In a world devoid of dreams... *Random*

Exu touched her feet against the ground. She made no sound herself, only the rattling of the chain and pentagram broke the silence of the moonless night. Her tail writhed like a creature in its own right and Exu screamed. Eyes closed, her vision was almost like a bat’s. She screamed again, high enough to crack the icy world around her and then listened. Everything around her was frozen, cracked from her scream, but frozen. It wasn’t frozen naturally, either. Exu thrust her hand at the branches above her, grabbing leaves. The leaves were wide, this wasn’t winter. Somone had wanted this place frozen. She scrunched the leaves up in her hand, ice breaking under her long thin fingers. A place frozen completely by a force other than winter. Were they here? Hope, Faith and Purity almost smiled in their prison of flesh.

No, this wasn’t it. Still not here. This wasn’t Zita.

They had seen the place in their dreams. Exu had seen the place in their dreams. They had seen the place in Exu’s dreams. However you were to put it, the place had been seen in a dream. It shone, crystalline like a frozen lake. You looked into its surface and saw everything. Hopes, fears, dreams and your very soul reflected in it staring into you with mirror-eyes, reaching out for you with mirror hands, making you bleed with mirror knives until you became a part of the illusion and you bled mirror blood and looked into mirror eyes with mirror eyes and were stolen into a spirit world of your own fear, your own demons. And she had created demons. So many demons she had created with her sins. Sins beyond confession, sins beyond atonement…the demons she had created to destroy her soul outdid near any demon that came from a god’s mind. Yet she longed for that pain, for her souls to be torn from her body and thrown to the monsters that screamed beneath her feet when she let her mind rest for a second.

It had been, she thought to herself, altogether too long. This world, to her, was a torture in itself. What use had she for a world devoid of dreams?

She could hear ice cracking in the shimmering grass behind her. Footsteps. They were slow and quiet. Either this was sacred ground or the owner of the feet knew of her presence here. Or both. Or neither. Maybe they were just slow and quiet.

She screamed again, high and piercing, then listened. The stepper had stopped for a second when she screamed, probably shocked, but now moved toward her again slowly. Her ears pricked and she saw a picture in her mind. A manshape. She spat on the ground with disgust and hissed, snakelike, standing on the tip of her tail. The manshape would soon pay for the crimes of its kind…

OOC: I'll fight you using Alys. Hopefully, her profile's still somewhere in the Character List... ^^;

IC:

The harsh, shrill scream still reverberated around the inside of Alys's head. Tightening her grip around her staff, she continued cautiously through the grass toward whatever demonic creature awaited her.

Slowly, she could begin to see what exactly was up ahead. Alys's mouth twisted in utter disgust. It was some vile serpent-like creature. The thought of retreat briefly caressed the back of Alys's mind, and she brushed a few strands of her silver hair out of her eyes, entertaining the thought. However, another glance at the creature made her hesitate. It appeared evil, certainly, yet there was something tortured about it, something that drew Alys. Taking a deep, slow breath, Alys used her crystal-topped staff to pull herself to her feet, revealing herself to the creature.

With an abrupt roar of anger, the serpent-creature whirled around to face Alys. Just at that moment, Alys allowed her angelic glory to be revealed, and she swept open her great white, feathery wings. A brilliant silvery aura surrounded her, and her emerald eyes shone with a mixture of determination and compassion. The serpent-creature shied from the light slightly but soon regained its former boldness. Baring its teeth at the radiant Alys, the creature snarled and lunged at the Elven moon angel. To its surprise, however, it came to a sudden stop as it slammed into an invisible barrier that was protecting Alys. The angel held her staff easily in front of herself.

"Creature, if you cease your attack, I might be able to help you."

OOC: Sorry it's not that long and detailed. I'm not entirely sure of Exu's personality/attacks yet.

She hissed, forced back by a barrier that showed no proof of its existence. She screamed again, loud enough to make the girl wince. Exu could see an image of her intended victim in her mind. She was beautiful. Had she, Exu, ever been beautiful? If she had, it had been long ago.

Exu extended her whip-like tail and swung it towards the angelic figure, smashing helplessly against the barrier. The angel held out the staff. Exu could hear the crackling of fire; feel heat on her scaled face. She moved to one side swiftly enough to avoid attacking the girl while she was shielded with flames. This approach was getting her nowhere.

Heartless and cold and flinty as she was, even Exu thought twice about her next move. It was something she didn’t like to do. Attacking people’s vessels was all well and good, but touching their minds was cruel. Horrible. (Her shadow will stay with you, Exu, like every other shadow. Forging chains to bind you to your damnation. Don’t forget.)

But the angel-girl was annoying her. Exu half-heartedly opened her eyes, making eye contact with the angel. Her intentions were only as malicious as to make her leave until she felt a memory wash over her.

The angel girl had died. She’d been given another chance.

Jealousy and blind rage took over Exu, benevolent thoughts envenomed by it. What had this girl done that she, Exu, had not? What let her live as a being of beauty while she, Exu, was forced to hunt death as a demon, a spirit embodied by hatred.

The jealous, malicious spirit chose a memory carefully. Let the angel know how Faith had died. Faith, hanged at four for not being born into the right family.

Exu’s mind returned to her body and before she closed her eyes, she smiled, watching the angel struggling to remove the demon from her mind.

Blood poured from cuts covering her small form. She slept in the arms of her sister, only a little older, dead cold, and a dagger protruding from her bony back. Faith couldn’t understand why her older sister did not wake when she did, did not help her when the man backhanded her hard across the face, did not say goodbye when they took her to die. Faith was very young, innocent still after everything she had seen. She clutched the old, torn, flea-ridden ragdoll close to her chest. The soldier laughs at this. He hits her again and takes the doll from her grasp, hanging it from a tree just out of her reach and laughing at his own sick joke as she stands on her tiptoes and snatches at the air madly.

“You want your doll back? You want to see your sisters?” He snorts. Faith nods. She cannot answer with words. They have cut out her tongue. The soldier laughs as he wraps one arm around the girl and slips the noose over her head. She does not struggle. She knows where her sisters are now. She wants to see them. He lifts her onto a branch of the tree and ties the rope firmly. He pulls her forward by her hair.

She is hanging level with her doll. She grasps it and holds it to herself as her mind screams for oxygen and the world fades to black.

She has gotten old fast.

The angel stepped back, shocked. Exu shook away her memory. She swung her long whip like tail at the angel, holding her dagger in its folds. The angel made no sound as the knife cut into her skin, wincing silently. Her knuckles turned white as she tightened her grip on the staff, forcing a barrier of light to appear. Exu did not scream as it tossed her back. That was not her way.

“Still able to help me, manshape?” She spat the last word as if it were poison.

Ooc: Sorry if I did anything wrong, or godmoded or anything like that, I'm new to this ^^U