In the chamber of madness, Bartholomew was left helpless to avoid staring at the blood crawling up the walls- shooting sparks as they ignited the red-glowing, retina-scorching markings. The purple smoke beyond the mirror roiled and spun- hastening with every trickling drop of blood seeping from the man’s chest. The child tugged hastily on Bartholomew’s leg, but he- as with the rest of the crowd, had all frozen to watch the tendrils of purple fog as they appeared from the mirror to wrap themselves around the citizens, one-by-one. They screamed as the gaseous tentacles cocooned around their bodies.

Bartholomew yelped as two of the women were dragged by invisible hands out into the room and locked their eyes with something beyond the mirror- a moment thereafter the first of the two women began to disintegrate. Her skin and hair were the first to be assimilated by the purple smoke. Had Bartholomew been capable of understanding the impossibility, he might have screamed with the same terror as the others. She wriggled and shrieked- a human form of bared muscle, flesh, and fatty polyps where her breasts had once been.

“G-Gods above!” Bartholomew shouted as the tendrils squirmed their way into her every orifice and began draining her- dissolving her from the inside.

One by one, the rest of the crowd were likewise defiled- all save for Titus, Bartholomew... and the child. The skinless woman’s wild eyes desperately sought for mercy amongst any who would see her plea, but to no avail-… the only one who would meet her wide, white bulbs was Bartholomew. Her skinless body oozed a steady stream of blood- a stream that would never reach the tiles on the floor, as the droplets were devoured by the thick, purple mist that now clouded the entire chamber.

A girlish scream sounded from behind Bartholomew’s back- reminding him of the girl. He spun about to see a small, naked, skinless body hang there- mid-air in his wake. Her eyes were, as every last one of the others, wide and pale with panic- her dilated pupils coronated by lines of deep red. He swept away his terror and reached out for the girl, but as soon as his hand touched the bared, glistening muscles of her shoulders... she vanished. No- not vanished... she disintegrated- reduced to naught but more of the sickly gasses retracting back into the mirror.

The insanity surrounding him sounded five-dozen gargling throats, as the tendrils continued to devour the citizens from inside- eating away their minds, bodies, and souls before his very eyes.

“Stop! Stop- Titus! Stop!” Bartholomew screamed his pleas for his brother, only to hear his laugh from somewhere out in the fog- somewhere in between his suffering People.

“Titus!”