Who: Phee and Bash When: Thursday, Jan 25th, right after this scene Where: home Status: complete
Phee managed to wait for a full thirty seconds after the door slammed shut behind James before she turned on her brother, her eyes wide and alarmed. “I’ve been there,” she said, reaching out to grip Bash’s forearm. Phee’s voice stayed low, as if their father might still hear her, though he was surely in the car by now. “I -- I think, anyway, there was fog in that place ... did Jules say what it looked like? Inside?” Phee hadn’t been able to forget the black goo everywhere and all the growth on every surface that just looked so poisonous and unnatural. The debris in the air still haunted her dreams sometimes. She had been traumatized by less than five minutes in that environment -- the idea of her mother being trapped there made Phee’s blood run cold.
“No,” Sebastian said, shaking his head. “Not specifically. But I’m pretty sure it was the same place.” A part of him wished he’d seen it so he could relate, but he also knew how traumatizing it had been for everyone that experienced it. And now his mother was stuck there. It made him feel sick. “I said the same thing Dad did, that we should get the coven together, that they could fix it, but Jules didn’t think that would work. And I know she tried everything. Jasper was shut in there too.” That was the part that sold Sebastian on Jules’s version of the truth. It would’ve been easy to believe they’d given up if none of the people lost meant anything to them, but he knew that wasn’t true for Jules and Jasper.
Jasper Lucas went too? “Ohmygod,” Phee muttered, letting go of Bash’s arm to rub both hands over her face. This was all too horrible. Phee was mostly worried about her mother, of course, but gods, poor Jules. Part of her wanted to throw some clothes on to run to the other girl’s house and bang on her door and demand more detailed answers, but she was sure she wouldn’t get any, and she didn’t want to terrorize Jules more than she already had been. Unbidden, tears filled her eyes and she bit into her bottom lip hard. “Maybe ... maybe Dad can get something done,” she said, her voice getting higher pitched and strained as she struggled not to cry. “Because if he doesn’t they’ll all die in there.” That was the horrible truth of it, something Phee was sure of in her bones.
“I know,” Sebastian said quietly, since it was that knowledge that had brought him to tears. His mother wasn’t somewhere safe, living out her life without being able to contact them; she was in a nightmare that would probably kill her. “At least she’ll have her magic. Maybe that will help her survive until we can find a way to save her.” It was a weak hope, knowing how little magic they all knew, but it was something. He didn’t know if hope was a good thing at this point, but if it made Phee feel a little better then he’d let her have it. “Don’t tell Dad it was Jules, though. He’ll make her open the portal and… he needs to be sure he can save her first… right?” He knew it was right, but it felt wrong to leave their mom there no matter what the circumstances.
Phee had nodded at the part about Brianna having magic -- she hadn’t tried to use her own in that place, but they’d only been there for a handful of minutes -- and then shook her head to confirm she wouldn’t rat out Jules to their dad. At least not at first. If it started to look like there was nothing else to be done ... well, they would cross that bridge when they came to it. She couldn’t imagine her dad or the coven hurting Jules, but they had to save Brianna. “Right,” she agreed unsteadily. Then Phee couldn’t hold back anymore and she half-lunged into hugging Sebastian, burying her face in his shoulder while the tears took over for the moment.
It was an impossible situation, but Sebastian thought they were making the right decision for the time being. If—No, when their father figured out how to save their mother, then they could bring Jules into the equation. But she had enough to deal with at the moment without their father knocking on her door. Unfortunately, time wasn’t on their side, not when their mom was stuck in that place and he suspected that the longer they waited, the less chance she had to survive. It made Sebastian feel sick to his stomach to think about, but he refused to let that show, especially when Phee started to cry. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close, shutting his eyes as he told himself he had to be strong for her. It was a good plan, one that worked so long as he wasn’t alone. “Dad will figure something out,” he said softly. “He won’t stop until he gets her back.”
Recent events had made them get weepy a few times with each other, but Phee didn’t think she’d outright sobbed in her brother’s arms since she’d been a little kid. They’d always been the closest, Trip older and more mature and busy, and then gone. Phee still thought someone should call him sooner rather than later, but she would listen to James on that point. For a while, anyway. But Bash was her support in the family and she was so, so glad he was there. She needed him. As soon as she could get herself back under control she did, sniffling and wiping at her eyes with the sleeve of her robe as she pulled back and nodded. “He’d better,” she said, her voice wobbly. As difficult a relationship as they had sometimes, Phee didn’t think she could function without her mom. The witches had to fix this somehow, they just had to. “Is ... is Jules okay?” she asked, watery eyes meeting Sebastian’s again. “I mean no, of course, but like ... I know it hurt her hands to do it when I was with her ... she’s not hurt?”
While he knew there would always be a different set of standards between them, it made Bash feel better to know he wasn’t the only one brought to tears by the situation. He kept telling himself that he’d man up and hold it together, but then life kept throwing things at him that were worse than before. A breakup was nothing by comparison to what he’d had to face since then and he almost wished he’d known that at the time. As much as he told himself they would all come out of this stronger, it was hard to feel it in the moment and he didn’t wish for the loss that might get them there. He let Phee cry for as long as she needed, impressed that his eyes were still dry by the time she pulled away. “She seemed okay physically. Like… her hands didn’t seem injured or anything like that,” Sebastian said. “I think she was just…dealing. Like us.” Except with mountains of guilt, he thought but didn’t add.
Sebastian didn’t have to say it, Phee was already imagining the amount of guilt Jules must’ve been feeling, and it was only the beginning. As terrible as things were at this moment, Phee knew they were just getting started. This wasn’t going to be fixed overnight, no matter what their dad thought he could do. She nodded to his words and slowly rubbed at her face with both hands. The house around them felt unfamiliar suddenly, kind of too big and empty, and Phee fought the urge to just go back to her room to shut everything else and lie down again. She let her hands drop, wiping the moisture off on her robe, then looked at her brother again. He wasn’t crying, but he looked just as sad and scared as she was. Phee reached for his hand. They needed each other, now more than ever. “C’mon, let’s ... get something to drink and ... try to be distracted or something,” she murmured. Maybe she could make them cocoa, something hot and sugary. Phee paused before she moved, meeting his red eyes with her own. “I’m sorry you had to find out by yourself,” she added.
Sebastian was pretty sure that Phee meant something like a soda, but he’d have happily raided the liquor cabinet in that moment and not cared if they got caught. He nodded and gave her hand a squeeze before releasing it. “At least it was Jules and not… not that I have anything against Nic, but it was better coming from a friend.” And he hadn’t felt completely alone, since she was dealing with a loss of her own, though he realized the circumstances were different. It wasn’t something he’d ever say to Jules, but losing a boyfriend wasn’t the same as losing a parent. “Distraction would be good. I don’t really want to be alone right now.” Even though his father wasn’t exactly comforting, he kind of wished he’d stayed, just so they could be together as a unit. He could be strong on his own, but it was so much easier when he was with people he cared for.
Phee wished he’d stayed too, though she understood his rush to start looking for solutions. The two of them had each other, at least. That was always true. At the moment, Sebastian felt like the only family Phee still had, and she was grateful that he didn’t want to be alone. “Me either, so ... go find something light to put on the TV while we wait? I’ll make some cocoa and meet you in the den,” she suggested. She knew if they didn’t have anything to stare at and listen to, they would just sit and stew in their worry, when there was nothing they could do but wait for news from their father. Phee thought briefly about calling the Castells, Zania at least, to see if they had any different news, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear anything worse than Jules had already told Bash. Maybe later.
“Kay,” Sebastian said, then headed towards the living room. He wanted to be able to see his father when he returned, not off in the game room where his dad could sneak by without giving them an update. He knew his father would find them if it was positive, but otherwise he wasn’t as sure, seeing as how he didn’t want to call Trip. Sebastian settled on the couch and pulled up Netflix, attempting to look for something suitably distracting. Usually humor worked, but he wasn’t in the mood for laughing, even if something was funny. Their mother was gone and they might never get her back. For every minute that ticked by she could be fighting for her life and there was nothing he could do but sit there and wait, hoping that someone more powerful than him could save her.