Of Sins and Shadows [Chatzy] || Izel and Haley (and a Special Guest)
Izel knew for a fact that she was never wearing these clothes again. The front of her denim shorts were soaked in blood and other fluids she couldn't even begin to name. Pieces of kidney dangled from her pockets and tiny shards of bone pressed against her thigh every time she moved. Most of the front of her shirt was covered too, and where it wasn't there were long bloody finger marks where she'd whipped her hands. She'd wiped most of the grizzle off her skin, unable to stomach the texture of it all sliding down her skin. She'd grabbed a bicycle to get to Haley, not daring to walk through the town anymore - she'd seen what would happen to people who tried. "H-Haley?"
Haley wasn't sure what she expected to see on the other side of the door when she opened it up. Izel covered in literal blood and guts wasn't it. At least she was pretty sure it was Izel. All the blood she was covered in was sort of throwing Haley off. "Holy shit," was all she could manage at first. This was so not the cure for her hangover she was expecting. "What happened? Are you okay? I mean I don't-- But..."
Izel was well beyond the screaming and crying stage. Well past huddling into a corner and pretending she hadn't seen what she saw. Now she was at the mostly resigned still horrified stage of it all. "S-sorry," she said quietly, her throat raw from earlier. "Should have probably warned you." If she wasn't so covered in everything, she would have wrapped her arms around herself protectively. Instead, her hands rocked around her wrists and she fidgeted uncomfortably. "Well, I saw four people explode. Not my definition of a fun time, let me tell you," she replied, hysteria creeping into the cracks of her voice. She looked down, raising her hand as if to cover her mouth and then decided against it. "Sorry. I just, it's..."
Haley felt like her jaw just hit the floor it was open so wide. "Ex-explode? People? Explode? People. Ex--" She stopped herself, but her mind just kept repeating it over and over. Oy gevalt, exploding people, that was... Haley was pretty sure they were in some shitty hell pitfire universe or something but exploding people was definitely further and grosser than her imagination had even begun to go. Shit, if she was losing it over just hearing about it, she couldn't imagine what Izel was experiencing right now. She sounded like she was on the verge of breakdown which was way way understandable. "Come on, let's try and clean you up. Or something."
Izel could distantly hear Haley repeating her words over and over, each sending her stomach turning again. Not that there was anything left inside it, but it tied itself in knot after knot, sending bile to burn her throat. She swayed slightly, unsteady on her feet, and then nodded short, trembling nods. "A shower? Or something. My shower had a skeleton in it which was is the kind of thing my brother would do except he's not here." The quick rambling of her voice did nothing to reassure herself, but she couldn't stop herself.
Haley led her through the door and took the bike inside. Thankfully gross amounts of blood wasn't anything new to her because her hands were now a little covered. Great. "Yeah, I've got a shower. The water seems to be working." She didn't know for how much longer, to be honest. "No skeletons in the shower. There was a femur in my closet. At least I think that was a femur. I'm vehemently ignoring it." She was hoping it'd go away or there would be enough stuff going on she could ignore it forever. Which was kind of working out for her right now. Sort of. "I have towels and everything."
Izel followed Haley into her apartment, looking around nervously but failing to take anything in. The whole world felt like it was in a bubble. Or she was the bubble. Also a possibility. "Thank you," she mumbled, again hearing Haley as if through a funnel. "Femur?" The word felt weird on her lips, unfamiliar, and it took a moment for the meaning to come floating back to her. "Ignoring it sounds like... a good plan." It didn't feel like herself replying. Some automaton pulling the levers while the real Izel was still hiding behind that bin, crying and helpless and alone. Clean would help. Clean would really help. "Thank you," she echoed herself, trying to work out which door lead to the shower.
Haley grabbed a clean towel (or three) out of her closet, trying not to get them too gross, as she pointed Izel towards the bathroom. "All yours," she said, handing her the towels. She rethought that as soon as she saw Izel's hands, still covered, and placed them on the floor of the bathroom instead. "And I'll grab a t-shirt and pjs and stuff for when you're out." She went to the kitchen sink and rinsed off her hands. Haley was definitely good with never leaving her apartment again if that was the kind of shit you had to deal with outside, now. She grabbed some clothes and put then outside the door of the bathroom before heading to the living room and her couch. Something felt off, though. She couldn't say what. Maybe it was just her stomach still churning at the thought of someone exploding. Yeah, probably that.
Izel looked sheepishly down at her hands and understood why Haley might not want her to touch the towels. As soon as she closed the door behind her Izel tore off her clothes, gagging at the smell of them as she pulled her shirt over her head. Izel promptly stuffed them in the bin and climbed into the shower, breathing a deep sigh of relief as soon as water started rinsing away the remnants of all sorts of organs she couldn't identify. Time flew past and the water at her feet slowly turned clear, and with it, slowly, her sense of self. The bloody windows weren't the only things she saw anymore. The nausea still threatened to send her gagging and her hands still trembled, but they looked like her hands now. Grazed hands, but hers. It took more bravery than Izel was sure she possessed to climb out of the shower, counted it a miracle that she managed. Once dry, she slowly cleaned up as much of the grossness as she could, gagging at the texture of the muscle clogging the drain. Stalling, too, not brave enough to see Haley again yet. Finally, in Haley's clothes, Izel let herself look at the mirror. Black marks marred the edges of her aura, and her eyes were red and puffy, a sharp contrast to how pale the rest of her face looked. She felt fragile, cracking at the edges and terrified of ever leaving this building again, but facing Haley seemed possible. Ducking out of the bathroom, she looked around for Haley. "Hey."
Haley poked around on the computer while waiting for Izel to finish up, looking for something on Netflix to distract from the whole thing. She had to say, she was really glad the deepest pits of hell had good wifi. Wasn't going to question it. As much as she tried to get into the case one whatever the hell Law and Order episode she was on now, she was having trouble blocking out that gut feeling she'd gotten earlier that something was off. Like there was someone lurking just around the corner, watching her in the shadows. She kept looking back down the hall over her shoulder. There was never anything there. Until the last time when Izel was there and Haley jumped out of her seat and had to scramble to catch her laptop before it fell. "Sorry, I'm just a little jumpy. What with, uh, you know, everything. I see the shower went without any craziness which is good." Haley took a deep breath. She didn't really know how to breach the subject of what had happened to Izel earlier so probably best not to ask. "You alright? Is your family... are they here?"
Izel raised her arms instinctively when Haley jumped up. "Crisps, sorry, didn't mean to startle you." She nodded, definitely knowing what that felt like. The number of times she'd startled because Avon had been sneaking up behind her in the last day. She ran her hair through the braid she'd yanked her hair into as she walked down the hall, her tongue clicking against her teeth as she did. "Yep, there's definitely not skeleton in your shower, lucky you," she tried to joke lightly, but her voice was too cracked, too shaken for it to be funny. "I'm...not dead. I hope. Which is a plus. It was... horrible, and too close for comfort, and they never stood a chance..." Her voice cracked and Izel dropped her gaze, twisting her hands together. "...-raspberries- No, they're not. I should have gone with the- AH!" Izel yelped as a charm on one of her bracelets shattered into a dozen pieces. "What was that?"
She could hear them all. Living people, for the first time in centuries, screaming and cowering, like it had been the last time. They'd be stuck like this, scared out of their mind and trapped with fear, at least for a few more days. Then came the desire for survival. People would to continue. Trade would start up again, until there was nothing of value left to trade. No one cared for coins when the food ran out. And then would come the desperation, then the cruelty. A town full of people that had no idea none of them deserved to survive. They'd call themselves a community until they started killing each other for scraps of food. Murderers to be, each and every one of them. No one who ended up in this special hell deserved to live, she knew. She'd found herself in the most strange looking building, full of extravagances that were clearly wasteful and devices that were nonsensical. Two bodies, two humans inside. She could break into either, she was certain of it. But one was as if every window had been left open, practically inviting her inside. Frail, vulnerable, and open. She tried to fill her, only to find a single lock blocking her. But of course. She reached out, chose a nearby pen, and threw it at the anti possession charm with perfect accuracy, smashing it to pieces. The host was open to her, and she rushed in, flooded by sensations she hadn't felt in centuries. Pain stood out, red hot claw scratches in her body's left arm that stung. But nothing like her death had. Strangely, the body itched to move of its own accord, like she wasn't the only being possessing it. She pressed them away, allowing herself to be perfectly still to the world as she inhaled. Had air truly tasted like this when she'd tasted it last?
Haley brushed it away. "Don't worry about it. I just kept thinking I saw something. This whole thing has me on edge. For good reason but, yeah." Haley really wished she had a way to help, more to offer. But as far as she knew, there wasn't anything she could do. Not really. She could listen and offer a shower and kick anything's butt that tried to attack them. Which didn't undo the bullshit Izel had been through. Her eyes grew wide at her story. They didn't stand a chance? Oh god, were they people she knew? Haley's stomach dropped. It was even more horrifying than she'd thought if that were the case. She didn't think that was possible. She went to speak when something on Izel's wrist shattered right in front of them. Was it a charm? "I was about to ask the same thing..." And then, Haley couldn't really explain it, but she saw Izel change. Not like physically change just, something shifted. Her demeanor, something about how she stood. Something had washed over her and she was different. Off. That same feeling of dread from earlier creeped over Haley. "Izel...? Are you...?" Pretty sure she didn't want to answer to that as much as she didn't want to know about the bees earlier.
Louisa looked around curiously. Seeing the world through human eyes was magnificently different than through immaterial ones. She'd never truly possessed a human before - how could she have? - but now that she had she had no intention of ever stopping. "Izel?" She echoed, looking back to the other woman, her face twisting in disdain as she took in what she was wearing. No wonder she was in hell. "What a... Strange name," she replied lightly, taking a few steps forward, revealing in the feeling of her hair swaying across her back. Unperturbed by the dark red glow surrounding Haley, she looked around again, this time trying to pick a weapon.
Shit. Shit shit shit. Haley had no idea who the hell that was but that was really not Izel. Uh, sure yeah that conversation pretty much cemented that but everything else was a pretty good indication, too. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she slowly backed away from this unknown person. For all the times she'd been wrong about this, Haley was really sure it was a ghost this time. Like really really sure. What the hell else possessed people? Not that Haley had any clue what to do with a ghost. Other than salt. That was a thing. And iron. Maybe? Nigel used chalk that one time but she was pretty sure knowing what to draw helped there. And she sure as hell didn't know what to chant or draw so that was out. "Wh-who are you?" Haley's hand slowly went for the iron knife she always kept on her. She didn't want to hurt Izel but it might be her only line of defense. Unless she could make it to the kitchen and find that stupid girl in the yellow with the umbrella.
Louisa tilted her head, considering the question. She'd had a name, once, hadn't she? Something beyond the anger and the grief and the endless agony of being beheaded. Something before they'd all been sentenced to this brand of hell. "Louisa," she concluded eventually, her eyes narrowing as she looked pointedly at Haley's hand. The temperature around the pair of them plummeted. "I would deeply prefer it if you were not to do that. I assure you, this will be a mercy." With that, without moving a muscle, she snatched Haley's knife and hovered it in the air between the blade aimed straight at Haley's head.
Haley thought she might pee her pants. There was a knife. Floating. In front. Of. Her. Face. She was frozen still. Her mind raced, trying to piece together possible points of action, ways to get out of this mess. Most of the scenarios were ending with her getting stabbed with her own knife at the moment. Probably in the eye. Not some place that would recover, no. Her eye. Her throat was pretty close too. "Ha ha, let's not get too hasty over there, Louisa." Nice ghosty, good ghosty. Please don't kill me, ghosty. She was in so much trouble right now. "I'm just going to you know, walk away and let you do you and go ghost somewhere else if that's cool with you." And plot to exorcise you later but hello super disadvantage right now. "Just try not to beat my friend's body up too much in the meantime? Please? That would, uh, that'd be nice." Suspecting you're not really a friendly ghost over there, though. Not exactly Casper.
Louisa lifted her eyebrows, one hand resting on her hip. An unimpressed facade poorly disguising the unadulterated fury burning in her eyes. "This amuses you?" She asked quiet as ice, the knife between them quivering with unspent rage. "I did not wait two hundred years to be called hasty." The room crackled with an energy mostly unfamiliar to her, but even while she held the blade pointed straight at Haley, she let her mind reach out and play with the filaments of this unfamiliar power. "I don't particularly care what you think is nice," Louisa spat, stepping closer and closer to Haley. "Niceties won't save you now!" The blade launched itself at Haley's forehead, just as every in the house crackled
Haley ducked as soon as she saw the blade lurch forward. She took to the ground and rolled so she could run clear into the kitchen. This was freaking terrifying. She scrambled to get to the cabinet, she thought she might have a couple seconds. Salt, salt, salt, ah-ha! Umbrella chick! She clawed the little metal spout open and began shaking it like a freaking polaroid picture all over the place or something like that. It looked like it could maybe be a circle like thing. Salt everywhere, that would be good right? It didn't stop her heart from pounding in her freaking chest. Not her most offensive plan but a good defense was your best offense, right? Maybe?
Louisa's rage exploded out of her in a tidal wave, shattering picture frames and coffee cups, the furniture knocking back or falling over as the temperature sank even further, colder than death itself. The darkness she'd created just seconds ago now created a frustrating barrier, hiding the other woman from her view until she heard rattling in the kitchen. Her lips stretched into a predatory smirk as she stalked forward, following Haley into the kitchen. She wanted to /feel/ bones snap under her fingers, like she'd felt the bones in her own fingers snap so long ago. Suddenly, she lurched to a stop, staring at Haley but somehow unable to drag herself over the line of salt. More lights smashed as she snarled at Haley, trapped by the salt barrier between them. In the cupboard, the plates were beginning to rattle at her presence. It seemed... Impossible. That something so childish and seemingly innocuous could halt her. A scream tore itself out of her throat, like a brat who hadn't gotten her toy. Instead of staring at Haley any longer, she smashed the remaining lights and threw everything left on the counter to smash or hopefully ruin this singular threat. And then she was gone.
Haley covered her head with her arms as the lights flickered more and the plates started rumbling. She was sure one or two were going to go flying out towards her head at any minute. They didn't, and Haley slowly lowered her hands to face the hallway and the ghost headed towards her. Izel, I'm so sorry. Winner of the worst luck award. Haley winced as Izel's body stepped towards her, about to pass the line of salt. If this didn't work, she was dead. Even if she had a weapon in hand, she wasn't faster or more powerful than this ghost. She held her breath... And it couldn't cross. The relief didn't last long as the lights smashed. Haley screamed and ducked down, arms over her head once more. She felt shards of glass rip into her skin as the flew past and she tried to avoid what she could of the items from the kitchen counter. Haley collapsed into a ball on the floor inside the salt, breaths heavy, heart pounding waiting for the next attack. None came. She looked up hesitantly and saw nothing left there. It was probably ten more minutes before Haley dared to move. Her vision blurred in the meantime, tears falling of their own accord. When she thought she might be safe, she brushed the shards of glass from her arm, picking out a particularly large one, and brushed the water and blood off her cheeks. Okay. She had to move now. And she knew exactly who she was gonna call.
