Hallows: Den of Serpents

Devils Lash Out

Of Mice And Men- Identity Disorder

Delilah:

"Oh," I whisper when her car speeding away growls outside.

I still can't move from the surge of power she just released. It's silent for a moment before Lucien bursts into laughter. He stumbles back until the back of his boots hit the bottom of the step behind him and he falls to take a seat. His eyes are on the t-shirt in front of him.

"My life just flashed before my eyes," Carson chuckles.

He fumbles around in his pockets until he pulls out a blue lighter and takes a joint out of his jacket pocket. He sits down next to Lucien and sparks up the joint before passing it over to him. I'm not much of a smoker, but I'm going to need a lot more than some bourbon to help me out right now. Lucien offers the joint to me. I look at the pretty blue paper it's wrapped in. It has little blue pawprints on it.

"I didn't know it was your shirt. I got it from her room," I inhale. The smoke burns my chest hot enough to make me cough. I hand it back to them and make my way over to the family room for liquor. "How are you guys dealing with all of that?"

"All night," Carson smirks. "Well, I have been,"

"She asked you to help her with the founding events?" Lucien asks him. Now I feel bad because this is the last year Lucien can participate and it's up to the girl to ask.

"I wasn't her first choice," Carson glares at him. "We aren't supposed to do that s**t until next year but she called and you didn't answer. She needed the registration form turned in two nights ago,"

"f**k," he lets his head hang.

"What the f**k have you two been doing?" he asks.

"We're cleaning up Thompson's mess in New City while Damien deals with her case," Lucien leans back against the stairs. "Vic was falling apart with all the s**t that's coming up,"

"Is that why B.B. sent for Holly?" Carson asks.

"I didn't know B.B sent for Holly," Lucien looks over at him confused.

"That's why James has been gone for two days,"

"I didn't even f*****g-" he stands up rubbing his chin roughly. "I'm an asshole,"

"Yeah," Carson laughs. "We've all been a little busy. So has she, but she misses you both. She's been mumbling formulas. To what? I don't know but I think it has something to do with the kid. Addams has a tumor,"

"f**k," Lucien looks over at me and then back to his brother.

"She confirmed it last night. I think her crazy ass is going to do some crazy s**t soon," Carson silently asks for a drink.

"No, she's not," I throw back half my glass. The burning taste of vanilla goes down smoothly before settling in my belly. "She's going to let him die. B.B. doesn't do cures. She does chemical balancing. If she's making something for him it's for the pain and to keep him focused until he's ready to go,"

"How would you know that?" Lucien asks.

"I bought her the first chemistry set. Merciful death is not saving lives," I remind them. "Besides, if Ray lives. She can't keep Decarious. Damien is going to feel this one for a long long time. I still haven't met him by the way,"

"I want to defend her and say you're dumb but this is B.B. we're talking about," Lucien takes the glass out of my hand and takes a drink when I hand another glass to Carson. I let him keep it. B.B. is under a lot of stress and she's only making it worse by trying to force me to talk to her.

"We can find out," I shrug.

"We are not going to sneak around with you. She's f*****g nuts," Carson laughs. The three of us stay silent for a while. "She wouldn't," he shakes his head. "She's not that far gone. At least, not yet,"

"The sequence is the Rick and Morty theme song," I say.

"On what?"

"The tick-tack-toe keyboard on the shelf. The gold and silver one. It's a mixer. Mom was never smart enough to find her little bullshit hideouts. My dad left s**t behind for me to find," I drink the remainder of my glass. That should be enough for now. I need to clean up before James gets here. "Did you guys know he wants her to build a f*****g machine for clones?"

"Did he give you the blueprints?" Carson asks.

"A map to someone who can help her,"

"Yeah, it's for the next generation toad. You're taking this one but your viper won't be passing on," Lucien adds.

"Yeah, I know. Never been one to want s**t like that. I gave up an extra fifty,"

"Fifty what?" Lucien asks.

"Years,"

"What do you mean?"

"I stay alive an extra fifty years past my expiration date. No death rule,"

"You made a deal with some...thing?"

"Someone. I made a deal with this demon named Chance,"

"What the actual f**k, Delilah?" Carson looks me over disapprovingly. "Do you not f*****g learn?"

"A lot of s**t happened, okay? So much s**t happened. It was two years here. I don't even look like this in that other place. It's been like two-hundred and sixty-eight years since-" I stop talking and decide that I might need another drink after all.

"Holy s**t, Dilly," Lucien stands up. "f**k. A lot of s**t is coming out right now. What else?"

"I've been suppressing the development of my viper. Not intentionally. I just haven't been feeding enough to awaken the whole thing yet. Vipers are common but golden ones are-"

"We know," Carson nods. "The more you suppress it the more violent you're going to get and if you clash with that f*****g Reaper. We're all going to suffer. People might die, Del,"

"She's going to go alpha reaper on me," I groan and turn back to the family room to refill my glass. All the way this time. They follow and sit down on the couch. "We're both f****d, aren't we? I mean her a little more than me but we're f****d either way,"

"Blackstones," Carson sighs. "No more deals,"

"Even if I wanted to make more deals, I have nothing left to offer," I admit.

"What happened, Delilah?" Lucien asks. I take a seat across from them.

"I didn't know what the f**k I was doing at first. Tobias walked me through it. I carved the sigil on the floorboards under the table. I set the rope up and I put the spell on it. I stood at the bottom of the steps and the rope tied itself around my neck and lifted me up. I died and when I woke up I was in a white room. There were these two guys there. Chance and Creed. "They told me that my time wasn't up and that I had two choices. Wait in that room or-"

"Or what?" Carson asks when I stop to take a drink.

"Go through the door behind them," I finish. "Then s**t got a little hunger games after that. Then my dad showed up and then he was gone and then I was in this big ass house with my mom and she told me what she did and I stabbed her. Twice. Okay, I f*****g tried to kill her sixteen times but hello. We're dead. We die and we start at the respawn point," I downed the entire glass in one drink. "Killing people down there is not like killing people here. Here, you kill someone, and they f*****g stay dead. Down there, they form little packs and try to hunt you down cause they're sore ass losers,"

"Oh, my god. I see it," Lucien nods. "I see where they're related. I was thinking the whole time. No, Delilah isn't f*****g nuts. I mean sure. She's a control freak but holy s**t. B.B. stabbed the f**k out of those guys. B.B. carved the initials of every girl that guy raped into his skin. B.B. winged herself into the hearts of every f*****g criminal in Hellbourne and took over New City without starting a f*****g turf war," he laughs. "She was the balance we needed but you were the f*****g crazy b***h that started the war,"

"And she finished it for you," Carson nods. "Oh, s**t. I see it now,"

"So, she's my sister. We know that,"

"You need to talk to her. You need to settle this before she tries to kill all of us because she will,"

"I second that," Lucien agrees.

"What do you think her success rate would be?"

"It's been a hundred since she started," Stacy walks in through the front door with Natalie, Dylan, and Marco behind her.

"It's why we like her," Marco agrees.

"Well," Dylan shrugs. "She terrifies me a lot more than you do because you'd at least have the decency to dagger me in the back. She will walk right up and ask me to choose the weapon I want to die with and believe me when I say, she might know where all my stashed medieval s**t is,"

"If I let her in, I lose my little sister," I shake my head.

"You lost your little sister the moment you let Tobias into your head. Trust me. I've been down that road. Didn't like what I found on the end of it," Lucien shakes his head. "Get to know her now. The business side, not just your little sister part,"

"Business B.B.," Carson smiles. "There's a charisma there none of us have. People like her. Not just that, she's the weird quiet girl everyone takes for granted. She's your little sister. So she has all these little bits of information on people we need in our pocket,"

"So do we. Literal bodies of them,"

"No, no," Lucien laughs. "You can come back from murder in this town. She has secrets that require people like us to clean up bodies. Scandalous s**t rich people like you guys don't want out in the open,"

"Different set of skills," Stacy agrees. "Just as useful,"

"I actually have a request," Natalie raises her hand. "My birthday is coming up and I want to go see my aunt Kaylee in Vermont if that's okay,"

"I uh-" what am I supposed to say? B.B. has a whole thing planned for her. "We're having a meeting tonight. James is coming. We'll talk about it then,"

"Cool," she stuffs her hands in her jacket pockets.

"So, ten Gs on Decarious and blue boy throwing it down tonight," Lucien laughs. Carson shakes his head.

"I raise you five," Marco shakes his hand without hesitation.

"No," Carson growls at the two of them.

"Aww, come on Carie. What's the harm?" Lucien teases.

"If the kid finds out, things for B.B. will get a lot harder than they're going to become. We don't need to add to the pressure," he glares at the two of them. When did Carson become the reasonable one? He's usually the one instigating these things.

"Okay, I'm starting to freak out about him. She said she wished it was her instead," Lucien hands me his glass.

"Yeah, his dad is dying. We've all been there. We knew what we were from the start. He doesn't and the only reason he's finding out now is because his dad isn't strong enough to protect him from it anymore. He's going to be pissed," Carson shakes his head.

"Devils lash out when they're pissed," Lucien reminds him. Carson puts another joint to his lips and lights it up. Some things never change then. I remember him smoking like this before. His anxiety getting the best of him.

"I know. The first time it happened to me, we ended up with fifteen corpses in our basement," he blows out the smoke through his nose. "Let's not forget that,"

"Do you think B.B. can help him with that?" Stacy asks. "I don't feel like digging that many graves again,"

"Let's hope so. I'm just glad Ray let her close. I hate that she's been out there with Vic watching his every move. She never did that to the rest of us," Lucien huffs.

"That you know of," I grin.

Because let's face it. My sister is weird and creepy as hell. There is no doubt in my mind that she is in love with these guys simply because of the s*x. She probably likes watching them do little minuscule things and gets off on them not knowing she's watching them. I have to remind myself to steer clear of touching anything that belongs to the guys. That reaper has f*****g issues and I don't want to be the reason why she gives into it like my dad used to give into his.