His voice was like an anchor in the sea of power that he was harnessing against her. She could feel in her mind that resonance that his words carried, making her teeth rattle like it was a gong that was being rung against her ears. His presence in her mind was heavy and unrelenting, and as he walked ever closer it was all she could do to keep her eyes open and watchful of his approach. Even the cruel upturn of his lips as he threatened to bleed her didn't earn him much of a reaction as she did her best just to keep herself grounded, try and keep her eyes on his.
There was nothing to be done as his hand lifted, feeling him dig those strong fingers of his into the locks of hair at the side of her head and lift it several inches from the wall, only to slam it back against it once more. There was a moment where brilliant white light danced across her eyes, her stomach doing a painful flip as she felt her skull impact against the wall and give under that force. Blood began to spill down the back of her neck and soak into that beautifully tailored white shirt he'd had made for her, but it mattered little to her as she was sure that the back of her head had been bashed in, just a little.
He turned from her then, that voice no longer monstrous, but sickly sweet as she watched him retreat back into his office, her vision slowly being swallowed at the edges by encroaching darkness. '
Goodbye, Shakti...' There was no will in her to fight it, and for a blissful moment the woman thought that, perhaps, his gift to her for her insolence and perceived slight would be an end to the suffering... An end to the weighted blanket of nothingness that had been wrapping like a constrictor around her life... But he was no so kind. Never so giving.
~ ~ ~
Her eyes snapped open at the mention of her name. Immediately she regretted opening them so quickly, as the light that bled in through the windows of the cafe was bright, early afternoon light, and the feel of it on her skin, even through the glass near the front of the cafe where they sat, was gloriously warm. She blinked a few times to clean the sunbursts from her eyes as she turned her face to glance at the man that stood across from her.
Ephraim looked well. The typical 10:45 shadow across his chin and cheeks was scruffy and clean, his lips curled in that mocking smile that he loved to toss her way so much. He wore his typical clothes, something well-worn but comfortable - nothing anyone would mistake for fashion-forward, but for whatever reason it always suited him. She nearly thought to offer him a smug retort, using her name like that instead of one of the many nicknames he'd made for her over the last year... But something was wrong.
Where that smile had been now concern was blatant. His eyes stared past her at something she could not perceive, and that concern became fear. She'd never seen that expression on his face before, but she knew it to be true... She attempted to turn, trying to pry her eyes from his face, but as her mind made to pull away there was a warm wash of blood across her skin.
The sounds he made, the look of abject horror on his face as whatever this phantom was that had stolen him away loomed above the dying man, her heart was broken anew. That heavy weight of sorrow that had laid upon her for weeks threatened to swallow her whole as her mind screamed at her to help him, to reach for him and to try and aid him, while her body remained inert and still... He fell to his knees, his hands clutching uselessly at his throat, what remained of him spilling out in a puddle on the floor as she watched... And did nothing. Again. She did nothing.
~ ~ ~
The vision faded at the edges once more, darkness beginning to swallow her whole as she found that breathing was becoming a chore, her chest shuddering with each inwards gasp - though all that eased as the figure of her Master appeared before her from the shadows, crimson armour dripping in gore, his pale skin decorating in it as well. Eyes lifted from where the form of the one man she may have called friend had knelt and instead found those deep pools of amethyst staring back at her. Her cheeks were soaked in tears, the painful breathing a result of silent sobs that wracked her, muscles straining from where he kept her pinned to the wall.
She could see it... She could see what he held in his hand, but she refused to look. Instead, she bored her gaze into his and let him feel that well of sorrow that threatened to eat her whole, let him gaze into eyes that were a bottomless pit of pain and loss, swallowing all her rage and making her useless to him and to herself.
She hadn't known.
Perhaps if she had, she'd have begged him to leave with her, to flee this place that neither of them truly called home. She'd have forsaken her training and what comforts she'd had at a chance to have companionship, even the strange form they'd shared, for a time. Though now it mattered not. His reckless choices had stollen all her options and left her here, alone, forced to bear the brunt of her Master's ire with no supports to catch her.
She was broken. She was nothing. She was hollow and shattered. A vessel that once was full now left empty and pitiful.