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- Jul 6, 2008
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- 11,370
Bedlam (III)
Gesturing at Elizabeth to stay back, you silently position yourself between the beast and her. The ex-nurse looks at you, again with its gaze full of hunger and of agony, and she howls. Bounding towards you on all fours, she leaps at you. With Elizabeth at your back, you cannot afford to dodge. Your eyes narrow and your senses sharpen, the call of the hunt fills your veins, rushing along with the blood pounding in your ears... and you see the stones of the black pyramid lining the hospital walls even though it cannot be. Your new-found razor focus allows you to react faster than you ever could. You call upon the shield of Akasha. Given its small size, you know it would not hold against the beast bringing her full weight onto you. Instead, you grip the shield firmly, arms lowered, and as the lunging jaws reach for your neck you drive your fists upwards sharply, smashing the silvery metal into the underside of that ghastly head. It was a forceful blow that would have stunned or even knocked out most opponents.
Yet, the beast remains on her feet, snarling and drooling. Several serrated fangs tumble out of her mouth and clatter on the ward's floor, having been knocked loose by your attack. You do not give her any time for respite. This time, you charge her instead, your hands closing around her neck. You roar, primal strength surging through your limbs as you lift the beast up into the air, slamming her into the wall. She strikes back at you, flailing with her claws. The sharp nails slice open your face and body but to no avail. It will not save her. Gathering your strength, you focus all of it into your fingers, and twist. There is a sickening, cracking noise as her neck shatters in your grip. The beast's jaw slackens, her head hangs limp, and you let her drop to the floor.
As you let out a sigh, excruciating pain lances through your head. You fall to your knees and gasp for breath - the pain is gone as quickly as it came, and for a moment you wonder if you had imagined it.
"Your... eye..." murmurs Elizabeth, her concern made very clear through the furrows on her brow. She gestures at her right eye, staring at you, then realizes that it would be faster to just show you. "Right, a mirror... Mom gave me one and I had it around here..." Fumbling around the drawer, she brings out a handmirror and turns it towards you.
You see your face, fresh wounds across your cheek. But most alarming of all is your right eye. It has turned entirely black. As you lift a finger to it, touching your eye gently, you are surprised to find that it feels hard. Like stone. Yet, your vision remains unaffected... why is that, you wonder. You wait for a second, hoping for Uridimmu to make some chiding, mocking remark or another, but not a single howl of laughter can be heard from the Hound. He appears to be occupied elsewhere.
Shaking your head, you decide that there is nothing to be done about it - you do not know why it happened and how to cure it, and so you should set your mind to doing what is more important right now: escaping the hospital with Elizabeth and Rain.
You kneel with your back to Elizabeth and she hops on without any manner of reserve. Her bony body is light enough that it would not burden you to run around with her on your back.
"Wait, have you grown bigger?" she asks, her energy seemingly returning with every passing second.
"Yes," is your only response, and she frets. "Oh, that means Sophie must have grown even more! I don't think I've grown a single inch anywhere in the past year!"
Holding back a chuckle, you step out into the corridor after making sure that there is no one around. You're heading for Rain next. Though you trusted her to be able to hide if things got rough - you rather suspected that she was wiser than you, after all - it wouldn't do to leave her alone for too long. Breaking into a run, you make your way towards the nurse's room.
"Hey," whispers Elizabeth into your ear sweetly. Her lips are so close that you can feel the warmth of her breath tickling your face. "It's weird... but I'm sorta hungry. Sorry!"
And with no warning whatsoever, she closes her mouth over the side of your neck and bites, drawing blood. You can feel her sucking on the wound, her tongue teasing the incision made with her teeth, almost like a cat.
***
A. You let her suck her fill. You have enough blood to spare and while this is strange, this isn't the strangest thing that has happened to you even today.
B. You try to push her away. She's turned into an unholy blood-sucking vampire, for God's sake! This is not right!
***
Gesturing at Elizabeth to stay back, you silently position yourself between the beast and her. The ex-nurse looks at you, again with its gaze full of hunger and of agony, and she howls. Bounding towards you on all fours, she leaps at you. With Elizabeth at your back, you cannot afford to dodge. Your eyes narrow and your senses sharpen, the call of the hunt fills your veins, rushing along with the blood pounding in your ears... and you see the stones of the black pyramid lining the hospital walls even though it cannot be. Your new-found razor focus allows you to react faster than you ever could. You call upon the shield of Akasha. Given its small size, you know it would not hold against the beast bringing her full weight onto you. Instead, you grip the shield firmly, arms lowered, and as the lunging jaws reach for your neck you drive your fists upwards sharply, smashing the silvery metal into the underside of that ghastly head. It was a forceful blow that would have stunned or even knocked out most opponents.
Yet, the beast remains on her feet, snarling and drooling. Several serrated fangs tumble out of her mouth and clatter on the ward's floor, having been knocked loose by your attack. You do not give her any time for respite. This time, you charge her instead, your hands closing around her neck. You roar, primal strength surging through your limbs as you lift the beast up into the air, slamming her into the wall. She strikes back at you, flailing with her claws. The sharp nails slice open your face and body but to no avail. It will not save her. Gathering your strength, you focus all of it into your fingers, and twist. There is a sickening, cracking noise as her neck shatters in your grip. The beast's jaw slackens, her head hangs limp, and you let her drop to the floor.
As you let out a sigh, excruciating pain lances through your head. You fall to your knees and gasp for breath - the pain is gone as quickly as it came, and for a moment you wonder if you had imagined it.
"Your... eye..." murmurs Elizabeth, her concern made very clear through the furrows on her brow. She gestures at her right eye, staring at you, then realizes that it would be faster to just show you. "Right, a mirror... Mom gave me one and I had it around here..." Fumbling around the drawer, she brings out a handmirror and turns it towards you.
You see your face, fresh wounds across your cheek. But most alarming of all is your right eye. It has turned entirely black. As you lift a finger to it, touching your eye gently, you are surprised to find that it feels hard. Like stone. Yet, your vision remains unaffected... why is that, you wonder. You wait for a second, hoping for Uridimmu to make some chiding, mocking remark or another, but not a single howl of laughter can be heard from the Hound. He appears to be occupied elsewhere.
Shaking your head, you decide that there is nothing to be done about it - you do not know why it happened and how to cure it, and so you should set your mind to doing what is more important right now: escaping the hospital with Elizabeth and Rain.
You kneel with your back to Elizabeth and she hops on without any manner of reserve. Her bony body is light enough that it would not burden you to run around with her on your back.
"Wait, have you grown bigger?" she asks, her energy seemingly returning with every passing second.
"Yes," is your only response, and she frets. "Oh, that means Sophie must have grown even more! I don't think I've grown a single inch anywhere in the past year!"
Holding back a chuckle, you step out into the corridor after making sure that there is no one around. You're heading for Rain next. Though you trusted her to be able to hide if things got rough - you rather suspected that she was wiser than you, after all - it wouldn't do to leave her alone for too long. Breaking into a run, you make your way towards the nurse's room.
"Hey," whispers Elizabeth into your ear sweetly. Her lips are so close that you can feel the warmth of her breath tickling your face. "It's weird... but I'm sorta hungry. Sorry!"
And with no warning whatsoever, she closes her mouth over the side of your neck and bites, drawing blood. You can feel her sucking on the wound, her tongue teasing the incision made with her teeth, almost like a cat.
***
A. You let her suck her fill. You have enough blood to spare and while this is strange, this isn't the strangest thing that has happened to you even today.
B. You try to push her away. She's turned into an unholy blood-sucking vampire, for God's sake! This is not right!
***
