#plane easy

Over the past few weeks, Rebecca had been gathering all the supplies and materials she would need to help her astral project while awake. She’d tried a few times, with little success, so she’d gone to the local magic store to try and get more information on it. A few new books on the subject had pointed her in the right direction. It told her that going to a place charged with emotion would help, as well as finding somewhere where the veil was thin. And she knew just the place. Theodora’s grave. She hadn’t visited still, the last time her body had been there it had not been her own, but it was now. It would be strange, she supposed, to be standing next to her wife’s grave with her floating nearby, but what choice did she have? She knew Theo would never let her do this, or come here, alone, so this was how it was to be.

When they arrived at the cemetery, Rebecca had made sure to check the perimeter, and Theo had even double checked her scouting. No one in sight, not even a spawn. The trek to the grave was slower, and the closer they got, the slower Rebecca went. Stopping almost completely even when she was still meters away from it. Swallowing, she looked where she thought Theodora might be judging by her feel, and went up to the grave, staring down at it. Theodora Fairfax, Loving Wife, Friend. July 16th, 1973 - September 27th, 2018. And below that, her quote: Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’ We are not now that strength in which old days, Moved Earth and heaven, that which we are, we are.” Rebecca was still for a long moment, before opening up her pack and beginning to lay out all her stuff. Candles, incense, herbs, and the mat that she’d drawn her safety pentacle on. She didn’t look up as she worked, worried she’d see right through her wife again, as she sat next to her grave. “You remember the plan?” she asked quietly, smoothing down the mat.

“I do. Maintain a safe perimeter, and if anything seems amiss, stick you with your dagger until you wake. Nothing I can’t handle, even in death,” Theodora replied gently, hovering close to her ear. She sat down on her headstone and regarded her wife with as much care as worry. She was nervous, and with good reason. Rebecca’s soul had always been sensitive, astute, but she had never tried anything like this with her capabilities before. Seeing her nerves, Theodora couldn’t help but be concerned herself. She knew, of course, that Rebecca’s unflappable air was just that, that exhaustive amounts of care and study went into every ritual. And oh, this was not the time to rattle her with warnings and questions. They had gone over the details plenty of times at Rebecca’s home as it was. “You didn’t have to come do it here, dearest,” she said, “Though I do appreciate the gesture.”

Cemeteries were fine places for walks. Sure, ghosts could be a little chatty, and, sure, there were chances for Miriam to run into the nosier members of her own kind, not to mention the more primal ones, but it was relaxing. And, sometimes, it was even fun. Sometimes, you could just be walking, and you’d end up stumbling upon a little witch and a ghost hanging out on a tombstone, surrounded by all kinds of fun items. But it could just be some idiot poser without a clue. All kinds of people these days were into that New Age bullshit that Miriam had seen on television advertised late at night. Famous people made all sorts of money selling the bullshit, selling ideas of nonsense as real magic. This could just be nonsense. But, if it was real… Miriam could really go for a bit of pain and misery. Possibly even a full meal. Who knew? Keeping her distance, Miriam crouched not too far away, behind a large angel statue. She went completely still. If one weren’t paying attention, they’d simply think she was another monument to the dead. In a way, she kind of was.

“I truly wish it were under different circumstances,” Rebecca mumbled, sitting down next to the headstone. “Though I suppose I should...apologize for not coming any sooner. The book suggested somewhere of...value. So...” Theo was close to her, she could feel it, but it only made her heart wrench more, wishing she could see her. She glanced down at her arrangement and muttered a word, in her natural tongue, and the candles all lit. She smiled. “Been practicing that one,” she said, looking over at where she hoped Theo was. “Magic isn’t my forte, but small things are accomplishments, too.” She settled herself in and took up her meditation position. Legs crossed in front of her, hands resting palm up on her knees and open. Rebecca’s spirituality had always been an inherent part of her being, it was why she felt so compelled to help spirits, why she felt it her destiny to become an exorcist. Why she had the ability to astral project, and why she was here, now, meditating in a cemetery. If she could reach the other plane on her own, then, maybe, she could find a way to pull him out with her. It was a long shot, but it was one worth taking. 

She gave one last exhale and nod-- “Here goes nothing”-- before closing her eyes and concentrating. Letting the energy of the world around her flow into the circle, pulling it in, calling it with her own spirit. It was a lot like an exorcism, in the way that she pushed through the energies around her to call to the right ones, but instead of compelling them away, she was pulling them in. The circle she sat upon began to glow, a soft hum of light engulfing her. Hair waving limply in the small wind that pooled inside of her sanctum circle. She reached through the ether, through the pull of magic, and searched for it-- the astral plane. Latched on, tugged. Rebecca’s body, once stiff, slumped.

Grinning like the cat that caught the canary, Miriam decided that she’d more than seen enough. Glowing circles were magic bull shit, sure, but the real kind of magic bull shit that she was brought back to destroy. Who the hell knew what the little witch was doing? Miriam resolved herself to end it before it even began. Eyes red and fangs out, she stalked close slowly, careful not to make a sound. Just as she drew close enough, Miriam leapt forward and onto the woman in the circle, knocking them both out of it and taking the woman to the ground. She could practically feel the magic radiating off of the woman. Or maybe she couldn’t; Miriam wasn’t sure what about her feelings towards magic were her own rage and which were legitimate. She’d been so sure that the old man she’d tailed home last week had been a spell caster, had practically felt the magic burning across her skin when he’d touched her in the grocery store, and he’d just turned out to be an old man. A creepy one, but an old human man with no magical abilities except for the unnatural octaves at which he could scream. But she knew this was real, this was different, and, as she leaned over the woman, fangs out and mouth twisted into a snarl, she knew she was going to take a real long time with this. She didn’t even pay attention to the little ghost hanging about.

Theodora saw the vampire coming. She leapt to her feet, instincts from her life firing at once. It wasn’t until her hand went through the dagger that she realised how helpless she was. She could grab it again, concentrate, be more than a bundle of impulses, but what good would that do against a creature already dead? “Get away from her!” She cried. “Rebecca!” She reached for the dagger anyway, what could she do but try? What slayer wouldn’t face a foe with at least some kind of weapon? She flung herself at the vampire, sinking the blade into her shoulder. “Let her go, let her go, damn you!” She cried. She twisted it, hoping in vain that at least the pain would be enough to deter her. She could not fail at this again. She wouldn’t. If she could just throttle her, if she could just make the creature’s hands her own and make her stop…

When Rebecca’s eyes opened again, she wasn’t in the cemetery. A fog rolled at her feet, so thick and heavy she couldn’t see them. The world around her was cold and dark, but she couldn’t feel anything. “Hello?” she called out tentatively. Her voice echoed everywhere. One step and her footsteps echoed everywhere. Had she done it? Was this the astral plane? It seemed so unfamiliar, so unlike where she’d been in her dreams, while he was awake. She needed to find a way, now, to peer back into the real world. To the Earthly plane, and make sure she hadn’t just given him free reign. But she somehow felt like she knew he wasn’t there. She didn’t feel the same, heavy tug as before. A sudden voice rang out, sounding far away. It barely reached her ears, but she knew who it was. “Theodora?” she called back. Was she talking to her or trying to wake her? Rebecca turned in circles. “Theodora?”

Back in the cemetery, Rebeecca’s body still lay limp, tousled under the pressure of Miriam’s body bearing down above her. Helpless.

Miriam felt the knife in her shoulder, but instead of reacting to the pain of it, she grinned widely, too focused on her quarry underneath her. In fact, it was quite useful for her. She looked at the little ghost raging against her. “Thanks for the gift, sweetness.” She plucked the knife out, not even wiping it free of dark, dead blood. She twirled it between her fingers, admiring it or a bit. A bit of a longer, thinner blade than she was used to, but it was a really nice blade. Miriam couldn’t complain. Perhaps she should even invest in more traditional styles of weaponry. Then again, skinning knives were kind of her specialty. But this one was so lovely. She ran it along the little witch’s collar bones, digging in deep enough for blood to bead up to the surface, enough to hurt. But there was no reaction underneath her, no flinch, no pain. Miriam snarled again at the lack of reaction, frustrated by it and the ghost’s annoying presence. “Go away,” she growled out before she stabbed the knife into the woman’s shoulder, hoping for a reaction. She twisted it in the same way the ghost had attempted to do to her.

Theodora reached for the knife again, crying out, “No!” But whatever pull she managed to work on the hilt, it was no match for the vampire’s strength. She screamed, furious and wild as an animal as the blade sank into Rebecca’s shoulder. She reached for the vampire as if to shove her off with force. Perhaps she even could. She only knew she could not let her hurt Rebecca, she would not take her wife from the earth, and if she had to make her…

The shift happened so swiftly, Theodora was still screaming when she found herself in the creature’s body. “Bloody hell,” she whispered, the vampire’s voice, her tongue and teeth feeling strange after two years without a body. She tested her hands, flexing her fingers. They obeyed her command just easily as her own once had. Of all the ways… But, there was more important work to be done. “Rebecca!” She called, reaching across for her bag. Rebecca was always prepared, there had to be something to staunch the bleeding. “Rebecca, can you hear me, darling? Wake up! Please, darling!”

“Theo--” Rebecca started. In the next moment, pain ripped through her. Ripped her from her spot, pulled her back down to Earth, back into her body, back where it stayed, loud and clear and jolting. Rebecca screamed, eyes shooting open. She saw someone unfamiliar above her, even through the blur of red, hot tears matching the searing pain in her shoulder. Let me help you came the voice in her ears again, just like during the exorcism. Rebecca struggled to move, thrashing under the weight of whoever this was, pain pouring up and down her arm, into her chest, her neck, her stomach. “Get off!” she shouted, shoving at her. “GET OFF!”

Theodora fell back easily, collapsing to the ground. “Rebecca don’t--!” She cried, putting out an arm towards her. “Don’t move, you’ll make it worse! Let me help, let me help this time.” Hearing the strange voice in her ear, seeing a bewildering streak of blonde hair in her eyes, she realized how her request this might seem. She hadn’t thought things out this far. “It’s me!” She said quickly. “It’s Theo, I’m--I’m Theo, darling. For now, at any rate. I--I know the song we danced to in my London flat was ‘heroes,’ and your birthday is coming soon, and, oh for heaven’s sake, will you just let me close?”

Let me help, I can help. Rebecca thrashed again, pain rippling down her body. “Lehizdayen, hashem!” she cursed, grabbing her shoulder where it burned, feeling wet cloth stick between her fingers, the scent of blood suddenly thick in her nostrils. Forced herself to sit up, shaking with the effort, the pain, the exhaustion of being ripped from the plane like that. Dizzy, she looked up. Locked eyes with the body in front of her. And she knew. Even without the words, she knew. She could see it in her eyes, feel it in the air. “Theo…?” she panted, struggling forward, collapsing into her. “Theo, it’s you. My love. You’re here. You’re really…”

Theodora couldn’t help but smile as recognition dawned on Rebecca’s features. “Yes,” she said, tears and laughter welling up at once as she crashed into her--crashed with relief and force that Theodora could feel because she had a body. “Yes, darling. I’m really here.” And seeing her wife in her arms, having their eyes meet, truly meet and know each other, she could think of nothing to do next but cup her face and kiss her as she had longed to do since she’d found she returned. It was strange, as far as kisses went. One wasn’t usually a stranger to their own lips. But Rebecca’s were familiar, as soft as all her memories, and Theodora couldn’t quell the longing or the pent up desire in her. It wasn’t until her arm brushed against the blade in Rebecca’s shoulder, irritating her wound, that she had the good sense to stop and pull back. “I think I’ve missed you too much,” she said. “I’m getting carried away. Let’s tend to your wounds quickly, yes?”

Rebecca’s heart swelled. It didn’t feel the same, her lips were too cold, too soft, but it was still Theo. She kissed her back, her Theo, her lover, who she thought she’d never get to see again, hold again, let alone kiss again, still dizzy and weary from the pain in her shoulder. Reality began to slowly trickle back in when she pulled away, her arm throbbing. She’d been stabbed with her own dagger, something sacred and ceremonial, and it was still dug deep into her skin, tearing muscle and sinew. “We can’t take it out,” she said, looking at it, her face already paling from the blood loss. “I need...hospital. And you need--” to get out of that body. But she couldn’t bring herself to say it. She wanted Theodora to say, she wanted her to have this forever, to be tangible and alive and real again forever. But she knew that wasn’t right, she knew that couldn’t happen. “To explain to me...what happened.” She panted again, drawing in a shaky breath. “Come, help me up. We can...take the car. It’s not far.”

Theodora knew what Rebecca meant. She had never possessed a body before, much less a vampire. There was no telling how long it would last, and of course, even if she hadn’t heard over and over from Rebecca over the years, she knew it was wrong. Even in a vampire, it was wrong. She squared her shoulders, straightened her back, and lifted Rebecca and her things with ease. “You shouldn’t be walking if you don’t have to,” she explained, stiffer now. They were working. They needed to move. “This—whoever she is, bloody vampire, came out from over there,” she gestured with her chin. “She was waiting for you to go into your trance, I think. Most likely thought it would be an easy snack. She moved quickly. There was only so much I could do, with the way I am. I’m still not sure how I managed to do this, exactly. But how far did you get? Did you see anything?” And perhaps, could she prattle on long enough to fill the silence? Enough to somehow prolong the moment, even as she marched them dutifully to its end?

It took more effort that Miriam would ever admit for her to take control of her body again. She hadn’t actually known she’d been fighting. She’d never been possessed before, despite her knowing that it’d be a possibility. It was an unnerving feeling, to come back to her head. She groaned a bit, stopping the walk that she’d been in the middle of, and took in her surroundings once more. There was the witch, standing and looking a bit worse for wear. Good, Miriam thought. The woman didn’t, for just the moment, seem to have noticed that Miriam was no longer her little ghostly companion. She stopped the other woman, not saying a word. Then, gently, so gently, she reached to the knife still in the witch’s shoulder. And she twisted it. Harshly. Gritting her teeth and growling animalistically, a small part of Miriam (the one that had long chats with nice witches on the internet and would prefer to drink fine wine than blood) was disgusted by her own behavior. However, a much bigger part was pissed off and hunger, and damn, this woman’s pain was so sweet. She yanked the knife out and grinned savagely. “Your move, bitch,” she said gutturally, head jerking around wildly looking for the ghost that possessed her.

“A vampire?” Rebecca exclaimed, a bit shocked in her own right. “You’re possessing a--” she paused, shook her head, trying not to think about the dagger buried in her shoulder. “Then why use my dagger?” She asked, unsuccessful. She shook her head, hobbling along beside her now that they’d grown closer to the car. “I think I did, it’s...all sort of fuzzy, still, but--” A chill ran through her for a moment. She stopped when Theodora did, looking over at her, just a little too late in her realization. The blade twisted and Rebecca cried out again, feeling more pain jolt through her, more blood as the metal was removed from her flesh and she teetered backwards, exhausted from her trip and now her apparent stabbing. She staggered away from her, heaving, hand pressed to the spot on her shoulder that was now leaking excessively. Fuck. “What do you want from me?” she hissed at her, realizing that her only line of defense was in the vampire’s hands, and Theodora was nowhere to be felt. That’s not all, and you know it, came the voice in her head, and her eyes flickered red just a moment. “Clearly you’re not just here for an easy meal,” she said, still struggling to stay standing, and to focus on the actual person in front of her when her vision was blurring into three different spaces.

“I want you dead, witch bitch,” Miriam snarled. “But I’ll take you in pain.” She bared her fangs. How dare this woman send a ghost to possess her. How’d she even manage that in the first place? She’d yet to meet a loyal ghost. Most of them just pined and bemoaned their inability to move on. They rarely went for any sort of action. And they certainly didn’t attack vampires. That was like possessing the hand that showed you attention. Well, see if Miriam stopped to chat with any one her way home. Fucking spirits. She ran her finger up the blade slowly, collecting blood onto her finger and licking it off. “This is an easy meal, darling. Your pain? You misery. My God, it’s absolutely delicious.” She slowly reached out and put her hand over the other woman’s, where it was covering the wound on her shoulder. Smiling pleasantly, she pressed down hard with the intent to cause pain. “This is fun. Aren’t you having fun, dearest?”

“Witch?” Rebecca repeated, raising a brow. “I’m not a--” but she didn’t have time to finish, as the vampire was closing in again, this time putting a hand over hers and pressing down. Rebecca recoiled in pain, clenching her jaw as to not let the hideous sound in her throat out. She didn’t want to give her any more satisfaction. Let me show you how it’s done, said the voice in her head. “No,” she hissed back, to both of them, backing away again, Stumbling into the brick wall behind her that lined the cemetery. “You stay away from me.” Red eyes flickering once again, hairs on her arms bristling, standing on end. The second the vampire moved towards her again, a wave of energy shot from her, knocking her back. Rebecca’s heaved, sliding down the wall to a sit, worn. Give me control. I can save us. “No,” she said again, looking over at the vampire with fierce eyes. “Theodora! I know you’re in there! Get your ass out here and help me!”

Theodora’s grip fell from the vampire’s body before she realized it was slipping. One moment she was setting Rebecca on the ground, the next it was dark. She didn’t know how to push, exactly, for control. Had she any means of scratching, even biting her way to power it would have been easy. But there was nothing, and damnit, who knew what she was doing to Rebecca now. Theodora concentrated on getting to the surface. It had been a trick of will before, hadn’t it? She had wanted the vampire to stop. Now was no different. And lest she get too comfortable, undead bitch, Theodora would drag her back down to her place. She was a slayer. Dead and disgraced for one reason or another, she was still a slayer. And she would not hand Rebecca over to any vampire’s clutches. 

The next thing Theodora knew, the day was before her again. Her body (God help her, it had worked; she had a body) was on the asphalt, stinging from something. She looked wildly about her, rushing to get her bearings. Rebecca was slumped against the wall, bleeding worse than before. “Rebecca!” She rushed to her, but stopped just short of taking her into her arms again. “I can’t—I don’t know how long I can hold on. But I can get you to the car safely, at least.” She looked down, her face, however strange, riddled with apology, and tentatively held out her hand. 

“No, just--” Rebecca started, wheezing now with the effort it took to breath and hold onto herself in spite of the pain. “Get her out of here. She’s a...witch….hunter…” she grunted through each word with each breath, straining to pull herself up. “I can get myself...to the hospital...just...meet me there.” Staggered towards the car, hand still pressed to the open and gushing wound, her arm having gone numb a long time ago, despite the pain coursing through her chest and into her shoulder and back out again. She looked back at Theodora-- or, well, the vampire-- one last time, grieving, again, for the loss she was about to endure. It hadn’t been the same, it could never be the same, but it had been something. And something was more than she’d had in years to look forward to. To know that she had something here for her. To know that, perhaps, there was a way to get back all the things she’d lost.  

Theodora couldn’t leave without knowing Rebecca was safe inside the car. She dared not touch her injury, there was nothing she could to but make it worse, or tempt the vampire into coming back to use it against her, but what was next for them? She would run, and she would throw the vampire somewhere safe, preferably near a hunter or two, or where she might get lost in the woods until sunrise. And what then? “Wait!” She called. She reached through Rebecca’s open window for her face and pulled her into one last rough, rushed kiss. “I love you,” she said. “And I’m sorry. Get there safe, I’ll take care of the rest. She pressed her fingers into her skin, trying to memorize the softness of it, the warmth of it. Then she turned and broke off at a sprint in the opposite direction. The vampire was fighting her, somehow she could feel it, but she would get them far, too far for there to be any trouble before she let go.

Rebecca collapsed into the car and started the engine, doing her best to hold onto her consciousness. Let me, he said inside of her head, and before she could say no, her eyes closed and she fell back into unconsciousness.

The car started, and drove in the direction of the hospital.