The attacks in Stormwind propelled the city into utter chaos, Twilight Hammer making their marks on the trees, on buildings, spreading their messages of fear to citizens. As raging elementals sent more and more to the Cathedral, many more felt imprisoned in their own homes by the ongoing terror.
Anisse never thought she would be one of them.
Hours turned into days of confinment inside of the Slaughtered Lamb. Strangely, the tavern was where others also found safety. While people widdled away their fears by drowning themselves in ale, Anisse only felt the anxiety grow in her as she served them hour by hour, knowing she would have to leave sometime. This fear was ridiculous. And the twitching need to collect was becoming unbearable.
The previous night's...altercations, did not make things better, but she made it out.
With another flash of the demon's fingers, fire raced out to smash the wolf in the flank. A howling whine broke through the forest as it toppled over onto its side, the fur singed black by repetitious attacks. It's legs were still paddling where it lay, twitching out the last vestiges of life upon the grass as Anisse approached. The imp's skills had been exhausted, and as it began to chatter meaninglessly in demonic she banished it with a twitch of her fingers, wanting no distraction. She had to work quickly, or the innards would grow cold.
She wanted the trophies hot in her hands.
Her fingers trembled as she dragged the blade along the stomach, not slicing through the fur and flesh as deeply as she meant to. Clenching her teeth, she growled at herself to cut, to focus, needing this now. The blade dove through the belly now much too hard, and she winced, knowing it had cut through something vital. Another mistake, as with the boar before this. What use were these kills if she could not get what she needed out of them? Her nerves were too fried to even perform this simple task.
Freeing the now ruined liver and bladder from the stomach cavity, she peeled back the fur to get to the heart. A heart. She did not yet own an intact wolf's heart. At least she could manage to take this and jar it. Pressing apart the bloody rib bones to get to the protected heart, Anisse sighed out softly, caressing the muscle with her fingertips. It was lovely. Taking a moment to free the surgical scalpel from the leather bag, she felt the smooth metal of the instrument between her fingers before edging it along the webs of flesh that held the muscle in place.
The sight of Manoc's face gleamed in her mind, blood trickling from the bullet wound between his eyes.
Her fingers flinched, causing the scalpel's blade to slice the heart, making it bleed out. Ruined! Her fingers curled tight around that scalpel, infuriated. More than this, she was stricken by her fellow Twilight's death, the fresh memory of it driving her to do something about it. All impulses directed her to report back to her base, to join in on the chaos erupting about the city. She might've been at Manoc's side now, rejoicing in the glory of infiltrating the fool's defenses.
Manoc would have killed her last night, given the chance.
His chance was taken by a pair of gloved hands and a carefully aimed gun...a pistol? Anisse couldn't quite remember. By all accounts, she should be in gratitude toward the theatrically dressed gunsman that saved her life. In all reality, she felt a slump deep within her, denied a death that in the Twilight's eyes she had surely deserved. The tumult of emotion toward the debacle made her sick, and now she was denied the relief of a slick, warm, perfected heart.
Everything...was turned on its head...
She finally started to feel the stinging pain of the scalpel blade as it dug into her palm, so tightly was she squeezing it. Hands trembling, she threw everything she could back into the black leather bag and took off, leaving the trail of dead animals at its end. Perhaps another night, she could reign in her thoughts enough to attain what was needed.
The cold metal of the surgical scalpel glinted through through tall, thick grass, unwittingly left beside the wolf's corpse.
No comments:
Post a Comment