Theme Prompt - Lake

In the silent room, two women stared at the painting hanging above the bed rather than at each other. Or talk and break the silence as they waited. It was a simple landscape painting done in light, smooth colors. They weren’t quite pastel but they were close. The blue of the lake glowed in the light from the lamp next to the bed. The blue sky above was just a few shades lighter while fleecy white clouds hung suspended forever within the blue. Light splashes of color here and there around the lake denoted flowers while long spears of light brown and crowns of green denoted the trees. They both stared at the painting until an hour passed. Still no sign of anyone else in the room, no sign that the summoning spell had worked.

“He must be dead,” Rowena finally sighed, breaking the silence in the room with disappointment. “I’m sure he would have been here by now if he were alive.”

“Perhaps you performed the spell incorrectly,” Nadia shrugged, flickering out of existence for several seconds before appearing again by the window. She placed one insubstantial hand on the pane as she looked up into the sky. The moon shone down, lighting the ground behind her as it passed through her body. “I’ve never known any of the spells to fail when performed correctly.”

“It was cast correctly,” Rowena snapped through gritted teeth. She grabbed the Book and flipped through it again, checking her translation. Even though Nadia had said it was all correct, maybe the old ghost was finally going batty. But everything appeared to be correct. “Well, I suppose that’s that long. The King is dead.”

“Long live the King,” Crowley’s voice continued the platitude, a smirking gloat in the tone. Rowena and Nadia both turned to see him lounging against the wall near the door, arms crossed over his chest. “To what do I owe this unpleasant visit?”

“Fergus,” Rowena said, standing and stepping a little closer. “I see you survived the angel. Tell me, how did that happen?”

“You don’t make it to King of Hell by not being resourceful,” Crowley replied, a slight tightening of his lips and a roll of his eyes the only evidence of his annoyance at being called Fergus. “What did you want, whore?”

“Oh my dear, is that any way to speak to your mother?” Rowena asked, pitching her voice a little higher than normal. She glanced at Nadia, who still stood next to the window. She was preternaturally still, not even breathing. She looked like a statue and Rowena had to wonder what the ghost thought about her son being the King of Hell. Rowena herself had felt a flare of pride until he’d turned against her.

“I don’t have a mother anymore,” Crowley shot back. He uncrossed his arms and straightened, annoyance flashing across his face. “Now, if this little meeting is finished, I have more important things to attend to.”

“Wait,” Rowena cried just a second before Crowley disappeared. She stepped forward, one hand flung out, but he was already gone. “Bollocks.”

Nadia just laughed quietly and turned back to look out the window. The moon was full tonight and so bright in a cloudless sky. It was one of the things she’d missed while her codex was locked in that damned box. She’d been trapped inside with it, unable to pass through the protections the Men of Letters had imbued it with. Darkness had been her only companion for long years, darkness and silence. She stared up at the moon until movement on the ground caught her eye. It was Crowley again, standing in the parking lot of the motel. He’d popped back into existence, anger battling with curiosity on his face.

“He’s outside,” Nadia said quietly, turning to Rowena. The other woman came to the window then and met Crowley’s eyes. An impatient beckoning gesture had Rowena moving to the door. After Rowena left, Nadia turned back and studied Crowley. He was a demon and his body wasn’t the same as when he’d been alive. She vaguely wondered what he had looked like and how Rowena had known this was her son. Then, she dismissed it all as unimportant. All that was important was her revenge and second life. Let Rowena waste her time with this.

Rowena sauntered outside, careful not to seem as if she was hurrying. She had to keep as much of the upper hand as she could in this. Though, were she being honest with herself, she didn’t have much of it. But she had lived for too long pretending to be more powerful or knowledgeable than she was and that would stand her in good stead now. She stopped in front of Crowley, giving him a calculatingly disinterested look before crossing her arms over her chest in a mirror of his earlier stance. She was prepared to wait him out for however long it took in order not to speak first. He was the one who came back, outside of the influence of the spell. Let him explain why.

“I admit, I’m curious,” Crowley finally said after a few tense moments. “Why did you summon me? Wanted to find out if the angel you spelled killed me?”

“That was part of it,” Rowena admitted. “Though I was fairly certain you were dead anyways. My spell’s never failed before.”

“First time for everything,” Crowley smirked at her. “And the other part?”

“Did you feel it, last night?” Rowena asked suddenly. The non sequitur made Crowley blink twice in confusion. “The pressure and the malevolence as something passed overhead?”

“No, I was busy,” Crowley said lightly, though Rowena was sure she could see just the barest traces of worry in his eyes. “Angels to torture, audiences to hold. You know, just being King.”

“Lucky you,” Rowena grumbled, casting a glance skyward. She smiled inwardly when Crowley followed suit, uncertainty rolling across his face before being smoothed away. “I felt it and I was terrified. Not something I admit lightly, mind you. The main reason I summoned you was to ask you about it. Do you know what it might be?”

Rowena gritted her teeth when Crowley let out a delighted laugh. He continued to laugh, one hand braced on his stomach as he leaned over. She sighed and waited him out, wondering how long he was going to toy with her. This was getting ridiculous and suddenly, she wished that the angel had accomplished what she’d set him to do. It shouldn’t have been all that difficult. Crowley couldn’t even move! And yet, here he was, laughing at her until he breathless.

“Oh, I needed that, that was brilliant,” Crowley finally said when he got his breath back. “You have no idea what you released, do you?”

“What I released? What do you mean?” Rowena asked though she thought she knew. It did have something to do with the Mark after all, didn’t it.

“You released something so primal and evil that it hasn’t been around for, hmm, longer than I can even fathom,” Crowley said, a self-satisfied smirk on his face. “By destroying the Mark, you released the Darkness. And it’s hunting. Good luck, mother. You’re going to need it to survive.”

Crowley disappeared before Rowena could even open her mouth, the parking lot empty except for her and two cars. A cloud floated over the moon, dimming the area and sending chills up her back. The Darkness? She’d never even heard of it, not as a specific entity as Crowley’s words seemed to imply it was. Rowena rubbed her hands over her arms, trying to drive away the chill. Instead of reassuring her that this was something she could deal with or run from, Crowley’s words had had the opposite effect. Suddenly, Rowena wondered if she might have made the biggest mistake of her life in destroying the Mark of Cain.