#... 20 yrs later. and its a steaming pile of shit

[horrorphase]

ꜜ ﹙ ⚰️  ﹚ ﹕ it should come to no surprise that his youngest sister hounded him with questions, both of them harboring minds ripe with curiosity ⸻ often rabid in their search for answers, prowling the deepest recesses of their town, sinking their teeth into the foulest of leads. but at least she was redeemable ﹕ in the eyes of their father, in the eyes of the town their family was cursed to serve. and part of him envied her baby sister, how she could stomach all the idle porch talk and the agog stares of townsfolk whenever they saw a talbot, but he was ultimately just glad to absolve her of the same fate as him. he was the black sheep. the creep, the freak, the weirdo. and he'd happily serve himself up as their next jacob thorne if it meant saving anyone he cared about from the hungry eyes looking to gnaw on another's ruin to stave off their own guilt ﹕ let them carve him apart piece by piece, dress him up with blame, and sustain themselves with the meat of his sacrifice. how else would a town like this survive ? one of them might be a killer, but kieran knew that almost everyone here had other secrets that they'd like to keep buried than answer the hollow growls of their conscience. “ some deputy probably saw me running down the street in the middle of the night. they might have thought i was running from something. ” well, either that or they knew about him trespassing into thorne house yet again, or when he broke into the cemetery with finch, or maybe they saw him climbing into taylan's window past curfew. it was a certainly a long night. but while some details blurred and waned, kieran doubted that any of his crimes were as terrible as bloody murder. “ i think they're just grasping at straws. just like twenty-five years ago when they indulged that witch hunt against jacob thorne. ” kieran shrugged, doubting that the department possessed any kind of evidence to pin the crime on anyone yet. “ taylan might become a person of interest, but hopefully i took care of that before it could become a thing. ” hopefully being the operative word, unsure whether his statement would line up with all the others. still, words rolled off his tongue nonchalantly, didn't offer much more as he began checking out something on his phone. “ i've been running point on getting more information on the people who were actually alive during the 1999 murders, and while dad is more likely to be suspected ... ” a pause as he showed piper his phone, a nearly empty folder labeled [ charlotte talbot ] on screen. a low incredulous chuckle slipped past his lips, seemingly amused at himself for being entertaining the thought. he didn't think their mother could hurt a fly, but she could definitely be keeping a secret. “ obviously not the killer. but isn't it weird that we literally don't know anything about mom's life before she moved here ? ”

🔒 closed starter for kieran / / @gorebound ⏰ sometime after his questioning.

♤ ❝ did the cops really call you in for questioning ? ❞ no time for pleasantries or hellos, this has been grating at her since she heard the first murmur of it across town. gossip of the town has never fallen on deaf ears ; piper knows the way they whisper about anyone out of the norm — knows that her brother could find his way onto the town's suspect list just for the crime of being introverted & curious. as someone who has dug her way into the town's history ( even the unpleasant parts ) for the sake of looking after a place her future is tied up in, she dreadfully knows that her brother could find his way onto the town's suspect list just for the crime of being introverted & curious. it's enough to pull a frustrated reaction from her. ❝ i mean— did they have a reason ? where'd you stick your nose this time ? because if they're just– pointing fingers already– i swear to god. ❞