RP:Exactly Like Him

Part of the Through A Glass, Darkly Arc

Summary: Alvina takes control of Candice's interrogation under the guise of having her husband's approval. Alvina loosens Candice's tongue enough for a couple details to spill - Candice is responsible for leaking Meri's attack to the press, for the bomb sent to the Landon's, and she isn't working alone. Hudson appears on the scene and takes control of the proceedings. Candice refuses to give him anymore information, concluding their discussion (and her life). Hudson gives Milo more than a few disapproving glances at his wife's involvement. Alvina slips out to watch Candice's drugged daughter Aubree sleep and struggles with various attempts to save Aubree from her own fate before slipping away into the night.

Undisclosed Location, Cenril

Contrary to what she’d told Hudson, his wife did not go home. She went to the warehouse where she’d watched Hudson kill Valrae’s brother. True to form, Hudson’s men had the building locked down but there was no sign of Hudson or Milo. She waited in the stale air inside, rushing Milo when he eventually turns up an indistinguishable amount of time later with two bound participants. It took little convincing on Alvina’s part.

“I’ll take it from here. Hudson approved it,” She’d reassured him and Milo, with no reason to doubt her word as the boss’ wife, turned Candice and Aubree over to her without hesitation. Neither of them were blindfolded but their hands were bound as they sat on rusted chairs. A single light, over the table, chased out the dark. It turned the warehouse into a circular spotlight. Everything else outside it’s beam morphed into thick, empty blackness. Milo’d bound Candice to her chair while Alvina fixed Aubree to her own chair. “It’s okay.” She say to the girl, whose face was tear streaked. On cue, Aubree’s eyes filled with tears again at Alvina’s reassurance. It would not be okay. But Alvina wanted the girl to believe so if she could. It’s what she’d want for her own daughters if they ever...Swallowing her fear, Alvina tightens the knots on Aubree’s ropes and turns her chair away from the table and other chairs. Again, Alvina can’t stop what will happen when Hudson gets here, but she can try to make it as painless as possible for the child. Aubree was an innocent party. Maybe they could wipe her mind of this and send her out into the world to live another life. To live.

Once Candice was secure, cloudy eyed and scowling in her bindings, Alvina dismissed Milo. Hudson would be here any minute. She had to think.

“I was promised Aubree would be safe.” Candice spits before Alvina can even open her mouth. She’s disheveled in her night clothes and face creams.

“And she will be,” Alvina promises. “But only if you cooperate.” Mrs. Landon waits a beat, considering the actress. “Look, I’m your only hope. Once my Husband gets here, it’s out of your control. So you need to tell me -now- what all this is about.”

Candice furrows her brows, astonished. “Aren’t you supposed to tell ME that?” She demanded, turning to look at her daughter in the backwards chair.

Alvina grabs Candice by the chin and turns her face back so their eyes meet. “We don’t have time. You drugged him.” The why was because she wanted it to look like they’d slept together, but the deeper why was still unknown. Alvina exhales in a rushed whisper. “Tell me before he comes in here and kills you on sight. I’m the only thing standing between you and him right now and if you want my help, open your Sven loving mouth.”

Hudson goes out with his men trawling for Candice, but it is Milo, leading a different search team, that finds her first. It'll take a moment for Hudson to receive word - Milo's messenger has to reach them in Rynvale - and another moment for Hudson et al. to return to Cenril, so Alvina has the advantage of time.

And she's making the most of it. Candice's expression is stung, as if she'd been slapped, when Alvina reveals she knows the truth, that it was all a setup, that there had been no boozy tryst after all. The actress blinks, wide-eyed, at Alvina, a dawning slowly seeping into her expression. Words percolate inside of her, truths, half-truths, bold lies, mocking jeers.

Aubree is still crying. Alvina's turning her away has done little to quiet or settle her. Her moans of distress will make her hoarse, if she survives this.

"It's alright, baby," says Candice to her young daughter, ignoring Alvina pointedly. "It's a misunderstanding, it's alright, honey." Her eyes flash with rage as she cuts Alvina with her gaze, addressing her in a whisper, "You're a monster, both of you are monsters." She bares her teeth at the other woman. "Get my daughter out of here and to safety, if you have any ounce of decency as a mother. And then I'll tell you what you need."

Alvina feels Candice’s clap back and a rage bristles inside her. Here she was, trying to help this woman that tried to destroy her and her husband’s relationship, and she was being spat at like trash. To go back on what she said now would give into the power struggle. To get Aubree out of the room would draw suspicion, wouldn’t it? Alvina isn’t a gangster but she tries to think about how Hudson would act. Hudson hadn’t wanted to show any mercy to Candice or Aubree. But Alvina wasn’t Hudson. She needed to negotiate. But there’s no promise Candice will tell her the truth just because her daughter’s out of ear shot. “We’re Monsters.” Alvina repeats incredulously. “Ah yes, you’re right. We told the papers the truth, you concocted this whole scheme to get back at us, and now that you’ve been caught...we are the monsters.” Candice wasn’t scared for herself, though, Alvina guessed. As a mother, Alvina would rip anyone’s head off that tried to hurt her children. Would throw herself on the funeral pyre a thousand times over to protect them. “Milo!” Hudson’s right hand man appeared to survey the scene. Nothing’d changed. “Take Aubree.” No clarification of where, Milo watches the two women stare each other down and decides it best not to ask. Outside will suffice. He wrangles Aubree, who is even more panicked to be seperated from her mother, as she screams and cries. Once the door was shut, they could only hear her for a couple more minutes before all was silent. “She’ll be moved to a safer location once you cooperate.” Alvina waits a beat, letting that information sink in. “Hudson will be here soon.” She felt like a child promising the arrival of a disciplinarian parent. “If you want my help, tell me why you framed him. Was this some sick petty revenge for Sterling? Or maybe your pride was injured because he didn’t actually want to sleep with you?” Hudson’s sure had been, not that she’d tell Candice that.

Candice bares her teeth again as Alvina parrots her words, twisting them. "That's right," she says, waiting with baited breath as Alvina summons Milo, who begins the laborious and noisy process of moving Aubree. Candice strains in her bonds to watch, shrieking, "Don't you dare hurt her! You prick!" at Milo as he hauls her child away. She is red with rage, her face streaked with tears, by the time it's just her and Alvina in the room. "I need assurances," she says immediately, to Alvina's promise of Aubree's safety. "Swear on your children's lives." She snorts at the mention of Hudson, at Alvina's speculations as to her motivations. "Petty revenge?" she laughs. "Your husband," she emphasizes the word, "ruined our lives, because he felt like it. That's all you people do. You just take what you want, anything and everyone is disposable. You have no shame about it, and you've convinced yourselves that you're good people, because most people are too afraid to tell you to your faces that you're monsters. But you are. If you think I'm the only person who thinks so, you're wrong." Her smile has edges like a knife. "Ordinary people hate you both and want your kind gone. What do you think will happen if something happens to me and Aubree? Where are your children, Alvina?"

Alvina watches Milo take Aubree upstairs before turning back to Candice, who continues to ask for things. “He won’t hurt her.” She said with a roll of her eyes. Alvina’s arms are crossed impatiently. “I kept my side of the deal, I don’t have to bargain with you.” She reminded the actress who spat at Mrs. Landon about her husband. “My husband isn’t malicious. He did what he had to do by putting that stuff in the paper.” In truth, Alvina had no idea if he needed to or not. “Sterling was corrupt.” And by corrupt, Hudson meant ‘not his puppet’. “It isn’t like Hudson TOLD Sterling to have an affair. Seems like your own fault. It isn’t like he LIED to the papers or set you up.” You people. Alvina narrows her eyes at Candice, remembering what Ethan had said about Hudson’s men hitting people up for protection money. All their fancy things were paid for by Hudson’s job. People had less because they had more. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Alvina huffed, feeling the itch of the wolf’s anger surging under her skin. Your kind. The words are serrated, dragging across her skin slowly. Alvina opens her mouth to reply when Candice asks where her children are.

Alvina, now red with frustration, slaps her hard across the face. “Don’t you talk about my children -ever- again.” Panic rose in the back of her throat. What if Candice was right? What if someone came after their children? Then she grew rigid. The bomb. It was meant for Alvina and the children. “Did you try to kill my kids, you piece of s-” Alvina raised her hand again, slapping her solidly on the other side of her face. “I came here to help you and you just spit in my face. It’s not MY fault you’re a doxy. You made your own bed, now lie in it!” Alvina screamed. She’s starting to lose her patience.. Mrs.Landon moves away to pace, regretting her gesture of good will to get here before Hudson. All her intentions of sneaking Aubree and Candice out dissolved with each word that rotted out of her mouth. What would convincing the press that Hudson slept with Candice even accomplish? “And if something happens to you, who’s to say it’s our fault. Maybe you just can’t stop trying to seduce rich husbands. I went to jail once on false accusations, I’d gladly go again to watch your pinched expression while I choke the life out of you.” Alvina’s pupils narrow into thin slits. She feels Little Miss knocking on the door, begging to be let out. Not yet. Not yet. “Now open your gods damned mouth. If you don’t tell me something useful, I’ll go ask your daughter.” Alvina’s inflection sounded dangerous and serious. “One more chance Candice.”

Candice had intended to provoke Alvina and now she has. Alvina's hand strikes her across the face, the sound resounding in the otherwise empty room. There's no need to say anything further, Alvina is coming to her own conclusions and strikes her again. Candice's body shudders in her bonds as she tries instinctively to shield her face but cannot. Candice keeps her face turned afterwards, feeling the satisfying sting of Alvina's fury, for a beat afterwards, her prideful silence intended to jeer at the other woman's loss of control. She can see Alvina pacing out of the periphery of her vision, ranting now about damage control, about false accusations. "False accusations," repeats Candice, her voice breaking in a laugh, "I have a whole file on the both of you. Who do you think turned you in?" She turns her head to watch that truth hit Alvina like a mallet to the skull. She doesn't get to gloat for long, though, because Alvina mentions Aubree. Candice's face, once mocking, becomes a mask of rage. "Don't you dare touch her, you bitch," she hisses, jerking her body against her restraints. Now it's Candice's turn to lose her composure. "Do you think I'm acting alone? That I'm some evil mastermind all by myself and nobody will notice I'm missing!? Where are your children, Alvina!?" she shouts. "Where are they!? Are they safe!?"

Something in Alvina’s brain breaks. All the good intentions she had not only vanished but she wanted to see Candice suffer. The way she’d watched her children suffer with their mother taken to jail for being a werewolf. The way her children suffered under rumors of Hudson’s infidelity and bullying at school. The bomb. The arrest. It’s all linked. “Milo!” Alvina bellows, watching Candice’s face while it twists as she screams. “Bring Aubree back!” There’s a coldness to her voice now. A ruthlessness that transforms her features to sharp angles. “I told you, one more chance.” Alvina says cooly to Candice, smoothing back a lock of hair she’d disheveled when slapping the blonde. Milo leads Aubree back inside, looking even more frightened to hear her mother screaming. Alvina gestures for Aubree to come over as if she was free to do so.. Milo stands behind the girl to make sure she complies. Alvina takes Aubree’s face gently and wipes some of the tears away with her thumb. Aubree flinches and sniffles, a whine building in the back of her throat. “Everything’s okay.” She promises the crying girl in a low, motherly voice. “I just need your mom to tell me who she’s working with but she doesn’t want to. She’d rather keep you here longer.” Alvina can feel Candice’s rage against her face like a flame. Alvina wouldn’t hurt Aubree, but if Candice thought she was a monster she wouldn’t put it pass Mrs. Landon to earn those stripes. “Aubree, can you ask your mom for me? So everyone can go home and back to bed?” Alvina turns her face back to meet Candice’s hateful glare. Milo’s holding Aubree’s restraints and Alvina’s gently turning Aubree’s face so her cheeks touch Alvina’s, both looking at Candice.

Candice's screaming has no end to it, her face has gone purple from exertion as Alvina orders the return of Aubree. "You monster!" she cries, "Not my baby you evil woman! Burn in hell, you'll be sorry!" She's only silenced by the opening of the door and return of Milo with Aubree, who is crying and frightened. "Mommy," she sobs, and Candice struggles visibly in her chair against her restraints. "Honey, hi," she greets Aubree, with a sweetness that doesn't match the circumstances at all. Aubree is listening to Alvina but also not: rather than speak to Candice, she releases a high-pitched wail, her head falling back to maximize the effect. Candice's face, carefully composed in a mask of motherly love, seizes with rage to see it. "Please, she's very stressed," she hisses at Alvina between clenched teeth, "You're frightening her." It's true, though, Aubree is shaking. There's a small puddle of liquid pooled beneath her, she must have lost control moments ago. "Mommyyeee," she brays, turning her face away from Alvina.

The door to the room opens, and Hudson enters, making toward the center of the room but stopping short when he realizes the surprise participation of his wife. Still, his entrance takes the air out of the room, and Candice's pinched expression crumples as she struggles to hold back tears.

Hudson doesn't need a verbal accounting for why Alvina and Milo are practically brandishing a shaking, sobbing child who has pissed herself. The look he pins Milo with is a weighted one that conveys a certain disapproval. "Take her out of here, give her a little something to make her take a nap," he says.

"Yes, boss."

Aubree is tugged, wailing, from the scene, as Hudson faces down Alvina, his wife gone rogue. "You're not supposed to be here," he tells her coldly, eyeballing Candice, who though leaking tears manages to still look venomous.

"Just kill me and be done with it."

"Hello, Candice!" he greets her, pulling up a free chair and turning it around to straddle it backwards. "Are you being rude to my wife, imagine that?"

By way of response, Candice spits on him, and his arm immediately cuts out to slap her across the face, hard. Candice takes the hit, her nose starting to spurt blood, but then keeps her head turned. "You people are pathetic," she laughs, and it's the most haggard sound. "You'll pay for this. You hurt Aubree, you'll pay even more, you'll--"

"I feel like .. that's not true, Candice," Hudson interrupts her snarling to say, very quietly, before finally slanting his gaze to Alvina. There's no flicker of remorse for having hit another woman openly in front of her. He's just a different person right now. "I take it she wasn't helpful with you?"

Alvina's ears ring with Candice's screeching. “Aubree, dear,” she smiles with a strained patience, measuring her words like flour. “Shut- “ she starts, oblivious to Aubree's mess situation. Alvina can feel her husband's entrance before she sees him. The room goes quiet, except for Aubree, who Milo is now instructed to haul back outside. Hudson's eyes fall on Alvina. The sensation is one of being grabbed by the scruff of her neck but it's short lived.

All focus shifts to Candice, who looks to be accepting her position in this meeting by throwing as many knives as her tongue can conjure. Hudson's sure, fluid moments tell Alvina exactly how versed he is in this situation. He acts much the same way he'd acted with Val’s brother. All light snuffed out from behind his eyes, his face set in unflinching stone. This was a man alien to her kids and the way he handled them or even Alvina.

Hudson’s question throws her back to the present. It pours her back into the mold of her body to solidify a new person. A switch was flipped. She'd expected him to ignore her, tell her to leave, but instead he's addressing her like a participant. She's involved now, again. May all her good intentions rot in hell.

“She's the one who ratted me out to the paper about Meri.” Alvina stands up a little taller, walking the short distance to stand beside him in his chair. Arms crossed and hip cocked to the side, Alvina stares through Candice, reading the rap sheet the actress confessed to and more. “She says she has a file on us. Pretty sure she's involved in that bomb incident too.” Her eyes focus back on Candice, who is struggling to maintain her composure now that the gang’s all here. “She says she's not working alone but that's all I know.” Part of her is tempted to scuff indignantly because that's the part he'd walked in on but it's not her rodeo nor does she want it to be.

Hudson grunts to mark the new information his wife is giving him. It would have never occurred to him to link Candice to these events, but now all the pieces fit together seamlessly, painting the portrait of a canny woman he'd long ago underestimated as a mere side piece.

"I'm surprised you caught me," says Candice, braying a harsh laugh. "Wouldn't think you'd look so closely at the cheating. He likes blondes, doesn't he?"

Hudson wastes little time in pinning Candice with his gaze. "Candice, shut up."

"Does she know that blond witch Valrae is alive?"

"Yeah, actually, she does," Hudson interrupts her, tenting his fingers. "Candice," he addresses her, "I'll cut to it. You should give me and my wife a few good reasons why I shouldn't bury you alive right now. Because I got nice pine coffin with your name on it."

"Are you afraid to hurt a woman?"

"I just hit you," he says patiently. "So no." He leans back in his chair, sighing. "Death by dehydration just fits better. No body, no press, no blow back from .. whoever you're working with, gives us a head start to find them. Plus it's slow, you have time to think about all your mistakes and what we're doing with Aubree. No body, no press right?"

Candice's bloodied face is quick to contort into a snarl, "You wouldn't touch--"

"What are you going to do?" asks Hudson, incredulously. "Appeal to us as parents? Do you really think we wouldn't feed Aubree into a meat grinder in a second if it meant that our children stayed safe?"

"The people I'm with would never believe I just left--" Candice is like a battered creature, hissing with rage.

Hudson surprises himself with his own cruelty by chuckling. "They might, Candice. We know this blond witch, who owes us some favors, actually. She's very good with illusions."

"--Disgusting garbage heap wolves--" Candice is ranting feverishly.

"OK then, be unhelpful. We don't need it. Interrogation time over," Hudson is off his feet and looming over Candice, whom he takes by the hair, yanking her off her chair so that it clatters to the floor. She screams like a wounded animal, her bound body jerking violently in defense even after he gives up trying to drag her by the hair.

"I'm over her," comments Hudson to Alvina, seeing this.

Alvina just continues to stand there while Hudson and Candice spit venom at each other. She swears for a second that Candice had looked at Alvina when Aubree was mentioned but the glance was faint if it really happened. Hudson doesn’t flinch to tell Candice he’ll bury him, doesn’t hesitate for even a second to tell her a nice slow, painful way to die, with intent. Alvina feels like she’s watching fireworks explode; there’s a mixture of fear and delight in the experience. She felt all ticks of the spectrum between microscopic and godly. Little Miss is the most pleased. The wolf in Alvina is squirming, lips smacking like a pup waiting for table scraps. She knows it’s wrong. This is a mother. She’s a mother. She wanted to save Candice but then Candice screamed about the Landon children and Alvina held back just long enough for Hudson to step in. It’s a dismal disappointment to think it was Hudson that saved Candice from Alvina.

Valrae’s mention makes her skin prickle with familiar discomfort. She didn’t hate Valrae, it was what the witch represented in her past that made it hard. That made mention of her in this way, the way Candice smugly tried to throw the acid in Alvina’s face over it. Valrae was a mother too, but the only mother acting spiteful here was Candice. That sucked the last of her sympathy out through her fingertips. Alvina’s eyes study the actress on the floor as if she was an inanimate object. A vase that shattered on the floor and had to be swept up. Hudson had told her about Valrae being alive. He hadn’t kept the secret. They were better than they had been in years.The insult about being wolves bubbled in her veins. The Landon’s made eye contact, conversing in a swift, private set of instructions that Alvina understood despite lacking gangster expertise. She turned towards the door, taking a few steps to lean outside.

“Milo, we need a box.” Box. Coffin. Same thing. Hudson’s right hand man looks to understand.

Aubree is slumped over in the grass, breathing deeply and reeking from her soaked clothes. Alvina stoops down when Milo vanishes to push a stray strand of hair away from Aubree’s sleeping face. “I’m sorry I involved you.” She whispers to the unconscious girl before standing. Around the corner she can hear Milo talking to some of Hudson’s other men. There’s an odd rush to their tones. Milo walks back around the corner, past Alvina, and back to the door. “Boss.” He says over Candice’s threats and exhausting bouts of struggle. Candice was still bound so it would be nothing for Hudson to drop her on the floor and trust she’d still be there if he stepped outside. Or so Alvina would have guessed before stepping in. “I’ll stay with her.” She volunteers to the room at large, staring unflinchingly at the disheveled woman before looking for Hudson’s approval.

Candice is kicking and screaming, her face increasingly covered in sawdust as Hudson hauls her over into an anteroom, where Milo jogs to meet him. "Milo!" Hudson shouts at his man, who is directing the others. A wooden shipping carton, lined in fabric, has been brought into the room. Alvina has peeled off to stay with Aubree, which is for the best, someone should, because Candice knows what comes next and releases a blood boiling screech, flashing her teeth like an animal as Hudson and Milo take hold of her. She takes a club to the head and wails, dizzy, until she takes another and then she's limp and mercifully silent. Hudson draws back to watch the men bend her body to arrange her in the box that will be her coffin. One of them presses a damp cloth to her mouth, ensuring that she stays unconscious for a while longer. It now all becomes very methodical, routine. They'll seal her in, and then bury her.

Hudson, presiding, examines a bite mark on his forearm. Milo is a silent weight beside him, but after a time breaks the silence, "Your wife is with the girl."

"Then she knows what has to happen, unfortunately," says Hudson, sparing a glance at his lieutenant, adding coldly, "You shouldn't have involved her," as if the true tragedy were not the fact of the terrible deed that needed to be done, but rather that his wife had come to participate in it, to be exactly like him after all.

Alvina steps away from the chaos to find Aubree still bound but in the grass on her side. The child’s face is red from crying. Kneeling into the grass beside her, Alvina lets the door close on the sounds inside. Candice’s screeching, the sickening bass beat that brings the scene back to manageable silence. It was called organized crime for a reason. Not wanting to think about Candice’s body all folded up in the shipping crate, Alvina runs a hand through Aubree’s spider silk hair as if apologizing for the trouble. Could she still get Aubree away without putting herself, Hudson or their children in danger? She lifts Candice’s daughter into her lap, the dampness of her clothes reminding her that she’d scared a child so badly she’d lost control of her bladder.

Alvina shifts Aubree’s limp form and pulls her tight against her chest. Candice would die. If they didn’t mercifully kill her first, she’d wake to find herself trapped and die all alone. Alvina’d wanted to gnaw off the woman’s face when she’d shouted at Alvina about her own children. Are they safe or is someone holding Luna, drugged and soaked in urine with the clear knowledge that her mother was dead.

Aubree stirred, just enough to slur a whine of confusion.

“Shhh,” Alvina cooed, rocking her back and forth. Aubree stilled in her arms and Alvina’s chest ached. I still have time, she rationalized, knowing she didn’t. This poor little girl. What a life she’d lead. “I can still save her,” She whispered to no one, listening to the child’s breathing sink back into the steady low rhythm of sleep.

The motion was quick, smooth, and painless. The fragile thing’s neck broke before Alvina could take a breath. Inside, one of the men called to another and footsteps sounded. They were wrapping up with Candice and moving on to the next oblique phase. She bent down and kissed Aubree’s hair, her own tears mingling there like morning dew. By the time the men resurfaced, Aubree was lying still in the grass, now alone. Her small slack face was covered with Alvina’s dress, her red heels a step or two beside.