Truth be told, things had been quiet in the MacLean/Wylde household since Lucy made her return from Las Vegas, and the shenanigans that had happened during her trip. Of course she had to tell Rogan all about it, because Lucy of all people cannot be trusted to leave what happens in Vegas… In Vegas.

Seb was thrilled to find that out as he listened to Rogan cackling in the background of he and Lucy’s most recent phone conversation.

But I digress.

It had been quiet. Lucy and Rogan, things had been slowly getting back to normal. She’d been spending more time with him, and the two of them had been working the bar together most days. Rogan seemed happier, Lucy seemed happier – and all was well.

That old VHS tape had begun to gather dust as it sat, untampered with since the last time Lucy had played the tape and had finally seen, and spoken to the… entity within it. For a while after that, it was all she could think about. She wondered what an older version of Rogan was doing in there, was he trapped? Why did he want her to allow him to bring her there so badly?

All questions that she tried to answer with even more questions – each one more scary than the last.

For a few days after that encounter, she toyed with the idea of turning it on again, trying to get more answers, but she never did. She brought it back home with her and she shoved it in the bottom of the closet in the living room and slowly, but surely, she forgot about it.

Or at least, she tried to forget about it.

There were moments when things were slow, or Rogan was asleep, that her thoughts fell upon the bag and its contents and the whirlwind of questions began to rise up like the tide during a full moon. She had been mostly successful in quelling the surge of intrusive thoughts that she knew would drive her to do impulsive things. Things that would likely get her into trouble, or even worse, undo all the good that had been happening between herself and Rogan in the here and now.

She couldn’t help whoever he was, and she shouldn’t try to.

“Hey, Lass… Can ye grab the end of the bar? I gotta go get some more ice.”

Rogan half shouted at Lucy as the two of them tag teamed a busy night at the bar. Business had picked up quickly. It seemed word of mouth was king, and many people had wandered into ‘The Waystation’ during spring break and they must have liked what they saw because as summer grew ever closer, weekends were proving to be busier than ever for Lucy, Rogan and his dream bar.

Lucy looked quickly at Rogan and then towards the end of the bar where quite a few patrons were waiting, money in hand, for someone to take their orders.

“I got it, go.”

She replied and moved away from him, taking orders and dishing out drinks as she went. But when she’d reached the end of the bar, sliding a drink across to an expectant young woman, the sight she saw behind her nearly had Lucy jumping out of her skin.

Launching herself backwards, she knocked a few bottles down off of their respective shelves, and drew quite a bit of attention which was quite a feat in a bar as loud as this one was. Lucy couldn’t pull her eyes away from the figure she saw before her as the young woman stepped away, drink in hand and a confused look on her face.

“Hello, Calamity.”

The young man with messy dirty blonde hair beneath a worn cowboy hat and eyes so bright Lucy honestly thought they could have lit the entirety of the Gulf Shores on their own, he stared at her, a grim look on his face.

“Poke…”

Lucy whispered, taking a few hesitant steps towards him – thankful the bar was there between them. The last time she’d seen him was at the Boston Marathon, and when she’d seen him, she knew she had to watch the tape again.

She didn’t put two and two together at the time, but in this moment…

He couldn’t have known she’d see the old man that night, could he?

“You’re here.. Why are you here?”

Lucy stole a glance back towards the door that Rogan had left through, half hoping he’d return and half hoping he wouldn’t – fearing what he would say, or do upon seeing Poke.

She didn’t even know if he knew Poke, but her gut told her he did, even if he didn’t realize it.

“The Chaos, it intensifies, Calamity.”

“But how…?  I did what I was supposed to do the last time you visited.. I watched the–”

Poke laid a hand on the bar in front of her and took his hat off with the other, laying it on the bar between them.

“I would like a drink, please. Whiskey.”

Lucy was at a loss for words, but she quickly backed away and a few moments later, slid a glass of whiskey across the bar and into his waiting hand.

“What are you talking about? I need you to get out of here before–”

“Before The Dark Man returns? I’m not troubled by these mortal things, Calamity. Just tell me why..”

“I.. I don’t understand. You told me Rogan was in danger and that I needed to destroy–”

Poke downed his glass in one gulp and let the glass fall onto the bar, startling Lucy. When she dared to glance up into his eyes again, the cold gaze she was met with sent a shiver down her spine.

“You want to know why I didn’t destroy that old man in the tape?”

Poke simply nodded.

“I.. I don’t know, I didn’t know how to. But.. How could he…? From what I saw, he-he looked like he was trapped in there, he kept asking me to come to him, that he needed me. I turned it off because I was scared of what would happen to me if that happened, and I..”

Lucy sighed and shook her head. The truth was, she wasn’t sure what was happening and the sight of another Rogan, pleading and begging her as if she were the only thing that could help him out of whatever hell he’d found himself in.. It made her stomach turn. She lost the ability to think clearly when she saw him.

And that scared her more than anything.

“I thought you were stronger than that, Calamity. The only power he has, the only power he can claim is that which you grant him.”

“So…I can talk to him, and as long as I don’t give him any power… I can–”

But before Lucy could finish the sentence, she watched Poke’s gaze wander to her right. She followed his eyes and gasped when she saw Rogan standing there with a bucket of ice in his arms, and his eyes, boring a hole straight through Poke and herself.

“Oh…shit.”

 

”Ezra, my dear, here we go again.”

Lucy sighs, shaking her head as she uncrosses her legs and recrosses them the opposite way as her eyes finally make contact with the camera, and her audience on this lovely, lovely Monday evening in Chicago.

She wasn’t sat in her usual location, backstage in the drab, under-described and overrated room with a camera and a couple of unnamed staff members that have happened to exposit a bunch of ‘need to know’ information to Lucy on occasion.

No, truthfully, she wasn’t far away – sat upon an equipment crate, her cellphone perched precariously on another crate across the hallway from her. The room had already been occupied when she showed up, and she didn’t feel like waiting for…Well, whoever it was, to finish.

“I learned something interesting the other day, I don’t know, maybe you learned the same thing, since it was plastered up on the same message board we find all our other information on. Today is ‘Nothing to Fear’ day.”

Lucy rolled her eyes and shifted in her seat again, letting out another sigh.

“And me being me, I just had to look it up. I just had to know what in the actual fuck that could mean. Apparently, the powers that be, the same motherfuckers that came up with National Cellophane Tape day… Also today, if you wanna celebrate – they figured today would be as good a day as any to tell people that today is the day we should all look deep down within ourselves and take stock of our fears because they ‘keep us from being the best versions of ourselves’.”

Lucy held the quotation mark pose for a few seconds longer before letting her arms drop down to her sides. She shook her head again.

“I don’t know about you, Wolfy, but there’s plenty to fear out in the world, you know? Eh, you’re probably one of them ‘ain’t nothing scare me, bro – I’m no pussy’ kind of guys, aren’t you?”

She smirks and tilts her head to the side.

“Adorable. But we all see right through fuckers like you, you know that, right? Those who claim to be fearless are the most fearful among us. And trust me, Ezra.. You’ve got plenty to fear, and one of them is staring right into your soul right now…”

Lucy winks at the camera and leans forward.

“You’ve had a decent run with the Chaos title, lil guy. If you hadn’t turned into such a little shit, I might even tell you I’m proud of the job you’ve done. It’s a shame you fell short against Vain at In Your Hands, but let’s be honest here, that was always a forgone conclusion. I mean, It’s Vain. And if you’ve taken a look at the calendar around here, he’s made a note on each page that everyday is Suck Alan’s dick day.. Which I thought was a little tacky, but I guess it’s really no tackier than the faces of those who actually kneel for the occasion.”

She blows a kiss at the camera.

“You know who you are. But anyway, I might be getting a bit off topic here. You’re not bad at what you do, Ezra. I mean, you’ve made it this far, despite every obstacle that’s been placed in front of you. But I’m no ordinary obstacle, am I? And that’s where the whole ‘fear’ thing comes in. I know I ain’t much to look at, but you should know better than anyone what a danger I am to anyone who’s holding a title belt in this place. You and I have danced this dance before, and boy… your record doesn’t look so hot from over here.”

Lucy waves her hand in front of her face as if she’s smelled something rotten.

“But before you say it, you should also know as well as any of these other people that walk the halls, that I’m not one to count my chickens before they’re hatched. I’m simply stating fact here, simply pointing out that beating me hasn’t been one of your strong suits. People change though. Obviously. But have you changed enough, Ezra? Have you grown enough between our last meeting and now to definitively tell me that there isn’t a fiber of your being that’s scared that I’m about to end the best thing you’ve had going for you in a long, long time?”

“Now’s not the time to buck up and puff that scrawny little chest of yours out and tell me that you’ve got nothing to fear when it comes to this match later tonight. Now’s the time to show me the worry in your eyes. Now’s the time to stop being a fake little bitch and show me the real you.. The you that desperately clings to the last thread of relevance that you’ve got left. The you that felt your stomach drop the moment you saw you’d be defending the Chaos title against me.”

Lucy sits back and uncrosses her legs, simply staring at the camera for a long pause, before running her hands over her head, playing with her long blonde hair as she lowers her arms back into her lap.

“But maybe that’s too much to expect of you. That’s okay. I’ve got no problem telling you that fears been a big part of my life for a long time, and honestly, bullshit holidays like today give fear a bad rep. I wouldn’t be here today without fear. I wouldn’t be who I am without fearing… So yeah, I’m scared of plenty. I’m just not scared of what’s about to happen out there tonight because regardless of what happens?”

Lucy shrugs her shoulders.

“I already know I’ve been through worse and I’m still here. I have nothing to lose here tonight, and you stand to lose everything. I’ve clawed my way out of depths deeper than anything you could ever hope to do to me, and even if you manage to squeak out of tonight with that belt still fastened around your waist, just know that I’ll still be a bigger star without it than you will be with it.”

With that, she slides down off of the crate and leans in towards her phone, a soft smirk on her lips.

“See you soon, bud. Shine her up for me, she’s about to come home.”