#i. gospel. › k. laghari .

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i am sorry my brother kidnapped your friend. he can be... excitable. would you like something to drink? would you, rohan?

[ollie huffs out a laugh, just this side of nervous. elliot’s friends — his family — are real pretty and polished, the kinda beautiful ollie’s never been, not even when he was in salem. he definitely doesn’t fit around now, reeking of motor oil and forestry, with a scruffy beard and dirty combat boots. he checked all his weapons at the door, so he’s not a threat. he’s wearing one of his nicer sweaters, eighty degree weather be damned —— the brown one with the elbow patches that lettie got him for christmas last year. and these jeans are pretty new, so he looks... passable. but not good enough to be around them.] s’alright, i’m used to elliot. he comes ‘round, occupies eden for days, if ya let ‘im. consider myself lucky he ain’t take lettie while he was at it. [...shoot, he’s not in new orleans anymore. he’ll have to rework his dialect again. he’ll have to spend the night adapting, but for now, take two, without the accent and slang:] ...i’ll be lucky if i see eden for the next month. and no, thank you, ma’am. [she’s definitely younger than him, but he gets the feeling she warrants a ‘ma’am.’]

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i have... food, an extra blanket, an extra pillow, and a change of clothes. all courtesy of one charles argent, who is, in his own words, “boycotting you until you agree to let him die.”

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text: charlie ✉ kali

charlie: https://open.spotify.com/track/3QJxelflVIp7qkkGa7uZyS?si=nxVkdQkET7udm4o0d3UNhg

charlie: your new theme song, i'm not asking for your opinion, i know i'm right

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[kali dry-swallows the pill as she walks. just the pressure on her tongue calms the shaking in her hands and she starts to breathe a little better as the pill goes down. molly’s never been amari’s favorite drug, but it was the easiest to buy after the battle. this is as inadvisable as it gets, but she has little else to do, in terms of relief. and she’s gotten good at spacing out her relapses. ( what a contradictory sentence. ) she takes one of lydia’s pills every six hours. if she ever does anything this reckless, then she does it during the midway point, when the blockers are slowly starting to wear off and the introduction of a new drug won’t send her into overdose. the last thing she needs is another accidental resurrection. more than that, she doesn’t need an army of ghosts trying to sway her one way or the other.

the pill is gone without a trace by the time she reaches willow’s door. she lifts a hand to knock on her friend’s door. when it opens, kali smiles.] hi, willow! how are you?

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——oh! willow! i’m sorry, i completely blanked out for a moment. [kali shoots a smile towards the blonde, hair brush still caught between her fingers.] hi. it’s been a few days.

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[with the pack dispersed for separate conversations, lydia and the lagharis make their way to the backyard, settling down on the swing set they put in during the summer. the last one was unsalvageable, but derek wanted to replace it, so they did. lydia takes a seat on a swing and lets kali sit beside her, with another seat open for rohan on the other side of kali.] hey. what’s going on? are you having migraines?

...sort of. [asher’s varsity jacket draped over her shoulders, as comforting as a warm hug, kali lightly pushes herself on the swing and toys with the pill bottle in her hand. while the noise hasn’t gone away, her headache has eased, if only slightly.] i... can i ask that this conversation stays between the three of us for now? i’ve disclosed most of this to charlie, but with everything else that has been going on, i don’t want to give the pack something else to worry over.

[lydia’s brows lift slightly, but all in all, she understands.] of course, sweetheart.

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lamb to the slaughter | pack

tatum’s smile was brighter than the setting sun as she spoke to piper, kali noted. it was hard to explain a random trip to the university at this time of night, especially with most of the pack missing. but tatum made a joke of it all —— the rain that now drizzled against the sidewalk and wet their hair was something to giggle at, same as the wind that whipped their hair into the faces and mouths. she’d spun the tale of a musical movie night, something that scott wanted piper to experience, but he couldn’t be here himself, due to work. tatum was good at this; tangling her fingers with piper’s to keep them together, constant subtle redirections away from anything that might have seemed weird. tatum’s joy — falsified as it was — lit a path as they marched into the school, hiding fangs and claws and an array of weapons.

an empty gaze travelled to the angry sky as everyone clambered into the film studio. the coven was here. after a year of worry and an extra day of preparation, they had finally shown up. kali’s soul still ached with the loss of the fifteen ghosts that had been sacrificed for her. each of them had returned to her side, claiming that it’d been easy to find them, now that they knew her love. ...still. they’d died. the witches, those hunters, they’d killed her ghosts. kali’s fingers twitched towards her blade, but she refrained. so long as piper was still in sight, she could not get reckless in her fury.

"this is my stop," charlie muttered at the front door, pulling kali to a stop alongside him. amari and jude stopped, too. the medical group dipped into an empty classroom to set up shop and nana wrapped an arm around piper’s shoulders and lured her into conversation as they ventured further in, towards the room rohan had set up for their movie. cecelia held onto violet with one hand and wayne with the other, refusing to let either of them go. charlie watched them go, and looked back to his friends. “i’m going to head around to the other side of the building.”

amari nodded, tucking her hands into her pockets. “yeah, and i’m on piper duty. you two gonna be okay at the door?”

jude scoffed. “please. we got this. you guys go. kick butt, take names!” with her words, charlie dropped a kiss to kali’s forehead and snagged hugs from amari and jude, before heading out to his station; amari simply gave the two girls a salute and promised to send backup, before heading inside of the building to find piper.

the remaining two girls looked at each other, and mutual understanding passed between them. moments later, alicia appeared at their side. there was still something haunted about her gaze, but she gave them both a tight smile. finally, kali pulled knife from her thigh holster, letting the familiar weight bring her comfort. the band around jude’s wrist rearranged itself, its gray pieces elongating and strengthening to form a machete. alicia let out a low whistle at the sight of it and kali’s brows lifted. jude looked between her partners. “...what? please, even i know that i can’t take down a witch with a rock.” 

alicia giggled and kali twirled her knife between her fingers. “i’m impressed, wendy. hey, is it... bad that i’m hoping a few witches come our way?” she leaned back against the wall and aimed a devious grin to her companions, even as rain pelted against her face and wind blew her hair this way and that. “i have a bit of a bone to pick with them.”

“ha.” black crawled down alicia’s face, bringing her veins to prominence, and fangs highlighted her breathtaking smile. her anxiety eased and she let her own rage take hold. if this coven wanted to kill this pack, they would have one hell of a time getting past the team stationed at the door. “well... hell hath no fury, right?”

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where are the wise men? | boyd, cass, cora, danny, kali, and rohan

“maybe we should try it with a smaller crowd.” kali toyed with the sleeves of asher’s varsity jacket; she’d taken to wearing it more often than not when she felt uncertain about things. the weight around her shoulders kept her grounded; it reminded her of why she had to ask for help. there were certain items she was never without, these days: asher’s jacket, her stuffed flamingo, and her tiara. she was sure it all made for an odd picture, but given that she was sitting in the middle of her own home, she saw no reason to make herself any more presentable. “or perhaps we should wait for lydia to wake up?”

danny looked up from the candles he was setting down to shoot kali a smile. “you grounded lydia, remember? you said she wasn’t allowed anywhere near rohan’s study or tate’s lab until she got at least three days of uninterrupted rest. same with charlie,” he added, before she could use him as an excuse to stall.

kali clicked her teeth in irritation. her own stupid rules. “explain the process to me once more?” she prompted, claiming a seat in the circle of chairs they’d set up.

“you’re going to go to sleep,” cora began, claiming a seat of her own. “cass is going to lead the ceremony to summon the ghosts. if all goes according to plan, you’ll wake up as the other version of you, and we’ll be able to speak to the spirits lingering in the room. we’ll ask a few questions, and once we have all the answers we need, we end the seance, and we move accordingly.”

“according to what?”

cora hunched a shoulder in a half-committed shrug. “whatever answers we get.”

thin arms wrapped tighter around flemming the flamingo. kali caught her lip between her teeth, heel tapping idly against the ground. “...what if i hurt someone?”

with the candles all set up, danny took his seat beside boyd and gave her a playfully bemused look. “kali, you’re very tiny.” at her half-hearted glare, danny let out a chuckle. “you won’t hurt anyone. charlie already warned us about what happens when you go into that other state, and we’re prepared. we already went through the list of possible outcomes, and we’re positive no one is going to get hurt.”

another beat passed before kali exhaled and nodded. “alright. though i insist that you all take a few days of rest when we are done.” she looked around the circle, taking in the faces of everyone she’d asked to help her, before landing on the resident witch. “are you sure you will be okay? i don’t want the ghosts to latch onto you.” she wasn’t sure if it was possible, but it wasn’t a risk she wanted to take, either way.

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if the story's over | kali & rohan

“it was only a matter of time before the insomnia caught up to her.” elliot passed a cup of tea to his brother, lowering himself into the chair on the other side of the table. “she hasn’t slept the same since...” she killed valack. the words linger on the tip of his tongue, so tempted and ready to fall carelessly into the air, poking that otherwise unacknowledged elephant in the room. he wrapped his hands around his cup, bringing his tea to his lips instead. if kali didn’t want to broach the subject, he wouldn’t, either. “i suppose it’s not uncommon to get disoriented after two months without sleep. but to that de–––”

“elliot!” hayden’s shout shattered the air, filled with more terror than any emotion he’d ever heard in her voice. 

elliot’s tea spilled from his cup, not quite stable where he set it down, but he paid it no mind in his dash to the girls’ room. they’d been fine when rohan set kali in the room; kali had been asleep and hayden had been content to watch over her. but there was nothing fine about that scream and for all of his calm ––– just for a moment, elliot panicked.

the door came open with a bang and he took less than a second to spot the danger. hayden stood with her back pressed against the far wall beside the window, wide eyes locked on the bed, where kali laid. where she’d been pale when rohan had brought her in, the unconscious girl had grown nearly colorless in the past few minutes. her body was slick with sweat and her breathing was harsh. –––no. she wasn’t breathing. the tinny but awful noises coming from her throat weren’t pants, but failed attempts at gasping. she was choking.

in the blink of an eye, elliot took care of hayden first, placing her outside of the room. in the same blur of wind, he emptied the waste basket by the girls’ door onto the floor and returned to kali’s bed. slower now, he sat on the bed and lightly tipped her onto her side and further still until she was emptying her stomach into the trash can. “there you go, love,” he murmured, gentle hand placed on her back. her stomach was pressed fully against his side, as if she didn’t have the strength to hold herself up. “let it all out. since when are you...?” he didn’t finish the question. he knew for a fact that kali had never been sick a day in her life, aside from the illness that killed her. while it stood to reason that she would be sick after taxing her body to a certain degree, she had been just fine when she went to work yesterday.

and she certainly didn’t smell like this ten minutes ago.

beneath the overwhelming heat that her body gave off, she smelled... sick. it’d been a long time since elliot had smelled anything quite like this; he wasn’t sure he’d ever smelled any sickness quite this awful. he’d been a military doctor in world war ii, when incurable disease ran rampant through soldiers, and he’d never...

when she had nothing left in her to expel, elliot looked away from her and up to rohan. a thousand words jumbled in his mouth, apologies and warnings and questions, and he swallowed them all back. “i’ll go grab a thermometer and make her something to eat.”

“i’m fine.” for her all of her conviction, kali’s words were hardly audible and she shivered when elliot extracted himself from the bed. “i’m okay.”

“clearly.” dropping false pretenses, elliot brushed his fingers through the hair sticking through her sweat-soaked forehead and kissed her forehead before stepping away to allow rohan time with his sister. looking at him, elliot once again wanted to offer preemptive condolences, but he withheld. maybe because he didn’t want to speak such awful things into existence; maybe because he didn’t want to hurt rohan; maybe he didn’t want to hurt himself, either. instead of saying anything, elliot walked outside to meet hayden. “come on. it might be better for you to stay with lucy for the day. can’t have you getting sick, too.” as elliot let the fairy away, he threw another glance bak at rohan and prayed for the best.

with the two gone, kali curled up, wrapping her blankets tighter around herself. if asked, she would blame her previous inability to move on the fact that she was asleep. she wasn’t weak; she’d never been that weak. she was fine. “...good morning,” she said, unaware that she was no longer speaking english. the words all tasted the same in her mouth.

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text: kali ✉ gwen

kali: hi, gwen!

kali: quinn woke up briefly and she is requesting to see you, when you have the chance. if you want, i can pass your number along to her, but i did not want to do so without your permission first.

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text: charlie ✉ kali

charlie: what is the worst thing you've heard today? before you answer, just know that i will top you

charlie: *top it

charlie: tbh same thing

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religion’s in your lips, even if it’s a false god | charlie & kali.

two weeks and four days after the separation, kali ––––– was exhausted.

the world around her grew silent as the pack finally departed to meet amari at the bar for the night. it was her first night back at work, and even though she made it a point to come off as immovable as possible, there was a palpable anxiety rolling off of her through the entire day. they’d all been careful to keep amari from doing anything strenuous as she got used to her new body, but amari had been determined to get back into the swing of being fully autonomous. kali covered for the absence at the bar ––– though it should be known that the manager had been convinced that kali was a long-lost twin the entire time, anyway ––– by calling off for the next few days and formally started her new job at a bookshop a few blocks away.

( always close enough to help, never fast enough to do anything. )

( ––––––right, back to amari. )

aside from their reluctance to leave amari alone in her obvious uncertainty, the pack had also been determined to celebrate with her. kali wasn’t sure who first proposed the idea of having a night out at the bar, but everyone had taken to it enthusiastically. kali had almost felt bad for sitting out, but she doubted she would have been any fun. and besides–––

"you should drink something, my lady.”

kali’s fingers tightened around her cell phone and she swallowed a scream. arlis, an aging woman with wrinkled skin and deplorable hygiene, hovered at the foot of kali’s bed. she wrung her hands in front of her, shuffling forward before backpedaling, only to repeat the cycle again and again. kali almost wanted her to just make a choice.

“...goddess?”

kali’s eyes slipped shut and she let out a quiet breath. “do not call me that.”

that was happening, too. ever since the separation, she’d been hearing and seeing the deceased. at first, she’d thought it was insanity; the first face she’d seen was valack’s. she’d thought that she was finally feeling remorse over what she’d done. but as the days and weeks passed, the faces began to vary and the voices overlapped and the guilt never came.

i tried to warn you, valack had told her, smug and cruel and standing right at allison’s shoulder. you were not ready for this, miss laghari. and now... here you are.

“my apologies, my lady.”

she didn’t want to do this. she wouldn’t do this.

she kicked the covers off of her legs and rose from the bed in a hasty but fluid motion. she pushed her shoulders back and marched out of her room. she would not let the dead drive her insane. she would get her head together.

two steps into the kitchen and she paused.

“–––charlie.” her brows furrowed lightly at the sight of the hunter. she rattled her brain for a memory of when he showed up, but she came up empty. “i... did not realize you were here.” at the corner of her eye, she saw arlis shuffle closer. pushing down her irritation, kali forced strength into her posture and held her chin higher to meet charlie’s eyes. “would you like to join me on the balcony?”

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[there’s a certain bounce to fiona’s step as they stride into the laghari-aldridge apartment, fiona’s fingers interlaced with cass’. she spots kali immediately, and beams at her as she plops down on the couch, as if she lives here herself. and given how much fiona comes to bug the apartment’s occupants, she might as well.] hey, mama! you got a minute? we kinda had a big thing we wanted to talk to you... well, you and amari about.

[the mention of the somewhat-dead girl makes them both freeze momentarily. not in fear, but in mild surprise. kali looks between the four witches, then nods.] of course. do you four want anything to drink? have you all eaten? [when fiona gives a proud nod — that half-donut she ate for lunch definitely counts! — kali looks to the other three.]

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sent me a clear message | kali, elliot & rohan.

with neat and faultless penmanship, kali filled out the visitor’s log and waivers for all three of them. she’d turned down the boys’ offers to do it themselves, her rejection as thoughtless and distracted as the rest of her actions throughout the day. she was no less in control of herself; elliot struggled to imagine she would ever let guard down enough to be out of control, but she was significantly less attentive than she was on a normal day. it would concern elliot, if he thought kali laghari warranted or would appreciate that kind of thing.

while she wrote, elliot took a moment to glance around. eichen house mental facility was certainly nothing to write home about, unless you often spoke of nightmares. its looming walls reeked with the must of rain that never fully dried, a theory backed by the discoloration around the corners and odd spots along the ceiling. there were guards stationed at every door like sentries, beady eyes focused on the only three people brazen enough to stand in their lobby. if elliot were a lesser man, one with less confidence in his survivability, he would be disconcerted; now, it only serves to make him suspicious. a brief look at every door revealed one of two things: either a keypad off to the side, or a lock only opened with a card.

coupled with the medieval gates and castle-like structure, it felt more like a high-class internment camp than a mental institution.

elliot’s gaze turned back to kali when she passed the pen and stack of sheets back to the desk clerk, who’d eyed her rather suspiciously the entire time. kali put on her most pleasant smile, one that made elliot want to gag, and waited with patience as their information was processed and their name tags were printed. her smile faded around the edges as she handed them to rohan and elliot, but he could hardly blame her; there was little to no reason to smile here.

it wasn’t until they were being escorted down the hall, beyond one of those keypad-locked doors, a few feet behind their assigned guards, that elliot leaned down to whisper, “you never told us how you know this guy. anything we should know, going in?”

kali didn’t so much as glance up at him, despite his blatant prying. she kept her eyes straight forward, chin lifted and shoulders pushed back to portray a confidence that he wasn’t sure she actually felt. “he killed me,” she murmured back,  low enough that only the two vampires could hear. “and eichen house is... different. can’t you tell?”

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i owe him nothin' | kali, danny, rohan & jackson

“it’s very lovely to see you again, miss moreaux.”

kali felt ––– bare. she’d stripped herself of her tiara before coming, and told the rest of the pack to leave their jewelry behind as well. those who will stay do not need to know who we are, she’d said then. rohan and elliot knew, of course; it wasn’t that the patients needed to stay in the dark. it was that valack did.

the vile man smiled as he stared at her, approaching the stained glass separating them. danny noted with mild intrigue that valack was one of the few patients completely isolated from the rest. while many patients were simply in see-through rooms along a hall, valack was sectioned off, with multiple doors between him and the rest of the population. danny was not one to give into fear with any sort of haste, but the more he thought about it, the more he wished they’d tried harder to talk kali out of coming here. as isolated as valack was, there was no need for them to come see him.

but kali had her reasons and she was determined. and the more danny saw, the more he realized that she just wanted to keep an eye on valack so that the rest of the pack was safe. she wanted to make sure there was no way he would be let out, and that meant overseeing this portion herself.

valack ran an appraising gaze down kali’s figure. “i see you’re still in control of that body. i almost feared you’d died already. it’d be a shame to lose you before we could properly meet.” he met her eyes again with that same horrid smile. “might i learn your real name this time? you left in such haste last time, i didn’t get a chance to ask.”

“i’d prefer you didn’t ask now.” kali’s voice was blank, tone only barely tinged with a bite that danny had never heard from her before. danny knew that a person didn’t need claws to be vicious, and the edge to kali’s tone was proof of that.

still, valack’s smile never wavered. “but you’ll have to tell me eventually. after all, you can’t keep parading yourself as a dead girl, my dear. though i suppose you aren’t far from it.” finally, he tore his gaze away from her to look at the others. he started with rohan, a pleasantly surprised gleam in his eyes, before eyeing danny and jackson curiously. it had been a long time since danny felt uncomfortable just by being watched, but valack made it look easy. danny didn’t squirm beneath his gaze, but he almost wanted to. “you have a slightly different guard this time, i see. hi, boys. i’m doctor gabriel valack, it’s a pleasure to meet you. i wouldn’t suppose you’re here to let me out as well, are you?”

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the fact that you have all decided to do this in one hundred degree weather is insane, and i hope you all realize that. [it’s actually closer to 80 today, but her point stands. this crew is only in apartment building, so she cannot imagine what the house crew is feeling. she holds out the last water, having been passing them all out to the pack.] here. drink before you pass out.