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The first to arrive was a man, who, judging by his slightly surprised expression, and then his actual words, was not expecting to find someone like Lucy waiting for him. He seemed unsettled, but that was okay. It was, after all, what some might consider an unsettling situation. Of course, most people didn’t offer to walk the cause of their disquiet home. Lucy wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about that - was this man really someone who wanted to find Olivia?
He’d turned up though.
And not because she’d made him, because the spell didn’t do that - all it did was make you want to look, and he’d looked, and he’d made a decision, and… well… that decision had brought him here. Whatever the motivation, it didn’t matter. She didn’t need a special kind of motivation, all she needed was the intent, and anyone with the guts to show up tonight was bound to have it in spades. She bit down on the inside of her cheek, nerves clawing at the inside of her gut. It didn’t matter who. All that mattered was-
Someone brushed past the nervous man - someone who only remained a ‘someone’ until Lucy noticed the steely intensity radiating from every movement. Oh dear.
"Lucy?" Okay, so maybe it mattered a little bit who. At least, insofar as the when the who was, incidentally, Olivia’s sister who, incidentally, was not Lucy’s biggest fan. Lucy knew this because, despite the fact that they’d never really talked properly, not even Lucy could ignore the outright resentment Abby seemed to hold towards her. Or at least, she couldn’t ignore Jeanine asking her if she’d gotten into a spat with her as the two of them had walked out of the police station after giving their interviews.
It was strange though. even in the darkness, Lucy could see the family resemblance. Although maybe not. Abby reminded Lucy more of the Olivia from the posters; the one who’s every pore had oozed a kind of restlessness fire. The one who hadn’t joined in the snickering that one (of many) times Lucy had walked out of Maths, not out of kindness, but because she simply hadn’t needed to join in. The one who’d ignored Lucy in the halls of Rawyn High because why wouldn’t she have done that? Lucy had never disliked that Olivia - she didn’t really dislike anyone. She just preferred her Olivia more. Lucy opened her mouth about to speak, before someone else walked in.
"So, uh... Is this where the club is meeting?" the girl with the long hair and the hoodie and the skateboard said. She had purple on the ends of her hair, and it made her look more confident then she sounded. She was nervous, like the man. She was younger than him though, and probably younger than Abby, too. Closer to Lucy’s age - to Olivia’s age. Lucy thought she recognised her from one of the shops in town - TK Maxx? Jeanine like to go there sometimes, she liked that they sold lots of pans.
Before Lucy had chance to respond (again), someone else who she hadn't seemed to notice walked in, "Hello?" the newcomer said in what sounded like a Scottish accent, confidence belying the fact that she too was a little unnerved by the meeting. It wasn't Lucy's fault the place was so creepy, or the meeting so late, and she felt a little put out by everyone's apprehension. Also by the fact that they were all arriving so close to each other - although to be fair to them she had provided a fairly specific time frame, and really, they were just being punctual. Always a good thing.
When nobody walked in for a few seconds, she deemed it safe to finally respond. She cleared her throat, a little dramatically, but perhaps no more dramatic than the situation itself demanded -"Hello - yes, this is-"
And then, of course, somebody else arrived. A woman with a camera bag who positioned herself near the back of the room, before mumbling something about memos.
Lucy frowned a little. "I think I'll just wait until everyone arrives, this isn't going too well," she said, loud and clear, her voice carrying in the slightly less quiet than earlier hall, "although that's assuming other people will be arriving. I definitely left more notes than this, and yes, that was me, but the pull of free will mostly turns out to be a bit stronger than... other things," the community centre growled, and chills ran up Lucy's spine, but she continued on because really, it wasn't being very polite right now, "which is a good thing," she said, a little more forcefully, "considering where we happen to be living," she paused, glancing to the woman with red hair and the woman at the back who had sounded distinctly English, and not just any kind of English, southern, "or staying, if that's what you're doing."
She paused as a man walked in - he looked vaguely familiar. Had he been a guest at Shifting Sands? That was a while ago, and not something Lucy liked to look back on too often, especially seeing as she'd been chased out of the place by a broomstick-wielding Mrs. Smith for being 'one of them no good hocus-pocus lunatics that scares the birds!', the irony of which was not lost on Lucy. He was definitely local though, she'd seen him around town, so he was probably more of a 'guest' there than a guest.
She was rather pleased when he said, ”Here I was expecting a packet of stale biscuits but you went all out with the refreshments. Much appreciated.” and started snacking, because really, she had put quite a bit of effort into them. Of course, it had been a result of seeking guidance from Jeanine. Apparently the best way to get people to show up to an event was free food, although Lucy really wasn't sure if clandestine meetings involving strangers, missing friends, and the supernatural could be counted as 'events'.
This was Rawyn though. It wasn't like there was much else going on.
That thought was quickly dismissed, however, by the arrival of a man in a raincoat. Lucy wasn't sure why, the weather hadn't been too bad today. Perhaps a little hit and miss late morning time - but after that it had cleared up nicely. The forecast for tomorrow was a bit grim, or at least, Lucy's one from scrying in the kitchen sink was, but the news was saying it was going to be alright for the rest of the week. The news wasn't very often right concerning the weather though, you didn't have to have been raised by a witch to know that much.
But still, that wasn't the important part.
The important part was that things finally felt right. Everyone that was going to be here was here. She looked around the room - eight people. Not... the best number. Nine would have been better. Nine was divisible by three, eight was most definitely not divisable by three. They weren't missing anyone though. Or at least, Lucy didn't think they were missing anyone.
Except Olivia.
Lucy's chest tightened. She ignored it. "Okay," she said instead, "I think we're all here. Probably. Possibly. You can never really be certain with these things..." she trailed of, but then quickly resumed her initial train of thought, "Anyway! I think I should probably explain some things to you all," she paused, allowing herself to take in people's, somewhat bemused and anticipatory faces, "before that though, err, thank you? For showing up, that is, you didn't have too. And... it says a lot about you all that you did. Which is good, because - err, explaining, right, I should probably do that before I start talking like you all know what's happening."
She paused again, she should probably get to the point if she expected people to stay, "Anyway, starting at the start for anyone who doesn't know the start, at least not properly, a bit ago, a girl went missing. That girl was Olivia Davis," her breath caught in her throat at the name. It was strange how hard it was to say out loud, like her tongue had forgotten how to do it after so long not doing so. She deliberately avoided eye contact with Abby. She doubted that she had the same problem, doubted that Abby had been able to go even a day without saying her sister's name, especially with all the attention on the Davis family.
"She... she was a good person. She had plans, and dreams, and things she wanted to do with her life, same as anyone who goes missing, and whatever it is that's happened to her, she didn't deserve it." she took a breath, heart rate picking up slightly, "she doesn't deserve it."
She was definitely avoiding Abby's eye now, really, her reaction could go one of two ways, and from what Olivia had told Lucy of her sister, she doubted it was going to be the on she was hoping for.
"Please, before you say anything, hear me out," she said, addressing the room, "first off, I don't know where Olivia is. If I did, she wouldn't be there anymore, she'd be back home. Safe." Lucy remembered when Olivia had been safe. When she'd smiled nervously over the rim of her mug of hot chocolate in Costa and said that she thought her maths exam had gone pretty well, but she didn't want to jinx it. When she'd had tea at Jeanine's flat and laughed along at Jeanine's stories about a younger Lucy, bungling spells in this very room. When she hadn't lost interest when Lucy had been weird, or quiet, or all of those other things that she wasn't supposed to be but was. When she'd-
It didn't matter.
She took a breath.
"Second," she said, hands shaking a little, becuase if this went down badly, then the whole thing would go down badly "I might not know where she is, but..." her eyes flickered to the box in the corner of the room, "I think I might know how to find her, and... I'm going to need your help." She held up a hand, indicating that she still wasn't done, "please, I know that sounds bad, but... I really do need you to be a little patient. It'll make sense. I promise, and I always stick to promises, or at least I try to," she walked across the room, towards the box.
She peeled the lid off, and it came away with a plasticy crack. From inside, she withdrew a small, closed pouch, a black tealight, and a small, furled up scroll of lined paper. She held them up in one hand, "I found these the other day. I... don't know who sent them. I do, however, know that they can help. Find Olivia, that is. The scroll has instructions. For a spell. It said I needed people with intent, and... that's you."
She stopped, she knew that this was unlikely to be the kind of thing normal people would be on board with.
Hopefully, these people were as un-normal as turning up to a meeting with a total stranger about a missing girl in a creepy building after suggested they might be.
"I know that this isn't something that people normally do, but..." and great, she was begging, she'd never begged for anything in her life, "I can't do this without you, and I think it might be the only way to find her." More than think, really.
But that part was hard to explain.
"So... thoughts?"