pushbackthedarkness | (no subject)

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Not being able to go back to Kagura and help is driving Marcus up the wall with restlessness.

Dan and Kat seem to be sleeping well enough and he's grateful for that. But there are nights when Marcus simply can't drift off and either he lies awake in bed and stares out the window, praying to God to bring Sabrina and Salem home safely, other nights when he gets out of bed and goes to the living room to read or draw, even some nights when he goes out to stand on the front step in the cold until he can no longer stand it.

It never helps. He just wants to be there if something changes.

Tonight he's trying to sleep. Dan is asleep beside him and Trass has grudgingly given up his spot in the bed and is curled up at the end, but Marcus doesn't think he's sleeping either. Since the snow started, the wolf has been more on guard, clearly sensing something is wrong with their world. He grunts in the dark, then lifts his head, his ear pricked as if he hears something.

Marcus sits up as well, taking care not to wake Dan. He hasn't heard anything, but that doesn't mean nothing is happening.

He sits, conscious of his injured knee, and he waits.

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By now, they give her what she wants, and when Sabrina rests in the circle of lit candles, she can see her familiar swooping above, a shadow among shadows in the rafters. While she's certain there's no Soul Eater to be concerned about here, she doesn't think Darkness would much care to discover her at this.

She closes her eyes. She recites the words, and the world falls quiet, spinning around her.

The cabin is home now, and her astral body streams toward it with relief, until she's suddenly there, standing in Marcus's bedroom, dressed very much like the dark bride-to-be that she is. She's lit up by the fireplace, and she steps forward. Though she's made-up darkly, the face beneath black kohl and lipstick is a very worried and slightly frightened Sabrina.

"Marcus," she says, her voice trembling just a bit. "Hi."

He has no idea how she's here, because he knows she can't have come down the mountain and through the front door. Not dressed like that. And he knows she wasn't there in the shadows a moment ago.

Easing back the blankets, doing his best not to wake Dan, he gets out of bed and goes to her, knowing before he gets there that he isn't going to be able to properly hug her.

"Are you safe, duck?" he asks in a hushed voice. "Safe as you can be?"

How he hates this. He has some of the people he cares for protected within the walls of this house and others he knows are safe, even if he can't get to them, but Sabrina's safety is far beyond his reach at this point. And he hates it so much.

Her eyes land on the man in bed next to Marcus, but she lets that go for the moment in order to give Marcus a smile, brave if a bit wobbly. "I'm probably the safest one up there," she says honestly. At least physically; she's not sure how many others are being wooed by the Lord of Darkness. "The thing-- I guess we're to call him Darkness, which--" she rolls her eyes, "--is not even trying that hard, but he has an interest in me that means I'm treated well."

For now.

"I just wanted to see you," she admits. "The easy part is almost over. It's all these next parts I'm not so sure about."

He wants to go up there more than ever, he wants to kill that thing, kill it for hurting people, for hurting Dan, for taking others, for everything Sabrina is having to do because of it. But for all his arrogance, even Marcus knows he's not equipped for this fight. Not in the ways Sabrina is.

Sinking down at the end of the bed, he sits and looks at her for a moment. She looks grown up and it isn't the dress, but the way she holds herself and the look in her eyes. God, how he hates that she's had to grow up so quickly. He remembers all too well what that was like.

"You're so brave," he says. "I'm glad you've come. How... how are you here?"

Some of that sense of maturity and control wobbles again under his praise, and she moves, silent as a spirit, to sit next to him. "Astral projection. I've done it plenty at home, but you have to keep an eye on things there. No soul eaters here, though, so it's safer." She thinks, anyway. "I still can't stay long. I don't want to get caught at it."

She exhales.

"I just-- I think it's all going to happen soon, and I really wanted to see you." Now she does sound younger. "I know I can do this, I know that there are others helping, but I'm still a little scared."

Marcus doesn't like how that sounds. Almost as if she's come just in case this is the only chance she'll have to say goodbye. It makes his stomach turn, thinking that, and he looks at her intently for a long moment, trying to read something in her expression.

"It makes sense to be scared," he says finally. "What you're doing... there's a lot on the line. But don't think about that. Just think about what needs to be done. The first step, then the next step, then the one after that. Don't get ahead of yourself. Just take it as it comes."

He smiles softly at her. "It's the best and the only way to get through."

Sabrina meets his eyes, and she wouldn't deny, if asked, that it's precisely why she's come-- that, and for a little boost in terms of her own strength. It's harder than she'd thought not to cry, but she's told herself not to do it, too cruel to both of them.

"That's what I'll do, then. I'm in position to do it, and the-- he calls himself a Lord of Darkness," she says, "if he's as much like any other Dark Lord I've known, he'll need some sort of dramatic and self-serving moment. Soon. The cells are getting full, and I've seen him now. One thing at a time," she repeats, nodding.

She's quiet for a few seconds before offering him a funny little smile. "I wouldn't mind it if you prayed for me."

Marcus doesn’t even want to think of this thing as having a name or even a title. He doesn’t deserve anything like that, not with what he’s doing to everyone. Not with what he’s doing to Sabrina. Now really isn’t the time to get into his feelings regarding the thing, however, he needs to be there to support Sabrina. Be on her side with that.

He wishes he could hold her hand right now.

“I will,” he promises. He hopes it helps, that his God will hear him and lend some guidance to Sabrina. This is the sort of fight Marcus likes to think God should have a hand in, although he knows well already that God doesn’t exactly take orders. Especially from Marcus. But if there is any situation he’ll hope for the best, this is it. He needs Sabrina to come back here. He needs everyone to be safe, but especially her.

Sabrina herself isn't sure she believes that God, in Marcus's context, particularly would like to save Lucifer's daughter; as much as she's aware of how she's been raised to think, there's still so much black and white to be found. But it's powerful to Marcus and that he would do it for her means something to Sabrina.

"I'll be home as soon as it's safe," she promises, and she can't quite keep her voice from tightening and wavering as she looks up at him, tears gleaming despite all her promises to herself. "Um," she says, "I love you. You're-- you're my family. I know you'd rather be up helping me, but I'm really glad you're here and you're safe."

It's one of the few comforts she has.

When he sees the tears in her eyes, he can't help the ones that spring to his own. He wishes desperately that he could do more than just hold her hand right now, that he could wrap her up in a tight hug and promise her everything will work out, because she's brave and smart and strong. Because he believes in her. But he can't do that with a hug right now, he can only do it with the words he's already said and the fierce look in his shining eyes.

"I love you, duck," he answers. So many people before her have made that easier for him to say, but even still, she's only one of three who have heard the words come out of his mouth. He loves so easily and is still so often afraid to say, but he has to say it now. "I love you and I'll be safe. I'll keep these people safe and we'll all see you when you get back."

Because she's coming back. She is.

Sabrina nods, and the tears she's been trying to keep back fall into the air, each of them suspended for a brief second before they glimmer into nothing. "I really should go," she says, glancing toward the windows, and turning back with a tearful smile. "I'm not a big fan of saying anyone is meant to do something or be somewhere. I don't really like prophecies, predictions, not that I need to explain to you, you know why."

She shrugs. "But I think maybe I'm the right person for this, to do this, if only because the other person wouldn't make nearly as pretty a bride as me. So tall and broad in the shoulders, and flannel is not very attractive to any Devil I've met."

Careful to move the yards and yards of skirt out from under her, despite it not being able to connect with anything, Sabrina stands up, and then leans forward in an imitation of a kiss to his forehead. "I'll be home soon." Her eyes cut over to the sleeping figure in the bed. "Plenty of time for you to think about what you're going to say about him."

Edited 2019-06-24 04:10 (UTC)

Marcus laughs a little when she describes Sam and somehow that helps, too, knowing Sam is fighting, knowing he's made for a fight like this as much as Marcus himself is. But somewhere along the way in this particular battle, he'd relegated himself to the house, to being the protector, and he finds it's not the worst role to fill.

It's nice to realize maybe he doesn't always have to be the gun. Maybe sometimes he can be the shield.

At the mention of Dan, Marcus glances back at him, then shakes his head. "A friend," he says to Sabrina, then reaches out for her, knowing he can't touch her and trying to anyway. Maybe she'll be able to feel it somehow, take it with her.

"Be safe," he whispers. "Safe as houses."

Even as a projection of her spirit, even in dire circumstances, Sabrina is able to give him the look of amused disbelief that just a friend conjures up, though she just smiles now.

"I will be," she answers, voice soft as she ends the spell. "Safe as houses."

And then she's gone, leaving only the night and the reflection of fire in the glass of the windows.

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