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Proceed.
That was the last thing Noelle had heard, ringing through her mind as it faded to a blank white and her body sank into the dark abyss of the lake. After that, there was nothing. Just silence and numbness. It lasted days, years. She truly couldn't tell; it felt as if both could be true.
But eventually
After such a long wait
Noelle felt their presence again.
And soon enough
The words came to her once more.
Those precious words of power.
Those wonderful words of control.
So clearly did she hear them, even down here.
Proceed.
Noelle opened her eyes to a bright red glow within the darkness. A red SOUL. Kris' SOUL. It floated just in front of their chest. Kris themself was limp. The spark of life in their eyes had faded to almost nothing and yet never quite crossed the threshold into oblivion. The sight immediately brought Noelle back to the reality of the situation.
She was... drowning.
She was supposed to be drowning.
She could feel the air had already left her lungs long ago, replaced by the same suffocating fluid that surrounded her. And yet...
She wasn't dead.
Proceed.
She pulled Kris towards her, joining hands with them again. Their skin was pale, but their SOUL glowed with an incredible will. She could feel it, beckoning her closer.
Proceed.
She reached for their pocket, pulling out a knife. Their knife. The knife they had always carried with them, no matter what. Their devoted partner in crime.
Proceed.
She wasn't sure what she was supposed to be doing, and yet her body reacted as if she did. She pulled Kris closer, their bodies pushed up against one another, and held the knife behind their back, pointing its tip towards them both. The SLOW, squished between them, glowed even brighter now as she felt its warmth on her chest.
Kris' eyes weakly began to open.
Proceed.
The knife sank through Kris' back and reached Noelle, barely breaking the skin. Sparks of light circled around them both. A great geyser spewed from behind Kris, pouring out a thick black ichor. It was impossibly dark, even darker than the depths they were already in.
Proceed.
Noelle pulled them in tighter as their lips briefly met. Noelle gave into her instincts and brought Kris' near-lifeless body into a kiss. It was wrong. It felt good. It gave her strength. Tighter, and tighter and tighter, squeezing them against her until...
Snap.
Kris' body
gave out
and Noelle's blade
found her heart.
The darkness now spewed from her own chest, too. It rose up to her face, and in the empty breaths she took between their kiss, entered her lungs. Once more she felt the sensation of drowning all over again. Her lungs filled with this dark sludge, even more thick than the water. And yet, strangely enough...
She could... breathe? She looked into Kris' eyes as the light of life returned to them, lucid once more.
Their eyes went wide.
They thrashed.
They winced in pain.
They tried to scream.
They tried to push her away
just as they did so long ago.
Proceed.
Noelle pulled them even tighter, locking them in place.
Never again
Never again would they get any further from her than this.
Pressed hard between its victims' bodies, the SOUL broke flesh, finding itself halfway inside each of them. They were connected now. Truly connected. Noelle could feel its warmth in her chest, as her own SOUL was drawn towards it. They, too, were now being pushed together, grinding against one another until finally
the border between them
began to blur
to fade away
as two
became one.
Proceed.
Kris' body relaxed as they finally returned the kiss, overcome with Noelle's own desire. The darkness surrounded them now, engulfing their bodies fully in a black cocoon.
Their lips
Her lips
Their lips.
They felt... sticky.
Noelle could feel her arms sinking into the very back they were wrapped around. As if it were deforming around them. Or... were her arms deforming around their back? She couldn't tell. She couldn't see. She could only feel.
They could both feel their bodies losing shape. Melting and breaking down. It hurt. A greater pain than they could possibly comprehend. More and more they melted together, their flesh, too, now becoming one, until...
There was nothing. No Kris. No Noelle. Only a shapeless white mass with a membrane of pure darkness.
Proceed.
The surface of the mass rippled as its shape distorted, though this soon faded.
Proceed.
The mass reacted again, stronger this time.
Proceed.
It stretched.
Proceed.
It bent.
Proceed.
It twisted.
...
Proceed.
Proceed.
Proceed.
Proceed.
Proceed.
Proceed.
Proceed.
Proceed.
Proceed.
Proceed.
Proceed.
Proceed.
It contorted violently, thrashing about as it was stretched thin in several directions. Once again, there was a pain like no other. It took shape, forming arms, legs, hands, feet, a head. It roared in agony, a terrible sound that travelled far, even in these dampening, oppressive waters.
The impossibly dark membrane covering it, one it could now recognise as the darkness of a fountain, hardened around its new shape to form armour.
It felt lighter. It focused its will, and with no physical effort at all, began to rise.
As it approached the surface, the armour covering it crumbled away into nothing just as fast as it had moulded around its body. It didn't matter. It continued its ascent, heading towards the light of the rising sun.
A white hand grasped at the air above as the rest of its body emerged, the water crashing around it from the disturbance it had made. It looked to the horizon.
There it was. The other side of the lake. So close now. It turned toward the shore and began to move. It needed not to swim. It simply moved, as though it were gliding. It picked up the speed. Faster, yet faster. The water turned to mist in its face. It felt nice. It felt liberating. It felt like freedom. It would reach the sandy bank in no time at all. It was so effortless now to make it across.
And of course, it soon did. It came to a gentle halt as its feet touched solid ground for the first time. It stumbled, unfamiliar with gravity's effect on its new form.
For the first time, it stood tall.
For the first time, it breathed.
It turned back towards the lake, looking down at the reflection in the water.
For the first time, it saw itself.
It was towering, stark white and covered in cracks that oozed a thick white fluid. Atop its head was a head of messy hair and antlers which were pointed towards the sky and adorned with thorns. A single hole covered its face. An eye? A mouth? It couldn't tell. It drooled a similar fluid, though this one was black. A single eye laid in its chest. Huge, lidless, and staring into its own face. A familiar, commanding will could be felt within its gaze. Its body was contorted, askew. Its shoulders didn't line up, half its ribs were shrunken and collapsed. Its spine was bent out of shape. Its knees were at different heights, its hips were jagged.
Everything about its appearance was wrong
Everything about its appearance was
perfect.
This wasn't Kris.
This wasn't Noelle.
This was something else entirely
Something completely new, and yet...
It knew what this was. It had seen this body before.
Knight.
It cocked its head back and laughed. It laughed and laughed and kept laughing. Soon enough its laughter became roaring, quieter than before yet still terrifying.
It looked back towards its former home. It thought of the people there. Its "friends". Its "family". It no longer had nor needed such things. Even now they were continuing on with the monotony of their lives, stuck in their cycles, complacent. Cattle.
It would break that cycle. It would set them all free. It would show them how much more interesting their lives could become.
Its face twisted into a wicked grin. It knew exactly where to start.
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