Arthur felt his body completely frozen in place, shell shocked and dumbfounded before the sound of a horrible shrieking scream that he had never heard before snapped him out of it. The blonde man's head snapped up in time to see Matthew running into the street and falling to his knees, the younger blonde gathering a very broken and bloody body up into his lap.
"Goddess…," his sister breathed beside him as Peter and Lili began to wail, the little bodies running from the street and into Arthur's sides.
Matthew wailed and screamed, his body shaking as he gathered Ivan into his lap, tears streaking down his face as he pressed his head to the bloody and bruised one in his arms, and pleaded and begged for the older male to not leave him.
"Get him out of the street," Arthur hissed as he passed the children to another witch before he moved carefully towards Matthew, the younger blonde's white wedding robes completely covered in Ivan's blood.
"Matthew...Matthew, love...we have to move...it isn't safe," Arthur tried, very gently, his eyes closing briefly as he caught a glimpse of Ivan's body.
There was no mistaking it; Ivan was dead.
A couple of other witches moved forward, their steps silent as they approached Matthew's wailing form. They knew the blonde would be inconsolable, his wailing and crying only increasing the longer he held Ivan and the longer Ivan didn't respond back to his calls.
It was quite difficult to remove Ivan from Matthew and to bring the newly departed couple to the main church, the blonde's cries the only sound anyone could make out.
"What's going on?" Lars called as he was woken, racing into the main gathering halls only to freeze at the sight of Ivan's body laid out on the ground. "Jesus Christ." The man murmured, rushing forward only to reel back at the sight of the man's face covered in blood. "We... We should prepare the body for burial..."
"No! No!" Matthew wailed, coming to kneel beside Ivan's body, his hands tenderly stroking at the blood stained hair, his face streaked in ugly tears as he all but lowered himself beside the body. "Please...please no, he's still warm...please don't," Matthew begged, his hands shaking as he curled his arms around Ivan's body.
Arthur covered his mouth as he met the eyes of some of the elders, all looking torn on what to do.
"Matthew... Matthew, he's dead." Lars tried to reason with the distressed blonde, feeling his heart go out to the young witch as he watched him coddle Ivan's head and chest close. "His spirit has moved on, I'm sure..." The priest looked to the other witches worriedly, not wanting to touch Matthew for fear of upsetting him even more.
"Not...not necessarily," an elder spoke up, her eyebrows pinched on her forehead as she watched the body on the ground. "We might still have a chance...but we'll have to move quickly to keep the body intact."
Matthew rose his head, his cheek smothered in blood from Ivan's chest, his eyes swimming in tears as he peered at the elder then towards Arthur.
Arthur swallowed hard before he turned to peer at Lars. "Quickly. We need as much ice as we can find. Anything cold, hurry," the blonde ordered, sending witches in a flurry of robes and quick steps as they moved to gather what was requested.
Ivan's body was placed on a bed of ice, Lars having gone to the butcher in the dead of night and begged the use of one of his deep freezers. Moving the machine into one of the meeting halls, Lars helped the witches cover the man's body in ice, his face and folded hands the only things visible above the ice.
"Now... We wait." One of the elder witches murmured.
I have to hurry. I have to hurry. I have to hurry.
The words were whispered over and over, a litany, a mantra in the air that pulsed and breathed through the community.
I have to hurry.
The voice was familiar and everyone recognized it.
Peter was the first to see the spirit. The window to the dormitory was opened and closed and Peter blinked, opening his eyes before he scrambled backwards from the window, seeing the smiling form of Ivan's face as the man opened and closed the door again.
I have to hurry. I have to hurry.
Grace had jumped when she had seen Ivan on her roof in the later morning, the man wandering along the surface before he vanished.
I have to hurry I have to hurry I have to hurry I have to hurry
Matthew was the last to see the spirit moving through the threshold of his home.
IhavetohurryIhavetohurryIhavetohurryIhavetohurry
The blonde had turned, nearly dropping the tea he was making and his eyes widened, his breath catching in his throat as he made to reach for Ivan.
But the man was gone, and it was as if he wasn't ever there to begin with.
Matthew mindlessly wandered out of the little house, meeting a few other coven members that had seen the spirit as well.
"He's here...he's still here," the blonde whimpered as he moved as fast as he could towards where Lars was keeping Ivan.
There had to be a way to get him to come back, but waiting wasn't something Matthew wanted to do.
One of the elders was checking over the body quietly, searching for something that none of the others were quite certain of. The woman, named Bella, looked up and hobbled over to Matthew, her hand on a cane as she peered up at the blonde. "Your bonded is still here, little one, as you well know... But will you go find him?"
Matthew nodded without hesitation, his fingers curling into white fists as he peered at the woman. "Anywhere...I..I'll go anywhere for him...please...can you tell me how?"
Bella nodded to Lars, who was holding an enormous sectioned leather book. The cover was worn from years and the entire book was written in a language that wasn't Theban nor English nor any known language. At least not known to anyone but Bella.
The woman flicked to a back section, then to a second section behind that and peeled open the worn, yellowing pages. The black ink was crisp and clean despite how ancient it seemed before Bella revealed a page of a corpse with several cycling circles of script around the body. Bella traced her fingers around a couple before she found the one she was searching for.
"Ivan is a haunting. He's trapped in some sort of limbo, a world where he's reliving the same thing over and over again. In our one day he might be reliving this moment thousands of times." Bella turned the page. "You have to find a way to break that pattern of repetition..." Bella peered up at the young man. "To go to limbo... You have to enter the same state that your love is in."
"I..," Matthew swallowed, his hand pressing to his chest as he peered at the woman carefully. "...I have to die?" The idea wasn't scary for Matthew, not really, not when it had all the potential of bringing back Ivan.
Ivan's body wouldn't last and everyone knew it. They had another day or so at most to mend his wounds and prepare his body for his spirit.
"Yes. We'll put you to sleep, little one, with some Belladonna we'll put you to sleep for a day... And you have to bring him back."
Matthew nodded without even having to think about it. He'd die for Ivan; a thousand times over he'd die for him.
Without Ivan, even if it was only a day, Matthew could feel his heart slowing; he felt no need to go on without his love.
The blonde wandered to the body, his hand gently brushing over the bruised face as he pressed a kiss tenderly to the tip of Ivan's nose. "I'll bring him back...I won't come back without him."
"You'll come back without him after a day. You'll only have this one chance." Bella stated simply before they prepared a place for Matthew to rest beside Ivan's body.
The belladonna was mixed with warm water and given to Matthew, Bella, Arthur and Grace all sitting to keep watch over the two as the night fell.
"One day, little one. Blessed be."
Matthew nodded his understanding as he held the poisonous tea. He felt so tired already and barely managed a reassuring smile at his family that sat nearby before he began to drink the mixture.
Arthur bit his lip as he Matthew's body tremble, the blonde dropping the cup as he laid back and struggled for breath as his heart slowed to a dangerous stillness.
The last thing Matthew remembered before everything faded to back was Ivan lying beside him, and how the man looked like he was peacefully sleeping.