Wretch [RP]

[Mugao]

Somewhere in the shadow, Mugao waits. The shadow brings a kind of comfort, a fleeting reprieve between torture and turmoil. Always at the edge of the shadow, in the cusp of light and darkness, there lies the threat of its failure cast into deep relief. It is inevitable that the time will come that all the world will know its shame... What has it done? Sometimes it remembers, and sometimes it only remembers that there is something there, clawing at the edges of darkness, fueling the fear and shame and madness.... and regret. The regret stings like a thousand hot needles in its gut, and it weeps silent, bitter tears.

A familiar, gentle hand reaches out of the darkness and cups his cheek. It is warm and soft. He looks up and she is there, smiling back at him. She wipes the tears from his cheeks. “Don't cry, brother. I know you did everything you could.” He nods slowly. Gradually, her smile is drained of its warmth and becomes an acerbic snarl. “Everything,” she hisses. “There wasn't anything more you could do...” Laughing, she points at him and mocks him, even as her skin becomes sallow, then gray, then begins to flake off her face like dry leaves. “Pathetic,” she howls as she's sucked into the blackness once more.

“Coward!”

The word echoes through the darkness, assaulting the poor creature from all sides. It curls into itself and wishes it could scream.

***

The shadow rouses Mugao from its sleep.

“There is something that you will do for me,” it commands. Mugao nods as the details emerge in its mind like fragments of a shipwreck fighting their way to the surface of a bog.

Now with purpose once again, Mugao smiles a cruel, hollow smile. It steps out of the shadow into the forest under the cover of night.

[Mugao]

Mugao breathes a sigh of relief (?...or something like it?), as it melts back into the shadows. For now, it will wait in sleep for the inevitable.

It's expressionless, black eyes flutter open and it searches the darkness for its invisible visitor. It knows what it is, but still Mugao is afraid. The Shadow caresses his face, and for a moment, he feels almost human again. He takes a deep breath, savoring the feeling of another's touch, even though he knows in the back of his mind, somewhere deep in the recesses of his being, that it is false. There is no other. There is only him, sitting in the dark somewhere, alone, afraid, and cold.

"You need to go to Saisaei," the Shadow whispers in his sister's voice. Mugao's face pinches up as bitter tears well up in his eyes. "I want you to meet this person...." she instructs, showing him a murky shadow-vision of the one whom he is to find. Mugao nods, hot tears streaming down his face. Why must you use her voice....? Mugao begs, shame burning in his heart.

"Because it suits me," the voice taunts, laughing. "Don't you think?"

Mugao crumples to the floor. His mind swimming in shame, he succumbs to the darkness.

Rising to its feet, Mugao slips once again into shadow, heading for Saisaei...