Reveal

Angie gives Erik an ultimatum.

The bell above the door rang as Angie entered the store.

"Hi, guys," she greeted happily, heading straight for the counter.

"Hi Angie!" Mark and Sam answered in unison. They gave each other an odd look as Angie leant over the counter to kiss Erik, but he turned his head to the side and returned it on her cheek.

Angie backed her head away, suddenly worried. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"I have to talk to you about something," Erik replied.

Angie became even more worried, now for completely different reasons. "Really? Okay..."?

Erik walked out from behind the counter to lead her into one of the aisles.

"Ooh!" Mark called, "Erik's taking Angie to the back! Wonder what THEY'RE gonna do!"

"Oh, clearly we're about to have rough sex," Erik answered, barely keeping up the facade.

"Loud enough for you all to hear whether you like it or not," Angie continued.

Sam widened his eyes as they disappeared from view, impressed.

Mark turned to Merideth. "You don't think they'd-"

"NO, you idiot," Merideth answered, rolling her eyes.

"Is anyone else astounded that came from ANGIE?" Sam asked. "Since when did she get that kind of humour?"

"Maybe she's more flexible than we expected," Merideth suggested.

"Mark," Sam said, as Mark made to draw breath, "if you make a joke about the word 'flexible' I'm going to tell Erik you listen to Party Rock."

At the back of the store, away from prying eyes and ears, Erik and Angie stopped to talk.

"What's up?" Angie asked, seriously. "Or," she continued, the seriousness melting away to leave incredulity, "did you actually just want sex in the back room?"

"Something happened this morning," Erik said.

"Oh god... what was-"

"Red let the first demon through."

Angie reached back and supported herself on a shelf. "Holy s**t."

"Relax, though," Erik assured her, "it's dealt with. Red... 'taught' me how to do it, once they're weak."

"... So things are more or less okay?" Angie asked.

Erik paused before continuing. "Sam and Mark were there when it showed up."

Angie let out a sigh. "So they know now, that's good. That's fine. I know you didn't want them to, but trust me. It's for the best."

Erik looked away. Telling her the last bit was always going to be the toughest.

"Erik?"

"... I..."

Angie felt a sense of foreboding. "Erik, what did you do?"

"They weren't meant to get involved," Erik said, as if accusing them through her.

"No," Angie said, shaking her head, already feeling angry with him. "You didn't."

"... when everything was fixed, I erased their memor-"

"ERIK!" Angie yelled.

"Whoa!" Mark yelled back from the counter, "I thought you guys were joking!"

"We were," Erik answered. "Still are."

"Gotcha," Angie added, sounding like she was smiling despite her angry glare at her boyfriend. "And you're OKAY with this?"

"No," Erik stated, like a schoolchild defending his own guilty actions. "I feel like S**T. And I know Red's gonna just make things worse until they-"

"That's not the POINT, Erik! You messed with your best friends' memories for your own needs!"

"Hey!" Erik said, lifting his finger, "they're not MY needs! We've been through this before!"

"Why can't you understand that they are TRYING TO HELP YOU and denying them even the knowledge of the situation is just STUPID! I'M trying to help you, too, are you going to erase MY memories, too?"

"I might if you keep acting like this!"

"Oh WOW, SO mature, Erik! You know, I actually can't F*****G believe you, you know?"

"Well I can't believe Y-"

Angie was not having Erik's interruptions. "You can't just push people away because you're worried they'll get hurt! Do you have some kind of Hero complex, or something? Because that's something I would have liked to know BEFORE I went out with you!"

"Hero complex? At least I don't have a f*****g DEATH WISH! For myself OR my friends!"

"For the LAST TIME, Erik, this isn't something you can go through alo-"

Angie stopped. Erik was about to say something before noticing she was looking behind him. He turned to see Merideth, Mark and Sam standing not too far away from them, watching awkwardly.

"In any other situation," Mark began, "we'd leave you guys alone, but something about an argument about 'us' and 'they' 'helping' doesn't sound like a lover's quarrel."

Erik lifted his hand, palm out.

"Don't you f*****g DARE," Angie said, slapping it out of the air.

"What the hell was that?" Merideth asked.

"Nothing," Erik answered quickly, trying to defuse the rapidly descending situation. "Can you leave us alone for a second, we-"

"No!" Angie demanded. "You're TELLING them. NOW."

Erik closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. He was tired of having to hurt everyone, including himself.

"Angie," he said, "this is going to kill me inside, so please forgive me."

"Wait, wha-"

Erik lifted his hand and pressed it against Angie's forehead. Erik willed the memories of the last ten minutes to fly from her mind, to-

Erik felt as though his powers in entirety were shattering like glass. A moment later, they were fine, but Angie was giving him a look that spelled every synonym of 'anger' in every language that ever existed, her memories very much intact.

Erik blinked. He had not planned for such an outcome. "Uhm..."

"Witch," Angie stated.

"Ah."

"And you are SO going to pay for that."

"What's going on?" Sam whispered to Merideth.

"Something violently interesting," she responded.

Angie grabbed Erik's hand and pulled it away from her, spinning him around to face his friends.

"If you don't tell them," she told him, "right now, then I will, and remind them every time you try to wipe it away. And then I'll dump you."

Erik looked to the ground.

"Erik, what's she talking about?" Sam asked, wary.

Erik clenched his fists and forced the pain in his chest away.

"... Red came back a few days ago," he said, diving right in.

"WHAT?" Mark choked.

"He told me he's going to start letting demons run around."

"DEMONS?" Sam gasped.

"Holy F**K, we're gonna DIE," Mark sputtered, backing away and grabbing at his own hair. Merideth stared at Erik in shock.

"The first one showed up this morning," Erik continued, then braced himself. "But it was fine. We got out of it okay."

"Did it try to kill you!?" Sam asked. "How bad was it!?"

Erik forced himself to mutter his next words.

"... It... it nearly got you, but I stopped it."

"Whoa, hold on," Sam said, "where was this thing? Was it here?"

"Why didn't we see it?" Mark added.

"You DID see it," Erik answered, wishing they would just get it and he could stop dragging this out.

"Excuse you," Mark scoffed, "I think I'd remember seeing a DEMON."

"... yeah..."

Silence. That did it, Erik thought, lowering his gaze to the floor again, feeling the guilt all but overcome him. The moments ticked past, everybody realizing what Erik had been saying.

"'We'..." Sam thought aloud. "... as in, 'us'? US, us?"

"... yeah."

"Wait, we were there?" Mark asked. "I don't remember that, why don't I remember that? Do you remember that?"

The last question had been directed to Sam, but it was in vain. Sam was looking at Erik with a mixed look of confusion and dawning realization.

"You don't remember it," Erik forced out, "because I wanted you to forge-"

Erik's head swung sideways, his entire body losing its balance and colliding with the shelves and falling down onto his back. Angie and Merideth shrieked and Mark yelped in shock, all three flinching. Erik moved his hand to his face and turned back in shock, looking up at Sam, who's eyes were aflame with rage, teeth bare and fist still clenched.

"Holy..." Mark whispered.

Erik's eyes narrowed. "Did you just-"

"Are you F*****G SERIOUS?" Sam yelled, displaying power he'd never exhibited before. "Did you ACTUALLY DO THAT?"

"Y-Yeah, but-"

"You FUCKED with our HEADS, ERIK! You ERASED part of us! Do you have any idea how INVASIVE that is!? I could handl getting bitten to help you not DIE, but why would you do THIS to us!?"

"Because I didn't want you to get involved with F*****G DEMONS!" Erik yelled back, pulling himself onto his elbows. "It's dangerous s**t, and you BOTH nearly got-"

"I don't care! Neither of us do!"

Sam gestured to Mark, who flinched.

"You know what you are, Erik?" Sam asked, rhetorically. "You're a f*****g COWARD. Something comes up? Keep it from everyone. Someone finds out? Undo it. Where were you going to go with this? What if we found ANOTHER one? Were you just gonna keep us out of THAT, too?"

"If that's what it'd take-"

"So that's what we are to you? People you can deactivate whenever something bad's about to happen?"

"It's not like tha-"

"Then what's it like, Erik? Tell me! WHAT IS IT?"

Erik's guilt and anger were mixing and clouding his judgement. He tried to answer Sam without avoiding his gaze, but he just couldn't look him in the eye. "... it's... I'm trying to keep you safe-"

"By not telling us there are DEMONS around? How is that keeping us safe?"

Erik found himself unable to answer at all. Merideth, Mark and Angie were watching, stunned. Sam waited for an answer, breathing heavily. Finally, he turned away and started walking.

"That's it," he said. "I can't f*****g handle this right now."

The four watched as Sam headed out the door and vanished from view.

Erik managed to stand, rejecting Merideth and Angie's attempts to help him. He dusted himself off and looked over to Mark.

"Are YOU okay?" he asked.

Mark hesitated before answering, still looking at the door. "It's... scary."

"What, Sam?"

"No... this. Knowing something happened, but not remembering... that's really scary."

Erik felt his heart fold in on itself. Watching Sam fall apart was terrible, but Mark... he suddenly looked like the laughter was gone from his eyes.

"Mark, I'm sorry..."

Mark nodded absently. "Yeah. It's fine. You had reasons, I guess."

Merideth turned to Erik. "Was... was I...?"

"No," Erik answered. "It was just us."

"Right. Right..."

Erik turned to Angie. "Look, I'm not really in the mood, so could you just..."

"... yeah," she answered, pre-emptively. "I'll see you t... some other time."

Angie followed Sam's path to the door and left.

"... I'll go find Sam," Mark said, his voice lower than usual. "See if he-"

"Fine," Erik replied.

And with that, Mark left as well. 

Erik shuffled over to the counter, passing a silent Merideth. He sat down and folded his arms, frowning downwards. Merideth followed him, sitting beside him.

"Why'd you tell HER?" She asked, after a few moments. "Out of all of us, the only person you tell is her?"

Erik resisted the urge to groan. He'd had enough of the situation, couldn't Merideth just drop it?

"When Red showed up," he began, "the only person he mentioned specifically was her. None of you seemed to be in danger, so I... wanted to make sure you weren't relevant to him."

"Erik," Merideth said, "we've been your best friends for three years! You met that girl a month ago. Out of all of us, who has the stronger bond?"

"... you guys."

"Wrong. All of us."

Erik frowned even more and turned to look at Merideth.

"Look. We can see how you feel about Angie, all three of us. It's obvious how much you care about her, and her you. Even though you try to hide it, we can tell. It might feel different, but what you have with her is just as strong as what you have with us. You and her have something special, and we're like your family. We're all in this, Erik, whether you want us to be or not."

"... maybe you're right," Erik said, turning back to face the counter.

"Damn right, I'm right."

"I wish I'd handled this whole thing differently."

"Yeah, messing with memories probably wasn't the BEST route."

"I'm not doing it anymore. Anything happens, you'll all keep it. It wasn't worth it, by any stretch."

"... are you and Angie gonna be okay?"

Erik's shoulders sank ever so slightly. "I think... we might need to cool off for a bit."

"Sam too. He'll need some time off. Mark seemed okay about it, though."

"He's dead inside. I could tell."

Merideth paused. Erik had closed his eyes, just another small way of shutting out the world. He knew Sam and Mark were both really torn up over what he'd done. Messing with strangers was fine, but they were familiar, they were friends. Supposedly they meant they were safe from having their minds molded to somebody else's will. And he'd broken that trust. He'd broken it more than once.

"What about you?" Merideth asked, finally. "When'll YOU get over it?

Erik took a moment before answering. "When everyone else does."