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astro-nomaly · 2 days ago

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The Graveyard Shift: Thus Saith the Lord

Me? Posting two TGS snippets in as many days about the same fucking topic? More likely than you think. Here is part 1. Or 2 it doesn't really matter what order you read it in. This is actually canon to TGS, as in it’s a legitimate scene in chapter 40 so. Spoilers ig? Lots of missing context but I did my best to fill in the blanks

@highbookwormofthecentury @mother-spore-missa @flirty-anon @dumb-about-legos @pinkyprom3is come get yo food y'all :D

CW: murder, forced murder, child abuse, child murder and death, blood and gore, emetophobia, cult setting, cult brainwashing, fear mongering, religious trauma, religious abuse, mentioned stalking, emotional manipulation, gaslighting, victim blaming, cannibalism, implied torture, psychological horror, surrealism

Content under the cut (this is over 6k so sorry if it crashes your browser)

Thus Saith the Lord

Lloyd screamed as the world blended into blackness. He and Harumi, locked together, tumbled through blackness. He didn't let up the fight, tearing at her hair as she ripped at his skin and clothes. They snarled at each other, uncaring of the ground quickly catching up to them.

Just as Harumi raked her hand across his nose, they hit the floor. The force of the impact shoved them apart, sending Lloyd rolling in the opposite direction. He gasped, the breath ripped from his lungs.

Before he could blink away the spots in his eyes, Harumi was back on top of him. Her manic grin shone in the black as she came in swinging. It was only instinct that had Lloyd catching her hand, bending and kicking her off. The girl stumbled back a few feet, and her hand went to her hip. Lloyd waited on one knee, ready to sprint to the side when she drew her knife.

But she didn't. Harumi blinked in a rare show of confusion, giving a double take at her empty hip. Her hand grasped at empty air.

She glared at him. They both breathed heavily, breath ragged from the ongoing fight. Lloyd half expected Akita to burst in snarling, ready to take advantage of their state, but she didn't.

It was quiet. Way too quiet.

Last Lloyd remembered, Harumi had been straddling him and strangling him, trying to knock him out. She'd been in his body, which meant she was way too big to kick off, and his ghosts had been preoccupied with Akita and the cultists, so he couldn't call for their help. So he'd gripped the sides of Brad's Harumi's face, practically shoving his fingers into her eye sockets, and screamed her name. He'd been woozy, and unsure what he was planning to do.

But something had worked, because they were here. Wherever here was.

Lloyd chanced a look around. Confusion began to replace the adrenaline as the environment came into focus around them. They were in a dark corridor lit by dim artificial light that bled through decorative stained glass windows. There was darkness on one end, and slightly lighter darkness on the other. The air smelt faintly of mildew.

Lloyd slowly stood, keeping Harumi in his peripheral. But she seemed as confused as he did. "Where are we?" He muttered, brushing his fingertips against the stone wall.

Harumi shot him an ugly glare. "How should I know? You did this, Conduit."

Lloyd rolled his eyes. "Wasn't talking to you, Quiet One."

"I'm the only person here, genius! God, how are you in AP classes-"

"I'm not the insane cultist, crazy!"

"That wasn't even a topic-"

Their argument was interrupted by a faint sound down the corridor. They both froze, Lloyd instinctively holding out his hand for his weapon. But it doesn't form from the energy of the Veil. He blinked, stunned. His power hadn't failed him since he had Veil Sickness.

Lloyd turned to look at Harumi. Now that he really looked, she didn't seem confused as to where they were, so much as why. Right. Harumi Hutchins was the most compulsive, pathological, insane liar he'd ever met in his entire fucking life. Of course she knew where they were.

"Harumi," he said. She didn't look at him, just kept staring down the hall. He balled his fist up at his side. "Where are we?"

"I don't know."

"You do."

Harumi rolled her eyes. "Alright, sure. I recognize the damn place."

"I knew it!"

"Hurrah," Harumi mocked, clapping her hands mockingly. "You're a little genius. Now take us back, so I can murder that stupid fucking mutt and finish kidnapping you."

Lloyd recoiled. "I didn't do this," he protested, "I have no idea how to go back."

Harumi gave him that condescending look he hated, like she thought she was so much better than him. The look she wore when she started talking about how she 'knew him better than he knew himself' as if she didn't only know that because she was a manic stalker.

"Of course you did. You grabbed my face like a little maniac-"

"You were strangling me!"

"-And yelled, and now we're here! Of course it was you, Conduit. Now take us back."

Lloyd stepped back. "And let you get your hands on the Realm Crystal? Absolutely not. And I'm not letting you kill Akita either."

She smirked, placing a hand on her hip. "Oh, riiiiight. I forgot! She's for you to kill, my bad. That is what you two have been doing, right? You know, between all the screaming and betrayal and, oh yeah, knives, I was under the impression you didn't give a fuck if the mutt died."

Lloyd glanced away, flushing. He hated it when she did this, talked in circles around him like he was an idiot. He hated how familiar it was. Every single thing he'd ever found endearing or sweet or funny about Harumi had become some horrific reminder of what a terrible person his best friend was.

Oh, but of course, she never was his best friend. She was his stalker, manipulator, would-be kidnapper and abuser. Not his friend. Not even fucking close.

"Doesn't matter," he spat. "Even if I wanted to, I have no idea how."

Harumi made an angry sound. "Your power is wasted on you," she snarled. Before he could back up, she stalked over and snatched his wrist. He tugged at it, trying to twist out of her hold, but it was iron-tight.

Harumi didn't say another word, turning on her heel as she stalked down the hall. Lloyd dragged his feet, tugging against her grip. "Let me go!" He grunted, beating his fist against her wrist. Her eye twitched, but she didn't spare him a glance. Her bright pink nails dug into his skin.

"Shut up, Conduit," she snapped, "I'm getting the hell out of here, and then you're coming with me. I have not been chasing you all over the goddamn country just for some paltry little trick to stop me from getting what I want."

Lloyd glowered, but stopped fighting. He was sore all over, and pretty confident he had a concussion. He resented it, but Harumi never took no for an answer. He followed her down the hall.

The noise they heard earlier gradually grew louder, more repetitive. It was weird. Lloyd swallowed, glancing at the dark shadows of the hall from the corner of his peripherals.

"Where are we, Harumi?"

She sighed. "I don't know."

"Yes you do."

"Fine!" She snapped, whipping around. Pink eyes, bordered by the black sclera they shared, glared at him. "Yes, I know where we are, but it makes no fucking sense! This isn't the real world, and I have no idea how we are where we are, or where we actually are!"

Lloyd took the chance to snatch his hand back. "Then where are we?!"

"Fuck, don't you ever listen?!" Harumi crowded up into his face. This time, he refused to duck back. He was so tired of letting her push and push. So this time, they end up inches from each other's noses. "I. Don't. Know." She hissed. In the light, her red face paint looks like real blood. "You grabbed me, and said my name, and now we're here. So, Conduit, why don't you. Tell. Me."

Lloyd glared right back, hatred seething under his skin. It could be nothing but hatred. The other options are too painful.

He really does want to believe that the rest of the team can handle everything, but he doesn't. Not that he has no faith in them, but Harumi, as irritating as she is, is usually right when she's not lying out of her ass. They're not in the real world. How could they be? They were just fighting each other in the middle of the woods, in the temple. And now they're, what, underground? It made no sense.

So… he had done something. This was the result of his powers. Again.

He backed up, dropping the glare. He thought for a moment. He usually only yelled names like that for his ghosts when he needed their power boosts. But with Harumi… he'd been woozy from the strangulation. He couldn't remember what he'd been thinking, or if he'd only yelled out of desperation.

"Wait," he said, lifting his head. Harumi gave him an irritated 'go on' gesture. "I… when I yell the names of ghosts, I sometimes get their memories. Or, well, emotions. From when they died."

Harumi pinched the bridge of her nose. "Fucking moron. I'm not a ghost, and this isn't a fucking-" the noise from down the hall returned. Harumi paused. She stared at the floor, gaze far aware.

Lloyd craned his neck, trying to catch her gaze. "Harumi?"

"…memory," she whispered. Suddenly she straightened, neck snapping as she stared down the corridor. Her wide eyes were locked on the dim lighting emitting from the end of the hall. The same noise echoed down the stone. Harumi's lips parted slightly. "No," she hissed, "not this one."

Without another word, she bolted down the hall. Lloyd balked, confused as hell. Harumi was obsessively one-track-minded. She'd done nothing but try and kidnap him for months, why would she run away from him?

Not away from him. Toward something.

Harumi was dead, once. She'd confessed as much in his grandfather's tomb, in his abandoned apartment. She had died, and was resurrected. Was the only person to ever be.

So how did those memories work?

Lloyd ran down the hall, chasing Harumi's back. The sounds grew louder, the dim light brighter, until he emerged in a large circular room with a tall dome ceiling. He slowed to a halt, looking around. It was at least two stories large and lined in bleachers, like the ones in the pictures of the acropolis his mom showed him. They were packed with people, each one with a dark hood over their head, shadowing their faces against dark figures.

What really caught his attention was the kid.

A girl, no older than thirteen, was shackled to the ground in the very center of the chamber. Her hands were bound by thick vengestone cuffs, giving her barely five inches of lead. She wore a plain white nightgown that did nothing to protect her from the damp cold. She was gagged. The noise came from her, scared little whimpers as she stared through the strands of her stringy brown hair at the crowd gathered.

Harumi stood, frozen, at a pillar. She was staring at the girl, eyes wide. Not panicked or surprised, just wide and almost… in shock. The kind of shock people experienced after natural disasters where they got that dead-eyed look in their face.

"Harumi?" He said quietly. "What is this?"

She didn't respond to him. She just stared at the girl. "Not this one," she whispered to herself. "Not this one."

He looked back to the girl. "Is this you?" He asked, stepping closer. Harumi was unpredictable, these days, like a bomb that was constantly active. There was no way to defuse her, but there were ways to make her even more explosive. "Is this your memory?"

He's interrupted by a loud, yet somehow soft voice. "My family," it says, carrying over the entire chamber. Lloyd flinches, trying to place it. Harumi stiffens, her hand digging into the pillar.

"I have gathered you for a very disappointing announcement," the voice, male, continues. "It has been brought to my attention that Dove Elizabeth Hollister," the girl bound to the floor flinched violently, "Has committed a truly heinous appropriation of our rules."

The voice makes itself seen. A man, tall and thin with an angular face and deep purple eyes and black sclera. Liminal, then. He was dressed in a strange black and purple robe set, like an old-timey priest, save for the hat. His hair was slick and oily, smoothed down over his skull.

Harumi's hand shook at the sight of him. Despite himself, Lloyd found himself shifting to place his body between the man and Harumi.

The girl on the ground shook too, whining as he drew closer. Lloyd wanted to do something, but he knew he couldn't. This was a memory. There was nothing to be done.

"Who is that?" He hissed.

"The Overlord," Harumi said quietly.

"Pretentious name, isn't it?"

"He's a pretentious guy."

The man paced, projecting his voice for the whole chamber to hear. "This girl has brought outside knowledge to our protected home! She has brought taint and rot to our place of worship, and in doing so, defied our God and Her ordinances." Murmuring flowed through the crowd, whispering dissent. The Overlord nodded sagely. "Yes, yes! She has dissented, defied, denied our God's teachings. She has brought what would have tainted us all, had this not been brought to light."

The murmuring grew louder, and Dove shook in place. Tears pooled in big brown eyes. She had white sclera. She wasn't Liminal. Why was she here?

The Overlord raised his hands, quieting the talking. "Yes, yes, I understand! But, please, my friends and family, listen to my words. Is there not regret?" Dove looked up, hope shining in teary eyes. The Overlord nodding, circling the young girl. "There is! Regret, sorrow, repentance, even!' The man stood in front of the girl, looking down into her pale, tear-streaked face. He bent down, his face only inches from hers. His hand shot up, snatching her by the cheeks. She shrieked behind the gag. "Regret at being caught!" He yelled, and the chamber erupted in enraged yelling.

Voices overlapped, echoing in the dark room. Yells, jeers, insults thrown at the girl chained to the ground. Anxiety slowly curdled in Lloyd's stomach.

This was Harumi's memory, but that girl wasn't Harumi. So where was Harumi?

He glanced at her. She hadn't even twitched, still enraptured in the scene before them.

Why 'not this one'?

Lloyd swallowed, and turned back to the memory.

The Overlord had stood back up again, his face passive as he looked down at the girl from the tip of his nose. "That's right," he said. "Dove here is not the one who brought such dissent and disobedience to my attention! She had no intention of bringing it to attention! This girl has misbehaved for all the time she's been here, a dissenter since the beginning. This, this horrible and incorrigible act, only proves the existence of the rot that has taken place in her soul! A rot she would have spread to the rest of you!" He spun, spreading his arms to the crowd gathered. They murmured amongst one another, anxious and quiet.

The Overlord smiled, nodding along. "Yes, I thought the same. How could she do such a thing? Are we not a family, formed by the love and truth brought by our God? But that is what made me reconsider." Dove blinked, newfound hope finding a place in her eyes. Harumi's nails dug into the pillar.

"For we are a merciful family, for what is death but merciful? So, I considered mercy. Do we not all misstep, in our youth? Stumble, along the path to the truth, tempted by taint created by a world shrouded in lies? Can we blame the girl? After all, is it not difficult to discern the truth from lies, when you have never been told a lie?"

"This is insane," Lloyd muttered, shaking his head as he backed up. He glanced at Harumi. "W-we need to leave," he whispered. They're still enemies, and he's still planning on killing her when they get out of here, but he doesn't want to be here any more than she apparently does.

Harumi doesn't acknowledge him at all. She just keeps staring. Lloyd has no idea how he would leave anyways, so he sighs and crosses his arm, gripping the rough fabric of his jacket.

"The world pastes over the truth with lies and sugarcoated candies," the Overlord preaches, pacing around Dove's crouched body. "But our God, our Eminent Preeminent, has never told us a lie! Every word, beautiful or sad, is the truth. Can we blame the child, for asking the same of the world?"

The crowd murmurs, nodding in agreeance. The Overlord, who Lloyd is really starting to hate just based off of vibes, smiles and presses a sincere hand to his chest. "It was these questions and considerations that led me to choose mercy. For what is death, but mercy?"

Lloyd's brows furrowed at those words. Why had he said it like that?

The Overlord turned to face them. Lloyd flinched, but he wasn't looking at them. He was looking past them, into the dark hall.

Wait a minute. This was Harumi's memory. They'd both appeared in that hall.

Had he missed something?

"It was not Dove who brought this transgression to my attention, no," the Overlord said, "but a child gifted to us through tragedy. A child who knows the repercussions of lies. Quiet One, step forward."

Lloyd's breath caught in his throat as he whipped his head around. His eyes went wide at the sight. A young girl, younger than Dove, stepped out of the shadows. She was barefoot, and wearing a simple white dress and overcoat. Her hair was a similar white, bangs hanging over pink eyes bordered by black sclera.

That was Harumi. That's where she came in.

A traitor, just like she'd always been.

Dove's eyes went wide at the sight of Harumi, flooded by betrayal first. Then came the rage. The girl shrieked behind her gag, lunging forward despite her unforgiving chains.

The small version of Harumi stood uncertainly in the archway. The real Harumi, sixteen, choked on her own breath. She stared at the smaller version of herself, twitching.

"Not this one," she whispered in a strangled voice. "Goddammit, not this one."

"Harumi?" Lloyd said. His chest felt tight. Everything here felt all wrong. Something very, very bad was about to happen. And despite everything, the stalking and manipulating and gaslighting and kidnapping and murder and Brad Tudabone, he still didn't want anything bad to happen to Harumi. He still loved her too much.

Not enough to stop trying to kill her. But enough to really, really not want to.

The Overlord extended his hand, ignoring the furious shrieks of the girl beneath him. "Yes. The Quiet One knows the tragedy lies bring. But from that tragedy, we have been given a gift." The Overlord stepped forward, taking the young Harumi under his hand. He placed it on her back, spreading the other arm to the crowd gathered as if presenting her. "Not the one we have been looking for-" Lloyd's blood curdled. The Conduit. "-But a gift nonetheless. A gift, to make us pure again when we misstep. To put tainted souls to good use, so that even in dissent, we may serve Her Eminence. A path… to absolution."

The Overlord reached into his robes, drawing out a long, sharp vengestone dagger. The memory of Harumi looked confused, scared, as he pressed the handle into her thin fingers. She looked up, questioning silently.

The Overlord shook his head sadly, pressing that faux sincere to his breast. "It pains me, truly, to admit. But alive… Dove cannot be saved. She has no intention of genuine repentance, and no love for the home we have here. There are many punishments for dissent, but I have chosen the path of mercy for our misguided child. The path on which she will serve the Preeminent… by serving our Mistress' young chosen."

Harumi and Dove stared at one another, frozen as their eyes met across the room. The white-haired girl clutched the knife close to her chest. Dove's hands clawed at the chains binding her to the ground.

A sacrificial lamb.

No.

Lloyd stared at Harumi's memory. She was young. Innocent. Doe eyes wide in fear. Dove wasn't the lamb — Harumi was.

The real Harumi spun, bracing her hand against the pillar she stood beside, her other hand coming up to block her face from view. She trembled, staring wide-eyed at the ground with the same far-away look. "No, no no no…" she mumbled to herself.

The Overlord pushed the young memory of Harumi forward. The girl stumbled, legs trembling. She looked back, questioning.

The Overlord nodded. "Take it, Quiet One," he commanded, "And put her body and soul to good use."

Harumi looked back at Dove. The other girl trembled, slowly shaking her head in fear. The Overlord held up a hand, then, stopping them both. "Of course, we are merciful. So, in the interest of such…" He moved behind Dove, and waved a flippant hand. The gag around Dove's mouth melted away. "I will allow her her last words."

Dove wasted no time. "You SNITCH!"

The Overlord tsked, shaking his head. "How unfortunate." He leveled Harumi with a cruel look. "Quiet One. Now."

Harumi slowly advanced on Dove, holding the knife between her two hands. Dove screamed, struggling against her binds. They offered her no room to back away, but she didn't let up. The cuffs chafed against her raw wrists, smearing blood over pale skin. "You snitch, you snitch, you told on me you- no, no!" Dove's bare feet scrabbled against the stone as she flailed to get away. The memory of Harumi kept walking.

"It was a comic!"Dove screamed. "It was just a comic, I wasn't doing anything wrong, it was a fucking- I just wanted to read Spider-Man! I just wanted to read a comic, stop! Stop, stop!"

Harumi's memory spoke for the first time. "Stop talking," she whispered. Lloyd's arm wrapped around his stomach, the other covering his mouth. He felt sick.

Dove didn't stop talking. She shrieked, "SNITCH! You little fucking snitch, you brat, you tattled on me! How could you- you fucking snitch!"

The knife in Harumi's grip shook at her side. "Stop talking."

The real Harumi dry heaved, a broken wheeze cracking out from her blood-red lips. Lloyd backed away.

Dove kicked out when Harumi got too close, shrieking. She was sobbing now, fresh tears and snot pouring down her face. A ghostly hand snaked up from the floor and snatched both of Dove's ankles, holding her down. Lloyd's breath became strangled.

"NO!" Dove screamed, "you snitch, you snitch, you little fucking snitch snitch snitch snitch-!"

Harumi heaved again at his side. Her hand came up to her throat as she breathed heavily, panting. Dove kept screaming and crying. The white-haired child kept shaking.

"Stop. Talking."

"SNITCH SNITCH SNITCH YOU SNITCH-!"

Something in Harumi cracked. Her face contorted in rage, and the knife in her hand raised high above her head. Dove screamed bloody murder. Harumi screamed right back.

"BE QUIET!"

The knife came down and buried itself in Dove's collarbone. Harumi, at Lloyd's side, whined.

Lloyd's eyes slammed shut as he stumbled back again. The sound, though, did not disappear behind closed eyes. He could hear it all in perfect clarity. The knife plunged in, and the distinct sound of blood sprayed up. Dove screamed, gurgling in the back of her throat. Harumi's memory kept screaming.

"QUIET! BE QUIET!"

The Quiet One.

Lloyd had built up a tolerance for the grotesque. He'd seen desecrated corpses, reanimated rotting carcasses, the horrific remains of ghosts and their final moments. He looked at Kai's burned form, bubbling with pockets of pus, every day. He looked at Nya's bloated, drowned face, pouring water from her mouth, every day. He saw Zane's gruesome frostbite scars, and Jay's singed corpse, and Cole's caved-in head, brain splattered across his face. He'd grown desensitized to the dead to the point where he barely noticed his friends were dead. Hell, crazy shit had happened to him. He'd had his radius ripped out, had been possessed by his own cousin, had broken bones and ripped organs fighting the Quiet One and Red. And still he wanted to gag.

The dagger went down, again and again as Harumi pulled it out of Dove's corpse and shoved it back in. Lloyd's breath came in strangled and tight.

Finally, the sound stopped. Both Liminal teens stood still, breathing heavily. Harumi, at Lloyd's side, wiped her mouth with the back of her trembling hand. Tears burned her pink irises.

Lloyd opened his eyes, chancing a look. The corpse of the girl had been brutalized. Her guts spilled from her chest, bloody entrails dying her dress red. Her eyes were still open, staring up at the ceiling. Harumi, the memory, was bent over. Her hands were locked around the handle of the dagger, still buried in Dove's collar. The girl shook, sucking in ragged breaths through an open mouth.

The crowd had dispersed. It was Harumi's memory — had she forgotten the presence of the cultists, or had they left? Had that much time really passed?

The Overlord remained. The man rested a large hand on Harumi's shoulder. Then that hand moved to cradle her head, stroking snow-white hair. The young girl slowly wound down, her shoulders untensing.

Then that hand tightened, and pressed down. Harumi's memory tensed again, tightening her arms to hold herself up in a surprising show of strength. She gasped, looking back as much as she could with the hand holding her head in place. "Wh-what-?"

"Eat, Quiet One."

Harumi puked. Lloyd gagged, pressing a fist to his mouth. The entire day has been too much, and this is the icing on the cake. God, no. No.

Eat her? Eat her?

"I like mine rare."

The way the Quiet One was bone-thin. The way Harumi never ate unless they were at his house, the place she confessed she loved. The dinner table where Uncle Wu sat them all down and made pho.

Eat her?!

Lloyd looked up. Harumi's memory was staring wide-eyed at her murder victim. The real Harumi had turned around. They both watched on. Lloyd, on the ground, Harumi standing to his left. And between their figures several feet apart, kneeling in the middle of a sacrificial altar, Harumi Hutchins bores down on her victim.

"Wait," Harumi whispered. "Wait, please. I- I can't. I can't eat Dove."

The Overlord tsked. "I expect better from you. You killed her, child. Now finish the job."

"N-no, wait," Harumi strained against the hand holding her down. "Please, I can't. Please don't make me." Lloyd's vision swam. In all the time he'd known her, he'd never, not once, heard Harumi beg. In fact, the closest she'd ever gotten was his grandfather's tomb, screaming and demanding that he return to the cult with her. Pouring her entire soul out, baring herself just for him to panic and run. And even then, she hadn't begged.

Harumi Hutchins did not beg. She demanded, and took, and pushed you out of her way until she had what she wanted. But she did not beg.

The memory of the girl whimpered. "Please. D-Dove was my friend, I love her, I- please don't make me eat her."

The Overlord tutted. "How disappointing. After three years, I thought you'd have learned. Have you not learned from your parents, Quiet One? If you don't eat her, her soul will remain broken. You will be dooming her to agony. When the Preeminent comes and gives us Heaven, it is Dove alone who will be left behind, because you are too selfish to finish what you started."

Harumi whined, shaking her head. "I didn't mean it! I- I just wanted to protect her-"

The Overlord sighed. "I see. I have been too lenient, I understand now." He pet her hair, fingers snagging the tangles in her hair, a clear threat. Harumi shook under him, but leaned into the touch. The real Harumi's fists clenched. "I have coddled you. I thought you had learned, after that little mongrel you brought in. A mongrel I was kind enough to allow you to keep, in a much purer form. I thought we were past this. But you are still acting like a child. It's my fault — I've coddled you too much, lent you too much leniency. I intend to rectify this now."

He shoved Harumi's head down further. The girl held herself up, arms shaking. She was forced to take a hand from the dagger, bracing it against the bloody shoulder blade of her dead friend. She gasped, face hovering over the strewn entrails.

"No, no no no-"

"Now, Quiet One," the Overlord growled. "Or you will be punished."

Harumi's eyes flicked frantically. Her breath came in short, strangled bursts as she stared at the guts under her.

"No!"

The memory shoved herself away, rolling out from under the overbearing hand. She stood, shaking. "I won't," she said. Her voice came out quiet and warbling. "I won't eat her."

Lloyd looked between her and the Overlord. Back and forth. One pale face, scared and tiny, streaked with tears. One sallow face, hard and angular with cruelty.

The Overlord sighed through his nose. He stood straight, drawing himself up to tower over her. He placed on hand behind his back and raised the other. His thin, narrowed eyes glared down at the girl. "I hope you know," he whispered, "that you made me do this. You could have ended this night with a warm bath. I would have let you play that music you like, given you the tea you like, and you would have gone to sleep in your bed. Now, you have forced me to punish you." He shook his head sadly. "So unfortunate, that some lessons must be learned the hand way."

He snapped his fingers. Ghastly, dripping black hands rose from the floor. Shades. Lloyd gaped as they snagged around the young girl's arms and legs. She shrieked, tugging away, but they didn't let up. The sharp claws of ghosts tore at her clothes and skin, ripping away at the minimal fabric covering her.

Lloyd turned his face away before he could see the rest. The young girl bled from numerous scratches, shivering in the cold room, stripped naked. Harumi didn't avert her eyes from the sight. She just stared at her younger self, eye twitching.

The memory hugged herself, shrinking away as the Overlord stepped forward. Her bottom lip trembled.

The Overlord showed no emotion. "You made me do this. Remember that, Quiet One. You're wasting her."

His hand shot out, snagging the girl by her hair. He dragged her, kicking and screaming bloody murder, out of the chamber. The corpse, tugged along by the Veil energy the Overlord commanded, followed.

The door banged shut, and the echoes of Harumi's screams faded away. The room melted around them, leaving them in a void of blackness.

Lloyd panted. Shakily, he turned to Harumi. She hadn't moved, still staring after a sight that had dissipated. Lloyd slowly approached her, bridging the gap.

"Harumi," he whispered. She didn't acknowledge him. "R-Rumi, god, I- I'm so sorry. I get it now. This— fuck, this wasn't your fault. What they did to you, fuck, it's so messed up. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I should've tried to understand—"

He babbled, words falling from chapped lips. All this time- fuck, all this time. He's so tired. He wants to go home.

"Please, Rumi, we can leave. Let's leave, okay? I'll explain everything to Akita, and she'll understand, I swear. We can leave! We can forget everything and go home. I'll take you away from them, I can take you away from this place. I'm the Conduit, I can protect you, I can keep you safe."

He took her hand, standing in front of her. He tried to catch her dead gaze, but even as he placed himself right in front of himself, she didn't look at him. She stared right through him, like he wasn't even there. He cupped her cheek. He grew desperate, too tired and sick and sore to keep this up. "Rumi, we can go now. I'll tell 'Kita, and we can go home. Please, let's go now. Let's go home-"

A sound, behind him. He froze. Slowly, he turned.

He hadn't even realized that the scene had changed, leaving them in a pitch black cell. The small form of Harumi's past self was crouched over a rotted carcass, fiercely tearing away at the flesh. She shoved tendons and sinew down her throat, slurping down slimy entrails. She heaved through it, barely pausing to chew as she chewed through organs.

Lloyd puked.

He bent over, falling to his hands and knees as he retched. The memory kept tearing at the skin and flesh, burying her face in the shoulder blades. Lloyd gasped, dry-heaving.

Harumi stepped over him, looking down at herself. Lloyd gagged, shutting his eyes against the sound and smell. Harumi remained quiet. Then, she glanced over her shoulder. Bright pink eyes shone in the darkness.

"Do you?" Harumi whispered. It's the first words she's spoken since, well, everything. "Do you get it?"

Lloyd says nothing. How could he?

"You don't," she says lowly. Fists ball at her sides. "Because if you did, you would come with me. You would understand. You would help me. You would help fix it. It was never- never Dove who needed fixing, don't you get it?"

Lloyd swallowed back the taste of bile. "Rumi…"

She turned all the way around, bearing down on him. "It was me," Harumi snapped, like he hadn't said anything at all. "It was me. D-Dove didn't need fixing, I did! Because I was forgetting, and slipping. It wasn't a punishment, it was motivation! Because my parents weren't enough, and the fucking cat wasn't enough, and I had to be reminded!"

"Harumi, please. W-what they did to you, I- I'm so sorry, but I can- I can get you out. I'll help you, and we'll tell Akita, and we'll go home." Lloyd reached for Harumi's hand. He wants to be done, now. He wants to take his friends and go home.

But she snatches her hand back. He thinks that's the moment he loses her.

"I had to be reminded," she said coolly. "Don't you get it? My- my parents, the cat, Dove, your boss and fucking- fucking Brad Tudabone, they aren't normal! They aren't like ghosts or poltergeists or shades or Hauntings or any inane fucking word you want to use for a dead person. They are husks. They are empty, soulless husks, and they are broken. They, because I killed them, every person I killed and ate, are doomed to eternal purgatory! They are doomed to agony in hell! Everybody I have ever killed, every body I took, every face I took and wore and spoke with is doomed to hell in my body!" Her voice cracked as it rose, louder and louder until she's practically screaming in raw, halted desperation. "Everybody and every body is in hell in my body, my body is HELL to everybody and every BODY! I am HELL!"

She has him cornered. He falls back in his scramble to get away from the ticking time bomb, and she stands over him, ragged and insane. Harumi Hutchins is insane. Her white hair is wild, strewn over a bloody face.

"I need to," she said, chest heaving, "to fix it. To fix them. To make them whole under the Veil, and make me real again, and get all these bodies out of my fucking body. I need to. I- I have doomed everybody I ever killed to hell in my body while I steal their bodies." Her trembling hand clutched the collar of her shirt. "To make them whole again. The- the Preeminent will fix them. She will. It's the only way to make myself good again."

Lloyd shook his head, dumbfounded. "Harumi, you can't believe that," he whispered. "After what we just saw? You can't believe a word of that."

"That my body is hell? I believe it."

"Rumi, you're not hell-"

"I AM!" She screamed. A boot came up and slammed down on his chest. Lloyd grunted, falling back. She slowly pressed more and more weight onto the foot holding him down as she spoke. "I am hell to every single body and soul that I have ever murdered and cannibalized, but I will make it right and good, because I am going to unite everybody under the Veil of Death. You are going to activate the Realm Crystal, and you will bring forth the Preeminent, and She is going to make me real and whole again." She laughed, then, a broken cracked thing. "She is going to be God, and you will be God, and I. Will be God."

Lloyd heaved, his hands locked around her ankle. "You-" he wheezed, eyes wide as he stared at her. All this time… he'd really believed there was something in there to save. He'd really thought that there was some sliver of humanity in the Quiet One, that she wasn't as evil as she acted. It really proved just how good a liar she was. "You're insane."

Harumi's insane look slowly narrowed. He'd forgotten. As completely insane as she was, she was calculating and cold. And driven. That one-track mind… it really would kill them all.

She let out a breathless laugh, wheezing as it tapered off. "Oh, Conduit. I thought you trusted my judgment."

Before he can even blink, Harumi snatches him by the collar of his shirt and jerks him up. Her own head comes down, and she slams their foreheads together with a sickening CRACK! For the second time that night, everything goes dark.

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