"I have a question."
Alice pushed a blonde exotic dancer aside, grabbing Loki's full attention. He groaned and shook his head.
"So, you came back," he said, sounding disappointed.
"What happens to ghosts after you burn their bones?" Alice asked shortly.
"I've been fine, thank you for asking," Loki said, chewing a caramel and eyeing the dancer who continued her routine off to the side.
"I was gone for like, an hour."
"Three hours. I wanted to be gone by now. You're lucky Lucy caught my eye, otherwise I would have blown out of here an hour ago and left you to fend for yourself."
"Loki, get serious for ten seconds. Tell me what you know."
"What's in it for me?"
"A way out of our deal, maybe."
"I can get out of our deal anytime I want, doll."
"Loki!" Alice whined.
"Fine, don't get mopey," Loki sighed, eyes still fixed on the gyrating blonde. "What is it you want to know again?"
"Ghosts. Where do they go after we burn their bones?"
"Depends."
"On what?"
"On them. On the way the bones are burned. On a lot of stuff."
"Break it down for me."
Loki finally spared Alice a glance, narrowing his eyes at her suspiciously.
"Why the sudden interest?" he asked, a bill materializing in his hand. He tucked it into Lucy's thong, then turned his full attention to Alice.
"It's not sudden," Alice lied. "I always wondered. I just never had anyone to ask."
"Come on kiddo, it's been a month and a half. You've bared your soul to me over, and over, and over again."
"I have not," Alice protested.
"Uh-huh, you sure have. Drunk Alice is a talkative gal," Loki informed her. "I know all your deepest, darkest secrets. Wants, regrets, likes, dislikes, insecurities... hell, with all the crap you dump on me after a long night of getting shit-faced, I should be getting paid the same as a top-tier shrink. And for all the babbling I've had to endure from you, all the melodramatic whining, all the cheap existential mysteries you've begged me to explain, this isn't something that's come up before."
"So?"
"So, you ran out of fresh questions about two weeks ago. Since then, you just keep asking the same dumb shit over and over again on replay. I gotta say, it's getting pretty old."
"I don't remember any of that."
"Yeah, if I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that's why you keep asking about it!"
"Whatever, are you gonna tell me or not?"
"Maybe. After you tell me why you wanna know," Loki conceded.
"Curiosity."
Loki fixed Alice with a long look, one that let her know he saw through the lie. She bit her lip, considering the lies she could tell and finally deciding that the truth would serve her best this time.
"I guess I'm... I'm just weighing my options," she explained.
"Options?"
For the first time, Loki noticed the duffel she was carrying. His powers could have told him beyond a shadow of a doubt what it contained, but he didn't bother. His intuition was sharp enough that it wasn't necessary. He sipped his drink slowly while he considered Alice seriously. The more used to him she'd become, the harder it was for him to read her. Used to be, fear and uncertainty threw her off balance in his presence, giving her no choice but to show him all her cards. Now, she knew him and his angles well enough to hold a fair poker face. Her expression, her posture, all completely neutral. She could have been dead for all the emotion she let show.
Loki laughed out loud at the unintended irony of his own thoughts, remembering that she was in fact, dead a few times over. Soon to be more if he'd correctly guessed her intentions.
"Planning a long walk off a short pier?" he asked glibly.
"Depends on where I'd end up after I fell off," Alice shot back.
The truth was that there wasn't an easy answer to that question, but Loki sensed that this path would be more fun to tread if he played his cards right. His next words were a carefully crafted half-truth, not quite a deception, not quite forthcoming with all the relevant facts.
"Nowhere."
"Meaning?" Alice prompted, an edge of irritation creeping into her tone.
"What about the word 'nowhere' is unclear?"
"Would nothing happen? Would I just stop existing? What?"
"None of the above."
"Damn it, Loki!"
"I have to spell everything out for you, huh?"
"If it's not too much trouble."
"Oh no, I'll just reveal all the deepest mysteries of the universe. Anything else you wanna know while I'm at it? The meaning of life? Location of the soul?"
"Just... will I end up back in hell? That's all I really want to know."
"Ghosts go to hell when you destroy their remains," Loki began coyly.
Alice took his words as a final answer and he took a moment to delight in the despair her eyes betrayed. He let the pause stretch to perfection, then went on, relishing how Alice snapped back to attention, hung onto his every word like a drowning sailor to driftwood.
"Demons, on the other hand... well, that's another story altogether."
The combination of dread and hope Alice felt at his words was unprecedented. She ignored it, struggling to keep her emotions off her sleeve. She knew Loki was feeding off the fact that he was unsettling her, stringing her along. She hated to satisfy him, but she was terrified that if she didn't let him have what he wanted, he would stop talking.
"No demon that's been properly killed has ever turned up in hell after the fact."
Alice bit her lip, dread overcoming hope. She felt numb as she realized what he was saying. She didn't want to accept it.
"I asked about ghosts," she heard herself saying, though she didn't remember giving her lips permission to move.
"Sure, but at the end of the day, you want to know where you're heading, right?"
"I'm not a demon."
"You're toeing the line."
"I'm not a demon," Alice repeated, dread flowering in her gut to become panic. "I- I don't- Demons have black eyes, they manifest as smoke, they-"
"Look kid, you want to get technical? Be my guest. But from where I'm sitting, all I see is damned soul running around in someone else's meat suit, making wisecracks and debauching with the best of them."
He raised his glass to her before he drained it while she sat in stunned silence.
Makes sense. It's not like I didn't know it was coming down the pike, she caught herself thinking.
"I'm... I'm trying to do better," she finally said. "I'm trying to be better. I can be better. I've been... I've been doing better..."
"Better than what?"
"Than... before. I guess."
"Look. You want my advice? Relax," Loki said, materializing a bottle of scotch. He poured himself a glass and poured another for Alice. "Stop thinking in such black and white bullshit terms. Demon, human, potato potahtoe. Where do I fall on that scale, huh? I don't think about it. Why? Because I don't care. I'm just trying to have fun. And you? You're good at having fun, same as me. So stick with what you're good at and leave the big existential crises and-and the battles between light and dark to people who're good at suffering with their heads up their asses. You and me? We're better than that bullshit."
"I, uh... I need some air," Alice mumbled. He could tell that she'd stopped listening to him a few sentences ago. She grabbed the scotch and stumbled away, duffel bag in tow. Loki left a projection of himself at the bar and followed her, snickering to himself a little at the number he'd managed to do on her. What a sucker. Tonight promised to be interesting.
Dean pulled up to the Hyatt where Sam had sent him to meet up with the mystery hunter he was supposed to help. He parked with a grin and left the car with a spring in his step. He didn't know who he was headed to meet or what kind of case they would be working, but what he did know was that the Hyatt offered a free continental breakfast to its guests. Dean made certain that he was right on time to take them up on it.
He strolled through the front doors, flashing the woman at the front desk a full, beaming smile. She smiled back and held up a finger, silently assuring him that she would be with him after she got off the phone. Dean nodded, shot her a thumbs up and breezed past her, following his nose to the lounge where breakfast was set out. Dean hummed, considering the spread for a minute before he grabbed a plate and started helping himself while the attendant from the front desk approached him.
"Hi, I'm sorry, I was helping another guest. I can check you in now," she said with a smile.
"Oh, I'm here with a friend," Dean informed her. Her smile faltered, eyes flitting from Dean to his plate and back again. "He's staying in room 220. Well, we're staying in room 220 that is."
"Uh-huh. And your friend is...?"
She expected a name. Something that Dean didn't have. He cursed Sam for being so mysterious.
"Well, it's... it's more of a business relationship," Dean backtracked, picking up another breakfast sandwich while the attendant grew less amused by the second. "Matter of fact, could you call up there and let him know I'm here? Dean's here. I'm sure he'll want to come meet me."
"I... well... You know, the continental breakfast is only for paying guests," the attendant said, seeming flustered by the irregular situation.
"I'm sure my friend in 220 paid."
"Sir-"
"Let him know I'm waiting in the lounge," Dean said with his most charming smile, sweeping past the attendant with a full plate. He took a seat, ignoring her while she eyed him and chewed her lip. Finally, she decided to head back to the front desk. Dean watched her go, and hopped up once she was out of sight to grab a cup of coffee and some more jelly for his toast. He settled back down, eyeing the way to the front desk while he dug in. After a few minutes, he figured whoever was in room 220 must have vouched for him. Otherwise the attendant would have been back to tell him he had to leave.
"Paying guests only," Dean sneered past a mouthful of biscuit crumbs. "Like this breakfast is good enough for its own bouncer. Cheap bastards."
He munched away contentedly for a few more minutes. Then he saw someone that struck him as familiar coming off the elevator. The man spotted him and started over. With every step he took, Dean's brain flipped through pages of a mental catalog, struggling to place him. It wasn't until he took the seat across the table from Dean that Dean realized who he was. He dropped his biscuit, panicking briefly as his mind screamed at him to run.
"Hi Dean," Victor Henricksen greeted him. "Long time. No see."
"I- uh... you- Hah. Um..."
Dean's got over the shock of seeing his old nemesis and managed to remember more recent events. Sam's story of the station and Henricksen's elucidation.
"You're the friend Sam wants me to help?" Dean finally managed.
"No, stop, please, I'm no good with affection," Henricksen said dryly, mocking Dean's bad manners.
"Uh... sorry. It's just... you know, last time we met you were trying to arrest me for a bunch of murders I didn't commit," Dean reminded him with a scowl.
"I'm not sorry about that," Henricksen said, crossing his arms over his chest obstinately. "I'm sure you know what it looked like from the outside."
Dean crossed his arms right back at Henricksen and fixed his face into a frown. Henricksen had a point, but he didn't want to admit that.
"Well, if you'd taken the time to listen to me back then-"
"Oh right, when you were telling me about how you were being framed by a serially homicidal shapeshifting monster?" Henricksen asked, cocking his eyebrows and daring Dean to tell him his story had honestly been deserving of any sane human's belief.
"Well..."
"Look, what's important is I know the truth now," Henricksen said. "What do you say we leave the past in the past and save some lives?"
Dean considered the offer and finally shrugged.
"Fair enough. Buy me a drink and we can call it even."
"Little early for that, isn't it?"
"It's five o'clock somewhere," Dean grinned.
"I thought you were here to get some work done," Henricksen said. "Sam made it sound like you'd be happy to have the job."
"Yeah, well, Sam doesn't bother to ask me what I want anymore," Dean said tartly, his tone betraying his bitterness.
"Ooh, I know that look," Henricksen tsked.
"What look?"
"The one on your face. You and Sam on the outs?""
"I don't have a look," Dean protested.
"Yeah, you do. And it looks like a couple that's been married for about a hundred years finally figuring out they don't root for the same sports teams."
"On point, Scully. They teach you to look out for that at the academy?" Dean snarked.
"If the shoe fits, Scooby-Doo," Henricksen shot back demeaningly.
"Hey, I love that dog," Dean scowled.
"Of course you do," Henricksen sighed.
Dean's scowl deepened and he began to wonder why he was wasting his time. If there was a case in this town, he could work it himself. He needed to ditch the feeb.
The thought gave Dean an idea that almost made him forget how pissed off he was at Henricksen.
"Hey, are you still working at the FBI?" Dean asked abruptly. He looked around for any other stiff suits. Granted, Henricksen's current clothes were pretty relaxed. "Are you working now?"
"I'm still an agent," Henricksen replied. "I'm on vacation at the moment."
Which meant there probably weren't any other feebs hanging around. Dean relaxed for a moment, before having second thoughts.
Or were there?
Sneakiness was the number one characteristic of a feeb. That and narrow-mindedness.
"Right. So, do you guys like, spy on people?" Dean asked, glancing around surreptitiously.
"Excuse me?"
"I mean, you've like... got everyone's phone records, internet history, right? That kind of thing."
Panic drained all the color from Dean's face for a moment.
"Wait, do you have my internet history?" he demanded, mortified at the thought.
"You're thinking of the NSA," Henricksen sighed.
"Oh. Yeah. Seriously though, can you get that kind of stuff?"
"Dean, are you interested in helping me ghostbust, or what?" Henricksen demanded. "Because I gotta say, I had to call in a big-ass favor to get Sam that info he wanted, and if you're not going to help me, he'd better send someone who will. This being my first time monster hunting and all, I'd prefer to get out of it with all my limbs still attached. And minimal civilian casualties."
"Wait, info? What info?" Dean asked, ignoring the rest of what Henricksen said.
"What?"
"Sam needed info? On what?"
"Not what, who. Did you hear a word I said, Winchester?"
"Yeah, yeah, I got you. Limbs attached, no more deaths. I'm your guy," Dean quickly assured him. "Tell me more about the info you gave Sam."
"Well, it wasn't much," Henricksen admitted. "He was looking for some girl. Angie... Annie... Anna! Some kid who broke out of a psych ward about a month back. Why?"
Dean frowned, wondering what Sam was up to. Was he still hunting Lilith? If so, the girl must have a connection to her. A host, maybe?
"Nothing, just... curious," Dean said. "Alright, I'm going back for seconds. You want anything?"
"Just coffee."
"Right."
Dean went up for more food and purposefully returned without any coffee. He caught Henricksen looking for it, but the agent just pursed his lips and let it slide when he realized there was none. Dean suppressed a satisfied chuckle as he bit into another breakfast sandwich.
"So," he said through a mouthful of english muffin crumbs and sausage, "Get me up to speed. What are we working off of here?"
Alice was utterly exhausted as she left the bar, left Loki behind. She paused outside, looking in the direction of the docks where Allison was waiting for her. Hoping she would run away with her. Alice felt like she'd spent a lifetime running. Now, she felt like all that time spent on the run was finally catching up to her. With Loki, she didn't have to run, so she hadn't. Though he made sure the demons couldn't catch her while she kept his company, he did nothing to keep her regrets at bay. She may have stopped running, but all the things she wished she hadn't done kept chasing her. Now, she felt like she was drowning in them.
You don't regret anything you did, Danny sneered from the back of their shared mind. You're just upset that you're finally facing the consequences.
"Consequences," Alice sighed. Danny's devilish insight was truer than she wanted to admit. Intent mattered. She would never be able to redeem herself because she didn't feel sorry for anything she'd done. She just didn't feel like it was fair that the world got to judge her so harshly for it.
Now she had a way out. A way to escape that judgement. Escape the consequences of all the actions she despised the idea of regretting. Regretting felt like surrendering. Like giving someone else the last word. Her blood boiled and her vision turned red at the thought of admitting that the world was right about her. That after all was said and done, there was no justification to cleanse her of her sins. No greater good. That in the end, Alice Smith didn't really know best at all. She was just another monster, another criminal on the wrong side of the thin line that separated right from wrong.
She didn't have to repent. She didn't have to be wrong. She also didn't have to reap the consequences of her defiance. She could get away with it all, scott free, but only if...
Do it, do it, do it, Danny egged.
She laughed at his eagerness, seriously considering the idea for the first time. She shook the bag of bones, biting her lip as they rattled. She turned her back to the docks, just in time to miss the slender figure that approached slowly, overcast by shadow.
How about it, Smith? No hell. No more running. Just... rest.
As Alice weighed her options, Allison got close enough to hear her sister talking to herself.
"Well... I am... awfully tired," Alice admitted aloud. "Maybe... maybe I will. After all..."
What have you got to lose, right?
Alice accepted the idea, made up her mind. Suddenly, she felt the weight of this world and the next fall off her shoulders.
"I hate to say it," she chuckled, walking away from the docks. "But I think you've finally got a good point, Danny boy."
Storm clouds obscured the moon as Allison followed her sister silently, unnerving instinct telling her to conceal her presence as Alice muttered and chuckled to herself. Allison knew deep in her gut that something wasn't right, but she couldn't bring herself to ask her long estranged sister what was wrong. So instead, she stuck close behind as Alice wandered through the streets, seemingly without direction. The night grew older around them, grew colder as dawn crept closer, hanging like a threat in the chilly air.
Alice didn't know what she was looking for until she found it.
"Perfect," she said, crossing the threshold of a cemetery. It was sprawling, well maintained. Dew graced the lush emerald lawn like pearls of glass, glinting when the clouds parted to let the moon's captive light fall free across the scene. Alice walked a footpath laid in the shadows of angels and obelisks, memorials to the nameless dead who she thought were her only company. Her only send-off party.
"Just you, me and them," Alice told Danny. His unrestrained glee should have made her sick, but surprisingly, it was strangely comforting. Alice realized Danny was far from the only one who would be happy to see her go. For a moment, she started to have second thoughts. Should she give them the satisfaction?
Come on, Smith, you know what you want, Danny interrupted encouragingly. Don't screw yourself out of eternal rest out of spite for me. Wouldn't that be letting me win? Think about it.
Alice took a sip of the scotch as she searched for the right spot to end it all.
"I gotta give it to you," she sighed. "You're pretty good at this."
Allison followed her, dodging between tombstones as respectfully as she could given the circumstances, dread suspicion curling forebodingly in her stomach as she went.
She's just here to hide her bones, Allison reasoned silently with herself. It's a good hiding place. No one'll ever find them here.
Still, something about Alice's demeanor made it hard for Allison to believe her own explanation.
Alice approached a mausoleum and decided it was as good a place as any. She scanned the graveyard quickly, just missing Allison as she dodged behind a nearby tree. Thinking she was alone, Alice dumped the bones out, humming Aerosmith's 'Amazing' as she did. Allison heard the clatter and peeked out from behind the tree to watch Alice light a cigarette. She took her phone out and started writing a text. Allison watched with bated breath as Alice seemed to struggle to find the right words. She wrote, deleted, and rewrote the message at least five times.
"Fuck it," she finally said. She typed something short, sent it, and shoved her phone back in her pocket.
A second later, Allison's phone vibrated gently in her pocket. She ducked back behind the tree and pulled it out.
Alice's text.
Thanks for the bones. I got it from here. Knock 'em dead in Hollywood, sis! Xoxo.
"It's amaaa-ziiing," Alice sang. Allison looked again in time to see her pouring out a bottle of scotch over the bones. Alarm bells went off in her head, world-rending as she realized what Alice was doing.
"When the moment arrives that you know you'll be alright!"
Alice took a final drag of her cigarette, then held it contemplatively. Before she could throw it, a shriek from her left scared the daylights out of her.
"ALICE! NO!"
Allison tackled her sister to the ground before she had a chance to react. They rolled away from the scotch-soaked pile of bones, the cigarette falling harmlessly into the wet grass.
"Allison! Get off me!" Alice growled, pushing against her hold.
"Alice! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Allison demanded.
"I'm sick of running!"
"This ISN'T the solution!"
"I don't... want... to talk about it!" Alice yelled, managing to wrest herself free of Allison's grasp. She dived for the bones, but Allison stubbornly tackled her again and they fell, struggling with each other against the mausoleum.
"I'm not letting you do this!" Allison growled, trying to pin Alice to the wall.
"It's not your decision!" Alice shot back, turning the tables on Allison and pushing her hard against the stones.
"Don't... make me... beat you up!" Allison panted, trying to knock Alice off her feet. Alice dodged the attempt and made another break for the bones.
"As if you could!"
Allison grabbed the back of Alice's jacket and spun her around. Out of non-violent ways to restrain her little sister, she head-butted her hard.
"OW!"
"Come on!"
Allison grabbed Alice by the back of the neck and started walking her out of the cemetery while Alice cupped a bloody nose. It only took Alice a few seconds to recover from the pain and start resisting. Allison intercepted a punch that Alice threw her way, blocked a kick, but was finally caught off guard by a brutal elbow to the ribs.
"ARGH!"
"MOTHERF-"
"SON OF A-"
"YOU BITCH!"
The fight turned ugly, both sisters done pulling punches. Each got a few good blows in before Alice finally gained the upper hand, knocking the wind out of Allison with a hard gut punch. Allison fell to her knees, struggling to breathe while Alice limped back to the pile of bones. Panic rose in Allison.
"Alice... don't..."
She gasped painfully, crawling slowly toward her sister, unable to gather enough breath to say anything more. Alice turned, meeting her eyes as she struck a lighter. The flame reflected in her eyes as the sky opened up overhead with the first morning light. Behind the fire, her eyes were cold as ice. She threw the lighter without a word.
Allison's breath returned in time for her to cry out helplessly as the bones burst into flames at Alice's feet. Despair washed over her. The pain of failure, the thought that she had lost her sister for good hurt worse than any wound Alice could have dealt her. Her eyes darted from the blaze back to Alice.
Allison was mute with horror, Alice with relief. Together, they waited in silence for the fire to take effect.
They waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Finally, Alice frowned deeply and spread her hands out in front of her.
"Is it just me, or does this usually get rid of spirits faster?" she asked.
Allison collapsed on the wet grass with a groan. Relief flooded through her as reality kicked in and she realized what must have happened.
"Wrong bones," she sighed. "It's the wrong bones. That moron had the wrong bones."
Alice blinked a few times as she processed that information. Danny started wailing, giving her a headache.
"Shit. I need a smoke," she grumbled. She reached into her pocket for a lighter, only to remember that she'd just set the only one she had on fire. With a sigh, she bent down and lit her cigarette off the burning bones, then took a seat on the ground next to Allison.
"I can't believe I went through all that over some random person's bones," Allison sighed, rolling onto her back. They sky above was beginning to light up with spectacular colors, but the wonder of the sunrise was lost on the Smith sisters. They were both disappointed. Alice was disappointed because not only was she just as tired as ever, she realized she still had a marathon ahead of her with no end in sight. Allison, missing some of the nuances of the situation and never imagining that her sister would be one to take the easy way out, was filled with disappointment in Alice.
Seated on a nearby tombstone, invisible, Loki was munching caramel popcorn and congratulating himself on setting up such an interesting show. He considered revealing himself, insisting it was time to move on, but stopped when Alice made a move. It would seem that the show wasn't quite over yet.
"Smoke?" she asked, offering her sister the cigarette. Allison took it with a scowl, grimacing with pain as she slowly stood. She straightened, groaned as she cracked her neck, then pulled her arm back and threw the cigarette with all her might. It didn't weigh enough to go far, but Allison's point came across just fine anyway. She shook a finger severely at Alice.
"You don't smoke anymore," Allison growled.
"I do what I want," Alice shot back, struggling to her feet to square off against her big sister again.
"Not anymore. I'm here now. I'm going to take care of you," Allison informed her.
"For crying out loud," Alice grumbled. "I'm fine. I don't need anyone taking care of me."
"Says the girl who just tried to stamp her own time card!" Allison snapped. "Since when do Smiths give up, huh?"
Alice narrowed her eyes at Allison and the hypocritical reminder of a lesson their Grandmother had drilled into them over and over again.
"Really? You're gonna quote Grandma now? You don't see how ironic that is?" Alice demanded.
"Cut the crap, Alice! She wanted us to take care of each other!"
"Yeah, back when we were still kids!" Alice argued. "If she could see us now- hell, if she could see me now..."
Alice laughed manically at the thought.
"Forget wanting us to take care of each other, tell me she wouldn't be hunting me, Allison!"
"Oh, get over yourself!" Allison spat. "You think you're so bad it changes the fact that you're family?"
"I'm think I'm getting there!"
"Well I got news for you, kid, there's nothing you could ever be that's bad enough that I would give up on you!" Allison growled.
"Oh yeah?" Alice challenged, eyebrows shooting up high while she crossed her arms over her chest. "Nothing?"
"No!"
"Nothing, huh?"
"Nothing, Alice!"
"Not even a demon?"
That gave Allison pause. She searched Alice's eyes, stunned at the suggestion and its implications.
"You're not a demon," she finally said.
"Not yet, maybe. I'm on the way though."
Allison wanted to demand details, figure out what made Alice think she was in danger of turning demon, but something in her sister's expression stopped her. A look into her eyes was all it took for Allison to know Alice was convinced of her fate. Whether it was true or not was beside the point. Alice believed it enough to act on it. And the action she'd decided to take...
"So... what, you figured a one-way ticket upstate was better than..."
"No," Alice sighed. "Between you and me, I don't even really know if I care anymore. I just... I just don't want to go back to hell, Allison. And I don't want to keep running from hell."
Allison considered her words for a long minute before she finally replied.
"Yeah, well... I don't care what you want. I'm not losing you again. Not to hell, not to suicide, not to anything."
She put her fists up and assumed a fighting stance.
"So the only question is, are you coming easy, or do I have to kick your ass again, tie you up and drag you along with me?"
Alice stood silent, considering her options. She realized that where she was tired of fighting, Allison had about fifteen years worth of bottled up fighting spirit to work through. She could eventually win this battle, but it would take way more energy than she had.
"You're an asshole," she sighed. "And if I go black-eyed on you? Then what?"
"I won't let that happen either," Allison said with dogged determination.
"Oh brother."
"I mean it."
"I know. That's the really sad part," Alice sighed, shaking her head.
"Shut up."
Behind them, the flaming pile of bones groaned, cracked, and collapsed. Smoke rose and scorched the side of the mausoleum.
"Let's get out of here before someone finds this mess."
Defeated, Alice left the cemetery at her sister's side, leaving the remains of her failed suicide attempt smoldering behind them. While Danny tried to talk her into finding her real bones, doing the job right, Alice made her peace with the idea that they were probably too thoroughly lost for that to be a possibility. She set her jaw, squared her shoulders and accepted that with no options, she would have to keep fighting, no matter how tired she got.
Loki watched them leave, then checked his watch.
"Well, that's one way to get out of a deal," he snickered to himself.