Hysteric

As the two of them walked down the halls Teric found her curiosities growing and her shyness to speak began to subside. “Do all humans taste the same?” She asked at Noia who was simply tickled pink by the question itself.

“No, not at all. The ones we keep are much tastier than the colony humans, or the rebel humans. We spoil our mortals. The ones us Necrolords feed off of are given the nicer life in diet, in home, and in wine. What you just drank was the Kobe beef of people. Though, some of the stable homes for humans have lower quality, and there is a taste difference in your people when you treat them more like cattle. Captured humans do not taste so grand, and I prefer my people spoiled. Although some of the other Necrolords prefer the taste of wild humans over my spoiled ones. They like the hunt. That is what it really comes down to.”

Teric pulled her hair back behind her ear before it fell back into her face, “Huh… I think I should like to try a wild human then… someday.”

Noia was truly giddy with excitement. This girl had just come to accept what she was with no question, “then perhaps someday, Father Seph will take you on one of his trips with him. He is our… missionary of sorts. He disguises himself as a priest to infiltrate the wild human colonies, and then slowly gains their trust before flooding them with our undead troops. He brings us back the prized or ideal human choices for our research, or for our shelter homes.”

Teric replied, “I don’t know about the morality of that… I’d rather just… find my own person and be less underhanded about it.”

Noia gave Teric a sad look, “maybe that’s why you ran off… you had morality issues with your game…”

Teric giggled, “I doubt I’m that concerned for humans. Doesn’t sound like something I would do… though I am curious to know why I would run to begin with… at least you found me again.” She smiled back up at Noia. Teric’s beaming beauty and simple acceptance brought elation to Noia. How simple this normally complicated process had become.

Finally the two of them reached a section of the hall that ended with a door. Music was blasting from the inside, but it sounded muffled from where Teric and Noia stood.

Noia pounded on the door, “PHRAN! PHRAN! Come out!”

A guitar stopped playing along with the back ground noise and the sound was cut. The door was ripped open and a wild blond woman stood before Noia and Teric. She was dressed in a sort of visual kei style of clothing, and her hair was poofed out to look more like a lion’s mane.

“Yo…” the blonde Amazonian woman said starring down indifferently at Teric.

“Uh…” Teric’s voice caught in her throat. She couldn’t quite figure out why all the women she met in this establishment seemed to be a good 4-6 inches taller than her.

“Be nice Phran,” Noia stated, “this is the new sister, Teric. I wanted you two to spend the day together. Phran I know you are much better with kids than I am.”

Phran smiled widely revealing a multiple array of sharp teeth, “oh, want me to traumatize the girl huh?”

Noia waved her hand pushing aside Phran’s sarcasm, “I’ll leave you to it then.”

Teric wanted to grab onto Noia and walk away with her. Nothing about this set up made her want to stay with the lion lady.

“Relax kid, I only bite humans.” She said showing off a scary set of fangs on both the lower and upper portion of her jaw.

She looks even more like a lion now, Teric decided. “How come you have… 2 sets of fangs?”

Phran laughed, “I’ve got more when I get hungry, just big ol’ sharp teeth grow in when I rip my food to pieces. But I suppose we all develop differently. My god you’re a dainty thing, definitely something Noia would want to carry around and show off.”

Teric gulped nervously as she wondered about her new rock star lion companion.

“Right, well, my guess is Noia wants to show you the repercussions of slipping into your own insanity, and let’s face it, I’m totally mental. You get the day with me, to see all my crazy.” She grinned mischievously, “Though… really you’ve got like… two hours with me. You get to experience the last of sunlight, twilight, and night. The process repeats in the morning for the end of night, dawn, and day.”

Teric was confused by what Phran was saying and Phran could read that from Teric’s face. “Don’t worry about it kid, you’ll see soon enough, come on, I’ll give you a tour, but first… I have to change. Skitz hates it when I don’t change for her and I don’t want to be yelled at all night.”

“Okay…” muttered Teric.

Phran disappeared back into her room and came back out wearing a neon pink tube top and skinny jeans. “If she doesn’t like it, she can change it herself. She’s much more mainstream you know? Not that there really are anymore people around to be mainstream with…”

Teric nodded pretending to understand her counterpart. Phran grabbed a plaid blue long sleeve shirt and threw it around like it was a jacket, “I look disgusting, but hell, at least Nic will like this. Let’s go kid, I’ll give you a tour.”

Teric followed Phran who immediately started to point things out, “Like, that thing there is a gargoyle. I don’t know why they put it inside, oh… uh, these are mostly empty rooms. Like, we kind of get our own hall. For some reason Noia had you put in the bath house thing. Probably because we had to scrub you, just easier to have you there I guess. You were a hot mess coming here, hardly knew you were one of us until we started getting the layers grim to come off. Ya looked like a real regular zombie you know?”

Teric shuddered suddenly wondering why her body so vastly different from her zombie predecessors, “How come my skin doesn’t tear like it would on the zombies… why are we not rotting away too?”

Phran spun around and faced Teric but kept moving backwards, “I dunno. We are kind of like the opposites of our forbearing dead. See they are just rotting walking corpses affected horribly by like this super virus thing right? We on the other hand have like the opposite affects. We just have like rapid healing and stuff, we are much stronger, and a hell of a lot harder to debilitate. Once I had my arm blown right off my body, and like, I held my arm over the shoulder and that shit just reattached itself. Noia says after being stabbed repeatedly, she’s not sure how she’s kept living, but we regenerate.”

Teric looked at the skin upon Phran’s arm, “Did it hurt?”

Phran smiled, “That’s the funny thing about it… it’s like our nervous system don’t work quiet right. No pain to feel… which is dangerous in its own right. You don’t know when you’re hurting yourself… but then again, it’s really hard to hurt yourself. You just regenerate right back as you were before.”

“I wonder why we are so different from the zombies then… if we derive almost immediately from their bites,” Teric wondered.

“Hard to say what happened there. That’s the doctor’s job though. He’s looking for those answers to the questions you just asked. A little research and maybe someday we’ll know what makes us so special,” Phran responded. “Oh sugar, could you keep an eye on the clock for me?” Phran asked as she briefly glanced past Teric as they came to the main entrance.

“Um… sure…” Teric replied looking for a clock around her.

“Right, clocks are up all over the castle, mostly for me, because… well you know I’m crazy. Anyway, sometimes I get like distracted and I forget to look. Uh… let’s see, it’s fall so… 6pm to 8pm are the special hours, and it’s getting pretty close to 6pm… don’t freak out okay?”

“Okay…” Teric had no idea what Phran was babbling about other than she seemed to be concerned with the time of day.

“Right so this is the front door, bet you haven’t been outside yet? Well… not that you remember at least,” Phran said.

“No, I’ve not gone outside yet,” Teric answered.

Phran smiled, “Time to show you the beauty and the destruction, I’ve got to get you to the gates at the very least.” Phran opened the front door and a vast expanse of a beautifully maintained garden displayed before them. “So like… we train the zombies how to do shit, and that’s like their job for life. They’re generally incredibly stupid, so not much is expected of them. We give them a simple task, and they get to do that until they rot into nothingness. Noia maintains the zombies so they don’t rot away completely.

‘Speaking of which all the way back behind the house here, maybe like 2 miles out in farmland, is our factory where we keep our people fresh. They feed our servants, but more importantly, they feed us. We got a few other facilities too. Dr. Sado has his research facility for live testing and other unethical methodology, and Father Seph just captured a power plant so that keeps everything here up and running. Plus, more people sent to the farm.”

“And even further out there,” Phran moved her arms across the expanse of the estate encompassing everything she could, “There is kind of a well kept secret from the wild humans in the area. You see we’ve got a few research facilities hidden about. They don’t like the Necrolords going over to them, because, well scientists and doctors have better things to do with their time than give us tours. So, scattered about are a bunch of control hospitals. A lot of our scientists are humans we’ve captured. We hope to change them to Necrolords like us for their minds are of course invaluable.”

Teric nodded again pretending to understand.

“Alright, so like, this is always fun. Inside these gates here and on the farm lands, everything is like walled off from the outside world. It was Noia, Father Seph, and his Majesty himself that found this place. The King was still getting used to his new found control over the rotting dead, when they stumbled onto this wall. The King used the Father and Noia to infiltrate the building. Noia ate the rich saps who owned the mansion, and Father Seph downed the staff. The doors were opened, and viola, casa de Necrolords. Anyway, so like zombies flooded the area. They are mind numbingly dumb, so the King had the gate resealed to keep the numbers low, and so they wouldn’t attack his people farm out in the back. He’s got like, really good maintenance on the place. Now, if you go to the gate… well… come on, I’ll show you.”

Phran broke into a run and Teric tried her best to follow. Phran was very athletic and hard to keep up with. Within a couple of meters the two of them reached the front gates.

“Not much time for me…” Phran whispered under her breath, but Teric was not listening. At the iron gates that were meticulously closed shut were hundreds, perhaps thousands of zombies trying to claw their way in. Teric stepped back confused and frightened at the sight.

“Give me a second, you’re about to see step three of my crazy.” Phran mumbled.

Teric looked over at Phran and her image appeared to melt away. She had vibrant pink eyes but then they slowly swirled into a soft purple then to a gentle blue much like Teric’s. Her blond lioness hair melted back into calmer dark blue hair, and suddenly her body began to fit the image that Phran had redressed for. A new girl stood before Teric.

“Leave it to Phran to make everything confusing…” muttered the new comer who had assumed Phran’s body. “I am Nic, the next girl who will pop out at about 8pm will be Skitz.”

“Skitz? Like… Skitz, Phran, Nic… Schizophrenic…?” Teric said questioningly.

“Hardly, this is dissociative identity disorder, but it wasn’t identified properly so my name… names came out incorrect. See, right after I was bitten Noia found me, but by the time she had gotten to me I was so unwilling to eat or consume my own people that my madness had progressed much further than most other Necrolords. I could hear voices, always talking to me, telling me to eat, thus the schizophrenic title, but the more I refused the more real those voices became. Then one day, they just developed their own personalities and split me up. Now I’m three people all living in one cramped body.”

Teric stared at Nic, “So this is what happens when…”

“When you let the hunger drive you. Phran was at first just a primitive animal. She was a lioness of sorts who felt the desire to hunt down humans. She needed to feed, and she did so much like an animal. Skitz was much cleverer about eating and feeding. She was more like Noia in her sophistication. Personally, I don’t eat humans; I prefer to think that I still am human.”

Teric did a double take with Nic thinking at first she was crazy, then at the horde of zombies trying to claw their way in through the steel. How could Nic be crazy when a massive swarm of uncontrolled undead growled before her? What in this world wasn’t madness?
“You’re not scared of them are you?” Nic asked.

Teric’s eyes looked back up brimming with nervousness.

“Oh… you are, here, watch this.” Nic walked over to the gate where the zombies were trying to get in, “This is how I know I’m no longer human,” she sighed with a depressed tone. Nic took her arm and thrust it out into the side of the gate where the zombies stood.

“No!” Teric hollered, but nothing really seemed to happen. The wild thrashing of the zombies calmed down as they stood in Nic’s presence, and they appeared to relax from their violent gnashing. Not one of them attacked her.

“They aren’t much from domestic dogs. Sometimes a dumb one will charge over and try to bite me, but I do fear our mutated blood does prove fatal to them. Usually they just calm down. Come on over here Teric. You should face the creatures that made you, and look at what you might have become. It’s rather rewarding to know you did not turn into one of these.”

Teric stepped forward despite her desire to flee with her instincts. One of the larger zombies groaned, growled, and grunted at her but didn’t proceed to do anything.

“No point in fearing them. In a pickle they can become your greatest ally. Skitz enjoys them rather so. She likes to have a horde with her when she exits the gates; that way should a human attack her… well, everyone gets fed that night. Though sadly for her, those days of wanderlust are coming to a close.”

Teric extended her hand cautiously outside the gate. A few of the zombies shambled over and sniffed at her arm, but they all turned their noses up and walked away. Teric drew her arm back in feeling a bit safer.

Nic said, “the minute we walk away they turn back into roaring angry beasts. It’s so strange they find such calm around us. Probably because we just smell like pack leaders to them, I don’t know… it’s very odd. More questions for our research facilities to answer someday I supposed.”

Nic moved back inside the gate. “Alright, I’m sure Phran was going to show you this anyway, so come on.” Nic walked over and around a spire of the bricked in portion of the gate, “shall we climb on up and get a look?”

Teric jogged over to join her dissociated partner. The zombies rage grew as the two of them walked away until they were once again pounding back at the gates trying to get in. At the top of the spire Teric was granted a fabulous view of the land.

“As you can see, we are fairly high up, not the greatest view of the layout, but strategic for our King. Anyway, if you look over to the left, you can see the city has totally been abandoned,” Nic pointed out.

Teric looked over at very distant city-scape. Far off in the distance a tall skyscrapers could be seen groggily looming in the skies.

“How do you know it’s been abandoned?” Teric asked.

“Because,” answered Nic, “when the night comes, no lights flicker on anymore. If you look out west, ah you can see it now. There are colonies of people, the spots of light is where they have gathered, trying to live fighting off the zombies. Those camps move a lot. I bet the light attracts zombies. Every now and again a camp will mistake our mansion as a safe haven and we get a brand new crop of people we can hunt outside our walls and some new humans for the farms.”

Teric responded, “So… how are you sure the city is dead then? Couldn’t people just put blinds up to prevent the light from escaping? You said light may attract zombies, if that is so then it would be strategic to prevent it from escaping ones home.”

Nic nodded, “Well… we own the power facilities now. The Father was kind enough to find us the workers that ran it. He learned how to keep the plant operated back when it was under human control, and then he turned the workers to zombies and taught them the same tasks they had as humans. They are much easier to maintain as zombies. He keeps a few living electrical engineers around in case he needs their brain power. He mostly just wants to get them turned into the same creature he is. I guess he feels like he can trust Necrolords a little better. Anyway the point to this is we own the power now, the city has been cut off. To get light, you need fire, and the smoke is something we would notice. That and I question the stability of those building floors to handle a fire.”

Teric’s mind glazed as Nic talked of the power plant. She imagined great turbines by a lake, with constant water flow. The building had been completely surrounded by a barrier in order to keep regular people out. It was a natural safe haven from zombies. The doors of the plant were sealed and over time the glass was replaced with bullet proof glass since a nearby factory was left in operation. Getting it to become a safe spot for people was hard, and keeping it running was even harder, but worth it. The memory faded as quickly as it had come, “when did you take the factory…? Teric whispered to Nic.

Nic noticed the cracks of instability begin to form around Teric’s visage, “it was a rather recent conquest. About a few months ago, rather… during the time you appeared to us. Then Noia says you ran away, but that’s doubtful. That factory fell into the hands of the Necrolords, and you appeared to us shortly thereafter.”

Teric pushed back down her anxiety. If what Nic was telling her, then she was exposing Noia as a liar… there was no way Teric could have returned to this mansion because this was the first time she had ever been here. “I need to see that factory,” she looked at a disapproving Nic.

“I will show you it someday… but my time is always limited… I exist only at twilight and dawn, and my time with you is about over.”

Teric replied grimly, “Then I shall see you at dawn.”

Nic’s long blue hair melted away into a sleeker version of Phran’s hair cut and was now pitch black. The blue in her eyes vanished and purple took over. “I’m dressed like a moron. Phran screws everything up.” The new girl declared.

“Let me guess, your Skitz,” Teric asked.

“You got the drill now then?” Skitz replied glimpsing over Teric. “Personally, I think you ought to stay away from the electric plant for a bit. Father Seph is still patrolling it, and he gets pretty pissed off when we show up unannounced. I think it’s safer to let him leave first before we go… I’m sure Nic agrees with this statement.”

Teric nodded, “Okay… I’ll wait a bit. I’ve still got things to discover here first I suppose.”
Skitz smiled almost as sweetly as Noia did, “that a girl, now let us go find mother dearest… though I suppose she would be your aunt… maybe… don’t really know who your finder or maker is. Do you know who your ‘parent’ is?”

Teric shrugged her shoulders, “No idea. Let’s go back to Noia.”

They walked back along the empty grounds with only the roar of the hungry zombies behind them. At first the sounds scared Teric, but now it was sort of comforting. It was nice to know that the wild creatures outside her gate would not attack her, and if they tried they would die and she would heal.

Skitz spoke, “Yeah… it’s an experience getting used to all this… I wonder… did Phran just show you the girl’s side of the manor?”

“She showed me everything to the left if that is what you meant,” Teric pointed across the way as the two re-entered the building.

“Oh man, okay, well, you’re for the most part banned from walking over to the right hall anyway. That is where his mighty kingship lives, and his first two children, Noia and Father Seph. I think it would be more appropriate for Noia herself to show you the boy’s hall.”

Teric caste a questioning glance at Skitz.

Skitz retorted, “hey, we ain’t the only Necrolords, there are more. It’s just, you know, we’re the only ones who aren’t ridiculously dangerous. Pray you never have to meet the doctor, he’s a nasty one. That and Ires is pretty terrible too.”

Noia arrived just as Teric felt herself becoming lost in whatever it was Skitz was trying to say. “Ah, ladies, did you enjoy the night air?”

Skitz nodded, “Always do, and it’s the only air I get to enjoy. Well… I’m off to go play. I’ve got a nice new athletic batch of dogs I’ve collected. I created them myself you know, and I am in a hunting mood. I know you keep a few humans locked inside the gates so… yeah… I’m going to go catch a snack.”

Noia grinned, “be careful, our wild humans do fight unfairly.”

“Don’t care, they taste divine.” Skitz waved farewell to Teric and ran back up the stairs to the general direction of where Phran had emerged from a room.

“Noia… did I try to seek the power plant when I ran off?” Teric asked now that she had Noia to herself.

Noia’s face grew pale, “who told you about that?”

“It was Nic you see… she just mentioned how it just recently came into our possession… and well… I dunno. As she talked about it… it just felt like maybe I had been there once. Perhaps that’s why I ran away, to find it?”

Noia sighed with relief, “It’s possible… we know that you had found Ires, or at least ran into him before you were taken. You may have very well been in the presence of Father Seph when he ordered one of his notorious internal attacks… in which case would make you his child… I don’t know if he has any other children yet.”

“Is there a way I could see this… Father Seph?” Teric wondered.

Noia nodded, “we have a picture of him hanging up. He’s captured enough humans that our King is pleased with him, and chose to honor him. Come, I will show you.” Noia walked over to the right hall and only had to take a few steps down before pointing to a row of paintings. Noia’s picture was up on the wall and she stood as regal as a queen, down a bit further was a blond haired man, and even further was a man dressed up to look like a Spartan centurion.

“In the middle, that is the priest. We couldn’t really think up a good name for a compulsive liar… so we just made him to be a priest and call him Father Seph, Seph being short for Joseph. He’s not the type of person to tell the complete truth, so a re-formated version to only part of his name was sufficient.”

Teric looked carefully at the painting studying the features; Father Joseph was a tall and well built blond haired man with Swiss descent. His eyes on the other hand were depicted as an unusual crimson red. He wore a pair of square framed glasses which gave the illusion that he was more intelligent than he may have actually been. The rest of his body was clothed in black priest’s garments.

Teric felt sudden chills shoot up and down her back and begun to shake. Something about this man made her scared.

Noia looked on with curiosity, “Do you know this man?” She asked.

“I think… I think I do… I’m not sure… I need to go to that power plant... maybe it can jog my memory,” Teric stuttered.

“You’re not allowed to leave as of yet. Be patient… I think we may have found your father… the one that found you first, the one that may have even created you.” Noia took a deep breath.

Father Seph was nasty business, and he certainly was not ready to take an understudy such as this little girl. He would not be happy to find that he had a daughter. He would be infuriated once he knew he had accidently failed to kill someone all the way through.

“This would explain some of your scratch marks. He is, deep inside of his soul, a very sick man.” Noia whispered, and again Teric got chills. “Come, enough of this. I think it’s time you meet our other boys, but first, darling you must be hungry still?”

Teric said, “no… not really… I’m just nervous… his portrait… I feel like there is a reason I am timid and it's because of him.”

Noia nodded, “come, perhaps a good dinner will distract you. We can sup as a family tonight.” Noia called a few servants over and whispered something to them, and they ran off into the distance without a word to be said.

“This shall be fun,” she smiled mischievously, “we’ll see what Skitz is able to catch. Well… you’re still so young… would you be willing to partake in the flesh itself, or simply consume the blood of the body?”

Teric gulped, “I’ll be like Zagura… and stick with the blood…”

Noia nodded, “Makes sense, you were given such dainty fangs. You are a drinker not a devourer of flesh. Skitz and Phran have fangs for devouring, tearing into flesh, you have small fangs like me, more for temporarily tearing flesh and letting enough liquid out you can satiate your hunger. Supposedly Zagura was small fanged as well… though the boys may scare you. Cutter’s jaw makes Phran look like us; dainty that is. That boy was born a shark.”

Teric forced herself to giggle as though it were the proper reaction to Noia’s statements. Noia seemed pleased with the response. It was meant to be a joke, but the statement wasn’t very funny. For Teric she mostly felt confused.

“I think you should meet Ires before dinner… it would make things less awkward for the rest of us.”

Teric complied, “okay,” not sure why her meeting with this other Necrolord would make things anymore awkward for the others.

Noia guided Teric over to a large door hidden at the side of the massive stairwell that led to the two sides of the halls, “This way.”

She opened the door to a narrow staircase leading downward. Teric followed behind enjoying the cool air that was on the staircase until they reached the base. The downstairs looked both like a combination of a wine cellar and a dungeon.

“It was temporarily used as a dungeon, during the humans civil wars,” Noia began to recite the history of it before Teric asked, “and for some reason our boys prefer to live down here. Though our men prefer upstairs… or not to even be on the premises.”

Teric felt a growing sensation of anxiety as she was led down the halls.

“That first iron barred door to your left is Cutter’s room, I suggest you leave him alone… he gets rather, emotional.” A small pool of blood leaked from under the door, and a soft whimpering was heard from inside the room along with a systematic rhythm of movement, “oh the servants are going to have fun collecting him for dinner…” Noia muttered, rolling her eyes.

Further down the hall empty cells were filled with zombied servants that just stood motionless along the barren walls. Not a single one moved or followed the ladies as they walked past.

“Those are our servants in training… when they don’t work, we just stick them down here,” Noia explained, “not really much else to go over… oh, and Cutter assembles some very nice faces for them.” Noia pointed to the wall showing off the intricately sliced away human faces hanging up like pristine paintings after being treated and left to dry out to preserve. Teric forced down the urge to vomit as she gazed at the severed skin hanging along the walls.

Finally they reached the end of the hall where there was only one more room. It was barred shut and locked from the outside. “Kira, oh Kira… are you in there still.”

A growl rumbled inside and Noia replied with a devilish grin, “oh good he’s awake. Since you’ve had such good behavior lately I want you to meet your new sister. I don’t know if you’ve met her yet, she’s a sweet girl.”

A small and weak chuckle sounded from inside the room, “oh goodie… a sweet girl. You spoil me Noia.”

Noia kept her forced smile on and Teric was beginning to feel nervous around the owner to that deep voice within the confines of the dungeon basement. A nervous chuckle escaped her lips but she quickly stifled it.

“Well darling, he is your brother. He is the true son of our King… biologically speaking. The King successfully changed his own blood son, the result is Kira Ires, who currently resides inside this cell.” Noia undid the bolts and began to unlock the door.

“You may be asking yourself, what sort of madness is Kira Ires short for?” Noia opened the door and motioned for Teric to step inside to meet her brother.

“Killer,” she whispered into Teric before shoving the girl in. The door was slammed shut behind Teric and Noia spoke out, “if you two get along then we won’t have any problems. It’s time to see what you are capable of Teric, and if our little Kira can keep his own bloodlust under control. He favors another Necrolord as much as he does a human at times. His thirst knows no bounds.”

Teric felt her heart pound in panic and hysteria was not far from taking her body once more. It took a bit but her eyes began to adjust on the moving figure in the shadows. The only thing she could see was his outline.

“Dear Noia… you’ve sent me a lamb and dared to call it my sister.” The boy paced back and forth within his den.

His eyes began to glow a deep red as they fixed on her, panic began to win. She started to laugh as hysteria took her. At first a slow nervous giggle as Teric witnessed her new brother. Noia watched the two carefully. Ires had already made his change, only his eyes changed in color when he fell into madness, Teric was much more exceptional in her changes, though not as splendid as Skitz and Phran were. Teric’s hair finally was washed away entirely of its blonde as she continued laughing leaving greasy black strands stuck against her face. How filthy she looked when madness took her.

Kira extended out his fingers where she could see he had attached some sort of razor like weapon to give himself claws. Her vibrant blue eyes had become the same shade of red that matched Kira’s. As she laughed her fangs extended and the teeth to the sides and bottom also became fanged. Kira leaped forward at her and she rolled under him. As she stood up her giggling resumed.

Teric’s mind seemed to slip from her, her insanity made its own character. “Ooh, big boy here thinks maybe he can catch me.” Her words sprang from her mouth completely uncontrolled by her own body. She suddenly felt stronger and more aware of her surroundings. She was ready for the fight that would ensue, but no fight would come.

Kira lowered his hands, and dropped his defensive stance. “Arisa…” he whispered.

Teric glared at him the laughter leaving her, “what… am I not good enough for you? You’re just going to drop your attack?” Teric’s body crotched down low as if expecting a sneak attack.

Kira through off the weapons on his hands and punched the door where Noia was standing. “YOU’RE SICK!” he screamed at her. Slowly Teric’s physical image and mind began to return to normal and she lifted herself back up.

“I… I know you… don’t I?” She wondered aloud.

The boy turned and looked at her with an enraged expression, “You knew me, you’re not the same person anymore… hell… you’re probably not even the same species.”

Noia unbolted the door once she was satisfied Kira would be able to control his rage, “have you learned your lesson about running away then? Shit like this does tend to happen, though you should be grateful, she found her way back to you, still intelligible rather than dead and mindless.”

Kira glared up at Noia, “I never wanted her to be like me.”

Noia smirked with a twinge of evil when glaring down at Kira, “Oh we know… but then again, surprise.”

Teric moved closer to the boy, “you know me… you know who I am! You said my name, my human name… can you help me remember… I can’t remember…”

Kira grabbed her neck and slammed her body up onto the wall, “When the human in you died, you died. All that’s left now is the Necrolord. I don’t know you, I knew the human.”

He dropped her leaving her gasping for breath.

Noia stepped back, “It’s good to see you making friends Kira. Anyway, I was thinking about having dinner with the family. It would be nice to see you out of isolation with the others. Skitz is off to catch us something to eat, and I’m sure Cutter will carve it up beautifully as he always does.”

Kira looked at Noia as though she were a pest, “sure, whatever the hell it takes to get my father to release me.”

Noia opened the door up the rest of the way, “Oh, by the way Kira… is she yours? Or does she belong to Seph?”

He looked over at Teric displaying contempt, “she’s not mine, I never wanted that to happen. I’d be surprised if this was Seph’s doing. He makes sure his corpses do not get back up.” Kira walked out from the shadows over to the door and walked out from the dungeon room not looking back at the other two women.

“Well… he has a point. But still,” Noia said happily as though nothing significant had happened, “There is only one option available and since you aren’t Kira’s creation that leaves you with the Father himself… that’s a bit depressing to think about, but it does explain a few things about you. Like where you were found. Also your image too. Your blond hair that is not yours, or your unnaturally charismatic appeal. You take after Father Joseph in the death. His unholy gift to you.”

“It was a zombie that bit me… how do I take after him?” Teric asked wiping away the dust from her dress. She walked quickly to the door eager to leave Kira’s abode. Why anyone would willingly choose to live a Spartan lifestyle in a dungeon was beyond her.

“He may have been the last vivid memory you had before temporarily being someone’s lunch. Another likely scenario is that you somehow came into contact with him. Should he have slapped you or left a single scratch your body you would have contracted the death from him directly rather than a random zombie and it would have been his virus that took you. Perhaps your body adapted to meet the needs of the creator that invaded your mind and scared you so. You’re body certainly does not want him attacking again.”

Teric grimaced, anytime the priest, or Father Seph, was mentioned her body just exhumed fear. He certainly left some kind of impact on her, whether she could remember him clearly or not. “What about Kira… he knew me…”

Noia frowned and shook her head, “Yes, apparently he knew the human you, but doesn’t like the Necro you… I doubt you’ll get much out of him. Though if you would like, it would be nice if you would sit next to him at dinner, he doesn’t have any friends.”

Teric thought about how he tried to attack her before talking to her, “I wonder why… you people can be sick.” Teric looked up at Noia not sure if she could trust this woman. She seemed so helpful less than a minute ago, and now she had become a deviant bent on mind games for her own amusement.

“We are monsters dear, best you remember that,” Noia turned her heels and walked off leaving Teric alone in the dark. Chills ran down her spine and she rushed back to catch up with Noia and leave the cellars. Teric got the feeling that this is where they would throw her if she misbehaved against the will of the Necrolords.