Item Post

[fuck_it]

It feels like a long fuckin' time ago that Chris walked out of his hut on an island a long way away and found his brother's grave stone. He reckons it's still there, because unlike the stuff he had on him and Anwar the toad, it never turned up with him. At least, so far as he can tell. It's a big city and he still hasn't managed to see all of it.

It bothered him at first, that reminder of Peter still being stuck there while he'd moved on, but there's really fuck all that Chris can do about it anyway, so he mostly tries not to think about it. And he's been doing a pretty good job of that, at least until he cuts through the graveyard behind one of the churches on his way home and happens to look down at the right moment.

Or maybe it's the wrong moment, because he would've just kept on going if he hadn't seen the name on the stone there, the one he thought he left back on the island, or back in Bristol.

Peter Miles
Brother, Son and Angel

Where he goes, Peter goes too, it seems.

At least they're in the same place again, that is, if it's everything and not just the stone there. Chris never found out for sure on the island and he doesn't think he wants to know here either. He makes a note of the church he's walked behind and is about to go on his way— he'll be back to visit, he always comes back to visit— except the marker just next to Peter's catches his attention. It's just a wooden cross, nothing as fancy as what Peter's got, or as the ones with the giant statues of angels and all. But Chris's own name is engraved on the wood there: Christopher Miles in neat letters.

He doesn't know how long he just stares at it, but it's long enough that he loses track of time, that he forgets for a bit that he was headed home in the first place. Is he down there? Buried underneath the dirt, would he find himself if he dug into the dirt? It's fucked to think about and Chris doesn't want to know.

But there they are, both the Miles boys, just like they're 'sposed to be, Chris thinks. At least there's something dead set on keeping bits of his family together.

[Open to people who know Chris, set in August.]

Comments

[arrowette]

Considering her past history of run-ins here, it was really tempting fate for Cissie to take a shortcut through the graveyard but she didn't care right now. She was beyond caring at this point. It had been a crappy day and she just wanted to get home.

Of all the things she might have expected to meet on the way through, it was not Chris. She frowned and quickened her steps until she was right by him.

"Hey," she said, tentatively putting a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

[fuck_it]

He's not so out of the way that it's weird for someone he knows to come across him there. Still, he doesn't expect it, doesn't hear Cissie walk up or even notice she's there until she puts a hand on his shoulder.

It's all going to be fucked now, he knows. Just as soon as she sees the name there. Both names, really.

"Hey," Chris says, though it's not exactly an answer. He's not really sure he's got one.

[arrowette]

Cissie started to ask Chris was wrong but then she got a good look at the name on the wooden cross he'd been staring at.

She felt her chest tighten and tears come to her eyes. This felt like Kon all over again only a thousand times worse because at least he'd come back. Chris's world was different from hers - he wasn't going to come back.

She bit her lip and hugged him tightly, burying her face into his shoulder. She knew she had to talk to him about all of things but all she could do right now was cling.

[fuck_it]

Chris hugs her back, not really sure what else there is to do. He's not going to try and lie about it, only 'cause there's the proof right there in front of them. No use in trying to pretend any different.

"It's alright, it's cool," he says, clinging to her in turn, trying to sound more convinced than he is that what he's saying's true, "I'm not going anywhere, yeah?"

[arrowette]

Cissie looked up at Chris and nodded slowly. "Good," she said quietly. "Because I don't want you to."

On some level she knew that he couldn't really say that for sure - neither of them could, really. Darrow was weird and unpredictable enough to send them back home or on somewhere else. It might not be likely (she hoped, anyway) but it was still a possibility.

[floozyfacade]

Olive is headed home from the beach when she sees him, a familiar shape off to her right, visible through the bars of the church fence. It's a chance look that brings him to her attention, and then he holds it all on his own. She stops and peers between the overhanging branches of weeping willow and the black metal bars, brow furrowing as she watches. He doesn't seem to be doing much of anything, which makes her even more curious what he's doing there.

She could wait and ask later, or she could check on him now. The choice is an easy one.

Slipping through the gate, she walks closer, grass and twigs catching beneath her shows. Good, she thinks, she wants him to hear her coming. "Chris?"

[fuck_it]

It happened after a weekend he doesn't remember much of. Everyone's ages had been switched around and he'd spent two days trying to figure out where his mum was and making faces at the fish in the aquarium. That morning, he'd woken up to find Peter, and Olive had found Chris in turn.

It was fucked then, and now it's only gone and gotten worse, hasn't it?

He's pretty sure he's known Olive the longest out of everyone he knows in Darrow, but there's still stuff he's never told her. Mostly 'cos Chris knows how it'll turn out: probably the same as it did ages ago when the island made him tell Claire about it.

"'lo," Chris says, and he doesn't bother trying to smile when he looks over at her, "It, um... looks like Peter turned up."

[floozyfacade]

Olive recognizes the gravestone. It's weird, honestly, to see one here that she knows. She hasn't been here long enough that she should be able to, but there he is, Chris's brother, or at least his marker, sitting in the graveyard. She passed by it a thousand times back on the island.

"Hey, Peter," she says, quiet, and links her arm through Chris's. "Guess it's good he's here."

[fuck_it]

"Yeah. S'pose so," Chris replies, though he can't help but think it'd be better if he was just back in Bristol, back where he's fuckin' supposed to be in the first place.

But she hasn't noticed the cross next to Peter yet, the one with his name on it, and Chris can't decide if he should say something or if he should suggest they leave before she does. She'll stop being friends with him then, that much he's sure of.

[everyonetakes]

Kate doesn't normally go through the cemetery, but when she glances through the trees and sees Chris, she stops and watches him for a second. He's looking at something and she wonders if he knows someone in there who died, if maybe she should just leave him alone, but she's never been super good at that and so, after a couple seconds, she opens the gate and heads inside.

"Hey," she says, making sure to keep her voice soft. This isn't exactly the time for exuberant greetings, she thinks.

[fuck_it]

"Hey," Chris says, though it doesn't register to him that it's Kate who's walked up until he turns and sees her there. He's mostly trying to figure out how to make his legs work again.

[everyonetakes]

By that time, Kate has caught sight of the cross, the name etched in the wood and she's frowning, staring at it. It's not fair, she thinks, to suddenly be so pissed off, but she is. Not at Chris, but at this place, because she's seen all the horrible shit it can throw at people, just like the island, but this has to be even worse than all that.

"What the fuck?" she asks, although she figures Chris can't answer that.

[fuck_it]

"Dunno, mate," Chris lies, because he knows its his, even if there's no way he ever could've seen it back in Bristol. It's what happens after that night in the flat with Cassie, the bit he couldn't have possibly been there for.

He digs in his pockets for the joint he knows is there, takes it out and lights it.

[likeaplanet]

With all the action the Necropolis gets, these little chapel graveyards are relatively quiet, as far as I know. I'm not a church goer, I've got no reason to even go near 'em, but on my way past, I catch sight of him, and even at a distance he's familiar.

Slipping through the gate, I make my way toward him, my boots crunching over twigs and gravel on an overgrown path. I'm nearly at his side when I catch sight of the cross, my feet stopping mid-step.

"Shit..."

[fuck_it]

"Yeah, mate," Chris says, and he's already reaching into his pocket, digging for the joint he knows he's got there. Neil was there back on the island when he'd found his brother, but this is different. Somehow things are even more fucked than they were before, even if Chris has known ever since it happened that he'd end up somewhere like this.

He wonders whether his mum and dad turned up or if Cassie and Jal had to do it all.

It's been a long time since he thought about Jal.

[likeaplanet]

"Please tell me you already knew about this," I say, 'cause it doesn't bother me that he might've kept something like this secret. I can understand why somebody might not wanna talk about it. But if he's learned just now that he's dead back home, there's gonna be some heavy shit to deal with.

[fuck_it]

"Uh, yeah," Chris says, his lips still wrapped around the joint as he brings one hand up to scrub through his hair. Maybe he should've said, but Chris can't exactly imagine that going over well. It's been fucked just about every time someone's found out.

"Cassie said. Fuckin' ages ago."

[thecautionarywhale]

Juno doesn’t mind the cemetery. It’s quiet for one, and it’s on the way from home to the beach. She’s all for cutting through lots, alleys, people’s backyards even. Whatever makes her trip a bit shorter.

She almost doesn’t notice Chris, he’s standing so still. Just another person visiting the grave of someone they lost, there’s no real reason to pay any attention. By the time it clicks that it is him, she’s already gone past, looping back around behind him. That’s how she notices it, the gravestone with his name. “Shit.”

[fuck_it]

"Hey," Chris says, and it's only when Juno walks u p that he remembers the spliff he's got on him. He buries both hands in the pockets of his shorts to look for both it and his lighter, looking over at his feet instead of at Juno.

[thecautionarywhale]

"Is that really yours?" She doesn't believe it, doesn't believe that it could belong to her friend. "Because it's probably just some weird Darrow thing."

[fuck_it]

"Dunno," Chris says, and he finds the joint in his pocket and lights it. He exhales smoke as he continues, "Maybe. Probably."

It's not as though Chris ever could have been there to see it, after all. But he doesn't see how it couldn't be his.

[pointzerothree]

It's only by chance that, on his way past the church, Eduardo happens to glance into the cemetery, catching sight of Chris there. Ordinarily, it's not somewhere he would have lingered, least of all because it's been a long day and he's looking forward to getting home. Something about the way Chris is just standing there, though, makes him reconsider, and after a moment, he's heading through the iron gate, making his way slowly, carefully in Chris' direction. Though it feels somehow a little irreverent, it's not enough so for him to really care.

"Hey," he says, quiet in large part because it's nearly silent out here, and he doesn't want to startle Chris. "Everything okay?"

[fuck_it]

"Yeah," he lies, and it takes maybe a second longer than it should before Chris takes his eyes off of the wooden cross to look over at Eduardo, "Yeah, it's cool."

He's sure Olive probably told him about Peter, back on the island. Either that, or he'd probably fuckin' noticed the stone right outside his hut. But the other thing, he hasn't told anyone about. Not since Claire, and he doesn't think Cassie or Maxxie did either.

[pointzerothree]

The headstone, he recognizes, having seen it on the island, even if he still isn't sure if he ought to ask about it or not. The cross, though, looks unfamiliar at a glance, and though it leaves Eduardo plenty curious, just knowing that keeps him from wanting to look more closely just yet. This might be a public place, but he can't shake the feeling that he's intruding somehow.

"Is that —" he starts, nodding towards the gravestone, then pauses, reconsidering. "That was on the island, right? In front of your place."

[fuck_it]

"My brother's," Chris says with a nod. That much has never been a secret. Or at least, not since whatever ran the island saw fit to put the grave stone right in his yard. Maybe he never came out and told everyone who ever came by his hut why it was there, but he reckons most people probably worked out it was someone related to Chris.

He doesn't remember if he ever told Eduardo, but supposes Olive probably mentioned it or something.