Ennead || Unseen

Every day im loving you more and more

She wasn't there or well... anywhere. Horus was searching everywhere he could. Between each stone and alley, sniffing the air for blood and scalp grease.... But nothing.

What if Seth's men jumped upon him and he couldn't rely on her to-

He snuffed that thought out quickly. No, he was bigger and stronger than ever. He didn't need her, not at all. But... where is she? Where can she be?  He even brought a goat leg to maybe lure her out or just to feed her so they can just, he doesn't  know, just hang out together like normal kids?

He was going crazy until- ah. There it is. A splatter of blood and the tail of a rat on the ground. He's surprised she left it alone, she usually eats everything... but the pattern of the splatter told him she wasn't of sound mind. He followed the trail of blood and tufts of fur to... a house? No, this seems to be an abandoned courtyard? Yet there is remnants of a roof all around.

Slowly slipping in, he looks around- only to see the thin beige stalks of dried weeds and climbing vines all over. Patches of sand and dirt were tainted with drops of blood and bleaching bones sitting in piles. He scrunched his face by the offending smell... but there she is.

She was curled up in a ball, her matted wild hair curling around her coiled like a snake. Slowly, he approached. She cracked her neck to look at him.

"Get out." She growls.

He doesn't, wordlessly challenging her as he just sits down and stares. She coils up more and hisses. Eyes narrowing, he tosses the goat leg to her. It rolls aimlessly on the ground but she barely pays it any mind.

Okay, that's concerning.

He spends a moment longer than a second to actually look at her. Fresh wounds are just barely scabbed over, particularly on her arms and stomach but what irks him especially is the shaking. Why is she shaking?

A lump forms in his throat, one that doesn't let him straight.

"Eat." He urges.

"Get. Out." She hisses, staring at the cracked wall.

"You always eat so eat it. Or should you just eat me already? What, you're too used to human that you can't taste anything else?" He pushes just a tad bit too far it seems because she springs out and tackles him with an ugly screech.

It takes him by surprised- even more so as the claws he's seen rip through grown men's torsos are now on him. He grunts as she aimlessly tries to slice him, all growls and guttural screeches. His hand meets her face as he pushes her away, her swipes at his face barely missing. This is bad- he's struggling to actually keep her away- why is she attacking him? Aren't they friends? Isn't that what she said to him!?

He pushes her face away before gripping her wrists, tightly. "What's gotten into you? What have I done to you?" He strains out as she's sinking her claws into his wrists, eyes narrowed and dangerous and- and softening...widening.....

She freezes up, eyes now on the blood pooling and dripping down his forearms. Slowly, she retracts her claws. It's more eerie how she deflates than her trying to claw out his eyes... her hunched back, the way her fingers twitch and those usually sharp eyes are now unnaturally large and dewy.

"...cmon, out with it." He prods, after a subtle throat clear as the adrenaline starts to subside. She pulls away even more, looking more and more exhausted with each second.

"You know... my curse, right?" Apepi starts.

"Yeah."

"So... yeah, I...." She hesitates and man, is it even more eerie to see her this hesitant- "...I almost ate a kid."

He's silent.

She frowns and curls back into herself. The tall, dry grass sways with the wind, the only noise between them in the garden. Her eyes keep switching between him, the cuts now in his wrists and the wall. His eyes stay on her. There, in that silence, he realizes something.

He's not really that scared.

Her eyes flicker to him, as if expecting him to run but... he doesn't. He just stays there. He even leans in a little. His eyes look back at those fresh wounds.

"Did the parent fight you?"

"...yes." Those wide eyes sharpen again.

Slowly, he extends his hand to her. All she does is stare at them as he careful outlines one of the wounds, crusted over and raw. The muscle beneath twitches before relaxing a bit.

"You... survived. Again." He can't help but mutter.

She swats his hand with a huff but barely moves again once he reaches out his hand again. This time, he touches the weird patch of skin on her chest. Her breath stops but her face is subdued, merely observing him back as he does her.

Her hand comes up and holds his wrist- no doubt to push him away again, but drops of red hit the flowery patch of moon-white skin. She hesitates again and the heat his inner core flares.

He stands up, making his groan as he stretches more loud than needed. He keeps an eye on her form- still curled, still a mess. There seems to be a deeper slice in her stomach he missed. His jaw tightens.

"Are you going to rot in this graveyard?" He says, a bit more bite than intended. As expected, she says nothing. He turns away.

"Look...just... come home with me. I'll clean us up." He offers, extending a hand to her.

She looks up and scoffs, a practiced sneer. "Oh? Trying to drown me again? Or are you making mommy do it?"

More lines of red drip down his palm as he tightens his hands into a fist. "I can do it. I can handle this. She doesn't need- just, don't talk about her like that."

She giggles as she slowly gets up, more bloodied up than he realized. Though when she gives him a feral grin... he feels relief over anything.

"Aw, trying to be a big man again?"

There she is.

He smiles- not out of relief but out of something buzzing and churning and crashing and something... heavy yet warm.

"Your bleeding, so am I so let's just deal with it... together."

Her grin drops, the genuine look of shock making the temptation to laugh a troubling feat. It isn't fear, no, something hopeful in her eyes that he's found and caused. Maybe he found the key to taming the beast as she hesitates... and yet still takes his hand into hers.

"...together..."