Manbearpig

It felt like white-hot pins pressing into her flesh. She was almost sweating as the backpack swept off, thrown off balance by one stupid little comment that could've meant a million things... Not knowing what he knew exactly.

Was this right? There was something different now. In the way they talked. Conversations had always been a mine field for her, tiptoeing around the wrong thing to say, constantly second-guessing every word and intention.

She had a gut instinct, but if she followed it, would that be right? Her mind ticked back toward the phones in the closet, the messages she'd seen. Her eyes nervously tracked the backpack as it left her arms, her stomach slowly stinking. God, she felt queasy.

ODYSSEUS HAS THE PALLADION
ILIUM SLEEPS

Call it a loose feeling, but he hadn't been surprised that it'd be there, his hand all-too quickly running against the smooth glass hidden away in the bag between shirts and other small supplies. With a quick yank, the bottle was out of the bag. Some sort of cheap vodka with some store brand he didn't recognize. "Ah -" He bit back a crooked grin, hiding away his face behind a loose palm as he turned the drink over. "This is one way to pass the time."

"I-is this really th-the time?" she sputtered, voice breaking, but she still let her gaze linger on the bottle. "I-I mean, I'm in p-pain, but y-you..."

He turned the bottle over in his hands a few times, looking it over thoughtfully. "I'm not much of a drinker, but..." Jason snapped the bottle open with a quick twist of his wrist, donning a forlorn grin. "You are in pain, and seeing as we might die to either a bigfoot or a twelve year old tonight..." Fuck it. What did they have to lose at that point?

The blonde took in a deep breath as he raised his bottle up, regretting the lack of phone service, that he couldn't talk to Elodie then, that he'd been the one who'd brought them both out there in the first place.

Cheers?

Jace tipped it back against his lips, getting in a good two or three deep swigs before he had to throw the bottle back down and hack it out.

"Oh, sheezus..." she murmured, barely audible even to herself as she watched him go at it on the bottle. He was really serious about this. She didn't know what to do but to follow his example. Two or three little swigs, like him, to keep it modest. But holding it in her hands again, after however many days of not having a drop... after a second she was tipping it back again.

If she had one talent in this world, she supposed this would be it.

For once, he had no idea what to say, staring at the opposing cave wall as the sun dimmed. Jason tried to be polite, but it wasn't long until he'd eased the bottle back into his own hands; taking another drink before letting it rest down in his lap. And for some time things stayed like that, for once encouraging the silence before he finally muttered again. It was barely a whisper.

"I'm sorry."

He said it once before that evening, but it felt like he could never say it enough.

She gave him a long look, the words not forming in her mouth. "Y-you don't have a-anything to... t-to be sorry for..." Well, as far as they were concerned anymore. Evelyn put a finger over the lip of the bottle. "N-not like you knew B-Bigfoot was real."