Post by thefangedrose on Mar 17, 2024 10:06:57 GMT -8
Disclaimer
This series contains elements of a supernatural nature and will play a parody of the Judao-Christian faith. It is not meant to be mocking or subversive but simply done for a creative outlet.
You. Were. Warned.
The supernatural elements of this storyline were not always present. “The Pact” is a concept that kept Jesse’s original “Walk the Line” idea alive while honoring that none of them had these “abilities” five years ago.
I hope you enjoy it.
I give you Chapter 15!
Civil War 2
Chapter 15
Affection
Location: Reddick, Florida
Date: March 17th
Time: 2:05 AM
The hour was late and the entire house was asleep. Well, except Michael, who was haunted by nightmares of nights long passed. Quiet as a ghost the blonde figure of Danielle Bay moved through the house. As she walked she could still hear it. The soft chimes of the place she had come from. Like music that only she could hear. Soft, gentle, and soothing.
She moved past a room with the door open and turned her gaze inside to find the massive masked figure of The Sins seated silently on the bed with its forearms resting on it’s thighs. The beast breathed in deep and steady breaths with it’s eyes closed. Perhaps it was asleep or simply waiting for the next time it would be unleashed.
And like a knife to the heart, she saw him in her mind without the mask. The happy, content smile and kind spirit that had shined so brightly for so many, for so long. The warm and loving face of the man who had been husband to some, father to some, brother to some, and friend to many.
Her lip quivered as a single tear slipped from her left eye down her cheek. What they had once shared was far more than she had ever realized and somewhere inside she knew that if given half the chance? She would embrace him all over again.
He had been a safe harbor for so many.
Tearing her eyes away from him she continued down the hallway until she came to a door at the end of the hallway. Without knocking she eased it open to reveal a dark candle-lit room beyond.
Two women lay content and happy in one another's arms. Each of them was completely nude and covered to the waist by a sheet. The busty and tattooed Ashley Kenyon lying on her back, jet-black hair fanned around the pillow. Lying with her head on Ashley’s chest, the fractured woman known as Asmodeus, Maiko.
Maiko’s hair fanned around Ashley’s other breast obscuring it from view and her arm laid lightly across Ashley’s flat stomach.
If there was ever a more perfect image of a pair of lovers? Danielle hadn’t seen it. These two had been through so much together and yet here they were, together in blissful slumber.
Silently Danielle crossed the room and leaned down touching Ashley’s shoulder. Kenyon awoke with a jolt, the arm not holding Maiko that had once been beneath her head in the pillow came out grasping the glock and the safety switched off with an audible -click- as it was leveled at Danielle’s face.
Danika just raised her hands showing she was unarmed and motioned with a hand to her mouth and to follow her. She didn’t want to disturb Maiko.
Ashley raised a brow but carefully slipped out from beneath Maiko. The brown-haired woman whimpered and curled herself close to Ashley’s pillow and scent. Ashley slipped on a little black robe, tying it around herself, and followed Danielle out.
Danika walked through the house until she came to a door at the end of the hallway and out onto a patio. The instant they exited the house the night filled with the sounds of crickets and the other peaceful sounds of the night.
Danika stood with her hands folded over the railing and Ashley stopped five feet from her folding her arms over her chest. When no words came a look of irritation crossed her face.
“What, do you want, Bayne?” Ashley demanded.
For a few seconds, Danielle stood leaning on the railing in silence. When she finally spoke she didn’t bother turning around.
“You have always been a thorn,” Danika told her. “Since the first time I laid eyes on you. You have interfered with things that didn’t concern you. You have meddled in things that you had no business meddling in. You have ignored fair warnings and did whatever you thought was best for yourself and those around you.”
“Is there a point to this, devil bitch?” Ashley snapped.
Danielle took a deep breath and turned around to look the woman behind her in the face.
“How did you come to the choice?”
Ashley blinked and canted her head to the side.
“What the hell does that even mean?” She demanded. “The choice about what?”
“Ignoring orders,” Danielle explained.
Ashley’s face darkened and suddenly the hand that was holding the gun was no longer held negligently.
“Which orders exactly are we talking about?” Ashley hissed, the thought of the insult Michael tossed into her teeth still fresh in her mind.
Danielle as if reading her mind shook her head.
“Not Aerynn.” She assured her. “Just….in general. How did you know that what you wanted to do was so much more important than what you were told to do? How did you decide to just…do it anyway?”
Something in Ashley’s posture changed subtly then. She seemed to relax and all of the suspicion came out of her.
“Something fearless leader wants you to do not sitting well with you?”
Danielle chuckled and glanced up at the night sky.
“If only it were that simple.” She answered with a wistful look coming over her face. “I was given strict instructions about certain things.”
Ashley’s eyes narrowed and she followed her gaze up toward the sky.
“O…..h….kay. Whatever that means. You want to ignore it and do something else?”
“Yes.” Danika’s voice fell to the softest whisper. Barely audible with the longing she felt. “With every piece of my heart.”
Ashley rolled her eyes and then looked at the back of Danielle’s head.
“Let’s say for a moment that I even believe you have one. Sometimes you have to do what you know you have to do, damn the consequences. Sometimes you have to know those consequences are worth it.”
Ashley reached out and took Danika by the arm and turned her around. Danika’s face was a mask of insecurity and doubt.
“Is it?” She asked bluntly. “Is it worth the consequences?”
Danielle slowly nodded and whispered.
“It is.”
“Then you do what you have to do.” Ashley told her. “And you face them with your head up and your shoulders back.”
Softly Danika nodded and reached up wiping a hand across her cheek for what may or may not have been a tear.
“I’m going back to bed.”
“You uh….” Danika looked away for a second and then back again. “...Uh…you know everyone can hear her right?”
Ashley looked her full in the face, no blush and no shock.
“Of course.”
“Then why don’t you….uh….” and Danielle put a hand over her mouth.
“Because then I’d miss out on the sexiest sound I ever heard.”
There was no shame in Ashley in that moment. Danielle’s eyes widened with shock at the statement and Ashley looked her dead in the face. Maiko was her world and she didn’t have any shame in the fact that she enjoyed her. When she saw the shocked and dismayed look on Danika’s face however Ashley smirked.
Ashley turned and headed back to the room humming happily to herself at the dumbfounded look left on the face of the Harbinger. Danielle however shook her head, clearing from her mind that image that Ashley had put there and her mind went straight back to her issue.
She knew now.
She had to do this.
She wasn’t ready to let go yet.
Location: Asheville, North Carolina
Date: March 17th
Time: 3:02 AM
Jessie was sleeping soundly when a sudden crash sat her bolt up. Her eyes darted around the room expecting an attack or perhaps Josie storming her room to “claim her prize” but she was alone save for the single black-eyed woman standing at the door.
The woman looked at Jessie and then at the wall behind her head. The room that Morgan had once slept in was next to her and before she could fully process what was happening another bang hit the wall, the sound of a headboard slamming into the wall, and a muffled shriek of agony carried through the wall.
Josie Bridal had found a playmate.
Jessie curled her legs under her and wrapped her arms around them rocking back and forth as behind her the bang became a rhythmic serenade mixed with the muffled outcries of mercy from a soft male voice.
It continued like this for nearly an hour before Jessie unwound herself and climbed out of bed. She couldn’t listen to this anymore, not now. The Demon at the door didn’t stop her from leaving, simply stepped to the side without a sound, soulless empty black eyes watching her.
Bare feet padded out across the cold hardwood floor. She didn’t know where she wanted to go…all she knew is that she didn’t want to be in her room. As she passed a doorway on her travels she glanced into the door and found the beautiful Asian woman Sariel kneeling in the center of her room on the floor. She was leaning back on her heels and in front of her knelt another feminine figure. Dark-haired and mysterious, the mute Shamsiel…or Sasha to those closest to her.
The two simply knelt in the middle of the room with their foreheads resting on one another. Simply enjoying the company and closeness of the other. This was all they needed at that moment. Simply the other's presence.
Jessie knew there was nowhere that she would be safe, but she found her way up the stairs to the third floor. A place that had been off limits to anyone outside the Collective for so long.
A place she thought she might be safe.
The stairway opened up into what had once been a huge loft-style floor. The entire floor is now open and converted into a huge bathroom. Open wall showers and multiple huge bathtubs filled the room from one wall to another.
A place where the Collective could be together and enjoy the very special and occasional time as a complete unit.
She had never been allowed up here before, but she didn’t know where else to go.
She crossed to a stone bench resting near the stairs and sank slowly pulling her knees up to her chest. It was easier without the breast forms, and she wrapped both arms around her knees. The weight of all of this was finally starting to get to her.
She couldn’t tell anyone what was happening here. She couldn’t tell her friends and allies her true fate. Not Jessi. Not the other Queens. No one.
“You are up late.”
The voice snapped Jessie out of her reverie and brought her head around to find the source. Standing at one of the windows that overlooked the forest behind the Castle was Lucifer. He was dressed in his white suit and stood with his hands clasped behind his back.
Jessie let out the faintest little squeak of fright and immediately put her feet down on the floor to bolt if needed but Lucifer didn’t turn and run at her. He just stood with his back to her looking out the window.
As if reading her mind however he chuckled.
“You are in no danger.” He assured her. “At least not at this moment.”
“I…I didn’t know you were here.”
“I come here from time to time,” Lucifer explained without turning around. “It’s quiet.”
“Yeah….I kind of needed some.”
Lucifer made a little chuckle low in his throat. A sound Anton Crowley had made frequently.
“She can be quite….spirited,” Lucifer whispered.
“That is one word for it.” Jessie said softly. “Brutal. Vicious. Cruel….”
“Well….” Lucifer opened a hand and shook it back and forth gently. “You are…partly to blame for that my dear.”
“M..me?”
“Of course.”
Lucifer finally turned and she could see him fully. It was Anton Crowley but there was something different about him now. There was no more cocky turn of expression. No more arrogant visage….it was almost calming now. Like looking at the most exquisite painting of Anton drawn by the hand of the most gifted painter in the world. Perfect down to the smallest detail of his skin.
Lucifer crossed the room and dropped down to the bench beside her, folding his hands in his lap very feminine…and yet everything about him oozed masculine confidence.
“You have to know the story of who she used to be,” Lucifer told Jessie in that cold, and yet controlled tone he was so known for. “Joshua Mcbride.”
“He…died right?”
“He did. In my service.” Lucifer agreed. “But the manner of death matters less than the subtle factors behind it. You see, Joshua left my service a few years before his death.”
“You let him go?!” Jessie asked shocked.
“Of course,” Lucifer answered with an amused smile. As if he were looking at a pet that had done something funny. “He fell in love. A woman he had known in his life before Abaddon had conceived a child….and he wanted to spend his life with them.”
“W..Whats so wrong with that?”
“Josie views it as making her weak,” Lucifer explained. “Her weakness led her to be unprepared for the fight with Sathanas. And Joshua lost his life.”
“W….what does that have to do with me?”
“You remind Josie of her,” Lucifer told her. “The one he gave it all up for. In a way…you are a reminder of it. That she must be this way. She must be brutal. She must be cruel. To keep you…at bay.”
Jessie blinked and finally looked over at the man sitting beside her.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“I simply felt like talking,” Lucifer told her with a shrug. “Maybe now you’ll have something to think about. Now…go and return to your room.”
“But I don’t….”
Jessie began to argue that she didn’t want to go back but the look Lucifer gave her told her that he wasn’t going to tolerate any arguments. Ultimately Jessie pushed herself up from the bench and headed back down the stairs.
As soon as she neared her room she could hear the muffled cries of pain and wrapped her arms around herself.
Silently to herself, she wondered….was she the cause of this suffering?
Location: Reddick, Florida
Date: March 17th
Time: 6:05 AM
For nearly three hours Danika contemplated Ashley’s advice before finally concluding what needed to be done. She walked back to the room with the opened door from hours before and found it seated in the same position, only this time its eyes were open, staring at her from within the mask.
“I need you.”
“What is the problem?” The voice hissed.
“I have to do my daily meditation and spotted what may be Watchers out in the trees.”
The huge beast rose from the bed with an aggravated growl, the springs squealing in protest as they sprung back into position.
It didn’t tell her to lead the way, just fell in behind her as she walked. She had changed into a beautiful white sundress with her hair pulled back into a trio of inter-braided French braids that bounced on her shoulder blades as she walked.
Together they moved through the house and out into the driveway. She led it across the driveway and to the spot between the trees where a single ray of sunlight had shined through. Motioning in front of where she stood she looked up at it.
“Stand here please.”
“Why?” It growled.
“Because I asked you to?” She answered.
The masked figure growled again and didn’t move. Danika sighed and motioned behind her with her thumb.
“I can’t see them if they come up behind me. If you stand where I asked…you can watch my back.”
The eyes behind the mask watched her for a moment before, with an annoyed grunt, it moved to stand in front of her. Unlike all the times before, Danika didn’t kneel, however. She leaned her head back, the bright morning sun shining across her face.
Standing this close to her It swore it could hear voices. Whispered voices, thousands of them…all speaking at once. Its eyes narrowed and again a growl left it but for the life of him, it couldn’t see anyone else around them.
From what it could see, which was becoming harder by the second, as the area around them seemed to become brighter and brighter by the second. As if the sunlight streaming in through the trees on her was gathering inside her.
It was even more obvious to those inside the house. The door of multiple rooms slammed open as Silk and Shadow came storming half-dressed out of one room while Ashley and Maiko did the same from another. Each of them joined the Demons, Michael and Hana near the door.
“The fuck is going on?” Ashley demanded.
“It’s so bright.” Silk added shielding her face with her arms.
“Something is happening with Danika,” Michael told them as he too raised a hand to shield his face.
“It is out there with her,” Hana told her oldest friend.
Ashley squinted and looked from Michael, to Hana and then to the floor. The conversation from a few hours ago suddenly came to her mind.
“The fuck is she doing?” She demanded.
Outside the light was so intense that no one could see the pair inside anymore. The choir of voices was now talking quickly as if they were trying to intervene in whatever was happening. The masked man raised his arm and placed his forearm over his eyes.
“What is happening?” It asked in that gravely hiss.
The only words that it could make out in the choir of voices were
“Don’t.”
and
“Stop”
“I’m sorry….I’m not ready to let him go.”
Suddenly two hands grasped his arms in a steel vice-like grip. Each small hand locks around his wrist. His attention snapped down to where he knew her face was and saw only a blinding light where her eyes should be.
And then the sudden intense glow was gone. It didn’t fade gradually but snuffed as if a light switch had been hit. Everyone had to blink back away the sunspots from their vision, but as they did they heard the pain-filled shrieks from behind the mask.
When their vision returned they could see Danielle standing over the form of the thing in the mask. It was down on all fours and vomiting what appeared to be thick, rich red blood. All of them took off at a dead sprint across the driveway, except Michael who hobbled with the aid of his cane.
When they reached the pair they found Danika now crouching over him with her head on his bare back. Blood, both black and red-coated the ground beneath his face. The screaming had finally subsided and he just sat there, doubled over and panting.
Slowly the head came up and the eyes beneath the mask were no longer cold pools of emptiness. There was confusion….confusion and pain.
“...Dani?” A soft loving voice whispered. “...Is that you?”
Danielle smiled and nodded. Then the gaze turned to Ashley.
“Ash?”
Ashley gasped and brought her hand to her mouth.
“Dean?” She whispered. “Dean, is that you?”
“I…” His voice answered but then without warning his back tensed and he threw an arm back. The arm struck Danika in the chest sending her tumbling back away from him. “NO!!!!”
“HARBINGER!” Maiko shouted in concern.
The cold gravely voice screamed.
“I WON’T GO BACK! I WON’T!”
Slowly his head raised and he locked eyes with Danielle now seated on her ass with Maiko kneeling next to her to check on her.
“What did you do?” The Sins hissed.
Danielle smiled, then glanced at the shocked Ashley, then back at him.
“What I had to do.” She answered. “And I will pay the consequences.”
“I need you more than I have known….and I’m not ready to let you go.”
