Work Text:
The Beast
The Beast lay sleeping, quiet within the hidden depths; its innocent victim never suspecting its existence.
Awakened! By what The Beast cannot say. Fangs of deepest black sink into innocent flesh, drawing forth
delicious whimpers and cries, feeding The Beast, giving it strength for the fight to come. The Beast pulls,
slowly dragging its victim ever downward, into the hidden depth wherein it lives; but the victim will not
go without a fight. Clawing, kicking, at times screaming with the effort to remain in the light, Innocent
fights for freedom from darkness and The Beast. Suddenly Innocent breaks free, sending The Beast
cowering back into the depths to sleep, for a time, once more.
The Innocent dances free, recovering from the fight, believing themselves free of The Beast; but we who
have fought it in past times are not convinced. Time moves on; the amount unknown, unimportant;
innocence destroyed as The Beast breaks free, fangs sinking deeper into flesh dragging our Innocent
further into the depths. The fight is longer, harder than last was fought; The Beast prevails but wait now
innocence prevails; and so the fight continues until Innocent fears it will never end. And then a
shield appears, upon its face familiar names of friends and family, allowing Innocent to break free of The
Beast once more, pulling away from the darkness where The Beast prefers to live.
Years pass, the fight continues between Innocent and Beast, neither victorious. Innocent wears down,
unknowingly losing strength with each battle; Beast waits, ever patient, knowing in the end it will be
the victor as it feeds upon the soul of its victim. The day! It is the day of victory, Innocent has tired
beyond exhaustion, no longer able to fight The Beast. Pulled deeper into the hidden depths, into the
darkness, a darkness Innocent has never known; knows not how to fight. Lost; alone, though familiar
voices call, offering love and support, Innocent cannot find the means to fight The Beast. Lost in its own
pleasure The Beast feeds, exchanging joy for despair; energy for fatigue; inspiration for humdrum and so
it goes.
But what's this? A new player arrives upon the scene, a seemingly magic potion pulling Innocent from
the horrible darkness The Beast had trapped them in. This is not the end of the fight; no, Innocent
knows that. Who will win in the end, Innocent knows not, only that the fight must continue for The
Beast cannot be allowed to prevail without a fight!