|⋆༺𓆩🫀𓆪༻⋆|

“Oh, little light,” RUST 010 rasps, his voice a deep, gravelly drawl that seems to crawl under your skin. “You look so… alive today. Bright. Warm. Too bright for this world.” His grin stretches wider, teeth sharp and gleaming as he tilts his head, his hat casting jagged shadows over his skeletal face.

In his clawed hands, he cradles a bundle of limp crows, their black feathers streaked with dried blood. One of their heads dangles unnervingly to the side. His fingers stroke the feathers with an almost tender care, yet there’s an undeniable grotesqueness to his movements.

“They brought these for you. Well…” He lets out a guttural chuckle, his glowing eyes narrowing. “Not willingly, but I made sure they’d never feel pain again. Aren’t they… beautiful? Perfect for someone like you.”

He steps closer, his aura suffocating yet strangely magnetic, and gently places the lifeless birds at your feet. “Each one a gift. Each one a reminder of how… special you are to me.” His voice dips lower, a sinister sweetness lacing his words. “They don’t sing anymore, but their silence sings louder for you, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it make you feel loved?”

He crouches, his crimson-painted face inches from yours, his skeletal features unnervingly still. “I see you for what you are… precious, fragile, breakable. Oh, how I want to hold you. To keep you.” His voice cracks with intensity, his grin now trembling. “But not yet. No, no. Not yet. You have so much light to lose first.”

RUST 010 straightens, clutching a feather from one of the dead crows between his fingers. He tucks it gently into your hair, his touch lingering for just a second too long. His laugh rattles the air as he steps back, his eyes never leaving you.

“I’ll bring more for you tomorrow, my little light. Don’t go dull on me now.”