Wicked | Ambrose Spellman and Nicholas Scratch [2]

15 | the letter

fifteen
the letter.

"OH, LOVE, YOU'VE let your breakfast go cold," Hilda tells Sabrina the next day when she comes down for breakfast late. Selene is sitting in her usual seat next to Ambrose, Hilda's eating, and Zelda's smoking a cigarette while reading the newspaper.

"Sorry, Aunt Hilda," Sabrina apologizes, taking her seat before hastily informing them about last night. "But the Dark Lord visited me last night. Called on me to do His... bidding."

At this, Selene drops her fork onto her plate. The other three also stop and gape at Sabrina.

"The Dark Lord was in our house?" Zelda questions, setting her newspaper down. "And I slept through His visit? What He must think of us."

"I thought I could smell brimstone from under the floorboards," Ambrose remarks, as Selene begins chewing on her lip, wondering what the He wants Sabrina to do. But before she can ask, Zelda does it.

"What did He want?"

"It was strange," Sabrina begins picking at her food as Selene thinks back to what the Dark Lord asked her to do—and how guilty she'd felt after she did it. "He asked me to-"

"No, never mind," Zelda cuts her niece off. "Whatever devotion He asked you to perform, it is a sacred covenant between you and the Dark Lord. I shall not be the reason you break it."

"Did He come to you guys?" Sabrina asks out of curiosity as Selene and Ambrose both tense up shamefully. He had asked them both to do terrible things, and they did it because they knew the consequences would be terrible if they hadn't. "Are you signed the Book of the Beast? And ask you to... do things?"

"Not really," Hilda shakes her head, embarrassed as to how she reacted when the Dark Lord asked her to do something.

"Still waiting," Ambrose lies as Selene peaks at him curiously. She doesn't know what he did, but she knows how his voice cracks when he lies. And it just happened.

"He did, actually," Selene admits, avoiding making eye contact with any of the Spellman's. "But I don't wanna talk about it."

"These tasks that He asks some of His followers to perform from time to time, they are gestures that demonstrate, that prove one's dedication to the Path of Night," Zelda explains, as Ambrose rubs Selene's back gently in an attempt to get her to relax.

"What if I don't wanna do what He's asked of me?" Sabrina continues as Selene snaps her head up towards her.

"You don't really have a choice," the redhead huffs, wishing she could take hers back. "Unless He asked you to do something that'll get you sent to jail."

"Even then, you must do as He asks or suffer the consequences," Zelda adds, hoping Sabrina just does what he asks. Selene also wishes this, knowing Sabrina can't just ignore the Dark Lord's demands. "Those who resist Him risk bad things happening to them and those around them."

"The evil has a way of spreading very quickly," Hilda pipes up as Selene leans into Ambrose, thinking about what she'd done.

"Deny the Dark Lord at your peril, Sabrina," Zelda frowns as Sabrina gets up and leaves, hopefully to do what the Dark Lord asked of her.

But Selene's not surprised when Sabrina doesn't do as told. She decides to resist the Dark Lord, so it doesn't surprise her when Nick portals Sabrina home, choking on an apple. Selene removes the apple before her friend passes out. She then waits patiently for Sabrina to wake up, and when she does, she goes to Ambrose's room.

"I need the Dark Lord to give me some space," Sabrina demands as Selene takes a seat on the edge of Ambrose's bed.

"I see," he nods, thinking of ways to help his cousin. "In other words, you're looking for talismans to ward off the Dark Lord."

"Yes," the Spellman girl replies simply. "Until I find a way out of this moral quandary."

"Eat raw onions," Ambrose suggests as his girlfriend scrunches her nose at the thought of eating onions. She hates them. "He doesn't like raw onions, because they make Him cry. He doesn't like to cry. The last time the Dark Lord cried, according to the passion plays, was when He fell from grace. And nail horseshoes above your doors and windows."

"What did He ask you to do?" Sabrina questions Selene abruptly. Her and Ambrose have been both dying to know since Selene was acting oddly at breakfast this morning.

Selene sighs, sitting back on the bed before she closes her eyes, thinking back to what she did. "Last year, the Dark Lord asked me to bring my aunt back to life."

Both Spellman's mouths fall open, not expecting her to say that. "My aunt, Willow, was kind for as long as I'd known her, but I've heard the stories about her. She was reckless and impulsive. And a monster. She had reformed herself for my cousin's sakes, but years later, she had a relapse. It got so bad that my father had to kill her. But I thought the Dark Lord must've had a reason to want her alive, so I was going to do it. I had dug up her body, and was ready to make a blood sacrifice to bring her back. The Dark Lord stopped me at the last minute though. I think He just wanted to know that I'd bring back such a terrible person just to prove my loyalty to Him. And I know I didn't do it, but the fact that I was willing to- I don't know, it makes me feel like I'm just as bad as she was."

"Well, what He asked me to do is nowhere near as bad as that," Sabrina remarks as Ambrose sits down next to his girlfriend. "Uh- I'm gonna go."

With that, Sabrina excuses herself. Ambrose moves so that he's laying parallel to Selene, and gently brushes a piece of red hair out of her face. "I lied earlier. The Dark Lord- He asked me to send a letter. One short, innocent letter, to... to an old classmate of mine from Oxford. A boy who had a crush on me, though he never acted on it. Anyway, we graduate, and one day, years after Oxford, years after my baptism, the Dark Lord asked me to write a letter to the boy, who was now a man with a wife and two children."

"What'd the letter say?" Selene whispers, tears pooling in her eyes.

"I'd rather not say," he admits, kissing her on the forehead gently. "The point is, it's not like either of us had much of a choice."

UNEDITED