“ come, “ his gloved fingers gently beckoned, weight hefted on one elbow as he dragged his now useless legs across the grass towards the assassin lurking, waiting beneath the ground. behind him spread a tarlike, glistening, oozing substance, blacker than any night as seen by the eyes of mankind, spilling like blood and guts from the deep tear rendered through his lower abdomen. acrid smoke rose from the trail, grass and flowers and small insects covered by it burnt to cinders and dust; anyone watching closely would see it seemed to be spreading further as well, like the slow progress of an oil spill through water, slithering, eating. by tomorrow, this entire clearing would be a deadened patch of land, dark and twisted. anyone watching closely would, eventually, be consumed as well.
axel paid it no heed. he had more important things to focus on------ such as his own survival. “ come here. “ the assassin moved closer, rising from the ground elegant and sinuous; it’s strong spikes spread out on either side and unseeing head moving in closer as if drawn by some inexplicable force. a palm moved slowly, gently and almost kind over the curve of its spine. his voice was a soothing purr. “ good boy. “ ( he didn’t know whether it was aware of its coming demise. frankly, he didn’t much care. )
there was a beat, and then -- with an almost unlikely speed and force considering the state he was in -- axel shot forth, setting his teeth into the juncture of its neck, biting its head clean off with an resounding crunch. a spike tore through his right cheek, another stabbed through his left eye which gave away with a pop and a squelch; the barbed end of its tail shot up and tore through his throat ... but the lesser nobody was already dissolving, its killing blow too late. black spilled down axel’s chin, flowed from his ravaged eye like a grotesque facsimile of tears. his remaining eye turned from green to glowing yellow, darkness crawling visible through his veins, sliding slow in tendrils along the outside of his skin like the caress of a lover the more he ate. heat spread like wildfire from the top of his head down his spine, in his gut and between his legs, from the tips of his fingers to the soles of his feet. a low, garbled moan bubbled from between his mouth as skin started knitting together, wounds started to heal, his energy steadily replenishing.
it only took about five minutes and the process was over: axel’s body whole and healthy, no sign of earlier injury except for the tattered clothes, the slowly receding veins, the still faint yellowish glow of his restored eyes. the other nobody was gone. he was alone again.
or ------- his ears pricked, body twitching before he shifted into a seated position. someone else was there. something almost ... familiar. he ran the tip of his tongue across his teeth, his bottom lip. then -- “ not nice to lurk and watch and not introduce yourself, ya know? “
