Tira forced open the door to Marron’s room with a swift, hard kick. It fell open and Tira entered the room. Inside, it was dark. She stumbled into the foot of the bed. Soemthing caught her eye on the bedspread. It was her journal.
Marron had been reading her journal! Or... had the monster been reading her journal? She didn’t know. She didn’t want to find out. Better never to raise the issue with Marron after this was all over... if everything turned out all right... It would... Wouldn’t it...?
She picked up her journal, and, with one more serach of the room, made ready to leave. Then a strong hand grabbed her wrist, and pulled her away.
“It’s never that easy, Tira,” he growled.
* * *
Back at the church, Aila was seraching through a trunk of scrolls. One crumbled as she touched it. “Oooh, I hope that wasn’t it,” she said through her teeth.
The next one she unrwapped was it. She showed it to Amorada, the old woman, and she said that, yes, it was the one. Now all they need do was wait.
* * *
Marron’s hand clamped over her mouth. She faught him, trying to push him away. His face was strange - the teeth were the monster’s and the nose was broken off, but his limbs were still his own. And sunken into the strange looking paperlike yellow skin were Marron’s own, deep, searching eyes. It was as though the transformation was half completed.
He pushed her against the wall, his hand across her mouth. She kicked, and writhed.
Something strange came over the monster’s face. “I’m fighting it, Tira...” Marron called out, in his own voice. Of course Marronwas fighting it! He was using his magic to delay the change, to try and force the monster out of his system.
“Look sharp, little girl,” he said in the other voice. As his tongue flicked in his mouth, Tira realized that his tongue was changing. It was shrinking, becoming cut-off looking. Then it grew out again, as Marron tried to force the demon out.
“Oh, God, Tira...” It was Marron again. The tongue shortened again.
“Marron!” The thing was confused for a moment. Marron tried hard to break free, it fought back. The two entities conflicted for a moment. She took advantage of the second lapse, and pushed him away. That was all it took, unfortunately. The monster snapped back into action, grabbed both her wrists in one hand, tapping her hands behind her back. He pulled her back towards him, and hit her across the face. She noticed that his nails were beginning to become claws.
Tira kicked him in the knee, and he fell the bed, with her under him. With his free hand, he ripped at the buttons on her cloak. ira bucked, trig to get him to move. Marron-Sijarru put his free hand around her throat, and leaned down on her.
“Don’t make a sound,” he said in the monster voice.
With her last breath, Tira screamed with all her might. Enraged, Marron-Sijarru backhanded her heavily across the face. He pulled off her glasses, and crumbled them in his hand. He didn’t bleed. He took a peice of the glass, ad clashed at the skin exposed when he had pull back her cloak.
“Silly girl, you have to be quiet,” the Sijarru half of Marron hissed. Tira screamed again, for all her life. “I said - shut up!” He punched her hard in the jaw, and she tasted blood on her mouth.
* * *
The scream penetrated the palls of the church. The Sorcerer Hunters stopped. Aila looked up, and Amorada froze in her tracks.
“That was Tira!” screamed Chocolate.
It didn’t take any more. The Sorcerer Hunters ran out of the church. Aila and Amorada followed with the scroll. They ran all the way to the inn, past the partons of the tavern, past the confused and frightened woman at the desk, and up the stairs into the hallway. The door to Marron’s room was wide open.
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