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 Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 6:52 am
mynn
By the time he reached the sapphire study, all of the tithes had fled. Another of his kind might have flown into a rage or sought out someone to question, but Mynn simply strode forward, his bare feet silent on the marble floor. He paused near the piano, fingers ghosting over the keys as he waited, eyes closed. Humans screamed in the distance, the creatures of the court bellowing and howling, hungry for spectacle and death. They would find none here. What happened in this room would be quick, a turning point, but ultimately unavoidable, something he would think back on in years to come with a nostalgic smile. The moment he had earned his life back.
A breeze picked at his clothing, bringing with it the faint scent of lilies, and Mynn turned, opened his eyes. Rabbit stood outside the open window, fluttering like a leaf.
"Come in, Bennett."
The other shook his head. "Come out here with me."
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 6:52 am
rabbit
Rabbit hadn't gone far after stumbling out of the window in the first place, only truly leaving the immediate area to hide when a handful of others had arrived to retrieve Alois. Someone had been chosen. He didn't know who, only that he wasn't it, nor was his brother, nor now, his double. The manor was crumbling around him, the safe home he had known these past months shuttering for good, and the only way he was ever going back to his first family was if he put an end to this. There were no trials. He only had to kill the one who wore his face, like some hapless lead character in no one's favorite episode of The Twilight Zone.
"Very well." The other Rabbit inclined his head and moved toward him at a graceful glide, stopping when the empty window frame was the only thing standing between them. "May I?"
With a nod, Rabbit stepped back, nearly treading on his robe. His double climbed outside, brushing at his own clothing and inhaling deeply. "Let's walk."
He didn't give Rabbit a chance to refuse. The creature wrapped an arm around his back and led him deeper into the garden, out of range of the angry shouts and occasional rumbling crashes.
"There's no need to be nervous, Bennett," he said, his tone comparable to the one he'd used in the spire to get Rabbit's mask off. "I promise this will be quick as long as you don't struggle. It was never my intention to make things difficult or for you to be killed by the person wearing your face, but one of us must die for the other to leave. You know this."
"I do."
They stopped a short distance from a pale, intricate gazebo, the double turning to face him. "It is time then. Just have a seat and..."
"No."
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 6:53 am
mynn
Mynn sighed. His hand dropped from Rabbit's shoulder as he fought a frown. There wasn't time for a fight, and he had no great desire to get his hands dirty. It was a shame things had to end this way, that the human had seen fit to gather a little courage just because the Council had let him go. Mynn moved far too quickly to counter, tucking into his diaphanous clothing and emerging with a shiny, black blade gripped in his bony hand. His arm arced toward Rabbit's side once, twice, leaving behind a pair of deep punctures inches below his ribs.
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 6:53 am
rabbit
He had never felt such agony, not even when he'd fallen off of Tommy Valens's garage and clocked his head on the ground or broken his tooth on a fist. Rabbit wanted to puke, but the drinks he'd had earlier that evening had long since been pissed away and he hadn't eaten a thing all night. He was silent when he lurched out of his double's grasp, hands shaking as he pressed them to his wounds and tried to think of mending them. He crumpled to the grass, drawing in loud, short breaths through his nose.
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 6:53 am
mynn
"It should have been painless, Bennett," Mynn said, smearing a wide stripe of red across his green and gold. He followed Rabbit the short distance he'd staggered, kneeling at his side with the knife in hand. "But it will be now, I swear." He pressed the blade to Rabbit's neck, just below his ear.
"Don't worry. I will make sure Olivia is taken care of."
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 6:54 am
rabbit
Rabbit closed his eyes, focus sharpening to a pair of insistent points: the knife at his throat and the screaming pain at his side. He didn't want to die, not when he was just starting to wake up, and he couldn't let this thing pretend to be Liv's brother for another day if he could muster the power to stop it. Right now, he couldn't move through the shock, and he was already so cold that he didn't think he would ever stop shaking again.
The knife sank deeper, a new point of interest to split his attention, only this time urgency and adrenaline came with the discomfort. Rabbit tried to pull the feelings close, to redirect them, and for a few disappointing seconds nothing happened.
He waited, feeling his life pulsing wetly against his palm, and then in a blinding rush he was pushing raw, directionless power into his wounds at such force that he gasped. He could move again, and he reached up to grab the knife without thinking, its blade digging into his fingers. Rabbit sat up with a shout and flung himself at his double, the weapon momentarily forgotten as his hands closed around the other's throat.
"Show me what you are."
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 6:54 am
mynn
Even weakened after his fight with Autumn, he should have been stronger than the human that was pinning him to the dirt. He was stronger, but Rabbit's desperation gave him an unexpected advantage. He leaned low, elbows pressing Mynn's arms into his chest, and the fetch tried a snide reply, abandoning speech when nothing got past Rabbit's grip. He began to change instead, limbs losing mass, hair disappearing, skin going dry and cracked. Rabbit's evident surprise finally afforded him some relief and he drew in a wheezing breath as soon as he was given the chance.
"I am Mynn. A fetch and servant of the Burning Man."
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 6:54 am
rabbit
He no longer quite knew what was going on. His own face was melting away in front of him like the end of The Last Crusade. He was sitting on a fetch named Min. A servant, like him. His side oozed, glug glug glug, half healed but slowly killing him anyway. And all he could think about was what Alois had said.
He killed my dog.
"Tell me what you did," Rabbit said. "You didn't kill p***k, did you?"
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 6:55 am
mynn
Rabbit was distracted, at the end of his ability to fight, and the knife was still on the ground within arm's reach, just waiting to end this. Mynn's withered brow creased further with incredulity, holding the man's attention. Distracting.
"Why does everyone keep going on about the ******** ca—"
It wasn't enough.
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 6:55 am
rabbit
Out of the corner of his eye he saw it, a spidery, brown hand creeping toward the obsidian knife. Rabbit lashed out, closing fingers tacky with blood around its hilt and raising it as high as he could. He brought it down into the creature's throat as it replied, the word cat lost in a liquid gurgle. The fetch stared at him, naked disbelief plain on its face, and it continued to struggle until he had stabbed it again in its cheek, its sunken nose, and finally its empty left eye.
It was a while before Rabbit moved again, and then he only did so because he heard a distant, indignant shriek and felt heavy footfalls shake the ground beneath him. He was so very tired, but if he didn't scrape himself up he'd be very dead, and he'd done too much to succumb to all of that now.
His heart raced and he was dizzy when he found his feet, but his death grip on the fetch's knife didn't loosen, and between that and the blood that soaked his clothing, barely anyone bothered him on his way back through the manor. On his way home.
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 6:56 am
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