[After...party?] I would give anything, but for the grace of God I'm here and still aware

[madgiganticfeelings]

[So that... certainly happened. Christine ran along with everyone else to escape the suffocating smoke, slamming the doors behind them in the hope it would slow the flames down. She tries not to see sticky beer-stained carpet as she runs, tries to hear the voices of her newfound friends, rather than the screams of teenagers, but it's certainly difficult.

She only stops to hastily throw open the door to Steven's room and let out Lion with them, but otherwise retreats into the gardens before... letting herself watch the opera house in silence.

Thankfully, it doesn't end with as much damage as the last fire Christine experienced. In time, she can stop shaking and unfold the note still clenched in her hand. And then she looks back at the opera house with... a different kind of fear on her face.

A fear so deep that when Mephisto and Anne finally start suggesting the possibility of returning inside, she's up on her feet in an instant.]

Meeting in the woman's first floor washroom. Give me ten minutes and I'll be there.

[Before anyone can argue with her, she runs off, hoping she sounded firm enough for them to follow her request.

She and Lion move to Stephen's room first to acquire whatever notes might still be there, but she's returns to the bathroom soon enough, all the papers now collected in her binder.]

Okay. We're probably freaked out. God knows I still am. And I want to encourage you to leave when you need to, take a break if this all gets to be too much. But I think... I think I speak for everyone- [Finally, finally she can speak for everyone. Her voice is strong enough now.] - when I say this.

[Her knuckles go white around her binder and her eyes spark back to life.]

We are not letting that fucking Wizard win anymore. So let's talk time loops.

Comments

[heathencall]

[Well, that's certainly enough to stun him into silence. He stares, hand on the door. It clutches the knob too tight, if the blooming patches of red against his bandages are any indication. But it's that, or shaking itself to pieces as he tries to comprehend pretty much everything that's hitting him now.

Riley had said it earlier in the week. Christine is saying it now. And Stephen had admitted to loving him.]

Christine.

[Since the end of that second week, he'd been determined to fight back against this place. To keep others from dying. And yet -- And yet.]

Leave me tonight
I've gone too far to begin all anew
With someone like you

[What was this, if not a sign. One by one, those that had made him happy, that had made him feel like he was more than his damnation, had fallen. He was a blight. A curse. And it was only a matter of time until Christine met the same fate.]

[madgiganticfeelings]

[It takes everything Christine has not to just bolt straight for Mephisto when she sees the blood, when she realizes how badly he's shivering. All she does is take one step forward, firm, but careful not to make Mephisto slam the door in her face.

Everything just aches, hearing those words. How many times had Mephisto comforted her, as she thought she had cursed everyone around her? How many times had he told her she was more than the hopelessness she felt?

She can't let him sink into the same misery she's been neck deep in since coming here. She has to do something to make him realize she's done giving up.

And so she sings along with him, her voice echoing every protest he makes with her own firm assertions.]

I'll take you through
Life fades in anew
With someone like you...

Mephisto. This is the life I chose now. And... I want you to choose it with me, no matter what we had before.

[heathencall]

[Her voice rises up to meet his, and Mephisto's resolve crumbles. He releases his hold on the door and stumbles in. RiRi at least has the sense to roll out of the way as he makes his way to his bed and sinks onto it. It's easier this way to brace his head in his hands.

Mephisto knows the feeling of betrayal. He'd felt it watching his Father love his creations more than him. He'd felt it as his whole being plummeted down to Earth.

He feels it now, knowing that he'd stayed his hand for so long, while Stephen had simply watched him die. Despite every promise that they would find a better way, together.

He glances up, knowing that Christine wouldn't just leave him. It flows now, grief not just from the last few hours, days or even weeks, but the centuries. His eyes burn, and now he doesn't try to bite it back.

He drops the letters clutched within his hands as something takes him.]

Being as in love with him as I am.
Being as in love with him as I am.

He made me feel like
I was locked out of heaven
For too long.

[madgiganticfeelings]

Oh...

[Her voice is more a sharp inhale than anything audible, and she stumbles after him into the room, shutting the door behind them and clambering up onto the bed. She kneels beside him, as if in worship, praying to a god she doesn't believe in.

And she reaches up to take his hands, gently pulling them away from his face. Her eyes are shimmering, as she looks down at the bloodied bandages. She moves to slowly unravel them with trembling fingers.]

So we... we make a new heaven. Me and you. With everyone we'll save. I know you're afraid but... I know it's going to happen.

[She looks up again, one of her hands moving away from the more obvious damage of his hands to brush against his face, to try to judge the far deeper damage done to his heart.

She studies him for a moment before words come to complete her prayer.]

Open up again, I believe in second chances
Please let me in, oh I believe in second chances
I won't break you...
I will not let you down...
Open up again, I believe in second chances

[heathencall]

[It isn't the words, the song that bring Mephisto to his senses. It's the way Christine sits -- reverent to him, an undeserving wretch. He swallows hard and... allows himself to shift forward. He's still taller than her, even when they're both sunken down like this, but at least it feels a little better to him.]

Oh these days oh these days get heavy. [That's all he can manage back. He feels a weight on his shoulders that he just can't shake. He feels like he's about to collapse, break in on himself.]

I don't know how to swallow this, Christine. I don't know how to choke out this feeling.

[madgiganticfeelings]

I didn't know either. When I... When I lost Riley, and Jeremy, I didn't know what I was going to do. How I could possibly live with all those feelings pressing down on me, how I could go on knowing everyone I loved was just going to leave me behind.

[She continues unwinding the bandages while she speaks, and has to blink hard against the stinging in her eyes when she sees the damage. She looks around the room, hopeful he at least gathered some supplies in here.]

But... you know what you did. You know how you helped raise me back up, so I could meet those expectations you have for me. Why would I leave you alone when you need me to do the same?

[heathencall]

[He's got a few more bandages left! They're sitting out on his desk. You're going to need them, he went to down on a grave out there. The bruising and cuts are looking pretty gnarly.]

Those that guided me onto this path are dead. [He swallows down a sound. His breath comes out with a shudder.] You are the last one that I have left. How long until this place takes you too?

[He closes his eyes, remembering that moment during Riley's trial. The desperation he'd felt as he'd called out to the Phantom. Would it have been different, if they were both alive?]

He and I made promises that we would do right by you. They're broken now. You're bound by no word, no obligation to do the same for me. Honor means nothing here.

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Christine just sighs quietly.]

I think we need some disinfectant, but we can do that when we change the bandages tomorrow.

['We,' just so Mephisto knows that she's not about to be taken just yet. She takes the gauze and starts almost rhythmically wrapping it around the worst of the cuts.]

I don't care about what you think I am and am not bound by. You're a father to me here. Someone who believed in me through no matter what fucking hell they put us through, and I, I honestly don't even think my real parents would expect me to save anyone in a place like this.

[She looks up from her work, with almost a manic grin on her face.]

I told you already that I would walk through hell for you. Your path can take me whereever it likes, but I'm not going to step from it. Even if you can't walk it.

[Let the torturing ensue
My soul is useless without you...]

[heathencall]

[Tomorrow. A new day. For a moment, Mephisto can cling to that optimism, hold it like a lifeline. He can grab it tight until his knuckles bleed anew, and maybe it will keep him afloat.

The hope is gone before he can really let it take hold. Tomorrow, he'll wake up alone for the first time in ages. Even after their squabbles, he and Stephen had made their way back to one another. But there's no crossing beyond the grave.

Briefly, the thinks of the comparison he'd made to Orpheus. He at least has the control not to laugh bitterly at that.]

I don't want you to walk through hell. I want you to live. Outside of this place. No more trauma. No more hurt.

You should not have to save me. You should not have to put me back together because he was too much of a fool to speak with us.

[His eyes are burning again. He's still not bothering to hold it back.]

I have put pressure on you since you have arrived here. My salvation. My humanity. No wonder you were so ready to crack. We haven't been fair to you.

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Christine just shakes her head stubbornly. It's a nice thought, to go back to a normal life, where trying to teach the popular kids basic acting skills and where she and Jeremy could go for their next date now that the bowling alley had banned them were the only problems she faced.

Christine may be an optimist, but even she knows that's impossible, after all they've been through together.]

What if I just make a quick detour there to gather up everyone's souls?

[Maybe she can make him laugh, a little. She finishes with the bandages as best she can, and then places her hands over his.]

You're allowed to be angry, and hurt. As much as I was the weeks before. But... that's not going to change the fact that even if I'm not supposed to, I will.

[Even if she was intimidated by it before. Even if she's really not sure what this place might throw at her to make her break down next.]

...I don't mind that it was unfair. It kept me going when I could have given in like Stephen. It kept me thinking of ways to bring everyone back.

[As long as she can keep it together a little while longer, then surely this time she can succeed.]

[heathencall]

You can say you don't mind all you want. It doesn't make it right.

[But he doesn't want to argue. Even now, as he tries to keep from putting too much weight on her, his soul feels weary. He feels like Ariel must have, after Helena's death. Wallowing in his grief. Lamenting his love.

And he'd spat in his face the same words that he'd offered Stephen. Even if he wanted Stephen to burn in hell for betraying his trust, it didn't change how he still felt. That made him angrier than anything.]

Will you give me tonight to mourn, Christine? I promies that tomorrow, I'll pull myself back together.

[madgiganticfeelings]

It's... you can make it up to me some other day.

[She leaves that bit of hope for him, something to cling to, and smiles when he returns the favour. Tomorrow, she'll fix his bandages. Tomorrow, he'll pull himself together and help her, rather than just placing all his dreams of the future on her.

Tomorrow, they'll be alive. So she does slide off the bed, though not before wrapping her arms tight around Mephisto's shoulders.]

I will. But only if you promise you'll come find me if you need anything at all. You... don't have to be alone.

[heathencall]

[It's hard for Mephisto to summon the strength to return the gesture, but he tries his best. He wraps his arms secure around her waist and even musters up a moment of strength to give her a squeeze.

He's content to leave it at that, nodding even as he plans to not need anything, just so he doesn't have to bother her. Something stops him, though, and before he can let her drift too far away.]

I love you. [The thing he couldn't say. The thing he regretted feeling for Stephen. If nothing else, he knows he can trust Christine with this truth.]

[madgiganticfeelings]

[He can plan to not need anything, but she can plan to also just be passing by, or just be sleeping outside his door that night.

Which... she feels even more strongly that she has to, when he says those words. Words she'd told Stephen just a few hours ago at the trial, words she'd tried a hundred times to make Jeremy accept. She clings to him a little tighter, in relief to realize, just once, the feelings she's had for everyone trapped in this hell with her are returned.]

I... I love you too. I'm sure it doesn't mean much from the Love Interest, but... at least you know I'm not lying about it.

[She slowly pulls away from his embrace before the door opens, and she's sent off to the meeting again.

But if he does check in the morning, Christine will be there, at his side, as she'd promised to. Her oaths are ones she refuses to break.]