"So are you going to sit there all night or are you going to help me?"
Marshall turned towards his half-sister as he pulled on the rope that hoisted up the bundle of dried sticks, rags and other combustible items, all tied together with twine. The more he pulled on the rope, the higher the object raised up onto it's platform where it seemingly belonged. It seemed the siblings had constructed a pyre of some sort. The shape itself was very familiar; the shape of the mysterious symbol that plagued BBW weeks before the siblings made their debut.
It would have been an easier and quicker job, if Dallas wasn't so distracted with god knows what.
She knelt on the ground, unrolling a bundle of black cloth to reveal the items she had carefully kept hidden and safe from damage; a single tarot card, a simple and featureless doll made from burlap, and finally, a sack containing some powder she had ground up before the current events has transpired.
"Why? You seem to be doing a good enough job," she would retort with a smirk on her lips. Her hands hovered over the three objects before her, her eyes closed and her lips whispering a hushed chant over them. "Believe me, Marsh. You'd very much rather get that thing standing, than do what I'm doing."
The vampire rolled his eyes, a low hiss-like scoff was heard emitting from him as he gave the rope one last tug, bringing the prye up to full attention. It swayed slightly with the night breeze, but otherwise, remained still as it settled onto it's platform.
After Marshall's match, the two had disappeared without a word. It seemed they were up on the arena rooftop, where they remained for the rest of the show. The reason for their quiet disappearance was apparent with the massive pyre that was seemingly built from scratch they had smuggled in.
He stood back and crossed his arms across his chest as he watched Dallas stand to her feet, with that cloth sack of powder in her hand. Her eyes were locked onto the pyre, her pace slow and steady as she focused all her energy and intent on what she was about to do. Her hand reached into the pouch, grabbing a handful of the white powder...before bringing her lips forward to her closed lips and blew a large puff out from her closed fist, towards the mass of dried sticks.
As the puff spread forward, the particles of whatever the powder was began to ignite, causing the cloud to become a very large ball of flame. The bottom of the platform caught fire in an instant, and within seconds, the entire pyre was lite.
Curious though, some parts of the flame were an eerie black while the others were a bright, hot red. These weren't ordinary flames, it seemed.
Marshall let out a victorious laugh, proud their hard work was not a let down. He gave Dallas' shoulder a nudge with his own as she stepped back beside him to admire their craft. "Doesn't this take you back? When we completely wrecked everything we touched just to screw with people before we showed up?"
"Good times," Dallas agreed with a smile of her own as she dusted off her hands from the left over powder that still clung to her fingers. "I almost forgot how fun this was. Why did we stop doing that again?" She turned over to gaze at her brother, who's eyes shown inhumanly as he started at the burning fire.
"King and Shanahan threatened to have us pay for the damages if we pulled something like this again." His s**t eating grin only grew wider, "Think they'll bust us for this one?"
"Not if we leave before they find out."
The siblings gazed at one another in silence before bursting out into laughs once again. Vandalism was obviously something they both enjoyed and definitely didn't care about the consequences in the slightest.
"Let's get out of here before someone reports us for arson or something." Marshall walked up to the ledge of the building, looking down at the busy street a long ways down from where he was standing. The honks of the vehicles was faint, the lights from them along with the neighboring buildings made night time Philly look aesthetically gorgeous. He turned to gaze at Dallas, arching an eyebrow as he noted she went back to the items that she had laid down on the ground. "You coming?"
Dallas shook her head, gazing over her shoulder at her brother and where he stood. "You go on ahead, I have some stuff to take care off first."
She received an understanding nod in return. He didn't need to question her. Whatever she had to do was her business. Plus, if it was another one of her creepy a** rituals, he didn't really need to stick around to witness it. He saw plenty back home.
Marshall stood up on the ledge, turning to face her with a knowing smirk on his face...before letting himself tip backwards and fall right off the edge of the building!
The camera quickly dashed forward to peer over the ledge in attempts to catch the dreaded last glimpse of Marshall splattering across the pavement down below. Oddly enough, no reaction came from Dallas, as if her brother flinging himself off rooftops was a common thing in their lives. How....strange.
However, they caught nothing out of the ordinary. No Marshall, no signs of a corpse surrounded by shocked spectators. Instead, a sudden black blur shot up into view, causing the camera man to quickly back up in surprise.
A bat fluttered above before moving towards the crouching sister, landing and clinging to her shoulder as it's little face stared up at her. It's eyes were hazel, much like hers...and much like Marshall's. He let out a quiet chirp at her before brushing his fuzzy face against her cheek. Dallas giggled quietly, almost too low to catch on audio as the bat pried itself from her shoulder and fluttered off into the night sky.
And now, the Black Magic Woman was left to her own devices.
The camera panned to an over the shoulder shot of her taking the tarot card in her hand. It was The Queen of Pentacles, a card Dallas often used as a significator of herself during her spells and rituals. Studying the card intently, a loud hiss was heard as she began to rip the card into tiny pieces. Dallas held them tightly in her fist to prevent them from blowing away with the night breeze.
Next, she lifted the burlap doll and turned it over to reveal an incision on it's back before sealing it shut. Turning it to face her, she stared into it's featureless face before bringing it up to her lips and giving it a soft peck where it's own mouth would have been.
Dallas stood back up to her full height, moving slowly towards the burning pyre with the doll in her hand. A small smile spread on her lips. It didn't quiet reach her eyes though. A part of Dallas was saddened, rather upset that she would be leaving her home that was BBW for an indefinite period of time. Where would she go now?
The mystic tossed the doll into the fire. The moment she did so, it seemed that little piece of cloth was enough to bring the black and red flames higher, burning brighter than it had been before. A cloud of smoke rose into the night sky, forming into the shape of a tall and curvaceous woman. It moved rather sensually, it's arms moving up her body as its head was tossed back and a whisper filled the air.
'Gone I may be, but forever not.'
The apparition in the smoke dissolved into nothing, as Dallas bowed her head for one last moment of silence. The red sash she wore around her head, the same she wore when she accompanied Marshall to the ring earlier that night, slipped from around her head. The camera panned away from Dallas to follow it as it flowed gracefully with the night breeze into the air and over the ledge of the building.
When the camera panned back to Dallas, she was no where to be seen, having disappeared completely from sight!
Marshall Lee and Dallas Cruz were gone from BBW, but their flaming sigil continued to burn bright. Though, a presence still lingered, the same whisper the smokey apparition spoke; the voice of Dallas Cruz.
'Gone I may be, but forever not.'
[ end ]
