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Shadows clung to the cavern's walls. They clawed tooth and nail against the floating wisps of red and purple light. They were winding their way across the pillars. Tightening, pressing in against the unconcerned crowds. Bodies leaned against one another, delighting in the sweet burn of their drinks as the cave closed in. A murmur fighting back against the pulsing music. Something was dripping. Dripping from the ceiling onto the oblivious humans below.
Conversations blended with idle sprites' chittering. Individual voices filtered through the din for a mere moment before being swallowed whole again. A flare of golden eyes glowed from atop the table, like a beacon over a hazy sea. Her muscles began to tense. The corners of her maw tilted upwards. Her feet dragged her closer to the figure in red and gold - their eyes no longer their own. A small slit in place of a pupil, their features morphing from that of a friend to that of a stranger.
Elisabeth's gloves brushed against the dark, greyish skin. Her fingers were not her own. The dark leather dissolved into her skin, claiming her flesh as its own. A face with too many eyes returned her gaze, its features blending into the next silhouette in the crowd. The coiled sheet of paper made its way between two fingers, landing on her lips as soon as she opened her mouth to speak. The cloying taste of smoke and salt burned the back of her throat. Thick tendrils of black smoke spewed from her lips as she coughed - scarlet ichor flicked from her burning cigarette to the floor.
The smoke twisted and distorted its way through the air. Whispering, coaxing the urchin to follow her against the knot in her gut. She stepped out. Out of the faceless beings' strange familiarity. Out of the crowd's sanctuary and onto the wooden boards set on damp stone. With each inch she came closer to the pit in the centre of the shallow pool, her feet scraped against the wood.
Something wet splashed from the ceiling, tracing her cheek hollows as it fell down to the fleshy floor below. It brushed up against her boots. As she continued on, the smell of rot and fetid flesh seared her senses. On, across the pit that seemed only as long as she was tall from the shelter of the crowd. Yet, it had now spread so far that it was all her eyes could see. The floor was littered with piles of muscle and tendons. Blood spurts escaped beneath the pressure of her steps, staining her flesh with their scarlet taint.
Her dragging boot grabbed a coil protruding from the mounds - a chunk of the gut, seeking its still-breathing prey. As rancid strands of flesh and filth pushed through the surface, she felt her throat constrict with a scream that never came out. Tendrils emerged from the earth like rain-soaked worms.
The scattered ichor hit her like a torrent of rain, blistering skin.
Unable to move, unable to scream.
Dragged into the abyss.
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