Friday, April 26th 2024
Chicago, Illinois

“Goodnight BFF…”

The door opens and Lucy takes a step out into the hall, turning back just enough to stare at Seb as Seb glared into the book he’d been reading… I know what you’re thinking, but yes, Seb reads. It’s quite impressive. Lucy was impressed. Impressed and proud. Pride was had on this, and many other occasions. Especially when it came to Sebastian Everett Bryce.

But we digress.

This is a Lucy Wylde piece, afterall.

Anyway, Lucy stood there far longer than she should have, or rather, far longer than Seb thought she would. But then again, he should really know better, shouldn’t he?

Finally, Seb let out a sigh. “Goodnight, Lucy.”

Lucy smirked. “Oh, you know I love you Seb. Lunch tomorrow?”

“Sounds… fine, I suppose.” Seb replied, giving Lucy a cursory glance before burying his nose back into his book.

Lucy nodded her head and let the door close behind her before she made her way back to her room. Once inside, Lucy let out a soft sigh and looked around the room, suddenly feeling alone. Not that she minded that feeling much anymore, but after a day full of shenanigans, the silence always felt a little more deafening.

For a split moment, Lucy didn’t feel alright.

While things weren’t always going great as of late, she still felt something was missing when she wasn’t with Rogan.

And then Lucy’s eyes fell onto the backpack she’d lugged here along with her suitcase for the weekend. Far too much luggage for a four day trip, right? She crossed the room and sat down at the table, tugging the zipper open on the bag that she totally didn’t pack her VCR and applicable cables in to bring with her for her weekend in Chicago. She one hundred percent didn’t take said VCR and cables out of the bag and set it up beside the hotel TV and plug everything in before grabbing the VHS out of the aforementioned backpack and inserting it into the VCR.

The screen didn’t take long before it came to life and Lucy gasped again. It amazed her everytime it happened because she was no closer to understanding what it was, who was in there or what was going on… But she figured that everytime the screen lit up, she had a chance of figuring one or all of those things out.

“Hello?” Lucy said, sitting back in her chair. “A-Are you there?”

HELLO TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC…

Flashed on the screen once.. twice.. three times before it turned to black. At first, the thoughts in Lucy’s head turned straight to defeat. She felt stupid, lugging this damn thing around with her, secretly nonetheless – as if she were having some kind of torrid affair behind everyone’s backs. It was ridiculous, and everytime she saw a darkened television screen she grew closer to throwing all of it in a dumpster and walking away.

Lucy shook her head and slid a bit closer to the TV screen, leaning in and knocking on the TV as if it were a door.

“Hello?”

“Lucy?”

She heard the same voice she’d heard before, but the sound wasn’t nearly as garbled as it had been. Lucy sat back, her heart nearly beating out of her chest just from the sound of the voice, and that she was actually able to hear them.

“Yeah, yeah! It’s me! Who is this?! Please… Before something happens again, I need to know–”

She jumped backwards, nearly toppling the chair onto the floor when the television screen lit up, revealing a bright room, with shelves lined with nothing but tapes of varying colors and ages – a chair in the middle, the plaid pattern nearly worn out from being used far too much. In front of the chair sat an old television with an even older VCR and everything sat on a rug that appeared that it had seen much, much better days.

But then Lucy’s heart really stopped in her chest as someone stepped into frame, an older gentlemen, his grey hair mussed up, and grown out to his shoulders. The beard on his face unkempt, but still holding a bit of the dirty blonde that the rest of his hair once was. He wore a tattered jean jacket, with a broken pin hanging off the front.. But what caught Lucy’s attention most of all…

Those eyes.

Those striking, familiar green eyes that held a sadness far greater than she’d ever seen – and that she’d hoped she would never see again. Eyes that had seen so much pain, that she couldn’t see the soul within because the years had stolen it away, never to give it back.

Lucy was at a loss for words as she simply stared at the man. She had to be seeing things, right? There was no way she was staring at him…

“T-This can’t be…” Lucy managed a whisper, the words barely able to squeak past the lump in her throat.

The man took a step forward, his own expression mirroring that of Lucy’s. He was in just as much disbelief as she was as he leaned in, trying to get a closer look at the woman on the other side of the screen. Finally, he brought a hand up and laid it against the screen, letting out a shaky sigh.

“I.. I can’t believe it’s you, Lucy. It’s-It’s been so long.”

“What do you mean? You-He’s…I… He’s in Alabama right now.. I, I don’t know who you are or what this is, but you can’t be him…”

A sad smile played over his lips as he nodded his head. “This is just the tip of the iceberg as to what is possible, Lucy.. You’re right, Rogan.. The Rogan you know he’s tending bar hundreds of miles away. He’s real. But so am I.”

“Rogan always told me, and I’ve seen some shit but never… Never anything like this.”

“He had his reasons for keeping much of his secrets to himself, and trust me.. It was never to hurt you. But.. We don’t have time for this, I don’t know how much longer this portal will stay open and if it closes, I don’t know if I’ll be able to reopen it.”

“What do you need?”

The man on the other side sighed and racked his hands through his long, knotted hair. “I’m in danger, Lucy. I.. There’s no one else that can help me… I’m all out of options here and I need you.”

And then, Poke’s words played through Lucys’ head. This must have been what he was picking up on…

“Poke.. He told me.” Lucy shook her head. “But I don’t know what I can do to help you. I-”

“Let me bring you here.. I’ll explain everything.”

Lucy’s eyes widened. “You could bring me… there? But what if you can’t bring me back?”

The man, the older version of Rogan that resided within the television screen could see the panic in Lucy’s face and it physically hurt his heart to watch her back away, even if it was only slightly, at the thought of coming to him. He wished he could touch her, brush her hair out of her face and feel her warmth – to ease her worry like he’d tried to do many, many times before…

Instead, he only felt helpless as he tried to reason with her.

“I wouldn’t let that happen.. I promise. Just, please… Let me explain everything.”

Lucy shook her head. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I can’t help you. I-I wish I could but…”

She was interrupted by her phone ringing. She pulled it out of her pocket, and nearly dropped it as her hands were shaking so hard. When she finally turned the screen to see who it was, she saw the face she needed to see and quickly answered it as she stared into the eyes of a Rogan MacLean she didn’t know.

“Rogan? Is everything okay?”

“Lass? I was about to ask you the same thing.. I can’t quite explain it but I felt like I needed ta hear your voice just now.”

Lucy closed her eyes for a split second and pulled in a hard, shaky breath and when she exhaled, she opened her eyes to see the TV screen had reverted to black. No evidence of her visitor remained.

“Lucy?”

“I-I’m fine, Rogan. I..I just needed to hear your voice too, I guess.”

But in the darkness of the screen, the outline of his eyes remained… practically etched into the screen – sending a shiver down Lucy’s spine as Rogan heaved a sigh of relief on the other end of the line.

“I miss ya.”

“I.. I miss you too.”

 

April 29th 2024
Synergy

Lucy again sat in the same room she’d been in before Synergy last week, albeit this time the people in the room weren’t exactly paying attention to her.  Instead they were all huddled together, snickering at something on a phone that they were passing around between the lot of them.

Finally Lucy let out an exaggerated sigh and one of them glanced over at her, an amused grin on her face.

“What’s up Lucy?  You ready?”

“Ready to find out what the fuck is so funny.”  Lucy replied, crossing her arms.

“Just some video..”  Another of the people said, quickly sliding the phone back into their pocket.

But Lucy wasn’t having it.  “Nope.  I wanna see.  It’s about me, isn’t it?”

Lucy crossed her arms as she waited for a response, but when one didn’t immediately come, she rose from her seat and crossed the room, holding out a hand, expecting that phone to be placed in it.  But the camera guy shook his head.  “Oh hell no.”

“Oh come on…”  Lucy rolled her eyes.  “I assure you, I’ve seen worse.  Hell, my best friends have probably done worse.”

A few moments of thought helped the crew realize that Lucy was absolutely right.  Lucy didn’t need enemies with friends like hers.  So the guy gave up the phone and Lucy glanced down at the screen at the paused video…

 

And then she pressed play…

She kept watching, only to realize the video was literally just those two images repeating one after the other and she shook her head, handed the phone back without a word and moved back to her seat.   When she was finally seated again, she shrugged her shoulders. 

“That’s what ya’ll find funny?  Christ.  Joe would appreciate the Chucky reference though…”  She chuckled faintly until silence settled in the room again and after a few moments, Lucy looked around the room, confused.  “Wait, have I recorded my thing yet?”

The crew looked confused.  The camera man looked at the camera and shook his head.  “Don’t look like it.  Shows getting ready to start though..”

Lucy stood up and grabbed her own phone and pulled up the video she’d just watched… typed a few things and after a few seconds the crew’s phones beeped.  They took another look and then glanced at Lucy, and then back at their phones… 

“Did you…”

“Yeah, I posted it.  Duh.”

 

A new video was posted… the same thing.. just with a caption saying ‘Larry, Gid… Your worst nightmare has arrived’.