Chapter 19
What. The. Fuck.
Andrew’s thoughts were beginning to follow a common vein, and the common vein went a little bit like whatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuck…. And continued on until he understood what was going on.
The stream of confusion has been constantly playing in the back of his head since a few months ago when he was almost trampled by a horse that had apparently come out of Ronan Lynch’s dreams? What?
Andrew had a high tolerance for bullshit, apparently the world, as usual, thought differently. Hey Andrew, it seemed to be saying, things have been going pretty good for you recently, so you know what? Fuck you.
Yes, Andrew could deal with a lot, but a mysterious woman from a weird dream he had three months ago? Just showing up? Out of nowhere?
What the fuck?
Of course, he didn’t let his inner bewilderment show outwardly. He only stepped in front of Aaron and Nicky where they were sitting on the rug in case things got ugly.
And apparently Aaron and Nicky knew her? They hadn’t told him, and there would be consequences.
“Well then,” The woman in red smiled apologetically, like she had shown up to a dinner party a bit earlier than was customary, and not like she had just broken into the athletic dorms. “Ain’t this embarrassing,”
The grayish man’s eyes were flicking around the room, they found Gansey, Lynch and Parrish, and finally settled on Sargent.
Sargent was already on her feet and on her way to him, as was Gansey. Andrew wasn’t sure whether she was about to fight or hug him. Andrew didn’t care, his attention was focused on the woman in red, his only intention was to protect those he had promised to.
“You have questions, I can tell,” The woman said, she was addressing the whole room, but she was looking directly at Ronan Lynch. “My liege,” she said to him, respectfully and without a trace of irony. So Lynch was royalty, Boring.
“The fuck?” was all Lynch had to say in return, in all honesty, Andrew agreed.
“Who are you and what were you doing in my dreams? And who was that other boy in the dream? Was he real? What was that bottle you gave me?” Matt asked, rapid fire. Matt had a tendency to ask stupid questions and it was going to get him killed someday. If ANdrew cared he would have said something.
He opened his mouth to ask more questions but the woman in red interrupted him. “You can call me Scarlet, my name is not, in fact, Gina Carmichael, sorry I had to deceive you, Aaron and Nicky,” Scarlet checked the time on the clock behind them
Behind Andrew, Aaron, dazedly muttered “s’alright,”
“The other boy was Prince Matthew Lynch, brother to Princes Declan and Ronan Lynch, son of King Niall Lynch. He is very real. The bottle is- actually, where is the bottle?” Scarlet did some sort of complicated hand gesture behind her back.
Matt’s face went blank “In my dorm room, under my pillow,” he said without inflection, then he regained control of his facial features “What did you just do?” He asked, the picture of confusion.
“I just took a few precautions to make sure you would tell me the truth, glad to know Kavinsky’s boys did their job and told you not to trust me,” She checked the time on her red, plastic watch. “Why would I tell them to tell you not to trust me?” She asked theatrically. “Because if you had given the bottle to Ronan, he would have used it immediately,”
“What were you doing in my brother's head?” Lynch asked.
“That was an accident, he's a dream, he's more prone to being pulled into the dreams of others,” Scarlet explained. Andrew catalogued that but if information, something told him it would be important.
“Why are you telling us that, why not keep your motivations a secret?” Kevin asked calculatingly from the kitchen, although his words were slurred enough to be almost unintelligible.
“Because I need you to trust me?” Scarlet asked, like she was unsure. “Because I’m trying to truthfully answer your questions?” Scarlet again checked her watch. “Because I need to kill time?” She needed to kill time? What for?
“Okay, um” a high voice interrupted, Allison. “I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in thinking that this is fucked up, what’s going on? How do they know you? What do you want?”
“Oh, um for Nicky and Aaron, I showed up here and pretended to be related to someone on the basketball team, I asked for directions to the athletic dorms, even though I kind of already knew where they were, because, fun fact, Grey and I used to go here,” that would explain how she got in. Alumni passes let anyone into any part of the school.
“And for Matt and Andrew?” Neil asked. And of course Neil had figured out that Andrew knew Scarlet because of course he did. It was getting a little too easy for Neil to read him and Andrew didn’t know how to feel about it.
“Well for Matt, I just sort of created a dream pool, it’s like a phone call, but like, in your head, and Matthew Lynch, as said before, kind of picked up a connected line and was able to listen in,” Scarlet checked her watch.
Andrew heard movement behind him, he kept his eyes on Scarlet, but he turned his head back to catch a glimpse of a flash or red hair shifting to keep sight of the grey man.
“I know him,” Neil said, softly, then again louder, to the grey man. “I know you, don’t I? I remember you from somewhere,”
The grey man looked at Neil’s face, searching his features for any sense of recognition. His eyes widened slightly when he realized. “You’re Mary’s boy,” Ah, so this man was on his mother’s side. Less likely to be a threat, but still on the verge of being dangerous to Neil. “You have her nose,” Oh that would drive Neil’s ego off the charts, having something on his features that didn’t belong to his father.
“You had a book, right? You wrote a book? I remember my mom saying something to you about your book,” Neil asked. The grey man smiled unconsciously, like he didn’t know he was doing it.
“Yes, that’s right,” the grey man said.
“You wrote a book?” asked Scarlet “Why don’t I own a copy?”
“I didn’t think you’d be interested in fraternity in Anglo-Saxon poetry,” The Grey Man answered calmly.
“Oh buddy, oh Grey, now you’ve done it, you have made a big mistake, bigger than the time that I decided ‘hey, dating men might not be that bad’,” Scarlet quipped.
“I’m not sure whether to be flattered that I’m the man you chose or offended that I’m the one who turned you away from dating men,” The Grey Man responded.
“Not the point, the point is that you assumed whether or not I was interested in something! Now I shall be forced to become an expert in- what was it again?”
“Fraternity in Anglo-Saxon poetry,”
“Fraternity in Anglo-Saxon poetry! Geez, Grey it sounds more boring the more you say it, I can’t believe you and Calla like this stuff!” Scarlet checked her watch. Andrew had had enough of the banter.
“Are you done stalling or are you going to explain what you keep waiting for,” He said. Scarlet looked over at The Grey Man and raised a questioning eyebrow. The grey man shrugged.
“Oh, it isn’t really anything big, I’m just waiting for the poison that I put in your drinks to kick in,” Scarlet said offhandedly.
Andrew whipped around. Aaron and Nicky were collapsed on the couch. They looked like they were sleeping, but they weren’t breathing, Andrew checked Nicky’s pulse.
Dead.
Neil. Neil. Neil.
Andrew’s legs were starting to fail. Neil was still standing, but soon his knees buckled. Andrew clawed over the carpet to him.
“Andrew,” he choked, and it sounded like a prayer.
Andrew didn’t have anything to hide anymore. This was it. “Neil,”
“Andrew,” Neil breathed. They were laying on their sides now, if Andrew tried, he could pretend they were in bed and not bleeding out on a shaggy dorm room carpet.
“Neil I-,” Andrew didn’t know what to say, now that he had to. He thought there would be time. Why wasn’t there more time? “Neil, Neil, I-... Neil,”
“Sshhh...” rasped Neil, because he always had to have the last word, even when they were on the verge of death. “I know,” and then he closed his eyes. He let a last breath escape him.
And then he was gone. Typical that the junkie had the nerve to die first.
Andrew had never wished harder for an afterlife.
Andrew closed his eyes. He started one of those letters to the universe that Bee was always trying to get him to write in his.
Well universe, it’s been shitty. I had a short, terrible life, I had little to no effect on the world, and I let the people I promised to protect die. I’m not sure what sort of sadistic kicks you got from bringing me into existence, but hey, you found a way to get me out of it. Good for you. Hey, maybe I’ll be able to sleep without nightmares now. Who knows? Not me, I’m talking to a nonexistent entity.
Goodbye and Fuck you, Andrew Minyard.
He closed his eyes and for the first time in his life, he let himself relax.
He deserved it, he was dead.
///////////
Andrew opened his eyes. He was standing in a field at night. There was a thick fog surrounding him.
“Andrew!” a voice called. Nicky. Aaron was following behind him. They both looked different somehow, truer. They both had a light in their eyes that wasn’t there before.
Nicky ran towards him and moved towards him, then stopped before touching him.
Andrew stared at him for a moment before pulling them both into a tight hug. I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you both so much, he thought desperately, hoping to convey what he couldn’t say out loud.
“I love you too,” Nicky said. Whether he was responding to Andrew’s thoughts or his actions, Andrew didn’t know. He could find out later. For now, he was content to hold his family close.
“Andrew?” asked a voice from behind him.
Neil.
Neil.
Andrew turned around slowly. “Yes or no?” he asked
Neil looked at him and smiled, there were tears in his eyes. “It’s always a yes with you,”
Andrew elected to ignore the statement in favor of pulling Neil into a kiss. Aaorn and Nicky were right behind them, Andrew didn’t care. Something might pop out of the fog and kill them again, Andrew didn’t care. Neil was right here. Neil was right here.
Someone behind them cleared their throat. It was Sargent, the rest of the foxes were standing behind her. As well as the woman who had killed them all only minutes before.
“It took you long enough, we’ve been waiting for you for weeks,” Allison drawled.
“What now?” asked Dan.
“Now,” Scarlet said. “Shit goes down,”