Knowing when it's time to leave the table (CATCH-ALL)

[kleptofaeniac]

(OPEN)

God it was slow today. She hadn't had a street fair go this badly in like... six months. There were always some dumb tourists looking to buy her garbage, but right now? She had a very barren deposit box and a lot of garbage that needed selling.

Kenzi was considering even taking off her wig she was that bored. She knew when she was thinking about not going method - that was when she was having a shit day. Her fingers idly flip through her tarot deck as she watches the crowd pass by her stall without any interest. Eventually...she starts looking at the deck and wonders what her own spread would be.

Kenzi has never - not once - read for herself. Either she's too freaked out by it or doesn't believe in it (the latter is far more likely). But right now...

"Fuck it," she grumbles and leans forward to start shuffling the deck. She has nothing better to do right now.

Kenzi does a three card spread. Recent past, present and future soon to come. It's one of her aunts old standbys and she knows it well enough.

As she turns over the cards, she likes less and less what she sees.

Four of Pentacles. Reversed.

The Chariot. Reversed.

And for the future...

Death. Upright.

"What the fuck?"

Is shakily whispered. Her typical fake accent is gone.


(OPEN)

The problem with having all your business taken away was that it meant you worked twice as hard. The irony was not lost on Kenzi. And she was trying to keep up with winning back the sheer volume of people who didn't want anything to do with her after Norrell got ahold of her and all her crap, but that was far easier said than done.

A month ago, Kenzi would have laughed in your face if you told her she'd be this far up shit creek.

Now she was just keen to stuff her face with pizza and drink her feelings away. Which, unfortunately, meant going out and getting food herself.

Instead of just getting it to go, Kenzi is relegating herself to doing this in public because it means less work right now. One large pepperoni pizza with extra cheese and tears. Well, not really. Vodka would be more accurate.

"This is my life."

Eating pizza at two in the morning and drinking more than anyone with a still-functioning liver had any right to.


(For Nancy)

Kenzi smacked her open palm against Nancy's door, listing to the right as she did. She hadn't been this drunk in ages, but then again - her life hasn't been this shit in ages either. She needed a friend. And she needed one bad. Someone to complain to and pet her head. Someone she could trust to stay by her side unlike some horrible bodyguards who will not be mentioned.

"Nancy! Nancy fo-fampsy! Open door!"

She didn't hear the whine in her voice. Not well at least. Kenzi could handle her liquor and thought she was just fine right now.

She was very. Very. Wrong.


(For Jean-Claude & Nancy)

This was it. The End.

Kenzi couldn't tell you what happened or how... not right now at least. All she knew was that she was bleeding. A lot. Later, if she lived, she would be able to tell you that some guy (she never even got to see his face) grabbed her from behind and told her to 'stop poking her little witch nose into things she should' and then... pain slicing through her back and her neck. Too hot and blistering her senses, she fell to the ground practically crippled and in shock.

She couldn't be dying. Not like this. Who would hold Nancy's hair back when she need to hurl?

But she is... and in the back of her mind, behind the pain, she knows it. And it's terrifying enough to get her to croak out in a breathless, weak voice:

"Help...please, someone..."

She doesn't care if she sounds pathetic - it doesn't even factor into this. Right now, survival is all she cares about.

WILDCARD

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Comments

For JC and Nancy

[kleptofaeniac]

Kenzi had been falling in and of consciousness for what felt like hours. She thought being turned would at least give her some mojo to get to Nancy's place but it turns out if you're still bleeding out like a stuck pig after a bite you'll continue to bleed out.

The only reason she knew where she was, was thanks to Nancy's flat door. The numbers of her place were ingrained in her mind to the point of recognizing them even in the least cognizant moments.

"Nan...Nan open the door."

In her mind she figured Jean-Claude wouldn't be able to convince Nancy to let him in. Clearly she had to help. As much as she could.

[stauncherhearted]

Nancy had been in then midst of getting ready when the knock came. putting down her curling iron, she moved to the door as she heard the weak voice call. Kenzi. which meant Nancy was going to drop everything for her.

she opened the door and barely had time to recognize there was a man with Kenzi. She saw blood and her friend was pale and that meant- "Kenzi- Jesus. get her inside, lay her on the couch- let me get something to slow the blood loss. I've got replenishment in the cupboard-" she was already ushering both of them inside without even considering that the man was a vampire. because Kenzi was in trouble. a lot of trouble.

"call 999." moving into the kitchen Nancy grabbed her hand towels and a large bottle of blood replenishment and, darted back into the living room. Once there, she started trying to stop the blood. Kenzi was hurt. Kenzi was dying. and she knew already why: because of her.

[baisant]

Jean-Claude had carried her to her friend's flat, at her request. It had been difficult, getting her there. Not because it was difficult to carry her, but because it was difficult to avoid people on the streets while doing so. He can only imagine what it might look like, what the pair of them might look like, trailing blood down the sidewalk. Any good Samaritan would have called for an ambulance and that is the last thing anyone should be doing right now.

His thoughts are confirmed as Kenzi's friend -- Nancy, he thinks he remembers her saying it was -- begins to bustle about, in an attempt to save her. And maybe, at this point, they could. She's lasted this long as it is, she's a fighter. With the help of his blood, it's possible that she might make it to a hospital, that they might able to save her life at this point. But they have made a deal, and it is too late to back out on it now.

As she invites him inside, he does as he's bid and lays her down on the couch. But he draws the line as she starts to try and save her friend. Reaching out to take her hands in his own. "You must stop," he says, schooling his voice to be as gentle as he can.

[stauncherhearted]

Nancy bats his hands away without a second thought.

"You've got to help me," she insists, kneeling down next to Kenzi, holding the towels against her stomach. She takes one of Kenzi's hands and places it over the towels. "Kenzi- stay with me. I've got you now, it's alright. Just keep the pressure." She uncaps the bottle of blood replenishment and holding it to her lips. "You've got to drink this, it'll help- why aren't you calling A&E?" She turns to look at the strange man in her apartment.

With one hand, she reaches for Kenzi's, holding it tightly to her chest. She won't be working tonight, no way in hell. "I've got you, my dear. He's calling 999. Just talk to me." God gods, she's cold. She's cold and shaking and pale. "What happened? Can you tell me what happened?" Without waiting for Kenzi's answer, she turns back to the man.

"If you aren't helping, get the fuck out of my flat." It wasn't an order, he was thusly, welcome to stay. "But my best friend is dying and I won't let her, do you hear me?" She sets the bottle down and it rattles, as do a few other items around her apartment. But Nancy doesn't notice, or if she does, she doesn't care, because her entire world is on her couch right now bleeding out. "Because I don't have time for this. ID on't know who you are, or how you found her, but you've got to help me save my best friend. Please." She spares him a glance, her green eyes obscured by the tears that have already started to track down her cheeks.

[kleptofaeniac]

To Nancy's questions she only lolls her head listlessly towards Jean-Claude, as if trying to explain "He's saving me" with a gesture.

Kenzi was out of it, to be sure but she could hear Nancy freaking the fuck out and beyond the fact that she was dying and bleeding all over everything she could only really register that Nancy was upset. So it was clearly her job to fix it.

"Nan, babe. Chill."

Okay, maybe not the best talk-down in the world. Kenzi's hand twitched feebly in Nancy's grip and her smile was watery as she tried to speak clearly.

"JC over here is helpin'. Pinky promise."

[baisant]

Jean-Claude glances across at her, raising his eyebrows as if to say, 'see?' Kenzi had at least enough left to vouch for him, which is good because he isn't quite sure how else he might keep her from trying to save her friend other than to just come out and say it.

"You need to stop," he says, as gently as he can because he does understand the fact that her friend is dying, and he is sorry about it. He isn't responsible, at least. Small blessings. "The change has begun even now." He glances down at Kenzi before back up at Nancy before pointedly adding, "It is what she wanted." He could have easily just left to let her die by herself out there, after all.

[stauncherhearted]

Her jaw drops.

"No." Nancy shakes her head, looking past Kenzi now to Jean-Claude. Still clutching one of Kenzi's hands, she repeated herself: "No." Because it couldn't be true. He couldn't have. Kenzi couldn't have been-

Kenzi was dying. Kenzi had to die. She had to die so that she could complete the transformation. Nancy closed her eyes with a small whimper as the full extent of Jean-Claude's words hit her. "Oh god, oh god," she whispered, a hand on her chest, leaving a bloody handprint on skin and fabric alike.

"Kenzi- you-" she turns back to Jean-Claude. "You! This can't-" she couldn't turn. She couldn't leave Shadow Coven and become something else. She knew what vampires could do to a person. Especially a newborn vampire whom had no control over their thirst when they craved-

"no."

[kleptofaeniac]

"M'sorry, babe."

Kenzi thinks Nancy is mad at her - rather, she knows Nancy is mad at her. Why else would she be so upset? Kenzi is too out of it to realize it's because she's going to be gone soon.

But she'll be back. Not quite herself.

"I had a choice...," she's quiet for a moment before it gets a little harder to breath and she coughs, tasting copper. It's blood and she doesn't realize there are flecks of it coating her chin now, mixing with what Jean-Claude gave her.

She was choosing to live.

[baisant]

Jean-Claude is at least grateful that Kenzi doesn't seem to hate him for this. Which is more than he can say for her friend. He has a funny feeling that she's going to blame him for it. For all of it. For whatever cruelty it was that happened to Kenzi before he even met her, for every cruelty that will happen in times to come. For every wrongdoing made by vampirekind. He represents a terrible truth that she does not want to come to terms with, and it's very easy to hate him for all of it instead of accept it all for what it is.

He lets out a sigh, glancing down at Kenzi before back up at Nancy in turn. "She asked me to bring her here. It is what she wanted." He hopes that Nancy will at least appreciate that, if nothing else.

[stauncherhearted]

She will blame him, and she'll love it. She needed a scapegoat- she was only nineteen, still so young. She'd experienced such awful things in the world, and this was just another one. But that didn't mean her coping mechanisms were ever anything even remotely decent.

Still, she heard his words.

Kenzi had wanted to spend her last moments... her last human moments with her. She was about to send Jean-Claude out when she remembered: Kenzi would be thirsty when she returned. And wouldn't be able to control herself. He had to stay, to keep her safe.

Nancy was trusting this stranger and a newborn vampire with her life, because Kenzi wouldn't fully ever be Kenzi again.

"Oh god oh god oh god," she whimpered, turning her full attention to her friend, to stroking her pale, cold cheeks. "I'm here, love. There's- hush. Nothing to be sorry for." She blinked, what would have been tonight's mascara trailing down her cheeks. She clutched one of her hands as tightly as she could. "I'm here, Kenzi. I'm not mad. I'm not mad."