The Bad Touch [10% Complete]

[Orpheus]

Prompt List

• Insanity
• Sick
• Journal
• Tarot
• Seeing Red
• Obsession
• Thief
• Influence
• Bait
• Fiend

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I N S A N I T Y

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S I C K

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J O U R N A L

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T A R O T

Claire and Rook sat at a table near the bar. The room was empty enough because it was a Sunday morning, and save but for the sounds in the stock room of Diego and Marissa taking inventory there was little else. Every few moments, the sound of a card flipping and being placed onto the smooth surface rang out, pricking the sensitive ears Claire had. Rook would murmur something softly to herself, but she didn't give any full explanations yet. Rook didn't prefer to read her Tarot cards one at a time, rather to allow the chart to form itself and then simply relay its story to the audience.

"Isn't it weird that we're here before Coop is?" Claire asked, ignoring the fact that Rook may or may not have needed to concentrate on what she was doing. She looked up as she saw Marissa and Diego coming out of the back room, arms full of alcohol, and refrained from getting up to help. Warm air blew through windows that were rarely open, causing the blinds to tap lightly against the pane. Sun shined through the room and birds sang softly outside, the sounds drowned out by the duo at the bar arguing over the stock.

"Mm," Rook said. She was still furrowing her brows over the cards she was pulling, sitting upright in her chair with straight posture that was uncharacteristic. Claire was half-in her own, knee drawn up while one was hanging over the arm completely. She was barely propping herself up at all, fingers running across her lower lip lightly as she allowed herself to be ignored and basked in the sweet breeze airing out the bar.

"Almost done?" Claire pushed, shaking her foot to ward it from falling asleep.

"Yeah, I think so," Rook said.

"Hey, we'll be back," Marissa interjected, and the girls looked up to see she and Diego standing over them. "Idiot forgot to re-order Johnny Walker? It's one of our better sellers, and the vendor won't be here until Tuesday, so we're going to run to the discount store and pick up a few bottles to hold us over. Tell Daniel we'll be back in a while," she said.

"Why do you both have to go?" Claire asked, her question more like a drug-induced statement. She wasn't really listening as much as she was concentrating on the fact that both of them needed to go and get one item.

"Because we want to," Diego said. "We'll be back."

"Dismissive," Claire said to his back before turning around to look at Rook. "Well?"

"Well," Rook said. She was quiet for a few moments. "My cards hate you."

Claire sat up in her chair in a more normal fashion, placing her arms on the table. "What do you mean, 'My cards hate you'? What does all of that stuff say?" she demanded. She got up and went around to Rook's shoulder, looking over it in her nosy fashion. "It's a bunch of swords and some arcana. So?" she said, holding her hands up. "Do I need a martini for this?"

     Fortunately for Rook, Claire couldn't see the extent of the 'hate' that her cards apparently had for her friend.  The Celtic Cross was dominated by swords, never a good sign, with the Devil and the Tower in key places.  Something bad was going to happen, and frankly, Rook had this ridiculous feeling of foreboding and urgency telling her that it was going to be quick.  The gypsy girl wasn't psychic, not in the sense that someone like Chase was, but she had excellent gut instincts where the cards were concerned, and she sometimes just knew things.  Someone was coming, that was what she knew, and he wasn't far away.
   
    "Um.  All this stuff says that we need to go.  Now.  I don't know what it is for sure, but I think someone's coming, and he'll be here very soon.  Let's make ourselves scarce, kay?" she asked, trying to smile as she scooped up her cards, unable to prevent herself thinking about the night she'd pulled the Hanged Man and the Empress.  That was the night Kieran had opened up a can of worms with gypsy magic and her mother had died.  She didn't doubt it when something in the cards upset her.  "Come on, I'll drive.  You call your dad and let him know we're on our way to his house."

Then, of course, they tried to leave. They got to the door just as the door opened - on its own, it seemed - and Rook grabbed Claire and they both began backing up as sunlight flooded the room and those birds got louder and that breeze got stronger and all of it was blocked by something like a black hole of hate. The figure of Orpheus filled the entire doorway, his shadow expanded and larder than he was in a way. It was an illusion, of course, a trick of the mind, and it shrank down as he leaned against the frame and shrugged his shoulders, amber-gold eyes rolling around the room until they focused on the two brunettes pinned against the bar and clinging to eachother.

"I'm looking for Nathaniel. Have you seen him?" he said. And he smiled, and it was an act of aggression, teeth bared and eyes a-twinkle. He looked nice (he LOOKED attractive), but everything about him screamed predator and RUN AWAY, things that the girls knew and understood and couldn't really avoid.

"N - no, I uh, haven't," Claire said softly. Rook shook her head.

"Hm," he said. "He said he'd be here," he added, his tone a little irritated. Those golden eyes glanced down at a nice watch (they could see it was nice from across the room, and it enticed them, but then they remembered he was bad, and they were confused) and made a noise of understanding.

"My apologies. I've just arrived from Halifax, and I forgot my watch is still an hour ahead." He was still smiling. It was still creepy. "I've got some errands to run - could you just tell him that I stopped by?"

"Sure," Claire said, ignoring as Rook shook her violently while trying not to allow it to be noticed. She smiled a small, weak smile as the man turned to leave, and she pried herself away from Rook, wringing her own fingers around the red marks on her arm where Rook had taken hold. She narrowed her eyes at her friend. "What the hell," she hissed. "What was that?"

"I don't know," Rook said, still frozen in her spot. "But I hope we never see him again. And I want to know why the fuck he was looking for Nathaniel," she snapped. She didn't like to be scared. It made her mad. She'd have to either ask him or check her cards. As Claire grabbed her purse and they headed for the door, they both stumbled as they walked through where he'd stood, and Rook's expression darkened. She'd probably check the cards. They wouldn't be able to lie.

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S E E I N G  R E D

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O B S E S S I O N

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T H I E F

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I N F L U E N C E

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B A I T

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F I E N D