Fire Ghost Teaser · 2:29am Sep 1st, 2012
“She called for you, Zealot. Even as she bled her last all she could say was your name over and over. She screamed it, she rasped it, she gurgled and cried it. Oh it was such sweet music. Her skin was, mm, sumptuous to say the least,” the Flayer purred. “Such a supple hide, so unlike my normal fare.” The creature clucked its tongue in distaste. “It lasted me for quite a while.”
The thing orbited us, teasing around the edge of our protective circle of light. In the shadows pooling beyond our island of phosphorescence, the creature was clearly draped with robes of stitched hide. Its eyes were round pools of iridescent purple. Sometimes The Flayer’s metal claws made tiny sparks as it dragged them across the ground, each sharper than a surgeon’s scalpel with which to ply its fleshy occupation.
The sparks were like tiny lightning bolts and ever so faintly etched sharper detail into my vision. Across the sternum where my explosive round had caught it the macabre leather mantle had been torn. Underneath were visible muscle groups. I could actually see the wet crimson strings slither over The Flayer’s metal bones.
It had no skin of its own. Zealot had said it didn’t like to be seen without being covered. For the monstrosity it was worse than being naked. No wonder it was so protective and covetous over the ghouls trapped in the growth vats. From there it could farm as many yards of skin it needed to cover its massive frame.
“Your… friend was reduced to quivering meat. A lump of dissected tissue. It is simply amazing how all those delicate muscle groups and nerves opened up like a flower. A red, beating, pulsing bloom of beautiful blood vessel traceries and pulses of bioelectric signals. I opened her up and left her that way on one of my racks. She was lovelier that way than when she was so closed up.”
The Flayer stood up on its back two legs and put a claw to its chest, posing like a model on a runway, almost pouting as it showed off the undamaged hem of its ‘dress’. The abomination loomed over us.
“True beauty is on the inside after all.”
(This, is only the tip of the iceberg for what I have planned. And, if you haven't guessed, 'The Flayer' is a new... critter for Ghost and his gang to deal with.)
O.o