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[shallnotmove.insanejournal.com]

WHO: Agatha & Judas
WHEN: Wednesday night, 21st March
WHERE: Agatha's apartment
WHAT: Homecoming after a visit with Satan
WARNINGS: Mentions of torture
NOTES: Chelsea, if any of this doesn't work with you let me know!

Three days ago Agatha had walked into Satan's penthouse and told him the thing that she'd never told anyone: that physical suffering, as painful as it was, was the only true way that she felt she was living up to her purpose. And with that confession she'd opened a door for Satan to break her down - or at least try to. Agatha didn't break, even after three days. After three days and cutting and laughing and taunting he'd let her go and mentioned that he'd call on her again. He even got one of his minions to drive her home and dump her in front of the building.

Agatha crawled the stairs, glad for the late hour that meant no one would see her. She was leaving bloody marks on the stairs and wanted to stop and clean them but what good would it do but leave more blood? She was covered in it, her clothes sticking to her skin in the places where it had dried.

At her door Agatha fell against it on her knees, knocking and knocking and knocking, praying for Judas to open it. "Please," she croaked, thankful for her deaf, elderly neighbor. "It's Agatha, please open it."

Judas had been wasting his time online and drinking a beer, considering maybe having a wank while he had the place to himself. He was beginning to wonder where Agatha had got to, though, well more than beginning, after she hadn't come back for the last couple of days. She did at least usually show up to make him eat something.

Distracted from the computer by his thoughts, he got up and went to put the jug on, when he heard the erratic knocking at the front door. Taking his time, he pulled on a shirt and wandered over, looking through the peephole before opening the door hurriedly.

"Holy shit, what happened to you?" he gasped, moving as Agatha fell forwards when he opened the door, recoiling as he noticed all the blood. "Where have you been? Shit. It's going everywhere. Come on, bathroom." He bent to try and help her up as he spoke, not knowing where she was hurt, and eventually he just lifted her bodily and staggered to the bathroom with her, trying not to drop her. He kept his distaste for blood to himself, though, flared nostrils and shallow breathing the only indicator of his discomfort.

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[info]shallnotmove
2012-04-03 12:57 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
Agatha grimaced and tried to force down the whimper at being touched. Once in the bathroom she grabbed for the sink, wanting to stand but instead tumbling onto the tiles. "Water," she begged him, reaching for the sink. "Please, water." She kept one of her hands - the one Satan had pressed the bottle opener through days ago - against her chest. That whole arm felt like it was on fire and Agatha didn't know if that meant it was infected or not.

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[info]faithtraitor
2012-04-03 01:15 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
Judas kept swearing under his breath as he hurriedly fetched a cup and filled it with lukewarm water, pressing into her hand. "Can you hold it?" he asked, guiding it to her lips so she didn't choke on it. She seemed pretty damn thirsty. "What happened to you? You look like crap." Gently, he pushed her hair back off her face, trying to see if she was badly hurt there. Her hair was sticking to her skin, and he pulled a face and tried to be as careful as he could.

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[info]shallnotmove
2012-04-03 01:26 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
"Satan," Agatha said after she drained the glass and finished having a coughing fit. "My skin... It's- I'm on fire." She tried to take a few steadying breaths and pulled her hand away from her chest to look at it. It looked swollen but she couldn't tell through all the dried blood if it needed medical attention. The rest of her injuries were, if not exactly minor, things that would easily heal themselves. Satan's work had mostly been cuts and bruises and burns which felt barely important. Agatha was, after all, a woman who had had her breasts cut off her body and showed to her in the course of a torture.

"Shower," Agatha told him, trying to reach out for the tub. "Too much blood."

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[info]faithtraitor
2012-04-03 01:45 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
Judas almost recoiled completely, but clenched his jaw and held it in. Satan? Fuck. Fuckfuckfuck. He helped Agatha into the tub though, turning on the shower so it drizzled a warm flow over her. Not too hot, not too hard. He went to the kitchen to look for some kind of antibiotic anything to help, and realised he'd left the front door open, and that there was a trail of blood leading in. He swore again, grabbing a dishcloth and rushing out to hastily wipe up as much as he could see, at least until a better job could be done, and then lock the door securely behind him. He wanted to barricade it too, but doubted that would make much difference, and besides, Agatha was waiting. He went back to the kitchen and found a first aid kit, which had some antiseptic liquid in it thankfully. "I have something to help," he said, fetching a clean cloth to wash her cuts with. "I want to call an ambulance. You're all... blood."

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[info]shallnotmove
2012-04-03 02:04 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
Agatha let the warm water run over her and looked over to the panicking man who'd returned to her. She knew how much Satan and Lucifer terrified him and she said, "they won't come for you. You're safe here." She didn't want to say that she'd gone to Satan in exchange for him keeping away from Judas. She didn't want him to think any of this was his fault. It wasn't. Agatha had made her own choices.

"Please, no hospitals," Agatha said. "Too many questions and I heal too quickly. Just help me. I want to sleep. Don't let me sleep yet."

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[info]faithtraitor
2012-04-03 02:19 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
"Alright alright, no hospital." Judas still fidgeted as he took Agatha's shoes and socks off for her, carefully, using the water to loosen any dried blood. He didn't like this one bit. "Why did... he do this to you?" he asked, moving to help her with her shirt, ignoring how wet and bloodstained his own clothes were getting. He sucked a breath in through his teeth at the sight of her hand, and tipped some antiseptic onto the cloth to wipe it with.

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[info]shallnotmove
2012-04-03 11:51 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
Peeling off her clothes felt almost like peeling off her skin and she whimpered. Were she not solely concentrated on the pain and utterly exhausted, Agatha might have had more thought for her dignity: Saint Agatha, the paragon of virginal purity, did not undress before the eyes of men.

"Because he could," Agatha said, cradling her arm tightly and closing her eyes. "He made me drunk and then I told him too much. And now I can't stop him."

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[info]faithtraitor
2012-04-04 02:58 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
Judas wasn't looking at Agatha in any way but one of concern, noticing only the cuts and bruises, not the way she filled out her bra. "Don't be silly, of course you can stop him," he said gently, discarding her clothes on the tiled floor, helping her get her trousers off too. With the water washing the clotting blood away, she was starting to look a little less horrific. He wadded up a handful of gauze from the first aid kit, tipping a little antiseptic on it before beginning the task of wiping the blood away. "I thought you didn't drink," he continued, trying to keep her talking to him. "How did you get back here?"

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[info]shallnotmove
2012-04-04 09:58 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
Agatha hissed her breath at the antiseptic on her wounds and then shook her head. "I didn't want to drink," she promised Judas, desperate for him to believe that. (Although why she worried that Judas of all people would judge drinking was unclear.) "He thought it was funny to make me, and he knows now how to use everything against me." She looked at Judas when he asked his last question and her laugh was not quite hysterical. "He drove me home. Gave me a ride to my door and said we'd do it again soon."

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[info]faithtraitor
2012-04-04 10:46 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
Judas looked up at her face on the last word. "He said what?? No. No. Agatha, you can't. We'll move. Anything. He's not coming in here." Whether he was more afraid for himself or for her, he wasn't sure. He shook his head, getting up and filling the sink with water for something to do before her turned the shower off. The water was just making the blood run everywhere, and it was soaking through her underwear and it looked not right. He used the sink to rinse off the gauze instead. He frowned deeply, observing Agatha for a moment, then he knelt down again and wiped the water and blood off her face.

"It didn't have anything to do with me, did it?" he asked, not making eye contact as he did so. A slight suspicion of what Satan could use against the martyr Agatha was beginning to niggle at him.

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[info]shallnotmove
2012-04-04 10:57 am UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
As much as Agatha wanted to protect Judas - he was more fragile than he thought himself - she couldn't bring herself to lie. So after a moment she said, "if he hadn't used your name to bring me there he would have just used someone else's. He knew that any threat against someone I cared for meant I would go there to protect them."

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[info]faithtraitor
2012-04-04 12:12 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
"So, you do care," he replied dryly. He sighed and fetched a towel for Agatha to dry herself with, carefully, hoping she wasn't getting too cold now the water was off. "Please don't do this for my sake, I don't deserve it."

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[info]shallnotmove
2012-04-04 11:03 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
"I promised to safekeep you from them," Agatha reminded him, unsteadily standing to dry herself. "And not a word you can say will change that."

She caught her reflection in the mirror and noted that although her body looked a mess of slashes and bruises, it was better now that the blood was washed away. The antiseptic would deal with the wounds that were worse and time would deal with the rest of them. (Some of them should have had stitches but Agatha didn't scar. Her skin was as unmarred as it had been before her own young death.)

She gave Judas a weak smile. "Look how well you're doing," she said, lifting a hand (with effort) to put it against his cheek. "I'd let the forces of Hell do this million times over if I had to."

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[info]faithtraitor
2012-04-04 11:27 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
"No, you can't. Don't. Don't do this. I'm not worth it. Please." Judas ducked his head and sighed, taking her hand away from his face. He lifted her out of the tub and wrapped the towel around her shoulders. "I get what you're trying to do, but I don't need you to sacrifice yourself for me. That's what He already did. From then out, it is all on me, you understand? I don't want you getting hurt to protect me. You're too good a person." He shook his head and pushed her hair back, and bent to kiss her out of some sort of reflex. He stopped himself at the last moment, dismayed at his thoughtlessness, and turned the kiss to her cheek instead. "We're going to put you to bed and you're going to get some rest."

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[info]shallnotmove
2012-04-04 11:43 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
There was no use arguing with him now, and Agatha was too exhausted anyway. His natured turned towards self-destruction, but in a way so did Agatha's. It was only that her own destruction needed a cause and for now it would be Judas.

"Sleep," she agreed with a nod. "Any talk can be... later. Too tired to think now." She started careful steps out of the bathroom, leaning on Judas for support.

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[info]faithtraitor
2012-04-04 11:49 pm UTC (link) DeleteFreezeScreenTrack This Select
Judas sighed but acquiesced, walking behind her for the short distance to her bedroom and sat her on the edge of her bed. He fetched her nightgown for her, averting his gaze to let her put it on with a little modesty.

"I'll go and wash the steps," he said, worrying at his sleeve, "if you wake up and I'm not here. I'm not going far."