eastwick to salem

Isaac runs a hand over his face, pain blooming in the back of his head where there’d been an impact, some blunt object forcing him unconscious. Now he suffered the hangover of the hit, mixed with the shaking ache of his bones from who knows how long without a high. Joints feel stiff as he moves, eyes watching the woman who looked all too delighted to see him in pain. His stomach turned, the nausea hitting him all at once, and he retches, as if his stomach were trying to escape his body. He heaves, his stomach empty already, and a cold sweat breaking across his pale skin. 

Eyes drag up towards the woman as the heaving slows, eyes bloodshot and tired. Kohl. Of course this all had to do with Kohl. “I didn’t know he even had the capacity for friends.” He spat out, hatred seething from every word. He’d worked to put as much space between him and whatever life Kohl had made for himself while he was in control, but there he was, forcefully dragged back into it. He shifts himself from all fours to a seated position, leaning his back against the side of the cell, not bothering to even try to stand–he didn’t think his shaking legs would hold him at the moment. God, the feeling was all too familiar, almost like he’d never left his cell all those years ago.

“There is no way in hell I’m letting Kohl come out.” He sneers at her, as if he had such control. The truth was, his heart was starting to beat faster out of fear. He knew as the withdrawal took hold of his bones, combined with whatever the woman was likely to do to him, he wouldn’t stand a chance. 

Liz’s face was a picture, her smile warping into a grimace as Isaac began to wretch. “Gross! Stop, you don’t even have anything in your stomach to throw up! Literally everything Kohl said about you is starting to make so much sense, he’d be fucking mortified at this. If he had the capacity to be mortified.” She watched with eyes almost shut, knowing she had to keep an eye on him but really wishing she could look away. It was just sad. 

The witch laughed at his comeback, genuinely, she thought it was funny! “He has the capacity for one friend and it is terribly unlucky for the rest of the world that he found me. You’ve got bants though, you have a smidgen of my respect for that. Literally just a smidgen though cause I just watched you heave for like ten minutes and you’re a druggie so.” 

“Excuse me, Liz,” Hunter said, “I do love my kid, thank you very much.  I love him so much I am willing to sacrifice all hours of the day when I could be sleeping to take care of him.”  He laughed as he looked down at the bright eyed baby.  Yeah, sleep wasn’t as important as spending time with his kid was.  Hunter never thought he would be that guy, but here he was;  kids really did change your priorities and perspectives on life.  Hunter rose an eyebrow, peering over to Liz as she asked how?  He laughed, “Well, when two consenting people have sex and one of them says she’s on the pill - but isn’t really on the pill - things like babies happen.”  He paused and shrugged, “It’s not my fault I have super sperm.”  He paused and thought about the whole situation a little more, “He was born prematurely and then just abandoned in front of my door but this is my kid.  He confirmed it.”  He pointed Liz, “And no, I am not going to do that.  I love my kid, thank you.”

He shouldn’t have been surprised to be there. He should have known it was only a matter of time before one of the mercenaries who weren’t too pleased about Gray giving him control of the Gamble turned on him. He’d been asleep on the when they grabbed him, woken by rough hands grasping his arms, his groggy intoxicated state keeping him from being able to fight back. His throat closed in on itself with their hands on him, something shoved into his mouth to keep him silent and a bag thrown over his head. Sparks flew off him, but he was too disoriented and high to control anything. At some point they’d hit him over the head, knocking him out to keep him from struggling. 

Panic wasn’t the right word for what Isaac felt when his eyes blinked open and he felt a sickening familiar texture of cement floor under his cheek and the sight of bars on a cell. He sits up hastily, head suddenly swimming and throbbing from where he’d been hit. A cold sweat breaks over his skin, and he realizes he doesn’t know how long he’s been out, but clearly it had been long enough for the withdrawal to settle into his bones. Eyes darted around the cold cell, his stomach so nauseous that he thought he was going to throw up. It all felt too familiar, and he couldn’t help but feel a shake in his fingers. He looks up, eyes connecting with a woman he didn’t know. His voice came out quiet from his parched throat. “Where the fuck am I? What’s going on?”

Liz was not a patient woman. To her, waiting for anything was completely pointless, especially when you had magic to speed everything up. But this was different. Just now, she was happy to wait. Pacing in front of the newly erected cell, heeled boots clacking on the cement, glaring down at poor, little Isaac. These weeks without her best friend by her side had driven her insane, or at least, slightly more insane than she already was. She’d never been so bored, finding that killing off members of HR was nowhere near as fun when completed solo. But luckily, it turned out Amara had felt an absence as well, and so Liz was given full control to launch a rescue mission. Or a manhunt. Actually she wasn’t so sure what it actually qualified as, though that didn’t matter now. Originally her plan was to find surges of electrical energy throughout the city to track down Isaac, but then Liz found out he was working at the Gamble, so she just had the goons abduct him from there.

“You know,” Hunter said as he looked down at the baby he carried for a few seconds.  He gave the baby a smile before he looked back up.  “I love my kid, but man,” he rolled his eyes and then laughed, “I never realized how much I missed being able to sleep.”  Hunter could take nights with no sleep, those were common - he patrolled the city as The Huntsman but unlike then, he couldn’t just go to bed after.  Kids were hard, but they’re worth the trouble.  He looked back down at his baby, “You like keeping dad awake for no reason, huh, bud?”  Then looked back up, “Hey …do you know any quick remedies to get your kid to sleep for like two hours?  Three tops.  Even one hour would be great.”

Witches and Magicians alike worked to maintain Balance in most cases, but Goldie’s existence worked against the supposed Balance, so she decided to take a break from her magical duties. Today, she didn’t have to work and she had dodged a bullet by not getting assigned anything related to the great museum heist. Still, as she enjoyed herself from a rooftop restaurant, she spotted a curious beam of light coming down from the sky and as if everything started to happen at once, her phone started to blow up with notifications from her twitter and instagram. “Are you serious? What’s happening with the world today?” Her fans were tagging her to keep safe. Apparently, ferocious monsters (of the blue variety) were running around Ceres and causing trouble. “…They’re so sweet, but Ceres is always crazy… “ 

“Then stop doing illegal shit?” Charlie suggested but knew full well that suggestion wasn’t going to go very far.  He looked over at the woman and shook his head at her.  If he could shake his head anymore, he would have as she explained the skeleton situation.  “… that’s stupid,” Charlie muttered at the idea of losing a skeleton that she made come to life.  He was more well-versed with science than magic, so couldn’t really comment further but being his normal natured self, Charlie already knew he as going to help her find the skeleton.  If anything, he could make the judgement call after they find it.  He followed after her and shrugged at her question.  “I woke up really early,” he lied.

“Almost Halloween.  That’s a whole two months away,” Brett pointed out as he turned his attention over to the skeleton that stood in front of the coffee house window.  He shouldn’t have been surprised - there were plenty of die-hard Halloween fanatics, after all.  Even he was excited for the upcoming holiday.  As his attention focused on the animated skeleton, he tilted his head to the side.  “I don’t understand why your skeleton is staring into the coffee shop though,” Brett shook his head, turning himself completely to face the skeleton.  “I’ll help you catch the skeleton, but you have to tell me why you need a skeleton for.”

“You’re rather loud for three o'clock in the morning,” Jeanne said, unphased as the woman stood with almost no proximity to her.  Her eyes glanced over at the skeleton and then moved down to meet the eyes of the woman in front of her.  With the blink of her eyes and the curl of her finger, the extended blade recoiled from its sharp blade and into her delicate index finger.  Her gaze moved back to the skeleton, “You should take better care of things that are yours.  Otherwise, you may end up losing them.”  Slightly squinting, her eyes narrowed at the skeleton and the newly procured puncture before she smiled, “It’s only September, Halloween isn’t for another two months.  I’m sure you have time to mend the hole.”

Three AM was never an hour where anything good happens.  Jeanne had never been one to enjoy the festivities that walked the streets at this odd hour, but she had just finished a previous engagement and was headed down to her home for the evening.  Her eyes squinted, narrowing at the the skeleton that walked past her.  That wasn’t common, even for a city as strange as this one.  On quick instincts, she pointed her finger at the running skeleton.  In the blink of her eyes, her finger sharpened into a blade, elongating until it slide through the skull of the skeleton.  Her attention shifted from the newly captured skeleton and over to the woman who spoke.  

“You should have better control of your skeleton,” Jeanne spoke flatly before she gestured over to the skeleton she was holding in place.

“What?” Micah asked out as she removed her earphones. She looked over at the woman talking to her with a finely shaped eyebrow raised. When people talked to her at this odd hour, there would be a moderate amount of annoyance and defensiveness in her. Today was no exception. As she removed her headphones and pocketed them, she placed her hand on her hip and looked over to the woman. “What are you talking about?” The mention of a skeleton hadn’t caught her off-guard, she worked for the Antichrist and one of her best friends was very terrifying witch, but a skeleton wandering? “Why is your skeleton wandering around at night by itself?”

Charlie swore that if his sister saw him out at 3AM, she would accuse him of howling at the moon - he wasn’t but she would probably say that he was anyway.  At the moment, Charlie didn’t feel comfortable being held in by walls;  he wanted to be free from any form of enclosures.  These night walks were starting to become a habit of his since The Archive.  He walked along the sidewalk, enjoying the direct contact with the moon’s beams.  The moon always calmed him down.

“What?” Charlie asked, looking at the woman who was shouting at him.  He turned to look for the skeleton and then realized that he was looking for a skeleton.  “Why is there a skeleton wandering around at night?”

Brett stood across the street.  He had been walking but the moment he saw a skeleton running down the streets of Ceres Centropolis, he stopped walking and just stood there.  This wasn’t the first time he had witnessed an animated skeleton - there were plenty of people who could rally the dead and bring them to life - however, this was the first time that he had witnessed this at 3 AM.  The other time was at 1:24 AM, but that was different year and a different skeleton - hopefully.  He blinked his attention away from the skeleton and over to the woman who spoke.  Slowly, he turned to face her and then point at the skeleton headed down to a nearby coffee shop.  “Your bonehead should probably get decaf,” he said, “Why do you have a moving skeleton?”

Amara didn’t know how she obtained Liz as the Head of Admin, but one thing was for sure, she was irreplaceable. Her loyalty, her independence, how she just knows what to do without even annoying or asking the Director were some of the few things she loved about her. Plus, she understood Amara completely that she didn’t have to question her morals, buuutt then again it seemed like they shared similar ones in the first place. “Ouuu yeah! I’ve binged watched a few episodes of this show on Netflix, what’s it called…Oh! Grey’s Anatomy…Ugh Miss Bateman, you barely see them eating properly. Look, when I was medic in the First World War, let me tell you this, if I was hungry—then I was fucking hungry. How can you save lives when you can’t even maintain your balanced healthy diets?” With a heavy sigh, she shook her head and continued munching on her meal. “And they say we’re bad people. I find ourselves to be a considerate bunch.”

“Oh, you are one bright child Miss Bateman. I would love to have Rihanna as well. Kill two birds with one stone.” She then set her chopsticks down as a sudden thought came to mind. “Next year’s Coachella…See if we can get our own on the inside to run and own things. Music is not only an art, but the language of the world. We’ll not only make revenue and gain, but we’d also obtain control of the people.” When Liz explained the rundown of what was going on so far, Amara returned to eating her meal while listening attentively. “We have a few non-compliants, have the agents test out the sharpness and utility of the weapons on them.” Pressing her lips together, she hummed lowly at the mention of Kohl and gestured a wave. “After his stunt on the Red Ranger, he’d gone quiet. I believe Isaac is now out in the City, have agents find and return him to HQ for imprisonment. As a result of this, while we wait for Kohl to come back to his normal self, we’re going to have to revamp our HR Department…Ugh they are so weak.” The last bit caused Amara to snap her chopsticks with her one hand as she frowned at the news of Falcone’s son. “You know how much I hate the blame game. Did we really kill his son? Or was it an ‘accident’?”

Liz nodded excitedly as she listened to Amara recall her time in France, she’d always be fascinated by the diversity of the lives the other woman had lived. Though she had to admit it was odd to picture Amara as a healer rather than tearing opponents apart on the front lines. “I can’t imagine you were hungry for very long, boss.” Liz smirked, resting her chin on her hand as she teased with confidence. “Just how many soldiers actually made it out of your tent with a beating heart?” She beamed as Amara praised her, letting herself dance a little in her seat as her joy overflowed. 

asher rolled his eyes. he wanted to cut liz’s tongue out and make her eat it. it’d be extremely satisfying, even if she choked on the blood. it was honestly a beautiful image in his head, though he was still reluctant to actually act on it. liz may be…. annoying and pushy, but he didn’t feel the need to kill or torture her. yet. plus, he didn’t feel like pissing off amara. “you wouldn’t be trying to scare anyone away. they’d be scared just after talking to you. or dead, if you talk them to death.” which he could see being possible, with her.

“how would it leave a bruise? are you truly that fragile?” asher couldn’t see how a pinch would lead to a bruise, even if he did have big hands. he wasn’t going to use all his strength, since that would risk tearing her skin off, and asher didn’t feel like dealing with that right now. “liz, watch a romcom or something. get a therapist. or just talk, as you so love to do. the sooner you figure this out, the better.” it meant she would stop bothering him about it. “or just fuck her.”

Liz knew that look. That face Asher so often made after she spoke. She’d figured out by now that it was because he was fantasising about killing her and she’d only figured that out because a few times after he’d made that face Asher had turned around and literally killed someone. But as long as that someone was never Liz she didn’t mind. He could think about killing her all he wanted, she knew he liked her too much to ever actually do it. “I do not talk that much. I talk just as much as a usual person does. And you’re the person I talk to most so if I did talk to much then you’d be dead but you’re not so case closed I win let me meet your boyfriend.” 

❝ well, that’s just lazy writing. ❞

“No. No it’s not. The thriller scene illustrates how all the adults are boring and have forgotten how to have fun and so Jenna in all her wonderfulness shows them how to have a bloody good time. Also if you ever insult Jennifer Garner or this film ever again I will stab you.” 

❝ you remind me of my wife. ❞

“Right so this is a really weird time and way to tell me that you had a wife. And I want you to know that if she is still alive I’m going to kill her and it’s not because I’m jealous but I don’t believe in loose ends so I’ll just clean up yours for you.” 

❝ i told you i care about you. ❞