Caius D'Onofrio (poweroftheeye) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2020-11-20 11:40:00 |
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Entry tags: | #may 2018, caius, caius x miriam, miriam |
Who: Miriam and Caius
When: midday, early May, a few days after Miriam's return
Where: the D’Onofrio house
Status: complete
The rollercoaster of his mother’s return had been hard for Caius. When his father had called him with the news that Miriam was back, he’d been briefly over the moon excited, but then came the caveat that she didn’t really remember herself or them. He’d gone to see her, and had felt uncomfortably closed off. It was like a stranger looking through his mother’s eyes, and he hadn’t been sure how to handle it. He definitely hadn’t felt free to pour his heart out to her and weep and tell her how hard he’d tried to save her and how incredibly relieved he was that she was alive. All of that had to stay firmly inside.
For a couple of days, he worried that she wouldn’t ever remember him. It was a worse feeling than he wanted to admit to anyone, even himself. Caius was particularly bonded to his father, but their relationship wasn’t really based on love. Anthony was grooming him to inherit his legacy, he was hard on Caius, there were the complexities of magical training ... But Miriam was his mother, the only real source of softness and unconditional affection he’d had until Reagan had come into his life. She might not be a perfect mom, but she’d taught him to love when that was Anthony’s very last priority. She meant a lot to him.
So when Sera called him to say their mom had her memories back, Caius got out of work as soon as he could. He made a couple of quick stops before he pulled up at the house, and had a bouquet of flowers and a bag with her favorite cookies from the bakery in his hands as he unlocked the front door and let himself in. Anthony was still at the office and Sera was in school, so they would have some time alone together, and Caius was glad for that. His heart beating hard in his chest, Caius shut the door and called out for her. “Mom? It’s Caius.”
The last few days had been difficult in a way that Miriam had never experienced before. Not knowing who she was had been frustrating, but the pressure to remember had been exhausting. She was generally a patient woman, but she'd wanted her memories back with a snap of her fingers--or those of her witchy husband, who could do no more to speed along the process than she could. Miriam knew it was all there, locked away somewhere, but it was like her body had made the return trip before her identity and it took it's own sweet time to trickle in.
Memories of the dark place came first. She could recall hiding in a twisted version of Juniper, monsters lurking outside the walls, and sleepless nights that never seemed to end. She could sleep now, but nightmares woke her, and she walked the house at night, looking at pictures, waiting for happier memories to return. She knew Anthony was her husband, but it was sometimes hard for her to understand how she'd married such a cold man. Yet, there was a spark of something when she looked at him, something that grew as she began to remember, and once she had her memories back she better understood the distance he kept. He was not the sort of man to weep over her return.
Her daughter had been warmer, thrilled to have her mother back. Miriam hoped Caius would be the same, aware that their initial meeting had been rather cold as well. But that was only natural, wasn't it? He'd been a stranger to her then. He wasn't a stranger to her now though, and when he called out to her Miriam dropped what she was doing and made her way towards the foyer. "Caius?" she called out, her face lighting up when she caught sight of him. Miriam immediately went to hug him, not sure there were words that captured how she felt. "I'm so glad you stopped by," she said softly.
The foyer was big enough that Caius had time to set the bouquet down on the side table next to him when he saw Miriam coming. The cookie bag just got dropped on the floor so he could embrace her with both arms. Caius hugged her tight to him, his cheek against her hair as so many different emotions surged forward inside of him. He’d been holding back so hard when he’d seen her the first time, not wanting to overwhelm her when she was already confused and not herself -- not feeling safe to be vulnerable with a practical stranger. He could already feel the difference in Miriam now. She was back, she was really his mother again. His grip on her tightened and his breathing hitched as tears filled his dark eyes. There was suddenly so much he wanted to tell her, it all got blocked up in his throat, and Caius thought he might choke on the flood of emotion. “Mom,” was all he got out, the word ragged.
While he was a grown man now, to Miriam Caius would always be her little boy. Her first encounter with him had felt stilted, but this felt right, the kind of welcome home she needed now that she was herself again. She hugged him tight, able to feel that hitch in his breath that she would never call attention to. She wasn’t generally emotional herself, but even she felt herself tear up a little. “It’s me this time,” she said softly. “It’s so good to see you. I missed you.” She’d thought a lot about her kids while she was stuck on the other side, wondering what their lives would look like going forward. She’d mourned the future she lost with them, but all that was back now. It was fixed, even if she didn’t know how. It didn’t matter. She was home.
Caius wasn’t sure that he could express how he’d felt while she was gone, that horrible sorrow and desperation. He’d all but tortured a teenage girl on Miriam’s behalf, trying to get her back. He wanted her to know that he’d tried, and he hadn’t just shrugged off her disappearance and forgotten about her. “I missed you too,” he whispered, hugging her even tighter for a second before he loosened up and pulled back to look at her face. Caius cupped her jaw with both hands and kissed her forehead. “I’m so happy you’re back. I ... I tried to get to you. I promise I really did. I made that girl open the portal again and -- and went into that awful place, but my magic didn’t work there and it was just -- I couldn’t hold her there and I couldn’t find you ...” His nose was stinging and his throat was closing up. Caius tried to clear it and impatiently wiped at his eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“Honey,” Miriam said, her voice soft and consoling as she pulled back enough to look at him. “You don’t need to apologize. You did what you could, and probably more than you should have, but that place—it was working against you. Against all of us.” And if Caius had gotten himself trapped there with her while trying to save her, Miriam would have been devastated. He was strong and intelligent, but that place turned everything on its head. It didn’t surprise her to hear his magic hadn’t worked. She’d lost her abilities as well. Her hands slid down to grasp his and she squeezed them tight. “Thank you for trying though. I mean it. It means the world to me.” She’d have moved heaven and earth to get him back, though she recognized that her own powers were limited compared to his. “Come in. Sit down and tell me what happened.”
The relief Caius felt when his mother didn’t hold his failure against him was more profound than he would have thought. Nobody else had blamed him, of course, but he’d been beating himself up about it for months now. Still choked up with emotion, Caius nodded and squeezed Miriam’s hands back. He let go of her so he could pick up the flowers and the bag of treats he’d brought, offering them out to her with a sheepish little smile. “Never show up empty-handed, you taught me that,” he murmured as they started to walk deeper into the house.
Miriam knew that Caius was one of the most powerful witches in town, possibly the best, and if he’d done everything he could to get her back and failed, it was not for lack of trying on his part. When she’d been trapped in that place, she’d been so sure that Anthony would save her, but as time passed, she began to suspect that where they were was beyond a witch’s abilities. The only way in would have been through that girl and it sounded like Caius had even tried that. Miriam took the cookies and flowers from him with a warm smile, then hugged him once more before leading them into the kitchen. “You didn’t have to, but you know I appreciate it. It’s been ages since I had sweets of any kind.”
Caius had done everything he could think to do, but the idea that there was some possible solution out there that he was just missing had haunted him. What if he just hadn’t looked hard enough? But that was all moot now, because Miriam was home. Caius still didn’t know why, and his father didn’t seem to know either. He didn’t know how much he could trust that ignorance, but that was par for the course with his father, wasn’t it? He just wanted to focus on Miriam now. Caius followed her into the kitchen and slipped out of his jacket before he sat down at the table. “I hope you enjoy them,” he told her. “Do you ... feel like all your memories are back?”
“I think so, but at this point it would be hard for me to say what’s missing and what’s not,” Miriam said as she unboxed two of the cookies, putting two on a plate. One for each of them, in case he wanted one. “I feel like everything important is back. The days before I left are a bit scrambled, but I think that’s due in large part to whatever was affecting me.” Looking back, she could see she wasn’t herself, but she still couldn’t explain what had taken hold of her. She knew it was due to the fog creatures scratching her, but how that went to her brain she didn’t think she’d ever completely understand. Whatever it was, it was gone now, and that was what mattered. Miriam sat down at the table with Caius and offered him a cookie before picking up her own.
He accepted the cookie with a faint smile, nodding slightly that he understood her predicament. If most of the holes were filled in now, how could she know what he didn’t remember yet? She knew him, and obviously knew the rest of the family, and that was what mainly mattered to Caius. He took a nibble from the cookie before he answered. “You definitely weren’t yourself in those last days,” he agreed. Miriam had almost killed Anthony, and Caius couldn’t imagine the chaos she would be coming back to if she’d drained him completely. He mentally patted himself on the back once more for saving his father’s life, even if it wasn’t fully appreciated beyond himself. “And you remember what makes you special?” he asked, arching a thick brow at her. “And me and Dad and Reagan?”
Miriam didn't like to think about the days leading up to her disappearance. It was like looking at the life of someone else, someone who was clearly out of her mind. She was just relieved that she hadn't done any irreparable damage. "Well, James McCarthy was quick to remind me that your father is a witch, which seems rather careless if you ask me. I didn't remember at the time, but I do now. You, your father, Reagan... but not Sera," Miriam said, fairly certain that was correct. She had no memories of Sera practicing magic, or even discussing it. But then there weren't a lot of conversations about magic to begin with because she wasn't a witch. Miriam’s lips twitched up as she considered her own abilities. “I’m a sort of psychic. I’ve got telekinetic abilities. I just don’t remember ever using them, except for the night we got taken.”
Caius looked a little appalled that James had dropped that bomb on Miriam when she didn’t even remember who she was. It sounded careless to him too. What if she’d just laughed him off as a lunatic and continued walking down the street? He could’ve ruined all credibility he had as a rescuer. Caius let it pass for the moment though, chalking it up to worry about Brianna clouding James’s judgement. He hated to think one of his so-called peers could be so foolish. “Not Sera,” Caius confirmed with a small shake of his head. It was strangely good to hear his mother say his wife’s name again. He hadn’t even known he’d missed that, like it was a symbol of Miriam being involved in his life. Caius was glad that Miriam remembered such an integral part of herself, even if it wasn’t in a very detailed way. “You’re formidable,” he told her with a slow smile. “I’ve seen it first-hand, you’re more than ‘sort of’ psychic. So your powers didn’t work over there on the other side?”
Miriam liked the idea that she could be formidable, even if she wasn't sure if that was true. It made her feel a little closer to an equal with a husband and son that had powers beyond her reach. She wanted to push herself and see what she was truly capable of, but thought it might be best to wait and see if all her memories had returned. She had the feeling she'd know herself better then. "No," she said. "As soon as we stepped through they were gone. I know Brianna's were gone as well. It was like someone flipped a switch, which is terrifying in itself. When you've lived with something for so long, it becomes a part of you. It was like--like losing my sense of smell, which I would have preferred, to be honest."
He nodded slowly, the selfish half of him relieved to hear he wasn’t the only one who turned powerless over there. Magic and telekinesis surely could’ve helped them, so it wasn’t a good thing by far, but still. That part hadn’t been a failing of his. The few moments he’d been over there and empty of magic had been awful, he couldn’t imagine going through it for three solid months. He felt for Brianna and his mother especially. “I don’t know if you remember, but Reagan sacrificed her magic a while back in a ritual to restore a chunk of memories I’d lost ... it’s a long story, but I remember how much she suffered. I’m sorry you had to go through that on top of everything else.” He reached over the table to touch his mother’s hand. “The lack of magic is what kept me from finding you when I went over,” Caius told her. “I was ready with a locator spell and everything. Just ... nothing worked.”
Miriam remembered Caius losing his memories of Reagan, though she couldn't quite explain how or why it happened. And she recalled Reagan losing her powers, though at the time it hadn't seemed like a big deal. Now that she could relate, she knew how devastating it could be. Miriam didn't think she'd ever used her abilities as often as Reagan did, but they'd been gone when she needed them the most. It had been a frightening experience, one she was glad to put behind her. "I'm just glad it's over," she said. "And that you didn't spend a second more in that place. It could have so easily pulled you in and torn you to pieces. I think the only reason we survived was by sticking together. That and--it's bizarre, but we didn't need to eat, so we didn't have to risk our lives searching for food."
Of course his mother didn’t want him to be in any danger, but part of Caius still felt like a coward for backing out of that place. Maybe he was just smart, though. He couldn’t very well accomplish much if he was dead, could he? Torn apart by otherworldly monsters. He had to live to fight another day, or whatever that saying was. “Yeah, the eating part is so strange,” he murmured. “Almost like your bodies were in stasis over there ... but your hair looks a bit longer, so a selective kind of stasis? Who knows. I’m glad it’s over too.” Caius reached over to take Miriam’s hand. “I missed you an incredible amount, it’s so good to see you feeling like yourself again.” There were a select few people Caius was utterly sincere with, and his mother was one of them.
So much of that world hadn’t made sense and it troubled Miriam to know that they’d never have answers to how it all happened. The girl that could open portals hadn’t let the fog monsters in the first time, so where had they come from? And how exactly had she gotten back home? Why did her hair and nails grow, but she not need to eat? She was grateful for that fact—she’d have starved otherwise—but it defied all logic. Maybe there was something in the air there that nurtured them, like breathing in food and water, but that idea was so disgusting that she didn’t want to really consider it. Miriam couldn’t stand to think that inhaling some form of black mold had kept her alive. “It’s the most frightening and bizarre thing I’ve ever experienced, but… I’m home now. And, like you said, it’s over,” she said, giving him a warm smile as she squeezed his hand. “I missed you, too, you know. You’ll have to catch me up on everything that’s happened while I was gone.”
Caius was aware of all the unanswerable questions, and while that would normally drive him crazy, in this situation he was just so relieved that place had released its hold on his mother. It was nice that the others were back too, whatever, but Miriam was the most important to him. “It’s actually been pretty quiet and boring around here for the past few months,” Caius told her with a chuckle. “Besides grief over you, of course ... nothing supernatural has really happened in town that I’ve heard of, it’s been a little worrying, honestly. Sera’s just been doing school, getting ready to graduate ... all the businesses are going well. No news with Reagan, really ... quiet, like I said.” He didn’t know if that meant something in the town had been satisfied with all of those people disappearing at once, or if this down time would’ve happened regardless. Caius was inclined to believe it was the former. “Makes me wonder how things will go now that you’re all coming back.”
“Quiet in this town is good,” Miriam said. “I don’t think we brought anything back with us. And I feel normal again, not like I was before. But that doesn’t mean something won’t happen.” Having lived in Point Pleasant for as long as she had, Miriam knew that something always happened. It was just a matter of time. Her family tended to fare better than most, for which she’d always been thankful, but even magic hadn’t been able to prevent her from being trapped in that other world. Whatever happened next, Miriam hoped it was much more tame, a blip in their radar so to speak. “I know you and your father keep us well protected, but we should be on our guard, just in case.”
He realized he’d been waiting for something to feel off now that he was around Miriam again -- for his energy to slowly deplete, or some of that uneasiness to come back -- but Caius felt fine. Nothing about her was sticking out to him as being wrong, and it was so reassuring. Before she’d disappeared, there at the end, she’d scared him a little. Caius nodded his agreement to her caution, giving a faint smile. “Always on our guard,” he murmured, squeezing her fingers gently again. “We can never assume anything’s over, but we will do everything in our power to make sure you don’t go anywhere again.” He knew that probably wasn’t a lot of comfort, considering they hadn’t been able to stop it last time, but at least they knew what to look for now, if the infection began to repeat itself, and they could take action a lot sooner. “If you’d be willing, I would like to give you a sort of ... magical check-up, soon. To make sure there’s nothing detectable going on with you.”
“Last time it happened, they… they drew us out. Somehow compelled all of us to gather together before shutting us away. I assume witchcraft was involved, but maybe not. If it was, could you prevent that from happening again? I would rather be knocked out in this world than awake in the other, if it comes to that.” It was a lot to ask for her son, and she really didn’t think it was necessary, but she felt like they needed to have a plan in place, just in case. She didn’t want to harm those she cared about, but the thought of going back there chilled her to the bone. “If a magical check-up can rule out any possibilities of that ever happening again, then of course,” she smiled. “Just tell me what to do.”
Caius hadn’t had a chance to really talk to Nic yet, but he was sure some witchcraft had been involved in pulling them all together. Unless it was another power of the portal-girl’s. He was going to find out the details to make sure Miriam was shielded from it, should it happen again, that was for sure. He and his father would be taking care of her from now on, no matter what anybody else had to say about it. “I’ll find out how it was done,” he told her with a slow nod. “And I’ll ward you against it. Nic Castell was involved in all this, he’ll tell me what happened. I’ll get set up to check you out, maybe tomorrow?” Caius lifted a questioning brow at her. “I don’t sense anything off about you anymore, but just for everyone’s peace of mind.” He thought his father might want to check her as well, but Caius still wanted to see for himself.
Miriam wondered if Vivian had any idea what her wayward son had been up to, but she somehow doubted it. The Castells had lost control of their children ages ago. It was foolish to think they had knowledge of them now that they were adults. Miriam barely recalled Nic that night, when the portal had opened, but she distinctly remembered hurling a tree in his general direction. It was a shame it hadn't hit him. "Tomorrow would be perfect," she smiled back at Caius. "I'm already scheduled to get my nails done later this afternoon, and I've got a hair appointment tomorrow morning, so sometime after that." They seemed like trivial things, but after months without even a shower a fresh cut and color would make her feel like a civilized person once again.
For some reason that put a happy warmth in Caius’s chest, and he laughed softly, his smile bright at his mother. Maybe it was because they were such normal activities, proof that Miriam was really Miriam again, a woman who never let her manicure get out of hand. All of them knew how important appearance was. “Tomorrow afternoon it is, then,” he murmured warmly. On impulse, Caius stood up and leaned in close to kiss Miriam’s temple. Her smell was so comforting, he wanted to curl up on her lap like a little boy again. He was a bit too big for that now, so he just had to stay close to her in other ways. “Meanwhile, is there anything I can do for you now? Make you lunch, get your summer clothes out of storage or anything?”
Though he was a grown man, Miriam appreciated the affection she received from her son. He would always be her baby and those little gestures did more to show he cared than he could ever possibly know. She wanted to hug him again, but she also didn't want to be overbearing, so she just smiled warmly. "If you don't have to run off, maybe we could run out to lunch real quick. I'm still getting the kitchen back in order the way I like it and it would be easier if you didn't have to muddle through it all. Perhaps something on the boardwalk?"
Caius didn’t allow very many people to get close to him, so the ones he did let in were important. Reagan and his mother topped that list, there was no question. He knew he had a lot of his father in him and he could be cold, so he tried not to be so at the people he loved the most. He straightened up and smiled at her suggestion. “That would be perfect,” he told her. “My treat, of course.” Lunch out with his mom -- his mom, the one who remembered him -- sounded so normal and banal, it was perfect, an unspeakable relief. They could chat about nothing and let everything settle back into the way it was supposed to be.