Chapter Text
“It’s weird, though, right?”
“It doesn’t matter, man. As long as it gets Hector and Maria off my back.”
The two boys voices ring through the dark city street. It is late, so late that not even an occasional passing car comes out of the shadows to interrupt their argument. There is a chill in the air and the full moon hangs low in the sky, glittering brightly in comparison to the dim city lights.
Landon walks next to his foster brother, Rafael, down the dimly lit sidewalk. His hands are buried deep in the pockets of his hoodie and his curly black hair has fallen into his eyes. His face looks kind of sickly and strange in the intermittent light of passing streetlamps. Who wouldn’t be uncomfortable walking on a cold, dark night in the middle of the city? Well, Rafael doesn’t seem as bothered, walking confidently down the street, unaffected by the cold despite only wearing a long sleeved shirt.
“But, you’re not even Catholic, Raf.” Landon continues, eyes darting warily into the darkness. “Can you even confess your sins if you aren’t Catholic?”
“I don’t know, Landon. All I know is that when you throw a lawnmower through some patio doors, you’ve just got to accept the consequences, alright.” Raf says, turning to face his brother as he walks.
“I guess. But who even goes to church this late at night?”
“Dude.”
“Alright, I’m done.”
When they arrive at the church, Rafael enters inside without hesitation, leaving Landon to stall for a moment before hurrying in after him. The church is somehow less well lit than the street outside. The air inside is stale and smells like incense and resin and old wood. In the weak lamp light, the two boys approach Hector and Maria who are accompanied by a priest.
Rafael greets the priest in spanish easily and the priest instructs him to kneel down and pray with him.
“Landon, it’s okay, you can leave now.” Hector says, moving to usher Landon out.
“Oh,” Landon says, clearly not having considered that to be a possibility. He blinks a few times at his foster parents, his feet having no intent of moving from that spot. “I think I’d rather stay, actually.”
“Landon, this is between your brother and God, okay?” Maria says, moving in between Landon and Rafael.
Landon casts a worried look at his brother, still hesitant to move an inch.
“I’ve got it, bro. No worries,” Raf reassures.
Landon looks relatively unconvinced, but allows himself to be ushered out the doors. He shivers as he is exposed to the cold night air again and lets himself glance inside the church one more time, hardly even able to see Rafael anymore. Landon sighs and turns his back to the church, pulling his headphones out of his pocket. It takes a second to untangle them enough so he can pop one in each ear. The song playing is “Love is Madness” by Thirty Seconds to Mars. He takes a seat on the steps outside the church as the first few notes begin to play. He pulls out his notebook to distract himself while he waits.
As Landon turns his back, Hector and Maria are still standing by the door. One is holding heavy metal chains and the other a padlock. After a moment of watching Landon, they secure the chains around the door handles and lock them with a solid click. As soon as Hector and Maria are done locking the doors, they return to Rafael and the priest, the latter of who has begun the rites of an exorcism. The foster parents move quickly to pin down Rafael as he begins to realize what is happening.
“What the hell are you doing?” Rafael says as he resists. But then his body begins to contort and he lets out a scream of pain.
Outside the church, a van comes to a sharp stop in front of Landon, and a beautiful, and somehow familiar, girl steps out. Landon pulls out a headphone as she approaches and opens his mouth to say something, but realizes he has no idea what to say. What do you say to the breathtakingly beautiful girl that you hung out with a few times before you moved away, who has inexplicably appeared in front of you outside of a church in the middle of the night? Luckily, Hope beats him to it.
“Landon?” Hope says, eyebrows furrowing in a way that Landon can’t help but think is cute.
“Hope?” Landon replies, unsure of where to begin with his questions of the situation.
Out of the driver’s seat of the car, an older man appears in front of Landon as well. He holds a duffle bag in one hand and a crossbow in the other. Landon’s brain is unable to really comprehend either.
“You two know each other?” The man asks Hope distractedly.
“Yeah,” Hope says simply, while still maintaining eye contact with Landon.
Landon really couldn’t tell if she was glad to see him or not. Her answer hadn’t really been that enthusiastic, so he is probably going to go with not.
The moment is shattered by Rafael’s scream from inside the church and the sound of glass breaking.
“Dr. Saltzman.” Hope prompts the older man.
“Yeah, I’m on it.” Dr. Saltzman replies before rushing up the steps and pushing on the doors. The doors rattle, but refuse to open. Dr. Saltzman looks back at Hope expectantly before taking a taking a step back from the doors.
“Dissera Portus.” Hope chants and with a swift movement of her hands the doors burst open. Hope turns to Landon as she approaches the doors. “You’re going to want to stay out here, Landon, trust me.”
Landon isn’t even sure he registers Hope’s words. And maybe that’s why Landon follows the two inside the church almost immediately, despite the obvious directions, but can you blame him? Landon was barely able to wrap his head around simply seeing the girl he had a crush on a few months ago, much less that she can now open doors with her mind. But there is still one clear thought the sea of confusion that is Landon’s mind: He needs to know if Raf is okay.
Hope and Dr. Saltzman rush inside, with Landon relatively close behind, to find Rafael being shouted at by the priest as he writhes in pain, his body deforming.
“Shut down the exorcist,” Dr. Saltzman instructs to Hope.
Hope follows through with another series of gestures and foreign words. One phrase erases the mouth of the priest, leaving only smooth skin behind in its place. The other sends the priest, Hector, and Maria to the floor, unconscious.
Dr. Saltzman continues forward into the church, moving deliberately and smoothly, as if they had done this a thousand times before. He sets up posts in the floor and hands Hope a set of chains.
As they work, Rafael’s body continues to contort more grotesquely as his bones break and are reassembled in a new shape. From further back in the church Landon witnesses his brother being mutilated by unknown forces as he writhes in pain.
“Holy shit!” Landon hisses as he takes an instinctive step backward, stumbling into a pew. His eyes are wide and he might’ve forgotten how to breath as he watches Raf’s limbs extend far beyond their normal length.
As Raf’s transformation comes to a head, Hope and Dr. Saltzman attach the chains around his contorted form. They step back out of the now limited reach of what used to be Rafael and is now a very large, black wolf. It jumps and snaps at them, and strains against the chains, snarling as it realizes that it cannot reach its prey.
Landon’s horrified gaze flicks between the monster that used to be his foster brother and the seemingly unfazed faces of those who have chained him up.
“Hope, make sure we didn’t attract any attention outside and close the doors up,” Dr. Salzman instructs. “I’ll take our priest and the others to a back room somewhere where they can sleep off the spell.”
Hope nods wordlessly and heads toward the doors, passing a very confused and scared Landon on the way. Landon watches her pass him, mouth opening and closing in an attempt to ask a question that never succeeds. Once Hope has walked away from him, he stares at the black wolf chained several feet away from him. It snarls and snaps at him, a viciousness in its movements that sends a chill down Landon’s spine. After a moment, he hurries after Hope
Landon reaches Hope as she is peering outside the wide open doors at the silent night that is undisturbed by whatever was going on inside the church. Landon stands nearby, hands shoved forcefully in his pockets and shoulders hunched, as Hope closes the church doors and removes the broken chains from the handles. Only when she places the chains on the floor and turns away from her completed task does Landon say anything.
“Hope, what the hell is going on?” Landon snaps, his voice coming out much harsher than he meant it to be, but at this point he was just surprised he was able to say anything at all.
Hope’s eyes flick to meet Landon’s immediately, something kind and a little pitying in her gaze. Her eyes skim over his body as she prepares what to say. She notices his hands digging nervously in his pockets, probably peeling all of the lint out and tugging at the exposed strings. She notices his wide, red rimmed eyes, meaning he probably hadn’t slept in a good while. She notices the way he is breathing, short and quick, and the way he is chewing rather hard on the inside of his cheek.
“Landon,” Hope says, as gently as she can, “it’s okay.” She takes a step forward and reaches a hand out to his shoulder to try to comfort him, but he flinches away on reflex. Hope forces herself to not feel rejected by the action, reminding herself that she doesn’t actually know Landon that well and that he is clearly very stressed.
“Is it? Is it, Hope?” Landon snaps, his tone growing more panicked. “Just tell me what the hell just happened! Where the hell is Raf?”
“Hey, hey, it’s okay. Raf is fine. He’s okay. He just looks a little different right now. He will look like his old self by morning, I promise.” Hope says calmly.
Landon seems to believe her, because his shoulders relax just slightly and his breathing stops getting exponentially quicker. He seems to want to say something more, but all he can manage is a pleading look as he stares into Hope’s eyes. She can see the tears in his eyes, so close to spilling over.
“I promise.” Hope repeats with more force, before taking a hesitant step closer. “It’s going to be okay, Landon. Do you want to sit down?”
Landon gives a slight nod before stumbling into a pew. His head is getting fuzzy from hyperventilating which is making it even harder to think straight. He can taste blood from where he has bitten too hard on the inside of his cheek. The tears are spilling onto his face now and his chest is heaving from the crying, making it even harder to breath.
Hope crouches down next to him and begins to talk to him in a soft voice. She recounts to him the only thing she learned from the few weeks of counseling sessions Dr. Saltzman had forced her to go to with the school counselor. It involves pretending to be on a boat and breathing in as the boat goes up a wave and out as it goes down the wave. It really is all Hope has to offer, other than a harsh sedative that Dr. Saltzman has in his kit. Either way, the exercise seemed to help him at least a little bit.
Landon continues to do the breathing exercise after he has stopped hyperventilating, eyes closed and lips parted slightly to let breath in and out. Hope continues to reassure him and has to stop herself from reaching out to touch him, knowing that this won’t help him even if she feels it will. After a moment, Hope realizes that the chained wolf has chosen to lie down and rest at some point, as there is no longer a scuffling of claws or a shaking of chains that causes Landon to flinch and struggle to breath again.
When Dr. Saltzman returns from somewhere in the church, Hope quickly catches his attention and presses a finger to her lips. He seems to understand and moves stealthily around the large wolf over to Hope. He silently gestures for Hope to come and talk to him. She hesitates for a moment, but understands that they need to decide their next course of action.
“I’ll be right back, Landon, okay?” Hope says, rising to her feet. Her concerned gaze lingers on him for a moment, long enough to see him give a weak nod. She walks over to Dr. Saltzman reluctantly.
“Is he okay?” Dr. Saltzman whispers.
“I think so, at least for now.” Hope whispers back, unable to keep her gaze from drifting back over to Landon.
“Good. We still have a few more hours left until dawn and I have a few things left to clean up. Why don’t you take him to the car and try to get him to sleep? I don’t think he should be here when his friend transforms back.”
Hope nods and walks back over to Landon. “Hey.” Hope greets softly, careful not to startle him.
Landon’s red-stained eyes open at the sound of her voice. “Hey.” He says, his voice weak but relatively steady.
“You look pretty tired, Landon. Maybe you should try and get some sleep?”
Landon gives a sleepy nod and tips his head back against the pew, which left his neck at an almost 90 degree angle from his body.
Hope can’t stop herself from smiling at how cute he looks trying to sleep in one of the world’s most uncomfortable positions. “Or if you don’t want to mess up your spine, we have a car outside with seats that can tip back.”
Landon furrows his brow. “I can’t leave Raf.” Landon says sternly, despite the exhaustion laced in his voice.
“Landon, he’s going to be okay. Once the sun starts to rise he will be his old self again and then he’ll be right next to you.”
“Hope, I can’t leave him. I have to be sure he’s okay.” Landon appears to be mustering all the energy he has to argue with Hope, which makes her feel bad about arguing with him.
“Okay, let me make you a deal. You go and get some sleep in the van, and, I promise, when you wake up, Rafael will be there next to you.”
Landon opens his mouth to protest, but Hope cuts him off.
“And if anything happens that we don’t expect, big or small, good or bad, I will wake you up immediately. Okay?”
Landon’s eyelids had fallen half closed over his eyes as Hope had spoken. Whether he actually had been listening or not didn’t seem to matter as he gives a tired nod and lifts himself to his feet. Hope moves closer to him in case he wants to lean on her, although he doesn’t, instead keeping his arms tucked tightly into his sides. She leads him to the van and into the back seat and helps him get comfortable. Hope is pretty sure he is asleep before she closes the door, and she can’t blame him after everything he’s been through tonight.
Hope goes back inside to help Dr. Saltzman clean up. She waits with him until dawn. He doesn’t ask about how she knows Landon yet, which she is grateful for. Once the sun peeks over the horizon, they watch Rafael shrink back down into a teenage boy. Hope helps Dr. Saltzman load Rafael into the van, right next to Landon, and the rest of the gear they brought into the trunk. Then they begin the long drive back to the school.