The Ritual

[x-invisiblegirl.livejournal.com]

In Italy the demons finally start their ritual.

Beneath the decaying building was a large cavern with ancient writing on the wall. Four statues circled the room, each one carrying two torches that provided the only light. Near the center was a table with a glowing staff, a blood stained knife and cup. The air was stale with an occasional smell of decay.


D'spayre entered through the only entrance with Namor in tow. "Well done sister." The demoness said upon seeing two blondes in the room. Walking over and grabbed Tandy, "Hello again my dear." The demon said to the trembling girl with a twisted smirk. "Hurry sister, we the sooner we get this ritual done the sooner our master will be free..."


Pleased at the praise, Spite didn't move any faster with what she was doing, "Can't rush perfection," she replied in a sing-song sort of voice, "but nearly there. Can't have it backfire because we cut corners in a hurry," that wouldn't help anyone and would just anger their beloved master. "He will be here soon. And there's nothing they can do about it," she waved a dismissive hand towards their captives.


D'spayre couldn't remember how many times they tried this ritual over the centuries and failed. This time she was confident that they would get it right again. An imp like creature scurried into the room, "It seems our presence here has finally been noticed. A witch is with them...they will be arriving in here shortly. More bodies could never hurt." She said the last sentence to herself.


Sue's ear's perked up as D'spayre talked to her sister, "Looks like the cavalry finally showed up," she piped up while glaring at the demonic sisters, "You didn't actually think you were going to get away with this did you?" she asked loudly hoping to attract the attention of the agents D'spayre had warned about, the cave could be a maze and if she could give them a hand then she would. "You failed before and you will again, why not just go surrender to the agents out there and save us all teh trouble?" she taunted as loudly as she dared shooting Namor a significant glance as she prayed he'd heard her message.


Where Tandy was a bloody mess, the Attilan noble was a sweaty mess. He had been tugged behind D'spayre as if in a trance: skin red, goosebumps raised, eyes wide and darting across the room as if unsure what to focus on. Namor had no outward signs of injury, however, but all the signs of an anxiety attack.


He shook slightly in the spot he had been discarded as the two demons reunited. The sound of Susan's voice, however, snapped his focus toward the two blondes. All he could manage was a strained furrowing of the brow to indicate he had heard her.


Outside the cave, Agent Ortiz had her finger on her lips, trying her best to keep her partner and their local law reinforcements quiet. "Definitely here," she murmured, mostly for Paulletz's benefit. "Very demonic. To the point where being this close is painful. I can't tell exactly from what we're dealing with, but there's an energy about this cave." She opened her eyes and shrugged, trying to figure out just what was nagging at her. "You get anything from these guys? My Italian's not great."


Paulletz tilted his head, trying hear more of the strange misinformed voices in the cave. "Something about getting a ritual done and someone arriving... sounds like a summoning to me. Who still does those nowadays?" Shaking his head at his partner, he examined the area for way to move closer. "And still they only give me a gun..."


D'spayre smiled at Sue, "I am afraid you are mistaken that you are saved. No one knows you are here." The demons grip on Tandy tightened. "Spite take care of vistors. But don't kill them. He will want to feed when he is freed."


Spite rolled her eyes once she turned away from her sister, "Right away," she agreed, eager to cause more pain and give more victims and more food to their demon master once he arrived. They were close this time. Closer than they had been before. "Time for deaaaath!" she murmured happily.


The blonde pushed herself unsteadily to her feet still a little woozy from the knockout drug Spite had used on her before, "Maybe not, but they know you're here D'spayre," she pointed out in a loud voice which steadily got louder, "So they must at least be smart enough to run away from the two evil demons and their imps" she finished practically shouting for the agents before shrugging at the demons.


"Besides," she pointed out, "it's not like you too are any great shakes either, you let me get this close." As she spoke the girl lashed out at Spite's face a sharp edged forcefield forming around her fist.


Blocking the force field covered fist was easy for Spite and she just laughed mockingly. "That's it?" she asked, amused. Really? Children these days. Knocking Sue back down with a careless backhand, she shook her head, "Come back when you grow up, girl."


"Okay people, let's move out." Paulletz inched forward, weapon at the ready and Ortiz by his side. The local law enforcement throw each other weary glances, but they did follow. "Remember, what you see might seem strange, but you have to keep your head cool."


D'spayre looked over at the door and didn't another second as she looked into each of the intruder's minds and hearts for their deeps fears. "I'll take care of the witch..." She focused on that one as she allowed their fears to become reality.


"The police are no matter either," Spite agreed, heightening the urge to fight and squabble amongst them. They might be trained to follow orders, but orders didn't cover this. "You aren't getting any help."


Ortiz was about to supplement her partner's comments when the first of the shadowy imps appeared. Something about it filled her with dread, and she looked at Paulletz for a moment. Then the others poofed into place, and her terror became almost palatable. She'd never quite seen anything like this, never sensed something so venomous that it made her feel small and weak.


Unable to really communicate her terror, she tried to focus on her partner's face. The fact that he seemed unwilling to help her made her was appalling. She was struck by the urge to lash out at him.


Paulletz shook his head, fighting the twin urges to both run away screaming and tackle Ortiz to the floor. Behind him he could hear the various policemen squabbling with each other and then he caught the look in his partner's eyes. Eyes flaring with both fear and anger. "So... keeping it together, Ortiz?" He had meant it to come out with a sense of comfort, but instead it sounded biting.


Commanding the imps to take their guns, Spite stepped into the fight calmly, minus the slight smile on her face. She did love seeing all that negativity come to the surface like this. It made her feel....awesome. "I'll just take these then," she said, not bothered by the fighting going on and taking the weapons from the imps and bringing them back to her sister.

With the Agents and the law enforcement taken care off, D'spayre gave Tandy to Spite. "Hold her." She ordered before walking over and picked up the cup and the knife before walking over to Namor. "Hello handsome." She whispered before moving the dagger across his arm. Placing the cup underneath to catch the blood as her eyes never left Namor's face. "Thank you for your participation. I'll make sure my master saves you for last." She winked before standing up and back over to the table.

Taking the staff on the table, D'spayre placed it in the middle of the room and as it started to glow. "I think we got this right sister." Dipping on finger into the cup, D'spayre drew a symbol on the staff with Namor's blood. It started to react with tiny blue pulses until it filled the entire room. The symbols on the wall also started to glow with the same blue and tiny cracks started to form.

D'spayre smirked as she walked over to Tandy and held her mouth open. "Drink up." Tipping the cup towards the blondes mouth and forced feed the entire contents of the cup into her mouth. When she was done, she stepped away unsure what was going to happen next. The ground started to shake as the blue symbols seemingly started to fall off the wall and make its way towards Tandy. The blue started to fade in color until it was only black and started to burn into Tandy skin. She screamed before collapsing into Spite's hold.

The air in the room seemed to grow colder as the shadows in the room started to dance. The walls continued to crack down the center as the energy in the room was drained from the magic into Tandy. When it was finished, the blonde shrugged off the hold on her and stood up tall. When she opened her eyes, they were completely black and her skin was covered with black symbols. "I'm free." The voice coming out of Tandy's mouth was not her own. Her head turned towards the law enforcement police and watched as they crippled over and two shadow like creatures crawled out of their bodies. "More." Looking over at Sue and Namor.

"Tan..dy?" Sue asked hesitantly, her gaze straying to the corpses of the police officers before being jerked back to her friend. "What did you do?" she whispered her eyes wide in shock as the shades came to rest by the other blonde's feet turning their empty gazes on their cornered prey. Empty gazes that were reflected in the eyes of their mistress. "Not Tandy," Sue realized as she scooted backwards along the temple floor till her back collided with Namor's leg, "Their master, Dweller," she realized.

Namor's gaze was furiously trained on Tandy as he held his arm gingerly against his chest, smearing blood against silk. His other hand moved robotically to remove said shirt in order to staunch the bloodflow, but all of his focus in the moment was saved for the two demons bragging in the center. "How do we fix this?" He asked softly. His voice was voice ragged, but the intensity proved he was coming back to himself.

"Master," Spite smiled, bowing to him, elated that the ritual finally worked, "Welcome," he was free. It was perfect! Glancing over at her sister, Spite knew she was just as thrilled. "You cannot run or hide little girl," she added to their captives. More food for their master.

Dweller stepped forward towards Sue and the others as he reached out towards Sue and the others. "Too long I have waited for this day. I need more"

"I don't know" Sue replied to Namor as she shot Spite a hate filled glare, "I don't really think we can," she realized as she turned her gaze to the approaching Dweller. "Unless you know how to deal with uh possession I guess, we're just going to have to hope Tandy can snap out of this." she noted pulling herself to her feet and taking a step forward to cover her injured friend. "At least I'm not so pathetic that I had to go running to Daddy" she called back to Spite tauntingly.

Dweller continued to walk towards Sue while reaching out. The intense fear was growing stronger with the nearness of the demon. The shades lingered behind waiting for orders.

Sue gasped as the cloud of fear overwhelmed her making her cringe back in terror. The sight of her friend walking towards her was without a doubt the single most terrifying thing the blonde had ever experienced, worse even than the prospect of being buried alive. 'Tandy's' progress had the same implacability as the tons of dirt falling straight down on her. Sue seemed to fold in on herself, blind panic overtaking her as she reacted now the same way she had then, throwing her arms out and summoning a forcefield which swam into existence right in the Dweller's path.

The forcefield stopped Dweller in his tracks, "You think this will keep me out?" He reached up and slammed Tandy's fist against the force field before slamming down the other fist down at the force field. Dweller proceeded to press into the shield raining down blow after blow in the shield with an almost cruel intent as he casually tore the forcefield apart, eliciting a scream of pain from Sue as he drove her to her knees. Dweller stopped and pressed his fingers against the remaining wisps of the forcefield which struggled to coalesce into a barrier which could resist him. "Foolish girl, you could never hope to challenge me" he chided increasing the pressure exerted by his fingers wrenching another cry from Sue as she turned her face up to stare at the finger which a shadow was now gathering around, the tears streaming from her eyes running into the blood running from her nose. A small flicker of light appeared in Tandy's blue eyes before Dweller taking a step back and lifting a hand to cover his face. It was a moment before he spoke but when he looked up the light was gone. "Buried alive was it?" Lowering the arm down and continued to step back, "Daughters. Come."

With a gasp of relief Sue collapsed down onto the floor, the forcefield which Dweller has so casually torn to pieces finally dropping as the blonde ran out of both the energy and will to maintain it. "Come back Tandy. Please, I'm sorry." she begged in an exhausted whisper, stretching out her hand as if she could pull her friend back through sheer willpower and desire.

Eyes blinking rapidly, Paulletz shook his head and took in the room. The strange beings with the feelings they had caused had vanished and his partner was besides him, looking like she was reeling from the change of energies. That left him. He scanned around, checking for signs of life among the policemen which had been tossed around as rag dolls. "You've got to be kidding me..." He spotted the teary teenager on the floor and hurried forwards.

Namor was there first. Fear had been shaken off to be replaced by angry as he loomed protectively over Sue's crumbled form. He practically snarled at Paulletz as the agent approached. "You," he commanded, "How did you get in?" There was a loud rumbling as more of the ceiling began to crumble.

"Through an entrance over there." Paulletz pointed over his shoulder with his thumb, not fazed in the least by the brash young man in front of him. "Though I would not be surprised of it was blocked of now, lad. She your girl?" He added casually as he stepped back, unobtrusively supporting his partner."

The boy's eyes lingered briefly on what had once been a tunnel and then returned to rest reproachfully on Paulletz. "Why would that matter? An escape plan would be much more helpful." He scanned the room, eyes narrowed, but the only remaining items where the altar, the cage where Susan and Tandy had been held, and a still-glowing staff. He sighed. "Tell me one of you has skills applicable to this situation, or, at least, knows where we are."

"Well, that attitude's just not useful," Agent Ortiz finally piped up, still sitting on the ground.. What with her sensitivity to the occult, it had taken her a few minutes to gain her strength back, and she wasn't entirely sure she was in her right mind. Still, she'd need to figure that out on the go.

Ortiz stood and straightened herself. She scanned their surroundings as she brushed herself off and sighed. "We're in a cave in Italy," she finally told Namor, meeting his gaze. "The two women who trapped you here are demons." She figured anything more than that wasn't entirely relevant. She sat down on the ground and started murmuring unintelligible words, hoping she could find a magical way out of their predicament. A light glow formed around her, but after a few moments, it vanished. "Huh." She raised an eyebrow at Pauulletz. "That's not promising."

Namor was not ruffled by the admonishment, the mention of demons, or the failed lightshow, but his anger was fading into a sharpened intensity that spoke leagues about what he was used to dealing with. "You do not sound Italian," but he waved this off with a rare gesture, "You must have some sort of phone or radio. Is there a signal?"

"Got crushed while we were all thrown around like rag dolls." Paulletz held up both his damaged cellphone and radio."Ortiz' might work though or one of those unlucky fellows might have one." He glanced at his partner questioningly.

"No signal." Ortiz stood, her cellphone in her hands. "Because we're trapped in a cave. With demons. In Italy." She moved toward an Italian policeman who laid on the ground, nudging him with her foot. "Cellulare?" The lack of response hardly surprised her, but she frowned anyway and crouched over his body, her hands searching for a working link to the outside world. "Maybe Italian cops don't carry phones," she muttered. She rose again after a minute and cleared her throat. "Back to magic," she told Paulletz.

Namor cradled Sue with a deepening frown. The rumbling from overhead was getting louder, and the structural supports in the ceiling were buckling. "Magic," he commented as it the idea were disdainful but brightened as an idea struck, "Do something with the glowing staff on the altar."

"The glowing..." Ortiz looked from Namor to the altar, then back at Namor with some concern. "Are you okay?" She asked gently. That staff was decidedly not glowing, and she certainly wasn't picking anything up from it. "Do you — did you get hit on the head? Maybe you shouldn't be exerting yourself right now."

"Glowing?" Sue asked in a small voice pushing herself to her knees shakily and looked up at Namor as she fumbled with her necklace straightening it her hand coming to rest, and draw Namor's attention to, the pendant she knew was also glowing underneath her clothes. "You think it's something to do with..." she asked him quietly shooting the agents a suspicious look.

"That was not demonic," Namor said not bothering to whisper, "Que se foda." He sighed and stood, balling his hands into fists. His shirt was a bloody mess from the arm injury. "There is only one way to know for certain."

"Hoo boy." At the moment, Ortiz was too distracted by the imminent collapse of their shelter to pay attention to the conversation being had nearby. She tried to focus, hoping she might be able to at least keep the place together long enough for their ragtag bunch to work out an escape plan.

Sue pulled herself unsteadily to her feet next to Namor, swaying slightly with the effort of staying upright, "It's worth a shot," she agreed with Namor, "I've been in a collapsing cave once before, but I don't think I could hold back the roof this time."

"What you mean with a glowing staff, lad?" Paulletz decided that he might just go along with for bit, having seen enough strange things in his job with Sword so far. "How can it get us out of here?"

"Do not be ridiculous," Namor stated flatly to the room as he moved closer to examine the staff. His shoulders and hair were now peppered with small pieces of debris, but his eyes were glued to the item left on the altar as if there were no other item in the room. He reached a hand out touch it hesitantly — to his eyes, the glow now pulsed and tiny, squiggly runes swam across its surface — but held back from contact at the last second.

He turned to lock eyes with Susan. "The odds of this being helpful are ten to—"

At that moment a large rock fell, causing the young man to reflexively back up toward the altar. The moment his hand made contact with the staff the room was illuminated with a blinding blue-green light that washed away everything. The rumbling was gone. The cave was gone. The world faded to void.

"What the—" Ortiz blinked, trying to recover from the bright light and sudden sick feeling she now had. After a few moments, she started to look around. No altar. No crumbling rocky crags. "Um." She looked to Paulletz, not even thinking to look for their other fellow prisoners. "I have no idea what just happened."

"Well, we were in a cave and now we are in... another cave?" Paulletz commented drolly, trying not to show his unease at what had happened. He looked around him, trying to figure out where they were. "Uhm, anyone any idea's where we are? Because this is a different cave..."

Ortiz kept looking around, and then she smacked her forehead. "They're gone, Paulletz," she said flatly. There was no trace of Namor or Sue anywhere, which was all the more confounding since one of them had clearly triggered whatever supernatural event led to this relocation. "They're gone, and we're somewhere else, which means the demons are somewhere else. Somewhere way else." She shook her head. "Brand," she whined, "is going to be so pissed."

Not that there was anything either of them could do about it now. She reached into her pocket and grabbed her iPhone. "Come on. Let's call an airlift or whatever we're supposed to do now, and figure out what the hell we do next."