Caius D'Onofrio (poweroftheeye) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2020-07-15 11:22:00 |
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Entry tags: | #february 2018, caius, caius x jules, jules |
Who: Caius and Jules
When: Early evening, weeknight, end of February
Where: Witcham Road
Status: complete
Jules felt like the last few weeks had all sort of gelled together into one blob of nothing. She had been trying hard to bounce back, but it was impossible. The days that she went to school, she was plagued with rumors and questions and Jules was getting tired of assuring her friends that she didn’t have a “drug problem”. It didn’t help that the nightmares continued to keep her up at night, so she looked like shit, even on the days she tried to apply some makeup. It just felt superficial and pointless. Oddly enough, Jules had hung out with Logan a few times, though they didn’t do much but sit around and smoke pot together. It was nice having company that didn’t expect anything from her. Logan missed Jasper as much as Jules did and like with Mr. Lucas, she felt comfortable with him despite how jealous she’d been by Jasper’s friendship with him before.
After Mr. Lucas had taken her to the clinic and driven her home, Jules had kept in contact with him, sending him texts to make sure he knew she was okay, and to make sure he was okay too. From the outside it might have seemed like an odd relationship, but again, they were going through the same thing and Jules needed that lifeline to Jasper somehow.
She was at the beach now, needing a break from wallowing in her bedroom. The fresh air was cold, but it felt good in her lungs. Walking the length of the beach and back, Jules ignored her phone and eventually turned it off when the constant buzz of text messages got to be too annoying. When the sun started to set and the air got colder, Jules headed back toward the small parking lot and her car. Maybe she would drive by Jasper’s house on the way home to say hi. She needed something to distract her mind for a while.
Caius’s nerves were fraying. He could feel it happening, like a constant tug at the edges of his mind, sometimes painful, sometimes just annoying. But ever-present. His mother was still missing, it had been over a month, and nothing to help her had come to fruition. The coven was useless, Anthony hadn’t produced any results that Caius knew about, and if there were results he didn’t know about, his father wasn’t talking. Caius was beginning to think he was full of shit and he just didn’t care. Miriam was gone, their family was in shambles ... but maybe it always had been. Maybe just the illusion had crumbled. Caius was still working, Sera was still going to school ... he’d tried to be there for her as much as he could, but it was difficult when he felt like he was being driven half crazy with worry. Just like he had while agonizing over Reagan’s lost magic, Caius felt compelled to fix it somehow, to be the family savior ... but he was running out of options.
He’d told himself that manipulating the cheerleader into doing his bidding was the last resort. Mostly because of Reagan’s exhortations that he stay away from Jules Cooper. Caius wanted to make his wife happy, but he also wanted to rescue his mother. Her life came before anyone’s discomfort, including Jules Cooper’s. So Caius prepared, as much as he could. He had stashed a bag in his car, full of magical supplies and books, anything he could find on inter-dimensional travel -- which wasn’t much, granted, and some of it sounded like insane nonsense, but who was he to judge at this point -- along with some more mundane weapons and provisions. He’d had a couple of men who worked for him following Jules, trying to learn her habits and routines so he could find her alone and he couldn’t be linked to her disappearance if things went wrong.
Wes had called him about a half hour before, to tell him Jules was at the beach and there was no one around. Caius didn’t hesitate to leave work. He parked his black BMW a few spaces away from Jules’s car and waited for her to come back. As he saw her bent blonde head bobbing toward him from the beach, Caius got out of his car and started walking to meet her. He was going to get control of her fast, and get this over with.
It was difficult not to notice the shiny, more expensive looking car in the parking lot but Jules only had a moment to register that she wasn't alone. Caius D'Onofrio was walking with purpose in her direction and Jules couldn't decide whether she should scream or run. She hadn't seen him since he came to her house the month before and she had figured that he had tried and failed to find the Other Place by now. That he had accepted it, the way everyone else had. Jules reached into her pocket to clutch her keys in her fist. She read somewhere that women used their car keys to gouge at men who tried to hurt them. Obviously Jules didn't know what Caius wanted, but she felt the discomfort growing in the pit of her stomach the closer he got to her. Jules stopped, planting her feet hard, already deciding which way to run if she needed to. She said nothing, but stared at him, her heart beating wildly in her chest.
The fear that took over Jules’s face was impossible to miss, but that only hardened Caius’s resolve. Sure, she was just a teenager, but she had something he needed that she didn’t want to give up, and he couldn’t leave it alone. His mother was depending on him, he’d told her he would protect her. He wasn’t going to hurt the girl, just ... make her listen. Make her do what needed to be done. “Jules,” he said as soon as he was close enough. Caius flexed his manipulation magic, staring intently into her eyes as he pulled at her mind to relent. “Don’t be afraid. But I need you to come with me.” She wasn’t a witch like Brianna, so he thought it would be easier to influence her, but that didn’t stop Caius from projecting the full force of this power at her. He needed her submissive and pliable as soon as possible.
Her intent had been to say no. No! Even her fingers had tightened around the keys in her fist, ready to go for his dark eyes if he came any closer. A violent reaction, perhaps, but it felt right to her. And then it didn't. The desire to run or scream at him to leave her alone had dissipated like a puff of smoke and she was left standing there, staring at him with a strange sort of confusion. She wasn't afraid anymore. Maybe a little apprehensive, but mostly curious. "Okay. Where?" she asked, the words feeling dumb on her lips because instinctively she knew where. Why else would he be there if it wasn't Witcham Road? Jules already knew she would go. It was an unsettling feeling, but he needed her help, so she would give it to him, right?
The change was palpable, both inside and out, and a tiny bit of tension in Caius’s back eased. Good, the girl didn’t have some kind of mystery defenses against him. Her eyes had taken on a sort of blankness that he remembered from when he’d talked Brianna into giving him her grimoire, which was also reassuring. “To Witcham Road,” he confirmed for her. Caius stepped back and made an inviting gesture toward his parked car. “Please, go get in the passenger side. You will be okay.” He wanted to keep reinforcing that for her -- she wasn’t going to come to any harm. Caius was fairly certain it was true, though he was still working out how he was going to get back out once he’d found his mother. There were some tests to run first.
It felt like it would be okay, though Jules still harbored some anxiety about getting into the car. She did it anyway, curling up a bit in the seat. The idea of going back to Witcham Road had triggered a deeper sort of panic, though she had a hard time expressing that to someone who was still a stranger to her. Jules knew what was in those woods. Deep down she knew there was more than just fog and doorways. But Caius said she would be okay, and for some reason, she believed him. When Caius got into the car with her, Jules glanced at him. "You can't help them," she murmured. "There's nothing you can do." It was a simple truth to her, but she didn't think he would believe her.
Caius was determined not to think of this as a kidnapping, but he got a wave of weird feelings as he climbed into his car next to Jules Cooper, who was there against her will. He was just borrowing her talent, and there was no other way to get this done. The ends justified the means, they had to. It was the least he could do for a mother who would’ve killed to protect him, if it came down to it. He put the car in gear and quickly left the parking lot. Jules’s words made the skin crawl a little, and Caius grit his teeth for a second. "You don't know that," he told her firmly. "Holding the keys doesn't make you an expert on what's behind the door." He had to believe she was wrong, because if this didn't work, Caius was out of ideas, and giving up wasn't an acceptable option. "Besides, I only care about helping one. I just have to find her."
"I know what's behind the door," Jules said simply. She kept her gaze focused on the road ahead of them. She had been dreaming of those creatures for months. They knew her too, or they wouldn't have let her live when the fog came over the town. Caius had asked her to get into his car and she had. But she knew this wasn't going to end the way he wanted it to. And then what? Her fingers flexed in her lap and she finally looked over at him, her emotion dulled for some strange reason. But she could still study his profile, and she did. Closely. "You think you can save her, but you wouldn't save anyone else? That's fucked up."
Not really knowing much about the dreams, or what Jules had to sacrifice to save nearly everyone left in town, Caius didn’t know what she knew about what was on the other side of the portal. He did know that she didn’t know shit about his power, as he’d told her the last time. She might not think he was up to the task, but that was just her ill-informed opinion. Caius wanted to see for himself. He had to try. He could feel her looking at him, but didn’t indulge in looking back, focused intently on the road. “If I could even find anyone else and they weren’t a liability, maybe, but ... that’s my mother,” he said shortly, like that explained everything. Maybe it wouldn’t to Jules, but it did to him. “I don’t give up on family, I have to try. ... and I don’t have to explain myself to you,” he added, his tone shifting into annoyance that he’d done just that. All this had him frazzled, he hated it.
"You asked me to come with you," Jules pointed out. "And I am. That doesn't mean I have to help you." It didn't seem to occur to her to question why she had gotten into his car so willingly. He had asked and he seemed sincere that she wouldn't get hurt. It had felt like the right thing to do, but what did he expect her to do once they got there? Just suddenly open up another world for him to go explore? She didn't want to do that. She didn't have to, did she? Her mind felt a little muddled, like she was swimming through dirty water and couldn't quite see the surface. Jules deliberately kept her gaze on his face. "You could die." She wasn't saying it for shock value, or to scare him. But maybe he didn't understand what those things could do to him, and to her, if she opened that place again.
It was almost funny to hear her say that she didn’t have to help, like she would have much of a choice once they got there. Caius hadn’t thought much about the lag time between abduction and arrival at their destination, and part of him was idly curious what the cognitive dissonance going on in her brain must be like. She wouldn’t have gotten into his car on her own, but here she was. He glanced over at her, squashing down his irritation in favor of using this time wisely. “We could all die at any time, you should get used to that idea,” he told her shortly first. Then Caius flexed his will on her again. “Tell me everything you know about this place, and what you can do with portals.” The more information he had, the better. Forewarned was forearmed.
His thoughts on death prompted an eye roll from Jules before she looked away. Sure, they could all die at any time, but wouldn't most people try to avoid death? Instead of running right into a heightened possibility of it? Caius's voice caused Jules to shift uncomfortably in her seat and she clasped her hands tightly between her knees. "It's Point Pleasant... but it's not. It's like... a shadow. There's blood and fog, and those monsters." Jules didn't know much beyond that. Beyond what she saw in her dreams and maybe what she saw with Phee. She still didn't know if that was the same place where Jasper and the others had gone. Talking about it made her hands tingle and she shook them quickly. "I don't really know what I can do. It just happens. But I knew I had to open the door to that place, so I did. And it hurts." She released a shaky breath. "Please don't make me do it."
Her description wasn’t exactly helpful, but Caius wasn’t sure he could press her for more. If that was everything she knew, that was everything she knew. A shadow of Point Pleasant. Did that mean the town was laid out the same on the other side of it, just some horrible nightmare version of it? If his mother had survived the initial wave of monsters, would she have made her way somewhere more familiar? Tried to get home, maybe? Having already been out to the site, Caius thought it was much more likely that she was out wandering in the woods, lost. His mother wasn’t exactly a wilderness-loving Boy Scout. Jules’s plea tugged at something in his chest, but Caius did his best to quickly smother it. He couldn’t afford to have sympathy for her. She’d obviously survived the ordeal just fine, so if it hurt, let it hurt. It probably didn’t come close to what his mother was going through. If she was even still alive. Caius was aware he might get this portal open and only find her corpse, if anything at all. But he still had to try. “You’ll be fine,” he repeated in a mutter.
Jules couldn't tell him what she didn't know. She had very limited knowledge of that place, and of her own abilities. It didn't seem to matter what she said either. Caius seemed determined to try and find his mom, no matter how dangerous. What if he died? What if she couldn't open the portal, or close it? Then everyone would probably die. Why didn't he understand? For a second, Jules considered grabbing the door and just jumping out of the car. But that was a really stupid idea and she was still clear-headed enough to know it. Caius had told her that he wasn't going to hurt her, and maybe against her better judgment, she believed him. The closer they got to the spot where it all happened, the more anxious Jules became. "This is a mistake," she murmured. "You don't understand... I don't even know if I can open it again. It could be something completely different. Something worse."
Fresh irritation climbed up Caius’s spine. She sounded genuinely scared and he didn’t like it. He was already keyed up enough for this, not yet knowing what he was walking into, trying to mentally prepare for fighting for his life and trying to find his mother in gods knew what kind of environment. Part of him knew he was going into this half-cocked, but he didn’t know how else to gather information to better prepare without at least seeing the place. Without being in it and knowing what to expect. Maybe today wouldn’t be the day he truly went searching, maybe he would have to fall back and plan more, but this was at least the first step. Reconnaissance. He had to use Jules while he had her under control. “You will open it, and we’ll both be fine,” he stated flatly, pushing his will on her again so she would stop worrying so much and just let this happen. “Now calm down and stop talking. We’re almost there.”
Jules obeyed, falling silent but for a soft whine in her throat as she looked out the window again. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe she would open that place, Caius could see for himself how dangerous it was, then he would let it go. Or... maybe they would be able to save everyone who had been sent there. Maybe Caius was as powerful as he seemed to be and Jules would have Jasper back. Hope flickered in her chest but deep down, she knew it was stupid to get her hopes up. All she could do now was show him how fruitless this was. Let him see for himself. They would be fine. He said so, and she believed him. When Caius finally pulled over, Jules wondered in a very vague way, how he knew where to go and where to stop. She supposed it didn't matter. Jules got out of the car, shivering against the chilly night breeze and for a moment, she considered running. She could hide in the woods and he would never find her. But then what? No, that was a stupid idea. He said that she would be fine. So she would be fine. Still, a part of her raged against what was happening, wanting to pull back from all of this and refuse. Jules didn't move, but watched Caius with a curious expression.
He felt much more settled with Jules’s mouth closed, and Caius thought he should’ve put that restriction on her from the outset. He’d needed to know what she knew though ... even though what she’d told him was kind of useless. She might as well have been an old hag by the side of the road in some fairytale, issuing vague and dire warnings. Nevermind that those hags were often right. Not this time. Caius was one of the most powerful witches in the area, he had goddamn demon blood, for fuck’s sake, he could handle himself. The memory of seeing the creatures in the fog tugged at the edges of his memory, how Reagan had been helpless caught out there in it, but Caius pushed it all down. He had to try, the imperative beating in his brain like a swollen sick heart. He had to try.
He let Jules get out of the car, sure that if she ran he could stop her easily, and let the Obscurities take over his vision. It was past dusk and the woods were dark now. He would’ve preferred to do this in the middle of the afternoon or something, but she’d been impossible to access at those times. Caius opened the back car door and took out the backpack there, rummaging in it for a moment before he slipped it onto his shoulders. He held the flashlight out to Jules. “You lead. Take me to the place you opened the portal the first time,” he instructed. Caius knew the general direction, but Nic’s magical resonance was faded by now and he had a feeling Jules would remember better than he did.
Jules turned away, facing the woods. They looked darker than before, the bare branches looking like thin arms, reaching out to her, welcoming her back. With her heart tripping in her chest, Jules began to walk, a cold sort of sensation rushing through her now. The deeper they walked into the trees, the heavier the air felt. She could remember it all. The fog. Jasper grabbing her. Carson changing into a werewolf. Fire. Her arms seemed to tingle with the memory of how it felt when Neil zapped her, trying to get her to close the portal. Portal. Was that even what it was? It didn't feel like it. Even doorway felt wrong. It was more like pulling back a curtain. Her mind had drifted away from her and Jules was somewhat startled to find they were standing in the clearing where it had happened the month before. "This is it," she muttered, stepping back from Caius. "I don't want to do this."
Caius had been in such a manic state the first time, desperate to rush to the place and find his mother, he’d hardly noticed how eerily quiet the woods were here. There were hardly any animal sounds at all. He wasn’t easily creeped out by anything, for obvious reasons, and he wasn't quite there yet, but maybe close. He followed Jules to the clearing, not surprised that she knew exactly where it was. There was no sign left of the event that he could see, any disturbed ground or burn marks covered up by snow and dark. He turned his full-black eyes on Jules, a hardness settling in his chest. He couldn’t care what she wanted. “I know,” he said as he slipped his backpack off his shoulders. Caius crouched to start pulling supplies out of it. “But stay put and wait. I’m going to set up a protective circle for you.” A loose plan was forming in his mind -- he would have Jules open the portal, see if anything immediately tried to come out of it. If it didn’t, he would have her keep it open while he briefly went in and got a sense of the place. If it didn’t seem like it would result in immediate death like she seemed to think, or if he didn’t find Miriam’s remains ... well, he would go from there. Moving quickly, Caius started muttering Latin words and walking in a wide circle around them, sprinkling an herbal mixture from a jar in his hand.
A protective circle. Jules would have snorted at that, had she been able to feel any amusement at the moment. Nothing was going to protect them from those things. She was disturbed by the dark look in his eyes, but Jules couldn't figure out if his eyes were really that black, or if the darkness surrounding them was making them look that way. Regardless of the reason, she felt a chill slither down her spine. Instinctively she still wanted to run, but Caius had told her to stay put, so she did, her eyes watching him as he moved around her in a circle. She could feel pinpricks of ice in the center of her palms and Jules flexed her fingers, trying to work out the discomfort. The dull pain was triggering a deeper anger in her gut. This was wrong. For a second, Jules stared at Caius, imagining opening a doorway to somewhere else. Shutting him inside of it forever. Problem solved. If he was so powerful, he could handle it. It was a dark consideration and Jules shook it away quickly. "Magic won't keep them away," she said. Her voice held less trepidation now. In its place was the irritation that was beginning to bubble beneath the surface. "It hadn't before. Just so you know."
Caius was already tense and agitated -- he would die before he acknowledged the fear, but it was present too -- and Jules’s words sent a hot flash of rage through him. “Do you ever shut the fuck up,” he let out in a growl as the Obscurities burst out of him, shadows flying through the air straight at Jules. He’d been preparing them already, ready to defend himself and the goddamn girl with everything he had, so they were stirred up. They swirled around her in a tight column, dimming the light from the flashlight down to nothing and making the woods vanish for a moment. Caius strode through the shadowy barrier and stopped almost toe to toe with Jules. It was all he could do not to put his hand around her throat, so he grabbed her skinny arm instead, giving her a little shake. The air around them dropped further into frigid temperatures. “There won’t be any chance at all if you don’t shut your mouth and let me work,” he hissed at her. Caius reached for as much control as he could get over her mind, hating having to expend this energy on something that ought to be simple. “This is happening,” he said, every word short and clipped. “Deal with it. Silently. Stand here until I’m ready for you. Don’t talk. And don’t try anything stupid, or you’ll disappear just as thoroughly as they did. Nod your head that you understand me.”
Jules tried to scream as soon as she saw those black shadows, but the sound caught in her throat, leaving her gasping for air instead when everything around her seemed to plunge into darkness. And then Caius was there, grabbing her arm and Jules was of the mind to try and gouge his eye out. He wasn't human. He couldn't be. Even if he was a witch, he wasn't like Nic. He was worse. She could shove her nails into his eyes until they bled. Her free hand had even begun to curl into a fist to try and beat at his head. Until he started to talk again. It wasn't comforting or soothing in any capacity, but it settled something in her chest, pushing down the fight or flight response until all she could do was nod numbly at his request, her fist relaxing until her hand rested limply at her side. He would have to see for himself how pointless this all was. Maybe one of those things would snap out of the fog and eat him, then she could run and never look back. Until then, she would wait. Wait until he told her what to do.
Caius was glad to see her relent. He knew she didn’t have any choice in the matter, but her silent cooperation would make this easier for him, and that was all he cared about. He let go of Jules and stepped back, flexing his magic to make the Obscurities clear off for the moment. They silently made their way skyward, swirling overhead for the moment, making all the fine hairs on the back of his neck prickle upward. “Good,” he said, and left Jules to go back to what he was doing. He’d told her that she had no idea what he was capable of and she hadn’t believed him, but now she saw, now she knew. If anybody had a chance in there, it was him.
Once Caius had established a magical perimeter that would shield them from most things and render them invisible to anything outside the circle, he smeared some of Reagan’s salve on the cut he’d had to make on his forearm and tugged his sleeve down. He was starting to feel an ache behind his eyes, and he silently cursed Jules Cooper for making him have to stretch himself thin to accomplish all of this. But he was working as well as he could with what he had, and it would hopefully be enough to get him inside the other place. He stepped up to Jules’s side. “Okay,” he said, a bit breathless and all of his skin buzzing with magic. He glanced around the clearing, then focused on Jules again, aware he had to be specific. “Now, open a portal to the same place where everyone else is trapped. Not big, just ... enough.”
Jules's gaze drifted upward to watch the dark shadows swirling around. She wondered if they were really there, or if she was hallucinating. Maybe this was all a dream, like the others had been. Why else was she being so complacent? Jules closed her eyes then, not wanting to see any more of what was happening around her. And then it hit her. She could reach out to Nic, or Neil. Were they still bonded telepathically? She could do that. Tell them where she was, what was happening. Surely one of them would come to find her. Nic, probably. But Jules didn't have any time to open her mind to them, to even test and see if they could still hear her. Because Caius was suddenly standing there, instructing her to open that doorway.
With a pained expression, Jules tugged off her gloves. She honestly had no idea if she could do this or not. The only time she had ever opened another world on purpose was when she knew she had to. The other times had been terrifying accidents. It was too hard to explain to him and Jules didn't think he would care much anyway. So she shoved her gloves into her coat pockets and flexed her hands again, like she could find the right On and Off switch to get them working. He told her to do it, so she had to do it. Jules took a deep breath and thought about the Other Place. The fog. The creatures. The place that looked like home, but was another version of Hell. And then the pain sliced through her hands, the skin feeling as though it were ripping open. Burning. Jules screamed, though the sound was cut off abruptly by the nausea that choked her. The world in front of them began to shift, turning gray and desolate. Just like before. She couldn't keep it small like he told her to, because Jules didn't think it worked that way. And if it did, she didn't know how to control it. All she knew was the trees suddenly looked black and the fog began to drift out towards them, thick and menacing. Jules stepped back instinctively, wanting to leave Caius to deal with the fallout.
In spite of Jules screaming, it was fascinating to watch. Caius privately marveled at her power as the woods around them began to change. It didn’t look quite like he’d expected it to look, there wasn’t much clear delineation between the worlds, the area in front of them just shifted into something else. They were the same trees but not, and the light quality changed. And of course there was the fog. Caius watched as it rolled out toward them, but stopped at the magical barrier he’d created, almost climbing it like there was glass there. He watched it for a few heartbeats, mesmerized, but then Caius shook himself and focused. He might not have a lot of time. “Keep it open until I say otherwise,” he told Jules shortly, and moved away from her. Caius crossed the protective circle, silently calling the Obscurities to him as he hurried into other place.
He could feel the change in the air and the increased pressure on his eardrums, like he was suddenly underwater. Heart thudding hard in his throat, he looked back to make sure he could still see Jules, and he could, standing obediently but still looking terrified. That was fine. After he’d taken another few paces, the fog up past his knees, he looked back again. He could see the Obscurities, but they were still on the other side of the invisible line, swirling around with what looked like agitation. Caius realized he couldn’t feel them anymore, and his stomach sank with dread. That was a bad sign. He licked his lips, eyes darting around. There was damage to the trees here, like there had been something huge crashing through them, and as Caius’s gaze scanned through them, they caught on an unusual shape up in the branches. It didn’t take long for him to recognize it as a mangled human body. “Fuck,” he whispered, looking at the fog down below again. Who knew what it could be hiding.
Breathing hard now -- the very air felt thicker here, not just physically, there was a sense of danger all around him -- Caius pulled his knife out of his pocket again and fumbled a few items out of his pack. The sense that he was being watched grew and grew as he made another incision on his arm and dripped blood into a small jar, reciting the incantation for a quick-and-dirty location spell to hunt for anyone in his bloodline. He was supposed to feel a pull in the right direction in the middle of his chest, but Caius felt ... nothing. No pull, no hum of his magic doing its work, just the pain from the cut in his skin and a growing fear. A slithering sort of sound off to his left made his head whip around, but he still couldn’t see shit. Caius tried to clear the fog away from him with a sweep of his arm, something that should’ve been as easy as breathing, since air was his element. But again, nothing happened. His magic didn’t work here. It was like suddenly missing a limb.
Suddenly terrified, he heard more shifting sounds from all around him now, and something large and dark moved behind the trees in the corner of his eye. Caius backed up a few unsteady steps, then turned and rushed back through into his own world. The Obscurities surrounded him immediately, and he could feel their vague and alien distress pressing against his mind as their connection re-formed. “Close it!” he said to Jules, his voice louder than he wanted it to be in the quiet clearing.
Jules stayed put, but her eyes were wide and terrified as she watched the fog spread around the protective circle Caius had created. For a second she thought she saw something dark in the fog, slithering away into the trees but when she looked closer, she couldn't see a thing. Breathing hard, she looked up to see the body tangled in the tree. Jules clutched her burning hands to her chest, paralyzed by the fear that it was Jasper. Only when she was able to confirm that it wasn't did she breathe again, which was when she looked over to see Caius coming back, looking pale and shaken. Her heart was beating so hard she could hear it in her ears. Did he say close it? The dark shadows were moving again, just like before. Where was Jasper? Was he already dead like the body in the trees? It was her fault and this was nothing more than a horrible nightmare. "I told you," Jules said, her voice barely above a whisper before the fury took over. It was unbridled, uncontrollable. She hadn't wanted to see any of this again, but here she was, watching the fog seep out around them, like nothing she and Nic and Neil and Carson had done before mattered. "I told you!" She screamed now, her throat raw and sore, her body trembling from the violent anger racing through her. "I should let them take you too! I should let them fucking eat you, you asshole!"
Caius could hear the wrenching pain and rage in her voice, and it did nothing but ignite his own fury. “Fucking close it!” he roared back at her. Magic suddenly surging through him again, he grabbed hold of her mind and wrenched as hard as he could, the one imperative like a fist pummeling over and over. Close it close it CLOSE IT. There was no time to fuck around, because she had been right, and she had told him, and Caius had failed. Which was the Worst Thing, because that meant his mother had no chance over there. She would be better off if she was already dead. Caius hoped she was. The grief from that truth had hit him like a freight train and he couldn’t process being wrong on top of all of it. He wanted to take it out on the girl in that second, to rip the air from her screeching lungs and steal the very oxygen from her bloodstream and watch her choke and suffer. She’d locked them all away over there, she’d closed them up with monsters, it was her fault, and if Nic had been there Caius would’ve killed him too. His family was all he had, and that was his fucking mother they’d murdered. There were already tears streaming down from his wild eyes as he pushed everything he had to force her to close the portal and then calm down. He wanted an empty, pliable shell at the moment, or he was going to completely lose his mind and hurt her.
It suddenly felt like there was a hammer between her eyes, sending shockwaves of dull pain through her. Close it. She had to close it, just like before. But... Jasper was still in there. What if he was alive? Close it. Without giving it any more thought, Jules did what Caius demanded, watching as the trees in front of them began to shift and change again, the fog beginning to dissipate. The shadows disappeared, leaving Caius and Jules alone once more in the clearing. The burning sensations in her palms began to fade, but her stomach lurched and Jules twisted around and doubled over before vomiting. The acid burned her throat, bringing more tears to her eyes, but Jules tried to hold it together. Were they all dead, like the man in the tree? Jules squeezed her eyes shut and shuddered before vomiting again. It was something she was getting used to, an unfortunate side effect from what she was able to do. In a vague sort of way, she wished she had puked on Caius instead.
Caius turned to see the other world fade away, replaced by the twisting creepy trees that normally made up this forest. The fog went away and it was all empty clearing again. He heard Jules throwing up behind him, but he couldn’t bring himself to care, his own chest and stomach and head full of rending pain. Caius covered his face with his hands as a couple of sobs ripped through him and the hard reality settled in. If his magic was useless over there, his father’s likely would be too. They couldn’t help Miriam. He’d been in there for a minute or two at best and there’d been predators all around, Caius just couldn’t imagine she’d survived for very long on her own. Even with her TK, assuming it still worked on the other side ... she was gone for good. He couldn’t indulge the grief for long, not out here. There were other things in the woods to fear, and he had to get the girl back to her car, wipe her memory, and send her home. He pulled his hands away to wipe his face and saw there was blood on them. His nose was bleeding, fuck. Caius pulled his shirt up to wipe it away and turned back to Jules. He couldn’t say she was right, he couldn’t apologize, he just wanted to puppet her back to the car and get rid of her. “Go back with me,” he said, still pushing his will onto her. “I’ll take you back to your car. You won’t remember any of this, so stay calm.”
Once she was sure her stomach was empty, Jules wiped her mouth with the back of her sleeve. Her body felt as if a truck had slammed into it, but there was Caius's voice again, telling her she wouldn't remember this. How was that possible? She would remember every second of this nightmare, and it was his fault. But he was going to take her back to her car and that was all Jules really wanted, to be away from him and back home where she could lock herself away in her bedroom. Feeling numb and bruised, Jules began to walk back through the woods, away from the clearing and not bothering to wait for Caius. He would follow. She felt oddly calm now, though she wanted to berate him some more for being so stupid, so arrogant. The words just wouldn't come, and frankly, her throat hurt too much from puking to do much more than whisper. But she had been right and now he knew it. Now he could stew in that. He saw what she could do now, so if he was smart, he would never come near her again or she would send him somewhere else. Somewhere far away and awful.
It was a long, cold trudge through the woods back to the car. The Obscurities had vanished again, so he was reliant on the flashlight to see, and part of Caius wanted to just stop. Tell Jules to take his car, do whatever she wanted, while he just got lost in the woods for a while. Days, weeks maybe. He felt almost guilty leaving them behind, like he was abandoning his mother all over again. But what could he do? She was beyond anyone’s reach now. Caius didn’t feel much guilt for putting Jules through all of this, her power clearly took a toll on her even if it wasn’t deadly, or maybe she was just reacting to his magical influence, he didn’t know. It didn’t matter. He’d had to know what the situation was and now he did. He could relay that to his father and they could ... start mourning, that was all Caius could think of as a next step. Mourn and get Miriam’s affairs in order.
A numbness settled over him as they wearily climbed back into his BMW. He turned the heat up for Jules’s benefit only and maintained the silence as he drove them back to the beach and its parking lot. It was dark but not technically very late, so he hoped Jules wouldn’t even be missed by anyone. Finally he was pulling up next to Jules’s car. Caius put his own in park and turned to look at her more fully. There was dried blood crusted around his nose now and he had a splitting headache, but he knew he would get through this backlash. It was the most he’d ever ‘influenced’ someone and it hurt and he hoped never to have to do something like this again. “You’ll get out and get into your car and close your eyes for a few minutes,” he instructed her. “When you open them again, you’ll think you just dozed off in the parking lot after walking on the beach. You’ll forget I ever even approached you today and everything that happened after that, okay? You’ll go home and get a good night’s sleep and feel better in the morning.”
Jules stared at him for a moment, letting his instructions wash over her. Finally she gave a small nod. "Okay." It felt like a silly thing, to forget all of this, but she would try, if he wanted her to. Still, Jules couldn't help but study him for a moment more, like she was memorizing his face somehow. Then she moved to get out of the car, her legs feeling stiff and weak but somehow managing to keep her upright. The salty sea air smelled so much nicer than the dead woods. Finding her keys, Jules got into her car, but watched Caius's car even as she slipped into the driver's seat. Her eyes were tired so eventually she laid her head back to close them for a few minutes. Before she knew it, she was dozing, thoughts of what had happened tonight starting to fade into nothing more than a dream.
There was no way for Caius to know if the instructions would take or hold for long. Getting Brianna to give him her grimoire had been easy, and wiping Caden Lucas’s memory of him had gone smoothly, but neither of those events carried this kind of trauma. There was something different in Jules’s big blue eyes too, some steel core he could almost see. Or maybe her screaming that she should kill him was too fresh in his own mind. He watched her in return until she shut her eyes, then let out a soft sigh. Only time would tell on the rest of it working, and he honestly didn’t give a shit right then about what kind of trouble a teen girl could bring him. Caius put the BMW back in drive and pulled away, every limb feeling weighed down as he headed home. He would face his father in the morning. He needed Reagan, several stiff drinks, and his bed, and that was all.