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[sat-by-the-fire.insanejournal.com]

WHO: Maddy and Jameson Kemp, and Lena Rainmayr
WHAT: Discussing demon torture and a realisation
WHEN: Friday afternoon
WHERE: Hospital
WARNINGS: ...demon torture discussion and language



When Jamie had messaged Lena to let her know the coast was mostly clear of Kemps, Lena made her way to the hospital like she had promised. She was feeling awkward and a little worried how Jamie would react to her now very black eye. She almost felt guilty for facing him with the proof of what his father had done to her on her face. Like it was her fault Jamie might learn the bitter truth of the matter.

But it wasn't her fault. No matter what Charlotte said and no matter what anyone else believed.

She found Jamie in the hallway where he said he would be, and she was relieved to see it was indeed free of other Kemps. She gave him a sheepish hello, awkwardly touching her tender cheek without really meaning too. "Heh. Uhm...does she know I'm coming?"

Comments

[flare-star.insanejournal.com]

Seeing Lena's black eye made him feel slightly sick. But at the same time, he still had a hard time believing his father had done that. He didn't want to get into a shouting match, though, so he swallowed the words.

"Yeah," he said instead. "I told her you were on your way. She's in here." He beckoned Lena to follow him into the room, calling softly, "Hey, Aunt Maddy, Lena's here."

Maddy sat up, which was easier than ever, now that she was on meds pretty much all the time. Her ribs were bandaged, so she was either lying down or at an angle when she sat up, but that was OK.

She started to offer up a tentative smile for Lena, but stopped short when she saw the other woman's face. "Shit, Lena, what happened?" she asked.

[sat-by-the-fire.insanejournal.com]

Lena was relieved when Jamie said nothing about the shiner on her face. She couldn't handle another Kemp calling her a liar. As if the man she loved breaking her heart and her trust all at once wasn't painful enough. She loved Jamie too much to take it from him.

Following him into Maddy's room, her heart broke for Maddy. She was in a rough state and god did Lena remember what that felt like.

And then Maddy asked about the bruise. Lena glanced at Jamie, wondering what the hell to do. "It's- It was-" Feeling lost and upset, she wrapped her arms around herself and then finally sat down, a little harder than she meant to, which her tailbone didn't thank her for. "It's a long story," she lied. It wasn't actually that long at all. She hadn't noticed she was shaking, but when she did, she felt ridiculous. Maddy was the one in the hospital bed.

[aspectabund.insanejournal.com]

Maddy started to reach for her, then realized that was probably a bad idea when she felt twinging start up. "Shit, ow," she hissed between her teeth.

"It's OK," she assured Lena. "We don't have to talk about it. I'm just grateful for the company, really. Everyone's sort of taking it in turns. Well, except Tommy and Char, but that's a long story, too."

[sat-by-the-fire.insanejournal.com]

"Be careful," Lena warned. "Here," she inched the chair closer and reached out for Maddy's good hand.

"I'll tell you what happened to me later, okay? It's not important right now. Jamie wanted me to come and talk to you because he said you may have experienced some strange things. A while back I was held by this...thing and might have experienced similar things."

[aspectabund.insanejournal.com]

She took Lena's hand and squeezed it.

"If you say so," she said. "And yeah, it was really fucking weird. When she-it-whatever it was-when they grabbed me, they looked like a 20-something blonde girl. But not long after I came to, she...she changed into Thomas. Like, head-to-toe copy, down to the voice. Char, too. It looked and sounded just like her, except for the eyes. You know that song from Hunchback of Notre Dame, 'Hellfire'? It looked just like that."

She swallowed hard. "They told me I was hallucinating, that whoever it was was just playing mind games with me. Well yeah, that part's true, if you want to terrorize someone, torture her while wearing her sister's face." She locked eyes with Lena again. "I'm not crazy," she said fiercely. "I know what I saw."

[sat-by-the-fire.insanejournal.com]

Nothing connected in her mind yet, but Lena shook her head. "You're not crazy, Maddy. Not at all." She chewed on her lip for a moment and then she said, "my friend Joey was missing for three weeks and when we finally found him, he had been tortured by uhm...well, Hellfire isn't far off. And one the guys made himself look like Joey's best friend. They do that sometimes. But you're not crazy and you did see it."

[aspectabund.insanejournal.com]

"Wait," Maddy said, struggling to wrap her mind around what Lena was telling her. "There are more of these things? Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. Can the other ones read minds too? Because she knew things. Things nobody could possibly know, because I've never said them out loud, ever."

[sat-by-the-fire.insanejournal.com]

"I don't know," she said honestly. "The ones who had me couldn't, I don't think. Or they didn't anyway. The important think to focus on is that we're all still here. We go through it. There are more, but there are awesome things too.

"Uhm...the one who had me, he was...Lucifer. Lucifer and his dick son. Satan was the face-changer who messed with Joey. And I know this sounds crazy, but Jamie can back me up. He's met Michael the archangel." And his mother was the embodiment of the Nerd Subculture, but Lena wasn't going to say that.

[aspectabund.insanejournal.com]

Maddy nodded. "Yeah, my...my mom said pretty much the same thing. I mean, it's hard to think about that right now, because my ribs are broken and I have to do everything one-handed. But I remember thinking, 'Holy fuck, I'm alive' as I was limping down they alley where she dumped me."

She turned to look at Jamie so fast, she almost gave herself whiplash. "You met an archangel?" she squeaked, her voice approaching notes that only dogs could hear. "How...how is that even possible? And fuck, Lucifer and Satan are real too?" Her head fell back onto the pillow with a dull thump.

"I don't know how it's possible," Jamie said. "I only found out after Lena got taken, Dad had Michael come over and ward our apartment so nothing nasty could get in. Either it's working so far, or they don't know where we live, because we haven't had any problems."

[sat-by-the-fire.insanejournal.com]

"And I can ask him to do that for you too," Lena added, so Maddy might feel at least a little more calm. "I know it's a lot to try to deal with. I found out after the guy I was dating turned out to be the embodiment of the Goth subculture. It's like...they are made of belief or something. I don't quite know, I just sort of decided to accept it without thinking too much about it. Thomas is friends with Sappho. Joey's best friend is Saint Patrick. And as many terrible things there are out there, there are definitely more good ones."

[aspectabund.insanejournal.com]

Maddy nodded mutely. "Maybe he can do it at the new place Char and I talked about getting...if she still wants to move in with me," she added.

"So...the more you believe in something, the stronger it gets?" she asked. "Although I like your idea of not thinking too much about it, my head's aching trying to comprehend it already."

"I would be down for meeting some of the good ones," Maddy said faintly.

[sat-by-the-fire.insanejournal.com]

"I don't really know how it works, to be honest," she admitted. "But yeah, it can be scary to think about sometimes. Look, I'm always willing to talk to you about it any time, even if Thomas and I aren't-"

Something about Maddy's words seemed to click in Lena's mind then and she arched her eyebrow at her friend. "You said the thing who had you could read your mind and make itself look like anyone, right?" Then she turned to Jamie. "Jamie...where was Thomas on Tuesday afternoon? Did he leave the apartment?"

[aspectabund.insanejournal.com]

"I'd appreciate that," Maddy said gratefully. "The world suddenly feels like it was turned upside down."

"What?" Maddy asked, a little thrown by the sudden topic change. "Oh! Yeah. If you hadn't met Tommy or Char before, you would have sworn it was them, apart from the eyes. And they knew things they couldn't possibly know."

"Uhm...not that I'm aware of," Jamie replied. "I was up on the roof, granted, but he would have at least texted me if he was going to leave, and I would have gone back down to stop him." He tilted his head, looking at Lena. "Why, what are you thinking."

[sat-by-the-fire.insanejournal.com]

Lena chewed on her lip and then she said slowly, "on Tuesday afternoon Thomas showed up at my house I was worried about how he had gotten there. The idea that he was wandering the city by himself scared me a little. And when I asked him about it, he swore at me, told me I was nagging him, and then he hit me in the face."

[aspectabund.insanejournal.com]

Jamie and Maddy just stared. "Dad would never do that," Jamie said. "Not in a million years. I mean, he'll swear when he's really pissed off or upset, but he never even spanked me when I was a kid."

"You know," Maddy began. "The thing that took me...it left me alone for a while. I don't know for how long, and I don't know what day it was on, but it did disappear for a while."

[sat-by-the-fire.insanejournal.com]

"I didn't believe it either, but it happened. And my brother saw it too, and I just thought about when he got arrested and I thought maybe he got confused or something." Lena choked up and she just knew she was going to cry. She felt terrible.

"If it wasn't him, then a demon came to my house and wore his face and ruined everything." And she did burst into tears then. "I feel so bad, and it's not my fault!"

[aspectabund.insanejournal.com]

"Shh, of course it's not your fault," Maddy said, flicking her eyes at Jamie. He got the message and sat down next to Lena, pulling her into a hug. "The only one at fault is this...this thing that did this to us, that waltzed into our lives and started wrecking shit because they could. And it would explain why she came back looking way too pleased with herself."

[sat-by-the-fire.insanejournal.com]

Lena wrapped her arms around Jamie gratefully. She really did love him so much. "Shit," she gritted out as Maddy explained the demon had taken joy in destroying her relationship. "Oh god, will he hate me?"

[aspectabund.insanejournal.com]

"He was pretty broken up about it," Jamie told her. "I found him crying in his room when I came down from the roof. I don't know if he'll hate you, the main thing on his mind was 'why'. He just really wanted to know why people kept leaving him."

Maddy sat silently, her heart breaking for everyone involved. She really hoped that Tommy and Lena could fix their relationship.

[sat-by-the-fire.insanejournal.com]

Lena leaned away from Jamie, but only so she could wipe at her sore face. "Well I was pretty broken up about it too," she said, a bit more harshly than she meant to. "Sorry. I- I didn't mean to snap. Poor Thomas. I'll have to explain it to him- Jesus, Charlotte is never going to forgive me. She doesn't know about all this...immortal stuff, does she?"

[aspectabund.insanejournal.com]

"Good plan," Jamie said. "He just felt completely in the dark. But talking about it should help, yeah."

"Char is just really protective of her family," Maddy added. "And no, she doesn't. Hell, until you came here today, I didn't know. But someone should tell her, right? I mean, so she can be more alert."

[sat-by-the-fire.insanejournal.com]

"I definitely think someone should tell her," Lena agreed. "And not just because then she might hate me a little less." Now all she wanted to do was run to Thomas and explain everything, but Maddy was the one in hospital.

"All that aside- I know how scary it is to be held by one of these things. It's terrifying. And if you want to talk about it...absolutely any time, then I'll be there for you."

[aspectabund.insanejournal.com]

"Agreed," Maddy replied. "Because if there's anything we can do to protect ourselves, we should do it."

"It was," she said, in a really small voice. "I thought I was going to die in there, and never get to see my family again, or tell them I loved them. It felt like terror had settled into my freaking bones." She reached for Lena's hand and held on. "Thank you, Lena."

[sat-by-the-fire.insanejournal.com]

Lena leaned down and she kissed Maddy's hand. "I know the feeling. It was what I thought too. I just wanted to see the people I loved again. But they didn't win."

Lena would have scars on her arm and her back forever, but she refused to let her time with Lucifer beat her. She hoped Maddy would do the same.