Voodoo Curse

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious

A/N:

Chapter 17 (A Sister's Love)

Jade led her perplexed sibling to the couch, still holding her hand so she wouldn't leave. "What are you doing?" Jade felt the woman tugging back on her hand, but this only caused her to tighten her trembling grip. "Jade, would you let go of me, please?"

When she tightened her grip again, Holly fell quiet and stared into her sister's glossy eyes. It was a struggle to think of what to say to her, and Jade wasn't sure what Holly would believe.

"Holly, I love you." She moved her left hand over her right and folded her fingers around her sister's hand. "I know you're angry because I told Beck about Gary, and he talked to Erwin about it, and I'm sorry." Holly's mouth clamped together like a steel trap and her brow started to wrinkle. "Beck's sorry too. It was just an impulsive act, we never meant to hurt you."

"People think I'm dangerous." Holly stuttered and growled out her words. "People think I'm some kind of-" The woman's eyes darted to the toddler watching from nearby and her body started to relax. "Are you sure you don't want a drink?"

She smiled weakly and raised her eyebrows. "I'm sure. I'm already making some homemade hot chocolate anyway." Her sister tilted her head and cast a lingering glance of suspicion upon her.

"How'd you know we brought hot chocolate, Jade?"

"If I told you, you would not believe me." She took a deep breath and wiped away the frenzied tears in her eyes. The image of Holly's soul melting away remained like a stain on her brain, and she couldn't let that happen. "Do you hate me, Holly? I made a mistake, but do you hate me?"

The woman gasped aloud, then averted her gaze, but Jade didn't need her to say anything to know the answer. Her sister was angry and scared, but she never intended to kill her.

"I know why you're here, Holly. Don't ask me how, but I know it's going to backfire in the worst way…" Holly pulled her hand away when Jade's grip loosened and she quickly folded her arms across her chest. Jade waited for her to speak, but gave up when her sister refused to look back at her. "Erwin's going to turn to necromancy, David has the wrong spell."

The tears forming in Holly's eyes glistened in the light. It was an endearing sight because for the first time, Jade felt like she might be able to get through to her sibling.

"You die, Holly. All of us die, my daughters grow up never knowing their parents."

"I didn't come here to kill you." Holly snapped her body towards Jade and narrowed her eyes onto her. "I couldn't do that. I'm just pissed, okay. You're still my sister, I don't want you dead. I just…"

"I know." She breathed out slow and closed her eyes. "I know you're just angry, and I know you're angry about more than the whole thing with Gary. I want you to know you're not alone, you don't have to be alone. You're my big sister and I never wanted to make you feel insignificant. You're smart, you're capable of doing whatever you want to do…this thing you're involved in, I was only afraid you would end up hurting someone."

Holly bowed her head and dropped her shoulders. Her tears fell like rivers down her face, but she ignored them. Jade smiled faintly, moving her hand to her sister's shoulder.

"Please, whatever it is you're dealing with, let me go through it with you." Holly pushed Jade's hand away and opened her eyes.

"You said-You said David had the 'wrong spell', how would you even know what we were doing?"

"Okay." She leaned back slowly and looked up at Beck and David, both of whom were standing nearby with watchful expressions. Her hands folded in her lap and her gaze dropped down to the floor. "I want you to have an open mind. For the last-however much time we spent-I've been nothing but terrified…and you know I don't know the first thing about magic or spells or curses…"

"Go on."

"Beck and I have just spent countless days, weeks, fifteen years into the future." Holly raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth, but Jade spoke quickly so as to get every word out before her sister could break her concentration. "We met a woman that was able to send our souls, our spirits back into this timeline where our souls would no longer be 'corrupted'."

"Um-"

"In order for your ritual to work, we would have had to drink the potion you put in those hot chocolate drinks." Holly's jaw fell open and David looked over his shoulder with a perplexed hum. "You just wanted to put us to sleep, to hide us away in the shadows or something. You needed two people for the spell to work but David said the wrong one-he said something that had to do with transformation or deaging…"

Holly's eyes began to grow wider and she looked up at David. "That's impossible. If we mix two different spells-"

"It created an explosion that melted our skin and rendered our skeletons alive but invisible. It killed you when you tried to stop it." She grabbed Holly's spell book and raised it up. "We saw David using the first corpse spell he could find to save you, like you did with Gary." Holly's hand flew over her mouth and her breathing began to shudder. "Fifteen years later, Erwin did the same thing with us out of desperation…You were a puppet, Gary was still attached to you."

Holly threw her hands to her head, groaning for several seconds before shouting at the top of her lungs. "Okay stop." Silence fell like a shroud around them, leaving only the whimsical tune of the music box playing from the other room.

Jade breathed heavily, her heart pounded like a hammer against her ribs. Holly lowered her hands to her knees and released a breath that appeared to roll throughout her entire body.

"Let's say what you're saying is true. How do you even know all this happens? Some lady sent you back?"

"Yes. Nona Valentine." Holly's eyes lit up, and for the first time Jade could see her sister latching onto something she knew of. It was a relief, because anything that Holly could associate with to alleviate any confusion would be a good thing.

"Her? I've heard of her, she's involved in that wiccan stuff downtown." Holly took her spell book and looked down at it. "She's runs a wiccan shop and is always talking about how misunderstood the religion is because of…because of spells like these."

"Right. Wicca isn't evil according to her, but the stuff you're doing? The necromancy? These are dark arts or something, things used for evil that give a bad rep, but that's another issue altogether."

"But she sent you two back here?"

"Yeah. Our souls were too damaged to be saved then, I think. This was the only way she thought to save us."

Her sister cast a contemplative look to her book and then looked up at David. "Dave? What was the chant you had memorized?" She placed the book in her lap, gripping its edges firmly. "Did you memorize the wrong one?"

David started to frown and he uncrossed his arms slowly. "I don't know anything about witchcraft, Holly. I couldn't understand any of it, so I picked out a spell and hoped it was the right one."

"You…didn't know what you were doing?"

"No. I'm sorry." He spoke the chant he learned under his breath and the color began to fade from Holly's skin.

"Your soul was too damaged to save," Jade said with a choked voice. Holly turned her head and Jade's tears rolled away from her chin. "That's why right now, I'm just so happy to see you. I-I can't tell you the horror we saw before Nona saved us. She had to release your soul from your corpse, all the years that passed by…"

Holly's hand rose to her throat and she shook her head from side to side. "I'm sorry Jade. I mean, I never intended that."

"You wanted to put us into some sort of deep sleep?"

"Yeah, but maybe for a few months-a year at most." Holly's expression grew blank and her words were barely heard over the music coming from the other room. "I was angry at you. I wanted you to know what it felt like to be living in the shadows. I wasn't thinking about anything. I just."

"I won't lecture you on the consequences-" She stopped to think of Nona's last order, which was to find her. She was to take Holly as well, so there was little doubt that Nona would have a lecture waiting for the girl even without knowing what happened. "I'm sure Nona will do that."

"What?"

"You understand we have to release Gary." Holly gasped. Her grip on the book became tight and fear flashed in her eyes. Jade placed a gentle hand over her sister's and smiled with reassurance. "It'll be okay. Trust me. He's already dead and you know it-wouldn't you rather his soul be able to cross over while he still can?"

"What would happen if he didn't?"

"He would burn," Beck replied with a deep and blunt tone. Holly whimpered and Jade shot her husband a disapproving look. The man whisked his hand from his chin as though pushing it away with a sigh. "When Nona released your soul, Holly, it was red and black, so damaged that it couldn't cross over. Nona had to destroy what remained of your soul. It was only a miracle you and Gary hadn't become demons or monsters after fifteen years of being bound to a corpse…but from what we saw, there wouldn't have been much time left before that happened."

All this talk was depressing enough, but the feeling of finally getting through to her sister was like a weight falling from her chest. Holly was frozen with terror and shock, and Jade preferred a gentler method of getting through to her, but maybe Beck's bluntness was what was needed.

"Holly," she said with a soft undertone, "I will always need my big sister. I will always love you no matter what, and I will always want you around. Do you understand?" Holly moved her body towards Jade, slowly setting her head onto her shoulder. "

I don't want anything to happen to you, that's why I've been so worried about this stuff you've gotten involved in. I won't make you stop, and I won't ask you to stay away from the stuff, but I know you're better than this. You don't have to resort to rituals and magic to get what you want."

"I love you too, Jade." Holly took a deep breath and looked at the nearby toddler. "This future of yours…how were the children?"

"They were about as looked after as they could be. You and David raised them, which is what Beck and I wanted if something ever happened to them."

"Really?" Holly's mouth opened into an oval and her eyebrows rose. "I didn't know that."

"There's nobody else we trust enough to raise our girls, to give them a mom and a dad, and a healthy life. Trina was obviously affected by what happened, though. Even as young as she is, it scarred her."

"I…don't know what to do. I'm not good at anything." Holly covered her face with her hands and began to shake. "Even this magic stuff. Gary's dead because of me."

"Don't you have a medical degree?" Beck inquired. Holly's hands slid away from her face and she looked up at his with a nod. "Erwin has a Christmas party going on at his place tonight and one of his friends is a doctor, why not introduce yourself? Mingle a bit." He shrugged and walked over to the couch. "If I remember correctly, his practice has been looking for a new nurse."

"But what if Erwin told him about what I've been doing?"

"Erwin hasn't told more than one or two other people, and I can almost guarantee the rumor mill won't spread." Beck's eyes narrowed and his hand bounced in the air. "The man was drunk when he said anything at all. A drunk accusing someone of witchcraft carries very little weight."

"If you say so…"

"Give it a chance." She smiled at him for a minute and wiped away her tears. Beck ran his hand over his neck and rolled his head into the rub. "Anyway, first thing's first, we have to go find Nona. God knows how she's going to react to all this."

"Right, but first." Jade lifted Holly's hands and held them in between her own. She looked with strong certainty into her sibling's eyes and spoke with both confidence and sternness. "You have to promise me that no matter how angry we get at one another, you won't try something like this on me or my husband again."

"I'm sorry."

"I mean it, okay?" Holly smiled weakly and nodded once. "Anything. You come talk to me, let us work it out. I will always have time for you. You don't have to resort to curses or rituals to get your point across. I care about you. Always."

Holly embraced her tight, sniffling into her shoulder. Jade hugged her back, her heart swelled with pride. She heard Beck say something about being glad not to be the same age as their daughters anymore, his attempt to diffuse the tension with humor no doubt.

There was still work to be done, but for the most part, she was happy to be able to be there for her sister. While she knew Holly got the message, there was no doubt in her mind Nona was going to scold her even more. Perhaps it would cement the matter for her sister. Holly didn't need the these spells in order to get by, she could get by with the knowledge and skills she did have, and that was what truly mattered.

"You have everything," Holly muttered tearfully. "A wonderful husband, two beautiful kids. You don't struggle financially, and you could work if you wanted to. You've got such a great life…I just wanted to have something."

"And you do. You will." Jade pulled away and pat Holly's upper arms while flashing a tender smile. "You're smart, you've gone through college. You have someone you know cares about you." She motioned to David and her eyebrows rose high. "I mean he must if he was willing to find a spell to try and save your life."

Holly chuckled once while David's flared up with a red tint. "Besides that." She turned back to Holly, breathing in sharp. "I'm sure you two will have children of your own. You don't have to have my life in order to be happy, you just have to make your own life and find your own happiness…and know that I will be there for you every step of the way."

"Thank you. I'll try and be a better sister to you. I mean that."

"You've always been a good sister to me." Jade grabbed a small cloth from the couch and used it to wipe away the streaks on Holly's face. Holly sniffled and started to pull away, but Jade continued to wipe her face. "This was just one moment where we really weren't thinking things through. You're my best friend Holly, and you always will be. I love you, no matter what."

"I love you too…will you please stop babying me now?"

"I just saw you die, your soul destroyed, and now you're here again. No, I will not stop babying you." Holly smiled back at her and leaned forward with a defeated sigh, letting her continue to wipe away the tears. "And by the way, you're no longer allowed to be the aunt that spoils my daughters as they grow up."

"What? Why?"

"Because what I just went through, I'll be doing that enough that they won't need it." Holly laughed and a twinkle glistened in her eyes.

"Oh, I'm still totally going to be that aunt. I've already got brownies and cookies prepared for the first time you have to ground them."

"Of course you do."

So they got through to Holly, diffusing the anger she had. What are your thoughts on this chapter? There are a couple chapters left, just sort of an aftermath and then seeing how everything comes together in the future. You might be surprised some of the things that are truly meant to happen, perhaps Beck will cry after all? How different will things be though, we will see.