23. What is one thing you have witnessed that you wish you couldn’t remember?
“No, no! She's the offering!”
The dark eyes of Silas Tintilan widened as he screamed, throwing his hands out in front of him in defense. Slowly, slowly, the fel hunter stalked towards him, the creature's unearthly antenna outstretched. They would reach the man first, latching onto his arms.
The sound of the demon siphoning the magic from the man she thought she loved probably sounded terrible, but Verdy couldn't hear it over his screams of terror, of protest, of pain. When Silas screamed her name, Verdy still could not hear it over the sounds of her own terrified yelling and body wrenching sobs.
Wafts of smoke drifted up from his body. He was once broad chested and strong, unlike most mages, but now he was nothing but a shriveled man who crumpled to the floor. His face frozen in the middle of his regretful screams, his once dark eyes void of color as they stared unblinking at the young naive farmgirl.
She tried to look away but he kept staring at her. He would never stop staring.
The fel hunter turned to her.
Verdy scrambled to a corner, grabbing the closest thing to her: a kitchen knife. The creature lunged and Verdy slashed wildly, eyes squeezed shut to avoid the gaze of her boyfriend. She slashed and slashed and slashed until she felt the hot icor of the demons insides and heard it slump to her apartment floor.
Her eyes opened to look at the sight in her apartment: A fel hunter with its belly slashed open laid in front of her. The smell caused bile to rise in her throat. She looked past it to see Silas. Quickly, Verdy scrambled over, yelling his name, shaking him, hoping this was all a mistake.
“Please, please, please!”
She held his skeletal thin body in her arms. She stroked his hair and clumps fell out in her hands. He stared at her, unblinking, lifeless. She stared back through gut wrenching sobs, holding him close, praying it was all a dream.
When the Kirin Tor barged into her room and pulled the corpse from her grip and slapped metal on her wrists, she knew it wasn't a dream. And as she was drug out of her apartment, exhausted and terrified, all she could do is look at his withered corpse.