Shrike's Heart (#2)

[idolpro]

The woman before you is beautiful—fair of features, with lovely golden skin and luxurious long black hair, petite. You have the immediate and distinct impression that she's just let go of your hand, and she steps back, and smiles.

It's not quite a happy smile.

"I'm sorry," she says. "There's just nothing I can do, as things are. But the way is there; it just needs to be lit."

You open your mouth—maybe to say something, or to express confusion—but you have to cough, and taste something metallic, spattering black blood onto the ground in front of you. Then you realize—blood seeps from opening wounds in your arms, your chest, your stomach, your face. It rims your eyes and trails from your nose and you feel like you're dissolving—

—and you fall through the ground like it's the surface of a lake, and go down, down, down.

> Wake Up

Comments

Re: > START

[justfuckingtryit]

[Is the building still a ways in the distance?]

[He walks around the hole, giving it plenty of space, and carries on toward the wall]

Re: > START

[handpuppets]

[ that's what you intend to do, but—

the hole radiates a sort of intense pressure. it's alluring, in a way. rather than give it a wide berth your feet carry you

right

up

t̳̦͓̘̰̩͜o

t̹͉̼͟h̨̺̫̱̟͟ͅé҉̧̻̖͓̪̯͖ͅ

ę̵͉̙̙̻̠͢͢d̬͉̪̩̘̰̭̫͙̹͚͈̟́g҉̢͘͏̳͈̜̯̲͍̯̖̥̩̬͙e͟҉̶̬̭͚̩̮





blackness, infinite void. it's nigh impossible to look away from, and you hear the voices, all around you, a heavy crush against your ears—

Give us your name, they say. ]

Re: > START

[justfuckingtryit]

Who's asking?

[He tips his chin up, in challenge. If he's alarmed from coming to the edge without meaning to, it doesn't show on his face.]

Re: > START

[handpuppets]

[ the voices don't answer—exactly. they rise in a babble again, odd phrases, shrieks, bubbling laughter—it's not coming from the pit, but from all around you.

the dream of the dark

—but only if you listen closely. that song. the one no one taught you, not your mother, the one that exists because we made it—

VENGEANCE! VENGEANCE!

—and so on. and then one repeats, in a clear tenor man's voice:

Give us your name.

And here, in their place of power, even exercising what control over yourself as you can—you cannot say no. ]

Re: > START

[justfuckingtryit]

[But can he say fuck you? Because he sure is trying to say fuck you.]

Re: > START

[handpuppets]

[ you can say "fuck you," but—

Your voice emerges, but the words are muffled, garbled, warped, and swallowed into the nothingness that surrounds you.

you get the impression you aren't walking out of here until you give them your name. ]

Re: > START

[justfuckingtryit]

Thorn.

[Fuck these voices. They don't get his real name]

Re: > START

[handpuppets]

[ Like before, your voice emerges, but the words are muffled, garbled, warped, and swallowed into the nothingness that surrounds you.

What was that name you went by? You can't remember.

but then— ]