Chapter 1: The Birth of Death

May 1, 2019.

Cordelia remembered what day it was – she returns to us, she thought. With excitement, she paced around and smiled. At midnight, the brink between Halloween and November 1, Michael Langdon had come to retrieve Misty Day's soul as fulfillment of her end of the deal. He had held her captive in the underworld, but he treated her like an absolute queen out of some twisted love for her. During their hellish wedding ceremony, Misty was given bloody wine and pomegranate seeds to consume to bind her to it, and him, forever. This one detail caused a lot of conflict between the Supreme and the Antichrist, so it came to be decided that Misty spend the spring and summer up in the mortal coil with her beloved sisters, and the autumn and winter down in the nether realms with Michael.

The Supreme, sitting along with Myrtle, Madison, Zoe, Coco, Mallory, and Queenie in the ancestry room thought for a moment about the seemingly eternal period of time Misty had been gone. Thanksgiving was not as joyous without her laughing and enjoying the meal before her, as she normally did. Christmas was not nearly as festive; New Years went by with merely a prayer that Michael was treating her well; and Cordelia was not religious by any means. Easter passed with a simple afterthought.

Life was not the same without their beloved White Witch.

Knock-knock-knock…

"She's here," the Supreme said, springing up from her seat. Zoe and Mallory were the first to accompany their superior to the door. Upon opening it, an action which was done slowly, they saw Misty, the witch they were expecting. Cordelia's face lit up, paired with jovial tears, taking her into her arms tightly. Misty seemed to just collapse into the Supreme's arms, but Mallory was the first to notice something very different about her that Cordelia failed to. She seemed a bit wider around the waist and hips; the fine silk dress did a horrible job hiding it.

"Miss Cordelia," Mallory whispered. "Let her go for a minute."

"No, she just came back…" she said tearfully.

"I'm serious," Mallory repeated. "Let her go just for a minute. Look."

Finally obeying her command, the Supreme looked down and gasped. Through her ebony silk dress was a full-term pregnancy right before her eyes. Shaking with fear and anticipation, Cordelia rested her hand on Misty's swollen abdomen and felt way more than she could see. The newly-arrived Misty looked weakened and in desperate need of food. Underneath her palm, she could feel a peculiar swirling inside her womb.

"Y-You're…. pregnant…" Cordelia said with shock. It's a girl, she intuited.

"I…know," Misty said weakly. "I'm… starvin'. C-Can I eat?"

"You're full term…" the Supreme went on. "It's only been since November."

"We'll get you some food, Misty," Zoe said. "Come in right now."

Misty was sat down promptly at the dining table and given what seemed like a potluck of food. Myrtle, Queenie, and Zoe got as much as they could to make sure their sister witch was fed. They even heated up leftovers from dinner the night before and lined it all up for her to choose from as she sat. The first thing she grabbed was a turkey leg, which she devoured. When all of the meat and skin was gone, Cordelia and Mallory watched in horror as Misty bit down on the bones as well, crunching on every fragment. This was enough to trigger Mallory to speed to her side and put her arm around her.

"Misty, stop it," she said. "Slow down. You're going to choke."

The pregnant witch swallowed some of the turkey bones she chewed and wiped her mouth with the cloth napkin provided; "oh, I'm fine. I ain't chokin'. Like I said, they don't serve solid food in hell."

"You're not supposed to eat bones," Mallory said. "It's bad for you. Plus, you could cut your mouth or break a tooth."

Misty smiled, directly contradicting Mallory's concern. There was not a single drop of blood nor a broken tooth. In fact, there was too much food between her teeth to accurately tell. "See anythin' there?"

"N-No." Mallory was a little grossed out to see the plaque and stood up. "Just… eat as much as you want. Just don't eat bones."

"Mallory," Cordelia cut in, "a word?"

The young witch looked at her superior and then to Zoe, who took over supervising Misty's voracious appetite. She followed Cordelia out of the dining room and listened to what she had to say. Her dark chocolate eyes were full of concern and worry.

"Yes?"

"Mallory," she began, "something is wrong. Really wrong. I have a bad feeling."

"What do you mean?"

"That baby cannot be human," Cordelia explained. "A normal gestation for a human is nine to ten months. That in there is a full-term pregnancy, and it's only been six months."

"I think me or you should talk to her and see what's up," Mallory suggested. "You'd know better than me."

"I wonder if she should go to the doctor," Cordelia said. "What I felt… it was like a… a…" She thought for a moment, still remaining a soft tone, "a snake slithering around in there…"

"A snake? Are you sure it wasn't just turning on its own?" Mallory asked.

"No, no," Cordelia said, "it wasn't like that."

Then a familiar yell came from the other room: "MISTY, ARE YOU CRAZY? YOU CAN'T DRINK!"

The two rushed back to the dining room and witnessed Zoe withholding a wine bottle that was not even set on the table from Misty, who looked as though she were crying with desperation just then. She could not reach the bottle, which only made her want it more.

"Please… I need it… please!"

"You don't drink, Misty," Zoe replied. "What the hell did he-"

Cordelia held her hand out and telekinetically took the bottle from Zoe's raised hand so that she was holding it now. She placed it on the decorative table near the door and walked forward, her dark eyes meeting Misty's fatigued bright blue ones. They squinted shut into a soft cry, and Cordelia felt a pang in her heart for her. It only made the Supreme wonder if Michael did anything to her down in the underworld that made her this way – well, aside from the obvious pregnancy.

"Misty?" she asked. "We need to talk. Can you cooperate for a little bit?"

"I…I wanna finish eatin', I'm still hungry," she whined.

"That is fine," Cordelia said. "Please, meet me in my office after you finish." Walking out, she looked to Zoe and ordered, "watch her."

She waited in the office for two hours for Misty to come in. Two hours to eat, Cordelia thought, what is this? A buffet? Oh that's right, they got everything they could out of the fridge.

As she took a deep breath, she saw the door open to Myrtle, dressed in a ridiculously eccentric polka-dot outfit with bright yellow gloves holding Misty by the arm to keep her stable. She was able to trudge forward a few steps as Myrtle shut the door tightly behind them. When the old witch tried to keep Misty up, she buffed her and stood up straight, erect, and as though she wasn't pregnant at all. Yet her swollen womb stuck out like a sore thumb through her exquisite black silk empire dress. The skirt reached to the middle of her shins, and she was wearing plain dark gray ballet flats. Her golden curls were loose, matted and messy, and despite being exhausted from her trip up from the underworld and her heavy pregnancy, her face still had that diamond-shaped, ethereal charm to it.

"Poor bird ate us out of house and home," Myrtle said, shaking her head. "Even sucked the marrow from a ham bone before devouring it whole."

"I ain't normally like this, Miss Cordelia," Misty said with shame in her voice.

"You're pregnant," Cordelia said. "It's normal to eat more than your share… but… I am very concerned."

"Why?"

"Let me start out this way. Did Michael… force you to do anything?"

"Like what?"

"Sex," Cordelia said bluntly.

Misty shook her head: "oh, no." Myrtle, who was now sitting off to the side, nodded at Cordelia; being a guardian in the veracity of the vernacular, she was able to sense when someone was lying. Misty was telling the truth.

"How often did you do that?"

Misty took a moment to think and sighed; "I don't remember."

"Try to remember."

Nodding, she replied; it sounded more like a guess: "three?"

Myrtle sighed heavily off to the side and shook her head, catching her Supreme's attention immediately: "poor bird."

"He didn't harm me," Misty said.

"It's not that, it's just…" Myrtle was hesitant to continue, "uncanny how you're full-term so soon."

"I don't know," the swamp witch said with a weak sigh. "I feel like… this… baby, is gonna crawl outta me any minute…"

"How does it feel in there?" Cordelia asked.

"I feel clawin', slitherin' like a snake," Misty replied, "I feel sick every other day, but every day down in hell is like… a minute. It don't pass like it does up here."

Cordelia and Myrtle looked at each other, knowing full well the extent of the situation. This baby was not human at all, or so it seemed. Cordelia began to remember Madison's testimony when she returned from that Victorian manor in California, a journey she endured with Behold Chablis, a warlock, to find out more about Michael's less-than-humble beginnings. Nothing about his own birth was natural, either. He was born three months after conception, and even had a twin in utero which he devoured and took the life force from. His mother, Vivian Harmon, had died after an extremely painful labor and shock from blood loss. The last thing worried Cordelia the most, and nearly brought her to tears.

"Misty," she said, "you're excused. May Myrtle and I have a moment?"

Obeying her command, Misty shuffled out of the room and left the door slightly ajar and listened in on their conversation.

"Myrtle, she could die having that baby," Cordelia said gravely. "Michael's own mother died bringing him into the world, and I will not lose her again."

"I'm sure it won't be anything like that," Myrtle said. "They didn't have a witch in that house when he was born. I'm sure if it were so, his mother would be alive alongside him."

"I'm so scared. She looks like she is about to have that baby, or whatever it is."

"I'm not saying the birth will be easy, but we have magic on our side. We should allow Mallory to sleep beside her and supervise her as she sleeps. That baby is going to be born by tomorrow, I guarantee it!" Myrtle's voice danced at this point in her speech. "When it is born, it will claw out like a bat out of hell."

Mallory did as told, being assigned to watch Misty as she slept. She made sure the expecting mother was comfortable on her side in bed before sitting on one of the upholstered chairs in the room. She checked the clock on the wall; as it read 11:45pm, she felt her eyes getting heavy. Falling fast asleep, she could hear maniacal, masculine laughing over the sounds of fire roaring and people screaming in agony – men, women and children. Then, her dreaming brain was able to make out images of slithering snakes and floating white mists all leading up to what looked to be a woman in an all-white lace gown that seemed indistinguishable from her pallid skin. If one were to make their eyes travel from her feet to her head, they would notice that it only got to more shades of black and gray. The woman's eyes, a knife-piercing gray, were covered in black sooty makeup, the same kind that rested sparsely on her lips. On her head was a strange, ornate headdress with a spikey crown, Swarovski crystals, and a piece of lace covering her forehead. On closer inspection, her hair was half black, and half platinum white; the colors were divided by a middle part. The demonic, yet alluring woman opened her mouth to scream, exposing the row of fangs on the fronts of both jaws; it was shrill and piercing, enough to even wake Mallory from the dream.

"AHH! OW! OW! HELP!"

Mallory jumped from her seat and ran to Misty, knowing full well it was time. Yet the thoughts of the dream she had lingered on – was it prophetic?

"Misty," she said, leaning to touch her forehead. "I'm here."

She grabbed her hand, withstanding the screams that pierced her eardrums as she made Misty sit on the edge of the bed from where she was laying. Mallory put her hand on her swollen abdomen and felt little feet stomping against her uterine lining.

"I CAN'T MOVE! HELP!"

"Misty, you need to breathe, please," Mallory said pleadingly.

Without even having to call them in, the Supreme, Myrtle, Coco, Queenie, and Zoe all came in to assist in the birth of Misty's offspring. Cordelia rushed to Misty's side and held her hand, while Myrtle grabbed a stool for her to put her feet on as she sat with her buttocks all the way at the edge of the bed. Mallory got in front of the stool and lifted the bottom of Misty's nightgown up only to be shocked by a horrifying sight; the entire area between her legs was not really even covered in amniotic fluid that broke, but instead pure, dark red blood.

"Oh god," Mallory said, nearly retching from the sight.

"What?" Coco asked.

"Towels, now!"

Coco rushed with Queenie behind her to get the requested cleaning supplies, but the blood just kept flowing to the point where Misty's screams seemed to mute themselves. Instead, they were silenced to just mere whimpers, and Mallory could see the baby's head sliding out with ease until half of its body was out. She was very shocked to see that despite Cordelia's suspicions, it was indeed a human baby. She gathered it in her hands and looked down at it; it did not cry, nor whimper. Yet it was breathing as though it were alive.

"It's alive," Mallory said.

"What?" Cordelia asked.

"It isn't crying, but it's alive," she said, taking a peek between its legs. "She's alive."

Coco and Queenie looked away from where Mallory was when they entered with the towels, and they tossed her one. She immediately wrapped the infant up in it and held it close, wiping any blood off its face. However, once it was clean, the baby girl began to cry like magic. The cry was faint, however. Cordelia could hear it, even though she was more preoccupied with Misty's declining life force. Holding her hand, she felt her start to get cold and clammy, and paler by the second.

"Misty," she cried. "Please…"

The swamp witch was so weak she could barely turn her head to face the Supreme, and though she could hear her newborn baby daughter crying, she could not bring herself to ask Mallory to bring the baby up to her so she can look at her for the first time. She was clinging onto life, but in so much pain that praying for death was the most logical.

"Misty… I'm here," Cordelia cried, "we are all here for you."

"Should we do vitalum vitalis?" Zoe asked with concern.

"Go ahead," Myrtle whispered.

Zoe approached her dying sister witch and went on the other side, scooting past Coco and concentrated all of her life force to channel it into her to keep her alive. With a simple "vitalum vitalis," she breathed her willpower into the lifeless body, but to no avail. So, she tried again. Failure.

"Let me in there," Queenie offered. She performed vitalum vitalis as well, three times. No. By this point, Misty's heart and breathing completely stopped. Her eyes stared off into space like a dead fish.

Mallory put the baby girl in Myrtle's arms and went ahead to perform resurgence and injury reversal. The latter of the two worked better, as the blood between her legs cleaned itself up, however bringing her back to life was just not working. So, she tried again, but got distracted by Cordelia's silent sobs next to her. A third time ensued, and with frustration, she failed. I never fail at this, she thought, what is going on?

"Well," Mallory said sadly and morosely. "Miss Cordelia… you try."

"Why is this failing, it shouldn't be," she sobbed.

"Gather yourself," Myrtle encouraged. "Bring her back. Vitalum vitalis."

Cordelia mustered up all the power she humanly could and performed the spell, breathing her life force into Misty's corpse a few times. However, frustration prevented her from successfully doing the first attempt.

"Vitalum vitalis," Cordelia sighed, "please! PLEASE! You can't leave us!"

All of the witches gasped in shock to see that Misty's corpse decayed into black ash that seemed to swirl around Cordelia as she tried to perform it a second time. The Supreme, dumbfounded at the failures of all her witches, looked around and sobbed hysterically, screaming in defeat.

"Why, WHY?!"

"We all tried," Mallory said with tears in her eyes. "I never fail at this."

"What the hell did she give birth to that blocked our powers?" Queenie asked in distress.

"I don't know… but…"

Cordelia's tears of mourning turned to fury, grunting the word: "Langdon."

"You think Michael was responsible?" Zoe asked. "How?"

"We killed his allies, Zoe," she grunted. "Now, he wants to kill us all… starting with this… poor, sweet girl."

A month before, it was discovered that Ariel Augustus, Chancellor of the warlocks, and Baldwin Pennypacker were in cahoots in a conspiracy to not only take over the Supremacy but kill every last witch at Miss Robicheaux's Academy. This was a so-far-failed effort to make Michael rule in Cordelia's place. A warlock close to Ariel and Baldwin, John Henry Moore, was killed by Miriam Mead, the Satanic foster mother of Michael whose ambition spread to include his. With everyone's help, John was resurrected from a pile of ash he was reduced to by Mallory, and Cordelia was able to sentence all three by burning at the stake for being a threat to the witches. When Michael discovered that they were killed, Cordelia had done a spell to lock their souls in the underworld for all eternity, and he vowed revenge on them. It seems that Misty was his first victim – how could this be? Didn't he treasure her as his bride and consort?

"We can't let Michael have this baby," Mallory said with concern, hearing calm babbles in her ear as she rocked it slowly. "It's too dangerous."

"Given what I felt while she was in there," Cordelia added, "it wouldn't matter either way. That baby may look human, but she is not."

"We will need to raise it," Myrtle said solemnly, "for Misty."

"For the time being," Queenie said sadly, "what the hell, though? Why can't a children's home take her? She's a danger."

"Michael can divine," Cordelia contradicted. "If he finds out his baby was abandoned, he will kill us for sure. In the meantime, we have to look after her and make sure he does not find her."

"But this is the first place he'll look, Delia," Myrtle said. "Why don't I make reservations at a hotel and Mallory can go with you?"

"How long will we stay?" the young witch asked, still holding the relatively calm baby.

"Oh, it won't be long. I can assure you."

A/N:

I am already back with the SEQUEL to King of Hell, my main story for season 8! I'm so excited, very special shoutout to the ones who reviewed my last story for motivating me to make a sequel. Hell, even I felt the story was incomplete. I reckon this story won't be a short like the last one, so... that'll be good.

If you have not read King of Hell: AHS Apocalypse, I highly recommend you do so that you understand this story.

As always, Follow, Favorite, and be sure to Review and leave feedback on what you think so far! Thanks again for all the support!