Snowed In [Party Post][Forward-dated to 30th]
[OOC: Happy Three Year Anniversary one and all! You know the drill except this time you'll likely only be able to comment in on one thread depending on your characters locations. However, there can be aftermath threads as well as multiple during threads. I imagine anyone snowed in at the Tower could have multiple threads with others at the Tower.
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Except for now.
Except for now, when Josef can see the fist at Niko's side.
When he can see and know what he means, and know that he doesn't understand the person standing in front of him. This isn't the chess game of old. Josef cannot predict his next move, and something about that is more terrifying to him than it is enraging.
It wouldn't be terrifying if Elizabeth wasn't locked up with them, but she is.
They're stuck here, the three of them, with nowhere to go and Josef can't trust his uncle won't do something.
Josef keeps the flashlight on, tightening its grip on it as he takes two stairs at a time. He follows her voice, ignoring the painful thumping of his heart against his chest. It's like it wants to rip itself out from his body. He flings the door open and moves the flashlight every which way until he catches sight of her.
The candle helps light the room and the relief is short-lived as he quickens his stride and quickly envelops her into a tight hug. Just as quickly, he draws back and places both his hands on either of her shoulders.
"Whatever you do, stay behind me, okay?" he asks, turning his back to her and facing the doorway. His arm darts out behind him to keep her close, ensure she's still there, while he waits to see when Nikolas will appear. When, not if, since Josef knows he followed. His heartbeat feels like drums against his ears.
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She remains still with the candle in her hand until the door opens, and she can see that it is Josef, not Nikolas. "I'm here," Elizabeth says, raising her hand up to help him see her.
She would move to him if it wasn't for that sound in his voice of impending something. Nikolas isn't with him. It must be Nikolas that made him have that sound to his voice. She sets the candle down when he moves to her and wraps her arms around him too, tightening her hold on him. It is a quick hug, but the feeling in her chest eases with him in front of her.
Elizabeth looks at his face. There's this second where she doesn't know if it's something she can promise, but she sees the look on his face and she knows that nothing would hurt him more than his uncle hurting her. It doesn't mean that if... she sees Josef losing that she won't be able to keep herself from jumping in, but she can promise this for now and keep this promise as long as she can.
She nods and takes in a breath that steadies her but not as much as his presence will steady her. Elizabeth has faith in him.
"Okay. I'll stay behind you. No matter what," she says, and her hand rests on his arm to assure him that she is there, that she is okay, that she will do what she can. Her chest hurts, and it's not from fear for herself but fear for him, for the way he looked that she could see even in the candlelight.
There are the sound of footsteps, and she looks to the door.
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He waits outside of the door and listens.
Whatever you do, stay behind me, okay?
It is more infuriating to him. Josef is supposed to respond to every hit, to the fist, not run up to put himself in front of some girl that has changed the nature of their relationship. It isn't as fun when Josef isn't playing too though there is the added enjoyment of knowing that Josef has something that could be taken from him.
Something Nikolas can take as Josef took away his sister's affection from the moment that he was born.
It was disgusting how a small, pudgy, useless thing could become first in his sister's life. Nikolas did what he could to regain his position, but it was never enough. Now she was gone, and he didn't have the opportunity to regain what had been taken from him.
It is with that on his mind that he strides into the room.
"You're being so uncharacteristically protective, Josef," Nikolas says. "When we're both aware that you are not capable of it, it is not who you are..."
The girl shouts out a protest but her words do not register, do not matter to him in the slightest.
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There isn't an itch to have his own wings slide out, but he forces them out of his shoulder blades regardless.
They're stronger and faster with them than without them, and Josef won't find himself at the disadvantage.
And here's the thing. Here's the thing. He's already at a disadvantage. When Nikolas lost his sister--when Josef killed her--Nikolas lost whatever capacity was in him to love, if what he felt for her could be called love. Nikolas loves nothing and no one. There is nothing for him to lose while Josef has everything to lose and it's in this room, right behind him.
"Elizabeth," he says quietly. "It's okay."
His grip on her arm tightens at her words. Josef isn't warning her with this gesture to stop. He is well aware Nikolas gets under her skin and he'd had the same hard time not protecting her if the roles were reversed. It's more that he can't help himself, and if he holds on tighter Nikolas won't get to her.
The fear is there, present inside his chest, but he's good at concealing it. He reminds himself he is the only Teme in the room. He is the only one that can sense and smell the stench of it infesting the space within the four walls.
Once again, he doesn't take the bait. Nikolas does not have any idea what Josef is capable of in terms of how much he can care. Whether he believes that or not, it doesn't... matter to him anymore. It's as liberating as it's terrifying.
"How about we settle this when we're not in the middle of a powerful Rift disaster? You've never been this impatient and poor with your timing, Uncle."
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Where else can they go?
If they try to move forward, there is Nikolas. If they try to move back, they get closer to that window which will break and fall on them.
Elizabeth decides he doesn't need the decision on his mind along with everything else, and by the time that Nikolas enters and starts speaking, she has almost forgotten about the glass.
Elizabeth. It's okay.
She looks up at his face. It is hard to see it well in the shadows created by the candle burning on the floor still. Elizabeth tightens her own grip on him. She is here still. Elizabeth takes a step to the side, trying to force herself not to lunge at him completely.
She is not the most perceptive but even she can sense the violence in his stance. Her own wings slide out, and her jaw locks as she glares at Nikolas from her spot. He isn't listening to her, but it doesn't stop the words from sliding out of her mouth. She doesn't have the kind of control that Josef does, and she doesn't like hearing anyone talk about him like that when they don't know.
"Leave him alone," Elizabeth says, loudly, and she knows it will have no effect but she's angry and she hates how Josef has to protect her from his own family, hates how Josef's family is intent on hurting him. Because she loves him so much, and it hurts that his uncle is doing this to him.
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It does not mean that this end. Josef may be capable of changing his colors when it comes to their relationship, but Nikolas is not. It is the one thing that drives him, and it is the one thing that Josef cannot take from him, because he will fight to protect it as Josef is fighting to protect her right now.
He does not have to show his fear for Nikolas to know that it is there. Every action that Josef has taken in regards to that girl has made it clear to him that he must be afraid for her, afraid that Nikolas will succeed as Josef succeeded years ago.
Nikolas stalks forward toward him but not so close that Josef could reach out to punch him, not quite yet.
It is the words that are making it worse because they're true. Impatient. Nikolas is impatient because there's an itch of something crawling under his skin begging to be used against what he most wants to see destroyed.
"No, I think now is the perfect time to settle it, nephew," he answers, and the edge is even in his voice like the sharp end of a sword. "I've changed. People change. I'm tired of waiting for the inevitable, and the inevitable is that I will take from you, because it is in my nature. I have not pretended to forget what it is that I do. Pretending only lasts so long before the walls come crashing in."
His gaze remains on his nephew's face in the candlelight. "What better time to end this and in what better company? You remember what I told you when I first ran into you on Chicago, don't you, Josef?"
Every emphasis is said with disgust and a little more edge than the rest.
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It'd be a twisted, surreal game of cat and mouse until one bested the other.
And at first, the game had been something to feed off of.
Josef lost his father. Nikolas lost his sister.
They each blamed each other and the hate was the only thing that was left to them once they buried the only person they'd cared about aside from themselves. Josef could say he loved his mother, and sometimes he did, but it never felt as real. Especially not now that he's known and experienced what love really is.
Josef's grip on her hand becomes impossibly tight once Nikolas steps forward. The closer he gets to Josef, the closer he gets to Elizabeth. He feels impossibly trapped in place, the feeling of suffocation stronger than ever. He knows what he has to do. He knows what it'll take to get to the other side of the room.
And he doesn't want to do it.
When it comes down to it, he doesn't want to do it. Neither of them are good men and neither of them are spared from the blood they've spilled, but Josef has the ability to care. He's cared about his uncle along with the hatred that has been very much alive, and he's never known what to do with it. Josef's jaw locks into place, and he grinds his teeth as he waits.
"I'm sick of you spouting off old material. You're not a scorpion. You're a man. You're not a demon with a Calling tempting you every day of your life and I'm not your Mark. The demon doesn't make you this way. You have made yourself this way. And the most fucking miserable thing is--she still loved me more." Josef further straightens at the reminder of those first words.
He remembers each and every one of them, but the most important of them all ring about in his head.
There will be blood.
Oh, Josef. There's always blood.
"I'm not letting you touch her," he says through gritted teeth, and Nikolas hasn't taken one step forward when Josef is lunging at him, aiming not only to wound, but effectively kill. The strength of their collision throws them to the ground in a stream of fists and anger.
It won't be long before there's blood.
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His intentions did not pan out as he had planned. It was not the perfect chess game that he had imagined it to be. He had all his moves planned out ahead of time, because he has known his nephew so well.
He still does, but that change has made Josef unpredictable to him. It has required his intentions and plans to shift. It has made the chess game null and void in combination with his own change after falling through that green Rift. Nikolas spent years in another place, and it changed him.
The control that he had prided himself on, and the ability to remain detached from any emotion that ever did occur to him, which was never very intense. There is no sense of detachment or control anymore. It has been chipped away since he returned to Chicago, and it continues to be chipped away until he is at this point where his hands become fist when he does not want them to and his wings slide out of his back without him beckoning them to.
She still loved me more.
The rage returns to him, strengthens in him because it is true, and he only remains to continue baiting because he wants Josef to do what it is that he doesn't to do. Nikolas knows. Nikolas knows that Josef still has it in him to care, and how could she love someone more who is clearly so weak? Who cannot shut down his caring long enough to do what needs to be done to save himself?
It should be simple. But he cares about her more than himself, and it will be his downfall. Nikolas will be certain that what capacity Josef has to love will die tonight as Nikolas' capacity was killed with his sister. There will only be demons left, and they will fight until one of them dies.
However, he is anticipating the lunge when Josef finally takes the bait. There is only that one threat that can get to him anymore, because it is what Josef cares about. He may not care to take part in their feud anymore since her, but he does care about her and Nikolas can drag out what he wants if he strikes at the right spot still. It is a joy to know that he still can.
Nikolas lunges with him, fists and anger returned in full. He can tell the difference, and it's that more infuriating. Josef is aiming to kill, and he almost laughs before Josef's fist connects with his chin.
There is blood.
And there will be more.
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She knows that demons are stronger than angels.
She knows that if she jumps in, she'll get hurt or killed, because that is exactly what Nikolas wants. Elizabeth refuses to give him that, but she sees blood in the candlelight, hears their fists slamming against each other, and she wants to scream. Tears slide down her face, and her hands are shaking, and she does not know if she can remain where she is any longer.
There's blood, and it sounds painful.
Listening to him practically say out loud that he wants to destroy Josef, it made her sick. It infuriated her. It made her want to walk out from behind Josef and shove her fist in Nikolas' face.
"Josef--"
As soon as she allows her muscles to move, she will jump in there. She can't not. She can't, and she steps forward despite herself, rushes forward, but their fighting pushes her back, shoves her on to the floor. Her back is almost pressed against the glass of the window.
It creaks again, cries out, and she's reminded it's close to shattering but can't be bothered with it until Josef isn't in immediate danger. She pushes herself to her feet again searching for... for anything to use that could knock him out. Elizabeth reaches for a chair, moving forward again, intent on using it on Nikolas.
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They've been at opposite ends that weren't meant to meet until one remained standing. Only one. It has been that way since the blood of Josef's father was in Nikolas's hands and Josef's mother was on his. It never could have been any other way. They weren't brought up to be a family.
They were brought up to be pitted against each other.
They were not taught to love. They were taught to survive, first and foremost, and the instinct of the demon is to destroy until there is nothing left standing in their way.
And right now, there is more of the demon than anything else when confronted with the uncle's demon. The wings are out and his strength is at its peak. Josef doesn't hold himself back. He does not merely connect his fist with Niko's jaw. He pummels into him with every ounce of strength he can muster.
"Elizabeth, get out," Josef says, and it might be comical under any other circumstance. When has Elizabeth ever left when Josef asked her to? It's still in him to ask. She has a chance to leave the room while Josef is busy fighting off Nikolas, and he has to at least hope she might listen.
Josef snarls under his breath when a fist lands at his ribcage.
The anger is outweighing nearly everything else, and he's almost completely blind to the pain that hits him from every possible side. What's fueling him is far stronger than physical pain, and it'll keep him going long after his body is protesting. He is not stopping until this is finished.
And he needs it to be finished.
Goddammit, Elizabeth. He thinks this, but doesn't say it. There is barely any ability of his to think coherently, much less speak the words. The anger is blinding, and placed alongside the very present fear and knowledge Elizabeth is bringing herself into this makes him that less prepared.
Nikolas is seconds away from gaining the upper hand when Josef crashes into him. It happens to be the exact moment Elizabeth reaches for the chair. The impact of the weight against his uncle sends them to the opposite side of the room. Josef knows the window has been broken because he sees it. He can't hear the crash, the shattering of glass, not against the roaring sound of wind.
It floods into the room in one powerful, violent gust and Josef reaches blindly for Elizabeth's arm before the snow pulls her away.
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It may have been what he was brought up to do, but he has never been against being what he is, doing what it is that he was made to do.
Josef has taken all that he ever cared about from him, and he wants to see Josef suffer. It has been years and years coming. At the end of the day, Nikolas is tired of the long drawn out battle, and he maybe could have fought like this for years and years to come if it weren't for that damned trip through a Rift that left him returning with an endless itch to see it all in flames, to see his nephew finally get what he deserves.
Nikolas is not aiming to kill, however. His intention is to disable Josef, knock him down long enough so that Nikolas can get his hands on the girl, because that is the kind of destruction that Nikolas longs for. To see his nephew dead, it would only be half as enjoyable as watching him be destroyed in every other way first.
That requires him to have his hands on that girl, which means he has to knock Josef out.
It won't be very difficult to do with the way she keeps running into the fray. Are young people taught nothing this day? It is simply that no one gets the correct kind of education anymore.
Nikolas flies back unexpectedly, and the wind pulls at him threatening to make him fly out of the back of it. The drop is long. He might survive the initial fall but he would die shortly after, and he has been taught as Josef has to survive.
He reaches for Josef's arm to keep from dying, but the force of the wind is pulling all three of them out the window. If Nikolas had been standing, this never would have happened but flying back into that girl kept him off his feet and there was no stability to be found.
They are hanging out of the window, and it's only Josef that has a hold of them both. Nikolas almost laughs. It's almost poetic.
There is a part of him that wants Josef to drop them both. The wind pelts down on them hard. The blizzard hits against his back, and he feels frozen. It is difficult to see his nephew's face in this, but he wants to say, Well, what will you do now?
Even knowing the answer.
Even knowing the answer, he knows his nephew will not be unaffected by the result.
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It is not within her heart to run away from him when he is in danger or when he is hurting. There is no telling who will come out on top, and if the tides start to turn, she has to be there to help him. There is no other option. Nikolas may be his family, but Elizabeth would not leave him alone with this.
She could never be able to do it, even with the way that Josef is saying it.
Elizabeth knows him well enough to hear the fear within the anger, and she wants to be able to do what he asks to help him but she can't. Her grip on the chair loosens. The window shatters behind them, and she wishes for half a second that she had mentioned it sooner despite there not really being an opportunity to do so.
She flies back, and the wind carries her further. Elizabeth is less than half Nikolas' weight, and if it weren't for Josef' hand grabbing hold of her, she would already have been flung to the ground below.
It doesn't seem to matter as the wind is strong enough that they're both dangling on the other side of the window. It's only Josef's hands keeping them from plummeting and she curses under her breath. She reaches for the ledge, for something to grab hold of so as not to do this to him, so as not to have him holding two people that he cares about (and he must care about his uncle or he would have been dead long ago) over the edge.
The wall of the club is icy, however. Everywhere she reaches to grab hold of, she slips again. She reaches for the window too, but her hands get caught on the broken glass there. There is no holding on by herself as much as she wants to so she can spare him of this, and she keeps trying. She keeps trying as long as she hangs here to grab hold of something, anything, trying to hold on to hold on to the glass long enough through the pain that she can pull herself up.
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Ensure he was disarmed, have him unconscious for the remainder of the snowstorm, hurt him enough he can't move--sure.
But he doesn't think he'd have it in him to kill his uncle when the time really called for it.
Whether Nikolas meant to kill him now or not, it doesn't change the fact it would have to end at some point. Nikolas would have killed him or tried to at some other time. Or worse, killed Elizabeth and have Josef watch. It's that thought, that panicking, horrible thought that had him moving forward without any sort of coherent thought in mind.
All he knew was he couldn't let that happen.
And now that they're both holding on to either of his arms, Josef tries with all his might to pull them both back up from the brink. It doesn't matter what choices they made and whose weight lead them to the window. What matters is there's so much poetic irony to loathe in this moment now that they are here, at this window, with no end in sight to the blinding snow.
Josef can't pull them both up. Every time he tries they slide an inch further out of his grasp.
His cheeks are wet and he doesn't notice.
Josef meets Nikolas head on. His gaze meets his and he doesn't look away for a split second. He sees it all there. The hatred, the betrayal, the need to have him make a choice that might haunt him for the rest of his life. There isn't love there. There isn't a second chance.
There's only blood. There's only ever been room for blood.
In the end, the choice isn't one that's impossible to make.
In the end, there is no other choice.
Josef closes his eyes and bites back a horrible, painful sound that threatens to leave him. So many years locked up in this war and so many years hating in the absence of ghosts. He uses what strength he has left to shrug out of his uncle's grasp. Josef lets go of Nikolas and doesn't see where or how he meets the ground. It all happens too fast to give it much thought. All he knows is he can't pull Elizabeth back up with one hand.
He needs both hands.
He needs both hands.
And now that he has both he doesn't waste time to do so.
He pulls her up with enough force to send them both back into the room. His back flattens against the ground with a hard thud, and Josef keeps a vise-like grip on her around the waist. All that can be heard is the sound of the wind howling relentlessly, no end in sight.
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She half expects Nikolas to reach over and push her. This is his chance, isn't it? This is what he wanted, and she is at a vulnerable position, dangling from Josef's arm who would not be able to save her if Nikolas strikes. So why isn't he doing something? Would he prefer they both fall to the ground? It makes no sense, but she is searching for the whys as she hangs there with the snow and the wind whipping over her, shoving her against the wall of the club again and again.
It is then that she understands, and she never, ever wanted to be able to understand it, understand what Nikolas might be thinking without being explicitly told. Nikolas wants Josef to make the choice. He knows that Josef cares about him, and he wants him in this position, having to make the choice.
The realization hits her, and it's colder than the wind and the snow and the ice that surrounds her. It is the coldest truth that she has ever known, and she screams but it's lost in the wind. She screams out her anger, an anger like she has never known it before, and her free hand becomes a fist that she almost uses to hit Nikolas with in a protective gesture for Josef. She can be the one to make Nikolas fall so he doesn't have to choose even if there is no other choice, even if it isn't impossible to make.
It is not fair.
Before she can act or force her fist through the wind and cold to hit the form that's less than a foot away from her, Josef lets go of him. He lets go, and she watches as Nikolas plummets all those feet to the ground, can't hear the sound of him hitting the ground in this blizzard. This is the first time she has seen a death and not been a part of it, and it feels strange.
But it is nothing in comparison to the anger which shoves its way through her like a freight train. She has never wanted to hurt someone as much as she wants to hurt this person who is already dead, who cannot be hurt.
There's a brief moment where she feels like she is slipping out of Josef's grasp, but he reaches with both hands and pulls her up out of the immediate cold, away from the long, painful drop. His arms around her waist, and she keeps her face pressed against his chest as she wraps her arms around him and tightens her own hold, shaking. With her face pressed against his chest and not in the wind, she can manage the tears that have threatened to burn their way down her face since she knew, since she understood.
It is not until the wind dies down that she bothers to try to speak. By this time, the anger and hatred has faded into some dark, throbbing thing at the back of her mind. It's replaced, over taken with concern and with love. He is bleeding. He just... was forced to--
He just-- There's a moment that she can't breathe, can't work through the thought of it even having seen it happen. The whole-- It sickens her and makes her so angry.
"Josef," she says, breathes out in the temporary quietness.
Elizabeth doesn't bother saying anything more yet, not are you okay because he couldn't be, not we need to move downstairs. There is only his name as she looks to his face to see for herself. Her hand tightens on his shirt, and she fights back the feeling in her throat.
I'm so sorry.
She wants to scream again but even her voice feels numb and frozen.
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Not because he's better, faster, or stronger than Nikolas.
Not because he's smarter, younger,
It's because Nikolas wanted it to be this way. There's no greater punishment than that, is there? Josef living with the fact he not only killed his mother, he killed his uncle, too. Josef isn't as immune to guilt as he once was, and Nikolas must have sensed the change.
There was only the memory of Josef's mother to live for. Nikolas didn't have anything else, didn't want anything else but to find the perfect way to get his own brand of revenge. He doesn't know what his exact last dying thoughts were. He doesn't know if he really did plan it all out the way it came to be. Maybe everything fell perfectly into place despite that. He can't begin to piece it all together at the moment. The adrenaline is gone and Josef is left with the aftermath.
The pain he couldn't feel in his body while he was engaged in the physical fight is the pain that started to spread throughout every inch of him. The realization of what just happened rams into him with the force of a steel train. He can't move. Can scarcely breathe. The wind keeps howling and the snow keeps pouring and Josef can't move. The unnatural cold slides into his body and he shakes with it. His temperature makes it so that it hits him harder than it would humans and angels.
He closes his eyes and shakes his head at the sound of his name.
Josef's arms tighten painfully around her. His face hides itself in the crook of her neck and he forces himself to ignore the throbbing pain and focus on the fact she is alive. No matter what, that had to be the outcome. He could live with Nikolas falling to his death because Josef had to choose. He could not live with it having been Elizabeth. He couldn't. He'd lose his mind. He'd let himself fall into the abyss after her. There would be nothing left for him here.
Knowing that alternative, he understands this had to be.
It doesn't stop the stabbing pain in his chest, but he knows it's guilt he can live with. It's guilt and not grief.
Josef, she says, and he closes his eyes and blinks back unfamiliar tears. "Not now, Elizabeth."
The same anger that had been fueling him intently is gone. There's an empty, dull ache in its place and he can't begin to muddle through it. There is still imminent danger and that keeps him from lingering on it. They can't stay in the room. They have to move down to the basement. There is a refrigerator in his office with food. There is a closet with clothes. There's a first aid kit here, somewhere.
There are things to do and he can't--he can't stop to think--
I killed him.
Oh, God. I really killed him.
Josef shudders a breath and pulls himself to his feet, never letting go of her. He moves against the current of the wind and doesn't look back.
"We need to move."
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His death by his nephew's hands had always been the endgame. Nikolas had planned to drag this out longer and to allow for the further descent of Josef until he had been at a different edge.
However, he could not have asked for better circumstances than dangling from the side with the only other person that Josef loved in his grasp with him unable to pull both of them up at once. This moment will haunt him. There may have not been a choice in the end, but the guilt and the pain of this will follow him.
Maybe it will mark Josef's downfall. It is hard to calculate the possibilities in the thirty seconds that it takes for him to plummet to his death.
Elizabeth rests her hand against the back of his neck when his fades hides against her. He is bleeding. She can feel his blood on her through the numbness of the ice and the cold.
Not now, Elizabeth.
And for once, she listens.
Elizabeth moves up with him when he stands. Her wings are the only part of her that really hurts at all, and it's from the wind tearing at them. It will heal, and she isn't concerned. She forces them back in and pushes herself up against Josef, scanning his body for injuries, for where the blood is coming from. Most of it, she will not be able to help with.
There's a first aid kit. There are painkillers. There's a fireplace in Josef's office, and it is where she intends to make sure they get to. Her jaw locks in determination, and she forces the anger and need to hurt to fade back further in her head.
"Lean on me," Elizabeth says at his We need to move, and she sucks in a sharp, painful breath and starts toward the door. "Lean on me as much as you need."
It is not until they are on the other side of it and she shuts it to block some of that cold from it that feeling returns to her beyond the numbness that had taken hold of her fingers and her face and her neck.
When they make it to his office, Elizabeth leads him to the chair nearest the fireplace. She pulls back and looks in her eyes, a million things that she could say and none of them occur to her. Her hand rests against his face, and she bites back that feeling in her throat again, the one that wants to cry out for him, scream.
She hates this. She hates that... that that is how it happened.
"If you get the fireplace started, if you can, I'll get blankets and the first aid kit, and I'll take care of you," Elizabeth says, and she leans in to kiss him against the lips, wanting to take it all away from him and knowing that it isn't possible.
Deaths happen as they are meant to. She knows. She knows that better than anyone else. Elizabeth has never felt so angry about death before. She has never felt such anger in her life about anything. She hates, and she shoves that back too, because Josef loved him and she knows.
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