"…I see fire inside the mountain,
I see fire burning the trees,
I see fire hollowing souls…"
-I See Fire, Ed Sheeran
"I don't know if I can do this" Katherine muttered standing at the threshold of the scorched ruins of Saint Ursula's Home for Children. Her steel-clad toes just barely scraping at the blackened ash that still carpeted the floor even to this day.
"You can do this" Georgie encouraged, slipping his small hand into hers, "I'll be here too"
"Don't…don't 'cha want to go see Bill?" Katherine stalled.
"I can do that later" Georgie replied, tugging her over the threshold, "C'me on"
Katherine heaved in a deep breath and tightened her hold on the Reaper as she finally crossed the threshold, as if she was preparing herself for what she would find inside. The painted brick walls still stood even after all the abuse they had received over the years, but the once towering wooden roof was long gone, only leaving the skeletal remains blackened and burnt from the fire.
Stepping over the remains of porcelain plates and around iron beds, Katherine led the way into the basement where the torture chambers still lay untouched. The few doors there were dedicated to dark bunker cells where the children were placed in for solitary or isolation punishments. Katherine knew these cells inside and out as she had spent a lot of her childhood in there.
Not because she was a bad child nor was she a glutton for punishment, but because the Sisters hadn't banked on her returning from her confrontation with IT. Apparently, they thought she was a demon spawn so bad that even the Devil himself didn't want her…or so they said. Many times.
Moving even further into the pits of the orphanage, Katherine eventually found herself standing in her own cell. Even just standing there in the doorway with Georgie gripping tight to her hand, Katherine felt herself slipping into her memories as she stared at the hastily carved summoning circle on the floor.
Cell D, Saint Ursula's Home for Children, 1999
On the 21st of October 1999, at the stroke of midnight, Katherine A. Ursa officially turned eighteen. Most of her classmates would celebrate this big milestone with a big party filled with booze, boobs and stupidity. But for Katherine? She was celebrating her eighteenth birthday stuck in the dark of a familiar cell beneath Saint Ursula's Home for Children; just as she had every year since her eighth birthday.
But this time it would be the last. That cheesy Supernatural series that she had discovered when she was fifteen, proved to be rather fruitful. So much in fact, that it helped to pull the wool from over her eyes concerning the Sisters of the orphanage. Where she had always thought them to be cruel and heartless women ironically in charge of children, it turned out they were in fact witches using said children as sacrifices for their magics and rituals to whatever God or demon they worshiped.
And Katherine had had enough. Taking a page out of their own book, she called forth a demon—a real, honest-to-God demon—straight from the pits of Hell. Even though she had read the latest novel from the Supernatural series rather fervently, it still didn't prepare her for the rather handsome creature that she was faced with.
Expecting a rather grotesque being with horns and blood red skin—more so from the various teachings over the years than her own beliefs—Katherine was rather surprised at who had arrived. He was a tall man, lanky and thin with a 5 o'clock shadow that brushed his lower jaw; although his clothing choices left a lot to be desired.
He wore a dark embroidered Edwardian trench coat over top of burgundy pinstriped bellbottom jeans that flared out around the foam jandals he wore. Tucked into the waist of his bellbottoms, an oversized well-worn Beatles t-shirt billowed out like a make-shift potbelly.
"Oui, ma chérie?" Drawled the demon, his red beady eyes roving over her crouched form in front of the summoning circle.
"Uh…" Katherine seemed at a loss for words, watching the spiralling smoke twisting up and away from the cigar settled in his deft fingers.
"English?" He asked, gazing around at the dark room, before returning back to her. Katherine was almost sure that he was gazing into her soul. "Non, American. Well, what is your wish, fleur? Do you wish to be free? I must say, zis…établissement would make anyone want to leave" He used the smoking cigar to gesture wildly to the dank room around them. "I wouldn't blame you"
"Uh, no, no" Katherine shook herself and rose to her feet, "I want the Sisters gone. I don't care how"
"Ze Sisters? Zey are human?"
"They're witches"
"Oh mon Dieu! I zought I smelt witch! Well, where are zey zen? In fact, where are we, if you don't mind"
"Oh, the Sisters are upstairs on the second floor, they'll be in the parlour room by now. But we're in the basement"
"Non, non! I meant what city, town…y'know…where?"
"Oh! We're in Derry"
"Derry?" The demon suddenly appeared apprehensive as if Katherine had told him the Devil was standing right behind him.
"Mmhm, in Maine" Katherine nodded.
"Mes excuses chaton, but did you just say we're in Derry, Maine?"
"Yes?" Katherine furrowed her brows in confusion, "Why? Is something wrong?"
"Wrong! Ma fleur! No demon in his right mind would take a deal in Derry! Au revoir!"
And with a crack, the crossroad demon disappeared with nae an explanation nor sealed deal in his pocket leaving Katherine with more questions than answers. "Now what am I supposed to do? The book never said demons would refuse a deal!" She grew frustrated at the uncooperative demon.
Fury and desperation began to bubble and boil beneath her skin, like water in a pot, Katherine felt herself become lost to her emotions. Fury at the Sisters who held her captive, at the crossroads demon who refused to help, at the friends who had left her behind, at the parents who didn't want her. And then there was the desperation; desperation to leave these shackles behind, to be free, to watch the fucking witches burn!
The devilish Voice in her head returned, it whispered promises of power and strength, one that would topple the witches from their perch. They would burn along with sins, it promised they would. Katherine had ignored and pushed the Voice aside for so many years; at first she had treated it as an imaginary friend in her head and as she grew, she thought maybe she was just crazy. But there had been incidents where the Voice had helped her, protected her even when she hadn't asked.
But now she was asking with arms opened wide, she was welcoming the Voice and the power that came with it. Turning to face the dimly lit mirror where her own reflection grinned back at her, inverse in colour and surrounded by twirling balls of light.
"How?" Asked Katherine.
"Dig deep" Crackled the Voice in her head as her reflection's mouth moved of its own accord, "It isn't just power, my dear, it's rage. It's the desire to change the world and the will to do it. Command the Sisters"
Pushing her overwhelming emotions out and using them as her intent to destroy her captors, Katherine called forth the witches who had tortured her all her life. Closing her eyes, she heaved a deep breath and raised her hands up, palms facing the door. Her voice was strong and her order absolute; they would come, whether they wanted to or not. "I order the Saint Ursula Sisters to stop! Go in peace or face my wrath!"
Outside thunder crashed and lightning crackled low to the ground, lighting up the small room just enough for Katherine to see the Sisters appear in her cell; called by her word and her power. All thirteen stood in a cramped semi-circle in front of her, each wearing the habits in various stages of array.
"Who are you to order us? We've felt the wrath of humans once child, we won't be hung again!" Mother Superior snarled at Katherine, her figure imposing in the dim light. But for once, Katherine felt no fear. In this dark room where many of her nightmares unfolded, for once she was the monster under the bed. Bright glowing eyes met Mother Superior's head-on and Katherine noticed several of the Sisters crossing themselves at her appearance.
Where her once story blue eyes sat perched behind dark curls, now sat gleaming bright balls of light. Like torches in the night, Katherine stared out at the Sisters as she and the Voice became one; power seeping from her form like water from an overly soaked sponge. When Katherine spoke again, her voice was layered with the Voice's and together they spoke as one.
"No! Not hung, burned!" They purred.
"Burn us, mortal? We are not of this world! No earthly fire can burn us!" Mother laughed.
"No, not earthly fire. Hellfire"
"None but the most powerful can summon it: Devils, and in the history of witches, only four! No mortal can wield that kind of power! It's a wonder you were even able to summon us here!"
"Are you sure about that?" They asked, head tilting to the side mockingly, "I, Katherine Agnes Ursa, child of night, call forth: fire from the Pit!"
At her call, wild blue flames engulfed Mother's hands and they spread, jumping from Sister to Sister until all were covered in the hellish spark. Words that Katherine never knew sprung to mind and they spilled from her lips like silk; soft and sweet like she'd known them all her life.
"Ater ignus, fusca fume.
Te evoco ut potentium tuam monstres
Cupidibus flames hit veni
Caelo sub isto, harc arboretum consumo
Lucum tenebrasque tuas monstra
Impetuum tuum evoco ad devorandum
Hang arboretum ac omnes hospital devora!"
Wailing screams pierced the air as the wild hellfire climbed higher and higher. When it had finished jumping from Sisters to Sister, it began to consume everything else in its path. From the stone walls to the wood doors, to the iron beds and flea market sheets. Nothing was safe, not even the other children. All around them, the cries of the Sisters combined with those of the children and together they went up in hell flame. A gorgeous searing inferno that consumed their souls, releasing their pain into the night, until their charred bodies fell from the sky like ash.
Hours later, when the Derry Fire Department came to call with their wailing sirens bleeding through the night, it was Katherine who sat smudged in ash. Drained of her sudden power and watching the overly dressed men cautiously approach her naked form lay curled up amongst the debris where she sat at the epicentre of the destruction. All around her, the blast circle expanded outwards with her at the center. There was nae a scratch on her.
She would of course, be serving a prison sentence for arsony, because this was Derry and though the mortality rate had decreased over the years, she still had the worst luck. Sometimes she wondered if the Sisters had cursed her in some way, not that she wouldn't put it passed them.
In the end, she exchanged one pair of shackles for another, and she didn't give a fuck about it; Katherine was grinning when they smuggled her out of her dismal little hometown. Portland was a far cry from Derry, and Katherine thanked her stars for it. She was 23 when she got out.
Saint Ursula's Home for Children Ruins, Present Day
"You did the right thing, y'know" Georgie's voice shook Katherine from her memories.
"Yeah…" Katherine sighed, pulling the young Reaper out of the dim room and back into the upper levels of the building, "I know"
"Did you find your token?"
"Yeah…" Katherine fiddled with the silver pendant hung around her neck, "I think so. C'me on let's go"
"What?" The sudden appearance of a third voice made Katherine freeze in her tracks. A very familiar nightmarish voice. "No 'hello?" Katherine slowly turned to face the owner of the voice, her eyes wide as if she couldn't believe he was really there.
"Pennywise" Katherine breathed, hands shaking at the clown you sat cross-legged on one of the upturned iron beds.
"No one wants to play with me anymore!" IT whined childishly. Positioning herself in front of the young Reaper, Katherine cautiously reached back for the pistols tucked into the holsters hidden under her pit, keeping her eyes locked onto the clown in front of her."But you'll play with me, won't you? We had such fun here!"
Swiftly drawing the pistols from their holsters, Katherine fired several rounds of salt and mountain ash towards the clown, backing off down the front stairs as she did so. The rounds didn't seem to be doing much damage aside from the occasional burn or scratch that would appear on the clown. Though this may have been IT just playing with her.
"Oh yes! Such fun!" IT crowed, jumping from the bed, "And you brought little Georgie too! Such fun! We're gonna have so much fun!"
When her heel hit the pavement outside, Katherine grabbed Georgie around the wrist and wasted no time in booking it to her Jeep where it still sat on the other side of the road. Mindless of the neighbours around them, Katherine drove away from the orphanage like the Devil was on her tail, and let's be fair, she wasn't that far off.