Hallows: The Golden Viper

My Baby Sister

Killing Joke- The Death & Resurrection Show

Delilah

"Have you been hanging out with Ash?" I ask B.B. as she draws a bunch of symbols in a circle on the floor around Espinosa.

"More like he's been hanging out with me in the lab," she answers.

"Alone?"

"Sometimes. Other times when Damian is over. They're cute together. Play something, please," she glances at me.

"I don't like that," I admit scrolling through my phone. I give up and hit shuffle. She looks over her shoulder and smiles at me.

"Oh, no," she sings sarcastically. "Poor you. I'm spending too much time with your boyfriends. What will we ever do?"

"Boyfriends?" Dad asks when the guys all laugh. "You have two boyfriends?"

"Let's not forget Holly," B.B. adds.

"You scored with Holly?" Dad asks annoyed.

"Holly didn't even try to resist. You've lost your touch, old man," she laughs and goes back to the symbols on the floor.

Mom and Espinosa both laugh. The look on Dad's face is everything but he doesn't add fuel to that sweet burn. B.B. can be an asshole when she wants to be and we love her for it. Except when she's doing it to me. She uses her big words and while I am good with numbers and rhymes, my vocabulary is limited to my vices. Hers are a little more expensive than mine.

"These symbols are Gaelic," Espinosa tells her when she's done with the circle. She's humming along to the music. "If you don't get them right, you will most definitely kill me,"

"You know, I kind of want to get it wrong," she smiles at him.

She's planning something. I know her. B.B. isn't doing this out of the kindness of her heart. She's going to want something in return for this. We just have to wait for the ball to drop and trust me when I say, it always drops and it's never pretty. Not when it comes to something B.B. wants.

"No one is going to object to an inexperienced seventeen-year-old about to perform a spell most veteran soldiers can't?" he asks.

"Nope," her guys all say in unison.

"Not even if I told you that once she starts the spell, we're both synced and can die together?" he adds.

"I have an issue with that," Lucien raises his hand immediately.

"Why did you say that?" B.B. shoves him with her foot. He laughs.

"Is that true?" Victor asks.

"It's a little true," she nods. "But I doubt a half-assed spell like this can kill me while the seven of ur are bound,"

"I have a big problem with that," Ro raises his hand.

"I've never been wrong before," B.B. shrugs.

"I'd hate for this to be the first time you are, Kid," Espinosa smiles. My dad grins.

"She'll be fine," he waves them off.

"Um, I have a problem with it," I add.

"Oh, yeah?" B.B. asks. She places her hand on his head.

"B.B., don't," I shake my head.

"Why?"

"If it can hurt you, it's not worth the risk. Maybe we have Ash do it," I suggest. "Worst case I have to get him a new body,"

"A pure divine life form can't perform this magic," Espinosa shakes his head. "It has to be tainted,"

"What does that mean?" Ro asks.

"It has to be born flesh and blood. Like us," B.B. says. "None of you are strong enough to pull it off,"

"I can do it," I shrug.

"Can you read Gaelic?" she asks.

"Can you?" I ask and she nods. Of course, she can. "Since when?"

"Since I started hanging out with Ash," she shrugs.

"Stop hanging out with Ash. I didn't summon him so you can have tea parties with him,"

"But I love tea parties with Ash. He has the coolest stories," she waves me off.

"Or we can just leave Espinosa the way he is," Lucien suggests.

"Not an option," she shakes her head. "See these?" she holds up what looks like a dagger. "These are Chinese throwing daggers forged in the Temple of Heaven in Beijing,"

"How do you know that?" Espinosa asks. "I didn't even know that. I just got them however long ago you kidnapped me,"

"That's on me," Dylan raises his hand. "We got high a couple of months ago and went on a holy relic research binge while we waited for Marc to get his shoulder readjusted at the Chiro. Can I see?"

"Don't cut yourself with it," B.B. hands it to him.

She takes a switchblade out from inside her boot and swings it around like she's been playing with that thing for years. I've seen her practicing in her lab while she runs diagnostics on her robot programs. She also bedazzles everything. I don't know how she gets anything done. I swear she's always playing with something stupid.

"You're not going to intervene?" Lucien shoves Carson.

"No," he shoves him back. "This is her call,"

"I f*****g hate this let her do what she wants Carson. Where the f**k is the what B.B. doesn't know asshole when you need him?" he growls.

"That dude was always in the dog house," Ahsan laughs. The others join him.

"Cheaper to tell her the truth," Carson agrees. My dad laughs this time.

"Amen," he snorts. "I like this kid. He's smart,"

B.B. takes the blade and makes a small incision in the center of Espinosa's chest. She kneels down in front of him inspecting the tattoos all over his upper body. She continues to make small cuts all over.

"Okay," he nods. "She knows what she's doing,"

"You don't say," she mocks him. Dad is loving this. We all are, but I hate how happy it makes my dad. "How old were you when they put these on you, anyway?"

"I was eight," he answers. She looks up at him and there is Mercy strumming away at her delicate heartstrings.

"You killed your first Hallow at eight?" she asks.

"No, I had just turned six. But the elders decided six was a little too young. Not just anyone can bare the mark. There are only six of us now. There used to be twelve,"

"How many had you killed by then?"

"Two stones in New Mexico,"

"So by the time you got here you weren't an acolyte anymore were you?"

"You know a whole lot about us for someone who's only been active for a few months," he glares at her.

"Yeah, well you killed a lot of us already. I wasn't going to go after your ass without knowing what you were going to bring down on us," she says sitting back to inspect her work. "I have a lot to lose, and I am very paranoid. I also have a lot of time on my hands because I pay people to do what I want,"

I f*****g hate her sometimes. She did not just say that in front of my dad without him telling her off. If I said that or even if I hid it, he would somehow find out and then yell at me. It's been that way since we were kids. I always had to go to Mom and she's not even a Hallow.

"How do you do it?" he asks her. "How do you take all that information in without it driving you crazy?"

"Honestly, the information is the easiest to process. It keeps me centered. It's all the other stuff that makes me a little crazy," she shrugs.

"What other stuff?"

"Okay," she takes a deep breath as she gathers blood droplets on her blade and starts spreading it over her arms drawing symbols. "I feel a lot, right? So, when I take a special soul out of mercy I take a part of them. The part that weighs down on them the most. It was Mom's love when I killed her. The sense of duty from that lady reaper. The fight from the other one. They kind of merge with my own s**t and it heightens my emotions by like eleven,"

"Behind your ear," he instructs her. He looks over at my mom. He probably knew she was dead but not how she had died. B.B. talks about that casually. It's a joke to her now. Something to help her cope with it but I know she hates herself for it. It eats at her. Lucien sleeps in the room with her to keep her calm at night.

"I know," B.B. rolls her eyes.

"You were sober for a while. Weren't you?" he asks her.

B.B. sober? Since when? How does he know that? How are they so well acquainted? She hated him the moment he started coming around after Dad's death. Even more when Mom married him. She did everything in her power to show him that he didn't mean s**t to her. Went out of her way to show him. When they got back from their honeymoon she put up a huge banner that said WELCOME BACK MOM & s**t FVCKER in big bold letters. Mom was pissed.

"Because I wanted to know if I could handle it sober," she looks up at him.

"What's the assessment?"

"I can, but it's exhausting. I feel everything. Everyone's emotions and I have this compulsive need to fix it. Mom's love," she shrugs. "When I'm high, I can still feel them but it's easier to ignore. A hundred times easier,"

"Is that something you want to share with everyone else?" Carson asks. She turns back and laughs.

"Have you ever asked?" she points at him with the knife.

"I have," Lucien raises his hand.

"Me too," Victor and Jimenez chime in.

"f**k you, guys," Ahsan scoffs. "Devils don't do touchy feelings,"

"I asked," Dec flips them both off.

"Four out of six," Dad shakes his head.

B.B. stands up and goes around Espinosa to stand behind him. She grips a handful of his hair and leans into him. Her eyes stay on Dad's for a moment and she smirks before whispering something in Espinosa's ear. His body becomes rigid and he groans. The tiny cuts she made all over his body open up and begin to gush blood.

"f**k," she chokes out and drops the knife

"You're going to tear my hair out," Espinosa growls.

"f**k you," she grips on tighter and then releases him with a shove. She shakes the pieces of hair she ripped out from her hand. "Stay back. No one gets inside the circle," she looks up at my dad. "No one,"

The blood on his body starts to outline the ink all over him. B.B. falls onto her side behind him and begins to whisper. Her Hallow form is taking over as the white paint on the floor begins to glow. There are three rings. The one on the outside lights up quickly as she keeps moving her lips.

"That's one," Espinosa pants when it's complete.

B.B. starts whispering again. Espinosa falls on his side as the light spreads over the second ring. It starts slowly at first but as it picks up his body looks like someone is forcing him on his back. B.B. scoots over a little to give him room. As the second row of letters is completed the ropes all snap. Espinosa's arms and legs are stretched out forming a star in the center of the rings around him.

"That one hurt," B.B. groans pressing her knuckles to her eyes.

"This last one," he chokes out. "I'm sorry,"

B.B. turns to look at him. His body is covered in his own blood now. She pushes herself up and pulls her knees up to her chest. She cracks her neck and takes a deep breath. Her eyes are getting teary but she's not backing down.

"This doesn't excuse you from everything you did to us, David," she says. "We're still going to kill you once I get what I want,"

"Okay," he nods closing his eyes. "That's fair,"

B.B. wraps her arms around her legs and curls into herself. Her gentle voice echoes strongly in the silence of the room. As soon as the first symbol lights up, Espinosa starts to cry out. The blood on his chest is lighting up the same way the symbols on the floor are.

B.B. looks up with her eyes blacked out. The veins on her face are swelling black. She's struggling to get the words out but she's not going to stop. Stubborn b***h. The lights begin to flicker and cold air whips around the room. I look around the foyer feeling creeped out. I knew that once she got involved in all of this, crazy s**t was going to go down. I didn't just keep her away from it because I was scared of them finding out she was special. She's different and I didn't want things to change for us. I wanted to keep us all out of this s**t for as long as I could. This is unfamiliar territory for all of us and it can only go one of two ways. She either continues down this path or she destroys us all.

"He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for the sake of His name. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me," Espinosa prays through his screams as the last bit of the spell lights up. His body tenses up and arches upward the closer it gets to completing the full circle. "Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies,"

The circle closes and my sister screams at the top of her lungs. Everyone panics.

"Don't touch them," Ash appears in the doorway. The guys all turn their attention to her as she screams in the same echo of Espinosa's agony.

My mom takes my dad's hand and buries her face in his shoulder. He doesn't tear his eyes off them. The guys all try to avert their gaze. All except for Lucien who is kneeling behind her right outside the circle just waiting for his opportunity to get her out of there.

The wind comes to an abrupt stop. Both B.B. and Espinosa fall silent. I step closer to see the blood on his body gather at the wounds that she opened up. It disappears back inside of him until the wounds shut. The ink on his skin fades. It's not until the lines are all gone that the two of them finally inhale. David's body drops to the ground.

"No, no, stop," B.B. cries out waving her arms out in front of her like she's trying to fight someone off. "David, stop! Please! It's B.B. I'm B.B.,"

"It's me," Lucien calls out when B.B. scrambles out of the circle and into his arms. Her eyes are wide and filled with fear as she looks around the room breathing as if she's been running for her life. "Baby, you're okay. It's just me,"

"Lucien?" she cries out. He nods pushing her hair from her face. She grips his t-shirt with both fists and begins to cry.

Espinosa looks up at the ceiling just as startled as she is. His eyes are wide open as he tries to control his breathing through his nose. Lucien cradles my sister into him and rocks her back and forth as she holds onto him tightly. The others are all gathered around her worriedly.

"f**k," Marcos breaks the silence. "What the f**k was that?"

"She saw it," Espinosa pants. He covers his face with his hands.

"She saw what?" my dad demands.

"All of it," he sits up in the same position my sister had been in moments ago. He tries to curl into himself as if he could hide from the world. Dad lets go of Mom and goes over to B.B.

"Daddy," she cries letting him take her from Lucien.

"Come here, Pinky," he picks her up and tucks her into his arms the way he's always done.

The sound of her voice reminds me of the day she killed those two reapers and asked me to never leave her again. My parents take my baby sister away. Six angry sets of eyes are trained on Espinosa. Against my better judgment, I take his jacket off the table and set it over his back. He doesn't move or acknowledge me in any way. I can't let them kill him just yet. B.B. would be pissed.

"David, you have to get up," I tell him.

"She saw it," he repeats. "She saw all of it,"

"What? What did she see?" I ask him.

He turns his head enough for me to see the broken expression on his face. I take a step back. This is going to send B.B. into a spiral. I see it in his eyes. I'm going to have to do something, anything to get her out of the hole she's going to sit in. I need her to focus. To keep going. We all do. I can't let her go back into that dark place. Too much is at stake for us. For her.

"Everything. Every monster I've ever killed," he whispers. "Every disgusting thing I've had to do from the moment that spear was placed in my hand. It's all inside of her now. All of it,"