Who Is Knocking, Me Oh My?

Knock knock knock. This time the knocking is on the door itself. There is no frantic beat to it, no panicked measures. Just the very straightforward and firm rapping of someone who knows exactly what they're about. From outside, a man's voice: "Hello? I would like to come inside, please. I do not believe it to be safe out here." LONGNIGHT

MABEL

A voice ricocheted outside the door, reverberating, resounding. Mabel had heard similar echoes a hundred times before, when she was a little girl, up until now. Sometimes they were claws. Sometimes they were scratches made on the farmhouse’s enamel, while they cowered in the quiet. Sometimes the only answers were her parents’ prayers, pleading to the Old Gods to ensure their safety – when not a single herald could respond.

She sauntered towards the door, a cold entity near its jurisdiction. The youth wouldn’t touch it, had already learned what happened to those Ascended; she wouldn’t survive.

And the girl was all about her own survival.

A cool, dispassionate, impassive tone meandered from her, and she made no further move towards the portal, or inviting anyone else to open the aperture. “Then you shouldn't be out there.” A consignment to oblivion; too late for this individual, unless another came along.

I bare my teeth
and stretch my claws out

There's a cold, considered laugh. "Yeah, probably not." The voice agrees, and there is a shuffling like the kicking of dirt under feet. For a moment it is quiet again and it almost seems as if whoever (or whatever?) it is has left, then there is something more: "I don't want to stay long. Just grab some supplies. It's not that bad up in the obelisk." It says casually. "Can you let me in so I can grab some food and a couple blankets maybe, please?" LONGNIGHT

EVELYN

The noises, the voices, the cries, the screams - it was a symphony of chaos, blending into asteady static of white noise in the back of Evelyn's mind. Sometimes she focussed on a singular sound, discerning it for what it truly was - a monster, a mutation, a twisted variation on an Ascended.

Other times she heard the voices of mothers, of fathers and daughters and sons, of families suffering, dying, being torn apart by their own foolishness - or perhaps that was all a trick of the monsters too, trying to stir up emotions of guilt and despair within the girl.

They failed.

"No." Her voice rang out, as she wandered up to where her sister stood, speaking with the latest monster on the other side of the accursed doorway.

"It is not our fault you were too foolish to not get inside in time." She aimed her speech at the door, sidling up to her sister with a knowing glance, confident in their position to stand against the latest monster demanding entrance into the safe haven that was the temple.

cross me once
i dare you
it is the only chance you will get

MABEL

“No,” in tandem, in echo with her sister’s vocalizations; the slightest hint of a snicker brushing across her lips. If her machinations were correct, the man outside couldn’t be a monster – not if he’d touched the door. But whomever was foolish, and perhaps…perhaps this was vengeance, payback, for their fallen Queen. A life for a life. Sacrificial rites from one idiotic Outlander to another, incapable of following any directions. Mabel bore no sympathy to those that failed to listen. How many warnings had been unleashed every year, over and over and over again?

“You had opportunities.” A careless shrug, and her eyes went to Evelyn, the same eerie smirk tracing, lingering, in their wake. “Maybe you’ll listen next time.” If there was a next time.

I bare my teeth
and stretch my claws out

Hm. Well, seemed like no one was biting. Josh sighed. He'd known that coming out of the Spire was a bad idea, but even he had to eat eventually and it seemed, in a surprising oversight, he'd not packed enough. Trying to work out how many days were left of Longnight, he wondered if he could get by without eating: the only other alternative would be trying to cook up some monster meat, and while he was sure that was possible, it would likely be difficult. He turned from the door. Honestly, he was surprised the people here hadn't thought to invent the peephole yet. Upon turning, he was greeted with several bright eyes and dripping teeth; hands and limbs of sorts he could not name. "Ah." How depressingly predictable. Josh raised his hands in an easy surrender: he knew when he was beat in a fight, and it wouldn't be the first time he'd fought squirmous, disgusting things from between dimensions and realities. "Let's get this over with." Pain had never been a deterrent. Of all the ways to move to somewhere new, at least this one was fast. LONGNIGHT

EVELYN

A wicked smile touched her lips when her sister's voice joined her in synchronous harmony. No, they declared, they would could (could not) open the door, the foolish person on the other side would have to pay the price for their lack of action - or else the monster that was taunting them would have to give up.

Finally it seemed the monster, or the boy, gave up, ceased their knocking, their pleading, their attempts to sway the twin ascendeds from their decision. If it was a boy and not a monster, they would merely be trading their lives for him - they had already traded their souls for this ascended life, they had no desire or need to conduct further business dealings there. If it was a monster seeking to come inside and cause further destruction and decimation, they still would not trade their lives for its.

In one hand they were angels, protecting the Temple from a thread, on another, they were murderers, knowing full well the consequences of their inaction here, and smiling quietly to each other all the while.

The Temple needed no more monsters than the Occidendum twins inside.

cross me once
i dare you
it is the only chance you will get

MABEL

There was no apology in her stance, no notation of regret. She stood, calm and still and wicked, in the darker shadows and corners of their sanctum, unwilling to bend and break for a fool outside. A triumphant sensation of glee almost erupted from her chest as the void went silent on the other side of the door, as the man was refused, as the inevitably would swing its ax, claws, and fangs. Another one down – a body count for their lost Queen and the other boy – revenge all the more sweeter when it was by open invitation. So easy. So simple. And they could do it again too – LongNight had barely begun.

They didn’t even have to do anything - the inept, the stupid, the idiotic, wandered into nooses and nets all on their own terms.

She gave a silent, encouraging nod to her sibling, before backing away, drifting off elsewhere, their work completed, done, until the next interval.

{FIN}

I bare my teeth
and stretch my claws out