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[hr][img]https://txt.1001fonts.net/img/txt/dHRmLjEwNi5mZmI2YzEuVG1WcmJ5QkRZWEppWld4c1lRLjA/fairy-mother.regular.webp[/img][/center][b]Interactions[/b]: The Group // Jasmine[@Punished GN] [right][b][code]The Webb Family Coffee House[/code][/b][/right][hr]

Charlie backing Neko up on her inquisition didn’t quite quell the hammering in her chest, but having the young lady on her side was enough to slow the bouncing of her knee. The table was spared from any further knocking and the rest of the group no longer needed to fear that their coffee would jump from their cup. Neko almost felt a tingle of pride course through her as Jen squirmed under the pressure, feeling that by putting their organizer on her backfoot it meant she must’ve brushed upon something. It was a feeling immediately squashed the second Jasmine interceded. 

[color=saddlebrown]"Do we have [i]anything[/i] concrete besides the word of some redneck? One that is [i]trying[/i] to get us out of their town as fast as possible?"[/color] said Jasmine.

Neko smiled abashedly and lowered her head, her long brown hair falling in front of her face. No, no, in fact they did not have anything concrete and even though Mr. Thornton seemed hospitable but for all she could tell it was that same fake friendliness that was ingrained into the behavior of any true Southerner. She had just taken his word at face value because, weirdness aside, he’d been kind. She rested her elbow against the table and blocked her face with her hand as she shook her head ever so slowly in acknowledgment of her oversight, feeling every bit of stupid. 

Her head was still down when Jen slid the text message into Neko’s view. It was from Gene, explaining neatly how he and Harmony were stepping away. A sense of unease crept over Neko as she read the text, eventually settling in her stomach and twisting. From what she gathered the other day Harmony and Gene had been total strangers. Wasn’t it strange that he mentioned her leaving but she didn’t even say anything? Or had Neko just binged too many murder podcasts on her trip to Louisiana? 

[color=FFB6C1]“Right, um, sorry Jen,”[/color] said Neko as their organizer explained her connection to Eleanor, already feeling sheepish after Jasmine immediately brought about reasonable doubt to Neko’s argument. Her finger traced the rim of her mug as she gave Jen a weak smile and mumbled a low energy apology, [color=FFB6C1]“Didn’t mean to go off on you. Just, ya know, a bit overwhelmed lately. Haven’t been sleeping. It’s just…anyway, sorry.”[/color]

Hatchet buried or not, going to the swamp was still the plan. Charlie mentioned securing weapons and that the doctor had suggested there were monsters. Neko cocked her head at the young lady. She opened her mouth to question the term and then closed it. Neko remembered the times she told her crying daughter that monsters aren’t real. It was one of the first lies she’d told the girl, standing right up there with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Monsters were real, but they didn’t look like monsters. They looked like people.

So Charlie was right: they should secure weapons. The others should, anyway. Neko glanced down at her bag. Neko had been ahead of that idea by approximately one entire Charlie lifespan, having carried some kind of knife on her since she was a teenager. She had never needed to use it, she was thankful that she never used it, and she wasn’t sure that she’d remember to use it if she ever needed it, but it was there. Perhaps it would’ve been smart to seek out something with a little more umph considering the high strangeness of the situation they found themselves in, but Neko didn’t trust herself with a gun. 

[color=FFB6C1]“I’m not against us protecting ourselves, but it’d look bad if a whole mob of out-of-towners cleared off the shelves of the local gun store. I think I’m just going to go to the motel now,”[/color] said Neko as she stood up, rubbing her elbow. [color=FFB6C1]“I’ll ask around about Gene and Harmony while I’m there, just in case he—I mean, just to be—it’s just, sorry, that text’s just…anyway. Maybe Jasmine is right. Maybe Mr. Thornton was just trying to scare us off. Still, I think it’d be dangero-uh-unwise to do anything alone. So, um…”[/color]


Jasmine’s words finally registered with Neko as she crossed her fingers and hoped that some of the group were also not callous enough to let her go off on her own and get disappeared. [color=saddlebrown]“...I saw a woman, but there was something wrong with her. It was like she was a... ghost."[/color] She snapped her head towards the soccer star, Neko’s eyes that she had been struggling to keep open suddenly widening if she herself had just seen a ghost. She hazily recalled the drowned face she saw in the swamp water outside of Mr. Thornton’s cabin, its features obscured by the muck and the mire. 

[color=FFB6C1]“Wait, really? Yesterday at Mr. Thornton’s cabin I looked in the pond and saw a, well, I don’t know, I thought it was a drowned girl but when I looked back she was gone. I thought my mind was just playing tricks,”[/color] said Neko, the hairs on her arm rising despite the heat. [color=FFB6C1]“What did she look like?”[/color]