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Chapter Nine
.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.
tornado warnings
—by fifteyshadesofdylan
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Nathan had been sitting at one of the tables in the main room of the police station. One of the eyewitnesses from the second death the day prior was trying to describe the woman he saw yesterday before everything had happened to the sketch artist. What the Detective didn't anticipate was to be interrupted by Duke Crocker waltzing into the room.

"Kind of busy here, Duke," Nathan sighed out, annoyed.

"You say that as if I come here looking for you ever," Duke scoffed, "Where's Audrey?"

"Working a case, also busy."

"She really doesn't know how to cancel appointments, does she?" Duke asked.

Nathan rolled his eyes, "Find someone else to pal around with. What about Louisa?"

Duke's cocky attitude that he had on when he first walked into the room quickly dropped.

Louisa.

The woman was currently a sore spot for the Crocker man.

"No can do. We're not talking right now. She seems to like you more than me all of the sudden," Duke said bitterly.

Nathan tilted his head a little, "Are you insinuating I'm the reason you aren't talking?"

"Slightly. And maybe, also it was how I went about it," Duke grumbled. Though Duke now wanted a distraction from his issues with Louisa.

He looked at the people at the table before pausing, "I'm sorry to interrupt. Is it weird to hook up with your old babysitter? And is it bad if I'm doing it just to momentarily forget about a woman who I might actually kinda have a thing for?"

"You're kidding, right?" Nathan asked him. 

"No."

"I don't have time for this," Nathan shook his head. Not wanting to deal with Duke's sudden crisis of if he should hook up with a woman just to forget about Louisa. And he also wasn't going to encourage him either because he didn't want Louisa to be impacted in any way whether it would be negatively or not.

Duke poked at the teenager sitting in the wooden chair, "Hey, kid. What do you think?"

"Are they hot?" The kid shrugged, not really seeing an issue. As if a teenager's opinion should determine what he should do.

"Well, yeah. Obviously. You?" Duke turned to the sketch artist for their opinion before he paused. Seeing the portrait that had been drawn out. One that oddly enough looked like Vanessa.

"If it's to forget about another girl, it's not worth it. Because it's only temporary," The artist told him while he continued to shade the drawing in.

"Duke..." Nathan spoke up, catching the man's attention, "Go."

"I'm off like a dirty shirt," Duke saluted, suddenly wanting to leave the station. All he knew is that he had to reach out to Vanessa more than ever now. He wanted to know why they were suddenly looking at her as a suspect for yesterday's deaths.

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"I don't know, Audrey. The entire thing was just a mess. My emotions have been high these past couple of days. And I feel like I could've handled it more maturely. You know, like an actual adult," Louisa told Audrey while she held the phone in between her ear and shoulder. The woman was attempting to fold her clean clothes that had been sitting in the hamper for over a week.

"But you do have a right to be a little annoyed by the double standards. He shouldn't be affected by you spending a few hours with Nathan when he also spends time with me," Audrey tried to let Louisa know that it was okay for how she went about the situation. Yes, it could have gone a lot differently. But that was something Audrey had tried to warn Duke about. He couldn't be against the idea of Louisa spending her time with other people, especially ones of the opposite sex, when he openly flirts with women on a daily basis.

"I was going to swing by the Gull today. Maybe I'll apologize on my part just for how I acted. But I would hope he would apologize too if he has come to his senses yet," Louisa said. Obviously she wasn't going to apologize and take the entire blame for the pettiness. It was a two-way street for her and Duke.

Audrey glanced over to Nathan who had been across from her in the office. He obviously knew about the main summary of the situation due to Duke coming into the station earlier in a crisis.

"Just let me know how it goes. And if you need me to swing by at all later don't be afraid to ask," Audrey offered her company to the other woman.

"I appreciate it, Audrey. I'll talk to you soon."

Louisa sighed, looking at all the folded clothes on her bed before turning to the dresser. Now the easiest yet annoying part of the process. Once she finished that then she could make her way to see the Crocker man. In the midst of her putting her clothes away the same thought that constantly crossed her mind since being in the house appeared again.

Maybe I should get a cat.

Not that it seemed like a bad idea in the slightest. At least then she would have some company in the big house that she wouldn't get completely annoyed with.

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Louisa walked into the Grey Gull with a box of muffins tucked under her arm. A potential ice breaker for the two. Even though it was more to ease her conscience too so she would have something to snack on while they talked.

"Hey, Louisa," One of the busboys greeted her once she came through the door.

"Hi, Connor," She smiled at him before she looked around the place, "Do you know where Duke is by chance?"

"Oh, he's in the corner with that lady. It looks like they're talking about something serious," Connor nodded his head off in the direction.

Louisa's smile faltered once she saw the man. She watched as he grabbed onto the woman's hand before tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. The blonde suddenly felt like she was going to throw up.

Duke sat across from Vanessa trying to butter her up slightly for answers. Using his classic Crocker flirting skill to his advantage.

"Enough about me. What about you?" Duke shook off Vanessa's conversation topic all about him and his career choices.

"What about me?" She smiled, soaking in his charm that seemed to ooze off of him.

"Well, for instance... Why does Nathan Wuornos have a sketch artist drawing your face?" Duke wondered. He pulled his hand away from the woman as he waited for her reaction.

Vanessa's smile dropped, "He does?"

Duke nodded his head in response. He was curious to say the least. And he was hoping maybe Vanessa could help him out a bit on his little side quest of finding answers.

"I got to go," Vanessa pushed herself up from the spot she was sitting in.

"Vanessa, I can probably help if–," Duke stopped for a moment when he caught sight of Louisa who stood there with a blank expression. Shit.

Louisa let out a small huff of annoyance, leaving the muffins on the counter before exiting the place.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Duke looked between the first door Louisa went out and then to Vanessa who was trying to make her way through the group of people who were too busy conversing to move aside.

While Louisa had let her anger radiate off of her once she got out of the Gull, Vanessa had hunched over in pain. Another vision coming to mind. She felt like she was being ripped apart as the images came rapidly. Duke tried to grab onto the woman but she was quick to brush him off and make her way out the door. Realizing he just had two women who basically rushed out on him. He sure knew how to pick his moments.

Louisa had made it back to her house in record-breaking time. She threw her keys down onto the table by the door before rushing towards the back. The woman felt like she was suffocating. Yanking the door open to go into the backyard. She tripped over her feet, landing onto the grass. Rolling over onto her back and gripping her hair while her throat felt like it was closing up and her head felt like it was going to erupt. She let out a croak, slamming one of her hands down in a closed fist onto the grass.

The moment Louisa was able to get a fresh breath of air with no restrictions, she let out a frustrated yell. And once her anguished cry was gone, the weight of all the pain evaporated into thin air. The blonde was drained and she took a moment to close her eyes and take a couple more breaths. However, she didn't notice in between the whole episode that the grass patch where her hands were had lost its green color and faded to a crispy brown.

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Audrey, Nathan, and Duke sat across from a freaked out Vanessa Stanley who they had found. The woman was still trying to calm down from another death that almost occurred. Though the three others had gotten to the party around the same time she did and were able to stop the tank from exploding.

"You looked like you were in pain right before the tank exploded," Audrey brought up after Vanessa downed a shot.

"The pain comes and goes. It's–It's the worst right before somebody dies, it started yesterday afternoon. I was feeling sick. And Carlene came in and found me, and she touched me. I saw what was going to happen. I keep seeing how they're going to die," Vanessa told the group.

"You could've come to us for help," Audrey said.

"I wanted to. I even went to the police station, but I was afraid you would assume I was to blame. I hesitated when I was going to approach Nathan and that blonde woman the other day. But hesitating made me overthink and chicken out," Vanessa admitted. Duke looked between Vanessa and Nathan. He refrained from rolling his eyes because of course, the one thing that had irritated him and led to him and Louisa arguing was brought up unintentionally.

"No, we would've listened to you," Nathan tried to assure her.

Duke scoffed in response, "Yeah? And then what? Lock her up? Even Louisa, wouldn't have been able to stop you from jumping to a conclusion with that thick skull of yours. You did the same thing with that Brian kid just an hour ago."

"God, it doesn't matter. It's fate. Right. I can't change anything. All I can do is watch. I can't change it," Vanessa let out. Her frustration laid also with how she now knew how she was going to die.

"Hey, we just changed fate at the party.  We can make our own fate," Audrey told her. It was true in a way. Fate changes sometimes due to the different paths you end up taking in your life. Some things weren't as written in stone like they seemed to be.

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And even though they had wished Audrey had been right with her positive mindset on changing fate, Vanessa's couldn't be changed. The woman knew that all along but she didn't want to discourage the rest of them. While she was laid there on the ground in Duke's arms dying, Louisa was across town drying her wet hair. Her phone buzzed which caused her to reach for it and push it open to see the new message.

"You can't just give up. There's no such thing as fate," Duke told Vanessa while the police sirens grew closer.

"Yeah there is. Do you– you want to know... what I saw about you?" Vanessa questioned before leaning up to whisper in his ear.

A tear fell down his cheek. The woman told him what she knew before she fell limp. He looked off into the distance in shock while Audrey and Nathan stared sadly at the scene.

Louisa had stumbled to take a seat down on the mattress. Her hand shook slightly while she put the phone down beside her. The text left her startled. It couldn't be real. She thought she had gotten away. But her past was coming to slap her in the face.

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"Screw fate," Nathan toasted, while he, Duke, Audrey, and Julia sat across from each other with drinks of their own. Clinking their glasses together before taking a sip, "I'm sorry about Vanessa."

Duke looked at Nathan, nodding.

"What did she tell you?" Audrey wondered.

"Oh, well, she told me what every man secretly wants to know. How he's going to die. Fantastic, right?" Duke sarcastically let out. They all looked at him as the tension began to rise in the room, "Except she couldn't help with the when. The how, yes, but... well, not exactly. She told the how's."

"Two?" Audrey asked in confusion. Two different ways he could die. Now that was something to keep someone on their toes.

He clicked his tongue, "Yup."

"How do you die?" Nathan questioned. Duke made a heavy pour while refilling his glass.

"Well, apparently, some guy with a tattoo of a maze with four little people at each compass point grabs my face with his hand," Duke began to explain.

"Wait, she had a vision about the Colorado kid's death which seemed to be somewhat similar," Audrey commented while Nathan had quickly began to sketch something down on a napkin.

"Like this?" Nathan wondered, turning the drawing to Duke.

Duke looked at him skeptical, "How did you know what that looks like?"

"We found it on a body about a month ago," Audrey informed.

"Well, if he's dead, he can't kill me, right?" Duke tried to see the brighter side but the two detectives stayed silent, "What? There's more than one guy out there with that tattoo?"

Audrey pursed her lips, "We know of at least one, but there could be more."

"What was the other possibility?" Julia questioned, trying to steer the conversation away from Duke's hope being ripped to shreds.

"Umm, I die old. Next to someone else. All she saw was two hands side by side and a bright light," Duke recalled.

"Well, hopefully that's the one that's true," Julia said.

A phone went off and Nathan instantly looked down to see it was his own. Louisa's name flashing on the screen. Duke glared down at the table. Why was she calling Nathan? He realized they weren't necessarily talking right at that moment, but why not call Audrey? He still glanced down at his own phone to see if maybe she could've tried to reach him first, but that wasn't the case. Nathan excused himself from the table before walking off to answer Louisa's call.

It had only been a couple of minutes before Nathan came back with an apologetic look.

"I really gotta get going," Nathan grabbed his jacket before turning to Audrey. Sending her a look as if to say he would explain it all to her later on. After Nathan was out the door, Duke's annoyance was hard to ignore.

Audrey was about to say something to him but he had risen to his feet, phone in his hand. He didn't speak a word to the two women as he went out to the deck. The man was trying to make an attempt at a call to Louisa. Though he was left a little defeated when the woman quickly declined his call. Duke hit his hand down on the wood railing in frustration. He just wanted to make sure she was alright, especially if she had only reached out to Nathan out of all people. He was now left to wonder what it possibly could've been that was making her confide in Nathan Wuornos.