Somewhere in Time

In a fickle world, in a town that was forever reinventing itself, the shop was a constant. It had presided over the corner of Abbott Street and Lillian Lane for nearly a century and a half. There had been subtle changes, of course, but they were minimal compared to the upheaval that had taken place in the pastoral town around it. It was not, Kael realized, so pastoral anymore. He marvelled wistfully at the transformation as he drove through the outskirts towards the shop… where Lorelei would be waiting. She always was. 

Where once there had been rolling meadows and farmland, now Kael sped past pool supply stores, fast food joints, and car dealerships. The town had plainly managed to fall victim to over enthusiastic urban sprawl, then sudden collapse. The roller skating rink, bowling alley, and mega mall that had brazenly cropped up just a few decades hence already stood vacant and dejected as humanity folded back in on itself, the antisocial era of one click shopping, on demand streaming, and social networking having ushered in their demise. 

But the shop… Kael could hardly believe how little it had changed as he parked his Mercedes at the bottom of the long winding drive. Where the facade had once been a stark gray, it was now painted over in a warm sunny yellow; a hue Kael strongly disliked. He couldn't say he was surprised to see this. Lorelei, for all her demonic prowess, had always been a summer creature at heart. Left to her own devices, it stood to reason that she would paint over everything in the color of sunshine. The Victorian manse that currently, according to the sign, doubled as Laurel's Antiques and Oddities had been many things in its long years, but it had never before been yellow. This peculiarity of Lorelei's also explained the rows of sunflowers, great golden heads turned up as if in greeting, that lined the walkway he strode slowly down. 

Gaudy, Kael thought clucking his tongue.

Otherwise, though, the place looked exactly as it had on the day he'd left, seventy seven years ago. Back then it had been a tea shop, now it sold antiques, but it was still… the shop. That was the thing about change. No matter how different things became, some things stubbornly resisted change. The shop, and Lorelei, who was evidently Laurel for the moment, tended to be amongst those things. They could change their faces, they could change their names, yet always they remained and they did not change their nature. Not until they were destroyed.

Kael hesitated on the sprawling porch, his hand hovering over the brass door knocker without actually touching it. There was no doubt in his mind that Lorelei -- Laurel evidently -- knew perfectly well he was standing on her front porch. They were bound. She could sense his presence in the same way he could hers. It seemed she had just made up her mind to be difficult. Another thing that did not surprise him. 

He took the knocker in his hand and banged it hesitantly against the door. No response came from within. Kael sighed, running a hand through his tousled dark hair. He knocked again, louder this time, then frowned and shoved his hands into the pockets of his tailored slacks, waiting. Still the door did not open. But he thought he heard a sound from within, a footstep on a creaky floorboard. Old houses gave up their secrets easily. Some of them anyway. 

"Lorelei, I know you're in there. Open up." Kael called in a tone that he hoped meant business.

"What are you doing here, Kael?" Came the muffled words from behind the closed door. 

"We need to talk." He said, his words clipped. 

"About what?" Came the petulant voice again. 

"Lorelei, let me in or, so help me, I'll break this door down." Kael's voice was flat. Too calm. The kind of calm that was just waiting to explode and come crashing down. 

"You wouldn't dare." 

"I would." He assured her. Apparently Lorelei recognized that yes, Kael would in fact break the door down, and could do it with a single muttered word, because the door cracked open. Wide blue eyes peered out at him through the slit; eyes that never changed, eyes that still haunted his every dream.

Kael grabbed the door by the knob and yanked it open, finding himself face to face with Lorelei. She was tall and pale as ever, but it seemed she'd elected to be a buxom blonde in this incarnation. Plaited coils of platinum hair were piled in a high chignon atop her head, a few wisps falling free to frame a befreckled heart-shaped face. The vision of school boy fantasies, clad in denim and a plain white tee with a deep v neck. Kael snorted.  

"Oh that's a fine look for you." He said. Lorelei folded her arms across her ample chest, pouting. 

"What's that supposed to mean?" She snapped. Kael didn't answer her. He really didn't want to piss her off and go through this whole pantomime again if she slammed the door in his face. Or worse. Even if Kael tore the door from the hinges, Lorelei had other ways to bar him from the shop if she really wanted to. 

"Nothing, Lorelei. Or should I call you Laurel." Kael smirked. "May I come in?" He kept his tone as even as he could. For a moment he thought she would deny him, but she acquiesced, stepping aside so that he could pass through. 

Kael crossed the threshold and a wave of nostalgia, so intense that it made his stomach clench, immediately assaulted him. Though the furnishings had changed, the bones of the house were as they'd always been… and that scent… lemon verbena and spicy clove, underlaid with the earthiness of sage and something far darker. Something that was not of this world and did not belong in it. 

Kael clamped down on the sentimentality blossoming within him, taking stock of the array of antique wares laid out before him to distract himself. Lorelei had always had an eye for aesthetics and this particular repurposing of the shop seemed to suit her quite well. The wares she'd acquired throughout the decades were only the finest and she'd arrayed them in such a way that, despite the busyness, it was still inviting. 

But he wasn't here to admire Lorelei's collection. The goods were all a front, anyway. A pretty illusion hiding something sinister. Just like Lorelei.

"We need to talk." Kael repeated. Lorelei sighed and gestured towards the door that led to what Kael knew was the sitting room.

"Then let's talk." She said, a bit stiffly, sauntering into the room, which had still been called the parlor when he had lived here. He supposed that term was a bit dated now. Kael tried not to notice the alluring way her hips swayed as she walked. She was doing this on purpose. 

He exhaled slowly. He could not let her get under his skin or all hope was lost. 

Lorelei gestured to a divan, which looked to be a relatively recent acquisition, upon which Kael sat down. Then she lowered herself gracefully onto a decidedly familiar looking Victorian fainting couch, arranging her curvaceous body seductively upon it. An image of her nude, posing for a portrait not in this body but in the thin raven haired one she'd worn long ago, flashed in Kael's mind. He tried to slam the door closed on that vision, but couldn't get the thought of her lithe body...

"Kael."  Lorelei cleared her throat. 

"What?" He blinked, slipping out of his reverie. 

"Are you even listening to me?" She grumbled. 

"No -- yes. Sorry, now I am." He stammered, cursing himself silently. He'd sworn he wouldn't let her get to him. He was doing a fine job of failing at that. 

"Why are you here?" Lorelei enunciated each word slowly as if she were speaking to a child. "What sort of trouble are you here to start?" She continued, girlish face growing serious. Kael groaned internally. What sort of trouble was he here to start indeed. 

"The big kind, of course." he replied with a rye smile. "But I'm not here to start it. I'm here to put an end to it." Lorelei let out a huff, blowing a stray tendril of hair out of her eyes and drumming her fingers on her denim clad thigh. It was extremely strange, seeing her in blue jeans. In all of his memories, all his dreams, she was wearing satin and lace.

"And you think, after seventy seven years, you can just waltz in here and ask for my help." It wasn't a question, it was an appraisal of the situation. One that was essentially correct. 

"You're the only one who can help me, Lorelei." He said and for a moment she didn't speak. She only gazed at him with those sky blues eyes. Kael did his best not to flinch from her look. He held it until she glanced away, lips set in a thin hard line. 

"You have not told me what you need help with." She bit her lower lip before it could begin to tremble. Kael sensed how tremulous her calm was through their bond. He wondered if she could somehow feel his intentions as well. 

"I need to go back. Back to the beginning. Back to fix what's been broken. Back to reclaim my soul and end the terror that's been leaking into this world for too long." He felt a fool uttering those words, expecting her to help him in the thing that would likely mean her destruction. 

Lorelei let out a sharp bark of laughter. 

"You cannot. It is too late. You will not find what you are looking for in the past. You cannot end something by altering the beginning. It is not the way of the world." 

"Be that as it may, I must try. Lorelei, I have seen the end. Not just for you and I, I have seen the end of everything. We set this in motion. Now we need to finish it. Please help me." Kael pleaded. He had bound her to him long ago, in exchange for immortality. But in doing so, he had flung wide the gates to Hell. The only way to close them, he believed, lay in the distant past. And Lorelei, with the demonic powers she tried so hard to forsake, was the only one who could return him there. 

"You would go back… to before the Binding ritual." She said, her voice still flat and emotionless. 

"I would." 

"And what would you do once you got there?" She arched a pale brow. Kael frowned. He did not know. Not exactly. 

"Whatever I must." He said simply. Lorelei nodded. She did not look angry. She only looked sad as she rose gracefully to her feet and beckoned for him to follow. She pressed upon the false wall in the rear of the room and it swung wide, revealing a staircase that seemed to disappear into the black depths of eternity itself. They descended together and then faced the horror the shop had been concealing all these long years. 

When they reached the bottom, the black portal spun and swirled before them. The source of the evil that had been slowly trickling into the world gazed out. Kael stared back at the void, suddenly feeling ice cold, goosebumps prickling his skin, hairs standing up on the back of his neck. Lorelei watched him with haunted eyes. 

"You would truly do this?" She asked. Kael nodded, unable to form words in the face of the black horror that lay before him. She sighed and turned away from the portal. She padded across the cracked cement floor and pulled the athame from a shelf. It was, Kael realized, the very same blade he'd used on her the day he had bound them together.

"If we are going to do this, we must do it now. Do not give me time to reconsider." Lorelei said, her words a rush. She stalked towards Kael with feline grace, the dagger stretched out before her. 

"I am ready," Kael said. His voice caught. He was not sure that he spoke the truth, did not really feel ready, but it appeared Lorelei was. She did not hesitate. Already she was almost upon him. 

"Travel light, travel safe, my love. I fear you will not return this way again." She whispered as she drew up and placed a light kiss upon his lips. 

Then she folded his hands over hers, the ceremonial athame clutched between them, and plunged it Kael's chest. She shoved him hard towards the portal, eyes going stark white as she chanted in the strange guttural language of the shadows. Stars exploded before his eyes and then everything went dark, only Lorelei's words pervading his consciousness as he tumbled into the aching cold of the darkness. 

Kael opened his eyes to find himself in the same bleak basement where he'd stood with Lorelei before descending into the void. It had been just moments ago… and yet was centuries from now. Lorelei stood before an easel, paintbrush in hand, looking startled. She wore a different face. This was the real Lorelei, or at least the one Kael had known. Her long jet hair flowed unbound, cascading over painfully thin shoulders. She was clad in a high necked black gown accented with creamy lace. Where she had looked womanly and voluptuous in her modern form, she looked frail and ethereal here, her slight physique encased in her Victorian garb. She was something to be protected, not something to be destroyed, in this guise, standing there with paint smeared across her ivory cheek. 

Yellow. Of course. 

Kael had to remind himself that this was not Lorelei's true form, that she had chosen this form. That she had chosen all of her forms, her true form being a thing of unutterable horror to gaze upon. Yet this was the disguise she had worn when she seduced him into the blood pact. This was the Lorelei who had called out to him in his dreams for three quarters of a century.

"Kael." Lorelei said, her black eyes flicking over him. "You smell of destiny. Of things that will one day come to pass, Warlock." She set her paintbrush down and folded her hands before her. She almost looked as if she were praying. 

"What are you painting Lorelei?" Kael asked. Her body was blocking the canvas. He moved closer to her. She smiled, a fleeting wistful thing that did not reach her eyes. 

"Sunflowers. I know how much you love yellow." Kael's lip quirked up in a sad half smile of his own.

"I think you know why I am here." He said, his voice soft. He moved towards Lorelei, the bloody athame she'd impaled him upon was now clutched in his right hand. No sight of the wound he'd suffered. That Kael did not exist yet, anymore.

"You would end me. You would close the void." She whispered, her voice small. Not frightened, but haunted. Kael blinked back tears that he refused to shed and continue moving wordlessly towards Lorelei. 

"Go ahead then." Lorelei said, dropping her hands to her sides as if in submission to her fate. Perhaps she knew as well as he did what destruction their love had manifested in the world. 

Kael did not hesitate either. In one sweeping move he was upon her. He jammed the athame into Lorelei's belly. She blinked at him, expression unreadable. Then layers of flesh began to peel away from her bones. The creature that had been Lorelei moments before let out an unearthly shriek. Kael shuddered as its face shifted from human form to a demon form that was all bone, sinew and gore. He pushed harder, shoving her back towards the portal. To his surprise, she -- it -- offered little resistance.

"I will find you, Kael. Somewhere in time, I will find you again," the ghastly spectre that had been Lorelei wailed, desperate and plaintive as it disappeared into the bottomless black depths. Kael watched numbly as the portal rotated a few more times, until Lorelei's demonic form became nothing more than a white dot. A star of sorts gleaming in the darkness. 

Part of him hoped that she was right. He hoped Lorelei might find him again, somewhere in time. Even knowing what she was, even after seeing her true form. They were bound. By blood and by love. 

He was moving to walk away, to ascend the staircase back up to this bygone world, when there was a sudden crack as if lightning had struck within the shop itself. Kael turned, alarmed. In the place where Lorelei's canvas had been, a huge dark fissure, a tear in the very fabric of reality, opened up and a single skeletal hand reached out. Cold fingers wrapped around his throat. 

Sunflowers indeed. Kael did not struggle. He closed his eyes and embraced the void.