The world had changed from yesterday to today. Where once the suburban hellscape was plastered over the crumbling infrastructure of Cienmiedos, today’s veneer of normalcy was decidedly less stable. Even the façade was crumbling under the mental pressure of its creator.

It made Nora feel good. She’d gotten him where it hurt.

“Why are the walls flickering?” Thomas asked.

“Don’t worry about it.” Nora curtly replied, scanning the horizon for any of the crawling meat bags out for their blood. She could see from the corner of her eye that he was pouting but she wasn’t required to teach the kid about all of this.

Although she was glad she’d stuck it to the weird fuck, her hands kept fidgeting with the hilt of her recently acquired knife. Just because he was untrained did not mean she could take him lightly. There wasn’t confirmation on how many spells he’d slotted into himself, what sort of effects they wreaked on his body.

“Do you think my parents are safe?” Thomas quietly asked. He couldn’t bear to look her in the eye.

“...They should be. Yeah. Your sister’s a fierce girl and that mom of yours is doubly so. I can see where y’all got that stubborn streak.” Nora answered. In truth, she wasn’t sure of their conditions, the conditions of the town for that matter, but it wasn’t like making her hesitation known to the poor kid would do anything for either of them.

Nora refocused her attention to the landscape and jotted the changes. Gone were the phantoms playing house around the suburban cul-de-sacs alongside their puppeteered counterparts.

The streets were barren. As quiet as they were barren, the two walked in the early morning with only their footsteps on cracked asphalt and the unsettling silence where the dawning birds would be. There was so much to be on edge about but she’d at least hear those fucks coming from a mile away if they decided to mess with her rendezvous.

“What are we going to do when we get to the church?” Thomas asked another question.

“You’re rejoining your family when we get there if they’re around.” Nora replied with a curt tone.

“And what if-”

“If they’re not there, you’re tied to my hip until we hit Immockalee. And if they’re not there, I feed you to the demons and move on with my life.” She could feel the internal turmoil between two of her occupants and chuckled.

The boy laughed and moved his person just a few steps away from Nora.

The sound was slowly picking up the further they delved through town. The threshold matched the disrepair of its foundation with a decidedly fleshier theme. Pulsating veins pumping blood crept on brick walls like ivy. The ground beneath their feet had patches of squishy flesh squirt a confluence of liquids as they pressed onwards. The sky above them swirled, brewing and bubbling like an oncoming storm.

“Why is the town like this?” Thomas quietly asked. He was doing his best to stay calm and quiet around all the dissonance.

“You know how the walls were flickering,” Nora started, waiting for Thomas to nod before continuing, “Think of this as an extension of that. I don’t think I have to tell you this but, don’t touch anything.”

The advancement slowed down to a crawl with just the terrain alone becoming an obstacle. And the ebb and flow of sloppy meat on the inner town cobblestone meant they’d be at a damn standstill if the wizard had their way of methodically patrolling the area.

She was tempted to throw caution to the wind and run through the town again but she wasn’t guaranteed refuge at the church nor was she at full capacity to sprint across town with the boy. Just herself, maybe, but the kid complicated things.

“Stop.” Nora reached her hand out to hold Thomas back and gestured for the both of them to enter into an abandoned building with a less wet entrance. The two were coated in a thin yellow film that smelled of sweat and pus but they were hidden from the golems beginning their patrol through the streets.

Nora took short breaths to avoid reflexively gagging at the stench and the boy wasn’t holding up much better, holding his hand over his mouth and nose and physically retching.

They weaved through to the back of the building and gingerly crossed through the alley to another abandoned building. Each time the sound of meat on stone fell to the distance, the two would pick themselves up from their squatted positions and observe the most covered routes towards their next abandoned destination.

The patrols were worrying her. Where they were once simulating daily life as fellow residents, these bags of meat were molded for war. Gone were the dilapidated hunks of flesh; these creatures were fewer but they lumbered across the streets with thrice-knotted bundles of sinew for muscles and thick protruding bones crafted for combat.

He was busy. He was in his element. And he was angry.

What also kept nagging in her mind were the routes themselves. It wasn’t escaping her that the patrols grew thicker the closer they approached the diner, something she’d expected. What she hadn’t expected was the patrol growing thicker whenever they got closer to the church.

“We should go now.” Thomas broke her out of the train of thought and gestured at the entranceway with a head nod. “Triple checked, the coast is clear.”

“Let me.” Nora walked to the threshold and popped her head out to the alleyway. She closed her eyes and envisioned the wider streets, listening to the lumbering footfalls of a golem moving away from their path. “We won’t get to the church on time at this rate.”

She turned around to acquire Thomas and froze.

The boy was stock still and pale, eyes wide with a slack jaw face to face with one of the golems of the street. Nora got a better look of its head and the way the flesh tangibly moved to stretch the neck down and meet Thomas’s eye level. The creatures eyes-

Don’t look!

Nora averted her gaze away from the creature's eyes and kept her focus on its wider frame. Its rib cage was hollowed out and spacious, slender fingers from its massive hands prying each individual rib open. When did it slink in? How did it show up without making-

Her body moved before she could think of her next move. Before the creature could stretch out its hand and take Thomas, she grabbed the boy and ran. Nora withheld casting in those seconds, hoping the creature would be-

“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah” The creature unhinged its jaw to let out a guttural, wet screech.

Her senses attuned to the creatures making their way towards their location.

Fuck. They weren’t that far from the church. Another gamble.

“Thomas, hold on!” Nora yelled at the boy. She turned back and saw he was still in a daze, the same slack-jawed expression with a vacant and glassy eyed stare. “Oh no you don’t.”

Nora slapped the child with as much restraint as she could.

“Ow!” The life in Thomas came back into him at once as he held his hand on the reddening cheek. “W-why’d you hit me!” He cried out before looking at the scene unfolding around him in shock and confusion.

“Shut up! Hold on!” The boy obliged Nora’s command and gripped onto her stomach with a hug. She felt the ground buckle beneath her feet as the incantation of her spell welled up in her legs. The asphalt spiderwebbed into gray-black shards as she leapt forward with her first stride, one arm cradling the boy away from the debris. The creatures were crawling out of the brickwork, the lot of them riled up from the alarm and frothing for blood from an assortment of orifices.

Their bodies contorted and writhed as if their flesh were a hivemind of crimson worms. What were once lumbering monsters caked in meat became elongated creatures with misshapen limbs carving through the roads and buildings to get a piece of her.

Nora felt heavier. She could feel it in each stride, an explosive amount of energy discharged with not enough time to recharge. There wasn’t enough time to let the damn potion soak into her system either.

She wasn’t fucked yet. Nora felt the turbulence of the wind slip through her fingers as she charged towards the church and gripped strands of air with her free hand.

“Grah.” Nora coughed up blood as she moved but she didn’t let up on her straining body. The chaotic whipping and lashing of wind at the tips of her fingers lacerated the skin but she held on. The creatures stabbed their bony limbs to the ground, accelerating closer and closer before-

Nora held Thomas tight and jumped forward, throwing the hurricane in her hand on the ground like an explosive galewind. Her body was a missile as it soared through the air towards the church just a short distance away. The creatures suffered their own lacerations, a thousand cuts causing them to burst bloody but the sinews were too thick. Or her attack was too weak while maintaining everything else.

There was yelling and a descent that reminded Nora of the time she’d tried to fly in the air. She pressed her hand where her grimoire was and casted her shield spell directionally towards the ground. Gravity brought them to the ground and past the church’s threshold.

The shield spell bore the brunt of the impact but shattered underneath her body. Her body ragdolled on the ground, the world spinning over and over before nothing but darkness remained.

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“Gah!” Nora jumped upright and felt the flare of a thousand muscle fibers shout in agony for her to remain still. There was no time for that. Pain could be dealt with later.

She was in the churches basement, her body bandaged and candles lit but Nora was the only occupant.

They left her behind!

Nora caught up with her passengers' anger and felt her own fury boil within her stomach. Her passion rose her from bed and out of the basement to the lit church pews and stained glass windows. Thomas was sitting at one of the pews with a forlorn look.

“Where is she?” Nora asked the boy.

“O-oh. She’s outside.” Thomas replied. She’d deal with his feelings later. A part of her felt relieved he’d only suffered minor cuts and bruises from her crash land. Aside from the two of them, not a soul remained in the church, the displaced citizens having gathered what little they’d brought with them out of the building.

Nora crossed the doorway and saw the flickering barrier of the church, its circumference around the building diminished from the last time she’d seen it. So much in such a short amount of time.

A crumpled figure sat at the edge of the barrier.

“You brainless fucking idiot!” Nora yelled. The pain shot through her midsection and she had to catch her breath mid step. “Y-you fucking moron!” Her voice was hoarse.

The crumpled figure did not respond.

Nora pressed her hand on the woman and pulled her away from the barrier. The radiance of Liliana Paredes was doused into a dithering ember. Her face was gaunt and tired and yet she held a smile on her damn face.

“You’re doing better.” Liliana struggled to speak through her cracked lips.

“Shut up.” Nora held the woman in her lap and pulled the cool bottle into her hand. “Drink this.” She didn’t give the woman a chance to respond as Nora uncorked the potion and poured a vibrant purple mixture down her throat. Nora watched as the veins of her skin began to glow and the woman’s body began to convulse with the energy circulating across her body. Like an ember being fed a gallon of kerosine, the gaunt corpse of Liliana Paredes swelled with life.

“Wow!” Liliana roared. Stupid fucking woman.

“Wow.” Nora whispered as she shook her head and chuckled.

“What did you give me? Oh my god, I-I feel amazing!” Liliana bounced out of her lap and immediately tended to Nora who was beginning to droop towards the loamy soil beneath her.

“It doesn’t matter.” Nora dismissed the question.

Liliana pressed, “How much did this tincture cost you?” Her expression was stern but Nora had felt worse.

“How about you tell me what the absolute fuck you’re doing in the church all alone?” It was Liliana’s turn to stumble for an answer.

“I chose to stay.” Was all she could muster.

“You’re a dirty fucking liar too.” Nora allowed herself to drop to the ground, staring at the sky above. “How could they do that to you? How could your fucking husband do that to you?”

“I was the one that told them to leave! We were scared that the wizard would attack us if we took down the barrier when trying to leave and I told them it was fine if I stayed behind.”

“Spineless cowards. Every last one of you! What kind of woman willingly gives herself up to a bunch of inbred asshats who don’t give a rat's ass if you make it out of here alive? What kind of dickless coward leaves their woman behind?” Nora’s voice was drenched in vitriol, deeper, layered, and resonant.

“They weren’t sure this wizard you called for would show up in time. We just didn’t know.” Liliana paused and hardened her face, “I feel like I did the right thing and that’s all that matters.”

“That makes you the most brainless of them all.” Nora replied.

“We, we were given these powers to do-”

Nora snapped, “We weren’t given shit! I don’t want to hear that ‘gifted power’ bullshit from someone who lived through the fucking Schism. What we do with what we’ve taken is whatever helps us sleep at night. No one is going to advocate for your well being aside from yourself and the sooner you realize that, the sooner you’ll fucking get how unjust it was that the whole town abandoned you.”

Despite the life coursing through her body, she wilted at the weight of Nora’s words.

Good.

“Have some self respect at least. What you’ve done out here lasting this long is a miracle in its own right but I won’t accept some altruistic garbage out of you. This was all you.” The edge in Nora’s tone drained away and the foreign fury in her body went with it.

The two of them embraced a long silence, Nora maintaining her sights up in the sky.

“What happens now?” Liliana quietly asked.

“Now,” Nora stared up at the sky and the turbulent crackling storm, “We wait here for the reinforcements and I'll do my best to recuperate in this safe zone. Keep the kid safe while I’m out.”

She got up from the ground and shambled back to her cot in the basement.