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Zoe looked at her students and friends sitting in the dining hall with grim looks on their faces. “I get it. You all were looking forward to the trick or treaters and the party in the garden. The virus is resurging so we have to adapt.”
“Scary movies in the common rooms?” one student offered with a dull voice. “OOoooOoo,” came from the other side of the room.
Zoe looked at her friend and Supreme and smiled. “I may have a slightly better scare to offer but it is a bit risky.”
Madison chuckled from where she sat on a chair, pretending not to give a shit about anything. “You are not having Queenie raise zombies so we can have a battle in the yard are you?” She raised a glass of bourbon and smiled. “Little Fear of the Walking Dead for the junior members here?”
Cordelia placed a small peacock colored bottle on the table. “This potion goes deep down in you to raise up your greatest fear. Face it and become stronger.”
“Or have a heart attack and die,” Madison countered.
Misty chuckled from the pile of pillows some of the girls had gathered when this was going to be a party room. “I’ll skip it and resurrect the heart attacks. I’m not worried ‘bout you Madison. You are too well pickled to die again.”
“Har har har,” Madison responded grimly.
“Move over Misty. If I’m facing my fears, I want to be comfortable.” Delia lowered herself into the pillows.
Zoe took out a big bottle of Hawaiian punch and a stack of paper cups. She started pouring. “So, we will need a couple dozen cups with all of you students. I suggest we spread out so we have room for running if we get too scared.” She poured out the last of the cups. Picking up a few, she started passing out cups as others giggled and grabbed their own.
The screams started soon after the first drink. Little knots of women formed, guiding one another past their fears. Relieved laughter came from various points as fears were faced and put down. Cordelia looked at Misty. “Keep my heart beating,” she joked.
Misty smiled. “My pleasure Delia. Bottoms up.”
Cordelia drank the Fear and grimaced. “Hawaiian Punch was not the best choice.”
Delia took a breath and looked around. She frowned as she looked around again. The room had become silent. She was alone. Standing, she walked through the school. Pools of blood were at intervals throughout her silent tour. She stopped at the intersection before the greenhouse. A different face reflected from the mirror there. “:Sorry Charlie,” Fiona said as she threw back a single blend. “I am not your worst fear deep down. I’m the fear your conscious mind uses to keep you from coming within a country mile of your worst fear.” She gave a smile and a wink and the face slowly faded to Cordelia’s own. Delia’s brow creased and she turned down the hall to the greenhouse. Her steps were slow as she walked among the dead women piled on either side of the corridor. She swallowed hard as she identified each. Friends, students. So many in the hall. All of them, save one. She looked again for the one and realized that it was the one unbearable loss that she was facing. Her breathing grew ragged and she opened the greenhouse. She screamed.
Her arms went around the rags of skin and shattered bones that roughly formed those well known shoulders. “Don’t die, don’t die, don’t die.” She tried to breathe life back into this body. She was shaking. She could feel those outside the vision touching her and trying to help her through her fear. She looked at the hair tangled and red from blood and the one open eye. “I’m afraid to lose you and I am afraid to have you in my life the way you are meant to be,” she whispered.
She realized that what she needed was to leave the balance. Her fears would battle back and forth using fear of becoming her mother as fulcrum to shift back and forth. She knew that this hell could exist as long as she failed to pick a side. She chose and suddenly there was calm and she was kneeling in the pillow pile. She nodded to Zoe, Misty and the others around. Her hand caught Misty’s elbow as the rest moved through the room.
Misty looked at her. “You overcame your fear kinda fast.”
“Once I acknowledged it and made a choice between the fears, I was free.” Delia smiled. “How are the others?”
“No heart attacks. A lotta funky fears. Love to hear ‘bout yours.” Misty chuckled and watched as a nearby young woman described a fearful shark she just eviscerated from the inside. “Wow. We got some interestin’ students this season.”
Delia nodded. “I need you to know something Misty.”
Misty turned back toward her. “What’s that Delia? Over a fear of zombie spiders?” she teased.
“I love you and need you with me.”
Misty stared at her for a long moment. “What?” she asked breathlessly in shock.
“I love you and need you with me and you really need to tell me if you feel the same...or don’t,” Delia finished in a whisper.
Misty leaned in and captured Cordelia's lips. The kiss was, at first, gentle, loving. It soon grew to a kiss of ferocious, too long denied hunger.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” came from across the room where Madison was sitting up. “Get a fucking room already.” She yelped as Zoe kicked her shin. “Don’t make me set your ass on fire.”
“Don’t make me come up with a diabolical way to get you over your rudeness,” Zoe responded. She looked at Misty and Delia. “About fucking time. You two go on. We got the party.”
“Party,” Madison snorted. “Drink the Koolaid and get the shit scared out of you.”
“Party comes when we start the real drinking,” Zoe informed her as she made shooing gestures with her hands.
The music was just starting as the two women reached the top of the stairs. Delia turned and looked at Misty. “I have been wanting... and scared of this for so long.”
Misty chuckled. “Ain’t been so long since you took my hand in the foyer Miss Delia.” She leaned in and kissed the Supreme tenderly.
Cordelia stroked the swamp witch’s hair back as her lips brushed Misty’s again. “Feel like I’ve known you forever.”
“Then you got a lot of makin’ up to do for bein’ such a big pussy.” Misty’s knuckle slid down Delia’s cheek.
Chuckling, Cordelia guided her love back to her room. She turned on a light and then turned to look at Misty.
“What?”
Cordelia slid fingers down Misty’s body from cheek to hip. She smiled as Misty let out a breathy sigh and shivered her delight. She slid her hands up to pull the swamp witch’s shirt up and over the wild hair. She dropped it as she leaned forward to kiss the blonde’s shoulders. Her fingers trailed over the taller woman’s breasts. “So beautiful,” she whispered.
Misty surged forward to capture Delia’s lips in a hungry and devouring kiss. The clothes that came off so slowly before were now being ripped away. Delia pressed her naked lover against the wall. She pulled back and looked at her with a sense of fierce possession. Now that she was past her fear, the Supreme would not be turning her back on what was her’s again.
Misty gasped as Cordelia's lips left hers to trail down her throat. As sharp teeth drew over her skin, the swamp witch felt fingers press her mound. Her chin came up to give Delia all the space she needed to explore as her legs spread, the air cooling the wetness already gathering there for her lover. Hot fingers spread her folds and Misty surrendered herself to a touch by turns gentle and demanding.
Cordelia whispered her love to Misty as she pressed her fingers to her lover. She slid through the slick heat and gave herself permission to let go of being Supreme, let go of all the walls she put up, the fear she hid behind and just make love to the one right person in her life. She kissed Misty and made love to her until neither of them could stand.