The People v. Eleanor Warwick

Jessie takes a sip from her fast food beverage as she sits in the passenger seat of Towles’ car.

Jessie hasn’t said much during the stakeout, instead allowing Marvin to prattle on about whatever he chooses. He started with an amusing story about the starting point guard of the Carmadie Wolves punching him in the head when he found out he was looking into him at the request of his fiancé. Then he discussed his family issues. All the while, Jessie keeps an eye on the window to apartment 6D.

“As you might think,” Towles says after popping a few fries into his mouth, “the professor was not thrilled with my decision to drop out of college. He was all, like, ‘After everything I did to get you in! They wouldn’t have accepted you otherwise!’. You know how it is.”

Jessie only offers a slight grunt as an answer.

“But, you know, when you have a dream, you have to go all in. That’s what I say. It hasn’t always been easy, let me tell you, but I like to think that I’ll look back with no regrets. No matter what happens, I reached for that brass ring. I lived for my dream.” Again, no verbal response. “So what’s your dream, Jessie?”

Finally turning to face him, she only shrugs. “I don’t know.”

“Come on. Everybody has a dream.”

“Not me.”

“Well,” After brief consideration, he perks up, “we’ll find you one!”

“Hell no.”

“It’ll be fun. Tell me something you’re passionate about.”

“Nothing,” she answers, with a disinterested tone.

“I refuse to believe that. You are a bubbling cauldron of passion.”

Jessie raised an eyebrow. “A what?”

Smiling awkwardly, he shifts. “It sounded poetic in my head.”

“Uh huh.”

“Come on. Work with me here.”

“Just drop it.”

“No. We’re doin’ this.”

“Fine!” Jessie sits her drink aside and turns her entire body in the seat towards him. “You want to know my dream? The thing I want most in this world?”

Towles’ eyes widen a bit at her suddenly aggressive posture. “Not…as much as I did a second ago.”

The hellblood edges a little closer, almost crouching on the seat as if to pounce. “I want to kill my father.”

“I…see.”

“I want to punch his face until it’s a featureless blob of goop. I want to beat him until my hands are wet with his blood. I want to tear his head off and light his head-less body on fire. Then I want to put his head on a fucking stake and parade around with it before throwing it into the damn ocean. And then, I’ll get ahold of the rest of them and pull them apart limb from limb, staring into their fucking eyes and watching them die.”

Towles can’t help but be disturbed by the glint in her eyes. “Good God, that is horrifying.”

“Yeah, well,” Jessie suddenly relaxes and sits back down in the seat. Taking another slurp from her soda, she looks back toward Crane’s window, “don’t go asking questions if you can’t handle the answers.”

Momentarily stunned into silence, Towles just stares at the back of her head. After a moment, a smile spreads across his face. “You…you’re screwing with me.” When Jessie turns back, a slight smirk is on her face. “Aw, you bitch.”

“You should have dropped it,” she answers with a chuckle.

“Well, damn, woman, all I wanted was some small talk! And you had to go and drop something like that shit on me!” After a laugh, Towles tries to return to his original point. “You seriously don’t have a dream?”

“I’ve never really thought about it. Is that weird?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say weird, but I think most people have one.”

“I guess. What’s yours really gotten you, though?”

“Honestly? Not much.” A certain sadness creeps into Towles’ voice. “I’ve never made any money at it. Anything I get goes right back into it. Strings. Amps. Soundboards. All that shit is expensive. And I could handle that if…if I thought people took me seriously.”

“They don’t?”

“Nah. I don’t exactly have the rock star look.” he responds with a smile. “Nobody wants to see a chubby 40-year-old play ‘Sharp Dressed Man’.”

“Well, if it sucks so much why do you keep doing it?”

“I don’t know. Don’t get me wrong, I have no illusions about my chances of making it big. But I guess I feel like life is always trying to smack me around, you know?”

Jessie slowly nods. “Sort of.”

“I mean, my parents and I didn’t get along. I have one career that barely pays for itself and another that’s not nearly as exciting as people might think. In fact, it’s typically either boring or degrading. And then when it is exciting, the pay is never worth the danger.

“But I just decided a long time ago that this world can kick me in the ass as much as it wants. I’m gonna keep my head up and I’m gonna keep pushing forward. I am not gonna become one of those bitter, angry people that lash out at every…body.” Towles bites his lip as Jessie’s glare intensifies. “Not that there’s, you know…anything wrong with that.”

“Whatever,” she responds in a bitter, angry sort of way as she stares out the window. “Try climbing that high horse after you’ve been cut open.”

“I have.” The hellblood turns back, incredulous eyebrow raised. “I had my gallbladder taken out.”

Instinctively, a sneer starts to creep onto Jessie’s face. It slowly fades away when she realizes Towles’ answer wasn’t mocking or sarcastic.

Lacking the full context of her complaint, he’s blissfully unaware of what she really means. He probably never considered she could mean anything close to her own parents slicing her up. How could he? The investigator’s relative innocence is a refreshing change from the twisted psychopaths she’s come across on the Shadow Side. It’s cute, though she’ll never say so.

Failing to suppress a smile, she shakes her head. “Well why the fuck didn’t you say so?”

“I didn’t want to brag.” he returns, matching her smile. “I pulled through like a trouper.”

“I bet.” The car grows quiet as Marvin nurses his drink and Jessie stares out the window. “I want to take a trip.”

Towles lowers his beverage. “What?”

“I want to take a trip,” Jessie answers without looking at him.

“Where to?”

When the hellblood turns to him, she’s different. The fire that always burns in her eyes have faded. Her voice is quiet, almost wistful. Her defenses are down.

“Nowhere. I just…just want to get in a car and drive. A…friend…I guess, told me about a trip he took a long time ago. Sounded great. I could just go wherever the fuck I wanted. Stay as long as I wanted and moved on whenever I wanted. Free.”

Towles shifts in his seat to face her better. “That kinda sounds like a dream.”

As she fails again to keep a grin from her face, Jessie realizes that she hasn’t smiled so much in as long as she can remember. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Awesome. You know, I have a car.”

A slight chuckle precedes her answer. “In my dream I’m alone.”

“Ah.” Towles shifts back around to face the front of the vehicle.

The disappointment in his voice is clear and Jessie acknowledges it makes her feel bad. Not wanting to think too hard on why that is, she throws the poor guy a bone. “I guess…I wouldn’t have to be.”

Towles perks up immediately. “Really?”

“Sure.”

As the hellblood finishes off her soda, Towles decides to take a chance. He slowly leans toward her. Just as he comes close, Jessie glances toward the apartment.

A shadowy figure crosses the window. The fire ablaze again, Jessie swings the door open and leaps out of the car. “It’s her! Call Warwick!”

As the hellblood storms off, Towles stares after her, leaning over in his seat. After a moment, he looks to the heavens. “Now? Really?”