Show Me How to Live

[Requiem of Insanity]

A lone groan filled the air, followed by the sound of a dark chuckle. Where Am I? A frightened voice thought to the void. Wind blew gently across soft skin like a light blanket that offered no protection from the elements. There was nothing to see, just an endless void. A head shook left, then right.

Nothing.

Where are you, my love? The voice wished to speak, but it was hard. Breathing was a lot harder than imagined and panic made the heart flutter rapidly. Eyes fluttered open, and what was once dark became light. The void opened itself, slowly to show a moon. The moon called outwards, a longing cry of a lover who wished to be with someone they haven’t seen in a long time. Eyes looked to the moon, begging to cry out to it, but no sound could be made.

What is going on? A blink of the eyes and the world shifted. A sea, as infinite as the eye could see, crashed waves against the body. The mouth choked, the lungs wheezed, a raspy murmur of discomfort. Arms shook to feel bonds tying them down, and legs were similarly trapped in place. Panic began to overwhelm the brain as the body wiggled like the endless crashing of the waves, a muffled scream yearning to be free. Eyes began to grow dizzy as the brain lacked oxygen. The eyes darted to keep focus, and with a painful realization the body revealed what was happening.

Suffocation The word ran through the mind like a soldier warning the town of imminent danger. Something had to be done, air had to be breathed. But how? Bonds held the body and slowly, there was crack of wood. The body’s vision began to bounce up and down, as if sailing, creating a sense of dread as the eyes lost focus. I must breath! There was nothing to save this soul. The chuckle became silent. The moon stopped calling. The sea stopped rolling as the body began to sink, tied down like an anchor.

Terror ran down the spine, the will to live enslaving muscles and forcing them to work. Feebly the body lifted up against the pole, using the feet to bring the head up. Air filled the lungs, a light headed feeling overcame the brain, and eyes fluttered in confusion. Somebody help me! There was no noise, but the sound of the sea as the waves splashed over the face. A deep inhale of fresh air to revive the lungs took in a drought of water. Coughing ensued, feet slipped as they became submerged. The mouth opened, a silent scream of protest and fear. Bubbles flew outwards in a stream, rising upwards like tiny birds fleeing a falling tree.

The pole sank to the ground, and the body shivered as the wind picked up. Wet black hair draped the face like a veil. Hazel eyes opened, weakly, and looked upon the ground. There before the foggy vision. People! The mouth willed itself open, but a white haired child looked up and pointed.

“She can’t speak, daddy!” A red haired woman patted her on the head. She urged her body upwards, grunting against her bonds as she tried to lift herself upwards. She couldn’t move anymore as she felt a spiked pain. She turned to her left and saw a shadowy figure, a figure with short brown hair and dark eyeliner painfully setting a nail with a hammer. Another spike and she turned to her right, looking up another man with similar features, but his eyes were hazel, a cold, lifeless hazel just like hers. He set the nail, and at the same time both men hammered the metal spike into her hands.

The mouth opened, blood flew outwards and splashed the little girl. She giggled as the voice found a way to make noise, a scream eliciting from the lips in a wild, violent cry of agony. The little girl’s father lifted a hand to her cheek, wiped the blood and licked it like it were a smear of pie. His trench coat dragged along the ground and he looked to the body.

“Now she can speak,” He said happily and the girl laughed as the mother shook her head in a loving way. The voice trembled, the body shivered, and tears rolled down the eyes. The bodies turned, all of them, and walked away. The family left along a wide narrow path. The crucifiers walked along the air as if they were upon a beaten path.

One man stood before the body, a sign before him as he read it, like the body was prominently on display to observe. Orange hair looked up with a Cheshire cat grin, the face masked in a shroud of shadows. A hissing sound entered the left ear, before it wailed in a terrible agony.

Who are you? A feeble thought went out to the lone man. Who am I? The brain thought. A solid moment passed, and then the man turned the sign so the eyes could read it and the brain could decipher it.

Cassandra Remi.

[Silence Sei]

The mute stood before Cassandra Remi, the night air tasking to his form and blowing over his body. The cold hints of fall caressed his face, which was still formed into its sadistic grin. The telepath managed to keep his focus upon The Midnight Monster as he set the sign down upon the cracked ground. He noticed how the blood trickled down her palms, begging to be released from the damming the nails created.

"What you did Cassandra was unforgivable," the voice was stern, yet filled with a calmness not seen when he handled any affairs involving the Gisela Reaper. It was almost as if Sei Orlouge was about to enjoy the oncoming punishment he was to inflict upon the serial killer's soul. "Docking your pay simply will not do this time. No amount of GP can make little Azza forget the sight of her father dying.."

Two wings sprouted from the back of the Mystic. Splashed colors of orange, blue, and black gave some life to the dark scenery of the arid desert around them. Using the wings to beat against the air, his body took flight. He manipulated his wings to carry him the five feet off of the ground he had told his soldiers to hang the wicked one. He wanted to look her in the eyes as he made her suffer. He wanted to see the same emotion she brought out of Jensen Ambrose.

With each flap of his wings, a heavy wing forced itself upon her form, causing her body to move. He did this intentionally, as a slow torture method. Reaching into his pocket, he withdrew two more nails. His men had their fun with her, and now it was his turn. He lowered himself down to her feet, forcing her left leg down with his left hand as he held the nails with his right. He felt her attempt to struggle as he placed one nail between the leg and the foot. He tightened his hold on her knee, preventing any true movement.

He let go of the nail, but before it could even disengage from contact with Cassandra's foot, a fist slammed into the head of the steel spike. Crimson blood splattered his face, and he released the left knee, moving his hands over to the right. He listened to her beg him to stop, could hear the pleading in her voice, but it fell upon deaf ears today. As he slammed his fist into the second nail, he heard her wails of pain grown louder. Blood seeped out of the wounds relentlessly, staining the wooden cross he had impaled her upon.

Flying back up to her, Sei grabbed the cheeks of the girl, forcing her to look at him. He leaned into her, felt her hot, slow breaths upon his. He could lick the tears off of her face. The feel of her soft skin upon his fingertips almost relaxed him, deterred him from his mission. There was a kind of tension between the two, a brief moment that they shared before he broke the quiet with his 'words'.

"I will not take any GP from you today. I will instead take your precious rubies..."

[Requiem of Insanity]

The stake that held Cassandra, the cross, had shifted again, the winds howling as she seemed to lose herself again to the void. Surrounded by the thing she hid herself in was a welcoming feeling. Yet the soothing sight of the abyss slowly faded away, softly, like something was eating away at it. So slowly it did this, letting in a bit of light with each soft nibble. She looked down upon her flesh, and saw the light upon her flesh. It was like several fist sized maggots crawling upon her body nibbling away one tiny piece at a time.

She looked away from the maggots, feeling her gorge rise upwards in her throat, but the sound began to echo in her ears and she couldn’t get the image out. Squish, splish, glomp, smack. The sound brought the images of tiny mouths before her eyes, and she angrily shook her head side to side to avoid the image.

When she focused again, her thoughts were marred by the sound of a large gulp, and a terrible tingling sensation made her feel pain as she collapsed. Her knees buckled, her hands gave out and she collapsed upon her own weight. She tried to stand up but her bones awkwardly broke, bending her joints of of alignment and dangling hopelessly like a tiny puppet.

“This is the story of Cassandra Remi,” Sei said as baseball sized spiders crawled upon her flesh at each joint, running a thread that was black as night against the now white background. They tied her up neatly before they floated upwards, all eight eyes hungrily looking to her as their venomous fangs chattered amongst each other. She could feel their desire to feast upon her, to drain her of her blood. When they were out of sight Cassandra let out an involuntary spasm of disgust, feeling her skin crawling. Soon she felt a tug on the ropes that bound her, and looking up she saw Sei’s face, his features shrouded save his eyes and leering demon like face.

Two hands appeared next to Sei’s head, and softly the fingers plucked the ropes. Cassandra’s body became frigid and cold, her limbs losing all feeling as Sei dictated her movements. “Once upon a time, Cassandra Remi was a little girl. She was four. The age when a child can have their first real cognitive memory.”

The white abyss flashed brightly, and she was in a small vignette of a farm. Other puppets made their way on stage, headless hands moving them to Sei’s whims as he smiled on, the edge of the world infinite and black to hide like gods in the sky. “She had a cat, named Boots.” Sei bent the wires of the silky rope, and Cassandra bent over on all fours. Angrily she snarled, but her head throbbed with such unimaginable pain she nearly lost consciousness. Her body moved around in leaping bounds, and her mouth began to make cat noises as she waltzed the grounds.

“She hated Boots, because Boots always wanted to play. ” Cassandra watched as another doll, complete with doll like makeup stepped forward upon the strings of the spider folk. It was a child, no more than four years of age, and it looked exactly like Cassandra. It had on a white dress with a violet stitched into the side, and the look was complete with black under leggings and matching thermal shirt. Two black pinups in her hair made cute ponytails. Slowly, carefully the doll moved closer to Cassandra before the porcelain hands could reach her and softly, slowly they began to scratch Cassandra behind the ear. In return for this affection the Gisela Reaper purred, rubbing against the doll.

“She resolved to take care of Boots, and learn a bit more about herself.” The doll’s fingers came alive as they gripped Cassandra by the neck. She froze in terror, whimpering as she began to cry in fear. The other hand moved behind the doll, and a small kitchen knife was produced for her. The knife went to her cheek and it held inches away from her skin. Cassandra could feel the cold steel and she began to breath heavily, wishing she could back away from the knife.

“She grabbed poor Boots by the scruff, and slowly lowered the knife to Boots’ face. With a casual flick she removed a piece of flesh from Boots.”

“Please no!” Cassandra screamed as the knife got closer. Then with a savage twist a small chunk of her cheek flew outwards before her, blood pooling down the side of her face as she let out an obnoxious wail of agony.

“Cassandra grew excited, she liked the sound Boots made. It calmed her raging nerves! This was the only thing that calmed Cassandra’s nerves! What a sound, what a noise!” Sei spoke evenly, adding a bit of joviality to the realization that screams were beautiful. Yet Cassandra couldn’t enjoy them as they were her own. She whimpered as the knife lowered again.

“What sound would the kitty make if I cut off a whisker?” The doll grabbed Cassandra’s face and took another piece out of her face. Cassandra bellowed as tears ran and mixed with her blood. She mumbled incoherently, her face a mess. “YES! What a sublime sound! Oh this is so great! I shall drag it out this time, a bit longer with my cut!” The knife grazed upon Cassandra’s flesh and she gurgled and choked on the blood that lined her mouth. She gasped and half screamed, eyes rolling in their sockets as the pain was unbearable.

“She had learned the kitty couldn’t take much more, and if Boots didn’t want to play, then what good was the kitty? Boots was a bad kitty.” The knife rose up again. “If Boots won’t scream, then she’ll find a way to breath new life into those lungs, or the kitty would die trying. Perhaps an eye, Cassandra. That may do something,” Sei offered, his tone like an observer merely suggesting what they personally wanted to see the master do.

The knife came down on Cassandra’s eye, and she screamed louder than any of the cuts had done before as Sei watched with a silent eye from his godlike perch.

[Silence Sei]

The game was playing out perfectly, and his little doll was breaking in all sorts of fascinating ways. Physically, it seemed as though poor Cassandra required a rest. Mentally, however, she was still fresh as a daisy. Sei had only used a little bit of psychological warfare against the Midnight Monster thus far. It was time to take something dear from her right before her eyes, much as she did to Azza when Cassandra slit Jensen Ambrose's throat in front of his daughter.

"I think it's time for a new story. This one has gotten a bit boring for my tastes. I know, let's tell the story of the Dark Companion!" Sei shouted enthusiastically, mimicking a child wanting to hear one of Grandmother's stories.

Beside the bombshell murderer shined a single light. Sei made sure that the scene would unfold in front of Cassandra's good eye. Where was the fun if there wasn't a large audience to enjoy the story? The 'puppets' hurriedly went along to the spotlight, dancing around the darkened floor around the fluorescent rays. Slowly pulled into the radiance of the beams came another cross, this one matching that of Cassandra's, right down to where the nails had been placed.

To the outside observer, it would appear to be an empty cross, but Cassandra's hushed 'no', coupled with Sei sadistically licking his chops, proved this to be false. Indeed, Cassandra Remi could hear the roars of pain echoing from her Dark Companion. She could feel the torture the invisible being had been going through, mostly because she herself had just been through it. Sei locked his fingers together and leaned forward from his throne when Cassandra looked to him, one eye oozing her crimson liquids, and her other streaming down tears.

"Leave him alone! Please, just stop this! Why are you doing this to him?! What did he do!?"

"The Dark Companion was a friend of Cassie Remi ever since she could remember." The image of Boots the cat-puppet twisted and distorted until finally it became strings seemingly attached to nothing. The Cassandra doll quickly hugged her new friend, while Sei completely ignored the real Cassandra's questions. "He was the only friend she would ever need. Eventually, the two became lovers, and began torturing all sorts of people together."

At this point, the two 'puppets' seemed to be playing a child like game of ring-around-the-rosy. As they spun with one another, they inched closer and closer towards the cross that stood beside Cassandra's. The Gisela Reaper shook her head as she watched, each spin that brought the duo closer sent more of Cassandra's teeth into her own bottom lip, trying to stifle the coming scream.

"The Dark Companion usually stayed in the shadows while Cassandra did all the grunt work of torture. He was made for more emotional torture than physical, after all." The Companion seemed to stop just before reaching his 'life-sized form'. Cassandra the doll, however, had pulled a pair of scissors as big as the puppet itself out from behind her back. She tippy-toed over to the 'feet' of Cassandra's imaginary friend, and placed the blade in a position that should have placed the sharp edges of the instrument between the big toe.

The sound of a snip could be heard, and then two loud screams. One belonged to the tortured, the other to his lover. Sei clapped and stood to show his approval. This was quite the intriguing act for him. "Today, however, the Dark Companion gets to play! He can finally share what he longed for with Cassandra! He can finally kill someone alongside his favorite person in the whole wide world! Isn't that splendid?!"

At the behest of Sei's aggressive questioning, the Dark Companion's puppet joined Cassandra, working his way up to his original's 'face'. A big red boxing glove seemed to materialize in front of the set of strings. The glove aimed itself at the Dark Companion's face, and reared back. Cassandra was shaking her head in horror of what was about to become of her lover.

"Wait!" Sei said, the glove stopping and the heads of Cassandra and her companion looking up towards the mute. The telepath pointed downward, his smile showing just how sick and twisted he could be. "I said Cassie got to play too!"

And just like that, the Cassandra puppet was beside its counter part, a boxing glove of its own in its finger-like 'hands'. The dolls reared back with their gloves once more, the one belonging to 'Little Darkie' slamming into the 'face' of its prototype. Cassandra screamed obscenities over and over, each time the gloves hitting the face, stopping just before hitting the wood. The blows struck over and over again, showing no regret for the actions the puppets were claiming. Sei was jumping up and down like an excited school girl at the beating being administered.

And then the gloves started hitting cross itself.

Sei stopped his jumping, looking to the downtrodden Cassandra Remi. The girl was in tears over what had just taken place. IF Sei could see through her eyes, he probably would have seen a pile of mush and bone mixed into the wood where the Dark Companions head used to be. And just like that, Sei had completely killed every facet of the Moonlit Mistress.

But the show was not over yet...

[Requiem of Insanity]

Emptiness, Cassandra felt an emptiness creep into her brain through her eyes like a shadow tendril. She could no longer weep, for her tears had run dry and she could produce no more. She could not scream, her voice had gone hoarse. All Cassandra could feel was the emptiness of the abyss, and the silent, creeping death that loomed upon it.

Her eyes shifted, back and forth, darting lazily to the sides and new life breathed into her as she felt everything in the world begin to quake. She felt a pressurized wind upon her body and quickly things began to move around her, as if she was running at a thousand hours a mile. Her cheeks flushed, her heart felt a tingling sensation as wind flapped her hair backwards. She was paralyzed by the powerful rush of speed, her body moving so fast the world became a blur of activity.

Then she stopped, head over heels flipping as she rolled uncomfortably to a chambered floor. There, lurking in the shadows was a pair of feet, a ghostly image of robes floating behind it. Cassandra weakly looked up to see the image of Sei floating behind a specter of her past. Mouth gaped open she watched as the image moved back and forth in the shadows, the face covered from the eternal night.

The sound of metal grating against the cold floor echoed behind Cassandra, and a dais was formed from a stone slab that lifted Cassandra up. The air whistled with the groaning sound of chains dragging along the earth, before it wrapped itself around Cassandra’s wrists and ankles. She felt a tug on her body, and all her clothes were ripped apart, draping off to the side like an ooze, spilling to the floor.

“You are probably wondering why you are here,” Sei said from the darkness the trademark line Cassandra opened her playtime with. The specter waltzed the edges of the shadows. Cassandra felt her body shudder and she began whimpering to be free from this torment.

“You are probably wondering why you are here,” The specter echoed before it moved forwards into the light. What Cassandra saw made her heart melt into a thousand pieces as she fought the chains that bound her, but one deadly look from Sei and the chains pulled taught.

Slowly the specter moved forward with knife in hand, eyes brimming with hatred as it looked to Cassandra with such intensity that she felt flames licking her body. Uncomfortably she squirmed, testing her bonds for freedom but finding none. “How sad, Cassandra, that even a beast like you had found love, Sei muttered loudly.

The knife in the specter’s hand lowered itself and began to cut into Cassandra’s flesh in a teasing manner, her wounds she previously received had vanished only to be cut into all over again. The specter was methodical, cold, efficient with every strike of the blade. Angrily Cassandra tossed and turned, frustrations and agony brimming out her mouth in curses and screams.

“Stop it, please! Anybody but him!” Sei mirrored the movements of the specter, always two steps behind, and one step to the left behind the being, looking to Cassandra with a lack of care for her pleas.

“A human being, no less, had found you desirable, and even acknowledged you were a killer, but you didn’t have to give into all the darkness. He loved you, Cassandra. And you loved him.” The knife cut along her inner thigh, a long drag that made her pierce with the heavens with her squeals of torment.

“Like a lover, Kane Kucan walked beside you. He never complained, he never tried to change you. He simply loved you, despite how wrong he knew you were, how vile and twisted and evil. He even saved your soul, Cassandra. And when you two were reunited,” As the specter lowered the knife and fell to Cassandra’s side, weeping.

“You lifted up the knife and stabbed him.” Sei turned his back on Cassandra, and slowly the specter lifted up the same knife used to kill Kane, hovering it over her heart and weeping. The soft eyes turned to her, lined with tears as Cassandra looked back to them.

“Please, Kane, stop this!” Cassandra begged.

“But Kane was no longer your puppet, all his love for you dying with him.” Sei said as Kane’s face turned into a vicious snarl of hate, a cold rush of terror emanating from him as Cassandra screamed again, the knife coming right down for her heart. She felt the knife pierce her flesh and she coughed up blood, choking on her own life-force as she whimpered and burped up bile and blood. Her eyes grew hazy, mind torn asunder as Kane left the knife in her heart.

“Why does it hurt so much, Cassandra?” Sei asked innocently. “You have no heart to speak of.”

[Silence Sei]

She could beg, she could plead all she wanted, but he would not relent. Sei stood from his throne and approached Cassandra. Each step brought with it a clicking sound, as if the mute were traversing invisible steps. When he was within an arms length of the woman, Sei removed a small butter knife from his pocket. She had slit Jensen Ambrose's throat with the tools of her trade. How fitting that it would be the item Sei had dubbed the 'Ambrose Blade' to make her spill more blood.

Sei reached out, pinching her left eyelid and pulling it out. He wanted to make sure he had a good clean cut. Gripping the knife harder, Sei slit the knife across Cassandra's eyeball. Pus and blood splattered onto an unseen wall, and oozed down the beaten girl's body. Sei released his grip on the left eyelid and did the same for the right. Cassandra's screams echoed throughout the chamber, but there would be nobody to rescue her. Now she was alone and sightless with just her thoughts.

And soon, those thoughts took form.

"Help me....Mommy?! Where are you Mommy?!"

"Who are you? Can you help me find my Mommy?!"

"No. No! NOOOOOO!"

Several more cries of children filled the room. Sei walked back to his chair and sat, moving his hands around as if he were orchestrating a symphony. The sounds of children screaming were all around them. Cries of pain, or true hurt, or emotional and physical trauma vibrated the walls. Louder and louder the cries got, the telepath remained calm and collected, still motioning the sounds like he was their director.

And indeed, this was a symphony, a requiem of insanity that would truly show Cassandra Remi how she lived.

[Requiem of Insanity]

Screams. Shouting. So much noise that it washed over the sightless eyes of the broken Cassandra. Her head bounced back and forth as Sei conducted them to a higher and more feverish pitch. As the crescendo began to tremble the invisible walls everything inside Cassandra began to rebel. She loved screams, cries of torture and torment. She didn’t like the sound from children though. It was ugly and brutal noise, wailing and fearful with nothing but ignorance bleeding into the tone. Cassandra hated the sound, for once she emitted the sound herself.

Her body protested to her bonds, quivering lips, bruised arms and feet as she bellowed against the darkness. She began to flail her arms, her fingers spread wide and reaching for anything. Death eluded her, her love was of no help to her. Cassandra Remi was alone and blind to everything.

The voices go louder, as if in her ears and she felt an ache in her head cleave her brain in twain. Like water exploding out a damn she felt the pain paralyze her as her screams became silent. She fought her bonds, feeling blood trickle down her hands and feet. Her exposed flesh felt the hot breath of the screaming children. Each warmful gust of screams was easily replaced by two more, so that the sound never wavered at all.

At last her mind couldn’t take it, the pitch so loud her ears began to bleed. Every orifice of her body began to bleed out as Cassandra suffered from the wails. “No more…” She whispered. The screams got louder, and she began to feel the cut of small knives upon her flesh. Each cut made her scream, but that scream was drowned out by a child’s cry. It continued and continued until at last she heard the dark chuckle of Sei Orlouge, and Cassandra Remi felt her entire world drift away.

~*~*~

Cold sweat dripped down her face as the Moonlit Mistress woke up with a start. Her sheet fell off her chest and into her lap and she was breathing heavily with loud squeals of hysteria. She placed a hand on her chest, feeling the pounding trot of her heart rate and with forced calming breaths she did her best to control her breathing. Aerith’s eyes opened next to her as a hand brushed against Cassandra’s knee, and instantly the Giesla Reaper slapped the concerned gesture away. Aerith propped herself up on one elbow, looking to her mother with concern.

“You look like hell, mother,” She whispered. Cassandra swung her feet over the smooth fabric of her bed, hesitating a bit before she firmly planted her feet on the cold cavern floor. She moved to her closet, found her sneaking suit and quickly got dressed. “Mother,” Aerith said louder this time. “What happened? Did you have a nightmare?”

“Go to bed, now!” Cassandra shouted angrily as she grabbed one of her knives and turned to her poisons reaching for her batch of Umbra. The deadly toxin would kill the nerves reaction functions, rendering the target unable to move a single muscle, but still feel all the pain just the same. She headed for the door and ripped it open, walking down the deserted caverns of the halls to Sei’s tomb.

“You Mystic piece of shit,” Cassandra seethed beneath her mask. Each breath she made created a small fog before her lips, and she could feel the calling warnings of her Dark Companion. “You think to make a fool of me because I do what I do best? You punish me because of the things I DO!” She was nearly shouting now in her solo rant. “That useless immortal mongrel and his little bitch daughter deserved what they got for crossing me. I will show you as well why you shouldn’t cross me either!”

She turned to the family district and found the immortal closing his door to his room before turning to go out for the evening. Without even a word of greeting she shoved the man out of her way, knocking him to his feet before retreating to the shadows.

“Da hell?” Jensen muttered loudly. Cassandra’s Dark Companion screamed to her now, words of warning entering her mind, but she pushed them all down with her hate and rage. At last she reached Sei’s door and her hand gripped the knob and tested it. The door was unlocked.

“Making sure she was set she pulled out the vial and a small syringe. She uncorked the vial with her teeth, shaky hands of frenzied passion filling the hypo with the drug. She squirted a bit out into the open, smiling as she shoved the cork back into the vial and thumbed it down. With a deep breath she felt her Dark Companion shield her mind from Sei’s telepathy and slowly opened the door to his room.

[Silence Sei]

There would be no epic showdown tonight. Cassandra Remi would not get the rematch she felt she was entitled to. After all, was it Sei's fault that he was in her dreams? Could it not have been the girl's own guilt finally catching up with her? Sei was an innocent bystander in all of this, wasn't he?

Anyone nearby could hear the poison almost slip out of Cassandra Remi's hands from the sight she saw in Sei's room. Laying there, nestled firmly under his black and blue satin sheets, slept the Mystic warrior. He had been there for several hours, judging from the glass of water upon his nightstand, sweating the remnants of what was once ice down on the foam coaster below.

His chest rose and collapsed with each breath as he dreamt away peacefully in the night. There was absolutely no way that the telepath had been involved in any trickery into Cassandra's mind. Soon, the footsteps of Tobias Greenleaf came up from behind Cassandra, looking at her, and then to Sei, and then back to her.

"He's been in there a while," the elf had spoken, one of the few people not terribly effected by the woman's wave of dread. "I honestly don't think I've seen him dream this peacefully in weeks. I don't know what went down to make him so comfortable, but he needed it."

The girl then walked off, leaving the murderer to her thoughts. Surely she wouldn't kill her prestigious leader right then and there...

...Would she?

[Requiem of Insanity]

There, asleep. Her prey slept like there wasn’t a care in the world. Knife held loosely Cassandra watched the Mystic sleep, pondering her next move. Tobias Greenleaf had attempted to speak words of wisdom, but Cassandra knew better. Had Sei’s dreams crossed into her thoughts, so angry was he that she killed Jensen in front of Azza? Could he be capable of such a feat?

Did it matter?

Cassandra looked down upon the hypo, the poison still contained within the glass. Cassandra looked over to the sleeping leader of the Ixian Knights. A quick kill, a silent kill. The entire operations wouldn’t pin her, for it wouldn’t be her motif. No witnesses, nobody to tie her down. She could flee, run away and join the enemy. She could do anything with the death of Sei Orlouge! She once again looked down upon the syringe, lifting a shaking hand to it as she pulled the cap off and lifted the poison in her fingers. The smooth vial cooled her nerves, just holding it bringing peace.

There in the bed was the man who attempted to expose her, humble her in some twisted way. As if she could be lowered by such a stupid attempt! Torture the Gisela Reaper? That was unthinkable! Nobody made a fool of Cassandra Remi, and she would prove that to everyone with Sei’s death.

She turned back to the orange haired warrior, the leader of an entire army. Now or never, this was it. She could slash his throat, she could stab him in the heart. He had made a mockery of her. The bastard had tried to torture her mind and pass it off as sleeping! One step forwards, lips quivering in anticipation. Two steps in now, her heart racing. Her other hand reached for the knife and the woman looked down upon the sleeping prey.

“One more step and it‘ll be the last one you ever take,” A dark whisper said behind her. Quickly she turned to find Jensen standing in the doorway, throwing knife and glaive in hand at the ready. At this range she might be able to avoid Jensen‘s strikes, stab Sei and go down in history. “Leave the room, Lady Remi,” Jensen ordered. Cassandra felt the hissing attentions of her love move towards Jensen, but the green haired elf stood tall next to Jensen, her fingers nimbly taking one his throwing weapons and holding it in her hand. Her eyes narrowed on Cassandra.

“Do what he says, Lady Remi,” Tobias matched his tone. Cassandra looked to them both, and with a indignant huff of anger she slid the knife into her back pocket. The hypo was dropped next to Sei’s drink, the needle point sticking deep into the wood like a thrown dart. Cassandra lifted herself to her full regal height and began to step towards them. They both moved to allow her room to leave.

“I was merely going to alert him that the newest batch of poison was ready, so I may begin his next mission immediately. Unlike the other facets of the army, I get my missions from Sei at night.” Cassandra lied.

“Get it later,” Tobias warned. She never dropped the blade. Cassandra glared to her, and the full fury of her wave of dread made the elf lower her threatening arm. Jensen moved forwards, knife dancing before Cassandra’s eyes closely. The monster and the immortal, at a stand off yet again. She mused to herself how often they would continue like this. He as well as Sei would both suffer for the insults to her pride.

“Please,” Jensen begged. “Please give me a reason to kill you!” His eyes looked like they were pleading in their insanity to see her dead. Cassandra matched them with her own vile glare, smiling cruelly as she gingerly let a finger run along her throat. The concept wasn’t lost to the man, as not hours prior he had his throat slit by the Moonlit Mistress.

“I couldn’t understand that clearly,” Cassandra giggled. “Is something wrong with your throat, immortal?” Jensen tensed his shoulder’s, shoving the blade further to her eye but she didn’t back down as Tobias placed a gentle hand of restraint on the immortal.

“Come on Jensen, family time.” Tobias looked to the immortal, seeing the fire in his eyes as he started to breath heavily in debate. Cassandra actually began to feel a bit of fear creep in, knowing full well he was at the boiling point and may actually do it. “Jensen!” Tobias said louder. “Drop it and let her go,” Tobias said more forcefully. Jensen let the knife flicker before her eyes, and slowly he lowered them. “Come on, Azza wanted some water, right?” Tobias said trying to shake Jensen out of his murderous look.

The immortal continued to look at Cassandra before he shook his head and turned to Tobias. “Yeah, water,” He mumbled walking past the elf with rage filled steps. Tobias watched him go, turned to look at Cassandra, but never saw her as she was already long gone.

Deep in the shadows of the halls Cassandra stopped before two sets of doors, one that said Ambrose in bold letters, and the other that said Anita Orlouge. She observed both names and lovingly turned to Anita’s room. Perhaps in the same way Azza had helped her in her fight with Jensen, Anita could help her in her fight against Sei.

Lowering her mask she knocked upon Anita’s door, and when the girl groggily opened it she moved into the room, hand lifting to the knife in her back pocket…

[Silence Sei]

When Sei had awoken from his sleep the following morning, he had learned of Cassandra's attempt at treachery. The Mystic was not surprised, however, quite the contrary. He was only shocked by how long it had taken the Gisela Reaper to try and exact her revenge on the telepath. As the mute scratched at his chest and did his morning routines, he could not help but notice something was a bit off. Anita had still not come to his side today.

Usually, the Daughter of the Dragon was the first to wake him and they would start his duties together. Today, it was Tobias Greenleaf of all people who had to rouse the mute from slumber. Now, it was nearing noon, and Anita had still not caught up with her father. Had she went to a bar the night before and fallen off of the wagon? When Anita was younger, she had discovered that she was an alcoholic, and she had been sober for a good two years since that revelation.

Surely, she had not dome something stupid and fell back into the demon in the bottles ways?

Sei went to the girl's room, confused as to what she had been doing all day. There was a soft knock at her door, to which nobody came to answer. A slightly louder knock, and still no answer. Finally, Sei slammed his fist against the door one hard time, only to hear fits of giggling as a response to the loud sound. Sei gripped the knob to the girl's room and turned, opening the door and finding, of all things, Anita with Cassandra Remi. The former was painting the latter's nails.

"Apologies Lord Orlouge," Cassandra said in her sweetest, most innocent tone, "It seems we were having so much fun, we didn't hear you knock..."

[Requiem of Insanity]

Sei looked at Cassandra with a confused expression, and the Moonlit Mistress enjoyed his look with a simple warning smile. His eyes would glance to her hand, finding the knife not a few inches away from her fingertips. There was small lines of missed red fingernail polish along Anita’s face, as if the two had got into a play fight with the applicator. They looked like cut lines all across her face and arms. Sei’s throat began to grumble, seeing the warning.

Ever pull something like that again, and Anita was hers. It didn’t matter to the Gisela Reaper if Sei had any indication as to what brought the need to demonstrate this.

But Sei saw only the outer shell of the threat. For darker still was the child’s smile to Cassandra when she turned from her father. The two had spent all night talking, and ever so slowly the seeds Cassandra had planted into the girl’s mind had began to flourish. Like a gardener watering their plants, so to did Cassandra water her seeds. Now, more so than ever, Anita was enthralled with the Moonlit Mistress. The special privileged girl who knew the ‘real’ Cassandra Remi. How easy it was to fool humans.

“I think papa is rather upset I didn’t wake him,” Anita giggled. Cassandra giggled as well, nuzzling up to the girl as they collapsed into each other, laughing. Sei looked to Anita, turned back to Cassandra, and slowly turned away.

“You have work to do today, Anita.” Sei said as his only words, and the uncomfortable feeling emanating from his own words were like music to Cassandra’s ears. The Midnight Monster smiled as stood upwards, helping Anita up as the two hugged tightly.

“Someday I’ll let you play with me,” Cassandra whispered into her ear. “I’ll teach you what I know, if you ever desire to learn it. We are alike, you know?” Cassandra pulled back to look Anita in the face, gently lifting a small strand of hair out of the girl’s face. “Continue to be the beautiful girl I know. That is the one I cherish,” Cassandra planted a playful kiss on the girl’s lips, turning away and leaving as Anita watched her go, smiling brighter than before.

When Cassandra turned the corner towards her rooms she allowed herself a wide smile. Nobody but Cassandra would show her how to live her life. Not Sei, Kane Kucan, not Jensen Ambrose, nor even her Dark Companion. And anyone who dared to change her would meet the same fate as her playtime victims.

[Lord Anglekos]

I'm going to try to be, by request, as harsh in my judgment as I can be. If you have further questions about why I gave the scores I did or any of my reasoning, you can both reach me via private messaging. And now... Judgment.

Story: 7
You two had a great start. RoI's introductory post, while leaving me slightly confused as to the prior goings-on, enthralled me with the twist on the Gisela Reaper it had provided. What had happened? Why was Cassandra Remi, torturer and murderess, being practically crucified; in front of a little girl, no less? The lack of true explanation here actually worked for you, hooking me deeper into the story.

For the next few posts, as a couple questions were answered and more were brought up (what would drive Sei to be this way, for one), I remained enthralled. The rising action and climax of the dream-sequences, moving into Jensen stopping Cassandra from having her 'vengeance' upon Sei, were both above-average as well, and I sought to be equally entertained by the thread's conclusion. However, as the story moved into RoI's final post, I found myself dismaying and disappointed. I scrolled downwards, and thought to myself, Wait. That's it? The thread didn't feel over. It did not feel like a conclusion. And that feeling is what cost this category from being higher.

Strategy: 6
Another category that could have reached greatness had there not been a couple obstacles standing in your way. The biggest issue was you both wrote assuming that the reader in question already understood several facets about both characters (and the NPC's involved); this is a trait that I highly discourage in the future. While the glimpses into Casssandra's past were enjoyable to read, they often led me into further confusion, and had someone not already known that Jensen Ambrose was an immortal they would have been very, very confused as to why he was still alive when, purportedly, she had slit his throat - the very reason, seemingly, she was being 'punished'. Keep these things in mind for the future.

Setting: 3
Even out of the dream sequences, I never understood just where this was all taking place. A brief sentence here and there let me know just where in the 'dream' Cassandra was, and that she was having it within the Ixian Castle, but had I not previously roleplayed within that very setting it would have been another factor to dock from clarity. The lack of any real eye-grabbing descriptions of the immediate area also hurt the score; save for the "spiders' black threads against the white background", there was little imagery for conjure forth in my mind.

Continuity: 5
I'll be honest; Continuity is generally the hardest category for me to Judge, due to the fact that a couple facets of it already deal with other categories. That being said, I gave it a five due to the fact that while originally I had little to go off as to the 'when' of the thread's happenings I enjoyed the glimpses into Cassandra's past; glimpses that gave me a slight insight as to just where in the lore of Althanas I was peering into. That saved this score from honestly being lower. For this category I give the same advice as I gave for Strategy; try not to always assume the reader is going to already know the characters intimately beforehand.

Interaction: 9
Between the two of you this was, without a doubt, one of the categories you did the best in. I really have little to belittle here; the only thing that kept it from being a ten was a small quirk I had near the end that also affected your Character score, and I will make the note there.

Character: 7
RoI, while you did a decent job of describing other characters, I never got a real physical sense of your own character, leaving that to my imagination; however, to counterbalance it, you gave me such an in-depth look into Cassandra's mental state that I practically discarded that factor in favor of it. On the other hand, Sei, you provided plentiful physical descriptions, but comparatively your mental insight was limited. Even so, between you two this score could have been higher, had it not been for the fact that I felt Cassandra was too quick to change her mind about killing Sei at the end. Even with Jensen and Tobias's interference, her sheer fury had blocked out even her most intimate and closest of companions; that much fury surely would have clouded her judgment skills as well, I felt.

Creativity: 7
This category wasn't too hard to judge. The usage of several advance literary techniques on RoI's part, combined with Sei's puppetry show (even I was creeped out), led this score to being in the upper tier of above-average.

Mechanics: 4
I found several mistakes littered all over the thread - easy mistakes at that. Periods and commas missing, a few misspellings; all things that could have been caught with a thorough comb-through.

Clarity: 3
I really tried to give this category a higher score. I really did. I liked this thread; it seemed a shame to have to lower its score due to a simple thing like lack of understanding. However, in the end, I was forced to due exactly that, and I won't lie; I had to re-read over several posts to understand completely what was going on. The lack of any real descriptions of the setting hurt this, and I'll add in this; dream sequences are always a pain in the ass to try to make coherent. If nothing else, you're brave for using them.

Wildcard: 8
As I stated in Clarity, I liked this thread, and I put a few of the points I wish I could have put in that into Wildcard. Again, I applaud your bravery at writing almost an entire thread based solely on memories and dream sequences.

Final Score: 59/100
Requiem of Insanity gains 950 EXP and 150 GP's.
Silence Sei gains 1400 EXP and 100 GP's.

[Silence Sei]

GP-Exp added.