Happy Riverdale Day! I haven't gotten a chance to watch the new episode, so no spoilers. I do know it's in honor of Luke Perry and I ASSURE YOU I will probably bawl my eyes out.
This is it! The big chapter. It's literally ten pages of a singular spell. There's a lot of artistic/magical choices I made, and if you want to know the reasoning on all of it, go to the end of the chapter where I'm sure there will be a VERY long explanation. This is really me frakenstining a lot of different magic practices, so keep that in mind, but it was sure as hell fun!
Thank you to all of you who faithfully review: Guest, Boris Yeltsin, Lillianna-Lissa HathawayDavid97, Luvs2Read, Guest, Bluexaphyre, and SkyRider45!
Song is Blood Magic by IDKHBTFM! This a fantastic new band that I am literally obsessed with, go def check out all of their songs!
Two days later, on the 22nd, Sweet Pea packed his bag full of magical items, double and triple checking he nicely printed sheet he and Cheryl had agreed upon in the library a few days previous. He'd typed it all up and then even paid extra to have the sheets laminated. The college kid working the library resource desk had glanced over the sheet with a raised eyebrow, looked at the two unlikely allies, and just rolled her eyes. She probably thought that they were doing some weird occult faux sort of magic. He chuckled inwardly as he used an expo marker to double check; she'd probably have a heart attack if she actually knew what they were doing. He made little 'x' marks once he checked he had his share of the load, trying to quell the nervousness that was rising inside of him.
There was a reason that people didn't practice raising someone from the dead. Even the best of sorcerers usually didn't touch necromancy with a fucking ten foot pole. Things often went wrong. Even the slightest miscalculation could kill everyone involved, or they could make a monster without a soul, or they could invite back the wrong spirit.
Cheryl was well aware of this risk. Even Betty was, since he couldn't not tell her. Both girls were in staunch agreement that they needed Jason back; not just to tell them what had happened (and put the whole matter to rest) but because Polly needed her boyfriend and his unborn child needed a father.
Sweet Pea, if he could have helped it, would not have involved Betty in this whole mess at all. Or Toni or Fangs. Cheryl? Well, he didn't have any long lost feelings, and while her death would be minorly upsetting, it was something he could have lived with. The idea of Betty coming inches from death, literally, made him that much more jumpy.
It would do no one good if his mind wasn't in the right place tonight. He had to dismiss these moon-eyed worries away.
It wasn't hard to leave his trailer. No one noticed him, mostly because it was 2:30 am. The guard, Mustang, was half-asleep at his post. Sweet Pea had been prepared to hit him with some instant-sleep powder, but apparently he did that all on his own. Thank god for tired werewolves!
Night and the moon was a perfect time to raise a vampire. He figured leaving by this time would give him enough time to set up before their starting time; 3:33 A.M. Outside, he met up with Toni and Fangs, who although would not be needed until later, insisted on going early with him.
"You know, I don't wear a lot of red," Toni said, rubbing her hands over the red tank-top she was sporting.
"Cry about it," Sweet Pea snorted, "You think I own much purple? I had to go out and buy this yesterday," He said, picking at his own color-coded shirt, "Chances are I'll never wear it again, but we do what we have to do to literally bring someone back from the other side."
"Gray was easy for me!" Fangs interjected all too happily.
"Yippie for you," Toni said, rubbing her eyes. She stifled a yawn, "Is it wise to be doing this so late? When we're all tired?"
"Speak for yourself," Sweet Pea said, carrying the bags in his arms instead of on his back, as not to jostle the items, "I'm wide awake. Plus, you just have to sit there."
He hadn't even needed to drink six coffees or snort caffeine or pop a wide-awake pill like he'd been preparing. He was too wound up to even think about sleep. He knew he'd crash hard tomorrow, but right now, he was overly sensitive. His mind kept switching between everything that could go wrong. His head couldn't focus. His ears picked up sounds from all over the forest. His wolf, sensing the magic they were about to perform, was on overdrive. It was like he'd rolled a plus 100 on perception.
They walked to their meeting spot, not daring to talk more lest someone hear them. By the time they arrived, Kevin and Cheryl were already there; Kevin leaning against his dad's truck, Cheryl pacing.
"You got the body?" Sweet Pea asked, looking to the trunk.
"No, I just forgot the most important part of this entire spell," Cheryl snapped, which he expected. It was sorta a stupid question but he'd be damned if he didn't ask, "Of course I have Jason's body, you-,"
"Hey, hey. Mean names won't help. Not right now," Kevin shushed, shaking his head, "Digging up a coffin is really much more difficult than I thought it would be." He said as a side-note to no one. He rolled his back, cracking his shoulders, "But it's a work-out."
"The newest Jazzercise to hit the streets! Grave digging!" Fangs said, his voice high-pitched and his laugh half-way between hysterics. He was already not taking this well and they hadn't even begun.
Toni shushed him, glaring at him. It was funny, but it wasn't the time or place.
"You have everything?" Cheryl asked, "Please tell me you did something right."
"That's not nice," Sweet Pea argued, "As I recall, you called my calculations 'near perfect' the other day," He said.
Cheryl gave him a twitch of a smile, "I was clearly not in my right mind." She started looking through his bag, which, fine. Whatever she needed to do, "We're good for that third wolf, right, what's his name, Quiz?"
"Quest. Yeah, he'll be here."
"How much does he know?"
"All of it. I wasn't going to ask him to come and do this without telling him what he was getting into." Sweet Pea said, sending Cheryl a 'what the hell' look at her displeased expression, "I trust him."
Before Cheryl could argue, the leaves rustled and Betty stepped into the clearing, her phone held out in front of her. The dim light from the screen illuminated her face a light blue tinge.
"Oh, thank god. My Google Maps was just leading me to nowhere and I thought...well…" Sweet Pea could practically feel the anxiety wafting off of her.
"Betty, come help," Cheryl instructed without preamble, "Come sort with me while we wait for the others."
Betty jumped in immediately, no questions asked.
Soon enough, the other eight participants had arrived. It was nearly 3 AM. Right on time.
There had been questions about how many to include, how much power this would take. Answer? A lot. However, they didn't want to include more people than strictly necessary. Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead, right? Well, in the end, thirteen ended up being the best number. Hopefully none of them would be dead after all was said and done. In fact, hopefully one would be much more alive by the end of it. Not alive, but not dead. Vampire-eque. That wasn't the point, the number 13 was. Not only did it maximize their efforts evenly, but it was also a key number.
Magic was all about numbers. If magic wasn't so magical, Sweet Pea would hate all the math involved.
Now that everyone was accounted for, and after brief introductions were made (but, as it was, it was a little awkward 'Hey, I'm Quest, so I hear we're raising a dead body, eh?') Cheryl took a piece of chalk and on the asphalt began to draw a six-pointed triangle on the ground.
Betty made a face.
"Satanism?"
"No, the chakras." Sweet Pea corrected, "Look, it will take far too long to explain it all now, so just…" He made a hand motion, but wasn't sure that did anything for her. Betty, however, set her brow and nodded.
As Cherly drew the design, Kevin started unloading something from the truck. For a second, Sweet Pea thought it would be Jason. He was a little spooked, which was ridiculous. He'd seen plenty of dead bodies before. Granted, never one dead this long, but…
Instead, it was traffic cones. He parked his car on one side of the road and gave the cones out to Fangs to set up at the other three areas, making sure no one would be interfering. They were at a perfect intersection. A meeting of four points. Inherently magical.
"It's done," Cheryl clapped her hands, chalk dust floating into the air like tiny fairy lights, catching the moon's shine, "Okay, now listen here you glorified lap dogs, we're doing this my way, so one person steps out of line-,"
"We're helping you, you know," Deni muttered under her breath. Sweet Pea winced as Cheryl turned her head toward her.
"I would be quiet if I were you," Sweet Pea hissed to Deni, sending her a disappointed look. Deni rolled her eyes, but quieted. He'd be the last person to want to ever blindly follow Miss Gingersnap here, but tonight was different. This was her gambit.
"As I was saying," Cheryl said a little louder than needed, "When I tell you to do something, you do it. I'm saying this truly for your protection. Not only would I smite you, but you might end up trapped in the spirit world forever. No one wants that. Right?" She asked, clapping her hands with a smile that was a little bit too broad.
Lann visibly shuddered. That was the correct response, in Sweet Pea's opinion. They should be a little afraid of what might happen.
"We have obviously picked a color and a place for you all to sit. You won't move from this location, no switching. It will really fuck things up." Sweet Pea spoke up, patting his own purple shirt.
"Can the color of our shirts really make a big difference?" Betty asked, wide-eyed.
"Can't hurt."
Cheryl set them in the circle; Deni, Betty, Sweet Pea, Toni, Jedi, and Vade. Each sitting at a point at the star. A lot of the wolves looked just as interested in Betty. It was rare, Sweet Pea reflected, that any of them had gotten the chance to be so up close and personal with a spell of this magnitude before. Or, he reasoned, any spell at all.
"Where are we sitting?" Quest raised a hand.
"In the center, here. And, well, Kevin, if you'd bring the man of honor?" She asked.
Sweet Pea almost didn't want to look. He knew he'd had to, but damn. He was surprised that Kevin; who had found Jason's body; was okay with being near it at all!
The area was deathly silent as Kevin and Darkon unloaded Jason's prone body, hanging like a ragdoll. It was well-preserved, or, as preserved as it could have been after being found in the water. No doubt Cheryl, Sweet Pea deducted. Still, it was just...there. They were staring at a dead body.
"You owe me," Lann mouthed to Sweet Pea, since Lann would have to touch Jason directly. Yech, Sweet Pea was glad the numbers worked out and it wasn't him.
"Out of the circle, now. You know your directions?" She asked, staring at the four gray-clad remaining members.
"Aye, aye, ma'am," Lipton said sarcastically. Fangs looked relieved. They had chosen the strongest wolves, magically speaking, to participate directly in the spell. Fangs was just too new. His magic was weakest, so in some way, he'd been spared of this. He was just on watch duty. No one could intervene with this spell and he told the wolves on the outside to use any force necessary to make that happen. Plus, apparently, Kevin had some of his dad's guns.
"I can do without the tongue," Cheryl said sweetly back to Lipton, but it wasn't sweet at all, "Now listen here you four. I'm going to make the circle. Once it's completed, you do not break it by stepping in here. Very dangerous things will happen if you do. Under literally no circumstances do you break the line. I don't care if you're bleeding out or having a heart attack or have been bitten by a vampire or the apocalypse is upon us. You do not break the circle."
"She's right, guys," Sweet Pea said, trying to look menacing. This was nothing to fuck with.
"Is that...regular salt?" Betty whispered, watching Cheryl uncap her bottle.
"Yep. Right from the store on Main." Sweet Pea confirmed, "Nothing fancy. It's what you do with it that matters. Intentions count for a lot."
Cheryl did a large circle around the sitting group, careful to stay on the inside of the line. As she came around the other side and connected the stream, a wash of magic glided over Sweet Pea. He shivered at the pureness of it. Betty too felt it, because she gave a sharp intake.
"Now, we begin," Cheryl said cryptically, turning around. Sweet Pea felt a mixture of excitement and fear. This, he told himself, was going to change everything.
XXxxXX
Betty sat in her place, trying not to shift around too much.
She tried not to think too hard of everything going on too.
It was hard to do that.
Polly wasn't answering her on the necklace. Even if she was, Betty wouldn't be telling her about this. In the case that something went horribly wrong, she wasn't going to put Polly through that again. The hope that she may see him again. That wasn't fair to her. Once Jason woke up alive, err, undead...then she'd tell her.
She didn't understand anything that was going on, either. For someone who was so important to this, with her strength in magic, it felt strange to be so out of the loop. She had been fully expecting Sweet Pea to meticulously break it down, but she realized that he had so much on his plate preparing for this that it was impossible. She tried not to feel shafted. Jason was so much bigger than her. Bigger than anyone.
No one would be risking their lives if he wasn't.
In her fingers, she held a sprig of her herb, trying not to ruin it with her nervous habit.
She watched as Cheryl knelt by Jason's cold body. She kissed his forehead softly, such a loving gesture that it made Betty feel a little better about this whole thing. Cheryl uncorked the blood Sweet Pea had procured from Nick and poured it down his throat.
She then came up to Betty, thrusting two candles at her- one green and one blue.
"Light these," She said.
"Uh, do I get, I don't have…" She looked around, patting to see if there was a match book somewhere.
"With your magic," Cheryl said impatiently. Betty blushed. Duh, magic fire for a magic spell.
Luckily, she managed to set them ablaze without a problem.
Cheryl lit a yellow and red candle, setting them strategically at the four directions of the circle. As she passed Toni, she gave a slight smile.
"At least you're wearing red. You're the only person I could think can pull it off besides me."
"Uhm, thanks?" Toni asked, frowning, trying to figure out if it was a compliment.
It was weird to see Cheryl wearing all black, but the spell required it.
There were two bowls waiting to be used. Cheryl took the bigger of the two, setting it by her feet. Then, she raised a clean knife to the sky, her lips moving but no sound came out.
"What is she doing?" Betty whispered to Sweet Pea, "The moon is the other direction."
"She's standing in front of Pluto," Sweet Pea stage whispered back, as though that explained anything. Before Betty could ask something else, Cheryl went around to the four lit candles, purifying the blade at each flame for exactly thirty seconds.
Then, she slit her palm.
Betty winced, giving a small grunt of disgust and imagined pain. Sweet Pea for sure noticed.
Cheryl let her blood drip into the bigger bowl, and then the smaller bowl. She didn't even seem troubled by it, whereas the tang was making Betty a little sick.
Then, she handed the bigger bowl of blood off to Toni. Toni looked at Sweet Pea, who gave a nod of encouragement.
With a trembling voice, Toni raised her plant.
"With plumeria, I entreat new beginnings." She said, dropping the flower in.
She handed the bowl to Vade, crossing over Jedi. Ah, they were going every-other.
Betty knew at least what this was. Nine herbs, or 'entreaties', as Sweet Pea had told her. They were bonding the spell with herbs that all had symbolic meanings. It was tethering the spell to their needs, sort of a 'do-it-yourself' sort of tweaking.
Betty felt a jolt as Toni's flower hit the rim. It was something intangible, but like lightning zipping up her spine.
Vade had a black rose for re-birth. He handed the bowl over Deni to Betty next. She licked her lips, holding up her heather sprig.
"With heather, I entreat protection," She said, dropping the heather into the blood with the other two flowers. She handed it to the center of the circle, where Lann and Quest did theirs in unison (Yew for immortality and hydrangea for heartlessness respectively) and dropping it in. Sweet Pea had explained that most of the entreatments and their bearers did not matter, with the exception of three. The two that most heralded what they were trying to do-make a vampire- had to be by those closest to him. Cheryl's plant, which she would entreat last, was a purple lilac that symbolized the first emotion of love. It was a sibling flower, one that would guide her in the underworld as she looked for Jason's spirit.
After the boys in the center, they handed it off to Jedi, who had witch-hazel, for spells. After him was Deni, with ivy for endurance. For each of the herbs, Betty had felt the same bolt of electricity. The circle within was beginning to seem foggy, despite the condition outside the circle clear and warm. It was like they'd put up a veil and made their own little world. Last in the circle was Sweet Pea. He took the bowl, fingers rubbing over the rim. His face was stony, so devoid of the jesting he usually entertained that it startled her.
"With stinging nettle, I entreat life and death."
He gave it off to Cheryl, who said her bit. She took a pestle and started grinding her own blood with the herbs and flowers. Then, she took to fingers and began dabbing blood strategically on Jason.
"So, why those two there?" Betty took the time to ask Sweet Pea, pointing at Lann and Quest. Quest was an older wolf, as in college-aged. He seemed nice, however, but she couldn't judge much. He'd come back from his studies for this, so he couldn't be all bad. She remembered seeing him at the Pack Meeting and how warmly Sweet Pea had talked about him. They went way back, she knew that much.
"Arithmancy. Numbers matching up. Cheryl will write their names. Three is a magic number, remember that. So is nine. We go down the list with their names; Jason Siderion Blossom to Floyd Sterling to Quest. Quest is just a valid a name as Floyd because it's his wolf name, which is inherently magic. Together, their names are nine."
'Nine what?"
"Just nine," Sweet Pea hissed back. Betty quieted. Now was not the time to be asking for long lessons in whatever the heck he was talking about. She nodded like she understood but, as she had been feeling the whole night, she did not.
She watched as Cheryl placed a branch with three paths at one candle, along with three stones that Betty couldn't guess if she tried. One might have been an emerald. She wasn't sure.
"Now, we're nearly there," Cheryl said, picking up what looked to be ribbons of a shirt. Probably Jason's, if Betty was picking up anything from tonight, it was that everything mattered.
She handed off the knife to Deni, at the top. Deni slit her palm too.
"Wait, wait, wait," Betty couldn't help but bluster, "Do we have to do palms? I mean, it's so...unreasonable! Palms have so many nerve endings! If we cut too far, we could really mess something up and I just-,"
From outside the circle, Kevin was laughing. Probably at her, she realized.
"Couldn't we do like, our thigh if you need blood? There's not much feeling there compared to hands…" Everyone was looking at her weird. Fine! Let them, she thought bitterly.
"Not necessarily, but you have to join with the person next to you. It's how we share power. So unless you want to press our thighs together…" Sweet Pea said, saving Betty from a snarky Cheryl comment. Betty's face blushed immediately.
"Oh, uh, no. It's fine."
Cherly's gaze flickered between Sweet Pea and Betty as she raised an eyebrow. It looked like she was seeing something Betty was not and she just hummed to herself, smiling like she had a secret. Still, what she said was tame at best.
"Thought so," Cheryl sniffed.
Deni squeezed some of her blood in the smaller bowl. From the bigger bowl, Cheryl dabbed the mixture into the wound. Deni cut her other palm.
"That will protect us to the best of its ability," Sweet Pea nudged Betty. Betty still didn't like it.
The knife got passed around counterclockwise, meaning Betty was the last to cut. At each person, as they joined cuts with their partner (and Betty didn't even want to think about how un-sanity this was), Cheryl tied their hands together with a piece of the shirt.
Betty's heart was pounding by the time she was handed the knife.
She hesitated, hand shaking over her open skin. Sweat beaded on her brow. She wasn't sure she could do this. This wasn't pricking her finger for a little blood, this was slicing both her palms open. It was going to hurt. A lot.
She purposely didn't look at Cheryl, who had started to impatiently tap her foot. She instead looked to Sweet Pea. She felt like if she ignored everything else and just looked to him, he'd show her the way. She knew with everything inside of her that he'd never lead her into danger.
"It's okay," He mouthed. Betty wanted to believe him.
So, she did. Without a doubt.
The cut across her first palm burned. Betty bit her lip to keep from crying out. She hated seeing her own blood. It made her feel a little ill. It made her feel worse as she fisted her hand hard to squeeze out blood for the big bowl, but was relieved when Cheryl uncurled her fingers for her. Cheryl was careful and gentle, uncharacteristically so, as she dabbed the blood mix that had her own blood into Betty's sliced palm. The mixture of blood didn't feel any different, no pain or sting as she'd expected, which in itself was odd.
Betty cut her other palm. She knew the pain, but it still sucked.
She turned to Sweet Pea first. Deni waited patiently on her other side. She'd seen the shiver run up everyone's spines as they connected, so of course she was a little scared.
Her hand hovered above his waiting one.
"It will be okay," He said out loud again, "I got you."
If Betty wasn't more preoccupied, she would have seen the glimmer in Cheryl's eyes, the sound that Kevin made, or the glance that Toni and Fangs shared. All Betty heard and saw was his face, one that she knew wouldn't hurt her, and his words that were delicate and so sweet.
She linked hands.
His palms closed around hers, and she realized just how large his hands were. They were so warm too.
As they linked fingers, Betty did shudder. Though, not from pain. It was from a sense of bliss, the feeling of connecting to a baser power. She joined hands with Deni no problem.
The boys in the middle were instructed to cut their palms and Jason's hands, connect one hand to Jason and one hand to each other, forming a weird bridge across him. Lann looked pale, almost ready to vomit.
Cheryl was mixing the blood from all of them. Betty thought she'd stick her palm in it, or something.
Nope, she literally drank it.
Lann did vomit a little, which is where Betty was feeling.
"Is she crazy?" Betty hissed to Sweet Pea, who just responded with a wide-eyed shrug that seemed to say 'that's one way to do it', but he still looked just as taken off guard. They all were. Then again, Cheryl was a little...well, Betty wasn't going to be mean enough to say what she was thinking.
As soon as Cheryl swallowed it, the groan that croaked through the circle was unreal. As Cheryl connected in, Betty saw her hair on her arm rise. She felt like she was invincible, like she could do anything. It was an intoxicating feeling, and now she truly understood magic. She had felt dark magic power and now, this was honestly lighter magic power. It might not remain that, after Cheryl started her necromancy, but for right now it was just...power. Not good or bad. Just power.
And yes, Betty could see even more plainly how some would kill for this feeling all the time.
Cheryl's phone, outside the circle kept safe by Kevin, pinged.
No one had to ask. They all knew what it meant.
It was 3:33 A.M.
Time to officially begin.
XXxxXX
Cheryl wiped some of the blood-mixture residue from the corners of her lips, inhaling. Everyone else had done what they needed to do without a hiccup, by some ungodly miracle. It made it a little bit more anxiety-stricken on her end. If things went south, it would be on her. Her mistake. No one she could blame (that didn't mean she wouldn't, however, since Cheryl hated admitting fault).
She walked in between the first circle and the second circle, letting the power settle into her bones.
It was the most power Cheryl had ever felt, and her family was descendant from very powerful witches. It was the sort of power that could topple an empire.
A part of Cheryl's mind swam with all the things she could accomplish with this power, all the things she could change. It was tempting. To harness this power given freely to her and make herself and her influence unstoppable.
But, in all honesty, there was only one thing Cheryl wanted most in the world. Jason. Everything else was just background noise.
And, she knew logically, even with all this power, they might still not have enough to bring Jason back. They weren't reviving a person who had been dead two hours or a cat someone had mistakenly run-over, they were bringing back a boy who had been dead months. And, more than that, they were making him a vampire.
It would be foolish to use this power for anything other than Jason. Cheryl prayed to any god that would listen they'd have enough magic. If she had ever done anything right in her life, she thought, she wanted it to go toward this.
"Listen up," Cheryl snapped in a crueler tone than she might usually take. She didn't want anyone mixing up her instructions or thinking it optional, "I will be starting to repeat the phrase to lift the veil. If you are 100% sure you have the spell correct, you can say it with me. If not, shut your goddamn traps to not fuck this up and possibly leave me stranded across the veil or worse. Close your eyes and focus on the magic between you all. Capice?"
There was an assortment of nods around the circle.
She paused by Quest and Lann (completely stupid names, she thought, but werewolves were stupid by principall), catching their attention. They'd gotten sent the spell via text, or so she hoped.
"You two have to say it with me, and you have to be focused to hold onto him. If this goes bad, I will personally mount your heads on a spike and put in in your families front yards." Cheryl said sweetly, but her eyes were slates of ice.
Lann laughed nervously, as though she was joking. Quest's face was dead serious. He was sorta cute, she thought, staring at his somber face. Maybe, if he didn't fumble this, she'd look him up after. He was a college boy, which just made him all the more tempting.
If she wasn't focused on this, she'd be thinking about how getting with a college boy would give her a hella lot of clout. Well, she was thinking that, but deep in the back of her mind.
"We have the spell," Quest assured, "It's going to work."
She stood, brushing off her knees, "I don't appreciate being coddled. We can't be sure." She said with narrowed eyes.
She waited until everyone's eyes were closed. Magic crackled over their skin like lightning, snapping through the joined hands and causing hair to stand up on end. As their focus grew, the bolts grew warmer and brighter.
Cheryl drew in a shaky breath quietly, hoping no one heard. She didn't want to give anyone the impression she was unsure of this.
"His verbis aperire peto solo tuto creditur. Ego sum viator. Ego autem sum creatura universum. Liceat mihi hoc donum."
Cheryl began to chant slowly, articulately. She went slow enough so that she was absolutely sure of each word she was saying and didn't stumble at all.
Quest and Lann jumped on after one recitation of it. They took a moment to match her noise level and tempo, but spoke it like a memorized piece of dialogue. Cheryl was pleased they had done so, since the repercussions would have been severe had they not. For a couple more spins, just the trio were chanting in union.
Around the circle, Cheryl saw a select few with eyes screwed shut in concentration, tilting their head to better hear the chant. Some weren't at all, sitting placidly and veering the magic to remain between them, likely knowing that they wouldn't be able to speak it proficient enough.
Sweet Pea managed to jump into the chant five cycles in.
That wolf was constantly surprising Cheryl. His knowledge of the supernatural was unparalleled, perhaps even compared to her, which she'd never admit out loud. He also cared about it. Their meeting in the library had been all business.
While on most occasions Sweet Pea was a jokester, an annoyance in her side, when making this spell, he had been only serious. Focused.
No spell of this magnitude had been recorded, so everything was 'made-up'. Or, rather, invented, Cheryl corrected. They'd spent five hours ironing out the fine details of it, down to the exact square-footage of the crossroads they'd use. When she needed him, he was there.
If this went to plan, she would owe him one.
She wasn't shocked beyond belief he'd been able to pick the spell up, having never heard it until right now. He had an aptitude for it. She was surprised it was so fast.
Betty looked like she was rolling the words over her tongue, considering it. Betty might be able to suss it out correctly too. It was in her blood.
Toni was the second person to join in from the outer circle. Although her voice was hesitant at first, her pronunciation was not lacking.
Cheryl grinned to herself. She enjoyed the little tete-a-tetes she'd had with this particular werewolf. The girl piqued her interest in the most fascinating ways. She didn't have more time now to ruminate on Toni, but she was strangely happy the girl had picked up the chant.
Perhaps, she considered, if Quest was a bust…
She shook her mind out. There was no room for distracting thoughts.
As she continued to chant, the space just in the circle began to grow hazy and foggy, as though they'd captured a really crappy day inside of the drawn symbol. Slowly, the circumference to the outside became more and more opaque until it was just a sheet of gray. Inside the circle, if not for the candles, Cheryl might not have been able to see anything.
It was like someone had grabbed a fog machine or dry ice and used it liberally. There was so much fog that the only people Cheryl could clearly see were the three right next to her. Everyone else were wispy black shadows around her, their voices echoing strangely, like they were being grabbed from one location and let out in another. They had entered a place not on this earth. A liminal space, somewhere between life and death. The candles could be seen, though only their light. Eerie balls of golden that was strangely juxtaposed in the damp gray expanse.
A chill dropped into the circle, as cold and as clutching as death. Wind whipped around the area, but the flames- lit by magic- flickered like soldiers marching on in the night. A drumming sound began to echo, not dissimilar to the sound of blood thumping in their ears. It was eerie, like a forgotten song. A sound that was not heard in these parts.
The land of the dead.
Cheryl felt spirits pass by her, brushing her arm and sending her teeth chattering. She could almost hear what they were saying, but it was faint whispers that vanished just as she thought she caught a blip of a conversation, of a plea.
Anxiety and a deep sense of dread and longing began to fill her stomach. It was so overpowering, so unsettling, she almost wanted to vomit. But she could not. She had to go forth, explore this land, though every inch of her body begged her not to.
Usually, one's soul lingered close to their recently departed body. It was just a matter of grasping onto it and bringing it back over.
It was not such of Jason.
She dispelled any sense of spirits that were not familiar to her own. She knew that, perhaps, searching by magic would have been stronger. Even if Jason wasn't presenting magic, it was still buried within him. Too bad she'd turned off his magic to try to protect him.
That left blood to find him by.
She was finding it difficult. She continued to chant, though her brain slipped into a meditative state in which it was muscle memory over conscious speaking, as she tried to reach out through the emptiness for Jason.
She caught onto other souls that she recognized; Riverdale patrons that had passed within the last six months. Not who she was looking for. She focused her thoughts outward.
"Jason!"
When she called his name into the void beyond, there was nothing. No echo. No recognition, not a tickle of someone calling back for her. It was like he wasn't even there. Or, too far past, wandering around endlessly in a field of despair and darkness.
Panic bubbled within Cheryl. She couldn't find him. It was like he was just...gone. Were they too late? Was doing this upon the Equinox not strong enough to delve back as far as Jason stood? Was this power not enough? Was this all for nothing?
The feeling of absolute horror and failure filled Cheryl so much it was nearly unbearable. Jason wasn't coming back, was he? She'd really, really done it. Her powers and skill was useless if she couldn't do this.
She had a moment where she felt her mind fold in on itself. She could feel herself growing cold, weaker. Perhaps it was right. Perhaps her place was here, trapped forever. Maybe it was the only way she'd see Jason ever again?
No, she shook herself out, she was not going to give up so easily!
She troubleshoot in her mind rapidly. Her and Sweet Pea had gone through a number of worst-case scenarios and possible solutions, in the event something like this did happen.
She realized that perhaps, since Jason's blood had long since dried, this was the issue at hand. That meant that cutting a small part of his flesh and directly linking their blood was going to be as fruitless as her current efforts.
Damn it all! She wished she had never taken away his magical signature!
Across the circle, she spied Betty. She appeared from the fog, like the spirits presenting her to Cheryl.
Betty's sister was carrying Jason's children…
Having Polly personally here would have been the obvious fix, since her blood was cycled through the blood of her children and therefore Jason's, but she was too far away. If the moonlight waning itself wasn't a problem, it was unstable to hold the magic like this for hours. As it was, they were playing a dangerous gamble. This whole circle could burst and the results would be catastrophic, the best case being that everyone's souls would explode away from their bodies. The worst? Too horrific to imagine.
It seemed silly when put into perspective what they were doing to bring one soul back, but Cheryl would burn the world down completely if it meant coming back with Jason.
She wondered, though, if maybe just having Betty here was strong enough?
As she approached Betty, she felt a tug of Jason. At first she thought it was the family connection. As she came right up in front of Betty, she noticed a chain on her neck.
Betty was so far into the meditation that she didn't even flinch as Cheryl grabbed the chain.
A blood trinket, linking to Polly. Hallelujah, there was some good in the world.
Cheryl refocused her efforts, holding the moon between her fingers and stroking the metal. It shocked her, as though she'd just shuffled across a carpet in socked feet. It seemed to hold up to the magical energy heating it, which was good. This was no dollar-store trinkets. It was powerful.
All the better.
"Jason?" Cheryl called out again with her mind. There was an echo, her call bouncing around the underworld.
He was there. It wasn't all lost.
She had no time to pout that she wasn't able to reach Jason by her own power and blood. What mattered was bringing him back.
The more Cheryl called out, the stronger the reverberation of her call came back to her. She began to feel his presence; she could smell his cologne that he used to spray on like it was going out of style, she could feel the warmth of the hugs he used to give, she could hear his deep baritone laugh linger in the fog.
Then, like he'd materialized out of nowhere, he grasped out. He was the one who had found her, she'd just guided him to the circle.
Now that she had made contact with him, he formed completely, filling out to be solid and real. His face was sallow, but he looked alive. Well, as alive as a dead spirit could be.
"Cheryl?" He asked, confused.
"We found you," Cheryl breathed, allowing her chanting to fall off. There were still four others holding the veil up, it would be fine.
She made sure she was touching Jason before she let go of Betty's charm. It was warm to the touch, burning hot, but unscathed otherwise.
"What are you doing?" He asked, looking around, "What is all this?"
"It's it obvious? We're bringing you back."
"But-,"
"We don't have time," Cheryl stressed. She would have loved to chat longer. They'd have all the time in the world for that after, she reminded herself. He'd have literally endless time.
Jason nodded jerkily, still looking taken off-guard, but there raised no complaints from him. Naturally.
Cheryl moved him near his body. Jason gave Cheryl one last deep hug.
"I knew you'd do it. I knew you could," He whispered, sounding choked up.
"Get in! Before something goes wrong," Cheryl laughed, shoving him away lightly. Jason gave her a single salute before laying down on top of his cold, dead, and empty vessel of a body.
Cheryl helped guide him in, shoving down hard.
The force of magic pushing back against her was huge. It wasn't easy to reattach a soul. Most souls didn't want to be, otherwise there would have been a lot more problems of the recently deceased coming back.
She shoved with all her might, drawing more and more energy from the people sitting around her, trying to squash the yellow light with a brilliant white. She felt too much resistance. It wasn't going to hold. It wasn't going to-
A light as bright as the sun rocketed up, sending Cheryl back. The bang was as loud as thunder right in her ear.
The noise and light broke the concentration of the circle. When Cheryl blinked upward, she was staring at the night sky again.
The people around the circle were starting to come to.
"Did it work?" Sweet Pea called out.
"If it didn't, we won't get another try." Cheryl pointed out.
Sweet Pea nodded to everyone that it was okay to break the concentration.
"Fucking hell," Lann swore out loud, showing the palms of his hands burned black from the end of the spell. Quest's hands were similar.
"Should fade...in time," Sweet Pea winced, "But, it's magic so-,"
"Yeah, urg, I know," Lann said, flexing his fingers, cursing as it crinkled the leathery skin.
"Ouch! My necklace is super hot," Betty said, sucking on a burned finger. She tried to take it off, but winced. Sweet Pea turned, cussing, but helped her put it on the ground.
Cheryl gave an innocent shrug. She wasn't going to own up to that. It would cool down soon...she hoped.
"Uhm, he's still sorta...dead-looking," Kevin said, ever so astutely, coming across the now broken and useless circle.
"Not completely, look," Toni said, pointing to the once garish gunshot wound on his head. It was now shrinking away to just a small scar, as though he'd just bumped his head.
"Vampire healing," Betty murmured out loud.
"Shouldn't he be waking up, though?" Kevin crossed his arms.
Cheryl didn't mean to, but she looked to Sweet Pea in a mild panic. Wasn't he supposed to be waking up?
"Well," Sweet Pea rubbed his chin, "The blood didn't work when we first put it in, so that indicates a soul or someone inhabiting it, because it's working now," He said slowly. He sniffed deeply, humming. Then, he placed a hand on Jason's forehead, "He's definitely 'in' there. Just unconscious, I guess."
"How are you sure?" Cheryl snapped.
Sweet Pea made a 'by all means' motion to her. She squared her shoulders, placing her own hand on his forehead.
And oh, she could feel him. It was such a comforting feeling that it startled her.
Jason, back exactly where he was meant to be.
"Why isn't he awake, though?" Betty whispered.
"Hell if I know. Longest I think I've heard about someone taking from waking up from the transformation is an hour."
Kevin checked his watch, "We have an hour, don't we?"
"If people want to stay," Cheryl said, not wanting a crowd when Jason came to. It was sure to be disorienting. He was probably going to be in a lot of pain. Rejoining a soul and a body probably hurt like hell. And, even if it was healed, his last memory was getting shot through the head.
A lot of the wolves checked out. Cheryl was tempted to give Quest her number now, but she figured she could do that later. He nodded as he passed.
"Hope he wakes up," Quest mumbled, "Sincerely."
"Thank you. Sorry about your hands," Cheryl said, making sure no one else heard such weakness. Quest gave a wry smile.
"That was the coolest thing I've done all year, so," He shrugged, "Maybe I'll see you later?"
Cheryl just gave a smile, but her sense of victory she usually would have felt was dampened by worry for Jason.
In the end, only Kevin, Betty, Sweet Pea, Fangs, and Toni stuck around. The little group sat vigil with a dead body, silent as mice.
After two hours- nearing sunrise- he still hadn't moved.
"Fix it," Cheryl commanded of Sweet Pea.
"Hey! Don't use that tone of voice with me! It's not like I guessed this would happen," Sweet Pea snarled back, "Look at this logically, gingy. His body has been dead for two months. His mind has been across the river for two months. It's probably going to take some time to re-adjust!"
"How long? A day? A week? Two months?" Cheryl asked.
"Do I look like I know? He's in there; we have that much. Short of a stake to the heart, he's also not going anywhere. I don't think we should be rushing him waking up."
"Look, I get it. You're an only child. You can't possibly know how it feels to have him so close but not here," Cheryl began, talking down to Sweet Pea like a child.
"Turn off emotions for a moment, god! If he had survived the gunshot wound, chances are he'd be in a coma for a bit. Why is it so unbelievable to think his body is going through the same thing right now. We force him out of this, force his mind awake, he might be in unimaginable pain or not all there. Wouldn't you rather wait and be sure?" Sweet Pea said.
"I'd rather know we did it right," Cheryl said.
"There was no guarantees he'd wake up lickety-split. We did it Cheryl," his tone took on a soft lit, "You can relax now. Jason will wake up. I am sure of that. Just not sure when."
There was a beat of silence.
"Well, we can't very well return him back to the grave. Not only would it be terrifying to wake up in a coffin, we already filled the hole back in," Kevin pointed out. Fangs nodded in rapid agreement.
"He's also very dead looking, per usual for vampires. Not good for us right now," Toni observed.
"We can't just put him in his bed at home. I'm sure your parents would notice," Betty scratched her head, "And I personally don't want to play 'pass the inanimate body' until he does wake."
"No, it would be better for us and for him to have him in one place…" Sweet Pea agreed. He snapped suddenly, "Your portrait!"
"Yes!" Cheryl said, clapping her hands, "Why didn't I think of that before?"
"Wait, what?" Betty asked, looking flustered.
"Your portrait! It's magic, so it will help with him healing. Plus it's a place we know that no one will be checking in on, except for us. And if he wakes up while we're at school or something, he won't wander off and scare someone half-to-death." Sweet Pea said, face bright, as though he'd solved the secret of the universe.
"You want to somehow drag a dead-looking Jason Blossom body past my mother, into my room, and into my magical portal on my wall?" Betty asked, throwing her hands out in horror and disbelief.
"Yeah, pretty much."
"Oh. Uh, okay. " She said simply.
Clearly Betty hadn't been expecting such a confident affirmation. She blinked a couple times, coming to terms that this plan was happening.
"We'll help you," Kevin said, "With your mom gone, it will just be a matter of carrying him."
"Sure, sure," Betty muttered, sighing, "At least...we're getting somewhere?"
Sweet Pea grimace, "That is yet to be seen."
Long Ass Magic Explanation Below (regular notes after):
ARITHMANCY:
-Jason Sideron Blossom comes out to a total number of 431 (There are online calculators that will do this for you, I'm not going to go through it to explain exactly how its done). After that, I wanted the three middle people to come to a combined number of nine.
-Floyd Sterling was the next one that fit best (AKA Lann) with a number between those two names of 422.
-After that, I knew I would need a wolf of 146 so that their combined numbers would be '999'. I knew that pretty much no wolf that existed at the point that I wrote this chapter would come to that, so I went digging. I found a video by SuperCarlinBrothers that talked about Arithmancy in Harry Potter and they'd done up this whole google spread-sheet with what everyone's numbers are. One of the 146 numbers was Dean Thomas. From there, I put it into a word scrambler with other letters that had the same core score to see what came up and 'venam oaths' . From there, I twisted it to be Quest's name, but the 'root' or the 'spirit' of his name is Venam Oaths. At this point, so it wasn't obvious he just popped up for this, I was able to add Quest into the Full Moon Pack Meeting.
-In all, I think the numerology of it went rather well; 999 with three middle spell-casters who each represent a magical part of a name, and each have 3, 2, and 1 name respectively. A full name is magical because you should never give magic folk your full name. Just first and last is magical because it's one's everyday name. A werewolf nickname is magical because, in essence, that is their magic name and is just as legal as a binding one (if not more so, when it comes to magical bonds and promises)
-With Arithmancy you're supposed to get a three digit number from your full name and then whittle it down to just a singular core number and that will say something about you. If you're interested, the other wolves/people I tried this with to see whose number would fit best are as follows Cheryl (375), Betty (936), Sweet Pea (173 if you use his real name 'Jordan Noah Karan' or 375 if you go by Sweet Pea Karan), Fangs (898), Kevin (938), Toni (738), Joaquin (448 or 312, depending if you add in a middle name), Vade (247) or Abraham (514). If I didn't choose Lann, Sweet Pea was going to tap Joaquin into it.
-So, you can imagine in the last chapter when Sweet Pea says he has about 'a hundred equations to run', he and Cheryl were trying to find the two other people. But, he couldn't just make up a character like I did. They actually did have to consider and run literally hundreds of iterations to find the best two other fits!
HERBAL IMBUMENTS
-They use herbs to anchor the spell to the world of the living. Each wolf or point has a herb to give. I looked up a bunch of flower meanings to find the ones that would best fit for a vampire. What each person had and what the qualities are in the chapter, so I won't re-hash that, but I also tried to tie the flowers to the personality of each of the giver or how powerful I felt each herb would be. The more seasoned, the more powerful I gave them.
LITTLE THINGS
-3:33 am is commonly referred to as the witching hour, or the hour where spirits are easist to connect with the world
-Sept 22 is an equinox, so the balancing of the dates and times is inherently magical
-Crossroads represent a choice, life and death
-Salt Circle is 9 feet around in diameter (9 is a lucky number, you beginning to see?). The cross-road area is also nearly 9 feet in the center, which Sweet Pea and Cheryl also had to find the day previous by pouring over google maps. They would have driven down to Memphis if it was needed! Luckily, the found something closer to home.
-A candle is at each of the four corners there is a candle that relates to one of the four elements and cardinal directions, also anchoring the circle to the physical world. Yellow for air and east, red for fire and south, blue for water and west and green for earth and north.
-The Elder Tree Branch represents the past, present, and future
-The gemstones that were placed as well were malachite that represents decay, crystal quartz for clairvoyance, and emerald for rebirth.
-Cheryl held the knife up to the direction of Pluto because Pluto is the planet of re-birth
-Jason's shirt wrapped around the blood was also a physical, tangible link that if anyone started getting lost they could touch back to
- The knife was cleansed by fire. Fire is often used as a cleaning/rebirthing element. It could have also been cleansed by water, but since Cheryl and Betty are fire mages, this was by far the best choice
BLOOD MAGIC:
So, I actually came across a tumblr rant about people cutting hands in magic or for shows and I've been waiting to use that for like forever, because that just seemed like such a Betty thing to do! Basically, though, if you didn't get what was happening, there were two bowls. One had the herbs in it, which is what everyone put in their cut palms to anchor themselves to the spell, or to allow the magic to be lifted from them to be used in the way it needed to. In the other bowl as a mixture of all of their blood, which Cheryl drank so that she wouldn't be lost on the other side, but could find her way back- or bridge the gap- between the two worlds.
THE CHANT:
It translates to (roughly) 'I am requesting that the world beyond ours opens. Hear me; I am a traveler. I am a creature of your universe. Allow me this gift'. At least three people (the closest to Jason) needed to be saying it to be heard. No one else was required to because magic is more about intent, and if they were all focusing really hard on the task at hand, Cheryl had faith that the magic would hear and grant them this.
THE CIRCLE:
I'll have a representation of this up on my tumblr if you want to see it, but I'll try to explain it the best I can! The chakras represent parts of ourselves, and they each have a color associated with them. I tried to match the representations up to the personality of the spell-casters, as well as what Sweet Pea and Cheryl would have theoretically done. If the chakra, place in the circle (which is ordained by the chakras) have a stronger connection to hold onto their caster, the better the spell will work. The chakras represent a part of each of our 'soul', give or take.
Imagine a pentagram within a circle.
At the top, we have the spirit which is white (Deni)
Right next to her (on the right) is Astral/Yellow/Betty.
Next to her is Mental/Purple/Sweet Pea.
Directly south is Physical/Red/Toni.
Next to her is Emotional/Blue/Jedi.
West is Sacred/Orange/Vade.
In the center, both Lann and Quest are wearing green, which is the heart or love chakra, to strengthen that as the strongest.
Cheryl is wearing black, so that the magic doesn't recognize her as part of the life-force, also so she can slip into the underworld/otherworld.
The people on the outside (Kevin, Lipton, Darkon, and Fangs) are wearing gray to represent the keepers of the spell; keepers of the in-between.
IN SUMMATION:
Sweet Pea and Cheryl didn't know what would work and what wouldn't. If it seems like throwing a bunch of stuff against a wall hoping some would stick, that's sorta what they went with. They wanted to put as many magical elements into this as possible so that they could be best prepared for what they'd face! Whew, tried to summarize all of that, but if I missed something, just ask!
Finally, as a last note, I have posted a new Riverdale story that is strictly Bughead, and it's basically smut with an itsy-bitsy bit of plot ;) It's called 'Definition of Want', so go check that out!