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nelllraiser · 4 years ago

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save a horse, ride a werewolf | kitty & nell

TIMING: about a month and a half ago. LOCATION: the vural home. PARTIES: @kallmekitty & @nelllraiser. SUMMARY: nell catches a kitty in her greenhouse net. CONTAINS: nsfw (implication of sex) and symptoms of undiagnosed ptsd.

Kitty had woken up in a lot of real weird positions, but this one took the cake. Dangling upside down in the pale morning light, naked as the day she was born. She couldn’t remember the night before, which meant either she’d drank too much or she’d gone all Incredible Wolf. Either case led to a blackout. The nakedness probably meant that she’d shifted, though, Kitty wasn’t one to assume. It might’ve just been a really fun night. Whatever the case, though, she was hanging upside down in front of a building that smelled strongly of plants. Glass building, warm, humid smells, plants. A greenhouse. Kitty was hanging from… something in front of a greenhouse.

Hearing something walk towards her, Kitty turned her head, the motion causing her body to start spinning slowly. As she moved, she saw a large cat, an ovinnik, walking towards her. “Well, hi there, cutie. I don’t s’pose you’d mind helping a gal out, huh? I’d really like to not be hangin’ up here.”

As always, Nell woke with a start when the familiar ping of the perimeter spell buzzed against her skin, signaling that someone new had stepped onto the property. Somewhere between her Aram induced sleep and her waking, she’d gripped the knife that lay under her pillow in a white-knuckled hold, perhaps a little too ready for any attack that might be coming her way. With a frown she noted Taki’s absence from the foot of her bed, and followed their magical link in hopes that he’d already apprehended whoever had thought it was a good idea to cross into witch’s territory unwelcomed.

The spectacle of an unclothed woman hanging from one of Nell’s many booby traps was annoying enough, but the way Taki had begun to bat at the net and dangling trespasser stoked a smidgen of Nell’s amusement. He raised himself onto his hind legs, paw extended as he spun the net and swished his tail happily. When his witch approached, he gave her a prideful look, as if he’d done well finding a new toy for himself. Nell wanted to smile, but it was best to greet strangers with a careful aloofness until she knew their intentions. “So it looks like my booby traps really are good at catching boobies.” Okay- maybe not too aloof when the girl was hanging there uselessly. Still, she crossed her arms over her chest in a guarded motion, knife still in hand.

“Hey, bud, watch it. I’m not a goddamn cat toy. Ovinnik toy. Sorry.” Kitty was in the process of continuing talking to the ovinnik when she saw someone walking up. And that made sense, didn’t it? Ovinnik’s were real popular familiars, and where there was a familiar, there was likely a witch. Kitty laughed at the other woman’s words, even if she could make out a stoic expression when her net was turned in that direction. “You caught me real good, yeah. Definitely a boobies trap, y’know, since you caught two of ‘em.” Kitty was a casual flirt, the words lighthearted and easy even as she took in the knife in the other woman’s hand. It was easier to catch flies with honey, she’d always been taught, and, well, no sense in pissing off the person with the knife. She couldn’t smell any silver, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt like a bitch, especially if she was getting poked like a fish in a barrel. “You wouldn’t mind letting me down, would you?”

Nell watched curiously as Taki continued to play with the woman in the net, rather delighted with his newest find despite the other girl’s words. “Two’s definitely always better than one.” She bit back her next words for a brief second, trying to figure out whether or not this was the time for flirtation. Though...moments being inappropriate for teasing had never stopped the witch before. “Even better than two is four,” she said with the very beginnings of a smirk, but then decided that flirting would feel more comfortable once the other woman was clothed. It felt skeevy doing it while she dangled there like a hog-tied deer. “Sure- I’ll let you down. Once you tell me why you’re trying to get into my greenhouse. And why you’re here in the first place.”

“You’re not wrong,” Kitty said, laughing. She stuck her hand out of the net, letting the ovinnik swat at her fingers. “Now, that’s an assumption. You have no idea whether or not I was trying to get into your greenhouse. I also have no idea whether or not I was trying to get into your greenhouse. I’m gonna be honest with you: I think I might’ve blacked out last night, had a real good or a real bad time, and somehow ended up here.” She waved her hand. One of her curls was getting in her mouth, and she brushed it out of the way. “This wasn’t intentional. I mean, I’m pretty confident, but I’m not a nudist. I try not to wander around without clothes on. Might make things a little awkward.”

For someone caught in a net, the woman seemed rather chipper. Nell didn’t know if that was an after-effect of the possibly ‘good time’ the stranger had the night before, an attempt to appear less threatening while trespassing, or if she was...simply an overly nice person. She supposed there were still nice people in the world. It just felt like it’d been months since she’d run into someone new that was so...casual. White Crest had a way of ruining everything that stepped onto its cursed soil, and this woman was either good at bouncing back or she hadn’t yet been touched by it. Nell hummed over the words of Taki’s prisoner. If she was trying to hide more nefarious intentions, she’d chosen a pretty shitty excuse. “Just a little awkward.” She cut off another flirt, still deciding to wait until they were on more even footing. “So what’s your name, then? And how does one accidentally end up naked in the woods?” She’d come across her fair share of confused and unclothed shifters out there before, but it’d be foolish to jump to conclusions.

“Name’s Kitty,” she said. “I’d offer my hand, but I’m a little caught up. Hope you understand.” She started looking up at the trap, observing it. Kitty might’ve been an animal in wolf form, but she wasn’t stupid. She’d never been caught in a trap before. And, sometimes, when she went out into the woods in human form, she could smell metal traps hidden under leaves, meant to take out animals. She’d done well with herself not to get caught in things before. She couldn’t smell the trap, was the thing. It didn’t smell like anything at all. Honestly, if it wasn’t holding her, it’d be like there was nothing there. Kitty’d lived with magic users her whole life. She knew what magic looked like if she looked for it. Between that and the ovinnik, she could make a solid assumption, but she wasn’t gonna do that. Not yet. “I mean, most fun things start with getting naked, y’know? But… not really sure. I definitely blacked out last night.” One way or another. She hadn’t expected to shift again so soon after the full moon. That was likely how she’d ended up in such a situation. “You’re guess as to how I ended up in such a situation is really as good as mine.” She looked down at the ovinnik. “He’s a hoot and a half, by the way. Thinks he treed me all on his own, huh?”

“You know- I’m out here trying to be a gentleman by not flirting while you’re hanging there naked, but if you start talking about having fun with clothes off-” Nell’s smirk grew wider while Taki continued to use Kitty as his giant cat toy. “-it’s gonna make it a lot harder.” Gentlemen probably didn’t trap girls in the first place, and ask them questions with a knife in hand, but those were easier to brush away. “Kitty?” Nell echoed, wondering how the woman had come into such a cringeworthy name. “Well- Taki seems to like you. And he generally plays harder to get.” Was she basing her opinion of someone off her familiar’s reaction? Absolutely. “Oh, I’m definitely letting him take the credit for this hunt. I mean he’s the one deciding your fate too, isn’t he?” She thought a moment longer, a large part of her still telling the witch to knock the woman out, and leave her somewhere safe until she woke up— far away from the Vurals’ home. But she was trying to be better, wasn’t she? Wasn’t she? To not let the traumas of her past rule her so thoroughly? With a sigh, Nell reached up to the top of the net, sawing it through it with her knife. There was an easy release word that would have freed Kitty, but she wasn’t about to use her magic that openly in front of a person she’d just met.

“Well, damn. My mama tried raisin’ a lady, but, as you can see, it didn’t work too well.” Flirting came a little too easily to Kitty. One of her older sisters called her a serial flirt, said that was why the whole town thought she was dating Parker. Parker. God, she missed Parker. Would she have gotten into this kind of situation if he’d been here? Probably. He’d be hanging upside down right along with her. “That’s my name, cutie. I mean, it’s Katherine, if you wanna get all official, but Kitty’s just fine.” She looked at the ovinnik. Taki. “Taki here’s a real gentleman, you know. Mighty handsome, too. I’m grateful to have my fate in his capable paws.” Then she was watching the woman cut her loose, and maybe she was showing her hand, but it was nothing for Kitty to catch herself with her hands as she fell to the ground, holding it for a moment before she moved herself to stand. “Cat’s and landings, am I right?” she quipped, brushing herself off. “Thanks. I really appreciate it. I… don’t s’pose you’d have some clothes I could wear?” Kitty looked at the woman, finally realizing how short she was. Well. Anything would be better than the quite literally nothing that Kitty was currently working with.

Taking in the other girl’s height, Nell did her best to ignore the flash of resentment that reared its head. Why was nearly everyone in this shitty town taller than her? The added height meant that Kitty wouldn’t fit into Nell’s clothes without looking as if she were Buddy in the movie, Elf. Bea would probably have some pieces that were long enough, though. “Sure, you can have some of my sister’s. Just don’t tell her I gave them to you.” The girl was flirting again, and it was only in Nell’s nature to flirt back. “Put some clothes on, and then we can talk about me taking them off you.” She flashed the woman a smirk, in no way opposed to having some fun once Kitty had the choice of whether she was clothed or not.

“I’m Nell— Penelope if you wanna get official.” The witch mirrored Kitty’s words in a tone laced with tease.” Her head quicked as she thought of how easily Kitty had caught herself in her fall. Good reflexes. Good reflexes, and naked on the forest’s edge. Nell tried not to look too closely at the facts for the moment, savoring the feeling of actually having a semi-normal interaction for once. “Just follow me into the house, and I’ll get you something.” She led the way over the threshold, knowing that her sisters weren't home, but also knowing that they probably wouldn’t ask all too many questions anyway while leading a naked woman in. “And don’t talk too highly of Taki- he can barely stand up straight with how big his head’s getting.” The aforementioned Ovinikk gave a yowl of disapproval, as if he knew Nell was making fun of him.

“Secret’s safe with me. I know better than to go tattling,” Kitty said, laughing at the other girl’s words. “You want me to get dressed so we can talk about gettin’ undressed. Alright. I’m game.” It was nice, actually, to have that considered. Kitty wasn’t particularly self-conscious, even less so since she’d been bitten, but it was nice to be thought of, for someone to make sure the playing field was even. It made things a little more fun, too. “Nice to meet you, Nell. Sorry for hanging out in front of your greenhouse. I swear I don’t do this kinda thing often. Not at first, at least.” She followed after Nell, looking around as she went, eyes taking in everything that she could see as her nose picked out various smells. Different people, creatures, herbs and spices and an abundance of scents that she couldn’t even begin cataloguing even if she wanted to. She held out her hand to the Ovinikk, “Hush. He deserves all the praise he can get.” Then, with a light tone, she added, “My mama’s got an axehandle hound named Eugene that’s not nearly as sweet and loyal. Though, he’s been around awhile. Kinda an old fella.”

“Finally, someone who knows snitches get stitches,” Nell sighed with overplayed exasperation, the hint of a grin still on her lips. To be honest, she hadn’t entirely been sure whether Kitty would dish back the potential offer of sex, but she could respect a woman who knew what she wanted, and didn’t hesitate when it was offered. “It’s only fair, right? Otherwise I might just get bored if there’s nothing for me to do when you’re taking my clothes off.” Again Nell reminded herself that she should be careful with Kitty. Just because she was hot didn’t mean she was trustworthy. Though...if this was some sort of trick, maybe Kitty was worth it. Honestly it wouldn’t be surprising for Nell to fall prey to her libido. And at least she’d die happy. “Are you saying- if I’m lucky that you’ll hang in a net outside of my greenhouse in a couple months or so?”

The smile on her lips stiffened in place while the axehandle hound’s name fell from Kitty’s lips. And to think Nell had been enjoying a relatively normal conversation. The sirens in Nell’s head began to blare for a quick moment. Her reactionary emotion had been set to ‘fight’ for too long, and somewhere along the way it seemed to have gotten stuck. With her nails biting into the palm of her fisted hand, Nell forced herself to replay the words in her head- to recognize that they might not point towards Kitty being a threat. The joke was gone from her voice, and the witch struggled to keep it level. “I thought there was something supernatural about you, but I wasn’t sure what.” A pet axehandle hound. It didn’t mean anything bad...right? “So you know what Taki is then, obviously. What do you think I am?” She’d paused on her journey towards Bea’s room, suddenly unsure about bringing the stranger into her sister’s room. For now she tossed a blanket from the couch in Kitty’s direction.

“That’s a cardinal rule, darlin’. Anyone that doesn’t know that’s in for a heap of trouble if they aren’t careful,” Kitty said, smiling bright and happy at the way the interaction was going. “I’d hate for you to get bored. Be a real mood killer.” She became preoccupied with looking around the house again, thinking about how nice and comfortable it was. When was the last time Kitty was in a house? She’d been hanging out around motel rooms for too long. It was hard to stay somewhere when she kept right on moving, though. “Sooner, even, if you’re real lucky.”

Kitty blinked, though, seeing that something had changed. She just didn’t know what, or how, or why. Her head cocked to the side as she looked back at Nell, confused by the tone in her voice. “I…” her voice trailed off, and she laughed, the sound of it a little breathless and anxious. Something about Nell, despite her small stature, made Kitty think that she was the one in danger here despite the fact that she turned into a hulking monster on the full moon. Maybe it was the fact that she’d been caught in a net. “I do know an Ovinikk when I see one, yes, but I’m familiar with familiars.” Joking was good, right? That helped? “I mean, I don’t wanna assume anything, but the greenhouse and the familiar and the way you kinda knew I was here, I mean, I just figured you were a spellcaster.” She grabbed the blanket and clutched it tightly, covering herself. “My family’s all spellcasters,” she blurted out. “Not me. I didn’t get any magic, just the good looks, so I guess I’m the real winner, huh? But I know spellcasters, and I know about magic, so that’s it. That’s what I thought.”

Nell did her best to keep the lighter part of their conversation intact, tried to quell the feeling of her skin standing on edge, to hold the impending dread of knowing something bad was about to happen at bay. Something was about to grab her, hurt her, hurt Taki.

Her nails broke skin against her hand, and the wetness of her blood drew her back for a moment, the surge of magical power that her ‘element’ granted grounding her mind for a split second. Breathe. No one was being attacked. She and Taki were safe. The figurative and literal hellscapes of her past weren’t here. Forcing her jaw to unclench, she did her best to put levity back into her voice. “You break a lot of hearts with those jokes and little accent, don’t you?” Nell teased, trying to ignore the ringing in her ears. And even though the words were a little forced and meant in jest, Nell also thought there was a grain of truth in them. Kitty seemed easy to like. Plus Nell had broken a few hearts herself, and should recognize the signs. Not broken them in the same way, probably. Not in the endearing and shining way Kitty seemed to have. But still.

Then it was Nell’s turn to cock her head in interest, and the tidal wave of words helped to pull her back into reality. Spellcasters? It wasn’t surprising that anyone who had spellcaster blood instantly gained a few points in her book. After all, witches were meant to stick together. Except for when you were kicked out of your coven. An ugly voice in Nell’s head sounded the old reminder. Would Kitty’s family know of that? The news had spread wide, and the Vurals were well-known in the witch community, but maybe there was a chance…

Just as quickly as it had come, the tenseness in the witch seemed to melt away. “If it’s any consolation I didn’t get my family’s traditional magic. Though it’s probably shitty of me to act like that’s comparable to not having it at all.” Better rip off the exile band-aid sooner rather than later, though. “What’s your family’s name? Mine’s the Vurals. Would I know your’s?” As if she were extending the beginnings of a peace offering, Nell sat Taki on Kitty’s feet. “If you like him so much- I guess you’ll just have to pet him more.”

The smell of blood was immediate in drawing Kitty’s attention. The first time she smelled it after waking up changed was with it all over her. The scent of Parker’s blood had made her both hungry and sick feeling, and, even now, the smell brought up the same feelings. A little less hunger, though, thankfully. She must’ve eaten something the night before. She could briefly remember flashes of something. Not a person kind of something. Just something. But the blood seemed to be grounding for Nell, and Kitty wondered if maybe the smaller girl wouldn’t attack. “I’ve been told the accent’s mighty charmin’ a time or too, yeah. More and more the further north I get.” And if Kitty broke hearts, it wasn’t intentional. She just wanted to have fun. It was fun that got her into all sorts of trouble. It was fun that landed her here. Maybe it’d be fun that got her out of it. Nell’s vocal quality hadn’t quite gone back to they way it was when they were walking into the house, but the tightness seemed to be at least trying to leave it, and she’d take that as a win.

Mentioning that her family were spellcasters seemed to have been the right thing to do. Kitty decided to avoid the topic that she was a little less than human, at least for the time being. “Sheridan,” she said. “We’re Sheridans, though we’re less of a coven at this point and more of just the family. Too small to be in the know of much of anything, though Mama’s folks are still in New Orleans, and they tell us things every now and then.” She shrugged. “Us. Them. I haven’t been home in awhile.” Though she talked to her mother almost everyday, sent memes to her younger brother, asked for recipes from her older siblings, she wasn’t really an us anymore. There was her family, and then there was Kitty, gallivanting around the country, doing her thing, having a good time. She was having a real good time.

“I’m afraid I don’t know any Vurals. It’s a little outta touch, where we are.” She leaned down, the blanket wrapped around her and held in one hand as she used the other to pet Taki, enjoying the feeling of warm fur between her fingers. She loved animals. Some of them, prey animals especially, had adverse reactions to her, with what she was, but supernatural creatures didn’t seem to mind too much. “I like him alot. He’s a handsome fella.” She scratched under his chin. “Yes, sir. Very handsome.

Nell’s shoulders settled back into place as Kitty failed to recognize her family name, and it truly spoke to just how isolated the southern spellcasters were if they didn’t recognize it. But in this case it was a blessing. “Families are coven enough sometimes.” She knew that well after she’d been kicked out her own, left only with her sisters and Bex. “Better than a witch alone, anyway.” A lone witch is a dead witch. The lesson had practically been ingrained into her since birth. The fact that Kitty hadn’t been home ‘in a while’ spoke for itself, though Nell managed to curb her initial curiosity. She’d pry later. Still…a lone witch was a dead witch. “You should come over for Imbolc.” It was said in a way that was more insistentence than invitation. “We can make Brigid Crosses with my sisters and student.”

Taki thrived under Kitty’s attention and compliments, more than ready to take his fill of compliments and scritches. “Well- like I said, if Taki likes you, then I guess you’re as good as in. Like you said, he’s my familiar.” Now that talk of magic was out in the open, Nell didn’t bother with actually going to Bea’s closet. In the blink of an eye she’d summoned a pair of sweats and t-shirt into her hand before offering it to Kitty. “You can go change in the hall bathroom.” She pointed in the appropriate direction. “And then we can see where we go from there,” the witch finished with another flirtatious smirk, apparently more than ready to leave the moment of tension behind.

“We made do,” Kitty said, easy and light, watching as Nell seemed to relax. And Kitty had been pretty relaxed herself, but this was certainly more reassuring than a tensed witch. She had no idea what Nell specialized in, but all magic could be a pretty terrible time for the other party when a tensed up witch was involved. “I didn’t get to celebrate Imbolc last year,” Kitty mused, thinking about how she’d left town around September and hadn’t really been able to look back. She raised an eyebrow. “You sure your family would be alright with an interloper? I’m not really… magically inclined.” And it wasn’t anything that her family had ever given her shit about, and she’d always been allowed to participate in everything and lend a hand for rituals and celebrations, but her own magic… it had just never been there for Kitty. Which was why she’d been so eager to have any kind of connection to the supernatural world. Which was why she was what she was. Which was why she was running. Everything was real cause and effect.

“Maybe I bribed him,” Kitty teased, laughing at the familiar’s actions. “Like I said, the accent’s mighty charmin’.” And if she tended to lay it on a little thick in new places, then that was her own business, no one else’s. She grabbed the clothes when they appeared, and it was nice, to be in the presence of magic again, the way it made the air feel and smell and taste just a little bit different, indiscernible to someone that hadn’t grown up with it in their life or wasn’t attuned to it. “Much appreciated,” she said, and then she let a smirk of its own work onto her face. “And I’m looking forward to it.” She headed to the bathroom to change, not looking back, and if her hips swayed just a little bit more than normal, well, that was her own business, too.

Nell watched as Kitty walked away, not bothering to curb the cringe-worthy words she tossed after the other woman. “I hate to see you go, but I love to watch you leave! Also I’m allowed to catcall you since your name is Kitty.” If the non-magical witch hadn’t heard it before, Nell would eat the words herself. But knowing how unoriginal and annoying most people were when trying to get into someone else’s pants…she had no doubt Kitty had heard at least a hundred iterations of the same line.

When Kitty emerged from the bathroom, Nell had finally settled herself back into her role of overconfident joke-sasser. In the silence she’d held Taki for a quick moment, taking deep breaths of his fur until the smell of blood and her paranoia had subsided into something far more manageable. And if Kitty was still willing— Nell would have an even better distraction soon enough. But first… “It’s just my two sisters and me, and we’re basically the only witches my student’s had contact with so…no one’s going to be a dick about whether or not you can channel magic. Besides- being a witch is more than just magic.” Nell had learned as much when Morgan lost her powers to becoming a zombie. “And if anyone is being a dick about it just tell me and I’ll sort them out.” The threat wasn’t veiled in the least.

“So this is the part where I offer to very innocently show you my room, and then we have a sexy pillow fight or something and then you’re naked again, but I’m also naked this time around. And having more fun.” Nell waited at the first step towards the stairs, waiting for Kitty to decide if she still wanted to act on the words she’d previously said.

Kitty grinned the entire way to the bathroom, and she was still grinning when she came out. And, yeah, all of it was cheesy and cringy and stuff that she’d heard a million and one times before, but it was fun, too. She changed quickly, eager to get back outside, the clothes clearly not Nell’s from the way they actually fit her body reasonably well. “I appreciate that, the catcalls and the invitation to Imbolc,” she said. She’d like to go, if only to experience something familiar again. “Sure, sure. I’m a witch, just non-practising. Lackin’ that essential casting part of spellcasting,” she mused, light and so very easy. It had taken years, but Kitty had trained the bitterness out of her mouth, made her words so that they didn’t twist into harsh, angry things. It wasn’t anyone’s fault she couldn’t channel magic. Just her physiology being unable to do the thing. She laughed. “You’re sweet, sugar, but I don’t think anyone needs anything sorted on that front.”

The invitation made Kitty’s grin turn wicked, and she sauntered up to the steps beside Nell. The first step helped, but Kitty was still taller. “Innocent? Is that so?” she drawled. “You know, all of that sounds real fun. You’re kinda speakin’ my language.” And maybe she’d just put clothes on to take them right back off, but it was all in the name of fun, right? Besides, this was about to even the playing field. “But maybe,” she said, “we should go up to your room and not talk at all.”

Nell shrugged as Kitty brushed off her implication of defense when it came to idiotic people who had nothing better to do than run their mouths and tried her best not to be any more charmed by the accent and pet names than she already was. Tried and failed. She wouldn’t verbally admit that Kitty’s intended effects of her ‘charming accent’ were working, even after she’d called the woman out on it. At least she could pretend it took more than a pretty face to catch her interest…even if it wasn’t true. “We’ll see about that.” Even if Kitty was effortlessly alluring, she wasn’t going to let the woman win over that particular point.

Sleeping with a woman always felt different than going after a guy or non-binary person for the witch, and it was proven by the way Nell felt herself warring with the heat that was threatening to rise into her face as she noticed Kitty still stood over her despite the added height of the step. She couldn’t begin to explain it, just knew that girls were far better at slipping past certain points of her exterior than any other gender was. “You know- I caught you outside in my net. I did the work of getting you in here. I’m pretty sure it’s your turn to catch me. Then maybe I’ll let you have a little kiss or something as a treat.” With that the witch bounded up the stairs towards her room, sending a teasing grin over her shoulder while she ran, already planning on letting the redhead topple her into the bed and in between the sheets.

#ch:kitty #chatzy #save a horse ride a werewolf

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nelllraiser · 4 years ago

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blood on the horizon | marley & nell

TIMING: before jonas’ attack on kitty. LOCATION: the morgue. PARTIES: @detectivedreameater & @nelllraiser. SUMMARY: marley and nell get to the bottom of why erin’s body doesn’t match her dna. CONTAINS: sibling death, med blood, and symptoms of undiagnosed ptsd (beginning and end of triggers marked in chatzy).

Typically Nell wouldn’t be the least perturbed about committing a good old breaking and entering. More than half of her bounties tended to find her in places she wasn’t technically allowed to be, but that had never stopped her. Finishing the large perimeter she’d made around the morgue, she found her way back to Marley, pushing aside the kernel of dread that was trying to lay roots in her stomach. No. She wasn’t nervous about sneaking into the morgue. It was the thought of Erin’s body waiting for them inside that had the witch apprehensive. Even if Regan had found that it didn’t actually belong to their Erin…it would still look like her. And though her night terrors often starred the deaths and bodies of her loved ones, seeing a physical representation of such a thing was far different than the dark and blurry pictures that lived in her mind’s eye.

Nell shook it off, crossing her arms when she passed on what she’d found in a hushed tone. “I got an eye on a few of the cameras. We’re not in their field of vision yet, but they’ll be easy enough to get rid of. Just depends on how much of them you want left by the time I’m done. I don’t really care if there’s evidence someone broke in. They’re not gonna trace it back to me.” Magic was convenient that way. After all, it didn’t leave fingerprints that the average precinct could trace. Sure— a magical signature of sorts could linger and be identified by the right person, but the WCPD always seemed to have their head stuck in the sand when it came to supernatural crime. “So basically I just need to know if you care whether they’ll be able to tell someone broke in or not. I can do it both ways— leaving no trace just takes a little longer.” She ended the words with a shrug, picking under her nails with her thumb while she waited for the mara’s reply.

Marley’s brain hadn’t stopped churning since that first message Kavanagh sent her appeared on her phone. She had stared at it for what felt like forever, until finally responding. But she couldn’t believe it. Not just because it was Kavanagh, but because it felt too good to be true. If Erin wasn’t really dead, then she was out there somewhere, suffering. Probably in pain. Maybe even being tortured. Who knew. Erinyes couldn’t die easily. As long as they were letting her grant wishes, then Erin could be a hostage forever. The thoughts made her stomach churn. She had to see for herself. And that’s why they now stood outside the morgue, far enough away that outside security camera couldn’t catch them. They would be able to, anyway. Marley’s invisibility had always been one of the things about her that she hadn’t minded having, it came in handy far too often.

“Preferably none,” she said to Nell finally, taking her sunglasses off and pocketing them. She wouldn’t need them in there. “I may or may not have yelled at Kavanagh and told her I’d get the information myself.” And while she disliked the Medical Examiner, she knew the woman was smarter than she looked. Maybe not socially, but context clues would be easy enough to follow here. She turned to looked at Nell. “Don’t worry about me at all. I know how to slip in and out unnoticed, just do your thing.”

Nell hadn’t wanted to think long over what it meant that the body wasn’t Erin’s. The first flash of hope had been impossible to strike down when Marley had told her the news, but after that Nell kept a stifling grip on the candle that represented the vigil she might have held when it came to Erin possibly being alive. At this point in her life, she knew better than to hope. Continuing to ward off her more serious thoughts, she tsk-ed her tongue against the roof of her mouth, fixing Marley with a look of disapproval that was more tease than anyhting genuine. “There you go implicating yourself again. Plus it’s just less fun when I don’t get to leave a mess.” A nearly wistful sigh fell from her lips, thinking of the satisfaction she would have felt over sending the cops into a tailspin over how all the security cameras of the morgue might have inexplicably shattered at once. “But fine. I’m assuming you can’t hide your footprints, though. I’ll let you know when the cameras are done,” she said with a nod towards the snow-blanketed ground.

BEGINNING OF MED BLOOD TW

The witch tugged a fingerprick from behind her ear, poking a finger until a ruby drop of blood bubbled from her.

END OF MED BLOOD TW

“Thankfully, Winston— you know Winston, right? They used to work at the WCPD or whatever. They’re a technomancer, and they’ve got tons of cool stuff that they make. Anyway, they’ve really come in clutch when it comes to giving me James Bond shit.” All the while she spoke, Nell was drawing a circle in the snow, painting it red with the tip of her finger. Runes took form, and finally she spoke a string of careful Latin over her miniature spellwork. In the blink of an eye, four boggarts had appeared in the center of her summoning circle. “Alright- you each get one of these,” she explained while distributing the tech Winston had made her, as if the little creatures could understand what she was saying. Words were far beyond their level of intellect, though the magic that bonded a summoner to their creatures was more than enough for the guinea pig-sized insectoids to know what she wanted of them. Each boggart hoarded what Nell had given them, a button-sized disc that had a suction cup on one end of it. “Now fly, my pretties.”

Of course— boggarts couldn’t fly. But what they lacked in flight, they made up for in teleportation, and the morgue was close enough for the little pests to land themselves atop the morgue’s roof. Either way, Nell wasn’t going to pass up a chance to use some stereotypical witch dialogue from The Wizard of Oz. The cameras wouldn’t see the boggarts because they’d quite literally appeared out of nothing, carefully out of the cameras’ ranges while the creatures sneaked up behind the surveillance equipment. All of them were pointed outwards, towards the ground where any normal small-town criminal would have made their entrance. The roof was a large and glaring blindspot to anyone who could make a less traditional approach. Nell waited and watched as she kept an eye on her little minions, making sure they suction-cupped the tech pieces properly as she kept a mental hand on their magical leashes. From the outside, she simply looked to be staring at them intently. Only the witch could feel the magical strings that kept her and the boggarts connected, like thin, shining lines that she could tug on whenever her creatures began to get antsy.

The last boggart finished sticking on the tech, and Nell explained once again. “It loops the last hour of the footage. I think they got the idea from National Treasure or something. So let’s go steal the fucking Declaration of Independance.” Having no doubt in Winston’s ability and whether or not their tech would hold up, Nell made her way towards the next step of their infiltration, and the door of the morgue.

Marley rolled her eyes. “Could if I wanted to,” she grumbled, but she had never really thought about whether her incorporeal form left footprints behind. That was probably something other mara were taught, but she had never really needed to know that answer. Maybe she’d test it out later. “You could always leave a note, maybe even scribble a little winky face on it for the good doctor. I’m sure that’ll drive her up the wall, wondering who sent it.” A little smile came to her face at the thought and Marley stepped back as Nell started her magic. The blood pooled red at the tip of her fingers and Marley watched intently as she drew lines with it in the snow and summoned some boggarts. Disturbing little creatures, but they were good at getting around places. Teleportation was like that, after all.

“Yeah, I knew the kid,” she answered, hands in pockets as she watched the boggarts get to work, and the strange trance like state Nell seemed to be in as she watched her summons go about their task. She kicked at a pile of snow until Nell spoke up again. “You know they got like, actual regular technology like that, too, right? Ain’t gotta be magic.” Marley rolled her eyes. “Technically, we’re not stealing anything. So don’t take anything,” she said, waving a finger at her. “Are we good to go in or what?”

“I’m sure you could,” Nell snarked back, not actually caring whether the mara had the ability to or not. It was just always far too much fun to poke fun at the police officer. “I dunno, she’s so weird lately I don’t even know if I should really bother.” Ever since Regan had disappeared into that cabin in the forest she’d acted so strangely- or stranger than usual. It was still strange to talk about Winston in the past tense when it came to White Crest. Nell still kept in regular touch with her childhood neighbor and best friend, but it was as if a piece of the town was missing without them. Still, she couldn’t help but be grateful that White Crest couldn’t get its claws in them outside of town lines. “They’d got regular technology to do a lot of things that magic can do,” Nell said with a shrug. “Winston combines tech and magic. And magic is more reliable and faster. And I’m a witch. Me not using magic for shit like this would be like you not going invisible or whatever.”

At the door, Nell used another bit of spoken magic to do away with any alarm that might be in play, laughing a little at how straightforward it was to sneak into a place as mundane as this. Next came the actual lock, and another sigil drawn in blood that was paired with an activation word had it clicking out of place. “I was only going to take one toe,” she joked before stepping into the darkness of the morgue, her voice growing quieter inside the building.

“Alright, alright, I get your point,” Marley said with a dismissive wave. She didn’t really care to comment on Kavanagh acting strangely– the Medical Examiner had always been strange and foolish to Marley, denying the supernatural when she herself was one. She strode up behind Nell towards the building and watched as she did some more magic. It would’ve been easy enough, at this point, for Marley to disappear into the building without the aid of magic, but she’d asked Nell along for a reason. She needed a witness. She couldn’t be the only one to look at the body. She couldn’t be the only one to have to see Erin dead again. Swallowing, she followed Nell inside, instinctively turning intangible. “Just one? That’s no fun.”

She waved Nell over to follow her as she trekked down the hall that led to the stairs for the morgue. The building was completely dark, save for the emergency lights that always stayed on at night, lining the floor with a strange blue tint. Marley’s footsteps made no noise as the two walked along, but Nell’s were soft and barely there. Enough to make Maley tense as she listened for anything else. “Think we’re all clear,” she said back to her, “morgue’s just up ahead.”

Nell was far too busy slipping into her jokester persona to remember that she’d be seeing what looked to be Erin’s body soon enough, and that her head wouldn’t be attached to it. It was why she’d started the air of nonchalance in the first place, but perhaps she’d taken it too far, gotten lost among all her light-heartedness to rightly prepare herself for what was going to come out of those shiny and square doors that lined the walls of the morgue. It was the sterility of the place that finally made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on edge, the endless stainless steel reminding her of Erin’s own mortuary in the funeral home.

BEGINNING OF SIBLING DEATH TW

The place where Erin had let her sit with Bea’s body. She’d barely even known Erin then, had banked on Nic’s connection to the woman and the funeral director’s good heart to house the body of Nell’s older sister while she did the best to pick up the pieces. And Erin had done it. She’d taken one look at Nell’s tear and bloodstained face and held the body with barely any questions, had gone so far as to comfort Nell in the aftermath of it all, and even sewn Bea back together before the resurrection. And that was a debt Nell would be paying back for the rest of her life. But it wasn’t just the favors between her and the fury that had Nell on a warpath for the woman— it was the fact that somewhere along the way Erin had become near-family. And Nell would do anything for those she considered family.

Glancing towards the computer in the room, Nell sidled over to it, tapping the keys awake. “So how do we find the right…locker?” She wasn’t sure what to call the little holes the dead resided within. “Is it stored in this?” Aimlessly she began to click through the varied programs and documents after she’d used more of Winston’s magic to hack past the passwords in the blink of an eye.

“They’re just called drawers,” Marley corrected, “you really don’t know much about this stuff, huh?” Not that she had expected the girl to. Nell was a crafter of magic, not violence. Not death and fear and blood. Even Marley’s profession was messy. Being a detective was never clean work. It was dirty and so was she, with the blood of everyone she’d put down. “There should be a list somewhere of which body is stored where,” she said, coming up to the computer. “Can you techno-whiz friend get us into this computer? Knowing Kavanagh, it’s locked behind at least five passwords.” She glanced around the room, to the wall of bodies hidden behind metal doors. They could check every locker and every body, but Marley had a feeling Nell wasn’t exactly in the mood for that. “Don’t think she’s dumb enough to write it down and leave it somewhere, unfortunately,” she grumbled, moving about the lab and looking for anything that might have a clue on it.

Nell gave Marley a simple shrug before answering. She’d seen plenty of death in her day, and bathed in more blood than she could even begin to quantify, but the legal side of dead bodies wasn’t a world she’d often entered. “If I put a body in here that’d mean I didn’t do my job very well.” Now that she thought about it…did Marley even know that she was a supernatural bounty hunter? Or that she was far more hands-on with her other activities than she was when breaking out of holding cells and identifying demons the mara had witnessed? “I don’t leave traces,” she continued nonchalantly, as if they were discussing the daily weather. “And what I can’t clean up, my creatures eat.” Greg and the hellhounds were always thrilled to get a fresh snack of sinew and bone. “So no- I don’t really have any reason to care about the morgue and what the stuff in it is called.”

Nell scrolled through the data she’d just opened, looking for anything familiar as the names of the deceased drifted before her. Finally, she came to a pause. “It’s here.” Her voice had dropped its previous teasing nature, her features morose as she read the drawer number aloud. “38B. That’s the one we need.”

Marley looked back over her shoulder at Nell as she worked on the computer. Marley had computer skills but wasn’t a hacker by any means. She never really needed to be. “You and your creatures, huh?” She examined one of the small centrifuges that looked to be for testing blood and wondered if this was what Kavanagh had put Erin’s– or fake Erin’s– blood in to find her DNA. Or if she’d used something else. Like hair or saliva. They did have the head after all. Marley felt sick for a moment, looking away and coming back over to Nell. “You never did say what kind of magic you do? You know my cards, kinda feel like I should know yours,” she pointed out,. But she paused again when Nell found what they were looking for. 38B. Marley went over to the assigned drawer and stared at it. Could she do it? Could she face it? If Kavanagh was wrong and it was Erin’s body, would she be able to hold it together? She didn’t really think so.

Slowly, Marley reached up and pulled the door handle, listening to it click. It opened easily and the drawer inside slid out a bit. The body on it was covered in a white sheet and Marley glanced over at Nell. “Well…” she swallowed, “here goes nothing.”

“My creatures,” Nell repeated with a touch of pride as the corners of her lips turned upwards. “Like the boggarts. But bigger. Much bigger, and with sharper teeth and claws.” There was no reason to keep the sort of magic she did a secret from Marley. There was little she kept secret about her magic these days anyway. “Well if summoning creatures from thin air wasn’t enough of a hint- I do summoning. And if the blood on the snow wasn’t enough of another hint, I do blood magic too.”

The sight of the metal door and the number on it kicked the humor from Nell like air being beat from her lungs. Her stomach could feel a familiar dread building within it, her heart rate beginning to spike as her mind began to blur around the edges. She still remembered what it’d been like to drag Bea’s corpse along the forest floor. To pull Adam’s barely living body across the hellscape. The sickening bump of Bea’s head against the glass of the jar Montgomery had kept her in. Nell’s sister, Luce, had vomited when she saw it. Marley had already seen Erin’s body, but she didn’t need to be the one to move that white sheet. That wasn’t a weight the mara needed to remember for the rest of her life, as Nell remembered her own weights. So even though every cell in her body shied away from the action, she raised a small hand to pull back the cover.

It was Erin. Even though the test results said it wasn’t, that didn’t change the fact that the face resting peacefully on the metal slab was Erin’s. But as Nell looked longer, her body tensed, and the hair grew longer…darker. She felt like she was floating somewhere slightly above her skin as the features began to look more like her mother’s, more like Bea’s. There was that ugly line of nothing that separated body from head. Nothing where her sister’s neck should be.

Marley looked at the body and it was still Erin’s, but the tag said “Unidentified”. She read it over and over. “Incompatible DNA”. It didn’t make sense. It didn’t make sense. Marley blinked and rubbed her eyes and shook her head and tried to make the body not be Erin but it was. It was. She didn’t know how to explain it. It was right there on the chart. Erin’s DNA in the CODIS from when she’d been arrested, and then the body’s DNA. They were different. Completely different. Marley felt a sudden spike in fear, and her head whipped over to look at Nell, who now was paler than the sheet over the body. Marley forced herself to snap out of it– someone needed her right now, and if she couldn’t be there for Erin, she could be there for the people who cared about her instead. “Hey, woah– you good? I-is this too much? We can put the body back,” she said, reaching tentatively for Nell.

Marley’s voice sounded as if it was coming through layers of water, garbled and far off as the smell- the taste of Bea’s blood filled Nell’s mouth. She could hear the wet thud of her sister’s head falling to the ground, another sound that would play in her mind until the day she died. It should have been her. It was supposed to be her, but now Bea was dead and—

Nell jerked away when Marley’s hand entered her field of vision, hissing in defense as her eyes were forced away from the body to the new threat. She moved like a cornered animal, her magic pulsing inside her veins and ready to act against this enemy. Too much steel, too much of the bright silver that had coated Erin’s basement where Nell had held her dead sister’s hand, and tried to force herself to feel something- anything other than the gaping void inside her chest. A vial of blood saved for testing shattered somewhere nearby, and the splatter of its contents against her cheek was both a curse and a blessing. Blood. Her sister’s blood drenched all over her…but that wasn’t her sister’s blood on her face, was it? In an often-used movement, Nell brought a drop of the blood to her lips, giving it a taste as the magic that was dying to break loose ran over it. Male. Mid-forties. Human without a trace of magic in his blood. Not Bea.

It was enough to give Nell a single moment of clarity, to recognize the face of Marley that was staring at her. There was no easy way to explain her reaction, so she did her best to play it off, already ashamed of what had just happened. “I was- my sister had her head cut off once.” An attempt at a shrug pulled on her shoulders, the ones that still felt disconnected from her arms. “I…forgot for a second.” Her feet shifted beneath her, embarrassed to admit to the strange comings and goings of memories that sometimes plagued her during the waking hours. “It’s fine. It’s alright.”

Marley pulled back the second the witch jerked. She might not’ve known a lot about magic, but she knew that a volatile spellcaster could mean disaster. She stayed on the other side of the drawer as Nell seemed to withdraw into herself, shrinking and looking much like a wounded, scared animal. Fear and pain writhing under the surface of her skin, a fear so potent Marley almost felt sorry she could feel it, taste it. She blinked and looked away, making sure her sunglasses were on and that her eyes didn’t try to take advantage of the situation, even though her muscles itched to. She hadn’t fed in a while and that was her problem to deal with. She wouldn’t take advantage of someone like this just for a quick snack.

The vial shattering pulled Marley’s attention up and she watched as it dripped down Nell’s face, watched as the witch dabbed her finger in it and brought it to her lips. Humans on their own were strange, but this– this was different. Nell was so much more than Marley had imagined. So much darker. Maybe that was why she felt able to turn to her in this time. She recognized a darkness in her that Marley had herself.

The symptoms of PTSD were clear enough, but if it were reversed, if Marley were the one pressed up against a wall with blood on her face and an empty stare, she wouldn’t want anyone to point it out. So she didn’t say anything. “Bea, right?” she asked quietly, setting the cloth back over the head to cover it up, so that it was just the body exposed, lying prone on a cold, metal slab. It still had the same scars as Erin, the little freckles on her shoulders, the mole on her collarbone. She had known Bea only a little while, but in that time, the older witch hadn’t shirked about in telling Marley exactly what happened to her. Beheading and all. Marley looked over at Nell. “You know…S’okay to not be okay,” she mumbled, trying to remember words that Erin had once told her. She was allowed to grieve. They were allowed to grieve. “I just…can’t figure this out. The boy looks exactly like her but the CODIS has never been wrong. So what is it? Who is it?”

Annoyance flickered through Nell as she realized she’d likely destroyed something Regan would most likely notice was missing when she returned to the morgue. Oh well. She’d clean up the mess and hope that the medical examiner didn’t look that closely into one missing vial. Still…it was messier than Nell would have liked. Raising a hand, she siphoned the blood off her face with her magic, lowering it into a random and nearby glass. Bea’s name from Marley nearly caused her hackles to rise again before she reminded herself that no one she knew was lying in this morgue. Not yet, at least. The witch’s nails dug into her palm until it hurt, and Nell used the pain in an attempt to try and center herself, to focus on something that wasn’t the memories threatening to rise to the surface once more.

“Bea told you?” Or had Marley simply gotten used to the daily tragedies of White Crest? “But yeah- that’s the one,” Nell finished with a forceful chuckle. “She’s fine now. Obviously.” Or as fine as someone could be after being murdered and brought back to life. S’okay to not be okay. The words bounced around Nell’s mind, and she couldn’t decide where she landed on them, preferring not to think too closely on such things. “Don’t really have time for that right now,” she said in a way that wasn’t unkind. Nell wasn’t sure whether she meant that a morgue wasn’t the best place for a conversation like that, or if she simply couldn’t stand still long enough for her problems to catch up with her. “But…thanks.”

END OF SIBLING DEATH TW

Her shoulders rolled as she tried to dispel more of the haze that surrounded her mind, and focus on the questions Marley was asking. Against her better judgment, Nell stepped closer to the body, grateful that she didn’t have to look at Erin’s face any more. She waved her hands over it, letting her magic run over the corpse as she scanned for anything out of the ordinary. A flicker of magic answered her, and Nell’s brows shot up in intrigue. “There’s magic- hold on.” Another few, long moments of searching with her own magic, and she had an answer. “It’s a glamour,” she breathed, another piece of relief sliding into place while the evidence against Erin being dead continued to stack up. Her hands looked for where the magic was most concentrated, and before she could think better of it she drew a dagger from a hidden sheath, sliding the sheet back a little until just the body’s leg was revealed.

BEGINNING OF MED BLOOD TW

With careful movements, she slid the blade between bone and skin, doing her best not to disturb whatever laid beneath. The flesh flapped back with a sticky sound, and Nell’s jaw tightened at what she found. “A sigil,” she explained while pointing to the symbol that had been carved into the bone of the shin. “If I just-” The tip of the knife slashed a line through the center of the sigil, and the magic fell. “Pull back the top again.”

END OF MED BLOOD TW

Marley knew that mindset all too well, too. There was never enough time to just stop and not be okay, because when you were, you fell apart. The world fell apart for you, but no one else. They all just kept going and you get left behind. Marley knew that all too well. She’d been left behind. But the possibility of it not being true grew more with Nell’s declaration of magic and Marley’s brows went up. She wasn’t going to pretend that she knew how Nell was certain, but she trusted the young spellcaster enough to know she wouldn’t lie about something like this. And then she was tugging back the sheet and sticking her knife into the leg and Marley couldn’t help but watch with intrigue. She’d always been drawn to the macabre. Children and parents alike had scolded her for it.

When the witch found what she needed, Marley eagerly pulled the sheet back. There was no hesitation, it had to be true– and there, right before her eyes, was a body she didn’t recognize. Even the head was different. “It’s not Erin,” she said on a breath, “it’s not her.” Finally lifting her gaze to meet Nell’s eyes. “Erin’s still alive.”

#chatzy #ch:marley #sibling death tw #med blood tw #blood on the horizon

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