| An Unexpected Solution |
| Summary: | An issue in Clifton's life seems to have solved itself, and it has nothing to do with the Wright sisters. |
| Date: | 1942-12-20 |
| Related: | Discussing the repercussions of this log. |
| Players: |
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Watauga Dr - Carden's Bluff, Higsi
Wed Dec 20, 1942
The Watauga River Gorge comes to an end where the sloping hills of Iron Mountain meet the steep, rocky incline of Walnut Ridge. The area, known as Carden's Bluff, has been the subject of scrutiny and planning for nearly 40 years, as it is the last location along the Watauga where a dam could be easily built to control flooding in downstream Elizabethton.
The river is calm here, moving at a more gentle pace as it flows about forty feet wide out of the Appalachians. The air is crisp and fresh, often blowing as breezy gusts descend the mountains and rush out through the gorge. A few small sheds have been constructed and marked with spray-painted stencils along the side of the old concrete Watauga Drive, identifying them as belonging to the Tennessee Valley Authority. Several dirt roads have been cut along the hills by recent surveyors and visiting engineers and planners.
Weather:
It is winter. The weather is cool and overcast.
===
Christmas holidays have since begun for the schoolkids of Higsi, and plans had been made for Madeline Wright to travel to Elizabethton with her bestest best friend Katiebelle Abernathy and her family. A whole three nights away from home, given the fact that the moneyed family has extended family in the larger city and the girls were going to be treated to 'luxury'. Pah. Kathleen Wright had been hesitant at first but finally.. finally.. she conceded. There was work to do on the homestead and what good would it be to have that poor girl be bored at home while big sister got busy with maintenance? Besides, Maddie had been a real lamb while Kitty was sick with pneumonia; she helped out a lot, sailed into holidays with good grades…
Doesn't mean Kitty has to like the girl's absence, though. The promise was extracted to have her home the night of the 23rd because damned if Kitty was going to spend Christmas alone.
Therefore, the late afternoon sees the carpenter — fit as a fiddle again following her illness, though with a harmless lingering cough — going for a hike along the trails surrounding town. Bundled in denims that fit her just right and a puffy plaid hunting jacket, Kathleen Wright waits at the base of a tree with her shotgun over a shoulder. Her truck has been parked neatly at the base of the trail leading to the bluffs, and she's waiting to see if the friend she invited to join her will show. It's been awhile since she and Clifton Walker went on a hike.. a real hike.
Clifton had gotten off work not long ago and now was on his way to meet up with Kitty. The woman had stopped into the feed shop and "requested" him to join her on a hike after work. By request it was more of a…heavily suggested encouragement. Not sure what to think, but pretty sure what it was about, the Walker made his way towards the Bluff. He wears his leather jacket since it was getting colder, zipped up snug over his flannel button up shirt. It wasn't long before his steps led him to the tree where Kitty Wright is waiting…
Doesn't she just look precious with her gun?! Kathleen Wright is completely, utterly the anti-belle.. from her attire right down to her shotgun. The Walker arrives and her golden eyes slide toward the trail as he comes 'round the bend to meet her. One gloved hand lifts to wave him over.. she does not look stressed or awkward. She isn't, truly; if anything she looks more like herself since everything. A chilly late afternoon breeze cuts across the earth, setting brown grass to quivering and the carpenter's hand to zipping up the collar of her jacket just that bit more.
"Hey, Clif," She greets him in her husky drawl, "Thanks for meetin' me. Hope it's a good time of day."
Clifton offers the Wright woman a nod in greeting as he heads over to where she is. With her words, and seeing her shot gun, he smirks "I told people where I was going and when to expect me back. If I go missing there will be a search party. Or at the very least rumors at the Gallows…"
That slow, crooked grin… it could be deadly if she were to put effort behind it, pointed at the right people. God above, there's even the barest dimple above one side of her mouth. It's oddly befitting and terrifyingly deceptive in the features of Kitty Wright. "I'll get ya back in one piece." She promises, pushing forth from the tree and giving Clifton a bump to hip with one of her own.. a playful, familiar gesture. "Let's go, while we still got sunlight." She bids, and picks the trail. It is a well-known one; by her, at least. Her breathing is regular and clean, the infection long gone.
"I know Madeline well.. she's been extra sweet these days, a bit pussy footed…. I understand ya'll had a yarn while I was sick? She was pretty casual about it but she ain't a good liar."
Clifton smirks at the hip check, "Did I mention I'm glad you're feeling better?" He had not liked seeing her in that situation. Before anything else she was a friend. The Walker was definitely glad she was alright, for Maddie's sake especially. When she takes the lead, he follows after, glancing to her when she mentions Maddie and their 'yarn'. "Yeah. Been meaning to talk to you about that…but I'm guessing you know well enough what it was about?"
Oh, worry not, she's fine. Kitty seems to pick up on that tangent of thought and she glances sideward to her friend, the dirt and tiny rocks crunching beneath her shit-kickers. ""Before I go on, I gotta thank ya. I owe it to ya, and yer cousin Dot, for finding me when I was in a bad way." Note how she doesn't remark in any, way shape or form her own stubborn, negligent doing in GETTING that bad. "Was a damned bullish thing for me t'do.. but I swear I was gonna be off to th' clinic that day, til' I went tits up in the bathroom." Hmmph.
She hooks her thumbs into the pockets of Basil's old coat, the shotgun (unloaded, but she would be quick to prepare it if she truly needed to) swaying behind her willowy body. "I heard some things… she told me ya both had a talk of sorts, that she may have overstepped somethin'… I think babygirl is getting fancies in her head 'round us." There, that first hint of concern.
"Shit, Kat. You don't gotta thank me for that. Or Dot. I'm just glad you're alright…" As far as helping her? It really is what any friend would do. Hell, what any decent person would do. When she goes further into what Maddie told her, Clifton furrows a brow and looks over to Kitty. "Yeah. She told me how…she thought I'd be able to do right by you. How I already do…by her too. How we could…" He sighs, rubbing the back of his neck "be good with each other if we gave it a shot."
The Walker shrugs "I may have missed the exact wording, but that is the gist of it. Don't worry I made sure and she doesn't know anything other than we are friends…but for her…a guy and a girl aren't friends like we are without…more. I feel terrible, Kat…"
The woman listens carefully and responds in the exact way that Clif expected of her: he knows her too well. No wonder poor Maddie is confused!! Her brow furrows, just barely, as the two of them make their way along and up the trailhead. The grade of the hill shall begin to increase gradually as Kitty instinctively marks the Carden's Bluff as her endpoint. "Sounds like somethin' she'd say and think.. Maddie is a romantic. She's gonna be a lover, Clif, that much I can tell. That's what I'd hope for her someday. I ain't wantin' her to live my life." She admits easily. Clif rubs the back of his neck in a nervous gesture and Kitty involuntarily, adjusts the collar of her jacket around hers.
"She's Southern to th' core. We do get along Clif, we get on like a house on fire… but she sees it as chemistry." Said straight-up. "She ain't knowin' of our fuckin'.. she just sees everything else." A pause, and she turns the full wattage of her golden gaze upon the werewolf. "Don't ya be blaming yerself.. if anyone should've talked to her, really talked.. it should've been me."
Clifton listens to Kitty and nods in the appropriate spots. Maddie WAS a romantic, even in her young age. He and Kat DID get along. In whatever sense that may be. Then, the bit about talking to Maddie. "So…what do we do now? Or…what do you want to do?" He leaves it in her hands for the moment.
"I'm in trouble when she's a teenager." Kathleen barks a laugh, squinting at the path ahead. "I think we gotta cool if for awhile." Again, she comes through in the way that is expected of her. There is not a note of panic or upset to her tone, just practicality. "Ya can keep stoppin' by… but the visits, it… she's watchin' us. It'll only be a matter of time that she figures it out. But if yer gone, really gone; if ya go away and ain't of a mind t' check in… I'll find ya myself and scalp ya. Ya understand me?" She asks, grinning crookedly at the Walker as a hawk shrieks off in the distance.
She frowns slightly and peers ahead again, her footfalls crisp and solid. "I hate t'do it.. but it makes sense."
Clifton holds up his hands with a chuckle "I understand you. Don't worry…I wasn't meaning me going away. Just like you said…might wanna cool it on the 'visits'. Was making sure we were on the same page is all." Not that he expected her to be upset about it. They had set the guidelines for their 'visits' from the get go. If anything ever seemed too complicated or if it risked either of their priorities at all…it was to be ended. They were simply carrying through with their original agreement. "I don't blame myself, but I just feel for her is all. Could tell she fancied the idea. She has a good heart…just like you." He shakes his head "Nothing about it to hate. We'll both still get ours just…somewhere else" he smirks "we're fuckers after all."
Hopefully this reassures Clif further of Kitty's solidarity in their unorthodox 1940's pact! She posed the suggestion that he, perhaps, was contemplating! Huh, go figure! There is nothing complicated about this woman who strides along with her flannel coat and her big fucking shotgun, late sunlight teasing her hair and face. "Don't be feelin' bad for Mads either. She's away for a few days with Luluuuubelle… whatever the sam's hell her name is… and her folks. Regular ol' baby hen party; shopping and pallin' around. She'll forget about us for a spell." Remarked casually, with intent to reassure. "Sure she liked the idea.. she's a sweet kid and wants me to be happy. I could draw an' quarter her for thinkin' she broke Ma's health and saddled me with hard times. Never." Said fiercely.
Minutes pass and the burn may or may not be felt in calves as the hill steepens. There is a plateau coming up; coins of sunlight dapple across the pathway and seem to concentrate themselves upon this flat spat of earth, heavily covered with trees.
There is a.. sound of buzzing closeby. A hive? Wasp nest? It's far too late though, surely..
"Good…sounds like she'll have a great time" Clifton says with a smile. "And yeah. I know she'll be fine…but I can't really blame her for thinking of the whole thing as complicated. Especially with where we're living." Higsi had it's pros but it definitely had it's cons as well. As they walk, he lets silence fall between them. Until that silence is broken by…buzzing? His nose twitches for a moment as his brow furrows and suddenly his form is tense. "Kathleen…stay here…" He says in a low tone, holding his arm out as if to try and 'halt' her steps, before continuing forward himself towards the sound. Gun? He didn't need no stinking gun! He was a Walker! Or yeah. Something like that.
"She will," Kitty agrees, grunting softly as she oversteps a bit and feels a pulling sensation in a thigh. "Lord knows she deserves it.. weren't easy dealin' with me as I was, especially when I came home from the Stynes. Ya can imagine what could've gone on in her head, given the books she likes to stuff her face into. Little Women and the like. It's natural too, with this town.. how people can be. Especially with all th' menfolk away with the efforts, women are out of their minds with the shortage." A thoughtful look; sadness for the waste of good lives. "Go figure Maddie is surroundin' herself with these pinin' women and gettin' ideas. Then she sees us spending time together. It'll get easier, she'll cool it."
There is that companionable silence then, into which the sound of many insectile wings flapping interjects. Suddenly Clifton is using her God-given name and bidding her to stop. "What? What ya pickin' up on?" She asks, no longer frustrated or offended by Clif when he gets like this. Still, she isn't one to be coddled.. and she carefully.. carefully trails a bit. Stopping to keep the man in her sights.
To follow the buzzing is to find a copse of sturdy bluff trees, their roots gnarled together as they cling to the rocky earth. Flies are buzzing around a form amidst this fray, but they… don't seem to be landing.
Getting closer, Clifton's nose pulls his features into an expression of distaste. Quickly followed by one of urgency mixed with anger. "Kathleen. Back. Now." He knew that smell, but it was even worse this time. Still, Clif wasn't about to be taken off guard or let Kitty get brought into this mess again. "Keep your gun ready just in case." In case what? He doesn't clarify, but instead steps forward to close the distance between himself and the bastard. Just hoping Kitty actually listens and stays back.
"What is going on?" Kitty asks firmly, but hushes her voice. Her deft hands move to ready the gun, loading the shells. A clean, clinical 'click' as everything is indeed prepared, but she does not move to follow or otherwise disobey the Walker. She doesn't think she can bear another stint of being in that clinic while her kid sister worried so much.
Indeed, it's that smell: unwashed, filthy skin; rotten meat; dried blood and puke and an overall crawling aura of ghastliness. It's worse than what Clif remembers, unfortunately.. and there's something there. Something further spoiled…
The 'bastard' is here, alright, looking as if he is reclining amidst the roots, his body skewed at an awkward angle. Did he fall? Is he sleeping? Aloysius is as still as the grave as he lies face-up, neck canted at a crooked angle off to the right. His clothing is tattered and unlike what he wore last encounter: more stolen goods, these too large. He's a bone rack beneath sallow, whitened skin. He's not moving.
You paged Clifton with 'Drawing closer, his neck has obviously been broken, as if from a swift yet awkward fall.'
Clifton 's form tenses further as he sees the man, but then that smell…that spoiled rancid smell. Still, he had been fooled by the demon bastard before. So he proceeds cautiously and approaches the figure. Then, he does what any brilliant minded detective in a movie would do…and kicks at the leg of Aloysius. When that doesn't stir him, of course another kick is delivered. Swifter this time with a bit more force behind it. Oh yeah. You're in safe hands, Kitty.
When the boy's body doesn't move the second time, Clifton puts an arm over his mouth and nose before leaning in for a closer look. Despite the covering of his jacket sleeve, his face still grimaces against the harsh smell. Then, he sees it. The neck…and the angle of that break. "Fuck…" the Walker mutters under his breath. Aloysius was dead. "You poor bastard…" But if he was dead and lying here, where was the demon? Shit.
Here's the odd part.. it doesn't appear that anything has been at the poor dead boy. To kick him is to feel solid, unyielding rigor mortis. He's been here awhile, a couple of days perhaps… enough time for scavengers to have a nibble. He's unbitten, untouched… even the flies aren't having much to do with him, drawn by the smell but deterred by a residual aura. The sense of badness remains even if the demon that possessed the kid is — perhaps — gone. Was it a mercy kill? Did Aloysius just have enough?
Kathleen blinks slowly, still watching and waiting. She looks anxious to approach and frowns as Clif kicks the body.. and seeing no response, she takes a couple more steps forth. The smell reaches her and she winces. "Wait.. that stink… it were that same stink on my porch.." She calls out, hackles beginning to raise. "Is this the fucker that vandalized my property?!" She barks out.
To look at Aloysius's face, strangest of all… there's no look of terror as one's face would be locked into at a sudden, startling death. His body is ragged and beaten up, sores and spoilage everywhere… he hasn't even begun to bloat yet. But his face… it's peaceful.
Eyes closed, lashes surprisingly long… cheeks hollow, but he looks as peaceful as he could ever hope to get.
Clifton looks at the flies and sees the lack of 'scavenging' on the boy's form. He didn't have to wonder why though. Even if his own senses didn't assist him in it, his dealings with the boy would have been enough. There was something…wrong with him. With his body even now in death and with that demon gone. Then, Kitty's words reach his ears, but the Walker's gaze stays on the body. A frown finally hitting his features. "Somebody needs to know he's up here…" Even with all the signs pointing away from him, Clifton was perhaps still somehow worried about this coming back on him. Walker finds a body? Must have killed him right? "Frank. We can tell Frank." He still can't look away for the moment.
Poor, poor Aloysius. In death, he looks like the sad, hurt boy that he actually was in life. Kathleen has finally approached and she looks down at the dead kid with an initial look of revulsion, followed by a hit of sadness. "This.. this kid were th' one who…." She blinks, seeing beyond the filth and waste and seeing the teenager beneath. ".. he's a stick of a thing.. how'd he wreck that swing… he.." She notices the neck, and kneels slowly with a wince. To look around Aloysius and beneath him is to see smaller, fine branches crumpled beneath his body. Kathleen nudges Clif gently. "He fell, I think… maybe from above…?"
She looks up… look at the trees: from the tallest of the bundle, signs of a body careening from the topmost branches. Lesser pieces broken and jarred.. one can see the exact trajectory of the boy's fall. His face does not match the nature of his end.. it wasn't accidental.
"Want me t' stay here and ya go get him? Or we can cover the kid and go together?"
(OOC: The holidays ate us. Deemed 'clean', Aloysius was buried properly.)