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[color=slateblue]“Darius was married, you know.”[/color] Mindy said from across the table. Eris was with her, they both sat at a table in the Pig and Anchor diner on the east side of town. They hadn’t ordered anything, though the waitress had stopped by to place two menus on the table in front of them. She took one, sad look at Mindy before scuttling off without a word.

[color=mediumspringgreen]“I didn’t know that.”[/color] They said. Mindy had her eyes glued to a spot on the marble table, a red stain of ketchup left from months ago blotched the oak paneling. Her eyes were red, and her vision was undeniably blurry. It felt as if she still had more tears to cry, yet none would come. Mindy could tell that Eris was feeling uncomfortable at the diner, especially so early in the morning.

[color=slateblue]“He was married to a detective.[/color] [color=slateblue]He never told anyone, he didn’t like to...talk about his life like that.”[/color] She said, quietly. Her finger scraped the edge of the table lightly.  [color=slateblue]“I don’t know what to do now.[/color] [color=slateblue]Or whose going to tell his husband.[/color] [color=slateblue]Or whose going to take care of Snowflake, or if I’m even going to be in Snowflake, anymore.”[/color] She paused for awhile, and they both sat in silence. The waitress came over again, and set down to glasses of iced tea that neither ordered. Mindy took her glass, and nursed it while they talked. She almost took a sip, but couldn't bring herself to even drink from it because the only smell lodged in her nose was that of the bleach they used on Mix Tape. To get rid of the blood. Mindy wondered why someone would bleed when being hanged, but there was a small part of her psyche desparately trying to block such a question from her mind. Eris spoke up finally.

[color=mediumspringgreen]“You’ll still be in Snowflake, Mindy...I know you probably don’t care about that right now, though.”[/color] They said. [color=mediumspringgreen]“Let’s...talk about what you wanna do now.[/color] [color=mediumspringgreen]And then worry about all that other stuff, okay?[/color] [color=mediumspringgreen]Tackle the small things.”[/color]

Mindy nodded her head, slowly. [color=slateblue]“Okay.”[/color] She spoke softly.


[color=mediumspringgreen]“We’re at a diner now.[/color] [color=mediumspringgreen]Are you hungry for anything?[/color]


[color=slateblue]“No.”[/color] She said.

Eris nodded. [color=mediumspringgreen]“Do you want to go home, now?”[/color]

[color=slateblue]“I...do, but I can’t.[/color] [color=slateblue]My parents are on active duty.[/color] [color=slateblue]Darius was looking after me until then."[/color]

Eris nodded, solemnly. [color=mediumspringgreen]“Right.[/color] [color=mediumspringgreen]Then... that crosses food and rest off the list.”[/color] Mindy perked up at the sound of rest. She was tired, and still grieving. She appreciated Eris trying to help her in their own way, but no amount of food, or music could take her minds eye away from the image of Darius hanging from the scaffolding of Mix Tape. 

[color=slateblue]“Actually, rest doesn’t sound too bad.”[/color] She said.

Eris smiled. [color=mediumspringgreen]“You can stay with Charlton and me, for the time being. If you want, that is.”[/color]

[color=slateblue]“Yes.[/color] [color=slateblue]That...that’s what I’m going to do now.”[/color]

…………………….

Mindy decided that she would take a small nap in Eris and Charlton’s small apartment. The hotel she and Darius had shared, though grieving alongside her, couldn’t really let her keep the room. The apartment was perfect; it was small, and Eris' bed wasn't so bad though they really needed to clean the sheets. She laid in the bed, her head completely submerged in the blankets. Once her head hit the pillow, she began to cry. It wasn't like the other times she had cried though. Yesterday, for example, she had cried a whole lot. There was a lot of inconsolable sobbing, and a few tearful wails. 

This cry was silent, she couldn't even fathom the energy to whimper silently. Her throat felt tight with sorrow, her voice was completely gone for the entire time she cried underneath Eris' blankets. Soon what began as a few tears, turned to many, and then the pillow was soaked. Mindy slowly got up, a completely defeated mess after crying for 15 minutes on Eris' pillow. Her face was wet, and the tears were still streaming when she decided she couldn't sleep or scream. 

It was early morning, Eris had taken her out to eat at around 6. Mindy knew that if it had been any other day, or if it had been a different timeline, she would of asked why so early. But she knew why. It would take awhile to get Darius' body down from the building. Whoever put him there had tied him to it elaborately. When Mindy first saw his body on her tiny phone screen, she knew what type of knots and how terse the rope was. She knew his arms must have been hurting being held in that awkward postion, and that his spine had to have been severed due to the coil wound around his waist. To describe the way Darius looked when he was hanging from Mix Tape would be very difficult. It's hard to imagine how one's foot could be twisted and pulled so that the toes face toward the head. It's not easy to talk about how you could severe a hip bone with a coil of rope, and a terrible pully system. 

Mindy's fist clenched in the sheets, as she sat on the side of the bed. Her shirt was now wet. The tears had not stopped. The window in Eris' room showcased the sun rising slowly over a sleepy Provence, New Jersey. She doubted anyone could have seen something like this coming, but once she thought about it seriously...She still couldn't understand why it had to be Darius. The legs of her jeans were now wet. The tears were still flowing, and she could not scream. She stared listlessly into the suns glare, silently hoping that if she stared long enough she would stop crying. 

The door to the apartment opened. She knew from the heavy footsteps that it wasn't Eris. Charlton stepped into the room, and she could practically feel his eyes bore into the back of her head. "Miss Mindy. How are you feeling, this morning?" She could not scream, and oh how she wanted to in that moment. She turned to him, and he saw her tear stained face. She saw his face blanch, and his chest heave as he breathed in deeply. "I'll let you grieve then-" He began to walk away from the doorway.

[color=slateblue]"Wait."[/color] Her voice came out strained, and tired. It did not sound like her voice at all. She could feel the tremor, and it pained her to speak, as if she had been silent for thousands of years and was just now getting used to her voice. [color=slateblue]"Please stay."[/color] Charlton nodded, and sat down next to her on the bed. He pretended not to notice how sopping wet the pillow was. Or the bed. Or how Mindy seemed not at all like herself today, and that Darius was not a contributing factor this time. 

"I..." Charlton tried to speak. "I understand how you must feel right now. I have lost people close to me before, many times." He said. "If you want to cry, then it's alright. We'll give you as much time as you need." 

[color=slateblue]"Who did you lose?"[/color] Mindy asked, bluntly. Charlton tried hard not to stare at her face because of how messy the tears made her look. He resisted the urge to give her a tissue, but he had a feeling these were tears you couldn't just wipe away. He cleared his throat, awkwardly.

"Well, he was a close friend of mine. We used to live in the same city for awhile, but then he moved away, and I became a butler." He recounted. "I used to work for him, and it was almost as if he had never moved away then. It was nice to see him again, after all those years."

Mindy stared at him, still with tearful eyes. [color=slateblue]"And he died?"[/color] She asked. 

"He was killed. By a super, actually." Charlton spoke softly. Mindy let the words sink in, her mind was too muddled in grief to pinpoint her ideas.

[color=slateblue]"A super?[/color] [color=slateblue]Why...?"[/color] She began to ask.

"He was a villain behind the scenes. I never knew, the entire time I worked for him, he was plotting villainous things." He said. "I cried, much like you are doing now. Betrayal was one thing, but I was just sad he was gone." 

Mindy gulped. [color=slateblue]"Oh.[/color] [color=slateblue]I understand' I'm sorry for asking."[/color] 

"It's fine. It happened a long time ago, way before you were even born probably." He laughed a little. "I hope you feel better miss, though I won't blame you if you never will. Losing people is hard, I understand that more than anything." He stood up, finally. "Eris and I will be down at the police precinct. They might ask you to come after awhile, so be prepared for that." 

Mindy nodded, not noticing the tears had finally dried and she was no longer crying. That strange tightness in her throat was gone, and she felt like she wanted to talk more. The scream she had wanted to release moments ago was gone now, the urge to release some form of sorrow had passed. The pillow was still wet, however. She didn't know what was wrong with her eyes before when she was crying, but seeing how she had never actually experienced something to this degree, she chocked it up to something that anyone would experience when filled with sadness. 

Her eyes had been like a faucet, and it had hurt slightly to cry. She touched the skin under her eye and flinched slightly. It hurt badly. She had somehow hurt herself crying. She got up off the bed, and went to the bathroom to better see herself. The door to the bathroom was open when she went inside, and the mirror was dirty.

However it wasn't dirty enough to hide the two dark blue bruises forming around her eyes. She leaned into the mirror, confused, and went to touch it again but stopped when she saw her hand in the mirror. A tiny splotch of an inky blue substance had stained her fingers, the same hand she used to prod her eye from before. She squinted at it, slightly scared now. The bruises on her eyes weren't bruises. Not at all. They soon began to drip, and run down her face like tears, and the inky blue substance spilled into the sink, and on the bathroom countertop. 

Her breathing quickened, and she slammed into the wall backpedaling away from the mirror. She stumbled out of the bathroom, and made her way back to the bedroom. She shuddered in horror when she saw the giant, blue stain on the bed sheets, and the pillow. Her tears had seemingly dried, and turned a startling blue. She felt sick then.

The urge to scream came back, but that terrible, familiar tightness closed around her throat. She could feel the tears come this time, but they were not her own.
............

[color=thistle]welp here is mindy's post, and finally I'm getting to her cool powers![/color] [color=thistle]It's gonna be awhile before she starts using them for good and shit, so bear with me.[/color] [color=thistle]in other news, I'm excited to start writing as Pheonix again, it feels like forever since his first post, and I know you guys love him, so I'm gonna start brainstorming the minute I put this up![/color]

[hider=tonights atmosphere][url]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ccZuKOTb6ug[/url][/hider]