The Daemon

Yes/No (Likely) - [6,1] Yes, but… while Lavorra escapes, Kurt isn’t so lucky

—

It bursts from the tree-line not quite ten feet from them, a cartwheel of too many limbs.

It hurts to look at, but Lavorra knows a Daemon when she sees one. She catches a glimpse of a pulpy core of flesh surrounded by many grasping and scrabbling arms, which end in huge, long-fingered hands.

Lavorra stumbles back, but keeps her cool. Oddly, after all the torments of today, her courage remains firm in the face of the hideous beast.

It scuttles towards her, feeling through the air with two of its hideous hands, and Lavorra ducks prematurely as its digits sweep forward in her direction. She glances at Kurt, still laying in the dirt, his eyes bulbous and locked on the beast.

“I can hear what it wants because we come from the same place, it and me. We have the same fathers.” He descends into an incoherent babble, then gurgles as Lavorra grabs him by the collar, hauling him after her as she backs away.

Despite everything, despite how much she wants him dead, she can’t leave him for the creature.

He squirms and she hisses at him to stay quiet and to help her. The creature seems to be blind, not immediately tracing them.

“There was a boy who used to pick snails out of puddles. But now he likes to choke and slap and take and -“

Kurt’s latest string of nonsense is cut short as the beast snaps around in their direction and lunges.

One moment, Lavorra is dragging the bandit along with her. The next, her front is splattered with a spray of blood, and Kurt’s limp body is being hoisted into the air by the Daemon.

She slams a hand over her mouth to catch her scream, managing a strangulated squeak. As the Daemon makes its sport of thrashing and stomping Kurt’s body amidst keening screeches, she turns about, and begins to walk slowly towards the tree line. With every step she takes, she expects to feel Daemonic hands smashing down on her back, but her bare feet move softly and quietly over the ground, spiriting her away from the horrors of the camp.

She passes into the trees, and then begins to run.