Middle Ground // self para
This always happened. Alec was the hit it and quit it type, leaving behind his past lovers as if they were blips on a radar who no longer mattered when the night ended. That is how it may have seemed after he disappeared on Valentina once their mind-blowing bed-rocking reached its fever pitch. Unlike previous one night stands, this wasn't by choice. The strength stepping a foot in the real world dwindled, bringing forth the tormented side who should show gratitude for getting him laid. The thought of abandoning Tina, if only temporarily, irked the witch beyond recognition or explanation, but bouncing between two different dimensions won't last an agonizing eternity.
Alec's footsteps were slow, concise, careful and meticulous as the swirling dark void materialized around him, transforming his once dull prison into a completely different time period. Dreams varied from person to person, ranging from the fantastical to full-on nightmares. It seemed Ravenna's dream this go around brought her back to the Victorian era, in the days where the coven consisted of the twins, Dante, Gideon, and himself at the ever present height of their infamy. Before the hybrids, the council, and Ravenna's great fall from grace as a powerful ice queen dark sorceress feared by many. Now, she wasted her talents playing the good little obedient witch learning from mistakes.
The moment he entered the mansion's ballroom, Alec remembered the evening Ravenna was dreaming about. In those days, the dark-haired enchantress had always been prone to utilizing the humans in furthering her cause, whether that be her spells or climbing the social ladder. The wealthy human who owned the mansion, like many men befalling Rav's charms, expressed every intention of courting her and even flirted with marriage as a possibility. While the ball the coven attended was thrown for the proposal much to their amusement, it ended rather unexpectedly. A night Ravenna held her unforgivable grudges against Alec over his actions in particular disrupting the scheme.
The ghostly mirages of dancing and mingling figures filled nearly every space of the room, the men dressed in their best suits and the women in their billowing evening gowns. Alec thought back on what he wore at the party, a slick black waistcoat that hugged his frame comfortably while the buttons glistened in the light's glow that completed his ensemble without any form of effort on his part. Now, he seemed rather out of place in what passed as modern day fashion, but it didn't matter when no one could see him in this dream state. Amongst the crowd from his spot near the massive doorframe, his eyes immediately settled on Ravenna where she stood near the grand stairs. Captivating Ravenna, draped in a deep scarlet red even he couldn't help gawking at. Her specialty may have been manipulating dreams, creating visions, but she cannot deny she possessed a siren's call for all gentlemen who bowed at her unrelenting feet.
Alec made his move cutting through the swell of bodies, their blithering chatter merely whispers of conversation casting a residual imprint and representing memories long passed, and as her figure grew closer, he wondered if she would even know their current predicament with the full moon fast approaching or if her memories went only as far as the 19th century. Ravenna's back was turned to him, engaging in a chat with Rowan's transparent form, there still was no sign of himself yet, but he knew exactly what the old Alec was doing at this very moment. "Shit, this party's such a bloody drag, but thank god you look hot."
He shot Ravenna a grin the second she turned around, watching as the confusion and the dozen or so speeding thoughts cascaded along her facial expression. "Alec. You should not be here." She sounded surprised more than she sounded angry, which was a win in his book. Though, Alec knew he wasn't in the clear quite yet. There is still always time for Ravenna's quick temperament.
"Compared to where, any other place than my own head?" The flicker of recognition provided clear indication Rav's present memories remained in tact. His imprisonment, Dante's sleeping spell, future timelines threatening a convergence with the present, had happened and was happening for her. Which meant he was in very big trouble with a woman whose life was only ever turned upside down by him. "Or do we speak of the dream I'm gate-crashing? I just prefer stealing a page from your book."
"You have a habit popping up where you are not wanted." Ravenna coolly threw in his face, inspecting the cuff of her black satin glove before tugging it further over her elbow. It was not lost on the woman Alec's magic grew stronger, reaching beyond the boundaries of his confinement and holding the power to make brief appearances before leaving messes behind. She would know, of course, from her experiences cleaning them for centuries. "Dreams, as the perfect example."
"Ouch." Alec folded his arms and turned toward the dancing couples sweeping across the dance floor, floating as if their feet were not touching the ground. Dreams relied on personal perception, so any scenes revealed became a representation of details Ravenna clung to. His familiarity with her over the years spoke to an interesting dynamic, a certain tension, they both have acted on centuries before, but that was in the past now. Rav had her human toy to play with as she willed and he his hybrid. If only Valentina fully grasped the kind of beautiful devil spawn she invited into her bed. "Why are you dreaming about tonight anyway? It's not like it was anything special."
"You don't remember?" Ravenna's tone was accusatory, bewildered and unsurprised at the same time how he diminished the significance of one evening. Alec couldn't forget how his fellow coven members brushed aside his absence from the main festivities as merely a secret rendezvous sexual excursion in one of many bedrooms in the mansion, believing the rest will collect him at the end of the night when they finished business. Even Rowan learned Alec could not handle a babysitter and he could not be controlled. "An entire year of my life wasted because you carelessly involved yourself. I maneuvered my way into his world, obtained the perfect vessel, until he was crawling on his hands and knees for approval. I did that on my own and you ruined it."
"The past is the past, Rav. You moved on rather quickly to another." This conversational topic wasn't why he was here. A human life is fickle, short, and any immortal being knew how easily the mortals could perish when their minds were incredibly weak. To someone with Alec's past history, they are far from worth growing emotional about. Just blood in the water for hungry sharks. Even a vessel such as Philip. "We have more pressing matters to discuss." Alec's gaze rose to the ceiling as he lazily held out his hand for Ravenna to take. The moment clearly gave her great pause and with some understanding in the skepticism. Over a century passed since the last he properly waltzed and honestly wasn't any happier than when balls fell from fashion. "My impending return, for example." The mocking words narrowed Rav's gaze in an unamused glare before sliding her hand in his with a defeated sigh.
The two cohorts squeezed effortlessly through the crowd and settled themselves comfortably in the middle of the floor, providing the perfect view of the grand staircase. Alec wrapped an arm around the woman's waist and cupped his palm with her hand, pulling Rav close in a way that suggested intimacy, but could only imply a description of two mayhem makers sharing a complicated history. Allies, even...maybe. "You can't stop this, Ravenna." The dancing at any point, certainly, but the dissolution of his prison was inevitable. Rav pondered this as she fell in step with his lead, her feet moving through the orchestra's melodic symphony. "You and Gideon both knew this day was coming." Alec continued, "I'm getting out for good and there will be hell to pay. And not just from me."
"Oh, interesting, because from where I stand, Gideon spared your life. That memory loss is why you are alive today. Do not allow such a fact flee from your head." Ravenna's gaze shifted around the room as the pair spun, tracking the Chastain coven members that were currently present. Both Dante and Rowan hovered among the crowd, conversing with themselves as men tended to do, and Giddy remained along the outskirts by the wall, almost as if he could sink right into it at any moment. Her twin had questioned his attendance, believing Giddy brought the mood of any ball far down, but they are still a coven. Or at least, they were. "I intended to find a more...permanent solution before that happened for both of you. The council is here, Alec, and they will not tolerate another miracle cure-all pass to save you from execution. Don't give them another excuse."
"Okay, of course, allow me to shower my one and only holy savior who forced me into a prison in my own body with gratitude." Alec's sarcasm was transparent as they ceased mid-waltz, raising an arm and permitting his former leader duck underneath with a graceful spin before returning to their original stance. Over the centuries, his kill count stacked higher and higher, so it seemed no shock the council maintained a watchful eye until the situation escalated. Gideon solved their problems before they ever swung the hatchet. "It makes perfect sense why you'd want an eternal damnation for the coven members you so clearly could not stand. Gideon was always your favorite, so he's guaranteed a pass, but the rest of us? You're cleaning house." He could behave himself and try being the better person or he could fuck everything and air his grievances. The latter won. "You conspire with him to send Dante into a sleeping coma you know will not hold him for long, you murdered your own twin brother because that is the only way that might stop him, and now you're looking for something to keep me chained forever too. All so you prove to the town you're a changed woman. A villain turned hero. A hypocrite."
He could feel Rav's fingers tighten around his and dig her nails in the backs of his palms with unrelenting tension. His words clearly bothered the young woman immensely. A hypocrite, Alec was not the first to throw the accusation and he was certain many residents of Killgrove could agree. You cannot terrorize a town for decades and then magically decide the redemption route at the drop of a hat. "You think I could not stand you all? Don't act as if subduing Dante and my brother's death didn't absolutely gut me from the inside. I detested the role I played, Alec, but I didn't hate my brothers. I didn't hate you." She heard what sounded like a scoff emanate from the back of his throat, leaving her sighing softly. "You point the hypocritical accusation, when you're the one who attacked an Alpha out of the blue and can't move past the fear to explain why."
"I don't care whether you liked me or not. From my perspective, none of you considered me family." Alec deeply pondered the gravity of the woman's choices when those same choices affected her brothers drastically. He always struggled with the emotional capacity, showing a lack of sympathy where it counted the most. If the Chastain coven's inner workings formed the unrefutably stark proof, they all had this coming. Rowan was a remorseless asshole who bordered admirable by Alec's standards, Dante shared his adopted brother's psychotic tendencies, and he himself indulged in other monstrosities. Giddy punished him for his crimes and the only Chastain left took care of the rest. She felt the aftershocks even today, but somehow, he sensed his consequences were far worse. A low sound rumbled in Alec's chest that resembled a silent laugh, steering its way through his body until emerging as a fit of chuckles. "Since when have I ever needed an explanation for why I do the bad shit that I do?"
As other dancing couples changed their position for the next piece of the waltz, Alec raised his left palm while Ravenna lifted her right before bringing both hands close together. They began the slow circle around each other, spinning in unison, "Malcolm deserved it, plain and simple. He fucked with Cassie Cass, turned her hunter boy toy, and was an overall terror to his pack. Is it a coincidence one of his former pack members happened to be my roomie and the object of my current obsession? Maybe. It doesn't peg me the hypocrite." Coloring Tina as just another of his obsessions might. She only went to prove he could be reined in by a singular look. "Winslow's days are numbered, love, he's done for. I don't need to see into the future to know that. Which speaking of the future-"
"You caught a glimpse of it? Believe me, I am aware." First, reports came from Malcolm about encountering another version of herself and an adult Griffin after Alec's physical attack and then further investigating revealed the male witch's connection to Calliope strengthened evidence alternate timelines existed. His good side came to her not long after with complaints about seeing flashes of faces he recognized and some he didn't, one such vision was a young woman with unmistakable ginger hair and sarcasm to place even her father to shame. Calliope. Rav couldn't say with certainty if Malcolm's Griffin sighting correlated, but it is a pattern she cannot ignore. Calli went searching for something and obviously found more than she bargained.
They switched sides and rotated in the opposite direction, Alec this time using his right hand and Ravenna raising her left with the music's steady tempo. "Oh, Calliope, that one could rule the world someday." Alec wistfully sighed with mock enchantment, knowing the brief moments spent with the little witch are far from over. If Calli's magic allowed, and it always does with her power juice, she may even come searching again if he didn't find her first. To someone like him, she is a pet project ripe for a little fun corruption. "Were you aware a certain baby brother necromancer plagued Cassie junior's visions?"
"She's seeing Dante?" The dark-haired witch's eyebrows rose. Oh, this is beginning to grow worse and worse by the minute. Dante, both in his confinement and while he still held the freedom, was best described as a loose cannon raising the dead when it best suited capping his boredom. Her brother showed cruelty and power, dark humor and everything in between, but she knew where he learned every lesson from. His siblings. Though, it's a guess whether he saw her as a sister anymore with her betrayals. "Alec," Ravenna's next thought is a long-shot and crazy, but nothing erased the woman's madness entirely. "You could help us stop him, you know. Do this for the town and I perhaps won't consider throwing you to the ravaging wolves. Even have your hero moment with Miss Kent."
"And risk him turning me into one of his little meat sack puppets? Are you crazy?" Alec took advantage of the distance between their hands closing as was customary during this particular dance, wrapping his fingers around Rav's whole hand and gently nudging her closer in order to hammer his point plainly. "Dante and I have this little arrangement. I stay out of his way, keep my hands to myself where his pets are involved, and he doesn't fuck with mine. I'll still annoy the ever loving shit out of him like a disease you can't shake, but I say helping you will piss him off. Oh, and for your information," He released the woman from his persistent grip, "Valentina knows I'm no hero." Just an asshole who really cares about nothing else in their town but her. Alec continued spending hours working through that complication, how she could possess a strong pull over him, and the fact he handed over the leash easily.
A loud, sickening thud suddenly reverberated across the ballroom as an unrecognizable crumbled heap collapsed on the second platform separating the grand staircase, the shrill scream from a female partygoer closest to what lay on the ground feet from her alerting nearly everyone else in the vicinity of the commotion. A cluster of attendees rushed to her aid while others, curious by the woman's hysterics, dared to move closer and steal a peek at what appeared from thin air. As the people rushed around him and Ravenna, however, Alec knew exactly where it came from. He remembered the dead weight carrying Philip's body down the hallways miraculously unseen, a hand pulling the dearly departed and his other hand holding the next part of the spectacle. He remembered stopping just at the banister and hauling the corpse over it, watching the bag of bones slam against the granite. Yes, he remembered his every move that night.
And then came the finale.
Alec squeezed through the crowd with Ravenna following right behind him and reached the foot of the staircase just in time to hear the horrified reactions of the humans around them. While they all were still processing seeing the mangled body of the ball's host, another ungodly sight overtook their attention. An unmistakable round object came tumbling down the stairs, rolling from step to step with skull-shattering precision that rang throughout those who had been forced to witness such a gruesome display. Hell broke loose. Some ran toward the nearest exit and the rest brave enough to stomach the headless Philip needed the confirmation it was the master of the house. A violent murder and a senseless one.
As Alec's gaze landed on his past self who stood at the top of the stairs with the same ax in hand that he used to decapitate Philip with, covered in blood, it reminded him of how the night ended in the first place. A simple conversation between gentlemen. Philip must have done or said something that rubbed the witch a wrong way, perhaps jealousy over Rav's stolen attention or simply Alec growing bored and filling his murdering quota for the day. Asking him garnered different answers depending on the male's mood, but his actions came down to the fact that he just could. Slaughter his coven leader's vessel, cut off his head, and make a scene. Guarantee the world remembers Alec Merriman's name. The chaos produced an untapped well of dark magic that lasted him for weeks, so the benefits outweighed Ravenna's wrath.
"I really am a monster, aren't I? A damn literal monster." Alec spoke with a whisper directed at more to himself. The stated naked truth of his existence, nobody denied he wasn't capable of monstrous things. Tina once said he didn't genuinely enjoy killing, he experienced a high and the eventual crash afterwards, but there had to exist one part of him that found immense elation painting the town red. Alec despised tasting any emotion that resembled regret or guilt, so he shut it all off most days. Never touched, never opened, playing the role of the villain was easier.
He felt Ravenna approach from behind, moving to stand at his side as they both stared at what remained of what could have been the next Mr. Ravenna Chastain if Philip was granted an acceptance of his impending proposal. A life cut short by the wrong place and wrong time, and falling in step with the wrong sorts of people. "You know, Alec," She began her statement slowly, a friend giving her advice, "This person doesn't have to be all that you are. You don't have to be all good, you don't have to be all evil, you can remain in the gray. We all possess a beast we must tame for the people who depend on us." She placed a hand on his shoulder and turned him slightly so they were facing each other, "If she is the only one you will ever care about, then do not make choices that could steal you from her."
"In the gray." The man repeated, a groan tumbling from his mouth at the first sign of an infamous Ravenna lecture he definitely missed during his time away. "Does chopping off a pathetic human's head and displaying his body for a ball chock full of other oblivious humans what you call being in the gray? It sure doesn't sound like someone who's neither good or evil has a past record of doing. Look," Alec released a huffed sigh of impatient annoyance, "I know the drastic fucking measures Gideon took locking my ass away is on me for pushing him five thousand steps too far, but this fact remains, that will not stop me from fighting my way out and scorching the earth the council walks on." Their plans blowing up the town didn't fly well with him, he could certainly steal Tina away and leave if he knew she would abandon everything she's known, but the council threatened her life which meant threatening him. "Tina knows what she signed up for, sweetheart."
"I'm serious, Alec..." Ravenna's mumble accompanied her fingers pinching the bridge of her nose. She almost swore the calories spent speaking with him were taking numerous years away from her immortality. The man was a walking nightmare who never listened to a word anyone else but himself has said. Likely the logical reason why Alec's participation in their coven was altogether spotty.
"So am I." At least he spoke truthfully for once. "Now, let's make something one hundred percent clear. Don't think the second I'm released, I'll join you and your merry band of naysayers to shit out a fairy tale ending where we all live happily. I'm figuring it out alone and I'll take them down my own way without the help or the sappy optimism. And I promise you, love," He shot out a hand and gestured toward the body and its detached head, "They will look far worse than that once I'm finished. I have no problem getting my hands dirty." A hybrid and a redheaded Thornton-Watt dark witch couldn't hurt the cause either.
Ravenna gracefully placed her hands on her hips and followed where her former coven member indicated with a cocked brow. Gruesome, indeed, and the sight she cannot blink an eye at. She has seen worse, done worse, in the name of destruction and mayhem. "Another reason why I can't allow your imprisonment to cease, my dear." The full moon's fast approach meant they were losing time fixing the crack in Alec's brain and she had a promise to keep. The bad side left and the good remained. "Everywhere we go, death follows."
"I know." Alec agreed on both counts with a head nod. He trailed bodies in his wake no matter where the travels took him across the globe, burning down villages even from his very beginnings as a witch. Anger is an uncontrollable storm he never learned how to tamper down properly, but the notion Ravenna would once again rid herself of all previous coven reminders as if they didn't spend centuries together bothered Alec. It wasn't sadness or hurt, the emotion felt like betrayal. Yet, he knew she wouldn't at least attempt cutting his freedom short for Killgrove's own safety. "Doesn't matter. I told you before, love, you cannot stop this."
"It doesn't mean I won't try." A rumbling over their heads caused Ravenna and Alec to lift their eyes toward the ceiling. Alec almost forgot they were in a dream still and all dreams finished the same way no matter what the mind visualized during the REM cycle. "I'm waking up." Rav opined. Both gazes drifted from above and watched as the guests around them slowly began disappearing one-by-one. Like paint dripping from a canvas and losing all color, everything in the room faded away. The tables, the men making up the orchestra, the mansion's walls, even Philip's remains were the last to poetically drain from view, leaving the two dark witches alone in a dark void that reminded Alec of his prison he must return to very soon.
Alec reached for the woman's hand and leaned forward, brushing his lips to the back of it with chivalrous decorum he scoffed at multiple times in past years. "Miss Chastain, I will be seeing you soon." He felt Ravenna yank her hand from his grip, quickly shooting her a knowing wink that summed up the truth of his words. His return began with an eternity and now reduced to weeks, maybe even hours. Alec will make himself known when whatever Rav and Gideon decided to do failed. The good part who currently claimed dominance might become a part of him, but the bad was staying. Gray, light and dark, good and evil, he could become something in between.
Blood, even revenge, would be his prize. If he was making a grand entrance, he would find his way back to the real world with a bang.