The Ritual

Steps. Slow, slow steps were taken by the pair. One leaning over, dripping blood from his thick clothes. The other arms wrapped around him. Supporting the seemingly wounded man. Now and again the pair would pause, and the man would gesture weakly in the next direction to be taken. Turns made, and stairs painfully ascended and descended, they seemed to have come to a dead end.

"Are you sure this is-" Was all the woman could say before a blow to the head sent her into darkness. Now their positions switched, as the man half carried and half dragged the unconscious woman up the nearby stairs and into a door. Making his way across the large primary room, and up another set of stairs. Finding the entrance to his lair he allowed himself a grin and a little mad laugh. "Soon..."

...

Slowly, after unknown amounts of time, the woman awake. Turning around groggily, she found herself bound to a chair. As she opened her mouth to speak, a hand closed over it "Shhh, easy my dear...you don't want to make this any worse..." Her eyes widened as she felt a blade slowly but surely slicing into her neck. Gingerly cutting the flesh, and steadily removing her head. Soon however the hand moved from her mouth, though she found by then she could not speak. No air was going to her mouth.

Turning her head as best she could, she could feel an odd tingling at the base of her neck. The hand that had been on her mouth, now sat on her neck, strange red mist flowing about it and into her neck. Somehow, this was keeping her alive. She remained fully conscious, and fully aware of every slow cut of the blade. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she saw no end in sight for this nightmare. A voice whispered in her ear "Calm yourself, my love, it will be over soon..."

As the blade finished its job, it was hurriedly tossed aside and the hand that held it grasped her head. Turning her eyes, the woman got a glimps of her now slumped and lifeless body, her dress stained a dark chrimson. Her eyes then turned to look where she was being taken next, and the sight would have drained the air in her lungs in a scream were it possible.

She was being carried to another chair, in this one another seemingly lifeless corpse. But this one wore a different dress, and despite missing a head there was no blood on the garment. Lines of sutures and stitches crossed the different segments of the body, truly a nightmare that would empty the stomach of most. She was thankful at least that the lack of lungs meant she couldn't smell the horror before her.

Upon reaching the destination, the hands holding her slowly sat her on the body, strange words being uttered from the man's lips. Spells of some sort. Her eyes widened again as she felt the blood vessels within the body attaching themselves to hers. the severed trachea to her own. She let out a gasp, feeling air fill lungs that weren't hers. Then more pain as a needle pierced her skin, guiding string along a path to forever bind her to this new body. Sensation slowly returned to her, she felt the dress on skin that wasn't hers. Feet and hands she'd never met twitched on her command. A stomach that wasn't hers heaved, as she realized fully what had become of her.

His work done, the man cast aside the needle, smiling down at the mishmash of body parts before him. Watching the muscles move again. But then his glance turned upward, glancing at four intruders into his sanctum. Smile widening "I was wondering when you'd show up. Leandra was so sure you'd come for her..."