Not long after, Seras and Kain entered a side room in their explorations. "A dead end, we must have taken a wrong turn." Seras said with a sigh.
Kain scoffed for a moment, when they both heard a soft whimpering. Turning quickly, they observed a horrifying sight.
One upon a time, she had been beautiful. Seras could almost see what she had once been, with long dark hair, blue eyes, and a vibrant smile. She must have been sought after and fought over by men.
But that was long ago. Now a shell of that woman lay chained to the wall, forgotten and alone in this room. Her skin clung tightly to bones, what hair she had left lay in wild clumps about her head. One hand was missing, a charred stump all that remained at the end of her arm... and the other hand was so mangled, Seras wondered if she could even move it at all. Her face was crushed inward, and she was missing many teeth, indicating she had been struck forcefully in the mouth, and it never healed properly. The girl was wearing an outfit that Seras imagined would be used by a maid or other servant, but the dust and grime that coated it indicated that she had changed clothes for a long, long time.
But the worst was her eyes. Her eyes stared at nothing, dancing from one point to the next, often independent of its partner eye. Nothing sane lived behind those eyes, nor had for a long, long time.
As a vampire, Seras' blood could not boil at the sight, but a cold feeling developed at the thought of such blatant cruelty. "No one should suffer this."
Kain nodded, but continued to watch the girl closely. Grasping her head, he turned her to face him. It took a few moments, but the girls eyes focused on Kain alone... and she smiled a gruesome smile. "Brother, you came! Is big sister with you, too?"
Kain frowned, but nodded.
The girl giggled and nodded. "I knew you would come for me! I knew you were! And we can all go and have a picnic in the fields, now that the liquid fire has burned away all the nasty, nasty grass."
"That sounds... nice... sister dear," Kain said, patiently, "but will your employer let you go?"
The girl's broken mouth pouted at his question. "Master? He won't care. Doesn't care for anything, nope, not a thing. Not since his Ariel lost her head. He wanted to be alone after that... all alone, alone, alone, alone, alone... he even sewed his eyes and lips closed. But that wasn't enough!" She leaned closer as best she could, as though to tell a secret. "He said we think to loud at him. Those of his circle, and those near him. Too loud, to strong, to straight! So he made that all go away! Thoughts in whispering twists, minds with holes, filled with liquid fire under a black sun. But I was different! Special! That's what he said! Special! I saw other things, too. The winged men, fighting each other, the lock with nine bars..."
The girl trailed off, and began to shake. "...he doesn't like it when I see... he punishes when I see... but I don't mean too... I don't... he says to stop, but I can't... it hurts, it hurts..." She began chanting in a little girl voice.
Seras shuddered at the ruined girl's attention wandered again. "Such cruelty... no being should suffer like that," Seras said.
Kain nodded as he stepped away. "Scars such as hers will never heal. Death can only be a mercy."
Seras shuddered again at the thought, but did not argue the point. Even in her own world, someone so tortured would never truly recover. She reached for the girl, then stopped. "I can't reach her neck... is there something I could stand on?"
Kain frowned. "Can you not draw her blood to you?"
Seras shook her head. "No. And I have never met a vampire before you who could."
Kain was somewhat surprised at that, but did not make further comment. With a gesture, blood flowed from out the girl's mouth, and into Kain. Moments later, the girl slumped, her face smiling, finally at peace.
"We have spent enough time here. Come, let us be done with this place."
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(Posted Mon, 14 Mar 2005 00:28)
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