Loudest Dungeon: Ch.7 - The Necromancer's Apprentice

...they’re here...

>Darkness is a terribly beautiful thing. Defined as the absence of light, though those of a more poetic inclination would perhaps prefer antithesis, for darkness cannot exist in the presence of light. Light, however, is not bound by such limitations, for light and the creation of it is the simple act of keeping the darkness at bay. Light, therefore, is the acting force that imposes itself on the darkness and enforces itself with its continued presence; a violent action, some might say. But it is still a delicate position, for to survive the light must constantly exert itself to keep the darkness at bay, for the darkness cannot fight the light but it can wait.
>And it does, at the edges of the light it waits, creeping closer and closer as the light slowly flickers away until finally it can smother out the embers and reclaim the emptiness.
>Light, you see, is momentary and fragile, where Darkness is eternal.

...I can feel them...

>All of this, of course, unveils the horrible truth of the matter; that darkness is, for all intents and purposes, the natural state of things. That light, and perhaps life itself, are, simply, unnatural. A brief flicker of flame that must, eventually, be subsumed. And if light, the very primordial force of creation itself, is so doomed to eventually die out, then what hope do mere humans have in the face of such unremitting indifference? What hope does one mere Man possess in the very face of his own mortality, his own insignificance in the grander scheme of things?
>And who could blame a Man, when he is faced with such things, to do anything else but cast off the shackles of such weak and ineffectual societal trappings as sanity and morality?

...come then children...

>I am so sorry, my children. So very sorry. For this, for everything. That my actions should lead to me ruin was understandable, acceptable even, but never in all my mad ravings and ramblings did I ever expect you to be dragged into such horrors as what you face now.
>Stay strong my child.

...come to me...

>PROTECT THEM!

“Lori?”

Lori jolted awake, sucking in a deep haggard breath through clenched teeth as her one remaining eye, wide and shining in the torchlight, desperately scanned the inky blackness that loomed in front of her. Her mailed hand clenched around the handle of her morningstar so tight her fingers ached and her whole body tensed, as though expecting a strike to come sailing out from nowhere at any time, her muscles rippling hidden and unseen beneath her shell of metal and chain.

For a moment something was there, lurking, waiting in the dark. It watched her with hunger and hate, tense and eager for her to make the first move, for her to step out of line, to wander away from the Light and into the Dark-

“Lori? You alright luv?”

The voice cut through the haze in her mind with all the tenderness of a red-hot poker. The fog was set alight and pain rippled through her consciousness, starting in her head and working its way down her spine all the way to her legs.

And then just as suddenly as it came it was gone. Not totally though, no there was still something there, creeping in the back of her mind and content for now to mingle with all her blackest thoughts and self-doubts.

With a groan Lori clutched her head and tried to shake such inklings of despair from their threshold. For her troubles she was awarded a sore head and little else.

A hand, as light as a feather, landed on her shoulder and the weight of it kept her grounded. As first she startled a bit, and for a terrible moment there was the immense and sudden drive to take her elbow and just…

Lori turned slowly and looked into Luna’s eyes. Her little sister stared up at her, confusion and concern apparent in equal measure as she searched her sibling’s gaze for... for something...

And suddenly Lori was afraid Luna might find it, whatever it was.

“Can you hear me?” the voice asked, and Lori’s brows knit together in suspicion as she saw Luna’s mouth move. But that couldn’t be Luna, she thought, the voice was all wrong. Too... slow. Too drawn out. There was a sort of echo to it, dull and just below the surface, like she was hearing her sister speak to her as if from underwater.

Lori made to respond but the second she opened her mouth a great deluge of gibberish did spew forth; a random smattering of syllables, half-formed phrases, and sounds that might’ve words in some other much altogether older language.

Luna presently withdrew her hand and stepped back, eyes wide and mouth open in a small O. From behind her Leni drew in, eyebrow raised and one finger on her lip. She said something then, but Lori couldn’t hear her, it was as though she was suddenly a great distance away, her form blurry and her voice faded and dim.

And then, in a flash of golden sunlight and limpid crystal waters, she was there, brilliant blue eyes shining brightly in the dark a mere hair’s breadth from her own. A hand reached out towards her and Lori scrambled back, suddenly feeling very vulnerable and more than a little ashamed for it though she couldn’t quite say why.

Leni hesitated, her face stuck somewhere between concern and shock as her eyes quickly widened and she drew back, summoning Luna forward with a quick wave of her hand as she pointed at the oldest Loud’s face with an outstretched finger that seemed suddenly more imposing than the cavernous walls that loomed around them. Lori watched with a sinking feeling in her stomach as Luna leaned in, her lids narrowed as she bit her bottom lip and shook her head slowly. She tried to ask what was wrong, but her voice came out slurred and garbled.

“You’re bleeding,” Leni said, her voice not at all dim and dull, but sharp, crisp, clear as a gunshot and twice as debilitating. Lori blinked owlishly as her sister’s words sank in, rattling around her skull like nails in a bowl, echoing in the empty confines of her cracked psyche to the reverberations of a drumbeat.

As the ramifications truly began to sink in Lori held up a trembling hand to her face and clumsily wiped at her flesh, distantly aware that her fingers felt slightly... warmer. She held up her hand and marveled at the red glinting on her metal fingers, a beautiful shade of carmine in the flickering light of the fire. Lori looked up and wondered briefly just when Leni had taken the torch from her.

A sudden flash of pain erupted in Lori’s skull, red-hot stabbing needles behind her eye sockets that made her vision swim and her head split as her mind was scoured and cleansed. Lori flinched and groaned, one hand resting on her pulsing temple and the other clenched so tight her arm was shaking. A tremor ran its way through her whole body and the terrible impulse to fall to her knees made itself evident in her trembling legs.

Her sisters closed in and with a snarl Lori pushed them back, slinking away from the light of the torch which had suddenly become unbearable to her, the heat and the brightness made her brain bleed. It was so harsh, wasn’t it? So... unwelcoming. Nothing like the cool darkness of the tunnel, which was so much more accommodating in its sable embrace.

Yes... yes that’s where she needed to be. Just for a minute, just needed to clear her head then she’d be fine. She’d be perfectly-

>Can you feel it? The walls between the sane world and that unplumbed dimension of delirium are tenuously thin here...
>A devil walks these halls... only the mad or the desperate go in search of him.

Amidst the waves of static din, the voice cut to her core and filled her brain with black thoughts and raw hate, with timeless weariness and a frantic yearning not even the ages could dim.

Lori widened her eye, stood up straight, and turned on her heels, marching up to the closest corridor wall where she reared back until her head was almost parallel with her spine and, without a sound or even the slightest hesitation, slammed her face into the stone with a sickening crack!

“Lori!”

“What the hell, Lor’!?”

For perhaps the first time in her life Lori truly was grateful to hear the keening, piping screeching of her younger sisters. The haze in her mind was gone... for the most part. Pain still clouded her senses but somehow, she knew this was a good pain; the kind of pain born not from supernatural or other unwholesome means, but the natural sort of pain one gets from slamming their head into a stone wall. Warm red life still trickled from her nose, and from the dull throbbing waves of pain pulsating through her skull she had a feeling she’d be dealing with one hell of goose egg tomorrow, but other than that she seemed to be fine. Her vision was already starting to clear up, so she decided she didn’t need to worry about any possible concussions just yet; not like she had time for that kind of shit anyway-

A decidedly pointed cough grounded Lori in the present and she turned around to behold her two sisters staring at her with a mix of uncertainty, concern, and moreover apprehension. This was especially evident on Luna’s face, chalk-white and lips pressed in a firm, thin line as she stared good and hard at Lori, and the eldest of the Loud siblings noticed with no small amount of trepidation that Luna’s hand was resting quite comfortably on the hilt of her dirk.

She wanted an explanation, they both did. Hell, Lori wouldn’t mind one either, but all she could offer was a noncommittal roll of her shoulders as she coughed into a closed fist and glanced off down into the tunnels.

The silence was pervasive. Invasive, even. It pierced the gentle gloom around them and interjected itself into the situation just as loudly as any gunshot. It was the kind of silence that demanded your attention, that looked you in the eye and dared you to break it.
Lori tried to swallow but found her throat too dry for even that.

“He’s here.”

All the girls jumped a bit, Luna and Leni because they weren’t expecting it and Lori because she wasn’t even aware she had said anything until the words were already out in the open, bursting forth from her unbidden and yet wantonly. If she could snatch them out of the air and take them back she would but the damage had already been done and there was naught to do but grit her teeth and press on.

“I... I could feel it,” she continued lamely, her words slurring from the lingering numbness in her tongue. “He was... in here.” Lori tapped the side of her head and winced upon being reminded so saliently that she was, in fact, wearing metal gauntlets.

As their sister massaged her poor abused noggin Luna and Leni shared a look, eyebrows raised, and mouths pressed tight. Leni’s was the face of confusion and concern, she wasn’t entirely sure about what was going on exactly but what she did know was that her elder sister was hurt and scared (even if she wouldn’t admit it) and that made her upset and more than a little anxious about being down here. Lori was pretty much indestroyable – far away and back in the manor Lisa suddenly sat up, a pensive look on her face as she glared around the library, unaware of what exactly had just transpired but still convinced all the same that she’d need to give Leni another impromptu grammar lesson very soon – as far as Leni was concerned, and for something to be able to hurt her and not even be in the room was downright disconcerting.

Luna’s expression, however, was a bit more repudiating.

“You sure about that?”

The downright callous tone of her voice was enough to invoke an immediate gasp of indignation of Leni’s part, but Lori’s was a bit more subdued if only because it took a bit longer for the insinuation to finally worm its way past her headache and into her mind proper. For a moment the eldest Loud said nothing, merely standing there with a look of confusion on her face, but as the words began to echo in her mind, as the tone in her sisters voice finally began to dawn on her, and as the look on Luna’s face grew more and more irritating with each passing second, the more and more that look of confusion began to melt away into something far more familiar if not at all comforting.

“And just what the hell is that supposed to mean!?” Lori snapped, a glow in her eye as her upper lip curled up and over her right canine, an immediate sign of what was to come and one each and every Loud child was intimately familiar with.

Luna, therefore, must’ve been feeling pretty full of herself when she raised a single eyebrow and held her head up, arms crossed across her chest as she looked down (metaphorically of course, Lori still had a good six or so inches on her) on her sister.

“I’m just saying,” Luna began, slowly, evenly, “are you sure you heard something? Because if we’re being honest here sis, I don’t think we can really trust your judgement on that.”

Silence reigned for a good few seconds after that as Lori, struck dumb by the accusation, simply stood there, her back ramrod straight as every possible configuration on the emotional spectrum flashed across her face in quick order. Leni stood off to the side, looking down with a frown as she wondered whether she’d have to step in and defuse yet another fight, the seventh one this week as a matter of fact. Luna, for her part, simply stood back, her lips pressed into a thin, tight line and eyes narrowed as her oldest sister finally settled on what emotion she wanted to go with.

Face neon red, teeth bared, and a blazing inferno glowing in her eye, Lori took one large, heavy step towards her younger sister and looked down at her with an expression that could only be accurately surmised as apocalyptic.

“Excuse me,” Lori growled, and the sound of it cast an ominous echo through the underground ruins. When she clenched her fist, it was with the sound of metal scraping against metal and at once Luna’s eyes widened as if the severity of what she’d just said suddenly dawned on her.

Still, she’d come too far, and she had too much to say to simply stay quiet anymore. She wouldn’t let her sister intimidate her, not this time. And so, Luna took a deep breath, steeled her gaze, and took a step forward herself.

“I mean...” Luna started, keeping her voice low and even and all the while praying that she hadn’t gone so far Lori wouldn’t just tune her out. She wasn’t too worried that Lori would hit her or anything, sure she’d taken a few halfhearted swings at her before, even back… back home… but she was mostly bluffing when she threatened to turn you into a human pretzel. But then, could Luna be sure of anything anymore? Lori was... she was taking all of this especially hard, they all were, but if Luna’s hunch was right, she wouldn’t get anywhere by needlessly antagonizing her.

Well, that and she didn’t especially fancy actually being on the receiving end of one of Lori’s punches. Her occasional swats and swipes stung like a bitch even back when before she started wearing those metal gloves, and seeing as just last week she saw her older sister literally punch a bandit’s lower jaw off, something told her a hit would do a bit more than just sting this go around.

“...look,” Luna said with a sigh and a shake of her head as she threw up her empty hands palms-out, “I just mean, don’t look at me like that luv it’s not like that, it’s just... are you sure is all?”

“Am I sure? This fucking headache of mine is pretty sure!”

“Dammit sis it’s not the headache I’m worried about! You’re bleeding, you spaced out for like two minutes there, damn near looked like you were going to run off into the darkness and just leave us behind! Not to mention you just, oh, I dunno, cracked yer head into the feckin’ wall like a bleedin’ sod! Something’s up with you sis, don’t even try to deny it! I’ve been watching you for a while now, I’ve been listening to you when you think I’m just noddin’ off, and I know all about those little conversations you’ve been having with yourself. Now, I ain’t saying that evil wizard guy can’t do what you’re saying, grimy bloke can raise the dead after all, but I want to make sure this brand of crazy ain’t just your usual!”

A tense standoff ensued, with neither sister ready nor willing to back down. For a second thought, Luna saw it. A mere flash, a pang of uncertainty on her sister’s face, vanished in a second and easily replaced with Lori’s usual indifference and barely concealed rage.

But she saw it all the same, and that flash was all Luna needed to press her advantage.

She wasn’t the only one, as it turned out.

“I think that’s enough,” a soft but firm voice interjected, and Luna jumped when a sudden and undeniable pressure exerted itself on her chest and she looked down to see that her sister Leni was keeping her back. Luna immediately resisted and was quickly reminded that for all her quirks Leni was just as much a force of reckoning as Lori when the mood overtook her, as was so evidenced when the normally ditzy blond scowled at her and gave a good push that nearly sent Luna sprawling to the floor.

A quick glance to Lori showed her in much the same position. Lori was the oldest, the biggest, the strongest, and wherever she went she did so with the general assumption that her siblings paid her heed.

But when Leni got serious, people listened!

“No more fighting,” Leni said quite matter-of-factly, “I’m tired of it, and it doesn’t help anything.” The second oldest Loud child turned her unusually steely gaze towards Luna and though the rocker didn’t flinch she did look down to the side when she felt her sister’s glare on her. “It doesn’t matter if Lori really felt it or not or whatever! She’s hurt, that’s what matters, that’s what’s important.” And here Leni suddenly her glare towards Lori who, as expected, met her sister’s gaze without much fuss other than the usual pout. “And you don’t have to be so mean to Luna! She cares about you too y’know, more than you think. She’s just worried about you and doesn’t know how to express it because she’s emotionally sensitive, and besides you know how shy she really is!”

“Oi, I’m not shy!”

“We’re sisters, we need to stop fighting. Luna you need to stop trying to rile Lori up, she’s trying her best and you’re not helping! And Lori, you need to listen to Luna more, she cares about you and wants to help; please don’t, like, shut us out...”

For a moment Luna and Lori were stunned. Did they just get chewed out by Leni? Leni!? And it made sense!?

Leni took this subsequent silence as her sisters genuinely taking her words to heart and, with her hands on her hips and an expression of grim resolution (or about as close to it as can expected from her) on her face, Leni closed her eyes, nodded her head, and reveled in her rightness.

And, in her heart of hearts, Leni felt something then. Something self-assuring, and more than a little enlightening. It would appear to Leni that this whole responsibility thing wasn’t as hard as the others made it out to be. In fact, she found it rather agreeable.

Deciding to put aside such strange thoughts for later Leni turned to her elder sister, her face once again a reflection of the love and worry she always felt for her siblings when they suffered. “Are you okay?” she asked, and there could be no mistaking the earnestness in her voice for anything else but genuine concern.

For the second time that day – and, frankly, the whole month – Lori felt a great well of shame rise in her stomach and up into her throat. Leni’s natural concern for her siblings had always had an interesting effect on her sisters, though none felt this so acutely as Lori. Leni was, in all ways, a beautiful person, whether it be appearance or emotion. She genuinely loved people, and when it came to Lori nothing could make her feel so loved or, paradoxically, timorous then Leni’s concern for her well-being.

The only thing she could do was give a halfhearted shrug of her shoulders and give a noncommittal, “’M okay,” as she scratched her chin and looked off to the side, refusing to make eye contact even as Leni leaned forward, her own eyes narrowed in consternation.

“Are you sure? We can go back up top if you like. Take a breather, make sure you’re okay.”

As Luna nodded her head in the background Lori jerked a bit, a sudden awareness of what her sister was saying making itself evident.

“No,” Lori said immediately and with a note of absolute finality in her voice as she shook her head, patently aware of Luna’s disappointed glare and decidedly not giving a shit. “We’ve wasted enough time as it is,” she continued, and in her chest mixing well with the shame and remnant traces of nausea was the unmistakable pang of fear, of anxiety. “We literally can’t let this guy get away again. We’ve wasted so much time already trying to find him, he can’t get away, not after everything that’s happened...”

Lori clenched her fist and grit her teeth, a sudden rush of anger pulsing through her core and stirring up all those other feelings and emotions like a whirlpool.

“...not after Lucy,” she hissed, her one eye narrowed into a slit as her vision faded into a dull reddish tint. “Not after that, we’re putting him down. We’re finishing this, today!”

Silence followed her declaration, though Lori could hardly hear it for the raging inferno bellowing in her ears, drowning out her surrounding in a red fog that clouded the senses and drowned the self in a well of hate, wrath, and self-flagellation.

A hand, soft and doll-like in Lori’s metal gauntlets, wrapped around her fingers, and all but instantly the pressure abated, and the rage faded away. Lori looked at the pale fingers intertwined around her own, like moonlight given physical form, and she was cowed by the strength such tender digits belied.

Lori looked up into Leni’s face and saw only concern, love, and conviction in her eyes. If Lori wanted this, then so did Leni, because that was who her little sister was.

And for the first time in perhaps as many months Lori felt, against all odds, a tiny flicker of hope.

“Yeah... but do we really need to?”

Luna’s voice cut through the gloom and the tender moment with all the subtlety of a chainsaw. Two faces slowly turned to face her, one radiating horror and shock, and the other practically incandescent with simmering acrimonious ire.

“Luna!” Leni shouted, the outrage in her voice giving it a harsh and decidedly un-Leni-like timbre. “How could you even-

“Now, now,” Luna placated, holding her hands up, “give me a minute luv. I know how this sounds, mean ‘ol Luna sayin’ what needs to be said again, but there’s a reason for that y’know!”

Leni gave a downright exasperated groan as she ran her fingers through her hair and massaged her temples. “We’ve been through this already Luna.”

“Have we?” the rocker challenged; her irritation now plainly visible as she affixed her elder sisters with a harsh glare. “’Cause it seems to me that what really happens is that I try and say something sensible and you lot just shut me out!”

“Luna-

“No!” Luna snapped, and stomped a boot for emphasis. “I’m sick of this!” With a pointed sneer Luna marched right up to them and stood in front of Lori, and it was her in particular that she seemed to be talking to now as she crossed her arms and stood firmly in place.

Something that did not go unnoticed by Leni either, as the second eldest placed the glove on her right hand back on with a scowl.

“We don’t need to do any of this Lori, none of it! We don’t need to go around pretending we’re nobles, or that this place is really ours. We don’t need to go around trying to fix this place, its people, its lives. And we especially don’t need to go around fighting monsters and other unnaturalities just because you think we should! We don’t need any of this!”

Lori let out a great sigh through her nose as she clenched her fingers one by one, each of them making a nice pop that could be heard even through the metal. Luna’s eyes glanced towards the encased fist for a second, but to her credit she didn’t back down.

“We need to go home,” Lori rumbled, her tone having taken a deeper pitch, almost like a growl.

“Exactly!” Luna shrieked, raising her hands up as her arms went out wide. “We need to go home! The problem is that you seem to think running around playing pretend with the local drunks is going to get us anywhere! For Christ’s sakes Lor’ staying here isn’t going to fix anything, and you don’t know that stopping this Necromancer kook is going to suddenly send us home either!”

Luna took a deep breath then, trying to collect herself as she pinched her brow and slowly shook her head, lowly muttering under breath. Lori’s eye glowed balefully in the light of the torch Leni still held, her barred teeth glinting as she hissed:

“I know what you’re going to say Luna, and the answer is no!”

“And why not!?” Luna snapped. “Why the hell not? I’ve been saying we need to get out of this rat’s nest for weeks now; you don’t want to listen to me, but you know I’m right! We need to get out of here, find a way to get back home, at the very least get some fuckin’ help!”

“And what then!” Lori snapped right back. “What then Luna? You go out there, into that big, hard world and what then? You don’t know where we are, you don’t know anything about this place, how long it will take to get to another town, what’s out there in the woods, or if there’s even any other towns out there! You don’t know anything at all!”

With a snarl Luna was in her sister’s face, eyes wide and burning and she spat, “At least it’d be something! At least we’d be doing something, instead of just sitting around, putting our lives in danger, pretending that we’re getting somewhere when, newsflash Lori, we’re not!”

“If we want to get home-

“This isn’t going to get us home! None of this shit is going to get us home! You’re deluded, you’re living in some kind of fantasy! You’re convinced that if we do all this shit it’ll magically send us home but we have no idea if it will, no reason to believe it at all! If we left at least we’d be safe, if wanting to go home isn’t enough for you then how about that Lori? Keeping us safe! Like a good big sister should!”

Leni’s gasp echoed through the tunnels and was followed quickly by the sound of leather against flesh as the blond teen slapped a hand over her mouth. Lori’s eye widened and her face went neon, her hands trembling as she held them to her side. A harsh, cold sneer spread across Lori’s face as she leaned in and snarled at her sister:

“And what about the others Luna? It’s one thing for you, me, and Leni, but Lisa’s four. Lola’s just a shell, she hasn’t talked in a month, and Lucy can’t even walk!”

Luna looked at the floor. “We’ll find a way, I’m not sayin’ we leave them behind.”

“But you are,” Lori insisted, hissing through tightly grit teeth, “you are saying that. What about Lynn, and Lincoln? What about Lana, or Luan? What about them Luna? THINK! If we just up and leave what about them, where do they go? Who helps them if we’re not here Luna, tell me!?”

Silence. Lori took a step back, that cold sneer still on her face, the kind of expression that practically screamed primacy and victory. Leni, one hand still pressed against her mouth and the other holding the torch, looked between the two of them, her own expression far more dismal.

“What do I think?”

Luna took a deep breath, held it for a moment, then breathed out in a sigh. She suddenly sounded tired, forlorn even.

“What do I think!?”

Lori blinked as Luna’s voice took a sudden turn, her tone trembling with an unmistakable edge.

Luna’s head shot back up and she stared at her sister with a vengeful gaze and a quivering lip.

“I think it’s time we stop living in a fantasy Lori! I think it’s time we stop pretending things are okay, or that what we’re doing matters! I think it’s time we stop pretending that... stop pretending that...”

Luna bit her bottom lip and shook her head rapidly, sending stray tears flying in all directions before wiping her face with her bandanna and glaring at her sister with barely constrained fury.

“I think it’s time we stop pretending that we’re not all that’s left!”

Luna’s words, and the intent behind them, hung in the air heavier than any miasma and far more noxious and suffocating besides.

Lori said nothing, the white of eye gleaming but her pupil small and dark. Her hand stopped trembling.

Luna took a few deep breathes before continuing, “It’s been a month and we haven’t found anyone after Lucy. If... if any of the others came here too then... well then... dammit you know what I’m saying,” Luna sobbed, her face scrunched up in misery. “It’s too late for them Lori, you know it is. But not for us, we still got Lisa, Lola, and Lucy, and we can get them outta here, we still got a chance to save them, to save ourselves, we just gotta-

It was instinct and instinct alone that saved Luna.

It certainly wasn’t a deliberate action, she hadn’t even seen it coming, not consciously anyway. Her subconscious though had read the signs clearly, had taken stock of the situation, and had reacted accordingly.

Luna flinched and jerked her head backwards. There was a rush of sound and motion, not of wind but of pure force, enough to send Luna reeling and left her faint in the knees. A metal-encased fist sailed through the air a mere centimeter from the tip of Luna’s nose; from where, had she not flinched, her temple was but a few scant moments ago.

“LORI!”

The piping keen of Leni’s scream was soon followed by the dull and heavy sound of leather against flesh, the smack echoing through the empty dust-filled corridors of the old ruins. Such was the force of Leni’s blow that Lori was sent stumbling backwards, nearly falling on her ass in all that heavy armor.

Upon catching her footing the eldest Loud stood there, stooped and one hand gingerly rubbing the bright red mark on her cheek. Though she looked at them Lori’s gaze seemed distant, unfocused, like there was a heavy fog that clouded over her pupil.

Leni was on her in an instant. With a red gleam in her eyes and a feral glint to her teeth she pressed her face into her sister’s and snarled into her ear:

“You don’t touch her. You hear me? Don’t you ever touch her again! I won’t let you, understand!”

A stand-off ensued, a tension so palpable that Luna damn near chocked on it. Lori stood there and suffered her sister’s abuse, her breath heavy but even as the glaze in her eye slowly dissipated and some semblance of normalcy (or whatever passed for it in this God forsaken land) was restored.

That one lone dreadful eye flicked over to Luna but just as quickly flicked away. Luna could feel her heartbeat echo in her head and she suddenly felt nauseous as the full weight of what had almost just happened fully dawned on her.

Lori was the first to back down, her head kept low and her one eye kept out of focus as she rubbed her cheek some more.

Leni stepped back as well, her arms kept still at her sides and her shoulders bunched up as she glared down her elder sister.

Lori suddenly stood up straight. She rolled her shoulders underneath her armor and nodded her head once, before spitting onto the floor.

“If you want to leave, then go ahead...”

Luna perked up but Lori wasn’t looking at her, her gaze still fixed stolidly on the floor. Lori gave a sort of half-hearted wave of her hand then let it fall back to her side.

“I won’t stop you,” she continued, her voice heavy as she sighed out every word. “Do whatever you want, I don’t care.” Lori shook her head, the movement strained as though her head weighed a ton. “But not me,” she said, a sudden pang of conviction in her tone as she clenched her hand, “I’m not going anywhere. I’m not going to just run away because it’s hard. I know the others are alive, and I’m not going to just leave them behind.”

Lori spat on the ground again, though some it dribbled down her chin. She wiped at it clumsily and it seemed to the others that she wasn’t quite in control of her movements. Leni reached out to her, but Lori smacked her hand away with a grunt. With that same hand Lori gestured to the torch in Leni’s hands and held her hand out, clutching her fingers halfway.

Leni made no move other than to tighten her grip.

The two stared at one another for a moment before Lori’s one eye slowly narrowed and her upper lip curled back. With a huff she around and began to march off, though her movements seemed notably ore sluggish than normal, and Luna suspected it had nothing to do with all that heavy steel armor.

Suddenly Lori stopped and turned around, and Luna’s blood turned to ice when her sister’s level, even glare fell upon her. Lori’s features seemed almost resplendent in the flickering torchlight, her golden hair matted with dried blood, that one long scar that ran down her entire face, marring what had once been an otherwise beautiful face. The eyepatch that hid what Luna had seen firsthand been lost...

Lori looked into her sister’s face and frowned.

“You’re a coward Luna, you always have been.”

And then she turned around and without so much as sound marched off into the darkness. Luna and Leni stared after her, their faces as different as night and day and reflective of what they’d just experienced and how they took it.

Luna took a deep shuddering breath and shook her head. Something wet leaked from her eye and crawled its way down her cheek and she wiped it away with a sniff. Leni glanced at her but otherwise said nothing. Luna turned to her and swallowed the lump in her throat to say:

“You... y’know I didn’t mean it like... like that, right Leni? I wasn’t tryin’ to say that we just leave ‘em, I was just-

Leni started walking forward, the hem of her habit trawling behind her and kicking up a storm of dust in her wake. She said nothing, but she did glance back, and her once vibrant eyes looked cold and tired and dull. The corner of her mouth was turned up ever so slightly in what was perhaps meant to be a reassuring or sympathetic gesture, but as Leni turned back to look forward Luna saw that smile deepen back into a frown and a wetness in the corner of her eyes shined brightly in the light.

Luna screwed her eyes shut and slapped a gloved hand over her mouth, trying to muffle the sobs that wracked through her body. The weight of what had just transpired laid heavily upon her, suffocating her like a heavy wet blanket that pulled her down.

It was like she couldn’t even breathe.

As Leni drew further and further away the light from the torch faded as well, it’s warmth and comfort replaced by unfamiliarity and cold. In the light’s absence the darkness drew in and Luna shivered as a chill ran down her spine and she realized she was alone.

Luna wiped her face, swallowed the sorrow in her breast, pulled up her bandanna and raced after her siblings.

She made sure, though, that she stayed at the back of the procession, always skirting at the edges of the shadows behind her sisters with one hand firmly clenched around the grip of her pistol and a steely gaze leveled at the back of Lori’s head.
---------------------------------------

In the darkness old, dead things stirred.

The rattling of bones and the scrapping of metal on stone echoed in the black, heralding the passing of unseen and unwholesome things that thirsted for the warmth of life they’d been deprived, had been denied. How long had they waited, here, beneath the earth, in the cold and dark? How long had they been sleeping in the earthy embrace of the grave, only to be stirred, roused from their slumber? How long had the dead thirsted and hungered for that which could no longer satiate them, for what they could never again possess?

In the cold and dark of the earth the dead walked.

With great clanging steps in metal-shod boots skeletal shoulders stepped in some foul parody of the marches they’d perfected in life, reduced to same pale facsimile as they lurched about grotesquely. The remains of peasants and other unfortunates who’d wandered down into the ruins of the old estate, perhaps in search of treasure or respite from the law for some grievance or other, were possessed by the same hideous machinations that divined their destruction, forced to wander eternally alongside their unnatural murderers.

The scrapping of stone grinding against stone growled out from the depths as the lids of great olden coffins were rolled aside, their residents eager to return among the living to enact the same pain they felt upon them. Or perhaps not, perhaps there was nothing left of them at all, not even hate or rage or grief.

Perhaps there was only Them.

A malignant malaise filled the air as the crackling of powers both unseemly and eldritch filled the air. The torches placed along the walls suddenly alight with green flames, witch fire most unnatural and horrible to bear, it burned the eyes and the soul to behold and filled even the stoutest men with fear and woe. There subtle pressure, much like what a man might sense before a storm, and it only grew and grew until it seemed as though a thunderstorm raged below the earth. Wind swelled through the corridors sending wild shrieks that echoed throughout the underground, and the sound was soon followed by the noise of the dead clambering and stomping.

The dead gathered, metal scrapping on stone, bones clattering against armor, the dull thuds of rustic arms being slammed into the floor as the dead began their gruesome ritual. There would be no chanting, the dead were unable.

As the noise grew and grew so did the electricity that filled the great hall. And it was a great hall, the kind with a grand open space for the blue-blood to gather and mingle, and before that a wonderful staircase, ringed with gold and red-carpets, no doubt were the host would descend to bask amongst the glow and praise of their peers.

Finally, a light! Red and hellish in its glow and significance, as though the very gates of Hades had opened up from atop the stairway, from the open doorway.

The dead stopped.

The noise didn’t.

Lilting half-formed whispers filled the air to accompany the unbearable pressure. The dead swayed in their ranks. The torches flickered wildly, and the walls bled.

Shadows filled out in the hell lights.

There came a crackle of lightning, green and loathsome, followed by miasma so thick it swirled down the stairway like a vile, disease-ridden fog.

The Necromancers Three came gliding out from the glowing doorway. Where they trailed, they left rot in their wake, blackening the wood and scouring the very stone, malodorous miasma and disease clouds wafting off them as thick as storm clouds. Green lights flashed off them sporadically to dance along the floors and walls, pirouetting off into the air and casting ravenous shadows to lurk along the dark and forgotten corners of the underground.

The foremost and tallest of the three floated onward, ever-so-slightly ahead of his fellows. His robes undulated rhythmically as strange protuberances made themselves evident if not visible and all the more frightening for their mystery. Red sleeves were raised skyward as mummified arms and skinless talons reached out towards the ceiling. A strobe light effect of vibrant colors filled the air, casting malformed shades that coalesced into runic characters of ill portent.

The skeletons stamped their feet in a rhythm, their weapons held aloft.

The spectacle, if it could indeed be called that, continued in this fashion for a short while, until finally the lights and the noise died down as the Necromancer Master slowly lowered his arms. The skeletons waited, arms pointed outwards and upwards towards their undead masters.

“The enemy... has arrived...”

The words came out as cold and harsh as frostbite, rasping like metal on stone, sharp and biting, as unremitting as the grave.

“The children... are here... we can feel their air... the hateful beating of their hearts...”

The skeletons straightened their backs, arms held out in a silent salute.

“They are strong... but we are beyond strength... we are the end!”

The army beat their arms against the ground three times, sharp strikes that sent echoes throughout the catacombs.

The Two joined their Master, heads held low and arms folded.

“Go... our apprentice... you alone will try them... penitence for your failure...”

One of the figures drifted outwards and away from its fellows.

“This one obeys...”

Gliding silently down the stairs the Apprentice waded into the sea of the dead. Bones clattered and arms scrapped violently against the cobblestone as the dead turned aside to let their master through. As the lights flickered and the darkness closed in the red of the Necromancer’s cloak faded into the gloom and, as one, the dead turned to follow.

Atop the stairs The Two watched silently, arms held stiffly at their sides and heads bobbing slightly to the rhythm of something unseen and unheard to all but them, the very pull of the grave itself.

Slowly the Undead retreated, their cloaks billowing outwards as they glided backwards into the glowing maw from which they’d emerged. The lights dimmed in their passing and the shadows redoubled their ravenous movements.

“And be warned... should you fail... your suffering shall only begin!”

The witch fires died, and the Darkness rushed in to reclaim the world.
----------------------------------------

Something rang out in the darkness.

Lori Loud stopped, eye narrowed and hand already resting on the hilt of her morningstar. With pricked ears she cast her baleful glare all around her, inspecting each shadow and crevasse for a sign that something lurked unseen and waiting. Barring her teeth Lori waited and listened, straining to prick out even the tiniest of noises amongst the gloom that bore down on her from all sides, itself waiting for her to make even the slightest of mistakes-

A sudden pressure exerted itself of Lori’s back and sent the girl stumbling forward with a grunt of surprise. Flailing her arms around Lori took three quick steps to catch her balance and then turned on a dime, brow furrowed and a swear on her tongue as she glared down her sheepish sister.

“Oops!” Leni said, smiling and shrugging her shoulders, one hand holding the torch and the other trying to straighten out her habit. “Like, totes sorry Lori…”

The glare did not abate.

Leni waited a moment before the distinct impression of frustration marred her cherubic face. “Well,” she stared, irritation plain in her tone, “maybe if you didn’t just stop in the middle of the hall, I wouldn’t have- OOF!”

With an unceremonious crash Leni was sent stumbling forward herself, but luckily managed to catch her footing before she took a spill. With a growl of her own Leni whirled around and Luna took a few steps back, hands held up placatingly.

“Sorry, sorry!” the rocker said quickly with a worried grin. Lori grunted out what might’ve been a chuckle in another life while Leni crossed her arms and huffed, and it was all Luna could do but kick out her foot and scuff the floor as she muttered, “I said I was sorry! Why’re we even stopping anyway?”

Leni opened her mouth, but after a second or two closed it and turned around back to Lori, fastening her glare back onto her elder sister. “Yeah sis, what’s the ma-

“SHUSH!” Lori hissed, and both her sisters went still, eyes wide with alarm yet clearly focused. They’d done this song and dance too many times now to get cold feet, and when Lori told them to shush, they knew to listen.

And so, they stood there, and they listened.

Bodies tense and heartbeats drumming in their skulls Leni and Luna perked their ears and peered into the all-pervading blackness that surrounded them, trying to drown out all else in a vain attempt at piercing the murk beyond the firelight to unveil what their sister believed to lurk therein.

For Lori, it was an altogether simpler affair. Her heartbeat was calm, even, her mind unclouded from doubts or fears, and now that her sisters had been informed, she focused all her faculties on tuning out all else but what she knew was out there, waiting and unseen.

Lori’s fingers coiled tightly around the grip of her morningstar, the heft of it resting easily in her palms as she unfastened it from her holster and held it aloft, and in her other hand her shield was facing upwards and resting lightly on her shoulder. With the dull thud of her heartbeat echoing softly in her head Lori glared all about her with that one, baleful eye glowing in the last vestiges of the light, on the very edge of the void itself.

She stared out into the void and was distinctly aware of the fact it was staring back at her.

Good.

CRRRRRREEEEEEAAAAAAK!

With a snarl Lori shot backwards, her coiled legs, tense and taut, exploding into action and her body stiff and unremitting as she collided with her younger sister, lifting her off her feet and sending her careening backwards into Luna. The two of them stumbled but managed to catch themselves at the last second, though it could be plainly stated neither of them were exactly happy.

“Lori!?”

“What the he-

A spear point, red with rust and glinting evilly in the flickering torchlight, erupted from the darkness, stabbing into the air where Leni’s head had been but a few scant seconds ago. A terrible noise filled the corridor as the rusty metal scrapped against Lori’s shield, sending sparks flying upwards and out from the sheer force of the impact.

Lori, true to form, did not buckle under the onslaught, but using her momentum instead twisted her torso and sent the spear’s point into the stone floor with a swing of her arm. Lori took a half-step back and for an instant the skeletal abomination was laid bare in the torchlight that streamed over her shoulder, a gleaming skull that stared out at her through empty eye sockets half-rested in the shadows of a cobweb infested doorway that the three had passed by without even noticing.

Still following her momentum Lori’s right arm lashed out and the grinning skull was dashed to pieces as the heavy iron of Lori’s weapon tore through the bone, sending fragments in a wide arc to clatter against the walls and floor. Instantly the spell that held the moldy old bones together was sundered and the skeleton fell to pieces that clattered against the ground, armor crashing alongside its’ remains.

Lori no longer cared about the noise.

The battle was on!

The Undead streamed out of forgotten halls and doorways long suffering from disuse; like a festering, rotting tide they surged forth and over the girls, intent on drowning them beneath their stinking weight.

They’d be sorely contested.

The din of battle rang out as a muddled frenzy began, that old dance of life and death as the desperate struggle for survival takes hold.

With a swear on her lips and a savage grace befit of a woman who had dealt extensively with such situations Luna expertly ducked under an errant swing. The skeleton swung with all the wild abandon of a drunkard, but even with impaired motor skills the force of the blow was nothing to scoff at, and Luna winced as the scene earlier with Lori played through her head.

It wasn’t healthy, she knew this, but it was with a certain twinge of satisfaction that she swung her sword in turn, neatly severing the skull from the rest of the body, and imagined the white featureless bone supplanted by her eldest sister’s face.

Leni was a frenzy, a whirlwind of cracked bone and broken armor as weapons and femurs alike snapped under the weight of her iron mace which she delivered upon them in crushing precise blows. She was in a fugue, a none too uncommon sight as the second-eldest had been recently prone to slipping away in the fervor of battle; which isn’t to say she wasn’t paying attention, if anything without the pesky distractions of thought and personality her attention was now undivided and focused entirely on her immediate surroundings.

She muttered to herself incessantly, unceasingly, an endless deluge of whispered words and half-formed phrases. Even in her detached state Leni prayed, as she had taken to doing every night since the return of her spookiest little sister, though she never prayed so fervently as she did in battle; though she could never recall what exactly she said during such times.

With a savage swing a skull was sundered. With a whip of her arm a spear snapped in half. With a might crack a ribcage was splintered. Kneecaps were crushed, arms pulverized, legs ground to mere dust under her onslaught as the bone rabble were reduced to rubble.

And then there was Lori. Lori Loud, ever the figurehead, foremost to the fray. A lighthouse amongst the storm, a bulwark weathering the endless waves of her enemies crashing upon her. With shield in hand she endured, with her morningstar she wrought a bloody sum amongst the enemy, each fractured skull and splintered bone another tally on a scoreboard only she kept. Lori did not fight with like her sisters, where Luna was analytical marked with sudden bouts of precise energy and Leni a whirling dervish of precise yet wild blows, Lori was a well of barely restrained wrath. Slow, deliberate, and yet each strike rang out with all the ferocity of a thunderbolt and the grace of a felled tree. She swung out her weapon in a wide arc and three more were struck down.

And still the dead came.

They came without warning. They came without fear. They came without sound. They came without reservation. They came without delay.

They came without end.

And in the back of her mind Lori knew that, eventually, something would give.

“This way!” Lori shouted in a voice like thunder, desperate to be heard over the chaotic cacophony. She was answered by way of gunshot and the showering of skull fragments from a skeletal crossbowman who had been leveling its weapon at Lori’s head only to find its own blasted apart by biting grapeshot.

Luna met Lori’s single eye for but a second before leaning forward and leveling her shoulder into Leni’s side, shoving her through a brief gap in the tide of the dead that closed up just as soon as they passed. The paradigm shifted the very second they reached their sister, while the three were terrors alone enough to stay all but the fiercest of villains by themselves it was when they were together, fighting in tandem, that their talents and abilities truly shined.

With their backs together the three formed a triangle as they visited ruin upon the encroaching horde of the dead, hacking and smashing with the best of them. Skulls were cracked open, rusted spears and swords knocked away by errant swings, and frankly there’s hardly anything humorous about a snapped humerus, unless of course you’re the one doing the snapping!

And yet the dead still came. They pressed on, relentlessly so. Wooden clubs smashed into Lori’s armor as rusty swords clanged against her shield. Fleshless hands grasped at her tender face as she struggled desperately against the bony claws that sought out her arms and legs, trying to pin her down. It was similar story on all fronts, and Lori could see through the corner of her one good eye Luna panting, sweat pouring down her face as she jerked aside from an axe swing that had been aimed right at her torso.

Sudden searing pain rang throughout her body and Lori hissed and twisted as she looked down, her face growing pale as she saw the red spear point that had grazed her inner thigh just below her armor. The blood running down her leg almost seemed to glow...

The deafening crack of a gunshot brought Lori back and her eye narrowed as the skeletal spearman doubled back, its ribcage blown open by grapeshot. Lori pressed the advantage and brought her morningstar down square on its grinning skull, driving the weapon all the way down into the clavicle then, with a flick of her wrist, tossed it into the crowd. The weight of the bones sent a few of the rabble stumbling and Lori saw the opening she’d been waiting for.

“MOVE! NOW!”

Leveling her shield to her front Lori tensed her legs muscles and sprang forward, crashing into the undead just before they could close the gap, forcing them apart as she drove onwards. With the reassuring pressure of her sisters pressing against her back Lori pressed on, her muscles like coiled ropes of iron as she pushed through the horde, pushing them back with her shield, the crowd too thick to even use her weapon as she put all her strength in keeping her shield straight and even, in just putting one foot in front of the other.

It was grueling work, that slog through the dead. And though the goal had to only be a few meters before her, Lori and her sisters fought savagely for each inch they gained. And gain they did, little by bloody little, each nick and cut another tally in the name of their slow and arduous progress until, with one final scream and push, Lori forced aside a skeleton and found herself face to face with her goal.

The open doorway loomed before her, its wooden frame long since rotted away, darkened maw lined with cobwebs and a healthy coating of dust. With a heavy shove Lori sent another skeleton sprawling and stumbling over its fellows and used the brief opening to push through.

Reaching out blindly Lori grabbed the hem of Luna’s shirt and half dragged the poor lass behind her as she entered the empty room. With one sister secured Lori turned on a dime and rushed back into the fray, her one eye fixed squarely on Leni.

Her concerns proved unfounded; Leni was already hot on her sisters’ heels when Lori made Luna break rank to get her through the door. The blonde was a whirlwind of energy and destruction and the doorway provided a most excellent place for her to visit her wrath upon her enemies as they tried to pile onto her. Crammed into the doorway the skeletons were thoroughly entrenched, and with the endless waves behind them trying to force their way through there was no chance for them to try and right this most unfortunate of positions.

Something that Leni was going to be fully capitalizing on.

It had, in fact, started during the fight itself proper, but with the chaos of battle all around none had the time to notice, least of all Leni herself. It could be said that Leni always had a natural glow about her, her beauty and wonderful personality a metaphorical beacon of light to shine down upon the masses of her peers. And even with everything that’s happened, this glow, this unwavering determination and love and just all around Leni-ness, hadn’t faded.

Indeed, it’d only become stronger.

A bit more... literal.

When the fight was in full swing Leni shined with the same dull glow of the torch she still held in one hand, a golden tint to her skin that seemed to shine from underneath that only grew in ferocity and radiance with each blow she delivered. Now that the battle had reached its crescendo, however, she had become a blazing inferno, a literal lighthouse from which her luminescence cascaded off in golden waves. Leni stared out with eyes like a furnace and the skeletons paused.

An unseen battle took place, a contest of the wills that neither Lori nor Luna were privy too. Lori’s skull rang with static and she flinched mid-step. Luna moaned, a deep low sound that started somewhere in her chest and came out the back of her throat, clutching her head and shaking it slowly as she tottered in place.

Leni bared her teeth and took a step towards the horde.

The skeletons shrank back, and the world seemed to grow hazy around the edges.

Leni dropped her mace. The iron made a nice clanging noise as it struck the stone.

The light was blinding now. Lori cupped a hand over her brow and tried to squint past the light, the ringing was growing louder.

Leni reached into her habit and pulled out her book. With a flourish of her wrist she opened it and her eyes, intense and burning like twin suns, narrowed into slits. Steam rose from her golden flesh and the room became as an oven, and Lori shrank back, unable to bear her sisters form.

Leni stepped forward and raised up her book.

“Mors tua, vita mea!”

The Light filled the room. There was the sound of thunder, distant and yet near. The heat and smell of ozone flooded Lori’s senses, and the crackle of electricity sent chills up her spine.

The world exploded…

…and then all was silent.

Lori waited until the heat that singed the hairs on her arms wilted away. She waited until the light that burned her eye even from behind her hand to fade. She waited until the sounds of thunder and lightning dissipated. She waited until the static in her head finally waned until it was replaced by the faint sounds of heavy breathing.

When Lori opened her eyes the first thing she noticed was that the doorway was no longer there. Or, rather, it’s remains were, the rest of it had collapsed, the stones that once held it up blackened and cracked as the entire section of the wall itself collapsed into a ruinous heap. Broken bones jutted out of the rubble like gleaming white branches, and the skeletons on the other side could be heard, faintly, beating at the stone, trying to force their way in.

The second thing she noticed was Leni, doubled over before the rubble, steam billowing off her body which, little by little, lost its golden sheen until there was nothing left but her dull grey-brown habit. Bending over at the waist Leni coughed and coughed until she hacked up a nice wade of phlegm on the ground.

Getting to her feet Lori groaned, smacked the side of her head a few times, and stumbled over to Leni on shaking legs. Lori draped over her sibling like some kind of iron-clad security blanket and held her tight, rocking her from side to side as she whispered into Leni’s ear how proud she was of her and what a great job she did and other such sweet nothings.

After some much needed encouragement –- and perhaps a raspberry or two at the crushed remains of the skeletons –- Leni was ready to head on, her breath caught up and her mind clear of the “funny feeling” as she so succinctly put it. Turning towards the other end of the room – a musty dust pile of rotten chairs and what looked like sofas and an ancient fireplace long since gone cold – Lori and Leni saw their sister Luna peeking out from another doorway, her shoulders and legs tense as she glanced out into the halls, the torch Leni had dropped in her own hands as she scanned the edges of the shadows it cast.

For a moment or two neither Leni nor Lori moved, made nary a sound, and silence –- if you discount the resonant if muffled thumping on the other side of the collapsed wall –- reigned as Luna twisted her body around the corners of the doorframe and craned her neck to peer down the empty halls.

And empty they were, or near as Luna could tell, as evidently displayed when she turned around and with a wave of her hand beckoned her sisters forward. Leni paused to pick up her mace before she and Lori joined Luna’s side and the three gave one more quick glance down the darkened halls before slinking out of the doorway, ears pricked and eyes wide as they quickly shuffled down the corridor, eager to put some distance between them and the undead but careful not to make undue noise that might attract them.

After all, this was their domain, and who knows what else lurked down here.

Who knows indeed... ?
----------------------------------------

>Mastery over life and death was chief among my early pursuits. I began in humility, but my ambition was limitless. Who could have divined the prophetic import of something as unremarkable... as a twitch in the leg of a dead rat?

Time has no meaning deep below the Earth. Lori had come to learn this over her internment here in this strange land, in her delving’s into the ruins that pockmarked the landscape outside the manor she and her sisters now resided. Oftentimes, during Lori’s sojourns to this place in search of the enemy she hunted so relentlessly, she’d spend days at a time in the darkened tunnels without even realizing, other times she’d find that only mere hours had passed.

Truth be told, Lori no longer concerned herself with such paltry matters, her attention was focused solely on more important delegations.

Chief among them their quarry.

The Necromancer, or at least the Apprentice. How many were there? All she knew was that there was something down here responsible for these zombies and ghouls and who knows what else. For a month now Lori’s been hunting for him, though the sorcerer had always somehow managed to elude her. The Ruins were deceptively large, larger than Lori suspected they should be, in a way that didn’t even feel physical at times, and wherever these freaks had squirreled themselves away they’d done good.

Not for much longer though.

Of course, there were other matters to attend too. Never mind that there was apparently more than one Necromancer down here – and Lori especially dreaded the thought of spending yet more months searching these halls for more rotted horrors – there were the Brigands to contend with. The remnants of her so-called Ancestor’s personal army that decided to stick around and wring whatever they could out of what was left of this once no-doubt prosperous community. Lori had dealings with them already, and the thought of that first day, of what they’d done to Luna, brought a fresh wave of anger through her.

Oh, she’d had her revenge ten-fold already. She’d sent her message to this Vulf fellow carved into the flesh of his bandits, but Lori knew his type and she knew more that it wouldn’t be so easy to be rid of him.

And then, there was the Flesh Cult. A sudden and powerful surge of disgust and raw hate flowed through her blood as she thought of them, of what they did to the people they captured and brought down here. She thought of the missing people in the Hamlet, taken off the streets or from beds found empty in the morning. She thought of what they would have done to Lola, what they had done to Lucy...

Oh yes, she would have to root out this infection. She would stamp it out at the source, she would cut away the diseased flesh with her own two hands if she had to.

Indeed, she was looking forward to it.

>I entertained a delegation of experts from overseas, eager to plumb the depths of their knowledge and share with them certain techniques and alchemical processes I had found to yield wondrous and terrifying results. Having learned all I could from my visiting guests, I murdered them as they slept.

The static didn’t come suddenly, nor did it come without warning. It starts subtly, almost silently, as though from a great distance, and so muted as to almost be unnoticeable until it begins in earnest. Lori heard it from the beginning, in fact she’d been seeking it out, waiting for it. For a moment she wondered if that perhaps meant it wasn’t really there, that her desire to hear it clouded her senses. Then Luna flinched and held up a hand to her head, her eyes narrowed, and lips pressed into a thin line as she slowly shook her head, and Lori knew it was real.

In an odd way she was almost thankful. At least now she was sure they were heading in the right way.

At her side Leni tripped mid-step and had to right herself at the last minute. She was holding her head, an expression of dawning confusion and even pain on her face as her mind tried to catch up with the sensations her body had been slowly trying to deal with for no-doubt minutes now. Her eyes wandered over to Lori but flashed away the second she caught her gaze.

Guilt, perhaps? Lori didn’t really care and put the notion out of her mind entirely.

She had to focus. The end was almost here, and an air of excitement filled her mind as her muscles twitched and her head bobbed to an invisible rhythm. The hunt was upon her, the quarry was near, and Lori was far too eager to be worried as she increased her pace to an all-out sprint when she spied a pale-green light at the end of the corridor.

In hindsight, that would prove to be her first, and perhaps greatest, mistake.

>I brought my colleagues back with much of their intellect intact - a remarkable triumph for even the most experienced necromancer. Freed from the trappings of their humanity, they plied their terrible trade anew: the dead reviving the dead, on and on, down the years. Forever.

At first, upon crossing the threshold, the girls weren’t entirely sure of what they were looking at. It was a room certainly, but one might also be forgiven for thinking that they’d stumbled into a movie set of sorts.

In the ominous green glow of the torches that hung off the walls strange machines of unsettling design were illuminated. Cords and wires snaked along the stone floor, crisscrossing under tables covered with vials and beakers of various neon liquids that bubbled and fizzed and frothed over with vile fogs that spilled over the sides and pooled onto the floor.

Several great machines stood throughout the laboratory – for what else could it be but something straight out of some old school Frankenstein movie – enormous metal cylinders with copper rings girdling the sides. Flashes of electricity emanated from the bronze spheres that sprouted from the tops, flashes of viridescent lightning connected the tesla coils with fiendish radiance to cast wicked shapes of living shadows to crawl across the walls.

And there, in the center of that brightly lit and yet baleful room, something hunched over; in the shape of a man but with none of the familiarity, tall and yet withered. The scarlet robes that covered the entirety of its body hung heavy, concealing the frame underneath unwavering and unremitting coalescence; with only empty blackness beneath the hooded head which loomed out underneath a leaden collar of twisted metal and insidious design.

>The fiends must be driven back. And what better place to begin than the seat of our noble line?

The Necromancer’s Apprentice spread its arms out wide, skeletal talons scything through the air as it reached outwards and up towards the tesla coils. The whirring of the machines quickened to a terrible whine and all around the beakers and vials with their neon red and green liquids trembled as their contents began to bubble and froth with supernatural vigor.

“At long last... you have arrived...”

Lori shuddered at the... the thing’s voice. It was wrong, and like most things she’d come to expect of this place it wasn’t what came at face value. The creature’s raspy whispers belied a sense of dread, there was an unwholesomeness about it that bespoke of the raw power, the inherent execrable nature of the speaker. It echoed in the mind and lingered far longer than it was welcome.

Lori swallowed the rising emotions in her chest and stuffed them somewhere deep into her gut to deal with for later.

The eldest Loud girl took one confident step forward. There was power in that step, in spite of her shaking legs, and when she beheld the terrible visage of her foe, she closed her eye and thought of how he was responsible for everything that had happened to Lola, to Lucy. She thought of home and family and what she had to do, what she was willing to do, to get what she desired. She opened her eye and there was fire.

“So!” Lori Loud barked, and there was presence in her tone, in her voice. “You’re the guy we’ve been looking for?” Lori paused for a moment and appeared to further examine the room around her, turning every this way and that as she tapped her chin. After a moment she finally turned back to the foreboding, gaunt figure and shrugged her shoulders. “Gotta be honest... I was expecting a little more, I’dunno, prestige?”

Electricity flowed from the tesla coils into the Necromancer’s talons, and from there launched out with a sound of crashing thunder to dance along the walls in writhing, twisted shapes.

Luna and Leni flinched back at the display. Lori raised a brow.

“Yeah, no, I get it. Nice light show, I guess. It literally won’t be enough to save you though.” Lori took a few steps forward as she walked, and there was confidence there, comfort even as she began to find her place in all this and the usual haze of pre-battle ardor. “Y’see, I’ve been looking for you. Did some things I didn’t want to, went some places I wouldn’t normally. ‘Cause the way I see it we don’t have a choice but to do this. I want to go home, and near as I can tell that won’t happen until you go away, whatever that takes.”

Lori stopped a mere five paces from the robbed figure. Behind her Leni and Luna gaped, their eyes wide as their elder sister unfastened her morningstar and held up her shield. Lori banged her weapon against her shield three times in quick succession, a battle cry as good as any other, and she narrowed her one good eye into a narrow slit as she gazed up into that black maw that was the Necromancer’s hood.

“So yeah, I’ve arrived. For you.”

There was silence for a moment, but only for a moment. The light in the room began to fade, as if the creature was drawing it all into himself, and as he did so he straightened out his crooked back and seemed to grow in stature and malevolence with each passing second. The arms lowered and suddenly all the torches went out, and from the back of the room Luna yelped as her own torch was put to smolder. The only light came from the sinister glows of the alchemist’s tools, or the humming flashes from the great machines.

The Necromancer glared down at the faltering young woman below him with an air of superiority, unmatched hostility, and uncompromising malice.

“You came... TO DIE!”

With a gesture a great and foul wind swept through the laboratory, from where or whence Lori did not know but what she did know was that it was enough to nearly send her ass over backwards. As the wind whipped her face and stung her eye Lori grit her teeth and took a knee, groaning as she brought up her shield in front of her face to weather the storm.

And weather it she did, as the last of the reeking gust of miasma billowed Lori peeked out from behind her shield, a triumphant grin on her face.

“Hah! Is that the best you can-

Whatever smart-alecky comeback Lori had in mind was unfortunately cut short as the Necromancer proceeded to introduce the back of his hand to her face with such force that Lori was sent sailing through the air. She landed back-first into one of the alchemists sets that littered the laboratory, sending a hail of broken glass and sizzling liquids raining down as she fell into a crumpled, groaning heap underneath a pile of shattered glass and wood.

“Lori!” Leni shrieked as Luna reacted in far more visceral fashion, whipping out her pistol and firing off a round at the towering figure. If it struck home or not she couldn’t tell, as though the bullet hit center mass the Necromancer did neither flinched nor called out in pain or alarm, merely turning his head slowly towards the noise that rang out in the dark room.

“DIE!”

It moved like a shadow, undeniably there and yet, at the same time, somehow not entirely physical. The pain, however, most certainly was, and Luna could attest to that when it lashed out and wrapped its talons around her arm. Its grasp felt like dry ice and it sent stabbing pains of nettles and knives down her arm and into her bones and through her chest to freeze her blood and strangle her heart.
Luna gasped in pain and jerked back but the fiend’s grip was like cold iron and it pulled her close. Face as white as a sheet Luna stared into that black, empty abyss and for a moment knew with terrible clarity that it was staring back at her, judging her.

It was at that moment that Leni swung her mace ‘round over her head and cracked the lich right in the clavicle.

With a raspy hiss the Necromancer retreated, letting go off Luna’s arm and throwing her back as it brought up a forearm to defend itself from another one of Leni’s errant swings. Luna hissed in pain, eyes squeezed shut as she grabbed at her arm, already discolored and bruised where the monster had grabbed at her. It felt like that time she’d accidentally touched the stove when she was little, only a hundred times worse and so cold that it burned all the same.

As Luna recuperated Leni engaged in close combat with all the vigor she had recently become accustomed; and, for that matter, a surprising amount even then given that she’d only just recently fought off an entire mob of the undead not too long ago. So ferocious and sudden was her onslaught that the Necromancer was put on the offensive, always ducking back at the last minute to avoid another one of her swings, or neatly deflecting them with a quick jab of its fleshless arms.

It was becoming quickly apparent that whatever process of reanimation this being had undergone had left it a little more… complete compared to its fellows. The dead moved in a janky, lurching fashion, literally throwing themselves forward at their prey. Not so the Necromancer, whose movements could be described as fluid, graceful even. There was nobility in its elegance, as foul and horrible as it was there was no denying it.

Also, Leni wasn’t entirely sure she was even hitting it, whenever she got in a lucky hit the robes that covered its form would merely flow over the mace like water, with no weight or resistance to let her now she’d even struck home.

It was frustrating, to say the least. Lei quite enjoyed the feel of hitting something, and she was trying her best after all. What’s a girl got to do to get a little payoff!?

Her answer came by way of a strong grip on her habit and an immediate sensation of weightlessness. Swinging her legs wildly Leni gasped and grabbed at the bony arms holding her aloft, trying in vain to pry open fingers firmly entrenched or to wriggle free from their grasp. When that proved fruitless Leni swung her mace in a wide arc and caught the horror somewhere in its shoulder.

Her joy at the stinging jolt the impact left on her own shoulder was cut short at the lack of any noticeable reaction. It felt like she might as well have struck a brick wall.

The Necromancer drew in, pulling Leni in closer to that blank, empty blackness within its hood, and from those inky depths came a deep, guttural hiss that rattled her bones and froze her blood and sent a shudder rippling through her flesh.

There was a sudden crash of broken glass and wood and both Necromancer and Leni turned aside to see Lori all but literally explode from the ruined pile of rubble she’d been tossed through, a fire in her one eye and her teeth gleaming in the low glow of light that still persisted in the wake of such evil.

With a primordial scream Lori launched herself forward and planted her shoulder blade smack-dab on center mass, tackling the vile figure with such ferocity that it had little recourse but stumble backwards, releasing its prisoner who fell to the ground with a yelp. Lori immediately joined her, standing over her fallen sibling with a snarl on her lips as she made a great show of slamming her weapon into her shield, reveling in the cacophony.

The Necromancer, doubled over with its arms folded over its stomach, hissed; a guttural, raspy noise that echoed over the stone walls with its sinister overtones. Slowly it unfurled, and as it did so it seemed to change. Its form became... fuzzy, like a distorted image on an old tv set. As it grew in stature so did the distortions as its form warped and twisted in on itself, a hallucinogenic mirage-like effect that left one reeling at the sight and more than a little bit nauseous if we’re being honest.

The static hit her like a smack to the face, a high-pitched electronic whining that echoed in the confines of the mind as it sent pulsating flashes of white-hot agony coursing through the brain. Lori grit her teeth and squinted her one good eye, blood running from her nose as she tried to glare down the disfigured, writhing shape through the growing haze in her vision. Below her Leni cried out in pain and fear, her knees in her chest and her hands clamped tightly over her ears as she tried to squeeze the pain from her skull.

As the shape drew closer the pain worsened. The pressure quickly mounted with each passing second, and Lori staggered as a fresh wave of anguish rolled over and through her. Her vison swam, her muscles cried out for relief, and her skull pounded like a drum as the ringing din her skull reached its crescendo.

And then, suddenly, there was new sound, unlike the other. It was loud, sudden and short but there was presence to it, weight even.

Near instantly the static dissipated, though the echoes still rattled in her head the pain of it was already fading and Lori found that her legs no longer betrayed her. Such good news would prove fortuitous, for the next thing she noticed was that the Necromancer was not but a two or three steps in front of her, reeling backwards with a deep moaning cry as it clutched its left hand with its right as black, tar-like blood oozed out from between clenched fingers.

Lori leapt back in haste, thought such promptness would prove her downfall as she tripped over her stunned sister and landed flat on her ass. Far behind her Luna fired off another shot, grinning as the Necromancer backed away from her sisters with another dry groan.

Such triumphant feeling soon vanished when from the darkness behind her there came a sound she’d grown to know and despise by heart.

The telltale rattling of bones, and the scraping of metal on stone!

With a swear Luna turned around and fired off another shot into the blackness. There came the clang of metal meeting metal, and then the dead rushed into the laboratory.

They’d been found! Or had the Necromancer drawn them in? Either way the horde marched onwards towards their prey, and though the close confines of the doorway kept the bulk of the mass at bay the foremost streamed in.

“Fuck!” Luna screamed, and hacked at the closest skeleton with her dirk, neatly severing a few gleaming skeletal fingers that had been reaching for her throat.

Did little to stop the rest of the skeleton from slamming its body into hers though. Now Luna wasn’t some wastrel waif, she had a solid build for a girl her age and a month spent on such vigorous exercises had only served her well. That being said, the skeleton of a grown man, while not exactly heavy what with the lack of flesh and muscles and all the other bits and pieces, had a good few inches on her, and besides nobody likes being body-slammed anyway.

She took it like a champ though and thanked her lucky starts that this one seemed unarmed besides. If it had a sword or an axe she’d be boned.

Heh, boned.

She missed Luan...

A nice fist to the gut brought Luna back to the present and she responded in kind, grinning to herself when a rib snapped clean in half. Another blow quickly reminded her that skeletons didn’t feel pain and she quickly brought up a foot, planted it square against the scrabbling thing’s pelvis and kicked it back into its fellows who all fell to the ground with a great clatter.

Taking quick shallow breaths Luna backpedaled from the doorway as more and more of the skeletal horrors poured forth. One in particular caught her attention, a large figure dressed in metal armor wielding an axe, that was, as it often so happens, heading straight for her.

There came another, altogether somewhat less threatening presence, this time from behind her, and Luna allowed herself a brief moment to smile as a shield as large as she was appeared in front of her, blocking off the sight of the descending weapon. Luna could feel the impact even from behind the shield, but Lori didn’t seem to even flinch, though her arm did jolt ever so slightly.

As Lori tanked the blow with all the grace of a glacier Luna took the moment provided to slip away and took up her usual position in the fray. Which was, of course, behind her eldest sister, peppering the rank and file with grapeshot and laying down the long-range support from the back.

Luna’s philosophy was simply, stay as far away as possible from the things that want to kill you. Oh! And, y’know, help out the sibs. That too...

While Luna took up her usual role Lori took up hers, the frantic haze of battle descending upon her as she diverted her attention upon the undead. She was loath to take her mind off the Necromancer, but she knew she couldn’t leave her back to an entire horde. Besides, the dead were easier prey, if she could just thin their ranks quick enough, she could return her tender ministrations upon their master without further distraction.

At least, that was the intention. Take this fellow for instance! As the rank and file skeletal swordsmen fell to Lori’s morningstar another, altogether different breed of undead, eased its way through the struggling mass at the doorway. It was a queer looking fellow, whereas the others carried the look and design of having been soldiers or guards or even workers in their past lives this one carried the undeniable trappings of nobility.

That is, nobility in terms of society, there was nothing noble about those moldy bones; though it did wear a very nice-looking fur coat. What is that, is that mink? Oh, that’s nice.

Sashaying with all the swagger of someone who spent their entire life self-assured of their own innate superiority the skeletal courtier made its way towards Lori. Luna watched with an air of uncertainty, had this been a swordsman or an arbalest she wouldn’t have wasted a second in firing off a shot, but this thing didn’t even appear to be armed, the only thing it carried was a large goblet filled with what looked like... wine? Had to be, what else could it be? Other than, like, Kool-Aid Luna didn’t know any other red drinks.

Luna wasn’t the only one hesitating, having dispatched the errant axe man with a devastating swing of her morningstar Lori turned to observe the swaggering skeleton with a bemused gleam in her one eye. What was this, she thought, stifling a snicker. Dumb looking thing didn’t even have a knife. What, was the king coming down to greet the commoners or something.

Still grinning her fool head off Lori watched with a raised brow as the skeleton stopped just a few paces in front of her, just out of swing’s reach. There it paused, and tilted its goblet, swirling the red liquid within. There was a foul rank odor that accompanied the movement, like whatever was in the cup had long ago passed its expiration date, and quite suddenly Lori realized that she had let her guard down.

And that’s when the courtier upturned its cup and slung the contents directly into Lori’s face.

The action was so sudden, so comical, that Luna had little recourse but to laugh. How couldn’t she, it was like a scene straight out of Monty Python or something. It was absurd! Skeleton walks in, hand on its hips and a glass of wine in one hand, and just slings it all in some girls’ face! Why, she could almost hear it say something snarky like, 'Hoe,' or, 'Bitch,' or something stupid like that.

Then Lori started screaming and all that merriment vanished in an instant. It was an ugly sound, Lori had always been an ugly crier, but this wasn’t some stupid fight with Bobby or missing a sale or anything like that, this was pain, this was genuine agony.

With one hand firmly pressed against her eye Lori cried out and swung her weapon in a wide arc. Too wide, and too sloppy as well, and the skeleton stepped back well out of reach, its toothy grin gleaming eerily in the green light of the room. Stumbling to her knees Lori keened shrilly and shook her head, letting out a series of grunts and barks as she smacked the side of her head over and over again, her skull throbbing with each blow from her armored fists.

The skeletons extricated themselves from the doorway, advancing slowly towards the downed girl.

“Lori,” Luna cried and raced to her sisters’ side. She made it about halfway, at the sound of her sisters’ voice Lori shot to her feet and spun around, catching Luna mid-stride with a snarl that stopped her dead in her tracks.

Stepping back hastily Luna stared at her elder sister with wide, fearful eyes. “L-Lor’?” she stammered; confusion evident in her tone. It was well warranted, Lori snarled like a feral beast and whipped her head around wildly, her one eye wide and red, blood leaking from the corners that she wiped at viciously with metal clad fingers. Her face was caked in rotten stinking blood, for now Luna could see that was what the goblet had been filled with, and her hair was a matted gore-encrusted mess. Spittle flew from Lori’s mouth as she spat and frothed, howling like an ape as she swung her weapon wildly, this time at Luna!

“Dude!” Luna shrieked, ducking under an errant swipe. “Knock it off,” she cried desperately, backing away from her crazed sister. She called out again to her sibling, trying to let her know it was her, it was Luna, but Lori wasn’t listening. Whatever had happened to her had taken her away, Lori wasn’t here right now and whatever was wore her skin like an ill-fitted coat bursting at the seams.

The dead watched silently, impassively. They made no sound, but then neither did they rush in. Were they men, had they still possessed such minds for things like tactics and the like they might’ve held back, let the two girls tear one another apart? Perhaps it is fortunate then that the dead have no minds, no will aside from their master’s hate and rot, for while the dead did slow, they did not stop.

A skeletal swordsman strode right up to the incensed youth and swung its sword right into her shoulder. Fortunately for Lori the blow struck her pauldron, where her armor was strong and thick, and it was more a glancing blow if anything, poorly angled. Still, it was far too close to her neck or her head for her liking, and the wrathful teen turned on her heels and obliterated the skeletons ribs with a strong, hard swing of her morningstar.

Like a switch that had been flipped the skeletons suddenly surged forth in their lurching, cumbersome fashion. Lori let out a bestial scream and rushed to meet them, their weapons and bodies crashing against her shield like a tidal wave against a storm breaker. From the back Luna stared, her mouth pressed tightly as she debated her next move. Lori might be temperamental, but this as something else. Whatever that skeleton had done to her had literally driven her mad, and she wondered if she should even risk getting close to her while she was in this state.

And while she pondered a shadow crept closer. It was the movement that tipped her off, a flash in the furthest corner of her vision, but Luna trusted her instincts and ducked just in time. Red, warm, stinking liquid splashed against the stone floor, and Luna stared down at with outrage at such audacity. Turning her head Luna fixed the courtier with a glare while the skeleton stared down at the blood-stained floor, its expression unreadable what the lack of muscles and skin.

There was a click and the courtier looked back up into the barrel of a gun. Luna grinned and placed a finger on the trigger.

Now while the battle raged on something that should not have been forgotten stirred. The Necromancer’s fleshless fingers danced along the floor, tipping and tapping until they finally closed around their quarry. Holding up its severed fingers the wight grunted and shoved them back into their sockets, the rotting blood quickly coagulated at the joints and with a whispered word of power the blood cooled and hardened.

Holding out its hand the Necromancer wiggled its fingers, satisfied at the movement. Good as new! That had been quite annoying, though the fact that these mere mortals had the gall to even lay their hands against him was more than sufficient in stirring his wrath. The dead do not feel, and the undead are slow to such passions but now that they had begun to stir, they came with all the crushing force of an avalanche!

A petite and soft groan caught the Necromancer’s attention, and the hooded head slowly turned to see a fair-skinned young lady getting to her feet. Ah, yes, her. Another slave of the light then? No matter, he’d deal with her easily enough, she seemed the easier option compared to that woman-at-arms at any rate.

With nary a sound he glided forward, talons outstretched.

Leni groaned and sputtered, clutching the side of her head with one hand as she pulled herself to her feet. Her head hurt, like, a lot! What was that? Static or something? Like the tv at home when the antenna got all messed up only a hundred times worst because she, like, heard inside her head instead of her ears. Which was totes weird when you get down to it. Come to think of it, a lot of things were weird nowadays...

A shadow fell over Leni’s face and she looked up to see hand descending upon her, skinless fingers splayed wide. With a shriek Leni jerked back and the talons scythed through the air just in front of her nose. The Necromancer pressed its advantage, striding forward as it made for another blow. With another short scream, this one less fearful and more retaliatory, Leni met the blow with one of her own. Mace met bone with a crack and the Necromancer retreated with a guttural hiss. Leni gave another half-hearted swing as she retreated, trying to put in just a little bit of space between her and the monster.

The shot of Luna’s gun rang out even above the din of battle. Watching the courtier fall to the ground sans head Luna allowed herself a smirk before returning her attention back to Lori. The eldest Loud was getting proper stuck in, wading through the shattered bones of the dead and wreaking a heavy toll with each blow. And yet she was alone, she was surrounded, and she wasn’t in her right mind. Luna had never seen Lori so violent but there was none of the usual strategy, her strikes were slow and clumsy and her shield saw more use as another weapon than a proper bulwark.

There was no way she could stand for long. Luna had to do something, she had to-

Another cry grabbed her attention and Luna turned around and gasped when she saw Leni ducking under another swipe from the Necromancer’s graveyard claws. Luna was torn, stuck between both her elder sisters and unsure which side to turn to.

Luna took in the sight of Leni desperately trying to avoid or parry the gaunt monster’s claws, wincing as lightning flew from its claws or the shadows along the floor crept closer seemingly of their own volition. She turned and looked at Lori, snarling like an animal and tanking blows to her armor as swords and spears just barely missed her head as the dead piled on.

Luna looked to Leni…

She looked to Lori…

For a second Luna did nothing. And then, quickly, and without looking back, she turned away and headed towards Leni.

Leni did not hear Luna shout her name; her attention was focused on far more prescient matters. Leaping backwards – and almost tripping on her habit – Leni glared up at the Necromancer and barred her teeth. As the struggle dragged on a familiar feeling had begun to build up in her gut, a burning sensation that brought pain and rage and even relief as it washed over her and a familiar golden light began to shine out from under her skin. As the Light grew the Necromancer drew back, one arm held over its open hood.

The hateful Light! It was here, even below the earth it haunted him, taunted him with its heat, its baleful glare! How dare she! How dare this stripling, this whelp, this weak little scrap of human flesh! How dare she bring it here! How dare she bring the light into his lair!

As Leni prepared her incantation the light only grew in its heat, in its intensity. So intense that Luna stopped short, a triumphant grin on her face even as she shielded her eyes. This was great! Leni would put on her little light show, fry that bugger, and then they’d mop up whatever was left and get back to the manor in time for supper!

With holy book held out and arms spread out wide Leni began the first words, melodious, powerful, they demanded attention, they sought purchase in this reality, desire and order made manifest, the enemy of all that is Dark.

Leni opened her mouth and began to spe-

A claw tore through the air and smacked the book out of Leni’s hand. The magic fizzled out, the glow cooled, and the heat fizzled out. Leni glanced off to the side where her book had been flung and looked back up at the Necromancer with mouth open and eyes wide.

Without pomp or grandeur, the Necromancer reached out, grabbed Leni by her throat, and with a jerk of its arm tore it out.

Leni dropped her mace and brought both hands up to her torn throat, instinctively trying the stem the tide of red that flowed freely from her neck. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She stepped back on shaking legs, tripped on her habit, and fell backwards, her head bouncing off the stone floor as it collided with the floor.

Luna watched, her blood cold, her mouth open in a silent scream. On trembling legs, she stepped forward, no longer feeling her body even as she willed it forward. She was numb, everything was numb, nothing existed anymore, it wasn’t real. It wasn’t real, it wasn’t real, it wasn’t real, it couldn’t be real she had to wake up wake up wake up wake up…

Falling to her knees Luna crawled towards her sister. She cradled her sisters head and gently brushed golden locks from out of her blue eyes. Dull eyes now, no longer vibrant. Empty eyes. Dead eyes.

Luna opened her mouth but choked and spat out her grief and pain onto the floor. A coldness had spread through her, chilling her blood, freezing her heart. It was like she wasn’t even real anymore. Her sister lay there, cold, unresponsive, her beautiful habit stained red and all sticky from the blood that still trickled from her throat.

She was so cold... so still...

A shadow fell over Luna and a moment of perfect clarity enveloped her.

With a primordial howl Luna lashed out and the Necromancer leapt back, screaming its own shrill, horrible cry of pain. It gripped its right wrist and hissed in pain, its fingers tightened around the handle of Luna’s knife which had impaled the hand and still hung there, spilling the foul thing’s rotten blood to mingle with Leni’s on the cold floor.

With a wrench the wretch yanked out the knife, taking more than a fair bit of its own hand with it, and threw the sliver of metal aside with a growl. How dare she? HOW DARE SHE!?

A sudden pressure exerted itself on the creature, a weight that crawled and moved its way up the Necromancer’s body as its robes were pulled and tugged and even torn. Luna, crawling her way up the gaunt figure’s robes, grabbed the metal collar around the neck and stared into the endless darkness inside the Necromancer’s hood.

“CUNT!”

With a scream Luna reared back a fist and launched it directly into the abyss, wherein she felt her knuckles crack against something cold and hard. The Necromancer’s head jerked back, and it let out a shriek that left Luna’s head ringing. But she didn’t let up, she kept hitting, she kept kicking and punching and her fingers grasped greedily at the hem where the hood began, trying to find a neck where they might secure purchase.

Such tender mercies did not suit well the fiend, who took the brief moment her fingers were not secure on tis metal collar to send her flying with a shove. Luna landed a meter or so away, bouncing off the stone before landing in a heap.

Luna wasted no time, shooting to her feet with a snarl and an evil glint in her eyes. “Cunt!” she screamed again, red-face and frothing at the mouth. “Bleedin’ cunt! Rottin’ bleedin’ sod! Shit-fuck piece of trash!”

Luna launched herself forward, body held low to the ground as she sprinted towards her quarry. As Luna passed her fallen sister, she scooped up Leni’s mace and jumped, swinging the weapon in time so that it cracked against the Necromancer’s head. The beast shrieked and jerked back but Luna caught hold of the metal collar and swung round, planting her feet squarely on its chest as she smacked it in the head again.

“You touch my sister?”

The mace cracked down again, the lich’s head jerked back at the blow and the body stumbled backwards into an alchemists’ table, sending its contents scattering into the ground.

“YOU TOUCH MY SISTER!?”

Luna leaned back and cracked it in the head again. And again. And again, and again, and again.

“YOU HURT MY SISTER YOU CUNT!!!”

The Necromancer threw up its arms and lurched forward, grabbing at the wretch grabbing onto his collar, trying desperately to wrench her free. Its talons found purchase on her head and it unleashed the full breadth of its influence.

The wave of static hate struck Luna with all the force of a hurricane. Like rolling waves of pure white-hot agony that struck her nerves with bolts of electric spite, coursing through her blood and echoing in her skull, and stabbing into her spine, and boiling her eyes in her own skull.

Her head hurt so bad, and Luna was distantly aware that her grip was slacking. She couldn’t help it, it hurt so much. Her head...

...her head?

Her head!

With a cry on her lips Luna leaned back as far as she could and smashed her head forward, straight into the darkness beneath the hood. She met something hard and felt hot, stinking fluids wash over her face, and the Necromancer began to thrash in earnest, stabbing its claws into her leather greaves all the way into her skin.

Luna hissed in pain and gave the monster another headbutt for its troubles. Fleshless claws left their purchase to grab at her face, trying to pry her loose, and Luna bite down hard, choking on the brackish rotten blood that filled her mouth. She spat the two severed fingers to the ground and smacked the Necromancer in the arm with the mace, grinning savagely as the bone cracked and arm bent awkwardly at the elbow.

“YOU HURT MY SISTER, YA BLEEDIN’ GOBSHITE!? I’LL RIP YER GUTS RIGHT OUT YER THROAT!”

With another scream the foul, undead thing began to beat Luna over the head with its own broken arm, the twisted joint proving an effective weapon on its own with each blow to the side or head. Luna of course retaliated in her own way, pulling and twisting her body this way and that, trying to throw the monster of course, trip it up, send it to the ground.

Such endeavors proved fruitful, though perhaps not how she might’ve imagined; or enjoyed, for that matter.

As the two combatants floundered and flailed wildly they left a streak of destruction around the room, upturning tables, breaking glass bottles, scattering papers and books, even trampling a few skeletons in their path.

A path which lead directly into one of the tesla coils at the back of the room, as it so happened...

With a lurch, and a hiss, the Necromancer heaved backwards, and, with a grunt and a swear, Luna shoved forward, and the back of the awful things made contact with the current running along the metal coils. The effect was instantaneous as the robe was set alight, a rotting stinking mess that burned as easily as kindling. Electricity ran through the shrieking monster’s body and Luna herself suffered from it, a current running along her arms that left a burning trail of pain through her flesh and nerves, so sudden and painful that it was all she could do but let go and kick away, screaming in pain from her burns.

But Luna’s pains would prove the more tender, for she was now separated from the Necromancer and so too the current that ran through its body. The Necromancer shuddered and shrieked, it twisted and convulsed and lurched as the electricity coursed through its rotten form, as its tattered robes burned away in scraps, as its metal collar grew red hot and sizzled away the fabric and parchment skin underneath. And yet it could not get away the current held it with an execrable grip, and it would not let go until something gave.

That something would give way very soon. The toll on the machine was too much, the current too strong, the interference too great. The metal groaned as the pressure mounted, steam and smoke rose from both the melting creature and the whistling, whirring machine.

And then it exploded.

Luna had already taken the initiative to begin crawling away, she’d been trough too many lab accidents courtesy of Lisa to not see where this was going. When the noise reached its height she curled up, held her hands over her head, and held her breath.

She didn’t hear what came next so much as feel it. Smell it too, the heavy stink of burning cloth and cooked meat wafted in the air thick as smog, mingling with the smoke of the ruined machinery that filled the room.

Luna coughed and waved a hand in front of her face, trying to clear away the smoke. The air don here was already rank enough for her liking, no need to make it any more unpalatable than it already was. Dragging herself to her feet Luna stumbled forward through the fog, her eyes scanning the gloom for her prey.

She didn’t have to look far. The Necromancer was leaning against a wall, a charred carcass more than anything else. It still moved, and it wheezed terribly, but it wasn’t dead, not yet. Its robes had been burned away to reveal the ugliness that lied beneath, a warped and hideous thing, walking carrion. What the fire and lightning hadn’t burned to crisp glistened, rotting intestines pooled out from the burst seams of its stomach to spill across the floor, and its black, filthy blood leaked out as thick and sticky as tar.

It was barely holding itself together. But it still held, even against everything it still held, defiant to the end as it tried to pull itself up off the floor.

“We’re not... we’re not... not finished... I’m... I’m... not finished... not ye-

Luna brought her mace down heavy on the monster’s head. And then she did it again, relishing the sound it made, not a crack like before, but a much softer, squelching sound.

“...wait...”

Luna paused mid-swing; an eyebrow perked.

“I can... I can give you... everything... power... wealth... anything... you... desire...”

Luna’s eye twitched.

“Everything?”

The mace fell from her hand and hit the floor with a heavy clatter. Luna’s eye twitched.

“Anything!?”

Luna growled, her face glowing red as her eyes narrowed down at the pathetic creature bleeding on the ground below her, this rotting mess held together only by its hate and its fear of death.

She reached into her holster and pulled out her pistol, cocking it back and savoring the way the Necromancer flinched back at the sound.

She pointed the gun at the monster’s head.

“I want my sis back you son of a bitch!”

The shot echoed through the room like a rolling cloud of thunder.
----------------------------------------

Lori Loud opened her eyes.

The first thing she felt was pain. This wasn’t unusual, she was used to pain, to the aches and bruises of days spent wandering and fighting and almost dying in some God-forsaken hellhole. To be honest she hardly even noticed them anymore, the only time they ever bothered her were when she was waking up anyway.

Aaaaaand just like that she suddenly recalled all the times she’d ever sniggered at the sounds her mom and dad made when they had to get up in the morning.

The very next thing Lori was aware of was the weight pressing down on her. With a roll of her shoulder and a push of her arms Lori hefted herself up, throwing off whatever was piling down on her with a clatter. She looked down and her eye widened when she saw the white bones and rusty armor littering the floor all around her.

Lori shot to her feet... well, no, not exactly. She tried too, but just as quickly fell back down. Her legs just didn’t seem to want to work today. Everything felt slow, too heavy, like she was moving underwater. Her head pounded to a beat and her vision blurred with each pulse as a fresh wave of pain rolled through her body.

With a gasp and a wheeze Lori pushed herself to her knees, her body crying out mightily in protest at the movement. Her body, however, would have to wait, because as Lori started to come too so did the memories, and a sense of frantic urgency overcame her as she suddenly began canning the room for sign of... of something! Anything!

It wasn’t easy goings, the haze in her vision coupled with the overall darkness the enveloped her made for a poor combination, but then, in the dying glow of half-filled beakers and the electrical lights of a single machine still gently humming, Lori spotted something that made her blood freeze.

Not but a few paces from her lay the Necromancer, its blackened, charred body propped up against the wall, arms hanging limply to its sides and its rotting guts spilled on the floor. It was dead, or at least she had a good feeling it was, the lack of any real head aside from a few greasy fragments tipped her off.

Lori leaned back and let out a deep, long sigh of relief. Finally, she thought, at least one thing came right of this whole thing. With that crossed of her checklist Lori felt, for the first time in a long time, that real progress had been made today, and the hope that one day she and her sisters would soon be back home burned just a little bit brighter.

Lori tried to get to her feet but fell back again. No use, she thought, she was just too beat up, she had to rest just a bit. And as memories of the battle replayed through her head Lori suddenly narrowed her eye and tilted her head to the side, ears pricked and a pensive look on her face.

...was that...?

...did she...?

...Yes. Yes, there it was. A… a sound. A noise. Faint, vague, weak, but there all the same, an incessant whining in her ears. It wasn’t a voice, there were no words there that she could make out, but it was a noise. Muffled, indistinct, and moreover quite annoying.

Lori smacked the side of her head and although she winced in pain from the blow and her ears rang when all that subsided that noise was a bit more distinct, a bit sharper, more focused.

And with that focus came awful recognition.

Lori had lived with her sisters long enough to know what Luna sounded like when she cried.

Something black and sick twisted in her stomach at the sound and Lori frantically whipped her head around, trying to clear out the haze in her eyes and mind, the pain in her body. She had to move, she had to find her. Luna was crying, something was wrong, and she had to find her NOW!

And then she did.

Huddled in the middle of the room a blurry, vaguely feminine shape shuddered and coiled in on itself, barely even illuminated in the dying green glow. Luna, in contrast to her personality and her name, was not by and large a loud crier, in fact the only ones that had her beat were Lincoln (who was so quiet she often missed it and that worried her more than anything) and Lucy (who she had never actually heard cry before which was also worrying albeit for different reasons.)

Lori crawled closer, pulling herself along the floor, ignoring the fiery pain that shot up her arms with each movement. None of that mattered, all that mattered was her sister, she had to get to her sister, she had to… she had to…

Lori stopped cold.

There was something there, something glowing in the gentle glow of the room. Something golden, but marred by a splash of red.

Lori’s heart stopped.

With a whimper one of Luna’s hands, slender and pale without the bulky leather gloves to conceal them, reached out towards the golden tresses and wound them around her fingers, gently probing and pulling them.

There was disbelief. It couldn’t be, it couldn’t be! Lori wouldn’t allow it, she wouldn’t! This wasn’t happening... oh please God don’t let this be happening...

Slowly Luna’s hand unraveled itself form the small strands of rust-stained sunlight to dance along their length, to tenderly massage their roots at the scalp, to trace the contours of what naturally followed.

They hesitated at the eyes. Sunken in on a pale face, staring sightlessly up at the ceiling, never to grace the world again with their beauty and joy.

And then, slowly, Luna closed Leni’s lifeless eyes, and she held her sister close to her chest, and she began truly moaning in earnest; horror and loss and pain beyond measure in her voice as she lay bare her grief to an uncaring world.

Lori curled up until her knees were stabbing into her chest, she tore at her hair with a mailed fist, she smashed her other hand into the floor until the bones cracked under the armor, she held her breath until her lungs ached...

And she screamed.
----------------------------------------

The pen hit the desk with a clatter.

Lisa gasped and grabbed her chest, tiny fingers clenching around her shirt just above her heart so tight the knuckles all but glowed white.

She was cold. That was the best way she could describe it, she felt cold, she was cold. A sudden and terrible feeling of cold spread throughout her body and lingered like a winter chill, freezing her blood as her heart skipped a beat. It came without warning and left nothing but pain and an indescribable… feeling.

There was a profound sensation of… of something. Something had happened, she didn’t know what exactly or when or how, but something had happened.

Lisa realized in a sort of detached, retroactive sense that her right arm was trembling. She sucked in a lungful of air through clenched teeth and let out a shaky laugh. Christ it was cold! Her teeth were chattering it was so cold!

A whimper caught her attention and Lisa’s head shot up and her eyes settled on a tiny shape in the center of the room.

Lola whimpered and murmured to herself, hands clasped tight over her head and body curled up around her legs as she cowered in a sitting fetal position. She was shivering, trembling really, violent tremors coursing through her tiny body as her breaths became more rapid, shallower.

Lisa was going to throw up.

Launching herself out of her chair, Lisa, to her eternal credit, actually made it to the waste bin she’d kept next to the desk before expelling the contents of her stomach in a particularly vicious manner. Yes, vicious, a perfectly apt descriptor all things considered.

The nausea would run its course in due time, but the feeling that preceded it would not, could not, abate. Stumbling forward on numb, shaking legs Lisa lurched forward and wrapped up her elder sister in a sort of half-hug half-IneedyoutostaystillsoIdon’tfallover maneuver.

Highly effective no doubt. Though Lola surprised her by swirling around with a cry and wrapping her arms around Lisa in a tight squeeze that no matter how hard she struggled she couldn’t hope to break. Not that four-year-olds are particularly renowned for their physical prowess, but Lisa liked to think she was exceptional in all regards compared to her immediate peers.

The hug was, in its own strange way, comforting. A bit too tight, but what little security it provided was welcome. It was also, as unexpected as it might’ve been, welcome, if only because this was one of the few times Lola had hugged her since... the incident.

Lisa had never been one for emotional validation, and Lola had never been one for the fuzzy-feelies herself to be honest, but it’d be a lie to say that the two had never had a pleasant encounter with one another and Lola’s descent into silence and withdrawal on a level that would leave Lucy stunned was a hard pill to swallow.

Lisa would take what she could get, though the circumstances could certainly be better.

The door to the library was thrown open with such wild abandon that it slammed into the adjacent wall, leaving a nice doorknob size crack in the wood. Lisa flinched at the noise and twisted in her sisters grasp to turn and look and the intruder.

Lucy Loud stood in the open doorway, her shoulders heaving and her hands clenched tight and her arms trembling and she looked so scared and that shouldn’t be happening, Lucy didn’t get scared, that was about as wrong as Leni being sad or Lynn acting lazy or Lincoln without a plan.

Something was wrong. Something was terribly, terribly wrong.

Lucy stumbled towards the group, her breaths quick and sharp and her voice quavering as she called out to Lisa in naught but a whisper of pain and malaise that the young genius had never heard from her gothic sister; Lisa had long suspected Lucy’s sullen attitude was more a cry for attention and a general appreciation for all things spooky than actual feelings of depression and she couldn’t help but feel a little vindicated, as awful as that made her feel in turn.

And as Lucy lurched forward on her twisted, ruined leg Lisa looked up just as her sister’s heavy bangs flowed to the side, and for a brief moment, frozen in time, Lisa saw her sister’s bloodshot eyes, the tracks of tears staining her porcelain skin, her little pink lips twisted into a grimace of hurt and suffering and... and...

And just like that, with one older sister bawling in her ears and another all but falling on top of her, her own breakdown imminent, Lisa realized with terrible clarity just what that feeling eating away at her insides really was.

A sudden and inexplicable feeling of complete and utter loss and despair.
----------------------------------------

The Hamlet lay silent under the baleful stare of the silver moon above.

The wind went whistling through the decrepit, skeletal remains of long abandoned houses and the empty streets had been bathed in rolling clouds of fog that spilled over the ground and hung heavy in the air. Not a soul was stirring, the only living things that moved were the rats and vermin that capered and scurried in the absence of the daylight comings and goings of the Hamlet’s inhabitants.

The people had long since turned in, not even the foolhardy braved a night on these dark, foreboding streets, for it was often whispered that such ungodly hours favored the strange and unwholesome and that cultists and the like preferred to stage their horrific rituals at such times, and they’d only be all too willing to invite whatever poor unfortunate they should so stumble upon all alone in the night.

Some nights, perhaps, but not tonight. Tonight, was silent, and the only things that stalked the forgotten, sequestered alleys and dark corners of the Hamlet were shadows.

But then, from the gloom, suddenly, a noise. Distant, faint, but insistent and even in its rhythm. And steadily growing, though never louder than a whisper.

The trudging of boots, and the heavy footfalls of a carried load, echoing softly in the darkness.

And then, in the gentle glow of the fog, two silhouettes, mere smudges at first though steadily growing in outline, and finally into a defined recognizable shape.

Lori and Luna trudged through the streets silently, the only sounds shared between them the sounds of their boots scrapping the stones as they plodded along, a queer mix of listlessness and purpose in their stride.

Luna held up the back, her bloodshot eyes trained squarely on her eldest sister’s back, as they had for the entirety of the trip. The distance from the Ruins to the Hamlet is a fair day’s walk, but for Luna it might as well have passed in the blink of an eye. Only one had their march been interrupted, a stray slip sending Lori stumbling to her knees, but Luna had been quick to force her to her feet and shove her onwards.

If Lori objected to the treatment, she didn’t voice it; indeed, she probably didn’t even notice. For the entire journey Lori had faced forward, her eye grey and dull, a noticeable haze over her gaze as she stared, wide-eyed and empty inside.

In her arms she held her little sister, her legs dangling uselessly, her head lolling with each step. Leni Loud stared out into an empty, uncaring world with dead, cold eyes, her open throat laid bare to the night air.

The procession made their way through the gates with no hassle. They passed through the empty streets with no concerns. They meandered through the alleys with no interruption to speak of. It was as though the city was dead.

Perhaps that was for the best.

They passed the church without stopping. The ambled by the sanitorium with nary a pause. Such abodes were not their destination, a shared thought though neither would speak it aloud. Indeed, not a word had been spoken between the two of them for several hours now...

Emerging from the fog Lori took three steps forward and then, hesitantly, she stopped. The crunching of Luna’s boots halted behind her, and the two sisters stared up at the imposing metal gates of the cemetery.

The wide-open gates...

Lori breathed deeply through her nose and continued forth. Luna stayed for a few more precious second before following herself, skirting around the edges of the gate, seemingly afraid to move into the open, or at least pass directly below the threshold of such a dour entrance.

Lori walked silently among the graves, her gaze fixed ahead and not even deigning to flicker, however briefly, between the tombstones. The air here was rank with the stink of wet earth and decay, especially on a windless night like this.

Lori came to the center of the cemetery and stopped. The sight of a gravedigger isn’t exactly unusual in a cemetery, but the stout, mole-like creature that made its home in the Hamlet’s cemetery had seemingly gone above and beyond the call of duty in this instance.

The ground lay open, like a great wound carved into the very flesh of the earth, a large mound of wet, stinking soil impaled with a shovel standing tall and proud next to the Gravedigger, who stood there silently though his eyes practically crawled over the dead body in his mistress’s hands.

Lori stared on impassively, her own one eye wide and empty. She looked down to the body she carried and breathed onto her sister’s face to blow away a strand of golden hair from her eyes.

Cold, dead eyes...

Lori screwed her eye shut and tears flowed from the corners like a sprung leak. With a whimper she held Leni tight to her breast, squeezing her precious little sister close as she whispered into her ears. What she said was between sisters, and would stay that way forever, lost to the night and the cold of the grave.

And Leni lay in Lori’s embrace for good long while, and Lori made her grief known, but time would at length make its intent know through nothing less than the peaking of the sun over the horizon as the darkness in the sky gave way to the hated light.

The Gravedigger, by all accounts a man of bountiful patience, cocked his head and gave a very pointed cough. Lori’s head shot up and she gave him a hateful stare, but when he did not abate the scowl slowly morphed into utter misery and Lori’s eye grew distant and hazy as she stepped forward.

The process of lowering a coffin is a surprisingly arduous task, but at length the deed was done, and after planting one last kiss on her sister’s cold forehead the casket was closed and the Gravedigger resumed his duties.

Lori stayed and watched. She watched as the dirt covered her sister’s coffin, encasing her in the embrace of the grave. She watched until the last shovelful of earth had been packed into place and the ground given a gentle tap with the shovelhead. She watched as the tombstone was erected into place, a simple shape but ornately decorated; Leni would’ve loved it.

And when the Gravedigger finished his duties and turned aside, whistling as he all but sauntered off into his little shack at the end of the graveyard.

Lori stared at the little grave. It didn’t feel real, nothing felt real anymore. Her sister couldn’t be down there, it wasn’t real. She was back home, reading her fashion magazines and brushing her hair and talking about makeup and boys and... and laughing and smiling and... and...

Lori took a step forward and held out a hand towards the tombstone that jutted out of the earth. It was a lovely little thing, all decorated with engravings of roses and lilies and flowers and Leni would’ve loved it, she would’ve taken one look at that and just sighed, and she would’ve said something like, ‘That’s so pretty, I hope mine looks like,’ and Lori would’ve told her to shut up because who wants to think about something like that?

Leni Loud, the tombstone said, but that couldn’t be right. Her sister couldn’t be dead, she was back home, wasn’t she?

The pain was sudden and sharp, an explosion of agony in the back of her head. With a cry Lori stumbled forward and fell to her hands and knees as the world began to swim around her.

“It should’ve been you.”

The second blow was not unexpected. It was, however, welcomed. Forced face-first into the dirt Lori sputtered and whimpered as the colors of the rising sun bled into the world around her, fading in and out of existence as her consciousness began to flicker.

“It should’ve been you,” Luna hissed again, venom in her words and fire in her eyes as she glowered down at her sister. Her clenched fist lashed out and caught Lori in the temple, and though she jerked at the impact Lori made no effort to retaliate, only sinking further into the ground as she began to openly sob.

Luna’s eye twitched and she barred her teeth. She was crying? She was crying!?

With a snarl Luna leapt upon her sibling, flipping Lori onto her back before planting her knees into Lori’s stomach as her leather-clad fist rained down blow after blow onto her unprotected head. Lori made no effort to shake her off, to fight back, to even get away, she just sat there and took it, bearing the brunt of her sister’s aggression.

Slowly, leather-clad fingers wrapped around her throat, and a strange bliss washed over her.

Luna glared down at her sister’s pale face as she squeezed. “It should’ve been you,” she whispered again, and there was raw conviction and hate in those words. Lori sputtered and gasped, and Luna grinned though her skull pounded, and her chest heaved with each breath and her eyes grew hazy as the tears came pouring down her cheeks.

“IT SHOULD’VE BEEN YOU!”

Luna’s scream echoed through the gardens of the dead, sailing through the gravestones and over the gates to ring loud and clear into the air. From all around the faint remnants of her voice came back to haunt her, sinking into her brain and taunting her with her own words.

It should’ve been you...

Should’ve been you...

You...

You!

“It should’ve been you...” Luna sobbed, no longer talking to Lori, her fingers now splayed out over her sister’s breastplate as she openly heaved and gasped.

“...I know...”

Luna looked down at her sister, that one eye open but dim, looking but not seeing, staring past her and off into the empty sky above them.

“You’re right,” Lori gasped, her voice raw with pain and emotion, “it should’ve been me. I wish it was me...”

The fog in Luna’s mind dissipated with her sister’s words, replaced instead with awful clarity. Luna scrambled backwards and to her feet, standing on trembling legs as she stared down at Lori’s prone form with wide eyes and mouth open in horror.

“I-I didn’t mean... I didn’t want to... I...” Luna stuttered, her voice warbling as she held her hands up in front of her face. They were trembling, the leather stained red.

Whose blood is that, a voice in her head asked. Which sister does that belong to?

Luna pressed her hands tight against her head, clenched her eyes shut tight, and screamed. She took off down the path, weaving through the intricate design of the cemetery before disappearing beyond the gate, the echoes of her cry lingering long behind her.

And above the sun marched across the sky, dutiful in its eternal vigilance. It would make it halfway before Lori would awake. She had been threading the line between consciousness and oblivion for hours now, but with a snort and grunt she heaved herself into a sitting position.

Lori’s skull no longer pounded, but that served no comfort. She couldn’t feel anything, which in her mind was more than she deserved. Slowly hauling herself to her feet Lori stumbled her way out of the cemetery, pausing only a moment to glance back to Leni’s grave.

“I’ll be back to visit soon,” Lori whispered, her voice scratchy and raw. “I promise sis…”

The people of the Hamlet kept well out of Lori’s way as she made her way through the town’s center. Conversations died in her wake, smiles faded, and people skirted out of sight. The peasants had been granted a month now to become more than acquainted with their Lady’s foul tempers, but this was something new, something different and not at all welcome and as Lori passed them the whispers began in earnest.

Lori wasn’t entirely sure where exactly she was going, nor did she entirely care for that matter, content for now to let her feet guide her where they will whether that be the manor or the bottom of the river. Neither, as it would turn out, for soon enough Lori found herself before the doors of the massive tavern that served as the central hub of this little community.

Lori stared at the oaken door in contemplation. Slowly, she raised a gauntlet-encased hand and placed it against the wood, tracing every crack and notch with metal fingers. This place needed a new door, she thought, and it suddenly occurred to her that was her job.

After the church, she resolved, and thickly swallowing her trepidation she pushed open the heavy door.

Contrary to her initial suspicions, the noise didn’t suddenly stop at her entrance. Indeed, few seemed to even notice, and the ones that did quickly turned around and tried to seem as small and unassuming as possible.

But the trip to the bar was a slow affair, largely due to her now noticeable limp, and by the time she’d made it to a stool the overall boisterousness had largely died down to be replaced with confusion, suspicion, and perhaps the barest hints of fear and concern.

The Barkeep, for his part, didn’t say much, simply content to wipe away at a dirty glass while Lori collected herself, gingerly rubbing at her poor abused noggin’. When it seemed like she’d finally composed herself he swooped in with well-practiced ease and gave a gruff grunt to catch her attention.

“Whaddya want?” he muttered, and though his voice was rough it was also quiet, and Lori found it, in its own strange way, comforting.

She mulled over his words in her head. Lori didn’t drink, sure she’d had the odd sip here or there but for the most part the taste didn’t agree with her and she was too paranoid of ruining her carefully cultivated social image to ever truly partake to any real extent.

Devoid of any real answer, Lori instead opted for the simple truth.

"I want to die,” she muttered in her gravelly voice, staring at the man before her with her one grey eye.

The man paused his wiping just long enough to flash her a look, one brow raised as he appraised the young lady before him. He didn’t need to look long, and with a world-weary sigh that perhaps conveyed a bit more than he wanted he began to lean down to reach under the counter for the good stuff.

“Wait!”

Lori’s voice cut through the air like a hot knife and the barkeep jerked up to stare at her. The mistress suddenly seemed more animated, a strange yet all too familiar glint in her single eye as she stared at him.

“I want to forget,” Lori said, much quieter this time though no less secure in its conviction. “I just want to forget. Please, make me forget.”

He stared a little longer this time. He knew that look in her eye, he’d seen in many a time now, and he knew that lilt in her voice, that raw note of desperation, better than none. So, he nodded his head, and he said, “Okay.”

And then he went back under the counter and started to haul out the really good shit.

{End of Chapter}