exorcisamus te omnis immundus spiritus et christo

When Zack had come to Los Angeles, being in the midst of the Apocalypse was certainly one of the last things he’d ever imagine becoming involved in, but he couldn’t stop himself from doing all that he could to help stop it. Though, the more the world around them started to all but fall apart, the harder it was to hold onto that hope of something going right for them, for once. Scrubbing a hand over his face, he pushed away the exhaustion creeping up on him, and went back to surveying the supplies they’d been able to amass. Supplies that only seemed to be disappearing faster than they could be replenished.

Raw Where: Oscars When: Shit has hit the fan Who: @paulofsinners @motherofabominations @quatervoisms @gabviel @occultsandcrafts

“Oh, fuck me.” The words whipped out of the demon’s mouth as she shoved herself to her feet. Elijah’s little revelation had set off a chain of events so chaotic that Crowley was honestly impressed by the human’s natural touch for disaster. Of course, with his benefactor, was it any wonder? However it affected the others, Crowley felt a jolt of energy slam into her like a lightning bolt. She swayed slightly, blinking furiously as raw chaotic energy vibrated through her body. Had it been any other time, she would have purred like a kitten. 

She had briefly seen Pestilence and War before Famine had risen, his warped mind creating a house of horrors. Except, there was nothing there? And yet, for some reason, her body seized up with a fear. Fear of what? Her eyes furiously scoured the room but her breathing was quick and her body was shaking. Her lips pulled back from her teeth, forming a snarl as she forced herself to put a foot forward. None of this was real, she told herself as a fresh wave of petrification crashed down on her. Fucking Famine. She was going to shove a blade deep in his chest and grin when she did.

Shit. Shitshitshitshit shit shit shitshit shit. The never-ending monologue in Zack’s head only seemed to increase in both speed and volume the more people that surrounded them started to scream, and shriek, and shout. Zack wanted to run, he wanted to stay, he wanted to fight, he wanted to disappear. Too many things were happening, and the cloying presence of not one, but three Horsemen, and their farriers seemed to only be making things worse. He’d known the rest had come into the ceremony with a plan in mind, to get close enough to stab the Horsemen with the grails, something anything to stop the coming Apocalypse, but they were so powerful. Too powerful, and for the briefest of moments his faith shook within it’s very foundation. But he had died, and come back. Zack had been the byproduct of Famine’s game once before, and he’d come out on top, he could do it again. (Or so he hoped.)

“Zack!” One moment they were pulling the person along towards the truck and the next she hit the ground with the full weight of them on her when she watched Zachary get pulled away. One of the rioters had heard them, followed, and now was standing over her friend. “I can’t just leave you here,” she cried out, barely standing now under the weight of the unconscious person as she kept trying to keep them both upright despite being torn in that moment to run or stay and fight. 

Adele could barely keep up but knew that without Zachary, there was no way that she’d be able to pull the person by herself and not be caught up in the midst of the rioters. She’d have to thank him when they got out of there, able to catch her breath, and the slowly coming awake person who kept making small noises was in the back of the truck rather than on the ground. “Keep tellin’ yourself that,” she responded as they neared the truck, believing that they would make it as they got close enough to see the first person sitting in the back, safe and sound.

“I will, I definitely will, because if I stop that means we haven’t made i--” Zack cut off with a grunt as he was suddenly grabbed from behind and ripped away from Adele and the person they were helping. He fell to the ground, and looked up with wide eyes at a man with a feral look in his eyes bearing down on him, “Adele, run!” He wasn’t a fighter, but there was a metal pole close enough that he could grab and swing at the man’s legs in hope to stop his advances.

“As long as you don’t mind me sittin’ on your twinkies.” She responded quietly, her voice and face tense as they carried the hurt person ever closer to where his truck and the other survivor she’d found were waiting. They didn’t have much distance left to go but unexpectedly the prone person in their arms awoke long enough to emit a loud enough moan from the extent of their injuries that Adele’s heart dropped into her stomach. There was no way they were going unnoticed now. “I think we need to move a bit faster now.”

“Touche.” Voice low, to keep them from being seen, he hitched the person higher between them, only to have them elicit a moan. “Shit.” Zack stopped worrying about hurting them further, and instead started to pull them faster to the truck, hoping they could reach it before someone from the rioting nearby would take notice of them, and his truck filled with goods. “Almost there, Adele. Almost there. Come on.”

“I think we can sacrifice a bit of comfort if it meant more people gettin’ to safety, don’t you agree?” She offered a tight lipped smile that didn’t reach her eyes, not when they crouched and moved slowly back towards the person she’d left hidden when Zachary himself took off after them. Her eyes took in the rioting behind them, seeing i anyone noticed their movement before following suit and giving a hand in getting the person into their care and half carrying, half dragging them away from the chaos.

"I’m making sure they sit on your Ho-Hos.” He sent her a quick flash of a grin over his shoulder, one tinged with anxiety, and reached to help the person’s arm wrap around his shoulders. They weren’t hurt badly, but the blood dripping from their leg was worrisome, and meant that their path back to his truck would be a little more difficult. Nodding towards Adele, he started back for the truck, one eye always on the people surrounding them, “Thirty feet. We can make that. Just thirty feet, and we’re outta here.”

Helping them as far as she could on her own, Adele was most grateful for the help and Zachary being there when so many others were either caught in the riots or had already left. They were the smart ones, avoiding as much of the destruction and chaos that was growing seemingly everywhere they looked. “I don’t think so which is why I was tryin’ to get them as far out of here as I could before goin’ back.” With his truck, Adele knew that they’d get everyone out of there that she could see as she helped the person to their feet and towards the truck while she and Zachary went back the way she’d come. “They’re not much further an’ if we can get to them without bein’ seen, then I think we’ll be able to leave in your truck, together.”

Zack reached for Adele’s arm as they crouched down behind a stack of trash cans, “I’m pretty sure we can fit them, maybe one more, but I’ve got too much supplies in the back to be comfortable.” Not that it would stop either of them from gathering as many people together as possible. Things were going downhill and fast, and the Church had been turned into somewhat of a stronghold. Adele and Zack appointing themselves to a supply run, only to run right into a full-fledged riot. He was just glad they’d been able to grab as much as they did, if only the people surrounding them would just stop hurting each other. A moment later he eyed the prone person close by, and too far at the same time, and he shared a quick look with Adele before darting out from behind cover and to their side.

“We can’t go yet!” Adele’s voice called out as she helped someone who’d been caught up in the midst of all the rioiting in an attempt to get to safety, they two of them struggling towards the sound of Zachary’s voice. “There’s another person back there an’ they’re hurt real bad. We have to go back for ‘em.”

Zack shuffled towards the two of them, eyes never staying in one place for two long as the screams and shouts moved ever closer, “Okay, okay. Did you see how bad they were hurt? Can they walk?” He helped the person at Adele’s side and pointed towards his truck, not too far from them, but enough to make this whole situation all that more dangerous, “Okay, show me where they are, between the two of us I think we can carry them if necessary.”

“Think they’d kick me out?” she asked with a grin. Costumes had been a requirement for entry but she doubted there were enforcers wandering around among the guests. “Might be a blessing in disguise, but I think I’ll tough it out. It’s the badass thing to do. Plus, I think it’s going to take a lot to wash all this off, probably best done at home. Next year, if there is one, I’m going to go simpler on Halloween and just stay home passing out candy.”

“Well, you’d still be wolfish, just not--full?” He had to admit the elaborate makeup seemed like it would take more than just a handful of tissues from the bathroom to wash off. “Yeah, you’re better off just dunking your face in some remover and hoping it melts off.” Smiling slightly, he tried not to let his stomach twist at the thought of how things would eventually turn out, “I’m used to being the one walking the trick or treaters, but I can say that staying in doors and passing out candy sounds like a blast right now.”

“Alternatively,” Kiara said casually, taking off her sunglasses with a side of flourish. “I can just kill them all.”

“No.” Without a thought, Zack was pulling the few people he’d been able to find huddled in an alleyway behind him, and standing between them and the Horseman. Though he’d seen them around, either up close or at a distance, there was quite a difference between watching them drink a cocktail at a bar, and when they were at their full power. “Don’t. Don’t kill them.” He didn’t have any power here, no one did, but that didn’t mean he was going to back down. He’d died once because of the Horsemen, and somehow managed to come back--he didn’t think his luck was good enough to manage it a second time, but it was better than taking it all lying down. “They didn’t do anything to you.”

Noah: So like... are we just not playing by the order of the Bible anymore in terms of seals or did we miss the integration of Death?

Noah: We've got 3/4 of the Horsemen and now we've jumped ahead to what looks like seals 5 and 6.

Noah: 5 being the Wailing Dead and 6 being Soundgarden's smash hit Black Hole Sun.

“Hell of a knack,” she snorted, pun intended. If what she saw was to be believed, then God and the Devil had more history than they would like to let on, in turns adversaries and advocates both. How much of this was whose doing? Who was the accomplice and who the initiator? At the end of the day—or end of days—it didn’t really matter. Here they still were, thrift shopping for something like normalcy. “I was going to go as Poison Ivy. Red hair and all.” Magda shrugged. “Not exactly innovative material, but I can get down with poisonous plants and burlesque bodices. I do like going all out. Do you have any ideas? I don’t think Rose Room will let you in with just a sign, but what do I know,” she added with a laugh.

“Poison Ivy, I can see it. Are you gonna go all green too?” He gestured towards his skin, having seen plenty of Ivy cosplayers over the year go full-body, and feeling like it must be hell to keep from getting the makeup everywhere. “I--gosh, I don’t know. Scary movie villains are always a thing, but seem to be too--everywhere right now. Why dress up as a villain, when the most terrifying villains of all are walking among us right now, you know? And the heroes are never as recognizable as the villains, so--” He shrugged, but maybe that would be better in the long run. Finding a character that meant something to him, but wouldn’t necessarily be the most outstanding in the room. He didn’t really have the best feeling about social gatherings these days, and the more unnoticed he could be, the better.

“I imagine the Richie Rich’s of the world did. Easiest way to do it, pay someone else.” There were plenty of times that Noah had done as much alongside Olivia. He couldn’t remember the last time she hadn’t paid someone to create her costume or hired a team to help her get ready. He took in the other’s appearance and then nodded once in appreciation of it. “Thanks man. Dead Jesus. You’re the exorcist, right?” 

Zack perked up instantly at being recognized. Though his outfit could’ve been any type of priest out there, he’d done his best to have accessories from the movie to make him really stand out, “You’ve seen The Exorcist?”

She laughed and nodded. “Yeah, I used this finishing spray I got at sephora, but I’ve never used it before so I wasn’t sure how it’d work. Good to know it was worth it.” She paused for a moment then added, “Though…it might have been nice to have an excuse to wash my face.” 

“Then, well, you should--smudges.Everywhere. You look like a wolf who ran straight into a wall. You should definitely wash it off before anyone else sees, and ruins your badass reputation.” Zack grinned playfully, giving Maria the option to wash off the makeup or not. It really did look badass, and he almost wished he’d done something that creative, but he hadn’t really been looking forward to coming into another crowded space with a lot of people, and for some reason putting on the cassock had made him feel more secure than anything else might’ve.

Zoe: Just remember the curfew and please be safe. You're worth more than any supply.

Zoe: I will definitely not do that. But. Humor is good.

Zoe: See you soon. Text me if you need me. Or call.

Zack: Very smart. Please don't do that. Plus where would you even call? My apartment? Not much good when I'm the only one there.

Zoe: Just for... comfort? I guess? Even if you don't watch them now... you can later. After we win.

Zoe: Yeah, I think blankets and extra clothing will be useful if you see anything like that. I know some places have been raided around the city already.

Zoe: Cots or first aid kits or things to board up the windows with would be good?

Zack: Okay, I'll be by later today with the first load of food. Gonna see how much I can get to the Church before things get too bad.

Zack: If you don't hear from me in an hour, call in a bomb scare.

Zack: I'm kidding. Please don't. That was a dumb quote from a stupid movie.