Hell's Silencing: Forsaken Innocence

Flora didn't understand how or why, but the static fell silent as she left the padded room. Snow still crunching under her hooves, she decided the room was mocking her--either that, or something was under her. On the wall where she found the straw person, she noticed in its place was a mirror. On the other side was...that world. And she saw the crimson thing and Ren still duking it out. Claws kept clashing with his horn; the blade repelled by hooves with almost no effort on Ren's part.

Flora's jaw hung open and tears fell from her eyes as Ren was finally overpowered. He was slammed against the wall on his side as the claws cut into his stomach. His intestines were spread across the width of the hall shortly thereafter.

"Ren!" Flora yelled.

The stallion rose his head and nodded.

The mare turned around and began to run. Horn aglow and at full gallop, she effortlessly phased through the wall of the padded room that bore the runic circle.

How did you do THAT?!

"I have no fucking clue!" Flora answered in her mind as her physical body nearly fell over. The static started to ring again as another one-armed thing missed her muzzle by only a few gossamer strands of pelt. In response, she grabbed the whole being with telekinesis and slammed it onto the ground. The spear was impaled into its skull shortly afterwards.

The mare fell on her side in exhaustion, her psychic power having done more than merely sputter out. A throbbing headache assaulted her mind and body. "I DID NOT sign up for this!" Flora cried in frustrated annoyance, trying to force herself to stand once more. Her legs shook with that familiar pain of shackles holding them down as her body slowly rose to full stature. Now shambling towards the corpse, she heard her sibling curse left and right.

Poking the skull of the thing to ensure its owner was dead, the mare used her mouth to yank the spear out. It was hard to hold the spear as her jaw nearly locked up on her. Flora sighed through her nostrils and opened the door with a hoof.

Next thing she knew, there was a fairly large hallway. Bloodied stains found themselves all over the place. Glass lay scattered about. There was even a dead body dangling from the ceiling via noose. It was...what looked like a nurse. Or was it a patient? That, Flora didn't know. Where was she?

Blinking once more and finding herself in a common living room, she was now under the assumption she could teleport. Either that or the town was screwing with her again. Meh. She put the spear back onto her body and groaned in annoyance.

Trotting around a ruined table and past a shredded couch, she found yet another note with a liquid medicine bottle tied to it.

Don't worry too much about me. Sure, you'd seen me get my ass kicked, but really, it's nothing I can't shrug off. I'm a supernatural being, remember?

I wonder how you got your own horn and didn't even realize it until some time after we met. That creature sure put up a fight, so if you see him, run like hell's chasing you.

I tried going though the mirror myself, but the world is toying with me. Should you find this note, heh, we're probably not even in the same place now. Well, maybe we are, but you know what they say about parallel worlds.

I don't know how else to repay you, so here's my token of gratitude.

Ichimokuren.

P.S. I saw Tsuyu (my friends and I call her Hone Onna) a while back before that thing gave chase to you. She said you were walking fine and dandy as if nothing happened. That's always good to hear, I suppose.

Flora couldn't help but smile. She calmly examined the medicine bottle. It was labeled 'health drink' and didn't say much else.

Taste it. Taste it dammit.

"I'm gonna, shut up!" Flora replied mentally as she removed the cork. Taking a whiff, it smelled like freshly diced herbs with a faint hint of that foul smell often found in common liquid medication. This was followed by sticking her tongue into the container.

Faint strawberries, more herbs, all-around horrid medicine taste.

Chugging it down in two seconds, she tried her best not to make a face. Her sibling was already cursing left and right, and she could not blame him. Hell, if the monsters had any form of reason, she was sure they would've said the same thing in a different way. Shrugging off the bad taste, the pains of abusing her powers eased somewhat. The throbbing of her head was reduced to mere afterthoughts.

She then noticed a scarlet runic circle in front of the couch. It wasn't like the ones she held the dolls in front of. It had orbs and runic writing, yes, but it also had eyes--something the other lacked. It was new to the mare, and she put a hoof on it just because she could.

A searing flash of red overtook her, and she found herself no longer in control of her body.

Nope, she saw through the eyes of her sibling now, and she was the backseat driver.

And in that moment, the static started buzzing once again.