Room 324, Late(r) Monday Afternoon

[vanillajello]

Having put up her posters, Kate had returned to her room to continue her good day with further party planning. But that was sadly not to be: her phone had been charging while she'd been away and she'd finally gotten around to seeing she had a voicemail. So she listened to it.

Bad idea.

Her first thought was that it was a sick joke, that Nathan really was pushing things too far in an effort to be excused for his radio silence since leaving, but she couldn't hold onto that bit of disbelief for long. The woman – Nathan's mom – was far too shaken, the quivering of her voice far too real. It was all real. On the second listen Kate had to sit down on the edge of her bed because the room had started to spin, but it took about four times before it all started really sinking in.

Forcing herself to skip listening a fifth time, her brain instead switched on to practical matters, the first of which was leaving a voicemail of her own. And the second... Was staring dully into the middle distance.

She'd maybe get to something a little more useful later.

[ooc: Post and door open, if you wish to deal with the upset.]

Comments

[vanillajello]

What had happened was really rather simple, but right now, she found the words got stuck in her throat as soon as she opened her mouth.

Maybe she just didn't want to say them. She ended up just spreading her hands a bit, helplessly.

[therewaslife]

"Are you hurt?" Bod asked, coming over to take a seat beside her on the bed. "Kate? Is it something with your family? Your mom?"

It was hard to read her body language besides knowing there was obviously something wrong.

[vanillajello]

And she was probably making that even more obvious now that she was immediately trying to put her arms around him and get as close she could, without even thinking about it.

"No," she said, and her voice sounded strained. "Nathan."

[therewaslife]

He hadn't expected her to be suddenly nearly on top of him but as soon as he'd shifted a bit, he was able to get his arms around her so he could pull her almost onto his lap.

"What about Nathan?" he asked quietly now that his lips were near her ear. "Is he hurt? Did you hear from him?"

[vanillajello]

"No," Kate said again, quietly, with a quick shake of her head. "His mom. Sh-- she left a voicemail."

And she hadn't even realized she was still grasping her phone in one of her hands.

[therewaslife]

"A voicemail?" he asked quietly, still not grasping what had happened. "Should I listen to it?"

[vanillajello]

Realizing she still had the phone, Kate offered it to him. It'd save her from having to say the words, at least. That seemed important to her right now, for some reason.

[therewaslife]

It took Bod a few moments to figure out her phone but he eventually did and listened to the voicemail she had. When the news filtered in through his ear, he frowned and tried to hold her tighter.

When the voicemail ended, he turned her phone off and tossed it behind him. "I'm so sorry, Kate."

[vanillajello]

Kate clung to him tighter and failed to say anything. She meant to, for a moment, but nothing came out.

So she was clinging, with her face pressed against the crook of his neck.

[therewaslife]

"I'm sorry," he said again, reaching to rub her back. "Is there anything I can do? Is there anything you need?"

[vanillajello]

Her friends to stop dying. But that wasn't exactly something she could ask for, so she shook her head. "No," she muttered. "I don't... I don't know."

[therewaslife]

"All right," he said and fell quiet, deciding just to hold her and wait for her to do something rather than pushing and prodding reactions out of her.

[vanillajello]

Kate was tense in his embrace. She couldn't help it, there was no relaxing when she felt like she was feeling right now. Not that she could name the feeling. It was too twsited up, a bunch of things at once.

"I fucking hate this."

[therewaslife]

"I know," he said, still rubbing her back to try and work some of that tension out before she hurt herself. "I know. There's nothing good about this sort of thing especially when it's too soon. I'm sorry."

[vanillajello]

"I can't deal with this," Kate replied, not that it was a direct reply of any sort. She shuddered. "I can't."

[therewaslife]

Bod felt helpless especially when she said that. He didn't know what to do. "It won't hurt forever. It's just going to hurt badly for awhile."

[vanillajello]

And on some level Kate knew she wasn't even really hurting yet. This was just the initial onslaught of shock, and the actual pain would come later, once the fog cleared, and it was going to last a good long while.

"He's gone," she said, quiet but somehow desperate anyway, trying to keep a hold on her emotions. "That wasn't supposed to happen!"

[therewaslife]

"I know, Kate, I know," he said soothingly, trying to keep her close to him in case she did unravel. "It shouldn't have happened, you're right. It was too soon and he was too young. And I'm so sorry that it did, Kate."

[vanillajello]

"Why can't I have normal friends that don't just go and die the minute they leave?"

She wasn't honestly thinking about it in a way that was that self-centered. It was just an easier way to approach things.

[therewaslife]

"I don't know," he said helplessly, frowning. "I'm sure your friends didn't want to leave and pass on either. Sometimes, bad things just happened undeservedly."

[vanillajello]

Kate made a frustrated, sad little sound. "Is that gonna happen to me, too?"

Well, so far it had turned out there was some weird and dangerous supernatural shit going on in every one of her closest friends' worlds, and in the one where there wasn't (that she knew of), her friend still managed to get himself killed in no time at all. It didn't seem like too impossible a thing.

[therewaslife]

"You're not going to die," he said roughly, shaking his head. "It's not going to happen. I won't let it happen."

He knew he didn't have that power but he'd find someone that could stop it, if he had to. "You can't think like that."

[vanillajello]

She was already thinking like that, though she didn't point that out. She'd feel ridiculous about it later, anyway. Once she got more rational.

But she wasn't rational yet. "I can't handle all this death."

[therewaslife]

"Then, let me handle it," he tried, pulling back so he could put his hands on her cheeks. It was an attempt to ground her when she sounded like she was going to lose it at any moment. "I'll take the burden, Kate. I'll take it and you hide behind me."

[vanillajello]

"It doesn't work like that," Kate replied, blinking quite a lot now to keep tears at bay while she was looking at him. "You can't protect me."

She wished he could.