#[the formatting of this on my phone makes me hate it dhd sorry if it not as good mouse!!!]

[kkkindered]

Something akin to dread finds its way at the back of Zara’s throat when they hold her hand. She freezes. Breath hitching as she stares at their joined hands. Lips tugging down to a frown at his words and the predicament she put herself in. Again.

“ Intact but not working. ”

Are they going to rip it off? Twist it? Would they twist it all the way 'round? Three-sixty?

Her eyes grow misty at the sudden cold. Dread getting thicker. Coating her palate. She thinks her hands are going to start shaking soon.

“ W-what? Place something in me? ” Her eyes widen. If she wasn’t terrified of her hand detaching—Zara would have jerked at the feeling of something against her palm.

Its gross. Why is it moving? What is that? What do they mean in her?

“ Can't we just use a ph—one or something? ” They're listing these things without care. What the fuck? Threaten? Her life is a damn threat to itself. Hear them? So she's going to go mad.

This is great.

Of course she'd be the one to enter a deal with a monster.

Though what else did you want from her? Either this or die. Well. They did say dying would've been better, didn't they.

She can't go proving them right now. That's just embarrassing.

Distantly, Zara wonders who blighted her for her life to turn out this way. What crime did she commit that left her homeless and then trapped in a corner? She's sure Zara of the past couldn't have been as bad as her now.

Requests?

Her teeth unlatch from her lip, “ Little complaint? I must tell you I complain like no other, you'd hate to do this. Think about— ” Her voice chokes off.

Her back bows. Leaning forward instead of away at the last moment at the feeling of something digging. It's constant. Through skin and whatever stringy bits that come before bone.

She sniffles in pain. The pain isn't extraordinary, but it is intruding. This thing bullying its way past carefully placed anatomy out of mindless gluttony? greed?

A crease of pain flashes again. Right before, it's just a dull, strange ache. There is only so much one can do when something is making home in you.

The cold is back. It's soothing this time instead of striking. It's all-encompassing instead of a distant chill.

She chances a look. Eyes red rimmed, nose a bit runny and a frown carved on her lips. A bit pain dazed and entirely pissed, “ It was fucking horrible. ”

A beat.

“ Thanks for the place. In advance. ”

The moment their skin meets, the creature's nails curl upwards, clasping around her hand like a sprung trap. Talons press into her flesh, not enough to hurt but enough that if she was to try snatch her hand away it could hurt. "Harsh but fair, little moth." They taunt. "But if you wish for me to praise you, I suppose I could say that your instinct to survive is quite intact."

It's unclear if the god means the words positively, despite trying to phrase it as praise. Regardless they carry on unperturbed. "Right, right. The terms." Icy shadows lap at her hand. The tendrils hovering around her as if waiting for some sort of command. "I shall place something within you. Something that will tether you to me."

Said 'thing' begins to pierce the veil of the god's hand, a creature not from this realm. The mass writhes desperately between their hands, bucking and squirming against the surface of her warmer flesh. "You will never be able to escape me. Every moment you live, my presence will threaten you. If I want you to hear me, you shall. When I come to see you. You will sense me."

"I will make requests of you every now and then. You, of course, will accept them with little complaint." They continue. It's around this time she would begin to feel something. The sensation is perhaps painful, but is clear whatever this creature is? It's madly burying into her skin, twisting itself in between muscle and sinew and making itself at home within her.

"I take care of my things, little moth. So, you will no longer be homeless." The talons dig deeper and once the creature has settled the shadows that had been on standby sweep in to sooth her flesh. Coldness washing over her hand.

It's strange though, there's no entry mark. No sign that the creature had ever been there. Except for occasional the flicker of a dark mass beneath the surface. "I will give you instructions of how to get a hold of my mouthpiece. He will give you room and board."

Pausing, the god assesses her face. "See, that wasn't so bad. Was it?"