Digging my own...well

[madlymirthful9.livejournal.com]

~ Barty is digging. Feverishly and obsessively digging. If his hands weren't already black from frost-bite then perhaps the skin would have completely worn away by now, it's difficult to tell. The wet mud freezes to his hands in filthy frozen clumps, making it appear as though he's wearing a pair of lumpy mittens. Yet still he continues, unable to stop his limbs as they tunnel him deep into a collapsing, makeshift shaft.

He hasn't a clue where Regulus is, or even where he is any more - everything is damp and black - his eyes clamped as tight as iron, unwilling to budge. Hurting himself or even Reg - that would have been understandable, even acceptable, but this self-made mudprison has overreached some critical boundary.

It's reasonably certain that Barty Crouch, Jr. has long since surpassed anyone's trapped-in-their-own-mind-horrifically quota, and, presently, with mud freezing in his hair as it slops down around him with the threat of imminent entombment, he decides that Hell has officially become overkill.

He screams, though he's fairly certain he's been doing that all along. ~

Comments

[wetandbothered5.livejournal.com]

*Regulus, it so happens, is also digging, though his body has not forced him down into the earth like Barty's has, it's left him above on the surface; his hole is only about two feet deep but he's been there so long gradually it has filled up with filthy water dripping off his own body to create a muddy stew around him as his hands rake and sift the mud on the bottom and Regulus prays they don't find any more of what they're looking for*

[madlymirthful9.livejournal.com]

*loose debris and rocks tumble down Barty's tunnel as the structurally unsound hole begins to collapse in on itself, it's encroaching destruction subtly visible from Reg's standpoint*

[wetandbothered5.livejournal.com]

*there is the sound of suction as mud slowly siphons down underground, but there's nothing Regulus can do about it, he can't even turn his own head to see where the sound is coming from, instead his hands close on something slippery and writhing down under the water, his arms lift on their own accord and he watches himself pull something long, tube-like, and grey from the earth*

[nauticalnapalm5.livejournal.com]

*the worm is thick and ropey and quite unlike anything a rational person would expect from a worm, both ends are home to gnashing holes lined with several rows of spinning fangs, while they're tiny in comparison to what creatures here are usually endowed with, it twists around quite viciously, slimy and writhing, searching for skin*

[wetandbothered5.livejournal.com]

*were Regulus in charge here, he would do everything in his power to get as far away from the disgusting parasite as possible, but that is not the case, the worm hardly needs to search for Regulus, because his hands do the job for it, raising it to his open mouth*

[nauticalnapalm5.livejournal.com]

*the worm does not simply suckle Reg's blood, or even bite, instead it grotesquely begins to fold itself inside out, its spinning fangs turning outward as it drills into Reg's carpal tunnel with practised ease, its ropey mass forcing itself into his arm, soon disappearing from sight, becoming nothing more but a roving lump, causing severe internal havoc as it rips through the inside of his arm*

[wetandbothered5.livejournal.com]

*a strangled sound wrenches it's way though Regulus' clenched teeth but it's all the protest he can do, he's been kneeling in the mud for goodness knows how long and the lump in his arm isn't the only one, his skin is crawling with them so much it looks like his back is bubbling under his clothes, Regulus vows to never dig again*

[madlymirthful9.livejournal.com]

*evidence that Barty's tunnel exists at all is fast disappearing to the shifting silt, and as it closes up with the excruciating slowness of erosion, it becomes clear there are no markers in this area of the swamp to properly indicate where the tunnel has been all along, everything flat and muddy for many metres around, only sparsely populated by odd browning vegetation*

[wetandbothered5.livejournal.com]

*Regulus' hands plunge back into the muddy water, beginning their search anew with so much vigor he feels a fingernail pull up as it scrapes on a buried rock*

[madlymirthful9.livejournal.com]

*Barty's frightened appeals are finally silenced, at least on the surface, as the mud knits back together over his head, disguising all evidence that he was ever there and digging at all*

[wetandbothered5.livejournal.com]

*something slimy undulates under Reg's palm and he splashes his entire body into the water, digging like a dog, as though he can smell the worm things down there, he's just running out of air in his pre-dampened lungs when the mud under his hands gives way and he breaks through to something hollow underneath - part of Barty's tunneling*

[madlymirthful9.livejournal.com]

*Barty's yell becomes immediately audible once more and water drains through the break, trickling down the length of the tunnel - it'll reach Barty long before Reg*

[wetandbothered5.livejournal.com]

*as the water pours down, pulling the muddy sides of the hole along with it, Regulus can finally breathe again but he can also hear the yelling*

Barty!

[madlymirthful9.livejournal.com]

*in his shrinking mudcell Barty is beyond coherence*

[wetandbothered5.livejournal.com]

Whereareyou, you left - I couldn't go after you!

[madlymirthful9.livejournal.com]

*Barty gives another desperate cry, it's hard to tell if it contains any words, his throat now obstructed by mud as his hand shovels filth into his mouth, silencing him*

[wetandbothered5.livejournal.com]

Barty!






Barty! *Regulus' hands have continued their hunt while Regulus has tried to communicate with Barty, weakening the floor of his hole, there is great slurk and then the bottom gives way and Regulus plunges into the caved in tunnel*

[madlymirthful9.livejournal.com]

*Barty chokes, his mutinous hand firmly clamped over his mouth, stopping any possibility of coughing up the offending dirt*

[wetandbothered5.livejournal.com]

*mud slops down around Regulus, drizzling down onto his head and uncovering what appears to be some poor shade's femur buried in the swamp*

[madlymirthful9.livejournal.com]

*the water sloshes into Barty's fading crevice, worsening the situation considerably*

[wetandbothered5.livejournal.com]

*Regulus opens his mouth to call for Barty again and his head promptly shoves itself into the mud*

[madlymirthful9.livejournal.com]

*Barty's eyes are tearing up as his throat undulates in alarm and his airways grow blocked*

[wetandbothered5.livejournal.com]

*face smears around in the mud like an unfortunate paintbrush*

[madlymirthful9.livejournal.com]

*not even his uncontrolled appendages can hold out over asphyxiation, as he suffocates his limbs revert to some measure of natural instinct and though Barty is far from being in control, he and his body are beginning to acquire mutual interests*

[wetandbothered5.livejournal.com]

*Regulus has drowned and suffocated more times than he can count but it still frightens him just as much as it did when he died in 1979, it still makes his heart pound in terror, his lungs try to suck in a breath but all he gets is sludge while his mutinous body almost sensually suffocates him - or, as sensually as forcing someone to inhale mud can be*

[madlymirthful9.livejournal.com]

*Barty's hand finally falls away and his eyes finally snap open and he struggles to cough up the filth, however his freedom is short-lived, even while he coughs his hands have resumed their meaningless digging as the tunnel continues to collapse*

[wetandbothered5.livejournal.com]

*in the melting hollow underground Regulus' spindly fingers contort in desperation as his watery, mud-filled lungs scream for air, then, as if to add a rotten cherry onto this mudslide, razor sharp teeth dig into his skin as a worm latches onto his cheek*

[madlymirthful9.livejournal.com]

*Barty has yet to encounter the worms, as though the things are actively avoiding him - ensuring the horror of imprisonment is not drowned out by pain - meanwhile, a rather large section of tunnel collapses with some degree of finality, blocking the limited light from the surface, entrapping both Reg and Barty together*

[wetandbothered5.livejournal.com]

*deprived of air for a shorter amount of time than Barty, Regulus thrashes in deranged twitches under the earth as the pang of oxygen deprivation and fear control his body more than whatever unseen forces brought him to this point, the worm has made it through his cheek to gnaw mercilessly on his tongue*

[madlymirthful9.livejournal.com]

*as the last bit of salty earth is spat out, Barty renews his yelling*

[wetandbothered5.livejournal.com]

*Regulus is nothing more than a pile of twitching mud*

[madlymirthful9.livejournal.com]

*he can't see, but he can hear the twitching, the wet slapping about of the mud, seemingly growing closer, some unknown beast drawing near*

[wetandbothered5.livejournal.com]

*something scratches Barty's side*

[madlymirthful9.livejournal.com]

OHFUCKING-

[wetandbothered5.livejournal.com]

*a mud bubble pops on the surface*

[madlymirthful9.livejournal.com]

NONONONOTTHISAGAIN. I JUST GOT MY HAIR BACK!

[wetandbothered5.livejournal.com]

*it scratches again, but weakly*

[madlymirthful9.livejournal.com]

*his brain rails to scurry back in the damp darkness and press himself against the very end of the tunnel but his body doesn't even twitch in response*

[wetandbothered5.livejournal.com]

*first, nothing - then the scratch comes again, weakly and softly enough to be recognisable for what it is, fingertips*

[madlymirthful9.livejournal.com]

[wetandbothered5.livejournal.com]

*the fingertips stay on Barty's side, unmoving*

[madlymirthful9.livejournal.com]

*another armful of moist earth crumbles on top of them, burying Reg's hand and Barty's legs*