Mirror

Chapter 10: Crimson

Trigger warning for moderate violence. There will be more later, soo...yeah.

I don't want a banner for this chapter. *Shivers.

In scarlet streams it flowed inside the gap
And sealed it shut, and with a final clap
The thunder stormed across the velvet sky
An act to remember me by.

-Anon

It was everywhere.

Crimson blood splattered over the table and around the room, sickeningly rich and warm. Kyli could feel its taste in the air, like a sweet scent hanging, sultry, about a basket of fruit.

Re'Jel was gasping on the floor, and Marquera wore a look of accomplishment, and greed.

And then Kyli screamed, and the sound echoed around the room in the stunned silence. Marquera no longer controlled it.

There was a moment of pure silence, then the other girl's eyes widened, horrified, and, slowly, the knife she held came down to her side. But the flames were not gone. Marquera was trying to trick her into believing they had disappeared.

Re'Jel was sitting up, already.

"Clutches, 'Quera, I didn't think you had it in you." His smirk was impeccable desire his pale face, and Kyli watched, half frightened, half fascinated, as Re'Jel's clutch scurried out of his head and down his back to where the wound lay, still spurting blood.

It wormed its way into the jagged cut, hissing and clicking. Kyli watched, disgusted, as Re'Jel winced, twisting his from side to side in agony. Re'Jel had always been weak in matters of pain.

Within seconds he was standing again, and Kyli saw the clutch scurry back up and bury itself in his head again.

She wanted to scream, to shout, to hurt somebody, but she had a feeling it would not go well if she did. There was a nagging thought, lingering in the back of her mind, that there was something important she needed to do.

The lust for blood intensified, and her own clutch, embedded in her skull, throbbed at the idea as she ran her tongue over her teeth, tasting the heaviness in the air.

It would be so easy. So appallingly easy. All she had to do was dip her fingers in a pool of blood and lick them, gracefully.

Delicious. The clutch told her, and Kyli tended to agree.

But now was not the time, no, not now. The blood was entreating, but she knew that the clutch was trying to take over, and she couldn't let that happen.

She grit her teeth and waited for the feeling to end. It was like an itch that begged to be scratched, a desire that had to be fulfilled.

Marquera's eyes were dancing with fire, and her quivering finger hovered above a pool of blood.

Reluctantly, Kyli snapped forward just as Marquera scooped some into her hand. Her friend would never forgive her if Kyli allowed her to drink her brother's blood.

After a moment of struggling, Marqurra's face wrenched in concentration, and the fire in her eyes died.

"Thank you, Kyli," she gasped, and sat down, hard, on the red-stained floor.

"No problem," Kyli returned, somewhat untruthfully. It was not a problem, exactly--at least, not for now. Not for Marquera.

Re'Jel was biting his lip, hard. Kyli turned away. She didn't need to see any more of his blood today.

The Onlies around them had not been affected, they went on with their work, wiping blood off of their tools.

Only Roy stood, staring with blank eyes into the wall. No blood had touched her clothes, and her face was traumatized.

Luckily for her, no one noticed.

_POV_

Rory's breath came in short gasps as her mind reeled. It was abhorrent, she thought, and the yellow circuits had faded to dull gold. Her head swam with ideas, some her own, some the SM's.

Now would be a bad time to tell them, she decided. They were all shaking and pale-faced.

Rory did not have a clutch.

She remembered being very young, perhaps 4 time-spaces, and the others jabbered about the clutch, and it's anger. And Rory had listened, and learned. They knew what Clutch felt like.

Hopefully, the gateway would solve all that; perhaps, just perhaps, one of them would find what Peace felt like.

She had read the SM'S records, things about 'the Peace time' and 'Peace war', but she did not understand.

What was peace?