Poppy's Apartment

[Poppy]

Poppy closed her eyes, letting the darkness behind them fill the empty spaces. The young woman stiffly lifted her arms, positioning both limbs as well as her legs. Finally, she tilted her head upwards slightly – a frozen pose of classic ballet dancing. Although no music was playing in the apartment she could hear it. Hear the opening cords of the dance, smell the foul but distinctive scent of dry ice telling her that fake smoke was on stage.

She lost herself in the combination of imagination and memory, slowly lowering her arms and letting the dance begin. Poppy kept her eyes closed as she spun knowing that if she were to open them and face the reality, that everything she heard and felt in her head would vanish in an instant. Thankfully she didn’t need to worry about falling over something, the clear space in her living room having been designed just for this purpose.

Behind the music in her head now, she could hear other noise. The mummer of the crown, the nervous applause of those who hadn’t wanted to come to see the dancing but had been forced by partners or parents. She moved more rapidly now, getting caught up in the dance, forgetting everything else but the freedom she felt in this moment… Poppy pressed down awkwardly on her left side, the jarring movement a direct contrast to her graceful form of before.

The applause and music faded even as she struggled to hold them, vanishing from her mind like the wisps of memory they were. She opened her eyes and took in reality.

[Poppy]

After a few moments of simply standing in the middle of her living room, feeling sorry for herself she shook her head briskly. Of course, shaking her head like that meant that her long hair got in her eyes, mouth and it even felt like up her nose. Spitting back out the hair and trying to push it away from her face, Poppy managed to finally get it under control. Sometimes, she was sure it had a murderous life of its own.

The young girl looked down at her left leg for a second, just long enough to reassure herself that the stone brown boots covered her scar tissue. It was a habit of hers, one she sometimes didn’t even realise she was doing. Poppy was never quite sure what she would do, on the day that the boots were not protection enough and people would see… hide most likely. She pushed the depressing thoughts away with a firm mental push. It wouldn’t do to think such thoughts.

Poppy moved gracefully over to the connecting door to her sister’s apartment, actually taking the time to rap loudly on the wood and then wait for permission before entering. Most of the time she forgot the last part.

Continued in; Iris’s Apartment with Iris

[Poppy]

Continued from; Iris’s Apartment

Her boots would be fine outside – it was a clear night which meant no rain and no rain meant her soft fabric boots wouldn’t get ruined. She ran a quick glance over the other boots in her wardrobe anyway, just in case a pair would jump out at her, demanding to be worn – but there wasn’t. Which meant all she had to worry about was picking a coat to match her outfit… or she could just grab the first warm looking coat.

Giggling at the thought of obsessing over clothes and making sure they matched – it seemed to silly now – she pulled a long brown one on, letting it wrap comfortably around her. “Ok, so I ended up matching anyway… I look like a stick…” Poppy muttered to herself as she took in her reflection. Still, it wasn’t as if anyone besides Iris was going to see, and nobody was going to care. She picked up her purse and keys, heading for the door.

Poppy wouldn’t put it past Iris pretending to have left without her, which meant she had to get there as quickly as she could.

Continued at; The Parking Garage with Iris

[Poppy]

Post-Skip

Poppy lay curled up in a nest of blankets and pillows in her bed, cuddling a giant stuffed dog. Normally Fudge remained on top of her wardrobe, something for her to blush and laugh about, citing childhood nostalgia as the reason the cuddy toy was still there. In truth though it was her substitute for someone to cuddle during the night, the absence of someone there to lie and say everything would be alright and to hold her until the nightmares passed.

She remained listlessly in her bed, staring up at the ceiling. Last night had never ended, people asking question after question, only to be replaced by different people asking the same questions. Over and over again. Poppy hadn’t really seen the woman and so she’d been no help to the sketch artist, instead having to sit quietly and wait for Iris to be finished. Then she had collapsed in bed, to dream of red stains everywhere.

The young student knew she should get up but right now she didn’t want to have to face the day.

[Iris]

Continued from: Iris’s Apartment

Carrying Casper close to her so that he wouldn’t start barking or squirming, Iris moved quietly through her sister’s apartment. Her destination was the bedroom and she was simply going to peek in and see if Poppy was still asleep. If she was, Iris would just go back to her own place and start getting ready for work. She didn’t doubt that she looked positively terrible and it would likely take a good deal of make up to cover the dark semi-circles that she was sure were beneath her eyes thanks to the all but sleepless night.

Peeking into the bedroom, Iris couldn’t help but give a soft, gentle sigh when she saw her sister. “Morning, Pop,” she said gently, entering the room with Casper, who was being surprisingly calm. “I take it you didn’t get much sleep either.”

[Poppy]

“Morning Irish,” Poppy answered softly, still hugging her toy dog Fudge tightly. The only problem with her stuffed animal was it lacked the heat real, live things produced. But it remained still and let her hug it all she wanted so she supposed the two evened out. Slowly, Poppy pulled herself into a sitting position, avoiding her sister’s gaze all the while.

“Do you think… those detectives will be okay?” she whispered, changing her mind about the question at the last second. She had wanted to ask if Iris thought Deiniol would be found alright, but she didn’t want to hear the answer – or remind Iris about it. And it wasn’t as if her actual question was pointless. Nobody in the police station last night had told them anything about the siblings at the hospital only that they were receiving treatment.

[Iris]

“I’m sure they will be,” Iris replied, trying to sound absolutely convinced of that for her sister’s benefit and not sure if she managed to pull it off or not. She was exhausted and really didn’t want to go to work, but she knew that she really needed to. Right now, though, she was dealing with something far more important- her sister.

She was trying very hard to keep the subject of Denny out of her mind, but was finding it extremely hard. He had seemed like such a sweet man and she really hoped that he would be found, alive and well. She was also hoping that she would be able to follow the case via the paper’s crime reporters. Iris knew how to deal with them and thought that she would be able to weasel information out of them about the case, especially once they found out that she had been in the church and had met the missing man.

[Poppy]

Poppy nodded and sniffed slightly, not trusting her voice right now. The detectives had looked in pretty bad shape when they were taken away. At least to Poppy they had, but then her experience of seeing people in pain had been limited to a splash of red from last night and her own personal night of pain. So she was slightly biased.

She twisted the front paw of Fudge round and round in her hands before finally speaking, her voice low and wavy. “Will you… will you tell me what you find out from work?” Poppy asked. She knew full well that Iris wouldn’t leave the case alone and the moment someone was assigned to it, she would be trying to get as much information as she could. Poppy also knew that the reporter would jump at the chance to interview an eye-witness and she just hoped the person, whoever it was, wouldn’t upset Iris too much. Or they would have an angry young woman with steel tip boots to deal with.

She needed to buy some steel tip boots to make that mental threat more effective.

[Iris]

“Of course I will. As soon as I find out anything, I’ll make sure that I let you know.” Iris couldn’t be sure if the detectives were okay- or if they would be- but she needed to be strong. She could see very easily how upset Poppy was and she wasn’t about to give her younger sister even more of a reason to worry. “I’m sure that someone will be put on the story today and I’ll hunt down whoever it is and give their arm a twist to make them spill whatever they find out.” That or she would give them a good smack to the back of the head. Iris could dish those out quite painfully.

Like Poppy, Iris knew that whoever ended up with the story would likely want to interview her. She would put up with it but if things got too bad, she had a few ways of handling it and telling them very clearly to back off, even if it was likely to be said without words.

“Do you think you might want to try having some breakfast? You really ought to eat. We can go to that nice little diner and have breakfast together before I have to go to work.” She really wanted to give Poppy something else to think about and hoped that the offer of breakfast might help a little.

[Poppy]

Poppy gave Iris a weak smile. She wondered what her sister would do if the news she found out was of the negative nature. If she would tell Poppy right away like she promised or if she would try and break it to her gently. There was no question of her covering it up – Poppy had access to the internet and so 24 hour news should she want it.

“I’m not really very hungry…” Poppy muttered. She wanted nothing better than to flop back into her little ball and go back to pretending to sleep for the rest of the day. The real world could go take a hike and the last thing she wanted was to have to go outside with everyone else and have to deal with people who were fine, who were more than fine. She didn’t see why she had to face people who hadn’t seen what she had and maybe it was a cowardly and selfish thought but it was how she felt.

[Iris]

“Neither am I,” Iris admitted, scratching Casper’s ears. “I guess I really should go get dressed and head to work…” She wasn’t thrilled with the idea, but she would have to go eventually and if Poppy didn’t think she wanted to try breakfast, then Iris supposed that she should try to get to work a little early and hope that there was something interesting going on that would get her mind off the events of the previous night.

“Do you want me to leave Casper here to keep you company? I’m sure he’d cuddle up and go to sleep with you if you want.” Iris really did hate the thought of leaving her sister alone, so if she couldn’t be there, maybe Poppy would let Casper stay to keep her company. That would make Iris feel a little better.

[Poppy]

She paled a little at the thought of Iris going to work and leaving her alone. Sure, she had been alone all night but there had been the reassuring thought that her sister was only a room or two away should she need her. Once Iris was gone then Poppy really would be on her own and who knew what would come after her when that happened. She shivered slightly at the thought.

It didn’t matter that the thing was unlikely to come after her and even if for some reason it wanted it, it would have no idea where she lived. And neither did it matter that Iris would have been no protection should that have happened during the night – if two police officers couldn’t stop it, then it didn’t matter how great she thought her sister was, she wouldn’t be able to do what they failed.

“I…” Poppy licked her lips, torn. If she took Casper then she could wallow a little longer and snuggle with a warm, loving dog. But she would still have to get up at some point and face the world. She did have things to do.

[Iris]

Iris absolutely hated to leave Poppy on her own, but she knew that she needed to go to work. Not only was her boss expecting the photographs from the previous night, she wanted to be there when someone got assigned to cover the murder, crash and kidnapping. That way, she would know whose arm to twist for information. She was determined to know everything as it was discovered and very few people at the paper would refuse to give her information. They knew that she wasn’t a good person to have mad at them.

“Would you like me to just leave the door between the apartments open so he can go back and forth? I’m sure that he’ll stay here and keep you company, though.” Her voice revealed the fact that Iris didn’t like the fact that she had to go to work and leave her sister, but she knew that it was important that she go in today.

[Poppy]

Poppy knew Iris had to go to work, really she did. And in all honesty, she wanted Iris to go to work, so she could find out what was going on with the detectives and with the case in general. But at the same time, she didn’t want Iris to go and leave her alone. The conflicting views of her brain were confusing and she chewed on her lip for a few moments, trying to work up the courage to be strong.

“Okay,” she said at last, giving her sister another weak smile. “Leave the door open. I have to get up in a little bit anyway.” Poppy might, she considered, try and visit the hospital later today, to see if the detectives were allowed visitors. She was worried about them, but she didn’t want to crowd them or make them think she was strange. Just… concerned.

[Iris]

Iris gave a little nod, making a mental note to call in to check on Poppy later. It wasn’t a normal occurrence for her to do something like that- she knew that her sister didn’t need her checking in on her- but what had happened the previous night had been anything but normal and it would really help Iris to feel better if she called later and talked to Poppy. She’d just have to make sure she picked the right time to call in an attempt not to disturb what Poppy would be doing today.

“Okay, I guess I had better get ready for work. I’ll stop back in before I leave.” She put Casper down and the little dog immediate went to the bed and put his paws on it, stretching up as far as he could, wanting on the bed. “Is there anything you need before I go get ready for work?”