remus lupin is finally at peace. (moonstricken) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2009-05-08 12:52:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! [1980-05] may, marius lestrange, marlene lupin (née mckinnon), remus lupin, tabitha pryce |
Who: Marlene Lupin, Remus Lupin, Marius Lestrange, & Tabitha Pryce.
What: An attempted escape.
When: 8 May 1980, afternoon.
Where: An 'abandoned' muggle house in Furzedown, London.
Status: Complete.
Rating: Low R.
Someone was crying. When the wolf opened his eyes, he was met with unfamiliar sounds and unfamiliar smells. Where was he? Why wasn't his pack here again? They weren't here, but he wasn't alone. There was someone else in the room, someone human and bleeding and they smelled so, so good. He stood up, taking in his surroundings; there were torn clothes and ropes on the floor, and a broken chair, and when he turned around he saw a female struggling to break the ropes binding her to her own chair. She smelled familiar -- but all he could see was red, red, red. Marlene was sobbing, fear gripping her heart as she struggled to free herself even though she didn't know where she could go but at least she would stand a chance of trying not to get eaten alive. "Remus. Remus. Please, please listen to me, please don't do this. It's me, it's Marlene." She was trying to reason with him, hoping that maybe there was still some part of Remus still left inside that would recognise her and he would just curl up for the rest of the night and sleep. The wolf had other ideas. His teeth were bared, saliva dripping from his fangs, so eager to have his first taste of human flesh that he has been denied for so many years. God, he was starving for it -- and the girl was making strange sounds he didn't understand, so he ignored them as he approached the chair. She didn't even seem to be trying to get away, and so he sank his fangs into her leg, and then there was screaming and blood and he bit down harder, driven on by bloodlust. He tore at her leg so enthusiastically that the chair tipped over and she slipped from his grasp, the wound tearing open wider as his teeth caught on her skin. He pounced on her. Oh God, oh God, oh GOD she was a WEREWOLF, but then it didn't matter anyway because she was going to die. "STOP! STOP! REMUS STOP!" Marlene was shrieking at the top of her lungs, hoping maybe if she screamed loud enough maybe she could just scare the werewolf-- Remus-- away. The chair was knocked over sideways and she was given a brief moment of relief away from Remus' jaws before her shoulder hit the ground with a sickening crack. But her shoulder wasn't the only thing to get broken; the back of the chair has snapped, loosening the ropes enough so she could finally move... until she felt the weight of the wolf's body crushing her to the ground. Remus was instantly attracted to the scent of the already open wound, and he lunged immediately for the shoulder Pryce had ripped open herself the day before. He dug his claws into her in an attempt to keep her still and bit down on her shoulder, blood splashing onto his muzzle as he tried to dig in deeper until his teeth were scraping over bone. He shook his head from side to side violently, easily tearing off a large chunk of her shoulder, splattering red on Marlene and the floor around them. "No no no no no," Marlene was sobbing, repeating the word over and over again, and she writhed on the floor as much as the ropes and Remus' claws would allow her to. She had managed to slip an arm free just enough to reach up and grip the coarse fur on the wolf's side, pulling weakly in a desperate attempt to get him away from her. There was nowhere to go and as Remus bit into her shoulder, her fingers clenched even tighter in his fur in reflex and mouth open in a silent scream, tears continuing to stream down her face. He was eating her shoulder. He just ate her shoulder, and Marlene didn't think she could fight anymore. She was staring up at the ceiling now, breath coming in laboured, heaving gasps, and trying not to think about how it was her husband who was doing this to her. The wolf was oblivious still to her words, too consumed by the euphoric feeling the taste of blood filled him with, and when he bent his head back down for more, he closed his jaws around Marlene's throat. His prey made a few desperate, gurgled squeaking sounds, her eyes glazed over, and it was only a few moments longer until the hand grasping his fur released him and fell to the floor. Remus woke with a start and a shout, covered in sweat and eyes wide in panic. Oh God, had he killed her? He was struck with a heavy wave of nausea at the mere thought of it, but he didn't taste any fresh blood in his mouth, he was still tied up in the chair... had it really happened? Lifting his gaze, his eyes fell upon Marlene, still tied to the chair, still alive. It hadn't happened. He hadn't killed her. Not yet. He was a monster. He was dangerous. This never would have happened if... he closed his eyes, trying not to dwell on those thoughts right now. They still had a chance to get out. How long had he been asleep for? Marlene had been drifting in an out of consciousness for... how long? An hour? A day? She had no idea what time it was -- no idea how much longer they had left. She could tell from the light drifting in through the window that it was at least still daytime, and it was with a sick sinking feeling in her gut that she realised it was probably daytime of the next day, and that the full moon would be that night, and they were still trapped there, tied to chairs they couldn't escape. She was stuck somewhere between waking and sleeping when Remus yelled out from his chair, which immediately shot Marlene wide awake, staring at Remus with terrified eyes, not sure if she should ask if he was okay or if that meant that it was starting. Marlene calmed herself down almost instantaneously, reminding herself that no, the sun was still up; she could see that much at least. It was almost summer now. They had more time until sunset. "Morning," she greeted him with a sad sort of smile, trying to ignore the pain that was still coursing through her body from before. Ignoring it wasn't working. He had seen it -- that look of terror in her eyes, before she realised that he wasn't transforming yet. Afraid of him. And maybe she should be. He had tried so hard to keep himself from becoming like the other werewolves. He didn't want to hurt anyone or put anyone in danger. He had been so careful. Remus had even started to believe that he could have normalcy... that maybe it might even be okay if someday he and Marlene... but no. He was dangerous, and he had been stupid to convince himself otherwise. He would always be a werewolf, and no matter how careful he tried to be, it would never be enough. "... morning," he replied, but he couldn't bring himself to smile back. Despite the nightmare, the rest had helped -- he was still in pain, but at least he had regained some of his strength. "How are you feeling?" The honest answer was that she still felt like complete shit. Her face and her shoulders and her arms were all shifting between still flaring up with pain and tingling with a sort of almost-numbness, and she couldn't decide which one was preferable. Both hurt in different ways that she couldn't describe properly. "Better," she lied. There was no point in dwelling anymore. They didn't have much time left to dwell, and she didn't want to spend her last few hours reflecting on how much everything sucked. "I thought they'd come back. Maybe they were just trying to freak us out, yeah? I don't think they will. Marius, at least," she noted, her voice weak and her throat dry from thirst. Remus nodded. He didn't want to mention that there was still time before it got dark. They could still show up. How much longer did they have? Well, he supposed the worst that could happen is that they got caught trying to escape... and really, what would they do? Torture them more? If they were going to show up today, they would be here to torture them anyway. It didn't matter what they did now. He started testing the ropes again, first with his arms -- they were still too tight. However, when he moved his legs, he was surprised to feel the ropes give slightly. Were they coming loose? "I think I can move my legs," he said, putting strain on the burned ropes around his legs, bits of black ashes falling away from where the fire spell that Marius had used damaged the bindings. Marlene's eyes lit up as though someone had just told her Christmas had come early. She wasn't sure how much they could do if Remus had just his legs free, but maybe that would lead to the other ropes falling loose. Dammit, why had Pryce taken the knives back upstairs with her; they could've used those if he would've been able to move over to them. "That's great. That's great," she nodded enthusiastically, knowing she was likely getting her hopes up over nothing, but it was all they had. "Maybe if you... see if you can get out of those, and then try sliding out maybe? I dunno if it'll work but you're skinny, it might!" Marlene tried pulling at the ropes around her, testing how much she could move and if she could squirm free, but didn't have as much luck. She let out an unintentional gasp of pain when she twisted her arm, causing the ropes to rub against where Tabitha had taken a bite out of her shoulder. She flinched back and stopped moving entirely for a few moments, breathing hard with her jaw clenched to keep from crying out. After a deep breath she swallowed hard and looked back up at Remus, trying to hide how much her heart was sinking over the fact that she still utterly helpless. "Alright. Maybe... there's a table over there, maybe -- there might be a saw or scissors or a nail or something in one of the drawers if you can get over there?" Remus continued to work with the ropes around his legs -- they weren't giving way easily, but he could feel them slowly coming apart. He just had to keep at it. He kept glancing up at the window, worrying about the sun setting soon, having no way else to gauge the time. He paused when he heard Marlene gasp, looking at her to see if she was alright. "Careful. I'll see what I can do... I'll get you untied if I can get out of this." With the little room he'd gained for movement of his legs, he started to scoot his chair across the room to the desk. Each time he moved, more of the rope flaked away until, finally, it snapped completely, falling away and freeing his legs. With a laugh of relief, Remus tried to squirm his way out of the rest of the ropes, but it wasn't proving to be as easy. "I don't know if I can get the rest off. I'll try to see if there's anything in the desk," he said, carefully trying to balance the chair so he didn't tip himself over while he tried to hook his foot under the handle of one of the drawers to pull it open. Marlene let out a short squeal of excitement when Remus managed to break his legs free from their ties. They could do this. It was a sign, or a something. "That's fine; just do what you can," she assured him, trying to nudge the chair closer to him so that she could watch, the tips of her shoes barely squeaking along the concrete floor. "What do you see? Tell me everything; maybe something will help," she asked, trying to remain encouraging without putting too much pressure on him. It was Remus; he would already be more than aware that they had a very very limited amount of time left. It was hard as hell to not let herself get upset over being utterly useless, and instead continued to work at the ropes, attempting to saw away the ones on her wrist with her short, dull fingernails, pausing to take a short break every few minutes. She was too tired to keep at something she knew wasn't going to work. She kept her eyes locked on Remus the entire time, trying to silently reassure him that he could do this. It took Remus a few tries before he managed to get one of the drawers open, and then he scooted the chair closer to peer inside. Of course, if there was anything useful, then there would be the problem of actually getting it out and using it. The bindings made it difficult for Remus to even lean forward enough to use his mouth to pick anything up. Looking inside, he didn't see anything useful -- there were some paperclips and a stack of folders filled with papers. He couldn't tell what they were for, so he closed that drawer and, with effort, opened the next. "I'm not seeing anything sharp to use... wait. Hold on. There's some papers in here, they look like bills... and some envelopes... we're still in London. It says Furzedown! Do you think the listening device survived the fire?" he asked, looking back at Marlene hopefully. If someone was listening... they could at least know the area they were in. There was still a chance. Marlene was close to crying with relief and excitement. "I think so. It should've, there were some of them that even survived James's house burning down, it should be fine, it should still work," she nodded enthusiastically, practically bouncing as much as the ropes would let her. With all the times the death eaters had tried to burn down her house while she was still inside, and given her own reflexiveness with fire spells, that had been one of the things that she'd been sure to put on the devices -- anti-flame spells for when they hid them in candlesticks, and water-repellent spells for when they were hidden in flowerpots. "Furzedown, Furzedown, WE'RE SOMEWHERE IN FURZEDOWN!" Marlene yelled so that the listening device would hopefully pick her up, praying that someone was listening on the other side. Someone could still find them. They still could get out of there. As Marlene started to yell, Remus went back to work trying to squeeze out of the ropes again. They were still tight around his upper body, but maybe if he was patient and worked from his legs up... he shifted his hips on the chair, trying to dislodge the ropes, but it was difficult without anything sturdy to keep the chair down. As it was, the chair kept moving with him when he tried moving away from it. He needed some leverage. "I need a way to keep the legs of the chair from moving. Do you see anything I could use?" "Okay, let's see." She scoped out the room, trying to pick out anything that might even just have the potential to work. It was utterly baffling to her that people kept their basements this clean; hers at home growing up had been filled with junk they were never going to use again. Then it dawned on her that the basement's cleanliness was likely Marius and Tabitha's fault in the first place, just to be certain there was nothing laying around to help them get free. "Maybe like.. I don't know, I could try stepping on the bar between the legs of the chairs and hold it down maybe?" she pondered, her head completely dry of any ideas. "Or! Or. There's a pipe back here," Marlene directed pointed in the direction with a nod, "Maybe that would work?" Remus felt unsure about the idea of her holding his chair down with her feet -- he was worried that would just end up tipping Marlene's chair backwards and she'd fall on her arms again. However, the suggestion of pipes sounded much more promising. He pulled his chair forward with his feet, the legs scraping across the floor until he reached the pipes Marlene had spotted. They were low to the ground and against the wall, and Remus hoped there was room enough for them to work. "Okay... keep saying the name of the town while I try to see if this works, okay? And that we're in a basement." He struggled to turn the chair around so the back of it was facing the wall, and then he scooted back, rolling forward onto his feet when he reached the wall -- and then he sat back down, wedging the back legs of the chair between the metal pipes and the wall. Oh, God, maybe this might actually work. He strained his body against the ropes, trying to pull away from the chair while it stayed firmly lodged behind the pipes. "Anyone who's listening, we're in a basement somewhere in Furzedown," Marlene repeated over and over again, varying the message slightly with each repetition but keeping the overall message the same: they were trapped, they needed help to get out, but dear god they might actually have narrowed things down enough to make escape a possibility. "Come on Remus, you can do this, I know you can... in this basement in Furzedown," she laughed, laughing even though it hurt to do so. They had time, and he was going to get out of the chair, and he'd help her and they were going to make it. Finally, finally the ropes started to give, dropping around his waist first, and Remus had been pushing away from the chair so hard he nearly slipped right out and onto the floor, face first. He did land on his knees, however, and he winced, but it didn't matter because he was free. He struggled to his feet -- so painful to walk, but he had to keep going -- and to the desk, fumbling for the letter opener he spotted near the back. He nearly knocked it off the desk in his hurry, but as soon as his fingers closed around it, he turned back to Marlene to try and start to cut the ropes around her loose so they could get the hell out of there. He was nearly to her chair, and then -- footsteps above them. The door was opening. Oh, God, they were back already. It felt like someone had kicked the air out of Marlene's lungs in a split second. No no no no no no NO, this wasn't fair, this wasn't FAIR; they'd worked too hard to get free to have them come back now to ruin it. It was too soon for it to be someone coming to rescue them; just Furzedown wasn't clear enough; it was Marius and Pryce coming back and god, they had been so close. "Go. Hide. I'll distract them; I'll keep them busy and you get out of here, please Remus," Marlene hissed, her voice a fast, harsh whisper and her eyes begging Remus to listen to her and not attempt anything that wasn't exactly that. She could hear the doorknob turning at the top of the stairs; the door begin to creak on his hinges. After one last wildly desperate look in Remus's direction -- please please please let him go hide somewhere and find a way out and not worry about her -- Marlene dropped her head down, letting her hair fall in front of her as she pretended to be fast asleep. She hoped the two wouldn't be able to hear her heart racing in terror from all the way upstairs. There was no way Remus could do what she was asking him. He couldn't abandon her, not after he walked right into Marius' trap for a chance to save her. If he left... they would kill her or, even worse -- turn her into a werewolf. With an apologetic look at Marlene, he quickly dashed for the stairs, crouching down in a hiding spot underneath them. He'd get Marius and Pryce with their backs turned. It was well into the afternoon when Marius and Tabitha returned to the house. He was in a good mood, cheered by their fun the previous day, but as he cast a look down the stairs and saw an empty seat where Remus should have been he put a hand up to stop Tabitha. He hadn't expected Lupin to be able to get out of the ropes but he'd managed it somehow. The basement had still been warded when they'd arrived so he had to assume he was still here somewhere. The basement was crowded with muggle belongings so there were many places to hide but if Tabitha stayed on the stairs then Remus wasn't likely to get far. "We have lost a prisoner," Marius said simply. "A prisoner who left his wife behind." The smirk was evident in his voice. He wasn't frightened. Not now. Not with Marlene still tied up in her chair. "I suppose we will have to focus all our fun on her," he said, looking up at Tabitha with amusement written all over his face. He stepped down the stairs one by one slowly, casting his eyes around. Tabitha waited on the stairs while Marius continued down -- she could still smell Lupin. The whelp definitely hadn't left. She just couldn't tell where in the room he was hiding. "Well, I can't complain too much," she said, looking down at Marius with a smile. "We can just tell him in detail everything we did to her. How she cried and he didn't come for her. And then she'll stay with me for the full moon, instead. I'll bite her and turn her into a werewolf, and then give her to Fenrir. He'll enjoy breaking her, I'm sure." Remus tried to wait as patiently as he could -- he could see the back of Marius' feet as he walked down the steps in front of him, and he held his breath, keeping to the shadows. Pryce didn't seem to be moving at all. Was she blocking the exit? He wouldn't be able to escape now, even if he did leave Marlene behind. Gripping the letter opener tighter, he lunged forward and reached his arm through the stairs from the back, and he plunged the dull blade into Marius' ankle as deep as it would go. Marius fell forward as pain shot through his leg and he cried out. He landed hard on his knees but his wand was still in his hand and without thinking he cast a crucio at Marlene and kept his wand trained on her. "Come out," he said quietly, his voice wavering with pain, but trying to be heard over the noise of the spell. "Or you will be killing a shell of her tonight. I will leave this on for as long as it takes," he said. The back of his leg was gushing blood and he turned to sit on his rear but still his wand was raised. Marlene had tried to prepare herself for the attack that was bound to come when she'd first heard Marius's footsteps on the staircase, taking a deep breath and squeezing her eyes shut. She knew that they'd use her as bait to lure Remus out, and she hoped to Merlin that he wasn't going to buy into it, even though she knew that he would. It didn't matter. She was going to die anyway. This was too much though -- too much pain, too much hate behind the spell. The ropes pulled and chafed against her skin as her body twisted and convulsed in her chair, unable to move as the spell insisted she did. She still screamed -- and screamed and screamed and screamed -- even though it no longer even felt like the cries of agony were coming from her, just from somewhere else in the room that hurt her ears and her throat and made her feel like she was suffocating on top of it feeling like someone was trying to pull out each of her bones individually. Tears that she had no comprehension of crying streamed down her face and it didn't matter. She was going to die and it was going to hurt up until the very last second and none of it mattered any more because the pain was too intense even to realise that. His breath caught in his throat as soon as he heard Marlene's screams -- and Remus came out from underneath the staircase and approached Marius, slowly. "Stop! You can stop -- I'm right here, please stop," he begged, dropping the letter opener to the floor with a clatter and holding his hands up to show that he was unarmed. As soon as Remus came into view, Tabitha jumped off the stairs and onto his back, knocking him over onto the floor. She pushed her knees against his back, claws digging deeply into his shoulders as he cried out. Then, releasing one of his shoulders, she reached over and retrieved the letter opener covered in Marius' blood that he had discarded, raised it up high -- and then down it went, spearing through the middle of Remus' right hand, which twitched involuntarily as she held the letter opener in place there, blood pooling beneath his hand as he tried to remember to breathe and not start hyperventilating from so much pain. "BAD DOG!" Tabitha snarled, viciously, before looking up at Marius to speak in a much kinder tone. "Are you alright? Can you heal it?" "Yes," he said, through gritted teeth. Marlene's screaming was annoying but until he was healed she could keep suffering. He cast one spell and then another, to stop the blood and then the pain. He flexed his foot experimentally and though it twinged it was healed. He cast the ending spell at Marlene, if only to silence her, and then turned his wand on Remus. "You should move out of the way Tabitha. I would not want you to get hurt," he said. He waited for her to clear out before he conjured a rope with silver thread running through it. He crossed the space between them and half sat on Remus with a knee to the werewolf's chest as he roughly grabbed his wrists, and bound his hands, letter opener and all. The werewolf capture unit occasionally used this method on werewolves and that's where he learned it and although it was extremely painful, the silver thread woven into the rope would only burn and sear-- it wouldn't kill him. As soon as his wrists were bound he hauled him up and shoved him back into the chair, using more magical rope to secure him. "Be sure not to touch him Tabitha," Marius said as he reached down to Remus's bound hand and yanked the letter opener out of him. "I will leave Marlene to you." There was pain. So much pain. It radiated from his hand, which wouldn't stop trembling, and when the rope laced with silver wrapped around him Remus cried out, trying to arch away from the silver, but it felt like it was everywhere. There was a gasp when Marius pulled the letter opener out of his hand, and he jerked roughly in the chair, trying to get away -- but this only caused the ropes to rub against his skin, the silver leaving behind scars in its wake. It didn't matter what he did; even sitting still the ropes kept burning his skin. There was nowhere to go. Nothing he could do but just keep breathing. Tabitha had moved out of the way when Marius asked, waiting for him to finish securing Lupin -- and with silver in the ropes, no less! The very idea of it just made her laugh; she had experienced her fair share of silver in the past, so she understood what he must be going through. But it wouldn't be fair if he was the only one suffering, now, would it? "Oh, Marlene," she smiled, walking over to the girl's chair. "Did you miss me? I hope you got enough rest last night. I have a lot of plans for you today..." |