A Happy Reunion
3 days. You get 3 days relief to find out how many rules have changed from Caliborn and Calliope before you hear knocking on the door.
“Jake? Jake open up.” Jade’s voice calls and you sprint to the door.
“Jade? Oh my god Jade!” You were grinning ear to ear as your hand reached the handle. Dirk had sprinted, or flashstepped whatever he called it, and pulled your hand away.
“Don’t be an idiot Jake, that’s not Jade.” There’s a bit more cruelty in the word then you think he meant to, old habits of not being nice to each other you suppose. Dirk takes a deep breath. “Sorry.” He mumbles. “Jade wouldn’t know where we are, it’s not Jade.” He tells you.
“You mean…?” You don’t finish the sentence, just gulp as Dirk nods.
“Aw, you’re no fun.” You hear the demons voice. There’s a laughter in his tone, and cruelty. The knocking starts up again.
It doesn’t stop for 2 whole days. A constant, loud knocking that echoes everywhere in the house. Sometimes the demon whines like a little boy, sometimes he screams and shouts like the demon he is, sometimes he steals the voices of your siblings. Too many times he tells you things he claims he did to them. At some point he tells you all about the multiple times he’s killed Dave, and Jane had to take Dirk’s clenched fists to try to keep him calm.
He changes his appearance as well, sometimes he’s the boy demon, sometimes he’s covered in blood; sometimes he looks like your siblings. Sometimes the neighbours can see him and they glare at the four of you through the windows.
Then, at some point on the 3rd day of his relentless knocking, it just stops. Everything goes quiet.
“What’s happening?” You ask, worriedly, your eyes darting around everywhere.
“I don’t know.” Jane admits.
“Could the protections be failing?” Dirk asks.
“Maybe… I mean they shouldn’t be but we haven’t been able to go out and check and redo ‘em.” Roxy frowns, she pulls up her phone and begins to message someone. You assume she’s messaging Calliope. “And even if they are, he can’t enter the house without one of us opening the door, that rule hasn’t changed.” She adds.
“How can we be so sure it didn’t change just now?” You mumble, not quite wrapping your head around this whole rule changing thing just yet. Before anyone can answer there’s a knock at the door and you jump.
“Hello?” Dave’s voice is the one that calls and you see Dirk tense up.
“Quite the poetry Dave, I believe it masterfully summed up everything.” This time you hear Rose and you frown. The demons never done this before.
“We could just try the door handle.” Jade. That’s Jade’s voice. You hear yourself whimper. You can’t deal with these illusions anymore.
“Why would they have the door unlock- oh my god they left the door unlocked.” Dave says and you tense as, half way through, you hear the door open.
“You said the demon couldn’t enter without permission, locked or unlocked door.” You mumble. You’re shaking, quite badly. Jane is biting her lip while Roxy and Dirk frown deeply.
“He can’t.” Rose’s voice, from behind you. You all turn and you here Roxy gasp. Standing in the arch entry to your living room is the 4 of them. All alive, bandaged and worse for wear but alive.
Jade’s standing next to Rose with dogs by her side and a grin on her face. John’s standing nervously, looking at the ground. Dave’s looking everywhere but Dirk and shaking a touch. Rose stands smiling at you all.
“How’d you find us?” Dirk asks, colder than you think he should.
“I have a friend who told us.” Rose answers, unfazed.
“Yeah, let’s talk about this friend you have and how you totally lied about not having a deep and meaningful connection to Karkat.” Dave says, the nerves in his tone remind you of the ones in Dirks when things get bad.
“Technically I have a deep and meaningful connection to Karkat’s best friend, not Karkat.” Rose hums.
“Can lesbians even get deep?” Dave comments.
“Your terrible defences will not help you avoid Dirk forever and I highly doubt you want them to so let’s end this game of wits, shall we?” Rose eyes Dave and a second passes. Whatever was keeping your feet rooted vanishes and you find your arms wrapped around your sister in seconds.
“Jade.” You breathe. “I was so scared you were dead.” You don’t manage to hold back a sob and she rolls her eyes and hugs you back tightly.
When you pull about you see John and Jane smiling a little at each other before they hug as well, and Roxy is holding Rose as tightly as she can.
Dave is hiding a little behind John and Dirk is standing awkwardly. You know they love each other, missed each other, feared and worried and cried for each other, but you also know their Striders. You share a look with Jade and nod before you both walk over and push the two towards each other. Dirk lowers his shades to glare at you and you return the glare with a smile and two thumbs up. It takes him by surprise, you think, that he realizes then you weren’t doing this out of anger.
“H-hey Dirk.” Dave stutters and you see the younger blond flinch. Dirk hesitates and you almost push him again before he’s finally, finally, wrapping his arms around Dave. It’s more of an awkward side hug than a real hug, and Dirk’s looking the other way, but it counts.
“You’re an idiot Dave, I was so fucking worried about you. I’m so glad you’re alive.” Dirk breaths.
“I’m an idiot? Roses girlfriend said you guys started playing instead of us.” Dave huffed back.
“Rosey has a girlfriend?” Roxy asked, surprised and excited.
“Yes. But that’s not why we’re here. We’re here because we plan to help you get rid of Cal once and for all.” Rose hums, she’s blushing a little.
“We can do this, you guys don’t need to help.” Dirk frowns.
“Yeah, we did this so that you four could be safe. We don’t want you getting messed up in all this again.” You add.
“And we left home cause we didn’t want anything bad to happen to you guys, look how well that worked out for us.” Dave comments.
“So we’re helping.” Jade happily adds.
“We learnt a way to win.” John says, it’s the first thing he’s said since they arrived. “But it’ll involve some strangers ending up planning.”
“How’d you learn that?” Jane asks. The four hesitate to reply. Rose and Jade look to each other nervously. John takes Dave’s hand and you think he gives it a squeeze. Dirk raises an eyebrow and the rest of you elder siblings frown.
“A demon.” Dave eventually answers, speaking fast. “But the point is that we can’t, because it causes someone else to deal with it.” He adds.
“Oh! We know a demon too! Her name’s Calliope!” Roxy buts in excitedly.
“Technically we know two.” Dirk adds and you groan.
“Let’s not talk about that guy.” You huff.
“So do we!” Jade smiles. “Kanaya is Rose’s girlfriend.”
“Rosie’s dating a demon?” Roxy smiles.
“Can we get to the part about getting rid of the demon please?” Dave sighs.
“Dave, calm down.” Rose sighs.
“Calliope says we’ll need to trap him.” Roxy says. “Though we’re not sure how yet.”
“You guys started this game before figuring out to trap him?” Dave frowns.
“You started this game in the first place.” Dirk counters and Dave falters.
“It was my fault.” John mumbles. “My fault that all of this happened.”
“Nop.” Roxy smiles and the younger frowns up at her.
“What?”
“It’s not your fault. You played a prank, it’s what we do.” Jane smiled.
“But Dad went missing, and Dave’s Bro d-“ John choked on his words.
“John, it’s not your fault.” You tell him.
“We all played a part in this.” Rose sighs.
“Nop.” Roxy hummed, causing her sister to frown.
“We decided this a long time ago.” Dirk says. “It’s no ones fault.”
“But-“ John starts.
“Nop.” Roxy grins.
“Guys, we have an issue here!” Dave shouts.
“Dave.” John frowns.
“What happened?” Jane asks.
“It’s nothing, just, I want to get rid of that asshole.” Dave growled.
“Aw Davey, you mad about Karkles?” You jump when you hear the demons voice from the other side of the door.
“Tomorrow.” Roxy says. “We’re going to see Calliope. Maybe she’ll know what to do.” The knocking starts again.
“I’m go see Caliborn.” Dirk sighs.
“I’ll go with you.” You tell Dirk.
“Let me in!” You hear a voice you don’t recognize but one that makes Dave tense.
“This mean we’re going to find a way to get rid of him?” Dave asks through clenched teeth.
“Yes.” Dirk answers.
“Good.” Dave huffs.
“How do we plan on leaving if he’s there?” Jane asks, gesturing to the door.
“We’ve got that covered.” Jade grins. Barking sounds from outside, as does growling, and the knocking stops.
“You really should have called them when Cal attacked us.” John comments.
“He would have killed them.” Jade huffs. “Now he can’t touch them because he can’t touch us.”
“You were attacked?” Jane frets.
“He can’t touch you?” Dirk inquires.
“No, it’s a condition of the fact you changed the fact that you’ve taken our game. He can’t touch us.” Rose nods. “Kanaya tells me he’s not very happy with it.”
“It won’t keep him gone for long, but I have two hell hounds so we should be okay.” Jade smiles.
“Alright it’s settled then, tomorrow we try to learn a way to get rid of Cal.” Dirk nods.
You spend the night catching up with Jade.