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This is not exactly a common area to tour for locals, but the place that seems to draw visitors like flies to honey. Tall, towering trees and a deeply weathered and overgrown strip of roadway are almost as curious as the shell of a train station that stands against the forest walls. The rails can still be seen and followed all the way to town from here, though they do not appear to have been in use in the last century. All in all, it's a rather unique spot. Unique enough that a snapping twig sounds as Jude steps around the building, his hands sunk into the pockets of the light jacket he's pulled on. His sneakered steps are heavy..not that he seems to be all that concerned with alerting people.
The snapping of the twig alerts Evie to company either in human form or animal, she's uncertain which, but it has her glancing around warily and pulling her hoodie with the biohazardous material symbol on the front around herself. Dark eyes look around the shadowed area and calls herself several names, all involving stupidity for losing track of time and staying out too late. Unable to wait and be surprised, she calls out, "Hello?" Just like in the horror movies. Nothing like giving away your location.
"You're a long way from town." It's not exactly hello, but from his point of view, crouched on the trunk of a nearby shell of a car, Jude can't seem to put his finger on why she would be way out here, and in such a place. There is a heaviness to the area, something almost palpable and negative, and it penetrated into everything around it. The trees and the ground, even the plants seem a little less green here. A little less 'alive'. She stands out rather radiantly against the area. "Are you lost?"
Pushing away from the wall, Evie follows the sound of his voice until she's standing on front of him. Perhaps she does look bright in the darker area where everything is muted except the general feeling of unease that settled within her when she arrived. Nothing like the Psychic must feel but it's there all the same. "I guess the walk I took was longer than I intended, always wondering what was over the next hill, around the next tree, beyond the trees." Maybe she was called here, who knows? "Probably, I don't really know the way back home, but I'm sure I could find it. Or call my mother." Maybe. "What are you here for?"
Jude listens, though he narrows his eyes slightly before glancing back from the way she came. "You walkeda long ways." He almost seems to be fighting back a laugh. Almost. "I live down the road." He admits with a small chuckle. "I walk out here sometimes." Doing what he doesn't say, but he does eye her critically a moment longer before looking away, "You should go back. It gets dark fast. You don't want to be out after dark, there's no streetlights out here." And very, very few homes to be seen.
Watching his expression, Evie looks curious at the narrowed eye look. "Is it private property?" Glancing towards the burned building, she smirks. "Or condemned?" Her boots make noise on the undergrowth, crackling as she walks even nearer to him to gauge that look, now critical? "Yeah, I only know the direction I walked. I can turn around and walk back that way." She watches as he looks away and glances the direction he looks. "So you live in the boonies?" Her accent is a dead New Yorker give away.
So many things Jude was going to say, but she manages to draw a look of muted amusement from him as he arches his brows at her. "The../boonies/?" yeah, she got his attention. "I like in the country, not the boonies. That sounds so redneck." His converse makes an equally crunchy sounds as he hops down. It's time for that look again. Narrowed eyes, lowered brows, a downturn gaze that measured her from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. He even circles around her, as if some other angle may reveal just why she's /really/ out here, but whatever he may or may not discover is left for the wondering. "This is city property." He allows after that small pause, "But there, that fence just over there? That is private property." The fence across the old roadway I even holds a 'posted' sign. "But no one comes out here. It's too depressing." He chuckles, "The locals think it's haunted."
"Redneck." The word is a splutter and a laugh in equal amounts as Evie echoes it. "Boonies, isn't that what it's called on Duck Dynasty? Wasn't that like, filmed around here or something?" Of course it wasn't but it shows her opinion of small town, perhaps. When he walks around her, a single brow lifts and she refuses to flinch beneath the gaze, uncomfortable as it is. Hitching her thumbs in her pockets, she takes on a nonchalant pose. "If you've got a cell, a picture would last longer." Lifting her hand, she tucks hair behind her ear again, much like in the library. "Haunted?" She asks in mock disbelief. "You believe in that stuff?"
Jude chuckles, "You shouldn't let people take your picture." He allows absently, "It means they have access to you for as long as they want." Creepy much? He also turns loosely and heads for the train station, his hands in his pockets again and his steps lazy. "What? You don't believe in ghosts? Boy did you move to the wrong town. Everywhere you go around here there's a story. Here, down the road. At the lake. In the forest. Even the library at the university /and/ the dormitory." He grins before stepping over a fallen log, "Skeptics get pretty aggravated."
Instead of fighting it, Evie falls in line beside him, steps echoing his as he steps over the log. "Really? It's that rich with history? So, I checked out a few books on local lore, heard about this place and came out to get a feel for it. I admit I was curious about it, but then I've stayed in hotel rooms in New York because they were assumed to be haunted. Personally, I've never seen anything unusual of course nothing scares me though. Anything interesting you've seen?"
Jude ahs, "Well, the good stuff is never in the books. You'll hear about how this was the sight of the first railway in the area or..whatever, but you won't hear about the murders. That's not exactly pro-tourist, ya know." He pushes into the train station..not that there's much to getting in. Simply bend down and slip under the only board still covering the entrance. "I see all kinda stuff that scares the shit out of me. Mostly though, it's just sorority girls and Darwin Award applicants. The dead can't hold a candle to college students."
Intrigued, despite her every intention on heading home, Evie follows him inside, the acrid smell of the burnt building still prominent. "So tell me what's not in the books, who and why were people murdered here? How and where?" So many questions. "College students scare you? Is that why you were hanging in the library?" Lips quirk in amusement despite her obvious desire to remain more distant.
Jude is quiet for a moment, but it only lasts that moment. "Don't remember when. But I do know that one weekend a bunch of kids were hanging out here, someone came in and blew them all away. One after the other." He moves to drop and sit on a nearby pile of crates, clearly brought in and stored here in the recent years. It's likely the city uses it a fair bit, "Then, to cover up what they did they set the place on fire." His brows arch gently before he smirks. "I think it was back in the 80s. And yes, but I hate the rain too, so I had to pick the less or two evils."
His silence, however brief, captures her attention more fully than if he had filled it. Evie studies him much like he had her before and she sort of moseys around, looking at different areas within the same room where he seats himself on a crate. "Why would someone want to kill a bunch of kids? Was the person caught or was a reason ever found?" It's interesting stuff! "Oh, I'm Evie, by the way."
Jude shrugs, "Why would anyone want to murder one person? I'm sure they had their reasons. They were never caught though. Everyone just assumes it was a botched robbery or something. Maybe a transient. We get a lot of people passing through, what with the state park and the college." He kicks his feet, allowing his heels to bounce against the crate before she drops her name. "Jude." It's a simple introduction, but he does seem to be studying her again.
"Why would anyone want to murder someone? I don't know, I've never thought about killing someone before. I guess living in New York sort of hardens someone. I'm one of those transients you talk about because of the college. Mother wanted a smaller town living for my little sister after I turned out like I am, I guess, so we moved here." Her lips turn down when he studies her again. "See something you like?" She asks almost defensively.
Jude arches just one brow at that, "Meh." How charming is he?! "There are worse people than you here. You're only about one third as badass as your acting right now." He slides off the crate, dusting his jeans off before he turns and heads deeper into the station, but lucky for her the high ceilings carry his voice. "In my experience, people only move here when they're hiding something."
Evie hadn't been serious, so she's not offended by the lackluster answer either. "I'm sure there are. I didn't say I was the worst, but according to my mother I just may be." His reference to her bad assery makes her outright laugh. Watching as he heads further in, she has no choice but to follow, out of curiosity if nothing else. "Hiding something?" She sounds a little uneasy at that, despite her best efforts not to, she's not an accomplished liar.
"Isn't that what mothers are supposed to say though? You could be locked in your room reciting the rosary and I'm sure your mom would find a way to put a bad spin on it. It's in the genetic makeup I think. They all have that lingering sense of suspicion about them." Keeping his hands in his pockets, he spins on his heels to turn back to her. "Sure. Everyone's hiding something. Or running from something."
"I've only got the one," Evie says with a smirk. "Unless you count dad's new toy. Either way, I guess so. Does your mother do the same then?" Evie walks along with him deeper into the station looking at the charred remains littering the floor, stepping over things here and there. "So what do you peg me for? Hiding or running away?"
"My moms dead." Jude states simply, also stepping over something that looks to be a fallen pile of stored newspaper. Whatever it was, it's decayed into a flaky mess and crumbles as his heel catches its edge.
His answer doesn't come immediately, but instead he enjoys a few moments of silence as he glances at her again. "I don't know." He admits honestly. "Both maybe? Maybe I'm full of shit an completely wrong? It may happen one day."
Like him, Evie falls silent with that albatross tossed out there that, if the look on her features is any indication, she regrets asking about his mother. Instead of offering any false condolences, she nods once, concise, a quick flash of apology in her eyes before it's gone again. Shoving her hands into her hoodie pockets, she lets the silence drag out until he breaks it again. "Maybe you are." Removing her hands, she spreads them to the side and gives a deceptively innocent smile. "I'm an open book."
Jude doesn't seem to dwell on it, or show much reaction at all. Not until she speaks again. It earns a bark of a laugh. "An open book she says." The disbelief is almost tangible a he shifts to watch her again. That's what he does. He looms. He leers. He suspects her to do something, but what it hard to say. "You're an open book and I'm the poster boy for the Latter-Day Saints." And their obnoxiously upbeat and compassionate television commercials.
Caught in it and unable to tell how exactly he caught her, Evie looks at him with suspicion. "I wouldn't have pegged you as a Mormon." The come back is blithe and delivered with that half smirk she's been wearing most of the conversation. "Just goes to show, can't always get a good read on people. So, ask me anything then, if you think I'm not as open about things as I claim to be." Ha.
"Okay." Jude lingers for a moment before turning away to move toward the old ticket counter that has long since been left to stand vacant. Dark, empty…and an absolutely perfect place for him to sit. "I'm just curious what kind of witch can walk around in a place like this without feeling just a little uncomfortable. Or are you a bad witch?" He's /almost/ snide about it, but teasingly so. "Or are witches not as aware of the gigantic pit of bad energy under your feet? Maybe I've been over estimating your kinda powers for a while now?"
Hands tighten and Evie shoves them into her pockets to hide the reaction while she tries to carefully school her features to one of surprise. It's obviously feigned to the more discerning eye. "Witch?" She scoffs, even going so far as to scuff the toe of her boot on the floor, barely able to suppress a shudder as she does so. "Bad energy? From the murders you mean? As I said, I was drawn here for some inexplicable reason and I refuse to believe it was because you were here. So let's pretend you're right. What would this all mean then?"
My energy isn't bad. My energy is sexy." He allows simply before leaning back on the bar. If that thing give, his pride will never, ever recover. In the first ten minutes. But it doesn't. "But I think it means that you have no idea what type of area you're in." after a moment he yawns, "So how long are you gonna sit here and chatter with me before you realize it's getting dark?" he grins, deeply even.
Evie rolls her eyes but she can't help the bit of genuine smile that edges its way onto her lips at his comment. "Conceited much?" The reminder strikes her and she glances towards the outside and shivers, arms going tight around herself despite her hoodie. "It is.. the scary things come out at dark." The remark is lightened by a careless shrug. "You know. Spiders, snakes, mass murderers. I suppose I should head home. My mother's already going to freak." Unwrapping her arms from herself she reaches for her phone and frowns. "No reception. Explain why it hasn't been ringing yet."
Jude smirks. "Yeah, that's what's out there. And me. But it's not the full moon. No worries." Sarcasm abounds! He also sits up with a groan, "And, it's not conceited if it's true. Then it's just a fact." Or a guy blowing smoke, which judging by the grin he flashes is exactly what Jude is doing. "There's no towers on this side. You wont get service till you cross the bridge outside of town. Till then it's dead space." Great choice of words. "Come on. I'll take you home."
"Uh huh and how do I know you're the lesser of the evils?" Evie doesn't wait though, it really was getting late and she tilts her head, studying him, "You know, you're really hard to get a good read on. One minute you're quiet, like in the library, the next you're sarcastic and now all gentlemanly, offering the lady an escort home. A man of contradictions. I can't tell if you're serious or not."
Jude snorts as he heads for the doorway again, slowly of course. "I am quiet, but you're on my turf. I don't have a reason to be reserved. I don't like crowds as a general rule. Too many loud voices and too much drama. Nature is loud too but it's completely different. And it's not so much me being a gentleman, as I have a sliver of a conscious and if they drug your dead body out of a ditch in the morning I might feel bad. That would be aggravating."
"Oh, yeah well that's different then." Evie shoves her phone back in her pocket and offers him a smirk, already heading for the exit, the way they had come in. "Don't do me any favors. See ya around."
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OOC Date: 05-03-2015
IC Date: 08-31-2014
Cast: Jude & Evie
Train Station
A building that was once grand, is nothing but a broken, charred shell of its former self. Walls that were once a glorious design of gold painted landscapes and memoirs of local beauty are now nothing more than cracked and chipped displays of graffiti and vulgarity withered away in places to expose the burned brick below. That is not where the decay ends though. Carpets once rich shades of scarlet are torn, tattered, missing in large areas to expose concrete, stained and chipped away by time and abuse, blackened by the tragedy that struck this great structure.
Still fixated within the belly of this lobby the old ticket booths stand along the back wall, their glass windows still in tack thanks to the use of safety glass. Despite the fact that are still rather solid they have not been spared decay. The decay of the flames that raked through this place have singed the booths heavily, the trails of licking flames still evident against their bodies. Even more noteworthy is the amount of vandalism that has happened here throughout the years. Spray-paint and youthful rage have aided the powers of time and nature in tearing down what remaining beauty the building might have held. Phrases of hate and vulgarity litter the walls and floors, while old newspapers, beer cans and drug paraphernalia have been tossed to the side for the ages.
Off through the west archway of the room, the docking platform can be seen, the building spreading out to open way for the once grand trains to make way inside for passengers. The tunnels are now nothing short of sad, empty, the tracks old and rusted as they slip away into darkness.
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