AN: I was never going to finish this story, so i thought I would delete the other chapters and leave it as a one-shot so it could be complete. Sorry.
Sacrifices
Chapter 1: Thelma
"Promise me you won't leave."
Cassie's last words echoed throughout Thelma's head, her mind reaching out to hold onto the sound of Cassie's voice.
"This has to be done." Thelma whispered.
She grasped the curtains around Cassie's hospital bed and screwed up her eyes to stop the tears from falling.
She would never see Cassie again.
Thelma knew this was how it had to be, but that didn't stop the pain.
Cassie was the only woman she had ever loved.
It didn't seem fair.
No matter how hard she tried, her smile had been just a mask. Ever since Peggy had told her that the death of Cassie's child would restore the natural order.
Meaning they would no longer be ghosts.
No longer be able to see or interact with the living.
Thelma sank down onto the bed and curled up slowly, savouring Cassie's gentle scent that still lingered.
A lone tear made a salty trail down her face and dropped onto the still crumpled pillow.
'Azazeal did all this.' thought Thelma harshly, her pain morphing into a sudden burst of anger, 'He tore everything apart for us. Me and Cassie were fine before he came along.'
Thelma tried to focus on her rage, finding the hurt lessened, but it slipped away, leaving her as feeling the pain just as she was before.
"It was never meant to be." Thelma choked out, "the dead were never meant to walk with the living."Giving in to the tears, Thelma closed her eyes and savoured the wetness sliding down her cheeks.
She missed human contact.
Being so close to Cassie yet unable to reach out and touch her was so difficult. Yet it was better than nothing.
Better than not being able to see or hear her.
Cassie's presence made Thelma feel safe. Made her feel like she could get through anything, if only Cassie was by her side.
Maybe it was love.
Maybe it was the deepest kind of friendship there was.
Whatever it was, Thelma didn't want to lose it. Yet she had to sacrifice that. She had to give Azazeal another sacrifice, so that the Nephelim weren't released.
"Do you remember a time before all this started?"
Thelma had given Cassie's question a flippant reply, "No, I don't think there was one!"
But truthfully, she did miss living.
Obviously there were benefits; no school, no worrying about getting fat, being able to enter people's dreams.
But even if Cassie didn't see it, Thelma was different.
She was dead, Cassie was alive.
It was supposed to be that simple.
Only things never were.
Thanks to Azazeal, Thelma was a ghost, but after Cassie's abortion, Thelma would be a ghost no more.
"Promise me you won't leave."
Cassie had sounded so scared and childlike yet Thelma couldn't lie. She couldn't say, "Yes I promise." only "I'll try."
Yet that wasn't being honest either. Thelma would have to leave, but she didn't want to hurt Cassie even more by saying so.
Everybody Cassie had loved had betrayed her; her mother, Azazeal. Thelma wanted nothing more than to stay by her side but that was impossible.
Thelma's felt her heart break as she imagined how Cassie would feel when she woke up, alone.
She would have lost her baby and her best friend.
"Why does it have to be this way?" Thelma whispered brokenly.
She reached up and wiped away her tears, wanting to turn her mind away from the hurt.
'I always used to be so strong. Now I have to be strong for Cassie.'
Thelma stared blankly at the ceiling, waiting.
Waiting for her form to fade away, or maybe she would rise, bathed in lights.
Thelma wondered what it would be like. Moving on.
She had died, but she wasn't really dead. Like she would be soon.
She glanced at the clock in the corner. The second hand was ticking methodically around, the minute hand inching inexorably closer and closer to the time when she would no longer exist.
'It's the waiting.' Thelma decided, 'Waiting for a moment I don't want to come but I know it will.'
It was the waiting that was making everything so hard. That and not being able to say goodbye properly.
Being unable to tell Cassie that they would never see each other again.
Thelma closed her eyes, feeling the tears painfully oozing out of them again.
She waited.
Waited for a moment that didn't come.
Thelma leapt off the bed when the nurses brought Cassie back. She looked around wildly. What had gone wrong? Cassie's baby had been aborted yet nothing had happened.
She was still here.