What do you know about Welsh kings?

Blue shivers violently, and it has nothing to do with the rain. Ronan's off the hood of the car and that leaves her there with Gansey, hearing Ronan talking to Kavinsky and seeing Adam there in shock. The road is empty save the two cars, everyone else keeping off this one due to a neighboring creek that tended to overflow when it rained like this. Somehow, Blue remembers that now.

Cabeswater. They could bring him back. He was favored. This whole town was on a ley line. He died on it again. They could bring him back again. They could. It all sounded right, didn't it? They had to get him into the car, and get there. It all had to happen right then, and Ronan is on the phone and Adam looks like he couldn't move and Blue feels every bit as small as she actually is right then. Her eyes burn hot and she leans over Gansey, stroking fingers over his temple, blood from impact now washed away and he just looks like he's sleeping.

"Please wake up." Her voice is small. She's wishing like a child wishes, that something terrible happens and it's all just a dream. She's not sure if she's wishing Gansey to flutter open his eyes, or for herself to wake up at Fox Way to the bustle of the morning routine. Nothing was routine now. Her life had been irrevocably altered by Gansey, and now he wasn't in it, and that was wrong. "Please, wake up." She kisses his cheek, her entire body shuddering hard before she lets out a thin wail.

"Help me." It's to either Adam or Ronan, she doesn't care. The Bentley is crumpled. They need to get it off the road. The Pig won't start. Doesn't mean they can't get Gansey off the hood of the Bentley until Kavinsky arrives and figure it out from there. Blue slides off the hood of the car, and takes one of Gansey's arms, pulling it across her shoulders. Back seat of the Bentley, back seat of the Pig, she doesn't give a single damn, she just wants to get him out of the rain. "Help me, goddammit."

From:

leylined

Adam's aware of his surroundings, but at this point it's in scattered bursts. Thoughts and actions war with one another, and it's all Adam can do just to remember to breathe. Ronan, panicked and calling someone. Do something. Blue, calling for help as Gansey shambles up with her, dead but somehow moving. There's nothing left. The scrape of asphault beneath his raincoat as he scrambles back. They need your help. His view changing as he rounds the curve of the monster that was responsible. The only monster here is you. Everything around him glowing red. Don't leave them hanging. A strangled whimper. Dad was right this whole time. "I'm sorry." You did this. "I'm sorry.Loser. "I'm sorry I'msorryI'MSORRY!" MURDERER.

From:

"I don't know..." He shakes his head, still holding the phone to his ear. Where were they? Ronan's mind was drawing a blank. There was too much happening. Adam was doing nothing. Blue was freaking out. Ronan wanted to curl up with Gansey and die. What did he do? He didn't know what to do. "I don't know what to do, K. What do I do?"

It was Blue struggling to drag her dead boyfriend out of the rain that snapped him out of it somewhat. He couldn't take the sight of her struggling to move him alone.

"I have to help Blue. I'm putting Adam on. He's out of it. Make him talk. He can tell you where we are. There is GPS in that fucking car."

He stuffed the phone in Adam's hand and gave his face a hard enough smack to get his attention. "Tell him where the fuck we are!"

Running over to Blue he carefully takes Gansey's arm from around her shoulders. He shouldn't feel this heavy, he thought. But it felt like he was trying to pick up one of these damn cars. His eyes met Blue's. "Get the door." He says as gently as he can manage. "I've got him." Now he has him. When it was too late.

She opens the door to the Bentley, it would be too hard to get him in the backseat of the two door Pig like this. Ronan is careful as he moves him to lay across the back seat. As he lays him down a hand sweeps over his face to get the hair out of his eyes. Once again he checks for a pulse. Just in case. Fuck you for leaving me, he can't help but think. Come back, please, is what he thinks next as he starts to choke up again.

Out of the car he points to Parrish and then to the open passengers door. "Get in the fucking car, Parrish! We have to get this off the road!"

Right now he is all action. He has to be or he'll fall apart and be useless. His friends need him now. He promised Gansey when they were talking about school that he would take care of them. It wasn't supposed to be like this, but he promised. He swore he would take care of them and now is the time.

The drivers door bounces against the hinges as he yanks the door open and slides into the seat. He turns the Bentley over and pulls it to the side of the road. For a long moment he sits there holding the steering wheel, hands violently shaking. A deep, deep breath and he is back out of the car. He closes the hood of the Pig. Retrieves the keys. Locks the doors. Opens the trunk. Finds a crowbar.

From:

"Ronan. Ronan, just listen to me." Kavinsky is jittery, trying to think. He's never heard Ronan sound like this before, but he's heard this kind of strange distance in other people's voices before, plenty of times, all after someone has died.

Gansey. Gansey's dead. He wonders if he's a lot more high than he thought he was. He wonders if they've called an ambulance. "Are you hurt?" He wonders if Blue was hurt too, or Adam, or Ronan or... Gansey. When did he start caring this much about the pretentious fuck? "Did you call anyone for help? Fuck, Ronan. Just stay there."

Before he can figure out a plan with Ronan, the phone is getting passed off and he cradles the phone as if that'll get Ronan's attention better. "No, no, no.... shit. Parrish? Hey, you there?"

Kavinsky is grabbing for his things, unsure of where he even left half his shit, but all he needs are his shoes and his jacket. His car keys. "Hey, fucktards! Where the fuck are my keys?" He yells at his friends, and Proko comes over and smacks the keys that are already in his hand. Kavinsky lets out a huff and ignores their questions as he starts heading out.

"Parrish, what happened? Where are you? I'm fucking coming, alright? Whatever happened, they'll know it was an accident. It's raining cats and motherfucking dogs out here." He doesn't know who was driving, or which car hit Gansey, but he can't imagine any of them are in good shape right now.

He's soaked to the bone by the time he gets in his car, doing everything he can to protect his phone from the rain. "Hey, are you still there?" He starts the car up, slamming the music off and the windshield wipers on, but even then, he can barely see out his window. "Okay, shitstain. You can do this. You drive fucked out of your head all the god damn time. This is the only time that counts," he mumbles to himself, pulling out of the driveway.

From:

Blue's relieved when Ronan's taking over lifting Gansey. She would've done it, even if it meant a fireman carry into the back seat, but it was easier like this. She opens one door and moves quickly around to the other, stilling her head against the frame of the car while Ronan has his brief moment with Gansey. When he moves again, she gets in, cradling Gansey's head into her lap.

She's not sure if she's numb or not. It could all just hurt so badly she can't register pain anymore. This wasn't supposed to happen. Gansey, of all of them, was supposed to live, have this ridiculous life with Glendower and all. He has... had a presence that commanded, and now he's gone somehow and she can't wrap her head around it, but it's settled deep into her chest as a void.

Blue sees they're moving. She hears Kavinsky's voice coming through the phone. Noah's not there. Everything is wrong. Blue slumps over sideways, resting her head against Gansey's chest, eyes hollow and vacant as she can literally feel her heart break. Cabeswater is their only hope, and hope is fading fast. "Tell K to be safe." Her voice doesn't even sound like her own.

Edited Date: 2015-03-19 08:30 am (UTC)

From:

leylined

The slap doesn't do anything, really, beyond getting an anguished cry from Adam. The phone is still pressed against his ear, though, and it takes a moment for Adam to parse that it's Kavinsky on the other end. He shudders and has to think for a long moment on what was said, though, before he's able to pull it together enough to understand what's going on. "I-I killed him, K. It was me. I. I killed Gansey."

He laughs, then, but there's no humor. It's nothing but hysterics. He keeps laughing, too, until the question about where they are is posed to him. He rattles off the numbers of the GPS coordinates Gansey gave him that set all of this in motion, gasping as he tries to catch his breath. Once upon a time he'd wished Gansey would leave him alone about his life and how he chose to live it, and now he'd never bother him about anything again, just when he began to accept the help offered around him. Irony? Maybe that's where the humor is in all of this.

When he's calm again, or at least not laughing at any rate, he gets struck by another low and is herded into the front seat, and there it is again. The cracked windshield where Gansey's impact occured. Most of it was washed away by now, but some stubborn blood is still stuck in the hairline fractures, glowing pinkish red in the dingy storm light. Behind him he knows the result of his actions lay waiting even further, more sickening than anything stuck on the hood or the windshield. There's no escaping it. He tries scrambling away, hyperventilating, but Ronan had the foresight to lock the door behind him and Adam can't for the life of him remember how to disengage it. "Let me out. Let me outLETMEOUT! Letmeout!"

The phone lay on the floor of the passenger's side. Adam never hung up.

From:

K is on the way. Blue is in the car. Gansey is in the car. Adam is in the car. Everyone is as fucking safe as he can get them for now. He doesn't respond to Adam's panic at the door not opening. The words don't register and he doesn't care. Alone with his pain and a crowbar he does was Ronan Lynch does best.

He expresses his feelings.

Only Ronan isn't good with words. He is worse with tears. Terrible with this kind of pain. There is no outlet for it. This is pain you have to endure, have to tolerate eating you up from the inside out. He can't tolerate it. His pain needs out. His anger is right behind it.

"FUCK YOU YOU FUCKING MOTHER FUCKER!" He screams at the car before smashing in the rear taillight. "STUPID PIECE OF BRITISH SHIT!" The other taillight followed in a spray of shattered red plastic. A tire hissed out air after he stabbed it with the more wicked looking end of the crowbar. His tirade didn't stop there. He yelled and he cursed and he cried until every inch of that car felt his pain and he couldn't lift the crowbar anymore. Then he crumpled to his knees in front of the car, his forehead resting against the front grill.

From:

Kavinsky curses under his breath, wishing he was closer, or that he was faster. He's here, getting wasted with his piece of shit friends who don't give a crap what's up or down, meanwhile his actual friends, the one's who have been there for him the past few months, are falling apart. He should have been there with them. He wipes at the front window, as if that'll make it easier to see, but the rain is relentless.

"Parrish, keep it together, alright? We'll figure out what to do. We always fucking figure it out, right?" He doesn't know what else to say, or how to tell Adam that it wasn't his fault. He's not good at shit like that. When he hears the laughing, he swallows hard, then says loudly into the phone. "Adam! Adam, focus!"

He sticks the location into his phone, but he's already headed that way, because he naturally does, since it's on his way back to Monmouth. So fucking close to home. He doesn't want to believe it. "Hang on, okay? Where's Ronan? Parrish?" He doesn't even think anyone is on the phone after that, because then he hears yelling and screaming and hits the gas, going faster.

He speeds down the road glad for all the time he spends behind the wheel, but even then, he can feel his tires skidding, and it's still hard to see. He imagines this is what happened with Gansey, and he forces himself to slow the car down, because he doesn't want to end up in a ditch, or hitting anyone else. Along the way, he keeps having to slow down even more, because he's so god damn jittery. Or maybe he's shaking because of the news. Because of how Ronan and Adam sounded on the phone. Rain shouldn't be falling sideways, though, he knows that much.

He gets there a lot slower than he normally would, but he gets there in one piece, slowing down when he sees the two cars on the side of the road. He pulls up behind the Bentley and parks, then gets out and runs over, wiping water from the windows so he can look inside. His face pales when he sees Blue sitting there, with Gansey laid out on her lap, unmoving. Time suddenly seems to move even slower.

And then there's Adam, who looks like he's already lost it. He doesn't open the door though. He knows that might lead to worse things, and at least they're all contained for now. But Ronan isn't in the car and he glances around frantically, his heart nearly jumping out of his chest, until he sees him at the front of the car, shattered taillights all around, down on his knees, crying.

"Ronan!" He rushes over, falling to his knees, pulling Ronan away from the car, his arms going around him. "I'm here. I'm here, come on. We'll fucking fix this." He wipes water and tears from Ronan's face, trying to get him to focus. Trying to get himself to focus, too. "Is anyone else hurt? Did you call anyone else?"

From:

Ronan's beating the shit out of the Bentley, Adam's having a panic attack. She reaches over the front of the seat, trying to offer some comfort of a hand on Adam's shoulder but no sound comes from her. She's just there, hanging onto Gansey and reaching to touch Adam and she has no idea what the hell else to do with herself.

Kavinsky's face is against the window, and it's still pissing down rain. He disappears, and she can hear his voice in muffled tones, but no words make sense. It's all just noise now. She closes her eyes, wishing that her battery thing could work like a defibrillator and she could jumpstart Gansey again. She prays, wishes, asks the spirits, and nothing.

She remembers Persephone staring at her in the hallway, and wonders if she was going to tell her. Anger rushes up from somewhere in her, but she ignores it. Instead, her voice comes out, meek. "You're okay, Adam. It's okay." Accidents happen.

From:

leylined

Except it isn't okay. It'll never be okay, and every moment he thinks he'll find reprieve, something else happens. Crashing noises all around them. The noise of metal banging in strong impact. A sickly shade of red, washed away slowly into a pink mess. Adam vomits, onto himself and into the well of the floor, before curling up into the seat, unable to get away. Nowhere is safe. You aren't safe to begin with.

The touch from Blue makes him jump, and his breathing quickens. Not enough to hyperventilate, but it's close. "N-no. Nonononononono. It's not I-," he gulps air down. "I killed him. He's dead and it's my fault I-" He keeps shaking his head. They can't forgive him. He should have been paying attention. He's the monster he always knew he was and here's the proof, prone in the back seat of the car someone gave him.

His breathing slows when Blue lets go. Then he feels it, not an illusion but how it's supposed to feel. The smell of mist and moss. Leaves brushing against his skin, rich and smooth like summer. Vines tangling, briars, and brambles. Branches, weaving their way around him, separating him from the rest of the world. Bark and skin and leaf inward, poison and barb and thorn out. A barrier to keep the others out and Adam away. At least until his panic can fade some.

Edited Date: 2015-03-19 10:43 am (UTC)

From:

His arms feel heavy. Fingers tingle from the impact of the metal bar hitting the car over and over. It did nothing to dull the war of emotions raging inside of him. Feeling arms around him, smelling K's familiar cologne. Ronan grabs him tight and buries his face in his chest. He shook his head no. No, no, no, no, no. Maybe he was answering K's questions. Maybe he was trying to shake everything that had happened from his head.

Finally he looked up. His blue eyes almost glowing from his crying. "Parrish needs a straight jacket...but no one else is hurt." His voice is vacant, low and soft. Barely there. As if it hurts just to get the words out of his mouth. "I called you."

Because he needed to beg the power that existed in Cabeswater to give them Gansey back before he fully admitted defeat and called the authorities.

"Cabeswater, we need to get him there. We need to go to Cabeswater, K." He clicked the button on the keys to unlock the doors. "Help me get the body." It was implied that they would have to leave these cars here. "The Pig won't start. This piece of shit killed him....it can stay here and rot."

From:

It's still raining hard and when Ronan's voice comes out so quiet, it's almost hard to hear. The rain sounds like it's in stereo, and he wishes he could just will his high away. This is the first time in his life that he wishes he was sober. "We'll deal with it. We'll deal..." He nods, yanking his coat off and pulling it over their heads for some relief from all the water. "I'm here now. Took so fucking long. Everything's fast and slow and... I gotta get my shit together." He says the last part to himself, then hauls Ronan up with him.

He nods along with what Ronan is saying, because that's what his first thought was, too. "I know. Cabeswater. We have to go there. We'll get there. I'll drive us there." The fact that Ronan calls Gansey 'the body' jars Kavinsky, and he remembers the body of his friend he had to deal with once. Feels like so long ago. He brought Prokopenko back, though. They'll bring Gansey back too, no matter what it takes.

He realizes he's slowing down again and he snaps himself out of it, reaching for Ronan's hand and gives it a squeeze, then nods. "I'm gonna get Parrish into my car, he looks like a fucking mess. You get Blue, and then we'll move Gansey. Lets get the two of them together first." He lets go, moving to the passengers side of the Bentley and opens the door, leaning in just slightly, but not touching Adam just yet. "Parrish. It's me. You with me, man? We gotta get Gansey to Cabeswater. We're gonna fix this, but you gotta work with us, alright?" He reaches out then, moving a hand over Adam's shoulder. "Adam."

From:

Adam goes quiet, and Blue does too, eyes closed, fingers gripping Gansey's sweater into a small fist. Her senses are all screwed up, hearing nothing but white noise. She wants to be able to open her eyes and she and Gansey would be headed to wherever he'd planned for dinner. Turn back time, and all of this would be some horrible nightmare she would wake up from.

She hears the front door open and Kavinsky talking to Adam, but it's all just garbled noise as she clings to Gansey. Cold comes in, more of it, and she's aware, but she can't really feel it. Rain hits her legs and she's aware of Ronan. She's aware that they need to get Gansey to Cabeswater if they stand any chance of reversing this, but she can't move.

If she opens her eyes, if she moves, then it's all real again, instead of some horrible dream, so she clings, turning her face into Gansey's chest.

From:

leylined

He focuses on the feeling of Cabeswater, wishing that he could just somehow teleport there and trying to make peace with the fact that all he has is this nebulous connection. Going to Cabeswater sounds good, anyway. He could convince the ley line to bring Gansey back. Take him instead. Adam's important to no one while news of Gansey would send ripples across the whole world over. At least that's how it feels to Adam. He could see it now, the woods entrapping him, pulling him underground, suffocating and pulling his life force out and feeding it into his best friend so he'd live again. It'd only be right.

This masochism grounds Adam more than anything else has been able to, and by the time Kavinsky arrives and is opening the door to let Adam out, he can actually do things of his own will for the most part. Or at the very least, he's not in panicked fight-or-flight mode. His barrier starts to recede, quick enough to avoid poison but not so quick that when Kavinsky touches him, his palm is embedded with a thorn or two, suddenly brought into reality with the need to keep him away.

But Adam hears, guilty that he hurt yet another friend, so he apologizes profusely, uncaring of the vomit covering the floor of the car and Ronan's phone and himself. He avoids contact with Kavinsky and keeps his head down as the barrier recedes completely and he stumbles out of the car and into the rain. He's shaking, from cold and adrenaline and fear and he's never been this scared.

From:

Ronan had a plan now. K was there and they had a plan. Get Blue, get to Cabeswater. That was his plan. He gave the beaten car one last hard kick to the drivers door. Feeling marginally calmer he opened the back door on Blue's side.

Bending down he slipped an arm around her, his hand sliding down to where she was clutching his sweater. Gently he peeled her fingers off. His other arm went under her legs and he eased her out of the car.

"We're going to Cabeswater, Blue." He was careful not to call her Jane as Gansey would have. "I'll bring him right to you, okay? I promise." Ronan didn't want her to think he was taking her away from his body for good. He understood her need to hold on.

After depositing her in the back of K's car he went back for Gansey. Carrying him over his arms he maneuvered his way into the backseat with Blue. Once again letting his head fall into her lap as the rest of his body draped over his lap. He kept an arm around Gansey and one moved around Blue's shoulders.

"We'll fix this. I swear. I'll find a way to fix it."

From:

Kavinsky yanks his hand back when he gets pricked with thorns, looking at his hand. "Fuck," he exclaims, but he ignores it. Not like he hasn't been pricked by a hundred of those damn thorns before. He's just never seen them in action with Adam. "Parrish, it's alright. Chill out, man. I'm alright. Come on."

Kavinsky doesn't give a shit about lack of contact or whatever the fuck. When Adam gets out of the car, he grabs onto his back and holds on to him as they make their way over to his car, jacket held over both their heads. Everyone is shaking. He can feel it. Or maybe that's just him. It feels like they all are, together, and god damn it, why is he so fucking high.

"Sit up here with me, ok? We're going to Cabeswater and we'll fix all this shit. It'll be like it never happened, Parrish. You will all be fine." He gets Adam in the car, then runs around to the drivers side, but checks on Ronan first, reaching in to squeeze his arm. "I'll get us there," he says, then gets in the car, buckling up, reaching over to grab Adam's seat belt and buckles him up as well.

First, he pull his phone out again, calling his friends, telling him they have to get the two broken down cars off the road. They can be taken back to his mansion, or anywhere they can keep track of them and out of view. Then he glances at Ronan through the front mirror. "I have to go into my dreams. Just for a second. I'll be right back." He pulls a green pill out of his pocket and downs it, already knowing what he needs.

He doesn't have time to negotiate, or ask, or follow shit around in the forest and commune with the trees. He sees what he wants and he snatches it, then in a matter of seconds, he's awake again, popping a whole other pill that will get everything out of his system and sober him up. That's when the weight of it all hits him, but he doesn't have time for that as he starts the car up, wheels spinning for a moment before they can grab some traction and they're off to Cabeswater. He's silent after that.

From:

Blue resists, she can't help it, but Ronan's saying what she needs to hear. They're going to the place where they might be able to save Gansey, and he's going to bring Gansey to her. She opens her eyes as Ronan's pulling her away, seeing Gansey there and it's not a dream and she's burying her face into Ronan's shoulder.

She can't tell if she's breathing right or not, and she's dizzy, but she sits in the seat, staring at her hands, unblinking. She can't tell if it's rain or tears falling to hit the skin there, but it doesn't matter. Gansey's across her lap again, and she's combing fingers through his hair, and Ronan's pulling her close, and then there's Adam and Kavinsky and words are being said and Blue can't really hear anything but ringing in her ears. This wasn't supposed to happen.

The ride to Cabeswater is rainy and gray and streaked with water and cars pulled over to the side of the road to wait out the storm. The closer they get, the more lightning seems to streak the sky, the darker the clouds get, the louder the thunder. The rain seems to let up some, though, enough that it's not nearly as treacherous. Blue just stares down at Gansey, drawing her thumb over the bridge of his nose and across his forehead. They had to save him.

Bring him back. Please. Let it be spring there and blue flowers and bring him back. I'll give you whatever you want, I don't care. Just bring him back. Her plea to Cabeswater is already circling her head as they draw closer. She pictures what she wants, eyes closing as she slumps against Ronan's side.

From:

leylined

Adam doesn't fight Kavinsky once he's guided into the Evo, flinching only when he's reached across and the seatbelt's engaged. Then he resumes his same position from when he was in the Bentley, curled up into the Evo's seat, head tucked in against his knees, so he doesn't get a look at the others, knowing the judgment that would be on all of their faces. So he doesn't accidentally catch a glimpse of what he knows is still waiting for him to look at in the back seat.

The drive is silent on all fronts, it seems, but Adam doesn't care. It's heavy, oppressive, and he doubts he could say anything coherent even if they were all talking. Adam feels the forest acutely as they come closer, growing stronger, and he realizes just how long it had been since they'd all come here. This feels wrong, coming here to use it for...he doesn't even know what, but Cabeswater was their place. They were immortal in there, and now?

The rain is calming some as they get out of the car, but it's nowhere near abated. Adam's the first out of the car, stumbling out and through the road, toward the trees, where maybe he can actually do something right for once.

From:

The car was too quiet. It was going to drive him crazy. He kept listening for Gansey to take a breath, ever hopeful that this had just been a big mistake. That he had been wrong. Taking his friends wrist he checks for a pulse one more time, cringing at how cold and clammy he was starting to feel.

Letting his head lull to the side he rests it against the top of Blue's mess of hair.

When the trees start to come into view he feels mildly relieved. Whatever it is they want, he'll give it to them. Doors open and everyone starts to get out. He glances at Blue. "I'll carry him."

Out of the car with Gansey in his arms he starts to follow Adam. Every step he takes feels strange. Like he's walking through water. Maybe it's just his head. Ronan pauses and looks around. He looks to where K is, brow furrowed in confusion. His head felt like it did when he was waking up from a dream. Full of fuzz and confusion.

The trees whisper softly. He can't make it all out. Something about the Raven King. Ronan is too distracted to pay much attention. And he keeps moving further into the forest.

"K..." Ronan's eyes shifted to his boyfriend. "Are you okay?"

From:

Kavinsky is really very quiet on the drive to Cabeswater. More quiet than he's been in a very long time. He didn't think this through properly, probably because he was high as fuck. But now he's very sober, and very much in pain... but at least he can drive straight.

The closer they get to Cabeswater, the less intense the rain gets, and he steers with one hand while he reaches over to the glove compartment, popping it open and grabs a bottle of pills he keeps in there. He pops the cap and downs a few, then shoves the bottle in his pocket and keeps on driving.

They get there in a pretty decent amount of time, considering the weather, and all their fucked up conditions. He parks the car off the road, then gets out and moves to help Adam, but he's already out and walking, then he moves to help Ronan, but he's got a good hold of Gansey. Blue is out of the car next, and he holds on to her to help her out, brushing her hair back from her face, before putting an arm around her shoulder to help guide her after everyone.

He catches them up to Ronan, giving him a small nod, because he's not quite sure how okay he is, but he's trying. "Yeah. Don't worry about me. We'll fix thi...." He starts, but then he trails off, feeling like he might vomit. Could be detox, could be something else, but either way, something feels very wrong and he can't put his finger on it. It's not the usual anger he gets from Cabeswater, it's something else entirely.

The further into Cabeswater they walk, the weirder things get, like a filter is being lifted from his brain, until he's pulling away just slightly from Blue, slowing down, blinking at Ronan and Gansey. "What... holy shit. Holy fucking... stop. Parrish, stop. Ronan?" He lets go of Blue completely and moves in front of Ronan and Gansey, looking down at the body. "That's not him," he says incredulously. "That's not Gansey. That's not really him. It fucking worked."

From:

They get to Cabeswater, and Ronan's taking Gansey, and all Blue can do is stare at Gansey as he's pulled away, her hands falling into her lap. It's a moment before she gets out, the last one in the car, and there's Kavinsky. Whatever dislike she had for him, it fell away. He got them to Cabeswater in one piece. He's one of them. She leans into his side and loops an arm around his waist, eyes on Gansey as his head bobs with each step Ronan takes.

She thinks about the last time she touched Gansey as being a gentle kiss, and how she wants more of those, and they need to fix this so she can. She needs to tell Gansey she loves him. She needs to hear he loves her. She needs all of that, so badly it makes her ache even worse to see him laying across Ronan's arms.

And then it pricks at her. If you kiss your true love, he'll die. That echoes in her head, and Blue stops walking. Gansey kissed her. She let him. She never would've let him. Blue's still staring at the corpse of her boyfriend, and she feels deep in the pit of her that it was her fault. If she hadn't kissed him, he'd be there, alive, smiling that smile that made her hair stand on end. "Oh god."

Her voice is a whisper. She catches up as Kavinsky is talking, and she catches the words he says, and her mouth falls open. "What did you do?" Her voice is still a whisper, catching in her throat, her hands trembling at her sides as anger washes up, bile at the back of her throat. It wasn't just dreaming up Gansey. They made her forget. They made her do something Blue would never do, in favor of making this work. Ronan dreamt up Gansey despite her objections, Adam's objections, Gansey's objections.

She looks to Adam, her face still in shock, then to the dead version of Gansey that is slung across Ronan's arms, to Kavinsky, then finally, to Ronan. She gets in his face, and as her anger surges, so does Cabeswater. The trees whispers grow louder, the wind kicks up to gale force, and lightning streaks the sky. "WHAT DID YOU DO??? WHAT DID YOU MAKE ME DO?!?"

Her face is contorted in rage and agony, staring Ronan dead in the eye.

Edited Date: 2015-03-20 06:45 am (UTC)

From:

leylined

He's walking, still, only going so fast that he's not abreast of any of them. Crossing the barrier brings daylight and less rain, but no glimpse of the sun. The world is dreary, and the rain just as hard as ever. As he walks, though, he wobbles, another wave of nausea hitting him, and one by one things begin to fall into place. Are you happy now, Adam? He shudders at the resurfaced memory, now emblazoned in his mind three times with the faces of two of his friends. The sky roils.

Is Gansey's name on the list?

Yes. His breathing runs ragged, and Kavinsky's voice manages to rip through the remainder of the fog. They were fighting, Adam remembers. Adam had objected to a dream doppelgenger, repeatedly. He'd warned against having to watch someone they loved die. He'd killed Gansey, except he hadn't. That doesn't not make him a killer.

The void of fear and numbness breaks, and Adam's able to think clearer than he had all day, and his anger and desperation joins in with Blue, the storm above spitting all the harder, Cabeswater joining in with them.

"That's not-" but Adam knows. He avoids Ronan, instead going straight for Kavinsky. "Where is he?" He pushes him, rough. "Where is he, Kavinsky?!" Harder. "WHERE IS HE?!"

Edited (oxford commas) Date: 2015-03-20 06:53 am (UTC)

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It fucking worked. He heard K say. Those words cleared the rest of the fog from his head. Memories slipped back into place. The Barns. Noah. Dreaming Gansey. Killing him, too bad they can't make that part of this ordeal go away. He's staring down at the dream thing in his arms as Blue is yelling in his face.

Ronan knew when he decided on this path that eventually he would have to face them with the truth. They would know that the boy who never lied, lied to them all, asked for favors to conceal the truth from them and drug them all down into this dirty business without asking permission. The only permission that had mattered to Ronan was Gansey's and he had that. His friend knew he was going to try to save him by whatever means necessary. And he had.

He looked past Blue to K. "It worked." But he couldn't ignore her for long. Or how Adam was pushing K.

"STOP IT! BOTH OF YOU! FUCKING STOP!" His eyes dropped to Blue, jaw set tight. "We saved his fucking life, that's what we did! That's what I made you do!" He shouted to Adam. "Don't fucking shove him again, Parrish. I did this."

The last thing he was going to do was let K take the blame. He had helped Ronan pull this off but it wasn't his idea.

"Everyone just STOP and I'll explain!" Ronan took a deep breath. "He's at The Barns. Noah is with him. He's been there for days. Sleeping, if you can believe it." He almost added that Gansey needed the sleep but thought better of it.

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Blue's anger hits him first, and while he knew it was coming, he wasn't prepared for the intensity of it. This Gansey was a fake, a dream. He had to think like that. They all did. "That's not him, don't you get it? It's not him! The real one is still alive! He's fine! I dreamt up a drug that would knock him out a little and make it seem like he was dead, but he isn't. You didn't do anything wrong, Blue. You didn't kiss him."

He just wants them to understand, wants to respond to Ronan, but then Adam is shoving at him, and he really does feel like he might puke this time. Cabeswater is getting angrier and angrier, and he knows they all have to calm the hell down.

"Parrish!" He stumbles back, then grabs at Adam's wrists to keep from getting shoved again. "We can go there right now, okay? Just all of you, calm the fuck down, or you'll undo all of this. We fucking did this for everyone!" He looks Adam dead on. "You didn't kill him. You didn't fucking kill him. He's alive, at the Barns. This was a fake. A god damn fucking dream." He knows it isn't true. A dream is still a person. He hates that it isn't true. But it has to be, for all their sakes.

He finally looks to Ronan again. "We have to do something with that body. Bury it, keep it in a cave, something. We can come back and deal with it. We should get to Gansey."

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