09-03-2020, 09:23 PM
<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Cinzel+Decorative|Yanone+Kaffeesatz&display=swap" rel="stylesheet"><div style="box-shadow:0px 0px 5px #000,0px 0px 10px #000;margin:auto;background:linear-gradient(to bottom,rgba(0,0,0,0)100px,rgba(31,32,31,1)400px),url('https://i.postimg.cc/3JX2MMcJ/13-Heron-Cendre-Vivienne-B.jpg') top no-repeat;background-size:600px auto;width:580px;border:1px solid #000;padding:200px 10px 0px 10px;">
<div style="text-align:center;padding:0px 0px 80px 40px;font:72px cinzel decorative;letter-spacing:60px;color:rgba(250,250,250,0.25);">echis</div>
<div style="border:3px double #eee;border-radius:35%/35px 35px 0px 0px;border-top:0px;border-bottom:0px;padding:10px;color:#999;font-face:times new roman;"><div style="font:12px yanone kaffeesatz;text-align:center;padding:5px 5px 10px 5px;">“ I will love you until we run out of mornings. Then I will love you in the dark. ”</div>
As she stands still, straining her ears for reply, she gets an answer she did not expect. Creatures chirp and chitter to one another, unseen. There is a flicker of movement in the corner of her eye and she turns to observe the things lurking in her peripherals. But just as quick, they’re gone before her eyes can focus or process them. Echis whimpers softly in fear and takes a step back from the things as they continue crying out.
From her thigh, one takes a small bite, testing whether she is prey or predator. The serpent child yelps and skitters forward as her body begins to shake violently with terror. Someone’s bone breaks as Echis bursts into tears. Her throat fills with a shriek just as a monster’s mouth is stuffed with her shoulder. She tries to run, to get away, but she only makes it a few steps before more snapping jaws find her. The air is agony enough against her raw muscle, but these hunters bring her to the ground with minimal effort.
They cackle like hyenas as they gorge on the meat of her. Her sage green eyes watch them now, their snow-white eyes finding hers as they gather around her. Their teeth seem to float inside their mouths but they feel firm when they bite into her gut. Echis opens her mouth to beg for mercy but looking at them renders her speechless, now. What color would she even call these awful things? She blinks, and she swears they’re mouthing words to her between each crushing bite.
<I>Stay with us.</i>
And somewhere in the agony of being torn open, she finds a sliver of her that says yes. It pushes its way up her throat and mumbles her consent in between her gargling breaths. Echis coughs and sends a spray of red across a creature’s face.
<I>Be with us, forever.</i>
Her vision begins to grow dark around the edges. Dying happens so slowly here, she thinks. The pack devours her thoughts of her mother as they finish picking her bones clean. (But then how is she still seeing them?) They feast on her joy and her love, still cackling and gibbering as she whispers breathless thanks.
It feels like the end of everything when Carnage’s claws find her at last. There is perhaps a thread of Echis left, now, but he plucks it from the mouths of monsters and drags her back to her body.
It is a fresh kind of misery, to be put back together. The sand is wildfire across her raw muscles and she almost wishes for the peace the afterlife had given her. Not the strange world that had consumed her, certainly, but that bleak ever after she had seen at first. But there is a relentless need to stand, to find a river and wait. (Wait for what?) And so she staggers up with a hiss of pain and fights the tears welling up in her eyes.
She takes her first few swaying steps, and she hopes whatever is at the river’s edge is worth this personal hell.</div></div>
<div style="text-align:center;padding:0px 0px 80px 40px;font:72px cinzel decorative;letter-spacing:60px;color:rgba(250,250,250,0.25);">echis</div>
<div style="border:3px double #eee;border-radius:35%/35px 35px 0px 0px;border-top:0px;border-bottom:0px;padding:10px;color:#999;font-face:times new roman;"><div style="font:12px yanone kaffeesatz;text-align:center;padding:5px 5px 10px 5px;">“ I will love you until we run out of mornings. Then I will love you in the dark. ”</div>
As she stands still, straining her ears for reply, she gets an answer she did not expect. Creatures chirp and chitter to one another, unseen. There is a flicker of movement in the corner of her eye and she turns to observe the things lurking in her peripherals. But just as quick, they’re gone before her eyes can focus or process them. Echis whimpers softly in fear and takes a step back from the things as they continue crying out.
From her thigh, one takes a small bite, testing whether she is prey or predator. The serpent child yelps and skitters forward as her body begins to shake violently with terror. Someone’s bone breaks as Echis bursts into tears. Her throat fills with a shriek just as a monster’s mouth is stuffed with her shoulder. She tries to run, to get away, but she only makes it a few steps before more snapping jaws find her. The air is agony enough against her raw muscle, but these hunters bring her to the ground with minimal effort.
They cackle like hyenas as they gorge on the meat of her. Her sage green eyes watch them now, their snow-white eyes finding hers as they gather around her. Their teeth seem to float inside their mouths but they feel firm when they bite into her gut. Echis opens her mouth to beg for mercy but looking at them renders her speechless, now. What color would she even call these awful things? She blinks, and she swears they’re mouthing words to her between each crushing bite.
<I>Stay with us.</i>
And somewhere in the agony of being torn open, she finds a sliver of her that says yes. It pushes its way up her throat and mumbles her consent in between her gargling breaths. Echis coughs and sends a spray of red across a creature’s face.
<I>Be with us, forever.</i>
Her vision begins to grow dark around the edges. Dying happens so slowly here, she thinks. The pack devours her thoughts of her mother as they finish picking her bones clean. (But then how is she still seeing them?) They feast on her joy and her love, still cackling and gibbering as she whispers breathless thanks.
It feels like the end of everything when Carnage’s claws find her at last. There is perhaps a thread of Echis left, now, but he plucks it from the mouths of monsters and drags her back to her body.
It is a fresh kind of misery, to be put back together. The sand is wildfire across her raw muscles and she almost wishes for the peace the afterlife had given her. Not the strange world that had consumed her, certainly, but that bleak ever after she had seen at first. But there is a relentless need to stand, to find a river and wait. (Wait for what?) And so she staggers up with a hiss of pain and fights the tears welling up in her eyes.
She takes her first few swaying steps, and she hopes whatever is at the river’s edge is worth this personal hell.</div></div>