W. Maximoff <The Multiverse of Madness>

<2.4> Happiness is a butterfly

"Oh, no... Oh, crap!" Stephen cursed, looking around at the dead silent city.

"It's like this reality collapsed in on itself." Christine said, as building floated through the air, colliding into one another.

"Yeah. Or two realities collided, come on, America doesn't have long."

"So where are we going?"

"Well, if there's still a sanctum in this universe, then there might be another Other Other Me, and that's our best shot of getting back to her."

The walk to the sanctum was quiet, the only sounds that were heard was the wind gushing in the air, low rumbling coming from levitating buildings.

"Well, I can see why you guys were so worried about Incursions." Stephen said, breaking the silence.

"Whatever happened, this universes' you didn't do a good job of stopping it." She replied, stopping as they arrived at the sanctum.

It was black, almost a rotting colour, as vines grew from it, the only thing that surrounded the sad building were small leafless trees, bending over, clearly dehydrated. Stephen walked towards the huge doors, sighing as he stepped up, frowning as it opened for him, revealing a lomg staircase leading into a fog. The door immediately shut behind him, locking him in and Christine out, he was on his own now...

"Hello?"

"Stop where you are." A man's voice came booming. "How did you get here?" He said, walking towards him.

"By accident."

"Who are you? What... are you?"

"I'm just one of us-"

"From the multiverse? Prove it."

"We had a sister." Stephen said, looking down as he spoke, "Donna, but she, uhm, she died when we were kids..."

"How?"

"We were playing on a frozen lake and, uh... she fell through the ice. I couldn't save her."

"Sounds about right... But we don't talk about that, do we?"

"I suppose your reality wasn't always like this."

Sinister Strange chuckled deeply, "I suspect it was somewhat like yours until... until I lost."

"To whom?"

"What do you want?" He sneered, ignoring his question.

"I just want to get home."

"Yeah, believe me. I've been trying to leave this place for a long time." Sinister Strange shook his head, his hand finding its way to a familiar looking book that rested on his waist belt, the Darkhold.

"Darkhold." Stephen whispered, "You guard the Darkhold in this universe?!"

"Yeah, for good reason."

"That's a start, I could use it. It could help me communicate with my universe."

"Careful," He warned, "The Darkhol exacts a heavy toll.

"I don't mean to be callous, but how much of a heavier toll is there left to exact? Look I'm sorry you couldn't save your universe, but maybe you could help me to save mine."

Sinister Strange stopped, now smirking slightly at him, asking, "Are you happy, Stephen?"

"What?"

"Are, you, happy, Stephen? It's the question that..." Sinister Trange looked out the window, pausing as he saw Christine below, "Christine Palmer, asked me at her wedding. I said "Yes! Of course I'm happy, I'm a sorcerer with the powers of gods! What man wouldn't be happy?! And then I came back to this goddamn haunted house, sat down, and wondered why I lied? I never meant for any of this to happen, I was looking for a world where things were different. Where I had Christine, where I was happy... But I didn't find it, all I found, was more of us. So I did those Stephens a favor, you ever had that dream where you're falling as if you've been pushed off a tall building? That was probably me." He chuckled, as a third eye emerged from his forehead, startling Stephen.

"The Darkhold exacts a heavy toll..." He continued.

"Okay... All the more reason to give it a rest and let me have it."

"Hey, here's the deal." He scolded, smacking his hand away, "I'll let you use the Darkhold, if you give me your christine."

"Yeah, I don't think she's gonna go for that."

"No?" He clicked his tongue, "Didn't think so."

Both Stephens raised their hands, orange sparks flyingn from their slingies, attacking one another.

Shit...