A mouth with sharp white teeth. Drawn up into a feral, wicked grin
The air is thick with with dank sensation and the metallic scent of fresh blood.
Echoes of liquid on stone.
Faint flickers of torchlight on ashy granite.
There is a mans figure, clothed in sooty colored robes. His hood casts shadows upon his face. He stands with an air of anxiety. His body is angled in submission and weariness.
"They'll become suspicious" he mumbles quietly, entirely to himself.
The sharp white teeth grin wider in response.
The teeth belong to a face hidden in shadows, only a chin adorned in crimson ribbons of blood and a pale column of a throat colored alabaster are visible. Definitely female.
"Non-sense Love... They suspect nothing. Do not fret... We are so close to achieving our goal. Two more" comes the lulling, sickly sweet reply. It is like the residue of candy and the tinkling of bells.
The man sighs a deep sign, but nods in reply.
Then comes the dull thud of something heavy hitting the floor.
Sharp teeth stands, the glow of the torches bathing her in dim light.
She is frightening. Reptilian in appearance. Scales mar soft flesh, slitted eyes, jutting needle sharp teeth.
But this begins to fade into a facade of normalacy.
She steps forward completely, lovely now.
Pale as a bone, her eyes are the color of sun ripened oranges. Her hair falls in shimmering ripples around her calves, pale as silk spun from moon beams.
Her narrow slip of a body is garbed in delicate inky lace, a high collared gown that melts in with the shadows of the room. She is small in stature, barely five feet tall.
Her high cheek bones and full red lips would give the impression of a china doll. Innocence, if not for the jaded look in her eyes.
With a contented sigh, she steps over an obstructing shape at her feet. "Come Darling, we must leave now" she soothes whimsically.
The hooded man is caught in her thrall. They make their way up a stair case.
Two corpses litter the floor.
It is an absolute scene of terror and torture.
One body is mangled beyond all recognition.
Bones broken and splintered, flesh bruised and split. Blood spilled onto the stone floor, a sacrifice to a brutal God.
The second is considerably less broken.
The second is still breathing.
Only barely.
Her eyes are the color of clouded steel.
Blood splattered white robes.
Her limbs are in strange and painful angles. Snapped by the hands of one without compassion.
Her hair is a blood soaked curtain of matted black.
She will die tonight.
She has been slit from throat to belly, the offending weapon is still buried deep within her womb. An intricately carved bone dagger, yellow with age, and stained in crimson.
The woman lets a barely audible cry slip from her ravaged throat. She moves her hand -hardly functioning- to touch the arm of the second body. There is nothing but anguish in her eyes.
Her paling lips struggle to form words.
She gurgles on her blood.
Chokes.
Her eyes stare into blank space. Unseeingly so it seems. Looking into a place unknown by mere mortals.
A place of dreams.
A place beyond her waning existence.
"Run" she states.
Convulses.
Stills.

Death sweeps in to collect her soul.

~~
The girl shoots up in her bed. Her body is drenched in a cold sweat.
Eyes like the one of the dead woman are wide with terror, her gut clenches and her stomach sours.
"Mama! Mama!" She wails.
Down the hall the sound of a door opening shatters the silence of the house. Foot steps echo down the hallway, and her door creaks open slowly.
A tired looking set of parents gaze sleepily into the room. They float in to comfort her.
But, their own eyes beget fear when they inspect the slight female in her bed.
Then, sorrow.
Their five year old was been marked for sorrow.
The moon vines have bloomed upon her flesh. Beautiful -indeed-, but they are evidence of a life cursed with misfortune.
Mother hugs her daughter tenderly, her tired eyes prick with tears she cannot shed.
The Father leans heavily against the doors frame. *"Là donna luna . Iddìo salvare lei"* he murmurs brokenly.
His words go unnoticed as his wife begins to sing a lullaby. Her voice speaks of far away lands, spiced winds, and stringed instruments played under the full moon, beside camp fires. It tells a story of a woman loved the Moon.
The child's eyes grow heavy with exhaustion. She drops back softly against the cool cotton of her pillow case, breath even and relaxed.
Father embraces Mother.
They watch their daughter sleep.
This is the last night they will sing their girl to sleep.
Tomorrow the Priestesses will come to collect her, no doubt sensing the birth of magick in her blood.
They will take her away to the stone temple, through a gate that no mortal shall pass.
They will train her.
She is one of them now.
Tomorrow the will bid her farewell.
They will never see their child again.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
* "The Lady Moon. God save her".
( I used freedict.com... So, I doubt its fully correct)