Welcome To The Pride
"Looking at all or nothing, Babe it's you and I. With you I know that I'm good for something so let's go and give it a try. We got our backs against the ocean it's just us against the world! Looking at all or nothing, Babe it's you and I. Looking at all or nothing Babe it's you and I."
Mal listened to the music coming through the speakers in her beloved car as she and Evie rode towards the Green Valley Church of Christ. "What song is this?" Evie asked, her head cocked to the side like a cute puppy. Mal smirked. "All or nothing by Theory of a Deadman," she said. Evie nodded, humming along to the song.
The pair rode on, relatively silent until the song changed. "So..." Evie said, trying to start conversation. "What?" Mal asked. "You and Jay are pretty young. How long have you been hunting?" Evie asked. Mal shrugged. "Pretty much my whole life," she said. Evie waited for her to continue, but she didn't. "How'd you get started?" Evie asked.
"I lost my mother to a monster. I was saved by hunters, and they kinda took me and Jay in." Mal said. Evie nodded. "So, Jay's your brother?" Evie asked. Mal shook her head. "Jay was a friend of mine who lost his family to the same monster. We just kinda became family," Mal said.
"Oh, so you two are a couple then?" Evie asked. Mal laughed at that. "Uh, no. Jay may not be blood, but he's still like a brother to me. I couldn't be in a relationship with him," she said. She hadn't noticed, but Evie had tensed up when she had brought up Jay. Mal did notice when she relaxed, though.
"Okay," Evie said, fighting to keep her emotions from showing. She barely knew this Mal girl, and didn't even know what she thought about people being gay. She had to play it cool.
"So, this case. What kind of monster do you think it is?" Evie asked. Mal shook her head. "No telling. There's dozens of monsters that go after girls, and we don't know of any ties between the vics besides this church. Could be anything," she said. Evie nodded.
The rest of the ride was filled with no sound other than the radio. Finally, the pair arrived at the church. "Play it cool and let me talk. Remember, we're FBI agents," Mal said. Evie nodded. The duo stepped out of the car, and Evie followed behind Mal towards the church. Inside, it was relatively empty except for a few pews and a pulpit. A man sat in the front row of pews.
"Hello?" Mal called to the man. The man turned and stood. "Welcome, welcome," he said, walking over and extending his arm. Mal and Evie both shook it. "I'm agent Carson, and this is agent McDaniels," Mal said, flashing her fake badge. Evie followed suit. The man nodded. "I'm the preacher here, Bobby Gunderson," the man said.
"Well, Mr. Gunderson, we're here because of the deaths of some of your church members," Mal said. Mr. Gunderson nodded. "Yes, you mean Rachel and Sharon. I heard about that. Truly awful," Mr. Gunderson said. Mal nodded. "I'm sorry for your loss. We just had to stop by to investigate all ties between them, and the records show they both come here. Is there anything you can tell us?"
"Not much. Both of them were good girls. I've watched them grow up in this church. Neither of them had even had boyfriends. Mostly minded their own. Good people," Mr. Gunderson said. Mal nodded again. "Did you hear either of them mention anything strange?" Mal asked. Mr. Gunderson started to shake his head, but stopped.
"You know, now that you mention it, they did. They both said something about a man stalking them. They said they were walking to church the same way they do every Sunday when he walked out from behind a tree. Said he was wearing a red hat that was dripping. They also said that he threatened that if they didn't stay away from his woods he would kill them. But the police never found anything. You don't think that had anything to do with it, do you?" Mr. Gunderson asked.
"I don't know, but I fully intend on finding out. Thank you," Mal said. She and Evie left the church quietly. Once outside, Evie finally spoke. "A man in a red hat?" Evie asked. Mal shrugged. "Could be the cause. We need to find out where these woods are."
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"Did you find out anything?" Mal asked. Her, Jay, Carlos and Evie were in their shitty motel room going over evidence. "No," Jay said. "The man was fucking nuts. Mumbled about magic and fairies the whole time we were there." Evie could see Mal tense when Jay mentioned fairies, but didn't say anything.
"What'd you find?" Jay asked. "The preacher of their church said the girls were walking to church and got threatened by a man with a red hat that was dripping. He said the police investigated but never found anything," Mal said. Jay nodded.
After a few minutes of silence, Carlos finally spoke up. "What do we do now?" He asked. "We need to look into the history of the area, see if this has happened before. And we need to check out the woods," Mal said.
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Later that day, Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos sat around the motel room, each doing various forms of research. Mal and Jay were on Mal's laptop, and Carlos and Evie sat in front of Carlos' laptop. Carlos, believe it or not, is a computer genius; he used to hack large corporations and government agencies for fun.
"What do you think about them?" Evie whispered to Carlos. Mal and Jay were across the room, so she was pretty confident they couldn't hear. Carlos shrugged. "Seem alright to me. Jay was pretty cool," he said. Evie nodded, watching the others across the room. Well, Mal anyway.
"You like her, don't you?" Carlos asked quietly without looking up from the laptop. It caught Evie off guard. "What?" She asked. "Eves, I know you have a crush on her. You stare at her the entire time she's within sight. And you were pretty flirty with her," Carlos said, looking his adopted sister in the eyes for the first time.
Evie was silent. She had never told Carlos she was gay, not that she figured he would care if she was. It was just a shock to be outed like that. "I'm sorry, Eves. But I'm cool with it. You're my sister, and nothing will change that," Carlos said. Evie smiled.
"What do you think about her?" She asked, looking back over at Mal. "I think she's perfect for you," Carlos said, smirking. Evie laughed a little. For the first time in a long time, she could actually conceive the idea of happiness, and, at the center of it was a certain purple haired girl.