[shauna doesn't text again, just sits by the lakeside, absently detangling her hair of the muddy grave dirt it still carries, brushing the grime off her arms. bruce, the coyote, helps periodically -- pads over and licks shauna's arm with her big, wet, warm tongue.
but mostly she looks out towards the house, waits to see jackie's hurried, slight, bustling form, radiating earnest anxiety, familiar and longed for and making something heavy feel that bit lighter in shauna's chest.]
[ she'd gathered a bunch of things she thought shauna might want in a tote bag after getting her text. a hoodie, the water and snacks, a hairbrush. she doesn't know what happens when you resurrect after being buried, things had been different with the others who had died throughout the games. she comes running towards shauna clutching everything so she doesn't drop it, her feet moving faster than she'd thought capable of, just hoping she doesn't trip or drop anything on the way.
she moves even faster upon spotting shauna by the lake, not stopping until she reaches her with burning muscles and lungs and heaving breaths. she takes a second to take shauna in - whole, with her head attached, trying in vain to wash the dirt out of her tangled hair.
she's here. she's here, she's alive and she's whole again and jackie's so overwhelmed she could cry. ]
Shauna. [ her throat feels clogged with tears and emotions she's barely let herself feel. she launches herself at her form, arms wrapping tight around her, dirt and all. ]
[and in the end, nothing the werewolf games could’ve thrown at them would’ve really, truly been enough to hurt shauna to her core – because the one in the cage, the ones laid out in a circle, headless victims, bled dry and lifeless were all other people. because the person it would’ve shattered her to see dead (again) escaped with her life, every round, every time.
and maybe there’s a level of perverse connection, now, both of them dead and alive again, resurrected girls, bound in a way that they couldn’t have been in the real world. now they’re even, each kneeling bowed and weeping over the other’s corpse. now the scales are balanced at last.
shauna’s head jerks up, and she lurches to her feet when jackie appears, when she chokes out her name, and there’s nothing to do, nothing to say but to open her arms and meet that embrace with her own, ferocious and savage and clutching, like the triumphant bodyslam-hug after a winning goal turned up to eleven. she presses her face against jackie’s hair and breathes in the way she smells and thinks maybe it was all worth it, to come back to this. to her.]
[ she'd wanted to do better. she'd wanted to help figure things out when it came to who'd been doing what, for natalie's sake, then for shauna's, even if she'd ended up being one of the wolves in the end. she'd wanted to clear her name, at least, from the idea that she'd ever hurt natalie. she'd told people whose word had been enough to help convict her why she didn't think she'd done it - part of why, anyway.
in the end, none of it had mattered. and she'd wondered if she should have been the one to die instead, if maybe that's how it's always meant to be. maybe nat would have been brought back if she had. maybe shauna would have stayed alive, even if it was in a cage.
but she doesn't want to think about that now, not when shauna's back. she's trying not to cry, trying not to make this about herself, because that had been what went wrong before. tears still manage to slip free and leak down, into shauna's hair and skin and clothes, but she doesn't let go, afraid that shauna might disappear if she does.
she feels something cool and furry nudge at her side and jolts a bit, finally separating a little from shauna. the coyote is there, sniffing curiously at the tote bag, and jackie exhales with a laugh, carefully holding out her hand to her before glancing at shauna. ]
This is Bruce? [ she tentatively reaches toward her. ] Hi, Bruce. Thanks for being there for her.
[shauna knows that feeling, the shape and scent and sound of jackie weeping into her shoulder. that’s always been the safest place for her, ever since they were little, every heartbreak, every wound finding soothing and comfort in the tangle of shauna’s dark hair. there’d only been that one time – that one fight, that last one – where jackie’s tears had been left to freeze on her cheeks, gather in her hair, pool int he hollow of her throat.
never again, shauna had promised herself when they all arrived. no matter what happened – wolves or games or death or hunger, whatever unforeseen, insurmountable obstacles that might come, she wasn’t going to let jackie cry herself to sleep alone, ever again. so, with grave-clumsy hands, she reaches up, strokes her hair, tries to be the sweet, calming, comforting presence she’d once been.
bruce interrupts them, curious and snuffly and uncannily large, wiggling her way in between the two and trying to get into jackie’s bag, though her attention is immediately captured instead by the offered hand. jackie will get a curious snuffling nuzzle, then the full weight of the coyote’s enormous head, in the palm of her hand.
shauna watches, something fond, soft, almost maternal in her eyes.] She likes you. See?
[ shauna's revival and the sweet curiosity of the new presence in their lives have jackie smiling brighter and more sincerely than it feels like she's been capable of in weeks. she strokes the top of her head gently, moving behind her ears as she starts to pant encouragingly, teeth revealed in a big, doggy grin.
she turns to shauna, smiling again, and then shifts her tote bag to the ground to get out the jerky for bruce and the water for shauna. ]
Here. [ she twists the bottle cap off before handing it to shauna, then brings the package to her mouth to bite at the package, tearing it open once enough of an opening is cut free with her teeth. she offers a strip to shauna first, then to bruce. ] I figured it could tide you both over until we're back in the house.
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no subject
[ did she say that already? there it is again, if she did. ]
I don't think mammals can eat snails??? IDK I'm bringing like, jerky I guess.
What do you want to eat???
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that thought pitches her stomach into a tangled roil, and she gets right to the point:]
not that hungry.
i wanna see you.
no subject
Okay. I'm on my way.
Stay put by the lake when u get to it okay??? I'll be right there.
no subject
[shauna doesn't text again, just sits by the lakeside, absently detangling her hair of the muddy grave dirt it still carries, brushing the grime off her arms. bruce, the coyote, helps periodically -- pads over and licks shauna's arm with her big, wet, warm tongue.
but mostly she looks out towards the house, waits to see jackie's hurried, slight, bustling form, radiating earnest anxiety, familiar and longed for and making something heavy feel that bit lighter in shauna's chest.]
no subject
she moves even faster upon spotting shauna by the lake, not stopping until she reaches her with burning muscles and lungs and heaving breaths. she takes a second to take shauna in - whole, with her head attached, trying in vain to wash the dirt out of her tangled hair.
she's here. she's here, she's alive and she's whole again and jackie's so overwhelmed she could cry. ]
Shauna. [ her throat feels clogged with tears and emotions she's barely let herself feel. she launches herself at her form, arms wrapping tight around her, dirt and all. ]
no subject
[and in the end, nothing the werewolf games could’ve thrown at them would’ve really, truly been enough to hurt shauna to her core – because the one in the cage, the ones laid out in a circle, headless victims, bled dry and lifeless were all other people. because the person it would’ve shattered her to see dead (again) escaped with her life, every round, every time.
and maybe there’s a level of perverse connection, now, both of them dead and alive again, resurrected girls, bound in a way that they couldn’t have been in the real world. now they’re even, each kneeling bowed and weeping over the other’s corpse. now the scales are balanced at last.
shauna’s head jerks up, and she lurches to her feet when jackie appears, when she chokes out her name, and there’s nothing to do, nothing to say but to open her arms and meet that embrace with her own, ferocious and savage and clutching, like the triumphant bodyslam-hug after a winning goal turned up to eleven. she presses her face against jackie’s hair and breathes in the way she smells and thinks maybe it was all worth it, to come back to this. to her.]
Hey. [mumbled against her hair, clogged, choked.]
no subject
in the end, none of it had mattered. and she'd wondered if she should have been the one to die instead, if maybe that's how it's always meant to be. maybe nat would have been brought back if she had. maybe shauna would have stayed alive, even if it was in a cage.
but she doesn't want to think about that now, not when shauna's back. she's trying not to cry, trying not to make this about herself, because that had been what went wrong before. tears still manage to slip free and leak down, into shauna's hair and skin and clothes, but she doesn't let go, afraid that shauna might disappear if she does.
she feels something cool and furry nudge at her side and jolts a bit, finally separating a little from shauna. the coyote is there, sniffing curiously at the tote bag, and jackie exhales with a laugh, carefully holding out her hand to her before glancing at shauna. ]
This is Bruce? [ she tentatively reaches toward her. ] Hi, Bruce. Thanks for being there for her.
no subject
never again, shauna had promised herself when they all arrived. no matter what happened – wolves or games or death or hunger, whatever unforeseen, insurmountable obstacles that might come, she wasn’t going to let jackie cry herself to sleep alone, ever again. so, with grave-clumsy hands, she reaches up, strokes her hair, tries to be the sweet, calming, comforting presence she’d once been.
bruce interrupts them, curious and snuffly and uncannily large, wiggling her way in between the two and trying to get into jackie’s bag, though her attention is immediately captured instead by the offered hand. jackie will get a curious snuffling nuzzle, then the full weight of the coyote’s enormous head, in the palm of her hand.
shauna watches, something fond, soft, almost maternal in her eyes.] She likes you. See?
no subject
she turns to shauna, smiling again, and then shifts her tote bag to the ground to get out the jerky for bruce and the water for shauna. ]
Here. [ she twists the bottle cap off before handing it to shauna, then brings the package to her mouth to bite at the package, tearing it open once enough of an opening is cut free with her teeth. she offers a strip to shauna first, then to bruce. ] I figured it could tide you both over until we're back in the house.