 Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 10:48 pm
There was a girl at his desk, with long black hair, a rumpled and faded pink bow in her hair, and her skin was a disgusting, fading green with long red gashes. She turned to look at him, revealing one single cornflower blue eye. The other eye socket was a gaping hole, and in her hand was the spiral pendant Sadi had given him. He stood in the doorway, staring without words for an entire minute before calmly closing the door and turning to walk away from his room. This was definitely a story to tell his mother. Also, one undead thing to another, surely she would know what the hell to do with the girl?
He stepped down the stairs and into the basement, where he found Antanasia standing at the window - which led into a cavernous room full of Cogitors. Crowley didn't like the Cogitors- exposed blood always made him feel odd, kind of queasy weird. He linked his hands behind his back and joined his mother, doing his best to appear unaffected by the sight. From his reflection in the mirror, though, he could tell that he looked rather peaky. Antanasia did her best not to notice.
"What is it, Crowley? I'm busy," said Antanasia, the shadows under her cloak thick, black, and roiling with discontent. "And you smell terrible."
A grimace crossed over his face. "There's a dead girl in my room, Mom."
The shadows paused in their growling, falling ominously silent. He scooted a bit away, putting himself almost on the complete opposite side of the room. If those things wanted to bite, he did not want to be bitten. He'd seen entire teabots go down that fiery gullet. They could definitely devour him without a fault, and Fish was coming over in a few days. Getting eaten would certainly put a stop to that.
She laughed nervously, her chin tilting back a bit so she could cast virulently red eyes at the ceiling in a Heaven help me gesture. "Well, aren't you a little young to be murdering people?"
"I didn't kill her," Crowley exploded, throwing up his hands and slamming one against a window. Wait, did she expect him to start killing people? He opened his mouth to protest that, then thought about it. Chuck Norris killed people and he was pretty badass. So it wasn't completely out of the way, and besides, if he ever did join his mother in the Commonwealth's service, he probably would at least sacrifice a planet in genocidal ecstasy to the Lord Major General, who was quite a modern major general and didn't accept simple gifts anymore, unless they were nubile slave girls. So he'd better get used to the idea of himself as a murderer.
Antanasia turned to the door again. The girl stood there, tiny, slight, and unassuming. "Hello," said Antanasia, as Crowley covered his mouth and nose to stop a gag. The smell was so putrid. "Who are you~?" Shaking her head, the child smiled and pointed at her mouth with one mangled hand. "Ah-ha," said Antan. "D'you have a name?" After being on the receiving end of a disgusted look, she shoved a piece of blank crystal at the girl with a pen. "Write it down, already."
In stunted, childlike script, she wrote four letters on the board and handed it back to Antanasia; the shadows formed an arm and took it in the mouth of the main shadow. "Enyo," she read, "Dude, you're named after a Fury? No wonder you got killed!"
Enyo smiled, which only highlighted the brutal humiliation of her face and body. Then she shook her head.
"Well," said Antanasia with a smile, "I don't see why~ she can't stay. I'll just fix her up a bit so she can talk and then you'll have a sister! Won't that be nice, Error?"
No, thought Crowley. It would not be nice at all.
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