The Face of Nox

Your hands entangled around Rudy's waist and she smiled as you pulled her up to her feet. Eyeing you with the start garnets of her orbs, Rudy looked you up and down, her long tongue licking the inside of her mouth as a long satisfied huff left her ruby lips "Aren't you just a rough and tumble mountain man." She moved in, wiping the block from her neck which pulsed with the black tendrils of your venom "I could just wrap you up in a little ball and stuff you right in there--"

Okay... Rudy was lucid, much more lucid than before... but still Rudy, her eyes only slightly twitched and her wide grin had little lust for blood quivering in each tooth.

Pushing your thumb across your lips, you tried to clear the haze, but could not skip that terrible feeling of good and bad mixed together "Can I tell you something?" You asked smoothly.

"I'm sure you can, but whether Rudy listens or not is debatable." Her wink was unsubtle, she clearly wasn't one for hiding certain feelings "...Rudy might just strip right here, I do love the way you drool over me like a puppy, Cowboy."

Well, all feelings apparently.

"Listen, try and focus, I think I understand now... You're not in control, whatever happened in that cave changed Rudy into the Wendigo. It's why You refer to Rudy in the third person, because You're not the real Rudy, at least not completely."

Rudenia lips burst from her face as she whistled like a songbird, skipping away towards the mask pile and placing a hand on the faceplates of twin masks, one light and one dark, one rigid, the other smooth, groping them deviously with wanton fingertips "Won't you look at this, I wish You'd do this to Rudy."

Marching over, you took Vulcan's arm gently, trying to show her how badly You wanted to understand "Rudenia, Please, try. Just... Tell me what happened to you in that cave. I want to help--" There was something on her face, a cool, focus that lurched to be free, but instead of a facial expression, Rudy's scarred fingers went bone white as she gripped harshly on the twin masks.

The secret was laid bare, as a revelation overcame you. Both masks were true opposites, darkness and light made physical... and subtly she pulled the two apart, before pushing both together.

"Is it, some kind of separation? the Wendigo is the dark, Rudy is the light. But if whatever happened there split you in half and drove you crazy, what the hell happened to shatter you like that?" Your whisper was low but sincere and the Wendigo's fingers flew into a flurry of movement.

Puncturing her thumb, Rudy painted a symbol expertly on both masks and with a click of her fingers uttered their destruction.

"Hellfire: Hot flash."

Erupting in a ferocious orange, the masks melted like wax into the steel of the table, malformed, blackening until only ashes remained.

A frown crossed your lips, the shadow of your mahogany hair whipping across your cheeks as you shook your head adamantly "I'm not gonna do that."

"Do what?" Rudy sneered with a strange knowing grin.

"I will not be responsible for your ****, there has to be a better way than destroying you."

The blonde smile deepened although... a long red tear slithered down her cheek and sorrow bloomed in her magenta orbs "I always enjoyed the thought of fire. Clean, unbiased, warm, like the sun, Rudy thought of bikinis and sunbathing many times but the Iron maiden shelters, it is her ball, chain, parasol. But You Cowboy are the sword of the Dusk. Rudy has heard whispers from those she lures within, and those she now calls family.

The Silver-bloods who adore their little crusade has named ya'll the Dark Sun, an unholy executioner, banished from **** but steeped in Blackfire. What better thing to finally help me awake under the morning sun?"

Pacing back and forth, you licked your lips anxiously "You don't understand, I'm not a murderer, I'm not a legend like the Black-Star, I'm just a kid... ah." the symphony of pain screamed despite pinching the bridge of your nose.

■ A lie, a twisted horrendous lie. ■

You continued to struggle against the Whisper "...I don't want to kill anyone, I don't want to kill you."

Rudy moved slowly, purposefully, and when she reached up to run her cratered thumb across your scared eyelid, the blonde stood on tiptoes to mutter to you "**** is not the end, killing is not your friend. We are only mud in a river of blood when the bloody moon descends."

The words were haunting and made your eyes throb, but Rudy took you by the fingers and pulled you through to the office, crowned with a grand armoire, tall four-posted bed... and a wall-mounted display case, lined with gold, crafted of ebony.

What hung within, past the clear panel of glass that closed the case off, rocked you to your core. It was like... an echo, your body moved of its own will, directing the fingers to click open the square panel with taloned fingers.

The face that looked back at you, hanging on hooks inside the display case was a beauty unlike any other that you had seen.

The Mask was multilayered, sharp and smooth; ridged on the top. The visor that curved inwards was black as night, shiny like it was made of dark crystal, extending into a snout-like upper jaw that ended in jagged teeth, the lower jaw was inter-connected to each temple and the bottom jaws, clamped together in a monstrously tight grin, were made of brilliant gold and shot down to complete the snout, Your eyes wondered on the pitch-black visor's circular lenses; etched with bloody runes.

But the icing on the cake was the top plates that extended from each part of the forehead. Twin horns of fullered black metal, smooth, tall and curved up towards the heavens in defiance.

When your pale fingers brushed the cold metal and gleaming Obsidian, it was just like touching an old friend, long lost who had abandoned you in a time of great need.

"We all have many faces, Cowboy, so many that finding the one that suits us most is a near-impossible task. But this face -- this one belongs to one and one alone, among a thousand face Rudy lives, and this is the one who peers above us all."

You felt her lips brush against your ear, a hand slipping under the neck of your shirt, to grab the subtly growing gem hidden inside, both the Crystal and the Locket, neither belonging to you, not truly.