Purgatory Line

"i don't need anybody, i'm a forest child."

"i don't need anybody, i'm a forest child. i'll trace my casting circles in the mud, 'cause something's boiling in my blood." - poison - stick and poke

content warnings: mention of depression, mention of murder, mention of gun violence, religious overtones, brief phsyical violence, brief mention of familial violence, mention of parental death

Molly, Jude found out, was more of a risk taker than her. The girls had been video chatting, up too late without their caregiver's knowledge, and it was all Molly's idea. She was filling Jude in on what she had been doing since they had seen each other last. "Gabe and Cas come by and we train. It's cool. I have wings now, sometimes. It's hard to keep them here, but now they're like... Just kinda on my back now. They don't touch anything, but I can see them all the time now. I think it's fucking awesome."

Jude had rolled her eyes, smiling at the girl she had began to call her best friend, "Of course you do. I'll have to start calling you Feathers instead of Dear Prudence." Molly smiled sweetly at her and Jude reflexively smiled back, something in her chest tight but warm.

"Of course you would, Lovely Rita, only you would change someone's nickname." Jude tried not to blush at the nickname. "They're low-key sure you have some wings, too. I wonder how we'd unlock yours. I had to think about like, happy shit. I didn't have much of it, but I made my way." Jude scrunched her nose and tilted her head, listening for a moment to make sure they weren't caught before she spoke.

"Like in Harry Potter?" She was glad she had headphones in, because Molly laughed loudly. Her head fell forward, shoulders shaking. Jude did her best not to glow at the thought that Molly was laughing because of her.

"Yeah, sorta, I guess. That's funny. I didn't think about that." Molly shifted, the camera going blurry until she reappeared. "I also learned how to fly. Except, it's not really like falling. It's like falling and then this jerk - it's really cool. Fast, too." Jude tried not to feel jealous, but she did. She had nobody to teach her how to use her super cool nephilim powers, and nobody to teach Lear. But she had been pretending to be okay for everyone else, and it was becoming too easy. "I also learned to do this cool thing - Cas said you should be able to do it, too. It's like, an angel and a demon thing."

"What is it?"

"It's like... Okay, have you ever heard of astral projecting?"

Jude thought, flipping through the rolodex of her head for anything like that. "Is it like African Dream Root? I read about that the other day. Seems cool, but like super dangerous." Molly shook her head, setting the phone down for a moment to pull her hair back. "What is it?"

"It's like an out of body experience. " Molly explained, gesturing with her hands. Jude loved when she explained things, because Molly got so focused and animated. Her dark eyes seemed to glow and, well, sometimes they did glow. Jude thought that Molly getting so excited to explain something to her that her grace, just blooming and growing stronger, began to go haywire was... Awesome. It made Jude's stomach twist. "But like, on purpose. And you're controlling yourself and nobody can see you. You can call your body to where you're at but it's super hard. So far I just snap back into my body as soon as I lose concentration."

"Can anyone see you?"

"Nah, you're totally invisible unless they're like us. Or like an angel or a demon. It's pretty handy when I want to go see what's happenin' down in the bar but Jo and Ellen have sent me to my room." Molly shrugged.

Jude cracked a melancholic grin. "I miss them." She confessed softly. "I wish I could come see you."

"If it makes you feel any better, they miss you too." Molly's voice also softened and the girls kept eye contact. It was strong and it felt intimate. Jude felt herself blushing. "Cas said something about being worried about us being in the same room now that we're fully presented, or whatever. Especially now that it seems like I'm becoming more and more angel. I guess that'll happen to you and Lear, too. We don't really know. I know I should probably hate you, or like, whatever because you technically killed my Mom but she was gonna kill me. If not her, then Dad was going to."