A Roadtrip to Kill Us All

Chase glanced around the car, everyone was in, and buckled, and they were about to leave. Everyone looked a bit unsettled, and pretty much tensed up. She was sitting directly behind Ariel Greyback, the werewolf, and wasn't to happy, but she could ignore people pretty well now. It had taken her practice, and that practice would be put to the test for sure, she had just been.. startled to see the man who had killed her family, just waltzing up to the car. It wasn't like she could tell the authorities it was him.. he could get the best lawyers ever now a days (Seeing as Chase was working with a smaller money supply now) and she would lose in a second. Though how that was fair she didn't know, but as it was... she was being forced.. to sit in a car, for a week, camping, and hanging out.. with the man who had turned her entire life to shit. This was going to be great.. she should have listened to Calvin and stayed home, he had said she needed time to recover, but she wanted to get out and do things, and this was the perfect getaway.. so here she was... in hell.

Chase's eyes widened when she looked up at the front seat where Jack was sitting. A haunted house? Great... just great.. so not only would they be with a werewolf in a haunted house, but a murdering poltergeist.. if she didn't understand Jack as well as she assumed she did, well.. she would have gotten out of the car right then and there, but as it was.. she was determined to stick it through to the end.. not get emotional, and try to have a bit of fun, maybe even work to change her own personal image in front of these guys.. make Jack proud of her.. that would be her goal.. make Jack proud that she had chosen her to come on this trip.. she would do it.. she would work hard to not look like a wimp.. not look like a spoiled rich families child.. but to show everyone who Chase Moor truly was.. meaning.. she would try and participate in friendly conversation in the car.. she would... try to anyway.

“Keep them on your feet, you animal,” Vito snapped towards Ariel with an expression of disgust upon his face when he’d realized that the boy had removed his shoes. Vito could already feel his irritation towards the boy bubbling beneath his skin, and, had it not been for Jack’s presence in-between the two of them, Vito was certain that he would have grabbed hold of one of Ariel’s shoes, and would have forced him to swallow the trashy thing – but Jack was always there to stop Vito from doing something that Jack would regret…

Vito slid the key into the car with graceful fingers, and turned it forward, starting the engine. The car started, but not without protesting first, grumbling and burping like a foul creature that had clawed its way out of the sewage system. Vito flinched visibly, his distaste quite evident. He’d begun to weigh the pros and cons of going on a road trip with Scooby and the Gang once again, and only just managed to convince himself that his efforts were worth it when Borely Rectory was mentioned, a building that Vito was, coincidentally quite familiar with.

Suddenly, Vito’s narrowed eyes relaxed and lit with an excitement that most certainly did not belong there. “Do you know the house’s full history, redhead?” he asked Jack, tossing her his eyes for a moment before applying pressure to the gas petal with the toe his polished shoe. Every so often Vito had wondered what had come of his old home, but his curiosity had never been powerful enough to return him to Borely Rectory.

It seemed that fate had, once again, decided to deal Vito a rather interesting hand.

Vito smirked to himself smugly, accelerating as he steered the car out of the parking lot and into the street.

((By the way, this roadtrip begins about a month after the battle, and the battle was June 7th. Just for reference. xD))

Jack was already taking a huge risk here- she was risking upsetting Ariel. He had always been good to her- too good to her, she thought, and she was doing a lousy job of repaying him. No one in the car knew of her full past with Vito, and he should know of all of them. No one even knew that her birth date was nigh- July 11th, which would occur doing the road trip- and she knew he would be upset not to know.

And now she had practically agreed to letting him and all the others in the car get tormented and verbally abused by Vito. No, she would not allow Vito to treat Ari like that. She turned to him, eyes gleaming, but she knew she did not need to provoke him. Instead, she grinned- forcibly, but it sort of resembled a smile- and kicked off her own shoes, wiggling her toes.

"Relax," she said, looking up at him. Her tone was easy going, but her glare could have petrified a basilisk. She leaned forward to turn the radio up and sighed. She glanced back to Ari, giving him a look that she hoped conveyed all of her thoughts- just sit through it, let me handle Vito, thank you for not hating me.. please! She glanced back at Keith and James, who both seemed intent on removing themselves. She glanced up at the rear view mirror and saw Chase. Guilt gnawed at Jack..

At Vito's words, Jack turned to stare determinedly forward. She had had an ulterior motive of investigating the place, yes, but he did not need to know why- no one did. "I've done my research." She knew she could find out her own information now and she could not stop herself from saying. "From what I've read of its past.. rather unattractive. Ugly, ugly history."

OOC: I assumed that no one would mind if I posted so soon after my last reply, as this thread seems to have come to a halt.

“Unattractive?” Vito hollered abruptly in a way that made it seem as though Jack had slapped him across the face. “Hold your tongue,” he added for good measure, followed by a few grumbled curse words. If it had been evident that Vito had ties with the infamous, haunted building before, he had certainly made it so by reacting in such a way to Jack’s remarks. Never was Vito so easy to read – never, with the exception of his past.

Not every one of Vito’s past incarnations stayed with him with the same clarity as his time at Borely Rectory had. That building remained a vivid memory within his mind, for it had been, at the time, the only place where he had ever felt content. Satan’s had become “Vito Dee Symons” version of the place, but “Sunex Amures” had grown a bit too attached to Borely Rectory to let go, even after he’d vanished once more, and had returned in Knockturn Alley. Vito did not allow anyone to speak poorly of his nightclub, and therefore, Sunex would not allow Jack to insult the place that he’d once called ‘home’, simply because of something that she’d read. “You wouldn’t speak that way of Satan’s would you? You seem quite fond of my kingdome, in fact." He paused to shoot a glare in Jack's direction, before returning his dark eyes to the road. "Do not be so quick to judge Borely Rectory, or I may not invite you in,” he warned her, assuming that he had already revealed enough for her to understand his threat.

Vito applied more pressure to the gas petal with his foot as they started down the highway and the speed limit became one that was a bit more bearable than the parking lot’s – though, Vito had never been one to follow the laws of men. The small car was not powerful in the slightest, and as a result, Vito's shoe had to battle with the petal in order to get the vehicle to accelerate correctly, but he had not expected much more from the tin can...

Ah, and he took the bait- hook, line, and sinker. Jack's intuition and insight had been right. The entire time she had done her research, she had this eerie feeling, some strange unexplainable connection to it, as though she had been told of it before. She had thought visiting would clear it up once and for all and give her some ammunition. She knew if she went there.. she would feel it. And she would know.

She thought he had understood her comment as though she were calling him unattractive, but apparently he assumed she was nicer about it and was just insulting the place. He seemed personally affronted, as though she had said it would be best to burn Satan's to the ground. Speaking of the place, he brought it up, using t as fuel for his fiery debate.

Yes- while she would not be quick to admit it, she was fond of Satan's, but it was in the way she was fond of Hogwarts. Terrible things had happened to her within both of them- abuse and neglect respectively- but they always seemed to keep her shielded from even more pain. The kept all the terrors close at hand and easy to battle, keeping real demons away.

"Mmm," she said, though, refusing to admit in front of Chase and Ari that Satan's held any value to her. His words confirmed her thought process and she vowed to continue her investigation of the Rectory, wondering what she could uncover. "To clear the air, my qualms had nothing to do with the actual place. It sounds intriguing. It was the past, the evil inside that I found might be repulsive." She had stepped over a line, so she quickly made up for it before they all died. "That's why I want to go. Maybe it will prove me wrong. I certainly hope it puts up a fight to."

She wondered if they had throughly confused the passengers yet.

((I don't know that James is going to continue, so we can PP him until we get to the Rectory and he can apparate. As far as order, go when you feel is right- with such a large, varied group, we don't need an order))

While disaster was no doubt unfolding at home, a completely new type of disaster was unfolding inside a rickety old car that should have gone to scrap fifty years ago. Ariel was vaguely content though he could not deny that boredom was creeping in. As interesting as it was to watch a crabby Poltergeist play a game of wits with his Jack, Ariel would have rather been reading. Though, here was the problem. The book he’d brought with him was in his bag. Said bag was sat comfortably in the boot, wedged between a suitcase and that yellow monstrosity the other redhead on this trip had brought. Ariel had a good idea of where it was but he wasn’t going to climb over the back of the chair and give Keith a heart attack just so he could read about Helga Worthington’s trip to the Black Forest in Germany where she was supposedly adopted into a werewolf clan. Ironically enough, she disappeared not long after the book was published - with tell-tale claw marks left in one of the many gaudy carpets she possessed.

Ariel cast a look over his shoulder, deciding it was probably best to leave Vito and Jack to bicker. He frowned a little at Chase’s expression and he waved his hand in front of her eyes. Ariel snapped his fingers together and smirked a little, using a little bit of magic to prompt the growth of a sunflower. If that was the only bit of wandless magic Ariel could ever be able to do then he was proud of it because flowers always seemed to brighten the day a little more. The impossible yellow of the petals certainly brought the gloom and doom out of the car. Ariel’s smirk deepened and he brought his hand up, releasing the sunflower. He caught it by the stem between his thumb and forefinger and held it out to her.

“C’mon, take it. You’ve got a face like a slapped ass, Chase. Buck up a bit, yeah? And besides, it kind of matches your shirt.” Ariel looked at the flower and smiled before handing it to her.

There, that was his good deed for the day. Ariel exhaled and tossed his arm back over the back of the seat. He yawned and turned his gaze towards the window. He knew Jack had a thing about material objects but he doubted producing flowers out of thin air counted. Then again, Ariel wasn’t going to chance upsetting her, not today.

“So where is Borely Rectory?” He asked no one in particular.

Chase was vaguely interested in what was going on in the car, listening, but not really caring about it much. They were discussing things in the front, and it was confusing to listen to.. a lot of hidden messages behind words, that no one but the two who were talking could understand. How degrading... Chase sighed heavily, and stared out the window, until suddenly a hand appeared in front of her face, snapping. She turned and looked at Ariel, who was holding out a flower to her. It was yellow, and actually very pretty, and she smiled slightly. Taking it from him. "Erm.. thanks..." She said, not sure what else to do. He had both been nice, by giving her a flower, and insulted her, in the same motion, and it was confusing her greatly. She held the flower carefully, before gently placing it behind her ear. Knowing the short, choppy red hair, and bright yellow flower contrasted greatly.

She felt kinda like an idiot though.. sitting there, smiling slightly, a flower behind her ear, in the car with the man who had murdered her parents, a werewolf, Jack Dyllans, and two other people she had only just met. One of them had made some crazy drug thing, and was basically a drug dealer at Hogwarts. The other was a stuck up Ravenclaw who didn't speak! What kind of car full of people was this?! She glanced around, before she sighed, and grabbed a small bag she had kept at her feet. One that was pretty freaking small, but held a few important things. One being her ipod... the bag wasn't enchanted, so that was basically all it held, besides her ear buds. She had a feeling this would be a LONG drive, to a haunted house.. that Jack was interested in.. that sounded.. perfectly exciting, and she couldn't wait to get there.. (Sarcasm is a wonderful invention).

((This is now AU because recent developments in the subplot have changed the way characters would treat each other and it's just not going at the rate we all want it too. Now, no pressure. Just a fun thread xD)