Multas per gentes et multa per aequora uectus

Advenio has miseras, frater, ad inferias,

Vt te postremo donarem munere mortis

Et mutam nequiquam adloquerer cinerem,

Quandoquidem fortuna mihi tete abstulit ipsum"

Catullus 101, Gaius Valerius Catullus

LUX LIBERUM

CHAPTER 2 - ADFLICTIO

"She's dead. I'm sorry," the doctor's words reverberated across the hall. Doc's eyes widened, as paralysis quickly won him over. Sadness quickly conquered his every thought…

Or was it rage?

He grabbed the doctor by his neck and threw him against the wall. All nearby people ran off, only a few tried to resolve the situation.

"She cannot be dead! You hear me? Go there and do your fucking job!" Doc aggressively yelled.

"Let… me… go," the doctor struggled, in an attempt to convince the taller man to let him go.

"Pl-please, I," the doctor effortfully continued.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing, fella?" a tall, blonde man asked an enraged Doc. "Let him go, you psycho!"

"Stay out of this!" Doc yelled.

"And let you kill him? Like hell I am," the man said, followed by him punching Doc in the face. Surprised by the man's action, Doc fell back about a meter or two, letting the nearly unconscious doctor go.

"I told you to fucking stay away," an even more angered Doc said, retaliating to the punch with one of his own in the stomach.

"Ah!", the man screamed in pain. "W-what the hell is wrong with you?"

"It's his fault! She died because of him!"

"I-I… I tried to s-save her, but I couldn't," the terrified doctor told the man.

"Look, it's no one's fault that she's-," the man said, before being aggressively interrupted by Doc:

"Don't you dare say it!"

"Point is, it's not his fault. It's no one's fault"

"Oh, it is someone's fault alright," Doc said, "and I'm going to find him, and when I do, I will avenge her.


Crane was driving along the interstate. Now that Abbie's gone, he must continue her legacy, which meant fighting the supernatural. Ever since she'd died, he's been in a pretty rough shape. Until now. Now, he's over it, he's moved on.

Or so he thought.

Recently, he'd heard of a town where dead people came back to life as literal demons, and the only way they could be killed was with a special gun. "What kind of gun?" he was thinking. If it could kill demons, then it must be special, right? So, how come he'd never heard of it before? These questions were eating him from the inside. But he was going to answer them. Soon.

Very soon.

"Still one three hundred and fifty miles to go," he told himself. "Purgatory? The name must be ironical. But why name a town after an infernal realm adjacent to Hell?"

The name was strange, but the place itself was even stranger. And he was going to find that out soon enough.


Doc's world collapsed. There was nothing but blackness, sadness, … rage. Wynonna was dead and he couldn't do anything about it. How does one continue fighting, when all that's worth fighting for is no more?

You don't. Or so he thought.

Back home, Waverly had nearly cried herself to sleep. "How could I?", "It's my fault". These were the words that conquered her. She had shot her sister - and unbeknownst to her – to death.

Just before falling asleep, she saw a car arriving home. "It must be Doc," she thought. Hoping he would bring good news, Waverly rushed out to him.

"She's alright, isn't she?" Waverly anxiously asked. "Come on, Doc, tell me. Is she awake already? Can we visit her?"

Question after question, Doc was feeling even more powerless.

"Waverly, Wynonna …" And there it was. That pause, the kind that anticipates the worst happened.

"Yes, just tell me already!" she yelled. She didn't think it was possible. It was Wynonna, her elder sister and the "badass" Earp Heir they were talking about. Some bullet couldn't do anything to her…

Right?

"She is… she's dead, Waverly. I… I'm sorry," Doc told Wynonna, somewhat relieved that he had finally said it.

"She's dead, Waverly, I'm sorry," Doc's words were playing over and over again in Waverly's mind. Did she hear that right? She couldn't have. Wynona couldn't be dead. She was the Heir. The Heir can't die, can him? But she was missing one small thing…

The Heir was still human, so he was as vulnerable to guns as any other.

"I-…" Waverly attempted to formulate a sentence.

"It's my fault! I was-," Waverly yelled before bursting into tears. An ocean of feelings suddenly hit her: sadness, guilt… rage.

"It's not your fault, Earp," Doc tried to calm her down, "all we can do now is avenger her."

"I can't… I can't take this, Doc! It's too much!" Waverly said, screaming in pain.

"Y-you have to… we both have to."


After a few more hours of driving, Crane's stomach was alarming him that he needed to meet his needs.

"I guess it's time for a short stop," he told himself. Luckily, a motel with a restaurant were just a couple of meters away.

"Perfect!" he thought. He pulled over, rushing to the restaurant's door. To his surprise, it was nearly full. It was, though, the only motel in nearly fifty miles.

He searched for a free table, finding one in the back. "Good thing I didn't arrive here ten minutes from now," he told himself, relieved that he actually found a free seat in all that crowd.

He took the menu, searching for something to satisfy him.

"Let's see…" he said. "Roasted chicken with mashed potatoes… Twenty dollars?!" He nearly screamed, "that's absurd!"

For a moment, he considered leaving, but his stomach said otherwise.

"Fine. It shall be as you wish," Ichabod told his stomach, apparently.

He waited for the waiter to pass by him, after which he quickly stated his request:

"Excuse me!"

"Yes," the waiter said.

"I'd like some roasted chicken with mashed potatoes," Ichabod told the waiter.

"Would you want anything to drink?"

"Maybe some water, thank you!" Ichabod thanked the waiter.

"You're welcome, sir," the waiter responded.

"And now we wait," Ichabod thought.


After three hours of continuous crying, Waverly has finally calmed herself down. Barely.

"W-What do we do now?" Waverly asked.

"What we must. Your sister will be avenged." Doc answered.

"What was that thing? The one that was… in me." Waverly curiously asked Doc.

"By the looks of it, it must've been a demon. It also said something in Latin," Doc told Waverly.

"Do you remember what I said? I mean, what it said…"

"Il venturi, no, venturum, no, wait…" After a short pause, Doc continued: "Ille… ventur-"

"Ille venturus est?" Waverly asked, interrupting Doc.

"Yes, exactly," Doc answered.

"That translated to 'he is coming'… What is coming?"

"Damned if I know," Doc cluelessly said.


She found herself in a very dark room with one beam of light penetrating the darkness.

"Hello?" Wynonna asked, "hello, is someone there?"

Silence.

"Of course no one's there. Most abundant movie cliché ever," Wynonna told herself. "Where the hell am I?"

Then, she remembered. She was shot. She was dead.

"What kind of creepy realm is this? Even Hell is nicer. I mean, flame red suits me better than unending pitch black," Wynonna joked. "Come on, there must be someone! And where the hell is that light coming from?!"

Suddenly, the darkness faded away, and Wynonna found herself in a tall temple.

"Great, now I'm in China," the Heir said. "Whomever is changing the channels, stop! It's giving me epilepsy! Just come out of hiding and maybe we can talk like all humans do!"

Was the thing doing this human? Of course it wasn't, so why should it talk like something it isn't?

"Hello, Wynonna," an old man said. Wynonna could've swore that the man wasn't there two seconds ago.

"Hello, creepy old man," Wynonna responded. "So, are you the one playing 'Hide-and-seek' with me? Guess I've won."

"You do ironize everything, don't you?"

"I guess that's the only thing keeping me from going batshit crazy right now," Wynonna told the old man standing in front of her. "So, I'm dead, ain't I?" she asked the elder man.

"That's correct," the man said, "and I'm deeply sorry. However, all is not lost."

"It's easy for you to say that, considering you're not the one who bit the dust," the Heir responded.

"You were shot, Wynonna."

"Tell me something I don't know," Wynonna joked.

"By a demon-"

"What, you mean a Revenant? I've dealt with those before," she interrupted the old man.

"No, not a Revenant. 'Revenants', as you call them, are resurrected humans with slightly demonic features," the old man told her.

"'Slightly' is not the word I would use."

"They still have their human memories, they behave like humans, albeit mentally deranged humans. What shot you was a pure demon."

"What, like Beelzebub?" Wynona asked.

"Yes and no," the old man answered.

"Talk about being cryptic," Wynonna mumbled to herself.

"The nature of the entity that has ended your life is indeed the same as Beelzebub's, the only difference is that the demon you faced was a lowly underling, while Beelzebub could be considered… a literal 'Prince of Hell'."

"Great news so far, seriously, I'm excited, but how about you get to the part about what happens to me," Wynonna rushed the elder being.

The man took off his sunglasses. "Very well," he said.

"Wait a second, I know you! You're Juan Carlos," Wynonna told Juan.

"I was worried that you wouldn't recognize me there for a second," Juan said. "As I've told you before, we're watching."

"'We'? Who's 'we'?" Wynonna asked.

Juan smiled. "I thought you would've figured that out by now... You will, in time."

After a short pause, Juan continued with a more serious tone: "Listen, Wynonna, there's an evil out there far greater that the Revenants. The Earp curse is only one very tiny piece of the puzzle."

For the first time, Wynonna took things completely seriously, speaking with a slightly deeper voice: "And what am I supposed to do about it? I'm dead, remember? I can't do shit!"

"That's far from the truth. You still don't know who you really are," Juan told Wynonna with a somewhat caring, gentle voice.

"I know perfectly who I am! I am Wynonna Earp, the goddamn Heir of this goddamn curse that's been haunting our family since the 19th century!" Wynonna yelled.

She accepted to be told many things, but for someone to say that she doesn't know who she is…

That was beyond the line, even for her.

"You're so much more than that-"

"Then why don't you tell me who I am, 'cause you seem to know that better than I do," Wynonna yelled at Juan, her eyes filled with rage and exasperation. She couldn't bear it anymore.

Juan smiled.

"Who the hell are you?" Wynonna mumbled.

The room changed. She suddenly found herself surrounded by pitch black. Again.

"It's time… Wynonna," said Juan.

"But ho- who are- wait!", Wynonna asked the elder man, before the disappeared into nothingness.

The room disappeared.


Wynonna slowly opened her eyes. It took her eyes' lens several seconds to focus. An almost unbearable ringing terrorized her ears.

She found herself on a table in what seemed to be an operating room. The ringing slowly faded away and her senses were back to full capacity.

"Where am I?" she asked confusedly. "Oh, I'm in the hospital. Well, at least I'm not in a coffin five feet underground," said the apparently living Heir.

"I need to find Waverly. She's probably a mess," she told herself. Surprisingly, she could walk without any pain. It's like she's been reborn…

She has.

She was dead, and now she's alive. That 'Juan' thing couldn't have been a dream, could it? No, it was as real as the hospital and the room she was in. But how will she get out of the room without alarming the doctors that dead men – or women – actually do come back to life.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her clothes: her bloody jacket, jeans and boots.

"Aw, how cute, they've kept my stuff," she thought.

She quickly dressed up and waited for all personnel to leave the hall the door of the operating room was leading to. Then, just like a 'ninja' would, she left the room, then the hospital. The view outside was strange, alien. She was clearly not in Purgatory anymore.

"Where the hell am I," she thought, confused. "How do I get back to Purgatory?"

Shortly thereafter, she saw a man exit a car and leave the keys in.

"Guess you won't be needing that car anymore," she thought.

Said and done. She quickly took the car and ran off towards the interstate.

"Hang on, guys, I'm coming."


"Delicious," Crane said, finally finishing his meal. After paying the twenty dollars the chicken costed, he left the restaurant almost in a hurry, much like someone was chasing him down or timing him.

"Only one hundred miles left to the mysterious town… Just several hours before I will unlock your mysteries, Purgatory," he told himself, starting up the engine and driving off towards said town.


Next time on LUX LIBERUM:

CHAPTER 3 – MYSTERIUM

"Who – no – what the hell are you?" Waverly furiously asked.

"It's me, I'm serious, Wav. I'm back," Wynonna answered.

"You… you can't be back," Waverly responded, eyes full of tears.

"Get the hell away from her," Doc yelled.

"Lux erit liberari!"

"What?" Wynonna asked, confused.

"Did that guy say how to kill pure demons?" Doc ironically asked.

"He forgot to mention that," Wynonna answered.


Author's Note:

The second chapter is HERE! Wohoo! You can see that it's much longer than the previous one. I believe the third will be even longer.

Please review this story. Pretty please? I really want to know how it is received. :)