insanity is as insanity was {{open

[Raisur]

R A IS U R

Can you see it?

They're everywhere, stalking me through the towers of stone, watching me where the stone breaks, and swimming up to me through the creek that divides this cave. And I'm standing in the middle of them, my sides expanding rapidly with each breath, nostrils flaring because I cannot believe it - they trapped me! Every time we play this game, it goes like this: Raisur prances through the woods while the monsters with teeth and fangs and claws and hammers follow. They pursue me, and I laugh and run between them, escaping without harm. Always, I get away, but the chase never ends. It's a part of life now, with moments of rest broken by screams and frightened leaps. Only when others are around do the monsters retreat, glowing eyes leering at me from the shadows... and when I ask the dead, do you see them? They say no, and they call me crazy. Maybe I am crazy, for talking to the dead... but the living don't talk back. Hell, the living don't even move. So talk to the dead I must. Except now. The dead won't come to save me, not now, not where my hooves are planted to the ground and my neck is stretched out, my ears going every which way in order to hear...

Them.

This was never supposed to happen. They were never supposed to corner me, surround me, or worst, hurt me... That's what they want to do, I know it. That's all monsters want to do. And as the press in on me, I go the only way I can: I go down. The black masses are circling, moving, restless, hungry, and Tombstone won't make them go back. He's too busy laughing at me and my misery. He says they aren't real, that they won't hurt me, but he doesn't know that! Can't he see the glistening fangs - oh, they grow longer and longer as they come closer, dripping with saliva and threat and screaming of our demise. How can Tomb be laughing at a time like THIS?! Doesn't he know that if I die, he dies too? We're not going to die. But how do you know? How can you be so sure? Trust me. I... I can't! I'm s-s-sorry... I wail miserably, hearing my voice echo off the cavern walls.

The monsters hear it too.

Their green eyes that drip like blood down their face shift to watch the words echo, and then they leap upon me and I yelp and cower into the ground, feeling the stones hit my head and inhaling a deep breath of cavern air, expecting the stink of the monsters to fill my lungs and drown me right there. But the putrid aroma doesn't meet me. I open my eyes slowly, lifting my head from my legs to glance up, and the monsters are merrily in a circle around me and I am confused. They've grown irritated, stubborn, impatient, and yet they're waiting. Nervous, it seems. And then I hear what they hear, too. It's someone coming. Someone to save me... the dead always come when I need them. I'm safe!! Or so you think. How do you know who's coming is any better than those creatures you've made up, hmm? How do you know you won't need me... for protection? I can feel that sick, twisted smirk of his curling the corner of our lips, and I fight it, because I don't want him to be in charge. I can't let him... that wouldn't be good... especially if whoever was coming...

Is pure.

[ATTY]

Oh, but I am the purest of the pure. Look at me, I’m what daddy called perfection. I was the image of my own dead mother, a chocolate-skinned girl lost in silver-yellow curls. And as always, I was lost in the abyss of fairy thoughts and dreamy ideals, carelessly dancing on manicured toes through the dark. I came and went through the dappled moonlit undergrowth like a damselfly skimming weightlessly over the blackest waters, so dark that I had no reflection. In the absence of reality I was in bliss, an empty smile curled into the fullest dark-edged lips as I fluttered through the black stone holes. A rabbit lost in its own warren, I bounced along on doe-legs, fine and frail, as though my great rolls of hair were the heaviest parts of me.

And then I saw you, like a deer in the headlights, a rabbit frozen in a field of snares, and we were the same, you know. And there you stood, prone in bright shadows before me like a mute prince, but the echoes of your last words finally snaked through the caverns to meet me, and what I heard made me shiver in delight ‘I’m… sorry’ Were you a pained little boy, frightened of the dark? Framed in silver ringlets I crept forwards as though you couldn’t see me, until I held my fine snout mere breaths from yours.

“Don’t be afraid,” I aired with a soft giggle, “I promise not to hurt you…” But in that, I lied – compulsively.

[Raisur]

R A IS U R

Drip. Drip. Wooooosshhhh.

The sounds of the cavern overpowered the sound of the intruder, drowning out the breathing and hissing of the monsters. Their beady little eyes shift off to the distance then back at me, calculating, waiting. They know they've lost, yet they refuse to admit it. Later, we will play again, because we are always playing... but right now, they're more afraid of the intruder than hungry. Their monstrous, dripping forms surge forth at me, teeth skinning my hide before they spring back, glowing eyes watching and laughing, leering and full of hatred. I let out a delayed yelp at their onslaught, my eyes falling on my damaged hide instantly. In reality, the cut was caused by stone, but I refused to believe that. They... they hurt me! They'd never been able to touch me before... why now?

I... I might lose the game after all...

I stand there quivering, my skin shaking like millions of flies were landing on the gray pelt. I'm overwhelmed, refusing to believe it. How the hell did they manage to advance on me like that? How did they manage to hurt me? It... it just doesn't make sense! Pull yourself together. Someone's coming, remember? Tomb's voice is full of sarcasm. He treats me like a moron. Like I'd forget. I chirp back merrily, forgetting the fear that had gripped me moments ago. But as I turn around to face the newcomer, that fear surges up once again. The monsters laugh, and my ears swivel to catch their horrid voices, nearly causing me to miss what Little Miss had to say. Oopsies! The last fragment of her sentence reaches my mind as my attention swerves back to her. Hurt me? Was Tomb right?

I didn't think anyone but Tomb wanted to hurt.

My eyes refuse to leave her face, staring at those yellow eyes while I try to comprehend just what was happening. And as Tombstone noticed my weakness, I find myself in a battle for the body. Our eyes go from being confused to harsh and malicious and back, our body going from tense and uncertain to slack and confident, and we're caught in a seizure-like spasm as we struggle to see who is stronger. And of course, I win, because I'm not scared... yet. Bastard. You knew I'd win. I mutter, and then I realize how close she is to me because as I spoke, my muzzle touched hers. My eyes instantly go wide and I surge backward, falling on my hindquarters with my tail splaying around my back legs. My forelegs don't quite understand that I've fallen, and so the hooves scrape against the bottom of the cave, attempting to push me further back and get away. But my back's against a wall.

I touched a dead mare.

I can't believe that! It's... it's... it's unbelievable! Repulsive! Ghastly! Why are the dead so attracted to me anyways?! Infuriating. Tombstone rolls his eyes within our shared mind, but he doesn't know better. He doesn't understand. When he's in charge, the living come for him. When I'm in charge, the dead follow me... it's like... they know I'm like them; I don't exist. I was never born, I don't have my own body. We're... we're kin. We just... are. Oh yeah. She spoke to me. Only polite to answer her, no? But... she wants to hurt me... Damned dead mares and their unfairness... I mutter, referring to the fact that she clearly said she wants to hurt me. I don't understand why. I didn't do anything to her. Why did you want to hurt me? I didn't kill you. It's not my fault you're dead, you know... I mumble, my gaze locked on her hooves and my body still ridiculously fixed on the ground.

I feel like a colt about to feel the wrath of mommy...

[ATTY]

You were mad, I realised with a sweet-toothed grin that split my fine snout into something delightful. And in your madness, you had my heart beating a wild tune of frenzy and lust. The unordinary movements of your body and your eyes, the way the whites were always showing – you had me at hello. I gawked at you in the gloom, wide amber eyes glistening in wonderment. You were my diamond in the rough, a little picture perfect picture of imperfection. I was yours. I was leaning into the space between us, even if it was only breadths of an inch, and how I wished I could embrace you wholly. I was still smiling that blonde smile, the intensity of my eyes intensified by the black eyelashes around them.

And then you felt our skin meet from moments before, and you threw yourself into the wall behind you like there was death in my eyes. Immediately, my eyes threatened to water, cool droplets beading at the corner of my eyes, daring to fall. To prevent the imminent cry, I tipped my snout up to yours and frowned deeply, sniffing.

“I’m as dead as you will be lest you apologise,” I choked, leering “Can’t you hear my heart beat?” it fell like a whisper into the dark, punctuated by another soft sniff. I had a weak heart, born with it, but it still played its own heavy song. It prevented me from doing anything too difficult, unless I wanted to end up like my dead dam, defeated by the flaws of her own body.

" - and I thought we might be friends..."