Grism…where are you, thought Angel missing his presence while her mind huddled in the strange darkness. Blind and too heavy to move, she felt her body flow with the swell and ebb of the gases sweeping her deeper in the temple. She didn’t know what was happening but she could hear their voices so close only to fade away again, leaving her alone. It wasn’t the first time. It would never be the last, inside hoping her friends were alright.

The gases’ touch tingled up and down her skin, making it bump where they grazed her. Cold stone pressed into her back, the moving sea of air finally coming to its end and the familiar sensation of staring eyes passed over her face. Neck hairs stood on end. Footsteps from the tunnel's end echoed in the small room as something warm and living pushed into her lungs, expanding her chest making her body jerk off the surface instinctively at the energy forcing itself inside. Her nails were digging into the hard surface, the muscles tightening and seizing while the gases’ sparked the girl’s reflexes from the inside. It wasn’t painful yet something strange was happening to her.

Angel felt warm within, like a fire was burning her insides sending an ashy taste in her mouth. Her body still twitching lightly while the gases’ presence lit the runes carved on her bones and gently tracing them. It illuminated what couldn’t be see on the outside, betraying the invader’s existence. Though she was flawless on the outside, Angel’s inners looked like something out of Frankenstein’s experiments. There were traces of scars, faded and old, decorating the youth’s organs from being punctured and slice in ways that should’ve killed her long ago. The gases brushed the unseen history, centering upon the faintly beating heart that jumped causing a trickle of blood to edge from her mouth. They had to hurry, she wouldn’t last long and yet what they sought still lies deeper: her soul.

The gas settled over the dying muscle, seeping into the pores and absorbed into her heart.

At first it there was light… white, bright and blinding before the gas stood in a colorless, plain room. Angel watched as the gas took form, twisting and shifting with the sounds of cracking bones until standing before her was a lanky giant of a man. Dark skinned, made mostly of legs he stood a good foot or two over Angel. The facial tribal tattoos mimicking the wind in its path framing his features, the path started from the nose across the cheek bone flowing up at the end and then down the jaw in a single unbroken line. Along the head, tight, thick dreads cascading wildly along the thin, aged face holding fierce black eyes fixed upon her.

Angel smiled and stretched out her hand,” Hello? I’m Angel… why are you here?”

The man stared a little longer before turning to something that stood behind her, a mirror. It limbered forward, ignoring her greeting and moved to the smooth onyx surface. A soft, sadistic giggle erupted from inside it echoing through the room. Upon the man’s approach, a light flickered showing a crouching silhouette being spotlighted and covered in chains dangling from her thin form. Wild and tangled hair rained over her face darkened out, twisted up in madden grin staring back. She watched the man touch the seemingly impenetrable glass causing her to stir. In a predatory way, first her right hand roamed out then her left crawling towards the barrier between revealing the blood soaking her skin. The chains didn’t wrap around her but the rings pierced though the skin, jingling at her movement. Fresh trails of blood made thin lines along the pale skin pooling underneath. Just inches from the glass, the female had her face brush the surface taking in the man leaving her breath upon it.

Then she leaped up slamming her hands up, rattling it, pressing her bloodied palms upon the mirror. Her nails dug in and scratched downwards, the noise blared out in high pitch while creating erratic cracks spider webbing out, chest heaving and excited like a hunger animal. The other side of Angel’s soul whispered in a soft, mocking tone,” My, my, you do have a death wish, don’t you?”

Unfazed, the man turned back to the identical soul that made no motion to the mirror. She stood there instead merely looked at it with pity and anxiety until she gave a single warning,” You shouldn’t provoke me. It’s not a good idea.”

He grunted in understanding, his words sounded like something close to wind breezing into Angel’s ear,” Same soul… but not.”

Angel nodded knowing what the creature meant and took a brief look at the crazed creature staring back at her, now looking more like a manic then before. Her hands leaving prints against the once clean glass, licking the blood as if enjoying some grand treat. Each movement strained her skin where the rings buried into and threatening to tear them free, peeling it away to exposed muscle. The wild side laughed clawing at the mirror’s side, making an ear piercing sound that was nothing more than that to Angel even if her ears bled a bit. Putting her hands behind her, Angel rocked on her feet soles looking at the man before again asking the same question,” What do you want?”

He turned to her and bowed his head towards the ground, seeming to find more importance there,” To move on… to surpass this existence and move on.”

“Is that all?”

“Yes,” The man spoke, standing impossibly still against her staring eyes and rocking body.

“How can I help and why me?” Angel’s curiosity was perked by his choose. Her body drew nearer, straining her neck, hoping to guess the reason on her own. Sadly, she hadn’t much luck while the wrinkled face gave nothing away, never drawing away from its intense stare into the floor and unmoved. It only encouraged her to try again,” Why not ask the others for help? I’m afraid I am not that useful besides, I can’t help if I don’t how.”

For a long length of silence he stood there, saying nothing.

Angel didn’t like the strangeness of the man. It made her uncomfortable and felt wrong in a very bad way, her head ducking underneath thinking she could draw more out of him. The man’s solemn broke in a sharp tooth grin as his hand moved quicker than Angel expected, gripping her shoulders and jerking her upwards to his mouth. The razors broke her soul’s skin, her legs flaying helpless in the air. Her body twisted yet the man’s grip held tightly. Warmth and wet liquid, her own blood dripped along her collarbone into the man’s mouth. His long arms held her tightly and trapped Angel, her eyes surprised by his reaction.

The girl in the mirror grew excited at scenting blood. Anjiru’s face turned into a grin, her forearms slapped the glass softly at first in a steady beat. Chucks of flesh stretched before being torn off, red meat and more blood painted her gone unnoticed by her. The beat grew, fast and hard. Her eyes were wide and crazed rippling in her body. Her nostrils flare to drink in the coppery smell and hearing the pounding reflect her eagerness. All of it farther driven by the display of violence, her fists cracking the weaken points more each time, scrunching noise growing louder and louder until….

A sound of shattering glass broke out and Anjiru stood before the man, looking hungry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The once white room was now painted red. Hand prints, big and small, to splatters and blotched were all smeared across the walls. It reached from the floor all the way to the roof, swirling in chaotic patterns. Cuts, deep and violent, peeled away the wall in a few places leaving fleshy muscle lining underneath, pulsing and exposed. At the far end the mirror was flay upon its front, its glossy face shattered and shard crushed into the ground. It was obvious a struggle had occurred yet only two figures could be seen.

Angel lay against her side, her chest giving swallow signs of life and eyes closed to the aftermath around her. Blood slicked across her neck, dying it red, while a sticky puddle gathered under her shoulder. The liquid spread across the smooth floor motionless girl, slowly. It traveled with a mind of its own, darting side to side on an endless surface before being dam by the pale, crisscrossed legs blocking its flow. They rocked back and forth, pasting on more of the red liquid upon the calves unsticking the skin in each movement. A sound of gnawing could be heard, soft and rapid then paused for a brief sharp crackle before returning to the grinding again. Anjiru sat there within her hand was a thick flat rib held to her mouth as she just sucked and chewed away, watching the lesser soul bleed out filling her bright eyes with entertainment. Tendons soften from the saliva became stringy and easily torn away from the bloody white bone. Her free hand clasped together a hairless, dark blanket painted in purple wind tattoos tightly about her thin form. Ragged edges showed to have been bitten into and torn off, leaving it barely enough to cover her still rocking torso. That part touching her neck hung thick dreads and holes that looked like a screaming cut out face.

Anjiru stopped suddenly, still for a moment as if thinking then glanced down to the blood now pooling at her legs. Her lips twisted into a gleeful smile. Releasing her grip about the skin blanket her finger dipped into the red fluid. The tips swirled, collecting as much as she could before pulling them away. She brought it to her face to eye then shifted on her ass, scooting to a less bloodied area of the floor Anjiru wiped the ‘paint’ upon it making the image of a crude smiley face. Her hand slapped together, drying her fingers and then pulled up to stand. Her legs walked towards her, leisurely taking her time upon approaching the unmoved form of Angel still unconscious.

“Such a weak thing… all he did was take a piece and I crumbles like a piece of paper in blood,” giggles Anjiru mocking the other soul,” It’s little wonder no one wants I around. Me bets that little shadow couldn’t protect I could he? Useless just like I is. It’s best to put both out of my misery.”

Anjiru leaned closer, her smile widening and looking eager. Her body nearly bent in half when her mouth opened letting her wicked teeth, sharp and dangerous, hovered there. She flicked her tongue across the puncture wounds, her tip darted and lapped up the salty copper flavor with delight before it disappeared again behind her grinning lips. The soul let out low hum at its taste clearly enjoying herself,” It would be so easy…too easy.”

She pulled up, rising to her feet and drew to a near wall. Bored, the girl tossed away the now splintering bone her teeth had been chewing letting it clack to the ground at her feet. The palm held close to her face, one of Anjiru’s finger bones extended and ruptured, tearing though the fleshy seams, melding into a white blade. Again red broke the porcelain skin while a rune was sliced in leaving Anjiru to admire her work, her head tilted to the side and smiled. Slowly she pressed the mark into an exposed wall muscle and watched. Time seemed to slip backwards in the room. The mirror jumped up as the glass pulled back upon the face now flawless and perfect, red soaked into the white leaving them clean, paper peeled back over the beating, exposed flesh healing it and finally the blood pooling along Angel reeled back. Other than Angel lying on floor, there was no sign of the massacre or the struggle that had occurred. When the last of the walls became whole the darker soul moved back to the innocence, her body hunching over and leaned over to pull the girl up. Angel was still out cold which made her limbs limp, lifeless almost, like a rag doll sitting upright.

“It’s time to send that pathetic, parasite, Grism, a little message,” she smirked raising a finger and touch the girl’s back. Then once more…fresh blood was drawn.

Sketched in Angel’s back came words, scribbled in hasty and quick writing: Grism, do better next time. The messaged craved in flesh, remain unseen until Angel turned her back and the current battle was done. In the end all Anjiru had left was to wait. None of the others would care or pass it off upon the gases, but Grism would. He knows the meaning and he would shiver from it.