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tigriswolf) wrote2007-02-09 11:31 pm
From Serpent's Tongue - Devour fic - R
Title: From Serpent’s Tongue
Fandom: Devour
Disclaimer: none of ‘em are mine.
Warnings: spoilers for movie; blasphemy
Pairings: Paul/Kathy, Marisol/Kathy, Marisol/Jake
Rating: R
Wordcount: 2920
Point of view: third
Notes: Jakob means supplanter.
More notes: The phrase dance with the Devil in pale moonlight is from Batman.
Notes cubed: I also bastardize a quote from Alice in Wonderland.
… kill me, Momma… kill me…
-
Kathy learned she would never have children after waking up in the hospital when she was nineteen. She had no memory of the accident that put her there, but apparently it had been horrible. Five cars and one semi were involved, six people died, twelve were wounded, and Kathy lost the ability to bear and deliver a child.
Her parents assured her it wasn’t the end of the world, her brother Ross said the accident hadn’t been her fault, and her fiancé Paul swore he still wanted her for his wife.
“There are millions of kids out there who need homes, Kat,” he whispered, cradling her in his arms. “And you are the best person I know.” He kissed her temple, carded his fingers through her hair. “I swear, you’ll always be the one I want. Nothing will ever change that.”
-
Kathy first laid eyes on her son in a dream. She was wandering through a forest she knew she knew, the sun high in the sky, lighting a path for her trembling feet to follow. The woods were silent as a grave, and she shuddered at the thought. Kathy walked the path to its end: a circle of stone. A woman waited for her there, an infant cradled in her arms
“Kathryn,” the woman said. “Welcome. I’ve waited eternities for you.”
“Me?” Kathy asked. “Why?”
“When you wake tomorrow, tell your husband you want to visit the forest outside of your town. You want to commune with nature beneath those ancient trees. Tell him that you’ll die if you don’t.”
“What?” Kathy repeated. “Why?”
“Do as I say, child,” the woman commanded. “If you want a son.”
Kathy woke the next morning with an aching need to get to the woods outside of town, but she didn’t know why.
-
Two days after stealing the gorgeous baby boy from the horrific monster, the woman appeared in Kathy’s dream again.
“Thank you,” Kathy said. “We couldn’t have saved him without you.”
The woman’s smile was sharp and her laughter biting. “Name him Jakob, dear, and we’ll call it even.”
“Jakob?” Kathy echoed. “Why?”
The woman stepped out of the circle and lightly caressed Kathy’s face. “Because he is the future, Kathryn. Jakob Lucien. I gave you a son so beautiful the world will fall at his feet. The least you can do is name him what I ask.”
“Of course,” Kathy said. Her grandfather had been called Jacob, and one of her uncles was named Luke. “Jakob Lucien.”
The woman smiled again, gentler this time, and when she kissed Kathy, Kathy could taste blood.
-
Paul didn’t want to name him Jakob, but Kathy insisted. And since Kathy was still in the hospital since falling down the mountain, she got her way.
Her parents took care of Jakob until Kathy went home from the hospital and Paul spent most of the time by her side.
The day she was finally released, she held Jakob for hours, studying his tiny, perfect face, whispering of the fun they’d have. He smiled up at her, laughed, cooed, and Kathy fell completely in love.
-
Jakob grew too fast. Kathy wanted him to stay a smiling little boy, curious about everything, full of laughter. But soon he became a surly teenager, always butting heads with Paul. Paul’s drinking didn’t help, but Kathy couldn’t say a word to make them get along.
She sat in her chair in the kitchen, listening to them yell, wincing at the words they hurled through the air. Jakob was fifteen and insisted on being called Jake; Paul was drunk and it was only nine in the morning.
Kathy felt the tears building, felt them pooling in her eyes and spilling over. She loved them both so much and couldn’t understand why they refused to behave.
Then she heard the sound of a slap, of flesh on flesh. Kathy gasped and closed her eyes; Paul said, “Oh, God, son, I’m sorry!”
Kathy couldn’t make out Jake’s reply over the rushing of her blood or the roaring in her head.
Before she fell completely into the black void that beckoned, Kathy heard Jake screaming, “Mom!”
-
She woke to Jake asleep in the chair by her bed and Paul staring out the window. Kathy just watched them for a while, breathing softly. Paul’s shoulders were tight, full of tension, and she could feel the regret hanging around him. Jake looked uneasy; ever since he became a teenager, his dreams were hard, scary; Kathy longed to wrap her arms around him, to wipe away his fear and sorrow, but she hadn’t the strength or ability.
Jake’s eyes flickered open and he smiled at her. “Hi, Momma,” he said softly and Paul turned.
“Kathy,” he murmured, relief tangible. “Thank God you’re awake.”
She didn’t want her first words to be a reprimand and tinged with disappointment but she had to say it before she forgot. “You can’t drink anymore, Paul.”
His shoulders sagged down and he quietly promised, “I won’t.”
-
Kathy never went back home. Paul and Jake couldn’t take care of her all the time. She knew the fights would be frequent and awful without her, but they both agreed it would be best for her.
She hated being away from them, not seeing them every day. She’d loved Paul since she was thirteen, and Jake could brighten her day with a smile.
Paul dropped by when he could, usually every other day. He’d sit with her, talk about the old days, those eight years they had before Jake. He always kissed her gently goodbye, eyes filled with sorrow and grief, and a hint of anger. She didn’t have the words to fix what had broken in their world; Kathy knew the words didn’t exist.
Jake spent an hour with her every day she was up to it. He’d tell her about school, about the latest adventures of Connie, the boy who worshipped him(though, he’d never shared that tidbit of information with her, she’d gleaned the knowledge from the way Connie was around Jake, and she knew the feeling to be completely mutual). Jake assured her she’d be better one day, able to walk and care for herself again, but he’d always be there, always, come Hell or high water or a stampede of buffalo.
Kathy just smiled and listened and when he ran out of words, she’d talk about his younger years, the happy baby she fell in love with. How from the first moment she laid eyes on him, she knew he was hers and she was his and everything felt right again.
Paul never mentioned Jake and Jake never mentioned Paul. Sometimes, she asked how things were with them, but Paul ignored the question and Jake said, “Better.”
Kathy knew she was the one fraying thread that kept them together and it hurt her because she loved them both so much it ached.
-
The years passed slowly and she was not quite happy. The nurses were kind and the grounds beautiful. She would sit outside and watch the sky turn colors, darken, and then study the stars until wheeled to her room. They helped her onto her bed, tucked her covers around her, and wished her goodnight.
She missed Paul’s nearness, his warmth, his scent. She missed his arms around her, his lips on hers. She missed his gentle assurance of always being there, of always taking care of her. She missed the boy she first met, the man she married.
Kathy couldn’t pinpoint when he first changed, but she believed it may have been the day they found Jake shrieking in that cabin. Walking through the trees, the last day she ever did stand alone on her own two feet—it was the perfect moment. The last time she saw the man Paul had been, that man she loved since she’d seen a fourteen-year-old boy playing basketball. After they found Jake, after her body broke and never fully healed, then suffered a slow slide into full paralysis, Paul never smiled so brightly again. He stayed with her, though, his love still shone bright and true, but he was never the same man.
And she missed him. She hadn’t been held by him in almost twenty-one years and she missed him. Kathy loved Jake more than she’d ever imagined and her mom told her that was the way of motherhood. But because she loved him so much, it hurt that sometimes, when she lay alone and unable to move by herself, she wondered if losing Paul was worth finding Jake.
-
Whenever Jake visited he brought her orchids, her favorite flower, and she’d tell him about her and Paul’s first date, when he gave her a lovely bouquet of them. Jake kissed her when he arrived and when he left, on her cheek or forehead. His eyes were always gentle, with sorrow and grief, with pain and guilt.
He believed she was injured in a car wreck. He believed his father lost control of the car on a snowy night. He believed he was screaming in the backseat as the car spun out, hitting a tree. He went uninjured, Paul got a broken arm, and she was never the same again. Kathy hated lying to him, thought he saw the truth every time he looked in her eyes. But what really happened was so much worse… and somehow, he still knew it was because of him. He blamed himself for what he thought was a car accident when he was less than a year old.
So when she gazed at his face, taking in the guilt he carried on his shoulders for something that was nowhere near his fault, her guilt cemented deeper in her soul.
-
The third time Kathy saw the woman, Jake was hours away from turning twenty-one. The newest nurse, Marisol Banderas, had seemed familiar from the beginning, but Kathy couldn’t place her. It’d been twenty years, after all, so Kathy forgave herself for not recognizing the Devil when she appeared again.
“Finally you know me,” the Fiend said, giving a throaty chuckle. “I have waited eternities for you to look at me and see me for what I am.”
In her dream, the wind screaming and trees groaning, moonlight alone illuminating Marisol in her soft blue gown, Kathy stood as she hadn’t in over twenty years. As she had the first time they spoke, Kathy asked, “Why?”
Marisol’s smile made a shiver shoot down her spine. “An experiment, Kathryn. An experiment far beyond your meager human comprehension. I formed him from my blood and yours, so he is your son, as well. You did not bear or deliver him, but he is still your seed. You loved him so suddenly and completely because your being knew him as yours. And he is beautiful, our son. Gorgeous in a way mankind has forgotten how to be.”
Marisol stepped forward, over the stones, and held out a hand. “Dance with me, love. Dance with the Devil in pale moonlight.”
Kathy moved back, hands by her sides. “Please,” she said, trembling. “Tell me the real reason why.”
Marisol threw back her head and howled with laughter, filling the forest, echoing loudly in Kathy’s head. “‘The time has come,’ the Devil said,” Marisol paraphrased, “‘to speak of many things: of insanity, of blood, and the fall of the King.’”
Kathy closed her eyes. “Apocalypse?” she whispered and shuddered when she felt Marisol’s fingers on her face.
“Yes,” Marisol whispered, trailing her fingers across Kathy’s cheek, then tangling them in Kathy’s hair. “In your veins flows the Virgin’s blood. Holy blood. And in mine flows power and knowledge from the dawn of time. I was the first, the greatest—I am what all since have striven to be.”
Kathy looked into Marisol’s dark, dangerous eyes. “Won’t God stop you?”
Marisol smiled and leaned in, pressed her lips feather-soft against Kathy’s. “Jehovah has long since looked away. He no longer cares for His creations, moved on to new playgrounds millennia ago.” She kissed her way down Kathy’s neck, then murmured into Kathy’s skin, “This world is mine. Our son is the weapon forged to end mankind’s reign. Because you have been good to him, I offer you—the Son’s kin—a chance to stand with me when the fire rains.”
Kathy licked her lips nervously, watching Marisol raise her head. “Paul?” she asked.
Marisol shook her head, smile razor-edged. “He has not been good to our boy, Rynnie. You know it. And I forgive you for letting it happen since I’m the one who made you unable to stop it.”
Kathy jerked back and Marisol let her. “You paralyzed me?” she hissed, fury giving her courage.
Marisol nodded. “You should have known there would be a price paid, darling. I gave you a son. Did you think I would take nothing in return?”
Kathy clenched her hands into fists, tried restraining her temper. But anger loosened her tongue and she snarled, “Fuck off, you demented bitch.”
And Marisol smiled again, slow and dangerous. “There are no more chances, Kathryn. If I leave now, I will never again offer you my hand.” She reached out once more, caressed Kathy’s face. “Do not make a hasty decision, mother of my son.”
Kathy pulled away and met Marisol’s midnight eyes. “Leave me alone.”
Marisol nodded. “As you wish, my lovely, so shall it be done.”
Kathy had one moment of wondering if she’d made the right decision before being catapulted into consciousness. And all she recalled, after her eyes opened, was a fleeting sense of regret.
-
When Jake visited the day after he turned twenty-one, Kathy watched with glee as he and the newest nurse, Marisol, flirted.
But a part of her, a part she barely knew was there, whispered, Get her away from my son.
Kathy couldn’t hear that part, however, and even if she could, she lacked the ability to anything about it.
-
And then Connie died. And Dakota. And Kathy’s only brother, Ross, in some freak car wreck.
And a week after Jake’s birthday, Marisol woke Kathy and said, “Time to collect debts owed.”
For a moment, Kathy was disoriented, had no idea where she was or what was going on.
Then she looked into Marisol’s cold, dark eyes and couldn’t hold in the whimper.
“You have given him a lifetime of humanity, Kathryn,” Marisol told her, carrying her through the deserted halls. “And now it is my turn to give him his inheritance.”
“Please,” Kathy begged. “Just let Jake and Paul go.”
Marisol chuckled. “You had a chance to escape, love. You were given an opportunity and you spit in my face. There are no second chances, no last minute bouts of mercy.” Marisol carried her out of the building and put her in the back of a van, next to Paul’s body. She could only stare at her husband in horror, but Marisol assured her, “He’s just sleeping, Ryn. For now.” Marisol leaned down and brushed strands of her off Kathy’s face. “You, my dear, are the key that will unlock all the potential leashed in our son.” She gave Kathy a brief, gentle kiss, and closed the door.
-
Marisol tied Kathy and Paul to the wooden stake and lifted them into the air. Paul never regained consciousness, but Kathy was locked in her body, fully aware of what was going on. She felt the cold slice of knife and the blood drip down her, collecting in that cup. She felt the world growing colder, felt her heart slowing, and still Jake did not come. Maybe, she hoped for a little while, he’d escaped Marisol’s grasp, fled.
But then, there he was, gorgeously alive and gloriously beautiful, too human to be other and too other to be human.
Kathy could only watch in horrified fascination as Marisol revealed herself, as Marisol tempted him. And Jake held back, Jake shoved away the desire, and then Marisol kissed him, that bitch dare put her lips on Kathy’s son—rage coursed through her and Jake jerked away, looked up at Kathy, and she heard, Momma, why didn’t you kill me? before Marisol glared at her and pain—
-
And Kathy slept. She dreamed of the days before Jake, of her childhood and her parents and her brother, of the life she lived before the wreck that stole her children and then the tumble that stole her strength. She dreamed of Paul, of the boy she met and the man she loved and the person who died that night she fell down a mountain.
Kathy dreamed of her son, the one thing she loved more than Paul, and of Marisol, the evil liar who damned Kathy’s boy.
Kathy slept and Kathy wept and Kathy prayed for deliverance, for redemption, for absolution—but she heard only Marisol’s howl of laughter and felt only heat licking her body, and she smelled flesh burning, tasted ash, and opened her eyes to absolute darkness that soon revealed itself as a tomb.
Claw your way out, darling, Marisol whispered in her head, and you have your second chance to steal our son from my embrace.
Mercy? Kathy wondered, and Marisol answered her thought.
No, Kathryn. But Jakob has further to fall than I believed.
Exultation filled Kathy’s body and she commanded her arms to move.
For the first time in twenty-one years, they listened. With determination and hope in her heart, Kathy began to force herself up through the dirt.
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I just can't seem to get away from _Devour_. As to a sequel for this piece, probably not, but I am working on a fairly lengthy _Devour_/"Gilmore Girls" crossover fic.
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Thank you!