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Bodies. Bodies everywhere. In the corners, strewn about on the floor, right at your feet, even hanging from the ceiling. The villain's maniac smile was even more unsettling in the dark atmosphere. Their eyes screamed death, all gory and red. Just red. The spilled blood of innocent people, right on their skin. This person wasn't evil. They were insane. They were rotting from the inside, their sanity hitting its peak, and overflowing, like a glass of water that has been overfilled. Their body was trembling, the power that they got was setting them ablaze, they were drunk from it. They say too much booze can kill you, and the same saying fits here. The feeling of power makes you feel like you are on top of the world, and it seems like you are immortal. One wrong move, though, and you could be dead, just like all the others that went down in history for being the stupidest of people alive in their time.
The Countess was looking around in horror, her eyes widened, and it seemed like at any moment they would pop out of their sockets. She put her hands on her face, chest, around her shoulders, just anywhere. Her skin was crawling from the sight in front of her, like bees were under her flesh. She never thought that entering the lair of her enemy would slowly eat at her from the inside as well. All those people, the Countess knew them all. The ones she loved and cherished the most. Friends, family, even the occasional few she exchanged words with, all dead. The villain took everything from her. Her whole life, those people were there. And now, seeing their forms limp and covered in sweet, sickly thick blood was like a nightmare that anyone would drown in, lungs filling up with water, panic surging through your system, until you realise that it's too late.
The villain had been watching her this whole time, the way the other had been steadily breaking, piece by piece, to reveal her, to reveal her bare. This person, no, monster was something else. They just loved to see others feel pain. Pain everywhere. In their whole body, like an electric shock.
The cut on her rib was still there, dripping red, but the Countess didn't care about her open wound. She was going to die from the hands of evil, one way or the another. There was no escaping now. She was doomed, yet it seemed like she still had the smallest glimmer of hope, the same fire lit, undying.
"You can't imagine the things I'd do if I got my hands on you." The Countess hissed through gritted teeth in the weakest, tiniest voice that had more force and determination than ever before. The villain only threw their head back in a bark of laughter and stood up from their thrown, their feet dragging them over to the other. They grabbed her by the collar, which caused a minor shot of pain to run through the Countess' body, a wince escaping her lips, as the villain pulled her to their face, their other gloved hand cupping her cheek.
"Do it." They sneered, almost growling as they threw the other back on the ground harshly, their looming form covering the Countess' body in a shadow. She only curled up, clutching the open cut on her body, a guttural sound coming out of her very being. No mercy was given, she wasn't sparred, they were just cruel beyond words.
The villain's face turned cold after a while of starring, and they bent down to the other. She only shrunk away from the hand of the villain, but with a gentle touch, they removed her hands from her torso, pressed their own bloody palms against the wound, and managed to close it with a bit of glaring light and a breathy whisper. The Countess was flabberghasted, shook to her core. She couldn't believe what she was seeing or feeling, her own enemy healing the wound that was left by them, by their own nasty hands. She sat up, and the pain had subsided, relief flooding her still brittle body. She was confused as to why the villain would do such a thing. What changed in them? What made them like this?
The villain made a choked sound, and they bent over, arm over their mid riff, their free hand on their mouth. Unhurriedly, they lifted their arm up and off their rib, and it dawned on her. Just where the Countess had her wound mere seconds ago, the villain had the same cut on their body, and as they removed their hand from their mouth, she realised they coughed up blood. The villain simply wiped it away on their sleeve, and looked away for a second, before turning back. They had removed their mask, and what was behind the material was the most disgusting and beautiful person they've ever seen, cuts and bruises covering almost every inch of their face. Tears fell from their eyes, and they'd even flinch the slightest bit whenever a salty tear got into a cut of theirs. After taking a closer look at their face, the Countess realised that the person before her was no one other than her old apprentice.
As she realised this, she immediately stood up, not paying a sliver of her attention to the mild discomfort of the just healed cut, and stepped over to them, her palms pressed to their shoulders as worry and shock were the only things written on her face. After so long, so many years of looking, she finally found out in the most terrifying way. She thought they were dead, buried in their grave when they were just a younging, but no. If it were in any other condition, she'd be full of joy, so cheerful that she'd be buzzing from the excitement. But now, her emotions were mixed. One side said to give them time to explain, and the other just wanted to kill them, put them in the grave they were supposedly buried in. The so called villain was now weak. It was her chance to strike, but she didn't do it, her emotions winning over for the first time in a while. She simply pulled them into a strong embrace and held them there, her own rivers flowing from her eyes. She felt the other carefully easing into her comforting touch, until they were too heavy to hold, resulting in her having to sit on the ground that was filling with more red.
"I'm sorry." The old apprentice said with a heavy sigh, their shoulders slumping. They were so vulnerable, the smallest tap on their shoulder would break them. The Countess only hummed, her eyes closing, a soft hand carding through the hair of the other. She had no words. Why all this? She wanted to find out, but she wasn't going to ask now. Their old apprentice was too tired, and she could tell.
"All the bodies are fake. All of them are well and alive." They continued with a hoarse voice, their vocal chords were absolutely beat from all their shouting. It all happened so fast, they lost control for one second, and now the person that they treasured the most knew. She knew.