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soap-lady · 10 months

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Wrote this instead of sleeping.

@angelqueen13art @idreamtofmanderleyagain

So...that domestic fluff I mentioned that I wanted someone else to write? Yeah...

So, these will be little vignettes that I may or may not continue but I would not have been able to sleep until I wrote this. Feedback and suggestions are welcome.

This first bit is a retelling of the end of Hellraiser II where Elliot survived and escaped with Kirsty and Tiffany. It's probably not entirely movie accurate but I hope it's still ok.

Life is weird.

Well, that was a blanket statement. Weird was such a subjective term. What was weird to one person was normal, even comforting to someone else. Considering what had happened to her in less than six months she probably wasn’t the best judge. Still, as Kirsty Cotton lay on a bed made of air mattresses and old quilts between her new adoptive little sister and a man missing presumed dead for nearly seventy years, she thought she had the right to call her life weird.

It had been an impulse for her to push the Column of Souls into Channard and impale him upon the spear he’d impaled the child who’d once been Chatterer with. Channard had wailed and tried to pry himself off and in the meantime Kirsty beckoned the man who’d once been the priest of Hell to follow her. His followers had sacrificed themselves to save her and if she could spare someone else their fate she would. Daddy was beyond her help but not this man. He looked at her in surprise but followed her and Tiffany when they ran.

“My apologies for not introducing myself earlier,” the man from the photograph easily kept up with them, not even out of breath, “my name was Spencer. Elliot Spencer. Captain.”

“Nice to meet you,” Kirsty answered as she glanced behind them to make sure they hadn’t been pursued. “We can all have…tea or something later. Run!”

They ran down a corridor and suddenly found themselves back in the hospital. Tiffany began striding her way through a ward and Kirsty had to hurry to keep up with her. The former Hell Priest, now Elliot Spencer followed them silently as if unsure he was allowed to be there.

The hospital was in an uproar as dead bodies lay on cots while patients ran amuck and chased nurses. No one bothered to stop the trio as a man chased an orderly with a hatchet.

“I have to go back,” Tiffany said suddenly.

“Tiffany, what are you saying?!” Kirsty couldn’t believe what she was saying and she and Elliot shared a look of incredulity between them.

“I have to solve the puzzle,” Tiffany explained as they walked. “They remembered and they got better.”

Meanwhile the former captain was silently panicking. They’d barely escaped. His fellow Cenobites had died without even being able to raise arms in defense. His chains had failed as his powers forsook him. He could barely defend himself or the young ladies with him. Go back?!

Tiffany took the decision out of their hands as she ran back into Kirsty’s room as the pathway to the Labyrinth reopened. With a quick glance over her shoulder to see if they would follow her she continued to run.

“Tiffany, what are you doing?” Kirsty asked as they stumbled across the skin that had once been Julia. One hand still held the diamond shape that had once been the box.

Elliot peered over her shoulder. “The Lament Configuration has many forms. The box is one, the diamond another. If Tiffany can shift it back into the box we can close the door and seal the schism, hopefully after escaping.”

Kirsty caught her breath long enough to glare at him. “Turning it into that thing was your doing. Why?”

Why had he done that? The sudden rush of his human memories was overwhelming and he tried to sort through them for an answer. After a few minutes he just shrugged. “It seemed a good idea at the time.”

She rolled her eyes and was about to answer him when Tiffany took off again. They rushed off with her.

“Where is she going?” Kirsty yelled to Elliot.

He was about to reply that he didn't know when something occurred to him. “To be closer to Leviathan. He’s…God here. The box now mimics his form. Perhaps solving it will let us leave, at least in her mind.”

Kirsty wanted to protest but Elliot spoke up. “Tiffany has a gift for puzzle solving. Trust her.”

It was on the tip of his tongue to say she should trust him but he could see why she wouldn’t or couldn’t at the moment. True, he’d been prepared to die to save her but that didn’t mean she wasn’t still afraid. Perhaps she should be. Still, he would do what he could to protect both her and Tiffany, even if he met his end doing so.

*****

The three ran until they were on the pathway leading to Leviathan. As the Lord of the Labyrinth rotated overhead it was all Elliot could do to stop himself from dropping to his knees in worship. Something about them still called to the priest he’d once been and looked at the girls. Tiffany strode forward as if in a dream, Kirsty close behind her as a protector. Elliot stood straight, shoulders back, head high. These young women had no training, no experience. Yet Tiffany had broken her bonds of silence to fight back and Kirsty had talked her way out of Hell twice. He drew courage from them, ashamed at his momentary weakness.

As they drew closer Kirsty looked up at Leviathan. “Oh my God!” Elliot nodded while Tiffany continued on alone.

The blonde girl twitched as Leviathan shined its black light upon her. She remembered…her mother had gone to Doctor Channard for help. She was spending too much time with puzzles. Her mother begged him for help but was rewarded with death. She cried out for her mother but Channard had whisked her away to the operation room. He wanted to perform surgery on her in the hopes she wouldn’t remember witnessing her mother’s murder.

“No!”

She collapsed and Elliot and Kirsty ran to her. Kirsty kneeled down to hold her but he held back. His family…wasn’t naturally affectionate, only his old Nurse had ever comforted him. Fortunately Kirsty knew what to do. She had a knack for empathy that he’d lost. Clever, brave girl.

Suddenly Kirsty understood. “Tiffany…it’s a puzzle…it’s all a puzzle!”

Spencer was impressed by her understanding and was glad to have a way to contribute to her knowledge. “In a way, yes.” He stood by Kirsty and explained a bit of what he knew. “The Lament Configuration was designed to be a doorway, its design inspired by Leviathan itself.”

Kirsty looked at him. “It sounds a little conceited.”

He shrugged. “I studied quite a bit of Greco-Roman culture as a boy. Most gods are conceited.”

Tiffany knelt and began to solve the puzzle as Elliot and Kirsty stood guard. The pieces began to move, shifting into place.

Beside her Channard rose from the mists to attack Tiffany. He had a hole in his chest and was moving stiffly. They hadn’t managed to kill him but they had slowed him down. Kirsty and Elliot shot forward to protect Tiffany.

“Tiffany!” Kirsty cried out and tried to reach her. One of his tentacles was poised to attack Kirsty but Elliot threw himself in front of her to shield her. The tentacle turned into a spear and impaled itself in Elliot’s shoulder. Spencer screamed and tried to pull it out. Kirsty went to Tiffany’s aid and was knocked to the ground.

The creature that was once Channard glared at its predecessor. “I’ll deal with you later,” it promised. It turned back to Tiffany and Kirsty. “Ah, girls. And how are we feeling today?”

Elliot had given up trying to dislodge the tentacle and decided to break it off instead. He had to save the girls! He was going to do something right for the first time in a long time. He bent the thing forward and backward, trying to get it to break. It was beginning to fray and he frantically worked faster.

The Lament Configuration slid across the stone and away from Tiffany. Kirsty shoved the tentacle holding her off her and stood up.

“You have your whole lives behind you now,” Channard continued. His voice was a parody of kindness and false concern.

“No anesthetic at hand. Shame.�� More false concern. “Surgery is open, Tiffany. What was today’s agenda? Ah, yes. Evisceration!” He cackled in delight like a penny dreadful villain.

Elliot had almost freed himself. He could see the conversion chamber rising behind Tiffany and his newly beating heart nearly stopped. No. Not for Tiffany. She was innocent. Not for Kirsty either. He worked harder.

The tentacles become scalpels and bundles of needles. Kirsty looked from Tiffany to Elliot, who still hung there useless and ashamed. To his surprise, she ran away, leaving him and Tiffany.

Elliot wanted to shout after and make her come back but he was almost free. The pain was excruciating but he’d felt worse. He had to help Tiffany before he went into shock. He looked around for something to staunch the bleeding and found nothing. He hoped it would clot by itself.

Sweat poured down his face as he worked to tentacle back and forth until it broke in two with a crack unnoticed by Channard. Good. Let him be oblivious while he tried to pull himself off the tentacle shard. He gritted his teeth as he tried to pull himself off. He wouldn’t do anything as undignified as screaming.

Suddenly out of the fog Julia appeared and grabbed Tiffany. Elliot had nearly freed himself and grabbed a wayward tentacle as both a lever and a weapon. He hoped he could distract them long enough for Tiffany to run. She could always solve the puzzle from a safer location.

Channard’s tentacles receded back into his hands as he saw the woman he wanted. “I knew you’d come back.”

Julia didn’t speak but drew close to Channard and kissed him. Tiffany slipped away and towards the puzzle. Elliot freed himself with a grunt and stalked towards Channard and Julia but watching them kiss turned his stomach. His hands clutched his makeshift weapon tighter.

Spencer watched as Tiffany began to solve the box. Lightning crashed overhead as Leviathan signaled their disapproval. Had he still believed, Elliot would have prayed.

Unfortunately even Julia could only distract Channard for so long before he turned away from her and noticed Tiffany. “Your case is closed, Tiffany,” he told the girl, “I’m afraid it’s terminal!”

If the situation weren’t so dire, Spencer would have rolled his eyes. The doctor was overdramatic, even as a Cenobite. He wasted time with horrid jokes that wouldn’t amuse a primary school child. He raised the broken tentacle. He would only get one chance. He had to make this attack count.

Channard fired his scalpel tentacles at Tiffany, only for them to get stuck in the stone when he missed. Really, this was turning into a farce.

The creature tried to free itself but couldn’t pull out the tentacles. Leviathan crackled with displeasure at their newest creation’s failures and pulled the head off the doctor. Tiffany stepped back in shock and nearly fell but Elliot lunged forward and caught her, pulling her to safety.

To their surprise, Julia approached them and looked at Elliot’s shoulder. “You’re going to need a real doctor to treat that for you.”

Elliot and Tiffany started. It was Julia’s face and Kirsty’s voice! Spencer looked at the face again. The face was sagging and looked bruised. A hand rose to peel the face away and revealed a smiling…Kirsty?!

Spencer started, shocked and…impressed. “You disguise yourself with Julia’s skin?” No wonder he’d wanted her as a Cenobite. “Clever thinking.”

The young women hugged each other and turned to Elliot. “We need to get out of here.”

They looked overhead as Leviathan began to shift and change until they began to resemble the box. The trio ran with Elliot between them in case he stumbled. This only made his wound bleed more. He almost told them to leave them and save themselves but a glare from a blood covered Kirsty made the words die in his throat and his scalp tingle. She truly was extraordinary.

Balls of blue light flashed around them as the schism began to close. Even without his powers Elliot could still feel Leviathan scream as they were defied and they made it back into Kirsty’s room as the doorway between worlds closed as what sounded like the Engineer screamed in fury.

The three of them collapsed in an undignified heap on the floor of Kirsty’s room. The young women tried very hard to cushion the landing for Spencer but he still winced in pain.

Kirsty grabbed the sheet off the bed to staunch the bleed. “Let’s get you a real doctor before you go into shock.”

*****

The hospital was still in an uproar hours later until a man in mismatched clothing had started a triage and organized the remaining to treat the injured and restore order. The man had his arm in a sling and his shoulder bandaged but had an air of authority that made it difficult to argue with him. The man said his name was Spencer and he had a military bearing.

After things had settled down and patients had returned to their beds the police had been summoned to take away the bodies and question the staff. It was tense for a bit when Elliot gave his name but after discovering the “special” patients on the maintenance floor (thanks to Kirsty) his interview was lost on the shuffle.

Authorities were eager to bury the incident as fast as they could arrange funerals for all the dead patients and since Tiffany and Kirsty seemed stable (and had such a level-headed, polite guardian to look after them) they had no problem being discharged.

Kirsty contacted Steve while they were still in the hospital and since he owed her for abandoning her in her time of need, he had workmen repair her father’s house. He also “knew a guy” who could get Elliot an ID, Birth Certificate, even a Visa.

They were camping out in the living room for now waiting for new furniture. She didn’t want anything touched by Julia to remain. It was only temporary; she planned on selling the house and buying something smaller. Something without memories, good or bad.

Elliot moved restlessly in his sleep, mumbling something about incoming mortars and she reached over and squeezed his good shoulder. Her touch settled him down and he smiled a bit before rolling over.

Listening to her roommates’ slow, gente breathing was beginning to make her sleepy enough to join them.

Life was weird, but it was starting to stabilize.

#kirsty cotton #captain elliot spencer #domestic fluff #tiffany #i wrote this instead of sleeping #no beta i die like elliot #coughing and bleeding #hellraiser

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