Object of Desire

Chapter Twenty Seven : Drowned Out

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The passage of time moved by in slow motion, the layered murmurs harmonizing and pulling towards their call. There was no one around me, no Ghoul to bring me back to earth, no Terzo to pull me into his arms, and no children to take hold of my open hands and bring me from this darkness. My hands touched my thighs, assuring myself that my body was still in existence and only confirmed as I touched my face. It was hot, burning against my cold fingers as I slid them down around my chin. The more I blinked, the more I began to see.

Every shadow I could make out was shrouded in an inky green glow; morphing, changing, shifting, and completely transforming before my eyes. I closed my eyes tightly, opening them once more as a horrifying face flashed in front of me. It was hard to describe in such a short time before I screamed aloud, the specter shuffling back and dispersing into the clouds of smoke. It was an amalgamation of mischievous features; scraggly hair, reddened eyes, cracked and missing teeth, and protruding bones that pulled its skin tight over its mess of a body.

All of these specters had appeared the same, each feature being more exaggerated than the last, all varying in height in weight. Each of these beings only floated mere feet away from me, "talking" to each other in fleets of tongue and foreign dialect. Every mulled syllable they spoke had turned my insides, acid traveling up my throat and stinging my lips. As the sourly metallic taste coated my mouth, these beings dared not to step any closer. They were observing.

"What!" I tried to scream out, but my voice only registered as a mere whisper.

It was more than enough to rile up these beings, their bodies melding together as they formed a large black wave. Limbs waved and wriggled, the bright white of broken teeth gnashing out as they screamed back to me. I fell against the floor, my body laying flat as my eyes were forced towards the ceiling, blood red rock being the cap to this mysterious world. As I looked around more, the room began to glow in this deep crimson, giving me a better look to these creatures who surrounded me.

A single, sharp fingernail pressed against the exposed part of my chest, running over the embossed burn that I could never rid myself of. A horrid reminder of my past, a haunting feature that many who saw it would always question, and an intriguing attribute that caught the attention of this amalgamation. However, it was not the beast I was faced with before, only adorning vaguely similar features. Horns that twisted and swirled in all different patterns, a serpentine tail that whipped as he observed, bovine ears, and moth patterned wings. Every curve of its wing had a single glowing orange eye, all of them glaring down at me before I met the only live pair.

I blinked. It blinked.

I breathed. It breathed.

The dagger like claw ran down my scar, burning in its wake as I cried out in utter pained horror. I tried to bring my hands up to push this swine off of me, only earning a snort and harsh laugh as it dug its nail deeper. My arms felt weighted, like there was sold concrete keeping me bolted to the floor and making it impossible to move. I was utterly helpless,
no matter how hard I had tried to fight back. As it flashed its teeth, each and every one of them was pointed like a dagger, reminiscent of the single pair I sported. I tried again, only my fingers twitching in bone breaking pain, each of them snapping as I flared all of them out.

"Worry not, mine child." The beast roared, one of its many hands grasping down on my own and keeping me steady on the floor.

"What do you want from me?" I yelled out, my voice echoing around us.

"I am to rid thou of this betrayal." It replied, many voices layering over each other in differing pitches and octaves, the nail puncturing into my skin and beginning to draw blood.