Birth of a....Topiary?

[severus-snape1.livejournal.com]

~Snape has listened to Wesley's theory on what's happening to them now and must accept it as plausible. He's never experienced, or even seen, what Wesley has described, but his first thought is, Doesn't Hell already have enough demons running around? Why do we have to spawn more? But from what Wesley describes concerning some demon births, the symptoms fit. He's somewhat wishing now that he'd let Barty kill him, because he's fairly certain it would have been a quicker and more merciful death, and with luck, he would have missed this particular torment and not had this..._thing_...growing inside him.

He wonders if it will hollow him out inside like a human pumpkin gutted for Halloween carving. And when it emerges? Wesley's descriptions on that varied from one species to another, with several distinct potential exits. Wesley described scenes of creatures eating exit holes or things wriggling out of the body through the mouth and leaving the remnants like a mangled, discarded snake skin. Then there was the one that Snape is almost hoping for; the quick, furious and literal burst from the body that Wesley has assured him is so fast that Snape probably won't realize what's going on before he's burst asunder. Wesley certainly knows how to comfort.

A sharp pain bursts across his back; it's finally happening. Snape drops to his knees, gasping from pain and fear. He's about to give birth to a demon. He hurriedly takes his cloak and frock coat off and pulls up his shirt.~

What is it? What can I expect? ~he asks nervously.~

Relax, Try a Bonsai Garden

[beautysleep4.livejournal.com]

~Beauty had almost time to reflect on how gallant a knight Hal was in tending to her before the next wave of horrid stabbing pains had taken them both. She had taken the next opportunity to suggest that they leave while they still could.

Now they sit in a dark recess of the outermost building in the city. She is completely exhausted from the now relentless pain, knowing he must be the same and she has never missed the comforting touch of her mother so clearly as now. She turns to Hal and opening her mouth to speak gives instead a piercing scream which reverberates off of each bull and building. The cause of the scream is evident as small green shoots erupt from her midsection, chest and even her open throat. The scream is replaced by choking and gagging as with a desperation that none have been witness to before she grabs hold of the quickly growing stalk and tears it from her throat. The screaming is back, along with a spattering of blood. She looks to Hal, knowing what she will see but hoping with that small glimmer of optimism she still clings to that he may somehow have escaped the worst of the punishment.~