Frank sighs, "Right, time to come clean Seth. You're clearly running from something. If you want to be sure we're not leading you back to it we need to know what that is."
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Frank sighs, "Right, time to come clean Seth. You're clearly running from something. If you want to be sure we're not leading you back to it we need to know what that is."
Seth's entire body bristles, and all of a sudden the wind blows so hard it almost slams the door shut in front of him. Holding the door open with an extended hand, Seth scowls, real emotion on the man's face for maybe the firs time that you've seen. "I trusted you!" he hisses, and the wind keeps blowing, throwing his long greasy hair about his face. But at the sound of Bill's steps coming up the creaking wooden stairs, Seth says, "I will tell you, but not here. Not with the oaf," clearly referring to Bill, "Give me one moment and I will be ready". The wind immediately quells, as Seth walks back into the room to grab his luggage as Bill makes it up to the top of the stairs.
"What's going on?" Bill asks, his face red with exertion and lined with concern.
Seth walks down the hall, passing Frank and Jen if they don't lead the way, and passing Bill without making eye contact. "We're leaving," he says, his tone returned its flat robotic cadence.
Bill gives a look to Frank and Jen that says "what the hell was that?"
Jen stops to speak quietly with Bill. That was definitely odd but now she wanted more than ever to meet up with Keen. She let Seth head down first as she spoke and texted on the phone at the same time.
“It’s okay, we know he couldn’t stay with you forever, so thank you for coming through when you did,” Jen said, “if there’s any way I can repay you, let me know.”
Text to Keen: “We’re on our way, be safe.”
Moments later Jen gets a notification on a reply from Keen. It's simply a thumbs up emoji.
Seth leads the way down the stairs. Bella backs away from the man, whimpering, her tail between her legs as he passes. He steps out of the door and walks to the car, stopping outside of the shotgun seat, waiting for the door to be unlocked.
Bill will rush down the stairs to hold Bella back as she begins growling at Jen and Frank the moment Seth is out the door.
Outside, Seth says, "We talk in the car, so no one is listening. No driving till I say so." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a cheap black ink pen, the sort of plastic pen that goes for five bucks for a pack of twenty.
Frank hesitates for a moment, something about Seth's demeanor made him wary. But they needed to get this over with... He unlocks the truck and gets in, glad Seth was apparently calling shotgun. It'd be easier to keep an eye on him there than in the back.
Assuming Jen does not protest, this puts her in the back seat. Seth sits down in the front passenger, his bags piled in his lap. The inside of the truck is quickly filled with the stench of unwashed man, but Seth insists on keeping the windows up for privacy. Dark bags hang heavy under his eyes, which appear dull and almost bovine in appearance. His gaze remains fixed out in front of him, sitting upright and unmoving like a statue of a man at attention. After a deep breath in and out, Seth will say, "I don't know why you have changed your mind, but it is clear I may not be able to trust you further if you won't trust me. So I'll try to explain this, but I need you to, well keep an open mind." He speaks in his familiar monotone, words pronounced clearly and flatly. "As I said before, I am being hunted. I was... part of an organization that bestowed upon me great power, and great responsibility. However, one day I... I woke up. I came to realize that the organization I worked for was run by a great evil. I saw clearly for the first time in my life, and I fled. Leaving the organization changed me. It took some of my power, but gave me others... and it gave me freedom. I've promised to do all that I can to take down this power, though I am just one being." Patrick stops here, his gaze still fixed out at the empty cul-de-sac. Then slowly, he turns his head to look at Frank. He says, "Has someone come to you looking for me? Perhaps a man by the name of Mr. Keen, or maybe Ms. Sharp?"
"Yeah, Keen, but we told him to go F himself," Jen said, "you didn't say anything about being in an organization before. I've already gone out on a limb for you, so if you want any more help, you're going to have to level with us. Completely. I want to know everything."
Seth's face darkens and his normally mask-like face breaks into a perturbed glower. Lines crack across his forehead, and his lips pull back slightly to show yellowed teeth. His normally cold blue eyes seem to catch the light, burning with an internal energy that is normally absent. "You saw Mr. Keen," he growls, anger splitting question and statement. He shakes his head, ignorant to Jen's statement, "You must be very careful. Keen is dangerous." The last word drops from anger to something like fear. "He can't be trusted either," Seth adds, "he will... disappear you. He... he is the dangerous thing I told you was hunting me!" Seth's face has gone pale, except for a flush that seemed to be breaking out across his forehead and on his neck.
There is a pause as Seth takes a deep breath in and out, attempting to compose himself. The breath comes out almost as a wheeze, but afterwards his unnatural coolness has returned. With a steadier voice Seth says, "You want truth? I... I am afraid you won't be able to handle... everything. But if you can believe me, Mr. Keen is not human. Neither are the others like him. I... I was like him once, but I turned away, and that is why I am hunted." He pauses to study Frank and Jen's faces, looking for their reactions. "If you want, I can prove it. And if you help me, I can... well I can make it very worth your while."
Frank takes a deep breath, "Part of that's about what we suspected, and most of the rest isn't much of a surprise either. Our problem at the moment is that Keen is here, he showed up already well aware we were the ones responsible for hiding you, and you were about to lose the Brotherhood's protection anyways." He waves a hand at the darkness in front of the truck, "As for making it worth our while I think the biggest thing we need right now is him off of our backs for good, and that's going to be tough if he has any suspicion we're helping you. If you have ideas I'd love to hear it."
Seth shakes his head. "The one thing I can't do is make Mr. Keen go away," he says, "but if you promise to help keep me safe, maybe I can give you the tools you need to defeat him. If you name pretty much any piece of equipment, I could probably get it for you." He pats the chest pocket of his dirty button down shirt, as if there was something in the pocket that would be of use.
"Defeat him?" Frank glances back at Jen, concern in his eyes. "Not quite human or not, we didn't exactly sign up for murder. And wouldn't that make things worse anyways? He represents an organization, surely they'd just send others after us."
Jen nodded. What Frank was saying made sense, though... they did have a perfect opportunity ambush Keen, since they knew where he was going to be.
Seth shakes his head. His eyes darken as he sucks air through his teeth. "I don't think you have much choice one way or the other," he says, eyes locked on Frank, "the gears of the machine have already begun to turn. I don't like that I've involved you, but the most dangerous thing you could do is allow yourself to become a tool of Mr. Keen and what he represents." Seth turns his gaze to Jen then, attempting to study both of their faces for any signs of consideration. There is a pause before Seth says, "And I wouldn't really consider it murder, at least no more a murder than shutting down a computer."
With greater urgency, he will add, "And there must be something I can help you get. Something that would make this worth your while."
"Does he have your home addresses, or something?" Seth asks flatly, the smell of his stale breath starting to fill the room. Before a reply can be offered, he will add, "Is there a reason you have to show? Just leave him holding his balls." For the first time, Seth cracks a smile, his lips pulling back to show yellowed teeth, "Otherwise, we take out his car so that he can't follow. He won't risk going loud in public."
"He found us at a registered business, probably wouldn't be too hard to find our houses, it's not like I've been living in secret or anything," Jen replied, "funny... I was going to do that before. If we do that though he's definitely going to want to come after us, right? No offense, you helped us out against the Wytch and all and I appreciate that, but if this guy is half as scary as you say, it's not worth pissing him off.."
Seth's grin fades and a sour expression replaces it on his countenance. He is silent for a long moment, and then an idea seems to occur to him. His eyes go wide and he raises a single finger in exclamation. "Very well," he says, "I have a better idea. Tell him you lost me, like you mentioned before. One of you meets him, whomever is better at lying. The other, plants this on his car..." Seth reaches into his pant pocket and after shifting around for a moment pulls out a small circular metal disc; clearly a GPS tracker. "Just remove the paper on this side and it will stick pretty well," Seth says, turning the disco over to show the sticky side. He adds, "This way you can track him and will know if he is following you." However, Seth doesn't hand over the tracker yet. Instead he says sternly, "I know I am asking a lot, but I can help you in exchange, and the more I know I can trust you, the more explicit I can be. If you promise to help keep me hidden, I can show you a place in St. Louis that will prove everything I am saying to you, and if you can handle that, I promise I will also tell you more about what I am up against." His gaze sets first on Jen, then on Frank and he asks dead seriously, "Do we have a deal?"
Frank rubs his face, "I think he's more likely to buy the story if we give him a solid lead. You have a burner phone? Something he could track? If we give him the number for that he might go chasing after it without thinking about us any further. And if you just happen to have dropped it on a bus heading the wrong way or something, oh well, not our fault."
Seth nods his head at Frank's questions. "How do you think we've been messaging," he says with a proud grin, again uncharacteristic for his usual robotic nature. He adds, "I suppose I can find some place to put it, though we'll also have to decide where you are picking me up."
Hearing Jen's assent, Seth's expression again becomes serious. His voice suddenly heavy with weight, he says, "Are we ready to make a deal then?" As he asks, he drops one hand back into the pocket that had held the tracking device.
Frank looks at Jen for assent before responding, "Well I've got to say I still really don't like this, but I guess so. Lets figure out where to drop you off, and quick, we take too long and Keen's likely to come looking for us."
"Pick you up? No way, Keen's going to be watching us," Jen said, "he's already tried to follow our car once. It's probably best if you head the opposite direction of the phone and lay low for a while, go no contact for a little while. We should come up with a password though so we know it's you when you try to reach us later."
Seth nods his head, that same mirthful grin on his face. He reaches into his pocket, the same pocket from which he retrieved the tracking device, and pulls out a folded up piece of paper. Working with practiced speed, he unfolds the paper to reveal an actual legal document. "There's a motel back in Salem," he says in response to Jen's remark, "I'll go there after planting my phone. I should be able to pay for my stay. You can come get me when you think it's safe, though I'll be without my burner."
He hands the document over to Jen and Frank. With an actual chuckle he says, "Do either of you have a pen to sign with?" The paper is appears to be a legitimate legal contract, with the letterhead of a possibly real attorney's office. There is fine print and everything, but a brief peruse of the document appears to state that Jen and Frank agree to keep Seth protected to the best of their ability, with the promise of equipment and services from Seth for as long as said protection is provided. Seth is positively beaming as the two look at the surprise document, with the textbook definition of a ****-eating-grin on his face.
Frank looks over the document, then back at Jen, then at Seth again, "Yeah I'm not signing that. Even if I didn't suspect I need a lawyer to go over this thing with a fine tooth comb, the only thing I'm interested in agreeing to right now is working to get Keen off of our collective trail. You want to try and talk us into a longer term arrangement, wait until things are stable and we're not too rushed to negotiate."
Jen Gibbs
"You're joking, right? You can't really think we'd sign a contract you had pre-printed with our names on it, did you? What are you really up to here?" Jen asked.
"Maybe we really should just turn him over," she thought. She kept it to herself though; she wanted to hear Seth's response first.
Seth's expression darkens. He swallows, his stubble covered adams apple bobbing up and down on his scrawny neck. "Very well," he says, "do you at least want to keep it to look over? You will see I am not... trying to scam you." He waits for an answer, and waits to see if the two will still help him, studying the two Hunter's with anxious anticipation, lines drawn hard into his forehead and at the corners of his mouth.
"Yeah we can take a look at the thing later, lets get through the night without any knives thrown or whatever this Keen uses, and we can talk about what comes next. Fair enough?"
Under his breath, Seth says something like "You'll be lucky if its knives Keen uses." He shakes his head, and then looks up at Frank. Maybe sensing that the man is more sympathetic to his situation, he focuses his please on Frank. "So you will at least tell him I gave you the slip? I'll get rid of my burner and will hole up in Salem." There is real fear in the man's eyes; terrible, terrible fear, and maybe something akin to sorrow.
Frank starts flipping through google maps, looking for a good place to drop Seth off more or less on the way to Keen where the fugitive could grab other transport, "That was the plan was it not? Its in our interest as well as yours to have Keen too busy chasing off on a wild goose chase to give us a second thought. Its just the contract we're wary of, we've already made mistakes blundering through this kind of stuff and we are not eager to do it again." After a moment he asks, "Come to think of it how's your right hook? Might look better if I'm reporting in with a nice new bruise on my face."
Relief washes over Seth with Frank's reassurance, and he allows himself a small mirthful smirk at Frank's question. "I've never been much with my fists," he says with a shrug. He studies Frank's face for a moment before adding, "Though if push comes to shove, I can sometimes make myself useful in a firefight. If you really want, I can hit you. Though Jen might have a better chance of giving you a black eye than me."