Room 324, Thursday Morning

[vanillajello]

Fire. There's someone on fire. But Kate can't see who it is until the figure turns around and it's her but not her but her and she's standing there and the flames lick up her arms and she's on fire but then it's Mitchell, wild-eyed with a fire inside, and it's Hannibal and the flames go from hot to cold from hot to cold in time with his eyes, and then it's Jack and Emma and Karla and Sebastien and David and Bod and Marshall and Max and Tara --

And then it's Annie, serene calm beautiful Annie like that time in the cellar, and everything stops for a single awful second as she smiles.

And then the flames swallow her up and there's nothing but the fire.

-----

Kate had been very, very glad to not wake up screaming. She had been very glad to wake up, period. Her subconscious was not the place to be right now, her dreams had made that abundantly clear. She'd had no trouble getting out of bed since she'd craved a cold shower to fully wake her up and make sure nothing lingered on.

After the shower, she'd changed her clothes, put on some music, opened the door, made her bed and then flopped down on it with a notebook to make plans for a third floor welcome she wasn't sure she'd even organize.

Saturday wasn't shaping up to be a day to be bubbly and welcoming.

[ooc: Open post, open door. ETA: I would like to call all Mitchell stuff NFB, please and thank you!]

Comments

[therewaslife]

Bod didn't really understand considering she was already a ghost. "She's already dead. Wouldn't she already be gone?"

[vanillajello]

"Even if she was a ghost, she was still there," Kate pointed out. "To be seen. Sometimes. But she was exorcised. She's -- not there at all anymore."

[therewaslife]

"So, she was...returned to her graveyard?" Bod asked, trying to frame this with what he knew. "Does no one know where that is?"

[vanillajello]

"It doesn't work like that there," Kate replied, shaking her head a bit. "The ghosts don't hang out in a graveyard. Annie was killed in the house Mitchell lives in, that's why she was there."

[therewaslife]

"I don't...understand how she's just gone," Bod admitted, frowning. "Ghosts can't just be taken off their plane of existence."

[vanillajello]

"Maybe not where you come from," Kate sighed. "But then it also sounds like everyone is a ghost after they die where you're from. It doesn't work like that there. It sounded pretty final, from what George told me."

[therewaslife]

It wasn't something that Bod understood but he nodded anyway. "I'm sorry for your loss. I'm very sorry."

[vanillajello]

Kate had never really known what you were supposed to say to tht phrase, so she just said, "Yeah."

She gave a heavy sigh. "And there was other stuff too. There always is."

[therewaslife]

"Other stuff?" Bod asked, bringing a hand up to rub at a forming headache near his temple. "What else?"

[vanillajello]

"Something about priests and blowing vampires up," Kate replied, and almost wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it. She didn't. "And Mitchell's ex, who... apparently is behind all of it."

[therewaslife]

"That's unfortunate," Bod said quietly, nodding. There were a few things rattling around in his mind but he was intending on keeping them there. "I don't know what else to say right now."

[vanillajello]

"No one has anything to say," Kate said, perhaps a touch bitterly though she'd blame that on her poor sleep and general sadness. "I know."

[therewaslife]

"I don't know the situation," Bod explained, frowning, "and I know comfort isn't all that helpful in actually helping. It doesn't change things. I'm sorry for your loss."

[vanillajello]

"Ugh, I hate that phrase," Kate replied, making a face at the world at large. "What the fuck is it even supposed to mean?"

[therewaslife]

"It means I sympathize with the fact that you lost someone and I'm here for you should you need it," Bod explained calmly. "It means that I'm sorry for your loss and I'm sorry that you're feeling bad."

[vanillajello]

"Yeah but that's not why most people say it, is it?" Kate asked, trying to distract herself from... everything, with trivialities, and not even noticing she was doing it. "It's just one of those things you're supposed to say. Or that you say just because you have absolutely nothing else to say."

[therewaslife]

"Yes well, I'm not most people and I'm saying it because I sympathize and I'm sorry," Bod said, shaking his head. "I don't know why other people say it. That's not for me to know and it's not important right now."

[vanillajello]

"I wasn't accusing you of anything," Kate clarified, in case that wasn't clear. "I just don't like the words. It's so pointless."

Much like her whole argument.

[therewaslife]

"Then, I apologize for saying them and I'll just stay quiet," he said, still not knowing what to do when she was like this. He could offer comfort and try to talk but it never really seemed to work well.

[vanillajello]

Well, at least he wasn't alone on that. The majority of Kate's friends could confirm she was impossible sometimes. She knew that too.

"Okay," she said, though it sounded like something else. At least she still cuddled up closer to him. "You do that."

[therewaslife]

Bod said nothing in reply. He just fixed his eyes on a spot across her room and sighed, letting her get closer to him and take what she needed.

[vanillajello]

Kate was quiet for a moment as well. She thought about Annie, tried to concentrate on the good.

"You know, she used to make tea," she started, softly. "Cups and cups of tea. It was like a nervous tick, 'cause she couldn't even drink them herself but she kept making them. Used to make George completely batshit."

[therewaslife]

"Mmm." Bod was definitely listening but he still didn't say anything outright in deference to what he'd stated earlier. If she needed to get things out, he could listen, at least. He didn't really trust himself to talk right now.

[vanillajello]

Kate could keep talking by herself, no problem. For a while, anyway.

"Which tended to be kind of hilarious because he's so tightly wound," she continued on. "I think she made all the tea in the house afew times. She made hot chocolate and coffee too. It was good coffee. She used to have it ready when I got up in the morning when I was staying there."

[therewaslife]

Bod smiled briefly, nodding a few times but still staying silent. The ghosts he'd known hadn't been able to do that so it was more evidence that things were different in different places. He sighed quietly.