"I made it," Kirsty said as she slipped inside. The office was supposed to be locked, but Joey always kept keys she wasn't supposed to own on her.
"Thank goodness," Elliot said, and Kirsty smiled. "I'll let Joey and Tiffany know. I trust you can take it from here?"
"Absolutely. And thank you, Elliot," she said. "We'll get you back in one piece soon."
"I know you will. Good luck, Kirsty." The phone switched off, and Kirsty pocketed it. The building was dark and quiet, but she knew it like the back of her hand. She made her way in, thinking about Elliot, thinking about the Prince.
The real Cenobite Prince.
"Run!" Tiffany took off and Kirsty was left facing the doctor. She tried to stare him down, even as she fought back tears, but felt a cold hand on her shoulder.
"Run," his voice whispered in her ear, "I will be with you. Run, Kirsty." She spun around to the empty darkness and ran - turning corners she shouldn't have known, guided through the hospital maze by and unseen hand. She finally stopped after what must have been a mile's worth of hallways and gripped her knees, head falling between her shoulders as she struggled for breath.
She felt a hand on her cheek and looked up, her eyes meeting the pitch black gaze of the Cenobite before her.
These stairs took too long, these halls felt too winding. Kirsty couldn't get there fast enough - every second felt like another moment her chance slipped away. She all but sprinted to her office, key in her hand before she even got to the door, wishing she had left just a second earlier because even a second felt like too much time wasted. She opened the door.
"We do not have much time, I'm afraid," he said as she stood, "before he catches up."
"What do we do?" she gasped more than asked, choking back tears. The others - his Gash all lay dead in the room she'd abandoned, and if he could do that then there was no question the man she was speaking to was next. "We can't stop him, not like that!"
"You're right." The Cenobite's voice was somber. "Not like that. But there are rules that bind us, and him, though he does not know it yet." He reached towards his face.
The little wooden casket sat on her desk, waiting for her. Kirsty grabbed it - but she stopped, just for a moment, and looked at it. She looked at the little engraving, the residue of the sticker she hadn't quite peeled off. It felt like such a paltry effort, and she felt guilty she couldn't offer more.
Kirsty pressed a kiss to the wood. "I love you, Daddy," she whispered, closing her eyes, and took a breath before opening the little wooden box.
"What are you-" Kirsty stopped as she watched his fingers settle on a single pin, square between his eyebrows, and draw it out. A pulse of blue electricity coursed over him, and for a moment he winced in all-too-human pain.
"Cenobites..." he said, forcing the words out through groans of agony, "are not supposed to remove their markings. They are Leviathan's gift - to reject them is to reject the power given to us."
"But how will that-" He met her eyes again, and Kirsty was frozen by that stare.
"But it is a greater insult to take those gifts from another Cenobite." He put the pin into her hands. "I will hold him for as long as I can, but the rest must be you, Kirsty. Drive it into his flesh, however you can." There was a pause, a moment where they just stared at each other. he leaned towards her, just a little, andKirsty found herself meeting him halfway.
Their lips touched only for a moment, but it left sparks on her skin.
"And I know you will, Kirsty."
The pin gleamed up at her, twinkling through its rust, sturdy as it had been the day he gave it to her. Kirsty pulled it out and turned it in her fingers - this little reminder, something so small, that had saved her life.
The Cenobite had Channard's attention. He'd lured him in here - Kirsty watched in the shadows as the two glared at each other, and Channard let out a laugh.
"She ran away from you," he said, voice cruel in its amusement. "Did you think she was going to trust you? She's told me what happened with her family because of you. You're the shadow that haunts her nightmares, not some knight in shining armor."
"I never claimed to be," he said, and snapped his fingers. Chains sunk into the doctor, and he cried out, blasting back that same light. Kirsty watched the Cenobitic markings melt away with each burst, shaking, grasping the pin in her trembling hand.
"That's better," the doctor growled, "one less nightmare to haunt my patient. Now the only one left is me!" Another chain flew forward - right into Elliot's throat.
"No!" Kirsty didn't think - she just flew forward and grabbed Channard's shoulder, slamming the pin into his neck. He cried out in agony and the same shocks sent her flying backwards. She watched him convulse, screaming in pain, and then the chains tore him apart. The pin fell to the floor beside Elliot, and she ran to him.
He was already dead.
"I love you," she whispered again, and kissed the pin before closing the casket and shoving her hands in her pockets. She found her phone again and dialed Joey.
"I have the pin," she said, voice steadier than expected, "I'll be back as soon as I can." Joey signed off first, and she hung up, heading to the stairs.
You saved my life, she thought, picturing the man in the hospital as she made for the exit, now it's my turn to save yours.
It's probably going to be a few days before I update again, since I don't want to get burnt out on this story, but this scene was fresh in my head and I needed to get it down. There's a one-shot coming up right after this, yet another au, because I just can't get enough of them.
Be kind and stay spooky, everyone!
- Inky
