11calls | It's where my demons hide, oh it's where my demons hide.

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It's where my demons hide, oh it's where my demons hide.

In the end it had been Simon. Alex had been aware that Simon was…watching her which sounded a hell of a lot better than stalking her since she’d heard their conversation when she’d recorded her sleep note. What Alex hadn’t realized then is just how much Simon had been protecting her or whatever and how often he’d been around. Sure, joking with Nic about Simon watching was one thing—what else is one supposed to do when you’ve got a dark sense of humor and a creepy bilocating kid with an obsession—but finding out that he’d actually been there and overheard those conversations was another thing entirely.

But in an effort to convince Alex to go to Turkey to meet him and the Horn of Tiamat, he’d come clean. Well, it was as clean as Simon had known how to come given all of his cryptic bullshit but she’d gotten the gist of it nonetheless. Alex had gotten the gist of it, and then she’d tried to hide from it, pulling the blankets over her head for a day and calling in sick and wondering if it could possibly be fucking true. That Strand was a demon and had been the entire time and that she had been friends with a demon, that she’d flirted with a demon, that she’d defended a demon and that Alex had bought into the lies and manipulations of a demon who was using her and her entire show for some untoward purpose that probably was the end of the world.

Honestly it was enough to make anyone take to their beds—even Alex Reagan with all of her bravery.

But it was only for one day, even if Alex did call out of work. Nic was more than happy to give her the time off considering it was Alex asking for it, and calls, texts and emails from Strand went entirely unanswered. The most important thing Alex knew from her investigation was that she needed two things in order to figure this out; to prove it: information and evidence. While Alex may not have been very good at collecting evidence of things (though now she can’t help but to wonder how much Strand and to a lesser extent Simon had sabotaged her efforts toward it) one thing that Alex was excellent at was collecting information and getting people to talk to her. Especially people with whom she’d already had a prior connection too.

Alex didn’t know if it was something in her voice or if it was just a case of it being the right moment but this time when she reached out to Charlie Strand, Charlie did agree to talk to her. Off the record, and Alex didn’t record it but it wasn’t about that. This had gone well past a story to the truth and Charlie told her how when they’d been out looking for Coralee, Strand had changed. It was what Charlie had meant by her not having a father anymore because the man who came back from those woods wasn’t her Dad. There had been moments in Charlie’s childhood where the man masquerading as her father had seemed to come out, but Coralee always managed to fix him. Without her stepmother, there was no hope in turning Richard Strand back into who he had been which was why Charlie was working at the Vatican hoping to find something that would work. So far? She hasn’t.

There was no way for Alex to get in touch with Coralee but there was another person who knew him, and Alex called her and begged in a way that she hadn’t when she’d talked to Cheryl before. Richard had moments of weirdness when they were children, but Howard had beaten it out of Richard. That was until Richie had gone looking for the body of Bobby Maimes that he’d seen within his dreams and came back entirely different.

It had taken a week to try and track these things down, and then Alex couldn’t sit on them anymore. She couldn’t keep pacing and waiting and worrying and talking to herself wondering if who she was actually talking to was Simon. In the end, it’s late when Alex drives to Howard’s house in the middle of a rainstorm. Knocking on his door, Alex just holds her breath not sure who—or what—was going to answer the door.

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This is basically the last thing that Alex wanted. Worry lines itself into her forehead, swift and sharp and she just tightens her lips together in order to stop the protest that she wants to make. This is a nightmare, all of it, but Alex perhaps for one of the few times, follows what he says without him needing to add the underlying threat against her into it.

The threat against the woman is another thing entirely.

Alex just stares at his sets of teeth before she does move herself and Simon behind Richard. She gently settles Simon down onto the ground before she moves forward to stand only a step behind him. Because Alex Reagan definitely doesn't ever let him deal with things by himself. That's not how she is. Even if the situation is more horrible than they've ever been in before.

Baphomet emerges from the trees, striding forward, mutated, mutilated and smiling that same wide toothy smile. When she speaks it's in an ancient language that makes Richard snarl.

"Speak normally." He drops his hands, "...It'll make everything easier when I rip out your heart and burn it."

There's a hiss of wind and Richard Strand's hands flex, "You tried to kill the boy."

This wasn't good. God, this wasn't good and Alex knows it as she watches this, feeling like an audience member versus someone who has a place in the story. It's hard for her breathe almost, and she just tucks her hair behind her ear as if she was preparing for a fight as well.

If nothing else it made her feel a little better.

"Why did you try to kill Simon?" Her voice is hard but she lends it to what's going on with them, because Alex is here and she's not going to be going anywhere.

"Simon was supposed to facilitate the rise of our general." Baphomet's voice is rough, earthy and wild while Richard's is airy, vast and echoing, "Instead he failed and Richard destroyed Azazel."

Baphomet snarled, looking genuinely hurt, "I have the satisfaction that they killed each other. That this thing is nothing but some new abomination masquerading as your beloved Doctor Strand."

Simon moans and Baphomet raises a hand, "Do you think that Richard won't feel the same sense of disgust at him?"

Richard for his part raises a hand and the wind rises back and shoves at her. The trees visibly bend and Baphomet laughs, "You pathetic guard dog. Can you base your whole identity on her?"

Simon's eyes open and stare sightlessly with Baphomet shaking her head, "Pathetic. You aren't strong enough Simon. You'll never be strong enough. Give in. Give in to Crowley..."

"Simon." Alex says softly, and she kneels by him, reaching out and taking his hand. "Simon." It comes again and she tries to talk over what the demon is saying to him, what the demon is trying to do to him.

"You've been fighting this all your life. You are strong. You can do this. You can beat him." She keeps her voice quiet and sure, letting all of the normal Alex Reagan confidence slide into it. She's not going to let him give into this without a fight. Alex trusts that Richard will keep her safe from this woman, she trust that he loves her enough for that.

And if she didn't love him in return, Alex wouldn't trust this new Richard.

"Sunsets, Simon. You just want sunsets. You're not going to be able to have them if you let him win."

"I'm sorry."

Simon's voice is soft and small as he grasps at Alex, "I'm sorry. He made me. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. He made me do it."

He grips at Alex's hands and arms and there is a roar from behind her as the wind pushes again. Richard and Baphomet are trading blows, wind and electricity before she leaps at him and Richard throws himself back.

Simon grips Alex in a death grim, "Alex. Be careful...around him. He's still. Not human."

His eyes fill with tears.

"I'm sorry I did that to you both."

"No Simon. Don't." Alex's eyes fill with tears, and she just holds him back as he grips her. This doesn't seem possible. Simon was the one who flitted in and out of the story, bringing confusion and unknowing into his wake, but he was also the one who had told her the truth about things even when Richard didn't. Especially when Richard didn't.

And now he was again.

"He's not going to hurt me, Simon." Alex sounds entirely convinced, and she just looks into his face again. "But you can't do this. You can't say goodbye. You've got to make it to the end and sunsets. Please Simon, don't make it goodbye like this." Alex has his blood all over her, the world and the wind behind her is cracking open practically as they fight.

And Alex's heart is breaking for the man who had been a boy and who never had a chance at anything close to a normal life. "Please Simon."

"I...don't-"

There's a scream - a female scream and the sound of branches cracking.

Simon winces, "...Tell my mom." He grimaces, "Tell my mom and dad I love them." He coughs - and blood spurts over his lips and cheeks and chin.

Then he looks upward.

Richard Strand stands over them both covered in blood. His suit shirt is effectively ruined, tie askew, but his eyes are human and his teeth are human and he looks heartbroken.

"...I'm sorry."

Simon spits, "...I really am sorry Doctor St...Strand." Richard kneels on the opposite side of Alex, "...I-"

"Don't say anything Simon." Richard's voice is thick with emotion, "It's not your fault. He takes one of the boy's hands as Simon turns his gaze back to Alex, crying.

"...Please don't leave."

Edited 2020-07-30 18:51 (UTC)

Alex's eyes flash to Richard's, and all of the hurt is easily viewed there, echoing out through her dark eyes as she does so, before her gaze is shifted back to Simon. Him calling out for his parents hurts, because they were the ones who had done this to him in the first place and now here he was dying because he'd lost the battle with the duality of his nature.

Simon was dying.

Simon Reese was dying. And her and Richard were there with him, and Alex's tears dripped down over him as her lower lip trembled.

"Simon. Don't go. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't make it stop. I'm sorry I couldn't save you like you thought I would."

"I'm scared."

The child who never got to be a child sniffs, "I'm so scared. I'm so scared that for all the things I've done I won't know peace." His chest hitches, "Because-"

"Don't say that." Richard's voice cuts in, "Don't say it. I promise you. You'll have sunsets." Impulsively he reaches out to the boy's cheek before pulling away and gritting his teeth.

He pulls away leaving Alex and Simon alone.

Simon squeezes Alex's fingers looking between them before focusing again on Alex and curling towards her.

He coughs once, twice.

His grip weakens.

A third cough.

"...Oh." his grip tightens suddenly. Oh.

Alex just looks to Richard for a moment when he leaves her alone, and she just swallows before she looks back down at Simon. There's no point in trying to stop herself from weeping openly as his hand weakens on hers, and she just leans forward, touching her forehead to his own as she does so.

"Simon. What does that mean?" Alex doesn't know, and it makes her even more concerned for him than she was before. Because she wants there to be a heaven where he can go, considering that this wasn't his fault. That he didn't deserve this.

That no child did.

"God, Simon I'm so sorry."

He gestures. A hand that points and than drops, "...Alex. the sun."

It's starting to go below the horizon and Simon gasps, "...The sun. The..."

His mind is running through itself, through his life, through Crowley, through everything that's happened as he smiles at her, "The sun. It's...ah-!"

His eyes glaze over, his chest stops moving and he lies there, frozen and still, with a hint of a smile on his face.

Alex wants to scream. She wants to scream and she tries to stop herself but then she does. Screaming isn't something that she normally does, even when she's scared out of her mind. She didn't scream when she found Maddie Franks, and Alex didn't scream when Richard's eyes went black, but here with the grief of Simon dying wrapping around her throat and sliding into her lungs she does.

"Simon." Alex says softly. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Her hand reaches out and she closes his eyes, because that's about all that she's going to be able to do for him, which is ironic considering that he'd been the one who had opened her own.

Still holding onto his hand as the flesh starts to cool, Alex looks to Richard. "What do we do now?"

"We stop them." He stares, "We hope that there are others like me. I-"

He stares down at Simon, "He was your friend. I don't think I acknowledged how deep that went. I'm...sorry."

Edited 2020-07-30 20:52 (UTC)

Alex just whimpered softly, the tears still on her face before she just rested the hand she was holding against Simon's chest. Without thinking about the blood on her hands, Alex just buried her face in them for a moment, as if doing so would bring all of this back to a time when it wasn't so out of control.

"He tried to save me, Richard. He tried to stop me from getting deeper into this in his own way. I think he thought that I would run when he told me. Maybe I should have." Alex just sniffled for a moment before she pulled her hands down.

"Is she dead? Did Simon's death at least do that? And what about the demon inside of him that he was fighting?"

"She's dead."

That he knows for sure, "and the demon is-"

He gets no further as there's a hiss and something up against one of the tree trunks. In the fading light it looks like a shadow.

Richard stares at it, breathing slowly, before he kneels, placing himself in front of Simon's body. The shadow stares at the two of them before it raises a hand - and freezes.

Burned into the tree.

"...I think there's your answer."

Alex just watches the thing burned into the tree for a long moment, waiting for some sign that it was able to get out of that. She’s not stupid, Alex knows that she’s still a door for whatever and she’s all right there.

It’s not a good look honestly.

But Alex shifts her attention to Richard, her eyes wide. “You can banish demons?”

"They destroy themselves."

He shrugs, "If the host dies they have nowhere to go. People have to be...prepared to be like this."

He turns to the body and he looks sad, "...we should call someone and go."

He doesn't look at her, gaze focused on the body, "...There's nothing else we can do."

Alex just nods, and she touches Simon's hand again before she rises to her feet. "I know. There was probably nothing that we could have ever done really." There's a helplessness in Alex's voice that she doesn't like, and she just looks around for a long moment.

"Someone will come when they notice the house. They'll find him. I mean, they'll have to be an investigation into it. When this is all over," Alex doesn't say 'if' but there's a note of it there anyway, because jesus fuck she's tired and exhausting and hurting with this. "I'll claim his body, and give it a proper burial. He made me his next of kind before he'd even escaped Three Rivers. It's how I was able to get his medical records. And how he was able to call me so many times from the hospital, even if I didn't know it at the time." With Fred Barnes leaving and the new doctor coming in the hospital had just forgotten to inform her of that.

"Where do we go now, Richard? Other than a shower, because I'm pretty sure being covered in blood probably isn't a good look."

"We keep going." He reaches out for her before he lowers his hand and gestures, "...Come on."

The moment they're back to the hotel he'll just greet her, wearing a pair of pajamas procured at a gift shop and a basic tourist shirt. When they've both showered he lowers his gaze.

"He would have won." Richard Strand is firm, "He would have won."

There's a sad and distant look on Alex's face when he hands her the clothing after she gets out of the shower. Showering had taken her a long time, because even when she'd been scrubbed clean of blood, Alex had still felt like it was on her. Even after rubbing her skin pink Alex almost sore that it was. But she couldn't shower forever, and when she came out she just went to the minibar.

Pulling out every tiny bottle of bourbon that they had inside of there, Alex just handed one to Richard before she cracked her own open and sipped it as she dropped onto the bed. "He should have won." She can admit that. "He'd been so many years winning against it. I don't understand how he could have lost. He's..." Alex blanches and corrects almost immediately, "he was Simon. Could she have done something that tipped the balance in the demon's favor?"

"Yes."

Richard frowns, tilting his head to the side, "I think. I mean I don't know. He-"

Richard Strand is not a violent man. Sitting beside Alex and drinking however he is forced to confront that passive behavior because-

"I was focused on other things. I should have questioned her, I should have - relied on you - but I was more focused on killing her."

His gaze is haunted, "And I wanted to do it Alex. Because of what she did to Simon. Because of what they did to me." He frowns, And because I could. He doesn't say that. He can't. Because human emotions of shame well within him and he is - well - he is a liar.

"...I think. I think that demons are collecting people. I think that's why Simon triggered me, and why she must have triggered him. That at some point perhaps all over the world these...beings are being called to action."

He stares at his hands, then shudders, "But I don't think you started it. If she did trigger Simon, send him after me, than Warren must have triggered her. It all stems from him."

He has to die and Richard Strand the rational man wants to be the one to do it.

Alex just finishes the tiny bottle of bourbon and sets it on the floor at her feet, not wanting to shift away from him enough in order to put it on the table or something like that. Also, she definitely wants to drink another. And another. And another until she can't feel feelings anymore.

Or until this ache inside of her chest is full once more. Either or, Alex isn't really that picky.

"She was hurting me. She was hurting Simon. They'd hurt you. It may not have been rational or logical, but it still makes sense all the same. I mean, I probably would have thought about doing it too." And then not, because she's Alex and that's not who Alex is. Yet anyway. All of this might change them.

"Do you think..." Alex looks down at her own hands for a moment before she lifts her face and her dark and haunted eyes meet his own. "Do you think it's possible that Warren did all of this because he's trying to do something that he doesn't want us to know about? Like this being a diversion or something? I mean he clearly expected that you'd kill me or something when I went to your house." Alex isn't going to fill in that 'or something.' They both know what Azazel was thinking.

"And he knew I wouldn't let you leave Simon to her. That I wouldn't have left Simon to her. Maybe that's what Warren wants: us to chase these people all the way across the globe."

"I don't want to leave people in a place where they get hurt." He studies Alex, "...He-"

He pauses, "...If people can't be split. Than maybe they need to be taught how to...merge. Like I did."

His hands lay carefully on his knees, "...But I also really, really want to kill Warren."

"How do we do that? I mean, you're still learning how to do that. How to be you know, yourself there. How do we teach that to other people?" Because of course Alex is going to come with him to help, there's no way on the planet that she's not going to do that. It's just not her to do it.

But that doesn't mean that she thinks she's wrong about it maybe being a distraction.

Looking at him, Alex just nods and then takes one of her hands and wraps it around his own. "Does it help to know that I want to kill Warren right now too?"

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