P e r f

But can you. [Distorted and broken, muffled by the digital crackle of his own mask like ozone burning in a storm. The way hatred tastes over set teeth and the acrid, inescapable scent of death. This isn't real. Her breath rasping softly against cold air is, the fit of his helmet bearing down over his skin is-- but the rest sits within her mind, where he's seeped in as a poison, more potent than he could ever otherwise be.

Here, no one will rush to help her. No distance will sever the bond between them.

He stalks between trees: the sum of all her fears given life, limned in livid, flickering crimson.]