Deerhill

Chapter 1 - Indigo

Chapter 1 - Indigo

The rain was heavy as it pattered on the black asphalt of the bar parking lot. Indigo shivered slightly despite wearing both her leather jacket and a patchwork brown hoodie underneath. The car door was locked with a 'beep' and Indigo followed her older sister up the short pathway to the bar entrance. When she entered, the warmth of the bar eased the cold summer rain and dissipated when she wiped her face clear of the water, in turn of showing her ID at the door.

After the death of her mother, Indigo had been moving forward on broken legs. She had left her younger sister, Ducky, with their uncle in Idaho, and then Indigo had gone to Washington. Coming across her older sister Danica had been by chance. They had met face to face for the first time in eight years outside of the cheapest gas station in town. After hugs and short conversation, Indigo coughed up that their mother had died. There had been little grief on Danica's face, but she had immediately offered Indigo a place to stay. Indigo took it gratefully. She could use a couple of days off the road, and not having to pay for a motel room was what sealed the deal.

She was on day three of staying with Danica, and Danica wanted to take her to one of the bars in town. Indigo was impartial to drinking, but food had been promised, and she would never turn down a free meal.

Indigo Westick had been living on her own as a wandering spirit since the death of her mother, a drifter that came through towns and left more bodies in her wake than when she had come. She showed up as a silent prayer being answered, and left without a name or a face. She liked it like that. Hunting monsters was a lonely job. The bartenders never learned her name, and the people never remembered her face.

The bar was surprisingly packed for a Thursday night, and Danica had to move through bodies just to get to the bar top. Danica was taller than Indigo, with her same straight bridged nose and tan complexion. There were slight differences between the two girls, one of them being that Indigo's eyes were green, and Danica's were brown. Danica's dark brown hair was pulled back by two dutch braids, and she was still wearing a pair of mint colored scrubs from her shift. She had just gotten off of work before inviting Indigo out, and was so excited she had forgotten to change.

Indigo was starting to regret accepting her sister's eager kindness when the bartender who was working- a big burly guy with an impressive beard- grinned when he saw Danica with happy recognition.

"Hey kiddo, how are ya?" He asked, his booming voice easy to hear over the noisy bar. It made Indigo squirm and pray it wouldn't draw attention to them. A quick glance around confirmed this, and Indigo turned back to look at the bartender.

"Hey Bear, long time no see," Danica said, reaching across to slap Bear's outstretched hand. The two fist bumped after the high five, and Bear went back to filling a glass with soda water.

"What can I do for ya kid? No Zoe?"

"Nah, but she said she'd pick up your double for you on Friday," Danica said. Zoe was Danica’s long-term girlfriend. She was tall- taller than Danica, with almond skin and a model’s build. She was one of the town’s only humble bartenders, and Indigo didn’t like her. Zoe didn’t like her, either. It was like Zoe could smell the blood on her hands, see it underneath her fingernails. Indigo tried not to let it bother her.

"Aw she's an angel. I got my kid's recital to go to, she's really a lifesaver doin' that for me," Bear said, relief rolling over his cheerful face. He handed a set of drinks off, and then was able to turn his full attention to the two of them. As he did so, he seemed to finally spot Indigo. "Oh, here's a new face. Who's your friend?"

"This is my little sister, Indigo," Danica said. "She's staying with me and Zoe for a while."

“Just a few more days,” Indigo said. “I’m just blowing through town.”

“Oh yea?” He asked. “What’s the occasion?”

“Work,” Indigo said, and didn’t bother elaborating. Neither did Danica.

"I wanted to show Indigo around town, and I thought here was as good as place to start as any," Danica said. "The food sucks and so do your drinks, but at least the music is good."

Bear laughed at that. "Well it's good to sight-see. What can I get you two from our assumedly awful collection?"

"A rum and coke for Indigo," Danica said. Indigo made a face. It was a poor assumption, but not one she wanted to argue. She didn't drink often, but when she did it was typically straight liquor. Whiskey on the rocks. Something like that.

"And a s*x on the beach for me. And some mozzarella sticks,” Danica finished their order.

At the very least that was something Indigo would eat. She wasn't picky, but bar food was something familiar. Her attention got pulled in another direction. Live music was playing from somewhere in the bar, and it took her a moment to locate the stage. Once she found it, she noted the blonde boy playing guitar and singing into the mic, and another boy slamming his drum sticks into his drums like his life depended on it. Danica placed a drink in her hand while she watched them play, craning her neck to see better, and Indigo muttered a thank you.

"That's Leo on the mic, and Drew on the drums," Bear said, noticing she was watching them. "They're good kids, they play here with their friend Helia on Thursday and Saturday nights."

"There's only two of them," Indigo noted.

"Helia's sick today," Bear said. "But they're best friends, the three of them. They fight more than they get along, but they sound good together."

The blonde boy flicked some of his hair out of his face. He couldn't have been much taller than Indigo, and his guitar had a string loose and a dent in the side. The strap wrapped around his neck had been restitched into place twice- Indigo could tell because he had used two different colors for string. He leaned closer to the mic, and the other man slammed his drumsticks even harder into the drumset, earning a nasty glare from the guitarist.

Indigo couldn't help laughing to herself, realizing that they were playing so hard because they were pissed off at each other. "You said they fight more than they get along?"

"Why?" Danica asked.

"Because they definitely got into a fight before they went on stage," Indigo said.

"Leo and Drew are together, they've been together since highschool," Bear said. "Being together that long starts some fights, and they bicker a lot. I wouldn't be surprised."

"I see," Indigo said and took a sip from her drink, letting the sugary sweetness of the coke swell along her tongue for a moment before swallowing. Their plate of mozzarella sticks were passed over sometime during the following song, and Indigo had let herself become so engrossed in them that she barely noticed the couple walking up to her before it was too late.

A woman, tall and with dark eyes that pierced through Indigo, leaned against the bartop next to her. She was familiar in a way that made Indigo queasy. She couldn't quite place where she had seen her from before until she spoke, and an icy feeling spread throughout her body.

"Hello little hunter," the woman said, watching as Indigo raked her eyes over the bite marks along her neck and shoulders. "What are you doing here? You shouldn't be here, you know."

"I think you'd be smart to mind your own business," Indigo said calmly.

The woman only laughed and looked behind her at a man. He was a few inches taller than her, with bright copper hair that was accompanied by a splash of freckles across his face. He was handsome in an intimidating way, his eyes heavy with some kind of burden. Both of them were dressed in black from head to toe.

"We need to mind our own business, Mathew," the woman said to the man. "Isn't that cute?"

The man didn't respond, but Indigo had never taken well to being taunted.

"Coming from a feeder? I don't want to hear it," she said, narrowing her eyes into a thin glare. "You're hardly something I find a threat. Is that your sire?" She pointed to the man, Mathew, and watched as the woman grinned slowly.

"Not exactly," She said. "I'm just here to tell you to get out of this town. This area. The whole pacific northwest, if you would."

"I'll decide where I go and where I stay, thank you," Indigo said.

The woman shrugged and straightened off the bar top. "Consider yourself warned."

"I'll consider it," Indigo said. She watched as the woman touched Mathew's arm and left the bar with him a step behind her. She felt Danica lean closer to her.

"f**k was that about?"

"What, you've never been casually threatened before?" Indigo asked.

"No," Danica said. "Not since I left and went to college."

"That's right, you did leave," Indigo said, looking at her sister again. “Abandoned us so that you could run off and play nurse."

"I chose to leave to pursue a career," Danica said. "I couldn't stand the bloodshed forever, Indigo, and neither should you. It's poisonous."

"You abandoning your family is poisonous," Indigo argued.

"Sure," Danica settled on, as if realizing that arguing was going to do nothing. They sat in silence for a long stretch of time before Danica got up the courage to speak again. "Hey, listen. Why don't you stay with me and Zoe for a while? You can do your little investigations here. Stay with us, get your life together."

"Get my life together?" Indigo asked, looking at her. "What does that mean?"

"It means maybe get a real job, and go back to school."

"I have a real job," Indigo said defensively. Her stomach plummeted as she realized she had fallen for the trap of free booze and junk food. Of course her sister would want her to be stable, but stability was a luxury someone like Indigo couldn’t afford.

“Hunting and committing credit card fraud is not a real job, Indigo.” Danica sighed, heavily, and rubbed her eyes. “I worry about you. You’re going to get yourself killed one day.”

“Such is the job.”

“No, Indigo, such is the life you are actively choosing.”

“People are dying.”

“People will always be dying,” Danica said. “Indigo, you can hunt in the area. You can hunt all of Washington. But please pick a place and settle down. Otherwise you’re going to end up like mom.”

Indigo physically flinched at the mention of her mother, cold and dead in the Montana ground. “Don’t do that. Don’t be like that.”

“I will be like that because you’re my sister and I love you,” Danica said. “I’m not asking, I’m begging. Therapy, at least. Can I get you to agree to stay for a month?”

“A month of therapy won’t undo a lifetime of trauma,” Indigo said.

“I already booked you a session,” she said. “This morning, it’s too late, I got you in next Monday.” At Indigo’s shocked silence, she continued. "I know you're grieving, and I know that the past few years have been hard on you. But I don't know you. And it's not because of the time we spent apart. You need to work it out. The grief, the trauma, all of it. Work it out Indigo, be an adult.”

"I don't need you to tell me to be an adult. I've killed people," Indigo seethed. "That sounds pretty adult to me."

“Can I interest you in a drink?” A man intercepted with the same smooth voice Indigo had been hearing through a microphone for the past hour.

Indigo whipped her head around to look at him, and glanced up at the stage. She hadn't noticed the band stop playing, and the drummer was packing their things up by himself.

"What a gentleman," Indigo said. "But I don't typically swing that way, and you're not the usual type I make an exception for."

“Well how excellent,” he said with the flash of a smile. “A fellow homosexual. Who’s paying for our drinks then?”

“Good question. My mother always taught me to support local, struggling artists.”

Leo laughed. “Struggling? Hurtful, but fair.” He leaned closer to her, against the bar top. “I noticed you speaking to our good friend August Iwasaki.”

August Iwasaki. The name hit Indigo like a train, and with it came memories. She knew she had recognized her. Monster blood had different drug-like effects on vampires, which meant there was a market for packing and selling parts. Indigo was more familiar with August's father, Akio Iwasaki, who managed a business selling blood to vampires.

Where he got the supply, Indigo wasn't sure. But she did have a vivid memory of sitting side by side with August when they were maybe thirteen, while Margot argued the worth of a mermaid's corpse. August had turned to her and told her she was going to be a doctor. The bite marks along her neck and shoulders made Indigo think that dream hadn't happened.

Despite Indigo's slipper morals when it came to killing monsters, the idea of selling them made her skin crawl. "What's she doing here of all places?" She asked, her voice hushed.

Leo shrugged. “Not a clue. That’s what I’m trying to figure out as well. I was hoping maybe you were here for her.”

“No,” Indigo said. “Are you a hunter?”

Leo smiled, and Indigo knew she’d guessed wrong. “I’m Leo.”

“Indigo,” she said hesitantly, grabbing Leo’s extended hand to shake.

“Indigo, I like that. Like the color.” Leo’s smile stayed, hungry now, and excited. “You garden, Indigo? You smoke? Weed?”

“I smoke. Not weed.”

"You're missing out," Leo said. "I'm high right now."

“Congratulations,” Indigo said. “Tell me what you know about the Iwasaki’s.”

“Nuh uh, you gotta smoke with me first,” he said with a smile. “I don’t do anything for nothing you know. Gotta make it worth my time.”

“What’s the point in that?” Indigo asked. “How would that be worth your time?”

“I wanna see your soul,” Leo said. “You do that for me, and I’ll tell you everything you want to know. Let’s get high together. It’ll be fun.”

Indigo worked her jaw. She wanted to argue, to resist, but the urge to know everything she could about the Iwasaki’s was much stronger than her self preservation. “Fine,” She said to Leo. “Tonight?”

“Antsy are we?” He asked. “Tomorrow. I have plans tonight.”

Indigo hated that, but Danica was watching too closely, and she couldn’t make this playful banter last much longer. “Tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow,” he said and grabbed his phone out of his pocket. “Let me get your number.”

Indigo took his phone, the newest addition iphone, and plugged her number into it. Drew called for his boyfriend, and Leo hopped up out of his seat, smiling and waving at Indigo. “Catch you later!”

Indigo waved, watching him go. She slid off her bar stool and followed Danica out to the car, the ride back home a comfortable amount of silence.

Indigo spent the entire next day pacing the length of the living room of the apartment, dodging hanging plants and Zoe's half finished paintings, or smoking outside on the balcony. Finally six o’clock came and Danica came home. Indigo wanted her there if only to ensure her safety while she invited this strange man over to get high for the first time. It was a risky thing she was doing, and she knew that. But her need to know what happened to August’s plans of having a good life overruled her better judgement.

Leo knocked on the door maybe ten minutes after Danica had started dinner, and Indigo nervously opened the door. He gave her a smile, somehow less intimidating now than he had been in Indigo’s mind, and held up two grocery bags full of snacks. He had his guitar slung over one shoulder, and a large handbag over the other. A pink blanket was hanging over his left arm.

“Hello hello,” He said, walking inside after Indigo stepped to the side. “Ready to get this party started?”

“I guess,” Indigo said, shutting the door behind him. “This is my sister, Danica.”

“Hey,” Danica said from the kitchen. “Leo, right? I’m making nachos for dinner.”

“Of fuuuuck yes dude,” Leo said, setting all of his stuff down on the nearby couch. “Oh you’re a woman after my own heart.”

Indigo was mortified by the casual way Leo was speaking to her sister, but was immediately reminded that Danica was not her parents by the way she laughed.

“I try,” she said. “Set up on the porch unless you got a pen. All I ask is that you don’t smoke in the apartment.”

“Hey no problem," Leo said. "I got everything. I was thinking something rolled may be less intense for a first timer. That's usually a good water wing. Come on sister, show me to your balcony."

Indigo sighed through her nose and walked across the apartment and opened the sliding door to the balcony. “Here we are.”

Leo let out a slow whistle as he stepped outside. “Alright, love. Nice view, Indigo like the color.”

“It’s alright,” Indigo said, not about to admit that the only reason she was able to bear it was because they were surrounded by apartments in the other direction. The open space was weighing on her more and more the longer she was there, but it wasn’t something Leo could understand, so she didn’t mention it.

She watched as Leo opened a small, plastic tube and shook a joint into his hand. His hand disappeared into his pocket with the tube, and returned with a lighter. He set the joint between his teeth and sparked the lighter, lighting the joint with a small inhale. He tucked the lighter back in his pocket and removed the joint from his lips, holding it out for Indigo.

“Your turn,” he said, blowing the smoke out of the corner of his mouth. “Inhale just like a cigarette.”

“Alright,” Indigo said, hesitantly taking the joint. She felt rough hands in her hair, and could hear the way her mother would have reprimanded her if she was there. She set the joint between her lips and inhaled the smoke.

It made her cough at first, and then time didn’t exist. The rush hit her as she was walking back into the apartment with Leo, and he got her settled on the couch as she watched the wall fizzle and melt away. Her legs were on fire, and she was sure that if she stood up they would disappear and she would fall.

Leo took her hand and poured out a generous amount of skittles from an open bag into her palm, and one by one she scooped them into her mouth. Indigo couldn’t even remember the last time she’d eaten candy. Junk food for sure. Jerky, and protein shakes. But candy was never on Margot’s roster for things to spend money on.

“I don’t know much about the Iwasaki’s,” Leo admitted once Indigo was settled with her candy. “But I do know about August. She got into a bit of trouble a few years ago. At least, her parents did. They were sold out to the The Council of Supernatural and Human Affairs, and some hotshot vampire- Cecil Adley- struck a deal with August. If she worked for him for a few years, he would help her build a case for herself against being an accomplice in her parent’s crimes.”

Indigo’s blood ran cold. The Council of Supernatural and Human Affairs, or “the council” as Margot had put it, was a council of supernatural beings that worked with the human governments to keep things smooth between the two existences. Hunters were vigilantes- humans who were tired of seeing monsters kill everything around them. Indigo, and people like her, were unauthorized murderers who took out threats. It wasn’t exactly legal, but it was turned a blind eye to.

“How long has she been working under him?” Indigo asked, remembering the bite marks lining her body. “She was bitten up pretty badly.”

“Three years now, I think,” Leo said. “Yea, three years. Since she was nineteen. I think she has two more years to go. Not that he would ever let her actually leave. Cecil’s a nasty snake who works in trades and deals, who never really holds up his end of the bargain.”

“Five years as punishment for something she didn’t even do?” Indigo asked.

“Hey, they take traffickers very seriously,” Leo said. “And that’s exactly what the Iwasaki’s did. Trafficked monster bodies. Believe me, five years is nothing on what her parents got. Turned into human juice boxes.”

“Being an indentured servant to a vampire is worse,” Indigo said. She knew about vampires and the lives they led. The old country vampires, at least. They were cold, and cruel. Rich aristocrats who ate more than they needed to and felt like they had the right to simply take what they wanted. The council did nothing to stop them, either. Often endorsing or encouraging this behavior- so Margot told her.

If August was living that life, Indigo felt true pity for her. She had wanted to be a doctor.

Not a human juice box, as Leo had put it, forced to do god knows what for an evil villain. What exactly August’s job entailed was unclear to Indigo, but she imagined it was something similar to what she did. Only Indigo got to decide where and when she went. That freedom was stripped from August.

“My aunt thinks they were down a body when August's case got dragged up. That’s why he gave her the ultimatum. She chose her option, Indigo. There’s always a choice.”

“Don’t do that, don’t defend it,” Indigo looked at him.

Leo shrugged. “I’m not defending it. I think what happened to her is disgusting just as much as the next guy. But I’m also right. She chose to take the deal. She dug her own grave, that’s all there is to it.”

Indigo didn’t want to believe that. She would rather chew off her own leg than stay stuck in a trap. She was hit with another wave of being incomprehensive and Leo laughed at her as she groaned and leaned against the couch cushions. For a second she was sure the couch was going to swallow her so she sat up again.

“What’s going on, love?”

What was going on? Indigo wasn’t really sure. Every time she made a coherent thought it slipped through her fingers into a blur of colors and sounds. She was sure that she had taken too much, but it wasn’t as scary as she had assumed it would be. Mind numbing definitely. Pleasant, even. It was a nice break from the usual internal torment she was used to.

“I miss my mom,” she said, and the confession was enough to squeeze her lungs flat with grief. Leo stopped strumming his guitar and softly set it to the side, scooting closer to Indigo.

“Where’s your mom, sister?” He asked, his voice soft and gentle and genuine.

“Dead,” she said. “She died on a hunt in Montana. I couldn’t…” she trailed off. She couldn’t save Margot. Not for her sister, or her uncles, or herself. There may have been a universe in which Indigo had saved Margot, where she had been strong enough. But she wasn’t in that reality, and her life was ruined. The confession made things more real than she wanted them to be, so she launched into another topic. A safer one.

“You said you wanted to feel my soul?”

Leo hesitated. It was like he had read her mind, and could tell that she wanted out of the mess she had accidentally created. He was merciful enough to let it go. “Okay,” he said, shifting in his seat. “You gotta trust me.”

“I’m trusting you,” Indigo said with a surprising amount of honesty. She wasn’t sure what it was about Leo. He had told her nothing about himself, so maybe it was the drugs, or the fact that Danica was in the next room. Or maybe it was the passive suicidalness that hung over her in a constant cloud of uncertainty and sorrow. She was here now, but she might not be there tomorrow. Stuck in a purgatory of her own making. Stuck with a gun in her hands, and shoes that forced her to keep walking.

“Put your hand out, like this,” Leo said, holding his hand out, folding his fingers into a loose fist and extending his pinky finger. “You gotta trust me, remember. I’m not gonna hurt you.”

Indigo found herself drawn to linking her pinky with his, and hesitantly did so. His hand was warm, warmer than hers, and a soothing feeling overcame her as soon as their fingers met. Trusting him was easy, like a moth drawn to light. She could feel her whole body relaxing as he held her steady. Leo smiled and pressed his lips against his thumb, glancing up at her as if telling her silently to do the same with her hand.

Normally Indigo would walk away, but she was so deep in the comforting feeling of being held that she was intrigued enough to do it. Tossing her self preservation, she leaned forward and kissed her thumb as well.

You feel that?" He asked after a moment. “The buzzing, in our hands. The energy? We’re made of the same energy baby, we’re on this rock together. You feel that?”

Indigo stared hard at Leo, unsure of what to make of her situation. She went to pull away, feeling stupid and tricked, but he held onto her pinky tighter and anchored her there. Then, there was something just at the edge of her memory. Small hands tugging on her sleeve, a corpse being dragged through the snow. There was an ache where her bone had been broken in the winter time by her father, who had been just a little too harsh with her. Unexpected tears welled in her eyes, and there was a buzzing between their hands.

“You feel it?” Leo asked again, and Indigo drew in a ragged, gut wrenching breath. She barely caught the sob that her body tried to rack out of her throat, and felt her entire body screaming at her to move. But she couldn’t. She did feel the buzzing, and it felt human and raw and beautiful. Like she was being touched by an angel. Like she was being kissed by god.

“Pretty cool huh?” Leo asked and let go of her, leaving Indigo cold and alone. “Here babygirl, let me get you a tissue.”

Indigo watched him get up and head toward her bathroom. She wiped tears from her eyes and looked at her wet fingers, her head spinning with what had happened. Whatever Leo was, he wasn’t human. No human could pull a trick like that.

Still, she was unable to pull herself out of her hazy state and care enough to do something about it. Instead, she sank into the couch again, and Leo picked his guitar back up. She felt the music through her body as she watched the trees outside, thinking about Margot and Ducky and the life that she could never have again. She was lulled to sleep by Leo's music, where she dreamed of sharp fangs, and guitar chords, and the sunlight coming in through the trees.