Most people have rather strange dreams.
Paige is not one of these people. It used to be weird for her to even have a dream. Now, she just used the time in her nightly subconscious state to manage her day, and try to deal with whatever bullshit her coworkers or relatives were doing.
… Honestly? From what Paige read about, that's actually pretty close to normal dreams.
Tonight, Paige was struggling to learn her younger sister-in-law's birth date.
"Blair. Empire? I asked you about when you were born.."
"-And that's what I SAID. Father told me they changed it after a trip once, but it was too long. I'm from the Colonies, Paige. I didn't care about the Empire then, and I don't now."
Paige tried to figure out the solution. She was a librarian! She should know this! "Blair. Give me everything you remember clearly. Names are best."
Blair sat, legs crossed, and thought.
She raised her hand. "Excuse me, miss. You're death. Can't you just know my entire life? Or does God judge me, and you just take me to where I need to go, so his hands do not touch my sins?"
…
Paige stared. Blair. What's wrong with you?
Did she forget the hallway conversation? The rising into the sky to the white door above the earth?
"You're going to hell, Blair? Of course not. You already passed with flying colours. Anyways, didn't you just do one thing: Thou shalt not kill? Even then, it was in self defence, and you weren't in your right mind."
"Thou shalt make thee no graven image, neither any similitude of things that are in heaven above, neither that are in the earth beneath, nor that are in the waters under the earth- Thou shalt not bow do-"
"Blair, it's… That's about monotheis-" Paige sighed, but was cut off with a sharp judgement.
"Leviticus 20:13!" She stood and furiously gesticulated at Paige.
"The man also that lieth with the male, as one lieth with a woman, they have both committed abomination"
Blair. Blair. Even if you do take things that literally… you're a young woman.
"You're a girl, Blair. It's fine."
She twitched and watched with an astonished expression. "Leviticus 20:13, Fifth paragraph.."
Her body slowed, and she recited the words rote. "If they of the other sex faces another with eyes of want, they surely shall go the way of sin. As Gomorrah shall be raised, the sinner shall fall to the grave."
Paige watched dumbly. "That… isn't a paragraph. I grew up religiously. I know that's not even in the book. Anyways… How does that break the law of graven images?"
Blair stilled, then rigidly locked into place as they were interrupted by a low chuckle.
Paige hadn't had many events in her life that were properly scary.
The classic goosebumps down your back, sweat drips, limbs tighten, and you know, just know that things are going to go very very badly.
Footsteps strode calmly, and Paige turned, once again having to acknowledge that things are not going as planned.
...
"Angeline."
"Incredible. Just… incredible. You kept it, then?"
She was walking like it was a warm day, nature in full glory...
Her eyes locked onto her sister, a smile on their face.
Paige sighed. "Angeline…."
"Come on, Blair. Show her the horrible sin you committed."
… Blair unlocked, and huffed over to her sister, grabbing her arm like a vice and holding her out like a rag towards Paige. "Death! Judge this sinner guilty for her breaking of the rule!"
"Blair! You bitch! Show the visage of death the damned book!"
"No! I shall not heed the call of a woman that has been a plague to mankind!"
"PLAGUE?! I did everything for you! Don't you dare forget that!"
The two women flailed about becoming furious at each other, until-
Angeline cried out "I evoke your vow! From my blessed assistance in allowing you to gaze upon the physical form of the maiden pure of voice, and divine in soul, I gain one promise from you!"
… Eh? Paige looked up.
"You…You! YOU! You never KEPT it properly! I deny your evoking!"
"Blair. I'm evoking the promise used to create the book. You asked, and I led the girl to our home, and when you asked me to find her when she ran, I found her, and when you were living next to my husband and said you'd only come out if you could meet her, I went and made it so she couldn't get away. Now, put me down and show her the damn pornography."
Blair looked with horror struck eyes. Her face was a stoic line.
...
... Angeline fell slowly in a downwards direction, spinning around to idly watch her sister.
"Hey. It's not my fault I completely forgot about using up the promise. Who remembers the promises they made when they were a kid helping their younger sister be happy by creating a book of badly drawn sin?" Angeline said.
Blair broke from her stoic face shockingly fast. "It is not badly drawn!"
…
Angeline spun herself to a standing position, and watched with a curious eye.
"Oh. Okay. I guess we're pulling subjectivity into this."
...
...
Angeline slammed her hand into her sister, and pulled it back holding a small book. "You know what? Isn't death objective? Let's ask her about i-"
Angeline one handedly flipped open the book.
She stared.
…
…
"Wait…. What?"
She flipped a page,
-and another,
…
"Well shame on me, Blair. Your book of horny coveting is actually good! My bad!" Angeline grinned and nodded at her sister.
Blair knelt down and covered her face.
Angeline laughed at her sister's discomfort, and rapidly going through ten other flips, just… stopped.
She stopped and stared.
"Holy FUCK."
Angeline looked up and had a look of blank astonishment. "Woods."
"Yes?"
"I fucked up."
She looked with wide eyes like damnation was inevitably approaching.
"I…really fucked up here, Woods."
… Her face of horror changed slightly, her eyes glinting with fires of dawning malice.
"Brava. You saw the light, Angeline. Good for you." Paige muttered, raising her hands in a quiet clap.
"Woods. Why? Why are you called that?"
"Why are you two called Hardy? 'Cause you never die?"
... Angeline paused. "You know... I never thought about that. Weird."
...
"Anyways back to you! What happened? Did you live in the woods or something?"
How do you know that?
… Paige paused for a brief second. That was too long.
Angeline whirled about like Rumor on the wooden stage and began to cheerfully monologue her thoughts.
"You look surprised! Coincidence? Eh, who cares what you think! Big sis Angeline's got a story for you! I was an ungrateful little squirt that chose to go and make it so I could never die. You know exactly how that went. My family loved me, and eventually hunted me down years later. When they moved to a little town, they met a family with a sweet lass named Patience that, strangely enough, ran away from home one day in the same manner as you! This girl Blair wanted me to help her meet the lass in the years before Patience ran away, and would grant me a promise if I didn't run away again. Guess how I did it?"
…What?
"No, Angeline."
Angeline looked angry, a bit let down, and frantic.
"This is irrelevant, Angeline. I'm trying to help your sist-"
Paige stood as the spirit burst into manic glee.
"It was simple! First, I found the lass getting bullied so bad they wept their eyes out of their face, then I join in! Suffering! It's a perfect way to get control! They call the kid a witch? Sneak some carved runes into their room! Unroot plants, break animal legs, make chemical formulas to evoke witchcraft… All sorts of things! If I saw the girl, I'd describe her vividly to Blair."
She turned to her sister in exasperation, all manic behavior left like a dry lake in a heatwave. "-and she didn't even bother to draw her in any risqué way. The girl looks like a little saint, Blair! At least try to make her look like the little bitch she was."
"ANGELINE. Noooo! Don't insult her like that! " Blair wailed, grasping her hands out to her book.
Angeline turned to Paige, and tossed her the book.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm horrible. I even found all the people in town that hated witchcraft. Rather easy for me, since it was 1753. People grew up with the whole event as gospel truth. Made the girl's life hell. By that, I mean it was actually sickening to watch. What would you do if you found yourself in a town with an actual witch? It was challenging, sure, but my plan worked! Everything witchy was game. Strange sights and scents and sounds! There were even stories that the dead themselves emerged from the grave to strike down the girl each night!"
Angeline chuckled at her old escapades, and Paige looked through sketches of a young girl. It became far better over time, with three drawings of Cassandra, a greying man in some well worn clothes, and Angeline on the first page. The rest of the book had sketches of a young girl drawn out nebulously from Angeline's descriptions of her spying. The quality was improving and eventually led to a set of sketches of a teen-aged girl in a dress inside a house. The realism was excellent compared to the previous ones, with her pencil meticulously drawing the girl from a multitude of angles. A few were disturbingly similar to herself, and…and… Paige stopped.
I... know this.
This is Nyx.
.
Angeline snapped her hands. "Oi. I deserve this, so you better damn listen."
"I'm not hearing your tortu-" Paige spat.
"Got a reply! Let's go! Part the next! So… the town got uppity, and she ran away to the only place they'd never go. The creepy old abandoned house. Our creepy old house. Blair was so happy that I actually kept my promise! She was sitting there, sneaking around the house for hours trying to draw her little idol. When the girl ran away at a later year, Blair's mind gave up and left with her. Thus, the last thing I did was try to hunt her down, and make the girl pay for eternity."
….
…
"That's all in the past now. Book, Paige dear?" she said.
Angeline calmly took the book back from Paige, shaking her hand. She was confused at what was a very unusual action for the woman.
...
...
Something was in her hand.
Paige looked down, seeing a small red lump of flesh.
She threw it away into the void, wiping off her palm in disgust.
"Things happened. Life went on. Patience grew up, changed her name, and she left the little witch of Salem behind. Completely forgot it, even. We moved about, Blair fell to sin as she always feared, and I started to give up. I found love, met a man, and we tried to get her some peace."
Ah... I know this part.
"Then YOU came in. I knew you, obviously." she spat furiously. "Cassandra just loved you and just kept going on and on and on about her lovely little girl."
"What about this lovely little girl! Where's her Patience?" Angeline cried out to the darkness up above in futility.
"ANGELINE! Stop!" Blair cried, and grabbed ahold of her sister, holding her back and turning her around to look at her terrified face.
It was quite interesting how Angeline was so compelling an orator, even when she was being held captive and gesturing wildly while trying to turn all the way around.
It took a few seconds, but she managed to rotate around and face her audience.
"I found her." she spoke, rage barely being repressed. "I went to my sister, and was able to see the look on her face when I gave the news. Three hundred fucking years and I found her. She wasn't even far away! It took a week to get everything together, but it wasn't a problem. It was such a beautiful week to just see her so excited. Yes, she was mad, fully insane, but she still knew. She still knew exactly how much it meant when I said she was coming."
Then I killed her.
"You… You're trying to help her? You don't deserve to know anything about her life. There's a young woman that believes she is going to be tormented forevermor-"
"Angeline. I don't think people are going to be sent to hell for who they love. I'm pret-ty sure that's not a thing that's cared-"
"I care."
She slid herself out of her sister's arms.
"I care enough to know that you deserve to go to hell because a girl loved you."
…
…
…
What?
"W..what? That… is a bit much, Angie."
... Angeline just glared.
"Angeline. I know we had a bad relationship, but I'm trying to help your sister. There's a deal-"
"No, no! You don't get to speak!" Angeline shook her finger, her hands gliding across her body in old signs to ward away evil. "Patience, witch of Salem. You get no say in this matter. Fie! Fie foul creature of impure deeds, standing with unnatural force o'er the grave!"
Blair stiffened behind her, and her face widened. Angeline didn't notice her begin to cry again.
"Here's what's going to happen. I am going to haul your unworthy person to my sister, and I will kill you merciles-"
...
… "I am going to stand in front of her, as my personal choice." Blair whispered.
Angeline's flow abated. Paige looked at her face sputtering to a halt.
"What did you say?"
"I am going to hold her hands."
"What?! No. No. Not again. I'm killing her."
"I am going to thank my sister for helping us meet, after all these years."
"Blair…."
She smiled, and her tears were angelic.
"Then I will move on, and be good."
Angeline just looked at her sister without comprehending for a moment. Her sister lightly touched her shoulder, and guided her to the side.
She slowly turned to Paige.
...
Angeline stood and flung her hand into Paige Woods.
That was the plan, and she had her body all prepared to do it. Until Blair touched her.
Angeline's legs collapsed at the knee, and she fell down into the darkness.
"Damn it!"
"Angeline. Thank you for this."
"GAAAAH!"
Paige felt her hands be covered.
"I finally understand it now."
"NOOOOOOOO! GET BACK FROM HER, YOU CORRUPTED WOMAN!"
"Angeline." Paige called out. "Can you just let your sister have this?"
"DAMN YOU!"
I didn't do anything here, Angeline.
"BLAIR! STOP THIS! I DON'T WANT THIS!"
Paige watched Angeline in a fury as she lay down, clutching her head and trying to bash out what she was seeing.
Paige pushed the hands aside and glided over to Angeline Hardy. Her face twisted and tore open as she slowly crouched down to hold the flailing figure's head in a bloody palm.
"Angeline Hardy. Face me."
... Eyes unwillingly crept towards her.
"This is MY domain."
..
..
"Can... you remove the devil state, by any chance?"
siiiiiiigh.
"Fine."
...
...
"thanks."
Paige rolled her eyes briefly. "Her just saying that she wants to move on does NOT mean she's going to go off to hell or vanish or anything like that! It has to go through ME first. I don't want to deny you both of your wills, but if I wanted to, I can do whatever I want to either of you in here."
"…"
Angeline's face fell.
"Paige."
Paige responded with a furrowed brow.
"That was the wrong thing to say-"
She was down in a second, crying in agony.
Paige turned to Blair, and noted her glaring look of anger.
"So… whatever you show people isn't dependent on your current emotions?"
"Ah.. No."
Blair quivered, smiled slightly, and looked away.
"-because it seems like your sister's currently terrified, and you appear to be rather happy." Paige noted as Angeline screamed unintelligible words in her torment.
"FUCK YOU!"
Okay.. She heard that clearly.
Angeline lunged, her eyes burst open, enraged and occasionally falling in pain.
"Patience. We only had a working relationship, right? Completely professional!"
"Well… Except the time I forced you to your knees and ravaged you… Yes. Professional up until our last meeting in the office."
The sisters paled.
Angeline barked out an order. "Get out."
Paige laughed. "What?"
"Blair wants me to leave. I want YOU to leave!" Angeline gritted her teeth from her sister's ability and hissed it out.
Blair muttered at her sister, and Angeline had some… choice words, completely ignoring her sister.
"Fuck you."
Paige found it funny that this has just sort-of become a running joke with them. "Fuck you too, then."
Angeline glared, but started warily glancing at her sister.
"Blair… NO. Don't you dare try it. You don't have anything to prove. Don't make a rash decision!"
Angeline realised her sister was inexorable in her goal and changed target to her enemy.
...
"Paige Woods. Listen and listen well. I a-m perfectly accepting of my sister and what she is trying to do. I appreciate her, and respect her greatly as a person of good moral integrity and clever decisio-" she said, switching from grim determination to a neutral smile...
... What is going on...
"-EXODUS!" she shouted out.
Blair walked over to her sister.
"EXODUS THE YEAR I DI-"
Blair covered her sister's mouth, and began to carry her off into the abyss.
…What? Wh…
"EEEEEEEEE-"
Paige stilled. She met Angeline in person about three years after finding out about Blair… in 2011.
Adding three was near instant, 2014.
…2014.
OH.
… OH.
FUCK.
Paige turned, the noise of Angeline's muffled voice now quiet. Blair's footsteps were becoming louder as she approached.
Blair's voice spoke gently. "She didn't mean anything, Patience."
"I'm going to be good now."
She slowly emerged from the darkness with a small smile, and unfocused, staring eyes. Blair approached mechanically and watched her unceasingly.
Paige walked away, unceasingly.
Blair reached out to touch her, lightly. It was a calm look.
Like watching something you loved.
"I missed you, Patience." she breathed out.
….
Paige leaned up in her bed, face covered and flushed. She leaned back onto her pillow, and prayed to every deity she knew to have a quick dreamless sleep.
Cass. Please get here fast. I need you.
….