Lightly Scented Air

[rhiannon_lee]

Clink…clank…scratch…

Under a thick layer of mascara and liner, Rhiannon’s eyes lifted from the pages of her paperback to search out the sound. She sat slumped on a vinyl-cushioned bench in the laundromat, legs stretching into the aisle alongside her basket of detergent and dryer sheets. She leaned forward and squinted at a zippered hoodie bouncing ‘round and ‘round the front-facing dryer. Was it worthwhile to stop the machine and flip it inside out?

The Laundromat was humid and heavily scented: ocean breeze, spring bouquet, fresh cotton. A television was mounted in the corner and from it Rhiannon heard the subdued score of a soap opera punctuated by commercials for cleaning products or diapers. Headphones hung crookedly around her neck because she wasn’t sure how much juice was left in the cassette player’s batteries.

She set her book aside and knelt in front of the dryer to open it.

[Thread]

Comments

[holiday_pirner]

"Actually, I've been a little too forthcoming lately. So I've been trying this thing where I think before I speak." Holly smiled ruefully. "I'm not very good at it."

She absentmindedly flicked her lighter with her free hand. "Anyway, I guess the less people know about you, the less chance you have of getting hurt."

[rhiannon_lee]

Rhiannon picked up a stack of flyers from the dryer and flipped idly through the papers. Orange for a pizza menu. Blue for a car wash. "I always thought it was the other way around. Y'know, the more I know about other people, the more I get hurt." She leaned back against the machines, which felt warm through her t-shirt. "And yet, I keep asking dumb questions."

She paused on a flyer for a concert. Held it up for Holly.

"Here's that place you were talking about. No cover on Thursdays."

[holiday_pirner]

Holly ruminated over that. Yeah, she supposed that was true. But it felt better than being completely in the dark.

"I had been curious to meet a slayer," she blurted out. "You weren't really what I was expecting. In a good way," Holly amended quickly.

"I guess I had this notion of stake first, ask questions never."

[rhiannon_lee]

"Really?" Rhiannon looked at her across the aisle. "Hm." She set aside the stack of flyers but kept one page. She began to fold it into a paper airplane. "I think it'd be easier if I was. Safer. The more I dig, the more I realize how complicated it is. One day, I'll give the wrong demon the benefit of the doubt. Which is weird, because I almost never give it to humans."

She took aim and the plane sailed above the room.

"We aren't born slayers," she said. "It comes to us when we're already forming into a person. Already happy or damaged, beautiful or ugly, confident or timid."

[holiday_pirner]

"Maybe it's the same with vampires, too." She retrieved the fallen plane, fixed one of the wings.

"So, what would you do if you weren't a slayer anymore? If you just woke up one day, and were the girl you were before?"

[rhiannon_lee]

"Kill myself?"

Rhiannon smiled and looked down.

"I have no idea if I'm kidding or not," she murmured. "Truthfully, I can't picture myself without it anymore. It's what I was made to do."

She pushed away from the dryers and crashed onto the seat next to Holly.

"So what are you made to do?"

[holiday_pirner]

Holly laughed, an edge of weariness to the sound. She cast her eyes up toward the ceiling, exposed duct-work and white tile crisscrossing over their heads.

"Oh, god. That question." Her expression sobered. "I have no idea. Maybe that's why I'm always a little jealous of people who do. Like, 'what do you have that I don't?' Oh, right, a plan."

[rhiannon_lee]

"Plans just get fucked up anyway," Rhiannon said. "I didn't plan on moving to Nevada, completely ostracized from everyone I knew prior to... Jesus, two months ago? I mean," she swept an arm outward, plastic bracelets rattling together like bones, "There is no one in my life right now that I knew on the fourth of July and I'm not sad about it."

She dropped her arm.

"I plan on change."

[holiday_pirner]

"There aren't many people I miss," Holly admitted. "The more time I spend here, the more life in London just sort of...fades away. And I'm okay with that."

She finished her cigarette. "Erasure can be just as good as healing."

[rhiannon_lee]

On that point, Rhiannon didn't totally agree, though she would admit it was a half decent substitute. "Your boy got a name? Any distinguishing features?" She lifted her shoulders. "If I run across him fucking up, I'll give him a get out of jail free card."

Coming from Rhiannon, the offer was as good as a stamp of approval of Holly.

[holiday_pirner]

She thought for a moment, smiling to herself. "His name's Daniel. Really great hair. I'm not sure how he manages to style it, actually, without the mirror."

Holly tilted her head to the side. "Blue eyes. Not just blue, but Blue. And he's tall.

"Hey, can you take a picture of a vampire? Is that possible?"

[rhiannon_lee]

"Yeah. Video, too. I guess early Christians or whoever worked their hoodoo on the undead didn't foresee technology." Rhiannon arched a brow. "Listen, you seem like a decent person. I'm contemplating asking if you want to exchange contact information, but there's a catch. I want zero to do with the Council."

[holiday_pirner]

"That makes two of us," she answered quickly. "The Council interests me about as much as that box of soap."

Holly searched through her bag for a spare scrap of paper. "I was staying in Searchlight for awhile, but now I live in Vegas. The place creeped me out. I probably should not have listened to that goth-looking chick who came through my hotel walls."

She looked up at Rhiannon. "Sorry, I do that a lot. Don't feel bad if you have no idea what I'm rambling about."

[rhiannon_lee]

At first, Rhiannon attributed the wrong meaning to the word 'came'. Then she backtracked. "Was she wearing some kind of weird," she gestured at her nape, "Headdress hood thing? Also pale, veiny? If so, she must have a thing for misanthropic brunettes, because I saw her, too."

Rhiannon fished an ink pen out of her pocket and handed it to Holly.

[holiday_pirner]

She grabbed the pen, her eyebrows raised. "Huh," she said, smoothing out the wrinkles on an old dry cleaning ticket. Holly took a moment to remember her new phone number.

"That's her. To a T. So, what is she? Demon? Ghost?"

[rhiannon_lee]

"In a nutshell? Denizen of the underworld," Rhiannon said. "At least so far as I can figure." She took the proffered number and wrote her own on a piece of cardboard she peeled off her box of dryer sheets.

[holiday_pirner]

"Well, I just know all the cool people, then." She tucked Rhiannon's number into a side pocket. Holly would have to take time later to wonder why a denizen of the underworld had wanted to speak to her.

"I should probably fold those and get out of here. You know, before my nasal passages are permanently corroded by bleach smell." She stood, slinging her bag over her shoulder.

[rhiannon_lee]

“Have fun with that.” Rhiannon pulled the door on her remaining laundry load and checked it for moisture. All clear. She transported it to the table and started to sort it. “Maybe I’ll see you around. And hey, bonus, the Dive is probably one place where the Council won’t show up.” She smiled tightly at her new acquaintance.