Lux Nocte

That is... a nice thought, Roxy, but I don't think it's a cursed prince. 

Yes. I will distract myself. I'll follow the bees.

God might be able to help you though. After all, He created all this wondrous nature in front of us. From every bird to every bee. 

Yeah, buddy, it’s great. Just great. Now make like a bee and buzz off.

Yeah. We can go out. Follow me, Mr. Church. 

It's beautiful outside. Don't you love the flowers? And the bees... Can you hear them?

Old Zeus straightened himself as much as a man of his years could and stared Elijah hard in the face.  “Not strong enough?  Mr. Church, if you are not strong enough, who is?  Who else is so willing to throw himself in front of the unknown for people he nevah knew just to keep them safe?  Who else is as faithful to his cause?” his Mainer accent thickened as the fervor of his voice rose.  He took a breath and continued, calmer, “If you need help, advice, the odd charm, I’ll do what I can, but I am too old to dig into the depths of this place and I have not yet finished my work here.”

"I think you're right." Elijah said. "I don't really have anything to lose. Everyone I loved is long gone so I have nothing to leave behind if there's anything worse than death to face." He nodded in response to Old Zeus' reluctance to dig too deep. "I understand. I just need to know where I should start looking if I'm going to try to beat this thing." Even if Old Zeus couldn't go with him he could still perhaps give some advice to Elijah to figure out where to start. There were many places in the Inn that were mysterious and considered off limits. One of them had to have answers.

Sure thing, honeybee. Just take those pills first and then we’ll go outside, m’kay? 

pills for the ill (AU)

The two walked back along the path that lead to Old Zeus’ shed and Zeus listened while Elijah lamented the brevity of the residence lives.  Inviting one of the residents over for morning coffee was not the norm for Old Zeus, but Elijah seemed a good enough sort and besides, Zeus’ shed was nearly poltergeist proof with all the warding spells and artifacts all over it. 

"Take my fight to the source?" He echoed. "What do you mean?" For the longest time, Elijah had been fighting off evil ghosts and corrupted poltergeists. Every time they would go after the living residents, he would always be there with holy water in hand to do his best to either send the ghosts to the other side or destroy them entirely. Most recently he had to deal with demons who tricked the residents into giving up their souls. When the residents would die they would become automatically corrupted ghosts. "If you mean the Manager... I don't know if I'm ready to face whatever that is."

"Oh, don’t waste your time worrying over me.  The older a man gets, the less his appetites.  And, yes, occasionally the garden is left quite a mess or harvested far too early, but it is a forgivable offence and it doesn’t happen as often as you might think, especially if I’m prompt with delivering a basket of goodies.”  He looked toward a basket of pathetic looking vegetables moldering on the opposite counter, “Unfortunately, few of the residents prefer squash over Doritos, especially the young people.”  The word Doritos came out overly slow and pronounced with special disdain.

"I'm surprised they'd pass up anything with how hungry they seem to be all the time. Although they're often too busy fighting with each other over scraps of meat to bother looking here in the kitchen for an easy meal." As he spoke he couldn't help but sigh at the state of the residents in the inn. They were always going after each other, they'd rather turn on one another than help one another. With so many of them dying recently and nothing he could do to help them, he found himself feeling like he'd failed them. 

Zeus’ moist old orbs lit up for a moment before he caught himself and returned his face to its usual state of appropriate grumpiness. He took out a dingy handkerchief and laid it on the counter then took up the coffee and shook out just enough for a few pots.

"Yes, the vegetable garden. I hope the residents haven't ruined it too much for you. I know they've been gathering food from there occasionally and sometimes they're not very careful to step around the plants." He shook his head. "They don't seem to understand that if they want a renewable resource of food, they have to take better care of it." He finished putting the rest of the food in the cabinets. "How have you been doing for food?" He asked. He felt the need to make sure that no one was starving. Especially someone who so dutifully took care of the grounds of the inn. 

Pressed up against a hedge wall and frightened out of his mind was Danny McQueen. One second he had been running through the hallways, which had strangely started to loop, and the next second he was out in the maze. He heard Elijah’s voice in the distance. There was no way he was going to go to him, even if he did promise they would talk about it. He was obviously just bluffing, trying to lure Danny out so that he could send him to oblivion. Danny knew better than to fall for that. He took off down one of lengths of the maze and kept running until he ran into something. He fell backwards onto the ground, transforming briefly into his transparent ghostly form. He was dazed but soon came to realize it was in fact Elijah whom he had run into and that he was now in grave danger.

Elijah stared Danny down and tossed his ritual blade between his hands. "Danny... if you stay out here it may be even worse for you than any hell or oblivion." He said. "There are monsters here who would torture you and tear you apart every day. I can feel the suffering of the other corrupted spirits who have lost their minds completely. You might lose your mind completely too." There didn't seem to be an easy way out of this situation for Danny, at least not one that Elijah could think of. "But all right. Maybe someday I'll figure out how to cure you of your corruption, if you're not too far gone. The most I can do right now would be probably too painful for you to endure and there's no guarantee that it would last either."

Fuck, fuck, fuck! Run!

Danny was flung backwards by the force of Elijah hitting him. Trembling, he touched his face and wiped away the black goo that served as ghost blood. Elijah was yelling at him furiously now, but he could only stare in disbelief of what just happened. Sure, Mandy’s body was on the floor next to them, sure it was clear that he was the one who killed her, but it all failed to register in his mind. “Elijah please, we’ve got to help her, please,” he begged. It was far too late already, but he wished he could do something. “Help her…” He crawled across the floor over to her cold and lifeless form and pressed his head against her chest to listen for a heartbeat. There was nothing. “No, Mandy,” he whispered, finally beginning to process things. “I’m so sorry…”

Elijah was about to strike with his blade when Danny disappeared into the thin air. He turned to see Danny at the end of the hallway and he took off after him. "Daniel, stop this right now!" He yelled. "This will hurt you more if you try to run!" Before he could catch him, the poltergeist had taken off again. He kept running until something strange caught his eye. He slowed down. The hallways were all becoming alike and he thought he'd passed the same door several times. "Danny?" He called. "Where are you?" He took an uneasy step forward and found himself in a completely different place. He was out in the hedge maze.