A New Shape (Crai)
Crai woke up to the sound of screaming metal on metal.
She hadn't slept well to begin with, and so she was up in an instant, heart jumping out of her ribs and both hands glowing.
She left the living room and dashed into the hallway, towards her room.
The two metal things that used to be her parents were fighting. One, the one with mother's eyes still visible from the warped metal, reared back and swiped both scythe like claws across the one with father's face's torso. More metal screamed, the metal parted, and blood spilled out. There was still human skin under the metal, human enough to bleed.
"Hey!" She slammed both her hands on the door. "Cut it out! Snap out of it!"
Like every other time she had shouted at them, it had no effect. The bleeding one, father, slammed his hand into the underside of mother's head, sending her flying into the far wall.
The whole dormizone shook from the impact.
Crai swiped her hand over the external lock, triggering the manual override. The transparent door whooshed open.
Both of them swiveled their heads to look at her. Like snakes. Predators. The rest of their bodies stayed completely still.
For a moment it was impossible even to breathe, under the weight of the both of them looking at her like that.
Mother shoved herself away from the wall and lunged, screaming, her huge teeth apart. It seemed almost like they could move on their own, and were grasping, reaching for Crai.
She swiped her hand over it again, and the doors slammed shut just in time for mother to hit them full force.
"GRAHHHH!" She screamed, snarled, opened her mouth and tried to chew on the flat surface. Those teeth made terrible sounds on the transparisteel.
"Mother," Crai whispered. "It's me, Crai. Please."
Father grabbed her from behind and tossed her back, taking her place. His hands were so big they drug on the ground even when he was standing fully upright, and a good portion of his chest and torso had turned metal as well.
He pounded both hands on the door, and with every blow it left smears of blood on the transparisteel. She had no way of knowing if it was mother's blood, if it was father's from the stomach wound, or if his hands were bleeding too. And with every blow, he smiled a little more.
"Stop it," she whispered. Her eyes were getting hot again. "Please just stop, stop, this isn't funny!"
Father clicked his human teeth at her. Once, twice, four times, eight times. Like nibbling at the air.
This was torture.
Crai thought she understood what suffering was, before. She thought at least abstractly, she knew how bad things could get. Even lesser nobles could be chosen as a yuvan, if the chooser was high enough ranked. She thought that was the worst thing she could ever have to fear.
Father was still clicking his teeth.
Crai sat down on the ground. "You're going to be okay," she whispered. "Help is coming. They'll be able to fix you, I know it. You'll be okay. We'll all be okay."
A tear fell off her jaw.
"We'll all be okay," she whispered again. It tasted like a lie.