Lily’s hand immediately left her face, instead gripping the edge of the bed gently as the other one was taken into Finn’s hand. Her eyes were watery and red, she didn’t know what to say. He was saying everything possible, but she couldn’t get her own words out. Her mother had sent her here, that was obvious but whether or not she wanted others to know that was still up for debate.

As his whispered question, Lily’s eyebrows crinkled together. He had told her about his father, so perhaps she should tell him. Her eyes moved from his and drifted across the room to the small hole the dagger had made in the plasterboard. Her breathing was still heightened but even she could tell that each time she gained these memories, the less of an impact it had on her mind.

“My house, I saw my house.” Eventually, she turned her head back down to Finn, letting out a soft sigh as she resigned herself to simply telling him. “My parents were there.” Her voice was steady enough, maybe the smallest deviation here and there.

As his fingers slipped up into his hair, Callisto let out another small huff of air, more of a quiet gasp. He didn’t care for boundaries currently, his mind was too strewn around for him to care about silly things like that. Callisto from an hour ago may have flushed beet red and stammered around if he could see what was currently happening. Current Callisto only let more of his weight be supported by Xevon.

“I don’t want to remember.” His voice was harsh in his throat, lowered and gravelly, the hand curled around Xevon’s neck and shoulder tightened its hold. “Why does he have my memories..” He didn’t frame it as a question, he knew that Xevon wouldn’t know the answer. However, that fact posed a new threat to Callisto. If they killed him, would all his memories come flooding back? It would kill him. Double kill him.

Callisto carefully leaned his head backwards, looking up to Xevon. His eyes were glassy and distressed, all thoughts of wanting to hide any pitiful emotions from the other man in the past had been swept away with the return of his memories.

Her lips pulled into a tight line as she tried to find the right words to inform Finn about what exactly she had seen. Not only that, but the connection she had made. With a small hum of thought before hand, she spoke.

“My mum was angry at me. I don’t know why, but she was so mad.” Lily didn’t exactly feel any emotion towards it currently, she didn’t remember her feelings towards her mother. Simply what she looked and sounded like. “My dad was there, he was happy.” For a second, Lily lost focus of her words, glancing down at her hand that was clutched in Finntello’s. “The person who took me to be sent here, in that first memory I dreamed about, the woman.” Her eyes drew back up to meet his, blatant confusion emitting from her. “It was my mum, she sent me here.”

It was more so the idea that a mother could send their own child here that upset her, drew the glassy look to her eyes. Lily must have done something horrid to them in order to be sent here, even if it wasn’t as a sacrifice, she would still be trapped here.

He almost followed Xevon as he pulled back to look at him, chasing the contact before he caught himself and stilled. Callisto maintained his gaze up towards the other man, noting the freckles that spread across the bridge of his nose, he knew they were there but from this close he could see individual dots.

Callisto knew the memories would be painful and that they wouldn’t stop coming now they had started, the god never left things half complete. However, what scared him was the idea, the possibility, that when all his memories returned that he would be a changed man. He wouldn’t be the person that had spent all those years with Xevon, reverting back to whoever he was before.

“Thank you.” He managed to mumble out, his usually clear pronunciation thrown to the wayside. He could feel the ache of exhaustion pulling at him, begging him to rest. Callisto let his eyes move over Xevon’s face slowly, taking in each detail of the whole version of his companion. It pulled on his heart that this isn’t the reality of Xevon’s body. He didn’t deserve to be here.

“I am tired.” He meant it, in every sense. He wanted to sleep. He was tired of being here, tired of the god, tired of running around. Ever so slowly, Callisto drew his eyes back up to meet Xevon’s, his head tilting to the side.

Her eyes remained trained on him as he processed her words, clearly formulating his response behind those eyes. It looked like he was piecing something together, then all at once he had come to his final answer. Looking back up at her and speaking, Lily’s eyebrows only drew closer together in concentration as he spoke. Then her hand twitched in his at the word killed. Ever so slowly, she looked down at their hands as he continued to speak. Her eyes still widened in surprise.

It made sense. She knew that the woman was there and that Finn had struck the dagger upon her, but she had yet to put two and two together to see that it was her mother he had garotted. It took her an unusually long time to response, snapping herself out of her stupor she looked back up to his face.

“You killed her.” She repeated slowly, as though she were speaking for the first time. As much as the turmoil of emotions in her vision had hurt her heart, she wasn’t sure she would want her mother to die. Even if she did send Lily here, to this hellscape. What if she had been tricked? But she couldn’t blame Finntello. He had been scared, that was a given. He didn’t know who her mother was, didn’t know Lily either. She could not blame him for whatever strange mixture of emotions she felt from this revelation.

“It fits you?” Lily swiftly moved on, the glazed look in her eyes pulled away and pushed to the back of her mind. Looking down upon the ring that sat upon his smallest finger, she was fighting to push her mind back into normality. Deciding that humour may be a good route.

“You want to marry it for me?” Lily’s lips smiled carefully.

Callisto’s eyes widened a small fraction at the notion that Xevon would be leaving him in this room. He batted away the silly thoughts, even if he craved the touch of his hand again. Good god, what was wrong with him? Was he some love sick puppy? He swallowed, nodding his head. The smallest glimmer of his steeliness returning to his eyes, even if they were still a little bloodshot from his previous emotional indiscretion.

The craving was simply because he was touch-starved, that was it. He was hurt and wanted comfort. Callisto told himself that, but no matter how much he justified it, that pull to Xevon still lingered in his chest.

“You will come back to me?” Before he could make the decision to speak, the words had fell from his lips. A flash of realisation came across his face. “I-If you are not busy with them, that is.” Damn it, and he stuttered. What was he becoming? Callisto again tried to return his expression back to his usual neutrality, a bit tinged with exhaustion and a wince of pain.

It was helping a little to jest about the dire situation. She didn’t exactly feel sorrow for the loss of her mother, afterall she didn’t remember what their relationship had been like. If it was always how she had just witnessed it, then perhaps it wasn’t a major loss. Then again, it could have been a one off.

“Prettier?’ She hummed, making a face that said ‘really?’. Lily quickly followed it up with a small huff of laughter, only looking down when he moved her hand and placed the metal ring onto her hand.

Immediately, her lips parted in protest. “If it wants to marry me, then it won’t kill me. You should really be wearing it.” Her tone a little more serious now, if it was true that she was sent here as a bridal offering then surely her life would be safe. Finn on the other hand. She knew he would protest right back, refuse to wear it. That much she could predict from him even in the short time they had known each other.

Callisto didn’t miss the slightly smug taunting smile that Xevon had sent his direction, a jolt of embarrassment took him. Only briefly did his eyes clearly buffer and panic before he corrected himself. He refused to be so soft that a mere smile could make him stutter and blush, but the exhaustion was making it hard to mask everything quick enough.

As Xevon pulled away, sending his last comment out, Callisto resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Careful you do not become too full of yourself, Xevon.” He tossed back, putting emphasis on his name.

Begrudgingly, Callisto had to take on his own weight again, holding himself mostly upright. Even if he was technically weightless as a ghost, that didn’t mean he didn’t feel heavy. He cast one more look over Xevon’s form before he made his way towards the bed. It was nice to pretend he could lay directly on it, but he just hovered above the solid mattress on his back after Xevon had slipped back to the other room.

His eyes stared up at the ceiling, deep steady breathing rising his chest before falling again. He wanted out of here. He wanted to gut the god and splay his entrails around the blasted halls. He wanted to see the fear in those evil beady eyes as he ripped his throat out, bones and all.

Callisto had never been one to fight the god, resigning himself to lurking around the halls moping and accepting his cruel fate. Of course, he was angry when Xevon returned back battered and bruised. But this time it was different. The god knew more about him that he did and Callisto wanted to know why. Not only that, the god had punished Xevon beyond what he had seen before. Xevon clearly didn’t care for his own health or wellbeing, even if Callisto did. Targeting Callisto to wrench Xevon’s heart was a cold cruelty. One that he would pay for dearly.

Lily’s face contorted into one of obvious disagreement towards Finntello’s reasoning, but she didn’t exactly have time to retort to the comment as Xevon had returned to the room. His arrival made her stand up immediately, almost bumping into Finn as she did so. Callisto wasn’t with him. Thoughts about her and Finn’s chattering and the ring fell to the wayside as she listened to their conversation. He wanted them to wait. That was enough to tell her that Callisto had not bounced back from his coughing fit.

“So, if he leaves it or brings it here, what are we going to do when he gets here?” Lily wanted to know what they expected to happen. She would be useless if there was no plan, especially because she had not seen this god yet and according to the ghosts and Finn it would traumatise her. So if she had a definitive plan in her head, maybe she could auto-pilot through the terror.

She could feel the ring, it was heavy on her finger. But she kept her hand at her side, refusing to fiddle with it even though her fingers were itching to mess with it. Instead, she walked around the end of the bed, closer towards Xevon. Hesitantly, she glanced behind him at the wall then up to his eyes.

“Is he alright?” She murmured cautiously, if he wasn’t she didn’t want to be the receiver of Xevon’s ire. “He didn’t look great.” She winced slightly as she pointed out the obvious. “I mean, I hope he is okay.” Lily revised, offering a small concerned smile towards the larger winged male. He was still a little intimidating, if she had to be honest with herself.

Meanwhile, Callisto remained still. His eyes eventually closed, but he remained conscious. Muttering away in his own head about all the way he would splatter the god up the walls. It would be mighty satisfying, providing Callisto wasn’t murdered in the process. Then again, if it meant the god was gone too then Callisto wasn’t too concerned with his own survival. Afterall, what would happen after this realm fades away. Where would he and Xevon drift off to? He saw little point in pondering on it, he had no way of changing what would happen.

His eyes opened quickly as he heard a small sound from above him. It was faint, if the room were not silent he wouldn’t have heard it. He made it out just over the mumbling from the room beside him. It was like a heavy object thumping to the ground. Callisto stared up at the ceiling again, eyebrows furrowed as he strained to hear it again.