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"SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES."

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Posts Tagged: 'florence+hale'

Jun. 25th, 2020


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LIAM ROE + FLORENCE HALE
checking up on a former client and finding a witch
JUNE 20th - afternoon | Hale Funeral Home | PG-13
Read more... )


He’d parked some ways away, since his car didn’t exactly scream FBI Agent on a government salary. His suit and trenchcoat combo, however, was a lot more official looking and, coupled with a stern expression, often worked in his favor. Even though he’d been in town for a few months he’d yet to have reason to show up at the Funeral Home. Which, undoubtedly, was a good thing.

Walking up to the front door, Liam ran through the script in his head as he knocked. It was all rumor, of course, but he wanted to know if the recent body they’d received was from his most recent exorcism. A few weeks had passed, and he was sure the man would have made a full recovery, but there was a feeling of dread last night as he listened to the police radios while at the church.

“Good morning, Miss Hale, my name is Agent Shaw, I was wondering if you had a moment?” he produced a nicely forged badge and ID card from the inside pocket of his coat.




With her parents dealing with the caterers, flowers and family information, Florence was the one left at home to prepare things for the upcoming funeral. There was a quietness about the spirits right then; mourning wasn’t just for the living.

Walk-ins weren't exactly common at the Funeral Home, but it was possibly a delivery for the arrangements, so Florence didn’t really think twice about heading to the door. The badge caught her off guard for a second, Florence glancing at it quickly before turning her attention back to Agent Shaw. “Um, yeah sure, come in.”

The main foyer of the house was set up primarily for people to gather before sitting with the body in the reception hall. But it wasn’t exactly a place to talk either, “The office is through here.” At the very least there were seats in the main office to sit while whatever this was about. “What can I do for you?”

Just as Florence entered the office she caught sight of Delilah, one of the spirits that tended to migrate over to the house to talk to her or one of the family. It took a lot not to pay attention to her, letting her poke at things she couldn’t turn and keep her attention on Agent Shaw.




“Thank you, I promise to be quick,” he said as he stepped over the threshold. He wasn’t a stranger to funeral homes, but this one held a certain heaviness to it that was hard to ignore. It caused him to pause, even. “I’m sure you’re busy,” Liam said, almost distracted as he made his way to the office.

At first glance it was open and comforting, decorated modestly. There was a display of different types of urns, pamphlets available on grief and coping with the loss of a loved one. As he took a seat, he couldn’t help but notice a rune for luck on the desk. Not completely unheard of, though it made him take a more careful look at the shelves lining the wall behind the desk.

Candles, incense, spiritual weaves to aid passing… Liam’s gaze shifted to the young woman again. “I’m here to inquire about a body you received last night,” he said, getting right to the point. “An investigation has been opened up as to the cause of death.”




Florence’s attention was split between Agent Shaw and Delilah, who had moved to stand behind Agent Shaw, the ghost sniffing like it would have any effect at all. Scrunching her nose up at Florence, Delilah carried on snooping in the room, like it’d changed at all from the last time she’d been there.

“Um… I’m sorry, but shouldn’t you talk to the police about this?” Typically they got the bodies from the hospital after everything was dealt with; there’d been a few murder victims, and that was troubling, to say the least, but they were few and far between. Typically, the bodies that passed through the Home were accidental deaths, suicides or natural causes.

“He’s lying.” It took a lot for Florence not to look over at Delilah when she spoke, but her lips thinned into a line that was basically telling the ghost to hush. She dealt with enough people thinking she was insane because she spoke to herself without doing it in front of… Wait, lying? A glance at Delilah, with furrowed brows, had the ghost nodding at the doorway, where the spirit of their newest arrival was standing.

Instead of obviously turning around to look at nothing, Florence decided to close the doors, ushering Harry, the recently deceased, into the room as she did. “We um, we tend not to get a lot of details about the bodies that come here.” Okay so now Florence would just need to juggle her attention between three… people.




Shit.

“Uh.. the police have forfeited their jurisdiction to us on the matter,” Liam recovered quickly, calmly. “The man’s death is potentially part of an ongoing serial case.” It wasn’t, and the Templar was very much winging the entirety of it all as he went.

Liam, while distracted in his own right with all the witchy related objects he was suddenly privy to, couldn’t help but notice she seemed just as distracted. Especially as she suddenly stood and went to close the doors. He stayed put, taking the brief opportunity to look around again - this time noticing a very subtle altar at the corner of the room.

“I realize it seems a little unorthodox, especially making a house-call like this, and we usually have teams that reach out for this sort of thing.. But this is a very particular case. If I could just take a look, I’d be out of your way,” Liam insisted, turning his attention back to the dark haired mortician.




“He’s a bad liar.”

If Florence wasn’t trying to at least seem like she wasn’t insane, she’d shush Delilah, because it was bad enough that this potential Agent was snooping at the funeral home. A serial case? Harry? It wasn’t exactly impossible, Harry didn’t come to them in a good condition, his body looked like it had been put through the wringer at some point.

But Harry wasn’t really talking, and Florence had assumed he was an addict or something. “That’s… news to me. The serial thing…” But then…

“Haven’t you ever watched one of those procedurals?” Delilah walked over to ‘Agent Shaw’, waving her hand around his head like she was swatting a fly, “There’s no way they’d release a body if they thought there was foul play, that’s what they say on those shows, you know. Suspicious circumstances.”

Harry was still standing motionless, letting Florence just peer at him.

It’d explain why he was catatonic, even as a ghost, if he’d been murdered.

“Um… Okay sure, but, we’ve already started embalming him. I’m not sure you’d be able to get any evidence from his body now. We weren’t told we couldn’t start the process or that his remains were part of an ongoing investigation.”

“Because they’re not. My word girl, don’t you go into a locked room with this weirdo. Probably gonna steal some bodies. Maybe yours.” Florence waved her hand by her side, attempting to hush Delilah.




The heaviness in the air seemed to increase while simultaneously the temperature plummeted. He suspected a ghost, but then again, he was sitting in a funeral home so it wasn’t completely uncommon. For a moment Liam closed his eyes, suddenly feeling as though the room was spinning and he needed to get his bearings. Little did he know he was purposely being messed with by an ever-growing suspicious spirit.

Embalming the body already certainly complicated his cover story, but he was confident he could maybe swing the whole foul play angle. “That’s fine, it’s really just… external signs I’m looking for,” Liam insisted.

“Any uh… strange markings or signs of recent tattoos,” he added, as if it would help somehow. Nerida’s poker face was so much better than his. “And sorry about that, and for dropping in so abruptly. There was a mixup at the regional office and, well, I was in the area.”

The Templar offered her his utmost cordial smile.




Even without Delilah going on about how much of a fraud this guy was, Florence was getting a bad feeling, and it took her a minute to realise it was from Harry, who’d just started to shake constantly, in and out of view. “Sure, come on downstairs with me.”

“Are you insane?” Florence really wished that the ghosts she saw came with volume control sometimes. “What did I just say, you can’t just let strange men into the damn mortuary. I can’t believe you’re just going to walk him into the cold storage like…” Delilah filtered off, shouting away as she wandered through a few walls and Florence indicated for Agent Shaw to follow her.

The mortuary was maybe the best place, if this guy was some weird kind of body snatcher or something. The door locked on the outside, so if he tried anything she just needed to remember an immobilising spell, or get Harry to solidify for a second long enough to startle the idiot so that she could escape and call the actual cops.

But she really wanted to find out what this guy wanted.

“Do you have any idea who it might’ve been, I mean, if Harry was one of your serial victims?”




The Templar stood, shaking his head gently in response. “There are a few suspects we’re circling but no one is in custody yet,” he said as he followed along. All the while noticing more witchy artifacts.

It was something he’d have to look into later, surely.

“When they picked up the body did they happen to say there was any kind of sulfuric smell?” Liam added after a thoughtful pause, descending the stairs behind her. “Either to the apartment or to the body.” Because really it didn’t matter, so long as they had caught the scent, which would be another tick in the box for demonic interference. He figured if she noticed anything before starting to prepare the body that she’d speak up. Hopefully, at least.

Downstairs was understandably colder, with lots of cement, tile, and steel - easy to clean and disinfect. Honestly it looked like a typical mortuary, though he wasn’t sure they came in a wide variety.

Liam stopped abruptly though, when he could have sworn he saw Harry, standing, just past the embalming table for a second. His expression falling flat, he gave a little clear of his throat before approaching cautiously.




She was sure the questions were getting stranger and stranger here. Because the only thing that Florence could think of when a sulphur smell was involved was when a spirit possessed---

“Demon.” It was the first thing Harry had said, and it wasn’t even like he knew he’d said it, standing by the end of the room, where the head of his covered body was on the embalming table. Florence stared at him, wondering if he’d add anything, but nothing followed so she turned to Agent Shaw.

“No,” she was probably clearly suspicious at this point, “there wasn’t a mention of sulphur.” By the time Harry came to them he had been largely smelling like hospital. But the wounds on his body were odd; bruises and marks that looked like they came from something extreme, deep lacerations on his shoulder, the damage to his eyes something that Florence had never seen before. Throw in that there’d barely been any blood to remove from his body but no sign of a vampire bite and it was mysterious on it’s own.

She was about to pull back the sheet when she saw Harry shudder, staring at Agent Shaw with a sense of fear and wonder. “I think, before we continue you should tell me the truth.” She was feeling a little bold, honestly, and she was sure she could protect herself if need be.

“Who are you really? And before you lie again, you should know that I have ways to tell if you’re lying.” At least if Delilah came back and turned on her bullshit detector again.




No mention of sulphur wasn’t as reassured as he’d hoped. The exorcist still had his doubts. As did Florence, apparently, as she was suddenly demanding he tell the truth.

Liam had opened his mouth to reassure her that he was with the Bureau, but he couldn’t help but feel as though her threat held far more than he was prepared to handle. The Templar sighed faintly, giving up the charade for sake of avoiding the potential of a hex bag showing up in his life within the next few days. “My name is Liam Roe,” he began. “I’m an exorcist.”

He moved to stand on the opposite side of the body. “And Harry, here, was a previous client of mine,” he admitted, cautiously reaching for the heavy white cloth, inching it back to the man’s hips. The deep gashes on Harry's shoulder caught his eye first, the deep cuts having the slightest bit of charring to them. Then the eyes and heavy bruising.

Liam cursed softly in Cajun under his breath.

The demon had come back to finish the job after all.




An exorcist.

She’d heard of them, never met one, her Nana had stories about the affects exorcisms could have on the people left in the wake of the expulsion of a demon. Glancing down at Harry’s body, then over to his catatonic spirit, Florence was starting to understand what Nana meant. “A demon killed him, didn’t it?” It was a shock for her, but she knew she just needed to push past, this felt more like the truth and Delilah hadn’t popped out of somewhere to yell ‘Liar!’ so Florence took it to mean it was okay to accept this as fact.

Demons.

It wasn’t really part of the Hale family purview, demons. They dealt in spirits, entities of the afterlife. Demonic energies were creatures forged in hell or fallen from heaven, very few had ever walked the Earth as people. “He can’t help you, he’s… I don’t know what it did to him, but he’s still in shock, even in death.”

Florence knew it would take her some work, she might be able to coax him out of it by the time his funeral came around, but beyond that she wasn’t really sure how to help a ghost if they weren’t responding. “Was he possessed or just targeted?” It might not help Liam get answers, but it could help the witch in moving Harry’s spirit along.




“It seems so,” he confirmed quietly, looking at Florence with a tinge of guilt. Liam knew that he couldn’t make clients follow up with measures to protect themselves from repossession — but he still felt a small ounce of responsibility when it happened. Especially when they later turned up dead.

Hearing her speak of Harry as if he were actually there, made him realize that he did in fact see the spirit of the man. And that this was no ordinary funeral home.

“Targeted for some reason,” he started to explain. “By the time I was contacted he had already been suffering extensively in repression but nothing in his life stood out in terms of warranting the attention.” All things considered, Harry had been an average Seven Devils resident. “The repossession though, worries me.”

After all it meant the demon had wanted to purposely inhabit the native, and after the exorcism it had lashed out in spite.

“Are you a necromancer?” Liam seemed to ask out of the blue. He quickly put his hands up as if to show he meant no harm, regardless of her answer. “I couldn’t help but notice some of the decor upstairs,” he insisted. If she was going to call him out, well it was only fair he politely do the same.




It wasn’t like it was news that these things happened in the town. Florence had spent her entire life in Seven Devils, she knew that the leylines below the town were some kind of supernatural energy source, that it kept their town just that little bit weird. People born here tended to stay, or were drawn back, but newcomers either felt the oddities and left or were destined to stay forever, for no reason other than the town demanded it.

Sometimes, Florence was sure their town was a Stephen King plot device.

“I’m a medium.” He’d been straight, and there was no point in denying it when he said he noticed their artefacts upstairs. “The spirits tend to just come to me.” Sometimes more often than she’d like, but primarily if they needed help, it wasn’t her only skill, but it was the one that mattered the most to the beings of the otherside.

“Harry’s spirit is non-reactive, to anything, I’m not even sure he knows he’s dead.” She lifted the eyelids of the body, showing Liam the way the pupil of his eye had turned into two dots in the corners of his eyes, although it was discoloured and faded now, evidence that something had been rather cruel in ending Harry’s life, honestly.

“Whatever did this…” She just shrugged, because she had no idea, hopefully an exorcist might’ve seen it before, might know how to stop it. “Do you think his body needs any special rites?” Florence just wanted his soul to be able to rest.




Growing up in Louisiana where spirits tended to be restless by default, he’d been around his fair share of mediums. It was a compliment to her that she seemed pretty normal and sane, otherwise. “It must be hard at times,” the Templar told her sympathetically.

Kids, mainly. Even in his own line of work Liam dreaded those types of cases. They always reminded him of his brother, and all the signs the both of them exhibited when they were younger that pointed to demonic infestation.

When Florence lifted the corpse’s eyelids, Liam leaned over to get a better look. “Hm.” He was quiet for a moment, staring at the dual-pupils. “The signs of possession remain even in death, which means Harry died fighting it.”

Good for him, Liam thought.

“I can try giving him a blessing and his last rites,” Liam offered. Maybe it would send him on his way - maybe it would just make him reactive and angry. “If not.. I can burn the body after the funeral.” He would likely rope Archer into helping him exhume the coffin. Either way it would stop Harry from becoming a poltergeist for the funeral home. “With your permission, of course.”




Spirits were something Florence was used to, she grew up surrounded by them, in more than just because she lived in the Funeral Home; their family had a connection to Death, the traits around it. Most young Hale witches had a connection with spirits, even if they diverged in their speciality, like Morgan.

“It can be,” not just because of the nature of death, Florence had a far more open understanding of death than many people, “people who don’t understand tend to be the biggest problem.” Because Florence got distracted, she spoke aloud to beings only she could see, people thought she was weird.

She felt somewhat glad that Liam could confirm that it was a possession, that Harry had fought to not give in, even though that was likely what had caused his death. “Best to try it, see if it helps him.” Florence was clearly looking at Harry, where his spirit still stood, motionless and staring. “If the funeral doesn’t help, I’ll check with my parents about cremation.”

She doubted the family would be digging up the grave at any time, if they had to bury an empty casket for their peace of mind, so that Harry could be at rest, so be it.

“Do you know what demon did this?”




Knowing his luck, when he finally did die from something stupid, Liam would be the type of spirit who stuck around just to annoy people. Then again, unlike the average Joe (or Harry, in this case) he held a vast array of supernatural knowledge and would probably adapt a lot better. Certainly, he would purposely seek out a witch, like Florence, to help him.

“Thank you,” he replied to her offer to check. It beat having to break into the cemetery at night and illegally dig up graves. Not that it wasn’t considering a sort of bonding experience with his hunter friend, but there was always a certain amount of risk involved.

“One that’s not part of the hierarchy, at least,” he answered in a roundabout way of saying no. If it had been any of the seventy-two demons governing Hell, it would have taken a whole lot longer to exorcise Harry.

Liam looked across the table at Florence, quirking a brow. “I’ve only been in town a few months but he wasn’t my first exorcism. Have you noticed anything stranger than usual about town?” he questioned. She knew it better than he did, it was worth asking.




Cremation wasn’t everyone’s choice, and Florence understood some people wanted something to remain, for family to visit, for a tie to the world, but most of the time the dead weren’t the ones who cared one way or the other what happened to their bodies after the fact. Florence’s concern was Harry’s spirit, and helping him gain peace.

She took the comment about the hierarchy to mean it wasn’t a particularly important or powerful demon, one strong enough to kill the host, sure, but not one that posed the biggest threat. “The spirits are more restless, there are more… beings in the area?” She wasn’t about to say there were Angels in town, she kept Azrael’s secret because she respected his job, his duty to the souls of the world, but she knew it was a big deal that the Angel of Death was mostly settled in Seven Devils.

“There’s been a slight uptick in deaths, too.” It wasn’t terribly unusual, there were times where the deaths peaked and then they went back down, hunting season was coming up and that usually brought a slight increase, the tourists around town were sometimes problematic, and then there was the fact that some of their population was just old.

“Did the exorcists, the other people, did they survive?”




He nodded faintly in agreement when she only confirmed the influx of beings — neither of them needed to go into details to understand what the other was saying really. Not only that but the Men of Letters seemed to know a lot more about the nexus and loved to leave their cryptic warnings whenever he sought out information.

Liam looked at her somberly. “It was just me,” he answered simply, hating that anyone ever had to ask such a question. Though in her defense, with Harry, he didn’t quite give her a reason to have much confidence in him.

“I’ve been doing this quite a while,” the Templar told her. “I guess you could say it’s in my blood.” Sort the truth; while his Templar status was following after his father and, arguably, his grandmother who had dabbled as Traiteur.. His penchant for exorcisms though, well, that had been because of his younger brother.

“Sometimes I’ll need help, though,” Liam had to reassure her, “and then someone else from the Church, or a close friend, will help out.”




“That must be hard at times,” she echoed his words back, considering Harry in front of them, the toll it must take on someone to do this, to seek this out. She could imagine that it got to be a drain on a person, especially given her understanding that excising anything from someone could be hard.

The few times she’d heard her Nana talk about getting spirits to detach from the humans they’d attached to, how difficult it was to sever those ties, Florence knew that demons were likely harder.

“I can’t say I know much about demons, or anything that goes with them, but if you need help, I can do what I can.” She could ask some of the spirits, or even some of the other witches. They weren’t exactly deeply involved in things like this, but some witches had broad interests. “There’s a lot of nosy ghosts in this town.”




“It is,” he confirmed quietly, holding her gaze for a moment before he reached into his trenchcoat to take out the vial of holy water and his rosary.

Liam smiled softly, “Consider yourself lucky that you don’t.” Demons were a slippery slope. The more one poked around looking for information, the more chances they had to actually run into one. His lips curled into a somewhat amused grin at the mention of nosy spirits. “If I ever need the latest gossip I’ll be sure to ask,” he reassured her - though he would absolutely be keeping her offer on the table for as long as he stayed in town.

The Templar blessed himself, Florence, and then the body; speaking the Latin quickly and efficiently from memory. After kissing his rosary, he laid it flat on Harry’s chest and drew a cross on his forehead in the holy water. It took all of three minutes to finish — to which he finally looked over at Florence.

“Do you still see him?”




Letting Liam work, Florence kept a short distance away, but didn’t interrupt.

She’d never really been there for last rites or anything like that; most of the time there was nothing left to do for the body by the time it reached the Home, all they could do was make preparations for the family to say their goodbyes and make it as easy a process as possible, leave them with a peaceful memory rather than the trauma that death often brought.

Funerals were never something that anyone enjoyed, but Florence knew that she could bring peace to certain families with her work, both at the home and with the spirit, when it was really needed.

As Liam finished, Florence glanced to Harry, who looked a little less dazed at least, “Yes, but that’s not uncommon. His funeral might help in his final steps, if he has something to pass on to his family or a loved one, something to tell them.” If he started to get unruly, that’s when Florence would worry.

“Do you have a card or something, with your number on it? I can keep an eye on him, call you if he takes a turn for the worst?” Florence didn’t like poltergeists either.




She was right - and he’d have to wait for the funeral to make sure Harry’s spirit was able to move on. Likely, Liam would actually look to see when the funeral was and show up just to pay his proper respects. He’d stay back, of course, as he didn’t want to gain the attention of whatever family Harry had.

“Oh, yeah,” the Templar replied in realization. “And please do, I’m sure you’re more than capable but, I do feel a certain amount of responsibility for all this.”

Liam fished around in the chest pocket of his trenchcoat, pulling out a plain business card that was for St. Verdiana Church as well as a pen to scribble his mobile number in a blank area. “I’m sorry for starting all this off with lies,” he told her as he held the business card out for her to take.




Turning the card over, reading things carefully before she just held it close, Florence nodded softly, “I understand. It’s probably not normal that you can just walk up to someone and tell them the truth.” Had she been anyone else, it probably would’ve gotten the actual police called, but Florence knew weird, and could adapt with it.

One of her closest friends was the Angel of Death, and the rest were all dead. She definitely knew weird.

“If it helps, Harry doesn’t seem to feel… angry? There’s a sense of peacefulness to it, he’s sad and in shock, but I don’t think he holds any grudges.” She could imagine that any death that came following an exorcism could lead to some heavy guilt, and she tried to help lift that from family members enough.




The Templar couldn't help but feel the tiniest bit of relief when she tried to explain the state of the spirit to him. It helped more than she would ever truly realize. And even if she didn't know exactly what has transpired during the exorcism or his meetings with Harry prior, her understanding of his guilt was greatly appreciated.

"Thank you," Liam told her genuinely with a small smile that was his own and not the persona he'd walked in with.

Mar. 25th, 2020


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