ᖴI᙭ᗩTIOᑎ

ᕼE KIᔕᔕEᗪ YOᑌ

     A hand turned your body around, leaving you face-to-face with a very smug Maison Talo. 

     Still in disbelief, you just stared at him with wide eyes.

     "Please tell me the hallucinations haven't started again," you groaned to yourself, rubbing your eyes with the palms of your hands.

     Two hands gently grasped yours, pulling them away from your face.

     " 𝙼𝚢  𝙳𝙴𝙰𝚁 ,  𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎  𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚎  𝚗𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛  𝚊𝚗𝚢  𝚑𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚞𝚌𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜  𝚝𝚘  𝚋𝚎𝚐𝚒𝚗  𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 -  𝚖𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚕𝚢  𝚝𝚑𝚎  𝚝𝚊𝚖𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐  𝚘𝚏  𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚢  𝚋𝚢  𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛  𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜  𝙿𝙴𝚂𝚃 . " Maison's eyes grew dark as he switched focus back onto your fallen companion and the rat pack that was currently in a tizzy trying to help him.

     You, in the meantime, were trying to wrap your head around Maison's statement. Had the stuff you'd dreamed about...actually happened?  And what about that day at the park, the day your headaches had begun?

     No, it was more likely that he was just trying to get into your head and turn you against Doe. After all, Maison wanted you ᗩᒪᒪ TO ᕼIᗰᔕEᒪᖴ.

     Talo took advantage of your current state of deep thought and slipped past you, heading towards Doe. The unsettling lure grinned down at the eldritch being who was currently picking himself up off of the ground, a fierce glare adorning the latter's face as he prepared to fight tooth, nail, and hair follicle for you.

     Maison's grin just became a smug smile, the lure stepping closer to John Doe until he was in range. Talo put a foot on Doe's torso, quickly pushing him back onto the ground. The eldritch being, not expecting to be pushed straight down, laid on his back in shock for a fraction of a second, giving Maison just enough to proceed with the rest of his plan.

     Pulling out a closed container from his suit pocket, Talo poured a generous amount of water onto Doe's lower body.

     In a split second, all hell broke loose.

     John began thrashing under Maison, throwing the REALTOR off balance and causing him to take a step back. Unfortunately for your obsessive companion, the damage had already been done.

     You could only watch as Doe tried, frantically, to pick himself up off of the ground with disintegrating skin, leaving you to suddenly understand the reason behind his complete aversion to water.

     The layers melted off one by one, starting with his clay-like skin, and then muscle, and finally coming down to the hair-like veins that slowly receded into the remainder of his body. By the end of it, the only things remaining were above his waist. Unfortunately for him, even those were slowly disintegrating from bottom to top.