A Curse Upon Thee 10

Chapter 10: What You Hungry For?

“Give me a reason, to end this discussion…”

The silence in the old cannery wasn’t peaceful at all. Expansive, eerie and full of echoes, the place was too empty for comfort, which meant he had to fill it with something.

“’Cause I hate the ocean, theme parks, and airplanes; talking with strangers, waiting in line…”

That something just happened to be Motion City Soundtrack.

“I’m through with these pills that make me sit still, ‘Are you feeling fine?’ Yes, I feel just fine!”

For a good five days now, the songs had been Finn’s only companions, mostly-remembered lyrics of a mid-2000s indie pop-punk band somehow flowing free from his mouth once he started looking for anything to hum. Don’t know your mom’s eye color, but you know the genre of this random band. He clicked his tongue, the sound bouncing off walls like a bat’s sonar. Crazy work, Finn.

Creepy as the place might have been, it had some shockingly good acoustics. Good enough to turn this place into some kind of concert hall or a rave set-up or something. He wasn’t sure what he knew of rave set-ups, but Finn was pretty sure the cannery would need a good bit of work before it could really be used for anything like that. A lot of work.

As it was now, the place smelled like a full century of rust and the thick scent of fishy brine, both of them clinging tight to damp dank concrete walls. On top of that, water dripped from a leaky pipe somewhere in the huge shadowed ceiling, a perfect liquid metronome counting down to nothing. 

No matter what he might have felt like complaining about, even after five days of sleeping on a hard floor with only a blanket and a pillow, it was a lot better than the damp hunter’s box he found in the woods. So much better.

He had Emma to thank for the blanket and pillow too; she had come back that same night with the sleeping stuff and a bunch more food to keep him good “for at least a week.” 

To be honest, Finn knew the woman’s heart was in the right place, but he couldn’t help but realize real quickly that her estimate was a bit off. Five cans of soup and chili, two cans of beans, a box of granola bars, a bag of jerky and some crackers wasn’t nothing but he needed a bit more than a little tote bag to keep him going.

Maybe she just never lived with a guy or something, but it hadn’t taken more than four days before it was all gone. He’d even tried to eat slow too, just to make it last. 

That hadn’t really helped much, considering it just made him hungrier.

And to make things worse, she wasn’t picking up her phone either.

Sure, it was obvious, logically, that Emma was busy. As hungry as Finn was, it didn’t make him any dumber. 

No, a town wound up this tight — especially with the Queen of Mean in charge — wouldn’t just let the sheriff’s seat sit empty with nobody to enforce the law. Now, while that logic was all well and good, and made a lot of sense, even; what it didn’t do though, was fill the void in his gut. 

And with the last can of cold baked beans already down his gullet almost a full day ago, his gut was getting loud and lukewarm water bottles just weren’t cutting it.

“I’m sick of the things I do when I’m nervous…”

To distract himself, he’d trained. 

Surrounded by nothing but long-dead conveyor belts and sorting tables in the wide-open space of the main factory room, Finn kept pushing himself as much as he could. With the low hum of Cursed Energy under his skin almost like electricity in his veins, that was even easier.

Pushing his palms against a thick cast-iron support pillar, he didn’t do anything as simple as just reinforce his muscles. No, he flooded every inch of his body with Cursed Energy, the hum a high-frequency vibration as he gritted his teeth and pushed.

The first day, the pillar hadn’t budged, and Finn didn’t really expect it to. 

The third day, though, it had groaned, the metal straining under additional stress it was never meant to bear. Today, his sneakers had skidded on the slick floor as he’d left a pair of distinct indentations in the rusted iron, just enough to budge the edge of it. He might have been half-tired after a few minutes, but managing that much was something he could do now.

“Like cleaning the oven or checking my tires…”

His speed was sharper, too. Days of pacing out a hundred-foot stretch across the main floor and exploding back and forth in suicide runs had done him good. The air whipped around him as he moved fast enough to get a speeding ticket in a school zone, ending with a controlled slide that nearly had him skid out of control.

“Or counting the number of tiles in the ceiling. Head for the hills, the kitchen’s on fire!”

Now, as the sun began to dip on the fifth day in the cannery, grime-caked windows looking more purple-black than anything else, the hunger was getting to him all over again; the clawing beast in his belly not helped by the fact that he just finished workout. 

He couldn’t wait for Emma anymore, especially if something was up with her phone. 

No, he had to move.

Besides, I know one place where there’s always food. 

– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –

Sneaking back into Storybrooke was easier than he expected. He didn’t even need the camouflage of his muddy shirt, pants and windbreaker; not that any of that would have helped him outside of the woods, but still.

There was no one to see him anyway, all the townsfolk seemingly tucked away in their identical little houses, streets empty and silent under the glow of old-fashioned streetlights. An hour out from the cannery after taking back alleys and side streets, the few that existed in Storybrooke, he finally reached the back of Granny’s Diner. 

“Now,” he frowned as he looked up at his last obstacle, “what am I gonna do about you, big guy?” The back door to Granny’s was a thick one, solid-oak secured with a lock almost nearly as thick. 

For a normal person without lockpicking tools, they might be shit out of luck.

Luckily for him, he wasn’t normal.

Finn placed his hand on the lock, eyes closed and focused as he took the Cursed Energy churning in his gut and dumped it right into his fingertips. Pressure, slow and steady, came with it as he pulled at the lock until-

A sharp, satisfying crack sounded off as the internal bolt snapped under targeted force, a smile spreading wide across Finn’s face with the sound. Without wasting another moment, he slipped inside, pulling the door shut behind him.

The kitchen of Granny’s Diner stared back at him in the dark, air thick with the half-remembered ghosts of ten thousand meals. Tonight, he’d make that ten thousand and one. 

The closest fridge opened with a soft hiss, bright white light burning into his eyes. Flashbang or not, it didn’t stop him from finding what he was looking for; the bottom shelf of the main fridge staring back at him with a fresh tray of lobster rolls already prepped. Jackpot. 

He didn’t bother with a plate, not with his butt on a counter. The cold steel was a shock through his jeans, but Finn pushed that to the back of his mind as he shoveled a roll down his throat in three bites; the cold, sweet meat and buttery bread tasting like heaven. 

He was halfway through his second when the world exploded in white light.

Overhead fluorescents flickered on, buzzing bright as Finn froze with his mouth full.

“…huh.”

He turned his head slowly, only to freeze again as any explanation he had in mind fell right out of his head.

Ruby.

The granddaughter of Granny herself stood in the kitchen doorway, one hand on the light switch and her head cocked as she stared him up and down. Heat rushed to his face, Finn well aware he looked like a raccoon, wide-eyed and grimy with a week of the wild still on his skin. 

Ruby Lucas, on the other hand, looked pretty much as good as she always did; even with a tank top and a pair of flannel shorts instead of her usual over-tight and ungodly short waitress clothes. 

Finn swallowed the massive bite of lobster roll, suddenly tasting nothing as the whole lump went down his throat. Ruby just turned her head the other direction, hair a messy cascade over one shoulder as she clearly waited for something.

His mind raced, spinning and cycling through a dozen jokes before landing on the least funny and most obvious. “Whatever they say I did, I didn’t do it.” Voice hoarse from the barely-chewed lobster roll, he sounded a lot less convincing than he meant to. “I’m not a criminal.”

Ruby’s eyebrow arched as her gaze drifted from his face to the mangled remains of the lobster roll in his hand, and then to the broken lock she held up in one hand. “So, you’re not breaking and entering and stealing food right now?”

“…okay, fair. I am technically a criminal.” That wasn’t really something he could deny, unless the fact that he was technically a paying guest still counted. “But I’m not a murderer.”

A slow smile spread across Ruby’s face. “Oh, and here I was getting my hopes up that someone would finally put me out of my misery.”

“Well, it’s not gonna be me/”

Ruby leaned back against the doorframe, the girl spinning the broken lock around her pointer finger. Finn stared back at her, unable to ignore how her eyes looked just as sharp as her pose was casual. “I’m still not sure if I should run for help, you know. Scream my head off.”

The redhead took another deliberate bite of the lobster roll, chewing slowly. “I’m pretty fast,” he tilted his head as he chewed. “Might not do you much good.”

Ruby’s eyebrow went up high again. “You’re not very good at this ‘sounding innocent’ thing, are you?”

“Can you blame me, Ruby?” He shrugged. “It’s my first time here.”

She rolled her eyes, but that smile never left her lips for even a second. “I dunno, I think being a felon looks good on you.”

“Technically,” one hand pointed her way with the half-eaten roll, “to be a felon, I have to be convicted.”

“Your point?” She shot him a look.

Finn’s smirk widened, grin flashing wide to match her intense face. “I haven’t even been caught yet.”

Ruby pushed off the doorframe, as she took one slow step into the kitchen. “…you wanna change that?”

Finn’s brain screeched to a halt as he held both his hands up. “Shutting up.”

Ruby smiled back, much more genuine and actually warm this time. “Good boy. Next, we’ll see if you can roll over and play dead.”

“Pushing it.”

She laughed loud, rich and throaty as the sound echoed in the kitchen “Let’s see if I can get you something better than a cold lobster roll.”

– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –

Growing Strong – 100 NP

Train your body to a new height.

Hunter’s Intuition (300 CP) [Bloodborne] {Divination}: It feels as if you’ve experienced uncountable years in the hunt instead of only just beginning. Fighting from advantageous and disadvantageous positions alike is ingrained in you. What are you prepared for; to hunt or be hunted? That is the question.

You gain an almost supernatural instinct when it comes to hunting, and it doesn’t matter which side of it you’re on. Tracking is like second nature, and in that same vein you’re able to cover up your own tracks easier. You set better traps, and have an easier time noticing traps before you step into them.

Maybe most significantly, you find it much easier than before to identify and capitalize on enemy weaknesses. Could be a fear of fire, or an exploitable tendency, but you’ll find it eventually. Just be careful not to let your instincts consume you, lest you be no better than a beast.

Guards, Seize Him! – 100 NP

Commit a felony.

• Sticky Fingers (100 CP) [Rapturous Rhapsody Jump] {Control}: The Waifu Catalog is a fascinating company that allows individuals to experience their greatest desires. Despite this ideal image, they are at their core an interdimensional slave trade with a particularly focus on the more carnal aspects. So it shouldn’t be surprising that this is one of the most desired skills that every contractor wants. This skill bestows a mastery of the sexual arts to a degree that’s frankly dangerous. You are capable of giving any being an unforgettable experience. It isn’t an exaggeration to say that you could lay with a dozen sex goddesses at once and still come out on top. There is no being alive that won’t become putty once you get your hands on them, and, should you wish it, your touch will become more addicting than any drug. Lastly, this will upgrade your body ensuring that you can go non-stop and keep up with your lovers.

Nexus Points: 200