#( i got carried away as per usual ; tldr is cami got jumped by some idiot demons trying to kill her

[hlcynsouls]

&  SELF-PARA  →  CONSEQUENCES .

location :  warehouse by the docks .

AS FAR AS HALLOWEEN SPIRALS  went ,  tonight had truly pushed her tolerance for  bullshit  off the charts .  camilla had run into some old friends  —  well ,  ‘ friends ’  —  and agreed to assist them with some  trouble .  it had been a while since any demons besides either those close to her or  suicidal idiots  had approached her voluntarily ;  with hell’s new management ,  though ,  she’d reconsidered getting back in touch with  some  of those she’d known from before .  apparently ,   zion hadn’t yet weeded out  all  of the rabble from the realm ,  however ,  and she got stuck with the second category once again .

( except this time ,  the suicidal idiots were  annoyingly well-prepared . )

they’d been laughing and yelling and drinking ,  and let the rioting crowd push them along the streets after their rather successful prank .  eventually ,  they ended up somewhere by the docks ;  someone suggested a short-cut ,  and like a  fucking fledgling ,  she stepped  right  into the trap .  laughter died around the circle as it activated ;  they weren’t  quite  as stupid as they looked .  not like their suddenly somber countenance would save them later ,  though .

“ some nerve you got , ”  was all the princess of hell pressed out between bared teeth before her eyes flashed gold and the earth beneath her feet began to rumble .  sure ,  she might have been a bit out of practice with the  apocalyptic gestures ,  but  —  same as riding a bike ,  right ?  her fingers clenched ,  the muscles in her arms strained ;  as the first cracks appeared on the warehouse floor ,  the walls ,  the ceiling around the demon trap ,  her lips twisted into a gruesome smile .  the two closest to her began to sweat , unable to step back with their feet stuck in the melting cement ,  while two others appeared to hurriedly prepare some ritual in the back ,  shaking slightly in their movements .  (  good .  at least they still knew  fear . )  as if this shit could hold her for longer than a  minute .  and the fifth  —  the fifth stabbed her in the back as soon as the circle broke and her nails sank into the unfortunate asshole standing closest to her .

it hurt like  —  well ,  hell ,  but wasn’t a problem per se . that’s what she assured herself of when her hand snapped back and broke the demon’s neck with but a twist of her fingers .  it was painful ,  yes ,  and definitely  annoying ,  but not a  problem  —  so her head was starting to swim a little from all the fucking chanting .  so ,  from the injury in her back ,  both a searing pain  and  a concerning numbness weighing down her limbs was spreading .  fast .  so ,  she felt like she was coughing up her lungs ,  and  —  ah .

camilla rolled her eyes .  they couldn’t kill her  —  not here ,  not quickly enough .  not  permanently .  the ritual they were trying to use on her would lock her in a state of incineration ,  which would gain them  some  time to perhaps accomplish just that .  begrudgingly ,  she had to admit it wasn’t the worst plan .

( begrudgingly ,  she had to admit it was  working . )

the second demon stuck by her  ( ciaran ,  she remembered )  abandoned ship before the princess could get her hands on them as well ;  their vessel but a crumbled heap on the ground ,  now .  the other two were still busy with their ritual ,  and though it felt like a monumental effort through the pain ,  camilla tapped into the spell .  the fire they were clustered around flared up ,  catching onto their hair and clothes .  and still ,  those fuckers  kept chanting .

she was burning up from the inside ,  her muscles locked in what felt like one big ,  overwhelming cramp .  moving  wasn’t an option  ( and would take too long in this condition ,  she knew )  but even  if  she could gather enough of her power to port the few steps to  waste the idiots  responsible ,  camilla wasn’t sure her vessel would survive that burst .  cosi might be able to fix it later but  —  she’d rather not risk it ,  and the two working on the ritual were almost burnt to a crisp themselves ,  anyways .

( which didn’t bode well for  her  timeline here ,  unfortunately . )

coward that he was ,  ciaran’s idea wasn’t the worst .  or ,  well ,  it was ,  and she absolutely  hated  abandoning her body ,  but  —  needs must .  by leaving her vessel ,  the spell had nothing to lock onto ,  and she’d be fine ;  and without her attachment ,  the effects on the body would dissolve .  there was no one else around  ( or  would  be ,  in a few seconds ,  going by the state of the last of her attackers )  and she’d be back in a few minutes .  no harm done .  she’d get cosi to fix the damage ,  and then they could summon the idiots responsible and have some nice sibling bonding time .  nothing screamed  ‘ family game night ’  like some good old-fashioned  torture ,  right ?

her throat was beginning to close up  —  time’s out  —  so with one last glance promising  bloody retribution  to the fallen and falling ,  the princess let her essence dissolve from the body she’d inhabited for the better part of a millennium .  ( it felt about as awful as it sounded . )  

some demons liked to moan and bitch about the  purity  of their real forms  —  absolute shite if you asked  them ,  but then ,  they’d always  liked  being a person ,  and they did like their vessel’s soul before it departed .  camilla had become their  home ,  just like cosimo was  ( —  because  cosimo was )  too .  the weightless state of their  ‘ true ’  existence felt  ...  feeble .  sinking .  untethered .  it was disconcerting ,  just how much this actually affected them .  ( how much of them was simply what was left of the person they’d become ,  all that time ago ,  in their strive to  become  at all ? )  the experience of both  nothing  and  everything  felt destabilizing ,  and they needed to rectify that .  quickly .

( fuck the identity crisis ;  there’d be more than enough time to laugh about it over wine and blood and screams  later .  damn  but she’d never missed her brother quite this much . )

still ,  they didn’t grab the first vessel they could get ahold of ;  the princess was sentimental .  ( their great failure ,  it seemed . )  should someone ask them about it ,  they’ll say they needed to find someone  suitable ;  someone who could hold them for a while without burning through too quickly ,  who was  worthy  of being presented as hell’s royalty .  they’ll blame their  vanity ,  and indulging their preferences for pretty blonde things .  they were easy lies ,  in line with both their heritage and their personality .  there was only one person in the world who would recognize them as such  —  they  knew  that ,  should he ever get a reason to lay eyes on this particular vessel ,  cosimo would  understand  immediately .  ( and here was to hoping he wouldn’t have to . )  something about the woman’s face had caught their attention ;  a haunting familiarity ,  of sorts .  with just one glance ,  the demon found herself reminiscent of her past ,  of her  mother  —  or the only being they could ever call so ,  anyways .  the woman didn’t look  like  teresa per se ,  but she looked like  someone like her ;  a relative .  almost a true  daughter ,  perhaps .

( she had always been so horribly ,  terribly sentimental . )

the woman was sitting on the steps of a house off the sidewalk ,  crying .  a broken heel seemed to be involved ,  if not the cause  ( the princess could empathize )  and she didn’t even notice the black mist gently concentrating in her face .  despite the centuries-long lack of practice ,  it took her less than a second to fully submerge the other ;  the demon’s subconscious control  absolute .  it was meant to last for no more than a few minutes ,  anyways  —  though she fixed the sprain with a careful curl of her ankle ,  everything else took a sidestep as she ported back to the warehouse immediately to find  —

          —  nothing .

     fuck .

the cracks in the structure were still there ,  but everything else  —  any hint of the ritual ,  the blood ,  the bodies  including her own  —  vanished .  cleaned up as if they were never there .  ( someone’s been busy ,  and she couldn’t  wait  to rip them to pieces . )   with the emerging  rage  came other sensations as well ;  the heartbeat ,  a step quicker than it should have been .  her arms felt weirdly heavy ;  she stood an inch taller ,  at least ;  the blood pounded in her newly-healed ankle .  it felt  wrong ;  like standing a step to the left of yourself .  the building tension in every nerve certainly wasn’t helping  —  and when it came close to the point of boiling over in her frustration ,  the demon released it with a raging  scream .  she was left breathless at the end ,  lungs aching ,  but the pressure in her chest was a welcome  ( and well-known )  sensation ,  at least .

the resulting moment of silence  —  and of complete and utter  stillness  —  enabled her a moment outside of time .  it wasn’t dealing ,  per se .  it was  ...  prioritizing .  listing steps ,  in her mind ,  to keep from loosing it completely ,  and repeating them until she felt calm enough to force herself to adjust .  camilla stretched her new limbs ,  cracked her knuckles ,  rolled her neck ;   trying to settle .  she’d grown attached to her previous vessel ,  and centuries of comfort made her feel anxious and on edge ,  now ,  putting a slight dent into her  fury .  ( but only a  slight  one . )  it had been a while ,  actually ,  since she’d felt quite  this  bloodthirsty  —  but what better occasion than having a new body to break in ,  for getting reacquainted with  breaking others ?