#the house just needs a light exorcism and a roof but otherwise | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

accendimi · 5 years

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Stay With Me { Greenies + Djali }

Sometimes a couple boys need to save an old Superhero.

Triggers: None.

Set Early August, Prior to the big Harry Potter Event

@wazowskiofthemikevariety

SARINA

It was two days before Jelly was going to leave town. She had two more days to play with everyone in Swynlake and leave with a full belly before terrorizing a whole other group of people in London. At this point Sarina’s voice was a quiet hum in her head. Barely there. She had fought for a long time but there was always a point that humans gave up. It was something that Jelly had learned over a couple of hosts.

Now she was just learning how stupid and stubborn this Mike human was. Perhaps she should have gone after him. He would have been easy to compel. Even if Jelly didn’t like being in men’s bodies. And since she wouldn’t bother controlling him she was up for one more night of messing with him.

After all, he was the stupid one to invite her over, even though time and time again she had been able to feed off emotions around him. And that continued to be her plan when she knocked on the door. Short shorts. Crop top. Thigh-high boots she was ready to seduce him.

And when he opened the door Jelly smirked. “I see you came to your senses.” Jelly said as she pushed her way in.

MIKE

Mike was freaking the fuck out, almost vibrating with anxiety. About Sarina. About Djali. About the potential demon he was letting into his house. Hadn’t he just gotten rid of a ghost? He was barely keeping his hands on the back of the chair he was using to help him stand in his kitchen, jumping from one spot to another and then back again.

So, nothing new.

This time though he had a reason to be so fidgety and to feel like he was going to drop to the floor any minute since his blood was racing around and around and around, making his legs unstable and wobbly. His phone was on the table in front of him, screen facing upwards so when it lit up he would know about it. It was always the lead up to these kinds of things, not that Mike had ever tried to prove his friend was being possessed and then lead them into a trap in order to perform an exorcism before, but it held the same energy as waiting for test results from a doctor. Waiting was the worst part, allowing his mind to think too much and begin to melt away into something that couldn’t be brought back.

Then there was a knock on the door, startling him. Shit, they were here. Mike glanced around the kitchen before heading off to go answer it. Everything was set up, and he knew because he couldn’t have sent the text asking for “Sarina,” to come over without having triple checked everything was ready to go.

Now the only thing that he had to do was not blow their cover. He could do this, he could do this, he could do this- Mike pulled open the door before the creeping doubt could keep him from doing so.

“Hey!” he said, a bit too high and a bit too loud.

Nope. Wait, he had to play this cool. Flirt. He could flirt. He had read several articles on it, watched movies and tv where people flirted all the time. He cleared his throat, “You look really nice! Did you cut the shirt yourself or buy it like that?”

SARINA

Jelly looked over Mike with a smirk. Her eyebrows didn’t raise in amusement the same way Sarina’s would have. She wasn’t amused. She was just entertained to see what she could get out of him. And as far as she was aware she was not going to get caught, now or in the two days in which she was going to leave the town.

“Nice? I look Nice? I look amazing, sexy, gorgeous, great at minimum.” Jelly corrected pushing herself into his place looking around. She could pull at Sarina’s memories but she was ready to start being herself.

“What did you need from me this wonderful day?”

MIKE

“Well,” he said, because he was going to ignore his blunders in favor of getting her further into the house. Just had to keep trudging through the mud here, otherwise he would stand still for too long and start to sink under.

He started walking, heading to the left. Out of the mud and out of her range of reach before she could corner him. Crowd him up against a wall like she had at the University like some kind of game of cat and mouse. Only this time he had to be a mouse with the smarts of Jerry to her Tom in order to goad her into the first trap.

It was a simple one. He had drawn the sigil that had been proven to trap demons of lower levels inside of it. The edged would act like an invisible barrier, keeping her within the confines of the drawn lines. It had taken some paint, a bit of help from a local sorcerer, and a new carpet to cover it up, but overall simple. Anyone could DIY it as long as they were as vigilant to get the sigil just right like himself.

“I don’t know, what exactly is it that you’re offering?” Mike asked, attempting to make match her level of playfulness. He had wandered into the living room, stopping on the carpet to turn back. Mike raised his eyebrows in question, his exterior attempting not to give away the way his heart had started to make his chest ache from beating so violently in his chest.

SARINA

The boy slipped away before Jelly could sink her claws into him and she narrowed her eyes at him. He was different and she barely knew him. He had stuttered the last time. He couldn’t have handled her even if he wanted to but that’s why he was fun. He was like a little mouse running around her trap.

And she didn’t like chasing.

Staying by the door to the living room Jelly looked him over, not hiding her eyes as they trailed him from toe to head. Taking note of the things that she actually did like.

He could be fun if she held his hand through it. Which made her nose turn at the idea.

“Well you can have all of me. I like being on top so you wouldn’t have to do much but listen to me when I talk and worship me.”

MIKE

Jesus tap dancing Christ, Mike almost choked on his own spit.

And, look, okay, Mike was a guy who had only experienced romance in the smallest forms. Most of the time it was through media or from hearing about his siblings’ love lives. The only time he had ever even gone on a date it hadn’t actually been a date, just a miscommunication, and now here he was being talked to so straight forwards he didn’t know what the fuck to do with that. Especially when it was coming out of the mouth of one of his best friends.

Not that Sarina had never made those comments, had asked him about his dating life, but this was beyond that. And nothing was going to become of it because Sarina, the real Sarina, didn’t see him in that light. Which was completely fine, she had taste, you know. It just made him feel like a slim ball, taking advantage of her when she wasn’t even in her talking here.

He needed to focus, they hadn’t moved and in order to prove his theory he was going to need them to come closer. He could have a crisis about his pathetic lack of experience later. Like when Sarina was out of danger and this demon was gone.

“Right,” he said slowly, unable to hide the hot flush of his skin. Mike smiled, shrugging, “Well, I can do that, easy. I’m very good at listening.”

SARINA

Jelly grinned. She had him right in her hands didn’t she? One kiss and he was wrapped around her fingers. She could call him over, beckon him with one finger and put him on his knees. The grin on her lips was almost predatory.

“I bet you are. After all something for sure has gotten into you.” Jelly stated taking that step forward. Beyond confident that she hadn’t been caught, that no one could know what she was, that she wasn’t worried.

But then she caught a brief thought from Sarina.

That something was wrong, That Mike would never agree this easily. He wouldn’t put himself out there like this. For a moment Sarina had hope and Jelly crushed the feeling with just a thought. But she did take notice. If Sarina had noticed something then there was something worth noticing.

So Jelly moved to step back. Only she couldn’t. Spinning around Jelly placed her hand on the made barrier.

“What did you do Mike?” Jelly asked spinning around to him all amusement gone as she raised an eyebrow at him.

MIKE

For as confident as Mike felt about saying that Sarina was being possessed he had also just been hoping that he was wrong. That she had just hit some kind of roof and had decided to be a total jerk. Sure, it would have hurt like a limb getting cut off to know that he hadn’t been a good enough friend to her to have been worthy of keeping the title through the personality change, but this was so much worse.

He watched on as she came forwards, anticipation clawing at him to break. Mike kept his eyes firmly on her, staying in character as she got closer and closer until she stepped onto the carpet.

“What’s up?” he asked, innocent, when she stopped. Because if he was wrong, if this was just Sarina, then he was going to have to continue to keep up this act. He would somehow have to brush her off, call Djali out here to apologize and then curl up under a blanket and sleep for a year. Or five. Case closed, moving on.

Then Sarina stepped back in her hesitation and her hand touched the air, knocking against something he couldn’t see.

He was definitely going to throw up.

It seemed like an eternity passed before Sarina- no, not Sarina, totally not-Sarina asked, What did you do, Mike? and turned to face him.

Mike did not panic. He wasn’t sure how he didn’t panic considering the fact that he almost had a psychological breakdown from a kiss and that was nothing, absolutely fucking nothing, compared to this.

Compared to Sarina being possessed by an actual demon. And that he had only just noticed.

He jumped back, out of the sigil’s circle, feeling a weird surge of confidence. He had been right! And he had trapped a demon! Now they just needed to get them out of her.

“Is Sarina still in there?” he asked, voice wavering, momentarily blinded by a spike of anger and worry for his friend who, for all he knew, could have been reduced to nothing but a single string of thought due to his fucking ignorance.

SARINA

So Jelly had been too confident. She had played too close to fire and she was going to get burned.

The demon expert human could actually tell she was a demon. But that didn’t mean that Jelly was worried. Humans were nothing but insignificant bugs that she could crush under her boot and Mike would learn that. Not only did Jelly have her own demon powers, but she also had Sarina’s. And Sarina liked to play with heat. All she had to do was light up and the boy in front of her would-be literal toast.

Sarina didn’t like that thought though.

Still Jelly stalked forward until she ran into the other side of the circle. “At least you were smart enough to not let me get my hands on you.” Jelly spoke her voice taking on a sweeter tone. She would compel him if she needed to. “Sarina’s the reason I knew how to manipulate you. How to pull at all your little heartstrings.” Jelly taunted. “Now sweet sweet boy.” That sultry tone came onto her voice again ready to command him.

“-Don’t listen to her. Literally-” Sarina called out strain in her voice as Jelly grimaced lighting her hands with that familiar green energy.

“Let’s ignore that yes?”

MIKE

Mike’s teeth chattered when he closed his mouth. He curled his fingers in against the palms of his hands because they wouldn’t stop shaking. He flinched when the Demon began to move towards him, stumbling until the backs of his shins hit the fireplace. Despite knowing that they couldn’t get out, that they were stuck in there until they could get this exorcism show on the road, his brain still had to react to someone coming up on him with a look of complete hatred in their eyes.

Normally Mike could take the mean comments; they went as far as skin deep. They were small lacerations to the surface because he was used to them by now. 28 years in and he could roll with the punches and insults. They weren’t new or innovative. He knew, from years of reading about encounters and hearing people’s stories about their conversations with demons, that this was all for the defense. They were just trying to manipulate him since they couldn’t touch him physically.

But it was working.

He could feel the heat from the start of tears forming in his eyes and the biting pain of heartache behind his ribs. Of course they had. It wasn’t like he knew how to be discreet. He felt too much and too loudly and desperately wished he didn’t. But that didn’t change anything.

They were right, he had been so stupid, so fucking blind. How had it taken him this long to see it? They had played him for months. How was he supposed to help Sarina if it had taken him, the so called “Demonologist,” this long to have figured out what was going on?

His knees started to buckle, and he was going to collapse to the floor, caught in a loop of self-doubt, until Sarina broke through.

The bottom of his stomach dropped out and he felt like he could just as easily throw up as he could hold it back. He swallowed hard against the flood of saliva in his mouth. She was in there! She was in there and she was alive and she was so much smarter than him it was a wonder how she put up with him.

“Yes! Ignoring. Good. Okay.” He clapped his hands over his ears, “Don’t worry! You’re going to be okay! I promise.”

SARINA

Jelly just laughed. The boy could not listen all he wanted and Sarina could fight all that she wanted. She was getting out of this. With energy that melted things in her hand all she needed to do was knock Mike out. Find the circle burn that and she would be out. It was easy.

“Pathetic. Truly pathetic. When I leave this town I will crush her and you’ll never hear her again. Not that you’re going to live past this.” Lifting her hand Jelly threw an energy blast at Mike. A little wide but it wasn’t her magic so she re-aimed.

DJALI

Okay, so, on the list of weird things Djali had done, hiding in the bathroom while his demon-possessed friend hit on some dork of a guy really hard was definitely up there. Sarina’d entered at first, and just hearing her voice, it was hard to think that this was a good idea. Djali felt like a fraud, getting in the way of… Whatever this was without even knowing whether or nor Mike’s guess was the right one.

But it had to be--that’s what Djali’d told himself. It made sense, and nothing felt right, and so it had to be true.

Because Djali didn’t know what he’d do if it wasn’t. He didn’t know where he’d have to stand, how to feel. It felt like he’d been driving down a gravel road since that other day. Uncertain, and slippery.

And now he was in a bathroom. Golf club wrapped between white knuckles as he pressed his ear up to the door, where everything sounded like it was being said through a cardboard tube, gradually growing longer and longer, until at some point Djlai could barely hear anything at all. All he could be certain of was that a conversation was being had.

Then came the blast.

There was no mistaking that one.

It smelled like burnt hair and protest carnage, and Djali used the noise from the fallout to quickly open the door, unnoticed, and patter down the hallway. He had half a nerve to stop before he could be seen, wait with his back to the wall like this was some great heist, but the circumstances didn’t allow.

The buzz in the air was that of a re-load, and so Djali sprang into action.

He bounded across the living room in long strides, the club poised and ready to strike, and brought it across, connecting with Sarina’s head just above the temple.

SARINA

Sarina had stopped fighting awhile ago, at least until now, when someone she cared about was in trouble. He was one of a couple people here that Sarina actually cared about and she didn’t want Jelly to hurt him. She would rather Jelly walk away, take her body and her mind and leave Swynlake than hurt either one of the boys she cared about deeply.

So even as Jelly re-aimed her hand Sarina fought their hands shaking as they fought to retain control.

All their focus was on their hand and their magic and the girl in her head. If not Jelly would have been able to tell someone was sneaking up on her. As it was they didn’t.

As it was that golf club made contact.

As it was Sarina and Jelly felt the sting of a club to the head knocking them down and out collapsing to the ground.

Well wasn’t that a pathetic end.

MIKE

When just his hands couldn’t drown out the sound of her voice, because that shit never really worked as well as everyone made it out to, he started to hum some nonsense just loud enough to not be able to hear her. Them. Looking at them, using Sarina’s mouth to talk while the only thing he could hear was his terrible rendition of Mr. Brightside it looked kind of like when the wrong Dub was placed over a movie.

It also didn’t help him to notice that Sarina’s powers had sparked. They shot, catching to the left of him, hitting his fire place and making the paint of the brick sizzle. He yelped, falling back on his ass, hands reaching out to break his fall.

Mike looked back up, eyes wide, only to watch as Djali came running in and wacked Sarina upside the head with the golf club.

Silence filled the room after the thunk her body made when it landed down on the carpet.

Slowly Mike stood up, glancing from the Demon to Djali and back again.

“Holy shit,” he said airly. Mike swallowed, “Thanks, man.”

He took a step forwards, eyes looking over the Demon. A lot of things went through his mind in that moment that pertained to work, to the possibilities that could present itself, the answers he could get to so many questions should he just be allowed to ask them!

But none of that mattered.

“Alright, we better move before they wake up. Can you get the handcuffs on her? Er, them?” he said, snapping into action. Time was not on their side here. He frowned down at Sarina, tilting his head. “How do think we should pick her up? I get her legs and you get her under the arms? Or-?”

DJALI

Djali was confident in his aim--the only thing he couldn’t be sure of was his strength. Sarina was tough to begin with, and then who knew what this demon might’ve done to her physical form, so really there was no telling whether or not this would do anything at all, or if they’d just have an even angrier demon on their hands.

Sarina (because Djali refused to refer to her as anything else) fell to the ground.

Immediate regret--and then a feeling of success. Okay. Alright. The plan hadn’t suddenly fallen apart, that was good, that was ideal. Right? Right.

“No problem.” Djali replied, letting the golf club fall from his hands. It clattered to the ground alongside Sarina’s crumpled body. Not a moment later did he turn to fetch the handcuffs from where they’d been stashed in a drawer not far away. See--the idea was not to have them in plain sight, not just for fear of suspicion, but also due to Mike’s potential incompetence.

What a change in the plan it would have been if Djali had snuck out of the bathroom to find his partner handcuffed to the couch, huh?

Not good.

Slipping around Mike, Djali crouched down next to Sarina, propping her up so that he could arrange her hands in the cuffs behind her back.

“Sorry.” He mumbled. “You can give me shit for this when you’re back.”

And she would, as long as he reminded himself of the end goal, this was--fine.

“No--no--you just stand back. I have got her.” Djali insisted, shooing Mike away. Like he trusted Mike to do any actual heavy lifting. He slid a hand under her knees, and secured the one already behind her back to scoop her up into his arms. Her head lolled onto his shoulder.

Sorry.

“Where do you need her?”

MIKE

He didn’t take the time to feel offended at being shot down to help move her, he just did as he was told, bringing a thumb to his mouth to bite at the nail as he watched Djali hoist her into his arms. Mike couldn’t help but to stare. She just looked so different. Vulnerable. It was disconcerting. He didn’t like it, he just wanted her to wake up, go back to being Sarina.

Which could happen if he got his shit together and got this show on the road.

“Right, sorry, uh- let’s get her through here,” he said, flicking his head towards the entryway to the kitchen. Mike led Djali out to the garage that was, sadly, pretty empty. He didn’t own a car, though he would like to. Or a motorbike. He didn’t even own a regular bike. The space had remained empty for the first few months he had moved into the house, but then, as he started to accumulate more things, it now held a few boxes for storage and the lawn mower.

As of today, it had a lot more than that.

Opening the door, just to the left was a small table sitting right up against the wall with all the supplies lined up, ready to use, in ritual order. Near the opposing wall was the same symbol he had etched onto the floor of his living room. Only this one wasn’t covered up by a carpet and was a tad smaller in size. In fact, it was only a tad smaller than the inflatable kiddie pool that was sitting beside the garage door to the driveway. He had left it there earlier, the hose only having reached so far inside to fill it up.

Mike jogged over to the pool, and carefully pulled it over to cover the sigil so as not to spill any of the water as he did. He made sure it was positioned juuust right before letting go and looking up at Djali.

“Lay her down in here,” he said, then motioned to the metal rack that was drilled into the wall. He figured the previous owners had used it for gardening tools or a bike. “And- I don’t know, you think we keep her handcuffs as is, or put them around that?”

DJALI

Djali did as instructed, carefully lowering Sarina down into the cold, cold water of the kiddie pool. Again--sorry.

He stepped out of the sigil as soon as possible, shaking his head as Mike as he found himself standing side-by-side.

“She will blast rack right off of wall if given chance, at least in water her initial energy blasts will be dampened.” Not for long, mind you, but hopefully for long enough for them to get this whole thing done. Time was ticking. The stakes were high. Djali already had nervous sweat pooling on his brow.

“Let’s just--does she have to be awake for us to start or can we get this show on road?”

MIKE

“No,” he replied, turning away from the sight of his friend sitting in a kiddie pool, handcuffed.

What the fuck even was his life anymore?

“But I have no doubts that they’ll wake up through it. It’s not going to be…pleasant,” Mike said and then winced, thinking about all the videos he’d seen. All the exorcisms he had read about, listened to through taped recordings. “We’re basically evicting the Demon out of her, and since they’ve been in there for a while, it won’t be easy, either.”

He piled several candles that he sitting on the table into his arms, and then walked back over to Djali, indicating for him to take them. “Start setting these around the pool. Preferably out of splash zone range.”

DJALI

He took an armful of candles from Mike, relieving him of his seemingly endless supply. Whether or not Mike just had all of them lying or around, or if he’d needed to go out and buy fifteen-some candles was unclear to Djali. The details hadn’t ever been hashed out--and who really knew what a demonologist might keep in their house. That’s what Mike was, a demonologist. Sarina’s squatter had picked the worst possible person to worry.

Besides Djali himself, of course, who placed candles down with the ferocity of the world’ most competitive cup stacker. Time of the essence, high stakes, a friend to save.

And it wouldn’t be easy. Djali kept reminding himself of that.

“How long will it take, do you think? Is this going to be late-night endeavour? Should I order pizza?” He glanced up, read the room, set down another candle. “I kid.”

MIKE

As Djali worked Mike went back over to the table to grab the lighter, because he was too paranoid and shaky to use matches. He followed behind, setting the wicks aflame until the circle was complete. Not paying attention to the eerie glow the fire put over their friend or the walls of his garage, he trotted back over to exchange the lighter for the rest of their supplies.

Despite the situation, Mike laughed. It wasn’t loud or boisterous, just a huff of amused air. It’s what he used to do with Winston and Grace, try to crack a joke at the height of tension in order to break it up before it could get too thick and choke everyone in the room.

“It depends,” he said, making his way to stand beside Djali. He offered him a bottle of Holy Water, brought to you by the local church. “If we can get Sarina to fight back as I’m saying the incantation, it’ll make the process go faster. So, when the Demon wakes up, and it will wake up, make sure to encourage her. And use the Holy Water. I know it’ll seem like you’re hurting her, but that’s just the Demon in her, okay? Just…don’t listen to anything they say. They’ll probably try anything to stay but you just have to remember that getting them out will be better in the long run than anything that happens during the exorcism.”

He opened the book he had tucked under his arm to the page he had marked, sticky notes riddling the pages from where he had slaved over trying to translate. Since Sarina was Italian, he knew it was a safe bet to get the exorcism ritual in her first language. He took a slow breath and then cleared his throat, straightening his spine to stand as tall as he possibly could.

“Chiamo l'araldo delle emozioni. Chiamo colui che è qui senza permesso,” he started, glancing up at Sarina as he forced himself to concentrate on what he was saying despite his broken attempt to speak it. He had practiced, sure, but it wasn’t as if he was fluent. He blinked, bringing the book closer to keep himself from looking up any more. He needed to mean these words, not just be reciting them off a page. For once his overwhelming emotions could be of some use, the want for Sarina to come back, for this Demon to let her go, the need for his friend to make it out of this and the desire to help her were all present, washing over him like waves trying to pull him out to sea. Only this time, he let them.

“Rimuovo il tuo potere e la forza sugli innocenti. Vi esorcizzo, riportando pace e tranquillità al corpo da cui avete rubato. Lasciate questo corpo e tornate a quello della vostra forma originale. Lascia questo aereo e torna a quello da cui sei originario. Non sei voluto qui. Non appartieni a questo posto. Non hai il permesso di restare. Rinuncio a te, demone delle emozioni, come tuo avversario. Lascia subito questo corpo.”

SARINA

There was a ponding in Jelly’s mind when she started to wake up the freezing water, the warmth from the candles registered and Jelly yanked herself into a sitting position or at least she tried to as she yanked on her hands and slipped in the damn kiddie pool she was put in.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” She screamed attempting to light up her hands but it steamed the water and burned at the plastic melting it to the ground from the heat. Burning her hands as the water bubbled.

“Shut up shut up shut up!” She screamed looking at Mike and that damn book. “I knew I should have just off’ed you the moment I saw your scrawny little ass.” Jelly spat out kicking at the damn kiddie pool’s edge water splashing up and over, soaking the ground.

Turning wild eyes onto the man with horns Sarina grinned. “You’re not getting her back. You get rid of me you get rid of her.”

DJALI

Djali felt… Surprisingly calm for the gravity of the scene in front of him.

He’d thought maybe this would be different. In the rush of a crowd, you could find a common breath. Chanting, in and out, running, in and out, cheering, in and out. Djali could lose himself in a crowd faster than anyone else he knew and re-emerge in four hours time, having felt like not even five minutes had passed. That’s why he was always the last one in the square.

The candles flickered, in and out, the water bottle crumpled in his hand, in and out, Mike chanted, in and out, Sarina blinked her eyes open, in and out and in and out and in. He raised the bottle over his head puncturing the cap with the tip of his horn. Holy water leaked down onto his head, and immediately he veered it around, squeezing the bottle to direct the spray at his friend.

Sorry.

“You have clearly never met Sarina if you think that is true. You cannot kick her out of home. I know she is in there.”

MIKE

He clutched onto the book at the sound of Sarina’s voice, continuing the incantation, if only a little louder over her choice insults.

Scrawny ass? Was he really that-?

Not the point, Wazowski, so not the point.

When he had finished, he didn’t look at Sarina or Djali, couldn’t hear what words were passing between them as he moved back over to the table where the rest of his supplies were. He placed the book down, open faced, and moved with such precision he almost felt like he was on autopilot. Having studied exorcisms ever since he had gotten himself a library card it was like this had just been sitting inside of him, waiting to be executed.

The book had told him that his ritual in particular would need some kind of powerful goblet or chalice. But he knew that was bullshit, learning time and time again that Italian priests liked to gussie up their rituals in textbooks to look like they were above the rest, making everyone think they needed someone with a title to perform something like this. Mike knew that any container could be used, so he picked up the red solo cup he had put out here earlier.

He had thought Sarina might have been amused by the symbolism. Or she would never let him live it down.

Mike poured the salt into the cup, because contrary to what the television shows that didn’t do thorough research, salt did nothing to contain so much as it was used to cleanse. It was followed by oil, stolen from the department, sorry PrideU, and then, as the book had asked, an object that held positive emotion.

He picked up his choice carefully. It had been the gift his grandmother had gotten for him when he had graduated from High School, a plate. It was ceramic and drawn on, she had painted it and gotten it glazed herself, and he had carried around with him from the dorms, from one apartment to the next, and it had made the journey across the Atlantic. It was small, too small to eat a meal off of, it had always been what he put his keys on when he walked into his place of residence.

It was one of his most valued possessions. It held fond memories of her, that she had cared about him enough to make him something so personal, it had meant the world to him. It provided a piece of home when he was so far away.

But he needed Sarina.

He snapped it in half between his hands, letting the two halves fall into the cup. As soon as they touched the water he read from the book, “Chiamo l'araldo delle emozioni, prendete questa offerta e tornate al vostro aereo. Lasciate questo corpo. Non siete i benvenuti qui. Aprire il portale e tornare indietro. Lasciate questo corpo.”

He repeated the last sentence over and over again, the need to continue chanting the words preventing him from swallowing. The flames on the candles whipped in a wind Mike couldn’t feel. His eyes were focused on the cup, waiting, waiting, until it began to boil, froth forming over the top until it spilled over. Mike didn’t hesitate in picking it up, carrying it over to the kiddie pool and pouring the contents over her. The two halves of the plate were nowhere to be seen, having turned to dust in the reaction.

SARINA

Jelly screamed at the two boys, loud and piercing scream. The holy water that touched the girl’s body seared and burned at her skin. The water continued to bubble and Sarina’s own powers burned at the clothing on her back licking at her skin as her powers gained more traction as the water warmed and splashed out of the pool. The cuffs heated up creating burns on her wrists as the heated metal rested against her skin.

She kicked at the stupid kiddie pool aiming to eventually lunge at either man.

“You’re not the one in her head. She won’t be back.” Jelly threatened. “I heard everything she thinks. I know everything about her. Did you know how quickly she gave up? Do you know how lonely she is? Do you know how much she wished it was her dead? Do you know how she used you both to get whatever she needed? Do you know how little she actually cares for you?” Jelly taunted. “She hates you both. Djali you’re a pathetic loser who does nothing but get into people’s business who don’t want you there. Mike is just an annoyance who can’t do anything right.”

Even as the water made her feel weaker and weaker Jelly twisted herself onto her knees. They better have a good story because she was about to torture them in the best ways a demon knew how to.

The flames rose with her blowing in the wind. Djali was the first threat and the easiest one to get to. Once that damn holy water wasn’t spraying on her any longer she planned to spin on Mike and get her hand around his throat. (She hadn’t gotten out of the cuffs yet but she would).

As the solo cup of liquid poured over her Jelly screamed again her body shuddering as the liquid seeped into her skin, into her soul. It burned her and barely seared the skin. Sarina’s green flames sputtered and died down as Jelly started to convulse falling back into the pool shuddered as black shadows seeped out of Sarina’s skin twisting into it’s own form gravity pulling her toward the ground.

Glowing yellow eyes appearing for a moment though the form wavered. As it was Jelly wasn’t a high level demon she couldn’t stay in her own form here for long. Not without a host and neither any of the bodies around her were suitable hosts.

And slowly her soul was dragged further and further down. The Gates of the Underworld were so close and the ambassador of hell…. It wasn’t something Jelly could fight as her own soul was ripped from the garage they were in. The flames ripped away with her leaving a ringing silence and Sarina’s body laying there in the charred kiddie pool.

Her breathing was heavy but her eyes were closed and there was no movement from her either.

MIKE

The Demon was forced out into their true form and Mike could not do anything but watch in fascination, terror, relief, he didn’t know what exactly but it had his feet rooted to his spot beside the pool. He was staring at them, trying to commit what he was seeing to memory while also erasing it to allow himself to sleep at night. Yellow eyes stared at him and then they were gone and he was too busy thinking about what actually mattered.

“Sarina,” he said, and he had to say it again because his voice was raw with it. Raw like it was all he’d ever said. He didn’t know how hot the water was, the green light from her magic having flickered out finally, but it didn’t matter, he was just moving, because if he stopped then he would collapse onto the unforgiving concrete floor.

It was crazy, he had no idea if she would wake up and try to attack him, if the water would burn his skin, if the Demon had somehow put on an elaborate show for him to believe they had fled but were waiting on him to get closer now that he thought they were in the clear. He stepped over the edge of the pool, his sneakers and pants getting soaked.

He said it again. The name, and he splashed water everywhere as he sunk down to his knees. Sarina was on her side and she wasn’t moving and Mike pulled her onto her back, struggling to get air into his chest that felt too tight to let in anything at all. His fingers curled against the curve of her neck, sliding his hand into her hair as he pressed his other hand to her cheek. God, she wasn’t moving, and Mike was beginning to realize how much he depended on Sarina to move. To breathe.

Fuck. Breathing, was she breathing?

“Please, Sarina, please,” he pleaded, “I can’t-“

Mike placed two shaky fingers under her jaw to find her pulse but his was so fucking loud, overpowering anything else and he can’t be sure. He leaned forward until her breath brushed his cheek, allowing him to pull back and look over her face. There was still no answer and he was suffocating on the silence. All at once, the pool, the water, the garage, was too uncomfortable for Sarina to be lying in. And Mike was overwhelmed with the idea of Sarina Go lying in a kiddie pool in his garage and that’s probably because in that moment before he had exorcised the Demon he had been picturing her in some kind of facility, trapped there forever with a Demon inside of her, and, fuck, he was going to vomit.

He scrambled, getting the key to the handcuffs from his pocket and he knew it was a stupid move but he did it anyways. The metal burnt him when he first touched it, making him flinch back with a curse. He went back to it, movements jerky and quick to unlock the cuffs from around her wrists. Tossing them to the side he shoved a hand under her knees, lifting her with only a small slip on the slick bottom of the pool, and he didn’t know where he was going until he was inside the spare bedroom just down the hall from the door leading to the garage, setting her on the bed.

There was an ache when Sarina fell away from his chest, but it was brief and so fucking stupid, so he dismissed it as best he could. He stood there, hovering, waiting to apologize for letting this happen to her, for not noticing sooner. Waiting, waiting, waiting.

SARINA

When Sarina came to it was sudden and violent. She felt like she was drowning. Gasping when her eyes popped open Sarina flung forward slamming into Mike. The girl barely registered the pain, well she registered it but the fact was that she felt it and the sensation of it alone sent Sarina into tears.

Her hands flung out grabbing Mike’s shirt pulling him closer to her as she gasped for air holding onto him as tightly as she had the energy for.

Sarina basically wailed out his name as she struggled to breathe her hands shaking against his chest.

Every sound at the moment felt louder than before. Each touch, each bit of sunlight that touched her skin felt like it was burning her. She hadn’t felt anything since that thing took over her body. She was just a thought. She wasn’t anything.

And here she was everything again.

It was both everything she needed and too much.

“Don’t let go- please.” She begged.

MIKE

Sarina woke up and color seeped back into the world.

She slammed into him so hard that the only way that he could respond was to wrap his and around her waist and hold her there. She said his name like it was painful to get out. He could feel the way her hands trembled, the sound of her harsh intake of breath almost enough to get him started on hyperventilating, too, because fuck. Fuck, what was he supposed to do here?

He couldn’t freak out because Sarina, and he knew this had to be Sarina since she wasn’t trying to kill him, had just had a Demon forced out of her body kicking and screaming. And he couldn’t be the one to fall apart because this was his fault. Sarina was in pain and it was his fault.

Belatedly he realized, as she clung to him with her fingers curled into the fabric of his shirt, that she was trying to drown out the pain with touch. It cut through him like a knife, making him go rigid. He had no idea where to touch, where to keep from making it worse.

She gave him permission not long after and he couldn’t keep himself from it, tugging her to him, squeezing around her shoulders. Mike was careful, delicate, and she fit against him in ways that were both familiar and foreign that he couldn’t stop to think about it. He sighed, lips brushing against her hair, and she smelled like sweat and hose water and his stupid dust coated garage. It was terrible, but it was all he had.

“I got you,” he said, and pressed his lips into her hair and said it again, “I got you. I-I’m sorry, Sarina, I’m so sorry.”

SARINA

Tears were streaming down Sarina's cheeks and soaking Mike's shirt but the girl couldnt find it in herself to care about a little detail like that. Instead her focus was on the fact she could feel Mike holding onto her. She could feel his touch.

Everywhere he touched she could feel it.

She could feel the burns on her wrists and the ache in her shoulders.

Hiccuping when the tears started to slow down Sarina shook her head though she didnt move from where she was. She needed something to prove that she was real. She needed Mike's touch.

He was warm. He was soft. He was everything she had been craving in the hellhole of her mind that last however long it was. And Sarina didnt know what to do with that information now that she had to.

"Is it over? Is she gone?" Sarina instead mumbled out not letting Mike pull away even if he would try.

MIKE

He brought his other arm up, the one that wasn’t like a bar across the width of Sarina’s shoulders, to cup the back of her head and stroke her hair. Because that was a thing he did now, like it came natural to him to know what he needed to do to for her.

Is it over? she asked and it ruined him to hear her voice like that, like it was charged up with drops of rain. He left his lips where they were and it only vaguely occurred to him that he was sort of kissing her head but his vision had started to blur because he didn’t know what to do with this, with all the sounds and touches, and all he is are exposed lines that were pressed so tightly into her that he couldn’t hide them even if he tried. If she couldn’t see them then she could feel them, all the jagged edges and broken parts that he had been keeping inside.

“I’m sorry. God, I’m so sorry.”

And he couldn’t let go because touching her, feeling the warmth, to know she was okay, it was the only thing allowing him to keep it all together. The only thing keeping him from becoming scattered shards of glass across the floor. Sarina felt so good against his chest, solid and breathing and there, and Mike let himself believe that she was going to be fine. That he wasn’t going to lose his grip on Sarina ever again.

“Yeah. Yeah, they’re gone,” he said under the strain in his voice. Mike allowed the moment to breathe a little while longer before he couldn’t handle it anymore. “What can I do? Tell me what to do. Tell me how to help. Anything. Please.”

SARINA

Sarina didn’t recognize the apologies that were slipping through Mike’s lips like prayers to whatever higher force was between them. She couldn’t recognize that anything warranted an apology. Especially from Mike of all people.

Only the words that she had asked for reached her lips and Sarina held onto those as her own little mantra. It was gone. After all that time it was gone and Sarina was herself again. She didn’t quite feel like herself though.

Sarina felt empty and she didn’t know what she could use to fill that space. Was it someone’s else touch? Was it the drugs that drove the demon mad that would fill that ripped space in her chest.

Would that make her whole again?

If it was anyone else holding her Sarina would have reached up desperately to prove or disprove one of those options at the very least. Bringing their lips to hers, them on top of her and let them have their way with her. Sarina wouldn’t even play at wanting to be in control. She wanted someone to take it and just force her to feel.

This was Mike though and the pressure of his arms would have to be enough. In the haze of her mind she knew if he pulled away that space would rip further apart. Destroying her then and there.

“Stay with me.” Sarina instead murmured her words muffled from his shirt. “Just stay with me and don’t let me go.” She needed this pressure. She need the pleasure of him holding her along with the pain of waking up in a body that had fought as hard as possible to keep the demon.

Sarina needed him.

MIKE

He had known that she was a person who gave more touches than most. Pats to his chest, hugging him when he was having a mental breakdown, flipping him onto the concrete of her high class neighborhood. This, he realized with a jolt, was different and how they didn’t really touch like this ever since that dream. Deep down he knew, with no doubt, that she would be saying the same thing to anyone else and that he just happened to be the one there to hear it.

It was penance for having not noticed sooner. For having waited so long to do something for her. And he knew that when the pain stopped, when she came back to herself, that things would go right back to normal. When he wasn’t the one to be here, like this, for her. He knew this wasn’t the time or the place, but he let himself have it, just for a second, because Sarina needed it.

“I can do that,” his voice cracked. “Okay, yeah, I-I can do that.”

Careful of everything he was doing, Mike moved his hand from her hair to place it around her thigh and lower her back onto the bed. Even though there was this voice inside his head warning him against it, he followed in after her. Placing a knee on the mattress until he could lay down beside her, pulling her back into his chest so tightly that the line between them blurred.

And they were both still wet, Sarina more so than him, from the pool. The denim of his jeans stuck to his skin, his shoes and socks still soaking and on his feet that will be uncomfortable for hours. She probably felt the same way, and maybe when the initial shock of this thing passed he would get her a towel and a change of clothes, offer up his shower, but she hadn’t asked for any of that. She had asked for him, and he wasn’t going to fail her again so soon.

SARINA

Sarina moved without question with Mike. She let him move her however he saw fit. Her full trust was with him. He could use or abuse it and Sarina would let him.

She didn't care. It was bad and she knew it that she was willing to just fall so completely into someone but she didnt care.

Let her just be. Let her feel the pain. Let her feel.

Maybe then she would trust that she was actually alive.

But right now she was exhausted and she needed Mike. Curled into the bed she could feel that fuzziness in her head even if she didnt want to sleep. She wanted to be awake.

"Thank you for saving me." Sarina instead murmured forcing herself to stay awake.

MIKE

He had never felt so much shame in his life until that moment, didn’t think it possible, wrapped around Sarina while she thanked him, fucking thanked him for doing something that should have happened weeks ago, hell, that shouldn’t have had to happen at all had he been half the Demonologist he wanted to be.

It felt like someone had stabbed him in the chest, and he squeezed his eyes shut to curl his fingers in a little tighter around the fabric of her shirt. The pain rushing through him like water from a broken sprinkler.

“Don’t say that.” It was his fault, but he didn’t want to make it a thing. She wasn’t in her right of mind for him to, so instead he just said, “Thanks for coming back to me.”

SARINA

Sarina was fighting the sleep that threatened her. In the safety of Mike's arms though it wasnt something she could fight long.

Even as the words left her lips to thank him she was drifting. Her grip loosening as he thanked her. Words lost on her hazy mind.

"Dont leave." She instead begged. Her words slurred as she drifted into an uneasy sleep.

#wazowskiofthemikevariety #stubborn as a

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