Sabrina and Caliban arrived in the kitchen of the Spellman house in a whirlwind of smoke and fire.
Everything was just as she remembered it. Details had faded with time, but it still seemed the same. No major changes had been made. The paint was still the same, the cabinets and drawers were unchanged. Cooking and baking supplies were all over the countertops, neatly organized. Her Auntie Hilda liked everything just so.
And the smell. It was divine. None of the food in Hell, no matter how luxurious and decadent, could ever stand up to a home-cooked meal. She took in a deep breath, savoring it, and her first taste of freedom.
"Happy to be home?" Caliban asked, taking a look around the room.
He just had to ruin the moment.
"I wish it was under better circumstances," she said, and she began opening drawers in search of something to use to clean up the blood on the side of her face. She eventually found a stack of kitchen towels in a drawer by the oven and did her best to clean herself up without a mirror.
"Allow me," Caliban said, reaching for the towel in her hand.
Her first instinct was to refuse, but she didn't want Ambrose to see the unfortunate side effect of his prayer. Begrudgingly, she handed him the towel and pushed her hair back behind her ear. Surprisingly gently, he used his fingers to tilt her head to the side before beginning to clean up the blood.
The cloth was roughened with age, but it was clear that he was trying to avoid causing her any further discomfort. The bleeding must've been worse than she had initially thought because Caliban was running the towel along her jaw and neck.
"As though it never even happened," he murmured.
She took the towel from his hand. Its purple color made her blood look black. She scrunched it up into her fist, setting it ablaze. For a few moments, she just watched it burn. When she had enough, she tossed it into the sink and headed toward the embalming room. She didn't even bother to see if Caliban was following her.
The metal stairs that she had seen Ambrose walk down just hours ago were now creaking under her feet. "Ambrose?" she called, "Ambrose?"
When she got to the bottom of the staircase, she found him staring at her.
"Please tell me you are here this time, and that sleep deprivation is not causing me to hallucinate."
She couldn't help it. She smiled, high on happiness, and threw herself into his arms.
It had been so long since she had experienced any kind of genuine affection. Everything with Caliban was just for show. Her interactions with Lilith were strictly business and revolved entirely around Sabrina's needs. Any tenderness Lucifer tried to show her came off as creepy and perverse, and she spent her evenings dodging his touch.
But this, hugging Ambrose, was safe, warm, real, and it felt like coming home. He even smelled like home, underneath the scent of embalming fluid.
"You smell nice," she murmured into his shoulder.
He laughed and pulled back from their embrace to look at her, "It's hard to believe that you are really here."
"It is for me too," she admitted, "I've missed you so much."
"Not nearly as much as we missed you, Cousin."
"He's right about that."
Sabrina hadn't noticed anyone else in the room, but she hadn't been paying attention. She turned towards the voice and discovered a figure leaning against an empty embalming table.
"Hey, Nick," she said, voice barely reaching her own ears.
"Hey, Spellman," he replied.
She took a good look at him. He didn't look the same as when she left. Maybe she was just seeing him with new eyes. He looked a little thinner, his eyes looked a little sadder, but, considering the state he was in when she left, he looked better than she would've expected.
His face scrunched up in displeasure, and he pointed to something behind her, "What are you doing hanging around with this tool?"
Of course, Caliban followed her down the steps.
Caliban began walking in Nick's direction, "What did you just call me, warlock?"
Sabrina immediately broke away from Ambrose and stopped Caliban from advancing any further with a hand on his chest.
"You two," she gestured between the two of them, "aren't going to do this. Understand?"
The tone of her voice left no room for debate. This wasn't a suggestion. From the three corpses on the tables, it was clear that they had better ways to spend their time.
Nick nodded, and she turned to Caliban. He was smirking. His gaze flickered from her confused face down to the hand that she still had on his chest. His bare chest. Did the guy ever wear whole shirts?
Apparently not.
She ripped her hand from his chest, and he laughed lightly before giving her a slight bow.
"As the Lady wishes."
She crossed her arms, refusing to even acknowledge what just happened between them.
"Typical men," she huffed, "Ambrose?"
Ambrose had just been standing there, doing his best to mentally distance himself from their interaction, and he seemed grateful to finally be able to share his findings.
"So," he gestured to the first corpse, the man Sabrina knew as Gus, "We have one man with his bones crushed to powder."
What a terrible way to go. She could visibly see the places that were significantly flatter than the few places in his body where bones remained intact. It must've been torturous to die like that. It was the stuff of witch trials. There was dried blood around his mouth, and Sabrina had to turn away.
She had seen worse, much worse, but the blood was brown. That meant it was once red, full of life, and human.
Ambrose gestured to the next body, "Another dead from carbon monoxide poisoning, and one seemingly starved to death."
"This all sounds vaguely familiar," Sabrina realized.
"The Kinkle mine disaster of 1949!"
"The cave-in," it had crossed her mind very briefly that morning, but she had put it out of her mind in favor of running for, what felt like, her life, "Some miners were crushed by rocks, some of them died from poisonous fumes, and anyone left after that, eventually died of starvation."
"They died terrible gruesome deaths," Nick said, speaking up for the first time since greeting her and Caliban, "In the dark."
"Nicholas," Ambrose said, "It's time for that spot of necromancy I mentioned."
Sabrina tensed at the mention of necromancy, and Nick noticed this immediately. Before she could ask if they were insane, he tried to soothe her.
"Relax, Spellman, this won't be another Tommy Kinkle fiasco."
Well, that was a low blow. Tommy Kinkle still haunted her nightmares, along with the fear and concern in Prudence and Dorcas' faces when she was told that Agatha was vomiting up dirt. The way Harvey looked at her after going into the woods to shoot his not-brother was something that she would never forget.
He could've told her to just relax, so when he offered her his hand to assist him with his spell; she was tempted to tell him no. But this was the quickest way to get answers, so she accepted it, albeit begrudgingly.
"The bodies are incredibly damaged and it will take an immense amount of power to keep their souls in them, even for a short time."
"What are you saying, Ambrose?" Nick demanded.
"I'm saying, we could use all of the assistance we can get."
He nodded in Caliban's direction, and Sabrina reluctantly extended her hand to him. He immediately accepted it. She was struck by how warm his hands were, especially in comparison to Nick's. His hands were almost cold.
Caliban, seemingly unconsciously, toyed with the ring on her finger. She had never taken it off. Since her skirt didn't have any pockets, she would just have to hide it in the sleeves of her sweater, but that was a problem for later.
She closed her eyes and attempted to focus and ignore the strange contrast of Nick's cold hands to Caliban's warm ones.
Nick muttered a spell under his breath, too quietly for her to hear, and she knew it was over when he dropped her hand and began speaking normally, "Rise and shine boys, we won't keep you long. We just wanna know how you died."
Sabrina immediately dropped Caliban's hand, not sparing him another glance before pulling the sleeve of her sweater over her fist, effectively hiding her ring. Nobody could know.
"Was it a mining accident?" Ambrose questioned, "Or was it vengeful ghost miners?"
The three bodies shot up and spoke in perfect unison, "It was neither an accident nor a ghost. It was the first Eldritch Terror that killed us. Darkness."
"A crushing Darkness," Gus, or what remained of Gus, declared.
"A suffocating Darkness," spoke the next, the man who had died of carbon monoxide poison.
"A consuming Darkness," rasped the last.
"Eldritch Terrors," Caliban murmured grimly.
Sabrina was about to ask what he knew about these 'Terrors' but the corpses started speaking again, perfectly synchronized, and she turned her attention back to them.
"The Darkness is gathering. The Darkness is rising. It will spread everywhere. It will blanket everything. There is no reasoning. There is no stopping it. In the beginning, all was darkness. In the end, there will only be darkness. Darkness. Darkness. Darkness. Today, this day, the sun will set and never rise again."
With that, all three bodies fell flat against their embalming tables, never to speak again.
"What are Eldritch Terrors?" she asked.
"Eldritch Terrors are primordial beings," Caliban explained, "They predate even the False God. Most cultures mention the most ancient of them; The Void. They are all-consuming. If you are truly under the threat of Terrors, there is more than just Earth at stake. All the realms are in danger."
"That doesn't explain why they're after us now."
"Nick's right," she agreed, "Why now?"
"Mad Father Blackwood spoke of the Eldritch Terrors, and of releasing them," Ambrose informed them, "I was waiting for the other shoe to drop and now it has."
"So we're on the verge of another apocalypse," she concluded, "Great. How do we stop it?"
"We need to find its source," Ambrose stated, "But the Darkness comes from the outer reaches of the cosmos. Its source could be anywhere."
"Just a guess, If you've been seeing creepy miners around town, couldn't they be avatars of this Darkness?" Nick suggested.
"Which could mean that the locus of the Absolute Darkness might be in the mines," Ambrose concluded.
"Then let's check it out," Sabrina said, "Let's go to the mines."
"If that is not where the Darkness resides, then you will be wasting a lot of valuable time on this trip, my lady."
"We can astral project," Ambrose suggested, "It would be much quicker."
"Let's do it," she agreed immediately.
Ambrose took a good look at her, "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"
"It feels good to be back in action," she admitted.
Just out of Sabrina's field of vision, Caliban smiled.