[RiDragon]

[Vast Plains]

What is this that I feel...

The nightmares started again.  He felt them coming, sneaking up on him in the once blissful nothingness of sleep.  The one place he thought he was safe: his own mind, now turned against him.  It started as a feeling, a creeping, aching, gut wrenching feeling.  That damned mist...  Every night since it started to come, it was as if it pried his guilty conscience up from the depths of his skull and forced it to be heard.

...And what is this that I fear?

As he did every night, he struggled against the coming storm of images.  Trying to wake himself up, trying to control the torrent of dreams, trying to move his body, a muscle, a finger, anything...

In these arms that whored out amongst the worms...

The images of rotting corpses flashed in his mind.  Of his family, dead centuries ago, rotting in the ground.  He knew what he saw was in real time.  He watched as their deaths replayed, and their corpses rotted beneath the earth.  Mother died in a robbery gone wrong they said, blood slick on the knife of the murderer who cackled and fled without even grabbing any jewelry.  He could not turn away as she gasped for her last breath, desperately trying to fill her lungs with air rather than blood and failing.  Shuddering and choking as her life drained, so painfully slowly.

... That mate in these fields

Father fell down a ladder and was paralyzed.  No one found him until he had already died from lack of oxygen.  Another horrible accident.  Though he knew the truth.

[RiDragon]

From pressure to pain I wish to stay awake

It ended with the image of a live rabbit's legs being pulled in different directions.  It didn't scream.  It just looked at him, unblinking...

With a gasp, Rabbit finally escaped from the dream world.  He glanced around in a panic before remembering where and who he was.  He chuckled to himself, cracked lips bearing sharp teeth.  He had stayed in the same place too long, it seemed.

In the measure I test with your love for me

He didn't have much in the realm of earthly possessions.  Too annoying to deal with things when you had to constantly be on the move.  The inn he had found was good enough, and they accepted his coin without questions at where it came from, and ignored the fact that the upper half his face was covered in a mask attached to skin.  He was used to scratchy blankets at this point anyway, not like he really had much feeling in his nerves anymore.

[RiDragon]

So shout against these walls, with hope that one will break free

Rabbit splashed his face with water from the sink basin.  He could just barely feel the chill of the water.  This old place probably didn't have any hot water, now that he thought of it.  Probably all well water.

No matter.  He couldn't quite feel it anyway, and it wasn't as if he needed to bathe.  He skipped many earthly pleasures when he became immortal.  It had its perks.  Though, it also had many downsides.

So hear me...

Especially when you cheated to win it.

[RiDragon]

What is this that you keep selling me, boy?

He boredly looked out the rickety window into the vast fields below.  The odd mist, (or was it smoke?) was obvious in the distance, though still on the horizon.  A flicker of fear wavered in his one slightly human-like eye.  Did this have to do with him?

I'm not gonna hold your hand here when you walk

No, don't be ridiculous.  Everyone saw the mist.  The spectres that chased him were seen by his otherworldly seeing eye alone.  Plus, he could even see it in his human eye.  It had to be something else.

[RiDragon]

You'll burn in hell while they're digging you out

He gently ran a hand over the 'mask' attached to his face.  It had felt like so long ago that he stole it, and in turn a demon's eye, from a game of cards with a demon.  Technically, he had won it, but the Demon Lord hadn't realized the way Rabbit twisted his words, how he created a loophole that had to be obeyed.  Tricking a demon at its own game...  They obviously weren't very happy by this

You'll burn in hell...

[RiDragon]

So picture this face and burn it to flake

It was all so easy...

Challenge a demon to a game that you knew it'd cheat at, and lose on purpose.

Only to, in the end, be the one that really won.

Demons couldn't resist a rigged game of chance after all.

To shelter it at home at the fireplace

The wording of their verbal contract, practiced over many years, the boy was ready to challenge the demon.  The mist brought back the memories of that distant time, the swirling shape of them reminding him of the landscape of the Demonic Plane

[RiDragon]

And all but memory will fade

The Demon Lord, known by mortals as lord Beelch (due to the horrible stink of its breath) bared down on the young boy.  Fifteen cycles of human life?  Though the demon did not care enough about humans to know their lifespans, it knew this was young.  

Young souls were the best.  They were always so pure and delicious.  It bared its teeth that dripped with green and black bile.

With the flick of the flame

"You wish to challenge me, child?"  It bellowed, growl low and rumbling the very plane of existence it had crafted for itself.  "Does it know that these are not just simple games?"

[RiDragon]

So I have a secret that no one should know

The nameless child that would become Rabbit nodded.  He pointed at the abomination, at the creature's mask.

That I shouldn't tell

The creature's one showing eye widened as it clenched together its teeth, before erupting into a guffaw of laughter.  The mask was what gave the creature its power, no mortal could wield it without the demon's blessing.  One eye was affixed to the mask, a demon eye that could see more than mortals could ever handle, the other was a black abyss of emptiness.

But all of the...

"Is that all?  Mortal, my mask will corrupt your very flesh shall you lose this game."  The child nodded in response, and the demon again laughed, spraying the ground with caustic spittle and snot.

... but of all the worlds

[RiDragon]

This one won't feel...

The demon ripped the mask from its face, ripping flesh and bile leaking from where it had been.  The good eye that had been hidden by the mask peered out at the boy, squinted with glee.  Where the other eye would be was a pit of puss and stink.  He threw it to the ground, where it shrunk to the size of the boy before landing at his feet.

"Adorn the mask, mortal, and play my game."

This one just won't leave me well

"Shall you lose, your flesh will corrupt and your soul will be reaped and given to me.  You shall be cursed to undeath until I collect

Shall you win, I will give my blessing, and you shall be most powerful for the rest of your short mortal life."

[RiDragon]

What is this shit you keep selling me, boy?

The boy slid the uncomfortably warm mask over his face.  It felt like skin.  It just barely remained balancing on his nose, covering both his eyes.  He could barely see through it with the one that wasn't blocked.  It hadn't been activated yet.

The demon summoned its cards and shuffled them, hiding some in its wiggling ever changing skin with a smirk.  The boy hadn't seen.  This would be easy.

I'm not gonna hold your hand here when you walk

Then, the boy turned tail and ran.

[RiDragon]

You'll burn in hell while they're digging you out

At first, the demon thought that the human was just stupid and did not know how the game worked.  "Mortal, the mask, you still wear it.  This means the game is still on!"  It roared, more confused to be angry just yet.  "Take the mask and flee and you forfeit!"  It was used to humans backing out of their deals, but they never wanted the cursed mask before.

You'll burn in hell...

Undeath.  Immortality.  Until the demon caught you.  But what if he never could catch you because you had taken his source of power?  The child had wondered this for a very long time.  Now he could test it.  He wouldn't have the demon's full power, no, but he didn't want that.  He wanted the everlasting life.

[RiDragon]

In the press of your back

A flash of pain, burning and melting of his facial skin.  The mask was taking what it was owed.

"Mortal!"  The demon sensed that the mask was closing in, it felt a slight flutter of worry in its heart, but it was dismissed.  Even if this mortal escaped with the mask, the curse would drive the thing mad.

Wouldn't it?

Do you feel the shore swell?

The pain was horrible, all encompassing.  His flesh was being melted and melded with the mask.  All he could do was run.  Run and try to remember, through the pain, what he was doing and who he even was.

Oh boy, I'm eating my way back home

There was a pressure on his left eye.  Like a headache, but increasing with intensity.  When it became almost unbearable, he heard and felt a wet pop.  Blood seeped out of his ear and nose as his old eye was crushed and replaced with the demonic eye that resided within the mask.

Oh boy, I'm eating my way back home...

[RiDragon]

As father told son in the make of his final escape

Don't stop running.  The pain is encompassing and all.  What was I running from?  Don't stop, don't stop.  Swirls of shadow surrounded him, all he could remember was running, running, running.

A voice billowed out in anger and pain behind him, but he continued to run.  Through his new and blurry eye he saw creatures moving out of his way and hissing.  

Should all good boys die with God at their side,

A bright light he could only see with one eye, what he assumed was the exist.  He felt things bearing down on him, though he wasn't sure if they were real.  With a final leap, he was through.

At the grace of His gates?

[RiDragon]

No, the Robot holds none with the mind

The boy opened his eyes with a gasp.  Pain still burned his skin and hammered in his head, but it was bearable enough to think.  He went to put his hand against his head, and drew back in fear at the feeling of the smooth but fleshy lump on his face.

The mask.  The demon.  It had worked.

And a heart to comply

He crawled to a nearby puddle, admiring his new face.  Covered by the top half with the skull-like mask that was bound to his flesh.  One eye was pale blue and human, the other black and seeing beyond what normal humans could see.

[RiDragon]

Then I will disguise and grieve of those dead

It took a moment to realize just how much the pain had changed him.  He realized he did not remember his name.  Or much of his past or family.  Not like it mattered, he had nothing much to truly live for anyway.  Why else would he risk his very soul with this demon?

When I'm given the time

He tried to think back to his life, but only a single sentence was able to penetrate the pain that had wiped his mind.

Run, little Rabbit...

Go hide in the blades of that grass...

Run, Rabbit, run