moonshadows

Robert gives me a wicked smile as Damien leaves earshot with the picnic basket. "Got enough wild left in ya for a Halloween adventure?" he asks.

My pulse jumps. "Oh, you know it," I tell him with a grin of my own. "What did you have in mind?"

He looks pleased with himself. "Remember that dusting of snow we had a few days ago? I found tracks, close to here, going into and coming out of a mausoleum."

"Spooky."

Robert's grin widens. "It gets spookier. The tracks just appeared and disappeared." He pulls out his phone. "Look..."

The pictures he scrolls through show clear footprints in the snow that dusts the grass, both from a distance and close up. Sure enough, they just start and stop like whoever or whatever made them appeared out of and vanished into thin air.

"Dover Ghost?" I ask, my eyebrows raised. I'm sure there's some logical explanation, but damned if I can think of it.

"My thought exactly." Robert puts his phone away. "What do you think? I've got some supplies with me in my truck - flashlights, rope, salt, couple of silver crosses, bottles of holy water..."

"I'm not asking how you got those," I tease. "Well, my phone is charged and I've got my knife on me, so...let's do it."

Robert looks pleasantly astonished, like he didn't expect me to go along with this so easily. "You're the best, Jack."

Armed with a flashlight in my left hand and my phone in my right, a coil of thin nylon rope over my shoulder, a silver cross on a chain around my neck, a glass bottle of sea salt in one pocket of my jacket and a plastic bottle of supposedly holy water in the other, I follow Robert to the mausoleum from his pictures. He's got a knife in one hand and a piece of chalk in the other, bottles and flashlights and god only knows what else in the pockets of his leather jacket.

The mausoleum is built into the side of a hill, hardly more than a fancy stone facade about 12, maybe 15 feet tall and flanked by two walls that sweep out to the sides as if holding the hill at bay. I don’t recognize the family name carved into the lintel. The doors are metal decorated with wrought iron, two solid leaves chained together in the middle and secured with...an unlocked padlock that on closer examination isn't exactly unlocked, but the locking segment of the bar seems to have been almost...melted off. Robert and I exchange a wide-eyed look. I take a picture of it and turn my flashlight on.

Carefully, Robert undoes the chain and opens the right side door. Then he looks around, motions for me to stay, and jogs over to a tree where he snaps off a dead branch and comes back. He gestures for me to open the door wider and then shoves the branch between metal and stone so it won't accidentally close on us. I flash him a smile and sweep the interior with the flashlight's beam before stepping inside. There's what I assume is the usual niches in the walls with urns or coffins behind stone caps, and a floor of smallish flagstones. There's no dust. I'm not sure if that's weird or not. But there is a black iron ring in the back, attached to a wooden door set into the floor.

I give Robert a questioning look. We didn’t specifically discuss being as quiet as possible, but it just seemed like a good precaution so here we are, communicating nonverbally.

He shrugs and walks over, and I can see he's pulled on black leather gloves. Probably a smart idea.

Robert looks up at me, I nod, and he puts down knife and chalk to grip the ring with both hands and pull the trapdoor open.

In silence, we stare at the stone steps leading down into darkness. Robert gestures for me to put the flashlight away and hands me the chalk before leading the way down the steps, his own flashlight out and sweeping ahead of him. We come out into what looks like it may have been a natural tunnel at one point but has since been artificially enhanced with stonework in some places and expanded by hand in others. It goes on for what looks like forever in the beam of the flashlight.

Robert gestures for me to make a chalk mark on the left wall, at the foot of the stairs. Why, I'm not sure, but I draw a little circle on the dark stone. Then he points to my phone and makes a twirling motion...oh! I start the stopwatch, and he smiles.

As we walk carefully down the tunnel, I mark the wall at every minute with the number of minutes we've been walking. That way, I figure, we'll be able to tell how close we are to the stairs on our way out. After about twenty or thirty minutes, I wonder where exactly we are because the tunnel twists and turns slightly, but I haven't had any signal since about three minutes in.

The tunnel opens up into a cavernous room at 37 minutes, and we stop to assess the situation. Robert sweeps the flashlight's beam around, trying to get a sense for how big the open area is, and we both freeze as the beam clearly picks up a tendril of black smoke. He chases it as it crosses the space, but loses it behind an outcropping or opening of some kind.

"Who's there?" Robert demands, knife out and held in a no-nonsense grip. "Show yourself!"

There's a tense pause, then the scrape of a booted foot on the floor, and then a Latino man with scars on his face, melodramatic facial hair, and a completely bald scalp steps out, wincing at the flashlight beam. He's dressed in some sort of military-ish uniform and holds his hands out to show they're empty.

"Identify yourself," Robert snarls.

"Reyes. Gabriel Reyes, United States special forces," the Latino snaps back. "Who the fuck are you?"

"The one asking the questions. What are you doing down here?"

"What are you doing down here?" Reyes counters.

"Hunting the Dover Ghost," Robert answers angrily.

Reyes blinks in confusion. "The what now?"

"The Dover Gho-"

"I heard you the first time," Reyes interrupts, shading his eyes with one hand. "I've just never heard of the Dover Ghost. I - fuck, could you not fucking blind me with that thing?"

Grudgingly, Robert lowers the beam so it's not shining directly on the other man's face. "If you're not the Dover Ghost, then explain what you're doing down here."

"That's classified."

"He hell it is! What's your rank, who's your commanding officer?"

"You sure got some cajones," Reyes says, sounding like he's preparing to give up the fight. "Okay. I'll level with you a bit. This Dover Ghost, assuming it's a supernatural bad guy?" He doesn't wait for an answer. "I'm here hunting down a supernatural asshole my sources say has been inhabiting a host somewhere in this area. I tracked it to the mausoleum in the graveyard, which seems to be the back entrance to its lair, but it wasn't there."

"So you're waiting for it to come back," Robert says, doubt clear in every word. "Nice story. Got any proof?"

Reyes sighs. "Look, it feeds on misery and it requires a human host. Intel suggests it's passed parent to child, and this tunnel under the mausoleum suggests it's been operating for a long time."

"The padlock," I exclaim suddenly. "How did you get in?"

To my surprise, Reyes looks...uncomfortable. "I'm kind of a supernatural entity myself."

"And you expect us to trust you?" Robert demands.

Instead of answering, Reyes...dissolves into a cloud of black smoke and re-forms into something that looks like the Grim Reaper went to Hot Topic and then robbed a military surplus store. There's two implausibly big guns in his hands, one aimed at each of us, and despite how certain I am that we're about to die, I'm pleased that I haven't pissed myself.

After a tense moment that feels like an eternity, the Grim Reaper figure stashes those huge handguns somewhere and holds out metal-tipped gauntlets in a 'don't shoot' gesture. "I don't expect you to trust me." The voice is still Reyes, but...deeper, rougher, scarier. "I expect you to realize that I could do worse to you than I did to the padlock, but I haven't, and thus I'm on your goddamn side."

"He makes a good point," I tell Robert quietly.

Robert makes an unhappy sound. "I know, Jack. Doesn't mean I have to like it."

The Reyes...Reaper...entity starts and suddenly, somehow, looks a lot less hostile. "Wait - Jack?"

Slowly, I nod. "Yeah...?"

"You wouldn't be Jack Morrison, would you?"

"The fuck?" Robert asks under his breath.

"Uh...yes?"

"Jack Morrison, birthday June fourteenth, married Ana Amari just after you turned eighteen, your dad was the biggest bag of dicks this side of the Mississippi? Loves strawberries, never expresses anger at anyone he loves?"

"I don't know that my dad was the biggest bag of dicks," I start, but scoffing sounds from both Robert and Reyes make me blush.

"Yeah, that's him," Robert says dryly.

Reyes covers his skull-like face(?) with his talon-gauntlet hands, then turns back into the human form we saw earlier and drags his hands down his face in a gesture of pure exasperation. "Fucking hell," he sighs. "I come here to make sure the demon isn't preying on you, and here you are, walking into its fucking lair."

"You came here to...why me?"

"Because Captain Amari told stories and when I learned there was a demon in the town her husband and daughter were living in, one that feeds on misery, I had to make that my priority or I'd never be able to live with myself, okay?"

Robert's put his knife away at some point and he slides an arm around my waist. "Then you can rest easy knowing that Jack's not miserable and his daughter's a thousand miles away at college."

The look Reyes gives us is long and searching. "You...are you...in love? With each other?"

"None of your business," Robert says darkly while I blush.

"I'm not judging, asshole," Reyes spits. "The demon feeds on misery. Love weakens it. Are. You. In. Love?"

I can feel Robert tremble slightly, and tuck the phone and chalk in my pockets to be able to hug him. "You don't have to answer," I murmur, my cheek pressed against his. "And even if you do, saying it out loud doesn't mean anything has to change. I'll still wait until you're ready."

"But if I don't say it," he whispers back, "it's not fair to you. I've been dancing around it for months, trying to pretend it's not true, but I have to man up and stop bullshitting myself. I love you, Jack. I think I fell in love the morning I woke up and you were making me breakfast instead of being disgusted that I came on to you."

My cheeks are starting to burn. "That's fair," I say quietly. "I never believed in love at first sight until I saw you at the Coffee Spoon."

Robert chuckles. "You're a sap, Jack."

I smile against his neck. "I know. A sap who loves you."

"Alright," Robert says, louder, pulling away enough to look at Reyes without completely breaking the hug. "We're in love. Now, are we gonna kick the Dover Ghost's ass, or what?"

Reyes gives us a dry look. "You don't say. I think I got a cavity just watching you. Yeah, come on, let's do this."

I dig the chalk out and mark the wall as we follow Reyes down another opening, the tunnel looking more man-made and less natural.

"So," I say uncertainly, "how exactly do we fight the demon...ghost...thing using love?"

Beside me, Robert snorts.

"It's going to be in a host," Reyes says grimly. "The host may be someone you know. I can't kill the demon unless it's outside of the host - well, I could, but it would kill the host, too. All you have to do is stand off to the side being as sickeningly lovey-dovey as you can. It's harder than it sounds," he warns with a stern look over his shoulder. "The demon's going to say anything it can to make you doubt yourself, doubt each other, and doubt your love. And if the host is someone you know, it may have hooks in you already. Not supernatural ones - I mean it may already know your weaknesses, know what to say to break you down."

Robert looks grim. "Twenty bucks says I've heard worse."

"Unless it's the resurrected corpse of my father," I add dryly, "I doubt it can say anything that would shake me."

Reyes stops and looks at us, arms crossed. "I hope you're both right," he says.

A few minutes later, we start to hear...sounds...coming from down the corridor. They're too far away to properly make out, but Reyes waves for us to stop.

"It's going to hear us coming," he says in a low voice, almost an undertone. "But it doesn't have to hear all of us."

Robert nods. "You do the smoke thing, take it by surprise."

"Exactly. It's probably better if you try to avoid seeing as much as possible. I know you probably still don't trust me, but Jack...I swear on Fareeha's life I won't hurt either of you."

"Fareeha?" Robert asks, looking at me.

"Amanda's birth name," I explain shortly, watching Gabriel's expression. It goes from angry confusion to hurt surprise, and that more than anything convinces me that he is who and what he says he is, because my Panda never used her chosen name when Ana was home.

"Alright," Robert says, stripping his gloves off and stuffing them in his jacket somewhere. "Mark the wall one last time and free your hands so you don't drop your phone when I kiss you."

I almost drop my phone and hurriedly shove it into my pocket. Then I draw a heart on the wall, add my initials and Robert's, and hand him the chalk.

"Good," Gabriel says fondly. "Go for it. I'll be right behind you."

Shyly, Robert offers me his hand. Shyly, I take it. Hand in hand, we walk down the corridor as it curves gently, and it's not long before we come out into a long room with an arched ceiling, completely stonework from the floors to the...altar?...at the far end. There's a flickering light coming from another doorway, one with stairs leading up to who-knows-where, and an unholy light coming from torch sconces on the walls down near the altar where a figure in dark robes is standing up to face the intruders - us. As the figure turns, Robert's flashlight beam lands on its face.

It's Joseph.

It's Joseph.

Holy shit Joseph is hosting a demon that- my train of thought stumbles to a half. The demon feeds on misery. My god, that explains so much. And parent to child...was it his fire-and-brimstone father who was the previous host? That seems too easy, somehow. Maybe his mother?

"Who's there?" Joseph demands, his voice somehow cold and brittle.

He can't see us. Robert's blinding him. He doesn't know who we are yet.

I grab Robert's face, cradling his cheeks in my hands, and kiss him.

For a second, he's frozen in shock. Then he lets out a tiny, breathy moan and his arms come around me, the flashlight aimed elsewhere as all thoughts are driven from his mind and he kisses back. I try to block Robert's body with mine and wind up pressing him against the wall while his hands slide down to my hips and the flashlight clatters to the floor.

"I know that tattoo," not!Joseph's cold-brittle voice says.

Robert freezes.

"Sorry if I'm a lousy kisser," I tell Robert softly, kissing up his cheek to his ear. "I've never kissed anyone but you."

"You...haven't?" he asks, tilting his head to kiss my neck and oh, fuck, I'm gonna melt.

"Never wanted to, before you," I answer in little gasps. His teeth scrape against my skin, and I can feel him suck. "Oh god, Rob!"

One hand leaves my hips; the other slides down into my back pocket. "So this is your first hickey, then?" His voice is warm and rich.

The only response I can make is a small whimpery sound. Behind me, something is screeching incomprehensibly in fury.

"You've really never done anything with anyone?" Robert asks, his breath making me shiver as his teeth close gently on my earlobe.

"Wasn't attracted to anyone until I saw you in Mat's," I confess breathily. "First time I'd ever fallen in love."

"You really are a unicorn," Robert teases. "You're the cryptid. It was you this whole time."

I lean back to smile at him, noting absently that the flashlight on the floor is lighting up the wall beside us.

Two loud reports echo in the stone chamber, and something shatters.

"Think you could ramp it up a bit?" Reyes-the-Reaper says as Joseph snarls how dare you in the background. "It's still in the host. We need to get the host feeling something to cause a schism between him and the demon."

One of Robert's arms curls protectively around me. "Hey, Joseph!" he yells, raising the other to show off his middle finger. "I'd invite you to sit and spin, but I think you'd like that too much."

I turn around to see Joseph's reaction. He looks...weirdly torn between being furious and being wistful.

"You can keep the sweater," Robert continues, and oh fuck, was that sweater...? That was why...? "As a reminder that you killed the feelings I had for you. I thought I loved you," he says in a more gentle tone, both his arms around me. "Then I met Jack and learned what love really feels like." Robert nuzzles my neck and help, I'm going to melt. "Your turn, sunshine," he murmurs.

My turn. Joseph looks shaken now, expression swinging wildly between inhuman fury and something close to anguish.

"I know you were trying to flirt with me," I tell Joseph evenly. "You never had a chance. When I baked the cookies I returned your plate with? Robert was with me. We ate warm cookies together. He gave me a key to his house. He stopped drinking for me, Joseph. I didn't ask him to. We didn't even discuss it beforehand. He said it's all or nothing with him, and I'm his all so that left nothing." I turn my head to kiss Robert gently, softly. "It's all or nothing with him, Joseph. Maybe you could have been his all, but you fucked up and now you're nothing. To either of us. To be honest, I feel bad for Mary..."

"...Mary..." Joseph says in a lost tone before snarling.

"She still loves you," Robert tosses out casually. "God only knows why, because you've been a shittier husband to her than I was, and that's saying something."

"I'm still not sure I was that great of a husband," I tell Robert.

Reyes snorts from behind his mask. "Captain Amari felt guilty that she was tying you down, you know. Her words. She told such glowing stories of you that half the unit daydreamed about following her back to sweep you off your feet."

"Wouldn't have worked," I protest, blushing. "I was about as uninterested as you can get and still have a pulse." I kiss Robert again. "That changed the moment I met my scruffy Italian prince."

Robert's blushing a little now. "Shut up, Jack. You're the Disney Prince, not me."

"Does that mean it's on me to propose?" I ask in a teasing tone.

Whoops. I think I broke him. He's just staring at me in disbelief. Then Reyes mutters, "Finally!" and there's an anguished sort of drawn-out cry from Joseph and-

I remember the warning that we might want to try to avoid seeing as much as possible and turn to kiss Robert against the wall again. He groans into my mouth, hands sliding down my body to cup my ass and pull me tighter against him. The sounds coming from behind us...I don't want to think about them. I concentrate on the leather-and-clove of Robert's jacket, the scent of his skin, the way he's kissing me like it's his only lifeline to safety.

An indeterminate amount of time later, a voice says "I feel like I need popcorn," and I realize it was Reyes.

Guiltily, Robert and I stop kissing and turn around. Joseph's curled into the fetal position on the floor, shaking and making little sobbing sounds while Reyes stands over him, arms crossed in a very satisfied way.

"The demon's dead," Reyes says. "If you were wondering. Although boy..." He gets a disgruntled look on his face and belches, a wisp of black smoke emerging from his mouth while he puts one hand on his stomach. "...that was not entirely pleasant and I'm going to be feeling that for a while."

I don't want to know. I don't want to know.

"So, uh, I wasn't completely honest with you earlier. Not that I lied or anything," he says as Robert stiffens. "I just didn't tell you absolutely everything. I didn't come here alone. But my...associate...isn't a combat operative. Her job is to clean up afterwards." Reyes gives us an apologetic smile. "You're not going to remember any of this, and neither is Joseph here."

Robert's arms tighten slightly around me. "Is he going to be any...different...now that he's not possessed?"

Reyes grimaces. "Probably not significantly. He was raised by the previous host, remember. He would have been preened to be the next host." He belches again, looking disgusted. "Ugh. I don't suppose either of you have any gum or anything?"

We both search our pockets. I come up with a peppermint candy from an unknown restaurant, which Reyes accepts with relief and pops into his mouth.

"Anyway, nice meeting you both," he says, holding his hand out for us to shake, which we do. "Don't worry, Sombra's very good at what she does, none of you will know this ever happened. You'll wake up with false memories of an uneventful afternoon and evening, and I'll be sure to let Captain Amari know you're doing well, Jack."

Wait. Ana-

Before I can finish the thought, a flash of purple fills my mind.