Fear and Anger coursed through the twin consciousnesses as they raced through trees and shrubs. Occasionally, instinctively, it would leap up, the mess of writhing, hungry tendrils snapping out forming a pair of black leathery wings that carried it silently above the ground. Its thoughts were basic, instinctive things that pulses through it, highlighting the pain, feeding it into the fear, just as the fear fed into the anger.
It was a horrible chain of gorging menace as the trail of blood it left behind slowly faded into a few, occasional drops, before finally becoming nothing more than flecks, like cast off skin that fell to the ground behind it. Faster and faster, it had to get away, to escape, to be free. It had to get away from the pain and those horrible nasty little creatures that brought it. Get away, and get rid of anything that tried to stop it.
Again it touched onto the earth, a silent fall as cautious, bloody eyes warily flicked, this way, that, a look of utter madness written upon its features as the coiling mess of spiking tendrils slowly began to calm. A rustle in the distance, and suddenly, they speared out, shadowy lances of barbed darkness, stabbing into the bush, just before the panicked pattering of a rabbit, shot out, racing with everything it had to escape, to flee as those tendrils would slowly curl back about the boy's body. For a moment, the fleeing creature was watched, studied. No, not one of them. And just as quickly it was dismissed.
It padded slowly, cautiously now on all fours, fingers digging into the blades of soft, glistening grass. The cool touch of dew was clinging to the slender blades, eager and waiting for the dawn as they flattened down onto the earth. Indecision began to bubble within it, two unified souls, slowly beginning the process of sundering once more as the threat, the danger slowly subsided.
Losing its reason for existence, the creature froze where it was, crouched and uncertain as the tendrils that coiled so relentlessly about his body began to slowly withdraw. Bare, bloodied hands clutched against the earth, as the glowing crimson eyes, slowly softened, fading before with a sudden flicker they were once more a simple cool blue. Those tendrils, softened, the jagged barbs becoming curves, before fading into a thick veil of shadow on his skin, clinging to the tattered bits of clothes that still remained clinging to his body in ragged bits. The boy once more, the last remnants of whatever it was he'd become, slowly faded against the moonlight, as his eyes looked about in frozen confusion.
Skin glistening softly beneath the cool moonlight, he slowly collapsed back, his strength, leaving him once more as he could feel the aching, familiar pain of soreness, burning into his body. It was as if every part of him hurt, burning as he struggled for a moment to sit up, to force himself at least that far, before collapsing again as he stared up as the tree veiled sky. The slow, panting gasps of his breath, rattled through his body, shuddering and labored as he tried, desperately to remember what had happened.
He remembered... His father, tying him up, the sausages, then the darkness as he threw him into the pit. Then, then there were the sounds, the mewling, yowling, hissing sounds of those, things, those horrible, evil little creatures. The pain, tearing into him. Unable to escape, unable to make them stop, tearing, biting, clawing at him all over. The moments of reprieve, the bits of peace, before it began all over again. His very soul screaming out, and being echoed by, something else.
Everything grew dim there, his memories, suddenly torn fragmented. He was himself, but at the same time, he was someone else, and something else. Everything shuddered through his mind, bright, swirling shards of glass catching the light, and cutting deep into his mind whenever he tried to reach out and grab hold of them. All he knew, all he could tell, was that something, something had happened.
What he could remember, hadn't been pleasant, he could still feel the sticky sensation of bloody, clinging, drying on his body as his finger were still caked in the drying bits. There had been something else though. There had been SOMEONE else inside of him.
He could remember, feeling her screams, echoing against his own. He could remember, sharing her pain, and her sharing his. Feeling it eating at them both, consuming them as it forced them together, together in that simple, singular pain. Then, it shattered, whatever had happened, the madness of their pain, their fear, their anger, had destroyed any possibility of control, of recollection.
As the tears, slowly flowed down his cheeks, wetting again the flaking spatters of blood, he tried to calm himself, tried to focus. He'd heard it said to many times by all those annoying old men his pops had taken him to. Breath, focus, open your mind. The same stuff over and over again, instead of teaching him the good stuff. This time though, he tried to follow there advice.
Breathing, slowly, in and out, a calm steady little rhythm, as he worked on emptying his haunted, exhausted mind. Trying to find that voice, that presence inside of himself once more. Anything to try and get away from the pain that wouldn't seem to leave him alone. Better than laying here, doing nothing, staring at the sky until his body finally regained enough strength to move, or he collapsed into unconsciousness.
So, he focused, breathing, more and more. Trying to remember, where he'd felt the presence before, even as a flash of recognition burned through him, as he remembered the woman he'd met just before everything had gone to hell. As he remembered, the gist of what she said, how she was giving him something, to hold onto. And that sensation, he'd felt, of something, pouring into him. Filling him.
Everything was just so confusing, but he needed to do something, anything to try and move past the pain that ate at his mind. Slow deep breaths. Focusing on them as he tried to clear his mind, focusing on that presence, focusing on the memories of those sensations. Pushing himself into himself as he tried to calm the madness of his mind. If he hadn't been pushed to the brink of collapse, his emotions, already deadened by the shock of running wild through him, it might have been simply too much for him to accomplish.
Instead, the tenuous wall between them, had only half rebuilt, if that, and threads still remained from their recent union, allowing him to follow it back, to reach as it were, into himself. Until he was almost overwhelmed by a sudden, flood of sensation. Sensations, of... crying?
He reached out, carefully, tentatively to the presence, female, he knew some how. It was awkward, careless, and clumsy, but still he would attempt to some how, make contact. Doing the best a child could do, to send a sense of hesitant comfort to the presence inside of himself.
Suddenly, everything went, still, as a surge of shock and surprise bolted through the connection, as he struggled to keep his hold on that tenuous hold. Slowly though, cautiously, the presence responded, feeling back at him in no small measure of surprise. Words weren't formed, the link between them, not enough for that, and neither of them practiced enough to send more than sensations, notions through the link one to the other.
But, it was a step.
For a time, the simply did their best to communicate, sending what little they could to one another, comfort, understanding, confusion. So many, many things that just flooded through them, until finally Ranma could feel his strength returned enough to stand. Giving the presence a reassuring thought, he would slowly force himself to rise up, ignoring the protesting ache that threatened to overwhelm him as he would begin to walk steadily in a direction.
He wasn't exactly sure where he was going, the questioning sensation the presence sent back to him was met with a mental shrug, with a kind of why not thought sent back. Slightly satisfied by the boy's decision, Lilith was content to simply hang back, in the back of his mind as he walked, further and further along, until suddenly, she could feel something in the distance.
Worry was instantly translated to Ranma, just as the boy caught sight of the shrine ahead of them. Sensations of imprisonment, torture, all manner of fears were urgently sent to him as the raw fear threatened to rise up within them both once more. Still, he sent another soothing sensation back to her, he was tired, hungry, hurting, he couldn't go on much longer, and he'd make certain that nothing would happen to her.
For a moment, Lilith argued back, almost pleading with him, until the full weight of his exhaustion, his hunger, his pain, weighed back against her and she reluctantly, warily stopped. She withdrew then, curling once more against the comfort of his soul as he sent another soft, soothing sensation to her. He did know at least one thing, he wouldn't have to be worrying about being alone anytime soon, a thought and a small little grin on his face as he walked up the steps to the shrine, only to suddenly, collapse as the toll finally became too much for him to handle.
When he awoke, he could feel himself wearing fresh clothes, even with wards covering his body, and pasted around the room. Looking up, he would see...
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(Posted Mon, 20 Oct 2008 04:12)
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