[centre][img]https://txt-dynamic.static.1001fonts.net/txt/b3RmLjcyLjAwMDAwMC5YMTlmWDE5ZlgxOWZYMTgsLjAA/kepler-296.regular.png[/img] [img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/191003/4735dfb752f23632e4f982702d3d44ea.png[/img] [img]https://txt-dynamic.static.1001fonts.net/txt/b3RmLjcyLjAwMDAwMC5YMTlmWDE5ZlgxOWZYMTgsLjAA/kepler-296.regular.png[/img] [colour=#88e312][b]Interacting with:[@ZAVAZggg] Location:?????[/b][/colour] [hider=The streets they still run with blood...][youtube]https://youtu.be/E6GX0Zf4FMI[/youtube][/hider][img]https://txt-dynamic.static.1001fonts.net/txt/b3RmLjcyLjAwMDAwMC5YMTlmWDE5ZlgxOWZYMTgsLjAA/kepler-296.regular.png[/img] [/centre] The sound of waves was distant. Not as loud as the thrum of people and the music, seabirds cawing overhead. In Port Rellington, everything was loud, and the heat crawled off the cobblestones in shimmering waves. Before that day, on the beach, Colin had never been anywhere so warm. Through the sound and the heat and the festering wounds left over from the last mission, he and Eliza found Kiri in the square. Then Eliza had disappeared, and they’d been alone. “Out there… I trust you. We all do.” she’d said. He was scared. Unravelling at the seams. He wasn’t sure if she meant it, but it still made things better. “For… for what it's worth… I don't think there's anyone I trust more than you right now.” He meant it. The world exploded. Knives. Purple and grey and some bright, incomprehensible colour, pierced eyes, skin, head, body- and flayed. Inside out. He sneezed entrails. Lurching and pulling. Skin free from bones, eyes loose from skulls. Blood. Sizzling, boiling, freezing solid and still in long wriggling veins, tangled around degloved fingertips. For an infinity, there was nothing. [centre] . .. … …. ….. …… ……. [/centre] And then Colin existed again. A draft curled across the back of his neck. Goosebumps rippled. Cheek and side pressed up against something cold and hard that felt like tile. Overhead something hummed. Yellow light tried to pierce his screwed-up eyelids, behind them, memories drifted - The battle- Kiri- The portal- He’d survived. Whatever that was he’d survived. And now… where was this? His head hurt, ground glass scrunched up behind his eyeballs, right at the root, spreading and slicing into the soft pink of his brain, but he couldn’t stop now. He peeled open one eyelid - sticky, with blood or mud or fuck knows what- bright light pierced his vision, his head screamed, he screwed it shut again. Fuck. He tugged his knees up to his chest, buried his aching face in the tattered, blood-damp fabric. Spent adrenaline pooled like rock, sick and heavy, and he wasn’t sure he could get up if he wanted to. He needed to figure out where he was though, what that portal thingey had done to them. Was this the mage’s lair? Somewhere else? It was cold here. Quiet. The mage, Samael, was somewhere else. [i]Kiri[/i] was somewhere else. Before the portal, Samael had thrown her aside like it was nothing. She couldn’t fight him alone. She’d die. She wouldn’t care that she’d die. He could already see it, Kiri charging towards the mage, staff ready to strike. He’d throw her backwards. She’d get up again. It wouldn’t stop until she was bloody, battered, [i]alone[/i]. Last time Kiri had been alone- No. Don’t go there. It wouldn’t be like last time. Samael was evil, killed countless innocents and worse. No better than a fucking leech. He deserved to die. It would be good if Kiri killed him. Why was he even [i]doubting[/i] that? He grit his teeth. Forced the thought away. He just had to find Samael before Kiri did and everything would be okay. It didn’t matter that he didn’t know why. He just had to do it. He forced his eyes open. Light flared, his aching head screamed, but after a moment the pain subsided, and he could look around. Wherever Samael’s portal had taken him, it was like nowhere he’d been before. He was curled up in the corner of a strange, windowless room, a single door on the other side, and if he strained to hear, unearthly music drifted through - metallic almost, voices inhuman. Strips of strange, magical light lined the low ceiling, itself made of an unrecognisable material - smooth and white, panelled with a sheen to it. The floor was tiled and sticky, the tiles a sick yellow colour lined black, as where the walls. Strange boxes with what looked like doors lined one side of the room, all made from the same, shiny material as the ceiling. The other side of the room was lined with what Colin recognised as sinks; mirrors lined up above them, more yellow tiles reflected in their glassy surfaces. A bathroom then? But Colin didn’t understand why the mage would need so many sinks - none of the undead he’d seen looked like they’d washed their hands recently. A dagger of pain shot through his head, and he hissed, resisting the urge to curl back up, not move. He was on his own. No one was going to help him. Find Samael. Preferably before Kiri did something stupid. He’d just have to hope she’d been dropped somewhere as bizarre as him. A swooshing sound from one of the boxes. Someone was here with him. Wide awake, he grabbed his bow - it’d made it through with him. Jumped to his feet, the pain ricocheting through his body a distant concern. Someone was here. Was it Samael? It couldn’t be, where was Kiri? An arrow was in his hand before he even realised it. The bolt slid. [i]Mary screaming, pounding on the door, smoke thick in his throat-[/i] A young woman. Green eyes wide. Skin washed out, more than it would be even with the strange lighting. The tell-tale bulge under her top lip. Fingers numb. Breath quick and fast. Of course. Of course Samael was using [i]leeches[/i]. Why the fuck wouldn’t he? Shit. What now? They couldn’t stop an army of vampires, the ghouls had been bad enough. This was it, this was- And then the leech started to [i]scream[/i].