[color=silver][center][h2][color=#5f6eaa]π”Όπ•žπ•žπ•’ 𝔹𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕒𝕦𝕩[/color][/h2] __________________________________________________[/center] Emma watched with unabashed curiosity as the unicyclist's torso was torn open, blood and chunks of flesh spilling onto the stage in copious amounts. It looked like theater blood to her, a little too bright under the blare of the spotlight. Briefly, she wondered what internal organs the creature had; whether a heart beat in its chest, whether it needed lungs to breathe. At the very least, all it needed to move was its wheel, the screech of it loud and ear-piercing. It sounded like a warning, the whistle of an incoming train, and she was stuck in the middle of the tracks. Aware of her own limits, Emma knew she wouldn't be able to outrun it if she tried - and neither could her shadowy friend, though it certainly [i]did [/i]try. It howled, a sound that echoed from a thousand throats at once, as it tried to chase after the threat. It was no use; the unicyclist was fast, almost impossibly so, and the longer her canine lingered in the light, the more it shrunk. But that was alright. For no matter how fast the elephant-headed man may have been, there was one shadow it could never outrun. Its own. In the harsh light of the projector, the shadow the unicyclist cast was long and dark, features stretched almost beyond recognition. Like a snake, it slithered upwards where the floor met the wall. Emma liked snakes. And so, the shadow suddenly shifted. Not with the motion of the unicyclist, but with the power of vitas. It peeled itself off the wall and floor, stretched body dangling as its own wheel, startlingly silent, spun fast to carry it towards the original to crash straight into it. Upon impact, the shadow's elongated body would attempt to wrap tightly around the bloodied creature and wrestle it to the floor, to squeeze, to [i]constrict,[/i] until nothing was left but blood and guts. The shadow's trunk, attached to its own, elephant-like head, bent unnaturally upwards. The trunk had fangs, a jaw that dislodged, and a forked tongue that slipped out to taste the air with a hiss. A little ways away, Emma took a few steps back towards the darkness that awaited at the stage's edges.[/color]