Until Death Does Us - wlw, lesbian

Chapter 20- The Battle.

The moment Faith wakes up, she knows something is wrong.

Her eyes fly open, and she darts them around rapidly, waiting for them to adjust to the darkness. She waits, and waits, but they don't adjust, and Faith's heart starts to race. She sits up in bed, and it hurts. Not in a sharp way, not like a blade or a punch or even the phantom pain she gets in her scar sometimes; it's just a dull, minor ache that appears and fades in a second.

Like she's done a sit-up.

But Faith has been able to do hundreds of sit-ups for months now.

Faith swings her legs out of bed, jumping to her feet, and she has to a stop for a moment as she gets a bit light-headed. This, at least, is a familiar sensation, but not when she doesn't have a head wound. Had Elizabeth been fighting in her sleep? Had she somehow managed to concuss Faith while unconscious?

"Faith?" Speaking of Elizabeth. Faith turns to face the voice, but she can't find Elizabeth's face in the darkness. Her eyes are practically blind in the dark room. "Faith," Elizabeth says, her voice suddenly sharp. "Can you see me?"

"No," Faith says. "Can—can you see me?" Maybe there's nothing wrong with her; maybe Don's spell has just gotten stronger. Maybe the blinds that Elizabeth had closed was such a shift from the brightness of eternal-red, that is how dark it is.

"I can," Elizabeth says, and Faith's heart sinks.
"Faith, the bond is gone." Faith's eyes go wide. She reaches out immediately, digging into the back of her mind for the bit of Elizabeth's consciousness that's always there. Even the little bit of it that appears when Elizabeth is blocking her out, the dim, muted impression of the other's existence, at the very least.

It's gone.

"Elizabeth, what's happening?" Faith says. She can hear the panic in her own voice, and she doesn't bother trying to repress it. It's not as if Elizabeth can feel the terror rushing through Faith's veins right now. She might as well learn of it from another source.

The bedside lamp switches on. Faith winces and blinks, spots appearing in her vision from the sudden light, but she can see Elizabeth now. She's sitting up in bed, the sheets drawn up to her collarbones. It reminds Faith that she is also naked, but she really can't be bothered to care right now. Elizabeth has already seen her body, had kissed the scar on her chest and the burn scar on her thigh, and Faith has never been the modest type anyway.

"E, my strength is gone," Faith says. She flexes her hands into fists at her side, testing, and they feel weak. Not the weapons they usually are. "I—I'm not...I'm not a demon. How is that possible?"

"I don't know," Elizabeth says, dropping the sheets and climbing out of bed. "Get dressed, we're going to wake up Abi."

They dress rapidly, side-by-side, in the clothes they'd worn the night before. Faith pushes a hand through her hair as they rush down the stairs, trying to keep it from falling over the shaved side.

Elizabeth moves fast through the house, and Faith finds herself gasping for breath trying to keep up.

It's been so long since she's felt normal.

Is this how every human feels? Is this how Elizabeth's friends feel when they follow her into combat? Lungs aching, muscles weak, hearts pounding with fear instead of adrenaline? Faith can't even imagine it. She can't understand how they live like this. She feels so weak.

"Faith," Elizabeth says, stopping abruptly at the bottom of the stairs. Faith almost runs into her back, tries to stop herself, and begins to fall, her supernatural balance gone. She has to clutch at Elizabeth's shoulder to keep herself up. Elizabeth doesn't seem to mind, or even notice; her head is turned, looking down the hallway towards the kitchen.