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[Zari MelGair]

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Her state of mind at that point was savage. Her body was enthralled by emotion, her mind ravaged by the very basic feral instincts. Her lips, tore forth baying howl after baying howl, as she remained chained in the small room. Her hands clawed at her own skin, feeling the need to shed blood, to kill. She left large, open wound on herself, lesions that would fester and grow infected if not attended to. She howled again, lunging forward, her body shifting forms, into the large cu sidhe as the curse was that was put upon her. She growled, thrusting forward again, trying to free herself. Her body struggled in such a way that it would only harm herself. Her mind was lost, gone insane by such a befitting curse. Blood and slaughter filled her feral thoughts, pushing her onward. She took a deep breath, lunging forward one more time, with all the strength she could muster, before she fell to the floor again. Her energy all but spent, her body changed forms again, the bones twisting and grinding as she fell limp against the floor.

Deep within the twisted, morphed mind, shrouded in a barrier, Zari's true self lay lost in an delusional forest dream.



It was dark. It was always dark, the sun never rose for her. Her bare feet padded softly along the dirt path, that led her ever further into the darkness. Creatures, demons, and true nightmares wandered the grounds around her. Nightmares. But not the nightmares that she had seen in the waking world, but the things that had haunted her very dreams since her early childhood. One in persistent pursuit of her being. It was large, and humanoid, but large bones spiked out of both of it's arms, back and legs that oozed silver. Its skin was nothing but scales, slimy that dripped green slime. It's eyes were large, black, and center-less, it's head bald. Its mouth was split into eight parts, and when it opened seven snakelike tongues sprouted out from the depths of the creatures innards, they too, oozing silver. It's teeth were long and jagged, very sharp.

As a child, she had always called him Reaper, not knowing what truly to call it. It did not help the fact that she found it amusing that she was going to perish due to the same childhood dream that had made her younger years a living hell. Perhaps, he had never actually been a dream at all.

Her feet carried her further into the forest. Her eyes did not watch the path before her, but the looming woods around her. For once, it was quiet. Too quiet. As she stepped forward, something snapped. The leaves on the ground gave way, and a net crafted out of vines threw her up into the air, restraining her. She looked to the ground, scanning. The Reaper couldn't have done this, he was in no manner an intelligent being. Then, out of the bushes, came a little girl, only the age of five by the looks of her. She wore a proper little girls dress, shaded blood red. Atop her head, bounced a mane of bubblegum pink curls, held in place by a red headband.

"Dand you! That traps fer t' reaper!" the girl exclaimed.

"Come on, little one, let me down." Zari said, struggling in the net.

The little girl moved to the tree, slicing the vines that held Zari in the air. The net unraveled and she plummeted to the earth, landing with a large thud. As she looked up, she came face to face with herself, as a child. The same child who was always in trouble with her father, but oddly was never punished. The child that had lived with her nose in a book, and her head in the soaring skies above.

"Lady! You look just like me! Cept..." the little girl made a face at her, wrinkling her nose. "Older."

"Y..yes." Zari said, blinking slowly as she dusted herself off, getting to her feet.

"Oh..Uhmm..." the little girl said, completely out of words to say, rather taken off kilter at meeting such a woman.

"Umm..." Zari looked around a moment, at the darkness. Nothing seemed out of place yet. But it wouldn't stay that way for long. "Come on, Pinky. We need to get out of here before the Reaper finds us." Zari said, scooping the girl up in her arms, and beginning to move forward again.

"How do you know peoples call me Pinky?" the little girl asked, tilting her head.

"Its... a long story. We'll talk about that later." Zari replied.

"My Aunty Toni's house is just up ahead! We will be safe there." Pinky said, pointing off into the darkness.

It wasn't long before she reached the house, Pinky within her arms. The very sight of it made her stop dead in her tracks. It looked so much like the real house that she had spent eight years living in when her father threw her out. Its ivory walls jutted towards the sky, the light reflecting off the walls lighting the clearing in the middle of the endless forest of night.

Pinky jumped down from Zari's arms, and ran to the door, pushing it open, disappearing inside. Zari moved, following her to what would have become her place of solace. Inside was much the same in structure, but the furniture itself was more toy-like, as if she had entered a dolls house. Such an odd thing, to see something that reminded her so much of what she had seen in the outside world, but displaced by toyish furniture.

Then her eyes found the center of the room. She shivered instantly at the sight. Seated around a large table, was Zeth and Dae, Toni and Morus..Dani, Zet, Ethan, and Lowell, all lifeless and frozen in place, with a large smile on their faces. They looked like dolls themselves, no sign of any life coming from their bodies, they merely sat in the chairs, staring straight forward. Zari closed her eyes tight, rembering those she had lost.

"I always wanted this. I wanted the whole family together again and happy. Blood is thicker than water, you know. Or any tie that binds." Pinkys voice sounded from behind her.

"I know... It was nothing that could've been done.. they were always so stubborn. " Zari said softly.

"You could've done something. But you didn't." Pinky replied, her words almost cutting like glass.

"No, I didn't have any control over them.." she replied, opening her eyes slowly.

"Yes you could have. But no, you didn't. And because of you the entire family fell apart." Pinky spat.

Zari sighed heavily, turning around to face her slowly, "Little girls will never understnad..."

As she turned her gaze on her younger self, finding her eyes set down upon a gruesome sight. Pinky's skin twisted and melted away, and a doppleganger sprang forward from it. Her family lept from their chairs behind her, thier hands morphing into long, sharp talons that grabbed at her limps shifting her into the air, and began to carry her away.



And in the Valley of Stonegate...

She would scream.
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Zari Melgair: We are all alts of Merci