you want it darker | michael langdon

chapter twelve; angels and demons.

"What the hell, you guys?" She exclaimed furiously at the scrambling musicians trying to retrieve their instruments.

While Juliet was distractedly scolding the orchestra behind her, Primrose took her chance and grabbed her by the hand, pulling her offstage to perform transmutation out of public view.

"Prim, what's going on?" She cluelessly asked as she realized they were now on level one.

"There's no time to explain!" Julien exclaimed, throwing his arms around his sister in relief.

"He's right, we really don't have time." Primrose sighed. "Everyone follow me!"

Primrose led the pack through level one, all four of them running with reckless abandon, running for their lives. Every door they opened, every corner they turned they lived in fear that Michael would be there to apprehend them and foil their fledgling plan.

They were met with many guards on their way to the final layer of security before the surface. Primrose swept them away with the unleashed, primal force of her magic. Her desperation grew by the minute; he was coming, she could feel it.

Finally, they approached the final barrier. All that stood between them and the overground was a keycode protected door...

"It's been fifteen minutes, Prim."

...and Michael.

"Michael, y-you don't have to do this."

Primrose stood protectively in front of her friends, trying her best to appear strong and authoritative despite her glassy red eyes and shaking limbs.

"If you won't tell me who to sacrifice, then I'll just have to kill them all." Michael snarled.

With just the click of his fingers, he ended Juliet's life. Primrose heard the poor girl's neck snap from behind her, and the subsequent wails of grief from her brother, but she did not dare turn around and face the horror Michael was inflicting.

"Just give up." Primrose quietly begged.

She could see the conflict behind his eyes; perhaps part of him knew that this was all merely insanity, but sometimes that realization just isn't enough. Love and desperation are dangerous enough individually, but when the two are combined, the effects are devastating.

Michael raised his hand once more, fingers poised and ready to destroy the two friends she held most dear, when there was a sudden flash of light, and the door behind them flew open, knocking everybody over.

Through the blustering winds and blazing fulguration of the wasteland, emerged a powerful and otherworldly woman.

"A-are y-you an angel?" Etu asked, cowering behind Julien.

"No," She laughed quietly, her blonde hair billowing gently in the breeze as she approached them.

"I'm the supreme."

"Cordelia!" Michael exclaimed.

"Mom!" Primrose threw herself at her mother, Cordelia embraced her warmly in return.

"My dear, sweet Prim." Cordelia cried.

"How are you here?" Primrose asked in disbelief.

"You were dead." Michael seethed.

"It's Halloween," Cordelia smugly replied. "The one day the dead may walk the earth."

"Why are you here?" Primrose asked.

"I've been sent to put things right." Cordelia stepped forward to face Michael before continuing, "The flow of time has been perverted, and it has split this world in two. A temporal paradox is tearing the earth apart, and it's collapsing in on itself in an attempt to fix it. I've been sent here to heal the wounds of time. I must undo what shouldn't have been done."

The ground beneath them began to shake, cracks forming in the tiles of the floor. The earth was shaking and splintering; they didn't have much time left.

"Why is there a paradox? What's going on?" Julien panicked, completely baffled at the events that were unfolding.

"There is a reason why tempus infinitum is rarely performed," Cordelia said, gravely. "When Mallory went back into the past, she didn't save the timeline, she broke it. When she died, it should've been fixed, but with Prim's death on top, it tore a hole in the fabric of reality; universes started to collapse. The only way to fix it is to eliminate everyone that was involved in the spell. Mallory's already dead, but you two..."

"And we're supposed to come willingly?" Michael sneered.

"You can go out screaming for all I care." Cordelia fired back.

"When we die, everything gets fixed?" Primrose asked, hopefully.

Cordelia nodded, solemnly.

With this confirmation, Primrose knew what she had to do.

Turning away from her mother, she used her magic to disarm Michael, his dagger flying into her grasp.

Michael's eyes widened as he realized what she was doing, but he was too slow to act.

Primrose plunged the knife into her own heart, all the air in her lungs escaping from her mouth in one sudden rush, her knees buckling beneath her as she fell to the floor.

Michael was behind her in an instant, catching her as she fell.

"Why! Why would you do that!" He yelled, furious tears now rolling down his face.

"Destruction is a form of creation, this is something I must accept." She meekly replied. "Because that's all this life is; destruction and creation."

"Don't worry, I've got you, love. I'm right here, sweetheart." He sobbed. "I'll just bring you back."

She weakly raised her hand to cup the side of his face, and he shivered at the contact. "Michael, you can't. You have to let go."

"I-i'm scared... don't want to leave you."

"You won't, okay? It's you and me, together, for always."

She pulled the knife out of her chest and handed it to Michael.

Knowing that his lover, his sole reason for being, was moments away from death, he accepted.

He pressed the blade against his throat, and with one swift motion, he unleashed a red waterfall, coating Primrose in the hot, crimson cascade.

And then the ground opened up,

and both angels and demons alike did weep.