"What the hell happened?" I mutter, shielding the bright light from my eyes.
"You died," Langdon replies. My eyes adjust and I look around to see that I'm laying on my bathroom floor, covered in blood with only a towel covering me. I suddenly remember everything that happened.
"Fuck, that was more painful than I was expecting," I sigh, sitting up. I feel a sharp pain in my head and I fall back over. "Wait, did you send that fucking snake after me?" I accuse as I hold a hand to my head.
He rolls his eyes. "No. I already told you I wasn't going to kill you," he says as he hastily takes my arm and pulls me up. "I had to bring you back to life, so you're going to feel weird for a while."
I lean up against the wall and make my way to the closet. "I'm fine. Where did the snake come from?"
His face darkens. "I think I have an idea of who sent it."
"Who?"
"My father. He's somewhat of a magical being like I am."
"Somewhat? You know what, I'm not even going to ask."
He smirks. "Now you're getting even smarter."
I roll my eyes and let go of the wall to walk over to my bed, but I quickly collapse. I feel a searing pain in my leg and I wince as I look down at it. There are two fang marks in it that are bright red, and the veins around them look extremely large and discolored. It spreads through my leg, becoming excruciatingly painful. I dig my nails into the floor and scream as it worsens.
"Shit," Langdon mutters, crouching down next to me. "This hasn't happened before." He holds his hand above my leg, but he quickly withdraws it as if it burned him. "That's some really complicated magic," he frowns as he touches it.
I don't even have time to question what the hell he's talking about with magic. His touch sends pain shooting up my body, and I shout in pain. "Just make it go away!" I scream.
He holds his hand above it, ready to heal it, but then he smirks as he looks back over at me. "I'm in an interesting position here," he mocks. "Why should I heal this for you?"
I narrow my eyes. If he's about to use my situation to his advantage, I will not hesitate to end him. "Because if you don't and it somehow goes away, I will make the rest of your life a living hell."
"Wow, you're threatening me even when you're powerless," he tsks. "Admit to me that you are powerless."
"Go to hell, asshole," I spit. The pain doubles and I writhe on the floor.
"I've been there. It's actually not as bad as people make it out to be."
"You're an ass."
"And you're going to be lying on the floor in excruciating pain for hours with that attitude."
"You bitch! You're worsening my pain just to get me to admit my weakness to you! Well there it is, are you happy?"
"Almost. That wasn't good enough."
"I wouldn't be surprised if you sent that snake in and just lied to me about it just to attempt to gain my trust," I spit, not letting it go. My pain worsens and I scream again.
"I will admit, that would be absolutely evil, but I did not come up with that idea. My father must've really wanted you dead."
"And why would he want that? I don't think I've even met the guy."
"He's pure evil. He wants everybody dead."
"Good enough explanation," I wince, looking down. My whole leg is a reddish-purple color.
"You're really just making this harder on yourself," he continues to mock.
"Why the hell can't Venable or anybody hear me?"
"I put a soundproofing sound on your room when I was bringing you back to life. I didn't know if you were going to be screaming or not, and now I know."
I let out a blood-curling scream as I feel like my leg is being carved into. Langdon's face changes as he looks to see what is happening. I suddenly can't feel my leg anymore, and it becomes entirely immobile.
Langdon drops to the ground and grabs my leg. He does his spell to heal it, and the pain shrinks back to the spot where the snake bit me. I look back down and see that the only discolored section is where the snake bite was, but it isn't a snake bite anymore. It's a pentagram.
"What the fuck?" I mutter. "I'm not a Satanist, I swear."
"I know," Langdon mutters. He presses his hand to the marking and closes his eyes. When they open again, they are all black. "Father," he whispers.
"What the hell are you doing?" I hiss, attempting to push his arm off my leg. "I don't want you to use my leg as a fucking medium or some shit."
He flicks his wrist and the whole room goes dark. Before I can do anything, I lose consciousness.
......
When I regain consciousness, I know everything about Langdon's, or should I say Michael's, past. I saw everything; his childhood in the Murder House, his joining the warlocks and feuding with the witches, and eventually his joining the Cooperative and causing the apocalypse.
I look up to see Langdon being shaken out of a daze, and he's slowly looking towards me. I glance down at my leg and see the pentagram that was carved into my leg magically healing itself along with all of the cuts across my body from the shower glass.
"What did he show you?" Langdon asks, slowly moving towards me.
"You've done quite a good job at tricking everyone here, Michael."
Michael tenses up slightly upon hearing his name. "He showed you everything, didn't he?" he asks, deciding to move from kneeling to sitting.
"You're the Antichrist," I scoff, beginning to feel my strength returning.
He laughs dryly. "You are correct. Can you tell me why the hell my father chose you?"
I raise a brow. "Chose me for what?"
"To be my ally. He told me that if he deemed somebody fit to be my ally, he would divinely intervene to make it evident to me that he had chosen them," he explains calmly. "That's why he killed you," he admits, moving towards my leg. "He needed you to be in his realm for long enough to be able to 'mark' you. That's why the pentagram was carved into your leg. That was the sign that you were chosen."
I back away from him before he can touch my leg. "Excuse me? I never consented to being your ally," I state condescendingly as I stand up.
He scoffs as he stands up as well. "You don't have a choice in the matter. Once you've been chosen, there's no backing out."
"What if I just chose to simply... not help you?" I suggest.
He rolls his eyes. "Do you really have to be so difficult?"
"Do you really have to be so pushy?" I retort. I grab the clothes off my bed and walk towards the bathroom to get dressed.
He sighs as he rests his head in his hand and looks down at the ground. "Father, why the hell did you choose her?" he mutters under his breath.
"I don't want this either," I scoff as I slam the door behind me.
I quickly slip my nightgown on, wanting to sleep as soon as possible, and I sigh at the broken glass beneath me. I wish that it would just fix itself. I turn my attention to the mess that is my hair when I feel movement behind me.
I quickly turn around and see all the shards of glass floating towards the shower. They stop as soon as I turn and hover midair. Did Michael do this?
I slowly raise my arm and move it to one side, and the shards follow. I move it to the other side and they follow again. What the fuck?
I glance over at the shower and imagine the shower door that used to be there. On command, the shards fly over to the shower and turn into the glass door. "Holy shit," I mutter inaudibly. I have powers.
......
"You can't just keep avoiding me forever," Michael states as he catches me in the hallway.
"I can," I retort as I pick up the pace. "And I will."
He grabs my arm and I turn to face him. "What the hell do you want?" I ask, not bothering to hide my annoyance.
"My father chose you as my ally for a reason," he states. "Although I will never understand," he adds on under his breath.
"Listen up, devil boy," I state as I poke my finger into his chest. "It's clear that neither of us want to be allies; therefore, I say that we both just go our own ways and pretend this little incident never happened."
He rolls his eyes. "Trust me, I wish it were that simple."
"Yeah, and it can be. Just let it go." I yank my arm from his grasp and walk away, but he appears in front of me.
"No can do. Unfortunately, we have to work together now."
I cross my arms. "I have no interest in helping you finish your plans of world destruction."
"And why is that?" he asks, an amused expression playing across his face.
I scoff. "Unlike you, Mr. Antichrist, I don't find exploding nuclear bombs around the world to be a fun pastime."
He rolls his eyes. "You say that like it's a bad thing. Listen to me here, Valentina," he states as he closes in on me. "You and I, we're not very different; we were good, but the world turned us evil."
"I didn't go and blow up the world because of it!" I scoff. "Why do you even need my help? It's quite clear that you've already succeeded."
"That's the thing; I haven't succeeded yet."
I slowly turn to face him. "Have you not seen the state of the world? I'm pretty sure world destruction has been completed."
He shakes his head. "The Gray, Mallory - she's a witch, and a powerful one at that. She also has no idea that she is a witch, which means that she must've been placed under an identity spell. I have no idea how many of these witches are hiding under my nose."
"So she's a witch. Why can't you just kill her?" I roll my eyes.
"That's the issue. If I kill her, it will most likely awaken whatever witch it was that put her under this spell."
"And how is that witch not dead?
"I think that witch is the Supreme witch, Cordelia Goode."
I scoff. "Bitch please, Supreme witch or not, those witches are dead as hell by now."
"Unfortunately, they aren't. Cordelia Goode survived the bombs, but I haven't been able to detect her lifeline, which means she is most likely in some type of 'hibernation.' I have no clue how many witches are with her, and I don't want to awaken all of them by killing Mallory."
"Aren't they going to awaken anyway when Mallory dies on Halloween during whatever Mead and Venable are planning?" I ask.
"Yes, but I will come up with a plan by then. Besides, I need to detect who the other witches are. There's no way Mallory is the only witch here."
I scoff. "That sounds like a you problem." I begin to walk past him, but he grabs me by the arm. "Bitch, get your hands off of me."
"Just hear me out," he insists as he releases me.
I cross my arms as I turn to face him. "Fine. Make it worth my while."
He scoffs. "Part of being my ally means that our lifelines are connected; if I die and am somehow not able to be brought back, you die as well."
I stare in shock for a few seconds. "Excuse me, what? Why the hell did you wait this long to tell me this information?"
"I see that I have your attention now," he smirks.
I sigh as I begin walking to the sitting room. "So how are we killing this bitch?"