Work Text:
Jon didn’t quite know what to think of his assistants, he’d only requested Tim and Sasha, knowing them to be competent researchers whom he actually got along with, yet he found himself with two extras. A young man he recognised from research with poorly bleached hair, and a frantic librarian, who didn’t seem to know the first thing about research.
Grim seemed at least somewhat competent, at least when a statement caught his interest. There was a lot he would just disregard; he would take a single look at a thing before calling it false and ignoring it, yet when he deemed something real, he’d do it immediately. Martin on the other hand seemed far more preoccupied with making tea then doing anything actually useful.
Jon was hoping that by giving Martin a statement that Grim was interested in, the researcher would teach the librarian some decent skills. Jon really had no idea why Grim was interested in such a statement, a man having sex with a lady made of worms, it was completely nonsensical. But Jon wouldn’t question it, whatever got him to work, and hopefully he’d teach Martin something in the process.
Part of Jon wilted as he heard yelling coming from the bullpull where his assistants were all working. With a quiet groan Jon pulled himself from his office chair, they really needed to get around to replacing that. It was the same chair that Gertrude had used, so it was god knows how old and while she may have been fine with it, Jon most certainly was not. Making a mental note to replace the chair, Jon hobbled out of their office, sighing as they saw all of their assistants crowded around Martins desk.
“What are you going on about Grim???” Tim was practically yelling, standing over the shorter man, with Sasha standing further back, and Martin looking quite distressed while sitting in his office chair. Jon cleared their throat, leaning against their office doorway.
Their assistants looked over, shutting up and looking differing levels of chastised.
"I do hope that you all are doing work,” Jon peered over their glasses, watching as Tim froze up slightly while Grim rolled their eyes.
“Sorry Boss, we-”
“Tim was just being weird. I’m helping Martin with this case by the way, far more interesting than a person who took the wrong combination at a party,” Grim interrupted Tim, once again rolling their eyes as they pulled over a chair to Martin's desk.
Tim shot Grim a look, before heading back over to his own desk. Sasha had moved back sometime while Grim was speaking, and she seemed to be already getting back into her work. Jon simply sighed and walked back into their office, only slightly dreading having to sit back in the horrid abomination Gertrude had called a chair.
Tim pulled up to the complex that Sasha had directed him to, waiting for Martin to come meet them. Tim and Sasha had kept up a tradition of going out every friday night for drinks, for as long as they’d been working in research together. Now that they had a much smaller team working in the archives, they’d decided to extend the invitation to their new coworkers. Jon had, rather predictably, declined the request, while Grim had said they already had plans. Martin, on the other hand, readily agreed, he mentioned that he didn’t drink but was happy to go out for the night and even offered to be the designated driver at the end of the night.
Martin walked out a moment later wearing comfy looking jeans and a light blue sweater with clouds printed on it. He fiddled with his hands, looking around for a second before noticing Tim’s car and making his way over.
“Hey, sorry if I made you guys wait too long,” Martin said nervously as he climbed his way into the back of the car.
“No it’s fine, We just got here,” Sasha reassured from the front passenger seat, “Cute sweater by the way,” she said as she smiled back at him.
“Oh,Thank you! what pub are we going to first?” Tim couldn’t see Martin anymore, focusing on the road as he made to turn out, but he could imagine that he was nervously wringing his hands. Tim noticed Martin doing that a lot, it must be a nervous stim.
“We gonna hit up The Ram first, then from there? We’ll see,” Tim muttered as he drove focusing on the increasingly familiar roads on the way to their favourite pub.
Sasha put on music, and before they knew it, they were at the pub. Sasha and Tim made their way to their normal spot, Martin following just behind them, exchanging easy conversation. They talked for a bit, and when Tim looked back at the bar to see how crowded it was he noticed something he really should’ve noticed sooner or rather, someone.
“Holy shit guys, guys look it’s Grim,” Tim only briefly turned back to look at his friends, before returning to staring at their coworker and the two very pretty women either side of him. On Grim’s left was a pale woman with hair that reached her mid-back, it was styled in a similar way to Grim’s with one side their, presumably, natural dark brown, and the other dyed, though he had to admit that this lady’s was dyed far better than Grim’s. On Grim’s right was a far darker woman, her afro pulled up high on her haid, and strings of wooden beads wrapping around her exposed waist.
“Dibs getting the drinks,” Sasha immediately spouted, already getting up and starting on her way over to the bar.
“Damnit, I wanted to meet who Grim bagged,” Tim whined, flopping back into his seat.
“We’ll probably meet them soon enough Tim,” Martin placated, finishing off the sweet non-alcoholic abomination he called a cocktail.
“Fine” Tim whined, leaning back and taking a sip of his actual cocktail.
Sasha wasn’t quite sure when she’d gotten separated from her friends, but it was a big carnival and they had organised a meet up place for a reason, so she figured nothing bad would happen.
Sasha took to taking up time by simply wandering around, going at a slow pace and everything around her. It was for this reason that she spotted Grim, their split dyed hair standing out amongst the crowd. It probably wasn’t very sensible but Sasha decided to follow them, holding the stuffed animal she’d won at a booth close to her chest as she weaved through the crowds, thankful for her height for being able to see above the heads of most.
Grim was hard to keep track of, ducking and weaving throughout the hoards of people, but his hair kept bringing Sasha’s eyes back to him. She kept following them for a few minutes before they ducked into a blue and purple tent set up at the outskirts of the Carnival grounds. As Sasha approached she could make out a sign marking the tent as a fortune teller stall, decorated with small crystals drawn on in colourful chalk around the edges of the black sign.
Sasha hesitated for a second, but decided to enter anyway. Inside was dark, the heavy canvas of the tent blocking out most of the natural light, leaving the area to be lit only with candles and fairy lights. The place was littered with oddments and paraphernalia. There was a delicately crafted ouija board and matching planchette on display behind a glass case, multiple packs of custom tarot decks placed around, star charts hanging from the fabric walls, and colourful crystals taking up any free space. And sitting behind the main table in the centre of the tent, was a black skinned woman, her eyes closed as she deftly sorted her way through a tarot deck, each with the Gaelic triquetra in the centre, with smaller symbols curling around the edges.
The woman looked up at Sasha after a long minute, her piercing blue eyes staring deep into Sasha. She felt pinned in place under that gaze, like she was being assessed and judged by something better than her. That cold gaze finally moved from her face, taking a once over of her before finally, she smiled, closing those pale blue eyes once again.
“You’re Sasha right? One of Grim’s friends,” she sounded friendly, her voice deep and welcoming, and Sasha suddenly realised that the woman sat before her was one of the women sitting beside Grim at the bar last week.
“Uh, yes, and you are?” Sasha was really quite proud she didn’t stutter then, still recovering from th at piercing stare.
“Ah, how silly of me, my name is Lilith. Now then Sasha, would you like your fortune told?" Something about the woman’s- Lilith’s tone changed then, but Sasha couldn’t quite place it. Instead, she nodded, and sat in the chair that Lilith gestured to.
Lilith put her hands out on the table, her palms facing the ceiling, and after a moment later Sasha settled her own in those large hands. Lilith’s hands then snapped closed around her, and those chilling blue eyes opened up again, pinning Sasha in place as she stared into her very soul.
When Lilith finally spoke, it felt like her voice echoed, her words being repeated by an invisible chorus, each voice as strong and daunting as the next, yet all unique.
“January 18th, 2017. You will cry out, trapped in that most wretched room you hate with ever fibre of your being, but you will be stuck there, and you will cry out, in a desperate attempt to alert anyone who might hear you, and the only one who will hear you will be the one to take your name. It will make it slow and painful, feeding on the fear you generate as it slowly turns itself into a twisted mockery of you. It will make sure you are still present as it warps every detail of what makes you, you. You will watch as it replaces your memories, and the memories of the ones you love and the ones you hate and the ones you do not remember. It will make sure you are still aware as it puts itself in your place, taking away every bit of your identity and making you its. And then, only then will it let you pass on.”
Sasha could not breathe,. she could only think of the horrifying fate that supposedly awaited her, the chilling and violent end that was to be her death. Sasha had never feared her end, hoping it would be something peaceful or predictable, but this- this would haunt her, this made her fear her end.
Sasha startled as she felt Lilith pull her hands away from hers, she looked up at Lilith and saw that those cool blue eyes had closed once again, but it was obvious that she was barely holding back a wide grin.
Sasha stood, her stuffed toy clutched desperately in her hands, and she ran. Out of that tent, and away from that fate.
Martin heaved a sigh of relief as he walked out of the institute. Grim had been hounding him about going on a follow up investigation together, and Jon was breathing down his neck trying to get him to finish a report.
Sasha had also been weird and jumpy all week, refusing to be in a room alone at all. It wasn’t like her, and as worried as Martin was she kept insisting she was fine so there was nothing more he could do. Tea only fixes so much after all.
Between all of that and Tim’s usual chaotic nature Martin had gotten extremely overwhelmed by the end of the week, so he was excited to get out of the institute and take a nice long lunch break.
Martin slowly wandered around the streets of Chelsea, taking a chance to get lost in the crowds and let himself relax. Not worrying about having to do anything for anyone or getting called out on the lie on his resume.
Martin found himself in a large open space, shops lining either side of the area and benches and plants littering the open area. And in the middle of it all was a familiar woman with split blue and brown hair, standing on a raised platform while singing and playing an electric guitar. Behind her was someone on a makeshift drum kit and a bass player, and most notably someone on violin.
Something about her voice seemed to reel Martin in, making it impossible for him to look away. So instead, he strayed closer.
“You’re feelings and mine are all holy and,
You give me an inner sanctity,
You feel the same way that I do for you, about her,”
She made eye contact with Martin.
“Your word and my word and her word is,
Yesterday, today and tomorrow,”
Martin felt like he couldn’t breath, like he was falling through those whisky brown eyes, caught in her vast gaze.
“And twilight gives me,
An inner sanctity,”
And suddenly he wasn’t falling, but he was drowning.
“And you’re feeling
And you’re hungry for her
And you don’t understand it
But you know you haven’t planned it,”
Martin tried to tear his eyes away, to look away from that horrible, beautiful gaze. He knew that if he kept looking he’d drown, yet he couldn’t, he had to keep looking, he had to keep listening.
“You’re feelings and mine are all lonely
And dawn comes, you’re there lying with me
And you reach out to touch me
But I am in the twilight,”
Her gaze felt almost predatory on Martin, eyes hungry and cruel as she drank in his terror and took in his last breaths.
“You’re feelings and mine are all holy but
You know and I know it’s untrue because
When day dawns, you’re there lying with me
And the dawn can fly away,”
Martin thought her teeth looked too sharp for her mouth, as she grinned down at Martin. Her canines looked impossibly animalistic, like she was moments away from tearing apart her prey.
“And you know I love you but you know that
There’s nothing you can do about it
Because you love her
And you still want me,”
Martin noted that the edges of his vision were starting to blur away, peripherals being smaller as he struggled to get a gasp of air in around the water that wasn’t filling his throat.
“If I could be her
But I’m not her and she’s not me
And you’re somewhere different
On a different planet,”
Martin really wished he was on a different planet in that moment, a planet away from her and her hungry gaze.
“And you still want it
The inner sanctity
And it’s an evil
But the evil is necessary,”
Somehow Martin felt like he was falling again. The pressure had eased from his throat and he barely managed to get a gulp of air before it was whisked away from him again, and he felt like suddenly he was plunging through the air from the clouds.
“And you’re still hungry for her
And you still want her loving
But she doesn’t love you,”
The singer looked satisfied for a moment, before she turned her gaze away, and Martin was struggling to stay standing, gasping in air as people around him clapped for the end of the song. He thinks a few people looked like they were just dancing.
Martin turned around, and he didn’t run, but it was close. Forget all the drama. He’d rather be back at the institute than anywhere near that lady.