…
"Angie. Please let go of me."
Angeline shivered in a brief moment of weakness.
Blair pouted slightly, an expression of saintly cuteness that caused Angeline to weep.
It turned out that this wouldn't be a brief moment anymore.
"I'm not going to let you go."
…
Paige hesitated. She didn't know what to do here. This was so out of left field for her that she just… stood there quietly.
Blair grumbled quietly as her sister clutched her in her arms like a vice.
"Hey. Woods."
"Don't talk to her, Blair. Talk to me."
"Aaaaangie! This is a very specific thing I want to know."
"Then I'll answer it. She won't bother us again."
"Uuuuuuuugh. Angie."
"Aaaaangie?"
"…. ANGIE!"
"Please? PLEAASE."
Angeline quietly tried to stem her sister's complaints, but it became far too much for her.
"Blair. Stop."
Paige chuckled slightly at how insanely her mortal enemy was acting. She… was just acting… like a normal person. The disconnect was so jarring that Paige started to realise that, shockingly, she found the entire scene hilarious.
"Angeline. I'd probably try to get your sister feeling better."
"Shut up."
"-What if… you let her ask the questions?"
…
Angeline glared with a look that promised…
…No. It vowed. That look was making a vow and that vow was that it vowed murder.
Or that she's be an insufferable pain to deal with. You could never really tell with her, but Paige dealt with this for so long that she started to err on the side of murder.
"Fine."
"BUT!"
"… You will answer the questions from the other side of the hallway. If you move even once, then you will have to leave." she rasped.
Paige agreed to the terms, and sat down on the opposite side of the room.
"Blair. I'm ready."
"Okay... one! This place. I remember it burned down, or was going to, at least." Blair said.
Angeline muttered quietly at the talking, despite it following her rules..
"So..." Blair questioned, "Did you bring me here, and is this… the afterlife?"
… Wow. She's as good as that old man.. Just cuts straight through the nonsense.
Paige answered simply. "… One, Yes. Two… sort-of Yes."
Blair's face went to a small glare. It was a cute face.
Hey, hold up did I do wro-
Blair breathed in... then shot her reply like a bullet.
"Well then fuck you, you bastard."
Angeline's face fell, and started to return to a calm state.
It failed with a cracking, and she vocalised her intense surprise with a chastising "Blair!"
Her sister chastised right back.
"Let. Me. Go."
"No. I'm going to protect you."
...
…
...
...
Blair was finally quiet at that. Paige watched, and Angeline slowed her breathing to calm down.
"Angie? ca we talk about something?"
Angeline smiled. "Yes, Blair? Are you going to behave now?"
"I'm feeling very happy right now, Angie."
Their smiles both expanded on unison, and Paige tried to shade her eyes from the radiant faces.
"That's very good to hear."
"Why are you feeling like that right now?"
Paige turned away. They just sound similar. Avoid the siren call of family resemblances! It's not Cass there looking lovely! STAY STILL.
Blair laughed, "Angie! Isn't it obvious? Because I just learned that you're dead."
….
...
...
Angeline stood still.
"…What?"
"I now know that a there's a sadistic flesh loving bitch that's been put down and sent to hell."
"…what?"
She continued, still bubbling with joyous laughter. "Of course, I also ended up in hell having to live with the thing, but if I can just sit here forever telling it how much I've FUCKING HATED IT!"
"... Blair-"
She sang out, the room filled with the sounds of her mirth. "That took WAY too long! Honestly! I wonder if it enjoys the feeling of hairs torn one by one?"
Blair looked up at her sister, staring blank faced and quiet.
"No? Not enough?"
Her eyes focused at Paige, manically gleaming as she giggled.
"Nails peeled up to the shoulder?"
Angeline twitched violently.
Blair frowned.
"Little kisses on the broken fingers?"
Her head turned to the ground, and nodded once in approval. She watched Angeline's hands while they spasmed consecutively. Angeline's eyes watched quivering as Blair spoke.
"Needle pricking for the young girl that just wanted to watch her sister work?"
Blair laughed as tears fell down her sister's face.
"Bullets?"
With that… Blair paused at that. She softly turned her sister's frozen head down.
"Do you know whose bullets they were?"
She smiled, leaning closer, touching the still face with a hand.
"Do you know who writhed in pain as I tore them apart?"
Paige began to straighten up. The young girl's head ratcheted to watch her body move a millimetre.
"Paaaaige? Are you trying to go without me?"
"Yes."
Paige knew very well what the girl was talking about. She vividly remembered it.
"But why? I didn't hurt you."
Paige narrowed her eyes. She has the scars to prove it. Mental, but still.
"…"
"OH. You were friends with her lover." she recalled. "Brandon was very nice."
Paige stayed still and quiet.
"The one that broke my legs with an axe, shot me, kicked me into a basement, and tried to burn up my books."
Her eyes flickered to her catatonic sister. With each emphasis, she watched legs go limp, shoulder and arm pop out of alignment, and back snap with an audible cracking.
She stood there for a minute, watching her sister's body slowly knit itself back together, broken eyes gazing into the air, fully apart from the rest of existence.
"Would've been better to do it to the real her." Blair grumbled.
Blair turned and bounded to Paige.
Her face grew into an angelic expression as she smiled and bounced on the balls of her feet. It was akin to her sister's body reforming itself like a mask of living flesh. "Where are we going to go, sibling?"
...
I... You... What? Why did you do that... at literally any other point in your life?
… You aren't going to go insane? You actually wanted to become better… right?
Her eyes flitted around, watching Paige's body, watching for something…
She flinched and drew back with practiced swiftness.
"I promise I'll be good! I was honestly trying to meet you! One thing I do is that I don't lie to a blazingly hot idealist sun woman!"
Paige breathed out slowly.
"Blair. You just… completely ravaged your sister."
…
Blair snapped out of her subservient pose, and had the gall to look horrified. "No! I didn't do that!" Paige was surprised at such a blatant attempt of lying. "I'd bring myself back to life, then kill myself before I even took a step towards doing that."
… Paige stared dumbly at her for a moment.
"You just..."
Then the realisation hit like a knife to her assumptions of Angeline even possibly having a small percent of human decency and love.
"Blair. I am so-"
"-going to let me out of here, provided we both work to have me become a better person. I heard the lady's sales pitch. She's way too saintly.
…How can I convince you that it's only Angeline I'm interested in slaughtering? Anything that isn't this mindlessly murdering bitch is off the table for me-"
…
She's not actually mindless, though. She still acts in logical and predictable methods. She just... also consistently tries to murder humans. It's not proper mindlessness.
Paige realised something.
I... I just plagiarised my senior. That... was directly a line in one of his lecture transcriptions.
But... why was she useful, then? Moon chose her because she was a human capable of accomplishing the maiden's goals. How was Blair Hardy the same?
...
"Blair. How did you damage your sister like that?"
"I just thought about the things she did to me that I wanted to make her feel." Blair explained. "Why? Is it a problem?"
Paige had a desire to lock herself away for even thinking of this… but she hadn't been following humanity's accepted rules for a while now.
After all... Thou shalt not kill is a pretty big one… but it's literally my job description. "Blair. What if you didn't want to just crush Angeline into a comatose state?"
… Blair delivered a very eloquent "Eh? You want me to kill people?"
"No."
"Good. I only killed Brandon after he trapped me, you know? I'm still hoping he went to heaven or something."
...
"Brandon?"
Paige quietly explained the truth. "Blair… I'm pretty sure he's also here. In this area, I mean."
….
WHAT? I can talk to Uncle Brandon? When? Where? When? Where?
Blair became excited again, "Can I meet him?"
… "There's some… other things I need you to meet first."
...
...
Paige let out a soft whistling. The note flowed, the noise piercing her soul. Darkness spread from the wall and devoured them all, leaving them in an empty void of nothingness.
What... are you doing?
Blair watched in horror as the darkness crept all around them, then in dawning despair at her beautiful saviour so very clearly dying.
...
"cchkk."
The whistling stopped. Her neck was shattered, her limbs twisted and frayed. Blair saw the void reach out and begin to slowly savour the little morsel of soul and flesh her cry for help enticed.
All her life was sucked away. Her flesh was torn and drained. There… was nothing left.
Blair watched. She watched as the agonising moment stretched on endlessly in the void. Blair shed tears for her saviour, and surrendered to despair.
After either minutes, or millennia, she heard a hoarse laughing mock her.
"Foolish Bitch. I thought you had grown up already."
Blair quieted, and turned to look at her sister. She weaved her sorrow into wrath, and tried her very best to lash her demon into silence. "I find it shameful to have ever loved you, Angeline Hardy."
"Oh, how you wound me so!"
She knew exactly how wounded Angeline was. She loved the opportunity to be coating her sister's buttons with acid and gasoline then crushing them a white hot flaming hammer.
… The two stood in the void for an indeterminate time.
Angeline hissed first.
"Blair."
"Blair."
Blair sung a little melodic reply to her sister.
"Shut uuuuup!"
"Blair. What's that creeping in the darkness, Blair?"
...
...
"Shut up, Angeline! I'm finally unable to be wounded from your assaulting existence. I have decided I will not let your words hurt me anymore."
"Blair. I was being serious. If there's something in here that can hurt her… it can hurt you."
Blair paused briefly. She hadn't thought of that.
… "-and I need to be able to save your shitty adorable ass, even if it turns out you're a duplicitous bitch that…"
…
"That what?"
"… h… hates me."
….
Angeline stood back up and hissed out one of her usual violent sentences.
"So don't you fucking dare ignore me."
Blair and Angeline both watched the darkness for the offending noise. A small clicking was somewhere in the distance, getting ever closer to them.
What is it?
Angeline didn't know… but she was going to sending them straight to whatever this hellscape had for graveyards.
….
.
.
..
...
Blair spoke, "Is this the first time we ever actually worked together on something?"
She heard her sister scoff.
"August 24. 1952. The first time you speak to me is at four years old. You ask me to help you write a letter to Father since you can't write Transylvania, Romania."
"I don't remember that."
"Bullshit. I made sure to lock that in as an integral memory. You can't forget it as much as I can't forget the first day I met Brandon."
Blair ignored the clicking as it increased in volume while the source approached them, and spun around to further inflict suffering.
"You... tampered with my memories?"
...
"Obviously, Blair. You can't forget what I want you to remember."
"You definitely can if you know how it all works. Guess who left their experiment notes on the bookshelf of a young girl bored out of her mind?"
"You..." Angeline jolted, taking her eyes off the black.
Blair smiled and turned to face the new arrival. Her body slowed significantly as she struggled to recall the sight before her.
She knew animals… from illustrations. The idea that these things could be real still frightened her somewhat. Centipedes? Bears? Rats? Ugh... They all were horrifying in one way or another. They were all just so... alien.
This creature, however, definitely wasn't in any book on fauna she knew.
-but it was still familiar.
Black wolf… with yellow eyes…
She unintentionally twitched towards her sister, before realising her mistake.
She's evil. Angi- Angeline won't just help because I asked for it. She'll just torment me.
Angeline saw her sister move slightly, a mere millimetre, but she still knew. She fired off an automatic answer like a bullet, rapidly reciting:
"The Grimm Brothers and Other Stories: Illustration 3 in story 4, page 56. The caption goes 'The Big Bad Wolf was watching, waiting, wily wondering with hunger in his eyes….' The illustration is a black ink woodblock with yellow crayon over the eyes. May 1955."
…
Oh God. I hadn't even fully looked at her.
Angeline perked perceptibly, like a happy animal. "Anything else?"
Blair grumbled quietly. "Should I be even more concerned about you?"
"If my name passes your lips in life, speak not of a devil whose heart waxed and waned with the flesh of man. If you should pity me, speak of one that loved not wisely but too well."
Angeline knelt in the midst of the void of nothing, arm on her chest in the pose of a poor man in violent penance. Her voice stilled, but her small smile gleaming despite the tragedy.
The void swallowed all.
Sound.
Sight.
Touch.
Taste.
Everything.
...
...
….
… Though it wasn't exactly… everything.
"Get the fuck up, you bitch."
Blair stood over her sister and glared venomously.
"Feeling guilty for being inhuman garbage is one thing, but I'm not going to let you mess up literature that badly."
She waited as her sister slowly stood up.
"Blair. I think I can paraphrase a few literary works before mauling a literary character, don't you agree?"
…. Blair stayed quiet.
"Now, please get behind me. I'm going to kill the Big Bad Wolf."
She lunged at the wolf with what Blair could only call extreme cruelty and hatred. As soon as she was close to touching it, the animal was already starting to be peeled apart like a rotten fruit.
Blair caught a few lines of Angeline. The actual Angeline, not this spurious mask she was trying to act.
"-No! NO! Give me some bones to break, you bastard! When I go 'Ashes to ashes' I don't fucking mean it literally!"
… Blair blinked as she looked away. There was a second light in the shadows.
Angeline tore at the dissolving beast, trying to get purchase on it. She needed to eat, damn it! She's barely holding it together right now and she can't get mad at her sister. Honestly? It's rather insulting to go out of her way to slaughter something for it to then just go poof! Fuck you!
Her clawing slowed as she waited for her hands to start healing. She wasn't completely unharmed from the wolf… it just wasn't going to stop her from doing her task. Now, all she had to do was wait a second to heal, then head back to her sister.
….
….
She watched her torn chest slowly drip pus, and her hand quivered.
Angeline Hardy felt, for the first time, unsure about her work.
She was technically what all those foolish humans called dead, but everything she had was still functioning as her old body used to. After all, she always kept on coming back. She went beyond what the modern man's pitiful science could do! Not her father, or her sisters, or any other practitioner of science, Swiss or otherwise!
Until now.
This… mutt did something to her. She had been taking hits that had ruined her flesh in her old apartment building, and her soul was briefly taken by her mortal enemy, but she still recuperated fine. Blair had ran down the stairs, looking divine, and Angeline had went to meet her without any hesitation. She appeared like a mortal creature despite being broken a few seconds before!
What did this thing DO to me?!
Angeline heard a clicking noise. She froze, eyes staring for the origination.
A cry of pain whimpered softly in the void behind her.
Blair.
YougettheHELLAWAYFROMHER.
The Beowolf had no chance. It was blown away into the darkness in a record second, smoke trailing as it was trounced by her righteous right fist of murder.
She stood, looking straight at her sister. She now fully looked like hell, but stopped giving any degree of fuck.
"Blair. Are you all right? …Blair."
"BLAIR. Are. You. All. Ri-"
Blair's face lolled stiffiy and watched her with blank eyes.
Angeline fell to the ground as she lost control of her legs. NO.
NO. Don't look at me.
Piercing, gnawing pain moved through her legs, stretching and burning her skin as it crawled up through her.
Blair's empty face continued to watch her, even as her sister was dropping from the pain. Angeline stared wide eyed back at her, as she saw dead eyes look over everything.
The empty face quietly moved like she was struggling to keep an even face."Angeline. What's wrong?" she whispered like a cold breeze.
"Don't look at me."
Angeline stared, denying her plea until she felt her eyes teared up.
Blair tilted her head stiffly to a central position.
"But you always looked like this." she said, confusion on her face.
Angeline heard a dog growl.
A light touch shook her.
A slight movement in her eyes perceived another stupid mutt as it paced past her face; the rumbling growl as it breathed brought her to tears.
With that last vestige of her control fading with the sound, she cowardly fell into the cold embrace of her sister, falling into unknowing despair.
-Until she felt her sister move, and a sharp cry of inhuman pain caught her descent. Tear stained eyes saw the lovely fingers rest on the undeserving face of a vile mutt, her body shook from breath as the creature splintered and shattered, yellow eyes drowning in suffering.
a laugh burbled and faded with her awareness.
… You are as broken as I am. I still love you.