~Well, there'll be smiling, there'll be laughing...~
Nightmare Before Christmas
(RP with Reyna)
"Man, I hate peak season. I'll be damn glad when the madness ends," Reyna muttered with a grumble after the last customer of the day shuffled out the door. She smirked as she locked the door firmly. No more last-minute-shopping-idiots for her! The demon turned to heads towards her desk to start cleaning up before she was interrupted by a soft cry.
"Aww... Sam sweetheart, did you wake from your nap?" she murmured sweetly as the source of the sniffling came toddling in through the door with one tiny hand clutched in Mystic's cloak.
'She had a bad dream.'
Reyna frowned at that as she scooped the little girl up into her arms to cradle her closely. "Poor baby-love. It's okay, sweetness. Bad dreams can't hurt you."
Kova looked up from where she was applying Windex to glass and smiled at the little girl in her boss' arms. Without a second thought, she abandoned her task to skip over to the little family group. "Bad dreams are afraid of the light," she offered cheerfully as she fished in the extra-deep pockets of her gaudy, blue jacket. "They're also afraid of silly faces and..." Her angular face lit with an even brighter smile as her hand closed on something and she drew out a small ragdoll to hand over to Samara. "And dolls that are as brave as the little girls who own 'em."
Sam ceased in her sniffling for a moment as Kova handed over the ragdoll. Normally she carried around her panda plush with her, but this would do nicely. She took it quietly and snuggled up against it while clinging to her mother.
"Now, now... what do you say?" Reyna murmured with a small smile that spoke of pride.
"S'anks."
Reyna all but beamed before trailing off with the babe in her arms and a certain daemon perched on her should to the backroom to get her settled so that they might finish closing up shop. It was late, and Christmas Eve to boot. She didn't celebrate the holiday, but she was all for an excuse to not have to come into work the next day.
"Mystic, could you help Kova finish cleaning up?" she asked over her shoulder in passing as she retreated into the next room.
'Sure. Why not,' he replied in his typical, quiet manner.
At his agreement, Kova shared her smile with Mystic. "Thanks," she said before returning to her Windex and glass. "There's not much to do really, though. It's always the fingerprints, see?" An almost-elegant gesture of one long-fingered hand took in all of the glass cases. She laughed softly and bent back over the case she had been working on. Being as tall as she was, it was always bending but she didn't mind. Twilight Dreams was very nearly heaven to her mind. She absently scrubbed at a print. "Everyone wants to touch everything and that just marks up the cases. Oh, and sometimes we get nose prints but those are just the little kids and..."
Kova suddenly paused, staring at her vague reflection in the glass. Then she giggled. "Sorry. I'm probably boring you. I just don't like quiet if I'm not alone," she explained sheepishly.
'Doesn't bother me,' Mystic replied, a vauge look of amusement written across his features, 'Just don't be too upset with me if I'm not as chatty.' He moved to help clean the cases on the other side of the room before pausing when the lights flickered in a rapid-fire succession before going out.
Everything was still. Quiet. The darkness almost suffocating even to a creature made of darkness.
Kova's voice suddenly chirped up just above his head, almost startling him. "Well... That's not supposed to happen, right? I mean, Mr. Athan pays his electric bills. I can't imagine him not. He's -him- and..." She trailed off as the darkness began to feel heavy even to her amazingly sunshiney nature. If she could have, she would have reached for Mystic's hand and squeezed. As it was, she dropped her voice and seemed to lean down closer to him. "Mystic? It's not the power company, is it?"
At Kova's last comment, Mystic went rigidly tense. 'No. It's... not the power company,' he answered as he tried to stave off a wave of fierce panic. Reyna. He needed to get to her and make sure she and Sam were okay.
Just as he moved to flee towards the back room to check on them the lights flickered back on with a strange sizzle and pop, like a fuse had just blown. He stopped near Reyna's desk, eyes narrowed and focused upon a familiar looking note that was laying there innocently as though it had been there all evening. It looked almost exactly the same as the one that had been pinned to the door before.
Faintly, he could hear Sam sniffling in the backroom and Reyna murmuring softly to comfort her, but he couldn't seem to drag his attention away.
Even as he hesitated, Kova came up behind him. She cast a brief glance down at the note, puzzled but uninterested, and then fixed her dark eyes on Mystic again. Without a mouth to turn up or down, it was sometimes hard to read the shadow's expression but there was little doubt at the moment; something had him spooked. Instinctively, she went to touch his shoulder but drew back just in time. "Mystic?" she whispered, subdued. "What's up?"
He didn't turn or move when Kova spoke to him. He stood transfixed, even as Reyna re-entered the room with a moody Samara in her arms.
"Did the lights go out in here, too? Totally freaked out Sam," Reyna grumbled, "And just as I had gotten her to relax.." She trailed off as her head tilted to the side as she peered over at Mystic. She could feel the tension that was practically bleeding off of his form. She dragged her gaze away from him and then followed the shadow's line of sight.
She drew in a startled breath at the sight of the note. Oh no.
Before she could say much of anything in protest or really even react, Mystic reached out and picked up the note. His form seemed to shake and contort slightly, wisps of black rose off of his skin as though the dark swirl of markings on his skin had taken on a life of its own and were seperating from the rest of him.
Kova squeaked and took a step away from Mystic, hands coming up of their own volition as if to keep him back. She blinked and took another step backwards, pulling level with Reyna and Sam. Feeling her elbow bump the other woman, she turned and held out her hands. "I can hold Sam," she offered in a whispery rush. "Check... I mean, I don't know. What's wrong with Mystic?"
Reyna all but shoved Sam over to Kova mechanically before darting over to Mystic. She couldn't feel his presence, and it was freaking her out. Normally, she could literally feel that he was there no matter where he was. Their soul-bond was always incredibly strong and open, and now it was as though there was nothing there at all.
"Mystic," she hissed as she grabbed him by his shoulders, "Mystic. LOOK at me." She gasped sharply when he looked up. His eyes were a solid, jet black instead of their normal bright violet.
He reeled back, and phased through Reyna's hands as he tumbled backwards and fell to the floor. The note in his hands fluttered innocently to the floor like any sort of loose piece of paper as his grip on it slackened.
Reyna kneeled by his side and reached to touch his cheek. She didn't know what to do. Shadows didn't get sick. This didn't look like something she could fix, and the strange looking, inky darkness was still bleeding off of him.
Dark eyes huge in her pointed face, Kova quickly took a few more steps back and cuddled Sam closer in her arms. "Sssh, sssh," she murmured. "It'll be okay, sweetcheeks. Mommy's just gonna make sure Mystic's okay, okay?" Even Kova couldn't quite mask the worry in her voice, though, and Sam fussed in response, trying to see the fallen fiend. "Sssh, Sam. We have to stand here so your mommy can work. She'll make it better."
Mystic convulsed slightly as his form went from solid to ghost-like transparency back to being solid before he went rigidly still. He stared blankly up at the ceiling, eyes still an inky black. His conscious self was no longer aware of his actual, physical body. He was somewhere else entirely, and he was surrounded by the same darkness that had weighed so heavily on him and Kova moments before.
A figure appeared before him, but he couldn't quite distinguish the person's face. "Who are you?" he asked before his eyes widened in shock. Was that his voice? He didn't sound... quite like himself.
"Let's just say I'm an old comrade in arms who is doing you a favor," the person replied, voice low and quiet, full of secrets. "This is your realm. You ought to have control of it. I'll give it to you as... a gift."
"A .. gift?" he murmured before he seemed to sink into the darkness that surrounded him like quicksand. He wanted to scream in protest and fight, but he couldn't move and he no longer had a voice, not even a telepathic one.
His physical body seized once more before he sat up right with what have been a sharp intake of air, had he lungs and the need to breathe. 'R-reyna?'
The demon in question very nearly tackled him to the floor as she dragged him into her arms as though he were as little as Sam instead of a grown man that towered over her.
"Oh, wow." Kova quickly half-turned away from the disturbing scene, trying to shield Sam from it. "So what do you think, pipsqueak?" she asked the little girl, trying for cheerful and merely coming out slightly manic. Carefully, she pitched her voice loud enough to cover any noises that Mystic or Reyna might make. She walked Sam over to one of the glass cabinets. "Which is your favorite in there, huh? Do you like purple or pink or, ooo, look at the pretty green stone! What do you say? Green? I like green. It's a happy color. It, um, well, it's the color of my hair, isn't it?"
She did her best not to look over her shoulder to check on Reyna and Mystic.
Sam sniffed faintly as she rubbed her eyes with one small fist. "Gween!" she declared sweetly as she gazed up at Kova with her big, bright eyes. Fragments danced around atop the case as though he were trying to sniff out his favorite stone.
'What.. happened?' Mystic muttered grouchily as he gazed towards the note that lay abandoned on the floor.
"I don't know," Reyna grumbled as she reluctantly loosened her grip on the shadow. She was quite finished with traumatic events that involved her loved ones. Seriously.
"Mum!" Sam whined from a few feet away as she squirmed in Kova's arms before she went still and wide-eyed. Fragments zipped around the lavender woman and hunkered down as though to defend the both of them.
Directly across the room sliding down the wall was a strange, blackened creature.
Kova's head immediately swung in that direction and wide eyes went impossibly wider. Her grip on Sam tightened and she took a step back as the blackness grew and expanded slowly. It had an unsettling look of solidity to it and the movements were smooth and oily. Kova swallowed the sudden lump in her throat and never took her eyes from the shape.
Torturously languid, the darkness separated into a semblance of limbs - eight limbs to be precise. A head of sorts formed and it peeled itself away from the wall. Kova took another step backwards. Multiple eyes opened, glowing redly, and something rather like a mouth parted to show too-sharp fangs.
Freeing one of her arms from the protective hold she had on the girl in her arms, Kova began frantically digging in her pocket. As she realized that, like a good girl, she had left all weapons at home, she felt herself go a paler shade of lavendar. She took another step back towards Reyna and Mystic. She had Sam to protect!
Reyna glanced up with a look of pure irritation. "You seriously have to ******** be kidding me," she growled as she jumped to her feet and dragged Mystic with her despite how he protested as the movement made his head spin.
"And me without any fun toys," the demon grumbled as she prowled towards the creature, movements tense as she glanced backwards briefly towards her daughter that was sniffling faintly and hiding against Kova's chest.
"I don't have anything either," Kova whispered. She tilted her head to press her cheek against the top of Sam's head, reassured somehow by the softness of the child's hair. "It's... It's -huge-." She fisted her free hand and, somehow, that made things feel a little better.
The creature made a god awful screeching noise as it crawled off the wall and lowered itself with gangly, long legs to the floor. Standing up on all its legs it was only a few inches shorter than Reyna. Thick saliva dripped from its two protruding fangs.
A multitude of red eyes blinked over at her and focused intently on the silver haired woman as it charged forward towards the demon. Unfortunately, Reyna moved a little two quickly for it to catch her and she sank one clawed hand into its side.
It screeched again in protest and Sam wailed outright in protest of the awful noise and the terrifying nature of the beast that was now grappling with her mother. Tears streamed down her face and she pressed her hands to her ears with a scream of her own.
Fragments floated towards the creature and zipped through its legs to distract it. He was going to help too! He had a duty to protect his girl.
Adjusting her hold on Sam, Kova brought her tighter to her slim shoulder and quickly retreated behind one of the glass cases. "It's okay, it's okay, it's okay," she whispered to the child, over and over as if that would make everything true. Seeing the bottle of Windex out the corner of her eye, Kova snatched it up and adjusted her hand on the trigger.
Well, it was better than nothing. All she had to do was keep Sam safe, she knew. Reyna would have to handle the creature. Just in case, though... Squinting a bit in concentration, Kova brought the spray bottle up and began tracking the red eyes with the nozzle, ready to fire and even more ready to pray that Windex in the eyes of a beastie hurt it as much as it hurt a real person.
The jewelry inside the cases began to rattle and shake as Sam's upset grew with each passing moment. She glanced towards her mother and cried out for her, but the demon was obviously quite distracted by the giant nightmare of a spider that she was wrestling with.
Mystic, on the other hand, seemed to be the only calm person in the room. In fact, he was almost placidly calm. His eyes, which were once more their normal color, were focused intently on the beast. He moved mechanically, as if something or someone else was guiding him, as he took a step towards where Reyna rumbling with the beast which was now leaking a strange, black, ink-like ooze from its wounds.
The shadow held out one dark hand towards the beast, and like before, the dark markings on his hand seemed to move and take on a life of their own, but this time they stayed on his skin and formed different runes and patterns against his palm. He didn't know how or why he was doing what he was doing, just that he needed to do it.
"Hey, hey." Kova jiggled Sam a bit against her shoulder, bouncing her in her arm. "Sam, snuggles, if that's you doing the jewelry shaking... Um, stop?" She glanced at the cases worriedly for an instant and took a few precautionary steps back away from the nearest one. "See? Mystic is helping Mommy. All good. Please make the shinies stop bouncing." Even as she talked rapid-fire to the child and moved, Kova kept her spray bottle at the ready, tracking.
Sam hiccuped and squealed as she shook her head and kicked her feet in an all out hissy fit, which of course, made the rattling and shaking much worse. Her cries lessened in intensity a tiny bit when she noticed that the beast was no longer making noise.
In fact, it had stopped moving and seemed almost entranced by the glowing marks that shined through the darkness of Mystic's outstretched hand. Reyna took a step back from the beast and watched with a confused expression as the creature seemed to slowly shrink as though it were melting. It kept getting smaller until it was about the size of an actual spider.
If it weren't for the fact that the small creature seemed to melt entirely before turning into a strange looking coin, she'd have stepped on the damn thing. She was definitely going to have an issue with spiders from here on out. Especially since she was covered in ooze.
"Well. That was fun."
Reyna jumped with a startled jerk when someone knocked on the door. She scowled and moved to unlock the door to let in Athan.
"You're late."
"You, uh, missed all the fun, Mr. Athan," Kova laughed. She still seemed a slightly paler shade of purple but her sunshine smile was already returning and she came forward with Sam. Absently, she pressed a kiss against the little girl's temple. "See, ticklebug?" she whispered. "I told you it would be okay." Passing a glass case that was still blessedly intact, she set down the bottle of Windex and shifted Sam to that arm. She glanced at Reyna. "Though I'd really like to know what that was. It just poofed and was there and it was real but it didn't feel quite real and... Y'know."
"I didn't miss it entirely," he replied smoothly as he glanced towards Mystic. He had felt plenty of chaos disturbing his evening of peace and quiet from a certain shadow. "And I would like to know what happened as well." His gaze never left the shadow.
Mystic idly met his gaze but just shook his head. 'I'm tired,' was all he said.
Athan took a look around before noticing the abandoned note. He moved towards it, but didn't touch it. Instead, he bent down to inspect it. There seemed to be no writing upon its surface, but instead an assortment of strange looking runes he didn't quite recognize.
The longer he stared at it, and the longer he was within the room, the more distinct the faint smell of magic was -- particularly from the note and Reyna.
"It's..." he started, eyes squinting quizzically at the note as he picked it up, "... dream magic?"
'But it wasn't a dream.'
"No s**t," Reyna chimed in.
"More like a nightmare if you ask me," Kova remarked vaguely as she carried Sam over to the wall from which the creature had emerged. "Except it looked like it was gonna do a lot more than say 'boo' and leave you naked on Main Street. Not that that's so bad but spiders... Ick. Too many legs." Leaning closer to the wall, she wrinkled her nose at it. "Not even a mark," she added thoughtfully. "You see anything, Sammers?"
"Nooo," she murmured as she sniffed faintly and gazed over at Athan before calling out for him, "Atun! Spidy byebye." She pointed over at her big brother. "Misty made it go."
Athan chuckled quietly as he stood and moved to snatch up the little girl. "You weren't hurt or anything, were you?" he asked both Sam and Kova.
Sam shook her head no, and Fragments perched upon Athan's shoulder, his entire form wiggling and squirming as though he were telling his own story of how the events had unfolded.
"From the looks of things," Athan went on, "That is what that was. A nightmare. But the question remains, who opened a portal to the dream realm?" He actually didn't think it was truly possible, but it was the only explanation. That, and it felt like someone had opened a portal.
Her armful gone, Kova held up both of her hands, palms outwards in a clear "not me" gesture. "Don't look here," she shook her head. "I can't do anything like that. Well, not that I know of but I think I would know if I could do something like that so no. I was just cleaning up and Mystic was helping while Reyna took Sam and Fragments to the back room. Then the lights went out and the darkness got kinda heavy and it smelled funny."
"Interesting," Athan mused, "I definitely don't believe it was you." He turned towards Mystic and both the shadow and his bond gave him a rather defensive look.
"It's because of that!" Reyna pointed at the note accusingly, "Mystic touched it and it... did something to him. He was.. I don't know. Unconscious."
'...then I suppose. I was sucked into the dream realm.'
"That what it was? 'Cause you totally looked catatonic, Mystic, hon." Kova grinned at him. Then she walked over to the still-smoldering coin and crouched down to squint at it. She sniffed again and made a face. "Smells like... Burnt toast. Really, really burnt toast," she commented. Elbows on her splayed knees, she tilted her head up to look at her bosses expectantly.
Athan sat Sam down on the floor as he moved to inspect the blackened coin. It reminded him faintly of the elemental coin that he'd given to Mystic to practice spell-casting with, but this was different. It contained the beast.
He reached out to let one hand hover over the coin, eyes closed. Sam leaned against his side and watched intently. "Mhm. Dream magic, and with your signature on it. You locked it away?" he addressed the shadow that stood tiredly before him looking quite drained.
'Yes... and.. I don't know how.'
"Well. We'll have to figure that out, won't we?" he murmured as he stood and pulled Sam back into his arms, "But not tonight. It's late, and it's a holiday tomorrow, and a certain little lady ought to get herself some sleep so she can open presents in the morning, hm?"
Sam smiled brightly for the first time that evening.
Her mother, on the other hand, looked less than pleased, and suddenly horrified. Presents? She was supposed to particpate in that sort of madness? CRAP.
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