only skin-deep [dream o1]
[ This will hurt, he'd said. This will hurt more than you've ever hurt before. That was the great thing about Orochimaru-sensei; unlike most of the other adults in Anko's life, he didn't lie to her. ]
It starts with a burning on your neck, the Curse Seal. It starts with a sick itch on your neck that blossoms, feels like tiny fingernails running down the expanse of your shoulder, digging into your skin and dragging themselves forward millimeter by excruciating millimeter. You have just enough time to think you might be able to handle this, and then it bites harder, digs deeper, burns like smoldering fire under peat moss, driving you to your knees.
( i didn't think it would be this hard )
It spreads slowly at first, and then faster and faster, until your whole body is covered in black fingers, black hands, that lovingly caress your nerves before tearing them apart, the pain playing you like an erratic puppetmaster tugging strings while you jerk crazily in its grip.
( i didn't think it would be this hard )
Please, you whimper. Please. Please.
( i didn't think it would be this hard. )
And then it mercifully abates, the black setting into your skin like ink, but it isn't hurting anymore, and you look up, tears shining on your face, to Orochimaru-sensei--
( i didn't think it would be )
He smiles, and suddenly, you can't explain why, suddenly you are terrified.
( i didn't think )
You look down at your hands, and--
--and they are changing, growing little white scales, itching and hardening--
you scream and look up and his eyes are slitted and amused and how does it feel, Anko-chan, it might hurt more than you've ever hurt before, but--
( i didn't )
You rip at the scales with the fingernails of your other hand, but that one's growing them, too, but you concentrate on ripping them off, sloughing them off, and they come off painfully, bleeding and there's another layer underneath them, and--
--and you tear at the layers with your teeth, tasting blood and salt and copper and sweat, tearing and savaging your arms, and there's another layer under that--
it might hurt more than you've ever hurt before, but
--and under that--
( i )
--and under that--
( didn't )
--and under that--
( think )
--and your arms are gone, so you start on your legs, or one of them, you thought you had two of them, but
it might hurt, will hurt more than you've ever hurt before
you keep going, keep going, tearing, and spitting, and swallowing, over and over and over in ouroboros circles until
until...
[ The great thing about Orochimaru-sensei is he doesn't lie. ]
...there is no more left of you.
~~~~
Anko wakes up in a sweat, breathing heavily. She fell asleep on one of her arms, and it tingles with blood loss. She rubs it, rubs it, until the blood and feeling comes back into it.
She rolls over and tries to sleep again.