Stacie struggled weakly against the chains around her wrists, whimpering slightly as another sharp pain shot through them. She had to get out of here, it wasn't safe, she didn't have her magic anymore, how was she supposed to defend herself? And Aubrey… she had seen her, felt her as she had screamed and writhed in agony too. This was all her fault, she should have been quicker, she should have found another way… no. No, her mom was safe now, she'd done that, she'd saved her. But now… what was going to happen to her now?
Surely they were going to kill her now. They'd finish what Gail started in that respect, and why not? She was responsible for killing their mom after all, Stacie understood that rage right now. So why not have already done it? That had been the big question for months now. They had, on more than one occasion, proved that they were far stronger than Stacie and her family, but every time they had gotten away alive, they had let them live. But why was that? What was so damn important that they couldn't kill them?
"Anastasia Conrad…"
Stacie lifted her head to glare at Alice as she strode towards her, a smug grin on her face. Stacie had never hated anyone this much, not even Gail. But Alice was so much worse than her mother had been, she had hurt every single person that Stacie loved, she had ripped her magic, the very thing that defined her, that connected her to the love of her life, right out of her chest without even breaking a sweat.
"You're a very dangerous woman you know?"
"Me?" Stacie snorted, voice hoarse, "Why? Because I save lives? Because I took out your bitch of a mother? Because you know that even without my magic, I could destroy you?"
"The witch who could control the elements…" Alice mused, seeming to ignore Stacie's response, "Did you ever wonder why you could?"
"That-" Stacie frowned deeply, shaking her head a little, "That's just my specialism. I just can."
"No." Alice chuckled, "Oh you stupid thing, it's so much more than that… you're a twin Anastasia. How many other witchy twins do you know?"
"I-" Stacie started, a swooping sense of dread starting to settle in the pit of her stomach, "None, I… that doesn't mean anything, stop it, stop trying to get into my head."
"They didn't tell you." Alice tilted her head a little, expression full of cold amusement, "Mommy and daddy kept a great big secret from you… oh dear me. Well, I guess I'll have to tell you then."
"Tell me what?" Stacie growled, "What crap are you making up now?"
Alice gripped Stacie's chin again, making sure that Stacie was looking at her as she smirked cruelly, "Oh I wish I was making this up…" She hummed, "My life would be so much easier if I could just crush you and your pesky little team into dust, but I can't do that because you happen to be so very crucial to our plan, so interwoven with it that I can't risk destroying any of you in case the whole thing unravels."
"We'll never help you." Stacie growled, "Whatever your plan is, we won't help you."
"You don't have a choice." Alice sneered, the chains around Stacie's wrists tightening and causing her to emit a sharp gasp of pain, "You can't do anything to stop me anymore, remember? After your brave little sacrifice."
"They'll stop you." Stacie grunted, trying to ignore the blinding pain in her wrists, "We stopped Gail, you're nothing compared to your mother, you're not even a proper witch."
"Oh that's where you're wrong, Anastasia…" Alice's smirk grew as her fingers dug harder into Stacie's chin, "My sisters are burdened with that pesky vampire blood, but not me. No… I was her greatest success, her pride and joy… I am all her, pure, untainted Gail Abernathy-McKadden-Feinberger. I can bring cities to ruin with a click of my fingers, I am the most powerful creature in existence, I am stronger than she ever was, so tell me again how you can still defeat me. Please, it does amuse me."
Stacie could feel panic welling inside her as she continued to glare Alice down. It wasn't possible… no magical being, no matter how powerful they may be, could create life with just their essence alone. But Gail had managed to do it… she'd managed to create a being out of the darkest and blackest parts of her soul, filled it full of her magic and her hatred… Stacie needed her magic back, she needed her magic back now. More than that, she had to warn them. She had to tell Aubrey and Beca and Chloe, they had to know what they were up against. Because if they didn't, they didn't stand a chance.
"I can smell your fear little Conrad." Alice grinned, inhaling deeply at Stacie's neck as Stacie tried to wrench herself away, "You should be scared. I'm going to destroy everything you care about, and there isn't a damn thing you can do to stop me."
"You won't win." Stacie shook her head, feeling herself begin to tremble in Alice's tight grip as she pulled her into her, "You won't. They're stronger than you, stronger than all of you, you'll see."
Alice chuckled as she kept her strong grip on Stacie's chin, her other hand resting on Stacie's left side, "Your denial is amusing Anastasia, but you're wrong… my sisters and I, we have let you live this long, think what will happen when we're actually trying to kill you."
Stacie gasped as she felt her left lung collapse, breath coming in short, pained gasps as she struggled against Alice. Her eyes went wild with panic as she tried to free herself from Alice and her magic, tears starting to well as her head started to spin. She said she was too valuable to kill, hadn't they? They needed her, they weren't supposed to kill her, right?
Stacie's breath returned with a deep, shuddering breath as her lung reinflated, hanging limp in her chains as she focused on regaining the oxygen she was lacking. Alice had finally pulled away, watching Stacie with a cold and mocking stare.
"You won't win." Stacie croaked, lifting her head to glare at Alice, "I don't care how strong you are, any of you… you're not going to win."
"I almost admire that fight…" Alice mused, leant back against the rock wall, her arms crossed over her chest, "However futile it might be. But I expect nothing less from you, prophesied one."
"What?" Stacie frowned deeply, "What are you talking about? I'm just… you've got the wrong witch, you deluded psycho."
"No, I haven't." Alice shook her head, "Mother knew it too. She always knew, she just got a little… distracted along the way. That damn Mitchell had quite the hold on her."
"You're wrong." Stacie spat, "I'm just another witch. That's all."
"Do you know why witchy twins are such a rare occurrence little Conrad?" Alice quirked an eyebrow as Stacie glared daggers at her, "No? Well, that's because the magic bequeathed to each witch upon birth is theirs, and theirs alone. But when that magic is just too powerful for one soul to wield on their own, then the soul splits in two and voila… twins."
Stacie swallowed hard, never taking her eyes off Alice as she began to slowly pace around her, like an animal stalking its prey. She was talking nonsense, Alice had no real understanding of the laws of magic, she was an abomination, nothing more. She didn't know what she was talking about.
"If only you had known what had been written about you Anastasia… maybe you wouldn't have come here. You might have had a glimmer of a chance at stopping us if you had."
Stacie's jaw tightened at this, nostrils flaring a little. She was wrong. They had her confused with someone else, they had to have confused her with somebody, anybody else.
"One witch with the power to change the earth itself. One that could move between realms so they could change them all. Twins born in the coldest winter, ready to protect the realms or die trying. When's your birthday Anastasia, remind me?"
"January twelfth." Stacie's lip curled a little, her insides churning with fear and confusion. There was no way… her mom would have told her, she would have told her about something so important…
"Winter." Alice hummed, "A very cold winter by all accounts. Record breaking in fact. Two girls, two witches with very unique specialties, and my mother trying to resurrect an ancient deity… what are the odds?"
"What deity?" Stacie growled, dread setting in the pit of her stomach like a lead weight. No. Her parent's would have said something…
"One powerful enough to end realms with a snap of their fingers." Alice shrugged, "One whose name hasn't been spoken in millennia, whose name means 'immortal darkness'…"
"No." Stacie shook her head, "No, she's a myth, a scary bedtime story for magical creatures. She's not real."
"Oh you naïve little thing…" Alice sneered, "You once thought our mother was a myth and how wrong you were."
"That was different." Stacie's jaw tightened, "She was living evil, but Gail was still mortal. You can't honestly believe-"
"It's not belief." Alice cut her off, smirk growing nastier with every passing second, "I've seen her. Seen what's left of her in that godforsaken pit. And you my dear…" Alice tilted Stacie's head up with a finger under her chin, "Are going to help me bring her back, whether you like it or not. You should have been the saviour of this sad little realm and all its puny inhabitants, you and your sister had the power to destroy her once and for all. But instead, you're going to be the doom of this realm, and any one of the Other Realms that contains even the faintest traces of good magic. Congratulations Anastasia Conrad. You're going to end the world."
Tears welled in the corners of her eyes as Stacie struggled against the chains around her wrists again. No. She couldn't… she didn't know, why hadn't they told her? This… this was all her fault, how could she have been so damn stupid?
No. No, this was Alice getting in her head. She was trying to win, trying to get Stacie to give up before she'd even had a chance to fight. All of this was just posturing, just a front to distract her from their actual plan.
Right?
"You don't believe me…" Alice laughed softly, waving her hand and watching as Stacie fell to the floor with a grunt, wrists still bound painfully tight in front of her, "That's okay. I can show you…"
Stacie barely had time to stumble to her feet as Alice used the chain around her wrists to drag her after her, biting back a whimper as her wrists throbbed sharply. Show her? There was nothing to show her, the thing she was talking about didn't exist. She fell after Alice, her feet struggling to get underneath her as Alice moved quickly through twisting tunnel after twisting tunnel, unable to help the small gasps of pain that fell from her lips with every tug at the chain she was bound with.
When they finally stopped, Stacie found herself on the edge of a deep chasm, shrinking back from it as her stomach dropped. Why was she here? Were they going to throw her in there, was this all just a ruse to throw her to her death?
"Come on little Conrad…" Alice sneered, pulling hard on the chain so that Stacie fell to her knees, hand tangling into her hair as she dragged her the rest of the way to the edge, forcing Stacie to look down into the chasm, "You don't get the chance to see these things every day."
Stacie's mouth went dry as she stared down into the blackness below. It was… it was moving, how was it moving?!
"No." Stacie shook her head a little, trying to pull away from it, "No, it's not possible."
"But it is." Alice hissed in her ear, holding Stacie just over the edge of the pit, letting her teeter dangerously in harms way, "Look at her Anastasia. Isn't she beautiful?"
Stacie gasped in fear as she felt her hands start to slip on the edge of the precipice, her broken wrists not wanting to support her weight. The shadows below her seemed to swirl more fiercely with her dangled above it, Stacie able to see purple light starting to glow in the mass below. It couldn't exist, this thing couldn't possibly be here.
"P-pull me back." Stacie cursed inwardly at the tremble in her voice as her hands continued to slip and grasp desperately, "Please. Pull me back."
"Why?" Alice pouted a little, taunting Stacie as her hands slipped from under her, only stopped from hurtling over the edge because Alice had hold of her hair, "Don't you like my new friend?"
"Stop." Stacie twisted in Alice's grip, trying to shuffle backwards on her knees away from the edge, away from the monstrosity beneath her that was growling as she was dangled above it, "Please, just pull me back, please…"
Alice sighed dramatically as she pulled Stacie back sharply, throwing her into the wall behind the, and letting her crumple into a heap. Stacie could feel her whole body shaking as tears slipped down her cheeks. She'd doomed them all, if she really was supposed to be the witch that stood between the world and the deity stirring below them, then Alice was right.
She'd ended the world.
"A deity?" Beca frowned, leaning forward as she rested her arms on her knees, "Which deity?"
Thea pursed her lips a little, running a trembling hand through her hair. She had explained the whole thing as best as she could, the trauma of the day and her injures draining her completely.
"Khalida."
A chill ran through the room, looks of fear exchanged by everyone but Chloe, her brow furrowed in confusion.
"Who is she?" Chloe asked, Beca's fingers intertwining with Chloe's as she swallowed thickly.
"She's…" Beca shook her head a little, "Her name means 'immortal darkness', she's an ancient goddess from… I want to say Arabia?"
Beca turned to look at the others, Tony nodding at her, "Yeah. She's folklore though, I… she isn't actually real right?"
"She is." Aubrey muttered. She had been uncharacteristically quiet, shrunk inwards into the corner away from all of them, her head in hands, "Um… the Council has certain artefacts that it's kept away from everyone over the years, to protect not just our realm but the Other Realms too. One of those things was the location of Khalida's imprisonment. It's a secret only known to the Head's of the Council. No-one else."
"You all look…" Chloe squeezed Beca's hand gently, able to feel it shaking against hers, "Petrified. Why? What is she capable of?"
"The end of the world." Michael's arm wrapped around Olivia's shoulders, pulling her closer to him, "She consumes realms, brings an end to the daylight. Everything dies. She just… destroys everything she touches."
"At least we're already dead…" Beca joked weakly, Chloe moving closer to her as the reality of the situation they were facing began to sink in, "Not much further to fall."
"How could you not have told her?" Aubrey had lifted her head, now glaring at Thea who seemed to shrink under it, "How could you have let her face all of this without knowing everything there was to know?"
"I-" Thea's eyes welled with tears, "I thought I was protecting her… I thought… once Isabella died, I thought that was it, the prophecy was over, I never thought she'd have to carry all of this on her own. It's… it's too much for one person."
"Not Stacie." Aubrey shook her head, "She's so strong. You should have told her. She wouldn't have gone if-"
"Stop." Chloe interjected, "Just stop. What ifs don't help now, hindsight doesn't help now, we have to figure out how to move forward, and we can't do that looking back."
"I'm sorry." Thea's head dropped into her hands, "For what it's worth, we were going to tell her today. Me and Sam we… we were going to tell her."
"When Iz died…" Beca winced a little as she saw Thea crumple ever so slightly more at the mention of the daughter she'd lost, "What happened to her magic? Something that powerful, with a prophecy that life-changing and world-altering… it doesn't just disappear right?"
"Stacie absorbed it." Thea shrugged a little, wiping hard at her face, seeing Aubrey's head drop again as she pulled her knees into her chest, "But it was too much for her, she was in agony I… I had to bind it."
"So it still exists within her." Beca shuffled uncomfortably, hating feeling like a leader, but with Aubrey so obviously distraught and broken, someone had to step up, "Would she be able to use it, even now? Or would they have taken that too?"
"No." Thea sniffed, "I bound it to Hunter, familiars are never usually as strong as he is… but with her magic gone, her connection to Hunter is severed and…"
"Okay." Beca nodded a little, "Okay so… Stacie needs us. That's our first priority right? Get Stacie back, tell her about the prophecy, find a way to get her magic back, and then take out an ancient, all-powerful, realm eating deity. Easy right?"
Chloe giggled slightly despite everything, resting her head on Beca's shoulder. There was a still silence around them, everyone lamenting on the events that had brought them here. It was broken by Aubrey's shaky voice, that alone enough to send shivers down their spines.
"Oh my god… Iz." Aubrey's head lifted again, realisation and horror etched into her features, "When we first met Gail, it was because we were rescuing Hunter. All of this, Gail's daughters, this stupid prophecy, Khalida… this was Gail's master plan, and if it was… she was going to kill Stacie that night. She knew who she was looking for, she knew Hunter was Stacie's familiar. How would she know that? Gail had to have seen him before, what if she-?"
Chloe cried out sharply, clutching her head in her hands as Beca's attention turned entirely to her, on her knees in front of Chloe as an all too familiar icy dread spread through her veins. Beca gently stroked Chloe's arms, watching as Chloe whimpered and gripped her hair between her fingers, tears forming in the corners of her eyes which she had scrunched tightly shut.
"Chlo… talk to me, what is it?" Beca pressed gently, her hands still caressing Chloe's arms.
"I- I remember…" Chloe whispered, her eyes opening slowly again, "I couldn't before, but… Bree you're right."
"What do you remember?" Beca reached up, brushing Chloe's hair from her face and tucking it behind her ear.
"When… when I was in the warehouse." Chloe's jaw tightened at having to relive her days at Gail's hands, Beca's fingers continuing to caress her arms and keeping her grounded, "Before she put that… thing inside me and messed with my memories, she told me that when the time came I'd be a… a vessel?"
"Vessel?" Beca frowned, feeling her blood start to boil at the thought that Gail had intended to hurt Chloe even more than she already had, "For what?"
"Good magic." Chloe bit her lip a little, "Something about being a contradiction, and how that was perfect for her plan. All she had to do was take care of the 'other of those pesky twins' and everything would be on track… I didn't know, I- I couldn't remember, I'm sorry…"
"Hey, hey." Beca gently cupped Chloe's face in her hands, brushing away her tears with her thumbs, "It's not your fault. After everything you went through because of Gail, you have nothing to apologise for."
"Why couldn't I remember?" Chloe sniffled, "Stacie fixed things, why… why couldn't I have remembered something so important that might have stopped her?"
"Because Gail didn't want you too." Beca reassured her, "She wanted a fail safe in case we did win. It's not your fault."
Chloe sighed softly as she let her forehead rest against Beca's, hands resting on Beca's wrists. At least she had Beca, when everything was terrifying and depressing, she had Beca this time to keep her grounded. But Aubrey… her person was gone. She needed someone to ground her too, perhaps more than the rest of them did.
"H-how…" Thea was shaking as Tony moved to wrap an arm around her shoulders, "The lake… how would she-?"
"It's not on Academy grounds." Aubrey's eyes fluttered shut as she rested her head on the wall behind her with a soft thunk, "That's why it's out of bounds for students unless there's supervision."
"She… she tore a hole in my family before I even knew she existed." Thea clenched her hands into fists tightly, shaking her head, "How did I not know… it was just a stupid accident but… oh my god, Stacie…"
Thea pushed herself shakily to her feet, trembling with emotion and exhaustion as she headed for the door, her mind spinning as everything she thought she knew about the last fifteen years was called into question. Tony tried to join her, but Thea pushed him away, shaking her head furiously.
"No. Just… just don't. I- I need some air, please… just don't."
Thea stumbled away, Tony opening his mouth to protest but Beca interrupting him with a gentle smile and a hand on his chest, "I got her dude. I know a little about having your whole life ripped apart by Gail."
Tony nodded a little, swallowing hard as he watched his mother go, "Just… Iz's death really messed mom up, it broke her relationship with Stace for the longest time. Mom blamed her for it, and… Mike was at college, I was just a kid… dad was all Stacie had for years, and it's taken them so long to fix things. But knowing that Gail killed Iz after everything that happened? I… I don't know how she moves past that."
Beca nodded a little, giving Tony's arm a sympathetic squeeze, "We'll find a way. It just might take a little, that's all."
"I don't know if we have that…" Tony sighed, arms folding over his chest. As Beca left the room in search of Thea, Leo re-entered. He'd needed to sleep after his ordeal, but now that he had he was ready to help out in any way that he could.
"Hey…" Leo frowned as he looked around him, "What happened?"
"A lot." Tony huffed through his tears, forcing a smile onto his face, "I um…"
"It's okay." Leo pulled Tony into his arms, stroking his back as Tony sobbed into his shoulder, "I've got you. Tell me later, just let it out baby."
Beca found Thea only a few feet from the room they'd been sat in, crumpled against the wall as she tried to remain on her shaking legs. Beca was quickly at her side, gently sliding her arm around Thea's waist to support her, holding her steady even as Thea tried to pull away.
"Stop it." Thea mumbled, "I don't want comforting, you can't fix this…"
"I know." Beca smiled softly, "But I just want to make sure you're not hurting yourself anymore than you already are. Just pretend I'm not even here."
"I've blamed her for years…" Thea shook her head, tears rolling down her cheeks, "I didn't speak to her for nearly two years because… and now I find out that Gail murdered Iz and…"
"I know." Beca kept pace with Thea's slow steps, feeling tears begin to sting her own eyes hearing the despair and pain in Thea's voice, "It's shit Thea, it really is…"
"How do you live with this?" Thea whispered, "How… how do you carry on knowing that she's destroyed the people you care about?"
Beca opened her mouth and closed it again, swallowing hard as they reached the door to a balcony, grateful it was still night as Thea slumped against the railing.
"Honestly?" Beca sighed heavily, leaning next to her, "It's hard. There's so much pain and anger, even now… sometimes I think it's going to eat me alive. But you have something I didn't when Gail started to tear into my life."
"What?" Thea turned her head to look at Beca, Beca feeling her heart break at the defeated and bereft look on her face, the desperation for something, anything to be a ray of light in all this darkness.
"A family." Beca smiled sadly, "People that would walk through hell for you. I was alone for so long Thea, I've done this both alone and with people at my side and I'm telling you this for nothing… don't push them away. Because that burden is way too heavy to carry alone."
Thea scoffed slightly as she leant against Beca, her head resting on her shoulder as her tears started to fall faster, "I lost all this time with Stacie blaming her for something that wasn't her fault… that was even less her fault than I thought and now… now I might never get to make up for that, I might lose them both… all because of a stupid prophecy that neither of them asked for."
"We'll get her back." Beca shook her head a little, arm moving so it rested around Thea, "We're getting her back Thea. Even if it costs me my life, I'm bringing Stacie home. Everything I have now is because of her, because Stacie convinced Aubrey to take a chance on me, she fought to have me in her family. So I'm not letting her go without a fight."
No-one really slept that night, not of their own volition anyway. Thea was given a strong sleeping draft by the nurse that came to check on her injuries and thus slept through the night, watched over by her sons in six hour stints so that each of them could at least attempt to rest as well. Aubrey didn't sleep a wink, leant against a large window, her forehead pressed against the glass as silent tears rolled down her cheeks. Neither Chloe nor Beca knew what to say to her, what was going through her head right now.
Both of them had experienced loss like this, both of them knew what it was like to have the woman you loved in mortal peril and able to do nothing to change that. But neither of them knew what it was like to have part of your soul ripped from you and know it was because the love of your life had lost something that was so fundamental to themselves. They had to work out a game plan, a way to get Stacie back and her magic, a way to apparently defeat an all-powerful deity. How could they do that when their most level-headed team member, their leader no less, was so utterly broken by recent events to the point where they were virtually catatonic.
It was as day broke, Chloe curled into Beca's side having finally nodded off an hour ago, that Aubrey moved again. It was stiff and almost reluctant, but she crossed the room, pulling her jacket on before starting to fasten her weapons belt around her waist.
"Bree?" Beca frowned, voice low as she tried not to wake Chloe, "What are you doing?"
"Going to find her." Aubrey mumbled, "And rip apart anyone who stands in my way."
She glanced over at Beca, a dangerous glint in her eyes as she silently dared Beca to stop her. Beca simply sighed softly instead, gently slipping out from underneath Chloe and retucking the blanket around her before going to join Aubrey.
"Wait until sunset." Beca pressed gently, "Chloe and I can go with you, whatever plan you have will work better if we go as a team."
"I don't have a plan." Aubrey deadpanned, "All I have is 'rescue Stacie or die trying'. That's it Beca. So I'm going alone."
"No." Beca shook her head, "No way in hell."
"I could rip you apart Beca." Aubrey growled, "Don't you dare get in my way."
"Bree, I understand this." Beca's tone remained level but her stance stiffened, bracing herself for any possibility, "More than anyone else you know. I'm not about to let you go out there alone."
"Your specialty is running away." Aubrey snatched herself away from the hand that Beca had rested on her arm, "Why don't you stick to that?"
Beca flinched a little at this, a look of hurt briefly crossing her face before she pushed it aside, swallowing thickly. Aubrey was hurting, she didn't mean it, not really.
"I ran because I was alone. Because I didn't have any other option. Because I didn't know any better than running Aubrey. But you do. I know you do, I know you. Don't do something stupid because you're scared…"
"I'm not scared." Aubrey spat, voice full of venom as she glared Beca down, "I'm angry, angry at them for hurting her, angry at Thea from keeping something so huge from all of us, angry at Stacie for being so stupid and for leaving me and-"
"Aubrey…" Beca sighed softly, hands gently taking the blade that Aubrey had held tight from her before taking her hands in hers, "You're angry because you're scared. And that's okay, jesus look what we're up against! Be scared, be angry, be whatever else you're feeling, but don't be so fucking stupid. There's no way in hell that we're letting you go out there on your own…"
"And you might get past one of us…" Chloe had woken up to Beca and Aubrey's argument, wrapping her arms around Aubrey's waist from behind as she rested her chin on her shoulder, "But not both. We're not letting you just walk out of here on your own, Stacie would never forgive us for it. So when we get her back, not if, when, I don't want to explain to her that you got hurt or killed trying to get to her."
Aubrey pursed her lips, body shaking as her tears returned, "She's… she's all alone with them… they're hurting her, they took her magic, they're going to use her to release an apocalypse deity, how can I not just go and find her?!"
Chloe squeezed Aubrey's waist tighter as she and Beca shared a look. They knew that feeling, that need to go running headfirst into danger for the person they loved.
"I get it." Chloe murmured as Aubrey turned in her arms, choosing the comfort from her oldest friend that was so familiarly comforting, her face buried in her neck as she started to sob; Beca didn't mind. She understood it, there was nothing quite as comforting as Chloe's embrace.
"But neither of as are letting you get hurt by being reckless Bree. Wait until sundown, we'll figure out a proper plan, and then we can go and rescue Stacie, maybe save the world while we're at it."
Beca nodded at Chloe as she looked over at her, feeling her heart clench as Aubrey's sobs got louder. Aubrey was so strong, so determined, so level-headed. She was the one that kept Beca on an even keel… so if she was falling apart, what was there left? How would they get through this if Aubrey wasn't herself?
"I've got you." Chloe mumbled into Aubrey's hair, her eyes locked with Beca's so she would know that she was talking to her too, "No matter what happens next, I've got you, I promise."
Stacie whimpered a little as she regained consciousness, feeling her wrists throb in the tight metal around them. They had left her at the side of the pit, the chain around her wrists padlocked into an anchor point on the wall, staring down at the swirling, roaring mass that they would soon unleash. She couldn't believe that she was here, that she had let herself get caught and stripped of her magic, especially when she need it so badly.
"What's wrong little Conrad?" Calamity hummed, Stacie's head whipping up to find her standing over her, shrinking away from her as much as she could, "Oh, has no-one healed your wrists yet? Here…"
Calamity crouched next to her, hands held over Stacie's wrists, Stacie watching her with fearful apprehension as she felt her bones fuse back into place. Why was she helping her? It made no sense, what did she want?
"There." Calamity grinned, Stacie silent as she watched every slight move Calamity made, "No need to thank me."
"What do you want?" Stacie mumbled, "Just leave me alone, I've got nothing to give you."
"Well that's not true." Calamity raised her eyebrow, smirking at Stacie as her eyes burnt into her, "I can have hours of fun with you, as long as I don't kill you."
Stacie's eyes widened as Calamity's hand shot forward and grabbed her throat, dragging her to her feet it, slammed against the wall behind her with a pained gasp. She struggled against Calamity as her hand tightened just a little, but with her hands bound like they were, broken or not, they were useless to her.
"Not so powerful without your magic are you?" Calamity sneered, right up in Stacie's face as Stacie glared back at her, "What are you without it huh? Do you think your little friends would even want you around without it? Because really… you don't have anything else to offer do you?"
"Shut up." Stacie growled, "They love me, we're a family, I don't expect you to understand that. Look at yours, that many psychos all lumped together? That's not family. That's circumstance. I bet you didn't even break a sweat over Serenity did you?"
A dangerous look crossed Calamity's face as she pulled Stacie back from the wall only to slam her back into again, Stacie crying out as pain shot up her spine. The hand around her throat held strong, not even to cut off her oxygen, but more than enough to make sure Stacie felt threatened and fearful no matter how much she tried to hide it.
"Big mistake bitch." Calamity chuckled, "Don't forget that I get to play with you however I like, and you've just poked the bear."
Stacie squared her jaw, eyes flicking to Calamity's free hand as she watched flame ignite at her fingertips, "I'm not afraid of you. Of any of you. I know they're coming for me, that they're going to make your last moments hell on earth, I'm not afraid."
"Yes you are." Calamity purred, her flame wrapped fingers inching closer to Stacie's chest, "You're scared shitless, but hey… you want to play pretend, you go for it."
Stacie emitted a scream as Calamity's fingers pressed into the bare skin of her sternum, burning flesh as Stacie writhed and tried to hold back her tears. She couldn't show them fear or pain, she couldn't be scared or weak, Stacie had to hold on until they came to get her, came to stop Alice and her sisters. She just had to hold on.
Calamity's fingers dragged slowly from left to right, Stacie panting and gasping as she tried to get away from her. The smell of burnt flesh consumed her as she strained against the chain around her wrists, feeling them bruise anew as she tried to free herself. She could do this, she could hold on. Beca had been through this and come alive. Chloe had been through this and come out alive. She could do it too. All she had to do was hold on.
"Maybe I should mark my territory…" Calamity hummed, "Pick a spot to feed from and label it so we know it's mine. What do you think?"
Stacie said nothing, glaring Calamity down even as her heart pounded faster in her chest. Her chest was still burning, but the thought of having a permanent reminder of exactly who had put her through hell made her skin crawl.
"Yeah…" Calamity flexed her hand a little, Stacie feeling her magic grip her tightly and hold her in place as Calamity used bother her hands to lift Stacie's t-shirt, "I like using a girl's hip, those natural curves, mmm…"
Calamity licked her lips as she looked up at Stacie from where she had crouched down in front of her. Stacie's nostrils flared as she struggled against the magic holding her in place, taunting her own lack of powers as she shuddered at the way Calamity's tongue ran over the skin of her right hip.
"Perfect." Calamity smirked, "This is perfect for it. See, I'll show you."
Stacie gasped sharply as Calamity's fangs sunk into her, her veins burning as she felt her blood start to drain. She'd only been bitten once by a frenzied and traumatised Chloe, but it wasn't enough to show her just how painful it was to be fed from. Her head started to spin as she whimpered a little, straining at the magic around to try and free herself as the feeling consumed her.
"See…" Calamity's grin at Stacie was stained with blood, Stacie limp in the physical and magical restraints as a single tear betrayed her, "I told you… perfect. Now to make it mine."
Stacie grit her teeth, looking away from Calamity as her clawed finger dug deep into her skin. By the time Calamity reached the second 'a', Stacie couldn't contain her cries of pain, outrightly sobbing as Calamity seemed to dig deeper and deeper into her with every line. She had never been in pain like this, never felt so weak and powerless… she needed her magic, she needed Hunter… she needed Aubrey.
"There."
It seemed like hours before Calamity finally finished, Stacie left feeling torn and violated as Calamity pressed a kiss to the wound she had inflicted.
"It looks cute on you…" She raised her eyebrow as she pushed herself to her feet again, "Have you got any ink Conrad? I think you'd look rad with some… maybe I can give you some more keepsakes while you're here."
"Fuck you." Stacie spat, eyes hooded and exhausted but no less defiant, "Don't come near me again, I'll kill you."
"Oh yeah?" Calamity laughed, watching as her magic released and Stacie fell to the floor in a heap, stepping quickly sideways out of range of Stacie's kicking leg without sending herself into the pit, "And how are you going to do that huh?"
Calamity shook her head at Stacie as she turned her back on her, Stacie watching her disappear towards the shadows where she knew the tunnels were that would lead her out of here. She waited until Calamity's footsteps had disappeared before she pushed shakily to her feet, carefully but quickly edging along the chasm as far as the chain around her wrists would allow. There had to be a way out, she couldn't take this… if she could just get out of here and away into the tunnels, she could hide from them even if she couldn't find the exit, Stacie would survive so much easier and longer away from them…
Because what would Aubrey say now that she had been engraved like that? Would she even want her back if Calamity carved more and more things into her? She just wanted Aubrey, just wanted to be able to feel her again. There was this hole inside her, this void that used to be filled with Aubrey, with her thoughts, her feelings, her secrets and her hopes… and now it was gone. It was so quiet. Even before she had Aubrey, she had Hunter, had him whistling around her and comforting her and just… he was always there. But now she was alone, and no matter how hard she tugged at the chains binding her, she couldn't get them off her, she couldn't get free.
Calamity was right about one thing; she wasn't anything without her magic and her team. She wasn't strong or brave, she was nothing but alone. Her breaths started to come in short, panicked gasps as she tugged harder and harder at the chain, not caring about how it bruised her wrists, only wanting them to snap free of the anchor point on the wall so she could run.
But they wouldn't budge, Stacie screaming in frustration as the little energy that she did have drained from her and she fell to her knees, head resting against her bound hands as she sobbed into the dirt underneath her. It wasn't fair… she didn't want this target on her back, she didn't want to need rescuing, she didn't want any of this. She just wanted to be home, in Aubrey's arms, planning their damn wedding. Why was the universe so hellbent on inflicting so much pain on her and the people she loved? They'd all been through so much, even in the last twenty four hours, Stacie didn't want to be the reason that they were all suffering more.
"I'm sorry…" She whispered, eyes closed tight as she tried to reach out to Aubrey, to find even a scrap of an opening to her, "Aubrey I'm so sorry… I just wanted to rescue mom, I was coming home, I swear I was…"
The silence that met her was deafening, Stacie lay on her side as she sniffled, her hip and chest throbbing, her throat and wrists aching, but the biggest pain of all was the one in her heart, the one that reminded her that all the most important things in her life were gone now. Aubrey. Her magic. Hunter. All of it was gone, and what was left was her… an empty shell left to suffer at the hands of the evilest beings on the planet.
"Come get me…" Stacie whimpered softly, "Please don't hate me… just bring me home."