You would never detest me -
They'd kill each other before it got that far.
- not with the ..entertainment.. I could provide you
"Oh?"
The silence. It grows.
It
grows the way bones do. Slowly, surely, with reason, with purpose. Anonymous is wise not to answer anymore of Stephan's obvious questions. Anonymous is brilliant not to ask any of his own.
Emrys is confident enough to know that with one touch - he can command all of Stephan's attention at the tip of a feather. His ears are alert, forward, his eyes like a jackal's fiercely sharp and full of a hunger that is different than the one that describes the chill that runs down his spine. It was a hunger that surpassed that, the chill that settles into his shoulders and fill his belly full of fire is different than the terrible desire to find
prey.
Emrys is dangerous. Only warns Stephan this time - he is the one bound in the rope at the bottom of the basement. Stephan is different, however, he has the body so he has the mind and when he gets it (as he has now) - he can open the door to hear his better half shout some sort of a warning to him before he closes the door again. Only, that poor fool, it is not the same for him - he is weak and so when he walks in that same body he hears Stephan, day in - day out.
Laughing.
Inside of Stephan's head it is eerily silent as he lets the door slip from his fingers and creak shut - forcing the darkness on Only to go mad in his mind, all alone. The silence grows - it grows old. It grows big, it frails, it weakens, it eventually cracks. Stephan heeds Only's warning but gladly wanders into his cautionary warning as if it were a dark forest full of knives and snapping jaws. Emrys circles him and makes him feel very small underneath his shadow but he moves with care not to leave himself unguarded.
"Come with me. I know where to go."
The silence breaks. The marrow spills out and turns to ash. Stephan pushes Only far away from him now - so far away he barely exists to him.
You can go now. We are through here. He dismisses Only. Stephan leaves the house and dumps the keys into the well that is in the front yard. He exits the gate and turns left to leave completely.
Amare grows darker (if that is even possible) and the trees grow thicker. The running water runs away from them now and in the distance it gurgles, splutters, then falls silent as Stephan takes them away.
He stops when the ground grows cool beneath their feet and sparkles like granite in the dappled starlight, the breeze is cooler here with it coming off of the water (
Rapax Stephan remembers now, Only's secrets can never be kept from him) and the air is crisp with fresh pine. He takes a long moment to breathe it in deep - too many times has he spent long nights in the woods to bury the bodies when it came time to let another one go.
Stephan reaches up and reassures Emrys without words that he's welcome to this encounter - this stranger in the woods cannot do much worse to him than what has already been done before. Perhaps he is stupid for trusting that Emrys will not straight up kill him with his daggers...but again, Stephan will welcome it - he has been counting down the days until he'll make sure that Only stays quiet for good. If Stephan cannot have complete control - then neither of them can.
In the dark, however, Emrys should only trust Stephan so much. In all of that growing silence the snake has been keen on getting an eye for an eye - if it sparks a violent struggle then so be it - Emrys will get what is coming - he'll get what he is owed.
The cut on Stephan's cheek glows hot red in his nerves and that is all the drive he needs to pull the dagger from his sheath and send it straight up between them. It flies crooked but it flies true, and his mind drives the blade into his flesh, rends it apart in a crooked swoop. When he smells blood the connection splits and the knife loses all life and falls softly on the loam between them.
"Butterfingers?" Stephan suggested, stepping back from him once but not giving himself any clearance from getting hit. His suggestion could easily be translated as 'sorry, not sorry'.
.only
thief for hire
low-functioning telekinesis
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
For many are called but few are chosen.
@Anonymous "Anony-mouse"
