The sound of Eudora’s head striking first water and then stone in quick succession was like nothing she’d heard, and Claudia’s ears did not know how to process it. It ignited her body into a frenzy instantly. Her heart raced, and the sound resonated against every inch of her and carried into her distant thoughts causing her to focus. Her vision narrowed to a pinpoint, and this centered on Eudora’s head where it lay submerged in the water.
A dart of red, like a school of tiny fish, spread into the water. Rivulets of Eudora escaped into the dark underground water. Claudia did not know what she feared more, that Eudora would infect the water or that the water would infect Eudora.
Claudia made a noise of her own. It was not a scream, not a word and not quite anything else either. Her ability to speak and reason fled making an audible sound as they passed out of her lips.
She took a step back into the darkness behind her. It buried her leg inside and had she continued perhaps her eyes would have cleared, and she would have plunged through it and outward to light. Claudia did not. She lunged forward, latched onto her demon-friend’s shoulders. Her hands hooked under and pulled.
Eudora was limp, and the water sluiced off of her. The chilly depths reached for their prey but could not hold on. It slurped on her skin, sucked it for the sustenance it craved. Last from the water slid two perfect feet and one perfect white ankle. The other was dark and swelling.
The water has entered her, Claudia thought. Her mind conjured the image of the black water mixing with Eudora’s red blood. Its wet teeth flowed into existence and then rippled away as the flesh the water craved slid from its reach.
This ankle and the water’s intrusion angered Claudia so greatly that she flung herself down over the other woman’s body. The rough rock floor skinned her side as she met it. Her blood dotted her dress along her hip. Tiny red circled spread out as a testament. Her fingers encircled Eudora’s ankle as if to strangle it.
Two white circles glared out from amid the bruising flesh. At their heart, red like the fires of hell, glowed. Claudia strangled and saw black water slide reluctantly out from these convenient wounds. How kind of the water to provide this means of extracting it. Claudia pressed her lips against the wounds and sucked the water. She spat it from her mouth as it tasted horrid, not at all like water. This she supposed, was what happened when evil water met evil blood. She returned her mouth and began again. It tasted angry on her tongue. spoke words that stung at her teeth and howled sulfur against the inside of her lips.
Only when the taste was the bitter metallic taste of living blood did she lean back.
The water was calm now. It was waiting, watching, wanting. Claudia reached out and struck it with her fist. It fled gracefully from her blow, allowing the hard rock beneath to take the force.
Claudia slid her hand up Eudora’s soft leg. The wet supple flesh was smooth as she remembered bits of Bennett being. A strange stirring of lust fluttered through her. His hands had moved so on her. Just a short distance upwards. But she did not dare to move there. Her fingers would be burned away to the bone.
Whether this sudden vision was purely a figment of her disturbed state of mind or some remnant of purity and righteous fear trained into her was unclear.
Her hand moved over and drew her up Eudora’s body. Claudia used all her strength to turn her demon over. Eudora’s lips were wet with water and stomach acids. The rock beneath her covered in the meager contents of Eudora’s stomach. Short labored breaths parted her lips, coming in bursts as if they meant to stop momentarily. Her hair at the brow was a lovely pinkish red.
Claudia felt death’s presence at her back. She turned her head and bared her teeth. It was both soundless and fierce. It was a primal gesture meant to be followed by tooth and nail, but there was nothing to spring upon.
Instead, Claudia leaned over cradled Eudora’s head against her stomach.
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Deprivation- The Feast and the Famine
HorrorOn waking up to find a dismembered arm protruding from the floor, Claudia knows her privileged life is over. Claudia cannot recall how she came to this pass. She does know she is never getting out. It is all because she is guilty of falling in love...
