Caius D'Onofrio (poweroftheeye) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2018-04-29 11:09:00 |
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Entry tags: | #group scene, #october 2017, caius, nate, reagan |
Who: Reagan, Caius, and Nate
When: Friday, Oct 20th, night
Where: the cemetery
Warning: a skeleton
Status: Complete
Caius was glad that the weather had cleared up earlier in the day. He did not want to dig in the straight up mud, but at least the ground would be softened up a bit, that might make digging easier. He had gone to work as normal, putting the knowledge that he was about to go unearth some centuries-old bones to one side in his mind. It was just another step toward their goal, and Caius had always been a goal-oriented person. He could get this done because he had to. For Reagan, for their love, for their future children ... the entire families on both sides, really. There were no other good options.
Nate had agreed to help them, which Caius was reluctantly grateful for. After work, he and Reagan ate dinner together, both of them acting fairly calm through the unspoken nerves that thrummed in the air. They had to wait until after dark to start so they wouldn’t run into anybody else in the cemetery, just out visiting their dead loved ones and not expecting to run into a trio of graverobbers. Reagan had already arranged with the groundskeeper to leave the gate open for them. His request had been pretty simple and reasonable -- don’t leave a mess, physical or spiritual. Caius had prepped quite a few protection spells, just in case Baron had left her grave magically boobytrapped somehow.
Dressed in dark clothes, ready with shovels and gloves and the bag Caius had some spell supplies in, he and Reagan headed out to meet Nate at the entrance to the cemetery. As he pulled the car up to the gate, Caius looked over at his wife. “Ready to do this?” he murmured.
As much as Reagan knew this could potentially help them, she was not looking forward to digging up Abigail Baron's grave. Granted, she wouldn't technically be doing the digging, but it really wasn't how she expected to be spending her honeymoon phase of marriage with Caius. She was thankful that Nate was willing to help, because otherwise Reagan had a feeling she would have felt guilty enough to pick up a shovel herself, and she would not have been pleased to get dirt under her nails.
When they arrived at the cemetery, the area was dark and eerily quiet and she took a deep breath before looking over at Caius. "I'm ready," she said with a small nod. "I want to get this over with." The grave was located in the back of the cemetery, so Reagan wasn't terribly worried about being interrupted, but one never knew with it being the witches festival. Teenagers might find it amusing to run through the cemetery at night. She would just have to keep her eyes and ears open while Nate and Caius dug.
"Nate might already be here," Reagan murmured, pulling out her phone to check. "But the grave itself is a bit of a walk, so we'll need to park and carry everything there."
Nate had stayed at work as long as he could before heading to meet them at the cemetery. He wasn’t super comfortable leaving Dragonfly in anyone else’s hands, especially to close up, but he knew it was good to have someone else who could do it in times like these. They needed to do this late at night, but not so late that he could stay till close. Not if they wanted to be done by sunrise. He changed into something he didn’t mind getting dirty, then headed out to the graveyard, glad the weather had cleared up. He’d do a lot for his sister, but even he was prone to bitch if they were digging in the rain.
It looked like he was right on time when he pulled up to the gate, Caius’ car right in front of him. He put it in park and hopped out of the car, grabbing a bag of things they might need just in case. He was sure Reagan had this covered, but he still didn’t like feeling unprepared. “Hey,” he called out, then popped the trunk to grab an extra shovel. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to bring his own. If they had an extra, Reagan could always use it. The thought made him laugh quietly. “You guys ready?”
Caius gave Nate a nod as the two of them also got out of their car. He circled around to the back to pull out supplies, carefully shouldering the duffel bag -- the cut on his back was still healing, though he’d taken a few good painkillers in anticipation of doing this hard labor -- and hefting out his own shovel. Caius had brought two, not trusting that Nate even owned a shovel, but ti looked like that had been unnecessary. Caius thought about bringing it anyway, but there was no way Reagan was going to use it, so it would just be something else to carry. “Ready as I’ll ever be,” he said as he shut the trunk and looked to Reagan to lead the way.
Reagan wanted to offer to help dig, because it felt like the right thing to do, but her brother and husband both knew her well enough to know she wouldn't want to dig, and things would move much faster if they did it themselves, rather than listening to her complain the whole time. She was glad that Nate looked prepared, and she gave him a grateful smile as she pushed open the gate to the cemetery to lead the two men though. Reagan pulled a flashlight from her bag, turning it on so they could find their way. She didn't speak until they passed through most of the newer sections of the cemetery and she led them off the path into the section of decrepit headstones. "It's toward the back," she explained, "so be careful of broken headstones. The ground is pretty uneven too." As she had with Rost, Reagan figured she would start to feel the magic surrounding Baron's grave, and she knew Caius and Nate would as well. The sky seemed darker now, if that was possible, the air cooler. Not a good omen, but Reagan wasn't afraid. They were there for a reason and she wasn't leaving until they had what they came for.
Nate let Reagan and Caius lead the way, taking up the rear and pulling in a little bit of fog to mask them from view. He didn’t expect anyone to be out in the cemetery late at night, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a possibility. This would buy them a little time if they heard them coming. Despite Reagan’s warning, he still managed to trip over a headstone, barely catching himself before cracking his head open on another. “Dammit,” he muttered under his breath, pulling himself back to his feet. That would be twice in one week that he couldn’t keep his feet properly under him. Brushing himself off, he caught up with them, preferring to act like that hadn’t even happened. “What’s the plan?” He asked. Digging, of course, but they all knew this would likely be more than that. If they unearthed Baron’s bones without any issues, he’d be shocked.
Caius was in the middle, since Reagan was the one who knew where she was going, and he paused as Nate fell, looking back to make sure he got up all right. He was just as happy to ignore it as Nate was. “Reagan’s going to put some wards up,” he answered. She was the best at that sort of protective magic, much more than Caius was. He had some defensive magic in his repertoire, but it was geared more toward combat and not this kind of passive stuff. “Then we dig and see how it goes.” He’d done some meditation earlier that day, ‘tapping into’ the Obscurities to make sure he had them at the ready. Caius wasn’t sure what they could do about what they might encounter, but better safe than sorry. He just hoped like hell this wasn’t as much of a pain in the ass as it could be.
Reagan glanced briefly behind her when Nate tripped over one of the headstones and she huffed out a small breath before shifting her gaze back to the path in front of her. "Protective wards so nothing can escape the area," she explained, stepping over a broken headstone that barely peeked out of the grass. "I brought a couple of talismans for you both to wear that should keep you protected from anything that might be guarding her bones. I do not want to deal with another possession." Spirits were easier to expel from the body than demons, but it was still a pain in the ass. "I'll be nearby keeping an eye on things. I don't want to be caught off guard. Here it is." Reagan walked them toward the back of rows, flashing the light down at the broken headstone that she and Rost had tracked down.
Nate nodded, feeling like that was a good plan. He knew Reagan would have a plan. “We should probably bless the area as well,” he suggested, just in case. He knew he was there mostly for the manual labor, but he could still make suggestions as he saw them. The talismans were a good idea though. “Or another curse,” he added in, since they were all up to their necks in curses. Even with his hand healed, he could feel it hovering over him, waiting to strike. When Reagan stopped, he came around to join Caius, looking down at the ground. “You know, this would be a really nice time to know an earth witch,” he muttered. As soon as Reagan was ready for them they could get to work. It was definitely going to be a long night.
Caius could feel the magic in the area, like Reagan had told him she could. The air felt colder to him, and the back of his neck prickled like there was some sort of vibration happening that was beyond the normal senses. It didn’t feel overpowering, and he had to imagine that three hundred years had worn the protections down some, but there was definitely something there. Caius found a place to lean the shovel and unshouldered the duffel bag, setting it down next to the grave and unzipping it. He started pulling out candles and supplies to set up the protections. Most of that would be up to Reagan and Nate, Caius’s magic was more offensive than defensive for the most part, but he could help a little.
Reagan set her own bag on the ground and crouched down to search through it. She found the leather bracelets she'd created the night before after Sebastian left, both of them with a circle shaped talisman dangling from the centers. "Put these on," she instructed, standing to give them both to Caius and Nate. With that done, she slipped on her own bracelet and turned back to the grave itself to place a blessing on it before she started in on the protective wards. She could feel a bit of pushback in the air, but it wasn't strong enough for Reagan to hesitate, so she ignored it. She moved around the grave and headstone, murmuring the incantations necessary to protect Nate and Caius, and while she felt like they were strong, she felt a tiny bit of apprehension. They had no idea what to expect and it was probably asking too much to hope that they could just get this over and done with without any issue. When she finished, Reagan turned toward the two men, the air still chilly around her. "You can start. If you start to feel any strange shifts in the air, be cautious."
Nate steepled his hands and blessed his shovel, silly as that might seem. It would be digging into cursed earth, and any little bit might help. He could feel the difference in the air and the way it filled his lungs, and no amount of pushing it away for something fresh seemed to make a difference. Once Reagan completed her setup, Nate added his, placing a dark blue candle on the headstone itself. He whispered a spell into the wind and the candle lit, burning bright. “That will go out of Abigail tries to join us. It may give us some warning,” he told them, then sunk his shovel into the ground and began to dig.
Caius put on the bracelet and stood back to watch his wife do her thing. It wasn’t often that he had occasion just to watch her work magic, and Caius found himself smiling faintly even under these circumstances. As he’d thought a million times since he’d learned the truth, Caius told himself that the pull in his chest toward Reagan Kelly had to be real. He felt it too deeply, too viscerally. It was his. Why would he be in a fucking cemetery in the middle of the night to dig up some ancient dusty bitch if he wasn’t really in love? They were going to fix this, and it was going to be okay. Straightening up from where he’d been leaning on his shovel handle, Caius murmured a “good idea,” to Nate’s candle, rolled his shoulders, and started digging as well. Hopefully with two backs working, they would get this done rapidly.
Reagan made sure to stay out of their way, and she kept her eyes and ears open for any unwelcome company, both corporeal and otherwise. She had no idea how long this would take, digging deep enough to get to the casket, and then opening it to retrieve a proper amount of bones. Then they would have to rebury, as she had promised Rost they would do. She really should have tracked down an earth witch, as this would have gone so much faster with one, but it was difficult to explain the circumstances, and not everyone was eager to dig up corpses. At some point Reagan began to pace, trying to keep from nibbling on her fingernails impatiently. She was beginning to notice that the deeper Nate and Caius dug, the warmer the air seemed to get, rather than colder. It felt like a humidity spike, with the air around them growing uncomfortably dense. Reagan knew Caius and Nate could handle it, given air was their born element, but once she started finding it difficult to breathe through it, Reagan had to take several steps back from the grave to distance herself and find the fresher air.
Nate could feel the change in the air the deeper they dug, heavy in his lungs and making it harder to breathe. It was incredibly disconcerting as someone who’d never had trouble breathing in his life. The heat certainly didn’t help and he wiped the sweat from his brow, glad that he’d brought something to pull his hair back. Just the digging was bad enough, but this was light torture, which was probably the point. Once the bitch was buried, no one was supposed to dig her up again. “Do we know how she died?” Nate asked Reagan and Caius. He knew about the curse, but they were the ones that had the family journals and had done the research. Anything extra that they could glean from the past might help them. Someone had put a lot of work into making sure her grave wasn’t disturbed and it probably wasn’t her.
The unnaturally thick and hot air made Caius’s lungs struggle and his skin feel disgusting. He hated being too hot, and he was rapidly getting there with a long sleeved shirt and doing physical labor. Once it started getting really hard to breathe, he stopped digging and closed his eyes, attempting to call down some cooler air to fight whatever was going on. It didn’t seem to help much, probably because the air and heat were magical, so Caius concentrated harder. He’d already been full of bad feelings about this, but this was not a great sign. He was able to tone down the humidity a little bit, but he had a feeling it was going to get worse the deeper they dug. They were only about three feet down, now. Caius shook his head at Nate’s question to let Reagan field it, jamming his shovel back into the dirt. It had to be done.
Reagan licked her lips and shook her head before stepping in toward the grave again, opening her palms to try and gather some of the heat from the air around them, pulling it away from Nate and Caius. She could handle the humidity as long as the air didn't become suffocating. "I didn't look into how she died, only when," Reagan explained. Her palms began to tingle pleasantly from the heat, though she was aware had it been any other witch, their skin probably would have been burning by now. Still, it was a lot of magic to absorb and Reagan could feel her forehead growing damp. "She could have taken these precautions if she knew she was dying. Or another witch did this... a family member, maybe." Reagan glanced between Nate and Caius. "Feeling okay?"
Nate dug his shovel into the earth and leaned on it as he tried to catch his breath. It was hard to believe that this was just going to get harder. If it was just one of them, they would’ve passed out by now, he was sure. His eyes ticked up as Reagan pulled away some of the heat and he nodded, feeling the blanket lift slightly. “Little light headed,” he said, then swallowed hard. Was the air getting thinner? It was starting to feel like someone was standing on his chest. Nate summoned the air from up high, pulling it down with a whoosh, in an attempt to push the hot air out and give them better air to breathe. On any other day, it would’ve felt like a rush of cold air, but here he could barely feel it ruffling his hair. Between the three of them, they were making a difference; they just had to keep going.
Caius was so glad that Nate had agreed to help them with this, even if he was probably regretting it now. The deeper they dug, the hotter it got, and the harder it was to breathe. He and Nate took turns calling down as much fresh air as they could manage, and Reagan kept pulling the heat off of them as much as she could manage. Still, he had to stop at some point to pull off his shirt and toss it up onto the edge of the grave, sweat pouring off of him. The slash in his back was hurting, but Caius knew they had to finish this. They had to. At the few points when he wanted to stop completely, he looked up at Reagan and thought about their future and rallied his determination. Finally -- finally -- his shovel hit something more solid than dirt with a thunk. Panting, Caius looked up at Nate. “That’s it,” he said, then hurried to start clearing the dirt off of the top of the coffin. If the heat was natural, the thing would’ve been fucking smoldering, but it just looked like old wood to him once they could actually see it.
Reagan had already figured out that Baron, or whoever had set these enchantments, had been a fire witch. If Nate and Caius hadn't had Reagan there to siphon the heat, they would have been driven out of the hole they were digging, air magic or not. It was a clever spell, she had to admit, because it was affecting her as well, despite sharing the same element with the caster. She wasn't sweating as profusely as Nate or Caius, and she wasn't as light headed, but she could feel the heat flowing through her body, laced with magic centuries old. Reagan was torn between embracing it and projecting it out, but she had no idea what they would do to Caius and her brother, so she continued to draw it in while stepping up to the edge of the grave and looking down to where Caius had made contact with something. "Be careful," Reagan said, her voice slightly hoarse. "It will probably worse once you open it."
Nate leaned back against the wall of earth behind him, wishing it was just a fraction as cool as it should have been. He was dripping with sweat, having abandoned his shirt when Caius had, and the air was so hot he was panting just to keep his lungs full. While he normally wasn’t one to call in favors, Reagan owed him big time for this, and he’d be sure to remind her if it was ever necessary. The coffin was old enough that they were just dealing with an old wooden box, and Nate worked to maneuver himself to so that he could get the edge of his shovel under one of the boards. “Ready?” he said, looking to Caius, then giving a nod before prying the first board off. The blast of hot air was enough to knock Nate back, burning the exposed skin. He cursed as he could feel the skin on his knuckles blistering, and took a step back to let Caius have a go.
Caius watched Nate pry the first board up, wincing and lifting one arm to cover his eyes when the blast of heat came. It was one of the few times he wished he was a fire witch. It might have still been uncomfortable, but he probably wouldn’t feel like his skin was melting off and his lungs were drying out. He moved himself to get better leverage, shoving the blade of his shovel under the ancient wood and pushing down on the handle to pry it up. It was surprisingly tough for a coffin this old, but he managed. The air quivered around them with the heat. The coffin was open enough now to see into, and he was glad that Baron actually had rotted down to pure bone. It was a small relief, but a relief nonetheless. Caius had a feeling actually reaching a hand in there would be like plunging it into boiling water though. He nodded at Nate. “Go on ... get out,” he said, upnodding out of the grave. Caius could handle it from there, at least until they were shoveling dirt back onto the dead bitch, and Nate needed to breathe. Carefully Caius dipped his shovel into the coffin and scooped up some remains. The bones came apart easily, and he ended up with part of Baron’s hand. They didn’t need much, that was enough. He lifted the shovel to put it down onto the edge of the grave so he could climb out himself, more than ready to crawl to cooler air before he passed out.
Reagan was about to tell them that she could do it, since she was pretty sure she could have handled the heat, but Caius seemed pretty determined, so she stayed near the edge of the coffin to help if needed. When she spotted the bones in the mouth of the shovel, Reagan turned away to grab the satchel she had brought to take the bones home in. The satchel was blessed, at least, and she pulled out a medium sized cut of canvas to wrap the hand up in. Reagan sunk down to her knees beside the hand, using the edge of the canvas to pick up the bones and drop them into the center. She could feel the heat radiating off of the hand, searing her skin through the canvas. It didn't bother her as much as it would Nate and Caius, and as she began wrapping the canvas over the bones, Reagan looked over at her brother and Caius. "Are you all right?" she asked. "Did you get burned?" Hopefully things would become easier on them once they started replacing the dirt. At least they wouldn't have to climb back down into the hole. It was a miserable experience for everyone and she was hoping they could finish up quickly.
Nate was quick to climb out of the grave, gritting his teeth against the pain. It took a few tries with his feet constantly slipping, his own curse at work most likely, but it was something he could fight against, at least for now. As he pulled himself to his feet, he took a few steps back, needing that distance as he caught his breath. He was bad up top, but not near as bad as it had been down by the coffin. “I’m okay, but yeah,” he said, looking down at his hands. It felt like he’d stuck his hands in a fire, that initial blast of air having caught him off guard. It was going to kill to shovel all that dirt back in, but it'd be easier than the initial dig for sure. “Did you get everything you needed?” he asked the both of them.
Caius took the time to push the boards they’d lifted back into place, more or less. Gods knew what would happen if the just left the coffin open, they probably needed to leave as many things like they found them as possible. He climbed his way out of the grave while Reagan gathered up the bones, crawling several feet away before he flopped onto his back. The grass was blessedly cool, and the air still warm but much more breathable. He looked up at the stars and panted, drawing fresher air down to them again. It seemed more effective now that he wasn’t in a cursed hole. Baron had guarded her remains well so far, Caius couldn’t imagine any mundane human making it through all that. “Yeah, think so,” Caius panted, both to getting everything they needed and being okay. He wasn’t burnt at least. After a moment, Caius sat up and armed the sweat off of his face. “She knew somebody’d be coming for her someday,” he muttered.
"Yeah, well, she underestimated how determined we would be." Reagan got the wrapped canvas back into the satchel and she straightened, carrying it away from the grave. She set it down in a safe spot next to a headstone still in tact before returning to the two men. "I can probably help if you need a break," Reagan said, motioning to the shovels. "I have to imagine it will be easier dropping the dirt back in then it was getting it out." She would get dirty, but it would be a small price to pay, given she was already sweating and uncomfortable.
It was a big step for Reagan to offer to help, Nate knew that much. It was probably an indicator of how worn down they looked, out of breath and dripping sweat. But Nate wouldn’t be the one to say that he needed her to step in, not unless the pain became too much. “I’ll let you know,” he said, taking a deep breath before he began shoveling the dirt back into the hole. “Any chance your salve will work on my burns?” he asked. He doubted it, since they were most likely magical, but he had to ask. He’d need to come up with a decent story for when people asked what happened. He couldn’t exactly say he’d been burned by a witch for digging up her grave.
It was tempting to let Reagan take over for a bit -- like she’d said, filling it in would probably be easier. And hopefully it would start to clear the air, re-burying whatever magic Baron had set up around her grave. But if Nate was going to keep working, even with burned hands, Caius couldn’t punk out yet. No way in hell was he going to let his brother in law show him up. He got to his feet, waited for the bit of dizziness to pass, and moved to pick up his shovel again. As he walked back into the heat to start using it, he needed most of his lung power to breathe, so he didn’t bother interjecting anything, just got back to work.
Reagan knew Nate's hands were hurting, so she walked over to where he had picked up the shovel and had begun to drop the dirt back into the grave. "Let me do it," Reagan said, reaching out to grip the shovel's handle with one hand. "Your hands are burned, so doing this is only going to make them hurt worse, especially after your bite. I don't know if my salve will work, but we'll give it a try." She wasn't even going to mention their mother at the moment. Reagan just wanted to get this job done so they could pack up and get the hell out of the cemetery. "Why don't you work on creating a breeze so Caius and I can finish this up quickly?" Even if Nate wasn't shoveling, he could still be useful.
“Rea,” Nate argued, but let her take the shovel without a fight. She was right, his hands were on fire and shoveling would make it worse, but he really didn’t want to be useless. “Okay,” he nodded. Her suggestion of creating a breeze was something he could do without incurring further injury, so he took a seat on the other side of the headstone and concentrated on bringing fresh, cool air in. The easier they could breathe, the faster they could get this done. While it didn’t work as well as it normally would, it felt far more effective up at ground level than it had from inside the grave.
If all of this wasn’t so serious and Caius didn’t feel so overheated and shitty, he probably would’ve been amused to see Reagan wielding a shovel. As it was, all he managed was a faint grin to himself. It still took a while, even with Nate’s magic helping move the air around. There was a lot of dirt in a six-foot-deep hole, but eventually they got it all done and patted down. Caius stood back and wiped one filthy hand on equally filthy jeans. He felt like he would never be clean again. The air was still warmer than it should’ve been, but it was at least breathable again. “Let’s get the fuck out of here,” he murmured, his voice rusty and tired. Caius picked up the shirt he’d discarded and tugged it back on before he started gathering stuff up again.
Reagan was definitely using muscles she hadn't had to use in a very long time to help Caius, but she managed to keep from complaining vocally, considering how much work he and Nate had done. She was exhausted and drenched in sweat by the end, her palms blistering a little from the shovel handle. Reagan could still feel the magic prickling about her body, but she didn't think it was anything to worry about. Now that they were finished, Reagan handed the shovel back to Nate and went to pick up her bag, and the satchel with Baron's hand. All she wanted was to get home, drink a glass of ice water and take a long shower. Maybe she would rub Caius's back for a bit, because she knew it had to be hurting. With everything finished, Reagan stood at the foot of the grave and murmured a fresh blessing, just to keep any negative energy from seeping out into the cemetery, as she had promised Rost she would do. Surely he could contact her if he noticed anything strange.
"Thank you," Reagan murmured to Nate as they started the walk back to their cars. "I don't know that we could have done this without your help."
Even having been given a break from digging, Nate was eager to get out of the cemetery. He’d never had to use his element so much as to be tiring, but this was definitely getting there, the constant influx of new air the only thing that seemed to help any of them. When they were done, he blew out the candle on Baron’s headstone and put it back in his bag, then took the shovel from Reagan. A good, long shower was in store when he got home. Maybe even a cold one. Something refreshing. “You’re welcome,” Nate said softly back to Reagan as they crossed the cemetery. “I’m really glad I could help. You’ll keep me posted on what you find out?”
"I will." Reagan very nearly asked Nate to keep this between them, rather than talking to their mother about it, but she knew Nate and their mom didn't exactly meet up for coffee on a daily basis, so she wasn't worried about it. She just wanted to go home and wash this night off of her. And maybe after a day to recoup, she and Caius could get to work on finding a descendent, and getting rid of this goddamn curse. All of this had to be worth it in the end by destroying the curse, otherwise she wasn't sure what they were going to do.