A Curse Upon Thee 3-6B

Chad the Barbarian…

It felt like there was a joke somewhere in there. Unfortunately, he wasn’t too good at making them. No, that was more the wheelhouse of a specific red-haired idiot.

Being honest, it was hard not to see what was funny there, but looking at the stop sign in his grip — a new notch in its ragged teeth from the last couple hours — Chad could only shake his head rather than laugh. Can’t maintain a weapon that’s made out of junk.

Something else there Finn would have laughed himself silly over — ‘You’re swinging around a stop sign, and you’re worried about upkeep?’ — but it wasn’t like his cousin had ever bothered managing anything in his life anyway, so what did he know?

Breathing out of his nose, Chad paused on the steps right outside the sheriff station, his stop-axe — axe-sign? — resting over one shoulder. He turned the pole just a bit, staring at the ‘damage’ that it had taken to the sharp end, the orange glow of the streetlamp helping him there. 

Little bit of metal missing. Missing or peeled back from where the second Nightmare of today had bit back against him. File that down and it’ll be fine. 

That was an option, of course, or he could also not do that. The jagged parts were doing most of the work anyway, so filing it just seemed like more work in the long run. …God, I’m thinking like Finn now. 

And wasn’t that the annoying part?

Not that he was standing outside a police station an hour off from midnight doing pointless triage on a road sign. It was the fact he was starting to think like a slacker. Guess that’s small-town life for you.

And it was starting to feel a lot like his life.

After just three weeks too, an impressive turnaround.

Chadwick O’Donaghue let out another sigh as his eyes dropped down, khakis staring back at him looking like a complete write-off. The dirt on one knee wasn’t coming out anytime soon, not after a half-dozen washes at least, and — if that wasn’t bad enough — then the tear running up his left sight right next to something dark that could have been blood only made it clear his trousers were better off as rags at this point. That’s another pair gone. At this rate, I’ll have to go shopping at Storybrooke General Store.

Honestly, that was sounding less and less like a bad idea. At the very least, it’d save him from having to fight in his good clothes. 

…ow.

Speaking of fighting, the wound on his cheek had gone from an open cut to a deep bruise in the last hour and it still hurt like you wouldn’t believe. Somehow the cut stung less than the bruise and he had gotten that from being launched clean through a chain link fence and slamming his face into a wall.

A good six feet of airtime and a headfirst landing, but somehow the brick had suffered more for it than he had.

Still insane. The blue was strong around him now in a fight, that same shell humming against his back teeth and Chad counting on it every time. Ruby called it an ‘Aura’, and Chad called that ‘lazy’.

Lazy or not, he didn’t have a better name for it and it came in handy anyway.

Especially on the days when those monsters would double — or triple — up.

Today was a double, the first one spotted around breakfast and had him kicking Granny’s door open with weapon in hand. The second one showed up just after dark, right behind an empty house on the north end and — even between the three of them — it had taken almost a half hour just to kill the thing.

Half an hour.

For one of those screaming Nightmares.

Chad sighed as he stepped down and found the wall, his sign resting up against the brick as he took in a breath to replace the one he just set free. His phone came free from his pocket as he let his head rest against brick, three missed calls staring back at him.

Mom.

All Mom. Damn it. 

His tongue clicked against his teeth. Can’t run forever. As much as he wished he could solve this with magic, reality seemed to be stronger with the stuff that couldn’t be solved by hitting it hard enough.

A thumb pressed the last missed call, Chad putting the phone to his ear. The first ring didn’t even finish before it connected. “Chadwick? Finally.”

“Hello, Mother.”

“Do you….” The sound of a low breath whistling through tight-pressed lips sounded against his ear. “Oooh, do you have any idea how may times I called you today, young man?”

“Three…”

“Three, he says, like three isn’t a l-” His mother’s grunt trailed off, Chad nodding slow as her mutters got less and less angry. “First of all, it was four. I called that little hotel you’re staying at first.”

“...the inn.”

“Inn, hotel, motel, it doesn’t matter. Whatever place had a woman with the voice of a longshoreman that told me you were out.”

Chad glanced back through the window, Graham standing there by the wall rack — crossbow in hand, the sheriff checked the tension on the string with two fingers as his other hand handed the bolts off to a waiting Ruby to put away. “Yeah… sorry, I was busy.”

“With what, exactly?”

Chad let that question sit for about as long as he felt he could get away with. “...helping out around town.”

The truth was the best defense and he’d already been good at that much before he ever set foot in this town, picking out the best part of the truth. Doing the most with the least, Blue Trumpet ran on that principle, Grandpa O’Donaghue able to get through an hour-long meeting leaving everyone in the room satisfied without saying more than he absolutely had to.

“Helping out.”

Chad nodded. “Yeah.”

“Okay.” As much as Chad wasn’t lying, she still wasn’t in the mood to buy anything he was selling. “And… Finny?”

There it was. He’d expected another ask, considering what he went out of town for. “No, nothing yet on that end, Mother.”

Also true, thank God.

“Nothing at all?”

“Nothing new, Mother.”

Another pause came from the other end, the lack of sound with a shape to it. He could almost see it, his mom in the kitchen; hip against the island while his Father was off somewhere pretending to read. “What’s the police doing? Isn’t there… I mean, you said they’ve got a sheriff up there, no? What are they saying?”

‘Chad, get its head!”

‘Get its head? What if it gets mine?’

“...not much of anything right now.”

“Not much of anything.” His mom echoed the words back at him. It was a habit he got from her and he hated when she used it on him. “Chadwick, sweetheart, Mother loves you, you know that?”

“I know, Mother.”

“Which is why I have to say this.” She sighed again. “It’s been three weeks.”

“I know, Mother.”

“Three weeks and what is this police department doing?”

“Sheriff and they’re—” Hunting demons, pretty much. “—they’re working hard, Mother. It’s a small department. There’s only about two people in it.” Three if you counted that Emma lady but she had barely stepped back in the station. “Hard workers, though.”

“They’d have to work rather hard with only two of them, no?”

“Mother.”

“What? You said it yourself, just two of them.” The sound of nails tapping against marble was audible from the other end. “Maybe we can help them. Your uncle can send a few more private investigators up there by-”

“Mother, I said no already.”

“You said-” Another breath sucked in low. “Chadwick Keyne O’Donaghue, why in God’s good name would you say no?”

Maybe because throwing three Boston boys in this town would have them dead in under a solid week, Mother. That or they’d be fine — which would be worse — and then they’d start filing reports he couldn’t explain away. “Because it’s not that kind of situation. It’s…” His shoulder brushed against his sign, the axe scraping against brick. “Look, Mother, Finn… Finn has done this for long enough. Last time, we only found out he was alive because he called from a burner in New York-”

“Queens.”

“Queens, yes. Thank you, Mother.” Chad bit back a sigh of his own. “My point is, Uncle Kurt didn’t put three investigators on him then.”

“He did.”

Blue eyes blinked, fingers slackening around the phone for a second. “He did? Oh… well, it didn’t work then, did it?”

“Chadwick!”

“Mother, I’m just saying that Finn was fine then and he wasn’t even seventeen then. He’s almost nineteen now. He came out of that and, whatever this is, Finn… Finn is…” Chad finally let that breath free, sigh rolling out as he closed his eyes for a moment. “Finn is going to be fine.”

A car rolled past, tires wet, Chad’s eyes following it all the way as it rounded a corner. “He’ll show.”

Something in the background rolled low, Chad unable to miss the sound of his Dad’s own voice even if he couldn’t quite make it out word-for-word. “I know that.” His mother’s voice came at a distance for a moment, answering someone that wasn’t him, before she came back on the line again. “Your father agrees with you because why wouldn’t he? Wonderful, isn’t it? How no one ever agrees with me?”

“Grandpa agrees with you.”

“Don’t you start, Chad.”

“He’s called me two Sundays in a row to agree with you, Mother.”

“I’m sure. I just want you home, Chadwick.”

“I know.”

“Morgan misses you already.” She wasn’t done, of course. “And you know she misses her older brother too.”

…Finn, you fucker. He didn’t mind having to step up as an older brother, but he shouldn’t have to when his little cousin already had one. “I know, Mother.”

“So when can I expect you back?”

“I…” Chad closed his eyes. “I don’t know. Soon.”

“How soon is soon?”

“Mother…”

“All I’m saying is that you told me this little excursion would be a few days and you’d be back before the weekend. It’s been nearly a month.”

“Mother…” Chad’s thumb ran up the edge of the phone case, the crack he’d put in it from gripping too hard still standing out. “Mother, I just want to give it a little longer.”

“How much l-”

“Mother, it’s just that if Finn turns up, and I’ve already headed back, then I came all the way up her for nothing and… and I’d have to come back anyway, so…” One hand gripped the shaft of the sigh hard. “So, just give it a little longer.”

The other end was quiet for a few too-long seconds before an “Okay” breathed through the speaker. “Okay, Chaddy. But you call me tomorrow. I mean it.”

“I’ll call.”

“Not text.”

“I’ll call. Love you.”

“I love you t-”

He hung up the call before his mother could pull the conversation any longer than it had already stretched. The phone sat in his hand, axe-sign resting on his shoulder as he stood under the street lamp. Can’t even give her a date.

Chad let out another sigh. “Goddamnit, Finn. I’m gonna beat the shit out of you.”