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Dan spends his time in captivity finding out what it might have been like if the Overlook had been a medieval dungeon run by fucking goblins. He feels precisely as helpless as he had in the worst of it there, at the beginning, when he's aware of everything. They beat him, of course, because it's a goblin dungeon, and one of them is sneering about tenderized meat. His coat and flannel and t-shirt are taken, though he's left with his jeans and boots. Something about foot-rot, they say. Not very appetizing.

He tries to frighten them, spits more of that strange language at them, and it earns him a cell of his very own, it seems. Now, this has nothing on the Overlook, cramped and slightly wet and cold; he's held to the wall with an honest to god chain, and all he can see from the gaps in the bars is a passageway, and a door on the other side, and fire beyond that door.

Dan thinks he might honestly have been dragged to hell.

The shining is of no use; all he feels is the terror and despair and angry helplessness of others in other cells. And then the dark waves again, which drag him down for hours at a time, and leave him shaking and gagging against his bonds.

He can't think, he can't think for all of the noise of everyone else's thoughts. Oh, but he tries. He thinks of Abra's light shining so brightly, that even across worlds, it might give him something to see by, he thinks of his mother fighting with everything to keep them alive. He thinks of the moment when he'd thought he was safe, his arms around Marcus and Marcus holding him so tight, the warmth of his breath, the little flicker of light kindling in Dan's chest.

He tries to get it back.

He's just so cold, and it's so loud inside his head.

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It's still bloody cold out there and a good gust of wind buffets against them as Trass nudges open an outer door with his nose, cautiously at first, then with more confidence when he sees the way is clear. Today, more than he ever has before, Marcus can see all the ways in which this wolf has been bred for war. He follows close behind, still keeping a tight hold on both his rosary and Dan.

His mind is going a mile a minute, taking everything into account, making sure he's not missing anything. One step at a time, of course, but Marcus is trying to work one step ahead of that, planning what they do next. Dan needs care, that much is clear, he's in rough shape, and while Marcus wants to return to the castle and help where he can, he knows he can't simply leave Dan in the truck or leave Kat at the house to worry.

It should have been overwhelming, but Marcus has always been good under pressure and this is no different. Even with an injury, as he leads them toward the truck, his mind feels clear and focused. He has a plan. It isn't perfect, but it will do in this instance.

Opening the passenger side door, he and Salem help Dan inside, then Marcus turns and kneels carefully by Trass. This is the closest he's felt to Matthias since he disappeared and he carefully holds the wolf's muzzle in his hands, looking into his yellow eyes. "If you stay here, you have to be safe," he says. "It would kill me to lose you, too."

Trass, for his part, nuzzles into Marcus's hands, then pulls back and sneezes before he disappears into the castle once more.

Edited 2019-06-13 14:32 (UTC)

By the time Marcus turns around again, there's a cat-shaped Salem sitting calmly on Dan's lap, and Dan slumped over slightly-- but he looks awake and aware. Enough so, at least, that there doesn't seem to be immediate danger.

Dan waits, vaguely aware but not searching, of the importance of what's being said to the wolf. It's clear neither Trass nor Salem are the pets they would appear to be, at first glance. It's a comforting thought, as is the knowledge that Marcus will come get into the truck, and that he will let Dan be near him.

The corner of his mouth pulls up as he realizes this is something-- special.

Marcus watches after Trass for a moment, then gets into the truck on the other side, pulling the door closed and turning the key. He prays the vehicle will start again, knowing he's already pushed his luck with the older truck, but the engine turns over and roars to life in a sudden lull in the wind.

It's louder than Marcus realized.

As he had approached, the wind had covered the sound, but now it draws a few of the goblins out from the castle. Marcus catches sight of Trass as he pounces on one, shaking it in his jaws, but the others rush for the truck.

"Hold on," he warns Dan, wishing he'd had more time, wishing he had reached over and helped Dan get his seat belt on. But there is no more time and he throws the truck into gear and jams his foot down on the accelerator. The truck jumps forward, striking one goblin, throwing it in a wide arc back toward the castle as Marcus turns the truck around to get back down the mountain.

Dan jolts a little bit, and is able to toss out an arm to the dashboard to keep himself and Salem from smashing against it. He just holds on, his trust fully in Marcus and Marcus's ability to get them to safety. It's not quite the shining, it's got more to do with faith in another person.

"We're okay," he assures Marcus. "I just need to--"

Salem meows at him, and he looks from the cat to Marcus. "Do you understand him? I get the sense he's used to a conversation," he says, a bit weakly, and after the world whirls around him dizzily, he gives in and lets himself tip, until he's barely resting his head on the outside of Marcus's thigh.

He can feel the cat crawling around on him as he closes his eyes.

Another goblin tries to clamber up onto the truck, but Trass is there suddenly, snapping his jaws tight around the thing's leg and yanking it back, then Marcus is leaving them all behind in the whirling snow. He hates leaving Trass, but knows, too, that the wolf will take care of people in a way Marcus can't right now. He'll be safe. He'll come back.

"Sabrina understands him," he tells Dan as they bump down the mountain. Now that they're out of range, he slows the truck a little, then reaches down to touch Dan's forehead with the back of his hand. He's checking for fever, just in case, but Dan's skin is cool to the touch, which is a bit of a relief. "I don't generally, but he reluctantly spells things out for me in Scrabble tiles."

He cracks a little smile, born of his relief at having gotten them out without any further damage. A glance at Salem is almost playful. "I was thinking of getting him a tablet. He can learn to text me when he needs something."

"That's right, I bet she does," Dan says softly, and the further they get from the mountain, the more the bone-deep tension seeps away. He's exhausted, and he doesn't really want to think; he wants a quiet, safe place like he's never wanted it before.

"They have all sorts of games for cats on those," he adds, and when it seems that he's allowed the comfort of staying exactly where he is, he lets his eyes close. "Used to try and get Azzie to play them at the hospice. We were a team, though I couldn't talk to him. He always let me know, though."

He shifts, his cheek rubbing a bit against Marcus's thigh. "Back in that-- the dungeon, I guess, if we're being technical, there were people dying. I couldn't have saved them, but I could have helped them."

It's a true testament to how tired he is, how quickly the adrenaline of the escape is draining out of him, that Marcus doesn't dwell on Dan's head resting against his thigh. It's clear Dan is tired and there's only so much space in the cab of the truck, so it only makes sense, of course, that they'd be this close. Marcus's real focus is getting them back and then seeing what they can do about Dan's neck, the other wounds he's sustained. Kat will be able to help him with that and when he thinks of her again, he reaches for his cell phone and hits his speed dial for her number.

The call doesn't connect and he sighs and drops the phone into the cup holder near the gear shift.

"You can't help everyone," he says softly, not quite knowing what Dan means that he could have helped them without saving them. "I know that's hardly a comfort and I know... I know better than a lot of people what it feels like to think you've failed someone, but you were chained up, Dan. We're lucky to have gotten you out of there."

The rumble of the motor and the purr of the cat, the warmth of Marcus under his cheek-- Dan tries to keep himself awake. "Part of me wondered for a while, if they knew, and that was why I was kept apart. If they wanted to make sure anyone they killed died in the most horror imaginable. Just like Rose, just like the True Knot. If it was steam they wanted, maybe I could have stopped that."

Maybe, he thinks, feeling a bit delirious still, that was why he had to face Rose in the first place. When it came to death, he played opposite her.

"The shining is more than ghosts and premonitions," he says softly. "I used it at the hospice, to help them as they died. It was just going to sleep. Going to sleep is easy. It doesn't hurt." He sounds terribly drowsy himself. "I'm sorry. I sound insane. I know."

Marcus doesn't know who Rose is or what the True Knot might be, but he lets Dan speak, lets the words wash over him as he drives the rest of the way down the mountain and then turns the truck down the road that will lead back to his place. Whatever and whoever they are, they sound awful. Like they prey on people much as the demons did and while Marcus and Dan haven't discussed their respective pasts in any depth just yet, he's beginning to get a sense they have some strong similarities.

"You don't," he says easily when Dan says he sounds mad. "Not at all. You sound..."

Like someone who cares. He sounds compassionate and kind, the sort of person this world needs. He sounds like he's done the opposite of what Marcus has done. Dan brings peace to those in their final moments and Marcus comes blazing in, tearing them away from those final moments, refusing to let them go, refusing to let the demons take them. The situations are different, of course, but he can see the two sides of a single coin.

"You sound humane," he settles on saying. "People need that."

"When you see what happens when some dies in pain like that, you can't-- you can't not offer something you have," Dan says, and yes, he might qualify as partially asleep, but it lets him speak more freely. "You wouldn't, you saved people with everything you had. You came for me, maybe that's a little more than basic humanity. I hope."

He doesn't feel like fumbling around for how far away they are, so he just falls quiet for the next while.

"I should have left when the snow and the darkness came."

He bites off the rest, realizing he's perhaps sounding a bit like an affectionate drunk. And maybe he is, he's just not loaded up with booze at the moment. He really should have known better, than to stay alone in the snow.

"S'alright now," Marcus says easily. He almost says that Dan is where he ought to be now, realizes that would be far overstepping and instead just smiles down at him for a moment. They're almost there and it's just a few more icy turns before he's pulling into the long driveway that leads up to the house. He hasn't been able to get through to Kat on his cell, probably due to the wind and the snow, but he knows she'll be waiting for him, knows she'll see the truck as he pulls in and flashes the headlights once to let her know he's here and he's okay.

Once he has the truck turned off, he goes around to Dan's side and opens the door, reaching in to help him.

"C'mon now," he says. "Kat and I can get you patched up and get you into a warm bed. I'm not much of a cook, but I think I can manage some tea and soup to get you properly warm."

Behind him the door opens and he knows Kat is there waiting for them.

Sitting and waiting and not being able to do anything has never been Kat's strong suit. Though at least there isn't anything happening just on the other side of a door this time, it reminds her of both of Casey's exorcisms, knowing that there was something terribly wrong and nothing she could do about it. If she could, she'd have gone up there with Marcus without hesitation. She'd be too much of a liability walking into that kind of danger, though, not equipped enough to defend herself or make a run for it if need be. It wouldn't be worth the risk of him having to rescue her, too.

At least she knows she's safe in the house. The same can't be said for the friends she hasn't been able to reach, something that she first blamed on shitty cell reception, given everything, but is pretty sure now is something else instead. Knowing that certainly doesn't help as she tries to keep herself distracted, waiting for Marcus to come back, hoping he actually does.

When she hears the truck pull up, she jumps to her feet a bit more quickly than she should, not caring much about that as she makes her way over to the door and flings it open. "Hey," she says on a rush of an exhale, standing aside to hold the door for the pair of them. "Shit, I'm glad you guys got here okay."

Salem darts in the door ahead of them, mrrowing into the house as if he's got something to declare.

Dan is much slower, trying to hold himself up without putting too much stain on Marcus's injuries. But his side is beginning to hurt deeply, and he's honestly not sure what all might be injured. "You're not much better off than me," he tells Marcus, but his tone is gentle. "I'd be upset if you did damage to yourself looking out for me. It's bad enough I managed to--" He cuts off, and gives Kat a weary, frayed expression that does have the impression of where a smile might have been.

"Hey," he greets in response. "Okay is relative, but we'll live." He glances sidelong at Marcus, warm and soft despite the horrors of earlier. "It was a hell of a rescue."

"Don't listen to him, I only picked a lock," Marcus answers when they reach Kat. He reaches out as they enter the house, squeezing her upper arm gently, relieved to find her safe. He trusts the magic Sabrina has used to keep the house out of harm's way, it's the only reason he had been able to leave Kat behind at all, but even so, it's a relief to be back and to see her for himself. To see she's still here and unharmed and hasn't been snatched away under his nose as well.

Even with his injury, he'd have gone back in a second were that the case.

"We're going to need your help, duck," he says, guiding Dan over to the closest chair. "One of those bastards hit my knee pretty hard, but I'm mostly worried about Dan's throat. Can you grab some fresh clothes for him out of my drawers? I'll get some water and a cloth."

He'll need to get himself out of his jeans, too, before his knee swells too much, but that can wait. He looks at Dan, his expression almost stern, and says, "You stay right here."

"You're both in one piece, I'll take it," Kat says with a thin, grim little smile. Nothing about this shit is really very okay at all, but at least they're here. They didn't get stuck up there; the truck didn't flip over on icy roads and leave them both hurt and stuck in the cold. It's probably all the more reason why it's better she didn't try to go up the mountain with Marcus — the drive might well have made her too jumpy — but there's no sense in thinking about any of that now. He and Dan are both here, and there are things for her to do, ways she can help.

Nodding, she starts towards Marcus's room, a bit slower without the support of her cane but wanting her hands free. "I'll get them," she adds. "And get ice for yourself, too, you'll need it." He'd know if there were something seriously wrong, she thinks, but she's been around the block with knee injuries, and she won't have him take this too lightly.

Disappearing into the bedroom, she emerges a few moments later with a change of clothes, carrying them over to Dan. "Can I get anything else? Tea, water?"

Dan lets himself be settled into a chair without fuss. There's a moment while Marcus and Kat converse where he's staring up at the ceiling curiously, but he's got himself together when attention turns back to him.

"I have no plans to be anywhere else," he tells Marcus, and if it's a little too open, he thinks that could be attributed to trauma. "You'll sit too, when you come back?"

He listens to the sounds of them moving through the house, and with all of the darkness and horror that had been in him and around him back in that dungeon, even the footsteps and rustling about soothes him. His eyes close, and then open again for Kat.

"Tea, if you wouldn't mind," he answers, with a small smile. "Thank you."

Kat is right, he needs ice, he needs to sit, but still he gets the water and the cloth and sets them near Dan before he disappears toward the bedroom himself. He passes Kat in the hall, giving her a tired, gentle smile as they move past one another. In the bedroom, he quickly strips out his jeans, wincing at the sight of his knee and the purpling bruise that's spreading downward.

He can ignore it for now, however, and he pulls on a pair of loose sweat pants, then limps back to where he's left Dan. It's a relief to have Kat here with him, both because he knows he needs her help and because it gives him a reason to keep himself together. With an audience, it's a bit easier to convince himself he would have pulled this daring rescue for anyone, even though he knows that isn't true. He wouldn't have left Kat alone here for just anyone. She's a priority in his life. It takes some special kind of connection for him to have left her behind, even knowing she was protected by Sabrina's magic.

"You're a blessing," he says to Kat as he sits and pulls his chair closer to Dan. Dipping the cloth into the warm water, he wrings it out, then offers it to Dan to clean off his face. Reaching forward once his hands are free, he unzips his coat, now on Dan's shoulders, to look at the raw skin of his neck.

"I'm just glad I can help," Kat says, shoulders lifting a little. It's truer than she would know how to say, at least on the spot like this, and now doesn't seem like the time to derail things with talk of her need to feel useful anyway. Even small, menial tasks are something, and a hell of a lot better than just sitting around, unable to do anything but wait. She wishes more than she can say that she could have gone up the mountain with Marcus, but she knows it wouldn't have been sensible. But neither would it be for these two, both clearly in rough shape, to handle all of this themselves.

Marcus is basically family, anyway. Whatever she thought of him when she first met him, she knows better now, and with all he's done for her, there's not much she wouldn't do for him in turn.

Making her way into the kitchen, she fills the kettle with enough water for all of them and sets it to boil, then retrieves three mugs from the cupboard. With that taken care of, she crosses to the freezer next, putting ice cubes in a plastic bag and glancing pointedly over her shoulder at Marcus as she does. It probably isn't a serious injury — he would probably know if it were — but she isn't about to let him ignore it. He might be focused on taking care of Dan, but if that's the case, she'll just have to take care of him.

She exhales slowly. "I take it it's pretty fucked up there."

Dan's still shaken, still fading in and out a little bit. All of it is a bit more like his time escaping the Overlook than he'd like to admit.

At least this place feels safe and warm instead of sterile and unfamiliar like the hospital. Kat is a vast improvement on the army of adults who had gathered him up while they waited to see if his mother would live. And Marcus-- Dan's not sure, just that he matters so much it's a bit boggling.

"It's pretty fucked up," he agrees quietly, cleaning his face with the wet cloth and then scowling at the blood and... grime, he hopes it's grime. He thinks some of it might be ash.

Tipping his head back slightly, he gives himself over to Marcus's ministrations. "They had wrist shackles," he mutters quietly. "They were just being dicks."

"Thanks, duck," Marcus says when Kat brings over the ice. He knows he needs it, he can already feel his knee swelling further and he'd like to prevent that from going too far if he can. A part of him doesn't want to tell her, only because he wants to be able to protect her from things, but he knows that's utterly foolish. After Casey and Angela, he knows Kat has seen some of the most horrible things anyone can possibly see, and then it had only gotten worse with Betty. What's happening at Kagura isn't going to traumatize her.

"It is bad," he says as he settles the ice on his outstretched knee, then takes a better look at Dan's throat. "There were cells all over, although most of the ones I could see were empty. They were keeping Dan apart from the others for some reason. Had a bloody shackle around his throat."

He wipes away some of the blood, then looks over at Kat again. "Trassel stayed up there. I think he wanted to kill a few more of those creatures."

"Jesus," Kat says, then exhales through her teeth. It doesn't entirely surprise her to hear — she'd expected it to be bad — but it still sounds unsettling to say the least, making her grateful for the cabin and its protections all over again. Bum knee or no, she's not one to go down without a fight, but she still wouldn't want to be stuck in an apartment, not knowing whether or not anything might be able to get in. They'll be safe here, all of them. She might not know Dan well, but the fact that he means so much to Marcus goes a long way for her. There's no one she trusts more, strange as that is when she didn't trust him at all, at first.

Knowing the water in the kettle will be ready soon, she starts back towards the kitchen again, glancing over at the two of them as she does. "Do we even know what they're trying to do?"

There's something infinitely relaxing about being tended to this way, by Marcus, that starts to drain the tension from him. Dan lets his eyes close, confident that the sounds around him and the gentle touch will keep him present, keep him here.

"They kept me separate, I think, because I was too much of a risk in terms of... information. And communication. There was a woman there I tried to talk to, like a bright light." He frowns as he makes himself comb through what he'd picked up, what he's fairly certain is true. "What other prisoners I could sense, a lot of them had-- I guess, a twinkle. There was talk about a dead unicorn."

He knows, then.

"They were looking for other people who had a certain quality, like the unicorn."

Marcus has gleaned enough about the shining from Dan to have a general idea what he's talking about, and he knows Dan and Kat have met before this, so he thinks she knows enough to understand what he's getting at, too. All the people who were taken have something special. Something these creatures clearly don't like.

"There was a fire in another room," he says to Kat, not quite looking at Dan as he cleans his neck. "It looked almost like a kitchen. Like they were preparing a meal."

He doesn't want to think about what that might mean. About what it could have meant for Dan if he hadn't found him. What it might still mean for others.

As vague a description as it might be, hearing that, Kat thinks she gets it. Of course, there's a chance that it's the faltering electricity getting in the way of her contacting her friends, but with the time that's passed, she doesn't think so. And if that's the case, then it's not hard to see why those people would have been among those taken. Worrying at her lower lip, she pours the water into the mugs she's set out for tea. Carrying them over will take two trips, but she can come back for her own; it'll need time to cool anyway.

"So it's not random," she says slowly, carefully. "The people they're taking, it's for a reason." She's slow-going as she brings two cups back over to Marcus and Dan, not wanting to spill hot water on herself or overexert herself and lose her balance. "I'm worried about some friends."

"I don't think it's random," Dan agrees, "and it might explain why there was such-- such horror, thick like smoke in the air. If the goal is to smash light and purity, to consume it."

He has to snort.

"I'm not pure, but the shine was probably attractive."

He watches Kat as best he can. "I might be able to-- when my mind has had a chance to settle, it works best if I have something of theirs, but pictures could help. Names. There are a lot more ghosts out in the snow, they talk."

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