Spreading the news

[nica_hepcat]

WHO: Nicam tag Katie and whoever else might be around
WHEN: Thursday afternoon
WHERE: Katie and Chester's house

Nica spent her school day talking to Lynn about what had happened at the camping spot, and about the dead man who wasn't dead, and then wouldn't die. She didn't talk about it with anyone else; she hadn't seen Rex or she might have flirted with him again, poor guy. He was nice ... And there was Juice, but she would go see him later and give him all the gory details. Literally, gory details, complete with blood and ichor. She didn't know exactly what ichor was, but if anything she'd ever seen was ichorous, it was poor Stu.

Anyway, it crossed her mind that maybe not everyone she knew and liked in Pleasantdale had heard about what happened. So, on the way home, she stopped off at Katie and Chester's house, hoping that Katie was around. Books clutched firmly in her left hand, she knocked at the front door.

Comments

[nica_hepcat]

"Hello, Miss Katie. Um ... I just wanted to let you know about something that happened yesterday. It didn't make a lot of sense, so I'll just tell you what I saw. Could I have something to drink?"

[katherine_the_great]

"Oh, alright -- come on in," Katie said, and moved aside.

"Darling, who is it?" Chester called.

"It's Nica Marchese," she called back, and received a vaguely disinterested 'hm' in reply.

[nica_hepcat]

"Thank you." Nica was clearly nervous and a little agitated. She was speaking quietly, too ... not whispering, but conspiratorial. "Okay ... so, supposedly, there's rabies goin' around. Vito took our dog to the vet and we heard about someone who killed a possum and it tried to attack him after it was already dead. Well ... we got the possum and took it to the college and this doctor lady wasn't able to test it and said we should try to catch a live one, and we tried and this guy, Stu somebody, came out of the woods and he'd been bitten and he kind of tried to attack us." She paused long enough to take a breath. "And then, it got kind of crazy. And not in a good way."

[katherine_the_great]

"Nica. Nica... Nica," Katie attempted to reassure her - she obviously seemed freaked out. "Calm down. Deep breaths. Come on into the kitchen, let's get you a drink, and then slow down and tell me."

She carefully led Nica towards the kitchen, where the smell of a roast was emanating from the oven, and apparently she had been busy working on preparing a homemade cherry pie before answering the door. "I'll get you a glass of lemonade, and you can sit down and breathe."

[nica_hepcat]

"Thank you," Nica said, and settled into a chair, giving Katie a grateful look as the pretty blonde woman handed her a glass. "I'm sorry, I wanted to tell the story better. But this guy -- He'd been bitten, we could see that right away. And his tongue was black and he didn't look like he was completely awake, just kind of glassy-eyed, like maybe he was drunk. So he's lurching around and the guys got him pinned."

She took a sip and seemed to relax a little. "He never said a word, he was carrying a gun but it's like it never crossed his mind to use it even though we were all tryin' to restrain him. Mr. Chow and the doctor from the college both said he was dead, and then he ... he grabbed Mr. Chow, and they had to ... restrain him some more."

[katherine_the_great]

"Are you alright? Was anyone hurt?" Katie frowned and looked Nica over, as the remainder of her statement began to process. "And did they bring that man to the hospital?"

[nica_hepcat]

"No," Nica said, "not the hospital. After another struggle, he was really, really dead. They told the cops what happened, but they had to get the guy to the college so the doctor would figure out what happened. She said sometimes this happened with ants, but never with people, that she'd heard about. I just wanted to make sure you knew that ... things aren't really safe in that part of town."

[katherine_the_great]

Katie frowned more. "Well, I certainly wasn't planning on catching any animals... are you sure you're alright? My goodness..." She began fussing over Nica, checking her over as if expecting to find some hidden injury.

[nica_hepcat]

Nica let herself be checked, but shook her head. "No, i stayed as far away from the weirdness as I could, considering we were all right there ... It was just really, really weird."

[katherine_the_great]

"Is everyone else alright?" Katie continued. "You said you were there with some friends..."

[nica_hepcat]

"Vito, and Rex from school, and Maxine. Eddy, from the shop. Mr. Chow. And the doctor from the college. Everyone's okay, thank Gawd. The guy with the black tongue, they said his name was Stuart ... it was in his wallet."

[katherine_the_great]

"Well, I wasn't planning on making any trips to a lover's lane anytime soon, but it sounds like the woods is not a place to be right now, for certain... so did they find out what happened to that poor man? You aren't in trouble, are you?"

[nica_hepcat]

"No ... Vito was there the whole time. They're trying to figure out who he was, how long he was missing, what he had ... Yeah, I'm not going out that way again, not without lots of backup. I'll let you know when I hear anything, and I guess if you wanted to call Vito or Maxine or anyone else who was there, they might be able to make a little more sense of it than me." Nica shuddered. "Sorry, I just figured you'd want to know something weird was up."

[katherine_the_great]

Katie nodded, and gave her shoulder a squeeze. "Are you -sure- you're alright?" She seemed dubious, given the shuddering - she wasn't sure how much she believed, but Nica definitely looked freaked out and as if she needed a friend right about now.

From the other room, Chester began wondering how long the womenfolk were going to babble on about whatever it was they were talking about, anyhow. He'd been promised a nice fat roast and some sweet cherry pie, and this was delaying it. He'd have to have a talk with Katie about letting uninvited guests interrupt his evening.

[nica_hepcat]

The squeeze felt good. Nica managed a smile and patted Katie's hand. "I'm okay. I gotta go ... I still have to tell Georgio what's going on, let him know to stay away from the Point for a while."