Rosalind Walker (weirdseer) wrote in valloic, @ 2021-01-19 08:53:00 |
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You're late.WARNINGS Some spoilers for season 4
There was something different about this dream though. Sabrina was in it. That wasn’t the weird part, Sabrina was often there in Greendale. It was weird because her dream was about the hellscape she and Nick were in. Roz never dreamed that the others were here, it was always back home. But in this dream, she could hear Sabrina’s voice. Sabrina was running down the hall in the mortuary that looked like the Spellman’s had abandoned it years ago. Sabrina was here, with them, in this version of reality, wherever it was.
“Sabrina?” She woke instantly, sitting straight up in bed, the book that had landed on her stomach after she fell asleep falling onto the bed. A quick scan of the room told her that, no, Sabrina was not in it.
But she would be. Sabrina was here. But that didn’t make sense? Maybe it was the dream. Was she dreaming, or was she seeing it?
Forcing herself to get up, Roz rubbed the sleep from her eyes and then turned to stare at the door, shut but not locked in case Nick ever needed to wake her. Sabrina wasn’t here, was she?
Sabrina was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that she seemed to be in a different version of Vallo. One where not only Nick had apparently been for months but so had Roz. How many times had she wished the two of them would show up in this world? This wasn’t the one they were meant to go to though. Not this place that seemed to be so desolate and full of different monsters than the world she’d come to call home for the last year.
This weird version of Vallo seemed even worse than their own home. At least back in Greendale her friends would have been with her and the others--still dealing with the Eldritch terrors, but they wouldn’t have been alone. It seemed like a cruel twist of fate for Vallo to have scooped them up only to drop them here. Sabrina was going to need to have some words with a Waypoint whenever the world decided to right itself again.
She’d left Nick in her bedroom once he told her which room Roz was in, giving him some time to get ready before they would head out to explore, and bounded down the hallway, stopping briefly to knock twice on the bedroom door before opening it, and peeking into the room. Sabrina grinned as she spotted Roz and headed straight over to her friend, hugging her hard.
“You’re late.”
Roz’s heart nearly skipped a beat when there was a knock on the door, followed immediately by Sabrina. It wasn’t just a dream. “Sabrina.” Roz spoke in surprised whispers, so much softer than how tightly she hugged Sabrina in return. She was here. Somehow she was here, just like Roz knew she would be.
“I’m late?” she asked, “I’ve been here for two months. You’re late.” she squeezed Sabrina just a little bit tighter and then let go, stepping back so she could see her clearly. “I’m not complaining though. I knew you’d find us eventually.”
Though if Sabrina thought that Roz was late, something wasn’t adding up. “Why do you think I’m late? How did you find us?” Even if the how wasn’t what Roz was hoping for, it still happened, and that was a start.
“I’ve been in Vallo for nearly a year,” Sabrina told her as she sat down on the edge of Roz’s bed. It was weird to think how in nearly one week it would officially be a whole year. “Not this Vallo. The one I’m in is like amazing and full of life and not a Silent Hill ripoff kind of deal that you guys ended up in.” Which wasn’t fair. Why had Vallo brought two of the people she loved most to this weird, depressing version? Why did she end up in it next?
She wondered how long this insanity was going to last...would she be back in time for the grand reopening of Cerberus Books? Not that any of it mattered if getting out of this twisted version of Vallo meant leaving Roz and Nick behind. Either they were all getting out or she was staying with them.
“What was it like when you got here? What have you been doing? Are you okay?” Sabrina didn’t think she saw any injuries on her friend, but she knew the more serious wounds were the ones festering under the skin and digging into their souls.
When Sabrina sat, Roz did the same, one leg tucked up underneath her so she could turn to face her. She listened to what Sabrina was saying, but it was hard to believe. Or maybe just hard to swallow. Another Vallo, that wasn’t a complete nightmare. Gone for an entire year? How.
“You are Sabrina Spellman, right?” Because if she was Sabrina Morningstar, she would make more sense. Maybe the reality on the other side of the mirror made time move faster. How anything involving an Eldritch terror would ever be amazing was beyond Roz, maybe it was part of the terrors impact.
Maybe it was all a trick. “It was like….this.” she said, waving around the room. “The whole city is just desolate. There’s monsters. There’s a few other people, we see them from time to time. I didn’t find Nick until a month ago. Before that I was living at the Academy. I was lucky enough to find it when I got here.”
She knew exactly what Sabrina meant when she was asking if Roz was okay, but she gave the standard answer anway. Roz was not okay, but she couldn’t stop to think about that while she was here. “I’m fine. There’s been a few minor injuries, but I’ve been mostly able to avoid the monsters. I’ve been reading.” she said, reaching to the book that was on her bed, one that she took from the Academy. “I figured the best way to survive, and not to be a burden to Nick in this place, was to learn more about magic. It’s not like I have much of anything else to do outside of supply runs, or helping some of the other people when I can.” She held up the book, a book on transfiguration that was mostly full of spells she had no hope of doing at the moment, but she enjoyed reading about the potential.
“I’m Sabrina Spellman,” she whispered, heart aching as she was reminded of Sabrina Morningstar once again. Everything came crashing down into her whenever she thought of her ‘twin’, the other version of herself who had walked through a mirror into who even knew where. Possibly somewhere even worse than what was happening here. Maybe into a better world though. Sabrina hoped it was a better version of some world. One where Sabrina Morningstar could live and thrive like she’d been doing.
She looked at the book Roz held as she listened to her friend tell her about what she’d been doing. “I don’t understand how time works in the other Vallo. It’s like things happen at home sometimes at the same time or time stands still also back there.” It was headache inducing to try and think about. “But I’ve turned seventeen. I finished sophomore year and started junior, though at different schools. And things from home showup sometimes. Like--” She motioned around to the room, “--and Cerberus Books, the Academy, Dorian’s. Even Pandemonium. People are harder to come by though.”
Sabrina had practically given up hope on ever seeing her friends from home again. She nodded toward the book. “But you having that and talking about magic and knowing about Sabrina Morningstar means that at least we probably are from about the same time. Nick remembered the ridiculous battle of the bands, which is my last memory from home too. What about you?”
This was going to be one of those situations where you had to accept that things just didn’t make any sense at all, no matter how many ways you looked at. She hated those. Even if she didn’t fully understand something, she’d still prefer there to be some sort of reasoning she could eventually learn to understand.
“Your seventeenth birthday was coming up soon back home.” So she’d turned seventeen in Vallo, somehow. They were in junior year, that lined up at least. Whatever school she was going to wasn’t important right now. Trying to understand too many details about this other Vallo was probably going to make her head hurt at this point.
“Satanic Panic. I’m not likely to forget about them or that show anytime soon.” the whole thing had been crazy, if Sabrina hadn’t shown up and interrupted Lucifer’s plan, he would have proclaimed Satanic Panic the winner no matter what had happened. “The last thing I really remember was finding out Mumbo Marie- or whoever that was- was leaving with all of the Returned. When I went to bed that night, I woke up in this place. I assumed it was an Eldritch terror.”
“I don’t think it’s one. There are people from too many different worlds who get pulled into it.” Sabrina nearly brought up how she’d been further behind when she first arrived, but that seemed like unnecessary information that would only confuse the situation even more. “Vallo has powerful magic. More powerful than anything I think any of us have ever experienced. Even more powerful than the terrors.”
Hopefully that meant it could keep them out. Not having to deal with them was one of the blessings of Vallo. “It seems to pull people from all different kinds of worlds, but there really isn’t any rhyme or reason to who it pulls or why. Or how long anyone sticks around.” Everything was a toss up. “And no one’s died.” People had gotten badly hurt before but no one had ever died in anything that happened in Vallo.
“I think if it was an Eldritch terror there would definitely be a death count by now.” Every other one of them had killed people or attempted to do so. “But wait, Mambo Marie wasn’t….Mumbo Marie?”
If it wasn’t a terror, then maybe there wasn’t a way to defeat it either and get back to...home? Other Vallo? Roz had a preference for home, but she probably wasn’t going to get a say in the matter.
“Terror or not, I’m still hoping we can find a way out of here. We can’t stay here.” Eventually something was going to get them. It was one thing to live in a town where bad things kept happening. It was another when the bad was there and active every minute of every day. “You don’t happen to have any idea how we make that happen, do you?”
Roz shrugged, shaking her head. “I’m not clear on the details. She put the dead to rest, and went with them. She said her name was Baron Samedi. Quick research told me that Baron Samedi is a loa of Haitian Voodoo.” which she knew nothing about herself, but did sort of make sense. “She didn’t really give much of an explanation before she left. I was going to ask you what ended up happening the next time I saw you. Only I ended up here instead.”
It was sad, she had established a connection with Marie with everything that was happening. And then that connection was just...gone. “Agatha is back though. Her mind, I mean. She’s herself again.” So that was one piece of good news, at least.
Marie was loa? Sabrina didn’t know much about Hatian Voodoo either, but she did know that her aunt’s heart must have been broken with that revelation. Zelda had really cared for the other woman, losing her would have hurt. But at least there was good news too. “At least Agatha is back.” Though...did she know what she’d done? Sabrina hoped not.
“I don’t know how to get home or…” Sabrina blinked, startled to realize that when she said home she didn’t mean Greendale. She meant Vallo. “But I doubt I’m the only one who showed up here. Things never seem to happen solo.” There were always others involved. “Nick was going to show me around a little so I could see what’s going on. When we get back we could try and formulate some kind of plan?”
There had to be a way to at least get them back to the right Vallo even if she couldn’t get them back to Greendale. “Or meet at the Academy? There’s got to be some books in that library on realms and dimensions that we can look through.” Pandemonium might have some as well, but going there was a last resort.
She would never admit that her stomach sank. She wasn’t putting how they would escape on Sabrina, but she definitely had hoped she would know. “There’s definitely books on that in the library. I had a month to search for them. But you might be able to make more sense of them than I could.” She didn’t have even the basic foundations down to understand most of what she read. But at least she could easily find the books again. “Most of them are probably still piled on the table where I left them.” It was something, at least.
“Just be careful out there, okay? I thought Blackwoods warped reality was bad. This place is a living nightmare. I may need a solid year before I ever want to watch another horror movie.” If she ever wanted to watch another horror movie.
Worse than Blackwood’s warped reality was not exactly what Sabrina wanted to hear, but it told her enough about the place they were currently in. She’d need to be on her guard more than she’d previously thought. It was important to get a look at what this version was like if they were going to be there for any significant amount of time. Hopefully this held true to Vallo’s usual standards and didn’t last more than a week.
But then again, Roz and Nick had been there for a month already. Everything she thought she knew probably had to get tossed out the window.
“We will be,” Sabrina promised before reaching over to hug Roz again. “We won’t be too long.” A quick look around and then her and Nick would head to the academy.
Roz was slightly reluctant to let go of the second hug, there wasn’t enough human contact these days. But Sabrina needed to see where they were, and Nick and Sabrina definitely needed time. Especially if it had been a year for Sabrina, and it sounded like it was.
“I’ll meet you guys at the academy later then.” There were a few things she should do herself anyway. “Don’t do anything too crazy.”
“We’re just going for a walk.” How much trouble could they get into doing that? Okay, probably a lot knowing them, but they were not planning on any trouble.
“We’ll be there in an hour.” It would give them enough time to walk around and talk some more before diving into research mode. Sabrina squeezed Roz tightly one more time before pulling away. “I’ll see you soon.”