The dripping had echoed to Mathias, but not from the corpse he had awoken too. Across Iron River sat a decrepit apartment building, built sometime in the 80s it had long since fallen into disrepair. Now sitting amidst the trash on a street of similarly fallen buildings. Screams echoed onto the street from its broken windows. Outside pentacles painted crudely with red spray paint covered the outside of the brick structure. But within its halls were carefully painted ruins, simply looking at one too long would drive a man mad. They made a mockery of the sigils outside.
A woman laid chained to an old countertop, haphazardly screwed into old particle board, it was unlikely that could hold her while she struggled if not for the large metal spikes driven through her hands and feet. Blood flowed freely from her wounds, strange ruins carved over her pregnant belly. A pool of blood ran thick as it dripped from within her womb. A glimmer of an eye, the tip of a claw, a scaled mandible, flashes from within the depths of her vagina. Whispers, animal cries, even music came from the creature in small bursts. Her belly moved, as if large worms were squirming within.
A tall figure stood amidst six others, a bloody carving tool in one hand, her other she used to dig her thumb into one of the woman's eye sockets. Her screaming built in crescendo, what appeared to be a mound of squirming raw muscle tissue pushed into the open air. An air of exultation filled the room as it inched forward. With a groan the woman opened her mouth, which was filled with bloody nails and coughed, a chunk of her throat landing between her slashed breasts, before her head broke free of the figures grip and hit the table with a crack. She twitched briefly, her other eye rolling back and she stopped moving.
The pile of flesh was pulled back into her womb, it screeched and clawed, ripping chunks out of her thighs before disappearing back within. The dead woman's belly deflated like a popped beach ball. "FUUUCK." The woman slammed the carving tool directly into the corpses belly, she repeated this 20 or 30 times blood flying about the room before stopping, gasping for air. "Margarite... maybe we should give up. After all this is the 7th failure, we can only make so many homeless women disappear before the cops notice." Margarite pulled down her hood, silver snakebite piercing shining in the candle light. her red mow hawk sprang up from under the hood. A beautiful pale woman with horn like tattoos on the sides of her head she was seething. "MARIELLE, WE CAN'T FAIL LORD ENRIAL!" The other hooded woman bowed her head slightly.
"You fear the police but you can't even imagine the suffering the lord would inflict on us for failing to give him corporeal form in the mortal world. You think the gifts he has given us are the worst of his love?" She pulled away her cloak to reveal her nude form, her pale skin was marred by scars and tattoos muddled over each other, her nipples had long since been removed replaced with strange metallic piercings and between her legs looked similarly to ground meat strewn with chain like piercings.
A male voice called from the other side of the table, "Well where do we get a woman capable of giving birth to our Lord then! These crack addicts simply can't withstand his greatness, no woman can I should think." The short hooded figure pulled back his hood to reveal a round headed man with glasses. He had a large nose and watery green eyes. Strange stick figure tattoos covered his neck and a solid black bar appeared to run from his chin down into the cloak. "Alph I'm not so sure its the woman's fault. our lord let you keep your manhood only so that you could help to birth him but yet again it has failed. I think it is more likely your seed is simply worthless." Alph sputtered red in the face.
A gentle cough from the door interrupted them. They all spun brandishing knives or small pistols. In the door frame stood a beautiful man, skin as dark as ebony, baby blue close cropped hair, and sickly yellow eyes. He wore a purple grey suit with a golden tie. He smiled at their response, bright white teeth, sharpened to jagged points. He looked like he would fit in at some strange fashion show in Milan. Too beautiful for such a grimey apartment yet exuded rot, a greasy feeling that made the stomach turn.
At his appearance they dropped their knives, immediately kneeling and pressing their foreheads to the bloody floor. Except Margarite who kept a careful stance only moving to place her .357 on the counter next to the corpse. "Lord Severus, how... wonderful to see you. What ever could the reason for your visit be." The other hooded figures snickered at her attempt at a polite tone.
A voice like a slither mixed with honey came from between his shark-like teeth, "Dear, dear Margarite, my elder brother's leading worshipper. I am always happy to see your beautiful face, and absolutely abolished genitals." With a slight blush Margarite growls, "A gift from your brother my lord." "Well I'm sure he enjoyed you. Now I'm here because I have heard and now seen that you seem to be having immense trouble summoning Enrial." Margarite looked down, "Yes his greatness appears to be too much for any human woman to bear... if I could host him myself I would but..." "Oh yes, yes I know Enrial's habit of feasting on his worshippers wombs. A jealous type he is, doesn't want any distractions from you worshipping him, and he doesn't want any being human or not to be able to enjoy you like him. Though I have no idea how he thinks he will grow his fan base without functional breeders."
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The hooded ones twitched a little at the belittling of their lord but Severus continued undisturbed. "There is another way. A much quicker one at that." Margarite looked up, shocked. "But the books only speak of true birth, this was the only one revealed to us!" "That my dear, is because the older way, the ancient way, is much more difficult. We assume most average followers to be unable to accomplish the old ways." He cupped her chin looking into her eyes. His yellow iris's seemed to ripple with green, the colors of rot, of a fresh bruise. "How." She whispered. " he leaned in, his lips brushing her neck. "You must invert innocence. An immense amount of it. All at once."
"You see in the dark times, before the cities of man had truly risen our dark palaces crossed the lands. Your kind followed our every whim, and were willing to do whatever was necessary. I miss them." A thoughtful expression crossed his face, " The perfect slaves for the perfect lords. Current humans just don't have that level of loyalty."
"What..." She shuddered, he smelled sickly sweet like rotting garbage, his breath caused her body to shiver in excitement. "What does that even mean. I would do anything for the Horned Lord." He leaned back from her, holding her shoulders. "You must do something so terrible to many someone's who are perfectly innocent. Clean." She regained a little of her previous rebelliousness. "Who the fuck is innocent anymore, even kids watch porn these days." "Isn't it wonderful." He smiled. "No you must aim even lower. Younger. Fresher, in fact the freshest of all." She understood. "Babies? Where would we find a bunch of..." He whispered, "You get it." "The infant care facility at Iron River Hospital?" Severus clapped her on the shoulder, acting like a proud parent.
"Exactly." With his fingers he made a walking motion. "You prance over to those fresh sacks of innocent blood and you ruin them. All at once, in as terrible a way as possible." "Like?" " Use your imagination, rape them, eat them, slice little bits off them and feed them to another. Get creative bring powertool's and a food processor, I don't care just make them suffer so much that it equals their innocence. Calling out to Enrial amidst the fluxuation will allow him to crossover in full form, in the netherflesh. He won't have to suffer through... a mortal childhood like I did." Margarite's eyes gleamed, new hope igniting within. A voice from behind called out, "But s..s..sir h...h.ow can we kill so many children and escape. They'll send everything after us. The hooded woman quivered on the ground her terrified, in the blood Severus could see her reflection, eyes tattooed on her cheeks, her nose, missing, simply two dark holes.
"The Horned Lord will have arrived, we won't have to fear the police, a swat team, even the army!" Margarite's eyes nearly glowed now. "He will gift us what he has promised and we will be as gods among men." Severus held up a hand. "And don't worry. Much like my brother," Smiled Severus reaching into his jacket. "I am not without generosity. I come bearing gifts to make your little excursion even easier." From within his jacket he pulled two objects. A small bronze jeweled box, octagonal in shape with paw like feet, and a jade knife, only 6 inches in length, the blade gave off a hollow green light. Its hilt appeared to be a feathered serpent carved of stone. "The Orchestrina of Ephemera and the sacrificial blade cursed by Quetzalcoatl himself. With these your mission should become almost infantile." He smiled at his own pun. "Simply by entering the hospital and opening the orchestrina you will put anyone in the building into a stupor. They will not remember what happens once they awaken and it will only effect those not blessed by a lord. Simply leave it open and continue with your business, if you want, you can do pretty much anything to those under its spell."
"The dagger is ancient. Originally used by a head priest of the Mesoamerican cult. They sent every sacrifice to Quetzalcoatl who of course forbid sacrifice, every single one was like a knife in his side. With this blade any cut, even the smallest wound will feel like your heart is being carved from your chest. It can slice any flesh, with almost no resistance as well. Perfect for the immense pain you need to inflict." He carefully handed the artifacts to Margarite.
She smiled, before screaming a battle cry and turned. Slashing Alph's groin, a meaty plop followed. Alph stood stock still for seconds. His eyes followed hers as they both saw his member sitting on the floorboards. He screamed, a primal sound. Falling to the ground attempting to staunch the bleeding, the entire time screaming. Severus arched an eyebrow at Margarite, she smiled coyly, "We didn't need him anymore." Severus laughed, his joy entwining with Alph's suffering creating unpleasant cacophony. The blood of the dead woman like a beat adding to the song.
"This is why I love this plane, you humans keep me so amused. In fact before you go I think we should all partake in some amusement. Margarite lost her smile, her skin paling. Severus reached the top of her head and pushed her to the floor. With a practiced motion he undid his belt. As he disrobed so did the remaining hooded figures. All looked different but they all shared in their scars.
Severus looked like a Greek statue, chiseled black marble. Muscles stood out in the candle light, his skin so black it was almost blue. He would be beautiful if not for the thing between his legs. Almost its own creature a tentacle with a fanged ending squirmed in the air. Little bladed ridges ran down its length, almost a foot long. It even made little cries as it reached for her mouth. He stopped and pointed at the corpse of the woman, "Oh bring her here as well, I wouldn't want her to go to waste."
The dripping stopped.