got the devil in her heart

[signed_sabrina]

Sabrina leaves a note on her door-- Went to the woods, be back before dark --S-- for anyone to see, and she packs a black candle, matches, a knife, and a few other assorted items into her school bag. Her familiar waits at the front door of the Home, patient and ready.

"I'm fine," she tells someone as she heads out, though she's not, not at all, and it reads on her face.

The train takes her far enough, and they leave a double track of footprints in the snow, human and cat, until she's just deep enough in the woods that it's trees everywhere.

She finds a tree stump quickly enough, and Salem leaps up to watch her warm a bit of old candle wax so the fresh black candle will sit upright. Sabrina doesn't waste tie with ceremony; her movements are brisk and efficient.

Light the candle. Cut your finger. Let the flame eat your blood. Ring the bell times thirteen.

Wait.

Wait.

Wait.

The candle burns down, and Sabrina begins to talk.

"I don't know if you're here or not. I don't know if you can hear me from here, but I need to you listen." The voice coming out of her thrums low and raw. "I did what you asked. I signed your book, and we both know it's a matter of time before everything in my mortal life falls apart. I did what you wanted and now I'm here, because either you're fucking with me or you're not as powerful as you could be. See, I was willing to rule you out until that dream. Except it wasn't just a dream, they told me I wasn't the first to talk about dreams that feel real, delusions about a place besides this, and I just know."

She wipes at her cheeks, leaving a streak of blood.

"So if this is you, then I compel you. I, Sabrina Spellman, compel you, the Dark Lord whose Book holds my name, to take me or leave me. I could be happy here. I can be happy here. I did what you want, I wrote my name and if you're going to take this back, just do it and I'll go back and keep my end of things." Her voice grows louder and louder. "Listen to me, I fought it but you have my name, and if you're going to leave me here you had better let me go." She presses her hand to her mouth, and sucks in a wet breath, and then she's just standing there, breathing until it's all she can hear in the trees.

Comments

[signed_sabrina]

"He's a good partner," Sabrina says, scratching behind his ears. "Aunt Zelda was unhappy that I'd want some feral forest spirit for a familiar, but she's just a bit too blue-blooded for her own good." The rest of it makes her look up in interest.

"I suppose. I'd be more concerned that he would-- still be able to compel me, in some way."

Sabrina has been too thoroughly caught up in her own drama to notice the change on her own; it's Salem who not only sniffs the outstretched hand, but nudges curiously, emitting a series of mews and chirps to Sabrina. She turns to Nova, eyebrows growing up. "Are you okay?"

[maloscuridad]

"Well, speaking as pretty much a feral brujo, I say you shouldn't diss the underdog, right?" Nova says. "And if he hasn't shown up yet, not much you can do, right? Except wait around and worry about it. Sounds like a literal damned if you do, damned if you don't."

Salem rubs his head lightly against his fingers but before Nova can attempt a real pet, the familiar turns his attention back to Sabrina or, really, talks to her. He closes his hand and puts it back into his pocket, willing the gesture to look casual. "Yeah, I'm a'ight."

[signed_sabrina]

Sabrina watches as Salem winds his way insistently around Nova's legs. "That's a pretty apt description of it. Well, there's no harm in making other plans, anyway. I met Thor. I think he's actually the Thor, like, a deity." She gives a thin laugh. "Maybe he'll buy out my contract. This place is somehow still weirder than home."

She lets the quiet hang there a moment.

"I won't push if you don't want me to," she finally says, "but I don't know about that. You know, I work over at Leviathan now. They seem to know their stuff."

[maloscuridad]

"Do Norse gods trade in that kind of thing?" The Deos don't have much use for souls, he doesn't think. They want the sacrifice of life force and blood, maybe service, but souls are nothing. Nova's eyes follow Salem's movements, uncertain if the cat is claiming Nova as one of his own or trying to keep him from Sabrina.

He wonders what Salem told her.

Nova clenches his fists tighter in his pocket. "Nothing anyone can do," he says. "Trust me, ain't no poultice or potion or poppet that can fix this."