Honey... I'm HOME! Rated MA

Quote:

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Closed to Aure.
May contain: God only knows.

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"I'm...." Scarlet paused, trying to find the right words. "Hmm...Surprised? Perplexed perhaps...that you came back so willingly, Zavine. You do know I had planned on using you as a bartering tool, I was going to offer up your soul to that demon inside o' Zero. So, why come back?"

Zavine tugged at the ends of her hair, her melodic voice replying without hesitation despite the trepidation in her voice. "I...wanted to help you. You... don't remember who you once were Amari... but...you were once so kind and loving." She held a single hand over her chest, as though recalling the fondest of memories. Something Scarlet didn't nor couldn't ever comprehend, all her memories were bitter. She had not a single happy memory she could look back on. Zavine continued. "It was as though everything you touched sprang forth with newfound life and light. You held such a compassion and yearning for everything. It was so endearing, and it was why you were so loved by everyone around you."

"Yeh?" Scarlet tilted her head, "Suppose it sounds like somethin' I woulda done in the past, thing is, Zavine...I'm not that person anymore. She existed Millenia ago and-"

"You existed Millenia ago." Zavine said, her melodic sing-song voice interrupting. "You're the same person. You're just..." She frowned as though she were trying to piece the right words together to not offend the redhead. "...you've been hurt so much by this life that you've adapted into this...persona that I know isn't you. So..if I can help you, even just the tiniest bit - to show that there are still good people in the world. To show that kind acts without gain are possible then...then I want to do so. So that's why I came back." She reached out and clasped a pale hand over Scarlets. Squeezing it tightly. Her hand must have hurt, but she didn't pull away. "Besides... I promised a dear friend Samantha...that I'd keep an eye on you."

Scarlet scoffed at the white headed womans words as she pulled her hand away. "Tch. You're an idiot. You know I'm using you again right? I ain't gonna beat around the bush with this. The man we're meeting ain't like you've met before. You thought Ulroke was a shit? He got nothing on this guy. I was like you once..." Scarlet shifted her gaze to the window of the carriage, watching the seedy streets of Knife's Edge pass by. "Naieve, thinking there was good in everyone. That just ain't the way the world is. This man...He relishes in sordid things. In feeling pain, inflicting pain. Underhanded deals..."

"Sounds like you now." Her voice held a bit of bite to it, Scarlet smirked. She didn't think that the little Ar'Tuel had it in her to be so catty. "I suppose we are alike now, point being - my first time meeting me scared the shit outta me, the second changed me. I ain't dragging your pert lil' ass here against your will Zavine. So I will give you one warning and one warning only."

"What would that be?"

"Don't shake his hand unless you want to sell yourself to him."

"Thank you."

"Eh?" Scarlet turned to Zavine, "The hell you thankin' me for?"

Zavine smiled brightly, "For offering me advice. It warms my heart and gives me hope."

Scarlet looked upon Zavine with a mild look of disgust. Her tri-coloured eyes danced up and down the slim womans figure. She still wore the skin tight suit that she was found in. It apparently acted as some sort of conductor, not that Scarlet quite understood. She offered Zavine normal clothes but the girl declined, stating she didn't want to be a bother. Scarlet knew the eyes that would be on Zavine when they entered the House of Sin. The woman was as pure as they came. An Ar'Tuel millennia old, but locked away for long that he harsh reality of Althanas hadn't tainted her. It was why she had been bought along on one of Scarlets trips to meet up with Aure. The temptation to see the look on the demons face was too good to miss.

Not to mention she hadn't seen him since her little dive down into the sordid pits of corruption. Scarlets eyes fell to her own cracked skn, she ran a finger along the raised cracks. She no longer leaked noxious fumes and no longer destroyed everything she touched. She had regressed into a sheer force of destruction, emotionless and then what humanity she had was literally leaking out of her, she had begun to lose her sense of self, her trails of thought. It was daunting to say the least.

Then there was the issue of the thing inside of her...

But that could wait.

The cart pulled up to their destination. Richard, her attendant opened the door minutes later. Dressed immaculately as usual. "I won't be joining you inside, far too many bodily fluids for my liking." He muttered. Scarlet knew he was not one for any sort of human contact and would prefer to sit in a sterile room all by himself. She shrugged. "Fine. I haven't the slightest how long we will be, but I will send raven when we are done."

Richard glanced from her to Zavine, he didn't seem too keen on the idea of Scarlet taking the woman into the sordid sex pit. If he had any distaste however, he kept silent on it. "As you wish, Mistress."

Scarlet didn't pay any mind to the people who lurked out the front, she gestured for Zavine to stay close. "Stay near me, else you'll be whisked away. Take one last breath of fresh air, you're gonna miss it." The redhead took heed of her own advice and took one last deep breath before she entered.

..And quite literally burst through the large double doors, three steps in and she could already smell the heavy scent of aphrodisiac in the air, along with the scent of naked bodies and god knows what liquids that stained the inside of the place.

"Honey! I'm HOME!" Her voice boomed in the large entrance as she rose her hands up in the air. The doors behind her slammed shut and a gust of wind blew past her crimson dress. "Right." Scarlet said as she placed her hands on her hips. "Time to play with a Demon, I suppose."

A slender woman descended the stairs before them, slowly. Her slitted eyes narrowed when they saw Scarlet and her form tensed. Scarlet offered the other redhead a small smirk. "Natalia. Been a while."

She descended the stairs and practically circled both Scarlet and Zavine, her tongue darted out her lips. "What are you doing here?" She asked, suspicious, and she had every right to be. The last time they had seen each other Natalia had aided in strapping Scarlet down to a table to be flayed alive. One wouldn't exactly assume she was here on pleasantries.

Zavine paused in front of them, reaching a clawed talon out toward Zavine. "And who is thi-" Her eyes widened as Scarlet lashed out and gripped Natalia's arm, smoke rose from her scaled skin. A minor burn as a warning. "I wouldn't. She's not to touch or play with." Scarlet hissed.

Natalia hissed, but her skin told a different story. It shifted to a deep red hue. Scarlet knew what this meant, the damn bitch was horny. "Eh?" Scarlet gripped Natalia tighter. "Does that really get you going?" Amari loosened her grip and Natalia stalked closer, tongue licking her clawed teeth.

"I like this you." She purred into Scarlets ear."

There was a sharp pang of pain as Scarlet felt Natalia's talons claw their way into her hips. It wasn't an attack, despite the feeling of them sinking into her flesh, it was as though Natalia was being gentle, carefully weaving her claws to and fro into the sinue. Scarlet clenched her teeth and wrapped her own arm around the womans waist, who all too willingly pressed herself closer.

"Natalia. Now's not the time."

The woman either didn't hear Scarlet, or chose to ignore her. Instead, her tongue lapped at Scarlets neck before her teeth sank into the skin. "Dammit..." Scarlet muttered. She had half a mind to push the other woman away, but the heavy scents in the air lulled her, and made her think, ah fuck it. Just a few minutes more. This didn't really feel bad to her.

This place.

This goddamn place.

Just for good measure, Scarlets own fingers sank into the flesh of Natalia's backside. Scarlet was no fleshcrafter, but she could melt through Delyr tier skin, Natalia's pretty scales were nothing. Natalia moaned in response and her teeth lifted from the skin of her neck. The scaled woman was now lapping at Scarlets blood.


Fuck this place.

I was honestly...mortified to be in such a place. The moment we entered there was a thick smell to the air. I wasn't sure what it was but it made my head heavy. I reached out to Amari and lightly clasped the back of her dress, I stood in as close to her as possible. I didn't like this place. I didn't feel safe here. I could hear the faint noises of things, people sounded like they were crying out for help, but if they were in pain why did they not run? Some of the sounds sounded like startled cries. Amari didn't exactly explain the nature of this place, just that I would not like it.

She was right.

"M-Miss Amari... I'm scared..." I whispered.

The redhead shifted her gaze from the strange scaled woman before her to me. "I'm not keeping you here against your will. If you want to leave. Then leave. This place ain't got many rules, but the biggest no-no of 'em all is keeping people here against their will. Sorta goes against the whole anarchy thing-Natalia do you mind?"

I watched as Amari pushed the other woman away, thin red teeth marks dotted Amari's neck. Had she been... "I uh.." I shifted my gaze to the floor. I didn't understand this. Why was this Natalia woman biting Amari's neck? Why did Amari let that happen? Amari didn't seem like the type of person to let someone hurt her.

I blinked, seeing droplets of blood hit the floor. "A-are you ok!?" I lifted my eyes to Amari, who was gently prying Natalia's clawed talons out of her hips. "H-here!" I reached out to Amari and pressed my hands against her wounds, a light glow emitted and I breathed a sigh of relief as her pale and scarred skin began to weave into itself, patching the wounds. "Is that better?"

This time, Amari pushed me away. Her words stern and confusing. "Zavine, it's just foreplay. This place isn't for inhibitions. You want to do something. Do it." She turned to Natalia, who was licking Amari's dark blood from her long talons with a forked tongue.

This left me feeling...awkward...I knew what foreplay was and suddenly...I knew what those sounds were. "That...sounds like total anarchy."

"That's the point." Amari said matter-of-factly. Clearly unphased by this place.


I stepped in closer to her, wrapping my arms around one of hers for some form of comfort. I ignored the tingling burning pain from being so close to her corrupted form. I shut my eyes tight and took a deep breath, wishing for the days where the woman beside me was loving and kind. I wished for her to come back, and not be this self titled 'Scarlet' anymore.

If only there were some way. I'd sacrifice myself to do so.

Natalia indulged herself for a few more minutes, savouring Amari’s flesh in ways hitherto unknown. Something had changed within the redhead, and Natalia couldn’t help but silently marvel at the change in the once soft and terrified slip of a woman. The fleshcrafted tease slid her teeth into her former plaything’s skin along her collar bone, with all the gentleness of a lover. The warm, coppery tang of blood teased her palette eliciting a shiver of delight up her scarlet-hued spine. Natalia had always loved the way Amari tasted.


The other woman, Amari’s companion, was ignored by the scale-skinned vixen; but not, as expected, by the other denizens of the House of Sin. Small groups of them hungrily watched her from darkened, fur-lined alcoves or edged closer with the soft creak of leather and the whisper of blades on skin. Some came within arms reach but none of the patrons dared interfere with what was clearly official House business – Natalia wouldn’t play so gently with someone for any other reason and many of the perverse throng bore the scars to attest to that. They consoled themselves with eking their wretched pleasures from each other as they eyed the soft, untainted form in their midst. Tongues probed incisions, teeth teased ragged flaps of raw, abused flesh and fingernails raked down forms already kissed by all manner of blades and scourges.


As was always the case, the building practically breathed with life. The walls, where not covered in lavish tapestries depicting scenes of unnatural couplings and forbidden practices, ran with beads of condensation. It was not wise to dwell upon what precisely those droplets consisted of. Narcotic laced smoke coiled through the room in languid tendrils, seeming almost alive as it sought the lungs of the mass of deviants.

But the atmosphere within the palace of depravity was different from what it had been the last time the Ar’Tuel had been under its eaves. It was a subtle change, but something sour lurked in the air. A bitter aftertaste that had little to do with the acts performed here on a nightly basis The echoes of lust and pain from within resonated with a darker undertone. Something desperate and afraid.

It took a few minutes for Amari to realise what was missing. The office overlooking the main foyer, hanging like a pregnant spider on chains as thick as a man’s waist, was empty. No lights, none of the usual malevolence seeping through the mirrored windows from its occupant. The Master of the House’s absence was like a missing limb, something all too obvious once noticed.

“What is that doing here?”

The voice snapped Natalia out of her amusement like a whip-crack. She turned on her heel, eyes narrowed to slits and a vibrant edge of colour tinting the scales adorning her body.

Standing at the foot of one of the curving twin staircases, his too-lean frame encased in leather bindings, Gimmel snarled his displeasure at Amari’s arrival. The sections of his pallid skin on display were tinged with a lack of circulation, bulging around the tightly woven strips, but even as Zavine bore witness to this fresh horror she noticed his face; the off-white flesh above the man’s mouth tapered off to a smooth blankness. No eyes. No eye sockets. The barest hint of nostrils to mark out his features. Even so, as he stalked closer, hands tensed into claws at his side, the pitiful creature hiding behind Amari felt his attention as it ghosted over her.

“The Master did not summon you here,” he spat.

Natalia stepped between Amari and Gimmel, seeing the small crowd that had gathered disperse to the edges of the foyer. None of them looked away, but not one would draw attention to themselves now. Voyeurs all, but no-one in this house was fool enough to bring down the pain-artist’s ire when his temper was up.

“Aurelius didn’t tell us to turn away guests either,” she hissed, pointedly refusing to follow Gimmel’s use of the honorific title their tiefling leader so detested.

“In fact, Aurelius hasn’t left that gods-damned hole of his in months and has no more spoken to you than he has to me.”

There was a note of something in Natalia’s voice that Amari had never heard before.

Sadness. Regret.

With a wordless snarl of hatred, the blind former-man took a step forward, sharpened sickle-blades of bone sliding from the meat of his forearms. Above the sudden silence that fell – as close to silence as the palace of degeneracy ever came, anyway – Amari and her companion could hear the soft pitter-patter of blood dripping from them onto the cold, stone floor.

“Step aside Gimmel. Maybe she can do something about him. Fuck knows you haven’t helped any.”

Clearly he was battling his better judgment, muscles straining and teeth creaking in his tensed jaw, but after a strained moment Gimmel backed down. His tongue slid wetly around his thin lips, and with a rattling breath the seething murder turned on his heel and stalked into the depths of the House. The gathered deviants parted before him and he was gone. No doubt to haunt the lowest levels of the building where he would find someone or something to vent his cold fury on.

Natalia took a moment to gather herself before glancing over her shoulder at Amari with a look of rejection etched deeply across her emerald eyes.

“I’ll take you to him.”

***

Natalia took Amari and her.. pet? through the building quickly, keeping to the back halls. The usual sounds dogged their steps; leather on yielding flesh, screams of some hungry longing between agony and ecstasy. She said nothing, shoulders hunched from Amari’s questions. With every passing moment the unease and tension rose.

The pair of outsiders were finally ushered out a set of oak double-doors, opening out onto what in any other building might have been a back garden. A wide square sat between the lurking wings of the House of Sin, the hard-packed earth frozen solid by Salvar’s embrace. Even as Summer slowly receded, the icy expanse of Knife’s Edge saw little respite from the bitter cold. The trio’s breath misted before them as the still-naked murderer-whore led them past rows of stained stocks and creaking gibbets to what had once been a well.

The edges had been widened, the shaft dug out to expose a dark hole like the rotting opening left by a pulled tooth.

With a grunt of effort, Natalia heaved back a rusted iron grate that covered the hole. The smell of spoiled meat tinged with the coppery reek of old blood wafted out like the foetid breath of some gargantuan monstrosity. Even for this place, the smell raised hairs on the back of the neck, triggering some primal sense of fear.

“Nat, wha—"

Amari turned to question Natalia again, but the scaled woman was already moving. With a firm shove both Ar’Tuel were sent plunging down into the darkness.

The heavy grate clanged shut over them, and squealing locks were slammed into place. Natalia’s voice followed them down into the damp, cloying hole.

“Follow the tunnel. And.. I’m sorry, for what it’s worth. Help him, please.”

With that, she was gone leaving Amari and Zavine alone.