Post by Sabine Aris Oana Ishtar on Apr 25, 2014 20:24:15 GMT -6
narrator . "speech" . thought
Shivers slowly crept up Sabine’s neck as she weaved her way through the alleyways near the stable her client directed her towards. Every step of the way she worked on convincing herself to go through with her task. I agreed to help him. Think of all the money I will have. They aren’t that scary. I’ll just take him out and casually walk away. I can do this. Still, she shoved her hands in her pockets to stop their shaking. The white and red stable walls appeared out of nowhere, she thought there was more time to rethink this. Even with all the time in the world, she would never turn away from 500 coins. Not for my worst fear in the world, she laughed bitterly to herself. Her hand rested on the cold doorknob for a minute as she steadied her breathing. Breathing deeply once, twice, and push! She shoved her way into the stable and closed the door tightly behind her.
The inside disappointed Sabine slightly. She was expecting feelings of terror with cobweb-lined walls, hissing cats, and snorting horses. Instead, the stable was relatively clean, a cat couldn’t be found, and all the horses were quiet. Peaking her head around a few corners, it appeared that nobody else was in the building either when she had expected it to be packed. Even though the inside wasn’t as terrifying as she had imagined, the horses were enough to make her tremble with fear. She fought the trembling as she walked down aisles searching for the stall door marked Septimus. Without raising her eyes to look at a single horse, she finally found the stall door. Making sure she was a safe distance away and steadying herself with a deep breath, she looked up to see the creature she would be stealing.
Nothing could have prepared her for the beast before her; it made sense why the price on him was so high. He was a monster. His coat, so pale it was nearly transparent, was crawling with orange and red flames as they bathed over his body. Sabine bravely inched closer to the creature before she halted again, a chill nipping at her exposed skin. The fire didn’t create heat, neither did the beast himself. Moving through the air around him was similar to wading through melting ice. Closer now, Sabine saw Septimus’ upper lip had been sheared apart, allowing his sharpened fangs to be exposed and pieces of skin to hang lifelessly around his chin. His eyes were utterly black and did not shine even where the light should have reflected. When their eyes did meet the beast arched his neck and prepared to snort at Sabine. She braced herself, but the noise that came from Septimus was much worse than a simple snort. The edges of his nose vibrated as his vocal cords produced a terrifying death rattle, ending in a high pitched screech that sent Sabine wheeling backwards and covering her ears.
As she tried to retreat, Sabine’s back slammed into another warm body. It clearly was not another horse, from the collision she guessed it was most likely a small girl. In hardly a second, she removed her hands from her ears and straightened her crystal covered spine that had luckily not been damaged. Without emotion on her face, Sabine turned to face the girl. Even though she was much shorter than Sabine, the girl looked slightly older. Her hair was a jet black that made her skin look almost ghostly white and she had sharp blue eyes that Sabine stared into. One of Sabine’s favorite ideas was that looking into someone’s eyes could tell you everything you need to know about them. Of course she knew that was not true, otherwise she would never have made it so far in her life. Still she liked to believe the idea occasionally and in this girls eyes she saw a warmth that transferred to Sabine. That may have been the one thing stopping Sabine from being snappy and impulsive, or perhaps it was the horses around that made her clench her teeth.
“I’m so sorry! Did my crystals hurt you?” She quickly asked the girl, putting more distress into her tone than she really felt. “I didn’t mean to intrude. I just-,” she glanced quickly towards Septimus and felt the chill return to her skin. She needed to get the monster out and return him, how else would she earn 500 coins so quickly? But could she bring herself to actually walk the chilling creature out into the open? And what about this girl who had shown up out of nowhere? A look of confusion crossed her face as she glanced between Septimus and the dark haired girl. She decided to wait out the girl. Surely they would talk, exchange pleasantries, and then leave. Sabine put on a face of worry and surprise, making sure she was extra convincing with 500 coins on the line.
sometimes the hardest thing
is just to stay human
is just to stay human
