Participants:
| Scene Title | You Were There |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Guilt runs deep. |
| Date | March 10, 2019 |
The moon hangs high in the sky shining down on empty streets of the Safe Zone, the trees that twist and cover the bulk of the section known as Park Slope. Vines wrapped around cars and buildings alike, the forest like atmosphere loud with the animals of the evening. An owl hoots and the rustling of possums can be heard filling the space. Crickets creak as loud as ever. The night is alive. Though there had been death on this evening.
Footsteps echo down the street as a lone figure walks or stumbles home more likely. The cold wind is a welcome change from the fire that Poppy Norwood witnessed earlier this evening but the young woman could swear she feels the very chill in her bones. The jacket she borrowed and ended up keeping from the nice older man who tried to save her friend.
Marigold.
A flash of her face in Poppy's mind eye and she rapidly blinks back tears before they obscure her vision altogether. Stopping for a moment she leans against the cracked wall of a closed bodega and allows the tears to fall, she wouldn't make it home before breaking down. She had already done so twice. Luckily she was on her street, the street where she and Marigold shared an apartment. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." She whispers over again as she shakes her head, "No. This isn't real, wake up Poppy. Come on," the darker skinned woman pinches herself to no avail.
Her knees buckle in her thigh high white boots and her fist slams into the wall behind her with a loud thud. Poppy didn't remember making a fist but she continues to do so once the proverbial dam has been broken. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Fizzzzzzz.
The sound makes Poppy stiffen, eyebrows raising and face twisting in confusion, "Huh..?" The young woman's eyes lift and then widen in recognition.
"You were there." The voice is soft but it cuts through the air, through Poppy's wave of emotions. Stopping her from speaking first. That's new. Also stopping her from rushing forward to embrace the newcomer, that part wasn't so new but in her grief Poppy had briefly forgotten.
The girl blinks back tears as she sees the light dancing in front of her, shaking her head, "I tried." It's her simple answer to a complicated evening. Guilt wrecks her body and Poppy is holding her middle as she sobs. "He wouldn't stop, I just- I just wanted to go home!" The platinum blonde tries to move forward towards the woman in front of her but she's stopped by a flare of light. "What happened?" The girl opposite of Poppy sounds scared, hurt, her voice rough and raspy as if she doesn't use it much. She had always chosen her words carefully, spoken the least amount she needed too. Tears of their own fall from her dark eyes that stare unblinking at the platinum blonde leaning against the wall.
"We met this guy, partied with him at the Warehouse." Poppy speaks rapidly as if she's afraid of something but why would she be afraid? Not of this dark haired woman. That doesn't compute in her head, she's never been scared of her but why was there a ice cold sense of dread tickling up her spine? Something was different about Poppy's friend. It made sense, tonight would have changed them both.
"Went back towards his place but decided we were tired. He wasn't having that. Mari, she.. she freaked out. Started sparking. He thought it was an attack, he didn't even realize her sparks were useless." Poppy's screams through clenched teeth and her eyes close as she leans her head against the wall. "This woman just appeared out of nowhere, they had words. Next thing I know, the whole place is on fire. That bitch lost her mind." It comes out as a whine, Poppy can feel herself hyperventilating. "Mari on the ground, bleeding. The guy, Lewis. He was yelling about dirty blood, I couldn't-" she looks down at her hands and they shake. Still stained with Marigold's blood. "I think he was fucking Pure Earth." There's venom in her voice, "I tried, I'm so sorry. I'm so so sorry Ce-"
"It's not your fault Poppy." A sob is choked back by the darker haired girl that Poppy can't seem to keep her eyes on. It's too familiar. Too soon. "I should…" turning her back to the blonde the other woman begins to walk away towards an alleyway.
"Wait! What are you doing?" Poppy yells after her.
"I should have been there. I always should have been there. Now I'll never be there again." Bitterness fills the darker haired woman's voice and she stops short of walking away. A crackle and pop can be heard coming from near her. "Stay home or help me make up for our failure. Set this right." Our. Poppy had stood by Marigold since they were ten but Poppy did feel like she had let her down tonight though it was no fault of hers how things had turned out.
Guilt was funny that way and it was the common chord that links these two women in the street.
The dark haired woman holding the shining, fizzling light in her hand turns away from Poppy intent on leaving, whether Marigold's best friend comes with or not. "Wait! How?! You're not making any sense!" Poppy pleads at the woman's retreating back. "Celeste wait!"
The dark haired woman with the face that was painful to even look at doesn't turn back. Celeste just walks slowly through the alleyway, through the night. She doesn't even where she's heading. She only knows she's gotta get there.
"Celeste!!"