Chapter 52: Bite Down

The words were coarse and biting, like sandpaper on the madam's ears, and although she didn't understand any of it, the malicious intent behind them was clear enough to make her hair stand on end.

All around the city, people looked up in confusion at the sun above, which had inexplicably darkened. They turned to the others on the street in askance, willing to accept even the most ridiculous of explanations for this phenomenon, but no one stepped forward.

And as Esmerelda's chanting increased in volume, it began to blanket the city to the point even those outside its walls could faintly hear it. All other sounds were muffled, then suffocated completely. 

Thoughts, emotions, all things that made one an individual were swept aside like a rickety house in a storm. There was only HER.