A small, bloodied hand set upon the center of the large altar the child lay upon, her broken, ravaged body crawling in a desperate, yet futile attempt to reach the still outstretched limb of her mother.
The twisted, macabre scene of her mother’s lifeless, mangled corpse as it lay, rendered near fleshless had been burned into the forefront of her memory where it would remain a haunting testament to her father’s weakness.. his utter inability to control that which he sought to seize from the unforgiving clutches of the nether..
"Sweet little morsel.. so like your mother.." The ragdoll body of her mother was jerked from the floor, escaping the small, shaking hand that failed to reach her by scant inches as the beast above her wrenched the butchered cadaver up by it’s hair, the dark mahogany tresses forever stained in the deep crimson of her life blood.
"Father! WHY?!" Utter terror, pain, anguish and betrayal echoed from the small girl in a voice so unlike her own.. the harsh rasping of a throat raw from the tormented wails of unbridled agony. He had taken everything from her.. everything that had been the safe cocoon in which she had thrived until this moment, and still the beast that had once been her father stood above her, poised and laughing through the ghastly gape of its mouth.
Even as the young child wept, her face smeared in the fetid amalgamation of tears, dirt, and the carmine of her blood she continued to utter the softly spoken incantation. Every syllable, every enunciation left her lips with such a perfected understanding that the demon that stood above her took pause, its gruesome visage twisting and contorting with a hatred born of pure jealousy.
"You hope to succeed where he failed, little girl?!" The deep baritone of his voice boomed in a dark cacophony of sound as clawed fingers grabbed at the nape of the child’s neck, hefting her broken body from the ground even as her mother’s was thrust against the cold, stone wall of the ritual chamber. A sickening crack of the woman’s bones elicited a shrill cry from the young girl that struggled in vain against the crushing grasp of her captor.
It was pure terror that drove the girl now, her hands clutching helplessly at the wrist of the demon that held her, dangling above the altar and as she closed her eyes, the child seemed almost accepting of her fate. Death awaited her, just as it had claimed everything that she had held dear.. everything that had once been precious to her.
Vicious claws hovered above her, their bloodied tips aimed to rend the heart from her chest and yet as she braced herself for the inevitable agony of her final moment, the deep echo of his laughter that had pierced her ears cut abruptly short.
The soft hitch in his throat, the gentle sigh of encroaching death that passed the demon’s lips forced the child to open her eyes. The scene before her wavered as the beast’s heart landed in a sickening thud upon the dirt beneath them, the darkness that sought to claim her narrowing her vision until only a single entity lingered at the apex of her distorted sight, and as her body crumbled upon the floor, two arms took her into their shelter, reverently cradling her in such a way as to remind her that she would never truly be alone.
" ..Sallos."
