42

The demon finally falls after you embed the fork in its chest, where the heart is. Even in **** the creature remains fearsome, a huge mass of dense powerful muscles and solid bones. Had you not weakened it the battle might have been disastrously one-sided.

The air thins, it gets cooler, and the light reverts to that of the twin moons both full. You can no longer see very well, but you can smell the dead creature before you, its blood reeking of some strange hormones.

“Mortimer?” Elia calls from outside, “Are you alright? Did you kill it?”

“Yes.” you call back, before fumbling around for a door into the garden.

“Jolly good. I’m hurt. I think I broke a leg.”

You find the door and emerge outside. In the moonlight you can see her clearly, lying in the wreckage of the window she was thrown out of. You hold out your hand and she takes it. From there you make it back into the house three legged, she hanging her weight on your shoulder while hopping along beside you, directing you to a spare bedroom on the ground floor.

She’s behaving strangely by the time you arrive at her bedside to be. At first she sounded like she was in pain, as she should be with a broken leg, but now the moans and short breaths have taken on a different colour. She’s also touching you a lot more than she really needs to. When you try to lower her on the bed and let go, she clings to you. You can’t see her face very well, but you imagine she looks puzzled. And then it dawns on you.

Whatever strange smelling substance got in the air when you killed the demon must be affecting her, although why it would take this particular bent you don’t know, nor why it isn’t affecting you.

“Mortimer,” she calls half under her breath, all thought of her broken leg lost to the night, “stay with me the rest of the night. I don’t want to be alone. What will I do without someone to protect me if another monster visits us?”

Her words make some sort of sense, but the tone is off. She wants a lot more than simple protection. What do you do?

If you wish to take advantage of the dead demon’s mind-altering scent while you can and do as Elia apparently desires, turn to 57. If you prefer to try and wait till she’s sane again, turn to 72.