As if the world had been cast in a bubble of elaborate plastic; everything had a slightly exaggerated outline; the sconces on the wall held it's light intact yet a slight echo of the illumination itself stretched inches from it. Even the hairy-esque figure and the paler long-legged blonde one had an odd radiance streaming about them as they bounced and trembled across the floor in what appeared to be a uniquely and strange devised fight scene.

The growling; the hissing; the expletives used were muffled then clear. As my focus and hearing managed to stabilize enough; my sights were glued to Ben in his wolfed-out attire, as he fought against Stacia – the blonde one finally had been unrevealed as I finally managed to hear by name.

"Go put on some makeup, you prissy spoog stain... at least when she died, she fought with more cojones than you appear to have." Her words were a bit off as her chops were filled with veneer fangs.

Nikki. I frowned.

Ben appeared to be amused by the implications, as he quickly drew in that I had slowly but surely had awakened. Returning his lowered brows back to the intended prey.

She slashed four razor nails across is chest; spitting at him as she did so. He howled in protest, punching her to the ground.

He tossed his muscular and fibrously shaggy body towards the wall to the right; slamming against the perfectly crafted stone wall so harshly that the room could be felt shaking under my body. At first it seemed to be an uncalculated move until his massive right arm broke off one of the enormous sconces from the wall; tearing a bit of the foundation along with it.

She cackled as he sprinted (barely for the eye to catch) back to her; plunging the long end of the point of the light fitting fixture through her chest.

She had not stopped from her cackling for another minute until finally managing to say, "It's metal you baboon of a wolf."

He grinned within a muffled huff. "Metal plating..." he corrected. Lifting the candelabrum for a second; cracking the thin sheet of metal off, revealing the wooden center as he reinserted it back into her chest bones, slowly and methodically. Displaying his teeth as she toggled under the pressure of his strength.

"You ungrateful dog..." She finally blurted; giving in to her fated death.

There were no fiery flames of damnation; nor ambers of dust flying around in motion; she simply exhaled an exhausted breath as she wilted to bone and toughly stretched skin; presumably to what I would imagine to be her eternal resting state if she had been buried for several months ago; full cheeks and jawline had sunken in; as well as those lavish icy eyes had been sucked up dry to nothing; her ample breasts shriveled into flat chested rib; she was exactly what a skeleton should appear to be, only with again... the unnatural hide clasping the frame.

I was, for the most, relieved to see she was finally gone.

I looked away for a second only to feel arms sweeping me up off the hard-stone floor. A soft whisper; a tone pronouncing my name.

My eyes beckoned to open; sifting the hazy blurs to smash back together in one heaping clash.

His gentle touch caressing my cheek; his rough and steely breath hitting my nasal cavity with a full force of some brutal butcher hacking away at a meat packing plant; I rose immediately only to regret the fast approach to relieve the air quality. My head busted as it did that night; a night weeks ago that I couldn't remember much about; the night I ran into him – Talek.

Talek!

The name spread through my head and all through my body. Was he ok? Where did the sinister mother run off to?

"Hey beautiful..." Ben bubbled as his claws drew my hand up to stand. Yet, a caution forced me to remain on my legs. The mirror just behind Ben slurped and warped like waves taking a lashing from an oncoming hurricane.

He seemed to unmelt and converge back as one as he stepped out of the runny surface.

I beamed to see him as he duplicated the smile.

Ben stepped away as he bent to say. "I'm going to get Jensen in the cave..." He turned quickly to Talek. "...was he ok the last you saw him?"

Talek only agreed in a returning headshake that he was.

"Go... I'm fine..." I assured Ben as I popped his shoulder in persuasion.

"Ok..." He grinned, taking off and out of the mansion's basement.

I watched him gallop on all fours up the stairs, as I turned back, as the startlement clapped at my air, as Talek was unexpectedly face to face with me. It wouldn't have been the first time he'd've moved in such fast motions.

I hiccupped a squeak while simultaneously choking on a bit of saliva as I traced the closeness of his sullen features.

"We are finally alone... again." He declared, taking my hand into his. His hand was oddly colder than I remembered it to be.

His demeanor seemed odder as well, as he stared almost blankly at me.

It was peculiar that the sparkle he carried every time we were together or had literally crashed at every unique opportunity... he eyes always captured my attention, but right now... in this moment... it was as though he wasn't present at all.

A curling grin lifted his cheeks. "First thing's first..." he announced.

Placing my jawline within his fingers; caressing his lips against mine. I felt a bit of pain lift from my stomach, but I would chuck that up to severely deprived butterflies being dusted off.

He pulled back; letting his hands fall away.

"I need to know how you feel..." he purred.

"I feel ok... now that everything seems to be quiet." I chirped, taking another gander towards the dried-up skeleton.

He snickered at the response; shaking his head in protest. "No... I want to know how you feel about us... about me?" he earnestly professed.

I instantly clammed up; my throat had quickly gone from salivated abundance to the Sahara Desert in seconds. What an agonizing and confusing question to ask right now. But at the same time, my heart skipped that same beat as when I see him across the room; in the hallway; on top of me (that's odd to say) and just now as he appeared from the 'hell' like room we both had been apart of. It all came to one conclusion; to one absolute answer... my throat practically giggled in anticipating this moment; the exact instant I say it....

"I... err... I... I... Iluya..." my words jumbled together too quickly for me to recognize that they had been sounded out in certainly the wrong syllables.

He chuckled. "Try again..."

I took a deep breath; calculating the proper enunciation. "I love you." My chest trembling in an effort to hold onto the rain to pour from my eyes.

"Love you too, Danni." He deadpanned in a lip smack.

My face withdrew the grin that had been plastered on just seconds after he moved away; it was Aleato relived all over again; the stains my eyes had been fighting gave way from feelings of contentment and belonging to sheer terror that I had shown another a deep and withdrawn emotion; my soul. I grasped ay my neck; to find comfort; yet the always chilly chain and silver cylinder with the intricate scroll patterned with a rounded red beryl gem placed onto the bottom was gone.

"Looking for this little gem?" he drawled. The stone flicked a twinkle as he tossed it across the room and directly into the lively liquid.

The feeling that the saying wasn't mutual was an understatement, as I was contemplating his actions and what was precisely occurring before me, as his eyes flashed from the Talek I had grown to know; to love... to the ...

The Demon!

He roared backward in a great cackle. Spreading his arms out and reaching for the ceilings in exhilarant fashion; he abruptly shouted, "...and now I'm free!"

Just as the syllable purred from his lips; this Talek imploded in a gush of red stain; shrouding over everything, including myself as I looked on in horror as the liquid waves jittered and crashed to a placid stop; altering and converging to one cohesive monstrous frame holding only that of tempered glass; singing in a shrieking wail as it collapsed and shattered to a thousand pieces.

Shards wisped here... there; smashing and snapping into the few columns holding the house above erect. A sudden snap of the floor above, signaled that the structure couldn't take much more of the outrageously fragmentary sized ninja like stars of mirror.

I felt frozen; dead in my own unique way but aware that I had to get out before I became a permanent humanistic painting.

As I took one foot to pry myself off up and off the littered floor one smaller, haphazard piece swiveled across the room; playing spin the bottle as it landed to me. I picked up the jagged reflector; reluctant to even look into it, as I found my hand lifting it to my face; my eye sockets forced open as the blinked back in a vibrant sparkle.

I roared with a tremendous cry until the bricks; mortar; columns and ceiling splintered and buckled and fell.