╚╩╩╩╝ Jaime ╚╩╩╩╝

Even now, my body refused to listen to me.

A man roughly dragged Clementine and me through the Gelling’s manor, all the way to a heavy-looking door at the end of a long hallway. Opening the door with a bit of a struggle, the man caught Clementine as she tried to hurry away and continued to pull us along, taking us through the door and down steep flight of stairs.

Stopping at the base of the stairs, the man kicked open a door and tossed both of us through.

“What a shame…” The man muttered as he shut the door.

Clementine rushed to her feet and tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Please let us out!” She screamed at the door, but the man had already left.

Falling to her knees, the girl turned and glared at me. She was probably mad that she was down here too. She had a reason to.

The taste of blood was still fresh in my mouth. When that man had touched me, I froze. I didn’t know why he was touching me, but I didn’t like it. More than that, though, was the hunger. They had just fed us, but I only became hungrier with every bite. When the man put his face next to mine, I wanted to say something. Instead, I bit down and felt something warm and wet flow into my mouth.

I recognized the taste of blood. I… liked it. I wanted more.

The sound of something wet slapping against stone came from behind me. Clementine’s gaze turned behind me and her eyes were instantly filled with fear and she scrambled to stand up.

Turning to look behind me, I saw something monstrous dragging itself toward us.

It looked like it had been human once, but something had stretched it out until it looked ready to burst. It was a man, that was easy to tell, with a body that was an enormous mass of stretched, writhing flesh. Dozens of arms spread out from its torso, dragging it forward. A normal-sized head rested atop this mass of flesh, hanging limply and snapping his mouth open and closed.

The monster stopped moving as a line drew itself across the mass as it started stretching and tearing until, with a series of wet snapping sounds, a set of large teeth revealed themselves from behind the stretched and torn flesh. The monster smiled with these horrid teeth and opened wide as a bloodied tongue reached out from behind them.

The tongue moved quickly and nimbly. I wanted to move away, but my body still wouldn’t listen.

Suddenly, I felt a large hand grab onto my arm and jerk me away. My head turned to see a scruffy, dirty looking man in ragged clothes. Unable to control my legs, the man dragged me down a wide passage. Looking the other way, I saw the tongue reach around the corner and continue after us. The tongue slapped against every surface as it moved, which was probably the reason why everything seemed so clean.

The man brought me to a skinnier passage and into a barred off cell, slamming the door behind him.

Inside this cell were a few other people, most of them in a very similar state to the man who had just brought me here.

“Is that all of you?” The man asked, setting me down against the wall opposite the door.

He looked to the side where I spotted Clementine sitting, hugging her knees. The girl nodded her head and looked out just as the monster’s tongue passed by the cell. The moment it touched the metal, though, it moved away and shuddered before being pulled back.

Everyone in the cell gave a collective sigh as they watched the tongue retreat.

“What was that thing!” Clementine shouted.

The man that brought us here slumped against a wall, sliding to sit before he spoke. “He was the previous master of this house.”

“Lord Gelling?” Clementine asked.

“Aye. It all started after his last meeting with the bandit Camparn. He had been plagued.” The man explained. “My master was cruel, but he treated us well as long as we were loyal. His sons came back some time ago and had their father sent to the dungeon. They starved him. After just a day, he turned into that monster and started eating anything that moved.”

“Do those two know this?”

“They do. They’ve been feeding him anything that they can get their hands on. Including us.”

“That’s insane! Couldn’t you have fought back?”

“We could have, but we’d have just been killed.” The man paused. “The lord seems to have an aversion to metal, so we’ve been hiding here. Though we won’t last much longer. We have no food and can only gather so much water from what seeps from above.”

“We can escape. We just need to break down the door.” Clementine tried to encourage them to do something, but they all responded by avoiding the girl’s gaze.

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“We tried that before.” The man spoke. “Several made it past the door, but not past the guards.”

“There are no guards out there now.”

“Even so, we are all too weak to pry open that door.” The man leaned his head against the wall. “Our best option is to wait for rescue.”

“What are the chances-” Clementine started to argue, but was interrupted by a cacophony of loud sounds.

Everyone sat up as the sounds stopped. An eerie silence filled the room.

The sound of something wet being dragged against the ground grew nearer and nearer until a familiar head poked its head into view. Hollow eyes on a limp head, angrily snapping his mouth open and shut. Several hands reached out, grabbing onto the bars, dragging the monster’s body forward and pressing it up against the cell.

The monster’s hands started to tug on the bars and, though they were all thin and bony, started to bend them. After the first bar came off with a loud snap, people huddled in the corner. The man who had been talking pushed himself to his feet and shakily stepped forward.

“Everyone get ready to run.” He said, pulling a lengthy dagger from his belt. He then looked to Clementine. “I hope you’re right about the guards.”

“Why is it here?” Someone asked.

“The smell.” The man spoke. “All of us smell like this house. You two don’t.” He looked to Clementine and me. People started to give us dirty looks, but the man stopped them, saying. “We were going to die soon, anyway. What difference is one day sooner?”

It didn’t take very long for the monster to break in to the cell. The moment it did, it opened its mouth again. The flesh seemed to have healed and closed in the short time since they had escaped, so the beast had to tear it open again. Its tongue reached out from its mouth, heading in my direction.

Before the tongue could come any closer, though, the man leapt at it, stabbing it with his dagger. The monster let out a deafening cry, thrashing its tongue around.

“Run!” The man shouted before pulling out the dagger and stabbing the tongue again.

People immediately ran to the door, yanked it open and flooded out. One of them, seeing that I wasn’t moving, came back and pulled me by the hand. This time my legs seemed to run by themselves.

As everyone ran, the entire foundation of the building shuddered as something loud happened above us.

Finally at the door, everyone started to tug on it. No matter what they did, though, the door wouldn’t budge.

A loud, wet crunch echoed through the halls, sending everyone into a panic.

Suddenly, images started flashing through my mind. Of monsters, strangers and finally myself and my twisted form.

I could feel my heart pound in my chest as I sank to the ground, clutching my head. I wanted to scream, but nothing came out.

Then everything went dark.

╚╩╩╩╝ Clementine Evane ╚╩╩╩╝

Everything is stupid! Everyone is stupid!

Why am I in this mess? Why did it have to be me?

I stepped out of the way to avoid being trampled by the few people still standing. Jaime, herself, was the first one to collapse. It took all the self control I could muster to not stomp on her body the moment I could tell she wasn’t conscious.

If she’d not attacked the brother, if she’d just let him do what he wanted, then maybe we would be with those two on our way to Farrol by now. But no, she had to defend herself and get us into this mess.

A part of me still wanted to hurt Jaime. Desperately so. But if I did, who knows how these people would react. Maybe that monster would be satisfied with eating most of us and leave me alone so that someone could come and rescue me.

I looked down at Jaime’s body and crouched down to get a better look at her.

“No… mom… please…” She complained in her sleep. She seemed to be having some kind of nightmare.

How lucky for her to be able to die in her sleep. At least she was suffering a little.

Hooking my arms under her armpits, I pulled her closer to the door. There was another direction that we could run away to, but everyone sat frozen still.

The monster finally reared its head around the corner, snapping its jaw at us. The tongue followed, reaching out like some gross hand. It was bloodied, but it was hard to tell if that blood was from the man’s dagger, or from the man himself.

The tongue grew closer and closer, yet nobody moved until, finally, the tongue shot out, wrapping around a poor, old servant woman. It yanked back to the monster and into its wide, gaping maw. The monster’s mouth closed slowly around her body. I watched until the teeth touched her head and closed my eyes as it popped.

Jaime’s body was growing heavier and heavier as I dragged her. I decided to drop her and forget the plans that I had made. Leaving her to die like this was revenge enough.

Suddenly, she began to writhe and flail on the ground, mumbling words that I couldn’t understand.

╚╩╩╩╝

As Jaime lay unconscious and writhing on the floor, two forces fought in her unconscious mind.

In the dark abyss, as her mother fought off the advances of the dark man and chicken-like bird, Jaime struggled with visions and voiced swarming through her mind. They were all telling her that she was a monster, that she didn’t deserve to be in control, that no matter what she did, she couldn’t change what and who she was.

“There’s nothing you can do anymore.” The dark man, Tim, spoke smugly. “Your power is no greater than hers. This form will soon be under our control. Then we will finally be free.”

“I… told you before. I won’t… let you have her.” Jaime’s mother asserted, struggling to maintain the prison containing these two.

“Your fortitude is surprising. I was wholly expecting to have taken control years ago. Your idiotic husband ruined that plan, but I always have something to fall back on.”

“Claude did what he promised. He protected her.”

“And yet you protect him. You could have destroyed us the moment the curse was transferred. You would sacrifice the soul of this child to protect your husband’s?” Tim mocked her.

“I can’t destroy you. We all know that.”

“Ah, smart girl. As I would expect from someone of your lineage. Without us this child would have perished long before now. After all, it is our power that holds her body together.”

Jaime’s mother heaved and strained as she repaired the damage done to the cage holding her two prisoners.

“You struggle to keep us in, not knowing that this child is about to lose her life.” Tim spoke again. “This farce has gone on long enough.” He turned to the chicken-like bird. “Do you think she’s weak enough?”

“She’s been weak enough for a while now.” The bird replied.

Nodding, Tim stepped forward and placed the tip of his finger against their glass prison.

“What?” Jaime’s mother exclaimed, stumbling back.

“You’ve expended great amounts of power to keep us in here. We had no hope of escape in the beginning, but time erodes all things.”

Tim waved his hand in the air as the shadows reached out, grasping on to the woman’s limbs. Slowly, Jaime’s mother sunk into the ground until nothing was left.

“Now she can spend some quality time with her beloved.” Tim said, turning to Jaime.

The girl sat on the ground, hunched forward with tears staining her face.

“Don’t cry. We’re here to help.”

“Help ourselves!” The bird cried out.

Slowly, Tim grabbed Jaime’s chin and lifted her head. The life in her eyes slowly faded as the darkness grew stronger and stronger.

Silently, Jaime rose to her feet as the shadows bubbled beneath her feet, both in her mind and in the physical world.