hello hello hello hello VIDEO

[theparasite]

[forward-date to around 3 or 4am 6/13. poster ID for this tablet is MARTIN DARKOV, but this is not the Martin you are looking for. here is a pretty face for you.

actually, no. this was a pretty face, but there is a lot of ugly going on here. scabs and grooved flesh all along the right side...eye nearly swollen shut.

this gal's brow is furrowed, straining, contradicting the lazy smile it wears.

slow, methodical, yet wavering after each letter:]

D. A. R. [swallow. a wider smile and a shakier voice.] K. O. V.

[it blinks a few times; there's a couple tears trailing from behind the monocle.]

Oh. Sh. Shh.

We solved a mystery.

Comments

[hornedomen]

You're not making any sense. I want to speak to Martin.

[There was something familiar about her. Was she a past Transport? Yet he was sure he would have remembered someone as strange as this.]

[theparasite]

Dead people aren't very chatty, actually.

[hornedomen]

[The tablet creaked under his grip.]

He's dead? Did you kill him?

[theparasite]

Noooo. Something did!

[hornedomen]

Something? What happened?

[theparasite]

Oh, I don't know. I wasn't there. I just solved the mystery! Doesn't that satisfy, little monster boy?

[hornedomen]

[He frowned but that insult was not important enough to comment on. He looked closely at the video for a clue, any clue about what happened to Martin.]

What mystery?

[Martin was the foremost of his thoughts but something about this woman was familiar and it distracted him. He looked at her face. Those wounds were not familiar in the least. He put his hand over the screen to cover the right side of her face. He focused on the left side of her face and her voice.

Quietly, barely a whisper:] Regina. [Then furiously:] How could you act like this? He's your brother!

[theparasite]

[it stills at that, smile still plastered on its face, frozen.

slowly, it leans toward the tablet, murmuring, dangerous:] Who gave you the name, little beast?

[hornedomen]

[He leaned in, unafraid.]

Martin did. He loves you.

[theparasite]

Was it you, then? Sawing off little brother's head? You know an awful lot.

[hornedomen]

We're friends. I would never hurt him!

[theparasite]

I'm going to hurt you.

[hornedomen]

[He became still. Ico was not afraid of her, but he knew how much Martin cared for her. He did not want to hurt her. Yet perhaps it would be better if she did not know that.]

What happened to you, Regina? You didn't always look like this.

[theparasite]

[a barked laugh, topped off with a sharp inhale.]

Oh. Oh-oh-oh...I will take out your awful eyes and your tongue!

[hornedomen]

I'm not afraid of you.