to-obvious face, that he was totally going to ignore, before sinking into the chair beside Sarah and Justin. "Thanks." He reached over and took his drink and snacks from the red-head, "here, you definitely earned yourself a milk dud.." and no, Kelsey's snicker did not go unnoticed.

As Wyatt watched the house catch alight, he found himself growing warmer, though not in response to the screen, but as Sarah's fingers started to brush against his own. A move he still deciding whenever or not to respond to when he'd first heard it. An irregular heartbeat; louder than his own, and much louder than Sarah's own slightly nervous one. No, this was inconsistent to the sounds of the adolescents, this was fear. Real deep fear. The kind he'd hadn't heard since that night back in Bakersfield. He looked around. His ears and eyes narrowing in on the host. Leah? What did she have to be afraid of? Surely, not some b-grade horror movie that he had to pin to Justin's questionable tastes, right? And still, he listened and he watched, and he saw it consume her. The implacable part of him kept his eyes on her even as he felt Sarah's seek out his own, "Wyatt?" He was forced to tear his eyes away from Leah and the scene she'd just caused as she jumped out of her seat. "Uh, I need another drink. I just remembered I don't like root beer. Do you want anything?" It wasn't a good lie, but thankfully Sarah bought it or at least the opportunity to get a refill for her own drink, as he crept out of his seat and followed Leah, out of the cinema.

It was brighter out here, but still there was some element of privacy between the two doors and the alcove that hung above. Psycho? Had someone actually said that? He'd have denied it more convincingly if he'd known who'd said it, instead he tip-toed around the word altogether, and simply asked, "are you okay?" Or perhaps that wasn't as simple of a question as he'd originally thought, because something had panicked her, something enough to get her out of her seat and across two other's in less than a few seconds.. something more than just some dumb movie. He thought back to the sound of her heartbeat thumping inside his ears and stole a glance towards where it still seemed to beat out in anguish, "what happened in there?" Was he talking about her chest or the theatre and was there a difference?

He took a breath, because he still wasn't sure if he was asking the right questions or if he should've been here asking her anything at all, but he couldn't just turn away either. She hadn't left him alone in those woods a few weeks ago. And she definitely could have, so it was his turn to stay and make sure she was going to be alright. There was an urge inside of him to reach out, to hold her, comfort her, in any way he could really... but where this urge had come from even Wyatt wasn't quite sure he was ready to admit.

@wyatt-rhys thread: feel the heat location: the curtain; movie theater

Movies were never her thing. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate the complex art of storytelling through visual medium as such, but truthfully… she’d heard them all and trying to sit still for a minimum of an hour and a half felt like pulling splinters from beneath her nails. And yet - as the ever-doting best friend, she’d once again agreed to rally everyone up for their bi-monthyly cinema date. It was all part of the act, weeks out from graduating and trying to pull together as much time as possible with the people who’d managed to get her through another four years of pretending like adolescence was all new to her. There were certainly a great many places she would rather be. Sarah, however, would have never shut up about it - and sometimes the wrath of the redhead that sat next to her now ranked right up there with some of the worst she’d experienced before. 

Not nearly as mindlessly as she might have hoped, Leah tried to slow the bounce in her knee. Impatience, digging in beneath her ribcage as they awaited the doors somewhere beyond the smoky haze of The Curtain’s lobby to open and allow them through to take their seats. Her other leg tucked up beneath her as she sat upon the old cracked leather of the “seating” just outside, grew numb. An ironic parallel to the ringing in her ears as she sat in wait, trying her best to zone out the conversation that hung somewhere in the dim lighting, clinging to the haze that she’d never quite figured out the origin of after all these years. 

The popcorn feels stale, but it’s hot and she’s had worse. It’s not much of a loss when Hunter grabs a fistfull, scooping it out as if he had shovels for hands and more than a few pieces scatter across the floor in-front of her, “We did tell him the right time, right?” Sarah asks, looking rather pointedly at Leah, “You did tell him the right time, right?” Because it’d been her responsibility to text Wyatt - even if it was her best friend who was hoping he’d show. In truth, Leah wanted to put as much space between her and the greenie as she possibly could. For no other reason than, she just couldn’t be bothered with the work it’d take to keep a new wolf in check; but she knew that look. The one that made it impossible to say no to - she only wondered if she’d ever been as hopeful as the girl who’d latched onto her four years prior. “He’s coming okay, he said something about picking up Kelsey and Jer. Not sure a movie was a great choice if you were hoping to talk to him,” Which, she was - Sarah was. A repetitive reminder she told herself as Sarah tried to manipulate the order of everyone’s seats as the three wayward friends approached a few minutes later. “Leah, switch with me.” A whisper spoken far too quickly for her to comprehend before lithe fingers plucked her ticket stub from her own. “What?..-- Yeah, right.. Okay.” What the fuck was happening? “God, he’s so cute.” A throw-away comment, or at least she hopes so - what exactly is she meant to say? The best she can offer is a curt nod and a smile that’s barely there as Wyatt and the others join them. Two wolves from separate packs being in such close proximity was never a good thing, it’d been pure luck that kept them both alive and allowed them to be standing there as the doors opened. Sarah squeezed her hand, and try as she might, the look on her face as they were soon shrouded in darkness didn’t share the same breath of excitement as her best friends. 

It’s all she can do to count down the time until the lights come on, Sarah had somehow found her way to the seat beside Wyatt and left her squashed between Justin and Liam fighting for the very air she needed to breathe while they sucked all of it right up as they spoke over her. The bucket of popcorn sits on her lap, the dust of butter and salt flung about as the pair dig into it as if it might be the last thing they ever eat and though she’s always been one of the boys, this is just one more reason that her patience feels as though it’s worn thin. “Twenty bucks,” Justin whisper-shouts over her to Jackson, “Fuck off, you cheapskate.” The lid of Jackson’s soda pops off as he throws a half assed fist across her shoulders and into Justin as he chuckles, the chill of iced soda spills across the denim of her knee and immediately she hates the feel of it. Somewhere between meaning to cuss him out, and trying to ignore the fact that they were putting down a bet on whether Jackson could fuck Sarah before Wyatt did, the flicker of something in the reflection of a singular ice cube strikes her down cold. A trick of the light, that’s her immediate thought. Even as it flickers again, and her throat closes over. It’s the amber glow that drowns out the haze of the once dark room that encroaches upon the last of her patience. Only, it’s not anger that breaks through. The crackling sound bearing down from the mounted speakers, and even though she’s crowded into the tiny, uncomfortable seat by people on all sides, she’s thousands of miles away, alone. Watching flames engulf a house entirely different to the one on the screen. Her leg has stopped bouncing, and, try as she might to look anywhere but the flicker of flames that illuminate the screen, it’s impossible to do so without someone noticing that Leah Grey exists in that moment only because her heart hammers against her ribcage like a tribal drum. The shatter of glass erupts, and she feels the way she flinches all the way to her bones, and with each new crack in the glass, she loses her breath. The voice over the speakers cries out, but it’s not the voice she hears in her head. She smells burning flesh and the bucket of popcorn hits the floor as she jumps to her feet, involuntarily. “Sorry.. sorry..-’ And though nobody has a hold of her, the space between the row in-front and the guys beside her feels miniscule at best. “What the fuck, Leah?” Justin growls out, brushing the mess of popcorn from his lap as if she’s personally offended him, “Just move,” his legs block her way and it takes her three takes to push beyond him, the whole while trying to keep her voice as low as possible, when all she feels growing is the cry caught up in her throat. The arm of the chair snaps, as she shoves her way through, all but climbing over the few others she had to, to make the isle in minimal steps. The last thing she hears, beyond the unrivaled crackle of fire and destruction, is the word psycho die out on Jackson’s tongue. Heat, rage - and screaming. One voice, the most familiar. She calls out, over and over, for someone - anyone. She's always too late. The cool air makes no difference. Even beyond the haze and smoke that may or may not even be there, she fights to fill her lungs and no amount of oxygen seems to flush the memory from her lungs. “I’m fine,” she snaps, unsure exactly of who she expected to see as the doors beside her swing open, the shadow of another taking up space at the toe of her boots. Inhale. She tries - fails, and coughs out some attempt to cover it up. “Just, being a little psycho.” It’s muttered, because she doesn’t actually expect anyone else to have heard that, bar Justin and Jackson, but it stung enough to matter.

[wyatt-rhys]

hey um, can I speak to gary, please? 

Animal Kingdom 1x01 

[wyatt-rhys]

Joshua “J” Cody in Animal Kingdom (2016—) 1x02

[wyatt-rhys]

leahgrxy​:

Undoubtedly, Leah could have audibly vilified the drink in agreement with Wyatt but the sweeping flicker of her mind as it drove its way back and forth through the list of possibilities that held her so stoic before the vanity took up far too much space within her. He might have gone completely unnoticed as he stepped closer had it not been from the radiating heat that seemed to consumer her even further with him standing a little closer. The splash of liquid as it swirled the sink and jumped back up and landed on her shirt diverting her attention quickly enough that she tried to jump back, overcome momentarily as the smell hit her and she grimaced. “Seriously?” Fingertips brushed gingerly at the black fabric, already swallowing up the near radioactive mess. That was going to bother her all night. Never mind the fact that it was already near dry as the warmth of her skin continued to rise. Pushing her way back, she reached for the tap for the third time, part of her ready to ward him off should he think to try and help any further; better had he left minutes ago. Only, that never came and the door opened back against its hinges and the noise of the party throughout the house blazoned its way into the bathroom with her. Eyes peered through the door to determine the vacancy and had she thought to listen, the objections and hurried pleas that she make it quick might have struck her own concept of time head-on. She pressed forward to close the door again, sure to lock it as another tremor shifted its way through the small of her back, sharp enough to throw her off balance, a quick glance at the mirror before her as her fingers curled tightly around the marble counter only proved what she’d feared most at that moment. Reflected back at her, the usual olive green of her irises had deepened to an ungodly blue. 

Knuckles that slammed against the outside of the door ignored, Leah held her breath and made quick work of the latch holding the window down. The metal snapped off in her hand, cast aside as she shoved the window up, the once dried paint that sealed it flaking off onto the roof beneath her boots as she landed on the roof. Blinking rapidly, she barely took a second glance at the ground below, ignoring the sudden shift in atmosphere from below. Those that had noticed fell half-way between shock, concern, and the uncontrollable urge to encourage her. “Leah!” Regardless of the fact that Hunter’s voice called across the crowd as if he knew the panic that settled in her now, she’d have heard and pinpointed him without effort. “Le-ah.” The winding steps that lay below her gave her pause, enough to cast hues towards the wolf she’d sired as he frantically ushered her towards the front of the house. The slightly more even surface of grass and amassing crowd of other people her only option as she felt her ribcage shift, the grimace bit back beneath the pressure of her jaw as she leaped from the roof. She hit the ground hard and though she didn’t lose her balance, she’d become far too accustomed to acting human. Skun knees protested as people reached for her. Leah was quick though, the pressure beneath her palms pushing him away from the crowd and towards the front entrance of Jeremey’s home, snatching Hunter from the swell of people on the way, “What the hell is..–” Hunter seemed panicked, which only told her that whatever this was, it wasn’t isolated to just her. “Shut up..” She grabbed his wrists tightly to pull him towards the place she left her car - now empty, and void of exactly that. “Shit…. shit…” the burning of their skin bordering painful as she looked up at him. Desperation shifting beneath the unnatural deep blue in her eyes, “Run. You have to go. We’re too close… If you don’t get far enough away, you’ll either kill them, or I’ll kill you..” How she managed to bite out anything at all was beyond her, the slight whimper that pressed itself to the top of her mouth didn’t seem to let up until she let him go.

“Run.” 

Twigs and branches snapped at her skin as she ran, the smell of her own blood as they opened flesh without apology bitter and unimportant as the ache in her head split open. As if the gods had reached down to pry open the pieces of her skull just to light a fire within. An upturned root reached up from beneath the ground, clawing wildly at her ankle until it pulled her to the ground, her shoulder colliding only long enough with a tree to send a harrowing crack through its trunk - the lights of the home she’d left behind fading into the distance. The ground rose and her fingers dug through brush as she dragged herself to the even ground that opened up to the road. Headlights set a harrowing glow against the trees that lined either side, casting shadows that danced like demons that could never be exorcised without the light of day. She waited for the car to pass, bated breath, and hinged on the feeling of her ribs splitting apart before she stepped out onto the road, hoping to garner some idea of where she stood - which way to run. All thought shattered as the sound of a car horn and the burning screech of tires was drowned out entirely by an all-consuming rattle in her head as something hit her, hard and fast. The collision tore flesh and split bone where her shift had begged to in the first place, her world fell black, empty and desolate. An untimely race lost to her own divided attention as her body was flung from the road, torn up by the road, and stopped only by the opposing force of another tree.

Agony overcame her very first breath. A grimace evolved where she lay into a pitching scream that barely sounded as she took quick stock of what she could and couldn’t feel. Heat. Bright and hot, still burnt fervently beneath her skin. Get up.. The thought that willed her to open her eyes and shift, just enough to burn the air in her lungs with the pain that sought to turn her inside out. Fingers pressed gingerly to her forehead, blood painted skin like a mosaic; something that might have otherwise looked beautiful, if not shown on the flesh of a supposed human. The bone in her shin had snapped clean in two, protruding at a sickening angle, Leah dragged herself through the dirt, the voice of another calling out through the dark giving her pause as she looked towards it, watching the silhouette of a man approach the wreck - only to see her own car smashed against a tree. That didn’t make sense at all… “Hey!” She called out, reaching to pull against the limpness in her leg as she dragged herself far enough to see through the now shattered driver’s side window her of BMW. It made even less sense to her, that the features of the near-stranger she’d just spoken to in the bathroom would be here - out here, in the middle of nowhere, in her car. Except.– she remembered the heat, the burn the radiated off of him and… She was dead… She was dead if she didn’t shift right then and there.. “No… no…don’t open the…—” Her voice hoarse against the pain as everything that had, however momentarily, halted her change, took a backseat to the anguish that once again set her alight, her scream the only sound that split the eerie silence as her spine contorted further and cast her back into the forest floor and her shift overcame her.

Lights flashed, wipers flicked back and forth; something that must have been knocked on during the crash, because there was no rain to meet them and the dry and spider webbed window in front of him was screeching back in protest, as Wyatt came back into the world he’d only just left. What had... he groaned, his hand coming up to meet his forehead, “ugh...” hot liquid gushed onto his hand and down his face, as he tried his best to put everything in front of him together. There had been heat, searing pain, and... fuck. No, no, no... he looked up, forcing his eyes to confirm what he didn’t actually want to know--- there... crumbled up against a tree just a few feet away from the one he was currently pinned to was... fuck. The tartan skirt and all to familiar beacon in the dark... what was she even doing out here? How had she managed to catch up to him? Why had she even tried? None of that mattered though. She was her... unmistakably and she... wasn’t moving. He felt his stomach pull down as he fought the urge to throw up. Tugging at his seatbelt was no help, because his leg was definitely pinned beneath the dashboard, so he could see her but he couldn’t do anything to help... was there even anyone left to help? The future doctor in him begged him to try. Only he’d forgotten why he was out here in the first place and no sooner had he tried to rip his leg free he was forced back into the leather behind, his hands scrambling over his shirt and lifting it up to see his ribs one by one start to snap apart. So, if she was alive... he was going to end up killing her anyway... Wyatt screamed, his hands ripping at his shirt as his body broke apart and shifted in front of him. Dark hair erupted out of his skin, hands grew long and clawed, and his calves almost tripled in size... before he was dragged away from his body and forced into a terrible unknown of what was to come. 

When you shifted there was no out of body experience to come with it. You didn’t look down at yourself from some unworldly viewpoint and watch as your body did unforgivable things to its innocent victims... you just ceased to exist. Sometimes Wyatt wasn’t sure what was worse. Seeing what he had no ability to stop or fading away to a place he might one day end up... After all, if he was to die in that form... would he even know? Would he have one last chance to fight for his own life or would that be it and he’d just be... gone? An unknown fate that would not be tested tonight, as Wyatt’s body slowed, and fell in the middle of the woods. Fur disappeared, bones reshaped, as a new form of darkness took over... exhaustion. With an unsteady breath, Wyatt attempted to pick himself up, but he could barely summon enough strength to bring himself up to his elbows let alone stand... collapsing again, he let out strangled breath and let his eyes close once again. This time with his own mind beneath them. 

x

[wyatt-rhys]

leahgrxy​:

The cold water drawn across the back of her neck by her palm wasn’t nearly as welcoming as she’d hoped it might have been. The ebbing heat that existed constantly beneath her skin quickly swallowed up the moisture and left her standing before the vanity with a near uncomfortable sheen of sweat prickling at the small of her back. Had the room grown smaller since she’d walked in? New found company left it hard to determine as he moved to reach into the cabinet in front of her, the sharp scent of her own kind quick to sting at her nose as she took a minor step back. The electricity that ran rampant in the tips of her fingers far too familiar to ignore despite being certain that the cycle just didn’t match up. The thought broke apart, piece by piece as she tried to dig her way through why such an alarming feeling could dredge itself up from the depths of her ability to forget when it wasn’t important and by the time the other held out the glass of water for her, Leah wasn’t certain that she existed entirely in this moment. She blinked, once.. Twice.. “Do I..–” Brows knit together fleetingly as she soon reached to take the glass from his hands, the menial tremor in her hands tucked somewhere beneath the tweak of her grip around it. “No, I don’t.” Dark locks shook loose from the knotted twist she’d managed some hours ago and the momentary glimpse of whatever vulnerability might have peaked out from beneath her own confusion was diminished by the sharpened edge of her features. “I’m pretty sure I can manage going to the bathroom on my own.” The slight pivot of her boots against the tiled floor offered just enough momentum for Leah to peek out of the window again. The bright lights of the house skewed most of what might have appeared in the sky and gave her absolutely no indication of a bright, full moon. That wasn’t right. Lifting the glass, the evident lack of a burn to the liquid as it passed her lips almost made her grimace. She wasn’t drunk enough to feel like this, not even close and the metallic taste of the tap water did nothing to negate the twist she felt looming somewhere in the depths of her stomach. “You’re that new kid, right?” Now, it wasn’t that Leah made any kind of effort to actually remember everyone she passed in the halls, but she didn’t remember Jericho and Kelly ever having a third wheel before. Memorable enough only because of their shared contribution to the ruination of their collective class reputation at Delphian. The snap of her fingers as she returned to the vanity and set the near untouched glass down wasn’t exactly commonplace but, “Will?.. No..” The tilt of her head sent her head spinning as she took a moment to look at him for what might have been the first time, ever.. “Wick.. Oh, I don’t remember your name.” The heel of her hand pressed into her temple for a passing beat, “You’re the clingy kid that’s attached himself to our very own jay and silent bob.” They were the only people she could evidently remember seeing him with, something about Kelly’s dad and his hard on for ruining Leah’s eighth consecutive high school experience made it difficult to let the girl slip by unnoticed most of the time. Hues slipped from him to the bright red cup and suddenly the visible appearance of the liquid within it threw the taste of vomit into the back of her throat and she grimaced outwardly. The culprit of her turning stomach? It didn’t make much sense, but maybe she’d had more than she thought she had.. It wasn’t  “You might wanna’ drink that before it gets warm.” As if someone had pressed a burning lighter to the small of her back and let it dig it’s way beneath her skin, she reached for the cold tap again, pressing her now wet palm against her throat, “I can’t imagine it’ll taste any better, but still.”

He watched her lift up the glass, take a sip, and grimace. It had probably been the taste of what she’d thrown up earlier resurfacing for a second time that night via the tasteless liquid he’d just given her and the remnants of whatever was left still stuck in-between the lumps across her tongue. The only cure would be a toothbrush, but offering a girl he just met that would probably end with a searing heat slapped across his cheek and he wasn’t in the mood for that tonight. “Uh, yeah...” the fingers attached to his left hand tapped against the cup on his right. The same cup he’d abandoned on entry but had picked up again when he’d been about to turn around and leave for a second time that night. Though just as her first words had put him between her and the door her next set had him pausing. ‘The New Kid.’ It wasn’t a title he wasn’t used to... he’d been cast and re-cast as the new kid for as long as he could remember. It was even hard to think of a place he’d stayed long enough to remove the stain it left. Wyatt hated it. “Wy--” not that it was usual for him to drop his name. What was the point when labels stuck longer anyway... however maybe the choice had been made for him... as he watched the brunette flick her orbs around to face him-- oh it was her. the girl from earlier -- and try to give him a name like she’d heard it before. He was fairly certain she hadn’t. “Wyatt...” he filled in the gap for her as she pushed her hand against her temple and added another far less flattering comment to this image she seemingly had of him. He wasn’t quite sure what she expected him to stay to that, so he stayed quiet and looked between her and the window across them both casting shadows against the floor beneath their feet. “Huh?” Oh... the drink. It wasn’t exactly the most appetising looking concoction that he’d been ‘gifted’ from Jeremy that night and still her suggestion to ‘drink up’ had him doing just that. Though he hadn’t been a long one as he forced it down and grimaced... “that’s rancid.” He coughed as he walked over and threw the cup down into the sink in front of her, before apologising because okay he hadn’t expected its contents to splash up like that and hit her shirt either, “oh shit--” only the apology never quite left his lips as he felt a heat raise up behind his neck and maybe he’d had too many too. “Sorry-- I--” he grabbed at his hoodie... the heat rising underneath his skin... cooking him from the inside out. Had he’d been poisoned? Was he-- No.... it couldn’t be... and yet this kind of heat only ever resurfaced when he was. Scrunching up his face he tried to keep calm before the heat rose to a level he’d only ever felt underneath the gaze of a full moon and he was forced to leave. 

Trembling fingers found the cold surface of a glass doorknob as he twisted and pushed his way back outside. The crowd of people standing out waiting for Leah to finish up, protesting as he forced his way between them and the outside of Jeremy’s house. The moon was barely half-full and still his body felt like someone had painted over it to trick him. With a scream he doubled forward and thought the urge to turn back around and find the cooling relief of Jeremy’s pool-- ‘cause if this really was that and he hadn’t just been poisoned by something in Jeremy’s drink then everyone inside that big house of Jer’s was going to die. He couldn’t stay here. But with no car and no way out, how was he going to get away? He crawled.. the burning inside of him strangling him, before his hand fell onto cold metal and he forced him back up against it. His reflection was contorting... and without letting another beat pass him ripped his hoodie up over his head, wrapped it around his elbow and broke the glass... the car alarm ringing out and deafening him as he climbed inside and franticly tried to remember what the boys had taught him back in California to get the car going. With trembling fingers the wires finally matched up and the car switched from yelling out in protest for its intrusion and purring itself into submission... his foot meeting the pedal as soon as it had. There was no time to take it all in as his hands gripped the wheel and urged the speedometer forward into the red. 

The stolen BMW ripped down the only road leading out towards Jeremy’s and back to town as Wyatt urged it to go faster and faster, but the ‘turn’ was taking over, and Wyatt’s head was forced backwards as his gums forced themselves open, his teeth growing thicker and more pronounced... ready to kill. His grip on the wheel remained tight, but the car couldn’t help itself from swaying lane to lane as the boy under its control fought back an urge to scream... his new teeth scratching his bottom lip and causing it to tear open. The sound of a horn blasting a few feet in front of him finally forced his head to fall back, his eyes to widen, and his hands to steer his car away from the other he’d just been about to collide into. But just as he had something darted out on the road in front of him and connected with the car’s hood. Tyres screeched and gravel cried out beneath as Wyatt and the car he’d never quite been in control of ran off the road and collided with a pine tree just a few feet away from the main road. His head slamming into the dash and making everything around him turn black. 

[wyatt-rhys]

[wyatt-rhys]

leahgrxy​:

It seemed that Leah was the only one out of the dozen or so people surrounding Jeremy’s dining table that didn’t hold any breath of surprise for the red head across from her as she snapped the lacy black underwear she’d just removed beneath the table and flung them across the table towards Jackson. More cards fell, much like the usually arrogant smirk held by Justin’s best friend. Inevitably, the laugh that rang out from between Leah’s lips was partnered with an equally as lackluster eye roll as she reached for the bottle of sambuca being passed around. Undoubtedly, she adored Sarah, but she was under no false impressions of what she was up to when she’d announced a game of strip poker some time before hand. If she’d paid any mind to the weird kid she’d bumped into earlier, perhaps Sarah wouldn’t be on the hunt, as she usually put it. The sickeningly sweet taste of liquorice didn’t sit long enough on her tongue to enjoy before Liam snatched the bottle back, “No fucking way, you don’t get the bottle. You suck at sharing.” Difficult to share when it took far more to feel the effervescent heat rising in her palms that noted the light buzz of intoxicity. ‘Oh, I don’t know,” Justin’s voice buzzed lightly against the shell of here ear, his arms folding tighter around her waist, “I’ve never had any problems with her sharing.” And that was out there. The raised brows as those close enough to hear processed the very few things that could have been alluded to only sought to match her own as she pulled herself out of his hold and tossed Sarah’s panties back at her, “Come on, we’re doing shot and you know these losers can’t keep up.” A hand brushed through Justin’s hair, the slight tap to the back of his head almost completely unnoticeable in comparison to his hand reaching out to tap her gently across her rear.  “You know that Jackson is a total skeez. The only thing you’re gonna get from him is like…” The red solo cup in her hand lifted as she tipped back the double shot of ouzo, features contorting at the taste before the cup was tossed aside on the breakfast bar, “the clap, and that’s if you’re lucky. I don’t think that guy has made anyone cum since.. Ever.” The corner of her mouth undoubtedly lifting at the near outrageous.. and disappointed look on the red heads face. “I know but..” And there it was, the infamous pout and baby tantrum. Noted only by the slight wiggle of Sarah’s bare legs as she flung herself back into the counter and reached for the bowl of punch, pushing aside the flowers floating across the top to scoop up a cup full, “He’s just so…— Actually, did you see that guy that you bumped into earlier?” That was a near definite negative, when had Leah Grey ever paid any mind to anyone around her besides… well, herself? Confusion settled on her features, mockingly and as if she expected far more from the one person who knew her. “Did I see.. fuck.” The petite brunette laughed, “I didn’t see shit, I don’t know why you bother, everyone here looks like Freddy haunts their dreams.” Which, upon drinking back the cup Sarah had given her, might have been purely based on how much flammable liquid had been poured into the near neon green concoction she’d just swallowed. “The hell did they put in this..” Wiping at her mouth, she moves towards the bowl and watches the flowers move gently across the top - she recognized them, figured they might have been some kind of edible psychedelic plant that he wanted to push everyone onto. Still, didn’t stop her from drawing up another cup and dragging Sarah back through the crowd of students - half of which she knew didn’t even go to Delphian but had simply heard about it through… well, Justin. 

While most people learned only a small handful of years ago, that hot air rose, it was something that Leah was taught over a century ago. The heat of intoxication for instance, usually prickled it’s way up through the fingertips and toes, into a persons legs and arms until finally settling into the back of their head, blurring vision and sentences all too easily. This, however, started in the small of her back. Twisting, and reaching up beneath her spine in a way that only she understood. It turned in her stomach, collided with the underside of her ribs and before Sarah could even think to notice, Leah bolted. Ducking through the mess of bodies, ignoring any protest from those with spilled drinks or toes stepped on. Half moons might have appeared a permanent fixture in the palm of her hand if they didn’t seek to heal so quickly. The moment of pause overcame her at the halfway point of the staircase, the open window showing no signs of a moonlit sky, everything hidden behind the fog of clouds. It’s not the right time…. Still, the prickle that had now reached the back of her neck told her otherwise, except, the overwhelming sickening twist in her stomach drove her upwards, two steps at a time, slipping on the floor outside the bathroom as she grabbed hold of the guys shirt who’d been about to go inside, “Get the fuck out!” The door slammed behind her, though the latch never clicked, Leah unaware as everything in her stomach came up. It was only when she’d finally sought to reach for the sink what felt like hours later, to turn on the tap that she caught sight of the door pressing open and the hand that pushed it. “I’m not done in here, how hard is it to knock?”

Head pressed into the dust behind a row of bleachers, Wyatt closed his eyes and savoured his last ‘puff’ as he passed the joint blindly to where he knew Kasey was sitting with her legs tucked up underneath herself. “You can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose…” Wyatt’s eyes scrunched up momentarily before he forced them to slip back open and make sure Jeremy hadn’t completely lost it again—“I’m pretty sure Gandhi said that…” a cough and a laugh erupted out of Kasey as she called him out, “bullshit!” It was Wyatt’s turn to laugh now as Jeremy scrambled to find the proof, he needed to convince Kasey and got lost somewhere between the joint he’d just breathed in again and his own usual weirdness. The laughs between the small group only getting louder as Jeremy gave up and joined in. It had barely been two weeks since Wyatt and his mom had left Bakersfield in the dead of the night to make the long trip up to Portland but hanging out underneath the bleachers with the same kids, he’d met on his first day at Delphian, almost made him feel like he’d been here longer. An impossible fact, he knew. The longest he’d ever stayed in one place since his fifth birthday was 18 months. “Kasey?!” The group jumped up. Patting off the dirt that now clung to their school uniforms and disposing of the joint they’d all been sharing just a few moments ago underneath Jeremy’s boot. “Shit—” Wyatt watched as his friend slipped back out from behind the bleachers and walked over to where her dad—and their school principal was standing getting ready to scold her. Thankfully it looked like he hadn’t seen the rest of them, so with one last ‘sorry’ glance at Kasey both Wyatt and Jeremy snuck out the back. If they all got caught she’d have no one to bail her out later that night in order to make it Jeremy’s party, so… really. She’d thank them later.

And she did, though a punch to Wyatt’s bicep and a slap to the back of Jeremy’s head came first, when the two pulled up in front of her house and waited for her to climb down the side of it with the aid of some deeply rooted ivy and lattice. “Now I know who WON’T have my back when the zombies inevitably take over the planet…” Without missing a beat, Jeremy argued that what they’d done earlier was the equivalent of leaving her for a few seconds to come back with a ride on mower and mowing down the crowd of zombies gathering around her in order to save them both. Which Wyatt—for his own self-preservation—found himself agreeing to. His face getting serious and his head nodding from his spot in the passenger seat his eyes catching Kasey’s in the rearview mirror as he did. She smiled, a soft laugh leaving her lips, before she shook her head, leaned forward and wrapped her arms around both their seats. For a moment Wyatt thought she was going to kiss them. “So, did you really leave your party just to pick me up after lights out?” Jeremy took this as the ‘thank you’ he’d been waiting for and pressed the starter button in his Porsche, “of course... what wouldn’t we do for you, Kase...” Get busted smoking pot by her father--, but that wasn’t up for debate anymore as Jeremy ripped the car into gear and headed in the direction they’d just come from. 

Jeremy’s father was some weapons of mass destruction arms dealer who worked mostly out of Dubai. His step-mom was-- well Wyatt wasn’t quite sure what she did, but the point was Jeremy’s house was almost always empty, which meant that every second weekend there was some big-ass party going on there. It was isolated enough that they could blast the music loud without having to worry about any cops showing up to shut them down, but still close enough to civilisation that it was really only twenty or so minute drive back into town for everyone. No one else really ‘liked’ Jeremy, but what they did like was his endless supply of drugs and alcohol and apparently that was enough for him, at least it was when Wyatt questioned him about why he let so many assholes and dropshits into his house every weekend. Where was that kid anyway? He’d lost him and Kasey after the last time he’d headed upstairs to take a piss and ended up walking in on some couple enjoying themselves against one of Jeremy’s bathroom sinks. As he was distracted looking around for hints of Jeremy’s unruly mop and Kasey’s curls, he hadn’t seen the girl his shoulder had collided with until her friend reacted for her and told him to “Watch IT! LOSer....” her voice got softer as she held his gaze and was that a smirk? He hadn’t been sure. He was busy apologising to the other girl who still wasn’t paying him any mind. Maybe Jeremy and his new weird ‘punch’ concoction that he’d been determined to get Wyatt to drink (yeah, not in this life-time) had got to her first. If that was the case, maybe he should be apologising for that too. However, as soon as they’d appeared they were gone and Wyatt, was back to seeking out the friends who he was pretty sure had once promised to never abandon him at one of these parties and yet... 

After fuck knows how long trying to find his friends, Wyatt slipped into the kitchen and scooped up some of Jeremy’s drink he’d been determined to steer clear of before making his way back into the hall and finding residence up against some neighbouring wall. He’d been about to bring the drink to his lips, scull it down, and ‘borrow’ one of Jeremy’s bikes to drive home when he decided to take one more chance at finding a bathroom without someone getting a blow job in to finally release the pressure that had been building up inside his bladder all night long. With his cup still in his hand he made his way up the stairs and headed to one of the few bathrooms inside Jeremy’s mini McMansion he hadn’t checked yet. Hand pushing the door open, Wyatt found himself forced back by the words of the room’s current occupant... “uh, sorry...” though in his defence the door hadn’t been locked, so. Now he was going to wait, because it wasn’t like he had any plans on walking in and interrupting some girl in the bathroom, but his nose pricked at the scent of fresh vomit and maybe it was something innate or maybe it was just the fact he’d been raised on a nurse’s lap in a dozen or so Emergency Rooms around the country, but he couldn’t help himself pushing the door back open and asking if she was feeling okay. “Do you want me to go and get someone?” The cup in his hand forgotten about as he set it down on the laundry basket beside the door and walked over to pick out an empty glass from the mirrored cabinet in front of her in order to hand it over, “here.” He’d been in this bathroom before. He knew where Jeremy kept the glass.. and the pills to follow.