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Too long.

She'd been left waiting too long, and the forests had become loathsome, and unsavory. She felt more animal than human, stalking the silence and darkness in wait for the woman with the key to her return. She'd never been promised an exact date, but that did not soothe her impatience. Her hunger.

She hadn't shed the blood of a sentient being in a long, long time. She could hardly remember the sound of pure agony filling her mind with sweet, terrifying bliss. She couldn't live like this, anymore. She couldn't stand it another day. She needed to hurt someone. Anyone. She wasn't picky.

She moved on all fours now, never quite humanoid again. Her claws dug into the ground in silent pads, and her tentacles dragged on all sides of her, slithering like snakes in the grass. She waited, and watched, and breathed in the scent of the air that blew past them in the hopes that she would smell Amrita's return. Instead, she smelled something else. Someone else. Her heart leapt with something akin to joy, and yet never quite as happy.

She climbed silently up into the tree just long enough to see who it was in the clearing, and find the perfect spot to pounce. Her head tilted past the trunk and caught a glimpse of his face -

"You're blushing," he noted needlessly, one hand coming to her cheek and his thumb brushing over the flush of her skin.

No.

"Let me see you..." Yuki just hugged her gently around the shoulders, though, instead of using his free hand to coax her face up and potentially seeming even the slightest demanding.

NO.

Some of us should stay together." He met her gaze in wordless suggestion, hoping that he could coax her to come with him. He could try and help her if they kept close. If she wasn't ready for the fight, he didn't want her to be alone and unprotected.

It COULDN'T be.

"Yuki," he replied, an easy smile returning as he looked toward the 'shy' Riley.

She screamed, but he would never hear it. What he might have heard, however, was the sound of her noisily, clumsily falling right out of the tree onto her a**.

He was not supposed to exist. HE was not supposed to EXIST.

A loud, audible hissing left her tentacles, as she scurried backwards until she was as far away from him as she could manage. She could see his eyes, she could hear his voice, and she wanted to trample it all into the ground until he was nothing but red, red and death and non-existence.

Don't you dare touch me. She hissed out dangerously into his mind. Come another step closer and I will slit your throat and tear your core apart. There was a tremble in her voice, for one single split second - but it was enough for her to hear it, and screech with disgust. She launched herself at him on all fours, bearing down until her tentacles snapped with surprising accuracy on every one of his appendages. She wrapped them around his arms, legs, and neck, securing him until she was confident she had him.

Then, and only then, did she calm down.

She was still several feet away from him - her tentacles were the length of her entire body, and they held him at a distance. In the silence, she breathed - hard and heavy, visible by the way her chest heaved. She just glared at him, her white eyes flashing with anger.

Yuki. Her voice was sinister now, sinuous and sickeningly sweet. What an unpleasant surprise.

Well. She did wish for someone to hurt.

Oh, but it was rich. Fate had destined that she would recognize him instantly, without the trouble of being recognized, herself. It was perfect. Perhaps just a little too perfect, she scolded herself, as she edged closer. If she wasn't careful, something would click, and she would be forced to end her little game. She refused to toy with him if he could remember what they'd-

Her tentacles tightened at the mere thought of it.

Who I am is none of your concern. She hissed, as her tentacles flexed and lifted him up into the air. She looked up at what she'd caught, and forced herself to see nothing more than prey. Nothing more than a bag of flesh and fluid and Fear. Nothing - nothing - nothing -

Out of sheer frustration over how she was failing, she slammed him back down into the ground like a rag doll. She didn't want to remember the vile and unsavory acts his knight form had managed to coerce from hers. She would have spat on the ground she'd pinned him against if she'd had a mouth to do it with.

You should never have come here, Yuki. At the very least, she could make new memories to balance and replace those of another life, a life she'd never led. Her expression lifted in lieu of a smile, but there was no mirth in her quickly reddening eyes. Go on. Struggle. Make this more fun.

He accomodated, and she watched him squirm under the rigid hold of her living shackles, pushing and pulling until he weakened from despair. Her eyes closed and she breathed it in; the smell of his Fear coming off of him in waves. She was alarmed by how much she'd missed this. How much she'd missed torture.

The tentacles stopped giving him the space to struggle, suddenly tightening to steel-like grips in order to pin him on his back, in the shape of an X. She knelt down and used her knees to pin down his thighs, and suddenly her arms were resting against his chest. She pressed her chin down against them, and watched.

She watched him like a cat watching the mouse under it's paw stir.

It's too late for that now. She murmured, crescenting her eyes with content. I've waited too long to find someone, but oh, to have it be you. It's almost too good to be true.

One arm snaked out from where she was resting on it, and her claws curved dangerously up to rest on his cheek.

Sweet little Yuki. She chuckled out. I wonder if you bleed sugar.

With one snap of her hand, the claws had curved, digging into the flesh of his cheek. She trailed them down, slowly; slow enough to enjoy the moment. Look at me, ruining your pretty - little - face.

They stopped at the curve of his lips, and her attention focused there. Her hand pulled away as if she'd been burned by scalding fire, and her eyes swirled with a dangerous, bloody red. Perhaps I should cut your lips off and take them as a keepsake. Then you will kiss no more.

She actually stopped, when he screamed it. This wasn't because she had plans to leave him be, but simply because she wanted to give him hope, over and over, just so she could crush it again.

So she shifted, sitting up straight and placing her hands on his chest. I might. I might decide to let you leave, and never see you again. Maybe I will do that. Is that really what you want?

With one long claw, she ran down the middle of his chest, stopping at the hard bone plate that protected his heart. Wherever it had touched, she'd torn through the fabric. But there, she shifted her finger just slightly, under her claw pressed against the skin just under the rib his heart thudded under. She could feel it fluttering, panicking, against her touch. It was a dead heart, one that only lived and bled out of Fear, and that did not change how badly she wanted to puncture through it.

Or I could keep you here, like this. Take you apart, piece by piece, until your body finally gives up and flutters away. It would have to be little pieces, if I didn't want it to end too soon. Kill him, the hunger whispered. You don't want to play. You don't want to toy with him like the others. Kill him now, while you have the chance. Tear his core apart until there is nothing left but the memories.

She carved a symbol against the skin of his chest, all curves and sharp edges. It was her symbol, but it wasn't a demon mark. She only carved it from his flesh to see it there, for a moment.

Then the light touches ceased, and all five of the claws of her hand scraped across the marking, turning it ragged with blood.

No. She growled, both to him and to the voices. You have done nothing. And you will do nothing. I will give you nothing. Stop asking.

She came down upon him again, her hand clutched around his neck.

Do you hear me, Yuki? Stop. Asking. I would rather kill you a thousand times than remind you.

She sensed how dangerously close he was coming to realize who his assaulter was, and the grip around his neck tightened as a warning. Don't say it, her claws silently warned him. Don't say it, don't think it, don't make it worse.

The name left his lips and her response was tangible; the screech of an animal vibrating in his mind, loud and painful. Several tentacles snapped out like whips, and then dug down deep into the ground around his head, burrowing each time they stabbed close enough to whistle the air against his ears. She let go of his arms, and her elbow rested on his windpipe, forcing him into silence.

You do not get to say that name. You do not get the privilege of speaking my name. When you say it, you speak of her, and she does not exist. Speak it again, and I will have your tongue. Perhaps I will have it anyway. One tentacle slid to capture it, by force. It wouldn't take much to twist, and rip his tongue out of his mouth.

I am not her. You know that, don't you. You know that the sickeningly sweet little insect your other self plundered does not exist. She wanted peace. All I want, all I truly desire is to see the life leaving someone's eyes. So tell me again, Yuki.

She flicked something off of her breastplate. It fell silently into the grass, and disappeared. As soon as it was gone, she sound of bones breaking began to snap from where the flat plane of her face was. The muscles writhed and moved in angry, ugly ways underneath her skin. A tear opened, jagged across her face like a poor imitation of a mouth, but even that did not stop writhing for long. The transformation was less pronounced along the lines of her body, but they too rolled and altered, turning less feminine and more muscled. Still, it would be difficult to notice when the horror of what her face was transforming into continued up to completion. A mouth, lined with several long, circular rows of needle sharp teeth, gnashed underneath a full set of tentacles on her face now.

She leaned in, uncomfortably close.

"Tell me who I am."

It was an unfair request to make, after all.

The look on Yuki's face was worth submitting herself to his proximity. She could taste his Fear in the air, and thrilled at how it only made her stronger. She would have thrilled still, if it wasn't for his attempt to bite down on her tentacle. The screeching was back, as it pulled away from him and nearly took his tongue with it - but instead of fighting her off as he'd been doing before, Yuki was trying to scramble away, desperate for anything but to be there.

She watched him scramble, and waited for the inevitable surge of pleasure that came from seeing someone try to get away from her. She waited, and waited, and waited.

And it never came.

Her eyes slit thin and glared, instantly blaming him for her lack of enjoyment. She wanted nothing more than to tear his head off of his shoulders and watch his body disappear beneath her - but it was too soon to be so merciful. Too soon to let it end.

Why, then, did she want nothing more to do with this?

She pushed herself up off of him, but her hand was still clamped around his neck. His struggle had managed to get him turned enough to try and escape, if not for the hold she still had that kept his neck right where she wanted it. She leaned in again, this time beside his head, and whispered one single, hissing word.

"Run."

The claws opened up, and he was free.