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 Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 10:17 am
Feriska gave Rabid an analytical look, drawing back and putting a hand protectively to her throat.
"A vampire that can walk in sunlight. How novel." she said, trying to sneer but giving Rabid a rather frightened look. Turning to her husband, who was being throttled again by Julian with both hands, Feriska gave a sniff.
"Yaga, is there something you'd like to say?"
Yagadath gave an overdramatic gasp for air, clawing at Julian's hands again.
"Nahal, buddy, it's not that big a deal - not like she's a real person or anything-gakk!"
Julian's hands tightened.
"You take that back, you selfish, evil - " he spluttered, his voice shaking in rage. Feriska put her hands on her hips again and stomped her foot for attention. Julian looked over slowly, fingers tightening as his father turned a delicate shade of blue.
"Oh, for goodness sake, stop killing your father. You're making a scene. So what if he sold her soul? She was hardly worth keeping around - imagine, that flesh-poisoning little common-bred having a soul to begin with!"
Julian released his father, not bothering to reply to Feriska. Pointing savagely at the deep-slashed symbols, he gave his father a bullet stare.
"I know you don't care about her. But since I'm the 'pure-bred' and you give a crap about me, how about telling me who did this?"
Yagadath adjusted his glasses and squinted, examining the cruel wound with interest. As his eyes fell on the burn-broken eye symbol, he turned ashen gray and broke out into a cold sweat.
"We-Who-Watch..." he muttered more to himself than to Julian. "It was them. They got to you. That wasn't part of the deal - they only wanted her! I don't - "
Julian backed away from his father, feeling dizzy with anger. Foggy memories raced half-formed through his mind, memories of fire and a woman laughing as he screamed in agony...
"Hnn." Reaching under his jacket and drawing forth the knife, he held it against Yagadath's face, the jagged point ready to plunge into a wide, fearful eye. Turning to look at Feriska, he gave a snort at the look of fear on her face.
"Get lost."
Feriska didn't need telling twice. Gathering her skirts and flying down the steps, she paused only to give Malachi and Rabid a sneer and a muttered insult before running out the door. Julian turned back to Yagadath, who was staring after his wife in horror.
"Tell me what they want with her. Tell me everything."
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 10:25 am
"Hah. Brave," Rabid smirked and mooved behind Yagadath, breathing now his neck. She watched his jugular pulse, and listened for a response. She certianly wasn't leaving without a response.
Ike, now entirely confused out of his mind, sat a few feet away from Julian, watching the scene, sniffling, and hugging Skelly.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 11:17 am
Yagadath looked at Rabid nervously and squirmed under the point of the knife.
"Alright, alright, I'll tell you. Just get the silverware away from my eyeball."
Julian moved the knife's point under Yagadath's chin.
"Better?"
Yagadath gave a weak sneer.
"Heh. Funny, big man."
Julian moved the knife so that it pricked the soft flesh of Yagadath's throat just enougb to release a droplet of blood.
"Ya know, I don't think he's gonna talk to us, Rabid. You wanna eat him now, or should we take him with us and you can snack on the way?"
Yagadath turned an even more sickly gray.
"Alright, dammit! You wanna know, I'll tell you." He drew a long breath and sighed, wincing as the razor sharp knife point dug into his throat again.
"Twenty years ago, I was visited by a chick called the Dead Queen. She said she worked for something called We-Who-Watch, and that they wanted to trade something with me for a soul." He paused as Julian twitched and winced, holding his head in one hand as though something pained him. Cracking open one eye and jabbing Yagadath with the knife, he sneered.
"Keep talking."
Yagadath cleared his throat and sunk a little deeper into the arm chair, trying to find some space between him and the shining blade.
"Yeah. Anyway. She said she'd trade me a Philospher's Stone for a soul, and when she wouldn't take mine, she said she'd take the one of my daughter instead. Of course, she didn't mention we had to do it the old-fashioned way, with the whole 'pregnancy' thing. Ucch, my ears are still ringing from the screaming match I had with Feriska over that. Especially since the damned stone doesn't even work right - wretched thing kills all it touches and melts it down into that black slime.
"Anyhow, after Feriska gave birth to the little tumor, the Dead Queen didn't show up to claim her. Cripes," he muttered to himself, shaking his head. "First we had to make the damn creature, then we had to keep it...hmph. Well, two years of dealing with the brat and we wanted to real child, so we Constructed you, Nahal. At least YOU were a success, not some random-gened bit of trash like-gack!"
Julian had let the knife slip, and an angry thin cut opened on Yagadath's throat. A trickle of blood snaked down his neck and stained his shirt collar scarlet, joining the cold sweat Yagadath was perspiring profusely.
"Sorry, it slipped." Julian said nonchalantly. Yagadath cleared his throat again and gave Rabid a quite fearful look before continuing.
"Be more careful with that. So, where was I? Ah, yeah. After you were Constructed, the Dead Queen visited again. Well, a sort of creepy talking white fire did. She, er, It said it would claim Sarah in a few years, since they didn't need her quite yet. When I asked what they wanted with her, all they would say is that they needed "fresh blood". 'Course, I thought they were just gonna eat her or something."
He paused, looking at Julian with something that just might have been fatherly concern.
"I didn't know they were going to try to take you, too."
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 1:52 pm
Rabid stared at the blood as Julian pressed the knife into his father's neck. Her pupils narrowed, and her fangs slowly extended.
"Naw, he was their meat puppet in the whole escapade," she growled and ran her tongue over the man's wound, "Now tell me where we can find Sarah." It felt weird to call Crow by her real name, but Rabid didn't notice at all. She could barely hear herself think over the beating of Yagadath's heart.
Ike's ears folded back and his eyes grew wide. Why was Mummy drinking from the evil man? Didn't it taste awful? He buried his face in Skelly (which didn't work so well), and clung tight to the plush.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 2:31 pm
Yagadath shuddered violently, looking nauseous.
"You've got rotten taste in girls, Nahalthes," he said in a sour and quavering voice. Julian merely smirked.
"Better than yours." he replied. Yagadath gave him an icy look and made as though to insult him, but thought better of it when the knife's serrated edge was pressed against his throat again.
"Look, I'm sorry they made you a, uh, 'meat puppet', but does it really have to be like this? I mean, I can just Construct a copy of her if you want - you'd never know the difference!"
Julian ran his thumb over the leather wrapped hilt of the blade. He'd never been a violent person, but the thoughts of sticking the knife blade in Yagadath's eye had never seemed more natural. Yagadath began to hyperventilate as the blade bit into his skin, slowly and agonizingly.
Glancing over at Rabid and Malachi, he winced at the pain and gulped.
"I've visited the Dead Queen and We-Who-Watch a couple times. They gave me a way to get there - a sort of teleporter, really. Do you want it?"
Julian hesitated. This was way too easy. But then again, one could hardly accuse Yagadath of standing strong under pressure.
"Yeah, I do. Give it to me."
Scrabbling with his buttoned up shirt collar, Yagadath drew forth a thin iron chain that was tucked under his poofy, bloodstained ascot. Julian shrank back as Yagadath drew out the pendant attached to the chain - a thin iron plate inlaid with silver wire, fashioned into the shape of an eye. Yagadath tugged firmls at the chain and snapped it, and held it out to Julian. He took it resentfully and winced as the ring of cuts began to burn and throb, making his eyes water and breath turn shallow. He passed it to Rabid quickly and put a hand to his chest, feeling his heart beating frantically beneath the scarred flesh. Yagadath looked on in guilt and turned to Rabid.
"All three of you are going, I presume. Nahal, the only way to make the thing work is to bleed on it - you're gonna have to cut the girl, the rat, and yourself. It'll take you straight to where ever it is the Dead Queen lives with that accursed fire of hers - don't even dare let that thing out of your sight, or you'll never get out of there."
Julian gave Yagadath a puzzled look.
"Why are you helping us?"
Yagadath glanced at his son's wound and then looked away.
"Because parents help their children. Now get out - your cow of a mother probably summoned the security 'bots by now. Leave, and don't dare think of coming back."
Julian gave his father one last look before motioning for Rabid and Malachi to follow.
"Goodbye, Nahal."
Halfway out the room, Julian turned to look at his cowering, weakling of a father.
"My name is Julian."
And with that, he guided Rabid and Malachi out of the room.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 2:38 pm
"...and I so wanted to kill him," Rabid growled and licked the excess blood off of her teeth. At least she wasn't so hungry any more, "So Naha--Julian's the loved child, hm?" She mumbled off into oblivion and followed Julian out reluctantly. Oh, how she would have loved to go back in there and tear his--
"Imma hafta bleed, ainn I?" Ike whispered and clung to Skelly. He hated the red stuff, and he's never had it come out of him. Well, Len was worth it...right?
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 2:58 pm
"I suppose I was," Julian said, eyeing the pendant with apprehension. He definately didn't want to touch it again. Polishing off a spot of Yagadath's blood from the knife blade, he sank the tip of it into the pad of his thumb. A spot of blood welled up, scarlet and dribbling.
"Well, the only way we're gonna get out of here is with this thing. It's too far to get back to Seth without being seen, and Feriska did trigger the alarms."
Indeed, Klaxon-like horns were sounding, and a voice that sounded suspiciously like Feriska's was magnified through the vaulting halls, demanding the capture of the male trespasser and the execution of his two companions.
Reclaiming the pendant from Rabid and carefully holding it with his shirt tail, he wiped the blood over its face. The iron grew hot, and the blood droplets began to steam. Listening to Feriska's broadcast worriedly, he turned to Rabid.
"They'll kill you. We gotta go."
He held out the knife.
"You do it - I won't cut you or Malachi."
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 3:05 pm
Before Julian had the chance to hand over the knife, Rabid had already bitten into her own wrist and raised it up over that...creepy eye-thing. She then turned down to her son, giving him a sympathetic look as she healed.
Ike drew a deep breath and clung to Skelly. He grabbed the knife and slashed his palm, letting a few droplets of red stuff fall onto the metal thing before beginning to heal visibly, but slowly. To his surprise, the feeling hadn't been unpleasant at all...
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 3:12 pm
The bloody iron hissed and smoked, and turned red-hot in Julian's hands. He cried out in surprised pain as his wound flared into burning agony once more, and he let the pendant slip through nerveless fingers. He was blinded by pain - excruciating, consuming, he didn't know who or where he was, everything revolved around the agony that threatened to stop his heart and burst through his head -
And suddenly it was over. He was on the ground, on a black marble tiled floor. Gasping for air, he rolled over and squinted, trying to get used to the dim silvery light that lit the room.
"Rabid?" he croaked, willing his heart to stop pounding so fast. She and Malachi were there beside him, but he couldn't tell if they'd suffered as he had. Wiping the cold sweat out of his eyes, he dragged himself up into an unsteady kneel. Fighting back the urgent desire to faint, he squinted out at them.
"Are you okay? Did it work?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 3:18 pm
Rabid groaned and picked her head up, a small wound on the back of her neck healing.
"Yeah, I'm good," she then peered around, "I dunno...were your floors black?"
"Ike's 'kay," Malachi stretched, his joints popping in defiance. He peered around nervously, suddenly consumed by fear.
"I don't like this..."
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 6:35 pm
"No, I think we're somewhere new - none of this looks familiar. Maybe we should - hnnnn..."
A wave of pain flared up from his wound, making him dizzy and fall back to the floor. He could hardly breathe - the pain was consuming him...
The spell lasted for a few minutes, and Julian came back to his senses nauseous and disoriented. Brushing a thatch of sweat-soaked hair out of his eyes, he shook his head and stood resolutely, though his legs threatened to give out from under him.
"I'm okay. I'm okay....Let's go." He said, leaning against a black marble pillar for support. The floor lurched under his feet, but he moved forward in blind determination. The eye symbol carved into his flesh burned and stung, and for a second he was certain he was going to pass out. Giving his head another shake, he walked forward arduously.
"It's this place -whatever put the whammy on me in the first place is trying to get ahold again." Leaning against another pillar, he looked at Rabid seriously and held out the knife to her.
"If that happens - if they get me again, don't you dare hesitate to get rid of me. I'm not gonna risk you guys getting hurt because I'm too weak to fight them off."
He closed his eyes and took a shuddering breath.
"Promise me you won't hesitate to do the right thing." he paused, squinting out into the silvery darkness at Rabid with something that could have been fondness. "Please."
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 6:42 pm
"God, you're not okay," Rabid groaned and ran to his side. Once handed the knife, she peered down at it, horridly conflicted. She could probably overwhelm him if he was taken over again...or could she? She'd be running blindly without him, but the wrong way if those random pieces of offal succeeded in doing whatever it was that they were trying to accomplish. She looked toward hte knife a final time, fighing back tears for no instantly apparent reason.
"I promise."
Ike was immediately set off by the stumbling and falling of his...companion? That must've been what he was now. He hugged Skelly to his chest with one arm, adn wrapped the other around Mummy's leg. He was terrified.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 7:12 pm
Julian smiled, a shadow of his old self flickering through the pain.
"Thank you." he breathed. Straightening with renewed resolve, he looked around curiously. They'd landed in a corridor of sorts, everything made of highly polished black marble and lit by motionless silver fire. Reaching a hand out to touch the stiff flames, he jerked his hand back in surprise.
"Huh. It's cold."
This was an astute observation. The hallway was freezing - their breath rose in clouds, the steam lingering and twisting as it floated upwards into the pitch dark. Buttoning his shirt again and fastening the eye hooks back in place in his jacket, he took another deep breath and limped forward.
"Well, might as well get going - somethings prolly gonna eat us if we stick around too long." he said cheerfully.
---
Crow sat on her bed silently, shivering in her too-light dress against the coldness of the room and nibbling at an encased fingernail. The Dead Queen had grown tired of Crow's increasingly bad habit of shredding everything within her reach, and ordered the problem attended to.
"Damn b***h declawed me," Crow muttered sourly to herself, gnawing at a silver mesh finger casing to no avail. There was nothing to do, now that her one past time had been taken away. She'd lost track of time - there was no sense of day or night in this place, and every minute felt like an eternity anyway.
She was about to start attacking the wall hangings with her teeth whe Jeddeth intruded once more.
"The time for the compact's end is nigh, One-Called-Crow. Art thou ready to be recieved?"
Crow gave Jeddeth a long, blank look.
"Dost thou giveth a damn whither I sayeth aye or nay, O Foul-Breathed Faceless piece of-"
"Sarcasm dost not become thee, One-Called-Crow. Hold thy tongue, if thou wouldst not hold thy entrails instead."
Crow gave a mocking smile and a curtsy.
"No need to snap. I'm comin', I'm comin'."
Flouncing out the door, Crow took care to jab Jeddeth in the stomach vicinity with her elbow. Stupid masked jerkwad, she thought snarkily. No sense of humor at all.
Jeddeth glided behind her, its masked face again bowed to observe her. It sensed new blood, fresh blood, somewhere in the fortress. It wanted to find the new blood, to devour it and make it it's own, but it had other business to attend to first.
"So, Jeddy, what's on the agenda tonight? Are we gonna sacrifice goats to the Big Blood Pool of Evil?"
Jeddeth gave a hoarse, gasping laugh.
"Nay. Ere sunset, thou shalt become part of the gestalt, One-Called-Crow."
"Super."
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 7:27 pm
Rabid looked around for a moment before shoving the knife into her boot and following after Julian. She hadn't the slightest idea where they were going and, after realizing that he probably didn't either, assured herself that Julian was better versed in the ways of kicking the butts of monsters.
"Sure is," she agreed and blew rings in the air with her breath, "I don't like the cold." Reminded her of death, it did. The knife rubbed against her ankle, and her wounds healed only as fast as they were cut. Good. It kept her alert.
Oh, how she hoped she wouldn't have to use it...
Ike huffed and leapt onto Mummy's back, trembling. His fur was standing on end now, and he looked like some kind of prickly fuzzwad. He buried his face in Skelly, though, and pushed the plush hard against Mummy's back.
It's gonna be kay, he repeated relentlessly to himself, It's gonna be kay
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 7:50 pm
They'd been walking for about twenty minutes when Julian lapsed into another episode. Falling to his knees heavily and gasping for breath, he gave a moan and muttered something in a slithery, unfamiliar tongue, eyes rolling back into his head.
"Nnnn...Haalsath yaurtka selkt, na aslst ya markt -no...no, no, NO!"
He came back to himself suddenly, coughing violently and spitting out a bit of blood - speaking the strange language had made his tongue and mouth bleed.
Wincing as he felt the lacerations heal, he stood unsteadily and braced his hands against his knees for support.
"Cripes. It's getting worse the farther we go in," he said, wiping a bit of blood from his lips. Managing a weak smile at Rabid, he straightened and sighed. He was about to speak when a low buzzing sound caught his ear. Straining to hear it, he wandered forward a few steps and fought off the strong urge to speak the slithering language again - he taste the blood on his tongue as the words sought to be spoken.
"It...almost sounds like chanting," he said with slight difficulty, his tongue twisting over the English and trying to warp it into the unintelligible words. The buzzing grew into a low, growling rumble, reverberating in his chest and making his already dizzy head grow even lighter.
---
"Aw, how sweet. The gang's all here for my debut."
The red stone chamber was packed with black-clothed people, vaguely human in shape under their volumous cloaks and robes. Dozens of gilded masks similar to Jeddeth's swung up and around to stare through blank eye holes at her, following her every move with animal-like intensity.
Cripes. This is like that scene outta The Ninth Gate, except I'm surrounded by goth-wannabe dumbasses. she thought, choking back a laugh as she caught sight of the Dead Queen.
Usually dolled up like a Victorian whore, the Queen wore a ragged black robe and held a vicious-looking mask in her hands, matted hair streaming down its worn wooden face. Her coal-black lips twitched into an unpleasant smile as she watched Jeddeth guide Crow through the throng of onlookers.
"Welcome, One-Called-Crow. We have long been looking forward to your joining us."
The blood-filled pool behind the Queen sloshed and bubbled furiously, great splashes of the stinking liquid sloughing off the sides. The people that surrounded the pool began their droning chant again, a wordless low roar that deafened Crow in its quiet intensity. The queen bowed down to embrace Crow, and whispered in her ear.
"Welcome to the day of thy death, wretch."
---
The buzzing grew louder than ever, setting Julian's teeth on edge.
"This way..." he said, pointing down one of the countless side passages that bordered the hall. "It's this way. I know it is. Come on."
Without waiting for Rabid or Malachi, he started to run unsteadily down the hall. A small, maddened smile slid across his face as he listened, letting it guide him to where he knew he was supposed to be.
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