(PRP) Dead is Dead (Karloff and Barracus)

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

John Locke: What happened?
Ben Linus: It let me live.

The ideas represented here are what Karloff believes. His old mate Ailbhe is NOT dead, but he believes her to be killed by the purewalker Barracus.

((Please note that I used a "Flash Forward" as my first post. Consider it a homage to Lost. The rest of the RP is current, though covers a great deal of time in one space.))  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Every movement was pain. Every breath was like a sharp stabbing wound. He'd probably broken a few ribs. The light headedness made him wobble. There was so much blood all over him, great raking claw marks. How much of it was his?

The gashes were festering from his time of unconsciousness, pus oozed out of the claw marks. He could feel the burning heat of infection pulling at his insides. His mouth was dry and parched. His skin was an inferno of heat.

Slowly, dimly the memories came to him. The last memories that he had seen of her. His stomach clenched, he though of the words--of the promise that Barraccus had made.

He would kill her.

And there was no doubt at all in Karloff's mind that he had kept his promise. The blood lying on the ground, the memories that haunted him.

There was no proof, but he knew in his heart of hearts that she was dead.

Ailbhe was dead.  

[Faithofthefallen]

The darkness was moving, the writhing shadows twisted near the entrance to produce a fearsome beast which stepped through the maw like vestibule and into the low hanging cavern. The small chamber just off the main cave had been designated for the storage of his long term pets.

Every surface was speckled with splatters of blood.

The purewalker strolled languidly towards the quivering lump in the center of the room, his lazily seductive movements belying the vicious nature and violent intent that simmered constantly beneath his calm demeanor. He snaked one large paw around Karloff's neck, caressing it as leaned towards his ear, "Did you have sweet dreams, poppet?" he purred in a singsong voice. As was his custom, Barracus trailed his sharp claws down Karloff's cheek, deepening the already festering wounds.

Barracus' grin was like a death mask as he easily flipped Karloff over with one paw, "I thought we might play a game today, my pretty pet. You seem so tired lately, its not nearly as exciting as it once was to make you scream... So, I thought I'd give you a sporting chance to escape me today, a little hope to whet my appetite for your pain, I'll even give you a head start. What do you think of that?" The purewalker's lair was deep within the bowels of a dormant volcano, the warren of twisting tunnels and interconnected caverns was like a maze, with only a couple tunnels that led out and away to freedom.

Nyx Queen of Darkness

This what you meant?Also, did you want Karloff to be a foal or an adult at this point?

 

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Karloff felt the touch of a paw, bringing him back to his surroundings. The cold of the cell-like cave was numbing. Everything slipped out of focus in the dark, terrible shadows danced across his vision. More than once, he'd had fevered dreams. The blood spatter on the wall danced and made images of horror.

His eyes focused in hazily as the words reached him. Escape. He tried to garner more strength, he needed to listen intently. It was hard to concentrate over the festering smell of his own flesh, of the stink of the cave that was his prison.

Barracus was proposing for him to find his way out of this labrinyth. It had been so long since he'd seen the sun that he couldn't remember what if felt like. It was like a ghost of a dream...

Karloff stood there unsure of how to answer, was this a trap or was this actually a fancy of his captor? "I think you'll do whatever you want with me," he tried to shrug his sore shoulders already bracing for the slap that would come.

Faithofthefallen

Tags babe! ((Young Adult))

 

[Faithofthefallen]

Barracus laughed delightedly, "Such spirit, but you're right of course." He placed one paw near the stallion's lips, "Sshh... It will be alright in the end, my poppet, you'll see. We shall have a game, a hunt, and I'm sure you will be such good sport. Either way, this will be the end. You will escape me, or I will kill you." The hunt would whet his appetite, bring the savage bloodlust of his nature to the forefront unhindered by the cruel sensuality that mediated some of his brutality into a taste for physical and mental torture.

He stepped away, waving his paw at the doorway, "That way leads to the catacombs, one tunnel leads to freedom, perhaps you will find it. I'll even grant you a head start. Run now, poppet. Run. Run." he chants with morbid delight, his words bouncing off the cavern walls, echoes blending into an eerie chorus.

Nyx Queen of Darkness

 

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Faithofthefallen

Karloff's senses felt dull at first. Was Barracus really giving him a chance to escape? Was this a trap?

Of course, it's a trap.

But still...today there would be an end to this. He would either die or he would live. There would be no more staying in these grey walls, feeling the colour and life seep out of him like blood on the floor. There would be nothing after this. Today would end it.

There as a beauty to the finality, an ache of loveliness that tore through him and pressed his muscles to action. He felt himself walk, and then he felt his muscles straining and burning as he broke into a run. The walls rocketed by him, and he didn't even attempt to try to figure a path now. It would be no use. He had no sense of which way the tunnel opened to, or anything.

He let the power of his long unused muscles propel him, he let the echoing word of beauty keep him going.

Freedom.  

[Faithofthefallen]

The deep lucid tones of his chilling laughter echoed after Karloff as he watched the young stallion flee from the room. "Not even a hug goodbye, darling? After all the time we've spent together?" He called out after his escaping pet, his voice charged with sadistic amusement.

He sat back for a few minutes, mentally imagining the terror his sweet Karloff would encounter as he attempted to escape. Gnawed bones, bits of tattered flesh, hair, and cloth, splatters of blood and broken teeth littered most of the closest tunnels. The air was hot and filled with the fetid odor that characterized a carnivore's lair. The darkened tunnels were lit here and there by faint traces of light that filtered down through cracks in the walls and ceilings but there were no markings, no way to distinguish the way out from the tunnels that led to dead ends, deeper into the dead volcano, or circled around back to Barracus's Den. The purewalker had no need of such crude direction, his elevated senses could show him the way out every time even if he hadn't memorized the path long ago.

His muscles twitched in anticipation of the chase, his molten gold eyes slowly beginning to glaze over in the fever of the hunt, his breathing ragged and shallow as he paced, counting down the time in his head. Although the wait would make the kill all the sweeter, his primal instincts were warring with the savage cruelty from which his terrible games were spun and he yearned to give chase immediately. Five minutes passed, then ten. The journey to the surface took about fifteen minutes if one took every turn correctly, at fifteen minutes the bloodthirsty walker launched his heavy body from the cave's mouth, transforming in midair with a sickening crunch of contracting bone into his coyote form and began the hunt. His nose was sensitive but the layers of fear, sweat, blood, and pain were so deep and complex it took him much more time to unravel the bouquet to find the prey he was tracking at this time. "Come out, come out wherever you are!" His singsong voice edges with a savage growl drifted down the web of tunnels, hopefully to reach the ears of his pet and add a fresh layer of terror to his flight, making him that much easier to track.

Nyx Queen of Darkness

Cabin weekend with no internet n_n, but back now!!!

 

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Faithofthefallen

No prob babe!

Karloff's red eyes were adjusted to the dimness, had been for a very long time. He heard Barracus' calling out to him, and he dug his feet in harder, pumping his muscles to go faster. Then a thought struck him and he slowed, he couldn't run pell mell through here. He needed to think. He had no direction, knew of no way out, so he needed to pay attention to where he was going so he wouldn't backtrack.

He looked at the cavewalls splattered with bits of flesh and blood from long gone meals. The smell of the blood made his stomach burn with hunger. He'd been experiencing these terrible cravings...He shook his head, trying to clear his mind.

His heart thumped loudly in his ears, beating wildly so that he couldn't here.

Ten seconds. That's it, ten seconds. Just breathe, and then you can go. He kept telling himself. His heart slowed down more and he relaxed and opened his eyes back up.

His eyes alighted on a piece of snapped jagged bone, taking it in his teeth he gripped it tightly. He couldn't expect to take on Barracus without some help and he knew that the chances of him getting out without running into him was slim.

Karloff began to job, thick sheens of sweet rolling down his hide. He turned a corner and came to a dead end. Backtracking, he took a left and went that way for awhile then a left. The coolness of the cave chilling the sweat and making him shiver.  

[Faithofthefallen]

Barracus ran for a while, the shadows flying by in fleeting impressions as his paws ate up the distance between himself and his prey.

He could smell Karloff, desperation, anger, as well as hints of desire and guilt were threaded throughout the patchwork of scents that comprised the stallion who had been his prisoner for quite some time now.

Overlaying all was the thick fear that pulsed from Karloff's being, Barracus followed it, breathing deeply as he slowed his pace. There was no hurry, as long as his quarry continued bleeding off his emotions with his scent he would have no trouble tracking him. What was concerning was that the stallion was heading in the right direction, there were still many misleading turns and forks that must be confronted but thus far he had avoided the tunnels that would circle back around to Barracus' lair. That was disappointing, the despair and terror that would have washed through him at the site of his familiar prison would have been delightful.

His heart was still pounding with the thrill of the chase, his blood singing through his veins and his golden gaze was filled with terrible hunger but he had more control of it after the exertion. Would be able to control it long enough to prolong Karloff's end. "Run run run, my pet," he crooned, "Fast as you can, I'm coming for you. I'll always find you."

Nyx Queen of Darkness

 

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Faithofthefallen

His heart beat like a funeral march. The thrum, thrum, thrum of hit made him a little dizzy and short of breath. Pausing for a moment, he slowed to a walk. It would do him no good to expend all of his energy now.

And he had done the one thing that Barraccus would not have expected, he had done like he was taught. Maybe it was that he craved blood, to sink his teeth into soft flesh--to feel the gush of warmth in his throat--maybe that was why he had started to use his senses.

He sniffed the air, trying to find the strongest scent of Barraccus. It stood to reason that the path he had taken so often would be the most heavily scented. If he could only find and follow that trail, then he could find his way out.

Then a thought struck him, Baraccus was probably following his scent too. Branching off to the left, Karloff walked a few steps then rubbed the sheen of sweat off his body on to the side of the cave, then back-tracked taking the right path.  

[Faithofthefallen]

Barracus' breathing was heavy and slow as he slowly approached the mouth of the small cave, his eyes alight with a dreadful malevolent delight as he drew closer. Karloff's scent was more concentrated here, stroking his senses and making him feel heady and drunk as he glutted on the fear and despair. Gripping his power he shape changed, the glossy black pelt receding to reveal the smooth ochre of his fur beneath, his appendages grew and lengthened with the snap and crack of grating bone. The purewalker stretched his neck from side to side as if working out a kink and stepped through the entrance into the shallow chamber.

The scent was all around, the stallion must be in this chamber, but as Barracus' eyes performed the subtle shift necessary to see in the dark, it was clear there was nothing but a tumble of boulders and a few stray rodents skittering across the floor. Eyes narrowed, the 'walker stalked closer to the spot where the smell was emanating from, leaning closer, a dark smear across the wall became clear. Barracus leaned closer and tasted it, baring his fangs as he realized he had been duped, by a miserably inferior creature. His pupils dilated as hot rage surged through his veins, the corded muscles in his neck bunched as he clenched his powerful jaws, wanting, needing to feel them tear through flesh, Karloff's flesh, to feel his life drain away under the skillful administrations of his razor like claws.

Throwing back his head, Barracus screamed his rage, the echoes reverberating through the caverns and tunnels, bouncing and fracturing, multiplying in pitch and frequency until the amplified sound of his unholy fury could be heard even on the plains surrounding the mountain.


"KAARLOOFFFF!!!!"

Unless Karloff had turned around completely, the stallion would be within a few minutes of the exit. Once he escaped the mountain he would have to travel through Barracus' bone garden, the bleached, jumbled accumulation of mostly skeletal remains from his previous guests. Beyond that a barren wasteland, void of food or drinkable water, poisoned by the evil presence that laired in the volcano, or so the purewalker liked to think anyways. The air was thick with the smell of sulfur and smoke, boiling hot springs and mud pits made the air humid and hot, but it was only a couple of miles until the edge of the forest, and potentially help. But Barracus would reach him before then, and the blood would flow like water.

Nyx Queen of Darkness

 

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Faithofthefallen

Karloff heard the infuriated scream of his captor and torturer. Barracus had fallen for the scent, had probably went down the path and now he realized he'd been duped. If he caught him now...it would be so much worse than before, he would be angry rather than just playing with his food.

Karloff had seen him eat both ways, by just playing around and while in fury. He could feel himself shivering in fear. He didn't want to go like that. He didn't want to die. He wanted to get out of here.

He started to run, his heart thumping faster. And suddenly, he felt wind. Running harder, he stumbled and tripped toward the breath of air. So long he had breathed of the harsh stale air that it the smell of newness invigorated him. He was running full speed when he found the entrance.

Pausing, he tried to let his eyes adjust to the light. It'd been so long since he'd seen actual light that even this dying sun seemed harsh to his eyes. As his eyes adjusted, he saw all around him a wasteland of blood and bones.

Carefully, he began to pick his way through the graveyard knowing that Barracus would be coming behind fueled by fury.  

[Faithofthefallen]

The silence of his passing belied the speed and fury of the chase, his paws bit into the stone to propel him towards the exit with all the glorious rage and speed he could muster, which was a considerable amount.

He could smell the prey, knew that Karloff had passed this way maybe ten minutes ahead of him. No matter, he was what he was and karloff was what he was, weak and injured no less from his captivity and torture. Barracus would find him and inflict his revenge on Karloff's body... Strip by strip. The thought made his claws unsheathe reflexively so they scraped against the rock with an ear wrenching screech. Wind ruffled his thick black fur, carrying with it the terrible odor of the dying land and the scent of his prey. He had found the exit, must even now be making his escape across the plains. But there was nowhere to hide in his barren domain, from the height of the tunnel's exit he would be able to survey the land around his lair for miles. Karloff may be able to reach forest cover before Barracus could catch him but by that time the purewalker would be only minutes behind him, and he could track as easily by scent as by eyesight. He wouldn't bother talking, wouldn't bother dragging his kill back to the cave for the final strike, Karloff's blood would flow to water the land where Barracus found him, and the walker would feast on his dying screams as well as his flesh.

Nyx Queen of Darkness

 

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Karloff gripped his feet into the dry parched ground and tried to gain speed. The bones were white, almost glowing in the darkness of the night. He felt his body quivering, his muscles unused to so much exertion. He was tired, so tired...but if he stopped it would mean death.

He couldn't stop. He wouldn't!

Karloff ran as fast as he could, his muscles cramping as he stumbled into the forest. The trees were like frightening creatures swaying in the night. He was breathing roughly, trying to catch his breath as terror ceased him.

Forcing himself to slow, Karloff took deep steadying breaths as he stretched his muscles. Composure came back to him, no longer the aching fright that left him so vulnerable. He took to his hooves again running as fast as he could.

Barracus was coming.  

[Faithofthefallen]

Barracus had lengthened his stride as he crossed the barren wasteland, enjoying the exertion, his muscles tensed and then relaxed into this new method of running. He could have moved much faster in his other form but he was in no hurry, there was no risk to this chase, he already knew how it would end. He slowed as he crossed the threshold into the forest, the leafy boughs blotted out all light. His ears picked up distant crashed and rustles as the forest creatures fled from the predator in their midst, that was fitting. Barracus tilted his large head, sniffing deeply and smiling, his quarry was tiring. He would end this farce of a chase soon, his blood was boiling with a lust for death and although he wanted Karloff too tired to run, he didn't want him too tired to scream, or to risk his heart bursting from exhaustion and fear. He had cultivated this meal too carefully to waste all that hard work.

Karloff shifted, his form wavering horrible in the shadows, twisting down into his coyote form. He howled, a bone chilling sound devoid of love, hope, or any shred of mercy, and leaped foreword to continue the chase.

Nyx Queen of Darkness

n_n