Julee's Bar (01/21, 10:49 pm)

It’s an unusually quiet night at Julee’s Bar. Mil talks with Lesley at the counter for a few minutes, and then she turns and walks over to Samson, who is sitting at a table alone. She takes a seat next to him and talks with him quietly. There are a few others having quiet conversations at the bar, but the mood appears to be low on all accounts.

The man with his brown hair in a ponytail is playing music as usual, and he seems to have taken the hint. He is playing slow, somber music. He sings on some songs, while at other times he goes on for an extended period just playing his guitar lightly while Danielle Douglass supports him on drums.

Brandy Smith is sitting at a table alone. She has a notebook in front of her and is chewing on the eraser end of a pencil.

Cameron walks in to the bar and walks right over to the table that Sampson is sitting at. "Excuse me, could I sit with you for a moment Sampson? I have some things I need to discuss with you."

Samson does not respond. Lesley looks up from Samson and at Cameron. She shakes her head in a limited range of motion, slightly but firmly. Her brown eyes are steady on Cameron.

Samson's eyes are still down on the table when he says, "Talk."

Lesley looks back down at him and sighs.

"I know you and your family have probably been assaulted with questions and comments regarding the recent......developments with your newly deceased wife and the other rumors that are floating around so I'll try my best to keep this short." Cameron exhales slightly before continuing, "First of all, I just want to say that what happened to your wife is extremely sad and unfortunate and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Secondly, I wanted to apologize for the way I acted when we first met. I was in a different place in life with a different mindset. I know it was only a couple months ago but I was in this phase where I was being angry just to be angry. I thought it would get me the things I wanted and to the places I wanted to be. I was wrong. I'm sorry that I acted like a jackass and I'm sorry I didn't realize the error of my ways sooner." After his speech Cameron goes over to Mil and hands him a credit card, "Drinks for Sampson are on me tonight." After this Cameron walks toward the exit with a great feeling of self satisfaction. It was obvious on his face.

Jackson got out of his pickup, and closed the door, and locked the doors up tight. He pulled his coat around him tight, sighing and watching the fog from his warm breath dissipate quickly into the cold air. He looked up into the sky. It was calm, clear, and the waning half moon was very brilliant tonight. He entered the building and bellied up to the bar, sitting a few seats away from Samson and the others. "Jack 'n' Coke," was all Jackson gruffly said.

Mil turns his head toward Jackson. He nods at the man's request and turns to prepare the drink.

In the time in between, Danielle walks over to Jackson's table. She is wearing a black, lolita-style dress, long black gloves, and tall black boots. Her irises are yellow. She looks at him for a few seconds, and then asks, "Do you mind if I sit down?"


**************

Cameron is scarcely able to leave the bar before Brandy comes running out to meet him. "Cameron!" She calls, in a hushed but exasperated voice. She rushes up behind him, so she is just a couple of feet away. Her blonde hair is in a ponytail, and she is wearing a leather jacket over a blue shirt and black denim jeans. "Cameron... I'm sorry, but... Can we talk?"

"I don't have anywhere to be and it's certainly been a while since we last spoke. What's up? Do you want to go back into the bar or do you have something else in mind?" Cameron was genuinely surprised and excited about Brandy coming up to him. he hadn't spoken to her in a few months and he was hoping to rid her of the negative Cameron of old.

Jackson took a sip of his drink before he felt a presence close. He turned a bit, looking to Danielle. He gave a faint smile and nodded, "Sure, take a seat." It was obvious that Jackson was tired. He didn't give much emotion either. Jackson drank a large portion of his drink with a single swallow before setting the glass aside. As Danielle sat down, Jackson looked to her again and asked, "How've you been feeling? You recovered fairly good from that nasty accident last month. I'm glad you're up and about again."

Danielle's yellow eyes focus on Jackson, and a light smile forms on her face. "I'm doing great, actually." She lowers gaze slightly, and continues. "I feel better than before, hard as that it is to believe. You don't strike me as the kind of person who would believe in anything like miracles, but... Something happened to me that night that I can't explain."

She continues to smile and looks dreamily up at the ceiling. "As you know, for a while there, things were looking really bad... And, with what little consciousness I had, I knew I was probably gonna die. But then, out of nowhere, I began to hear this quiet humming. Everything else began to fade away. This humming... It was like, a song I must have heard sometime, but I couldn't figure out where. It was the most unreal thing. And then, after a while of this humming, I saw this blurry image of a woman, but her features were only selectively defined... One patch of her face would be high definition, and with another it felt like I was looking at someone from under water. The whole thing was both soothing and deeply unsettling. Some uncanny valley shit, right there."

Danielle's gaze falls back on Jackson. "I just wanted to thank you for helping me that night. So, thanks."

**************

Brandy looks around for a few seconds, and then shakes her head. "I, I don't know." Her eyes focus on the ground, then shoot back up at Cameron. "Not the bar. I want to speak with you in total privacy. I'd like to go to your apartment, if that wouldn't be too weird for you. Or we can go to mine. It doesn't matter. But I want to be away from the others. It's almost the end of the month, and I trust you, because you weren't in town the night of the first murder. You got here the next day, right? So you're the only one I can be sure isn't the killer, I think. I don't want anyone else around, just you and me, please..."

Jackson listened intently to what Danielle had to say. Anyone who survived a trauma as severe as hers deserved to be listened to. As she described what she experienced, he found himself listening more and more intently to her. When she was finished speaking, he sat quietly for a moment, mulling over what she had said. He looked to her and said, "You're most welcome. It was touch and go, but I'm glad you are still with us. And for what it's worth, I believe you." He drank the rest of his drink, and set the empty glass aside. Reaching for a fistful of beer nuts, he looked to her once more, "What you experienced might help in finding this guy. How about you and I, we go to the Sheriff's office tomorrow and we talk to him about what you experienced?"

Cameron hesitated a bit before responding, "Sure you can come to my apartment but there's something you have to know. Back on the first, Jackson Lee, Cliff Alset and I were all at the well. I was taking a late night run and it looked like Jackson was too. Cliff, well honestly who really knows with that guy but that isn't the important thing here. We met a guy named Hollis Brown. He was originally supposed to meet up with Cliff but all of us were there and it turns out we had similar experiences so he told all of us. Jackson and I had dreams on December 31st and October 31st respectively. Somehow these dreams are connected to the person who gets killed but I don't exactly know how yet. Also Hollis is hunting the killer and he told us that the killer can transcend time. So I don't know what we can do to stop him. You're welcome to come over if you want but I think whoever the killer is after they're gonna get em. Unless we can figure out how the fuck the dreams can stop it..." Cameron had begun to cry a little and he watched Brandy's face to see how she was reacting to the information after he had finished.

Cliff pulls in and parks in front of Julee's Bar. His Bug is running smoothly now. He sits a moment and gazes into the windows of the bar. He shuts the engine off. After a minute sitting in silence and breathing deeply, Cliff opens the door and slowly emerges from his car. He gently shuts the door while continuing to gaze into Julee's Bar. He walks up to the front and enters. After looking around, he sees Danielle Douglas and Jackson Lee sitting at a table. A strange haze seems to be encompassing Danielle. Maybe it's just the lighting. Cliff walks strait up to Danielle. He stares at her a moment. He starts to say something. He stands with his mouth open. Then he blinks.

Jackson saw Cliff approach, then stand there awkwardly with his mouth open. With a slight chuckle, Jackson motioned to a chair and said. "Take a seat, Cliff. Danielle, Cliff Alset. Cliff, Danielle Douglass." When introductions were over, Jackson looked to Mil up at the bar and said, "Grainbelt Premiums for me and my friends here, mate." Jackson then looked between Cliff and Danielle, then looked to Cliff and said. "You look like you've up and seen a ghost, mate."

"Well I thought. I mean, when I saw her--- Danielle that is, from..." Cliff twisted around and pointed at the front entrance, then quickly continued, "over there, I could have sworn I saw a hazy glow..." he turned to Danielle, " a weird glow about you." There was a long pause. Cliff sat down quickly, and pulled in his seat. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stare like that."

Before Danielle can respond to Jackson's suggestion about speaking with the sheriff, Cliff appears and joins the conversation. When Jackson suggests that Cliff looks like a ghost, Danielle makes a slow nod and looks hard at the older man. Cliff then begins to ramble about seeing a glow around Danielle.

"I'm sorry," he says, "I didn't mean to stare like that."

Danielle's expression is neutral. She shrugs. "It's cool," she says. "But I think that glow you saw is just my pale skin glowing, due to its overwhelming whiteness. With the lighting in here like this, it's almost blinding."


**************

Brandy listens to the startling information Cameron shares with her. As he continued, the tremors of fear on her place subsided, and a deadly serious expression took hold. By the end, while Cameron was crying, Brandy looks determined and strong. She reaches forward and clasps Cameron's left wrist.

"You're telling the town gossip about something this juicy?" She cocks her head slightly. She chuckles almost silently and looks at her feet. "Thank you. Thank you for trusting me with this un-fucking-believable story of yours."

She releases his wrist and looks him in the eyes. "I want to know everything. I want to write it all down. I promise I won't tell another soul, not even Cliff or Jackson, if you don't want them to know that I know. Whatever you tell me, it's not for the paper. It's for me. This fucker put my sister's head at the bottom of a well. I won't rest until I have his head on a platter... And I want to be the one to do it. You sound absolutely insane, after telling me that story, but even if you are just crazy, I like listening to crazy people. So... Can we go now? It's freezing like hell out here."

"The lighting scheme is a little odd in here. I think you musicians like it how it is," Jackson said with a chuckle. Looking to Cliff, he gently patted his shoulder and laughed, "Angels might come in all shapes and sizes eh?" His drinks were beginning to affect him. He was comfortable, slightly warm, slightly numbed. This was the best he felt in a while. Jackson looked to Danielle and asked, "So when's the next big gig for you guys?"

Cameron looks at Brandy bewildered. "You think I'm crazy? Well I'll prove I'm not Come on!" Cameron grabs Brandy's hand and leads her back into the bar. He takes her to where Cliff, Jackson and Danielle are speaking. "Excuse us, I've noticed you guys are having a nice conversation and I'm very sorry to interrupt that but if it's at all possible could Brandy and I speak with just Jackson and Cliff a moment? I have some news Brandy doesn't believe me about and I intend to prove I'm not fucking crazy like she seems to think I am."

Cliff sits in utter silence, frozen with a wide-eyed gaze.

Danielle opens her mouth to respond to Jackson's question, but then comes in, leading Brandy by the hand. Danielle observes Cameron's excited expression and then Brandy's visible mix of emotions. Brandy mouths "sorry" to Danielle and makes a small frown.

"Oh, I should probably get back to Max, anyway," Danielle says, turning toward Jackson. "The next song's about to start... Anyway, I just wanted to thank you." Danielle rises from her chair and makes a slight bow toward Cliff, Cameron, and Brandy. Danielle's face slackens into familiar neutrality, and she turns and walks over to her band-mate.

Brandy takes Danielle's seat at the table. She smiles nervously toward Jackson and then Cliff, who looks like he's seen a ghost. "Hiya, guys."

As Cameron made his way over, Jackson silently sighed, before draining the rest of his beer. As Danielle stood up, Jackson nodded and smiled softly, "You got it. Break a leg up there, eh?" He said with a friendly smile. Glancing to Mil, Jackson pointed at his empty beer mug, before looking to Cameron and Brandy. "'Ello," came the smooth, slightly inebriated accent of Jackson. "Ya know, mate, you should keep this news somewhat under wraps, eh?" Jackson said, before scooping a handful of beernuts into his mouth. After a couple moments of chewing, Jackson swallowed, then glanced between Brandy and Cameron, before looking to Cliff. After a lingering 10 second gaze on Cliff, Jackson turned to Brandy and said, "What has Cameron told you?"

Brandy looks at Cameron, as though looking for approval to speak, and then turns her attention toward Jackson. "Not everything," she says. She swallows hard. "And I can't believe I'm going to repeat this... The more I go over what he said in my head, the more unbelievable it sounds. Anyway. He claims that on the first of this month, he met you and Cliff and some new person named Hollis somethingorother. Cameron told me that each of you had experienced dreams on the last night of each month, right before the heads were discovered in the wells the next day... Also, these dreams might be connected to the murders and the killer? Something about the killer being able to "transcend time"? In a nut shell: These murders involve time travel and dream worlds... and Cameron thinks you can convince me that he's not high as fuck right now or off whatever meds he is supposed to be on."

Hearing all this---this crazy stuff--- Cliff buries his face in his hands. He shakes his head back and forth as if refusing to believe what he's heard. "I need a drink. A fucking strong drink!"

Jackson gave a sigh, turning to his mug of beer and took a swig from it. As he set the mug down, Jackson looked to Brandy. His face, though his cheeks were red from inebriation, was dead serious. He looked between Cameron, Cliff, then to Brandy. The look in his eyes hardened as Jackson gave a stiff nod. "Well, its true. Though it seems Cameron has replaced you as the town blabbermouth. You absolutely need to keep this to yourself. You will not, at anytime, discuss this with anyone. Not anonymously, not at all. This is for our safety, including yours." Jackson stood up off the stool enough to bring his face in close to Brandy's and said, "The whole town doesn't need to know. Not yet."

Jackson sat back down with a huff, and returned to his beer, throwing an angry glare at Cameron for running his mouth for a moment before throwing back the rest of the mug of beer. At Cliff's outburst, Jackson just huffed a half chuckle, reached over the bar to pull out a bottle of Whiskey and a shot glass, and slid them both over to Cliff. "Save some for me," Jackson grumbled.

Brandy looks at each of the men and says, "Your secret is safe with me."

JULEE'S BAR IS NOW CLOSED