Entreißen [PaperHat]

Neue Kerl

Warning, two torture scenes/scenes with graphic violence depicted. Read at your own caution.

The click of heels approaching the bathroom door has Flug's heart hammering in his chest. His mind turn into a flurry of panic and dread. He huddles back against the cabinet, pressing his spine into the crease in-between the doors. Pulling his legs into his chest. His fingers turn white as they dig into his knees. His body anxiously jitters as the door opens with a loud squeal. Esther's hair tied up in a braided bun on the back of her head and lips painted red. She looks nice, kind even. Around her neck is a rosary decorated with white gems and thick wooden beads. In one hand is a thick bible and hung from the belt on her dress is a knife.

 "Evening, Mr. Slys. I'm assuming you're enjoying your company." She says, setting the Bible down on the corner of the sink. Looking up at him he swallows, mustering all his confidence and anger to respond.

"You're sick." He croaks. Red lips curl into a wide grin, face glowing with hubris. The beads of her rosary click together as she leans down to take his face in her hand.

"No, my dear. You're the sick one, covered in demonic marks and sinful desires." She coos, pinching his cheek. He pulls his face away, scowling at the pain in his cheek.

"The mark is from the man you're working with!" He raises his voice, the knot of anger in his chest tightening around his heart. Esther simply blinks and stands back, flipping through a few of the tabbed pages in the Bible.

"Berith? Oh, it probably is." She says. "He tends to get excited before handing your type over." She says, finger tracing over a few lines of text before moving on.

"What?" So she knew? All this talk about killing demons and she knew about one and didn't want to do anything about it?

"It's a problem he needs to work on. Temporary marks don't usually interfere with the permanent ones for our exorcisms. When we first got that headless bitch she had hand prints all over her shoulders. Hard to know where to focus on when they're covered in them instead of the one." She says and appears to find her page as she removes the tab and moves it lower down on the page.

"You're working with him?" He asks, bemused. She gives a half hearted shrug.

"I suppose if there is no other word for it. Don't confuse my words here. Alexander likes to think he's in charge but he doesn't have a good enough business mind to run this properly." She pulls the knife from it's sheath on her belt and placed it into the sink. Slipping the rosary from around her throat she places it over his head. It rests on his chest, over the first cross necklace.

"What-" He starts but Esther seems ready to begin whatever she has planned and cuts him off.

"I'll be trying something new, tell me if you like it." Her smile is mocking as she picks up the bible and kneels in front of him. She draws a cross over him with her fingers before doing the same to herself. She stands back up, grabbing the Bible and looking down at the notecard tucked into the pages. With a quiet breath she begins to recite the Litany of the Saints. There's something deeply unsettling about the confidence in her voice. Just the knowledge that this isn't the first time she's needed to use the litany in this way was unnerving. Everyone in the main room has heard this and it had done nothing to save them from what they've become.

The Litany of the Saints is long. Even if she hadn't been the only one to say it and the music had accompanied it, it would have felt just as long. Perhaps not as dread inducing if there were others accompanying her. But the length of it gave him mind ample time to wander down anxiety inducing paths. To imagine what the knife's purposes were. But, it does eventually end and her eyes seem to focus on him again, waiting for any reaction. He simply sat and stared up at her. Adrenaline coursing through his veins and he chewed on the inside of his cheek until he tasted copper. His lack of an external response doesn't deter her however, and she continues on with the same air of confidence about her.