Chapter Text
The Paroisse Catholique, Pine Barrens, Alberta
“Wynonna, how did you piss off a nun? Aren’t they supposed to be on our side!?” Waverly shouted over the roar of the Allagís above as they scrambled down the trembling spiral staircase.
“I don’t know, Waves; I can’t tell you how many times Sister Bernadette made that exact noise at me for stealing uniforms from the boys’ locker room,” Nicole commented as she jumped off of the final step to the cracked and cobbled ground. She wasted no time turning around to guide everyone else off of the stairs safely in the darkness as the structure began to crumble above their heads, rock and marble dust raining down.
“Amen; nuns have never liked me,” Wynonna held up a hand to high-five Nicole as she brushed past her, which was met with a barely visible eye roll in the dimming candlelight. Wynonna rolled her eyes in response and smacked her friend on the shoulder before spinning on her heels to face their foe. She took several steps back- partly to get a clearer view of the chamber’s entrance above, and partly to get away from the shower of falling stones. She held Peacemaker firmly in her right hand, barrel aimed at the growing flames that illuminated the Allagís’s silhouette against the crypt walls at the peak of the spire. By its shadow alone, the beast could be seen turning to face the kneeling, praying Cult demon. Caligula hadn’t budged an inch since the beast’s awakening.
It was clear he had already given up.
Another piercing shriek sent more of the ancient roof tumbling from the rafters, and the shadow of the Allagís- dancing across the blooming flames- reached out with a long, bony arm to seize Bulshar’s lackey by the throat. It lifted him from the floor where he knelt, never taking its gaze away from his amber one. Caligula seemed paralyzed under the force of that single, bright eye as it swivelled erratically in evaluation of him.
The Allagís appeared to make up its mind on the utility of the demon, and it was not a decision in his favor.
The chipped, skeletal jaw of the nun twitched and popped as it disarticulated into a gape that grew as wide as a feeding serpent’s. With the strength of an iron grip, it pulled Caligula even closer, so that there were only inches between the terrified demon and his captor. Instead of emitting another scream, the Allagís took in an immense breath. With each second that the beast seemed to suck in the air around them, Caligula’s form shrank smaller and smaller. His skin and muscles withered, desperately clinging to his bones. His once glowing eyes deflated and sunk deep within their sockets. His lips crumbled into nothing, leaving only a striking row of sharp, pointed teeth exposed. His dark hair, which had been concealed under the black cowl of his robe, fell to the crypt floor in clumps as it could no longer cling to his desiccating scalp. When it seemed that there could be nothing left of the intruding demon to consume, the Allagís wrenched its jaws shut and unceremoniously tossed the shriveled remains to the side. Caligula’s dull, dead amber eyes were left gazing, fear etched with them, at the shattered statue of the Matron.
Wynonna subconsciously took more steps backwards as the scene unfolded before them like a twisted shadow puppet play. She knew she needed to create distance- as much as she could- between her people and the stairs, the chamber, and this Allagís. As she retreated, she instinctively held out her free arm in front of the rest of her team. The fingers of her left hand searched on their own accord for Alice’s shoulder, where they gripped her on contact as if to confirm she was still there.
“Wynonna, we need a game plan, NOW!” Nicole whispered in her friend’s ear when they all saw the Allagís stumble through the crypt’s doorway, still a bit unstable in its corporeal form. But that didn’t stop the Eye of Saint Ephram from knowing its target; it quickly rolled around to fixate on Wynonna.
And with that gaze boring into her eyes, Wynonna could feel a numbing paralysis settling in her limbs, down to her bones. It took more willpower than she expected to rip her eyes away and look to Alice, then to the rest of her group.
“I don’t know how- I have no fucking clue how- but we have got to get that Eye. It’s what we came here for, and I doubt ‘Pater’ is going to give up on retrieving it. And while this bitch is nasty, I think him having the Eye will be mucho peor .”
An irregular shuffle, scrape, and dragging sound from further down the hallway- the direction they had come- made Alice turn her head. Even with the light from the fire above them, it was still far too dark to see further than a few feet ahead. But she could definitely hear it: long, rasping and clanging sounds, like claws on stone. Rattles and thuds like rainmakers peppered in between the dragging to create an eerie marching beat. Alice fumbled with the flashlight that she had stowed in her belt. Blindly feeling for the switch, she found it and flicked it on, pointing it down the hall where the sounds seemed to be emanating- and getting louder.
She instantly wished she had just kept what was coming hidden in the dark.
The sudden flash of Alice’s light caught the others’ attention, and when she saw what was closing in on them from behind, Wynonna wasted no time grabbing Alice by the arm and yanking her through the half-collapsed doorway to the old Convent. Alice had to duck quickly to avoid banging her head on the top of the marble archway, which now sat at an angle halfway down the original height of the entrance. Waverly and Nicole followed closely, with Dolls crawling through last. He never lowered his gun from the doorway. Obviously, it wouldn’t stop the supernatural forces advancing on them, but he hoped it could at least slow them down long enough to formulate a plan.
“Okay- this mission just took the absolute worst turn it could possibly take!”
“I’m very aware of that fact, Waves; Peacemaker doesn’t want to shoot the demon, the Eye is physically part of said demon, oh and this demon can create insta-mummies out of other demons so it’d probably have a field day with our squishy bodies. What I need to know is- has that big brain of yours got anything , even a nibble, on an Allagís?” Wynonna hazarded a glance at the semi-hidden doorway they had escaped through. Nothing seemed to have reached it yet, but she could clearly hear the sound of the nun’s skeleton thumping its way down the spiral stairs to where it had last seen its prey.
Waverly hit the barrel of her own flashlight as it sputtered to life. With the added illumination from each roving flashlight beam, the team could see that they must be sheltered in the old sleeping quarters. Remains of wooden bed posts leaned against the walls, occasionally wrapped in torn linens that likely used to be bed sheets. But what caught Waverly’s eye were the murals adorning the four walls that surrounded them. The frescos were chipped and heavily faded with age, but the larger-than-life figures they depicted still held a mesmerizing power. Nuns kneeling in fervent prayer, tall beings with glorious wings that stood before them, caricatures of demons all acted out their story before her eyes.
And then the scriptures written in a scrawling Latin hand across the bottom of each mural provided clarity.
“I haven’t read about anything called an Allagís, no. But I think everything that happened was recorded right here…” Waverly stepped up to the mural that appeared to be the first in the four part story. Here, nuns worshipped at their cathedral altar, heads bowed in respect. But instead of the Matron or another typical religious figure at the head of the altar, there stood giant, robed men. Each one had a pair of snow-white feathered wings sprouting from his back. One held out his hand, palm up, to the praying nuns. Sitting atop it was a single, blue eye.
“This mural says that one day, three of God’s angels visited the convent and bestowed upon them a mission; to protect a Holy relic from the body of Saint Ephram from all evil who wished to possess it.”
“And this second one-” Waverly moved over to the next in the series. Here, a woman who could only be the Matron gently cradled the Eye in her hands, looking down upon it with reverence. Before her stood one of the angels, who held his hand to the top of her head. Above them both, a bright white light seemed to come down from the sky and surround the Matron.
“-This one says that the Matron volunteered to be the guardian of the Eye to spare her Sisters. She was afraid, but Sariel told her she would become one with a caeli bestia named Allagís who would smite any whom came to steal the relic.”
“So the poor woman was possessed? By a...not-demon?” Nicole quietly asked, suddenly feeling pity for the shambling creature outside.
“Apparently,” Waverly sighed. “ Caeli bestia literally translates to ‘Heaven’s beast’, so I take it we aren’t dealing with a demon.
“What’s the third mural say?” Alice nodded towards the disturbing image that came next. The Matron stood in a crypt that looked just like the one at the top of the spire. She held her hands out in an open and welcoming gesture, eyes fixed firmly ahead of her. Her expression could only be described as somber. Around her, the other nuns took turns coating her body in a thick, gray cement. It had already encased her legs and was in the process of covering her abdomen. Another nun stood to the side, carefully holding the Eye and watching her Sisters work.
“The angels said that Allagís needed a mortal vessel in order to remain on Earth. The Matron was to become this vessel. Her body was encased in stone to make her like a Saint- incorruptible-”
“-Clearly that didn’t work like they planned,” Wynonna chipped in.
“-And when only her face remained exposed to the light of day, Sister Mary Catherine removed the eye of her Matron, and in its place put the Holy relic of Saint Ephram. She had the sight of the angels…”
“Holy shit, they did that to her when she was still alive?” Alice couldn’t take her eyes off the painted scene, “But-but those were angels , right? Why would the good guys do something so horrific?”
“People often forget, angels have never been depicted as gentle or sweet. They’re soldiers. And they’ll do whatever they have to to complete their mission,” Waverly answered.
A chorus of loud banging and growls from the hall brought them back to the present, and the sense of urgency flooded back.
“Fourth mural, Waverly- does it say how to stop an Allagís?” Dolls shouted, refusing to take his eyes off the approaching skeletons. They were far too close for his liking by now, so he cocked his gun and prepared to fire.
“Fourth mural, yes!” Waverly rushed to the last painting in the series, “It just says that two decoy eyes were placed in the Matron’s hands when the statue was carved over her body...Allagís sees through the Eye and uses the body as a vessel...and he indiscriminately smites anyone?” She shrugged her shoulders and offered a pained grin to Dolls, “There’s nothing about how to stop him because I don’t think the angels wanted to leave behind instructions.”
“Fantastic; so somehow remove the Eye from the Matron’s skull, while the Allagís inside tries to smite us, and we get what we came for while blinding the creature?”
“Oh, and don’t forget the skeleton army. Wait, are those Allagís too?” Alice’s eyes grew wide with panic. One Allagís sounded like plenty.
Waverly shook her head, “Highly doubtful; I’m guessing they’re puppets...like what Constance Clootie used to do.” She sighed and rolled her eyes at Wynonna, who pointed a finger at her younger sister.
“ You owe me boozy cupcakes-”
She was cut off by the thunderous banging of the army of nuns slamming themselves against the wall that separated the sleeping quarters from the hall. The roar of the Allagís encouraged them to push harder against the barrier. Despite the wall being made of stone, the sheer number of bodies hitting it combined with its immense age meant that it quickly started to crumble under the pressure.
An idea clicked in Wynonna’s mind, and she quickly grabbed something from the rubble on the floor.
“If they’re really puppets, that means they’re just holding together by a thread. And a smashed skele-zombie is a useless skele-zombie,” Wynonna winked at Waverly and tossed her a long, iron candlestick she had found in the remains of what likely used to be a bedside altar. Waverly caught the metal rod in both hands and gave it a test whack against the nearest wall. The stone chipped, but not the metal. It would hold.
“Everyone take one and save your bullets! Smash the Sisters and keep an eye on the Allagís- we need a way to get close and not die,” Wynonna holstered Peacemaker-useless thing seemed to only want to shoot proper demons, anyways- and wielded her candlestick like a batter on plate. The banging against the wall in front of them intensified; all it took was another ear-splitting shriek from the Allagís to send one section tumbling down to the ground. Through the billowing cloud of dust, the first of the skeletal nuns crawled toward the waiting team.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Pine Barrens, Alberta
“Sienna, I am telling you that is not your mother!” Eva crawled towards the river bank where the young girl was wading further and further out to the hideous beast. With the fiery pain that shot up her leg every time her ankle shifted, she couldn’t move nearly fast enough. On top of that, the closer she got to the water, the thicker and wetter the mud became. Her arms started to sink each time she tried to push forward, the wet suction fighting to keep her in place.
“ Sienna ! That thing is trying to enchant you! Your real moms are going to murder me if you get yourself abducted!” Eva yelled at the top of her lungs, hoping she could somehow break through the creature’s spell. She tried to make another push forward, now within feet of the water’s edge, but found that her good foot had become wedged in a particularly sticky patch of muck. She gingerly tried to use her bad foot to push off of a solid tree root, but even the slightest pressure had her muscles giving out in agony.
The beast- qalupalik , a strange yet familiar voice spoke through her memories- met Eva’s frantic eyes and lifted the corners of its drooping mouth in what approximated a grin. It then chortled out a sound that could best be described as a raspy, garbling roar.
“Oh, you think you’re funny, you overgrown algae sack? Pick on someone your own damn size,” Eva reached into the sulfurous mud and threw a fistful as hard as she could at the Qalupalik. The mud hit the creature on its bulbous nose, abruptly stopping the laughter. It responded to the older girl’s taunts by raising itself higher on its hind legs, now reaching close to six feet tall.
Something seemed to have changed for Sienna with the Qalupalik distracted. She lowered her arms slowly and blinked, seeming to just realize that she was waist-deep in the creek.
“...Eva?...W-why am I in the water?” She turned to see her friend lying on the bank, covered in mud, mid throw with another ball of muck in one hand.
“Sienna, run to shore now!” Eva yelled, throwing the second fist of mud at the creature, “Don’t turn around!”
But it was too late. Sienna had heard the splashing behind her as the Qalupalik tried to dodge the second projectile from Eva and on instinct had turned around. She felt her heart stop when she saw the blubbery creature towering over her, vacant white eyes locked on her.
In a flash, the Qalupalik grabbed Sienna in its long, bony hands and lifted her clear from the water as if she weighed nothing to it.
“You put her down, you son of a bitch!” Eva screamed, feeling the rush of panic hit her veins and numb her nerves. She tried again to use her broken foot to push her good one free from its trap, but it was still too weak. The cloth hood draped over the Qalupalik’s back billowed open, and the creature started to try to wrestle Sienna into it. The girl aimed kicks at its face, mainly hitting the giant nose that made such an easy target.
“My Mama and Auntie are going to send you to Hell ! They’re the Earps !” Sienna shrieked, not letting up her struggling. But this declaration didn’t seem to phase the creature at all; it rolled its neck to bring the hood around to the front so that Sienna was now just inches above it.
“And before they do, so will I! For good measure!” Eva could feel the tears rushing down her cheeks as her voice choked up on the last words. The futility of struggling was becoming more and more evident. Her foot hadn’t budged and there was no way to she could put any weight on the other one. She was well and truly stuck.
With a final scream, the Qalupalik dropped Sienna into the hood, which immediately pulled shut like a drawstring bag. The girl’s kicking feet could still be seen punching at the cloth from the inside, but the fabric had muffled her voice.
“ NO ! You-let her go- now-” Eva’s voice halted and dropped an octave; her throat felt like it had been rubbed raw by rocks, and her voice rasped like it too. Her pupils blew wide, and in front of her, Eva didn’t see the creek anymore; she saw a rocky mountainside illuminated by only the moonlight. An ancient-looking man stood on the rocks, holding a small boy by his hair. She could see the terror in his eyes as he looked right into hers.
Eva’s lips curled back as she let out an inhuman snarl.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Paroisse Catholique, Pine Barrens, Alberta
“Batter up!” Alice swung the heavy candlestick at the nearest skeleton, knocking its skull clean off with a thwack . The rest of the body stopped abruptly on impact, seeming confused by its sudden headlessness. Its hesitation gave Alice the opportunity to take another swing at the torso, which shattered its core and sent the rest of the bones tumbling to the ground.
“ Ack , that was a lame-ass one-liner,” she muttered under her breath as she took a shot at the next closest skeleton from behind. Thwack . And after that one the next- thwack - and the next- thwack - and the next- thwack . Alice tossed her hair back out of her eyes and stopped a moment to catch her breath. Demon hunting was taking way more upper body strength than she had anticipated.
No wonder they’re all so ripped.
“Alice, head in the game or you lose it!” She whipped her head towards her mother’s voice, only to see another candlestick midair and fast-approaching. She ducked just in time for it to zip over her head and smash right into the ribcage of a one-armed nun who had been reaching for her hair. The force of impact sent it falling backwards, disarticulating its knees in the process. Alice got back to her feet and extracted the weapon from the pile of bones.
“Keep your eyes on the enemy at all times,” Wynonna scolded, grabbing back her candlestick.
Alice huffed and rolled her eyes, “Oh yeah-” Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the sudden absence of their main target. “Where’s the Allagís, then?”
“Right where I left it! Dumb bitch was trying to climb-” Wynonna spun around, looking through the chaos, trying to find the Eye that she had been tracking up until then. The bright blue beacon was nowhere to be seen. There were, however, a set of shining, slimy handprints trailing up the cathedral wall.
“Shit!” Wynonna muttered under her breath, “I look away for two seconds-”
“-and you lose it,” Alice smirked, nudging Wynonna in the back with the round base of the candlestick.
“Alright, smartass. Just keep your wits about you. Especially now that Sister’s gone AWOL.”
“And she seems to be getting pretty comfortable with how limbs work,” Alice added before striking an approaching skeleton square across the chest. It stumbled backwards, but didn’t fall- so Wynonna quickly followed with a blow that shattered its backbone and sent it tumbling to the floor.
“All the more reason to find her as quickly as possible,” On the ‘possible’, Wynonna’s breath fogged in front of her face. She stared where it had dissipated, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. Alice, also caught off guard, blew out a puff of air. The cloud of fog that marked its track confirmed that the temperature had indeed taken a nosedive within a matter of seconds. The two looked down at their feet, where a crackling sound had started. Begnning at the soles of their shoes and spreading outwards, crystals of ice grew in the shape of spiderwebs, creeping along the cracks in the stone floor.
Wynonna glanced up and met Alice’s eye, recognition hitting her, “Bulshar’s a dick, but he’s not stupid; he wouldn’t send the Three Stooges to collect a powerful supernatural relic.”
The realization started to dawn on Alice too, “But he would send stupid, easy-to-kill, decoys to awaken the Allagís-”
“-so the Eye is ripe for plucking for his actual errand-demon-”
“-Willa,” they finished simultaneously.
The piercing roar of the Allagís rang out through the church rafters arching above. It had the Matron’s body clinging to the sides of one of the dozens of arches, head turned around 180 degrees so that the Eye could swivel and focus back on Wynonna and Alice.
What it didn’t see was the black cloud manifesting behind it as the room temperature continued to drop lower and lower.
The Allagís rocked back on its legs, as if preparing to jump. But before it could, it was torn away from the rafter by long, icy claws and thrown to the stone ground. The strength of the Allagís within the body kept the Matron’s skeleton intact against the impact, unlike her sisters.
Wynonna backtracked and pulled Alice with her, harshly whispering in her ear, “We’re gonna use Willa to our advantage today. I’ve had enough of her bullshit.”
The form of Willa manifested above the nun’s prone body before it had the chance to get back to its feet. Without preamble, she grabbed at its skull and tried to use her long claws to extract the Eye from its socket. At the same time, the Allagís opened its jaw wide and inhaled, using its arms to grip Willa’s shoulders and lift itself closer. Willa’s cloudy blue eyes faltered, getting lost as Caligula’s had. But only for a moment. She pulled herself out of the Allagís’s grip and punched it square in the teeth. The force knocked them out, but the caeli bestia was unperturbed. It leapt up on all fours and crawled at a surprising speed straight at where Wynonna and Alice were standing.
Seems it didn’t forget the face of who was present when it awoke.
Alice and Wynonna ran in opposite directions, and the Allagís quickly changed course to follow the elder Earp.
Willa looked between Alice, now alone and vulnerable, and the goddamn relic she was supposed to retrieve. The thought of Wynonna being smited to Hell made her smile, and it would certainly make her life easier, no doubt. But the satisfaction of watching it happen at her own hands was something she was just not ready to give up, especially to the angels’ guard dog. And Alice- nothing more than a thorn in her backside- could be dealt with any day she chose. She had to get that Eye, for the greater mission.
Willa disappeared in a swarm of dark tendrils and rapidly re-appeared in front of her sister. Before she could crash into her, Willa waved her hand and threw Wynonna off to the side, clearing the path for the Allagís running straight at her. Wynonna slid across the ice-covered stones and scrambled back up to her feet. She pulled out Peacemaker and loaded the barrel, preparing to shoot her sister for the Eye if needed. A part of her hoped Willa wouldn’t survive the Allagís, since it would mean the otherwise inevitable end wouldn’t come: her killing her sister. Again. But she had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach that Willa had been forged more powerful by the flames of Hell than the angels had bargained for when selecting their guard.
The Allagís didn’t have the chance to change its course away from Willa. The demon thrust her hand upwards, claws up, and with it grew a wall of ice that enveloped the skeleton, immobilizing it. She stepped forward and punched a hole in the ice where the face was, exposing the Eye. It was now rolling around in its socket frantically, sensing Willa had it cornered.
She took her claws and inserted them around the sides of the eyeball. With ease, she plucked the slimy sphere from the ancient socket, and held it up pinched between two fingers. A gun fired nearby, and Willa felt a shot of pain in her shoulder where Peacemaker’s bullet had hit. She turned her gaze over to see Wynonna aiming her stolen gun right at her. All over again.
The Eye was retrieved; now she could clean house.
Willa pocketed the Eye in her coat and dissipated before Wynonna could fire another shot. With the Allagís rendered inert, the last of the puppets had fallen inanimate to the ground, freeing Waverly, Nicole, and Dolls from the duty of holding them back.
“Is she gone?” Nicole yelled across the hall, tossing her candlestick aside and pulling her gun instead.
“I’m highly doubtful she wouldn’t try to take Peacemaker,” Wynonna responded, cocking her gun again and looking around for a sign that Willa was about to reappear. The coldness in the air hadn’t lifted a bit. She was still around.
Alice nervously reached for her own pistol- Thank you, Waverly - it was still loaded. Her shaking hands wouldn’t have made it very easy to slot the bullets into the chamber in the dark. The silence was deafening as they waited for Willa’s next move.
It came behind Alice without warning; freezing hands wrapped around her waist and neck and lifted her from the ground in the span of a second. Willa’s harsh voice whispered against her ear, “I think Malphas will absolutely adore you, you freak of nature. I think your head on a pike would be very motivating for the Ascended. What do you think, Wynonna?-” she added more loudly, “Is she a better gift skinned or alive?”
Alice felt Willa tear her gun from her hands and drop it to the ground below them. Her hand wriggled, but trapped in the demon’s embrace she didn’t have much range of motion.
Below, she could just make out Wynonna aiming Peacemaker right at Willa’s forehead. She couldn’t make out her expression, but the slight tremor in her voice betrayed her fear.
“Willa, you want Peacemaker . Why waste your opportunity with kidnapping Alice?”
“You know why, Wynonna. Because it makes you squirm ,” Willa began to laugh a chilling cackle that echoed off of the cold stone walls. She moved her arm to adjust her grip around Alice’s neck, and it was in that moment that the young Earp took advantage of the looser hold; she turned her head and bit down on Willa’s fingers as hard as she could. The demon screamed and instinctively let go of her torso to try to pry the girl’s mouth from her hand. With the arm restraining her body gone, Alice opened her mouth and let herself fall the fifteen or twenty feet to the ground.
Wynonna wasted no time opening fire on Willa as soon as Alice was out of the way, the other three adults joining in. Under the rain of gunfire, Willa started to dissipate back into her amorphous form, unable to hold herself together. Her voice rang out across the cathedral before she disappeared completely:
“If you continue this idiotic quest to stop the rise of Bulshar, you will lose more than your precious brats, sisters! The Allagís was child’s play!”
“And you’re a petulant kid who wants her stupid toy back!” Waverly yelled.
But Willa had already gone. As soon as she had disappeared for good, the ice started to melt and the temperature rose back to normal. Wynonna rushed forward to where Alice was laying on the ground and knelt by her side.
“What the hell were you thinking ?”
Alice slowly lifted herself up on her elbows, waiting for the world to stop spinning before she spoke, “Thinkin’ being ‘ducted is not a fun idea.”
“Quick, we need to get out of here before the Allagís is unfrozen. It may be blind but the creature is still inside and it is going to be mad ,” Dolls came up behind Alice and gently looped his arms under her shoulders to bring her slowly to her feet. When he could feel that she was steady, he let her stand alone.
“All this shit we went through and Willa still got the Eye. Now Pater is one up on us,” Wynonna muttered as she got to her feet. Alice blinked and her eyebrows shot up, as if she suddenly remembered something. She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a bright blue eyeball that stared blankly ahead, no longer any life behind it.
Wynonna gaped and looked between the Eye and her daughter, “How the hell did you get that from her?”
Alice shrugged her shoulders and smiled weakly, “She was too busy tauntin’ you to keep track of my hand and her pockets. Also, pickpocketin’ is fun.”
Wynonna let out a brusk laugh and shook her head in disbelief.
“Okay; then let’s get the hell out of the Pine Barrens. It feels like we’ve been here forever.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Pine Barrens, Alberta
“Pick on-someone- who can...FIGHT you!...You coward!” Eva choked the words out between the growls involuntarily escaping her lungs. Each labored breath turned into a snarl. Her head started to throb, and it felt like her skull was compressing and squeezing her brain tighter and tighter. The pain made it harder to see, harder to breathe, harder than it already was to struggle free from the mud. But even through the searing pain that was spreading down her neck and across her back with the flow of her own blood, so loud and so visceral- a single thought kept pushing its way through the excruciating fog and to the forefront of her mind:
No more blood on my hands.
The thought brought Eva a wave of strength she didn’t know she had within her. She blindly reached out both arms and pressed her palms into the mud, pushing her upper body clear of the ground. What bit her arms sank didn’t matter anymore, as they were elongating by the second. Muscle rapidly built up under her skin, re-aligning itself around cracking and shifting bones. Her skin sprouted a fuzz that quickly grew into a thick coat of dark gray fur, starting at her hands and continuing in a wave down her whole body. Her core grew stouter and more muscular by the second, ripping Jeremy’s t-shirt to pieces. Her eyes darkened, seeming to become all pupil- and they never let the Qalupalik nor his prey out of their sight.
Upon hearing the progressively deepening growls and erratic movement from where Eva lay, the monster had stopped wading further out into the bank- sack floating behind it- and turned to see what the commotion was. Disconcertingly, instead of the good-as-dead girl it had left behind, it now saw a new beast transforming before its eyes.
Eva’s good foot-now a paw sporting large, thick claws- planted itself in the muddy ground, lifting her up on three legs. The skin over her injured ankle continued to move and shift rapidly as the bones and tendons underneath transformed and rearranged themselves; bone fragments clicked and snapped back into their rightful places, the joint realigned, and with a quick kick against a tree root the makeshift splint was broken. Eva put her weight on the healed limb, and stood without a trace of pain. Her ears flicked forward and she stared down the Qalupalik, who was now grabbing at the sack with its long fingers and making to descend into the water’s depths with Sienna.
The wolf snarled and leapt into the creek, clearing the distance between her and the Qalupalik in only a few bounds. She sank her teeth into the nearest arm, eliciting a chilling screech from the overgrown fish. The Qalupalik bucked up on its hind legs and thrashed its arm, trying to toss Eva to the side. But she only bit down harder, using her front paws that still had some of the dexterity of a human hand to grab onto the creature’s shoulder. The scales were slippery, however, and with a full body roll onto its side and into the water, the Qalupalik managed to shake free of its attacker.
In the struggle, it had let go of Sienna, who had started to float back towards the shore. Her hands pushed out against the animal hide that kept her afloat, blindly grappling for a rock or root that could act as a handhold. After a few moments of searching, she hit a submerged root and pushed against the hide to curl the tips of her fingers around it and stop her movement. She pushed out with her other hand, reaching further out for a second things to grip. When she hit a jagged rock that provided just enough purchase against the surface of the bag, she grabbed it as best she could and pushed forward. Slowly, with each step, Sienna rolled her bag closer and closer to land.
The Qalupalik bleated in frustration when it saw its dinner escaping, but before it could swim over and retrieve it, Eva landed squarely on its back and bit down on the exposed neck- hard. Underneath her canines she could feel the fragile bones crush to pieces with the force of her bite. The Qalupalik screamed, which quickly turned into a gag when blood fell from the wound in its throat and entered its lungs-or gills, whatever it had. Its limbs thrashed and splashed in the water, but there was no chance it could toss the secured wolf this time. Underneath her, she felt the creature stop moving, and then go entirely limp as it fell with a final splash halfway up the bank. Only its head was left poking out of the water, eyes truly vacant now. Eva snarled and shook the Qalupalik’s neck a few more times, to be sure it was dead. When it didn’t stir any more, the wolf let go.
She stepped over its body and walked ashore on the muddy bank. The bag that contained Sienna had rolled up onto the mud, and its sides now squirmed as the girl inside tried to find a way out. Eva took one of her front paws and slashed it across the animal hide, tearing an opening that she could see through.
Sienna ripped the hole wider, wide enough that she could crawl out and sit on the cool- but now very welcome- mud. Her immediate reaction was glee.
“Oh my god - we did it! We beat a supernatural monster all on our own! Eva, we did-” her face faltered when she looked up to her friend, and instead saw the massive gray wolf sitting mere feet away from her. Fresh blood was still dripping from its jaws, peppering the mud around it. Sienna glanced behind her where the Qalupalik’s body lay absolutely still, barely jostled by the slow current.
Eva stared at Sienna, her expression difficult to read with the thrill of the kill still in her eyes. Sienna slowly got to her feet, careful to keep meeting her friend’s gaze.
“Eva, it’s me. I don’t know if you can understand me, but you’ve turned; you’re a werewolf and you’ve turned. That’s why you have these blank spots in your memory; you probably won’t even remember saving me. But you did- you saved me. Even when you turned you still saved me and risked yourself and I knew you would still be you, even in wolf form. But I need you to be human Eva again, please- we need to go home,” Sienna crept closer and closer as she spoke, holding a hand out like she had learned to do when approaching a scared animal.
Eva blinked as Sienna’s hand gently pet the top of her head. Her eyes looked up to meet the young girl’s hazel ones, but all she could see were a set of dark brown eyes in the face of a small boy. He held her bloody cheeks in his hands and kissed her nose.
“Go home, hermana , go home.”
Then Eva’s eyes rolled into the back of her head as she fainted, falling head first into the mud. Though she was unconscious, her body twitched and moved as her bones, muscles- everything- transformed back into their human form. Sienna quickly retrieved Doc’s now very dirty coat from where Eva had become stuck in the deeper mud- careful to not get stuck herself- and tossed it over Eva’s prone body. It looked like she would be going home with just a coat and no shoes after all.
After a couple of minutes, the movement beneath her skin had ceased, and her body was once again human. Sienna gently patted her still-bloody cheek to wake her up; while sleep was probably highly recommended after transforming into a werewolf and back again, the Pine Barrens were not the place to do it. Their run in with the Qalupalik had made that abundantly clear.
“Eva, Eva you have to get up. We still need to get out of this goddamn forest before you can sleep,” Sienna gently pulled on her friend’s arm as she groaned in dissent.
“Why does my head feel like you smashed it with a boulder? Why do I taste iron?” Eva licked her lips and rubbed them with one hand, feeling her heart speed up when she saw the fresh, red blood on her fingertips. “Why am I bleeding?”
“You aren’t,” Sienna interjected, quickly regretting her comment as Eva looked at her in confusion, waiting for an explanation.
“Then...whose blood is in my mouth?” Eva gagged at the realization. She gathered the large coat around her body- why am I naked again? - and rushed to the water side. She quickly scooped handfuls of creek water into her mouth, rinsing and spitting out the dark blood. The metallic taste overpowered her senses and threatened to make her vomit.
In her peripheral vision, she caught the shape of a large, silent body laying in the waterbed. Looking up, she saw the hideous beast that had tried to abduct Sienna- and its neck was ripped apart. Blood pooled in the water around it. Blood that mirrored what Eva had just spit into the same creek.
“You killed that fish thing, Eva,” Sienna said quietly from behind her. “You...you turned into a wolf and you killed it and you saved me.”
Eva’s heart felt like it stopped in her chest. Pater’s words rang loud as cymbals in her ears: You are nothing but a mutt and a scoundrel; and so, you shall be put down as one. He had turned her into a dog. He had made her literally nothing but a mutt. He had taken her memories, her home, her body- and something so much worse she thought, as those brown eyes flashed across her memory again. But who they belonged to, who they were, was frustratingly out of reach. She pulled the coat tighter around her body, conscious of just how vulnerable he had made her. Her breaths turned into sobs as the realization hit her all at once. How much damage had she already done that she couldn’t even remember? Had she killed before?
The lingering taste of blood was the last straw; Eva wretched and vomited onto the ground. She felt a tight squeeze from behind as Sienna hugged her, which only made the sobs come stronger.
“Sienna, I’m a monster. I’m a monster and I belong out here. You nearly died for a monster!”
“You are not a monster. You are a werewolf. That fish thing was a monster- it wanted to eat me. You fought it to save me. You saved Alice from Willa. Monsters don’t save people. And you save people. That’s an Earpin’ fact.”
“That’s a what?” Eva couldn’t help but chuckle through her tears at the strange expression.
“I dunno; Auntie Nonna says it sometimes. I think it’s her polite way of saying ‘fuck’ when I’m around.”
Eva laughed. What a weird little family that had given her shelter.
“Do they know? Everyone else in your family, Sienna, about me?” She didn’t know what she would do if she couldn’t go back to the Earps again. The Cult had certainly not stopped hunting for her, and with unpredictable transformations she didn’t think she would last long on her own.
“Yeah they do; Jeremy figured it out from your blood samples. He actually is working on an antidote. It wouldn’t necessarily cure you, but it would help control it.”
Eva didn’t know what to think, “They...they aren’t afraid of me?”
Sienna shook her head, “Not anymore. They know you’re you and if you get this antidote you shouldn’t go full wolf anymore so then you’d just be Eva. And then there’s nothing to worry about.” The girl shrugged as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
When Eva didn’t respond, Sienna shrugged her wet backpack off her shoulders. She unzipped it and fished through the contents inside; waterproofing had kept them dry for the most part, and she pulled out the chocolate milk she had packed. She stabbed the plastic straw through the aluminum opening and handed it to Eva, who hesitantly took the drink.
“Chocolate milk is good and hydrating and stops nightmares,” she said definitively.
Eva took a sip, not one to argue when the young girl seemed so sure.
Above Sienna’s red hair, she saw a flash of golden light through the leaves. It was there and gone so quickly, she thought she may have imagined it. That is, until it appeared again, this time a bit lower, and maybe a bit brighter. A moment passed, and it flashed again. It didn’t have the intensity of a flashlight, or the movement of an insect. It seemed intelligent- alive. It flashed again.
“Sienna, something is here- look in the trees,” Eva whispered and pointed to where she saw the mysterious light flash again. But this time, it did not vanish; it kept its shape- a soft golden orb- and floated towards the two girls where they sat.
Eva reached for a stone to throw but Sienna stopped her arm, not taking her eyes off of the approaching light.
“It’s not dangerous, Eva. It’s here to help.”
“How can you be so sure? We’re in the Pine Barrens, where everything wants us dead or maimed.”
“I just feel it Eva- and it’s like a real feeling like I just know it’s true. Like how I knew you wouldn’t hurt me when you were a wolf.”
Eva was still skeptical. The light seemed to sense this, and it quickly detoured to the tree by where the older girl sat. It glowed brightly and brushed past the bark before circling back around to face the girls again. When Eva looked where it had touched, she saw a poorly formed letter carved into the tree: M .
Sienna smiled widely when she saw the sign, “It’s Uncle Doc! He’s gonna guide us out of here! Eva, stand up, we have to follow him!” Sienna sprang to her feet and grabbed her backpack. Eva stood up and wrapped the coat around her body, only then realizing that her injured ankle no longer had any pain. She could put her weight on it and move it without an issue.
Sienna only waited long enough to see that Eva could stand and was going to follow her before she took off after the orb as it moved through the trees. Eva had no choice but to dash after her, still watching her feet so she didn’t trip again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Black Badge Office, Purgatory, Alberta
It was the middle of the night by the time they got back to the police station. So as not to disturb the skeleton crew on duty for the graveyard shift, Nicole unlocked the back door that led directly to the Black Badge office. The latch clicked open and she pushed the heavy door inwards.
Unexpectedly, there were desk lights on across the room. She had thought Jeremy would be asleep by now after a long day with Sienna. She turned back to the rest of the group and held a finger to her lips, whispering, “Jeremy’s asleep at his desk. Let’s just drop off the Eye and try not to disturb him. I can stay as an extra pair of hands in case Willa or someone else comes snooping around for it.”
The others nodded and entered the office as quietly as they could, one by one. The door closed behind them with aloud groan and click as it relocked, which caused Jeremy to stir in his seat.
He groggily lifted his head and swivelled his chair around to face them. But instead of the tired greeting that was usual, he nearly jumped off of his chair and yelped out loud in shock. Quickly, he fumbled for the wall switch, flicking it to illuminate the entire office and the ragged, tired band that had come in.
Wynonna eyed him up and down, taken aback. “Jesus Christ, what happened to you? Playing around with the aging spell again?”
Jeremy’s hand flew to the prominent stubble growing across his neck and face. When they had left, he was clean-shaven as always. His clothes, usually a graphic tee and jeans, looked like they hadn’t been taken off or washed for days. He had prominent bags under his eyes only accentuated by the harsh office light.
“You...you guys are alive?” He finally spoke, wide eyes darting between each of his friends. Dolls took a step forward and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder.
“Yeah, Jeremy, we were just gone for the day, as we discussed. Are you okay?”
Jeremy shook his head repeatedly, “No no no no no no! You weren’t gone a day ! How can-” Jeremy broke away from Dolls and started pacing in front of his desk where he had fallen asleep while working. Lying face up was a stack of Missing fliers, staring Alice and Wynonna.
“You were gone for two weeks !” He cried, “You were gone for two weeks and I tried to call you, I went to the Pine Barrens to try to find you or a sign of you- anything - but you were gone . The whole town has been searching everywhere for you!” He fell back in his seat, still clearly overwhelmed.
Wynonna smiled in disbelief and shook her head, “That’s impossible, Jeremy, all of us know just a day has passed. Jeremy why do you still look so freaked? We’re all right here!”
Jeremy glanced nervously at his bedroom, where the door burst open and Waverly rushed out, a blank look on her face. He seemed to panic all over again.
“Jeremy,” Waverly started, “Where’s Sienna?”
Before he could answer, the sound of two pairs of footsteps came running down the main corridor of the building. Sienna’s red hair poked through the doorway to Black Badge, and she froze when she saw her mothers looking right at her. Eva, clothed only in a large, brown trenchcoat, came up behind her and similarly froze when she sensed the mood.
Unable to bare the silence, Eva awkwardly raised a hand in a wave, “Hi guys?”