agnus dei

Talitha de le Poer · 02-01-2011, 05:31 PM

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826wc. Set at night, Grimwell Caverns. It's long, and for people who don't want to read it all, the last few paragraphs are all that really matter. Please do not feel the need to match this length. I never expect people to match outrageously long posts; 300 words is perfectly fine if that's all you usually do.

It had set in, the dark fear that always haunted the back of her mind. The sun had set, the shadows magnified, the haunting past bubbling up from the surface of each into figures of history. Beings frothed forward from the smoky trappings of darkness, reaching out to her with grasping hands. A whimper of fear escaped the victim who was crouched beneath the broken window, staring at the spilt moonlight on the worn wooden floor. It did little to ease away the ghosts; they simply flooded around it, unafraid of the silver glow. Her hands raised in defense, covering her ears to drown out the taunting words of her uncle as he came from each side.

"Talitha."

"I kept my word, didn't I, baby?"

"You couldn't get enough of dear uncle Andre last time, could you."

She choked back vomit, scents whirling in her head, reminding her of the Dahlian beach. The ocean, the salt, and something masculine that triggered her reflex to gag. It was all too familiar, laced with need and desire, backed by the vile smell of Andrezej Lykoi. She had known it other places, but never had it given her such a reaction; in fact, it was all too alluring when placed in the right setting.

This wasn't it.

Before the hand of the shadowed beast could touch her, she had moved. Standing erect, searching the room. She needed to leave, and quickly as possible. Her hands fumbled over what few belongings she had, gathering the bottle and journal from the dilapidated table with difficulty. It seemed the horrors of the room had left her ambisinister, as she almost dropped both atop the floor in her rush.

Her feet were swift in carrying her out of the door, through the center hall and down the eastern stairs. For a moment, she was unsure of where she was, crimson eyes casting shadowed glanced into the darkness about her. It was still D'Neville manor, but something was different. Counters that she was familiar with in the sunshine hours were suddenly devoid of familiarity, housing faces she longed not to remember.

It was no better outside, the absence of light creating more natural shadows that leaned out from behind the trees within the forest of Nod. She tried to avoid them, diverting her eyes from their creeping movements across the ground. They weren't real. He was dead. The things that haunted her had died in her youth.

With stumbling steps, she made it out of the boundaries of the thick Inferni woods, staring skywards at the moon as it sat overhead. A dull ache started in the back of her skull, creeping forward to cloud her vision. More prominent images of Andrezej Lykoi came before her, reaching out to grasp her shoulders, leaning forward to bite her ear. No true feeling came from his embrace, but he was so detailed, so lifelike. So real. His fingers graced her cheek, mouth moving with words she couldn't hear. A familiar heat built up between her thighs, a yearning reaching her heart with every lingering moment. Another trigger of her reflex to gag.

She tore herself from the ghostly embrace, sprinting from his vicinity. She had forgotten the purpose of leaving the manor. She had forgotten what exactly she had wanted to do. Her feet carried her across the Inferi-claimed wastes, eyes searching frantically for a place to hide from the mists of the past. The Grimwell Caverns came to mind, grafting comfort into her mind. It was where Gabriel slept, where she could be safe. Her uncle, her father, her grandmother. All sentries in the night, to keep Andrezej away.

It was far more difficult to navigate the caves within Grimwell than it was to sprint across the flat land outside of them; she bumped into the rocky walls at every turn, getting lost in the myriad of tunnels that created one of the popular homes for the coyotes. Scents that were familiar became tangled in a web that couldn't be deciphered, save the comforting scent of Gabriel.

In silence, she followed the metaphorical ray of sunlight through the darkness, searching for a place to rest. There was no Andrezej here, no seductively disgusting scents to turn her mind away from her destination. She clutched the journal to her chest, eyes focused forward, her heart simply giving up. Quietly, she stopped and kneeled, staring at the ground with her head hanging. Her hair obscured her face. What was she doing there so late?

"He's punishing me. I know he is." All of Gabriel's words about God casting the wicked into the fires flooded back into her head. She would join them in death, left with the haunts of her past. Her Shadow. Dead, but still there.

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