RP:Lurid Truths

Part of the Through A Glass, Darkly Arc

Summary: Hudson, Alvina, and Valrae convene to interrogate Alec, Valrae's brother, to learn how he got information on her, and whom he sold it to. Alec won't tell them what they want to know, though, even after they apply force. He taunts them by claiming that Valrae's pregnant. Needless to say, this inflames the atmosphere. Hudson kills him.

Somewhere, Cenril

The meeting is set at one of Hudson’s black sites, located in a less trafficked part of town. It’s not exactly decorated for company. The windows are boarded up, and the floor is poured concrete. It’s soundproofed but hot, there’s no magical cooling system in place. The idea is not to encourage squatters. Hudson and Alvina arrive to find a number of Hudson’s men there to greet them. They’re engaged in a lively conversation about hemorrhoids that comes to an abrupt stop upon their seeing Alvina. “Basement, boss. She’s there too,” says the most senior of them, bowing briskly to Alvina. “Excuse us, ma’am.” They’d anticipated Hudson by himself. This isn’t a place for lady wives, says the way they watch Alvina in her fine clothes follow Hudson downstairs. Below ground, it’s mildly cooler. There’s a wooden table at which a young man in dirty clothes is seated. Alec. He’s not there by choice: there’s rope keeping him in place. His eyes are dark hollows, bruises from the beating that had hauled him off the street and dumped him here. His skin is sallow. He looks hungry, and angry. “Can’t stay away from each other can you,” he says to Hudson, and leers with his blackened teeth at Alvina. “Interesting date night activity.” Hudson gestures that Alvina should feel free to sit where she likes but he pulls up a metal folding chair for himself and sits in front of his prisoner. “Look at or talk to my wife again and I’ll kill you,” he says. “I don’t care that your sister’s here.”

Valrae had arrived early. She’d not bothered with a glamour, in Cenril she was bold enough to rely solely on a cloak that was now tossed over an empty chair across from her beaten brother. Her golden hair was pulled in a high, no nonsense pony’s tail and her clothing was tight and black. Her boots were high and laced, her face free of makeup. She hasn’t seen her brother in a very long time. In her previous life, the witch was bullied and cowed by the vicious man. All her life she’d let him call the shots, push her around, drag her in and out of trouble and schemes to get rich or become the crime boss of Cenril. Funny that she’d ended up knowing the man who eventually did manage to climb the bloody throne. Nothing was said between the siblings for a long while. Valrae searched her heart and found no fear when she looked at the dirty, broken man across from her. “I know who you are,” Alec finally said. His voice chilled the stagnant, heated air. “No face could hide my own sister from me.” The witch snorted. “I’m hiding from much bigger fish, ‘Sandu,” She used his childhood nickname and rage sparked behind his wolfish blue eyes. When Hudson and Alvina enter it’s clear that Valrae is surprised to see the other woman as well. It was no place for ladies, her eyes would also say when they move to Hudson’s face. The next part happens quickly. Before Hudson speaks or sits Valrae has crossed the room in a blur of black and gold. Her fist connects with her brother’s mouth nearly before he managed to finish leering. When she leans back over the table she’d nearly lept over she’s shaking her hand and scowling. “His sister doesn’t care either,” She hisses, looking darkly at Hudson again. She avoids making eye contact with Alvina. “Who are you selling information too, Alec?” Valrae asks abruptly. Her voice was as cold as her brother’s eyes. “And what do they know?” He’s spitting blood and scowling but makes no attempt to answer.

Alvina did not want to be here. She did not want to watch someone get tortured nor did she want to meet the new and improved model Valrae. She did not want to be in this shady district, near this seedy building, in the dead of night. Not much is said on the way over. Hudson is walking, she's following quietly until they stop outside the building. Luckily the topic of conversation was lost on her, she nodded her head when they bowed. Everyone was surprised to see her. Great. That just makes her feel more out of place here. Why did she agree to come? Also, what do you wear to torture someone? Sweats didn't seem appropriate to her. Alvina follows Hudson down with a steeled expression. All of her features set in thin, seemingly indifferent lines. Valrae looks different, of course she does, but it strikes Alvina still. The bard's face doesn't change though. Even as the man addresses them, she doesn't react. Hudson draws Alec's attention but Alvina can still feel his judgemental eyes burning into her. What did he mean? They were married? She takes a seat further away, giving Hudson and his guest a wide berth and drags a wood chair out against the wall. Val clocks the guy and Alvina flinches. Glad to know she's on the other side of things. Alec spits blood after Valrae's punch lands, a menacing scowl creeping up his purpling face. "Worried I might know something I shouldn't?" He asks Valrae specifically. "Why, dear sister, do you have so many secrets? It's rather unladylike." Alvina waits, emerald eyes trained on Hudson and Valrae, a knot growing in her stomach as she wonders again why she'd come.

Hudson had felt a certain impulse to use violence right off the bat but it turns out he doesn't need to. Valrae has stalked forward and done it for him. No time for hellos or introductions. Everyone knows everyone else here, well, sort of. He and Valrae exchange a look as she draws away to ask the question they're here for. Hudson steeples his hands, tapping out a slow beat as Alec stalls and then rallies to answer with more vitriol somehow than he'd shown previously. Hudson's immediately on his feet, and he coolly palms Alec's head into the table, pushing it against the wood. Alec squirms but he's fairly confined. It quickly becomes clear that he isn't focused so much on struggling, though, more so taunting. "What are you worried I'll say, Landon?" sputters the lad, his face turning pink. Hudson clenches his jaw, maintaining the pressure against the man's skull. "Get the tin basin over there," Hudson, ignoring the question, tells Valrae. It's leaning against Alvina's chair. Hudson's attention pivots back to Alec. "We're not doing foreplay, Alec," says Hudson, in a tone of false cheer. "You're going to cause the whole city to go to war because you needed to get paid." He releases Alec with some violence to make space for for the basin, which looks very used and bears several suspicious rust, or blood-colored stains. Hudson murmurs a word and it's filled with water. "Is that how you impress all the girls like my sister?" spits Alec, just before Hudson moves behind him to shove his face under the water. "I'm sorry you have to see this," says Hudson, for Alvina's benefit. His gaze pivots to Valrae. "I think you should ask him again," he says, and hauls Alec up, gasping for air, for the briefest of moments before shoving his head under again. "In a little bit," adds Hudson.

Valrae watches the blood drip from the corner of her brother’s scarred lips and is suddenly away from the room. She’s a child again and her brother is taller, stronger, better fed and endlessly more cruel. She’d feared him more than any other part of her hungry, violent childhood. Looking at him now, beaten and thin and bleeding, he was suddenly clear to her. A weak, mean spirited man who would never have the spirit or heart or brains to leave the gutters of Cenril. The big bad boogie man her brother had always been in her mind was buried with this pathetic truth. When he speaks again, her body language shifts but Hudson makes it clear that he’d be taking over the muscle from there. Her brother’s head meets the table but Valrae doesn’t flinch. She retrieves the basin and suddenly she can’t ignore Alvina anymore. Unsure of what to do, the witch gives her a bright smile and quickly moves back to Hudson. Alec’s comments have more violence boiling in her but she keeps herself still, letting Hudson do his work. She watches him dunk him. “I’m in no hurry,” She replies, sliding onto the table and crossing her legs. After a handful more rounds of the water, the witch does ask though. “Who are you talking to and what do they know?” She manages to look and sound bored. “You’re not asking the right questions yet!” Her brother laughs, a touch of madness creeping into his hoarse voice. His face dripped blood and water. “Ask me how I know, sister,” He coughs. “Because I know more than even you,” Valrae’s careful mask threatens to shatter. Her brows knit together and she frowns. “We don’t have time for games or riddles, Alec,” She stands again, kneeling so that her face is close to his. She looks into his eyes but finds nothing but her own reflection. “Do you want to die?” Hidden under the hardness of her voice was sadness. “Ask me what I know,” Her brother grins. “I knew the moment you drew breath again, we’re blood after all… And I know that you’re with child… But did you?” He leans back from his sister, who has gone almost lifelessly still, to smirk at Hudson. “A war? Over my whore of a sister? Is it your mutt she’s carrying?”

Hudson looks dispassionate but part of him takes a private pleasure in grinding Alec's face into the tin basin and making him breathe water. The lad had been trying for bad ass at first, not struggling, letting it all happen, taunting them, but Hudson can feel him bending. Alec still isn't answering their questions, but his madman's demeanor doesn't comport with the way his body starts to thrash and protest when Hudson holds him underwater. He hasn't been doing it gently, Hudson himself has been yielding to the impulse to hold Alec under there longer and longer. He'll break soon, or die. It's like an itch that Hudson wants to scratch, just a little bit more, hold him there until the bubbles stop, it's what you get for defying Hudson Landon in his town. Valrae can see it. It still embarrasses Hudson that she can. She'd have a better sense of when her brother's ready to spill his guts than he would. He doesn't dunk Alec right away, and regrets it. "What?" asks Hudson sharply, feeling his face heat out of reflex. After all this time. It doesn't matter that it is nowhere near being true, it's just an old impulse to feel shame in front of his wife where he and Valrae are concerned. Shame - and now anger. "No," it takes him a second to spit the word. "No," he says again, more forcefully, and dunks Alec under the water with the force of his weight. This time Hudson wants to hold him until he goes slack. This time he should die. "Obviously he's just saying whatever because Alvina's here," he barks at Valrae. Alec's limbs are struggling against his restraints. "I'm over this," he says with quiet menace. "I'm going to kill him so you better tell me not to kill him."

Valrae was very still. She doesn’t even blink. The room is suddenly drown in the sound of her own heartbeat pounding against the cage of her chest. “Liar,” She croaks. She doesn’t hear Hudson. It’s all buried under the sound of her blood. She’s leaning over her brother and gaping, struck dumb. When her Alec is underwater again the room comes back to her. Hudson is now too loud, his voice echoing in her hollow mind painfully. His words remind her that Alvina is in the room and the same reflexive shame and embarrassment crosses her own features. She stands abruptly, watching Alec struggle under the water and Hudson’s muscles move under his skin as he holds him. “Wait, wait,” Her voice is quiet. Her brother remains underwater. “Hudson, wait!” She’s louder now. “Please,” She doesn’t approach, the witch knows better than to come too near. “He’s a lying sack but we need more than lies out of him,” She said the words but something inside her whispered that her brother spoke the truth.

Alvina returns Valrae's smile with dead eyes. There's no mirth there. She's watching them torture a man, watching her husband work. Watching Valrae help him. In his jagged prattling, she hears the taunts and jeers of men. It's all too familiar, the way people can lord themselves over you for nothing. The slosh of water against the basin is deafening in the otherwise silent space when no one is talking. Her attire feels all wrong, her skin crawls and she can't find voice to answer Hudson's remark. This was her decision, to be here. To watch this. To be a part of what she'd tried so hard to ignore. Valrae's words ring louder than Hudson's. Maybe because they are so cutting and personal. This Alec guy just keeps vomiting nonsense. With each submersion, Alvina feels her breath hitch and she holds it as if she too were going under. His accusation that Val being a harlot bristles her, the next outburst even more so. She has a single moment of doubt. Is she? Is it? Alvina flicks her wide eyes to Valrae and then to Hudson, arms crossed and tensing around her elbows anxiously. She watches Hudson's face twist with guilt, his reply delayed. Alvina stands fast enough to knock over the chair she'd been sitting in, her whole body taunt. She's embarrassed to be here, to hear this, to watch this. If it had been bloodier, maybe it would have sated some part of the wolf in her. Now? It's grinding on an old nerve with intention. As Hudson keeps holding Alec under water, Alvina finds herself silently cheering him on. She wants to see the light snuffed out of his body, regardless of if he's telling the truth or not. When Val protests, Alvina feels her throat tense. She wants to yell for him to keep going! But she can't. The rest could be dealt with afterwards. Right now, she just wanted blood. Anyone's. And this guy was already close to death and pretty disposable in Alvina's opinion. Sorry family of Val.

Hudson had said what he'd said about but he hadn't really been prepared to stop. He'd been letting the wolf have this moment, and it takes Valrae a couple attempts to get through to him. He hears her but he doesn't stop. He can see in the periphery of his vision that his wife is standing nearby, hands clenched and hugging her body. He can feel rage boiling through the bond that they share, have shared since that night he sank his teeth in her and watched her transform into his mate. Alvina is making no secret of how she feels between them, and he doesn't blame her. Valrae tries to get his attention again, and Hudson finally turns to look at her. He doesn't say anything, he simply holds her gaze and bears down on Alec's head, keeping him underwater until finally the bubbles stop, the frenzied movements jerk to a halt, and his body goes limp. ...And then he still keeps him underwater. Someone - a woman's voice - tells him to stop, that Alec's dead, and it's only then that Hudson releases the man. Steps away and takes a labored breath. "We'll get the information another way. He was a liability," he tells Valrae. He looks at Alvina. "It's not mine. There's no way it could be, I didn't lie to you." He follows her gaze to Valrae. "Give our congratulations to Lionel."

Valrae can feel the room sliding out of her control. She can see the violence in Hudson, the intent to kill. Her brother had gone too far. To open that particular old wound was unforgivable. The ties of blood that bind couldn’t save him from his own fate. The witch wasn’t even sure she wanted too. Val can feel, before the sound of the falling chair even reaches her, that Alvina has stood. Because she needs to look away from her brother, she looks to Alvina and is taken aback by what she sees in the other woman’s face. The sounds of Alec dying fill the hot room. She looks away. Her knuckles smarted, were already bruised and swelling from where she’d made solid contact with Alec’s face. When she finally looks back at Hudson he meets her eyes and holds her attention as her brother dies. The witch feels suddenly numb. She doesn’t answer him, only blinks. “No, no way,” Valrae manages to find her voice to address Alvina. “It’s not possible.” She turns, her eyes fierce and her mouth in a stubborn line. “My brother knew much less than he thought,” She looks at his broken, lifeless body over her shoulder. The quiet crouched heavy in the room. “I don’t care what you do with him,” She turns away and walks quickly to the door. “Thanks for cleaning up another mess, Huds,” Val smiles weakly at both of them, clearly struggling to keep some emotion from boiling over and reaching her face. “I’ll tell him,” And the witch leaves.

Alvina feels Valrae's eyes but she can't look away from the disturbed water at the top of the basin. She can't hear Val telling Hudson to stop. Her eyes are locked on him, even while he's looking at Valrae and Valrae is looking at her. Alec's body thrashes as much as it can tied to that chair and it disgusts her that it thrills her so much to witness. She feels Hudson's satisfaction, her tense shoulders slack with relief. It's over. The accusation had been overwritten by a darker, deeper need. Hudson's voice reminds her and she frowns carefully in his direction. She wants to pick apart his words and find ways he could be lying but she can feel that he isn't...and she sighs reluctantly. He looks back at Valrae and so does Alvina in silence, waiting for her to speak. The reborn witch also denies it to be Hudson's and in doing so remembers. Alvina doesn't know what to say but she feels like it's expected that she reply. "I'm sorry." It's all she can think to say. Sorry she believed that man, sorry he's dead, sorry she wanted him to die and found a thrill in it all. Disgust at herself blooms in the back of her mind as Valrae moves to the door and vanishes. The room suddenly feels so much smaller without her. All she can do is stare at Hudson, water splattered on his clothes and panting still. Because what else can you say when you watch a man die?