●●08:23 A.M. - Suzianna●●●
Her sisters followed after the Greythorne, leaving her alone with a comatose Linda Brown and her grandmother, Nazmiyya. The demigod had been irritable, suddenly impatient at the impending ritual to happen tomorrow.
"How is the demiplane for the ritual?" Nazmiyya asked, striding towards a cabinet drawer to take out a gilded blade.
"Already prepared. Although three of my sisters had not been able to… sacrifice their soul to the revival of the Great Matron," She gulped hesitantly, fearful of revealing her true feelings. "Their deaths still echoed through the chamber of time and space. Capturing Greythorne will give an energy equivalent to a High Priestess if we are short of it. I assure you, seer, everything is within the bounds of the ultimate plan."
She hummed indignantly, "Still, go down and check on our captives. It will not bode well for us if we have to take energy from our guests."
Suzianna nodded at the orders, barely resisting the urge to dessicate her. She kept her radiant smile until she had turned around the corner before blowing raspberries at the hag.
Suzianna was a goddess, alright, but even she was not above petty squabbles. The demigod had been obnoxious from the start of their centuries-long relationship, but it had been steadily getting worse since they knew of Linda carrying a female child.
She rode the elevator down to the basement after tapping her keypass on to the center of the keypad, which lets her gain access to the Basement button. After the fire the night before, her fellow sisters tightened up the security around the key places in the building and had even tapped into the contingencies they've placed centuries ago.
Mamu had summoned the Reapers that guards the gates of their part of the Underworld while Nazmiyya, surprisingly, appealed to the messengers of their brethren to hurry.
Anthony had also been bound in the basement, having seen the capture and enchantment put on his wife. Much to Suzianna's frustration, she agreed with the hag's decision to imprison Anthony as that would give her enough leeway to break him out and retreat from the apartment before Richard brings down hell upon her sisters.
The basement of the apartment building had also been refurbished, except that the sisters took extra care in its renovation. Its size had been greatly expanded, sparing no expense in hiring witches mastered in spatial studies and condemning demons into becoming lifeblood for the operation.
At the center of the basement was the Kesh circle, attuned to the divinity of the Great Matron, whereupon the sacrifices would be placed and essentially recharge her lost powers.
"This is where we die…" She muttered under her breath, shivering at the thought of nonexistence.
On the far-right of the basement laid four cells upon one of which Anthony was housed. Dressed in a silken robe he liked to wear before going to sleep, her lover was bruised and shivering on the corner of the cell.
As she inched closer, she couldn't help but feel pity and frustration at the lack of courage she was witnessing. The utter cowardice to face the reality of his situation was something she was not expecting from a man who once had been a pillar of her sanity.
Still, she loved the other facets of his personality–most of which she was blanking on. "My love," She whispered as she neared the cell. "Wake up, Anthony. It's me."
Anthony was startled awake, shivering in the tiny corner of the cell. "W-Suzie? Oh, my god." His drool sprayed everywhere as he crawled towards Suzianna desperately.
Scratches adorned his torn jeans and shirt, bruises marking points in his skin where her sisters had tortured him. She reached her hand through the bars and caressed his wet hair, and he fell into her hands like a puppy.
She hushed him gently, "It's alright, now, darling. I'm here. I'm going to get you out."
Tracing the length of the main bar, her fingers came across the padlock which clicked and became ajar upon contact. Only she and her sisters were able to lock and unlock the cells, which meant that once her sisters knew that Anthony was missing, they would most likely suspect her.
She carried him easily, letting his frail body fall against her form. She began trudging towards the only exit in the door, careful not to disturb the sleeping wardens atop the pillar at the center of the ritual circle.
Only her sister, Mamu, could summon them, but she knew of the secondary switches hidden within the basement. Just as they crossed the murals that depict the century-long hardships the Sassuratu had endured for this moment, Anthony awoke from his fearful slumber.
"Where… are we… going?" He asked, barely able to keep his eyes open.
"Away from here, my love. At last, away from here." She responded by pouring her heart out. "You and me and Joseff, maybe."
"W-what do you mean?" Anthony asked.
She cupped his cheeks lovingly as a tear rolled down her right eye. "My sisters had enacted a plan to kill Linda and use your unborn child as the vessel for our mother's return. A plan that would need the energy inside of our bodies. It would kill us, my love."
"H-how could you… do that?" Anthony seemed to have awoken from his disoriented phase, tearing away from her in anger. Weak as he was, his body collapsed into the ground immediately.
"Anthony!" She exclaimed and tried to help him up, but the man pushed her away. "You have to understand that for the longest time, I was like my sisters. I knew that it was my duty and purpose to become one with the Great Matron and–and I was willing to die with them, but then… then I met you. You made me realize that there's other things in life that matter more than the plan. I fell in love with you."
"Y-you love me?" Anthony threw out a scoff of disbelief. "B-but you've always known that this was nothing but–"
"Enough. She will die, Anthony. That is her purpose." She growled, "Joseff is already safe. We need only to remove the shackles that bind your soul into this place and then we can leave this forsaken country."
"My wife–"
"Linda is going to die and I will too, Anthony." Her voice turned distraught, not expecting the man's resistance. "Don't you get it? We are part of the Great Matron, her power divided into seven beings before her death. Batteries, that's what we are. Her revival means death to us all and I don't–I don't want to die, Anthony. Not when I have someone to live for."
Anthony broke free of her grasp and yelled hysterically, "Are you insane? I have a wife. You're just a fucking mistress. Hell, I'm not even fucking you anymore. I don't fucking love you. You're just a ball–"
Anger swole within her heart as she moves with the speed of sound, appearing before Anthony and driving her fist into his stomach. Anthony was blown away by the punch, rolling farther down before vomiting out what was left of his stomach's contents.
"W-what are–" Before he could finish his sentence, Suzianna was already upon him and placed her hand around his neck.
"You worthless piece of shit." She whispered into his ears, tightening her grip.
She had done the impossible, betrayed her sister and fed them to the wolves. For what exactly? For this miserable little man who couldn't keep his dick in his pants for more than forty-eight hours without sticking it into a hole?
What was she thinking? The realization had just hit her. It wasn't that she was in love with him so much that she wanted to live. No, it was that she wanted to live. Period.
Nothing else mattered in life than being there to exist. Anthony was just a keepsake of her old life and the man who had kept her sane during the early days of her rebellion.
"I don't need you." She whispered breathily, more to herself than to him. "The plan will still work even if you're dead–my end of the bargain, at least."
Footsteps rang behind her, which caused Anthony to panic. She was quick to cover his mouth, clamping down on his lips as she turned towards the incomers.
"Sisters." She greeted Mamu and Ninsar, who were carrying an unknown figure by its legs. "What brings you here?"
"What is this, sister? An early morning tryst with the sow?" A gentle laugh was always in Mamu's throat as they regarded Anthony with pity.
"No, sister. Just reminding him of what we're going to do with his family." She cackled, clenching the hand that gripped Anthony's cheeks. "Have you captured the Greythorne Heir?"
"We have." Ninsar threw the beaten-up figure into the ground, a bloodied Richard tumbling across the concrete floor. "He did well, even when trapped and outnumbered. Shame that he was not the sow we had chosen."
"Still, his energy will suffice to replace the untimely deaths of our sisters," Mamu said, ever the optimist.
Ninsar grabbed Richard's foot and began dragging him towards the center, "Don't play with the sow, sister. Place him back in his–"
"Masters!" A gnarly creature dropped down from the ceiling, frightening Anthony as he babbled incoherently. "Forgive my intrusion."
"What is it?" Asked Suzianna, tilting her head in fake confusion.
The creature, made of bones and thin flesh, groaned as it scraped the ground into a bow. "Joseff and Linda Brown are missing from the tower."