Secrets
Good morning, Snowdrop! Allen greets her |
Tia trudges her way down into the great hall with heavy limbs. She shuffles into her seat and seems to melt into the table, burying her face in her arms. |
Training wearing you out quick, ne?
(right?/Isn't it?) Allen chuckles |
Tia looses a grumbling sigh before turning her face to the side to look at him |
How did you even handle this as a toddler? Tia grumbles |
Tia watches surprise light up his face and she snorts. His gaze drifts past her and his eyes narrow. |
What have you been telling her? Allen complains to Evelyn as she joins them |
Evelyn pats Tia on the shoulder as she passes, smiling before taking her seat at the table. |
What haven't you told her? Evelyn echoes his tone with a haughty leer of her own |
Evelyn's face suddenly drops into a blank and vacant stare, turning her head to Tia with soulless eyes. |
Evelyn chants, the air vibrating with the leaden weight of these unfamiliar words |
Tia questions but the woman is frozen in place |
Allen begins to choke, sputtering and wheezing in a violent fit. Tears well in his eyes and he heaves in his seat before, finally, spitting up a slate black, tarry fluid onto the table. He gapes at the viscous tar before looking to Tia. |
Allen whimpers
|
He manages another gasp before his body constricts relentlessly, retching up glob after glob of the inky slime |
Tia gasps |
Tia jumps to her feet and reaches for her father but something in her chest tugs with the movement, pulling her backwards. Evelyn locks onto Tia, eyes darting frantically before fading away and leaving empty, shadowed cavities. |
Evelyn wheezes, the air hissing into her lungs rather than out |
Her lips dance with continued warning but she cannot speak, there is no sound. Tia is tugged again, yanked backwards with force. She pivots around to find the same viscous fluid gagging her father is seeping out of the walls, furniture, floor and ceiling. The tar pools on the other end of the room before an ominous door, calling to her. Hideous sinewy ropes emerge from her body as well, connecting deep within her chest. They slink between her ribs, held taut between Tia and the cracks of this door. |
Tia cries to her family but she cannot reach either of them, her father choking and her grandmother frozen and blind |
Tia swivels again, grabbing the ooze and pulling back with force. The sensation of the liquid offers a permeating chill, squirming, viscous filth sinking into her bones and spoiling her flesh. She inches closer to the door, feet skidding against stone floor while the sinew taints and stains her fingers. Her feet sink into the overflowing goop now and there is a banging against the door. The room pulses with an awful aura with each collision, the dread in the air peaking as the door clicks open. |
A stomach churning pitch drags across Tia's ears, the door creaking open all too slowly, but she loses her breath once it is fully open, frozen in absolute silence. Worms of stygian tar writhe and wriggle in a sea of fetid oil beyond the door and a single eerie eye gazes down at her, its size and vacancy unsettling Tia further. With one last tug, Tia plunges past the slimy threshold! |
Tia jumps awake in her bed, fighting the blankets she is wrapped in. Moonlight streams into the bedroom and she realizes she had been dreaming. Tia examines her hands, panting, but her skin is clear and clean. She looks about, finding Duff at the end of the bed watching her. |
I had such a terrible dream! Tia sighs aloud, her distress touching her voice It felt so real... Duff remains silent, seeming to study her Dad has been hiding something from me and now I'm even dreaming about it! |
Duff suggests and Tia groans |
I get the feeling I'm going to hate every second of it! Tia gripes, rolling back over despite the nightmare |
Duff watches over her with a measure of concern throughout the rest of the night |
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