Chapter Text
This was worse. Cal decides to lean her head against the unseen barrier, keeping her prisoner in one of the side rooms of Oliver and Carmen’s hideaway love nest. Or, if she was being honest, the couple’s demon den, the spiraling hunter corrects herself.
“Come on, Jules, that’s it, just a little more.”
As if Cal didn’t have enough reason for loathing Juliette’s gaslighting elder sister, she deliberately torments her like this as the trapped hunter once again slides shaking fingers through her hair in mirrored distress, catching another ragged breath from the half-opened door just out of her reach to the adjoining room.
“J—Ju—just let me go.” Juliette’s weakened gasp comes again between gages, coughing into what Cal could only guess to be some offered trashcan. She envied the giggling vampire holding back Juliette’s hair as she retched into it.
“Not a chance, Sweet little.” Elinor hummed, and Cal could only guess that the elder sister was smoothing her hand through the sweat-sticky locks matting Juliette’s forehead, showing a much softer side to the brother, killing the older sister. Then, the sound of dripping water catches the human’s strained attention, and Cal figures that the washcloth once again is dabbed over blood-wet lips.
“Please.”
Again, hot, guilty tears slide down Cal’s cheeks at the true heart-shattered undertone of Juliette’s asking. Again, the trapped hunter remembers Elinor’s snarled words as she was left relatively alone in her ‘cell’.
“You did this to her, hunter. You claimed to love her and whatever other nauseating loving whatever, yet it was You that’s driven her to this.” Elinor had tormented her as they’d driven like wild devils along the roadways back towards something resembling safety to attempt to save her dying Juliette.
“Don’t try it.” Her ‘jailer’ warns as Cal eyes the closest section of the spell circle, trying again to think of the best way to smudge the symbols enough to free herself.
“You already know you can’t fight us, Jules, so please stop trying.” Oliver keeps his voice low. “You need to purge yourself. Get it all out.” He pushes still with that fatherly undertone as he stands once again, moving to press a grounding kiss against a still-chanting Carmen’s head. Whatever spell the witch was mumbling kept weaving its horrible lifesaving magic.
“I just want to die.” Juliette argues back, “Give her what she wants.” Juliette protests again as Cal hides her tear-stained face against her pulled-up knees.
“No can do. Little sister.” Oliver replies, smoothing a hand over his younger sister’s sweat-matted bangs. “we love you too much.”
The hunter gave a shaking breath, hugging her drawn-up legs tighter in her guilt as she cried harder, trying and failing again to block out the gagging coughing, only made louder every time Juliette crumpled over the trash can.
Not for the first time, Cal tried again to muster the same panic-backed feelings she’d had that night. Cook had threatened to turn her in just because she’d broken the rules and had fallen ‘for the enemy’ as he’d seen it. But just like the first few times the trick had seemed to work, Cal gives up at the broken ‘I’m sorry.’ whimper Juliette makes, reminding the stuck hunter all over again of the new way she was unintentionally destroying the girl she loved.
“I’m sorry too, Jules.” Cal sniffed, burrowing her tear-stained face in her knees.
Of course, Juliette wouldn’t be able to tell what she was trying to achieve in reaching for their bond like that.
Juliette would guess given their last talk that Cal was drowning in self-directed guilt and anger. Not so untrue but it wasn’t like her legacy would know now that it was Cal’s guilt over pushing Jules away that plagued her now not what had happened with Theo.
“So, explain something to me,” Ben asks by way of a distraction-intended greeting as he nudges the door to Cal’s ‘jail’ room closed again, balancing an overloaded box of chips and sodas in his arms as he moves.
“What?” Cal asks, puzzled, considering the brought-in food selection was more than he thinks even Ben’s athletic build would be able to handle in his nervous state. It’s not like the containment spell would allow him to share with her anyway and going by the glare he sends her ‘guard’ the witch in the corner wasn’t getting any snacks either.
“Who would have guessed it. Golden boy Ben Wheeler a total junk food junkie?” Cal wanted to tease if her words hadn’t been stolen by another coughed retching from the adjoining room.
“Like I’m letting you ‘pity party’ alone?” Juliette’s best friend scoffs, also recoiling at the sound as he dropped to sit cross-legged as close as the spell circle allowed by way of closeness. “besides, the fang twins aren’t letting me near Letty, and your vamp bro isn’t much for chitchat, either.” Ben lists off, ripping into a chip bag as he rambles.
“Stress eater much, Wheels?” Cal giggles humorlessly as she scrubs away a few lingering tears from her cheeks. His comment about Theo worried her, but it wasn’t like she could do much for her big brother at the moment.
“Not all of us are total badass Buffy wannabes that can punch away our feelings like you and yours, Burns.” Ben fires back as he chews, cutting into Cal’s musings. “and for the record just cause Letty’s your brothers I don’t know vampire mom now or whatever the fangs call turning someone doesn’t give him complete sulking privileges.” The boy pouts, making himself as comfortable as he can, leaning back against the unseen barrier of the containment circle.
“you either.” Ben adds sending a halfhearted glare over his shoulder at the sulking hunter sitting with her back to his. “Yeah, she’s your girlfriend or ex or however labeling comes with literally holding an actual spear thing to my girl’s chest and threatening to end her only to hightail after her like a kicked puppy once you’ve already let her drive off but she’s my best friend.” Ben snaps in summarizing reproach, which earned a humorless scoff from the girl behind him, and another tearful sniff of reminded guilt.
“I was here first.” Ben reminds with what seems an overly dramatic air Cal finds herself grateful for as she strains her ears for any sound beyond the half-open door as Ben digs out another larger bag of chips from his collection once the first has been finished.
“Seems Letty finally passed out or something. Sleeping like a tiny, sickly kitten with Barbie fangs, keep watch,” he narrates for her over the crunching of more potato chips.
“Bite you to, Wheeler.” Elinor croons back
“You’re sure?” Cal asks
Ben peeks over his shoulder, puzzled at the hunter’s sudden glee. “Seems to be.” He mused, taking another look into what he could see in the other room. “Why?” he wonders aloud.
Cal only smiles, not wanting to jinx herself in giving herself or Ben any kind of false hope that she could fix things so quickly. She knows so much damage has already been done for anything like that.
“Wish me luck.” Cal sighed, stretching out as best as she could in the cramped confines of her captor’s circle.
She’d watched the Leo and Claire version often enough between school moves to conger up the scene she wanted as she closed her eyes.
“Whatever you're gonna do, Burns, my only suggestion is you do it fast.” Ben warns, his gaze flicking between Cal and the annoyed hissing of Juliette’s older sister.
Cal considers the possibility she catches Theo’s soft rebuffs, but she can’t be sure as she attempts to get her tensed body to relax into sleep.
‘Thank you bone tiering exhaustion.” Cal thinks given how quickly her tired mind surrendered to the want of rest.
The silvery mesh of her scene-copied outfit hangs heavy off her shoulders as she pushes her dream-created self deeper into the faceless others, flushing out the scene she was attempting to create. “Come on,” Cal pleads as more tiering fatigue laden her limbs even in the escape of her dreams.
Until she spies the one she was hunting for.
Dancing with Ben instead of the unfortunate intended love interest Paris in the center of the unimportant dreamscape.
Time isn’t on her side, but not even knowing it can lessen the seconds she takes to drink in the sighs of her legacy’s shy grin at whatever it was dream Ben had just whispered to her.
Until Juliette’s eyes catch Cal’s watchful ones.
The faceless one Cal knew she should have been Ben helpfully spins Juliette out to her as she quickly crosses from her lurking prowl on the sidelines to now center stage as her hand catches Juliette’s wrist.
“Jules.” Cal sighs but giggles a little when she notices that, even in her dreams, Juliette had to stand tip-toed to attempt to balance the height difference between them. “Juliette.” Cal groans, miscalculating even in this dream self so that her back hits against the vibrated hum of what her rational mind knows to be the uncomfortable reminder of her invisible captivity in the more solid world outside her dream world.
“Cal---Ca--Calliope?” the vision in her arms mumbles as glazed eyes flick over her. Half hopeful, half honest, puzzled, she steadies herself against Cal’s hold. “Cal?” she asks again, pretty fangs flashing in discomfort at the burning touch of silver even in this shared dream space.
But Cal could hear an echo asking her name in her older brother’s rasped voice as she struggled to anchor herself in this dream reality. “What the hell have you done to her?”
“Cal, no. Please don’t leave me again.” Juliette pleads, pushing away that second muffled hum of voices.
Cal doesn’t answer. She can’t, with the cutting sting of mistrust, layering her name. She wants to say so many apologies, but she is unable to convey the guilty weight of her emotions.
She felt herself being lifted, and then Theo’s voice was low but tickling against her ear as she grounded herself in Juliette’s tear-wet eyes. “I’ve got you, Callie. You’re alright now.”
She can hear more voices, mainly Elinor’s growling tones, starting up again as Cal feels herself being carried. Thankfully, Juliette solved Cal’s problem of how to block out the dull hum of the added voices this time.
The kiss, like those heated ones, traded under the shading of that curiously planted fruit tree as they both sank into them.
“Such a dream.” Juliette groans, offering more of her throat to Cal’s seeking lips. “Let me die here.” The words are barely auditable as light fingers tug tighter into Cal’s hanging hair.
“Cal? Cal, if you can hear me, whatever you're doing isn’t working.” Ben’s voice cuts in as if Cal hadn’t already worked that out for herself.
With a low huff, Cal shifted her tactics a little as more washed-out shadows dripped past them like shedding blackened blood as the dreamscape reshaped around them.
“Dammit, Jules, I don’t want to kill you; I love you.” Cal counters, keeping her dream, allowed hold as tight as she could as she and Juliette pulled away to look at one another.
“Liar,” Juliette answers with fresh tears welling in her eyes, and she shakes her head a small shake, even as Cal feels her leaning into the hunter’s straighter frame in the shadow of the shared dream.
Then Cal realized just what scene the nightmare had reshaped around them.
Hours. Only a handful of hours ago, they’d first stood out on the darkened lawn.
“No.” Cal growled, her eyes closed tight rather than rewatching the unforgettable scene play out all over again in the shared vision realm.
“I only wanted to help,” Juliette whispered.
“I know.” Cal agreed, hugging her closer as the sounds of struggling grew louder as they held one another.
“Burns, you better be talking my girl down, but can you hurry it up a little? We could really use your help here,” Ben’s panicked voice calls out.
“Elinor?”
Now, it wasn’t her father and brother struggling to hold back a newly turned Theo but a weakening tag team of Juliette’s own brother and sister taking on a sorrow-driven Theo.
“You think I want to do this?” Cal hears her brother sobbing as he dodges around one of Oliver’s attempted attacks. A familiar weapon held clenched in his fisted hand.
Carmen and a few of her still-breathing coven mates scattered on the darkened grass around them as each of the remaining trio struggled to gain some advantage.
Understanding clouds her thoughts a half second later as Cal quickly spins their positions, feeling the very real thrusting of the stakepoint driving hard into her sweat-coated skin as she was ripped from her dream world with a pained hissing as the weapon sank into her offered back.
Fresh blood quickly soaks both Cal’s shirt and Juliette’s as the assaulted hunter sagged onto the equally groggy vampire she’d been protecting.
“Cal.” Juliette rasped roused Cal guessed by the fresh offering of spilled blood seeping quickly from the wound that had she not blocked, it would have hit right between her vampire’s ribs for an equally fatal attack.
“I told you.” Cal coughs, barely able to lift her chin as the blood pools thick and fast from the stake driven into her back from her own brother’s hand. “I love you.” She whispers as Juliette’s face blurs “I love you, Jules.” She whispers again before the darkness of rapid blood lose overtook her.