"A cacophony of cruelty buffeted their bars, wave after relentless wave of human noise. 'Let us see their life-force!' the mob demanded. 'Let us hear the music of their unhuman agony!'
Gradually, the whip was cast aside for the candescent glow of the branding iron. Compared to the silent desolation of the Abyss, this was a brand of torment they could scarcely comprehend. And yet, for the price of their skin, they were fed. Three times a day, the gnawing void in their bellies was pacified.
Time flowed on, and the novelty of spilling monster blood began to rot. The circus tents grew hollow as the spectacle of pain turned stale. Those drifting through the stalls now spoke with the jaded tongues of those who had seen too much and felt too little."
"To draw the blood yourself—is that not the ultimate ecstasy? A voyeur’s interest is a fleeting thing, and every stage-play eventually loses its sting."
A sinister spark flickered in Eladio’s gaze. Slowly, methodically, he starved his prisoners, allowing the primordial hunger to gnaw at their vitals until only one meal remained. New broadsides appeared in the streets, their headers bleeding in vivid scarlet:
"BEYOND THE VEIL: TAME THE ABYSS WITH YOUR OWN STRENGTH!"
What followed was a descent into a depravity that eclipsed the Abyss itself. The theater became a slaughterhouse of the soul. The mob cheered as chosen commoners ascended the stage to exert their dominance over the 'monsters.' That heady, lethal draught of power—the feeling of being a god among the broken—became a drug they could no longer refuse.
"Then, a whisper rose from the depths of their suffering:
'What if we were made of the same flesh as them?
Could we eat our fill, without limit, without end?
Would we walk free from the shadow of cruelty, beyond the reach of the whip?
Would no one ever again press the molten heart of a branding iron into our bodies?'"
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I think I know why Harlequin is afraid of being stabbed and why the Doctor has some kind of obsession with blood.....damn it, @samanthosnovelist !!!!😭 Can't you write something gentler and more romantic??













