There was a hole here., [ open ]

[Thad Beaumont]

Okay, wait. A blink and a pause here, a crossing of the arms there.

Thad Beaumont was standing in the driveway of his family's summer home -- also known as "the place that was blown to bits and covered in sparrow shit" no less than two months ago. That was two months ago, right?

He had woken up in the bed, inside the summer home -- the bed that he and Liz shared every summer. He had sat up alone, rubbed his eyes alone, and then wondered what the hell. Alone.

The house. It shouldn't have been there. But he had gotten dressed inside of it and was now standing outside of it, staring at it, silently cursing it. Last time he had been in it, he had been with George and they had been writing. Thad briefly wondered if his study was still there, hidden behind the bookshelf, intact.

He told himself he would check. But not before he stared at the house some more. And wondered.

"What the hell...?" He murmured to the silent neighborhood around him.

[Amanda Debusher]

Amanda Debusher had arrived in Castle Rock that morning after having a relatively fitful night of sleep. Something had been prickling the edges of her mind, but she could never quite put her finger on it. Whatever it was had everything to do with her sister, Little Lisey Landon of Castle Rock. She just had the sudden urge to visit her and make sure everything was okay.

Amanda left her own house after ten and dropped Lisey a quick message before heading to Castle Rock. Once she passed through the city limits, though, the town seemed to suddenly change. They were nothing drastic, but something was definitely different. The sun cast a bolder, deeper light on the town, almost as if it were in the midst of fall. When the breeze rustled in the trees, they seemed to whisper amongst themselved and Amanda felt a chill running down her spine. Or maybe that was because the town felt so...empty. Whatever the reason, something just wasn't right.

As Amanda turned onto Lisey's street, she spotted a man standing outside a vacation home. Usually that house was vacant. Amanda couldn't actually remember the last time she had noticed someone staying there.

Parking in Lisey's driveway, Amanda knocked on the front door and waited. After several minutes she glanced around to make sure Lisey's cream-colored BMW was actually in the driveway. Peering briefly inside it as she passed, Amanda continued walking down the driveway and toward the neighbors.

"Hello, sir," Amanda greeted as she closed the distance between them. "Have you seen Lisey Landon this morning?"

[Thad Beaumont]

He was still staring, kind of off in his own little world when he heard a voice. A woman's voice. Turning, he dropped his arms by his sides and stuck his hands in the pockets of his khaki pants, narrowing his eyes slightly. He repeated the name a few times. "Lisey Landon. Landon. Landon." Shaking his head slowly, he blinked and shrugged apologectically, his hands still in his pockets. "I'm sorry, I'm not sure I know who you're talking about."

He thought he knew everyone in the neighborhood...

Inwardly frowning, Thad turned to throw another glance to his own summer home before turning back to the woman. Maybe her Lisey-friend was new or something. "Thad Beaumont," he said as he took his right hand out of his pocket and reached forward. He figured it would be polite of him to introduce himself, even if he didn't know where her friend was.

[Amanda Debusher]

"Amanda Debusher," she introduced, grabbing the man's extended hand and giving it a firm shake.

She figured it wasn't too suprising he didn't know Lisey. She kept to herself mostly and afterall, this was his vacation home. After their introduction, a gap formed in their conversation and Amanda took advantage of this time to take a quick glance around. She still couldn't shake the uneasy feeling.

"Lisey is my sister," she explained, pointing at the next house down the street. "I drove up this morning to see her. She's not answering the door, but her car is there."

[Thad Beaumont]

"Nice to meet you," he smiled politely and shook her hand, placing his into his pocket when he pulled it back.

Thad looked over to the house Amanda had motioned to, tilting his head slightly. He didn't remember that house from his trips up here. It looked different somehow. The whole street looked different somehow. Of course, the last time he had stopped and looked up and down the street it had been covered with a carpet of sparrows. He told himself to stop thinking about that and turned his attention back to Amanda. Thad was about to mention something, but he quickly forgot it when he heard the slamming of a door -- the front door of the house Amanda had pointed out.

[Lisey Landon]

Shifting through the tall, healthy grass and across the lawns of the houses that stood between hers and the one Amanda was standing at, Lisey held back a shudder. She didn't know where it came from -- possibly the breeze, but it didn't seem like a weather kind of shudder. It was one of the ones you would get when something was behind you or someone was following you. The hair on the back of her neck was standing up and she could feel her hands balling into fists in her pockets.

"Hey," she said, smiling as she stepped up to Amanda and the man. He looked well put together and by his clothes Lisey could picture him at the front of a class, teaching people. He just had that look.

Glancing to Amanda, Lisey motioned back to her house. "Did you knock? I must've been in the shower if you did. Sorry 'bout that."

[Amanda Debusher]

"And you," Amanda replied as Lisey joined the conversation. She had watched her sister make her way across the lawns with her hands clenched into a fists and knew immediately that Lisey had sensed the eerie aura in the wind, too. Amanda wandered if it had anything to do with Boo Moon or whatever Scott had called it. She briefly glanced to her hands at the memory. She could just make out the faint pinkish-white scars.

"Yes, Little, I did," she answered, sounding relieved and exasperated at the same time. "I was worried when you didn't answer and just thought I would ask if anyone had seen you out for a walk or something. This is Thad Beaumont by the way," she pointed to the man. "Thad, this is Lisey Landon."

[Thad Beaumont]

Thad looked to the woman who had just emerged from the house, and back and forth between her and Amanda. They definitely looked like sisters and spoke like sisters as well. Lisey appeared like she had a permanent expression of determination on her face. He had seen that look before. Liz looked like that. Thad had seen it on her more and more during their years together -- a kind of steely confidence that reached it's peak the night Liz took the twins and left.

Even after George was gone, Liz would hate Thad when he got in his moods. The ones where he missed being able to write like George, where he missed making money, where he missed the grim snark of the bastard. Where he just missed Stark in general. Liz couldn't deal with it, so she finally just left. Left Thad, left their summer home, left it all -- with the kids.

Shaking his head a bit, he snapped out of his trance as he heard Amanda introduce them. He pulled his hand out of his pocket once again and reached it out ahead of him, just as he had done with Amanda minutes before. "Pleasure to meet you." He pasted a smile on his face in spite of the sudden depressing turn his thoughts had taken.

[Lisey Landon]

Frowning in apology to her sister as she explained how she had knocked on the door, Lisey quickly changed her expression as Amanda mentioned the man she had been speaking to. Automatically, her hand was out and grasping his. Meeting new people was like clockwork to her, after all the book tours and gatherings she had to attend with Scott, this was no different.

...wait, maybe it was.

She opened her mouth for a moment as her hand left his, hesitating before speaking. "Beaumont? Are you an author?" She paused. It had to be him, she recognized the thin-lipped grin from somewhere. The back of the book maybe. "Did you write Purple Daze?"

Scott read books by someone named Thaddeus Beaumont. She remembered him stumbling around the house on his way to getting in bed one night, one hand with the book in front of his face and the other performing his nightly tasks -- brushing his teeth, changing, all with his face glued to this book. And then raving about it to her while she was asleep.

Could this be that same Beaumont?

[Thad Beaumont]

Thad could definitely admit that he was surprised to meet someone who had heard of his books -- someone that wasn't in one of his classes or at a special event directly relating to one of his books. It's not like they were too popular. Stark had all the popularity. All the fame. All the ideas.

"Yeah..." He could feel his cheeks flushing slightly. He hadn't been called flat out like that on his writings in a long time. And he waited for the next sentence. Yes, that book sucks, by the way -- nice to be able to tell it to your face, or maybe Wow, what a piece of trash.

"That's me." He shoved his hands in his pockets again, his eyes roaming from Lisey, to her sister Amanda and then to the woods beyond them. He suddenly felt very insecure. Part of him wanted to ask why she wanted to know or how she knew, but he figured if it came up in the future, okay. He didn't want to pry and sound like a pompous ass. WHY YES I WROTE THAT ISN'T IT AMAZING OR WHAT. He shoulders raised a little bit and he lowered his head between them. Thad the turtle.

[Amanda Debusher]

Amanda stared down the street in somewhat of a daze while her sister and Thad talked. She was going to figure it what it was about this place that felt so off, why she felt so compelled to visit her sister when she was obviously fine. A slight breeze brushed across her cheeks and a chill ran down her neck. The weather was getting colder even though the sun was well into the sky by now. Odd.

"Well, it is getting chilly," she said, rubbing her arms as Thad and Lisey finished their conversation. "Maybe we should get some lunch and warm up a bit."

[Lisey Landon]

Lisey welcomed the chance to rip her eyes away from Thad and over to Amanda. There was something about him that reminded her of Scott. Like he was affected by something.

Maybe it was just a writer thing.

"Sounds good to me," she nodded. "Let me go grab a jacket really quick though. I didn't realize it was this chilly out here until I got outside."

As Lisey turned and paced back towards the house, her hands rested on her upper arms, absently running up and down the skin. She could feel goosebumps on them and she wondered if they were from the temperature or the surroundings feeling so off -- or Thad, maybe. It had to be a writer thing. They all had to have that sense of awkwardness, right? They usually sat alone and acted out everything through words and phrases -- it made sense.

She shook her head quickly. No it didn't.

Opening the door, she reached around the corner and grabbed a jacket off of the coat rack and her keys off of the table beside it, then she closed and locked the front door. Lisey threw the keys in the front pocket and pulled the jacket on, quickly retreating back down the steps and up to Beaumont and her sister. "We could go to The Blue Moon. That seems like an easy place."

[Thad Beaumont]

Thad had watched Lisey go, the gears working in his mind over the way she had been staring at him -- kind like he had killed someone or something. Blinking away the thoughts, he turned and peered up the street. It was only a moment before she returned and suggested a place to eat.

"Yeah, sounds perfect." Thad motioned to his car, still parked in the driveway of the summer home behind him. "Can I follow you two there?"

He didn't want to add the fact that he had no idea what that place was or where it was. It must've just opened or something...

[Amanda Debusher]

She stared blankly at Thad as her sister walked back toward the house. Why did he look so uncomfortable? Almost nervous even. Or lost, like a puppy who couldn't find its favorite chewtoy.

"Sure," Amanda replied when Lisey returned only a few moments later. "You can drive my car, Lisey, since I'm blocking you in."

Amanda tossed the keys toward Lisey and began the short walk to her driveway, crossing her arms firmly against her chest. The pinkish scars along her hands and wrists contrasted deeply with her pale hands and goosebumps. Shivering, she turned to look at Lisey.

"Isn't it awful cold for this time of year?"

[Lisey Landon]

Catching the keys in her right hand, Lisey began to unlock her sister's car, nodding quickly. "It is." A beat. "And I don't like it."

She climbed into the car and shut the door, waiting for Amanda to do the same before she continued. "Something seems really weird about... about everything. Is it just me?"

Lisey hadn't wanted to ask the question in front of Mr. Beaumont, for fear of looking Pretty Damn Crazy (although, she was used to that now, especially after being with Scott for so long). It was a lovely day out, albeit a tad chilly. But there was sun and a breeze and clean crisp air. So what was the problem?

Starting the car, she began to pull out of the driveway, tossing a polite smile to Thad as they drove by him. She moved slowly up the road until she was sure she was following and then she sped up a little, peering over to her sister for a response.