Sabrina fell to her knees, scrambling forward against the ground to try and get to her friends who laid scattered around the classroom floor. All of them were charred nearly beyond recognition, the walls still smoking from the fire that she’d accidentally unleashed moments before. The stench of burning flesh was overwhelming, soot searing at her eyes as she moved from one to the next, looking for any sign of life.
Each touch of her hands did absolutely nothing.
There was no healing, no bringing any of them back, no matter how much she tried to will the life back into them.
She heard the headmistress’ voice as the door opened, calling out her name as the fire that was stirred inside of her seemed to ignite again, desperate for release. She tried to pull it back inside, to keep it from doing any more damage, but it lashed out just as it had seconds before, killing those who had tried to help.
Sabrina teleported as best she could through her sobs, nearly going to the mortuary but she didn’t want to chance hurting anyone there. She ended up in Pandemonium, the hounds howling in greeting.
They never stood a chance as the hellfire that seemed to want to devour her took them as well. It was all-consuming, destroying everything in its path except for the throne.
Salem was next. The look of betrayal as the fire had swept him up had her curling in on herself, trying to lock Pandemonium away from anyone else.
It didn’t work though.
One after the other, some coming to try and help, others to try and stop her or simply put her out of her misery. But anyone who stepped through was immediately devoured by the flames.
Dan and Allison.
Covens.
Friends she’d made. Others she barely knew from the network.
Hazel and Roz.
Ambrose.
Lucifer.
Nick.
No amount of screaming helped, her tears barely sliding down her cheek before they were consumed by the flames as well.
And then the world righted itself, slamming her back to sitting in school at the beginning of the day. Only for it all to start again and the outcome was always the same.
"Sabrina!" Nick's voice was panicked as it resonated within Sabrina's dream, accompanied by a brief vision of him trapped with Pandemonium. "Sabrina?"
It was the panicked sound of his voice, slightly different than the one that had been looping inside of her own accompanied with him trapped in Pandemonium, that broke Sabrina from the continuation. She didn’t know what it was or how she knew it but something was off.
The dream that she was trapped inside of continued on but Sabrina stepped out of it and into through the liminal spaces of the other dreams that were wrapped around her own, seeking out Nick’s.
Nick was in hell, literally. Chained up, but otherwise alone. Stuck in that damned costume Lilith had forced him into, with Lucifer screaming at him from within that this is where he belonged.
Only unlike before, he was no longer fighting it. This was where he belonged, where he'd be eternally tormented, but as long as he was alone no one else needed to suffer with him.
So when Sabrina arrived in Pandemonium he looked at her with pure terror in his eyes. She couldn't be here. No one could. "Spellman, leave," he hissed at her.
“No.” If there was one word to describe Sabrina, it was stubborn, and she wasn’t about to leave Nick in his current predicament. It had taken her far too long to get him out of a similar situation the first time around, she wasn’t going to let it take as long this time around.
Except wait. This didn’t make sense. Pandemonium was in Vallo, but there wasn’t anyone to lock him away in it now. She couldn’t hear the hounds like she was used to, certain they would have been around the two right away. And the room they were in wasn’t right either. She’d destroyed half of the statues that seemed to be perfectly fine now.
Sabrina headed over to Nick, kneeling down in front of him. “The one thing I’ll never willingly do is leave you, Nick.”
"You need to, you don't belong here," Nick replied, desperation in his voice.. "But I do. This is where I belong."
He looked at her, seeing her in two forms. One as Sabrina Spellman, his girlfriend who he loved, who he would sacrifice himself for.
The other she was Sabrina Scratch and he'd fully taken over the mantle from Lucifer. He was a monster, and he'd dragged her down with him so that the two of them were hell-bent on destroying everything.
"Spellman, leave. Now." He repeated.
She reached over, cradling his head with her hands. “You don’t belong here, Nick. Neither of us belong here.” It was part of them, would always be a part of them no matter how much they might want to deny it, but they didn’t belong to Hell.
“I don’t think this is even real.” Because she’d killed him only a few moments ago. Repeatedly killed him and everyone else in Vallo. And then she’d come here, to where he was. Which was also technically where she had been...but not.
Sabrina looked at her hands, blinking at how distorted they seemed to be. Wasn’t that a thing Dan had said happened in dreams? “Look at your hands, Nick. This isn’t…”
Batibat.
This had to be Batibat. But she shouldn’t have been in the house. She’d unleashed her on Blackwood...no. The house was from before that. From when Nick was trapped in Hell and she’d been trying to get him out. Batibat would have still been in the house.
“Look at your hands.”
The absurdity of the statement gave Nick pause, and he stared at Sabrina for a moment before looking down at his hands. Oh. Oh. He was dreaming, instantly recognizing the tells that Dan had told him to look for now that Sabrina had directed his attention that way.
Wait.
"Sabrina… how are you here?"
“I’ve walked through dreams before.” She hadn’t really ever wanted to do that again, but if Batibat had somehow been released then Sabrina had a feeling she was going to be walking through a number of dreams to get to Dan.
“Recognizing that we’re in a dream helps. I think this is Batibat. She’s a sleep demon. My family trapped her once--well twice, cause my dad did it first in the acheron and then we did it...but I think this is her. Again. Screwing with all of us.”
She brushed her hands through Nick’s hair. “We need to find the others. Do you think you can help me with that? It’s okay if you can’t.” Sabrina knew how debilitating the nightmares could be.
Looking down at his hands once more, Nick nodded. "I can try."
He willed himself out of his current outfit but it didn't work. "Wearing this, I guess."
Sabrina had an idea of how much being stuck in that getup had to be messing with his mind. Another reason to curse Lilith and the Dark Lord. She hoped they never showed up in Vallo. “I’m going to look for Dan. I think he might be the one who can put a stop to this.”
She pressed her forehead to his, needing another minute with him. After having killed him countless times in her own dream, it helped to be able to hold him for a second. “Can you look for Ambrose and Roz?”
"Yeah, Spellman. I'll find them." Nick said with more confidence than may have been justified. But there was no way he was leaving either of his friends trapped in their own nightmares the way he'd just been trapped within his.
“I’ll find you again after I’m done talking with Dan,” Sabrina promised. She didn’t really want to leave him but it would be easier if they split up. “Batibat can manipulate dreams but so can we now that we know we’re in one.”
She touched her neck, imagining the necklaces that were usually around it. Sabrina held up the one that had Nick’s image attached to it. “I’ll find you with this.”
After having trying to change clothes, Sabrina's ability to manifest the necklace may have given Nick some grief, but mostly he was just happy she had a way to track him down. "Be careful, Spellman. I love you," he said, leaning in and kissing her quickly before parting ways.
"See you soon."
“I love you too,” she murmured, giving him one last look before she slipped through the liminal spaces between dreams and started to look for Dan.