Nightmare Charlie
gallows
Julian da Silva
Philippians 3:19
He shuffled the beads over his knuckles and filled his palm with antique prayer. The habit was old, an heirloom of lifetimes passed, and performed in empty gesture.
Hail Mary, Full of Grace-
The rosary wove through his fingers, orb by orb.
At his mouth, the impulse ended, blotted out by lips, while on his tongue blasphemy sat like ash. Julian shifted, murmuring smoke instead of prayer, and released his hold on glass.
In the dark of sewer, his presence cut subtle outline, a shadow punctured by the glow of cigarette. He took another drag, savoring the raw toxins.
A dragon in repose, the priest flicked away the dying smolder, ears trained onto the hush, and waited.
It was gradual, his discomfort, a shadow caught in the corner of his eye and lost the second he turned his face towards it. Peering into the darkness, both alarmed and intrigued, Julian lifted a brow and addressed the mouth of tunnel.
"...You were quicker than I thought you'd be."
"You weren't hard to find."
Shrouded in mist and grime, the tracker was less man than varmint, an alligator among the waste, with a smirk like broken glass as he approached. Studying the other's visage through the gloom, something itched at him, something just out of grasp, but disappeared between the space of one blink and the next.
Julian leered, a slow flash of teeth that bunched the scar curved up his cheek.
"Shall we begin?"
The scroll he produced was surprisingly simple, opening into geometric confusion, and formed the standard ledger of business. Handing it over without flourish, Julian flexed his fingers, the seals inked into skin shifting in their place over his knuckles and palms. They triggered a response from the chaos on page, blood magic morphing sigils into a cipher readable only to those who knew the language.
Parallel lines, spiraled in on themselves; spikes like measured heartbeats - revealed in the curves and edges of the forming design, the details of their job began to take shape.
"Two Magi."
The picture he produced was more concrete, a sepia relic, of two old men not quite identical. Captured in celluloid, they stood withered and bent, with dark rings around mismatched eyes and cunning fox smiles. Behind them, the landscape of a bygone era sprawled.
"Absalom and Amnon," He began, tapping each figure in tandem, "They specialize in seals and change skin more than we change underwear. Well-"
Pausing, the priest ran a pointed look along the other, taking stock of greasy hair and rumpled clothing.
"Most of us, anyway."
Smirk faint, the inquisitor continued, hitting on the matter that brought them together.
"As you've no doubt surmised, they've all but vanished. I need you to find them. Both of them. Though they're not likely together. They're very old and very clever and they won't make it easy."
Pulling out the accompanying contract, Julian snapped it open, once more waiting for the sigils to take shape and fall into place. At the bottom, his blood was a smear of red still warm with magic; an ironclad signature in want of a partner.
"That's why you're here. I'm told you specialize in 'not easy',"Leaning forward, he lifted the contract without preamble, smile wolfish and gaze challenging.
"Think you can manage?"
He watched from beneath lids as the tracker sunk his teeth into the pad of a thumb, a wordless retort, before stepping forward to press his fingerprint across the parchment.
"Call me Pig."
Hooded eyes once more took inventory of the man before him, passing along figure with a wry drawl and quirked brow.
"...Charming."
The priest contemplated his own introduction, smirk crawling, before letting it go in favor of time.
"My name is Julian."
Shifting from his perch by the wall, he indicated the tunnel opposite them.
"After you," He purred, and followed Pig out into the womb of sewer.
forgive me, father
{ occult verse
>catholic priest & debt collector
modern day inquisitor }
Pigman belongs to desperish
text adapted directly from logs;
quotes by Pig taken from Desperish posts
everything else @me
profile by User not found: sentinel
