…The woman screams in agony as her flesh melts from the bone, then she falls silent as she drops to the floor in a heap while a growing river of red swells beneath her. Kristina turns to Sammy quickly, her face flush and her eyes wide with terror and concern.

“Y-You expect me to somehow follow that?” she asked with quivering lips.

“I do not ask you for anything, I demand it!” he says with a deeply furrowed brow.

“A-A-And w-what if I r-refuse? W-W-What then?”

“Then the results will be identical to that which befell her, but instead of the artefact causing your demise like it did hers, it will be my hands that will snuff the life from your fragile frame.”

She looks back to Lacy, who is now nothing more than a puddle. “I-I-I, I c-can’t. I-I-I, I c-c-can’t!”

“Then, you will die.”

“W-Won’t I anyway!”

“That is a question I cannot answer, for the amulet chooses its victims at random.”

“A-A-Am I a victim?”

“Aren’t you all?”

“D-D-Don’t you mean we?”

He laughs softly, “We are far different, you and I.”

“W-W-WE SHARED T-THE WOMB T-T-TOGETHER S-SAM! Y-Your no more a G-GOD than I am, a-and M-Mum and D-Dad r-raised you the s-same as t-they did me.…”