Chapter Text
It was now about a month after that night in the woods.
To say Casey’s death still didn’t weigh on Mae’s mind sometimes would be an understatement. It was probably the thing that had stuck with her the most from the whole ordeal. All the ghosts, cults, and gods somehow fell by the wayside very quickly and it was only once everything had calmed down that it really hit her just how much she missed him.
She and the others had their own funeral for Casey. That had been her idea. She had found a large, flat rock—perfect for a headstone—and Gregg had carved Casey’s name into it with one of his knives. It wasn’t pretty by any stretch of the imagination, but she knew Casey wouldn’t have minded. He had been rough like that anyways.
They held the service out in the woods, of course. She laid his headstone among the roots of the tree they used to hang out at together and had managed to force out some semblance of a eulogy. It was what he would’ve wanted, she knew. Something short and simple.
It had been painful, though. She’d been a complete wreck the entire time, and barely even made it through the service. It had only been because of her friends that she managed to keep it together at all. She was lucky to have them.
The funeral helped put a sense of finality to everything, but she would be lying if she said she was totally okay. There were still a lot of unresolved things between her and Casey that wouldn’t ever get closure. It tore her heart sometimes to even think of him.
But it was getting better, that emptiness inside her.
Time heals all wounds, after all. Or, that’s what she kept telling herself anyway.
And it helped that she kept herself busy these days.
Well, sort of, at least.
She had been spending a significant amount of time looking for any job she could find, but nothing seemed to be going her way.
Surprisingly, there had been plenty of job openings lately. Within the handful of weeks that had passed, new life had been breathed into the town, for seemingly no reason. Though she had no way of confirming it, Mae had the sneaking suspicion that it might’ve had something to do with Black Goat and the twenty-one people that were now probably lying at the bottom of that pit in the old mine.
Mae had applied for a bunch of jobs, of course, but it turned out that everyone else had a lot more work experience than she did, or more motivation, or whatever, and all the positions she was even remotely qualified for had been snapped up before she knew it. Even the new taco place was full up, which really sucked because she had actually wanted to work there.
So in between going to fruitless job interviews and feeling even more like a piece of shit than usual—because she was actually trying to do something productive and failing at it—she fell back into her usual routine of sleeping in late, wandering the town, and talking to everyone.
It helped distract her a little bit.
But the fact of the matter was that she was feeling a bit lonely.
Casey had always been there for her when no one else was, and now he was gone.
She and Gregg managed to hang out a few times, but not enough. He and Angus were getting ready to move within the next month, so they were caught up with getting all that in order. They always seemed to be doing something nowadays.
And even Bea was busier than usual. With winter setting in, business at the Pickaxe had picked up and consumed a lot of her time. Sometimes, Mae had half a mind to go and see if she could get a job there, but she still felt a little too proud to ask her friend for help.
Germ was still around, occasionally. They hung out a few times, but he had his own life and sometimes wouldn’t even show up for days at a time. That being said, Rabies was still around. He was always around.
In fact, just about the only interesting thing she’d done recently was help Lori film a short movie about what she thought happened to all the people that had disappeared. That had been fun, though a little strange. Mae had even played the monster that had eaten everyone. Lori made her a pretty cool costume and everything.
But that was all in the past. Today, the only person Mae really talked to was Selmers, who seemed to in just about the same situation she was. They bitched about stuff together, so that was at least somewhat enjoyable. Hearing her poetry was always great too.
That had been in the afternoon though. Now it was nearing dusk, and she hadn’t done anything of note in the intervening hours. It was pathetic, even for her. She had spent the past few hours aimlessly wandering around on the north side of town, up near the train tracks.
Now though, she was slowly but surely making her way back home for dinner, where her lovely parents would be waiting for her. They had been pretty supportive of her since she’d explained why she had dropped out of college. It was hard for them not to be, after all, once they understood. But even Mae could pick up that they were getting eager to have her start doing something productive with her time, so she wasn’t all that enthused to get back home.
Mae sighed heavily, watching her breath condense in the cold air, and pulled her jacket tighter to her body. It was winter now, and with it came a lot of snow. This year hadn’t been as bad as the blizzard of 2010—at least not yet—but it had been a pretty heavy snowstorm. Mae knew they closed the schools the day it hit, but nothing more than that. The streets had already been plowed and everything, so everything had returned to normal fairly quickly. Mae was just glad she had put on enough layers before going on that morning, because she would’ve frozen to death otherwise and that would’ve been a real pussy way to go out after everything.
The north side of town was peaceful. Even more so with the snow. It was mostly forest, with a few homes scattered around, so there weren’t very many people out and about. It was about as ‘country’ as you could get in Possum Springs without actually leaving the town. There were a bunch of mobile homes out that way, which had always fascinated Mae, because none of them looked like they’d moved in years.
At the moment, she was walking in the middle of the street, headed back into town proper. Her mom would’ve had a fit if she could’ve seen Mae then, walking down a twisty-turny backwoods road at night. She had warned Mae more than enough times over the years not to do exactly that, but Mae didn’t really care. It was way more dangerous to walk on the powerlines, and she did that anyways, so this didn’t even bother her.
So what if it was a secluded place with no streetlights? It was easy enough to hear when a car was approaching, and even easier to see them if they had their headlights on. And, it only took a few seconds to move out of the middle of the road to make way. Mae had done it a hundred times before. She would have to mess up pretty bad to be in any danger. Luckily, she had absolutely never ever messed up anything over the course of her entire life. Or something like that, at least.
Case in point, after only a few more minutes, she heard the telltale sound of a car engine rumbling from just around the curve ahead. With practiced ease, Mae moved off to the side of the road, making sure to give the oncoming car plenty of room.
Said car appeared just seconds later, its headlights blinding her momentarily, and then whipped right past without slowing. That was probably the least dangerous thing she’d done in a while, she thought. Her mom could suck it! She didn’t understand how people got run over. You just had to, like, move out of the way.
And then the car braked, hard, kicking up snow behind it.
Mae glanced back to see that the car had skidded to a stop in the middle of the road only a few feet from her. Her pulse quickened and she picked up her pace, hoping that whatever the reason the car had stopped wasn’t because of her. A thousand different thoughts ran through her head in that moment, including the very real concern that she might get kidnapped.
It was a stupid thought, she knew. People didn’t get kidnapped in Possum Springs anymore. She took care of that problem.
But…
Well, maybe her mom had been right after all. Maybe dark, isolated roads weren’t the best places to be by yourself. She would hate to have to admit that though.
She heard the car door open.
There was silence for a moment and her entire body tensed up, ready to have to run away if need be.
“Margaret?” The word cut through the air.
Mae froze at the voice, all her previous fears leaving her in an instant. Very few people ever called her by her full name. In fact, she only knew one person who did, and while she hadn’t seen said person for a long time, she instantly recognized the voice behind her.
She turned around.
And standing in the middle of the road, looking like a deer caught in the headlights, was Francine Hartley.
Casey’s mom.
Mae didn’t know what to say. Or do, for that matter. All at once, her mind was blank and her legs almost collapsed out from under her. She couldn’t quite process what she was seeing. Everything about it was… Well, she didn’t even know. It hadn’t been something she’d been expecting at all. Never, in a million years.
Francine didn’t seem to be that much better off either. She took a cautious step forward, her eyes trying to take in Mae all at once, as if she didn’t believe that she was there standing in front of her. Her entire body trembled with a nervous excitement.
“…Margaret?” she said again, breathlessly.
By then, Mae found herself again. The shock was still there, buzzing in the back of her head, but she’d managed to squash it down. “H-hey there, Missus H,” she managed to stammer out.
At Mae’s words, Francine swooped forward, enveloping the younger girl in a hug so tight Mae could barely breathe. She didn’t even have the time to process what was happening before Francine pulled away, letting out an excited gasp.
“What’re you doing here?” Francine asked, confusion evident in her voice, “I didn’t know you was back home.”
“Yeah…” Mae chuckled dryly. “Been back a little over a month now. Dropped out.” She jammed her hands in her pockets, unsure what to do with them.
Francine’s eyes narrowed and she lightly slapped Mae’s shoulder, clearly upset. “Now why’d you go and do something like that, huh? Your parents worked hard to get you into college!”
“I know. I just…” Mae grimaced, unwilling to really get into any details right then, right in the middle of the street. Or at all, really. “It just didn’t work out.”
Some sort of understanding flashed across Francine’s face and she seemed almost ashamed. She hugged Mae again, though much gentler than before. “Oh, I’m sorry, sweetie. I didn’t mean to be like that.”
This time, Mae managed to hug her back. “It’s fine.” She relaxed into the embrace for a moment, suddenly realizing just how much she missed Mr. and Mrs. Hartley. She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d seen them. They hadn’t been able to see her off at the bus station when she left for college, so it had to have been sometime before then.
But Francine wasn’t done. Not by a long shot. Now she fixed Mae with a reproaching stare that both she and Casey had been the victims of many times in their youth. “Now how come you’ve been back a month already and haven’t stopped by at all? Or even called?” She frowned. “We woulda loved to hear from you. I know your mama didn’t raise you like that!”
Mae shrugged, feeling a little guilty. She had been deliberately avoiding them, after all. Or, really, just pretending like they didn’t exist so she wouldn’t have to think about them. “I dunno,” she said instead, “Things have been a little crazy, I guess.”
Francine gave a sympathetic nod and pursed her lips. “That they have. Suppose I can’t blame you, not with everything been going on. Me and your mama haven’t managed to get together at all either…” Something occurred to her then and she glanced at her watch for a second, and then back at her car, still idling in the middle of the road. “Have you eaten yet?”
Mae knew where that line of questioning was going. In fact, she had half a mind to lie just to avoid it, but she also knew Francine would probably see right through her. “No,” she answered honestly, “Was just heading home now.”
“Great!” She clasped Mae on the shoulder again, enthused. “Well, why don’tcha come on over for supper, huh?” She had a big smile plastered on her face. “Bob’ll get a kick outta seeing you again. It’ll be just like old times.”
“I uhh…” Mae paused, considering it for a moment. Her immediate thought was that her parents were expecting her back home, but it wasn’t like she had a curfew. In fact, she knew they both would want her to go to the Hartley’s for dinner, so that wasn’t even remotely an excuse.
Really, there was only one reason she didn’t want to go. She didn’t want to go to Casey’s house. She wasn’t at all prepared for something like that. His death still weighed heavily on her mind, and seeing his house again, and all the memories it would dredge up, seemed almost insurmountable.
While it would be nice to see the Hartleys again, she didn’t know if she could even bear to spend time with them for much of the same reason. There was so much history there, and everything would just feel so empty without Casey there too.
And, of course, there was the big thing looming over her that had driven her to avoid confronting Mr. and Mrs. Hartley in the first place. She still hadn’t decided whether or not to tell them what she knew about their son’s death. She probably would’ve avoided having to do that for the rest of her life if she could’ve.
But now it seemed as if fate was forcing her anyways. She couldn’t refuse. At least, she couldn’t refuse without looking like a huge asshole to probably the kindest person she knew. Mae was many things, but she couldn’t do that to Francine.
So, she agreed.
“Umm, sure, I guess.” The words were hard to force out, and Mae hoped her face didn’t betray just how nervous she was feeling. “I’d probably have to call my parents when we get there, though.”
Francine smiled wide, clearly enthused she had agreed. “Of course. Wouldn’t want Candy to worry any more than she already does. Lord knows she does enough of that already.”
Mae let out a burst of nervous laughter, feeling a little bit of her tension relieved. Maybe this whole thing wouldn’t be so bad after all, she thought.
“Well let’s get going then.” Francine gestured for Mae to follow her back to the car. “Got groceries in the trunk that need to be put away.”
“Yeah.” Mae wasn’t sure what else to say.
“I can’t believe I just ran into you like this,” Francine said as they clambered into the car. “Still trying to wrap my head around the fact you’re back. It’s good to see you again.”
“You too.” And it was. Mae had always considered Francine and Bob Hartley to be good friends.
Francine continued, “This is gonna be a riot. Certainly didn’t expect my evening to go like this. Things have been—” She broke off, glancing away from Mae. “Well, I’m real excited you’re back, hon.”
Mae didn’t respond, understanding just where that sentence had been going. Neither of them wanted to talk about Casey right then, so she figured it best to ignore it. She would’ve been fine not talking about Casey the whole time, but knew that probably wasn’t going to happen.
There was a beat of silence before Francine put the car back into gear and continued her way down the road. It had gotten properly dark by then and the only things visible were what was illuminated by the headlights, and the red glow of the railroad crossing sign way up ahead.
Mae was trying her best not to freak out, but was failing horribly. She was pretty sure Francine was in a similar situation, because she was being uncharacteristically quiet as well.
She stared out the window at the passing trees, watching the snow flurries fall to the ground, and wished really hard that she could make it through this dinner without feeling like she lost Casey all over again.