The soft splatter of blood running from the wounds she's already inflicted is the only noise for a time, that and his ragged breathing as he stares at her. This time, when he moves towards her, it's slow, almost like a grotesque dog being called by name.

Click-click-click goes the gear in his back, chains rustling against one another as they pull and shift, puppeting his twisted limbs forward, and perhaps now she understands. He is once as she was. She can be as he is now, stronger. Surpassing the agony this place holds.

Stop running. Surrender. Become one with the In-Between. It's the only way, the only way...

The monster rumbles, some thick dark liquid foaming up between his teeth and dripping to the ground. Blood...or something worse.