At the edges of consciousness, Holly felt herself dragged from comfort.

"Holly! Hold on!"

Indistinct sounds, blurs of light; she didn't remember where she was, or what could be happening. From head to toe, her body was fuzzy, as if she had been buried in cotton. There was no pain, no anguish, it was nice.

"Open you eyes! Damnit, he must-"

She was jerked around like a puppet, violent movements bringing her further and further from her resting place. She tried to move, but not a finger would obey her.

"No further options then.

"Shit! Holly, I'm-

"Fuck it! We can deal with it later!"

And then came life. It jolted through her like a lance, a sweet lure awakening things best left unnamed. A twitch, followed by an involuntary lunge, nerves following were muscles could no longer, and she felt-

----------------------------------------

-Exhausted. She was cold. Miserable. Her insides where churning, uncaring of her sores. She could sense herself enough to feel distress at all the dirt and grime built over he skin, coating her tongue. And fainter, she felt her limbs dragging across something soft, legs and arms both.

"-It needs to be done. I couldn't finish it."

"Have you gone blind?! Look at how much I have in hands, do you think I could-"

"...She's gone. You can stop."

"No, so long as we-"

The voices were familiar. The voices were unrecognizable. She felt so tired, she wished she could go to sleep.

"My condolences. I was-"

"I know. Take her inside, I will... finish here, I guess."

"Wait a moment, and I-"

"No. I-I mean, please, let me."

Were they close? Were they far? At times it seemed the former, and at times it seemed the latter. She didn't care. If anything, it made her angry, the way they distracted her from her rest. She forced herself up, and the mere effort sent her-

----------------------------------------

-Scurrying to the bars of her door. Was Hazel sobbing?

No. She had been imagining it, hadn't she? She had to. She angled herself left and right, teasing the incandescent light of the single lit torch into reflecting off any sign of wetness on her sister's cheek, but there was nothing. Why, then, she wasn't looking her way, she didn't know.

"Holly." Even Hazel's voice came off strange, hollow."Did you ever consider only pretending you were stuck in that cage?"

"I-I don't want to upset God. The deeper I'm here, the safer we are!" Holly said. She carefully reached for her door, rattling it against its chains lightly in the hopes Hazel would look her way. She didn't.

Hazel scoffed. "And have you never considered there might not be a way not to do just that? That you upset God by mere existence? If so, love, it wouldn't make a difference being in or out, would it?"

"If you're going to be talking about running away again, let me tell you, I'm not interested!" she joked. She waited for a response, and when none came, she started feeling genuine worry. "Y-you know we can't. W-we would never escape God! Please don't do anything stupid."

Hazel didn't turn, but she did shift on her foot, hands both crossing up front. "I've been thinking: If I stop believing you, what happens?"

"W-what?"

"If I stop believing you're doing all of this for me, for us, what happens? I would be really hurt, dear, but without you to hold me back, couldn't I just leave?"

Holly gasped. "S-stop that!"

"I could be free to look for our real family all I want. I could go back to Skawla all by myself and live like a princess, and who would stop me? The old coot rooted you in there, and not like he runs very fast himself. Cassia?"

"I said stop it!" This time, there was no care, Holly flew at her bars, only realizing her mistake when she felt the burn of black metal against the soft skin of her stomach. She retreated, noticing that she had got on her feet, standing heads above Hazel. However, when her sister finally turned to face her, blank expression almost hidden under the intense fire in her eyes, she didn't feel like the taller one.

"I'm joking!" Hazel flashed a smile. "I mean, would somebody from back home even remember us? I got a little tired of waiting a couple years ago now, anyway. Say, when was the last time you felt like you fit in?"

"A-are you alright? I-I'm not the best talker or anything like that, but I can listen to you!"

"I don't mean with the villagers. Fuck those people! When was the last time you felt like you fit into anything? Like there was a place in life for you, something you could actually accept, or at least be at peace with?"

Holly watched for any signs her leg was being pulled in some way, but Hazel remained wooden. The silence stretched, and awkwardness forced her to speak. "I-I don't think I get it."

"Let me give you an example. I tried fitting in with this Herd of ours, I did! You see, my fantasies couldn't hold me up anymore, so tried to become like them," Hazel said, approaching, her eyes never leaving Holly as she lifted a hand and enveloped one of the black spikes. "Did you know that small villages never forget what you did? And never forget who you are either. Some old cock with a broom up his ass actually looked a little sick every time I prayed with them. Every time I sang with them. Every time dared breath their air!"

"Y-you're going to hurt yourself! Stop that!"

"That bitch that's always scheming with the old man somehow managed to be one of the friendliest faces I came across, by merit of never scowling when she saw me. She never called me even by his family name when we weren't in private, but at least she doesn't try to hurt me anymore. Others, they..." She clenched so hard around the spike her knuckles turned pale.

"I said stop that! How is this going to help you?!"

"Help?"

"Y-yeah!"

"Ha!" The laugh came from out of nowhere, shocking Holly into retreating to the safety of her alcoves. "What help? There isn't any help Holly, not here and not coming. You get what I mean now?"

"No, I don't get you at all!"

"Then look!" Her hand flew inside her room, palm held upwards and at Holly. She risked coming closer, only to see exactly what she had expected! The skin of Hazel's hand had been left red, flushed like a beaten cheek, or as if she had brushed onto a hot cauldron. "Can you see now?"

"I-I can see that you hurt yourself, just like I said! C-can you come in? I promise I'll stay away! I-it's just that- well, I know it's not like you actually got burned or anything, but there is a spring here in the back that really helps-"

"Fucking listen for a second!" A punch to her bars. The metal rattled against the stone, silencing Holly. "You like to pretend that you're such a helpless idiot nowadays, don't you? Well, I told you my piece: the last time I felt like I fit into anything? Never. And never will! Amazing that it took me nearly thirty years to realize, isn't it?! Took me until it was practically spelled to my face!

"But this isn't from today. You know how the Lesser treated you before- you know, and you know how they treated me. I would ask if you really ever believed they would have fixed up their act by now, but I know you aren't half stupid enough to say yes and meant it, which means you know I hate being here with every fiver of my being.

"So that leaves us with a question Holly." She stepped away, the blank mask back in place. "Why are you inside that cage?"

"I-I told you already! I don't want you to get hurt!"

"And you know I'm already hurt. Every day it's a different bruise, Holly, even if most aren't the kind you can see. Let me ask again: Why are you inside that cage?"

"G-God would-"

"Do nothing worse than what I already get. Why are you inside that cage?"

"I-I-"

"It would have been so easy for us both to get away. I knew how! You know what my mistake was? I couldn't leave you behind! I tried to convince you again and again to come with me instead of getting the message and just leaving. If only you had come with me, I wouldn't have to- I wouldn't have to-!"

Holly overturned her own mind searching for the right answer, feeling the sharp edge of end touching her neck. She needed something, and she needed something fast, what could she use-

"D-don't be selfish! What about Cassia and Elder Seneschal? D-don't we own them at least something?"

Hazel looked at her, mouth agape in astonishment.

"I-I mean, I know you have your issue with the Elder, b-but think about Cassia! If you went away, who would she have? Julius? He stinks! A-and you know they would never agree to go, they were born here! S-so please, don't- Hazel?

As if she had told the funniest joke on the planet, Hazel was laughing. Full-bellied, tears on her eyes, gasping for breath in between guffaws laughing.

"Oh Holly, you really do care about us, don't you?"

Holly smiled, uneasy.

Then it hit her, and she froze.

A dread with no origin, a wrongness with no place, neither noticed yet both so present she could practically feel their touch. She could hear them, inside her mind, gnawing at the foundations of the world and coming ever closer, infectious ruin neither of them could escape.

"Holly, you know I would do anything for you, right?" Hazel said, a longing fondness to her voice. She turned and walked away. "I love you. No matter what happens, I want you to know that I love you more than anything"

"H-Hazel? What do you mean? Where are you going?" Holly said, but the words were not her own. She could feel the ideas, the desire to say certain things forcing themselves into her mind as she watched her sister leave, "Can't you stay a little longer? It's been so long!"

"I have something I need to prepare for, love," Hazel said, never turning back and never slowing her stride. "It will be a while until we next see each other, okay? But don't worry about me."

"Hazel, please! I-I want- don't- I-I mean-!" She fought against herself, tearing all those empty words away as she tried to figure out what was going on. It had to be that wrongness, wasn't it? But where was it? Where did it lay? Was in on her, on her surroundings, on Hazel, on-

On everything.

"I..." Holly said, and felt her home crashing to halt. "I remember now. This wasn't how it went at all."

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Hazel stopped mid step, half her body already out of sight.

"This wasn't how our last conversation went at all, that is," Holly said, feeling that dreadful burden leave them. She should have felt happy, but she was bitter, mournful.

"It wasn't?" Hazel's voice was neutral. "Did you say the wrong thing, then?"

"I-I don't know. I said what I said, and it turned into a screaming match. She ran off before I could apologize."

Beyond frozen, Hazel was petrified, not the slightest sway or heave of breath to her body.

Little by little, the veil lifted from her eyes, and the spell broke.

This place was not her room of so long ago. It wasn't, she understood, a real place at all. For all its likeness, it had no details, the walls and the floor and ceiling all closer to solid blurs of color than any sort of actual stone. The Bars had a shine to them that looked painted on, the once feared black spikes a hue different than she remembered. She reached for one, carefully, and touched its surface. For all her body begged her to jump away, it had no temperature, cause no pain, had barely a point to it.

"Odd thing to forget, don't you think?" Hazel had approached during her distraction, reaching for opposite side of the same spike with no discomfort.

"I-it's not like I forgot it, I just didn't want to think about it," Holly said, sitting down.

Hazel imitated her, sitting down in the same position. "But the last thing I ever said to you got carved too deep, didn't it? 'Because Holly is such and obedient girl, isn't she?' "

Even now, that line sent shivers down her spine. Her blood boiled. "Who are you? No, what is all of this? I-is this a dream?"

Hazel's head cocked to the side in a distinctly un-Hazel way. "Who do I look like I am? And does this look like a dream?"

The second question felt like an easy one. Felt. But, if this wasn't a dream, what else could it be? As for the first... Holly rose into a crouch, heels and palms held firmly against the ground. Hazel rose at the same time, mimicking her movements perfectly, down to motions she knew Hazel had not been flexible enough to follow. But her large eyes, her small mouth with thin lips, her skin a tone darker than most of the tanned farmers, her heavy dress of green and brown, lacking in fanciful touches just like the one she wore that day...

"N-no, I don't think you are Hazel at all," Holly said.

"Then what do I look like?" the Thing wearing Hazel's face said.

"People are more than just their appearance!"

"Then are you not a monster, Mariwa?"

Caught off guard, Holly flinched.

And the next moment, she raged. She flew at her bars, bending them forwards and cracking the stone holding them in place as she tried to break free, the facsimile of her sister meeting her half way without a blink. For all her pretense, that breathless thing had no power to its own, managing nothing but to hold Holly's hand as she was pushed back, as they got closer and closer.

Soon, she would burst out of this cage, and show this faker just how much she appreciated having her sister's memory desecrated.

"You know nothing about me!" Holly spoke under her breath. "You can pretend to be her all you want, but no matter what she called me, what she claimed we were, she never said I was anything less than human!"

"Because she knew you were above, don't you think?" the Thing said, so close that if it were not for the metal in between them, Holly could reach out with her mouth and bite that mask right off. "She knew more about you then you know about yourself now, don't you think?"

"Liar! I'm-" Holly pushed, and the further she pushed the more confused she became. The bars were bending, but not breaking, already having taken the curvature of a half moon without any signs of damage. She jumped back, and the Thing followed suit. "I-I don't need to get to you to get to you!"

The Thing's head cocked to the opposite side. "But that doesn't make any sense, does it?"

"Watch me!"

Once, Holly might have been a cowardly little girl hiding in the dark. But if this Thing understood even the start of her, it would know what she had been through, and most importantly, what she had learned.

She reached into the depths of her being, feeling a thousand arms hidden far beneath her skin twitch as they awakened, immediately commanding her Will to seize the creature, show it who she was-

Only for a sudden, crippling agony to drop her on her knees, screaming, an unrecognizable sound that echoed all around her in a deafening cacophony. Nothing came to her aid. The Thing stood unharmed, watching her.

She looked up. Whatever now wore Hazel's face seemed no longer intent on imitating her movements, back straight and limbs loose down its sides, head pushed so far to the side it no longer resembled a cock but as if it was hanging limp from its neck, eyes still firmly fixed on Holly's form, unblinking and wide.

"Y-you!" Holly screamed, realizing the world carried not a noise outside her own voice. "W-what did you do to me?!"

At first, the Thing did not answer. Slowly, it walked forward, the bars she had bent slowly returning to normal as it advanced. Only after it had finally fixed her damage, the demonium spikes pressing against its clothes, did it spoke.

"Do you know what I find the saddest?" Its voice carried a slight edge of disapproval. That had not been what made Holly whimper. That had not been what got her scurrying back towards the shadow. She knew, even without seeing, that something was coming.

"What did you do to me?!"

"When you say things you don't understand, despite having all that you need to," the Thing said.

The cave on its side bloomed with life from all directions.

They were made from impossible lights. They were made from colors she had not the words to describe. They moved like water and like flesh, roiling waves of elastic skin over slim muscle, eyeless serpents with many jaws stretching away their long slumber as their unending mass subsumed the Thing, then turned her way.

"You say I can't be Hazel, but if I wasn't why am I so disappointed? Why am I so sad to see you like this?" The serpents slithered in between the bars, in between her chained door. "You were clever once. Not smart, but at least cunning, you remember? People thought of you like a rat, and a rat you became."

"Get away from me!" Holly warned, in vain. The first serpent to cross the distance hesitated as it reached for her face, earning itself a bite! Yet, no matter how deep she sunk her teeth, it did not react, only closed its own mouth around her, clamping down on her face.

"The heroine of mice. You were never the type to struggle with a puzzle, and good at thinking things on the fly, so I want you to quench a doubt of mine."

Holly yelled with all her lungs, muffled. A second snake closed around her arm, pulling her towards the swarm as she tried to retreat. A third restrained her by the same arm, then a fourth by the leg, and with every single one that joined she weakened.

" 'People are more than just their appearance.' 'She never said I was anything less than human.' But what is a human? What is the quality of a human that makes them a Human? Are other Dashi incapable of being human? You remember what a Dashi is, right?"

They closer over her eyes, over her chest, over hands and feet, until she was fully enveloped into a cocoon of squirming shapes. She struggled, feeling the space around her shrink, forcing her limbs together. Still, the Things voice resounded as if it had been speaking on her ears all along.

"But you don't have a good answer to that, do you? Not because you weren't curious, but because you put it out of your mind as soon as it came, every time. So, all that you know about a human is what they are supposed to look like. So, have you ever known a human being willing to look beyond the skin and accept you as one of their own? So, if a person is more than their appearances, and you only known humans by appearance, have you ever met a human being at all? So..."

Light faded. Her chest couldn't expand enough to breath. Her blood stopped cold inside her veins, her heart incapable of moving anymore.

But that voice? That damned voice continued, as clear as day.

"... Have you ever stopped to consider that you were denying me the monstrosity I craved all along?"

----------------------------------------

Her bindings tore around her, shards raining in all directions as she howled.

"Aaaaaah."

She fell on her hands, crushing a small object under her weight. Sharp crystals caught the light, spreading over an unfathomable web of lines dark and light with a faint tinkle like the rustle of leaves in the wind. She screamed, overcome with terror, and again what came out was nothing but a meek exclamation, barely loud enough to be called whispering.

Dwelling on that discrepancy is what finally reeled her from the nightmare. What in the world was going on?!

She took a deep breath, then remembered she didn't need to breath. Shaking her head out of undesirable thoughts, and her hands out of what her best guess concluded was glass, cloth, and... bugs? She took a whiff of the creamy mixture, took a slight lick, and became certain then that had been some sort of centipede.

She tried to figure out her location, but she couldn't even tell what the purpose of this room was. Dusk and some sort of covered lamp cast faint incandescent light over what could have been a repurposed bedroom, a small bed sitting alone against the far wall. Around her, somebody had drawn some sort of shape in white powder, its many paths now covered by... wood? Carpet? large pieces of some sort of barrel and the shredded rags of something covered in fur, regardless. Other pots filled with insects had been laid around the figure, circles in rust red marking the couple few she hadn't broken or overturned.

She looked from the half closed window to the shut door, finding herself alone.

Mostly alone. She knew there was somebody under the bed, holding an enchanted object against the corner.

Wait, how did she-

She hopped to her feet, for the first time realizing her Will was out and about, gently caressing the room bit by bit. Thankfully invisible and painless to control, yet not as she remembered them, not exactly. there was something wrong there. What? She recalled her thousand arms, creating a snake ball around herself as she pondered over the mistery.

The answer was found immediate.

She had changed.

Or rather, the first description that came to mind was much less flattering. She had lost no functionality, but groping her Will over, she couldn't help but cringe.

It had lost its previous shape, it's very purpose, leaving a great broken mess of fingers uneven in both length and numbers across the mass, some arms left with so many joints they were like spines, while others had been forced into awkward fusions that left them strong but incapable of properly bending at their joints, or twisting at painful angles. And across them, ridges, valleys of cratered wounds, crossing up and down their length, still tender in a deeply uncomfortable way to the touch.

And worse of all, solid. Not they she had been before, however. Like the man she who had claimed to her father. Unlike him, her Will was not slick, not wet, not cold, or whichever those had been analogous too. If anything she was... sticky? Coarse? Things she hadn't she could become at all.

No. A third word came to mind, and it did not feel like her own.

Inescapable.

And as a sum, wrong. Grotesque.

Yet, alive. How? She poured through the memories of that night, finding the only thing odd and out place, as far as she was sure she could actually distinguish, being herself. She had grown desperate and then... happy? Why? She had done something horrible to herself, how could she have felt happy?! No, it couldn't be, maybe that Thing in her dream had altered her somehow?

Her nails dug into the wooden boards below, cracking them. Once she figured how to get to her again, she would-

Movement.

Her Will flew, some reacting faster than ever before, others slower. In the blink of an eye, they had found the hidden person, the Underbedder, again, holding them down without harming. Holly felt them shudder in fear, and she shuddered in fear herself; that had been an awfully intimate sensation, and she hadn't even meant to do it. Actually, since when could she do it? That hadn't felt like Will speech, or an attack, or anything of the sort.

Still, it was as good a distraction as any. Holly rose, wondering who could be this person Agare and the others had left her with? She certainly didn't feel like any of the others, but there was a certain quality to them that made they similar, if not quite as... much, she supposed. So, a human being, but not one she knew? Could Marquise have sent another agent?

That was the moment she chose to speak, and not some much as a mutter came out.

Or rather, it had, she felt it in her throat, but there was no sound. She frowned, spreading around the room and finding the most likely culprit almost immediately. Beyond the object being held by the Underbedder, there were three other similarly enchanted objects placed around each of the room's corners, she could feel their nature by their script, even if she couldn't quite tell what they were meant to do.

She approached one, opposite the Underbedder's and closest to the window. She could see now she had somehow been right, the palm sized disc of wood having been a slice taken out of some weird, colorless tree branch, its edges smoothed down round, script dense with... Merurgy, was it? Will, she decided. Script dense with Will forming concentric rings around a single symbol, or word in some undecipherable language? It felt familiar somehow, but she couldn't tell from where.

She brough it to the Underbedder, lowering it in between then besides the bed. Something skittered further back, though she didn't quite catch its silhouette.

"H-hello?" Holly said. There was still a weird echo to her voice, and she could swear she was hearing a curious little commotion from somewhere around.

Of course, They didn't leave hiding. Holly had to admit, the whole situation was making her a anxious. Pushing the disk aside with her foot, she crouched down, leaning to the floor as she peered into the shadows. There, she found her interloper, under the cover of dark clothes, a glint peeking out-

The knife flew at her face.

... Slowly, in comparison with the other dangers she had faced. She intercepted the hand holding the blade with ease, restraining the attacker. She felt them struggle against her grip, somehow not moving her a bit. A second hand joined the first, trying to pry her fingers open to no avail.

Confused, she pulled them out, careful not to hurt them too bad.

One glimpse of the skin over their hands and she let go, shocked

She had thought they were just very dark. Brought into the light, she realize the truth: they were blue.

Her mind went blank. Then, she bristled with alarm. That wasn't human skin, as far as she knew it, so what had been there, searching around the same room she slept in?

A prickle brought her back to reality. That moment of distraction had given the Underbedder enough time for a second attack. The knife had struck right at the side of het crotch, meeting soft skin and barely making a dent.

"Ouch?" she said, also coming to realize she had been naked all along. No wonder she had felt so free, and they so afraid. Speaking of afraid, they were now bordering on despair after seeing her lack of reaction, and instead of repeating that mistake chose to lunge for the window. She didn't need to walk to catch them, just lean to the side and grasp them by their black hood.

As a last ditch effort, they slid down and out of their cowl, making another run for it. This time, she was forced to take a step, catching them by the back of the neck and raising them into the air. Came again the knife, only to be stopped by the hardskin over her palm, and swiftly plucked off their grasp.

They were small and slender, wearing nothing but a simple brown robe of light cloth, cut at the thighs to reveal worn down trousers. Their skin was somewhere between blue and grey, darkish and blemished at the legs. Their ears were long and pointed, without earlobes, emerging from long locks of matted hair. But their face was what truly drew her, their deep red eyes and sharp canines lining what could have easily passed for a human face, with a small nose and bushy eyebrows.

They also had tear ducts and lungs, the way they were crying and faintly screaming. She looked down again, noticed they were now wetting their pant, and her by extension, coming to the quick conclusion that she might have gone a little overboard in her curiosity.

"Hehe, Oops," she said to herself.

She opened her mouth to apologize, but had no opportunity to speak. The once locked door behind her burst inwards with flames.