Midnight Mass

 He rises from the corpse of another. The flesh of the bear falls away like husks from an ear of corn. 

 Catalyzing his emergence by burrowing through sinew, offal coating thick, Madmortigan - the parasite - eats his way out. 

 Shimmering and slick, he slides from the steaming cavity, born of blood.

 Red and black, he breathes. “Now the work begins.”

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She could breathe.

Nymeria breathes and it is gasps mixed with giggles, her sodden body laden with aches but she could do nothing other than cackle. Near her, her brother rips out from a body like a butterfly from a cocoon. The cackling woman seemed to be planted here, dropped down with a rain of crimson that made her almost indistinguishable. She dripped as she swayed, tongue coming to lap up the blood that covered her face. It was not her own, she realised, because despite her aches there seemed to be no pounding wound.

The willowy woman giggled, casting her dishevelled attention towards him, "it does? it does!" Nym cooed, slapping her paws against the ground in cheer. "Begins! It begins!" ^^

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 He isn't alone. Nymeria, pure of heart as she has always been, emerges beside him. 

 He comes towards his sister, jovial even in such rapid change. Swiping his tongue across her cheek, he savors the copper tang of the ursine scum they'd destroyed. 

 “Are you hurt?” He asks, violet eyes appraising and bright.

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She cooed beneath the attention. Swipe goes his tongue, kissing her crimson and tasting it upon his own tongue. Nymeria giggles, shaking her head with a small pout, "is dying being hurt, Morty?" The little Witch looked almost disappointed.

"Eaten," Nym cackled as she dipped forward to run her crown against his own crimson touched chest, "yet who lives," she cooed as she slipped past him, dancing towards the remains of the bear. Nymeria would step in the broken, strewn remains and she laughed. "Dead!" Swiping a paw through the stringy meat, she brought it to her lips and swallowed, her smirk ever lasting. "Chaos lives, Morty," she whispered, staring with an unblinking gaze at the bears remains. ^^

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 He grunts, watching the vicious sprite dance. Chaos, for some. Order for others.

 “To die and be born again in this new world is only proof of our righteous path.”

 Madmortigan joins her at the edge of the body. Emptied, the bear is a fleshy chasm, a vessel used. He begins to eat. “Come, Meria. Finish him with me.”

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Sometimes she is aware he is bigger. Other times it feels as if she were the tower, with how suffocating her essence could be. Nymeria didn't care, she knew what she was. Knew what she was capable of. Of what the world, the Gods, the spirits knew she was capable of. A shiver went up her spine, her lips twitched and her eyes glinted.

Madmortigan came to her side, encouraging her with her childhood nickname. She giggles, "he wanted to finish you." The bear hadn't known what he was getting into. Nymeria would eat whatever she could get her teeth on, chomping down on hard and soft alike. "We finish him, now," she cooed as she drew a petite paw along a bone, almost lovingly, before she would kick it away, tongue lashing against her lips.

"Pretty, pretty bones," she would bound over to the kick boned and draped a lone paw over it, "are we making a home here, brother? I want to decorate." Her words were broken up by breathy giggles. ^^

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 “We are.” He says, lifting his head to survey the moss-covered stones.

 Madmortigan is no creature of chance, picking up each detail like a string of yarn and spooling it with purpose. They woke here for a reason. 

 He knows Nymeria will follow him in this life as she followed him before. “First we must see what borders this place. And you must find your brother.” Tacking on the task, his voice dry. “I have every faith The Wolf has brought him here.”

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He was right.

Nymeria would follow him no matter where he went, no matter the cost.

She blinked.

"We will be whole, then," siblings reunited by the desire The Wolf. "I hope he has some bones for me," Nymeria crooned as she smiled, still coloured with crimson upon her haunting features. "Do I get to keep what I find, Morty?" She blinked up at him, silver gaze rounded and wide. The who was implied. Nymeria was a collector.

Bones were one of her favourites.

People were one of the others. ^^

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 “Nothing too big, for now.” He replies, aware of her zeal. Moving, he swipes his tongue up her forehead and between her ears.

 “Return when you are successful. I will see what I can find to the North.”

With that, he leaves her, the shell of the bear the only evidence of their arrival.

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