THEN

In the agony of her mind, Winona swam through the endless sea of Floodwater. Her Halo was a lantern in an endless void, the Light of God singing out from her flesh and soul. The water teemed with filth and mud and blood and bone gravel, while the remains of mountains and forests and deserts decorated the ocean floor. Whether she was in her angelic state or her human state, she was filthy. 

In the agony of her mind, her father’s corpse floated above her, and spoke to her: What ails you, daughter of mine?

“Why has… Why has God abandoned us, Abba?” she cried. 

My Father does not understand us, Winona, Father said. He never did. I thought I understood Him, but I do not. That is the way of Parents and children. 

“But I understand you, Abba.”

I… I am honored, Winona. But you do not understand me so well as you think you do. That is not an insult- no two individuals can ever completely understand each other.

“I think you understand me, Abba.”

I hope that I do. Once again, daughter, you honor me. But what you say is impossible.

“I want to understand people,” Winona said. 

I know. And the way to do that is to help others- to do the right thing, even when it is difficult, even when the whole world opposes you. And it is in these actions that the blood of the covenant will gather. 

“But there’s nobody here- everything, everyone, is gone.”

Not everyone. Look around, daughter. For there are others who have been driven into the sea. 

Winona spread the Light of her Halo, of her wings, rendering visible all the filth and refuse washed away by the Flood. But in that filth, the pigs wallowed, trotting across the ocean floor. Six hundred and sixty six swine, forced beneath the Floodwater. In the belly of the swine, black smoke pooled, desperate for release, screaming for help. A Legion of Demons, united in mind and spirit.

Winona reached out to them, and the swine cried and burned at her angelic touch. So instead, Winona fashioned one of her spines into a staff, and marched the pigs across the Floodwater. On that day, Winona became a swineherd. On that day, the Legion found a new Lady. 

They were her friends. Her family. She honored her father through the love she shared with them, and they with her. And yet she knew she could prove her father wrong- she understood the Legion. And they all understood each other. 

***

“Do you wanna tell me what happened?” her mother asked her as she handed Nicole a cotton ball.

Nicole poured rubbing alcohol onto the cotton ball, then pressed it to the wound beneath her cheek. “No.”

“Nick,” Mom said. “You show up bloody, I’m gonna have questions.”

They sat in the sterile white bathroom of their home, harsh lights blaring out of the ceiling. Monica and Zack were gathered in the living room downstairs, probably arguing over whether or not to eavesdrop on the conversation.

“… Guy on the basketball team did this.”

“What?! On your basketball team- on our school’s team? Nick, this is- you need to tell someone about this!”

“No, I don’t,” Nicole said, pressing another cotton ball to the scrape on her shoulder. “Because if I do, it becomes a problem. Either I get kicked off the team for being in a fight, or our captain does.”

“Nick… Why were you fighting in the first place?”

“I wasn’t,” Nicole said. The alcohol stung as it bubbled white on the surface of the scrape. “I don’t like to fight. You know that. He attacked another player. I got in the middle of it.”

“I don’t like this, Nick,” Mom said. “I’m worried for you.”

Nicole remembered her weak smile even through the fog of three long years. “I’m more worried about the guy he attacked. Trust me, Mom, I’m fine. I’d feel awful if the team didn’t make the playoffs because of something this minor-”

“Something this minor- he assaulted you!”

“Yeah, but he’s rich, and we’re not,” Nick pointed out. “His parents donate an insanely large amount of money each year. If this gets dragged into a hearing, dragged before the school board, whose side do you think they’re actually gonna take? Do you really think they’re gonna believe I stepped into a fight and didn’t throw a single punch, just let the guy wail on me until he got bored? C’mon, Ma, ain’t nobody’ll buy that. If this gets made into a whole thing, you’ll dragged into it. You could… You could lose your job! Zack just started at the school this year, and Monica will be starting soon-”

Mom leaned against the bathroom linen closet’s door and exhaled heavily. “Why are you thinking like this?” she whispered.

Nicole titled her head to the side. “Like what?”

“You got attacked and you’re not even thinking about how if affects you- just how it affects everyone else. Why?”

Nicole struggled to remember how she’d answered that. Finally, it dawned on her: “because that’s the right thing to do.”

NOW

The walls were awash with darkness as Winona and her Legion closed in. Nicole’s pulse got lodged on the spike of her panic and terror, only coming back to her as the gallons of adrenaline and cortisol swam through her. She breathed in, and with it, the full implications of the viper’s nest she’d been shepherded into shook her to the smallest atom of her composition. 

She breathed out. 

The rage flowed with it, red and hot like a river of lava through veins melting rock. 

Light surrounded her, and she emerged fully transformed, atop her broomstick. She shot Winona, a pink comet on course to collide with its target. 

She closed in, and Winona swung her claymore. Nicole summoned a full aura of Pink Healing Light, and it took the brunt of the blow while she buried her fist in Winona’s ribs. She grunted, and Nicole struck out her elbows, loosening Winona’s double-fisted grip. Nicole jabbed, jabbed, and hooked at Winona’s face, forcing her back, but Winona roundhouse kicked Nicole and sent her stumbling off her broom. 

Nicole landed amidst a pile of hands, the demons locking her arms and legs and pinning her down. 

A shroud of darkness fell over them, and a sharp whooshing ran through them and tore away the limbs. Amy’s delicate hands grabbed Nicole by the back of her dress and pulled her into the air. Nicole re-summoned her broom, and held Amy’s hand as they flew through the dark together, twisting and turning around the sharp pivots of the hallways, through common rooms and down flights of stairs.

The hideous odor of sulfur blew over them, and the temperature rose rapidly. The roar of flames hunted them. 

With a snap of her fingers, Amy washed away the shadows. She and Nicole looked behind them, and saw the black tongues of Hellfire chasing them down the next hallway. 

“I have an idea,” Nicole said. 

“I think I have the same one,” Amy grinned. “Hit me.”

Nicole kept her hand on Amy’s and poured her Pink Light into her, and with a snap of her fingers, Amy summoned her own Hellfire and absorbed the onslaught into hers, then flicked it away with a clap of her hands. 

“Yes!” she and Nicole both shouted. 

That was when a blunt wooden object crashed into Nicole’s head and toppled her. The world was an ocean of pain as the wooden shrapnel exploded around her and she slammed into the tiled floor. Amy land next to her, and when they looked up, Winona and Curtis loomed over them. Winona held the point of her claymore an inch from Nicole’s nose.

“Nice try,” Winona said. “But I’m not taking no for an answer.”

“Jesus Christ, you never quit, do you?!” Amy said. 

“Damn straight,” Winona snapped her fingers and winked. 

“How long?” Nicole said. 

“How long ‘what?’” Winona said.

“How long have you been infesting this place?!” Nicole screamed. “You’ve been here all along, haven’t you? That’s why this party never stops! You’ve been getting demons into the people here in Ditko Hall since the beginning of the year!” You could have done something about it, if you’d even noticed.

“Okay, okay, you got me,” Winona held up her spare hand and bore a sheepish expression. “One at a time, every student here gave into one of their flaws, their sins, their insecurities, and I put one of my Legionnaires in them. I even got them in the structure itself- this whole place is pulsing with demons, a heart of darkness for a haunted building.”

“You monster!” Nicole said. 

“Oh stop,” Winona waved her hand. “Besides, there was one exception: you, Nicole. You lived here for a month, and I was never able to get into you. I take that as a challenge, btw: by the end of the night, that’s gonna change. I’m gonna put a demon in you, sweetie. Just you wait and see.”

“GET AWAY FROM HER!” Amy lunged for Winona, and Curtis backhanded her across the face, slapping her back down. 

“Aww, how sweet,” Curtis sneered. “The pathetic little mongrel wants to protect her tranny-”

“Hey now, we talked about that word,” Winona said. 

“Right, right, sorry. Protect her little boyfriend so she can hurt him some more, tonight and tomorrow and every day they’re together for all time.”

“Don’t talk to her like that!” Nicole screamed, throwing herself forward, meeting the brunt of a boot. Blunt pain shook her once more, her brain banging against the back of her skull’s interior. My fault- can’t do anything right. Dragging everyone else down with me- it’s been happening the whole time, right under my nose. Can’t protect them, can’t protect Amy, can’t protect Zack-

“And there it is- the discrepancy,” Winona laughed. “She’ll lunge at a supervillain holding a deadly weapon for you, Ames, but she won’t do that for herself. Every time she gets angry, she gets violent, it’s only for the benefit of someone else, usually someone who’s hurt her. I wonder why that could be- the root of her shame, perhaps? Her sins of hypocrisy and hatred?”

“That’s not true,” Nicole spat, even as the words pricked and stung, dug into the skin of her mind for old insecurities and resentments. The right thing to do, the right thing to do, the right thing to do-

“I mean seriously, Amy- what do you see in her? She’s barely a real girl, let alone a real person. She’s a broken wind-up toy, going around malfunctioning, trying to help people to patch the missing parts where her heart should be. And those missing pieces are how I’ll prove to you that she doesn’t deserve you, Amy. You deserve someone real. Like me.”

“She’s just trying to play mind games with us, Nicole,” Amy said, looking straight into Nicole’s eyes, maintaining an even tone. “Don’t listen to her. Not that it’ll work, anyway- she said herself she was never able to get to you!”

“Yeah, and it took her until Nicole moved out to get to this one here,” the demon wearing Curtis’ face said as he clawed his sharpened fingernails across the hockey player’s forearm and drew ribbons of blood. “Besides, the way in is simple- guilt and shame.”

“What the hell could she have to feel guilty or ashamed about?” Amy said. 

“Well, given that she’s the one who did this to Curtis here,” he said, drawing more and more blood, digging his fingers into Curtis arms and pulling out muscles and tendons. 

“Stop it,” Nicole said, fighting back tears as the demon mutilated Curtis’ arm. No, no it can’t be true- please don’t let it be true. Don’t hurt him, please don’t hurt him because of me!

“You were barely present on that date of yours,” the demon said to Nicole. “You hurt him when you did that- he really felt something for you, and you were just bored. Practically falling asleep. So he went home and he had too many drinks and felt a little too sorry for himself, and I was able to climb in like a centipede through the ear. It’s your fault.”

Guilt sledgehammered Nicole’s face, her gut, her everything, the impact of her mistakes leaving bruises on her soul. 

“Nicole, don’t listen to him,” Amy said. “That’s not your fault- other people’s mistakes, other people’s reactions to you- that isn’t your responsibility!”

“Oh, you would say that, wouldn’t you, Ames?” Winona laughed. “You’ve never taken responsibility for anything, for anyone you’ve hurt in your entire life. And it’s a long list, Nicole is just the most recent one. You just do whatever you want to whoever you want, and when they try to get upset about it, you cry and you break down and you make them feel oh so very sorry for you that they can’t possibly stay mad at you, isn’t that right you stupid slut?! You use your body and you use your tears the same way: to trick people into liking you! It’s what I find so very, very intoxicating about you, Ames- you’re a travesty. Just like me. It’s why you belong with me.”

The demon wearing Curtis began tearing out veins and arteries and capillaries from the arm, dumping them on the floor like wet noodles. Soon, everyone save Nicole, Amy, and Winona began doing the same, the residents of Ditko Hall tearing themselves apart bit by bit. 

Nicole screamed- this was her fault. She should have noticed something wrong with Ditko Hall sooner, should’ve noticed Winona sooner and done something about it! She’d been here a whole month and was too busy getting wrapped up in her own sordid little personal drama to even notice what was going on around her. Stupid stupid stupid- what is wrong with me what is wrong with me what is wrong with me-

And Winona looked into her eyes and sprouted a predatory smile. 

***

Cass transformed on instinct, extending her palm and shoving Zack into a pew a hundred feet away. Red rage poured through her ever cell, a burning fury desperate for release. She took aim at the detective and launched a blast of pure telekinetic force.

Di Lorenzo licked the blood from her lower lip, and then a burst of black lightning exploded out from her skin. 

And then, nothing happened. It was as if Cass had never used her power at all. 

Cass gaped. “What the-”

“Blood magic, kiddo,” Di Lorenzo smirked. “Great stuff- you should try it sometime!”

Another pulse of black lightning shockwaved from the detective towards Cass and Matt. Cass raised her hands aloft and fired a blast of telekinetic force. Matt readied his chainsaw, channeling his light into it and swinging it at the blast. It sparked with cold color, but ultimately failed to bar the onslaught: both Matt and Cass were kicked backwards and slammed into the backdoor. Cass grunted as electric pain sizzled beneath the surface of her skin and bruises bubbled to the surface.

A translucent white owl flapped its wings at the periphery of Cass’ vision. Cass gritted her teeth and tried to ignore it. Not now, the gears in her mind scraped against each other, struggling to keep the anger at bay.

“Now then,” Di Lorenzo said, pressing the gun into the Father’s forehead. “Tell me where that skull is. The one my son brought with him last time he was here.”

“I’m not afraid to die,” Gonzalez said with grim determination, while the Bishop bled on the floor and moaned. 

“You really should be,” Di Lorenzo said as she flicked her sharpened fingernail across Gonzalez’s cheek and peeled off a hunk of flesh. She chewed and swallowed it, and a rapturous joy poured out of her. “Mmmm delicious. The sins of a disobedient soldier. You really shouldn’t have killed that old man in Kabul, you know. Your CO did tell you not to, that it was a war crime, that it didn’t matter if he was possessed, that nobody would believe you. And he was possessed, right? You did stop to make sure? Didn’t you? Before you put a bullet in his skull? Right? Oh, Father, if you really think what you’ve done since can make up for that, you’ve got an unpleasant surprise waiting for you downstairs once you’re shuffled off this mortal coil. So tell me- where is the skull?”

“Sin-Eater,” the Bishop groaned, struggling to keep his intestines inside his body. 

Cass rose to her feet, and remembered something she’d learn in this Church, or at least outside it: subtlety. Finesse. 

With the gentlest, barest flick of her hands, she tore the pistol from the detective, no, from the Sin-Eater’s hands. She felt the gun on her fingertips, the cold metal slicked with its owner’s palm-sweat. Father Gonzalez wasted no time, delivering a swift punch to the Sin-Eater’s gut, then another to her face, before she exploded with black lightning and sent him flying back. 

Think, dammit- she could do that the entire time but didn’t lead with it. Maybe she only has a finite amount of magic- of course! Because she’s only consumed so much blood and flesh… God, that’s disgusting. But useful- she can only use as much magic as she burns fuel. So how much has she-

“Quite a lot, actually,” Di Lorenzo said, turning her gaze over to Cass. “That little incident at the precinct left me with quite a stockpile of tasty treats. But I didn’t get where I am by spending it all in one place. And yes, I am reading your mind right now.”

“You… Your own people,” Cass gasped. “You killed your own-”

“For the greater good, yes, I did,” the detective said. “For my son and my husband and my future daughter-in-law, absolutely. Besides, I just love the taste of bacon.”

Cass’ rational thought snapped like kindling, and lit once more from the flint of her temper. 

“Aw, what’s the matter- hit too close to home?” the Sin-Eater grinned. “Reminding you of your mommy? She tasted delicious too- she hated you so very much, which gave her a delightfully smoky taste. Truly a deplorable woman, that Juanita Ortiz.”

The world closed in around Cass. Her heart was a storm of rage, her mind a burning pyre. “W-what?”

“Jesus Christ,” Matt whispered. 

“I visited her a few days ago. She had no next of kin listed, and you were written out of her will a while ago, so nobody bothered to tell you. I killed her, and then I had the body spirited away by my own men and I killed them all too! And I PUT THEM ALL INTO A POT AND MADE THEM INTO A DELICIOUS STEW!” Di Lorenzo exclaimed, resonating with black and white light. It formed a matrix around her, and lightning shot forth in a massive wave pure power. 

No thoughts now, only actions. Don’t think, just do- put a stop to this monster. Monster! Monster monster monster-

Matt jumped in front of her before she could react. His chainsaw burned with Holy Light, and it struck the lightning right back. It flowed into him, and he screamed in agony. 

“NO!” Cass screamed. Not him too- can't lose him too! Can’t lose any of them! With the prongs of her telekinesis, she ripped a crucifix from the wall and sent it flying towards the Sin-Eater, only for her to sidestep it as it crashed into the floor.

“Hah. I knew you were gonna do that. It’s one of my favorite spells- a surface level scan reveals all the most pressing thoughts in situations like this,” Di Lorenzo said. 

Cass grunted, while Matt screamed, and screamed, and screamed…. He kept the black lightning at bay, even as it was slowly killing him…

… Even as he went awash with navy blue light. It engulfed him wholesale, and a choir of angels sang out as it faded and revealed him resplendent in a navy blue chainmail armor tunic with matching trousers. His chainsaw mutated in the blue glow, and the lightning discharged out of it into the air. The chainsaw reformed into a massive broadsword that he bore with both hands. He planted his feet and exhaled. “Then I guess we need somebody who don’t think!” 

He charged at her, screaming at the top of his lungs. 

“This just gets better and better,” Cass said, wide-eyed with amazement and pride. For a moment, her rage smoothed over into righteous clarity. She hopped on her broom and chased after him, moving on instinct. She flowed like water through the air, using her powers to shove the Sin-Eater’s hands out of the way each time she tried to launch an attack or throw a strike. The Sin-Eater summoned shields of lightning, and Matt and his blade tore through them. 

“What the fuck are you?!” Di Lorenzo screamed as she retrieved a knife and funneled lightning into it, blocking his massive blade with her tiny one. 

“I’m the truth,” Matt said. “Plain and simple. Unvarnished.”

“That’s the most idiotic, asinine thing I’ve ever-”

She didn’t finish- Cass exercised just a bit more finesse and ripped the knife from her hands. Matt put his blade against the skin of Di Lorenzo’s neck. 

“Oink oink, bitch,” Cass smiled maniacally as she closed in. Only half-formed, half-coherent thoughts came in through the storm inside her head. Killed Mom. Killed all those people. Even if they weren’t innocent they didn’t deserve to die like that. Nobody does. “Now, we’ve got some questions for you-”

“Well that’s interesting, mostly because I have one for you,” Di Lorenzo said, her smirk reflowering. “Did you know I had another gun on me?”

WAIT, WHAT-

Di Lorenzo jumped back, an inch away from decapitation as Matt swung his sword. She put her hands behind her, retrieved a gun from her the back of her pants, and got off a shot before Cass could telekinetically remove the weapon from her, before Cass could shove her backwards across the church.

NO!

The gun flew about as it fired, and the bullet launched towards the pews by the front door. 

Matt was safe. Gonzalez and Roberts were both outside the line of fire. Cass breathed haggard breaths, eyes wide, mind and body screaming. They were all safe. All of-

That was when Cass heard the bullet tear through the wooden back of a pew. That was when Cass heard Zack scream. That was when the last vestiges of control over her rage broke apart, levees in a whirling storm.

That was when all the glass in the windows exploded, and the translucent white owl reappeared and flew about before her.

The Word of God burned through Cass’ mind, body, and soul, and the world around her tore loose from its hinges as her powers surged like wildfire.

***

Debbi transformed immediately, and Heather did the same. Heather nearly launched herself at Astra and her beasts fist-first, but Debbi put a hand across her midsection and stopped her. 

“Why transform if you’re not gonna attack me?” Astra said with a dull monotone and a cocked eyebrow. 

“To show you we won’t be intimidated by your threats,” Debbi said. She scanned the streets- no civilians out. At the moment. It was the city on a Friday night- sooner or later a car or a pedestrian or somebody Astra could take hostage would arrive, and that would make this a lot more complicated. “We’ve got better things to do tonight then deal with you. You said you wanted to talk, then talk. Or we’ll just leave.”

“I’ll follow you,” Astra said. 

“I bet you will,” Debbi said. 

“Yeah, we’re not scared of you, you freak!” Heather said. 

“Oh?” Astra raised that perfectly sculpted eyebrow again. 

The hellhound on her left pounced at them. Heather caught it by the jaws and tried to throw it back, but it broke loose and began attacking her. Soon, the other hellhound was fighting her as well as she flew to maintain high ground. 

Debbi motioned to follow her, but Astra said, “No, we’re talking. You and me. Your little pet faggot there can fight while we talk.”

“How dare you-”

“You told me to talk, so I’m talking,” Astra said. The dragon opened its jaws and exhaled smoke, while Heather kicked at the Hellhounds from above. They sank their jaws into her ankles and ripped her from the sky, and so she fought them with only her fists. Black dogs the size of trucks were on upon the woman Debbi loved. 

Trust her, a voice in the back of her mind whispered. Trust your girlfriend. Your teammate.

“What do you want?” Debbi said. 

“I’ve come to tell you that I’ll be taking Amanda back,” Astra said plainly. “Your family has ruined her, corrupted her. So I’ll take her for myself and make her into what she’s meant to be.”

“Good luck with that,” Debbi rolled her eyes. “Amy does what she wants. And she doesn’t want anything to do with you.”

“She doesn’t have to be willing,” Astra replied with a shrug of her shoulders. “I just need to be there at the right time and the right place-”

Debbi shot a pike of light at Astra, and the succubus cried out as her eyes burned in the harsh glare. Debbi channeled Holy Light through her fist and crashed it into Astra’s jaw, leaving her screaming and burning. Then Debbi grabbed her by the lapel, hands still burning with Light, and pinned Astra to the ground. “I’m sorry, what was that? I think you were just saying something horrifying and fucked up that you thought was funny- care to repeat it?”

Astra, blinking rapidly and breathing out pure pain, simply looked confused. “What are you talking about? I wasn’t being funny. What was comedic about what I just said?”

“... Um… Nothing?”

“So why would I find it funny?”

“That- Goddammit, what am I doing?! Call off your dogs or I’ll kill you.”

“Better idea- you get off of me, or I’ll have my dragon burn your whore alive,” Astra said.

The dragon, slightly smaller than the hellhounds, turned and took aim with its open mouth at Heather as she wielded her fists. 

For a moment, Debbi’s heart quaked with terror. 

But then she looked at Heather, fighting valiantly in spite of the odds, fists merely flickering with Light but landing every blow against her monstrous opponents. The Light slowly stabilized, little by little, as Heather spoke. “Listen! We have heard the might of the kings” she began, and recited the opening lines of Beowulf from memory. Heather fists howled with Light as she spoke, and gripped her hands around the Hellhound’s throat tossed it at the dragon as it breathed fire. It absorbed the blow while Heather snapped the neck of the second hound, and then charged at the dragon while reciting medieval poetry. “This is what I love! This is what I have faith in! This is an epic struggle between good and evil, and I am the strongest bitch on the side of good! This is my epic, and I’ll be the one to write it!”

Debbi smiled at her girlfriend, then looked down at her opponent, at her sister’s wretched birth mother, and spat in her face. “Bullshit. Two hellhounds and a dragon isn’t nearly enough to kill Heather. It can’t be done. She’s stronger than that- stronger than you. I have faith in her. Just like I have faith in EVERY MEMBER OF MY TEAM! I won’t question any of their resolves or any of their intentions, and I’ll only bail them out when I have to! BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT A LEADER DOES! AND THAT’S WHAT FAMILY DOES!”

Astra furrowed her brow as the vision returned to her, and she cocked her head as if sizing Debbi up. “Hm. Intriguing. Welp, fair enough, I’ll get out of your hair.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Debbi asked while her girlfriend finished pummeling a dragon into the asphalt. 

“Change of plans,” Astra said. She dissolved in a gust of purple smoke, then reappeared standing on her feet Debbi fell on her face. “I was going to kill you so as to send a message to Amanda, but honestly? She’s been a disappointment to me all her life. But you, Debbi… One General to another, you’ve got something special in you. See ya’ around, kiddo- I’ll be in touch.”

And with another gust of smoke, she was gone, leaving only Debbi, her girlfriend, and several monster carcasses remaining.

***

Nicole screamed and screamed as the residents of Ditko Hall mutilated themselves. Winona lorded over her, her cocky smirk burning as brightly as her Hellfire sword. Amy was pinned beneath a dozen demons, and blood was splattered everywhere. 

Your fault, Nicole thought. Your responsibility. So do something for once in your worthless life- 

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention,” Winona said, running a finger over her pink lips. “Your little brother was here earlier, looking for you. Think his name was Zack? Seemed like a real shithead- I told him you’d be at St. Joseph’s. The Sin-Eater should have met him there by now-”

Nicole channeled Pink Light into her face and neck and lunged for Winona, her shield skating the edge of damnation as her fist made contact with Winona’s lower jaw. Winona grunted, but slammed the pommel of the blade into the side of Nicole’s skull and knocked her back down. Stars danced before Nicole’s eyes, and the room spun faster than the planet as the walls closed in and her breathing grew sharper and sharper. 

There was nothing she could do. She would just keep getting knocked back down. The only thing that she was good at, the only thing that made her wretched excuse for an existence meaningful-

“Not bad,” Winona said, kneeling before Nicole and raising a fist. “Really, not bad. It’s just too bad it’s all bluster and bullshit. Wanna know how I know? Because you’ll do that for someone who hates you, but not for yourself. Amy, Zack, the Bishop, hell, everyone- do you really think they accept you? Any of them? Do you really think the people in this city that you’ve worked so hard to protect wouldn’t cast you aside in an instant the second they found out what you really are?” She collided her fist with Nicole’s eye, then her other eye, then her mouth. She struck, and struck, and struck, without pause and without restraint as pain invaded every cell of Nicole’s body and mind. “I mean come on- of course they would! Some out of pure disdain, others apathy, and others a simple desire not to be seen as taking a side. And yet you’d run barefoot over broken glass to protect their miserable asses! It’s BULLSHIT! Because you’re protecting people who hate you but not yourself!”

“Nicole,” Amy cried, “Don’t listen to her-”

Curtis slammed a foot onto Amy’s back, and she howled in pain. 

Nicole tried to break free of Winona, tried to get to Amy, but Winona grabbed her throat and kept her pinned down. Winona resumed raining blows. “There it is again! And this is what gets me, the hypocrisy. You think this makes you a good Christian, think it makes you noble, but it doesn’t- a good Christian is supposed to protect all of God’s creatures, all life, including their own. But you won’t do that, because all you feel towards yourself is disdain and disregard. And you just want it to stop, don’t you? Someone who loves everyone but themselves, who wants to throw their own life away and dress it up as serving the Lord so they don’t get caught in the attempt, isn’t noble. They’re just a FREAK! THEY’RE JUST SICK IN THE HEAD!”

The familiar, hateful words stung her. The tightness in her chest tripled, and the room spun faster and faster-

“That’s not true!” Amy cried, tearing free of her bonds. Amy tried to meet her gaze, look directly into her, through her, but Nicole shied away. She didn’t want Amy to see her like this… Not when… Not when she was right about her. Not when she’d put Amy through so much pain already. Not when Nicole didn’t deserve her. She didn’t deserve anyone. “I know it’s not! Nicole, you’re a good person! You do those things because it’s the right thing to do, not because you-”

“It can be both,” Nicole whispered. It was as if a knot around her neck tightened, forcing the words out of her throat. 

“W… What?”

“My life means nothing,” Nicole said. “It’s other people who matter, not me. Never me. I’m just a freak.”

“You’re not a-”

“You said so yourself,” Nicole said. 

Black smoke whirled around Nicole. Tears leaked from her eyes, and in the gaps left behind, filthy Floodwater poured in. 

“I was wrong!” Amy sobbed. “You are the most amazing person I’ve ever met! I was wrong about you, I was wrong about everything-”

“Gosh, look what I’ve done to you,” Nicole said. “Reducing you to this state. I’m so sorry I hurt you with my delusion-”

“It’s not a delusion- you’re a woman, and you’re a good person! People need you- I NEED YOU!”

That was very nice of Amy to say. It was nice of everyone to say- Nicole’s parents, her sister, her friends, Father Gonzalez, everyone. But the truth was, they were just afraid of what Nicole might do if they said otherwise. People broke before they bent. The truth was… 

The truth is that you’re dragging them down with you, a voice beneath the water’s surface whispered. The truth is that you’re an abomination, that nobody really wants you, least of all you. It’s why you do the things you do, and forgive as much as you do- you want to believe that if you do everything right, and act like One Of The Good Ones, then that will at least give your pain and sacrifices some meaning. But there’s no meaning to it. You’re not God and you’re not Christ- there’s nothing Holy about you throwing your own life away. It’s just sinful. 

The world grew further and further away as Nicole lost the strength to tread water. She fell beneath the Floodwater’s surface, and was flushed out of her own mind as the demon tossed her about and forced all the strength from her spirit. The ashes clogged her mind and body, and the smoke was all she could see above the water’s surface as she sank deeper and deeper until finally, she found herself in a prison cell. Metal bars on the door, a cold concrete floor, and a steady drip of water leaking from the ceiling and pelting her face. 

Eyes that were no longer her own stared at Amy, limbs that were no longer her own dragged her to her feet. A voice that was no longer her own spoke thusly: “Hmmm. That’s so much better.”

“No,” Amy screamed. “NO!”

And in her cell, in the agony of her own mind, Nicole couldn’t even find the strength to scream alongside her. In the agony of her own mind, at least she couldn’t do any more damage to herself or anyone else. It’s the right thing to do, she and her demonwhispered together.