The screech that sounded from Daisy’s mouth was so unbearably piercing, Daniel could have sworn it was actually a mandrake root being unearthed. He thought that surely he would drop dead in a moment, but still, he reflexively covered his ears whilst and staring at the scene before him in pure and utter shock.

She’d done it with a shard of glass that was once in one of the picture frames that had also dropped from the wall. The frame had landed with a forgotten clamor, as when Daisy had fallen from there, it was as though she had unnailed with them. It was like she’d been crucified against that corner of the bedroom. As though the dark magic of those nails had ripped right through her bony palms, she was sent crumpling to the ground on her knees. Malvencia the blood witch had clearly felt the maiming that Daisy had inflicted, but at terrible cost.

Daisy’s eyes were on the floor,

she had cut them

out of her face.

Now, Daniel knew why he shouldn’t have come. Maybe a part of him even understood their minds severing, although the minor satisfaction of his curiosity wasn’t as prevalent as his guilt. Everyone warned him, he knew he’d gone against The Society’s explicit instructions not to sneak himself in and see her, but what was he supposed to do? She’d been missing—captured and held for nine months before now. He had to see her.

Daniel wanted to say something, to scream with her. but the words choked in his throat. It was as though they’d tried to peek out from his gaping mouth, and retreated back at the horror of their assessment.

Her first eye seemed to sputter in its trail along the floor when it made it past the pooling blood to the dry patch of heritage brown near the edge of the bed. One tailed orb, rolling like a gelatinous slime monster that gathered dirt and splinters to consume from the forest floor. The other one hadn’t come out so cleanly.

Her other eye was a mangled pile of chunked segments that looked far too similar to a balloon that had been deflated, blown up again, and then deflated once more. What did Jamison Griphs call that sort of thing in the magic world, again? A sip zibbler? A zip plimbley? Whatever it was, it looked like it was overused and abandoned and soaking in the aftermath of spilled cherry syrup.

Daniel’s first reaction was, oddly enough, to look at that pile of gook with a fair bit of intention. He wondered about the small and clear pool with black speckles that surrounded those chunks like an egg white would surround a yolk. Was that meant to be there, or was that simply more evidence of what had been done to her?

Time ceased to mean much of anything as he stated at the carnage, and the ringing in his ears seemed to lack any meaning as well. Numbness. Meaninglessness.

His mind searched for meaning elsewhere, he couldn’t find it here.

Memories flashed in this moment, memories that he could only guess as to their relevance far after this had passed.

He thought about when they were little children, how they used to play doctor and patient. Daisy would place one hand over his heart, another to her ear, and “listen” to his heart beating. They didn’t know anything about this world then, in their view, doctors used stethescopes and checked your reflexes, gave shots, and prescribed medicines they’d never had a hand in making.

How different their world had become in just a few short years.

In the split seconds that Daniel had silently and atremble remembered the way that Daisy used fuss about him when they played their childish games, members of The Society quickly came bursting into the door.

At first sight of the scene, each member went very pale. Even Gambon, who was the first to take action after his moment of speechlessness, appeared shaken at the sight of his pupil in such a state of mutilation.

“Julia, get the boy out of here!” The elder wizard snapped, and the red-headed matron seemed to automatically hurry over to Daniel to obey in response. Thewlis then jumped back to his senses as well; hurrying with Gleeson, Marcus, and Tenia to restrain Daisy and take the glass from her hand.

“Wait! You don’t understand—!” Daniel finally seemed to find his voice, but it was drowned by the white water rapids of appalling curses spat from Daisy’s lips. Her skeletal frame kicked and struggled with such astonishing force against the grasp of the four members, that her brittle bones snapped in places that could be seen and heard from where Daniel was coming to standing. Her unnatural strength even sent Gleeson falling back from her, and he struggled to stand again, even with the aid of his staff.

“I WILL SEND YOU** FUCKING CUNTS** TO THE BOWELS OF DARKNESS! TO YOUR OWN **PERSONAL**. **FUCKING**. **HELL**! YOU WILL NEVER GET TO HIM YOU SICK FUCKS! **SICK FUCKS**! I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU! **OCCIDERE STA-**“

“**Integram quietem**!” Gleeson shouted, pointing his staff at her the moment he was back up to standing. Daisy’s spell was cut from her tongue, and she was reduced to a trembling and whimpering shell.

Thewlis shook and stared at the arm he was holding, it bent at a curve like a snake at the points of his grasp. Her bones had crunched under the force of his fingers with no more resistance than a piece of common chalk. The very comparison in his mind made him green enough to turn his head and vomit on the floor. No one moved to help him just now, they needed to catch their breath. The air in Daisy’s bedroom had become thick and suffocating.

Garrison Aldman had been standing behind Gambon, but now that there was such an imposing silence lingering in the air, he stepped forward. Julia had barely managed to hold him back before, but at the touch of his godfather, Daniel felt his legs give up on him. Aldman gently tried to shush him, stroking the boy’s wiry black hair as his breath kicked its way in and out of him.

“Come along, Daniel, we’ll let everyone work and I’ll explain-“

“Explain? Work? What are you going to—” Daniel’s sobs were rushing and choking his throat at such a pace that every syllable seemed to come with a coughing fit. The poor boy’s eyes were wide and red, his face splattered with Daisy’s blood and knuckles white as he gripped the lapel of his godfather’s jacket. “What did they do to her? Garrison, what did they do to my sister, why can’t I hear what she’s thinking?”

“I don’t know, none of us know that yet,” Garrison spoke firmly and shook his head while he looked into the eyes of his godson. He stood there and held the boy with more earnest sincerity behind his eyes than he’d ever be able to show. The clenching in his own chest at the pain in Daniel’s expression nearly sent him down to his knees as well. His thoughts swirled in an infinite pool of grief chasing anger. “But I believe that in her mind, she’s still there. Be grateful that she doesn’t want you to see it, Danny.”