#only for her to be revealed to be alive leaving her panicky calling for help

[thetimelordbatgirl]

Ngl, while I do mock Eastenders at times for how it goes about character exits, Leo Taylor's death hit pretty hard.

[fanfic-screenplays]

Batman Rebirth Part 10

EXT: AMUSEMENT MILE - PIER- CONTINUOUS

JOKER casually waves at BATMAN...

...JOKER slashes the rope. PLUNGING JIM into the river...

EXT: AMUSEMENT MILE - PIER- MOMENTS LATER

... BATMAN runs towards the river, going to dive in after JIM.

...A GUNSHOT RINGS out. Hitting BATMAN in the chest, HE stumbles back...

...JOKER advances - firing again. HITTING BATMAN again...

...BATMAN dives at JOKER, knocking the revolver onto the floor...

...JOKER fights back, SWIPING again and again with the knife, BATMAN ducking and diving out of the way...

                TERRY:            (V.O)        Why?

...BATMAN keeps trying to get the edge of the pier, JOKER coming back at him with the knife, BATMAN's fighting gets more and more DESPERATE, HE's bleeding out, panicking about JIM...

...BATMAN dives forward, tackling JOKER to the ground. THEY grapple, DESPERATELY fighting...

...BATMAN clambers to his knees. The revolver in his hand. HE's PANICKY, FRANTICALLY points it at the JOKER...

...The lever CLICKS...

                SASHA:            (V.O)        To prove one point...

A maniacal smile CRACKS across the JOKER's face, He's achieved his lifelong ambition - Broke the Bat...

                SASHA:            (V.O)        All it takes is one bad day to        reduce the sanest man to lunacy...

MONTAGE ENDS.

                                         END FLASHBACK:

INT: BATCAVE: MAIN CONCOURSE

BRUCE turns away from the ROBIN suit, to face TERRY. HE's eyes are red, almost on the verge of tears - visibly shaken.

                BRUCE:        Barbara never forgave me... I        couldn't do it anymore after        that....

THEY sit in awkward silence for a good few minutes. BRUCE and TERRY not looking at one another.

                BRUCE:        So... Terry, you sure you still        want to do this?

TERRY glances up, MEETING BRUCE's gaze.

                TERRY:        Bruce... It's never been about        wanting to do this, this needs to        happen. Gotham needs hope.

INT: BATCAVE: BATCOMPUTER - MOMENTS LATER

An satellite view of GOTHAM appears on screen - flickering as it ZOOMS in. Following an BLINKING RED DOT.

                BROTHER EYE:        Target moving.

INT: BATCAVE: MAIN CONCOURSE - CONTINUOUS

BRUCE DIVES over - watching as the satellite ZOOMS in.The screen flickering as the image becomes clearer and clearer.

                BRUCE:        Powers is on the move.

TERRY turns. The RED DOT flying across the river, getting closer and closer to an structure floating in the distance.

                TERRY:        What's he heading towards?

BRUCE taps on the keyboard, bringing up a diagnostic screen - clicking OPTIMISE.

ON SCREEN:

The image clears up - revealing GOTHAM HOVERDOCK. Imagine an amalgamation of an aircraft supercarrier and a cargo ship. All kept in the air by four massive rotor systems.

ON SASHA:

                SASHA:        Looks like Gotham hoverdock... Must        be where they are shipping from.

                BRUCE:            (O.S)        Terry, If you want to do this, you        better get in the air.

INT: BAT-JET: COCKPIT - NIGHT

TERRY'S in the cockpit, helmet on, visor up. The full HUD is activated - boresight, flight path vector all hovering in- front of BATMAN.

Lights flicker across the cockpit - forming into an SHIMMERING HOLOGRAM of BRUCE.

                BRUCE:        Terry, we got access to those        files... Have a look at this.

The full VENOM GENOME flickers into existence - hovering next to BRUCE. Each gene labelled. BATMAN looks across at it.

                BRUCE:        This Blight has an remarkable        similar genetic to street Venom.

                TERRY        So Powers was supplying Venom to        those Jokerz?

                BRUCE:        By the looks of it... BRUCE:        they dealt to the vagrants, in        order for Powers to study the        effects it had on them...

INT: BAT-JET: COCKPIT - NIGHT - MOMENTS LATER

                TERRY        God... I hope Dad wasn't        involved...

A proximity alarm starts BEEPING on the HUD.

                BROTHER EYE:        Approaching target.

                BRUCE:        Terry, listen to me. We cannot        allow that weapon to leave the        city. It's more important than        Powers. Untold numbers of lives are        at stake.

TERRY glances down, gathering HIS thoughts.

                TERRY:        I know Bruce.

EXT: GOTHAM HOVERDOCK - NIGHT

A massive CARGO DRONE WHINES down through the sky. IT passes through a cloud, revealing... Gotham Hoverdock.

It's floating way above Gotham city. Imagine an amalgamation of an aircraft supercarrier and a cargo ship - Two runways, surrounded by cranes.

Our DRONE flies down, towards the hoverdock. Blades HUMMING. IT swings down, around the control tower...

INT: GOTHAM HOVERDOCK - CONTROL TOWER - NIGHT

It's the main hub of the hoverdock, A central control table surrounded by consoles and windows. It's alive with activity. PEOPLE running about, every console manned.

VILMOS is standing at the control table, watching the shipment being loaded on the overhead monitors.

                VILMOS:        How long until the transport is in        the air?

Behind VILMOS, the double doors SWISH open. DEREK POWERS steps through, making HIS way to the control table.

                DEREK:        Why? Feeling like you've outstayed        your welcome?

VILMOS turns, watching DEREK.

                VILMOS:        After the government raided your        office? Of course I am!

                DEREK:        Relax, it was only GCPD. I'll make        a call in the morning and it will        all be cleared up. The Mayor owes        me...

                VILMOS:        What about this Bat?...

DEREK looks up at the monitors.

                DEREK:        I doubt he's the real one.

DEREK looks over at VILMOS. VILMOS is still not convinced.

                DEREK:        Even if he does show up, I've        brought some friends along,        shouldn't be a problem.

On cue, the double doors SWISH open and two soldiers - clad in bulky mechanized armour MARCH in, their visors raised. Each has a insignia on their armour, a black chess piece - a Knight.

VILMOS turns - looking them over...

                VILMOS:            Can I help y...

                DEREK            (Interrupting)        Ah, may I introduce Checkmate,        America's finest private army.

DEREK moves across to introduce the Checkmate soldiers - SERGEANT CONRAD MACKAY and SERGEANT CONNIE WEBB.

                DEREK:        This is Sergeant Conrad Mackay.

VILMOS shakes HIS hand. The armour WHIRRING.

                DEREK        And this is Sergeant...

                CONNIE:            (Interrupting)        Just Connie, sir.

VILMOS shakes HER hand. the armour WHIRS.

                CONNIE:        Heard all about you Vilmos.

                VILMOS:        Ah, What did you hear?

                CONNIE:        Only the best things Sir.

VILMOS nods - impressed.

                VILMOS:            (To Derek)        So these were the friends that you        were referring to?

                DEREK:        Yes, We have these two and some        others.

                VILMOS:        How many others exactly?

                CONRAD:        We've deployed two squads on this        rig. More than enough to deal with        some man in...

INT: GOTHAM HOVERDOCK - CONTROL TOWER - MOMENTS LATER

An ALARM BLARES across the control tower.

VILMO'S, CONNIE, CONRAD watch the screens above. Looking for the cause.

                DEREK        What the hell's going on?

CONNIE points at the screen.

                VILMOS:        He's found us.

DEREK looks up... seeing the BAT-JET on approach...

...Derek turns to CONNIE...

                DEREK:        Deal with him!

EXT: GOTHAM HOVERDOCK - WALKWAY - NIGHT

The walkway runs along the edge of the hoverdock, on one side there is the cargo - rows and rows of containers. The other - the night sky.

CHECKMATE SOLDIERS charge onto the walkway, all carrying multi missile launchers...

The SOLDIERS crouch down. Look through the targeting sights...

                SOLDIER 1:        Target locked!

                SOLDIER 2:        FIRE!

EXT: GOTHAM HOVERDOCK - WALKWAY - MOMENTS LATER

...BOOM! MISSILE after MISSILE ROAR out of the tubes, towards the BAT-JET...

[magicmastered]

What Universe does Thor: Ragnarok Take Place In? Part Two

I repeat my disclaimer from the last post in this series. If you don’t want to see criticism of Thor: Ragnarok, then a) don’t read, b) filter your tags, c) block me, or d) any combination of the previous.

For Part Two I’ll explain the characterization discrepancies between Thor: Ragnarok’s characters and those it shares through the MCU. These characters are Thor, Loki, Odin, and Bruce Banner.

(No, I didn’t forget Heimdall and the Warriors Three. I don’t see any issues with Ragnarok’s portrayal of Heimdall—correct me if I’m wrong, I’d love to discuss it—and unfortunately we don’t have enough time with the Warriors Three to tell.)

I’ll start with pre-Ragnarok Thor.

Thor, as I pointed out in Part One, has a violent temper, and his recklessness endangers his brother and friends. He starts out Thor (2011) arrogant enough to try to pull rank on Odin. He cajoles his friends into joining him on dangerous missions. He tends to look down on Loki, but doesn’t visibly enjoy seeing him in pain, and cares what happens to his brother to some degree (he’s distraught when Loki seemingly dies in both Thor movies, and saves Loki from the implosion bomb). He eventually learns to cool his temper to some degree (come later in Thor (2011) and later movies), though he still has lapses (when he Mjolnirs Tony for getting between him and Loki, then Cap for telling him to drop Mjolnir in Avengers (2012); when he nearly punches Loki in the face in TDW, when he chokes Tony in AOU). He learns to talk things out before fighting (he talks to the Kronan in TDW before they...uh, fight, and he tries to talk down Ultron in AOU with “no one needs to break anything”). Thor starts to question Odin’s authority (when Odin basically says he’d let all of Asgard die if it meant killing the rest of the Dark Elves in TDW) and defy his decisions. He takes situations seriously when they warrant it (note his face when Ultron starts snarking). He cares about Jane quite a lot (he gets her notebook back in Thor (2011), comes to Earth when he thinks she’s in danger in TDW, and brags about her to Tony in AOU).

Now, Ragnarok Thor.

Thor has always patiently put up with Loki’s assaults (will get to these in Loki’s section) without fighting back, losing his temper, or doing anything to prevent them. He openly, shamelessly manipulates Bruce/Hulk (telling each that they’re the one he prefers), Valkyrie (shaming her when she doesn’t want to help him), and Loki (the elevator speech, and the one with the obedience disk). He grins when Loki’s twitching in pain on the ground from the obedience disk, and leaves him there for an unknown length of time where Loki could’ve easily been found and executed. Thor’s back to attacking other realms on suspicions without negotiating (he goes to Muspelheim and kills the king and anyone who tries to protect him). His violence is back—he effectively threatens to smash Loki/Odin’s head in if he doesn’t reveal himself, backs Loki into a couch with Mjolnir to his chest, and looks like he’s about to attack Loki when Odin dies. He’s back to worshiping the ground Odin walks on (after learning that Odin conquered and slaughtered his way through the Nine Realms, he still looks to him for guidance). He quips constantly, no matter the situation (see...the entirety of Ragnarok). He dismisses Jane with a line about a mutual dumping.

Huh?

Loki’s turn.

Loki, as I pointed out in Part One, prefers to negotiate rather than fight, and tends to think ahead. He’s highly intelligent and strategic (he realizes in advance that Thor will get them into trouble on Jotunheim and works out how to get out alive, he realizes that the relics in the vault are stolen, he doesn’t buy Odin’s initial story about taking him in out of compassion, he quickly figures out how to overpower Odin/where to put him/how to get him there/how to get Thor’s friends out of trouble). He has legitimate reasons for everything he does (see Part One). He’s generally loyal to Thor, outside of extreme circumstances like experiencing a mental breakdown or getting anything from coerced to tortured by a mad Titan (his betrayal in Thor (2011) comes as a shock to Thor, and Avengers (2012) didn’t really have anything to do with Thor). After Odin and Frigga lied to him, and Sif, Heimdall, and the Warriors Three betrayed him (as did Thor by agreeing to come with them, technically), Loki doesn’t trust easily, and is always on guard. He refuses to tolerate manipulation from his family (he denies that Frigga is his mother when she makes acknowledging Odin as his father a condition of that, and doesn’t accept for Odin’s hypocrisy). He’s quite skilled at psychological manipulation and lying (he knows exactly what will keep Thor down when he lies that Odin’s dead), and knows how to act (he plays Odin flawlessly enough that Thor doesn’t notice in TDW). He’s anything but lazy (he definitely works at his plans in his first two movies, and in TDW...Svartalfheim and after speaks for itself). He’d make a good ruler (“for all his grave imbalance, Loki understood rule as I know I never will”). After Odin and Thanos, he’s not great with authority figures (he’s...less than respectful of the Other—“if your force is as formidable as you claim”—and he sasses Odin relentlessly in TDW). He feels fear but doesn’t act on it (he’s scared on Jotunheim but fights anyway; he’s scared of the Other but doesn’t run; he’s cool and collected upon his defeat in Avengers (2012); he’s poised with Odin during the trial). He only acts egotistical in Avengers (2012) under the influence of the Mind Stone; otherwise he wants to be accepted as Thor’s equal. He’s genuinely mentally ill (he attempted suicide, and probably has serious PTSD after Thanos—if only the movies showed that kind of thing).

What’s Ragnarok’s Loki like?

Loki’s needlessly violent (the snake story), and has no planning ability whatsoever (he doesn’t have a better plan than ‘get help’). He’s pretty stupid (putting Skurge of all people on Bifrost duty, calling the Bifrost to get away from Hela when she was in Bifrost-range, not noticing the obedience disk, etc.). He doesn’t have a reason for doing anything other than “I’m a trickster, I can’t help myself”. He’s always betrayed Thor compulsively. He’s...not exactly on guard (he doesn’t think to carry a weapon as Odin, and he trusts that the Grandmaster will keep his word and not execute him if he brings in Thor). Loki does what Thor wants when Thor tries emotionally manipulating him. He doesn’t notice when Thor tried reverse psychology on him. He’s terrible at acting (he completely foils Odin’s speech and behavior). He’s remarkably lazy (he’s laying on a couch eating grapes when Thor shows up). He’s pretty bad at ruling (the Nine Realms are in chaos). He’s fairly obedient to authority figures (he ingratiates himself to the Grandmaster and doesn’t talk back once). He’s a bit of a coward (he was scared when Thor showed up, “bring us back”, he’s visibly afraid of the Grandmaster, “I have to get off this planet”). He’s an egomaniac and attention hog (the statue, the play). He “tries...to embody this idea of a tortured artist, this tortured, gothy orphan”—no real problems at all.

Are these supposed to be the same person?!

Okay. Odin.

Odin is massively hypocritical, manipulative liar with tons of blood on his hands (the first part needs no explaining besides “watch the movies”; for the second, Loki first implies, then states outright, that Odin’s responsible for a lot of death, and neither Odin nor Frigga correct him). He doesn’t let Thor make his own choices (he doesn’t even consider that Thor might not want to rule; he wants Thor to be with Sif instead of Jane; he won’t listen to Thor’s suggestions about the Dark Elves). He’s worn down Loki’s self-esteem his whole life by favoring Thor, and he’s outright cruel to Loki later (“No, Loki”; “your birthright was to die”; “Frigga is the only reason you’re still alive and you will never see her again”). He never admits his own faults (he never takes any responsibility for any of the death he’s caused, never admits to the part he played in Loki’s downfall) except to hurt people (“yes, I was a fool—to think that you were ready”). He doesn’t express affection to his sons, and any he has is hugely conditional—as soon as they step out of line, he gives the guards permission to kill them (“by any means necessary!”).

Time for Ragnarok Odin.

Admittedly, he’s still a massively hypocritical, manipulative liar with tons of blood on his hands (see: everything involving Hela). After death, Odin controls Thor’s choices even more than before. He praises Loki aloud (“Frigga would’ve been proud”). He admits a mistake (“I’ve failed you”) in a way that, well, doesn’t immediately hurt anyone. He shows open affection to both Thor and Loki (“I love you, my sons”). He’s generally considered wise and benevolent.

Wait, what?

And now, Bruce. I don’t know as much about him, so his will be short. I’d love to see more on him if anyone has suggestions.

Bruce is very intelligent (he’s a physicist who can keep up with Tony). He’s not panicky; he’s usually quite calm and mild-mannered (see Avengers (2012) and AOU). He hates killing people as Hulk (he’s unhappy after the Hydra bust at the beginning of AOU, and he’s miserable and guilty enough to leave after Johannesburg). After he de-Hulks, he knows he’s most likely killed someone or at least caused a lot of damage.

Then there’s Ragnarok Bruce.

Bruce has 7 PhDs, but his shown intelligence is...questionable: on an alien planet where no one knows who he is, he thinks he’s supposed to disguise himself as Tony Stark. Without Hulk he’s considered useless. He’s openly anxious (“I think I’m freaking out”; his reaction to Sakaar in general). He doesn’t mention the fact that two years straight of being Hulk is probably going to mean a lot of damage and a lot of people dead. He shows no grief or distress due to it.

Yeah...no issues at all....

Odin’s sudden appearance of warmth isn’t without explanation. It could easily be his attempt to make Loki guilty for his anger (since Odin’s last words would’ve seemed kind), thus encouraging him to help with Hela to make up for it. Other than that, they’re irreconcilable.

Thor cannot be both sadistic and non-sadistic.

Loki cannot be both completely stupid and smart.

Odin cannot be both “wise and benevolent” and cruel and controlling.

Bruce cannot be both ignorant of the damage Hulk causes and deeply distraught over it.

These sets of traits cannot exist in the same characters in the same universe without reasons for the change within that universe. Ragnarok provides no such reason, which creates a stark gap in continuity.

There is no cinematic universe without continuity.

Ragnarok clearly disregards the canon of the MCU. Therefore, it cannot be part of that universe.

As I’ve suggested to @lucianalight, I propose that we use the term “Ragnarok Cinematic Universe,” or RCU, for all movies that use Ragnarok’s personal canon.

[amymel86]

Guardian - Chapter 2

"I'm...dead?" Jon breathed, staring down at the spiral bound manual in his hands.

"Yeah... 'fraid so" Renly chuckled, patting Jon's shoulder, only to remove it from his person hastily after being treated with a scowl from the man himself.

"I...I can't be dead. I'm here! I'm...solid!....I'm breathing!" Jon choked out, his chest expanding with panicky breaths. "I'm not dead! This is-this is a joke isn't it? I mean, this can't be the afterlife!" he waved the booklet around, indicating to the waiting room as a whole. "This looks like a-a...fucking denist's waiting area!...Is that it? Did-did I come in for a root canal and take too much of that knock out gas you guys use?! Have you drugged me?!"

"Sir-" Renly pleaded, raising those hands again as if he were placating a wild animal, "No one has drugged you, I'm afraid that you are deceased. Now, If we can just keep our tone down-"

"Keep our tone down?! KEEP OUR TONE DOWN?! ...YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT I'M DEAD IN A DENIST WAITING ROOM AND YOU WANT ME TO KEEP MY FUCKING TONE DOWN?!" Jon's raised voice brought the attention of everyone in the room - not that he had noticed. Even the snoring man had awoke and was now sat up watching as Jon's wild eyes stared down at his hands. As if they held the answer.

"Sir-"

"This isn't happening!...This can't be happening.." Jon muttered to himself before twisting in his pale green seat to face Renly, "I'm high aren't I? This is a bad trip!"

"Sir, I'm sorry to tell you but-"

"You're dead, sweetie," a woman interrupted, leaning forwards from where she sat opposite them. She had dark red hair that matched the striking shade of her lipstick perfectly - lipstick that was smeared across her mouth and chin. She also had clumps of black mascara in her lashes, the stain from it leaking down her cheeks like the beginnings of a trickling stream trying to find its way back to the ocean. She reached for the collar of her tight black sweater and tugged it down to reveal a set of angry purple bruises decorating the skin of her neck like a choker. "Face it, hun...you're dead, we're all dead...dead, deceased, expired, ended," she leant back into her chair and put a cigarette into her mouth, "the curtains have closed for the final time, and here we are," the woman opened her arms wide to dramatically gesture to the room before bringing a lighter to the end of her cigarette.

"Ma'am, you can't smoke in here" Renly admonished.

The woman took a drag and blew a few smoke rings into the air. "What ya gonna do, Ren? Kill me?"

"Ma'am-"

"Ros" she corrected. "My god-dammed name is Ros, and you know it so don't go ma'am-ing me!" She held the cigarette between two fingers as she pointed them towards Renly in accusation. "Sixteen days I've been in this room! Sixteen days! And how many pieces of paper have you had me fill out, hmm? How many times have I given you my name on this form or that?"

"Ros-" Renly tried again, his hands raising once more, palms facing her as if that would calm her. Jon suspected it only served to make the woman more irate. "We're working as fast as we can with your paperwork. You'll be allocated as soon as everything has gone through the proper procedure in accordance to policies and legislation. Unfortunately, these things take time to get everything signed off. In the meantime, I'll ask you to-"

"In the meantime, you can eat shit and go to hell, Renly....perhaps it's better than here?!" Ros hissed, stubbing out her cigarette on the seat next to her, the durable material and the padding beneath singeing black with smoke wafting off of it.

Renly pursed his lips together. "Trust me Ros, it's not. I did my internship there - the coffee was horrendous. Now if you don't mind, I need to see to Mr-" He turned to Jon with an expectant look.

"Snow, Jon Snow" he answered a little too slowly.

Renly nodded. "Mr Snow here has just found out he's dead so if you don't mind?" He said with a raised brow. Ros muttered something that neither Jon nor Renly could hear before she crossed her arms and sank into her seat. Most of the eyes in the room seemed to have returned to staring mindlessly at the dull carpet.

Jon left the manual in his lap so that both hands could scrub down his face as it tilted up to the ceiling tiles and the bright florescent lights above. "How" he said in a strained voice before looking back at Renly. "How did I.....How did it happen?"

"You don't remember?"

Jon shook his head as Renly slid the manual from Jon's lap to his own. He licked his thumb and began flipping pages. "I think that can be quite common if it was a sudden thing," he mutter down at the pages, "I'm sure it will tell us more in here somewhere..."

After a little while of flipping through pages only to backtrack and flick back to the contents page, or turn to the index, Renly shut the manual with a huff. "You know what? Everything we need to know about you will be in your file. Let's start there. Follow me please, Mr Snow."

As they were leaving, Jon heard a few grumbles from the people still hanging around in the waiting room. He could practically feel the glare from Ros' eyes, burning him at the back of the head like her cigarette had done with the seating upholstery. He followed Renly along a few narrow corridors until they reached a large room divided and sectioned off into little office cubicles. They meandered through the maze of office staff either chatting away on phone calls, or typing at their computers until they reached a vacant desk.

"Take a seat" Renly indicated as he sat behind the computer screen, beginning to tap at the keys. "Okay...let's see what we've got here" he murmured to himself. Jon shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Date of birth from your last life?" Renly asked.

"January 9th, 1989"

"Mm-hm" he typed, "and where were you born in your previous life?"

"Winterfell."

"Ok, Your National Insurance number?"

"The afterlife recognises my NI number?" Jon asked incredulously.

"I'm just trying to make sure I pull up the correct file, Mr Snow."

Jon huffed and pulled out his wallet to retrieve his NI card before tossing it onto the desk between them.

"Thank you" Renly replied curtly, typing in the number. "Favourite flavour of ice cream?"

"What?"

Renly's eye never left the screen before him, "As I said, Mr Snow, I need to make sure I'm looking at the right file before we start working on it, now what's your favourite flavour please?"

"Err...Um, mint-choc-chip...I guess."

Renly pushed some keys, rolled the mouse along and made a few clicks here and there. "Ok, I think I've found you. Just one more security question. At what age did in your last life did you lose your virginity, Mr Snow?"

"Uuh..."

Renly turned to him expectantly, his fingers poised above the keyboard.

"17" Jon coughed, "it was 17." He felt his face flush and was sure he was rapidly turning a fetching shade of red.

Anything else? Favourite position? When did I last take a shit?

"Alright..." Renly's attention had returned to the computer screen where he was scrolling and clicking.

Jon's gaze drifted to the very unassuming little office cubicle. There was nothing other than the computer, phone and pen pot on the desk. Along the dividing wall, pieces of paperwork were stuck with pins. Jon suddenly spied a photograph of a man with curly light brown hair and golden eyes smiling for the camera as he cuddled a Labrador. A thought stuck him.

"Listen," Jon leant forward, his forearms resting on the desk "if I'm really...err...dead...is...is my mother here?"

"Perhaps, when did she leave you in your past life?"

"When I was 15."

Renly looked at him with a sad smile then. "I'm afraid you will have missed her then. She most definitely would have been reallocated by now." Jon sat back in his chair and stared at the faux grain in the MDF desk in front of him. "Ok, it says here that the cause of death in your last life waaaas..." Renly's finger continued to drag along the scroll wheel on the mouse until it came to a complete stop and a pause. "Huh" he said to himself.

"What is it?"

"Well, the space is blank. There's no cause of death....but when I click through to the notes on your file, there's an incomplete entry...it just says 'wolf' ...does that ring any bells, Mr Snow? Were you attacked by a wolf?"

"I...I don't think so."

"Hmmm" Renly nodded whilst sweeping his gaze up and down Jon's body, "you don't look like you've been mauled." He pressed a few buttons and then the printer behind him whirred into life. Renly swiped the printout that emerged from the machine, took a pen and signed a few boxes before pressing an inked stamp at the top of the page. "Take this," he offered the paper, "fill it in in the Dispatch Department waiting area where I found you and-"

"Oh no, no, no" Jon shook his head, "I'm not going back there."

"Mr Snow, the correct paperwork has to be found and recalled from the archive before-"

"No! That Ros woman has been waiting there for days and I can't, I just can't do that. What's next? What will I be waiting for?"

"To be allocated."

"Allocated to what?"

Renly snatched back his offered piece of paperwork with a huff and returned to his computer screen where his fingers irritably hit various keys and he clicked with the mouse with perhaps more force than he really needed to. "Your soul is not ready for your next reincarnation, so you will be allocated as a guardian once the paperwork is finalised and-"

"A guardian?"

Renly rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Yes, a guardian. You'll be given an assignment and you'll need to help that soul find something that their lives are missing, help them move on in some way."

"Like...a guardian angel you mean?"

"Yes, well, you won't be given a halo and wings if that's what you're thinking."

"And then I get resurrected?"

"Reincarnated."

"Whatever. I won't be here. I'll be...alive again?"  

"Once you've completed your guardianship we'll reassess your case. You may be reincarnated or you may be sent on another guardianship, but at some point, Mr Snow, you will return to earth to live another life."

Jon licked his lips and smoothed his hands down his thighs in anticipation. Part of him still did not quite believe that he could possibly be in the afterlife, but that voice was being drowned out by the one yelling about being returned to normality as quickly as possible, even if he knew that could never be. In any case, he wanted to be rid of this place. "Ok."

"Ok?"

"Ok, I'll do it." Jon clarified.

"Alright," Renly picked up the piece of paperwork yet again, holding it aloft for Jon to take. "Go and fill this out and-"

"No. I'll do it now. Give me my assignment now. I'll take up the guardianship immediately."

"Sir, I can't just-"

"Can I talk to you superior, Renly?"

The man before him paled slightly. "Wh-why would you want to-?"

"Listen, you've got Ros stewing away in there for days, my guess is that you must have a deadline to adhere to for each case and I don't know about you, but sixteen days seems like a mighty long time to be waiting in one place. There's also the fact that despite your promises of 'inducting' me into the afterlife, I'm left feeling ill at ease with the complete lack of information. You can't even tell me how I died, Ren, can I call you Ren?"

"B-but" Renly spluttered, pointing at his computer screen.

"So, if Ros' experience is anything to go by, I'll be waiting - what was it? Sixteen days? - not knowing how I came to been here? Seems to me like somewhere along the line, the procedure has failed and I want to talk to someone about it. Do you have a Complaints Department, Ren? I'd really like to talk to them....what was your last name again?"

Renly stared back at him with wide eyes, his mouth opening and closing like a gaping fish for a small while. He finally shook his head and cleared his throat. After doing some more typing and clicking, the printer came to life again and a different set of paperwork came streaming out. Renly added a paperclip to keep all the pages together, and much like before, penned his signature to a few places and a stamp here and there before pushing it towards Jon.

"What's this?"

"It's the guardian manual, once you sign the bottom of the last page you'll be given your assignment."

"Great!" Jon beamed, grabbing a pen and clicking the end to produce the nib. He lifted the pages to reveal the last before hastily scrawling his signature along the allotted space.

"You need to read it firs-"

Jon didn't hear the last of Renly's words, suddenly feeling like he had collapsed, falling from the chair he was in. Only, he kept on falling, hurtling through different colours and lights, various sounds loudly rushing past his ears. He felt sick. At some point he thought he'd heard himself scream. Up was down and down was up and his stomach -oh Gods!- his stomach was more than in knots; his stomach was a hundred strings of Christmas lights that had been balled up into a tangle for years and years. He really does think he might be sick.

It stops. It stops with a thud and the sudden feeling of the world coming to a standstill. Something soft is beneath his cheek as he groans and tries to push himself off of whatever floor he's landed on. It's dark wherever he is but he can just about make out the pink fluffy rug beneath him.

A light suddenly comes on, illuminating his world and stinging his eyes as a gasp fills his ears. Jon rolls to his back, his whole body aches but he swallows the groan of protest as his eyes meet with another set watching him in horror.

A girl, he thinks, a beautiful girl, he clarifies to himself, a very scared looking beautiful girl.

"Um..." Jon mumbles quietly at the woman peering down at him on the floor from her position on top of the bed. "...hello."

She screams.

[5hfanfiction]

You Make Me Feel Alive

Lauren has spent her entire life hunting down ghosts and sending them back through the veil. It’s her duty.

Camila doesn’t exactly have a heartbeat and sometimes she finds herself accidentally drifting through the bathroom door.

It’s complicated.

-

-

The Veil, the boarder between life and death has shifted releasing masses of ghosts, spirits, and super natural entities into the world. Nearly 75 years later thousands of supernatural forces have been returned back behind the veil, but still, many remain.

Lauren Jauregui, like most of the millennials, trained her whole life to become a ghost hunter. All ghosts were bad, they haunted for fun and they tormented innocent beings; they were devils or “Spooks” as they call them. They needed to be sent back through the veil to the afterlife where they belonged…..or at least that’s what Lauren’s been taught.

Of course, then she meets Camila.

-

-

“Dammit! The EMF stopped beeping. The Spook is gone.”

Lauren glances up at her coworker and best friend, Dinah. Dinah’s long blond hair is tied back in a ponytail, a headlamp strapped across her forehead, and her face turned into a frustrated scowl. Like Lauren, they both wear similar uniforms; army green, tight fitted cargo pants with too many pockets, a thin long-sleeved t shirt tucked into a bulky belt that held all sorts of ghost hunting supplies, heavy brown hiking boots, and black gloves that were cut off mid finger.

Dinah dims her headlamp before turning in the direction of Lauren so that she doesn’t blind the girl. “I really thought we had that damn spook.” She grunts, pushing the small EMF device into its specified place on her belt.

Lauren nods, breathing out a small sigh of relief. “It’s okay Dinah, it’s not like there aren’t plenty of others.”

Dinah nods, but huffs immediately after. “But we have been following this one for nearly a mile!” Dinah moves to go in the direction she came from, squeezing past Lauren in the tight space.

They had been in the process of tracking down one of the seemingly endless amounts of spooks dotted across the world. The spook had led them to a small tunnel leading underground to where there seemed to be an entire maze of connecting tunnels. They had been walking deeper into the earth for nearly two hours now; following the small beeping of their EMF machine into the darkness while their hands got colder and their headlamps were the only sources of light. Lauren is pretty sure that the inside of her nose is coated with a thin layer of dust by now and each breath tickles.

Dinah turns her lamp back to full blast and Lauren gets a glimpse her footprints in the jagged dirt floor as well as how cramped the tunnel really was. She guesses that the tunnel is maybe six feet high, but there had been some parts where Dinah and her were forced to duck as they walked to avoid hitting the ceiling. Width wise, she would see only a foot or so wider than her body. She is really glad that she isn’t claustrophobic because otherwise she would probably be freaking out right now.

“You seem awfully calm about the fact that we are who knows how far underground and we didn’t even get the spook.” Dinah comments as she walks slightly in front of Lauren.

Lauren bites her lip. “I’m frustrated, but it’s not like I can do anything about it. We can’t just call the ghosts to us you know.”  She lies easily.

“Well technically, we can. We would just need one of the Magnets to do so.” She counters with a joking tone although she isn’t wrong in the slightest. Magnets are the terms for the people trained to summon ghosts to a specific area, almost like a ghost magnet, hence the name. Summoning ghosts can be very dangerous however, and rarely do ghost hunters ever use that option because it’s very hard to control and sometimes you end up with more than just spooks and there is always a possibility that you call ghosts that have already been returned back behind the veil instead of those that have escaped and you just have to return them all over again. Anyways, many reasons why Magnets aren’t usually a good idea.

Lauren snorts. “You know what I mean.”

“Yeah, yeah but still, you look, I don’t know…almost relieved?” Dinah glances back at Lauren with questioning eyes, tripping over an uneven patch of dirt and instantly forcing her attention back in front of her.

“What?” Lauren says a little too loudly. Her voice echoes through the tunnels at a higher pitch than normal. She cringes a bit and calms her voice. “I am not relieved.” She argues.

Dinah shrugs. “I’m just saying. It hasn’t been the first time you seem less than unwilling to do your job.”

“Dinah what are you talking about? That’s crazy.” Lauren huffs, she silently thanks the tunnel for its lack of light because otherwise Dinah might noticed the small layer of sweat that breaks out nervously on her skin or the fact that her eyes seem to look a bit panicky.

“Yeah,” Dinah ducks as they pass an area that slants downwards making the ceiling height maybe five feet and some change. “The other week when I was walking you home, my EMF starting going off and normally you are the first to pull out your equipment and track the spook down, but you just brushed it off saying you were tired and it could wait….and a few days ago I swear you were deliberately slowing us down where you, Mani, and I were following a hoard of the damn things! By the time we got there half of them had left the area.” She waves her arms around in emphasis and curses when she smacks her fingers against a large rock jutting from the side of the dirt wall.

Lauren gulps a bit because her accusations weren’t wrong. “Okay first of all, I actually was really tired the first time, we had already been up nearly all night helping Ally cleanse her uncles house. Secondly, I wasn’t trying to slow you down and we still got like six spooks.” Lauren defends herself.

Dinah sighs, dimming her lamp as the opening appears a few hundred feet or so in front of them, enough to see some light. “I just worry about you. You used to live solely for hunting down the spooks, you were the best in our year and now it just seems like you don’t care as much. These ghosts are a problem Laur, and it’s our job to get rid of them.”

“Yeah I know.” Lauren answers back vaguely.

Dinah stops and turns towards Lauren, blinking a bit at the brightness from Lauren’s lamp. Lauren turns it down. “Spooks are horrible, terrible creatures Lauren. They literally came from hell.”

Lauren nods in response but she can’t help but bite her lip a bite and ask a brave question. “Are…are all of them bad?” She says quietly, glad that her and Dinah are here alone.

Dinah looks shocked by the question, but she sees genuine confusion in her friend’s eyes and she too let’s herself actually think about it. “I’m…I’m not sure but either way, they don’t belong here. There is a reason they died Laur, whether or not they are bad.” Dinah pauses, realizing that they really shouldn’t be having this conversation. “But I haven’t ever met a good one, they all scream and terrorize.” She feels the need to add the last part.

Lauren let’s out a breath but nods. Dinah’s right, they did die for a reason, but what if that reason was because they were born at the wrong time? What if the reason is so that they can come back now? What if the reason is because they just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and maybe this is their second chance?

There are just too many what if’s.

-

-

Lauren presses the key into her door, twisting the small metal object with a little extra force. The door creaks open revealing Lauren’s two bedroom apartment, opening into her living room, a small but tidy area that currently holds a few large bookshelves, and old record player that she isn’t really supposed to have, a couch, and two armchairs. She hears a small jingling sound and looks down to see her cat, Vince trotting over and rubbing his face into her leg. She smiles a bit, unclasping her tool belt from around her waist and dropping it onto her kitchen counter.

“Camila?!” She calls not too loudly, but loud enough that all the spaces in her apartment would be able to hear it. “I’m home!”

Lauren pulls off her boots and reaches down to pet Vince. Most people own either a cat or a dog now days because of their ghost infestation. If you have a pet in your house not only do spooks tend to stay away, but the pets can sense their presence so that you know if your house has some sort of supernatural presence lurking around and you can get rid of it before it does any harm.

“Hey buddy, did Camila feed you?” She scratches underneath the cat’s neck and walks over to the pantry where she keeps his food. Sure enough Camila has already feed the cat, and way too much at that. She shakes her head. “Sorry Vince, no more for you.”

The cat gives her an unimpressed look and makes his way out of the room disappointedly.

Lauren chuckles, realizing she has yet to hear back from Camila. “Camila? Are you here?”

Lauren walks slowly down the hallway until she reaches her bedroom. The door is shut, but Lauren can tell the light is on from the crack underneath the door. She presses the door open and smiles when she sees Camila sitting on the bed with earbuds stuck in her ears. Her head bobs up and down a bit to the music and she scribbles into the journal Lauren bought her a few weeks ago. Vince jumps onto the bed and walks over, laying down on Camila’s crossed-legged lap. Camila smiles and runs her hands over his fur.

Camila looks so effortlessly beautiful. Her bottom lip is clenched between her teeth in thought and her eyebrows are furrowed, leaving a long crease across her forehead. Her long brown hair falls over one side of her face, the other side tucked carelessly behind her ear. Her skin is a bit pale, but that’s normal for Camila.

Lauren waves her hands to gain the girl’s attention and when she does Camila looks up with a bright smile on her face. She immediately moves to get up and greet the green eyed girl; Vince is pushed off her lap and his tail puffs at the loss of comfort and Camila completely forgets about the headphones connected to her phone, yanking them from her ears as she stands up.

“Ow.” She whines, pressing on her ear for a second before focusing back on Lauren and breaking into a grin once again. She clambers onto Lauren, pulling her into a tight hug –one of her supposedly famous koala hugs- and nuzzling her face into Lauren’s chest. “Lo!” She squeals happily.

Lauren can’t help but smile back, wrapping her arms around the girl. “Hey Camz.”

“I missed you.” Camila murmurs, finally pulling away. “You were gone forever.”

Lauren laughs. “You saw me this morning.”

Camila gives her a look and moves back towards Lauren’s bed.

“Fine, I missed you too.” Lauren submits easily.

Camila resumes her position, this time with a large smile on her face, pulling the headphones from her ipod and letting the music play quietly for the both of them to hear. She pats the spot next to her, signaling Lauren to join them. Lauren complies, leaning back against the bedframe. “How was work?” Camila asks although the topic makes her uncomfortable. She still wants Lauren to be able to talk about it.

Lauren sighs, frowning a bit. “Dinah and I have been out all day. Normani went with Ally to help some guy who has some sort of….what did you say was the correct term for the ones that harass people?” She looks to Camila for help.

“A poltergeist.” She answers knowing exactly what Lauren was talking about despite her vague description.

“Yeah some guy had a poltergeist in his house so they went to take care of that which meant Dinah and I had to go out and hunt all day and since we covered some of the nearby neighborhoods last week, we went to the factories today. We caught one, he was definitely one of the bad ones.” Lauren clarifies too make sure Camila knows.

“A devil.” Camila corrects with an added nod to show she was listening.

“Yeah a devil sorry,” Lauren gives the girl a small smile before the frown comes back and she continues. “We followed something into the tunnels but I don’t think it was bad. It seemed more like it was running from us than anything. I felt bad.”

Camila nods, noticing how stressed Lauren looks and moves to grab Lauren’s hand and give it a squeeze. Lauren squeezes back. “I think Dinah’s catching on. She confronted me about how my head doesn’t seem to be in the game anymore or something. I…I asked her if she thinks that all spooks are bad and she said that she didn’t know but that she thinks they are dead for a reason and that they should that way.” Camila’s face turns away and Lauren tugs at their connected hands to bring her attention back. “I agree with her, I think people die for a reason.”

Camila frowns and Lauren can see her lip quiver a bit. Camila turns her gaze back down to the bed, she isn’t exactly sure how the whole human emotions thing works seeing as she isn’t really human, not completely, but she knows that Lauren’s statement hurt. She whispers in a shaky voice, “You think I should be dead?”

Lauren shakes her head, realizing how she must have just sounded. “No! No, not at all! I said you died for a reason, not that you should stay dead.” She quickly corrects although it doesn’t seem to sound much better because Camila bites her wobbling lip to hold it still.

“I don’t…. u…understand?” She whimpers, trying her best to stay calm until Lauren explains herself. She looks so confused and hurt and just sad and Lauren feels bad for approaching this the way she did.

Lauren tucks a strand of hair back behind Camila’s ear from where it fell, leaving her hand to rest on the girl’s cheek as she explains. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot. You definitely died for a reason, I know you won’t tell me exactly how yet, but for whatever reason, you died. But here you are now and I can’t help but feel like the reason you died is because you were born at the wrong time.”

Lauren pauses to take a breath and Camila waits patiently although Lauren is confusing her so much and she really just wants to know the answer before she breaks down in tears for possibly no reason.

“Correct me if I’m in the wrong for thinking this way, but I think we were meant to meet Camila. You were born way before you were supposed to and so you had to die so that we could exist at the same time, you had to come back without having aged…..with you still living. Does that make sense?” Lauren looks up to Camila’s soft eyes and Camila gives the girl a watery smile.

“Fuck Laur, you could have just started out with the sappy part before freaking my out like that. I think my heart nearly stopped beating…..Again.” She wipes the tears from her eyes and chuckles a bit at her attempt at a joke.

Lauren shoots her an apologetic smile. “Sorry Camz.”

Camila waves her off, reaching for Lauren’s hand once more as she finishes wiping the salty drops from her face. She sniffs first before she begins slowly playing with Lauren’s fingers. “I…I think we were definitely meant to meet but I’m…. not exactly….living?” Camila keeps her gaze on their entertained hands as she rubs at a small scar over Lauren’s knuckle.   

“You aren’t exactly dead either.” Lauren counters half serious and half joking.

Camila manages to smile a bit because it’s true, she wasn’t dead either. “I know. Listen, what I’m trying to say is that I…I want to be here with you more than anything. These past few months being with you have been amazing. Better than nearly any memory I can remember from my old life and definitely better than my sixty or so years in hell.” She pauses to smile affectionately at Lauren.

“But?” Lauren asks, knowing that was where this was leading.

“But the big fact is that even though I’m here…I’m not fully here and I don’t know if I ever will be.” Camila sighs, her smile from earlier turns into a dejected frown.

“Camz-“

“Lo, I…. I know what you are going to say, that having me in my current form is enough for you and I appreciate that, but there are some major flaws with your statement; One being that thousands of people all over the world are searching for people like me to send back behind the veil, Two being that you are in fact one of those people, and Three…..” Camila branches off, rubbing at Lauren’s fingers nervously.

“What Camz?”

“Somethings different.” Camila states vaguely and yet the statement brings uncomfortable chills all over Lauren’s body.

“What do you mean?” Lauren asks, she thinks she has an idea but she isn’t sure.

“I’m not fully living…. We already clarified that, but lately it’s….I don’t know, more noticeable.”

Lauren furrows her brows as she looks at Camila. Right now, she looks human; fully present. Sure, her skin is a bit pale and her hands are kinda cold and maybe her heart beat is a few dozen beats per minutes less than it should be, but she is there and her heart does pump blood through her veins.

Unfortunately she isn’t always so lively. Sometimes her skin is cold to the touch, so cold in fact that if you felt her, you would definitely think she was dead….well really dead. Some days, her body flickers in and out like a glitch in the videos games Camila had played as a kid. Some days she fades from full color to dull black and white, almost like a shadow in the background.

The side effects from slipping out of the veil have always existed; there have been times when Camila has accidentally sat down and fallen directly through the chair and Lauren, after freaking out for a second, had burst out laughing. Lauren remembers once when she and Camila were cuddling on the couch and suddenly Camila’s body had turned ice cold for almost an hour. They have always been there, but something tells Lauren that this time is more serious.  

“More noticeable?” Lauren squeaks out nervously.

Camila nods. She looks so serious in the moment. “The veil is still open Lo.” Camila comments and although it sounds random, Lauren knows she will tie it into their conversation somehow. She nods in acknowledgment and pulls Camila to lean into her body comfortably. Camila complies, nuzzling her cheek against Lauren’s chest and running her fingers lightly across Lauren’s arm. “A lot of people think that it closed after the ghosts swarmed in, but it didn’t. I can feel it.”

Lauren raises her eyebrows and looks down at the girl. “What do you mean?”

Camila takes a deep breath, watching her fingers graze Lauren’s perfect skin with her eyes. “A long time ago the veil slipped and it allowed thousands of ghosts to pass into the living world, you know that much. But then they just assumed that it closed back up. That’s not true.”

“What is it really?” Lauren asks softly. Vince jumps onto the bed and cuddles against Camila, Lauren manages to smile at the irony that she bought the cat to ward off ghosts and yet here Vince is cuddled into Camila’s lap.

“Think of it as Tectonic plates.” Camila states. “The pressure from the other side becomes too much so the plates shift and release an earth quake- or in this case a mass of ghosts- but then you have all the aftershocks that follow, more ghosts still passed through after the veil shifted because it moved, it open Lo. It’s not in the same place anymore and to this day it still isn’t fully closed. Ghosts are still coming in and out, just in smaller amounts and less frequently. The veil is still shifting.” Camila’s fingers pause over Lauren’s skin for a second.

“And when you leave the other side, when you pass through the veil, it’s like you are attached to a leash that stretches all the way back to the veil. It’s the part of you that’s still dead, one end resting somewhere behind the veil and the other wrapped in knots around your heartstrings. Tethered to death. I think Laur, there is only so far you can stray; only so far the leash can stretch.” Camila’s voice gets soft and Lauren sees where she is going with this now.

“Only so long you can be tethered to both.” Lauren finishes in a half statement and half question sort of way.

Camila nods, breathing out heavily and resuming the patterns on Lauren’s arm. “I want to stay here with you Laur, but I am so so scared that I won’t be able to.” Her voice cracks slightly and Lauren pulls the girl closer to her chest. Camila is cool to the touch, but not quite cold and definitely not uncomfortably. Instead, it contrasts perfectly to Lauren’s abnormally warm temperatures.

Lauren shakes her head. “I want you here Camz.”

“I know.”

There is a small silence as Camila listens to the steady beat of Lauren’s heart beneath her ear. Lauren runs her fingers through Camila’s dark locks slowly, her other hand resting on Vince. Camila’s heart beats maybe once for every five or six of Lauren’s heart beats and Camila thinks that together they make a beautiful melody of different tempos.

“You think there is only so long a ghost can be tethered to both life and death?” Lauren clarifies.

Camila nods. “Sometimes I feel more alive than dead and sometimes….”

Lauren nods in understanding. “Eventually you think that the ghosts fade away? But the reason they are still here is because more are still coming through the veil, just in lesser and amounts?”

Camila shrugs. “Something along those lines.”

Lauren sighs, pulling Camila impossibly closer into her body and touching her in any innocent way that she can. She closes her eyes and allows herself to listen to Camila’s small breaths and to feel the way Camila’s fingertips still brush across her skin with the gentlest of touches. She rests her chin on Camila’s head, breathing the smell of her shampoo.

They stay like that until the light outside fades to dark and the room around them changes to dark blue and grey. Shadows cast along the bedroom and the only movement has been their rising and falling chests along with Vince who had gotten his nightly adrenaline and had probably gone off to search for small bugs or mice somewhere outside.

Lauren can tell that Camila is starting to fall asleep because the drawings on her arms are getting lazy and heavier and then they stop all together. Except they don’t just stop, they disappear. Camila disappears. Her body vanishes from Lauren’s body, sending chills over her skin at the loss of comfort. Her eyes fly open in a panic just in time to see Camila flicker back into view.

The weight returns to Lauren’s body and Camila turns slowly from black and white to color. Camila takes in a deep breath, the feeling of flickering out like a flame always leaves her deprived of oxygen- like the wind had been knocked from her chest- and feeling as if the little warmth she has is stolen from her body.

Camila’s heart is beating a bit faster against Lauren’s chest but it’s nothing compared to how fast Lauren’s is beating. The girl hesitantly clutches Camila back into her body, slightly tighter than before. “Was that….” Lauren’s voice is shaky.

Camila hums, her eyes wide open and staring into the darkness in a sort of fear. “Sometimes the veil yanks at the leash.”

Lauren gulps, balling her fists into Camila’s shirt and pressing her face into Camila’s messy hair. She needed Camila here, she just didn’t know how to keep her.

  -

-

“Laur are you even listening?” Lauren looks up guiltily with an apologetic glance on her face.

She lets out a sigh, shaking her head. “I’m sorry Mani, what was that?”

Normani, one of her other coworkers and good friends gives her one of her thousands of salty expressions. “I can’t believe I just talked to myself for legit fifteen minutes.” She huffs, taking a seat next to Lauren. “What was the last thing you remember me talking about?”

Lauren nods, not really hearing the girl’s question. She can’t get her mind off of Camila. She can’t seem to forget the terrifying feeling of Camila just vanishing in thin air. For a few mere seconds, she just ceased to exist and even though it was a small amount of time, Lauren doesn’t think she can live in a world without Camila, not anymore.

It’s been a few days since they had their talk and although Camila has mostly been ruled by her more human side, there had been one day when Lauren woke up shivering because Camila’s body next to her was ice cold and another time when Camila, in a half asleep state, had walked straight through the bathroom door.

It scared Lauren. Camila just seems so real, possibly the only real thing in her life and yet….. at the same time she is the only thing that isn’t.

Lauren has been staying up late every night trying to think of some sort of solution with no luck. They have ways to eliminate ghosts from their world and they have ways to pull ghosts into their world, but they don’t have ways to give ghosts permanent living bodies.

“Lauren!” Normani yells next to Lauren’s ear.

Lauren blinks away her thoughts and sighs, resting her head on her hands. “I know I zoned out again and I’m sorry.” 

Normani flashes yet another face at Lauren and groans. “What’s with you anyways?”

“I…Nothing.” Lauren mumbles from where her face hides in a mess of arms.

“Nothing my ass. I won’t pester you about it but whatever it is you better get you shit together. We are supposed to have a giant wave of spooks sometime this month to deal with and if you think that having your head floating around all the way behind the veil is a good idea than you are dead wrong.” She comments bluntly, standing up from her seat next to Lauren and walking over to the large room that holds their equipment.  

“Yeah I know. I’ll get it together…. What about the spooks? We are supposed to have a big group of them?” Lauren lifts her head from her arms and raises a brow at the girl who is in the connected room.

“The seer says she has been feeling a cluster moving in our direction for a while now and well, I guess it’s coming kinda soon.” Normani yells back from the other room.

A big group? That’s strange, spooks don’t usually travel in groups. If you happen to find a group it’s because something supernatural lead them all coincidentally to the same spot but a large mass of spooks traveling together, in the same directions is practically unheard of. She makes note to ask Camila about it later.

Normani walks back out of the room with her belt strapped around her waist in a way that somehow makes the bulky equipment holder look somewhat stylish. Lauren smirks and shakes her head playfully. Normani laughs, “What?”

“Only you can make these gross clothes look good.” Lauren comments, pointing at the way that the army green cargo pants hug Normani’s curves and how the gloves that look dorky on Lauren make Mani look like a badass.

Normani smiles, looking down at her outfit and shrugging. “I actually like our uniforms. I think they make us look like sexy badasses. I mean have you seen Dinah in it her…..” Normani’s eyes widen and she coughs. “I mean or Ally. Ally looks really good in it too and I mean have you looked in the mirror lately?” She covers herself up and Lauren just raises an eyebrow.

“Yeah sure. What were you saying about Dinah?” Lauren teases as Normani’s cheeks turn red.

“I….” The EMF around her waist begins beeping loudly to single that there was a supernatural presence nearby and Normani grabs the machine, pressing at the buttons.

Normally, EMF devices can only sense supernatural creatures within the vicinity, but since the opening of the veil, they’ve done a lot of research to upgrade our technology so that the device can stretch way further. If the being is a really powerful one it can sometimes stretch a few miles away. Some of them even have a sort of compass to point in the direction of the ghost while the more professional ones contain a GPS system to point in specific locations. “Saved by the spook.” Lauren chuckles as she begins pulling on her gear. “Where at?”

Normani shakes her head, her cheeks still a bit red. “Hmm, looks to be a few blocks away, down by the old high school.”

Lauren nods. “Okay let’s go.”

She prays that whatever it is, it actually deserves what’s coming to it, ever since she met Camila and learned about the different kinds of ghosts, she often finds dread swirling in her stomach as they follow the trails to the creatures.

They head down the street in a sprint. The streets are almost always empty now days and the few people that do travel during the day use the modern subway stations that run along the roads. Lauren and Normani stop in front of the high school, breathing heavily. Lauren remembers her grandmother telling her that this was the high school she had attended back before the veil opened but no one has set foot in it in years. High schools were a common place for spooks to lurk because of the amount of time and memories the ghosts had spent there when they were living.

Lauren stands back as Normani kicks open the door, releasing a cloud of dust from beneath her foot as the door bursts open. She shakes out her foot a bit in pain, cursing under her breath while Lauren coughs and waves the dust away from her face.

“You ready?” Lauren asks the dark skinned girl.

“Sure.” Normani mutters, limping her first few steps before the pain goes away and she is walking normally again. “Damn that hurt.” She groans.

Lauren chuckles. “This is why we need Dinah hear, that girl has perfected breaking open doors in any way possible. Well and because you know, you’re mood would improve quite a-“

“Shut the fuck up and focus on the reason we’re here Laur. You are pushing it.” Normani huffs.

Lauren smiles but obeys. They walk into the school, the light from the doorway reflecting all the way down the hall on the linoleum tiles. Some of the lockers lining the walls hang open, old papers are crumpled on the ground, there are large clumps of graffiti are spray painted on the walls. Lauren tries to picture normal teenagers going to school here and worrying about things like homework but it’s really hard to do when there are long shadows stretching along the walls and giant painted letters spell out ‘monsters from hell’ along the lockers. 

“Can you ever imagine kids actually just going to school here?” Normani seems to read her mind.

Lauren shakes her head. Neither she nor Normani had attended school, that is, not counting the years of training to be a ghost hunter and the few years of basic education consisting of learning about the veil, how to read, write, speak and mathematics. “I’d like to hope it was in better shape at the time.” Lauren jokes as she walks through a large clump of cobwebs with a disgusted look on her face.

Normani snorts. “Me too, I mean, I don’t even want to know what this is.” She points to a large green-brown puddle leaking from the old bathrooms and fakes a gag.

Lauren scrunches her nose and hurries past the puddle. “Let me guess, it’s in the basement?”

“Typical spook.” Normani confirms.

Lauren looks for the nearest basement entrance and when she finds the wooden door hanging off its hinges, she tugs it to the ground effortlessly. Normani rolls her eyes. “Of course you get the easy one.”

Lauren smirks. “Shush.” She leads the way down the staircase, the little amount of light from the entrance down the hall is fading quickly and Lauren takes a second to pull her headlamp from her belt and place the beaming light on her forehead.

Normani does the same and they makes their way down the creaky stairs. When they reach the bottom, Normani’s EMF is beeping slow and long and they can hear small mumbles of whatever language the ghost is speaking. Normani signals for Lauren to go left while she goes right. Lauren nods.

She walks past a few stacks of old wooden school desks and down the long hallways. She can still hear Normani’s EMF due to the lack of noise in the dead silent basement. She takes small steps in order to keep her boots from making loud clunking noises. She reaches a long hallway full of doors and knowing that most ghosts can fade through solid objects she doesn’t bother skipping the ones with closed doors. She checks them all, peeking into the rooms with her headlamp.

Turns out Normani finds the ghost first, a loud, “Lauren!” Sounding from the other side of the large basement.

“Coming Mani!” She yells back.

She sprints back in the direction she came from, then passes the stair case going in the right direction this time. She had hoped she would be the one to find it, just in case this ghost wasn’t a devil and instead was something like Camila; innocent and just caught up in the whole thing.

She nearly runs right past Normani, she doesn’t see the girl hiding flat against one of the walls. Normani grabs her as Lauren runs and tugs her against the wall as well. Lauren nearly let’s out a small yelp but Normani covers her hand with her mouth and Lauren calms down at the feeling of Normani’s cut off gloves. Normani removes her hand and points down the hall to where the spook sits, or should Lauren says spooks. There are multiple, all moaning and making an awful lot of noise, pushing over old desks and staring at the walls.

Lauren gasps, counting at least four. She observes them, from what she can see they are thankfully all spooks….or devils as Camila says they are called. Their eyes are sunken deep into their skulls, most of them an endless black color but a few of the more sickly looking ones have eyes that almost glow red. Lauren nearly sighs in relief. She didn’t have to kill any innocent souls today, just the ones that actually deserve to go back to hell.

“Let’s corner them. You come from the back and I’ll come from the front and distract them. We can each take two.” Normani whispers.

Lauren nods, creeping her way around piles of broken desks and large metal pillars that hold up the ceiling. From across the hoard of spooks she can see Normani doing the same thing. They reach the point where Lauren is crouched directly behind the moaning creatures and Normani right in front, a fraction of her body peeking out from behind one of the pillars. She lifts a can of gasoline from her belt and gives Lauren a smile.

Lauren nods.

Normani steps out into the open, immediately gaining the attention of each of the spooks. They turn to look at her, releasing horrid screams. She wastes no time in spraying the creatures with the gasoline, drenching the first one- that had begun to charge at her- immediately. Lauren takes this as her que, pulling out her own gasoline weapon and spraying the first spook she comes in contact with. It screams as the baggy clothes that cover its body is weighed down underneath the weight and claws at its face as the liquid gets into his eyes and mouth.

She hears the small ‘shwttttt’ of Normani’s signature matches being stroked against one of the pillars and a wave of heat hits Lauren’s back as one of the spooks bursts into flames, turning grey and white before vanishing back behind the veil. The blue tipped match falls to the floor.

There are a few ways to get rid of the ghosts, but burning them is the quickest and easiest way to do so. Most hunters use lighters because they are a bit more dependable and easier to access, but Normani, being Normani likes to add her twist to things, hence her signature, blue-tipped matches. She says it’s something about the sound it makes that’s satisfying and the way she can leave the dead match on the ground to mark her territory. Lauren thinks it’s way badass, but she herself sticks to her black lighter.

Lauren’s gasoline-drenched spook swings out its arms in her direction and she kicks it towards Normani.

Shwttttt. Another match falls to the ground.

Normani smiles proudly, turning to her next victim. Lauren wastes no time backhanding an approaching spook with the covered part of her hand, the black leather of her glove smacking the sharp cheek of her next victim. She can hear another piercing scream behind her as Normani does something similar to her own attacker. The room lights up again behind Lauren, turning a bright orange is the spook goes up in flames and then disappears. They haven’t really determined why exactly the spooks disappear when they are killed but Camila assumes it’s the dead part of them, like they are just yanking back behind the Veil. They aren’t living enough to leave a solid body. It makes sense.

Lauren catches movement in the corner of her eye.

She looks over to see another ghost, temporarily forgetting about her current attacker. She notices the pale skin and the floppy hair and lanky limbs, but her eyes meet a dark blue color instead of sunken black and she immediately knows that the ghost is not a spook, just one of the ones who got caught in the mix. The ghost looks scared, pressing his body into the wall with shaking fingers and trembling lips. Camila flashes across her mind.

“Lauren!” Normani’s voice yells loudly.

Lauren suddenly remembers that she is still in a fight with one of the spooks but it’s too late. He tackles Lauren to the ground, forcing Lauren’s head to smack into the concrete floors of the basement. Her vision goes dizzy for a millisecond and she feels her body go ice cold as the spook gets a hold of her wrists.

Normani is quick to spray the spook with her gasoline and what doesn’t hit the spook showers Lauren as well. Lauren grunts and manages to kick the spook off just as she hears another match being lit. It flies over her body, landing on the spook a foot or two away and his body bursts into flames just like the rest of them. The spook reaches out, tugging painfully at Lauren’s ankle and twisting it in the wrong direction in any effort to keep himself tied to the living world. Lauren yelps in pain and kicks his hand off as he turns to grey and disappears.

Lauren groans in pain, letting her eyes close for a second as her head throbs and her ankle burns. “Jesus Christ Laur, what were you thinking?” Normani hurries over, crouching by her friend. “A few more seconds and he could have easily possessed you, ya know.”

“I know Mani, I know.” Lauren huffs, reopening her eyes and looking into Normani’s worried ones. She slowly sits up, her head filling with waves of dizziness. “I just… I got distracted.” Lauren’s eyes glance over at the ghost and she immediately regrets it because Normani follows her gaze.

The ghost is still there and she whimpers as they make eye contact. Normani stands up quickly, pulling out her box of matches and the gasoline. Lauren watches as even more fear takes over the small ghosts features, she almost seems to hide behind her long mane of messy hair.

Lauren chokes on the air in her throat, stumbling to her feet despite the pain in her ankle and the nausea from her dizziness. “Mani no!” Lauren practically falls forward, holding onto Normani for support and the dark skinned girl is forced to stop in order to keep her injured friend from falling.

“Laur what the fuck. Get off of me, we missed one!” Normani tries to shake Lauren off but it only ends up with her dropping the can of gasoline and the cap breaks off making it unusable. “Great! Way to go Laur.” She huffs, finally pulling Lauren’s arms from around her body and instead holding the girl up with a single hand underneath Lauren’s armpit.

“You can’t send him back! He’s innocent!” Lauren yells, heaving heavily.

Normani’s eyebrows shoot up. “What do you mean she’s innocent?!” Normani yells. “He’s a fucking spook Lauren. They possess people and throw things and harass! They are the furthest thing from innocent!” She let’s go of Lauren and the girl falls back, grabbing onto one of the pillars for support. She begins walking towards the spook again. “You can still burn without gas…..” She mutters.

Lauren feels sick as she watches the look on Normani’s face. It was a look Lauren had once worn many times herself. The look of pride after getting rid of some of the world’s evil. Saving lives. Doing good. The thrill of fighting. She knew it all. It was exhilarating to kill the spooks, but this time it wasn’t a spook. Normani didn’t know any better, but Lauren knew it all. Camila had explained the whole thing to her.

“Normani please! Just listen to me!” She pleaded.

Normani noticed the desperate tone in her best friend’s voice and turned, only half way so that she could still watch the whimpering ghost from the corner of her eye. “What Laur?” She asked harshly.

“That one isn’t like the others.” Lauren started.

Normani rolls her eyes, “Laur I’m sorry, but you are insane-“

“No Mani just look at it. His eyes, they are bright blue… not black and not red. Look how his skin has a bit more color and Mani… she isn’t screaming, she isn’t attacking, she is just….shaking. In fear.” Lauren hurries to give as much evidence as she can.

Normani turns to the creature, cocking her head to the side in confusion as she looks. “That…that doesn’t mean anything Laur. He is still a ghost… a spook.” Normani argues.

The ghost whimpers a bit more, his eyes frantically switching between Normani and Lauren.

“Normani not all of them are bad. Some of them are just caught up in the whole mess. They just accidentally slipped through the veil. Please, just look at him.” Lauren tries again.

Normani does look at him and she does notice that maybe his eyes lack the evil depths that spooks normally have and maybe Lauren is right about the boy not attacking, he trembles against the wall instead, but they haven’t ever encountered a good ghost before. In fact Normani hasn’t ever even heard of a good ghost. “What do you mean a good ghost?” She asks with a growl, not letting her eyes leave the creature against the wall.

“Think about it, when the veil shifted, it just spilled open. Not every person that dies is evil. There are some who just… fell out with no intention of hurting or harassing or doing any harm. They are just here trying to get by.” Lauren forces her body to lean off of the pole. Her ankle is no doubt swelling around her foot and spots flash in front of her eyes from the pain in the back of her head. “Just leave it be.”

Normani clenches her teeth in though. Lauren did have a point, it made sense, but she also had no proof. “Laur I can’t just leave this thing here. It’s our job to get rid of the spooks.”

Lauren shakes her head, causing the edges of her vision to turn black. “No, this isn’t a spook. It’s just a ghost. A dead soul brought back to life.”

“Laur…” Normani warns, striking the match against one of the broken desks piled all around her. A small orange glow illuminates the room and Lauren feels sick to her stomach. Oh shit…she is sick to her stomach. She stumbles a bit on her feet, emptying the contents of her stomach onto the floor. Her vision sparkles in front of her eyes like a kaleidoscope and feels her body tip over backwards.

  -

-

  Lauren’s body in bobbing up and down, her face lifting up before smashing into soft skin over and over. She groans, feeling a terrible throb in the back of her head and spreading throughout the rest of her skull. Her ankle hurts too, but she notices that she isn’t putting any pressure on it; she’s being carried. She groans again as her ankle bumps against something warm.

“Laur?” Normani’s voice sounds from somewhere next to her head.

Lauren forces her eyes open. “Hmmm?”

“Oh my god, you’re up.” Normani breaths out in relief.

“Ugh what happened?” Lauren murmurs, still very much out of it. Her head continues to bob up and down against what she now identifies as Normani’s shoulder.

“Pretty sure you have a concussion from smacking your head into the ground. There isn’t any blood but I felt a pretty big bump and you threw up and then passed out.” Normani informs.

Lauren closes her eyes again. She vaguely remembers that. She lifts her head a bit, ignoring how she feels like a bobble head and how the effort it takes to do so nearly makes her want to pass out again. She looks around and notices that it’s she is riding on Normani’s back; piggy back style. “Where are we going?” She murmurs.

She forces herself to look at her surroundings.

“I’m taking you home, you need some ice on your head and to lay down.” Normani huffs a bit and readjusts her position under Lauren’s legs. “Also we should definitely do something about your ankle because last time I checked it was bigger than a softball.” Normani tries to joke a bit but there was a serious mood set in their conversation.

Lauren notices that it’s dark out and she wonders how late it is. Camila will have been worried that she isn’t home yet, probably pacing across the living room, waiting for the familiar sound of Lauren’s keys outside of the door. And- Oh fuck! Camila.

“You really don’t have to take me home Mani, you can just drop me off.” She feels panic rising in her voice as the reach her building and Normani begins up the stairs to the apartment.

“Laur you are absolutely crazy if you think I am going to leave you alone in this state.” Normani snorts.

“But I won’t be alone.” Lauren comments before realizing that’s the whole reason she doesn’t want Normani there. Yeah, she’s a bit out of it. “I mean I’ll have Vince.” She covers.

Normani shakes her head and lifts Lauren a bit higher again. “Laur, you are literally so out of it right now. Vince isn’t going to do shit. Just stop talking and let me help you.” Lauren sticks out her hand to push open the doors to the apartment building while Normani carries them into the lobby. The man at the desk gives them a curious look but goes back to whatever it is he was doing. Normani looks at the stairs with a groan. “You owe me so much.” She grumbles.

“Let me help you.” Lauren mocks back at her, imitating Normani’s voice and the words she had said just a few seconds before.

Normani walks a little too close to the wall and Lauren’s ankle hits the railing. She yelps in pain. “Oops.” She grumbles sarcastically.

“I hate you.” Lauren mutters. She can feel the anxiety growing in her chest as they get closer to her room. They reach the second floor and then they are walking down the hallway. Normani stops in front of Lauren’s door. “You can uh leave now.” Lauren tries again though she knows Normani already has her mind set and staying.

“Keys Laur.” Normani demands.

Lauren sighs. She doesn’t know if she can physically handle this right now. She nods, looking around Normani’s belt. Good, Normani didn’t bother to bring her broken can of gas. Lauren looks for the blue package of matches, she finds them sticking out from the pocket in Normani’s belt. She reaches for her keys, brushing past Normani’s belt and sliding the matches into her sleeve, pulling it off as her clumsy concussed movements. “Sorry.” She mumbles a bit before moving to her own belt to grab her keys and slip the matches into her own pocket.

Lauren holds out the keys with clenched teeth. Normani reaches to grab them and Lauren pulls them away a bit. “Mani-“ She sighs. “I have to ask you something first.”

Normani looks confused and concerned. “What Laur? Do you feel okay? Or I mean, worse than you should?”

Lauren shakes her head. “That’s not it. Did you…Did you kill that ghost? Back in the school.”

Normani closes her eyes, letting out a breath. “No I didn’t.” She breathes out in a low voice.

“Why?” Lauren continues.

“I was going to but you passed out and I kinda had to pick between injured friend and possible spook.” Normani answers honestly and Lauren is a bit disappointed because that’s not the reason she wanted.

“You don’t believe me? About the good ghosts?” Lauren questions.

Normani bites at her lip, readjusting Lauren again. “I don’t know Laur, I mean it makes sense but you have no proof. I’ve never heard of a ghost that wasn’t bad.”

“So if I had proof you would believe me?”

“Lauren you are kinda getting really heavy can we just go in and-“

Lauren cuts her off. “Answer me Mani. If I had proof would you believe me.”

Normani sighs. “I…I don’t know Lauren. Maybe, yes, no…..yes?” She sounds unsure but sticks with the answer.

Lauren nods, handing the girl the keys to her house. “Please don’t freak out.” She mutters.

“What?” Normani mumbles as she pushes in the key and opens the door.

The living room is empty which surprises Lauren since she figures Camila would have been pacing in front of the door. She finds herself feeling a bit grateful for the lack of Camila’s presence though because Normani has enough time to set Lauren down on the couch with a huff before footsteps sound coming out of the hallway.

Camila appears from arch that separates the living room and the hallway, she is coming nearly full sprint, a look of relief and worry present on her features. She has her long, untamed hair loose, letting it fall around her pale skin. She is wearing leggings and one of Lauren’s large bed time shirts as well as long mismatched socks. Lauren thinks she looks adorable.

“Lo?!” She calls as she runs into the room. She spots Normani and her socks skid on the wooden floor as she stops, her face turns slightly terrified and she freezes in her spot.

Normani growls as Camila appears, taking a defensive step back and moving to grab the matches from her pocket… except they aren’t in her pocket. “Lauren what the fuck did you do with my matches?” She hisses, not letting her hard gaze leave Camila even for a second.

Lauren watches Normani cautiously. “Normani, you said that if I had proof-“

“What is that thing doing in your house?” Normani interrupts with a demanding tone, still keeping her eyes locked on Camila like a lion with its prey. Camila doesn’t move a single muscle, even her breathing looks stiff, like she is trying not to do so.

Lauren sighs, her head is pounding and her ankle is aching and she doesn’t want to have to deal with this right now, but she knows she has to because if she just gives into the pain and stands back, Normani will be attacking Camila and Camila won’t attack back. She couldn’t hurt a fly. “Mani, she is not a thing. She is a girl. Her name is Camila.” She introduces.

“You named her?!” Normani hisses, narrowing her eyes at Camila who clenches her fist to try and hide the shaking of her hands. “She is a fucking ghost Lauren!”

“She already had a name, I didn’t give her it. And yeah, she is a ghost but listen to me! She isn’t bad. She doesn’t haunt or possess or harass or do anything even remotely evil!” Lauren argues. She raises her voice to get her point across and her head pounds a bit more forcefully. She curses a bit at the pain. Normani doesn’t even acknowledge the sound but Camila does and she glances ever so slightly in Lauren’s direction with worry dotted in her terrified expression.

“Lo?” She squeaks worriedly.

“I-“ Lauren starts.

“Don’t fucking talk!” Normani shuts Camila up instantly, the girl clamping her mouth shut as her eyes go wide.

“Mani stop it. I promise you she is harmless.” Lauren scolds, rubbing a bit at the back of her head.

“Lauren, I know you say she is but I haven’t ever heard of a friendly ghost before, let alone seen one. I’m going to need more proof.” Normani breaks eye contact for just a second to glance around the room, she looks to Lauren’s fireplace, knowing that most people tend to keep either a match or a lighter near fireplaces.

“Normani!” Lauren pleads as Normani spots a red lighter resting on the mantle of the stone fireplace. Normani presses her thumb across the metal and a few sparks fly before a steady flame floats along the opening. Camila flinches, her eyes wide with fear.

She steps towards Camila and the ghost takes as many steps away as she can until she is backed into the wall with only a few feet from Normani and herself, the flame between them. Lauren tries to stand up in panic but she is pretty sure she dislocated her ankle because the second she tries to place any pressure on it, she stumbles and barely catches herself with the palms of her hands against her dusty wooden floors.

The sound causes Normani to turn and glance at Lauren with a conflicted gaze. Camila takes the chance to blow out the lighter. She knows Normani can easily light it again, but it was getting awfully close to her face and any time she can gain, she needs.

“Lauren what are you doing?” Normani asks in a strained and frustrated voice. “You are hurt for God’s sake and she is a fucking spook.”

Lauren grimaces in pain and it takes everything Camila has not to run and help her back into the couch. “Please listen to me Mani when I tell you she isn’t bad!” Lauren practically begs.

Normani closes her eyes, clenching her fist around the lighter. “Lauren you can’t ask me to believe you when I have no reason to.”

“I can give you proof! I promise Mani just… just I can answer your questions!” Lauren cries out as Normani unclenches her fist and sparks the lighter again, turning back to Camila.

Camila lets out a small whimper as Normani turns back to her, raising the flame right in front of Camila’s face. The orange glow gives more color to Camila’s skin and for a second, Normani doesn’t see a ghost. Camila’s eyes were dark brown, and although a bit faded, they still had color. She blinks the thought away, stepping closer still.

Camila squints her eyes shut. She can feel the heat from the small flame on her cheeks and she can smell the gas coming out of the lighter in order to fuel it. “Laur….” Camila’s voice comes out small and scared.

“Normani please!” Lauren yells from her spot on the floor, with tears in her eyes.

Normani shakes her head slowly, raising the flame towards Camila’s hair. She knows without gasoline it will be harder to burn the girl, but hair easily catches on fire so hopefully it will be enough. Small tears escape from Camila’s eyes and Normani doesn’t think she has ever seen a ghost with the capability to cry.

She moves the flame to Camila’s hair and right before it touches the brown locks, she stops and looks down.

Vince had wandered out of the bedroom due to all the commotion. He waltzed right over to the corner where Normani and Camila were standing, ignoring Lauren’s emotional and borderline sobbing pleas. And he rubs against Camila’s legs.

Camila sees Normani’s second of distraction and she blows the flame out once again as it falls a bit to where her hair is milliseconds later.

“What the fuck…” Normani’s voice comes out as a whisper.

Vince starts purring, happily rubbing against Camila’s legs; completely unaware to the danger that the girl was in. He didn’t care. All he wanted was affection. Cats were weird like that, they wanted affection at all the wrong times.

Normani’s hand slowly falls to her side, the lighter clenched within it. She watches Vince curiously. “But….But….” Normani can’t seem to grasp the concept.

In these ages, people got pets strictly for one reason. To sense ghosts. Animals had some sort of further sense that allowed them to detect evil presences, even the ones humans couldn’t see. They were house protectors and often used within the ghost hunting industry.

And yet, here Vince stands, rubbing against Camila as if she was covered in catnip.

Normani wants to say that Vince is broken and that maybe Vince himself is some sort of animal ghost, even though they were unheard of; she can’t say that though. She has seen Vince in action back when Normani, Lauren and the rest of their team lived in the training dorms. Somehow a ghost had made its way into their school bathroom and Normani remembers very vividly how Vince began growling; hackles raised and teeth bared. He had been a kitten at the time, but the sight was still scary.

“Thank you Vince.” Lauren breathes a sigh of relief from her spot on the floor, wiping at her eyes and taking a deep breath. “Is that enough proof for you Mani?” She says louder so that she can hear.

Normani blinks and shakes her head. “He…” She can’t seem to find words.

“Likes her? Yeah he seems to like her more than me most of the time. Like I said Mani, she is harmless.” Lauren sounds bitter, but nobody can blame her, after all her best friend almost killed her other, better, best friend.

Normani sighs, letting the lighter fall to the floor. She doesn’t make eye contact with Camila when she talks. “I…I’m sorry.” Normani’s voice is shaky and disbelieving. She walks as if in a daze, towards Lauren’s sofa chair that sits across from the couch and next to the large windows.

Camila let’s out the large breath that she had been holding in fear, a few tears falling from her eyes. She leans down to give Vince a nice pet. “I could kiss you right now.” She tells the grey cat. She gives him a final scratch under the chin before hurrying over to Lauren.

Lauren reaches out and Camila wastes no time dropping to her knees and embracing the girl. Camila can’t help but sob into Lauren’s shirt and Lauren clings, not sobbing, but equally shaken up. “Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.” Camila mumbles repeatedly into Lauren’s shirt at her near death experience. Well near second-death experience.

Lauren rubs the girl’s back. “It’s okay. You’re okay. I’ve got you.”

Camila forces herself to stop when she is reminded that Lauren is injured and that they are embraced on the dirty floor. She pulls away from the girl, wiping her eyes with her sleeve and taking in a shaky breath. “Im okay.” She repeats and reassures.

Lauren nods and wincing in pain when she pulls away from Camila and knocks her ankle against the leg of her coffee table. Camila bites her lip worriedly. “Laur what happened? What hurts?” She helps Lauren to her feet, letting Lauren lean all the wait in her left side into her. She helps the girl sit back on the couch.

“It’s no big deal.” She excuses. Camila gives her a look that states she doesn’t believe her. “My ankle and my head.” Lauren finally mutter.

Camila nods, hurrying out of the room and into the kitchen. Lauren let’s her head rest back against the couch as it throbs endlessly. She only opens her eyes when she hears Camila’s soft footsteps returning. Camila has an armful of stuff that she sets on the floor before examining Lauren. She reaches down to pick up a water bottle and a bottle of painkillers. She unscrews the lid, handing the bottle to Lauren before pouring a few of the white colored pills into her palm. She transfers the pills from her hand to Lauren’s and watches as the girl takes a few sips of water and swallows them.

Lauren hands the water back to Camila after drinking about half and Camila sets it back on the floor. “Let me see your head.” Camila instructs.

Lauren leans forward a bit and Camila files through Lauren’s thick hair with gentle hands until she reaches the bump at the back of her head. Camila winces a bit. “Laur please tell me what happened.” Lauren groans as Camila’s fingers press a bit too hard; well really they weren’t hard bit the skin was sensitive.

“I was fighting a group of spooks…the evil ones.” She adds the last part to clarify.

“Devils?” Camila supplies.

“Yeah devils. Anyways Mani and I were fighting a big group of them and I got distracted by… I saw another good one Camz. Like you.” Lauren lifts her head to look at Camila and the girl gives her a soft look.

Camila reaches down to grab a bag of frozen peas (they were out of ice packs) and she wraps a thin clothe around it before handing it to Lauren. “Hold this against your head please.”

Lauren does as she’s told, continuing. “I’ve never seen another one. Only you so I guess it…. Surprised me. I wasn’t watching the devil and he tackled me to the ground and I smacked my head into the concrete.” She cringes at the memory; Camila does too.

“By the looks of it, you have a concussion, but I can’t be sure just by the outside.” Camila runs a thumb over Lauren’s cheek with concerned eyes.

Lauren nods a bit but stops when it makes her head hurt more. “I’m pretty sure I do…..I kinda threw up all over the floor.” She makes a disgusted face at herself.

Camila’s concern grows. “Well now I’m positive that you do. Do you… Are you nauseous right now?”

Lauren closes her eyes, their living room light suddenly feeling very bright. “No, just throbbing.”

Camila notices her discomfort and moves to turn on a few lamps that are much dimmer before turning out the light. “Is that better?”

“Yeah, thanks Camz.” Lauren closes her eyes anyways.

“Then what?” Camila asks, kneeling down to look at Lauren’s ankle.

“Normani knocked him off before he could do anything but he grabbed onto my ankle and pulled at it really hard before she lit him up.” Lauren grumbled. “It feels out of place.”

Camila nods. “I think it’s dislocated.” She rests her hands along Lauren’s leg and foot. “This is going to hurt.”

Lauren nods. “I figured.” She clenches her teeth in preparation as Camila pops it back into place. Lauren lets out a muffled scream, since she had not allowed her mouth to open. Normani shifts from the corner of the room where she sits in the forest green sofa chair. Lauren had forgotten about the girl until now.

Camila grabs a pillow from off the couch and carefully lifts Lauren’s foot onto it, elevating her ankle. “I’m sorry baby.” She says in a pained voice. She hated to see Lauren hurting.

Lauren dismisses her with a wave, reaching out for the water bottle and taking a few more sips. Camila wraps another frozen bag of something or other in thin clothe and this time places it over Lauren’s injured ankle.

“That’s about all I can do.” Camila apologizes. “How much does it hurt? On a scale?”

Lauren takes a few deep breaths to evaluate herself before muttering, “Around a 7 maybe? My head feels a little better with the ice and I’m sure the pain killers will kick in soon.”

Camila nods, returning the rest of her items in the kitchen before taking a hesitant seat next to Lauren and grabbing the girl’s hand not only to comfort herself after her traumatizing experience with Normani, but to give Lauren something to focus on other than her pain.

The room is enveloped in silence for a few minutes; Lauren resting her head on the back of the couch with closed eyes, Camila brushing her fingers over Lauren’s knuckles and sneaking nervous glances in Normani’s direction, and Normani staring at the floor, clearly stuck in her head.

Camila clears her throat, but her voice is still shaky when she speaks. “Y…you can ask any questions that you want to, I will try to answer them the best I can.” Camila squeaks.

Normani’s head shoots up as she realizes she is being addressed. She stares at Camila for a bit, her stone cold eyes piercing Camila’s soul…. Well maybe Camila’s half-soul, they still aren’t entirely sure how the whole thing works.

“How long have you been here?” Normani finally asks into the silence. The dim lamps that provide the only light cast shadows in Norman’s corner and make her look more intimidating than Camila already thinks she is. Camila gulps.

“Do you mean with Lauren or like… in the living world?” Camila’s voice is quiet with fear and although Lauren’s eyes are closed, she is listening intently and she squeezes Camila’s hand to give the girl some strength.

“Both.” Normani’s voice was cold.

Camila nods. “I met Lauren maybe three or so months back and I’ve been living here about the same. As for the real world, I fell through about a year ago come October.”

Normani shakes her head. “That’s impossible. The veil only opened 75 years ago.”

“That’s what everyone thinks. That it opened and released a bunch of ghosts before closing back up. It’s still open, it has been since.” Camila tried to explain it without sounding like a know-it-all; the last thing she wanted was for Normani to hate her even more.

“Explain.” Normani demands.

“I explained this to Lauren as kinda like an earth quake. The plates shift and an opening is created, releasing masses of ghosts at one time right? But earth quakes have aftershocks and although they aren’t as powerful they still shake the earth. In other words. The veil is still open and it will be until someone figures out how to close it but large masses aren’t passing through anymore, just small groups here and there.” Camila explains.

“So how come they haven’t outnumbered us yet? If they are coming through continuously and we aren’t getting rid of all of them, how come their numbers are decreasing instead of increasing?” Normani sounds a bit less harsh and more curious now than before. She sounds genuinely interested in the information Camila has.

Camila manages a small smile at the thought and she feels Lauren squeeze at her hand again, this time in a sort of praise. “I don’t know the answer to that in a factual form, but I have a theory.” Normani nods to signal for her to share the theory. “Well there is a reason we are still ghosts. It’s not like we fell through the veil and back into our living forms.”

Normani raises a brow at Camila. “What are you getting at?”

Camila holds up a finger to signal for her to wait and Normani gives Camila an inpatient glare that makes her hurry a bit faster. “We are still attached to the veil, not completely living but not completely dead. This is the part where I’m sorta guessing.” She warns before continuing. “There is only so long a person can stand with one leg in the living and one leg behind the veil. My theory is, the reason the numbers are decreasing, is because with the addition of you sending the ghosts back behind the veil, they are also fading back by themselves.”

“They are fading faster than they are coming.” Normani nods, it makes sense in some completely confusing way.

“Not enough that they will all go back, not as long as the veil is open, but enough that the ghost population is lessening.” Camila adjusts her position a bit and Lauren leans her head into Camila’s shoulder.

Normani eyes them, but continues talking on subject. “So how long do you think it takes before they fade?”

Camila shrugs a bit and Lauren groans from her place on Camila’s shoulder. “Sorry.” Camila apologizes before addressing Normani’s question. “I don’t know how long exactly but I would say maybe a few years? I would assume that it varies. Some ghostly entities are more….powerful than others and they might be able to stay amongst the living longer whereas the weaker ones or more peaceful ones fade faster.” She gulps a bit at that and Lauren opens her eyes to give her a worried glance. Camila forces a smile at Lauren. “I think that’s why it’s rare to encounter the peaceful ghosts, because at this point most of them have faded except for the newer ones coming in.”

Normani seems to understand Lauren’s concern now. “So you?” She doesn’t have to finish.

Camila bites her lip and nods a bit. “I don’t know how long, but sometimes…..” She doesn’t finish.

“It’s okay Camz.” Lauren whispers.

Camila nods. “Let’s not think about that right now. Any other questions?” She dismisses and Lauren sighs, leaning her head back against Camila’s shoulder and pressing the icepack to her head with the hand that is not occupied by Camila’s.

“Is there, I mean do all of them fade or is there a sort of loop hole?” Normani wonders aloud.

“I think, I mean I’ve heard of it being done but I’ve never actually seen or anything. Some of the more powerful ghosts can possess people and live through their life force. Most of them only have enough power to do it temporarily because the life force fights back, but if you happen to encounter a really powerful one, they can do it permanently. Some can even switch from body to body, draining the life force and then transferring to a new one but…. They have to be really bad, we usually refer to them as demons, but there are all different types so the term is kinda vague. The devils, or as you guys call them, the spooks, are normally not powerful enough to do that. If they manage to possess you, although unpleasant and harming to your body, they won’t be able to keep you for long and you will probably live.” Camila bites her lip as she talks about the unpleasant truth.

Normani has on a disgusted face. “Oh, well that’s reassuring.”

Camila chuckles a bit. “Sorry, I know, it’s not exactly pleasant information but…”

“I asked for it.” Normani finishes.

Camila nods. “Yeah, you asked for it.”

“How did you die?” Normani asks and Camila tenses a bit underneath Lauren.

“I…Uh…” Camila gulps nervously.

“You don’t have to answer that Camz.” Lauren reassures.

Normani raises an eyebrow.

Camila shakes her head. “I want….Laur I need her to trust me and hiding things, even something as personal as this isn’t going to help.” Camila sighs.

Normani looks confused at the girl’s honestly, that doesn’t mean she isn’t still curious. Camila glances in Normani’s direction with a sad look on her face.

“It’s hard for me to talk about.” She excuses. “Just give me a minute.”

Normani nods, allowing the girl to do so.

“Are you sure Camz?” Lauren looks up worriedly. “I mean you haven’t ever talked about it, let alone to a stranger.”

Camila breaths out deeply. “I know Laur, but you didn’t need to know to trust me. Normani needs to see that even if I am half dead, I’m also half human. She needs to see that I’m not a monster so she can disassociate me with the term. It’s time.”

Normani is surprised by how correct Camila is. She needs to hear this. Lauren gives the girl a light kiss on the cheek, switching their hands so that she is the one rubbing Camila’s knuckles instead of the other way around.

“I…It was back in the early 2000’s I think just a few years before the 2010’s. I was born in Cuba, but at the time it wasn’t all that safe to live there and most of the country lived in poverty so my mother and I immigrated to the U.S. where I was raised in Miami, Florida. My father couldn’t come with us because we didn’t have enough money. He joined us a few years later but he could never find work and he wasn’t able to get a VISA. I’m not really sure what happened to him, he became bitter I guess. He liked to blame me for him not being able to come and for him not being able to afford a VISA.” Camila was hoping that the girls understood the terms she was using, knowing that they were both born nearly a century later and into a world full of ghosts and little relation to the world Camila knew.

Lauren gave her a smile to show the she understood; she had learned about most of this stuff in history class along with Normani and the rest of their generation. They never attended high school, but they were taught history so that if the ghost problem was ever terminated, they would be fit to teach the next generation and hopefully re-civilize everything.

Camila smiled softly before continuing. “Most families these days are different from back then. Now days you guys rarely have more than one child and you are raised more so in the training facilities than anything else, but back then, it was completely different. Families mostly revolved around love and loyalty and togetherness. It was more common to have siblings than not and there was a sort of loving feel to everything. I don’t even know if there is a way to describe it.” Camila smiles at the thought.

“Anyways, things were going well for a while and my father found a job and my mother had a baby. Her name was Sofia, she was my pride and joy. An eleven year age gap between us, but it didn’t seem to matter at the time because I was perfectly okay with just having a baby sister. Big brown eyes and a carbon copy of what my father what have looked like if he were a girl. Absolutely adorable.” Camila’s eyes glistened a bit.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but can you maybe get to the point?” Normani spoke not in a harsh tone, but more in a confused tone. Camila had to remind herself that the girl didn’t really understand the concept of family simply because of her upbringing. She didn’t understand the importunateness of family.

Camila nods and Lauren shoots the brown skinned girl a glare.

“It’s okay.” Camila dismissed Lauren’s glare. “My father lost his job again a few years later and once again he needed someone to blame and he turned to me. He started drinking a lot and coming home late at night. He would…..” Camila takes a few deep breaths. “He would beat me, usually with a belt, across the back.”

Lauren frowns deeply as she stares at Camila. Camila pretends to ignore Lauren so she doesn’t have to look in those eyes and end up crying like she knew she would. Lauren catches Camila subconsciously pushing the hand Lauren isn’t holding beneath her shirt and Lauren assumes she is brushing her fingers over old belt scars. The thought that anyone would hurt Camila, especially in her living form, makes Lauren feel sick.

“My mother knew about it but there wasn’t much she could do seeing as my father was much bigger and stronger than all of us combined. She mostly just tried her best to keep Sofi out of it; she was so little at the time and we tried out best to keep her as far away as we could from it, well as far away as you can get living under the same roof and all. We mostly managed but we couldn’t stop her from hearing everything. She used to get really bad anxiety to the point where the only thing that would calm her down was this stuff animal she had, a stitch plushy of sorts.” Despite Camila’s sadness, she managed to chuckle at the realization that neither Lauren nor Normani knew who stitch was. “A character from a movie.” She explained to the confused faces.

They both nodded. “Oh.”

“It got so bad that my mother had planned out an escape of sorts and we were to move in with an aunt who lived in California. We packed what we could while my father was out drinking at the bar but he came home earlier than planned, just as we were pulling from the driveway he was coming in through the back door. Of course, Sofia started hyperventilating a bit like she did nearly every time she saw our father and in our rush we had forgotten her plushy in the living room. So I volunteered to sneak in to get it.” Camila had tears rolling down her cheeks now and Lauren sat up and wiped a few with her thumb.

It didn’t really help because more instantly followed and Lauren let out a sad sigh. “You never got it did you?”

Camila shook her head. “He caught me as I was creeping back out of the living room and to say he was furious was an understatement. It was clear what we were doing, all of our stuff was gone. He didn’t even bother to untie his belt, just going straight to…straight to….” Camila choked back a sob. “He beat me to death. I think my mother and sister called the cops and got away but you know…. I obviously wasn’t there to know.”

Normani was staring at the ground again, sadness taking over her features. Lauren had tears in her eyes as well, and after a minute or two they rolled down her cheeks in large drops. Camila was crying too, but she stayed silent, wiping at her face everything now and then.

“I’m so sorry.” Normani’s voice surprised Camila.

Camila nods. “It’s okay I’ve had a lot of time to think about everything, I mean that was nearly a century ago after all and there isn’t much to do behind the veil.”

Lauren shook her head. “It’s not something that you should be okay with. That’s… heartbreaking.” She sniffled.

Camila gave the girl a sad smile, wiping some tears from her green eyes. “Yes it was, but I’ve made peace with it.”

Normani stood up from her spot, startling both of the girls. She walked over to Camila, letting out a heavy breath. “I…You’ve earned my trust Camila. I’m sorry for trying to kill you earlier just I didn’t know.”

Camila nods understandingly. “It’s okay Normani.”

The girl looks relieved that Camila doesn’t have any hard feelings. “It might take me a while to get comfortable with you but if it’s okay, we can be friends.” Normani holds out her hand hesitantly.

Camila smiles. She grabs Normani’s hand and shakes it in one swift motion. “If you’ll take me.”

-

-

Normani was the friend Lauren was most worried about when the time came that she found out about Camila and once the girl ended being fine with it (well maybe not fine, but she wasn’t trying to burn Camila back to hell anymore so that was good) Lauren felt relieved that they gotten the hardest one over with.

After that, Dinah and Ally were easy (comparatively at least). Sure Dinah had freaked out a bit at first but Normani had told the girl everything Camila and Lauren had told her and if Mani was fine with it, then why shouldn’t Dinah be? Dinah had always been a softie anyways, not that she didn’t kill spooks any time that she needed too, but she had always secretly felt a little bit bad.

 Ally was, as expected, the easiest of the three to except the concept of Camila and good ghosts. She wasn’t even a hunter in the first place, purely because she didn’t really have the heart to kill, even if the beings were technically already dead.

 Instead Ally was what they call a Cleanser. She had been trained to cleanse haunted areas of spooks and try to remove spooks from the victims that have been possessed.

So once all of Lauren’s friends/co-workers knew about the girl, it was a lot easier not having to try and hide Camila all the time. Camila was especially grateful after remembering the time that Dinah had come over and Camila had to hide in the closet for nearly five hours before the girl left. She was lucky that Lauren had a walk-in closet and not some claustrophobic dent with shelves.

Now, she could roam the house freely anytime on of the girls came over. Sure, Mani was still a bit uncomfortable with the idea but Lauren had explained to Camila that Mani was very set in her ways and disciplined in the practice much more than any of the others because her father had been one of the people to train their team, so Camila understood. And yeah, sometimes her hand went through the chip bowl while the girls all played cards and Dinah would be on the verge of freaking out, but the point is that they were all in the same room. The living and the undead.

One might say they had a sort of harmony.

-

-

“Oh shit! I’m so sorry Vince please don’t hate me!” Camila whines loudly and Lauren immediately turns her eyes to the girl in concern.

Lauren bites her lip worriedly as she watches Camila fade out a bit, like she had that one night, only a bit lesser. Her body turns a bit black and white and Vince, who she had been holding, falls to the floor. He uses his cat reflexes to land on his feet, but his tail waves back and forth angrily as he hurries away from Camila.

“I didn’t mean to drop you! You just fell through my arms.” She huffs, looking distressed.

She shivers a bit, wrapping her arms around her body as the color returns to her features. Lauren walks over to the girl from the kitchen with a frown on her features. As she gets closer she can see that Camila’s lips are a bit blue and her whole body is covered with chills. Once she sees that Camila’s form is solid enough again, she places her hand on Camila’s skin. It’s ice cold. Camila leans into Lauren’s touch, grabbing Lauren’s other hand and placing it on her cheek.

“Camz, are you okay?” Lauren rubs her hand across Camila’s arm, watching as the chills start to go away, the little hairs returning to their normal state.

Camila nods, letting out a large breath. “Yeah, you know that happens sometimes.”

Lauren nods. She does know, since that night that it happened on their bed it has happened quite a few times. “I know it happens, but this is like the third time today and well…..”

“It’s never been this often?” Camila finishes.

Lauren nods, removing her hand from Camila’s cheek and grabbing the girl’s cold fingers instead. “Yeah.”

Camila smiles at their intertwined fingers. “I’m sure it’s nothing Lauren.” She manages to sound like she is one hundred percent okay and Lauren sighs in relief. “I mean I’m a ghost. I’m expected to do some cool ghost-y shit.” She jokes.

Lauren giggles fill the room, signaling that she had been successful at cheering the girl up. “Yeah right, you are the lamest ghost I’ve ever met.” Lauren teases.

Camila pouts adorably. “Hey you take that back. I can….I can do cool stuff.”

Lauren chuckles. “Yeah right Camz.”

Camila drops Lauren’s hand and crosses her arms, her pout still full-fledged.  “Would you rather I throw things around the house and reek the smell of death?” She counters.

Lauren scrunches her face in disgust. “Ew, no thanks. I think I like my Camzi just the way she is.”

“That’s what I thought.” Camila blushes at the sentence. Lauren had just called Camila hers.

“Come here.” Lauren opens her arms, smiling down at the girl with softly tinted, pink cheeks. One perk about naturally being so pale and half-alive, her blood isn’t all that warm so even when she blushes, it’s not too noticeable.

Camila doesn’t hesitate to walk into Lauren’s arms, leaning her head against Lauren’s soft chest. She feels so safe and so alive in Lauren’s arms.

They stay there for a while. At this point, Camila doubts that the two girls even know what a quick hug is. They always end up hugging for longer than is comfortable for most people, except to them, it is comfortable. Lauren’s heartbeat blends with Camila’s uneven one, making a beat like the type of music that used to be popular back when Camila was alive the first time. They have always been rather comfortable around each other.

Well not always, the first time they met Camila had been frightened for her life and Lauren had been on the brink of killing the small ghost wandering Lauren’s neglected guest room. Of course, Lauren had luckily noticed Camila’s differences almost immediately; like how the girl had whimpered quietly in fear, unlike all the loud screams and moans and throaty growls that the spooks like to make and how her eyes were filled with tears and emotions and how they were like brown earthy soil rather than dark blood red. That day, they definitely did not treat each other with affection.

In fact, Lauren had promptly kicked Camila out into the night, no caring about all the possible hunters that could’ve found her or the pouring rain coming down from the thick grey clouds.

It wasn’t until a few days later as Lauren was drunkenly walking home (her, Mani, and Ally had stumbled across an old beer factory during one of their hunts and definitely took it too far) that Lauren had run into Camila again and actually acted civil to each other. If we are being honestly Camila had always been civil and really Lauren had been the mean one, but Camila was a ghost, so could you blame her?

After that night, Camila had led a shit faced Lauren home and put her to bed, something that no ghost had ever done before. It was something so human, that Lauren really had no choice except to abandon all harsh feelings towards the girl.

That’s when the affection started and it never really stopped. If anything, it intensified. Camila didn’t even bother trying to settle in Lauren’s guest bedroom. Instead, the girl turned their long hugs into longer, more cuddling types and promptly moved into Lauren’s bed. And of course, the soft touches and the hand holding wasn’t too far behind.

Camila knows it’s the way that they have always been, however she knows that somewhere, it stems from some sort of deeper feelings.

They don’t talk about those though. Camila isn’t sure how exactly being dead affects things like that and well the fact that she isn’t fully alive in the first place forced her to stop all thoughts of her and Lauren right there. She assumes Lauren thinks the same.

She can’t deny that she is attracted to Lauren and she thinks that she feels something way deeper than just affection for the girl, but again, Camila is partly dead and things like that are a bit touchy. She can’t ever be with Lauren is she isn’t ever fully alive and even then, she doesn’t know if Lauren feels the same about Camila as Camila does for her.

On top of that, there is a looming sense of dread that always seems to hang over them. Camila can feel it, Lauren can see it. Camila lately has been feeling slightly more dead than alive and even if it’s a sensitive subject that only brings fear and anxiety, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s happening. Camila is fading and she isn’t sure how long she has left.

They pull away after about a minute. Camila feels all warmed up again, or at least, she feels back to her normal half dead temperature which is good enough for her.

Lauren doesn’t bring up Camila’s looming death again that day. Not even when the girl fades again for a few seconds while she and Lauren are making dinner.

 The knife she was using to cut veggies clatters to the floor in a deafening clang. Camila picks it back up once her body turns solid again. They kitchen stays silent all throughout dinner.

-

-

“Camz!” Lauren laughed loudly, trying to push the girl off of her body with little success. She was way too weak in her laughing state to put in much effort. Camila knew this and ignored the girl’s squeal, instead she continued tickling Lauren relentlessly, moving her fingers across the girl’s ribs like she was playing the piano. “St…stop!” Lauren barely managed to form any sort of coherent sentence.

Camila really would stop, except that well, Lauren’s face looks so freaking adorable scrunched up like that and her laugh is possibly the cutest laugh in the entire world so she definitely doesn’t want to stop. Not any time soon anyways. She smiles with her tongue placed between her teeth. “I don’t think so Laur!”

“Pl…please! I’m go…gonna p…pee my pants!” Lauren gets out between laughs.

Camila laughs, removing her fingers from Lauren’s ribs brushing some lose hair from the girl’s face. She is currently straddling Lauren, although it’s in possibly the most innocent way possible, in fact neither of the girls even noticed the position they were in. “Better Lo?” The nickname slips out easily and naturally.

Lauren breathes heavily, trying to regain her breath and with on hand she reaches to her eyes to wipe some tears that had escaped. “Much.” She hums, smiling when Camila’s fingers brush across her cheek.

Camila let’s her body lower until she is laying on top of Lauren, her head resting in the crook of Lauren’s neck. Lauren moves her fingers to run up and down Camila’s back, sending chills up the girl’s spine. “You know, I used to get into tickle fights with my little sister all of the time.” She shares softly, moving to trace the freckles dotting Lauren’s shoulder and arm like a game of connect the dots. Today had been a good day for her, she felt so alive.

“Sofi?” Lauren breathes.

Camila smiles. “Yeah Sofi.”

“I wish I could see pictures of her.” Lauren mutters softly and her breath tickles the top of Camila’s head.

Camila pokes affectionately at a specific freckle on Lauren’s shoulder that is almost like two freckles overlapping each other. “Me too. Let’s see, she definitely would have died by now. I don’t know where all of our pictures would be.”

Lauren nods in understanding. “Back in Miami?” She wonders.

“I don’t know. We were on our way to California before I died, so my family could have gone there or maybe since my dad was definitely arrested, they ended up staying in Miami…..” Camila stops slowly and though Lauren can’t see her face, she knows that by the tone and Camila’s voice and the pause of her fingers over her freckles, Camila has just thought of something.

“What is it Camz?” She asks softly, wrapping her arms around Camila after a few minutes of drawing circles on her back.

Camila turns her head so she is looking up at Lauren from on top of the girl’s chest. “I was just…I don’t know where I’m buried Laur.” She has her brows furrowed and Lauren copies the act as the question begins circling in her head.

“Wow, I never thought about that before.” She admits. Camila hums, still thinking. “You are sure they would have buried you? No cremation or anything?”

“I don’t see why they would have. My mother was very set on the idea of burials. She likes that the headstones serve as a sort of monument of remembrance. Or she liked more like.” Camila corrects herself.

Lauren leans down to give the girl a quick kiss on the forehead. “So you have no idea?”

Camila shakes her head. “I would guess that they buried me in Miami where I was born and raised rather than pay for my body to be flown all the way to somewhere I’ve never been. My grandmother was buried in a quiet little cemetery just outside of Miami with this little river running through it. Her grave was directly under this old willow tree. Maybe they would have buried me there.” Camila thinks out loud.

The room goes silent for a minute before Lauren sighs a bit and looks down at the girl laying on top of her. “Camz?” She questions although Lauren already has Camila’s full attention. She always has Camila’s full attention, even when she doesn’t realize it.

Camila looks up to meet sparkling green eyes. “Yeah Lo?”

“Is…Is dying scary?” Lauren wonders, hoping she isn’t pushing it. She hopes that Camila has had enough time to come to terms with her death while behind the Veil.

Camila gives Lauren a small smile. “I mean, my death wasn’t exactly….ideal. I was scared out of my mind. My father was the last sight I saw. I had always hoped that the last thing I saw before death was something better….my little sister, my mother, the love of my life….maybe future children. I’m not sure, but definitely not the angry face of my father.” She pauses and Lauren can tell she is picturing the scene in her head so she brushes her fingers down Camila’s hair to bring her back to the present.

Camila swallows, her eyes refocusing on Lauren. “The actual dying part isn’t scary. I never saw that light that everyone talks about, it was more like falling asleep. When your thoughts are still fully present but they start to get a bit blurry and those waves of darkness sort of wash over your vision. It’s not a scary dark, more like a comforting type. And then you wake up like you had taken a nap or something except you aren’t there anymore. You can feel the difference between being a living, breathing person and a ghost.” She explains softly.

Lauren pictures how she falls asleep each night; slowly losing her concentration and becoming less aware of everything that is happening at the moment until she wakes up the next morning, not even remembering exactly when or how she had fallen asleep. It doesn’t sound scary, but she has to admit that it doesn’t sound like she thought either. “What do you mean you can feel the difference?”

Camila sighs, not sadly or annoyed or anything, but simply just in thought as she thinks. “Well right now is a bit different because I’m in the living world, but I feel a bit detached. My body doesn’t feel heavy like it should, it feels like when you are swimming.” She tries to explain the unexplainable to someone who has never felt what she has and is finding it to be very difficult. “You can feel your whole body right? But the weight is different. Your body isn’t as heavy when you are in water.”

Lauren nods to show she knows what she means. “I get what you mean.”

Camila continues. “And I’m not sure where I stand on the emotions part. Emotions are a human thing for the most part and I know I feel things because….well because I can feel them. But I’m not sure to what extent or how strong they are because technically dead people should be able to feel anything. Do you get what I mean?”

“It’s confusing but I think so.” Lauren says as she watched Camila’s face while she talks. Camila takes continuous pauses to chew at her lip in thought before her eyes go all wide as she thinks of new topics or new ways to describe things. Camila constantly entrances Lauren, although Lauren does wish that it were a happier topic.

“I don’t really feel physical pain either.” Camila comments and Lauren raises her eyebrows.

“Really? Like if I were to punch you right now, it wouldn’t hurt?” Lauren wonders.

Camila smiles. “Go ahead and try it.” She pulls up her sleeve to give Lauren an open spot on her shoulder to hit.

Lauren is a bit hesitant but Camila isn’t going to feel it so she eventually pulls back her fist and lands a decent hit to the exposed skin. Camila scrunches her face in pain and grabs at the area. “Owww!” She whines.

Lauren instantly breaks into a worried face and begins spouting apologies. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry Camz I didn’t really mean to hurt you I just….”

Camila giggles adorably. “Lo, babe, I’m kidding. It didn’t hurt. You didn’t hurt me.” She brushes her thumb over Lauren’s creased eyebrows and the girl pouts as she realizes Camila had only been teasing. Her cheeks also turn a bit red because well, Camila called her babe.

“Camz! That’s not funny….” She whines. “I thought I actually hurt you.”

Camila pouts back at the girl and lifts her head a bit to look at Lauren properly. “Aw Lo, I’m sorry. Forgive me?” She asks gently.

Lauren shakes her head. “No, that was mean.”

Camila props herself up on either side of Lauren’s head so that she is leaning over the girl. “Please? Forgive me?” She tries again, giving the girl puppy eyes.

Lauren knows if she opens her mouth it will say yes so she shakes her head instead. “No.” She squeaks.

Camila lowers herself until her lips are almost touching Lauren’s. “Forgive me?” Camila whispers and Lauren can feel Camila’s breath on her own lips and her eyes go wide. She stays silent, watching Camila’s lips with her eyes. They look so plump and perfect. Camila touches their lips, not enough to call a kiss, but enough that Lauren can feel her pink skin on her own. “Please?” Camila adds some pressure and suddenly, they are kissing.

It’s quick and chaste, barely a peck, but it was a kiss. Camila pulls back, waiting for a response and Lauren can only nod her head and let out a small squeak. Camila smiles affectionately at the girl before resuming her position with her head on her chest. She can feel Lauren’s heart pounding beneath her ear and if their positions were reserves, Lauren would be able to hear hers as well.

After a few minutes of silence, Camila moves her eyes to look at Lauren, who is already looking at her. “You remember what I said earlier about what I wanted to see when I died?”

Lauren nods.

“If you were the last thing I saw, It would be perfect.” She states.

-

-

“Damn Walz, you’re seriously old.” Dinah cringes a bit and Camila pretends to look offended.

“Okay first of all, most of that time I was even actually alive so I don’t think it counts, secondly if it does count then you should respect your elders, and thirdly, why Walz?” Camila counts on her fingers as she lists her responses.

“Because ghosts are supposed to like live in the walls and shit.” Dinah states like it’s obvious, as she props her legs up on Lauren’s coffee table.

“Have you ever actually see a ghost in the walls?” Normani asks as she takes a seat next to Dinah on the couch, she leans a bit closer than is normal and Dinah’s eyes go a bit wider as Normani’s skin makes direct contact with her own and Normani rests her hand a bit high on Dinah’s thigh.

Dinah visibly swallows and takes a minute before answering. Camila rolls her eyes at the obvious sexual tension between the two. “Well I mean, no, but that’s why I said supposed. They should, but they don’t.”

“There was a poltergeist hiding in the walls of this old lady’s house one time.” Ally contributes as she walks in the room with Lauren. The two girls are holding an old projector that Lauren had found out on patrol earlier that morning. Lauren hadn’t known what it was because electronics that weren’t meant to be of some supernatural use were very rare, but Camila knew and with a little improvising, they had managed to find some old films to play, most of which were educational films left at the school.

“No one asked you Ally.” Normani groans, having thought that she had made her point.

Ally sticks out her tongue and turns off the lights in Lauren’s living room. They had moved all of the furnisher, which wasn’t much, away from one of the walls, leaving it completely blank so that they could show their movie on it.

“Anyways,” Dinah starts after she had recovered from Normani’s touch. “The original point was, that you are old as fuck.”

Camila groans, she thought she had successfully avoided that. “Again Dinah, it doesn’t count because I wasn’t living for most of that time. “Really I’m like…..” She counts in her head for a minute before deciding. “18 I think because I think since I passed through the veil I’ve been aging again. I was 17 when I died though.”

“You age in the living world even though you aren’t completely living?” Normani asks curiously. She moves her hand across Dinah’s leg as she reaches for the popcorn on the table. Dinah’s breath hitches and Camila pretends not to notice because she really wishes she hadn’t.

“Well yeah, because time exists in the living world so I age no matter my state of being. I’m not a vampire you know.” She rolls her eyes playfully.

Normani chuckles. “I was just asking.” She defends, leaning back and Dinah sighs in relief when her hand goes with her.

“So how old are you really?” Ally wonders.

“18.” Camila answers, knowing that’s not what Ally was asking. Ally gives her a look and Camila corrects her answer. “Okay so like 116 give or take a few.” She admits.

“Damn.” Normani comments.

Lauren’s eyes go wide. “Wait, it’s been that long? You were behind the Veil for…” She thinks for a second. “98 years?”

Camila nods. “Around that, yeah.”

“Holy fuck. Lauren I didn’t know you were into older girls.” Normani teases.

Dinah smirks. “So you haven’t had sex in 98 years? Jesus Christ.”

Camila’s cheeks go red. “Actually, in 116 years because I’ve never….” She doesn’t finish the sentence, instead rubbing the back of her neck.

“Oh my god, she’s a hundred and sixteen year old virgin.” Normani exclaims. “That has to be a new record or something!”

Camila blushes a deeper red and Lauren scowls at the girls for making Camila feel embarrassed. “Guys shut up.”

Dinah waves Lauren off. “Hear that Lo? You’re gonna be breaking records when you finally get your fingers into-“

Ally’s eyes go wide and she slaps Dinah’s arm. “That is enough Dinah Jane!” She scolds.

“Yeah Dinah! You’re one to talk, it’s obvious you haven’t ever had sex either. I’ve seen Mani practically groping you in your seat since the moment she sat down. At least Camila has more self-control.” Lauren smirks, eyeing the chocolate covered hand that is resting way too far on Dinah’s leg.

Ally notices and groans. “Oh my god!” She gets out her Holy water that she always carries for when she goes to do cleansings and begins sprinkling it across the girls. “Y’all need to be cleansed!” She teases with a loud laugh as Dinah and Normani try and shield themselves from the water dripping over their heads.

Camila hurries to scramble off of the couch, moving across the room and holding her head a bit. Lauren notices and hurries to the girl’s side worriedly. “What’s wrong Camz?” Camila shakes her head a bit and points to the holy water.

Well duh, it is made to keep away ghosts after all and Camila happens to be a ghost. Lauren shakes her head, grabbing the metal flask of holy water from Ally and throwing it in the other direction. “Ally! Camila is a ghost remember! You can’t go pouring holy water around her, it will mess with her head!”

Ally’s eyes go wide in realization and she immediately looks guilty. “Oh my gosh Mila, I’m so sorry I forgot. It’s just you look and act so normal I…I forgot.” She apologizes.

Camila rubs at her head a bit. The Holy water made it hard for her to focus, hence why the Cleansers use it to protect locations and people because it makes it harder for ghosts to possess anyone or haunt a specific place when they can’t concentrate. When she can finally get her head to focus, she forces a small smile. “It’s okay Ally, you didn’t mean to.” She cringes a bit as her head goes fuzzy once again and Lauren frowns next to the girl, not quite sure what to do.

“Can you guys try to wash off the Holy Water?” Lauren asks Normani and Dinah and they instantly agree, hating to see Camila in such a state.

Ally continues to apologize and eventually there isn’t enough Holy Water left to really do anything and Camila can get her thoughts back again. She tells Ally over and over that it’s okay and once they are all washed up, they all take their seats somewhere in the living room to watch their movie. It’s a documentary about the ocean and its wonders, but movies are such a rarity that all of them are entranced by their make shift screen.

Camila finds herself cuddling into Lauren, seeking warmth as her body suddenly goes ice cold. It doesn’t really phase her anymore when her body gets drained of its heat because of how frequently it has been occurring, but it’s still uncomfortable and she still gets chills every time. Lauren sneaks a few worried glances in her direction and places in arm around her shoulder. Dinah moves her legs away from Camila’s body as her toes start to become cold. She can tell everyone around her has noticed, but no one says anything.

When they movie finishes an hour later, she is still just as cold as before and if possible, her skin is paler than usual. Ally hugs her a bit longer before she leaves but it doesn’t really help. When Camila reaches for the door handle her hand goes through the doorknob and she curses as her body fades to black and white, dropping the bowl of popcorn her other hand had been holding.

Her body reappears and the bowl makes a loud, taunting noise as it rolls around on the floor. It’s the only noise in the room. Lauren picks up the bowl, biting at her bottom lip and doing her best not to let Camila catch her concerned expression. Camila tries to turn the doorknob again, breathing in a deep breath to replenish her body with oxygen. It works this time and she holds open the door for Normani, Dinah, and Ally as they leave.

Her body temperature doesn’t return. Not throughout the night as her and Lauren cuddle on their bed. Not when Lauren is forced to wake up in the early hours of the morning and get a few more blankets because cuddling with Camila is just making her cold. Not when they both wake up the next morning and cook breakfast. It happens sometime the next afternoon and Camila feels like she can finally breath again at the feeling.

Lauren doesn’t say it, but the large exhale of relief is enough to let Camila know that the girl was thinking the same thing as Camila was.

She is fading pretty fucking fast and they were both worried that Camila would be ice cold forever.

    _

_

  Camila stays completely silent as she walks the empty streets.

Lauren was out with the rest of the girls working on some poltergeist and a few spooks that had been terrorizing a nearby neighborhood. She had told Camila she would be back before she woke up, but little did Lauren know, Camila never went to sleep. She couldn’t. She could feel herself fading and she could feel herself going fast.

There were some days where she would just wake up, ice cold and so pale that she might as well have walked out of an old black and white movie. The whole day she just felt off. Her heart beat less, she was constantly trying to catch her breath, and sometimes she felt weightless, like her body was the furthest thing from solid and living.

She of course, said nothing to Lauren. She didn’t want the girl to worry. She could tell that Lauren noticed and worried all on her own, but Camila tried her best to play if off like it was much better than it really was.

She was terrified that if she went to bed one night, she would never wake up the next morning. And she was angry, because she was fading so quickly and so soon in comparison to everything she had ever observed. To her knowledge, ghosts didn’t start fading until at least a little bit after a year, and those were the extremely weak ones that didn’t even want to be here in the first place. Camila had hoped that she was strong enough to at least last two years, maybe a bit more before getting to this point of fading, and yet, here she is at a year and a half, standing on death’s door.

It was frustrating and she couldn’t do anything about it…..and yet, she couldn’t help but feel like something was off. Something other than the obvious.

Lately, she had been feeling a sort of pull. Something tugging at her like she was attached to a string and the hand at the other side was drawing her closer. Sometimes she didn’t feel it at all, but lately, it had been a lot more present. She thought about following the pull and allowing her body to see where it ends up, but that would mean leaving Lauren and she didn’t know how much time they had left. Of course, it could also be a trap, like a Magnet trying to summon ghosts to kill and she really didn’t want that.

So yeah, there have been a few things that have just felt off and Camila isn’t sure what it was.

There was one thing she kept coming back to, a few days ago Dinah had been telling the other girls that a spook that she had tracked down had faded in and out when Dinah had tried to light the thing on fire and although it was possible for that ghost to be fading as well, it brought an idea to Camila’s mind.

What if she wasn’t the only one feeling something off?

She had asked the other girl’s if they felt anything, but to them, everything had been normal. She assumed that maybe it was different since none of them are paranormal, so she had asked Ally. The girl wasn’t a ghost, but she had at least some sort of supernatural abilities being a cleanser and all, but to her disappointment, Ally said she hadn’t felt anything either. It’s not like Camila had any ghosts she could ask, so she just assumed it was just her….that is until Dinah had said that.

Maybe other ghosts were feeling it too.

So here she is, sneaking away into the night where she knows there are always ghosts hanging around. She really should have told Lauren what she was doing, just in case she ran into trouble, but she didn’t want the girl to worry. If Camila starting telling the green eyed girl that she had been feeling rather dead lately and wasn’t sleeping because she was afraid she wasn’t going to wake up, the chances that Lauren wouldn’t freak out were extremely low.

So she didn’t tell her. She didn’t tell anyone.

She makes her way to the old high school. She knew from Lauren and from experience that ghosts love to hang out at the schools. Back when Camila was alive, people used to actually attend schools like these almost every day for the majority of the day so it makes sense that ghosts will come back to places that they used to spend so much time in. They must be full of memories.

She walks down the long hallway, her feet gently clicking against the linoleum flooring. She had never been a big fan of school back when she attended. She was always too busy worrying about her mother back at home and whether or not her father was going to be in a good mood or not when she got home or whether or not the long scars running down her back were showing beneath her clothes.

Plus she hated chemistry with a burning passion. Who even likes that?

She looked at all the open lockers as she walked, she managed to smile a bit as she found one full of heart shaped papers covered in faded writing. Love notes. How cute.

She made it to one of the large staircases that led downstairs and followed it, being careful to test the steps before putting her full weight on them. She wasn’t quite sure how the whole being partly dead thing worked with injuries but she didn’t really want to find out either. When she got to the bottom she followed her ghostly instinct, moving across the hard, orange carpet until she reached the history room. Ironic that the old history room served as a sort of hangout among the ghost world.

Ghosts just loved to reminisce on the time of their living. Of course, it’s a bit different when the majority of these ghosts are devils and demons rather than ones like her just here for a quick walk down memory lane. Even so, the room had a few ghosts in it.

She found a nice spot to sit and watched them. She knew they wouldn’t attack if she came near, being a ghost as well, but that didn’t mean that she wanted to go near them either. She would much rather keep her distance. The devils and demons always smelled of death and made terrible noises and expelled horrible waves of negative energy. She hated it. She had enough experience being around them and wasn’t too keen with the idea of doing it some more.

She observed as one of the ghosts began trashing the room and throwing things around. She identified him as a poltergeist. She watched as he ripped the whiteboard from the wall and ripped old papers into shreds. It seemed kind of pointless to her but whatever floats his boat she supposes.

She watched for a few hours and when she was sure that she must be the only one feeling something, suddenly it happened. She felt her body fade and turn ice cold again, she lost all feeling in her body and she struggled to breathe like the wind had gotten knocked from her chest. When she felt her body come back, she looked around seeing the other ghosts doing the exact same thing.

Then she felt that pull again and the other ghosts suddenly began to leave. Camila assumes if she followed the pull she would be walking along with them.

So it wasn’t just her. Well this definitely changes things. She was fading, that much she can’t do anything about, but so was every other ghost. Something bigger was happening, something way bigger than herself.

It was something to do with the Veil, she could feel it.

  -

-

“You remember that large group that we’ve been tracking?” Normani asks Lauren as the four living friends pull on their gear.

They had gotten called into work for some sort of emergency despite the fact that it was barely four in the morning.

Lauren nods, pulling her gloves over her fingers before starting to work on her hair. “You think they are here?”

Normani nods. “I was talking to one of the other groups who are tracking the paranormal activity aka the group as it comes and they said it was going to be any day now. That was two days ago.”

“Well it makes sense. We normally aren’t called in for emergencies.” Dinah wipes some sleep from her eyes and stretches. One of her boots comes untied and she groans.

“It’s supposed to be something really powerful, especially for them to be traveling in groups like they are. That’s not normal.” Ally comments, clicking on her belt that has her equipment; it’s slightly different from the rest of the girls’ seeing as she won’t be doing any hunting. She is there strictly for emergencies and to help any possible civilians who get caught up in the mess.

“Maybe they will be good ones, like Camila.” Lauren tries to think positively rather than getting all nervous.

Dinah snorts. “Yeah right, you heard the girl. The more powerful ones are bad news. What did she call them? Demons?”

Normani nods. “Yeah the normal spooks are devils, the evil ones with a lot of power are the demons and the ones that distinctly harass are the poltergeists.”

“Ohh you been studying Manibear?” Ally teases.

Normani slaps the girl on the shoulder. “It’s good information to have. I like to be correct.”

“What is she called then? Since you know, she is good and all.” Dinah questions.

“I think she is just a ghost. I haven’t really asked about terminology for things that we haven’t really seen and/or don’t kill.” Lauren points out.

“Hmm interesting.” Ally hums. “Have you talked to her about this group? Does she have any ideas as to why they are coming here and why they are traveling in a group?”

Lauren nodded. “I did talk to her about it, although she isn’t quite sure why. She had a few guesses.”

“What is she thinking?” Dinah wonders.

“Well, she says that ghosts hardly ever migrate so the only reason she can think of is if one of our Magnets is calling them there.” Lauren shares as she thinks to the conversation that Camila and she had.

“Why would they do that?” Normani wonders.

Lauren shrugs. “Either for some unknown reason or they are being possessed by a demon of sorts. At least that’s what Camila says. She told me she’s been feeling sort of pulled towards something but unlike most ghosts, she has something to distract her or hold her down.” Lauren blushes a bit as Ally coos at the last part and Dinah makes loud kissing noises.

“You guys are cute.” Ally admits. “Probably the weirdest relationship I’ve ever seen, but cute none the less.”

Lauren shakes her head. “We aren’t together.”

All of the girls look surprised. “You aren’t?” Is chorused around the room.

Lauren shakes her head. “Nope.”

“Well why the hell not?” Dinah exclaims. “It’s obvious you two have feelings for each other.”

“What? No we….I mean…..We don’t have feelings for each other.” Lauren huffs in denial.

Ally snorts. “Oh yeah and there isn’t about three layers of sexual tension between Normani and Dinah either.” She says sarcastically. Dinah shoots Normani a wink and Normani bites her bottom lip slightly suggestively. Ally shakes her head at the pair. “Point proven.” She decides.

Lauren sighs. “Look, I don’t know if Camila has feelings for me or if I have feelings for her. We haven’t ever talked about it and I don’t think that we ever will. She isn’t even fully alive and I don’t know about you, but I haven’t ever heard of a person dating a ghost before.” Lauren points out.

“We hadn’t heard about a good ghost before either but look where we are.” Normani counters and Lauren groans loudly.

“Guys seriously, Camila, she…..she isn’t feeling her best lately and until we figure out how to stop her from fading, there is a slight chance that she might just…disappear. We can’t afford to get all lovey-dovey just for everything to fall apart and both end up with broken hearts.” Lauren raises her voice and crosses her arms over her chest.

Ally gives her a sympathetic look. “I get that Laur, I do, but Camila out of everyone should know never to take anything for granted. You guys have time now and it’s obvious you both are smitten by each other. You should tell her before it’s too late.”

Lauren shakes her head. “No, you guys don’t understand. Normani doesn’t have to worry about Dinah suddenly being nonexistent and Ally you don’t even have a significant other.” She points out, sounding sad and frustrated.

Dinah raises her hands in surrender. “Okay, no need to get heated Laur, It was just a suggestion. I know we don’t really understand and we probably never will and for that I am sorry, but I promise we will try our hardest to help you figure things out.”

Lauren manages a tight smile. “Thank you guys that would mean a lot.”

The girls head out in a quick jog, Normani’s EMF beeps regularly as they get closer and closer to the large area that is currently overflowing with paranormal energy.

The sun has yet to rise, but it isn’t really black in the sky either. It’s like blue grey color, enough that the girls don’t need their headlamps as they run through the mostly abandoned neighborhoods and piles of rubble that used to be office buildings. They slow to a walk when they start to get closer and they all check their equipment to make sure everything is working well. Mani pulls out her matches and counts them, Dinah and Lauren double check their lighters and make sure they have extras in case the gas inside runs out.

“I’m still mad that they didn’t let me use a flamethrower.” Dinah grumbles.

Lauren snorts a bit at the memory. Dinah had spent months trying to convince the trainers to let her have a flame thrower and finally, they allowed her to take one on one of their smaller missions. Turns out not only is the thing heavy as fuck, but it really doesn’t have much control either. On the bright side, she practically incinerated the whole group of spooks within seconds, but on the other, she also caught the building on fire and all of the girls had to evacuate and watch as the building burned to the ground. Luckily it had been abandoned and no one was hurt.

“I don’t think they will ever let you use one again.” Lauren tells the girl.

Dinah huffs. “You burn down a building once and they use all trust in you.”

“I’m glad they won’t let you, it might have been a building the first time, but the second time I’m sure it would have been us.” Normani teases.

Dinah rolls her eyes and Ally, who is now holding her own EMF stops a bit in front of them. “It’s just around the corner of those buildings.” She informs.

Lauren looks to the building. They used to be tall skyscrapers full of offices and conference rooms, but seeing as they don’t use those buildings anymore, most of them have fallen into rubble or have boarded up windows and broken glass. These ones are no different. They block the view of their destination, but even from hear, Lauren can feel a lot of negative energy.

By the looks from her companions’ faces she can tell they feel it too. Dinah shakes out her fingers a bit as if the negativity will fly off of her body. “Man, it makes me feel all dirty and angry and shit.” She comments.

They all nod in agreement.

They reach the corner and as soon as the round the buildings, they are met with what they assume hell would look like. They know that it doesn’t really look like anything though because that’s what Camila told them, but this is what hell is imagined to look like.

A large area has been cleared out and in the center there is a giant ring of fire, sitting in the middle, a middle aged woman with greying hair sits cross-legged, her lips moving as if she is chanting something, although none of the girls are close enough to hear her over the roaring flames. She must be the Magnet that Camila predicted would be here.

Lauren had thought that when summoning ghosts you surrounded yourself in a circle of candles but considering the slight wind and size of the circle, she needed more than just some measly candles, hence the ring of fire. Smoke floating around the air in thick puffs all around the area and now that the sun was starting to rise a bit, they could see the dark cloud in the sky that was being formed.

There were hundreds of spooks surrounding the whole area; demons, devils….Lauren even saw some of the poltergeists floating around breaking the few windows from the buildings that weren’t already broken and scaring the birds that had made nests on the roofs. Never in her life has Lauren seen so many ghosts at one place.

Many of them stood just outside the ring of fire, screaming and moaning loudly, seemingly trying to reach the center where the woman sat and chanted. They sounded like zombies and looked like vampires; pale with bright red eyes that have sunken too far into their skulls. 

“Holy hell.” Normani breathes loudly from Lauren’s left. Lauren can only nod with her mouth slightly open.

Dinah shakes her head. “The largest group we’ve ever taken was maybe a little over a dozen.” Dinah thinks allowed. “How many do you think are here?”

Ally chews her lip nervously. “Uhm, it can’t be more than….150? Right?”

“There’s probably more coming.” Normani assumes.

“Okay so let’s stick with 200.” Dinah decides. “Y’all think I shouldn’t have brought the flame thrower now?” She smirks.

“Shut the fuck up Dinah, now is not the time to be acting like a smartass.” Lauren comments, although it was kinda nice that they could all still joke at a time like this.

Dinah shrugs. “Well between the four of us, we have four gallons of gasoline, six lighters, 400 matches, a few EMF machines, and….what is it that you have Ally?”

Ally looks down at her belt. “Just the usually necessities for cleansing. Mostly a lot of salt and holy water.”

Dinah nods. “Right, and some salt water.”

Normani cringes. “We are gonna need some more fire.”

There is a loud noise and suddenly all of the ghosts are screaming and groaning even more, the poltergeists are throwing around large chunks of concrete and any remaining birds are flying away in panic. The ground starts to shake a bit and all of the ghosts move closer to the fire, desperately trying to get inside the circle. Some get to close and burn themselves, others decide that running through the flames is worth it to get to the center and they disappear beneath the red and yellow flames.

None of the girls have ever seen the ghosts like this, not even the few times they had actually hired a magnet to summon a group of ghosts in order to exterminate. The ghosts had come, but they had merely hovered around the circle of candles before the girls had killed them. These ghosts were trying to break through the barrier!

“What are they doing?” Normani wonders aloud.

No one answers but it dawns on everyone that maybe, this girl isn’t trying to summon the ghosts. Maybe she isn’t even a magnet. Lauren bites her lip, debating on whether or not she should try something. She figures either way they will have to show themselves eventually so she stands up and walks into the open, right where all the ghosts could easily see her.

“Lauren! What the hell are you doing!? Get back here!” She hears yelling behind her, except it’s too late. She is exposed.

The ghosts don’t do anything. They don’t even acknowledge her existence. The focus solely on the chanting woman in the middle of the ring of fire. Some even push past her like she is one of them. The girls behind her gasp and she turns and walks back to them possibly more confused than before. “They are trying to stop the woman from doing….whatever it is that they are doing. They don’t even care about our presence.” Lauren mutters to the girls as she takes a seat on a large chunk of concrete next to her team.

“What the actual fuck is going on.” Dinah groans, joining Lauren on the concrete.

Everyone just shakes their heads because no one has a clue. The ground is still shaking, though it’s not violent, just slightly concerning. A new rumbling joins the noise and the girls look up to see those giant black clouds from the smoke joined by new clouds, real ones, just as thick and black as the first ones. Except these ones are rumbling and shooting volts of electricity at the ground every once and a while and even from here they can see the giant mass of rain that falls from it. It’s heading there way.

“Sometimes I wonder if God is just like, hmm everything is already going to shit, we might as well give them everything at once.” Dinah mumbles.

Normani chuckles a bit and nods. “It’s true. Whenever something bad happens, there is always some massive storm or force of Mother Nature that just has to join in.”

“That is if there even is a god.” Ally adds, they did live in a world where ghosts had literally escaped from hell after all.

Lauren nods along, looking from the cloud to the circle before putting the pieces together. “Shit.” She mutters.

The girls all look to her in concern. “What?” Normani is the first to ask.

“The fire. Last time I checked rain puts out fire.” Lauren stresses.

All of the girls clench their teeth. What would happen if that fire went out? The ghosts would be able to get the woman, but would it be a bad thing? The girl might be the one summoning all of these ghosts here in the first place….but then again, she might not be. What was she trying to accomplish? Why were the ghosts freaking out so much?

“Lo!” A familiar voice calls out from the large crowd of ghosts.

Lauren turns around so fast she practically gives herself whiplash. “C…Camz? What the fuck are you doing here I thought…”

Camila reaches the group, breathing heavily and shaking her head. She doesn’t look very good, her skin is so pale that it almost looks a bit green, her eyes have dark circles surrounding the fading brown and her voice is a bit scratchy. Lauren knows that the girl hasn’t been sleeping much lately, but by the looks of it, Camila has been up all night. “Lo, I’m sorry but please be quiet. This is important.” Lauren, seeing the seriousness in Camila’s voice nods and closes her mouth. “She isn’t summoning them.” Camila states immediately.

“What is she doing then?” Dinah wonders, they all watch the raincloud from the corners of their eyes as it gets closer and closer.

Camila turns to look at what they are staring at and a look of dread washes over her features. “You know how I kinda felt drawn here? It’s not because she is summoning the ghosts, she has been pumping that spot full of supernatural energy.” Camila points to the ring of fire. “For a long time now, but lately there has been so much that it has been drawing in other supernatural beings.”

“So what is she doing though?” Normani discretely tells Camila to get to the point.

“I don’t know how, but…I think…I think she is closing the veil.” Camila chews on her lip.

Everyone’s jaws drop as the stare at the ghost. “What? How do you know that?” Lauren is the first to break the silence….well as silent as it can get with the ground shaking and the sky roaring and hundreds of screaming ghosts in the background.

“Lately I’ve been feeling way more dead than alive and I assumed it just because I was starting to fade but then I remembering how Dinah was telling me about that spook she was fighting the other day that sort of flickered in and out similar to the way I did. It’s possible we are both fading at the same time, but one night when you guys were cleansing some house or other, I went down to one of the high school basements. There are always ghosts down there and I watched them. Same thing.”

Lauren looks concerned and slightly hurt about this information. “You went out without telling me?”

Camila shoots Lauren an apologetic smile. “I didn’t want you to worry, not until I had enough evidence to support my theory. I’m sorry.” Lauren frowns but nods and allows Camila to continue her story. “So anyways then I started to be drawn to this area and I never went because I thought it was just someone trying to summer ghosts so that they could kill them or something. But this morning the pull was stronger and I realized, it might have been pulling me here, but this isn’t what’s pulling me.”

Everyone gives her a confused look. “What’s pulling you then?”

“The Veil. The Veil is pulling back.” Camila furrowed her brows as the storm gets closer. “Then I thought about it. I stick with my theory of fading ghosts, I’ve seen it happen. I can feel it happening, but it shouldn’t be happening to me so soon. I’ve only been here for a year and a half and even the weakest ghosts can manage to stay here for at least a year. I would like to think I’m slightly stronger than that. I should be able to manage at least two years right?” She kinda starts talking to herself and Lauren grabs her hand to focus her back on the subject.

“Camz.” She urges.

Camila swallows. “Sorry. So I allowed myself to come here this morning, just a bit after you guys were called into work. She isn’t summoning them, I can feel it. Those ghosts can feel it. The Veil can feel it. She is closing the Veil.” She finishes.

The girls all shake their head in disbelief. They had been waiting there entire lives to figure out how to close the Veil and now this mysterious woman does it all by herself. “So you mean, this ghost thing, it might all be over?” Ally asks. She more than anyone else dreams of finally having a normal life. As normal as her life can get that is.

Camila nods. “That’s the problem. You see that ring of fire?” She points in its direction. They all nods.

“That’s the only thing keeping the ghosts from getting her and stopping this whole thing. Without that circle they will kill her.” Camila then points to the storm that is nearly above them. “And that storm is going to…”

Put out the fire. She doesn’t need to finish, they all put the pieces together.

“So what you are saying is we need to stop them from getting to her when that fire goes out?” Normani assumes.

Camila nods. “We need to make sure she succeeds. The ghosts, they don’t belong here. They have killed so many innocent people and caused so much mayhem. You guys don’t know any different but your grandparents? Myself? We know different because we lived here before and this is not how life is supposed to be. We have to close the Veil, she has to close the Veil.”

“Okay so we help the girl open the Veil. Who the hell is she?” Dinah asks.

“I’ve only heard rumors from behind the Veil. There isn’t anything proving that it was real, but all of the claims point that it is-“

“Just get on with it.” Normani urges, watching as the cloud movies closer.

“Right. There was a rumor of how the Veil opened. A family of Necromancers.” Camila starts. When she sees confused looks she explains. “A Necromancer is someone who practices bringing people back from the dead. It’s like witchcraft but specifically on the border between life and death. So the story is that this family, generation after generation, has this ability. They are the Necromancers. One of them passed away a few years before the Veil was opened and somehow she used her magic to keep her powers even through death. She learned how to communicate with her family even from beyond the Veil. She used to always do these weird spell things, her witchcraft. She was doing on the day that the Veil opened.”

“So the ghosts, they think she opened it?” Lauren asks softly.

Camila nods. “Supposedly, if you have someone from each side, one in the living and one behind the Veil, each doing the spell, you can open it. I always thought it was a rumor and that the Veil just shifted like I told you but the more I thought about it, I’m sure that’s what she is doing.”

“So someone is on the other side of the Veil doing this too?” Ally questions.

Camila nods. “I think so.”

“So she is the Necromancer? Did she open it too?” Dinah points at the chanting woman.

“She looks too young to have opened it, but I assume maybe the generation before her and now she is left to close it. Or try to close it I guess.” Camila nods her head.

“Jesus Christ, everything just got a thousand times more complicated.” Normani growls.

“Listen, I know it’s weird but that cloud is about two minutes from dousing out her entire fire and she still has a while to go before she is done so we have to hurry.” Camila breathes out nervously.

They all nod, trying to pull themselves together. “How do we know when she is done?” Dinah asks.

“Feel the ground shaking?” Camila asks although she knows they all can. They nod anyways. “It’s going to get worse, and when she is done, the ground is going to open up and suck up every ghost that’s currently living on earth.”

The whole group goes quiet. “Oh.” Dinah mutters. “Just that.” It’s sort of sarcastic but no one laughs. No one laughs because she had said every single ghost on earth and well, Camila herself was a ghost.

Lauren’s lip wobbles a bit and everyone’s faces go solemn. Camila shakes her head. “Not now. Now we have to help the Necromancer.”

They all nod, because they know it’s true, but they have all grown to love Camila and knowing that if they succeed it will mean her demise makes them slightly less willing to do so, but they have to. They have to close the Veil.

  -

-

The ground shakes so hard that Lauren is having difficultly staying on her feet. Camila falls next to her, thick clumps of wet hair hang in front of her face as she looks up at Lauren. The rain is pouring over them, ghosts everywhere trying to get past them to the Necromancer behind them. Ally stands a few feet away, right next to the chanting woman, pouring her salt water all over the girl as a means of protection. It makes it harder for the ghosts to possess her. Thunder rumbles and the ground makes a loud booming noise again, Ally falls onto her butt.

There is so much going on, and yet in that moment it feels like it’s just Camila and Lauren. Camila and her hands and knees, soaking wet, looking so sadly into Lauren’s eyes. Lauren stands above her, wet hair sticking to her face and next, her gasoline bottle in one hand and drenched lighter in the other, water drips over her eyes and Ghosts run all around her, but she keeps the eye contact.

“The gasoline!” Camila yells and somehow her voice carries to Lauren’s ears, despite all the rumbling, banging, and screaming going on around her.

Lauren looks at her can confusedly and then back at Camila. Camila points at the ground, covered with a few layers of water and then Lauren gets what she means. The water will put out the fire, but if the water is full of gasoline, it will burn. Camila wants her to light everything in flames. Because of the amount of water and then ratio to gasoline, it will only burn in one bright flash before it will be over powered, but that’s all they will need to take out as many ghosts as they can. One big wave of flames.

It’s obvious that it is the only way that they will be able to last the last few minutes of this girl’s chanting. They are immensely overpowered right now by ghosts and in a few more seconds, they will have the Necromancer and she will be dead and the Veil will stay open possibly forever.

Lauren nods, pulling the cap from her bottle and allowing the liquid to spill into the large mass of puddles. She looks up, knowing exactly what this means and she doesn’t want to do it.

Camila gives her a soft teary smile as if to say. If you don’t do it now, I’ll only be sucked into the earth a few minutes later. Lauren knows she has to do this, but looking into Camila’s brown eyes, she isn’t sure if she can. Camila sighs deeply. “Lauren do it!” She yells.

Lauren shakes her head, pressing her thumb against the small switch on the lighter. She can’t, but she knows she has to.

She gives Camila one last glance and she swears that Camila’s tears are streaming down her face along with the rain. Camila smiles sadly. She reaches a hand to Lauren’s face as she stands. She brushes some dark strands of her away from her cheeks with a loving smile and then she kisses Lauren, soft and passionately. She pours every feeling she has for Lauren into the kiss, she hopes it is enough. “Remember about the last thing that I see before I die. I got my wish Lo ,I love you.” She murmurs as she pulls away.

Lauren doesn’t have time to say it back because then she is being pushed away and she stumbles in the opposite direction from Camila and Camila has the lighter pressed between her fingers. Camila moves the flame to the ground and everything goes bright red and orange.

Lauren is forced to close her eyes as a wave of heat washes over everything. She can feel the hair and her arms, legs, and back singe off but she couldn’t care less about that right now. All she can hear is Camila’s voice in her head and her lips pressed against her own.

The ground erupts in flames that spread along the whole mass of ghosts, they light up one by one, disappearing in angry screams and loud bangs. Then the fire is gone, overpowered by the pouring rain. There are still a few ghosts left, around twenty or so, but it’s nothing compared to the two hundred from earlier.

Camila isn’t one of them.

She checks for Ally and she finds the girl pulling her head out from behind her hands, the Necromancer perfectly fine next to her. Ally has a few small burns on her arms just like Lauren, but she is fine. She turns to find Dinah and Normani, spotting Normani covered in the small burns, but standing up and lighting up on of the few remaining ghosts like they hadn’t just almost been blown up. Dinah isn’t too far away. She is pushing her mop of wet hair from her face and pulling herself up from the ground. She looks tired and burnt and Lauren thinks one of her eyebrows is gone, but she is alive.

She doesn’t see Camila anywhere.

The ground shakes more causing all four of the girls to fall once more and this time there is a loud ripping noise and Lauren feels the ground opening beneath her feet. She rolls away as far as she can as any remaining ghost begins screaming as they are dragged be some invisible force into the deep hole. Ghosts start appearing out of nowhere, dropping into the hole with terrible, ear piercing screams.

It continues for nearly an hour until everything goes silent. It’s still raining, Lauren can feel it, but the thunder has stopped and the ground is no longer shaking. The ghosts are no more and a few feet away the Necromancer lays unconscious. Or dead. Lauren really can’t tell.

She pulls herself shakily to her feet. The five of them are the only people in the whole vicinity and yet the name rips from her lips anyways. “Camila!” She yells.

She knows she won’t get an answer.

Camila is gone. 

A/N: You can read on my Wattpad @DinahFantasy where i may or may not be posting a part two. Thanks for the read! 

[ask-broppy-lovechild-blog]

True Colors

Inspired by: @ask-artsy-oncie, @tisbubb, and @dawnbuneary (Love your content guys) 

I didn’t call it “True Colors” because of the song, but because imma try to focus on making it about not hiding your real personality. The first three chapters are mainly fluff, but the next ones will actually get a story going. 

P.S This first chapter was made at 4 AM where I am. So sorry for the bad grammar, but it gets better for the next two. I…I wont promise but understand that this is my first Broppy Fanfic. So it might not be as good as others you’ve read. Anyways, enjoy!

“20 years ago, Trolls and Bergens didn’t live together in peace and harmony. The Bergens believed that if they ate a Troll, it’ll give them true happiness like the Trolls had. They had a holiday named Trollstice, where they’d eat a Troll once a year for happiness. However, on a very special Trollstice, King Peppy helped the Trolls escape. On that very day, Prince Gristle was told he’d never be happy, and that the only way he ever will now is to eat a troll.”

“Due to this massacre, they banished a Bergen that was known as Chef. They didn’t really know her real name, but knew she was a Chef. So Chef it was. 20 years after, Princess Poppy, the daughter of King Peppy, decided that it would be a good idea to throw the biggest, the loudest, the craziest party ever for this anniversary. Then, a grumpy and cold-hearted(at the time) Troll named Branch warned the princess of her deeds. Saying that the party was only gonna endanger them and reveal their hiding spot to the Bergens.”

“Sadly, nobody believed him. It was like the boy who cried wolf, instead of a boy warning the people of a wolf coming, and protecting sheep. And then later, after all his lying, when it became true and nobody came to help cause they thought he was lying this time; it was a troll who cried Bergen, and protected the trolls, doing the princess job for her. But because of so many of his false alarms, they didn’t listen to his warning and Princess Poppy threw the party anyway.”

“When announcing why they’re here today, the party was crashed by an evil Bergen, taking some of the Princess friends, and her crush…..at the time” she said, taking a deep breath and then continuing. She had to add “at the time”. Her pause confused some of the kids.

“She saw the damage the Bergen had done, and then wished she never threw the party anyway. She vowed to go after her friends, it was ‘No Troll Left Behind’…..right? But her father believed she couldn’t do it by herself. But she got an idea, ‘maybe if I ask Branch to come, since he’s probably the smartest troll in the village, and he accepts, it’ll be easier to find them!’”

“She ran in down to his highly- camouflaged(?), highly-Fortified(?), safety-proof(?), survival bunker. And she knocked on his door, screaming his name until he answered from his door mat that labeled, 'Go Away!’. She tells him that they’ve been attacked and that she needed his help. After a bit, he shows her his bunker, and then she got another idea. 'If he declines my offer, while I’m gone, the trolls can hide in here instead of relocating’. She smirked and waited for his response”

“But he wasn’t straightforward much, but hinted that he didn’t want to help in the rescue mission. She left his bunker, and then told the Trolls to hide in the bunker. She left on her adventure, meeting many predators until Branch decided he wanted to come and he saved her from spiders(?) who had her captive”

“If there was one thing he didn’t like, was her singing 24/7. He told her the plan and they met up with this cloud-man-dude who was later called, Cloud Guy. He messed with Branch for a bit before he got mad and chased him into the right tunnel. The Bergens were miserable, and they went to find their friend. They watched the princess’s crush get eaten, or so they thought he did” she’d glare a bit at the book when she’d say “the princess’s crush”.

“They found out that the Bergen holding them captive had a crush on King Gristle, the Bergen was named Bridget. They made a deal that if she helped them get a friend of theirs back, they’d make her go on a date with the king. As all went well, the date went smoothly. Later that day, trying to look for their friend, they found their cage and the pet alligator-thing chased after them. Only to later find out that they weren’t in there.”

“Princess Poppy and her friends got captured by Chef, and thrown into their prison. After having hope that they can never find the Trolls, they find out that Troll they used to call a friend, sold them out. All the Trolls were found an put into a pot, loosing all hope and turned grey. But when there was no hope, the grumpy Troll; Branch, stood his ground and sang a lovely song, serenading the princess in the process and restoring the colors of all the hopeless trolls.” She smiled at that part, it was her favorite part out of the whole book about little event with Poppy and Branch having their duet.

“Bridget helped all the Trolls escape, giving a sad goodbye to the princess. But then she realized during their escape that she ruined her life to save the Trolls, and now it was time to give back. They had their little party in the castle, and the Bergens found out that true happiness isn’t something that you put inside of you, cause it’s already there. And then the Trolls and Bergens lived in harmony, as Princess Poppy became Queen Poppy. And Branch became her new boyfriend, with the title Prince Branch, until they get married..” She blushed at the line, but wasn’t noticed yet, her pink skin hiding it.

“And get the title King Branch. The End.” She said as she closed her huge scrapbook. The trollings smiled and clapped at the story, then a trolling raised their hand.

“Is it just me, or did the history book get much longer?” He asked the pink Queen.

She giggles, “YYYup! As time goes on, history continues. And we did make a lot more progress, so it would get longer!”

The yellow female troll raised a hand, “Who was the princess’s Crush’s name? And what happened to them?”

She mentally groans in annoyance from the mention of him, “His name was Creek. And he was banished, and is now an Outlaw.” She answered strictly, meaning that she was serious.

“Why did you have a crush on an outlaw?” One of the trollings asked.

“Back then I did.” She said, getting a bit frustrated with the questions about Creek.

“When you and Prince Branch have a Trolling, can I troll-sit them?” They asked, the queen blushed fiercely at the mention of her and Branch having kids.

She didn’t know how to answer the question, “I-I guess, s-sure” she replied.

“Well, that was reading time. I’ll be back later, you have free-time” She said as she stood up and left the classroom.

She climbs around in the Troll tree, which once was dead and plain, is now alive with vibrant colors. They are still in the process of moving, pods slowly start opening again and the trolls have a home to live. Instead of having a fancy pod like her and her father had cause they were royalty, she decided to live with Branch in his new bunker that was just under the tree roots.

She goes into a pod, and then a troll confronted her. This Troll was one of the best party-throwers in all of the tree. She trusted them, but they also had this suspicion to them, as Branch says. They didn’t really seem so happy to see her, not as happy as she was to see them anyway.

“Hey, Milktoast!” She said, looking for something to give to the trollings in the class, wanting to have more books for her to read to the trollings.

“You missed a meeting with King Gristle.” She mentioned, and Poppy looked like she was gonna panic.

“O-OH! I COMPLETELY FORGOT–” She screamed, but was cut off.

“And you forgot to meet up with the Snack Pack to discuss important matters about what’s happening outside these walls.” She said again, looking a bit more aggressive.

“I-I’m Sorry! I–” She said, before getting cut off again. She looked like she was gonna have a heart attack.

“You can’t be so forgetful! The story was so long, it’s almost time for the Trollings to go home! Not to mention the fact that the moving speed is taking forever, and you should be doing something about it to speed it up!” She said, taking a breath from yelling. Poppy shouldn’t be so forgetful of these things.

“I-I….” Poppy had no words, she looked like she lost all her motivation.

“You have stacks of paper on you desk, I recommend that you start working–” Milktoast was gonna say, but Branch walked in on all the fuss and ruckus.

“ENOUGH!” He said, looking serious. He wasn’t happy about the fact that she’s pressuring Poppy to do her work.

He goes to his Queen, and hugs her reassuringly and protectively. She sighed and rested her head on his chest, her hand placement on his shoulders. He had his hands on her waist.

“Leave her alone. She’s just now becoming queen, you wouldn’t understand cause you’re just a librarian who throws parties. Don’t ever pressure her like that again.” He said, he hated it when someone pressured Poppy, or brought out her insecurities.

He picks up Poppy in his chubby arms. She wraps her arms around his neck, his hands are holding her up from her bottom region. He leads her down from the library to the bunker. After locking it tightly and good, he walked over to their couch and sat her down. He may be a bit chubby, but boy was he strong for a Troll.

He made her sit on his lap, her back pressing against his warm chest and stomach. He gives her some shoulder massages, just to calm her. She ran a hand through her hair.

“Branch. I shouldn’t be sitting here! I should be getting things done!” She said, becoming panicky again.

“Poppy, relax. You’ve done a lot today. Just a 5 minute break?” He begged her, stoping and rested his chin on her shoulder to look at her face.

“Branch….” she said, it was very hard for her to say no to Branch.

“For me?” He added, putting his hands around her waist for comfort and balance.

“Fine…..” she said and sighed, “But only five minutes.”.

She easily relaxed in his grasp. The bunker wasn’t so dark and gloomy anymore, it was now filled with vibrant colors, and it made Branch feel better. He nuzzled into her neck, and every time he’d give gentle kisses to her neck, she’d giggle. She’s very ticklish, but she remembered something.

“Are we ever gonna have…..a trolling to call our own?” She blushed as she asked the question, and looked at him.

He returns the blush, giving it a dark purple, almost a dark blue blush. He has his colors back now, and became more warmer and open to poppy.

“Maybe once you get into the grove of things. Not sure if you can handle a trolling and your Queen duties at once.” He mentioned, and it made sense to her that, having one right now would just add up on her stress.

“Good point. I just wanted to say that.” She said with a smile and relaxed. She loved it when her and Branch could have sometime a lone. When they are together, they felt safe. When apart, they felt Venerable and helpless.

She turns around and nuzzles his nose with a warm smile. He holds her a bit closer, and he kisses her cheek, and she giggles. She legit almost fell asleep when she laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. She was so comfortable and secure, it didn’t even take a minute before she felt drowsy.

“I have to go before I fall asleep” she joked and she sat up and stretched.

“Okay, love. Stay safe.” He said she kisses her, she kisses back with a smile and stands. If it just lasted a bit longer…….but duty calls……right? It that how you use that……catchphrase? Or whatever it’s called.

She leaves in a rush as Branch sighed and cleans up before she gets back.

Later that day, it was 12 AM. She was at her desk, signing and filling out paperwork. She had bags under her eyes, and was extremely tired. She only has gotten through one stack, and has 2 more to do. She could faint or pass out at this point, and she started to slow down.

Branch saw his super tired queen. He didn’t like it when Poppy pushed her limits. He walks over to her quietly, not wanting to startle her. He slowly and gently placed his huge hands into her tiny shoulders.

“It’s time to sleep, Poppy” He said, and used his chubby thumbs to stroke her shoulders.

“I…….need to…….finish” she said in a tired voice and yawned.

“This isn’t healthy. You’re going to bed, wether you like it or not” He said conceded and picked her up.

She couldn’t fight back, way too tired as her eyelids are half-closed. He held her in a bridal style and brought her to bed. He laid her on their new soft bed, and he laid next to her, moving her crown onto the nightstand. He wraps their fluffy blanket over them and held her close again.

She made small cute noises of relaxation, which made him smile. He nuzzled into her, cuddling close to her as she snuggles into him. He kisses her cheek and nose, earning a giggle. He gave a quick sniff of her scent, just to not forget how she smelt like. It was a mixture of lavender and candy like.

She was so close to him, it was like they merged together, a blob of pink and blue. The two fell asleep peacefully, no interruptions whatsoever. Just a calm night, the two lovers laid together. Branch had a dream that he proposed, and became King Branch instead of Prince Branch. And Poppy had the exact same dream.

Chapter. 1

[lamiaward]

Season 5 au: Emma starts to lose more and more to the darkness, tearing apart her family. Revealing the truths you have kept inside to keep them from hurting is bad enough- but then the darkness expects more than just emotional pain. As Emma is burried deeper and deeper beneath the darkness, Henry risks everything to save her-

And ends up in the Underworld.

I don't own OUAT.

His mother can have a look in her eyes like someone ripped her heart out and is shredding it, a look that would make an entire crowd back up and twist their bodies in a desperate effort to be small and uninteresting, a look that could make him feel safe and cared for in the midst of a mob.

He has never seen this particular one before, and he is really glad he hasn't.

Her eyes are widened, her arms still pressed to her sides, her lips still a little open from when they shouted " Emma , NO" he watches from behind the glass, the pain and terror and worry somewhere behind this protective veil of cannot-care(too-overwhelmed-to-care). She pushes Robin away, raises her head in what he recognizes as an attempt to appear strong and in control and not at all panicky and concerned and pained and disbelieved.

She slowly sinks to her knees and he watches – and wonders whether this is not just another nightmare, brought on by too many close calls and can he please wake up? he is thinking 'wake up wake up wake up wake up ' as he sees his mom's hand around the knife, holding it up and he can see the letters but he doesn't want to see the letters and he actually presses his eyes a little closed because he can read so he knows what they-

He slowly forces his eyes open again when he hears someone's angry footsteps. It is Hook- marching over to his mom in a way that kind of makes Henry want to place himself in between the pirate and his mum. His mom slowly raises and when she turns around, she looks like she always does around Hook.

" What the Hell did you do, your majesty" Hook growls .

Mom tenses and he imagines her magic reacting, possibly feeling the heat of a fireball against the skin of your hand. Having to hold back that angry energy, trapping it in your clenched fist like mom is doing.

" I did not do anything. That idiot- " mom has several ways to say idiot. With Hook, it is an insult. With gramps, it is somewhere in between fondness and exasperation. With Emma, it always changes. But lately, 'idiot' has become Emma's 'cariño' ( he thinks Mom has always called him that. The familiar voice whispering 'good night , cariño' is one of his earliest memories).

Hook seems to not pick up on this, for he stalks closer to mom and glares at her. He doesn't even say something, just stares at her. Henry is behind him so he has no idea what kind of look Hook is giving to his mom, but from the way his mom holds herself – he doesn't think it is any good.

Then Hook's good hand reaches for the dagger in Regina's hand and- " We are going to summon her".

That is when he finally steps forward, because – he did not know what to do after just watching his ma be swallowed or taken or whatever by darkness. But he knows this. He knows what is right and –

" We are not going to use it to control her ".

What is so very horribly wrong.

He glances at all of them and shakes his head. " We c- we can't just use it, that's like- " he searches for a good way to explain, to explain how he knows it is so very wrong , perhaps even inexcusable, to just take the dagger and summon Emma.

His eyes get stuck at mom, who is tracing the name on the dagger and he knows. "Like using someone's heart to control them. We can't just take away Emma's choice".

He has to bite his lip to not scream at mom when she says " We have to speak to her. We cannot just let her roam around town and wait until- ". Mom cuts herself off and the silence leaves him with space to imagine all the ways that sentence could end. He hates it, is already opening his mouth to say 'it is Emma, she wouldn't- ' when he closes it again.

Snow has spoken before him. "Emma is the saviour. Surely- ".

" She is also human" his mom snaps. " I know you are so very fond of your reality where Emma is the saviour and the purest hero, but she is human. She has made mistakes in the past, she will do so again. And do I have to keep reminding you that evil is made ".

" I know that!" Henry wants to do something like scream or yell or break things when his grandma's yells and her voice breaks. "Don't you think I know that? I saw it happen to you, Regina. And I refuse to see it happen to my daughter".

Hook reaches for the dagger again. " We won't. If we can just- ".

" We are going to do what Henry says. We will find Emma- but we will not do it by using the dagger" it is gramps who says it. Henry glances at him; there are tears in his eyes as well, but his jaw is set and he looks determined and strong.

Grandma leans against gramps, who reacts by leaning back against her. " That is what we will do then. We can find her with- " she glances at Regina. "We can use that locator spell again, right?".

Mom nods. " We only need something that belongs to her".

Hook grits his teeth and turns around. "I don't get why we can't just- ".

"Because Henry is right. We cannot take away Emma's agency". His mom glances at him, giving him that special smile she has invented just for him. "We will guard this dagger, but we will not attempt to control Emma with it".

Hook sneers. " We might not even find her".

" We will find her" grandpa says, and grandma manages a loving smile at him before she glances at Hook. " That is what this family does".

Henry glances at his mom; she is looking down at the dagger with that look again. It hurts so he walks towards her, stands next to her. She reaches for his hand without looking up from the dagger, he adjusts his hand slightly and lets her hold on to it for a moment. She slowly looks up. " How are you doing, mijo?".

He shrugs. He doesn't even know. He just know his throat is raw like sandpaper and he feels like he really needs to cry but at the same time he feels like he has already spent hours crying. Nothing makes sense.

Mom smiles like she is feeling the same thing and briefly hugs him. He sinks into the hug, the familiar movement and smell enough to calm him- or at least make him feel calmer. After a minute or so, he slowly pulls back.

" Should we go to your vault?".

Mom sighs. " Yes, I suppose so".

" Hand over the dagger then, your majesty " Hook says.

She does the exact opposite; she brings the dagger closer to her body. Then narrows her eyes. " I do not think so, pirate. Considering you are the textbook example of a narcist, I do not trust you with this".

" She loves me".

" If we would go with your logic, I would hand the dagger to Henry. She obviously loves him more" . Before Hook can actually say the insults he is obviously thinking, she continues. " And you do not possess magic. If a sorcerer were to attempt to take this.. " she manages a tiny smirk. " Your face would be plastered to the floor in approximately two seconds".

Henry can smell rum and salt when Hook steps towards them. He can actually feel the heat of the fireball mom starts to create when he points his hook at them. " It should be me. No one knows more about the dark one than I do" the grin that appears makes Henry tense without knowing quite why . There is something wrong with it. " And any sorcerer that comes near… well you know better than anyone what I can do to sorcerers, don't you?".

Henry narrows his eyes. What have you done to my mom? Before the situation can escalate and either Henry or Regina that is tensing more and more can do something they might – sort of – regret, Snow interferes.

" Regina will take the dagger".

Whatever his mom is feeling, it can only be seen in her eyes for one second. It is not long enough to determine what exactly it was, but Henry thinks it was somewhere between surprise and self-doubt. " Are you certain? ".

Snow turns her head to look at Regina. She nods, once. " The dagger is safest with you"

His mom's mouth opens, but she is unable to say anything. She struggles for a moment, then swallows and says " Are you certain?".

Snow looks back at Charming as he talks, gazing lovingly at him. "Yes. We know you will do anything to keep that dagger safe".

Henry agrees. His mom is resilient and strong and capable of anything in order to protect her family. She won't fail Emma.

They find her.

She is at the station, curled up on one of the beds. She is pale, her eyes are red-rimmed but she is there and she is alive and she didn't run away. She didn't abandon me. Henry tries not to think it, but it is hard not to. He knows how his mother deals with the most painful and difficult things and he also knows she might mistakenly think it the best solution.

He wants to run forward, then glares as a hand grabs his wrist. " Mom-".

" Let the pirate or me go first, mijo. We do not- ".

" It's not talking about Henry- it has nothing – he is safe" it is Emma voice or it is sort of her voice, because it has never sounded like this before. Perhaps it is the exhaustion or a certain kind of anger that makes it tremble or- well at least she does not sound like her usual self.

Regina takes two steps forward, waves her hand with a flourish and stalks towards Emma. "Miss Swan, if you ever scare our son like that ag-". She falls silent as Emma looks up and rolls her eyes. Henry could scream with relief at such an ordinary thing happening.

Emma smiles at him, which does not look completely right but right enough that he grins back. " Sorry kid".

" It is okay" he pretty much runs towards her , throwing his arms around her. It is an awkward position, with him standing and her still sitting but he doesn't care. She is here, she is okay and they're going to help her.

"Mom was really scared too" he whispers in her ear, because Emma usually understands mom hides worry and vulnerability under anger sometimes but not always.

She chuckles. " I know".

He can hear his mother's heels as she paces and then forces herself to stop pacing. He can hear other footsteps as well, heavy ones, and grandma's voice calling out " Emma". He frowns when he immediately feels his mom tense, her nails actually digging into his back for a moment before lessening their grip.

He slowly pulls away. Before he can ask 'what is wrong' (apart from the usual 'you were just bonded to literal darkness' unfairness) , his grandparents are reaching for Emma. She is pulled into their usual hug, with grandpa cradling her head and Snow pressed against her.

She does not return the hug, he sees. She does not return it, her hands are even balled into fists and- Then she blinks and she pulls back and her smile is perfectly ordinary which- maybe she is just scared?

He glances at his mom- she is frowning as well. Her hand tightens around the dagger, making him wonder what she is thinking about. Do you also worry about whatever the darkness is going to do? He knows they will save Emma and that Emma will be able to fight the darkness for as long as possible. But what is it even going to do?

He slowly pulls out of his thoughts and glances over at Emma; she is letting Hook hug her. She has a weird look at first, then stonily brings up her arms. Hook doesn't notice, letting the hug go on and on until Emma slowly pulls back and kisses him briefly.

Emma turns and relaxes as she looks at him. She walks over and briefly pulls him in a one-armed hug. He kind of wants to cling to her, but she is already letting go. She is now focused on mom – or more specifically, the red jacket mom has picked up after the locator spell found Emma and the item was dropped.

Emma grins like she also saw mom carefully wipe the dust of it and throw it over her arm with an almost loving look. Mom arches her eyebrow a little and steps forward. She hands it to Emma without another word.

Emma is still grinning, though it dims a little. " Thanks"

"I only brought it for the locator spell" mom says unprompted.

" Of course you did" Emma says, the tone she uses making his mother narrow her eyes at her. She ignores it and looks at her parents. He can hear she is trying very hard to make her voice sound casual when she asks " so uh, where did you leave the little guy?".

Snow and Charming exchange a glance. " It is not that we not trust you , darling but- "

" You thought it would be safer if he wasn't here".

" Yes" Henry thinks his mom would probably feel better if Snow did not look so guilty as she quickly adds " Not because we thought you would harm him, obviously, but because we did not know what we could expect".

Ma just shrugs. " If it had happened to you, I wouldn't let Henry near you either".

He grimaces as grandma flinches. Though really- ma just said she would do the exact same thing. Grandma should understand that, right?

" We should go to my vault".

" Regina, I am pretty damn sure that if you had any way to rid of the darkness, Rumple would just be whatever he was before the darkness". She then adds, very quietly but hears anyways " or very dead".

" True love's kiss might be enough" his mom says with a kind of ridiculous look at Hook. He snorts: she looks like she is staring at mouldy cheese. His mom gives him that Henry-Daniel-Mills look , the special version that she gives whenever she thinks he is laughing at her. He grins back at her, she smiles back before glancing at Emma.

Is she okay? Emma has tensed more than ever and looks really uncomfortable right now. She has her arms crossed- classic defensive behaviour- and her shoulders drawn up. It is kind of a weird reaction to someone suggesting you kiss your boyfriend, he thinks.

Hook is already stepping forward. Behind him, his grandparents look hopeful and expectant.

" Emma?" Mom asks , taking that last step and briefly squeezing her shoulder.

Emma seems to unfreeze, exhales slowly. " Yeah. I just- I will just do that then" she laughs, and his mom frowns again, probably at how shrill it sounds.

" Emma, if you do not-".

" I mean, I have never seen any rainbows around us when we kissed but who knows huh?".

It is always a little gross when his moms kiss people. The sounds and the sight and – urgh no. He is okay with it if it means his moms are happy though.

This time, he is not okay: Emma slowly uncrosses her arms, but she is still tense and he could swear that she took a step back. His mom squeezes her shoulder one last time- which is when she starts to finally relax a little – and steps back. Two seconds later, Hook is kissing her.

There are two seconds of silence filled with expectations and hopes and fears-

Emma yanks back , at the same time cursing. Hook stumbles, says 'Swa-" then swivels at the sound of the computer behind him catching fire. He stares at it as Charming is already running towards the fire-extinguisher.

" Was that- " Henry starts to say, following his mother's example and glancing at her hands.

" Dark magic" ma finishes, and he could swear her hands tremble a little. He grabs one of them- or he tries to anyways, because before he can, she yanks it back and stumbles backwards. "Henry".

He smiles at her. "It is okay ma. I know you would not hurt me. " He tries to reach for that hand again , can feel his fingers brush her but then there is this expression of extreme panic and he lunges forward as he sees what she is about to do in that second that her eyes harden with determination -

He is too late. He stumbles and falls , his knee hitting the floor amidst evaporating magic. He looks up - "Mom?".

She runs towards him, helps him up, hugs him like that will stop it. Like that will change how she is gone, how she fled, how she is leaving him . How that changes that Emma Swan is a liar and a traitor and a –

He clenches his eyes shut, angry at the tears for falling. He thinks of pens and fate and stupid decisions. That pen could have written the darkness out of existing. It is all- angry at Hook for not being Emma's true love apparently or not being enough, angry angry angry

He thinks he might have adapted his mom's habit of hiding pain and sadness beneath anger

When he sees her the next day, he honestly contemplates ignoring her, leaving, saying all the words that were on repeat in his mind last night.

Then he sees the guilt in her downcast look, and her drawn in shoulders and the way she stares into the coffee she is holding. (also he is 100% sure that mom already made sure Emma felt really bad about leaving so. There is that)

" Mom"

She looks up, swallows. " Kid. I am so- ".

" It is okay. I get it" he does. It still hurts, it is still terrible, but he mostly gets it.

She shudders. "Good".

He flops down on the couch, presses his shoulder against her. She makes to draw away, then slowly relaxes. "Do you think Hook is your true love?" . It is one of the things that was playing on repeat in his mind last night. If the kiss just didn't work, because it wasn't true love..

She shrugs. "I have no idea. I am really no expert on true love".

The way she says it makes his stomach freeze. " Are you thinking about dad?" he says carefully.

She shrugs. Sips her coffee.

" He was not so nice to you, was he?".

There is a small smile. " At first, he was. At first, he was the only person who was nice to me. I thought- " she shrugs again. " Then the jail thing happened- and you know, I am glad it all happened so I could find this place but I did spent a decade thinking he was just another jerk that had used me".

"And Hook?".

" Hook is- " his mom is silent for a while as she searches for words. "he really likes me. And you seemed okay with it, - " she snorts. " Dad seemed to be pretty happy with him and I figured 'why not '.

" But do you love him?" he pushes.

She groans. "Must you ask these questions in the morning?".

"Mom. Do you love him?".

"I- " she stumbles, shifts on the couch. " I don't know. I think so?".

" If you are not certain- ".

" Henry- can you stop this already?" she takes a deep breath like she is calming herself. " Sometimes you just don't know, okay? Like, you can have fun with a person and think they're good-looking and perhaps even feel like 'okay. I could be content with this' and still not know whether you're in love". She curls her lip but somehow still looks sad. " Not everyone meets someone and knows it is love. Most of us doubt a lot and have fights and do stupid shit, okay?".

" I just- if true love can help you, then- ".

" Why must it always be about love? I mean, look at belle and Gold. That didn't work out for either of them".

"But you are not Gold, you are-".

" The saviour?" Emma suggests, deflating.

" Well yeah. But it is not just that. Did you read his story?".

His ma looks confused. "Story?".

He cannot help it, he rolls his eyes without thinking. " Rumpelstiltskin. He was a coward, he has always been. And that is why he stayed the dark one. Because he was too afraid to give up on his power and see what would happen. But you are courageous" .

"Henry.. if it is not through fear, it will find another way. I can al-" her eyes widen and she cuts herself off, hissing as she tries to gulp down slightly too hot coffee. He isn't sure whether her cheeks are pink because of the heat of the coffee or if she is embarrassed.

"what does it feel like?" he cannot stop himself from asking.

Before she can find some way to wriggle herself out of their conversation- as she obviously trying to- he can hear footsteps and a familiar voice. "Good morning , cariño" she leans over the couch to kiss him on the cheek.

She nods at Emma. " Miss Swan" she says coolly. Ma's reaction is kind of pathetic; she had perked up as Regina arrived but now she completely deflates and the smile at her lips dies rather quickly.

" Hi" she says softly and very carefully. Mom must have been furious.

Mom ignores her again, instead focuses on him. "You look exhausted, mijo" she says softly.

"Mom. I am fine, honestly" before she can continue fussing, he quickly adds " I am starving, are we going to have breakfast?".

"Of course. I already made the table". As he grins about that, she adds " Just this once, special circumstances".

So, breakfast is pretty tense at first. Mom keeps calling Emma 'miss Swan', alternatively ignoring her and glaring at her and is pretty much making sure that Emma knows it is 'not okay'. Emma herself seems to alternate between remorse and slight indignation. It is only when there is a discussion-

" Regina, can you can it already with the 'miss Swan' bullshit".

" Your behaviour harmed Henry".

" I thought I would harm him if I stayed ".

" Surely your brain is not so microscopic as to believe I would ever allow you to".

" You were never able to kick Gold's ass, so I am pretty sure you won't be able to stop me if I become as crazy as he was".

" Regardless, you of all people should know what abandonment feels like".

" Yeah, tha-. I would rather that he felt abandoned than that he was dead!".

-And mom finally mellows at how Emma is shaking with terror more than with anger; she does not outwardly show how this all impacts her but she agrees to stop calling her 'miss Swan'. At which point the breakfast gets a lot more pleasant and feels a lot less like they are expecting a war any moment.

"So at what time did gram and gramps expect us again?" he asks, using the table manners he has learned to not gobble his food like ma is doing.

" We agreed to meet after breakfast. I told them you required the extra sleep after the night you had".

He shrugs, " Okay. So what is- " he pauses when he realizes something. " Where is the dagger?".

Ma shrugs, says " Regina has it" and continues to shovel food in her mouth.

"I thought we would give the dagger to ma?" it is not quite an accusation, but it is not casual either.

His mom tears her eyes away from the bit of food ma spilled when she gestured a little wildly at mom. "That was the initial idea, yes, but Emma decided it would be safer if I – " his moms exchange looks.

" kept the dagger".

He has the feeling there is a more behind it than that, that they are both trying too hard to be nonchalant about it but he will figure it out later. " If that is what ma wants".

" It is " she immediately says, so quick that she nearly chokes as she wants to swallow too much food. "Totally is".

" Be careful or you are going to choke" mom chides, handing Emma a napkin. Emma rolls her eyes. " I will be fine".

" Honestly, you- ".

" Eat like a child. Yeah, so you have told me. Like, every time I brought you lunch".

" It bears repeating".

" Why? It is honestly not front-page worthy news".

"There is a miniscule chance you will finally adjust your diet".

Ma snorts. " yeah, no".

" Swan, you are seriously endangering yourself- ".

" I am eating a little grease Regina, not your turnovers"

There is a really tense silence for a while, one during which Emma seems stunned like she didn't even know she could say something like that, and mom looks like that time Marian called her a monster. Before mom can react by walking away ( or more likely, get mad) like she did then, Emma touches her hand for like half a second and says " I am sorry. I do not know why I said that".

Mom slowly becomes less tense. " I accept your apology" she says stiffly.

The rest of the breakfast is kind of tense again, but not like at the beginning. At the end, mom even chuckles at something Emma's says - and Emma smiles genuinely despite how tired and tense she looks. At moments like these, it is difficult that there is anything that can stop his mothers.

Turns out the darkness works like truth serum in some cases.

And boy, can the truth hurt. Snow is evidence of this; her mouth is a gaping hole and the tears are sliding down her cheeks quickly. Behind her, David is holding on to her shoulders and looking he needs it to not fall over.

She is about to apologize, lie like usually and try to forget about it when she glances at her brother. He is laying there, in the new clothes he has just gotten, in a handmade crib and with toys and everything. She can't even remember whether the Swans had anything like that.

See? They care more about him than you. She has had horrible thoughts before, but this is different. It is several whispers all at once and aggression from out of nowhere and the realization how easy it would be to just hurt the fucking fairy tale characters that decided breaking a curse was more important than her having a good life.

"I am not going to hurt him" she instead says, because Snow and Charming have really just moved in front of the crib even though she did nothing but glance at the baby inside. She suddenly knows she had expected them to believe in her, to maybe even believe too much in her.

Her legs are already moving, running away a muscle memory, as the hurt is more than the anger for a moment.

Snow deflates and slowly pulls away from David. " Why did you say those terrible things?".

" BECAUSE IT IS TRUE" she meant to say ' I don't know. I am sorry'. But she can't.

Snow tries to reach for her and she can hardly believe it herself as she roughly pushes her away. "You are self-absorbed and self-righteous and hypocritical".

David opens his mouth after a glance at Snow. " Emma, that- ".

"Did you ever even think what it would be like for me to have a baby brother named after the guy I loved? The guy that died , before I even had time to decide whether I could forgive him for leaving me to rot in jail?"

" He didn't-".

" I know" Emma shrieks, and the table to the left of her shifts several inches. She forces herself to calm a little despite anger that makes her want to take apart a dozen toasters. " I- " she chokes on the word, moving towards the door to run only to stop before she gets there. She shakes her head, ignores Snow and David in favour of the slightly ancient floor. "I really wished you would be less like heroes and more like parents sometimes".

" E- Emma" Snow manages.

" I was angry okay? And you can tell me 'he just did so you could come here and break the curse' but it is still shitty okay?" she slowly turns around, to face her stock-still parents. " I didn't know- just because he thought it was the right thing to do, doesn't mean it sucked any less to be in prison". She grits her teeth. " But you people always think it is okay. 'made a girl go to prison for your stolen watches? Well, it was all for the curse'. Left a baby at the side of the road? Oh but she had to break the curse".

Snow takes a small step back and David grabs her shoulders again at the expression they're faced with. Emma doesn't know and doesn't really care what she looks right know, but it is probably something like Medusa or whatever. " And now my re-" she almost says it, but she manages to hold it back. "and now he has that name and you didn't even bother to ask 'hey is it all right if we name our son after the guy that broke your heart' "?

" We thought you would be glad he would be remembered"

" You could have talked to me first". They could have asked. They could have been considerate. Princesses do not consider someone else's feelings a little poisonous voice says. Maybe it is true, but Snow wasn't just a princess. She was a bandit as well and a schoolteacher and Emma's best friend. At times like these, she misses Mary Margaret.

"you are right" it is her dad's calm voice, who keeps his distance like he actually understands she doesn't want to be touched right now, that it is too much like being restrained.

She can still feel herself trembling, the need to punch someone or something unbearable. She can't remember wanting to hurt someone as badly as does right now, not even Regina during that first year or Neal when she was in prison.

Her dad keeps his hand around Snow's arm as she almost moves forward again. That is when she seems to realize touching Emma is a very bad idea right now and deflates. She gives a strained smile. " I am sorry. We thought we were doing something for you".

" You have a weird way of thinking" Emma says flatly. She is aware it is kind of mean. She is aware it might hurt. But apparently she has reached that point where pretending you are happy and okay with what people do is just too exhausting and you might not consciously want to hurt people but you cannot keep the painful truths inside to hurt you either.

Snow blinks the tears away. " Maybe" she smiles slowly. " I am sorry I didn't ask you. I thought - I thought I knew my baby girl".

This time, Emma bites her tongue to keep the words inside. But she thinks them. No, you don't. You don't know me.

He is paging through one of the few magic books mom owes that has no gore in it whatsoever when it happens for the first time. He is on the couch next to Emma, blankets around both of them and all the chocolate he brought here that day on the table as he hears a soft whimper.

He nearly jumps off the couch as he glances at her.

There are little beads of sweat on her forehead, her eyes are rolling and that would all be worrying but not that much of a shock . Except- he leans forward to see why exactly her skin seems to be erupting? Bursting? What is the right word for it skin that kind of moves, ripples and whose texture and colour slowly seem to change?

He nearly screams his vocal cords raw as her free hand pulls his hand away from her slightly scaly skin. The too-tight grip slowly loosens as she seems to 'wake' up. She blinks several times, then glances at him. "Henry?" she suddenly sounds a lot more awake as she quickly sits up, looking concerned. " What is going on?".

He swallows. "Your uh hand" he says. She slowly follows his eyes, then frowns. The hand that was still grabbing his lets go slowly and rubs over her eyes. "Is it – scaly?" she sounds equal parts disgusted and incredulous.

He is equal parts fascinated and scared. " Should I get my notebook?" Despite ma's grumbling, he has decided to treat this all like scientific research. Which means making observing, experimenting (repeating experiments) and noting everything down. It calms him, using scientific terms and numbers and everything.

She rolls her eyes, but nods. " Yeah sure, if that is what you- " he is sprinting away before she can finish. He stops at mom's office, knocks on the door. She is sitting on the couch, a small pile of documents on her lap. He knows that she spends most of the time searching for any information that could help Emma, but that she is also still mayor so that is probably what the pile of papers is off.

" Henry?".

" New development. How are you?" she drops in from time to time to ask him how he is and to check on Emma (even though he is pretty sure she would die before admitting that) , but she always makes that about them and leaves him with little opportunity to ask if she is okay. Or to make her admit she isn't after a lot of prodding.

" Bien, mijo" she mutters absently.

He sighs and walks towards her. She narrows her eyes when he grabs the papers and throws them on the table. "There is a new development. And more importantly, you need rest"

"I hardly think it will be restful to see whether miss Sw- " . At his eyeroll, she gives him what Emma calls her 'don't be a little shit' expression but amends anyways " Emma has actually on the reptilian appearance Rumple was so fond off".

" Kind of" he says, then walks away. He smirks when he can hear his mom's heels on the floor; he knew that would make her curious. By the time he has grabbed his notebook from upstairs, mom is sitting next to Emma on the couch and holding her hand.

" I have told you, my knowledge on this particular subject, is severely limited".

" Come on, you must have discovered something".

" Rumple was as paranoid as any creature would be when it can be controlled with an object. So no, I have no discovered anything. And if I had, he most likely would have wiped it from my memory".

Ma deflates. " Damn".

"I hardly think losing your soft skin is your largest issue" his mom says, arching her eyebrow.

Emma shrugs. "It is just- " she is silent again, then throws mom a look somewhere in between grateful and annoyed as she says " You believe it might be a sign that the darkness is winning".

"Yeah, something like that".

"I suppose it is possible for losses to physically manifest. Acts of darkness leave their marks on your heart, after all".

Emma straightens a little. " Couldn't you-".

" Rip out your heart? " Henry doesn't think mom even notices she is rubbing circles into Emma's palm with her thumb. " I do not believe that if the darkness starts to strengthen , it would have any impact on your heart. Rumple's heart was not dark as a result of being the dark one, but as a consequence to centuries of vile deeds".

He still staring at their hands, now focusing more on that than on whatever they're talking about because of what he thinks he saw; the scales slowly retreating. He leans forward a little, squints. He can't be sure, but he could swea-

Emma suddenly rips her hand away and jumps to her feet " I am going to take a walk " she growls, prowling in the direction of the door. Without thinking, he grabs her hand. " You cannot go, we still – ".

Ma is going to regret the way she pulled free and the look that made him take a tiny step back ; mom already looks livid. But before she can release what is probably a heavy scolding, ma is already slipping outside.

He wonders whether he hallucinated the skin turning normal under his hand.

She wakes because of Emma Swan stumbling into her bedroom. She thinks she is hallucinating for a moment- or perhaps having a nightmare, which makes sense as there is blood on Emma's knuckles and her eyes are their own nightmare.

" R-regina" she chokes. She sounds like she should be crying, but she is not. Regina slips out of bed, only hesitates half a second before gently taking Emma's hands and pushing her down on the bed. She casts a quick spell, for what if Henry came in and saw his mother with bloody knuckles and an expression like that?

She tells herself it is ridiculous to feel guilty, but it hard not to when Henry hates lies and being kept from things so much.

She forces herself to stay silent as she cleans the blood away, pretending not to notice the cold hands she is holding are trembling. She forces her thoughts away from to whom the blood on Emma's hands belong to. They're okay. They're alive. And even if they're not okay- she cannot leave Emma like this-

It is when she is starting to heal the scrapes on Emma's knuckles that she finally starts talking. " Hook and I had a fight".

Regina feels an inappropriate amount of relief. She does not outwardly show it, just continues healing the scrapes and allowing Emma to talk if she needs to. She apparently does, for she continues.

" There was this one family I stayed with for a while that had a son. He was okay at first, letting me borrow his stuff sometimes and even inviting me to go along when he met his friends. Not always, but sometimes".

She is silent for a while and Regina would ask what this has to do with Hook, but she has a pretty horrifying suspicion. " He was a couple of years older, sort of good-looking, really funny. Now I think he was more like a brother to me than a boyfriend, but when he kissed me.. " Emma shrugs. " I let it happen. I didn't want to lose him" the silence is far shorter this time. " A couple of weeks later, I had to slap him to get his hand away from under my shirt and the family sent me away, saying I was a bad influence".

She stares down at her hands like there is still a lot of blood on them. "Things like that happened a lot. People really don't watch out for you and well- " she shrugs. " If you have the wrong reputation".

Regina does not say anything, just rests her hand on Emma's to offer support. She can feel it is still trembling. " I think Hook might have been drunk. I opened the door and he was there and – I just threw him against a wall. Threw him against a wall and I think I might have hit him ? I might have hit him and he was half-conscious and then he slumped- and".

She sounds strangely emotionless, considering she is rambling and trembling and making herself small like she is a scared girl trying to avoid being hit. " The door opened and my parents started yelling and I just- I didn't want to deal with all that and so my magic brought me here".

She finally raises her head to look at Regina. She doesn't even manage a smile. " I will get out of your hair. Thanks for the healing-" .

Regina gently pushes her down. " I know this is challenging for you, but don't be an idiot" she smiles to make sure that Emma knows she is teasing (although her smile probably looks more like a grimace, because they're eventually going to have to deal with this) " You can stay".

" I can?".

" Naturally" she rolls her eyes. " We are .. friends, are we not?" it is still such an unfamiliar word. Friends.

Emma doesn't smile, but her lips move slightly. "Thank you". She slowly gets up and starts to walk towards the door. She looks incredibly reluctant, each step drawn out. Regina is quite certain that her hands have started to tremble again.

Regina watches her go, feeling oddly heavy. Before she gets back into bed , she breaks the silence spell and casts one that would warn one that will allow her to hear it if Emma is in pain or even if she transports away.

She is almost asleep when there is a horrible , magnified sound. Her magic reacts immediately, transporting her to the room next to her. When she opens her eyes and sees Emma, she almost wonders whether she should leave –

She cannot imagine Emma liking anyone seeing her like this, curled up and gagging violently. Bloodshot eyes wide open but unseeing.

But she can't leave her. She carefully approaches, ready to transport away momentarily if Emma lashes out in her confusion and terror. " Emma?" she enunciates. She grimaces when Emma's body lurches again. She looks like someone is administering electricity to random muscles, like she is some sort of sick experiment from Frankenstein.

Regina feels sick. She kneels next to Emma, touches her briefly . "Emma" . Emma is still in the same state and it is seriously starting to make Regina's hands burn. Except she cannot solve this situation with fireballs, there is no clear enemy she can throw them at. She is helpless.

" Emma".

She sounds like she is being electrocuted , too ( Regina would know)

" EMMA" she is almost yelling, grabs one of Emma's flailing limbs. Is thrown to the floor, pushes herself up. She looks down at Emma, flailing and in pain and looking pretty much like she needs to be brought to a hos-

Oh gods, does she? Is resisting the darkness detrimental to your health? Rumple never resisted- has anyone ever really tried to?

" Emma?" she hesitantly asks, hating how her voice has suddenly changed. Pull yourself together, she needs you to be strong.

It is difficult to be strong when you don't know what to do.

At least I am doing something at least I am doing something at least I am doing something. It echoes through her mind, along with how her traitorous keep replaying the awful expression he had- and she tries to tell herself 'he is a child, he does not know how to react to this, he is just attempting to cope' but tell that to her heart that throbs or her throat that burns-

Regina sinks to the floor and rests her head against the cupboard.

Henry has been getting worse as the months pass and they still find nothing. The town is on the brink of revolt and she is exhausted from trying to keep the peace in the town as well as in her family. Emma is angered by the tiniest things – yesterday, David had to drag her away from Sneezy because she wanted to punch him for sneezing in her direction- impulsive and something just not herself at all [ Emma has agreed to the wards Regina has set around Henry's room, but sometimes she suddenly gets an empty look and says things that leave Regina trembling after Emma has left]

It has been very difficult, but she can manage as long as Henry smiles at her and hugs her and is just glad with her. She cannot manage when Henry runs away again, when he is shouting at her and accusing her of 'not doing enough'.

What else can she do?

Two hours later, David has found him and brought her home. They're both crying as he throws himself in her arms, muttering 'I am so sorry, I didn't mean it, I am so sorry" and she is just hugging him tightly, thinking to herself

As long as I have you, it will be okay

Henry gets hurt.

The town is much like bees around their hives, all riled up and ready to attack after weeks of disappearances and near-deaths and accidents like bending iron – Emma doesn't know whether they even see her anymore, whether they have forgotten all the times she saved their sorry little lives, every problem they thought it was her duty to solve even though she fucking never asked for it, never wanted it and never even received one percent of what those spoiled asshats receive.

They call her 'dark one' now, so she is pretty sure that they have forgotten about the things she has done and tried to do. A part of her is thrilled, smirking at the thought of having an excuse to slap the self-righteousness right out of them, the other part going 'that goes too far, they're good people, you can't hurt them like that' –

She punches another person, only hesitating long enough for him to try to torch her and remind her why she is even hurting them. She is refraining from dark magic, just aware enough to know that it is going to have far more permanent consequences than a fist will, that awareness slowly slipping every time someone comes at her with a pickaxe, torch, sword-

They're hurting you. You are being kind enough to forgive their attacks and they're hurting you. Now you're not the saviour anymore, you are nothing but an annoyance to them

It is constant whispers in her minds, stark reminders of all the people that used her and she punches harder. She knows she is holding someone down, that her fists are slamming into his face too many times, that she should probably bring him to a hospital-

She thinks it, but it doesn't get through the numbness. Nothing does and she finally thoughtlessly throws someone through a window with the slightest bit of magic when-

"STOP" she doesn't even know who he was screaming at ; her or the crowd. Does it matter? Does it really matter when someone - sword in hand- turns and. For a moment, she feels a build-up. Every feeling she had when facing a bully, every feeling that rose in her when another person used her, every time she was sent back- it is all accumulating in her.

There is an explosion, a rain of glass shards and a choir of screams. One, two, three, four, perhaps a dozen fall when she strikes in blind anger and hatred. She wants to rip them all apart, to slowly tear of their limbs and make sure they hurt more than they think is possible and hurt them even more at the moment they think they reached their limits.

She sinks to her knees next to him. Usel- don't you dare. Not Henry. She pretty much snarls at the voices in her head as they start up again when Henry flinches away from her. He is pale- but is it the blood loss from the gash or is it where his wide eyes are focused on strewn-around bodies?

She slowly touches the gash, tiny daggers stabbing in her eyes as she tries to reach the light magic she knows is somewhere , and she is able to cry for the first time in what might be weeks or might be months when she realizes she can't – she nearly blacks out and pushes on even if it feels worse than the worst migraine, she tastes blood

And sags at the same moment there's purple and white walls around her. " Regina" she mumbles.

Regina ignores her, trembling hands pressed against the gash that is starting to quickly close. Henry presses back at her, grabbing one of her hands. He tries to speak, just shakes his head. Emma stares at the tears clinging to his lashes – wea- don't you dare- and swallows.

" Henry?".

He stares at her. Or actually , he stares at her hands. When she glances at them, she realizes there is blood all over them. When she realizes she is smiling, she quickly stops. She feels a really messed-up combination of nausea and elation.

"Mis- Emma?" Regina says. Emma doesn't know whether it is the darkness or all the time she has spent here that has made it easier than ever to read Regina. She sees her struggle, angry that Henry is hurt, already opening her mouth to blame Emma (like always. Don't you get sick off that?) then deflate with worry.

She pushes down the voices that point out 'there is certainly worry for you there. It would be useful to have someone as powerful as Regina on your side' but it is very, very difficult. She is familiar enough with Regina's magic that her heart starts to beat quicker at the thought of it belonging to her, in any way.

" What?".

" what happened?".

" I went to town, and there was a mob there. They tried to attack me- even though I wasn't doing anything. Then Henry was suddenly there and- " she feels her lips turn up in a snarl. Behind her, there is a 'crkk' as the banister breaks. She kind of wishes it were bones instead. " some person hurt him".

" It was an accident" it is weak and soft and he is still trembling, but at least Henry is talking again.

She nods at him and slowly stands. Now that she isn't trying to use light magic anymore, she feels fine. " How are you- " The evil queen destroyed entire villages and yet he is cuddling with her. But from you, he pulls away. How ungra- shut up shut up shut up. She clenches her teeth and stops her hand as Henry flinches and stares at it with what she thinks she hopes is not fear.

She knows he is afraid. But is it for her or the people that are asking for her head? (quite literally)

The first few weeks, being woken by Emma was slipping tears and barely held back panic attacks. It was all about dragging her to the kitchen and calming her, or spending the night on her floor talking her through it.

This is very different.

When she wakes , Emma is sitting cross-legged on top of her covers. Her smirk looks very eerie in the limited light the moon offers them.

She slowly sits up, trampling down on the urge to grab a weapon or at the very least light a fireball. She has not seen Emma in a few days, but David has gotten several calls from concerned citizens that have seen her 'lurk' around the forests.

" Miss Swan " she growls.

"How is Henry?".

" You would've known if you had bothered to stick around".

Regina feels suspicious as she sees more hurt than she had thought Emma capable of at this point. She bites her lips, Regina's muscles automatically relaxing when faced with what looks like Emma Swan before darkness and mistakes and teenage boys that try to hide how scared and conflicted they are. " I was thinking about ripping his heart out" she admits, the confession making Regina's blood run cold.

She almost lashes out with her magic. " A couple of days ago, he was going on about the operation like usually-" she snorts. " Even after the latest accident. And well. I suddenly- that anger was suddenly all focused on him" she admits. Her face darkens and it is so very difficult for Regina to believe it is all a pretence, that Emma – no the darkness, because Emma wouldn't – is manipulating her.

" I just- the kid brought me here. He is kind of an easy target for the darkness, isn't he?".

" If you even think-".

That is just Emma Swan, scared and alone staring back at her. That can't be a pretence, right? " Regina, that's why I left".

It is honest and raw and exactly the right way to distract her. When Emma leans in, Regina's eyes widen as she recognizes the magic. " You cursed yo-" then there is an additional burst of magic &

darkness.

They fall at the same time, Emma's hand at his pulse and Regina punching in numbers with trembling hands. The world is blurring at the edges and she cannot breathe and she feels bile rise, but her little prince needs her so she grits her teeth and somehow manages to get the number right.

She just screams the address as the person states '991, what is yo- ". She hangs up as soon as she knows they're coming, grabbing Henry's hand and forcing the words out . 'they're coming sweetheart, hold on for m-mama, okay? ".

Emma is on the other side, trembling. She reaches for Regina's hand and she is furious – wants to slap Emma all across her face for doing this to their boy but then somewhere in the back of her mind she remembers that the sacrifice had been for her and she instead clasps Emma's hand like a lifeline.

They press closer together, they don't have to look at each other to know they're both crying and look down at him. He looks more like he is sleeping- like he is waiting for his prince or princess to wake him up. She glances at Emma- she is quite certain she can see her own self-loathing reflected in those eyes- who glances back.

" Try it?" she whispers, voice hoarse. Regina nods. They bend with their hands still entwined, her lips pressed to Henry's right cheek, Emma's to his left cheek. They wait for rainbows, for a voice groaning something like " mooooms" but all there is, is still warm skin and the way Emma nearly breaks her hand she is squeezing so much.

By the time they pull back and break, the doors slam open and there are people rushing in. They ask difficult questions like 'what happened, did he ingest anything poisonous, does he have any conditions, any allergies…" and Regina can pull herself together just enough to answer.

They're driving in the ambulance, nearly breaking each other's hand as they use defibrillators and Henry's body arches and falls, arches and falls. Regina has never been religious, but she is muttering 'please please please' now like anyone has ever listened to her pleas before. Emma is numb and tense and pressed against her, not even blinking as she stares at Henry's body who arches again.

Every time he arches, they hope so much. There is one time where his eyes flutter and Regina sobs with relief- she loosens her grips on Emma, leans forward, thinking I will not lose you when his body falls again. The paramedic falls back, pants and wipes the sweat from his forehead. Regina rips the defibrillator out of his hand at the apologetic look he throws her.

" You will not give up on our son" she hisses at him.

" M'am, it is no use. His heart- "

" TRY IT" She yells, her voice cracking. He looks at the machine she is waving in his face and gently takes it from her. She grabs his wrists and yanks him up. " Try it- " she sobs.

He wipes away some sweaty strands and nods. Regina falls back against Emma, grabbing her hand without looking and trembles. Please, please, don't let him pay for my mistakes, please, he is such a good boy, please, he deserves better, please he is such a good boy and there are good people who need him please oh gods no please please please PLEASE

Behind her , Emma is hyperventilating and sobbing. She is pretty sure she is sobbing herself too, but she is too busy staring at Henry to notice. The two things are slammed together again and she winces as they are placed on his chest – your heart is so strong baby. Do you remember the spell I placed on it? Please wake up, we can't lose you, we need you, we love you so much, I love you so much, please- don't leave me.

It is somewhere in the afternoon. The darkness no longer exists. Emma Swan is back.

And Henry Mills is dead

The ride home is silence. When they cross the town line, almost the entire town is there, heads bent. The silence holds- or maybe Regina has shut down so completely she just cannot hear anything anymore, maybe she has finally given up after years of fighting. There are so many people when Henry Mills is brought home, respectfully keeping their distance as they walk towards his family:

Neal is in Granny's arms as Snow and Charming rush towards them. They hug Emma first, then pull Regina in. She remains stiff, staring at something in the distance. She knows they're saying something, that they are sharing her grief (though not really, because their child lives) but she cannot even bring herself to return the hug.

You would think after all the crying, her tear ducts would be empty.

Ruby comes forward, hugging Emma first, clutching her tight and muttering something that Emma completely ignores. Her eyes are red rimmed and she looks worse than she had even during the worst moment, the moments where she had told Regina 'just do it. Just end it' . Ruby even hugs Regina, who allows the contact but still does not return it.

Granny gently pulls Ruby backs. Her lips move. Regina is vaguely aware she is saying something, but it doesn't matter. Granny doesn't hug Emma, doesn't offer platitudes, she just squeezes her hand for a moment , offers Regina a nod that is somehow more soothing than a hug ever could be.

She feels Emma reaching for her hand again. Now that she is in Storybrooke, she could rip Emma's heart out and crush it. But it was the darkness- or it was her. She could have stopped Emma or she could have sent Henry to New York or-

Emma squeezes her hand tightly, Regina squeezes back. There are people crying and whispering and staring at the coffin that they are now walking next to . Emma slowly lets go of her hand, taking one side of the coffin. She takes another.

She makes the mistake of glancing at the open coffin; her boy still looks like he is sleeping. Like he will wake up any moment and grumble that it is too early. But he never will – he never-

She stumbles and sobs, once. Emma lets go of her side to lay her hand on Regina's and nudges her. They walk again. Regina tries to focus on the slap of their feet hitting the ground, not how her hand is inches away from her son's corpse.

She has seen so many corpses, caused so many misery- but she cannot glance at Henry without feeling like she is losing her mind. Every time she glances at him, she thinks you will wake up now, won't you? You would never leave your family. I won't be mad, mijo, just so very happy.

But he doesn't wake up. She blankly looks in front of her without registering anything, walks without knowing or caring where they are going. She glances at Henry again. We will be there soon Henry. You have to wake up. Come on, principito, come on.

She doesn't even know whether they will be there soon. Probably. Even though time has lost its relevance, after all a second is forever, an hour is forever, everything is forever now that she knows her son's smile and laugh and voice and everything won't be there anymore.

The arrive there, there is a speech, there are people trying to talk to their tears and things like 'he was such a wonderful child, so bright and amazing. It is a tragedy' like she doesn't know. Like she doesn't know her boy i- was bright and amazing and funny and it is the unfairest thing she ever lived through. Unfair enough that she is still filled with disbelief, looking at that coffin like 'Henry. Corazon . You have to go to school tomorrow, open your eyes. And you promised you would babysit your uncle, you promised it would be okay.

Emma and she are next to each other, hands no longer entwined but resting against each other. They get ready to lower the coffin into the ground. " No " it is Emma's voice, rough both from crying and not using it much these past – days? weeks? She grabs Regina's hand again, pulls her towards the coffin.

" Step aside" Emma mutters and the crowd is still weary enough that anyone but those closest to her take several steps back. "it is not too late for him, there must be something" she mutters. Regina should know there isn't. Nothing except how Daniel came back-

And she would never do that to Henry. No matter how much she wants one last hug, one last smile, one last day.

Except perhaps Emma Swan has a plan for once because there is smoke that is only slightly dark around them and the familiar sensation of transportation and then they are in her vault,

With their son.

Emma doesn't really have a plan. Emma has a lot of pain, guilt and determination though and that is almost as good as a plan. They cast a preservation spell together, barricade the doors and cast another spell that will make sure no one gets in. They then get to work.

They read every book Regina has, the ones about magic and legends and potions and everything. Emma has a pile of books that were written in English ( her half-Elvish is seriously mediocre), Regina a pile of other languages. They work and work and work until their bodies force them to sleep. Then they read again

It is only when they're exhausted, some of the furniture is burned ( Regina got so angry/sad she started tossing fireballs) and there is a hole in the wall from where Emma punched it that they find something. Something that they usually wouldn't even have paid attention to

Orpheus & Eurydice.

They only need two minutes to decide. They need several more minutes to say bye to Henry. Regina kisses him on the forehead, lingering even though she knows there will be no rainbowlight. " We will see you soon, my little prince" she whispers against the icy skin of her son.

Emma hesitates, then suddenly steels herself and marches towards Henry. She kisses his forehead as well, eyes squeezed closed. " I love you, kid. And I know I messed up. And I am sorry like you wouldn't believe" her voice breaks and she needs several moments to collect herself . " We will fix this , Henry. We will bring you back" she swears.

They don't leave a note & the spells won't break..

Unless they die as well.

"The way downward is easy from Avermus, Black Dis's door stands open night and day. But to retrace your steps to heaven's air, There is the trouble, there is the toil"

They have two golden coins, more magic than people would need and a lot of stubbornness. It is enough to force the ferryman to take them on his boat, over a river with wailing half-formed things. They sit close together, only talking when they need to discuss the plan.

They are preparing to fight, Emma drawing her sword and Regina lightning a fireball when the woman appears. She has a gentle smile that is at odds with her dangerous eyes. White flowers are braided in her hair that go very well with her dark skin. She is beautiful and slightly terrifying. She steps forward.

" Is there any particular reason you are attempting to hurt Cerberus?" she says, only a light accent.

Regina glances down at her partly bare arms, where the gold is clearly visible. She leans in " Goddess" she whispers to Emma. Emma nods.

" We are here for our son" Emma says, relaxing her stance slightly but not sheathing her sword.

" Your son?".

" Henry" they say it together.

" You cannot-".

" I don't care whether I have to fight a goddamn immortal for it, I am not leaving without my son" Emma says.

Regina nods. " Neither am I" she pulls out the Evil Queen's smile.

There is a short pause where the goddess studies them. Her expression could mean anything. Finally, she smiles and nods. " Follow me. Cerberus, sit"

The gargantuan, three-headed dog immediately obeys, panting happily. They can easily cross into the gardens, towards the palace now. The small steps the goddess takes are torture, but there is no polite way to ask her to go faster ( and what if she changes her mind about helping?)

The throne room, two thrones. Symbols, burning torches, the furies behind those thrones. The smell of earth and sandalwood. A tall, handsome man with a beard and almost gentle eyes. He looks down at them.

" Persephone?".

" I found these two women in front of Cerberus" Persephone says, kissing her husband on the cheek before sitting down on her own throne.

'Ah. You want to retrieve someone?".

" Our son. Where is he?".

" I do not allow-".

Emma interrupts him, her voice hard but her eyes desperate. " You let Orpheus take Eurydice".

" But he did not".

" We won't look back"

" Perhaps. But why would I break the laws of my

Regina did not actually tell Emma about this part of the plan. She steps forward. " You can have me in his place".

" Regina, no " Emma's voice cracks, she ignores it

" I have hurt so many people, done so many terrible things- if anyone deserves it to be stuc- ".

" How am I going to explain it to Henry-"

The god silences them with a gesture of his hand. "you misunderstand. This is not a place where the punished go. It is where everyone goes after death, despite your crimes or virtues. It is more complicated than that, so we cannot just exchange souls like that either".

Regina deflates. " Then what else? What do you want?".

" Nothing. I advise you to learn to live with your loss and- ".

"Husband" it is Persephone's strong voice. As soon as she has his attention , she says " Give them one chance".

"We cannot-".

" Husband, look at them. This loss is destroying them. We should at least give them a chance to bring the boy with them".

He stares at Regina, then at Emma for a long time. They take a step towards each other, Emma's hand tight around her sword & Regina forcing her magic to the surface. Then he nods, once. " You have one chance. If you look back, your son will be lost forever".

It is difficult, near impossible. Even if they strain their ears and hold their breaths, there is no sound. There is no breathing of course, no footsteps, not even their magic can feel anything. The urge to look around and check rises with every step they force, but they keep each other from looking.

Whenever Emma starts to turn her head, Regina warms her hand so that Emma grimaces and glares at her. Whenever Regina feels too tempted, Emma nearly breaks the bones in her hand. They step in the boat, try to talk to Henry.

" K-kid?".

" Mijo?".

He never answers and it is that suspicion, that feeling of 'he is messing with us, playing this game is going to cost us our son' that makes the urge to look almost unbearable. But they don't. They can't.

They finally close their eyes and lean against each other, until the boat hits the shore again, they slowly leave it, take more steps. The urge always rising, always building, always more thoughts like ' is he there is it a trap' but they don't look. If there is even the slightest look before they have left this place, they know they will never see Henry again. They would sooner sew their eyes shut than risking that.

One step before the exit, they hesitate. They glance-

Not behind, but at each other. " Together?" . " Together".

And they take the last step out of the Underworld, eyes still squeezed closed, hearts hardly beating, terrified-

" M-moms?"

Regina's sob is caught in her throat, Emma makes an undefiniable noise. They turns around and – see Henry. He is a little pale and confused and blinking furiously but he is alive , his chest is moving, his fingers flex and he is alive. He is their son and he did the worst thing ever but he is alive

As they pull him into a tight hug, their knees buckle and they cry together. " moms?" he repeats and they pull back and Regina kisses his forehead and hugs him and cries and smiles. Emma whispers 'sorry sorry sorry" and "I love you" s and her voice cracks and Henry stares at the both of them. He is crying now too, perhaps some of his memories returning, perhaps just because his moms look exhausted and sick and there is so much pain behind the happiness.

When they home, Snow mutters 'thank you , thank you, thank you" and David laughs through his tears and the town celebrates

Henry Mills is home.

[eliza-be-blog]

possible ways to find out he wanted to kill himself: a) crush of the daughter finds a suicide note in the car before he drowns it, calls daughter to ask her where the hell he is and that she has to make sure he is alive when they get back b) grandmother finds a suicide note in his jacket when she wants to wash it. comes back to the room and slaps him across his face. he then reveals to her why he is unhappy, and she decides to keep him as long as it takes to make him happy again

granddad: unknown, grandmother lived an unsteady hippie life

the crush is looking for the daughter as he figures out that he let the man free, daughter and dad and ron are around the town filming the landmarks.

mother investigates, starts with the driver company, gets turned down, then with the homeless man under thr bridge that the car flew off (own scene, some loud noise and something flying iver their head, then a wrid looking Person panicky running out of the bushes). she believes the person runnong away could be the old man, decides to go into the woods, finds traces of her son but believes it is the old man.

dad is working at museum, or center for historical education, not highschool. knows ron, the history actor guy.

the son is clever, but decides to run away from school after he is being mobbed by another guy and gets no help from his parents (as they are busy with themselves). after he is hoke from school, he packs his bags, changes into old clothes and runs away. he is on a bridge it is starting tomget dark when suddenly something huge dropps into zhe lake, he panicks and runs away again. of course he drops all his stuff. he runs to the next town and sleeps in a ooo-toilet in a Cineplexx, is woken up by the sound of the new girl from class cleaning the toilets late at night, is from his class. he sees she is not really new, but had to leave school because her dad married a new younger woman and wantes to move here. he tells her he wanted to run away and she tells his why he did it in the absolute wrong way. she suggest they try running away tomorrow morning, as she wants to go back to her old town, with showing him how it is done. he agrees and goes home (she gives him cash from the cinema and takes some more for themselves).

okay now for the Timing:

day 1, morning: everybody at home except for daughter. in tv: rumors of state park being reclaimes for fracking, several company bidders. breakfast & goodbye, mom is bringing grandma into nursing home, then goes to retail job. son goes to school althogh acting sick (scared of being bullied) by bike, dad goes to work. at College: daughter and crush, kind of dating (but not really) argue becausr crush will be on top secret mission today, supportin "bigger"guys on "top secret" mission. daughter is mad but wants to belong. daughter discusses internally how she got into this Situation.

day 1, noon: mother going from retail job to newspaper, announcement that newspaper will be closed soon. dad working, show with ron, runs not very well, dad would like to cheer him up (only one sharing his passion) but does not know how. son is in school, bullied, paired up with new butter smelling girl in class, hates it, new bike gets destroyed, he is too embarrased to tell his parents (they do not have that much money and it cost them a lot), so he hides the broken bike under some bushes in a nearby forest. crush wants to leave for top secret mission, but his friend who was also supposed to show up has cholera because of veganism (or some other ironically stupid reason). crush takes the daughter instead. her job: carry all the stuff and make sure his mouth stays shut. he then reveals to her that they are kidnapping the owner.

day 1, evening: parents and son are at home. mother is sad about newspaper abd dad is sad about poor ron. try to cheer each other up. daughter's team kidnaps man, has old man tangled up in storage unit, meanwhile crush tells man he will lose a finger if he does not agree. daugter feels pity for him and argues with crush. grandma has had a terrible first das at the nursing home and only wants to go home.

day 1, night: son sneaks out of his room, gets old jacket and hat from dads Garage, packs snacks and walks to next bus station. cannot do anything via onlien app, as he would have to use moms credit card, so he cannot call a cab or buy bus tickets online. he walks along a dark bridge and notices it is way too cold and to dark to walk further, also he is lost, finds shelter under the bridge in thenold ahelter of a homeless person. crush decides it is now the time to crash the car from the old man, and as the son gets ready to sleep under the bridge, something big flies from it and smashes into the lake. he panicks and runs back to the city, leaves blankets there. he sleeps in an out of order toilet of a drive through waffle breakfast joint, sneaks through an open window.

day 2, early morning, around 6 o'clock: son is woken up by butterfinger girl, 16yrs. her shift just started, it is her part time job. talk about who she is and how to run away effectively. decide to meet again before school starts. son goes home and sneaks in before everybody wakes up.

day 2, around 8: mom and dad get up and eat breakfast with son. new story about how owner is missing and car was found under the bridge. mom decides now or never and wants to investigate to save the newspaper. mom dad and son leave the house.

day 2, around 9: grandma sneaks out of nursing home, steals a stroller and makes her way home.

day 3: around 10 mom starts looking for clues at the bridge, cannot access vehicle due to police, homeless man tells her he saw a weird-looking person running away near (i used to live under this bridge). mom finds her husbands clothes and is very confused. / son and butterfinger girl wait until school starts and run away ("not with you, next to you, alright?") son has the money and girl wants to go back to her moms place so they have a goal where to go to (mom manages a hardware store and i can ask her to let you work there)

day 3, noon: crush threatens to cut off owners finger is he keeps being resistant. everybody very tense. daugher realizes that this is all a big mistake and brings the man home when the others are sleeping. locks him up in the old medical bed in grandmas room. dad is coming back from work, sees daughter outside house, asks what all the equipment is from, says for a movie in defense. dad wants to enter House, daughter asks him.if he wants to help her find bests spots for filming historical landmarks in disguise. he calls ron and they are all off

day 3, afternoon: grandma arrives home, knows spare key, lets herself in. sees old man tied to her medical bed. he is rude to her and a little hurt. grandma is first mad (i bet she did have a good reason to!) and then gets him some soup and a cup of tee. he seems lonely and has zero missed calls from his family, so she decides to keep him and befriend him.

day 3, early evening: butterfinger girl and son are in a bus going to the city where butterfinger's mom lives but notice they are running out of money already and that the plan has holes. mom calls dad, asks where they are abd drives to them, wants to confront him about the jacket and hat right away

[happynowidiot-blog-blog]

So, about that story

On Saturday, Shahida went to visit her brother in Cambridge. She has GOT to stop doing that. It’s getting ridiculous. The things we do when she’s not there are just unbelievable. Penny’s friend Candace was in town visiting so her and Penny’s other friend from home, Paige, came out with us. There was this event at Big Chill that was supposed to be a big deal so after drinking a bit at the flat we headed down there. It was packed and there was a massive queue outside to get in. Luckily, our favorite bouncer Ryan was working the door so he waved us in ahead of the crowd. All our favorites were working, including Sherlock who’d just gotten back from Ireland a couple of days before. He was looking more attractive than normal. He’d just gotten a hair cut but it looked good (especially as he said his mom had cut it which the most adorable thing I’d ever heard). We got drinks and eventually all separated. I spent a good amount of time trying to find Penny after the lawyer I’d been arguing about the American Revolution (seriously) left to find his flatmate. During this time she managed to meet everyone in the bar. Seriously. It was hilarious.

Eventually, Candace had left with some guy and it was either a quarter to four or three (time had changed and no one had any idea what was going on) so we decided to bail. We were walking home and we were all pretty tipsy. Paige may have been properly drunk but she always looks sober. The chicken place was closed and Penny was on the phone trying to get Candace home (her night was hilarious for reasons I’m not a hundred percent clear on). We were standing across from the Clink, a hostel that’s literally two minutes from the flat, Penny was yelling “Why are you on Tottenham Court Road? Get out of the car, Candace!” into the phone, and someone was yelling at us out a window. The window was the third floor of the Clink and I have no idea why we decided to yell back. I definitely don’t know why we crossed the street when the guys yelling at us said they’d come down to get us so we could come up. I don’t remember making decisions. I just made them. I wasn’t even that drunk! I was incredibly clear headed the whole time.

So, we ran across the street and met a guy in a blue shirt at the door. While typing this up I’m realising I have no idea what this guy’s name was. I’m assuming I was introduced but I’m 90% sure it wasn’t until we were actually in the room. We followed him up a couple of flights of stairs giggling the whole time until we reached a door to the room on the other side of the window. It opened to reveal eight drunk Scottish guys six of whom were sitting around in nothing but their underwear.  Yeah.

We stood there at talked to them mostly because the entire situation was hilarious. It was too funny for words that we were currently inside the Clink. There were four sets of bunk beds and it seemed like there were just guys everywhere. Penny was the first one to sit down on one of the bunk beds with this guy Maxy. After one of the guys grabbed my ass (I was in a skirt without tights) I sat down on a bed with this guy Scott (who’d been introduced as Scott the Scot. Oh yes.) and started talking to him. So, I never thought I’d have a problem with Scottish accents. Oh my christ, was I wrong. There were times where I literally had no idea what was being said. None. If they were speaking to each other it was especially bad because they’d just rattle shit off and then laugh. They were in town for the Scotland v. Brazil game yesterday.

They were passing around a bottle of Smirnoff and a cigarillo. One guy was calling me Sweet Lips. I acted offended. One of the guys sitting across from me had a lighter in his hand that looked like the one I’d had in my bag when it got stolen. I asked if I could see it and he told me that I kissed Scott on the mouth he’d give it to me. I shrugged and leaned forward to kiss Scott. Things spiraled a bit out of control after that. Well, no. I wouldn’t say that I guess. I didn’t feel out of control at all. Quickly? Things happened quickly? Again, that doesn’t feel right. What it did feel like was like I just stopped questioning things. It’s like I thought I was in some sort of alternate universe and just went with the flow of it. Like, this is happening and it’s ok.

Anyways, I started making out with Scott and we scootched back further on the bed. There were like partitions in between the bunk beds so it was like there were walls on either side. At one point, Candace arrived (Penny picks up her phone and yells, “You’re alive!!”) and the guys were excited to have a new girl to talk to since Penny and I had been poached early. Or Maxi and Scott were. It wasn’t clear who came onto who in either circumstance. Penny and I both agree that there were no decisions being made in this case. Everyone kind of just knew what was going down. Candace and Paige must have picked guys because they ended up with them but I have no idea who.

Scott and I were the first ones to bail on the conversation for the privacy of his bed. We started making out with me underneath him on the bed. I never actually thought I’d be able to fool around with someone like that in a room full of people (let alone people I know). It helped when someone turned the light off. It really was a hilarious situation. The guys that didn’t have one of us with them were being ridiculous, singing random shit and making rude comments. We mostly tried to ignore them but at times couldn’t quite do it. At one point, Scott laid back on the bed and tried to keep perfectly still. I poked him and he held up a hand and said, “Stop laughing. Stop.” Even though he was talking to me, it had been him that was laughing. He couldn’t keep a straight face even trying so I leaned over him and kissed him while his hands found my waist.

It was weird. What could have been horrible and sordid and shameful wasn’t at all. He was sweet and almost tender while we were fooling around. I didn’t feel pressured at all. I didn’t once feel panicky, which is interesting considering that the situation I was in was radically different from any I’ve ever been in. It felt right to kiss him and let him hold me and touch me. All in all, it was a good experience. Penny and I both agreed there were no regrets.

There were parts of the night so adorable I wish someone had been recording it. We were cuddling and making out and the guy next us was playing some song on his phone I didn’t recognize and Scott pulled back to request something classic, “like Neil Diamond.” I laughed and he started singing “Sweet Caroline”, the guy next to us joined in. He was laying down next to me and I told him to shush. I leaned over him when he didn’t stop and said, “Hey, Elvis, shuddup.” He continued to sing managing to fit “Make me” into the lyrics so I bent down and kissed him quiet. I found out after adding him on facebook that he’s a huge Elvis fan. He must have been dying a little bit.

Eventually we settled down to go to sleep and he pulled my head down to his chest and wrapped his arms around me. I woke up about 40 minutes later feeling like I was dying of heat. I was literally covered in sweat. I wiggled out of his arms and turned onto my side, facing away from him. I sometimes sleep with one arm above my head and ended up that way. He adjusted himself so that he had one arm around my waist and had the other one positioned so he was holding the hand I had above my head. It was adorable. No matter how either one of us moved he always made sure we were touching in some way. We were on our sides facing away from each other at one point and he still threw his arm around my waist. That may have been the best part of the whole experience, just having someone hold me. I woke up at one point to Scott’s arms around me and his stubble against my back as he kissed me. There was a time later where I woke up and we were laying side by side. He turned his head and kissed my arm and then reached to pull me onto his chest after whispering, “Hey.” Penny left a bit after 6 AM after trying to get anyone else to go with here. I couldn’t quite do it though. I was comfortable and Scott was such a sweetheart. I wanted to spend as much time in his arms as I could.

I lost an earring while we were making out and took the other one out a bit later only to have it fall off and disappear at some point. I lost my necklace somewhere along the way as well. I had it until right before I left somewhere around 9 AM. Paige and Candace were leaving so they woke me up and I attempted to adjust my clothes. My bar was like half off and the halter I was wearing was a mess. My hair looked exactly like what it should look like after a night rolling around in a bed with a boy. All in all, I looked adorable. Scott sat up as I got my stuff ready looking like he was still half asleep. I asked him for his phone and put my name and number in it. I sat down next to him and he put his hand over mine almost like it was an instinct. I kissed him a couple of times and mumbled a good-bye. I put my coat on and finally found my phone before kneeling on the bed one more time and kissing him while he put both hands on my face to hold me there for a second. I smiled at him and he looked a little sad as he said good-bye. I smirked at the guys who were giving him shit as I walked out and gave them a “Good morning, boys” before closing the door behind me.

Candace, Paige, and I avoided all eye contact as we ran down the stairs to the main lobby of the hostage. We couldn’t have looked more like girls doing the walk of shame if we tried. I was in a short skirt and no tights and my hair was everywhere. We said a quick good-bye and I ran back to the flat chanting “Home, home, home, home!” as I did so. Penny buzzed me up and I sprinted up the stairs. I washed my hands and scrubbed my teeth, shaking slightly from exhaustion and dehydration. I managed to break my watch because I didn’t take it off before attempting to wash the night off of myself. I eventually went and crashed in Shahida’s empty bed after resisting the urge to shower fully clothed. Penny woke me up about an hour later and crawled into bed next to me while we tried to make any kind of sense of the night. We didn’t have much luck. I still am not entirely sure how anything (or everything, I guess) happened.

I know that there isn’t a whole lot of residual emotion from Saturday night. It’s not even like I know anything about this guy really (except that he also claims to never do things like that, or “never in my life” as he put it) but it was the sense of intimacy that came from the encounter. I went to sleep on Sunday night and kind of hated that there was no one’s arms around me. I woke up Monday morning a tad upset that it happened been because I’d been kissed awake. I’m at a point where I want that.