There was a time when Ghoul believed he was on top of the world. As he saw it now from the dismal corner they had placed him in, he had reached the absolute bottom. Pack? Gone. Family? Nearly gone. Lover? Gone, dead, disappeared. Friends? What are those? His companions? At least he could rely on them to help feed and care for him. Those three dwarf caimans were possibly the only reason he survived until Medusa found him crippled at the base of the statue. Being left for dead gives one a whole new look at life. Walking still wasn't possible at this point but he could at least feel his legs again. Ghoul would take what he could get at this point.

As he faded in and out of consciousness, he noticed a familiar dark shadow. His midnight counterpart and his only sister, he barely managed a smirk. "Widow," Ghoul rasped as his ruby eyes fell on the condition of his sister's form. She didn't look much better. Had they all succumbed to the treachery of the world after Medusa had taken the crown? Releasing a shallow sigh before sucking in a shaky breath, he lifted his head as much as possible to watch what she would do next.

G H O U L

"Stay here and be quiet," Widow sighed at the small shadow of a girl that had followed her despite being given strict instructions to stay. She could hardly stay mad at the tiny child, but she wasn't ready to let her family meet her daughter yet. She wouldn't let anyone but Medusa or her children near Morte, and that even extended to her family. Could she even call them that anymore? Family stood by each other. Widow felt as though there was little left to call a family, but the longer each of them sat in Insomnia, the more she wondered if her siblings felt as abandoned as she did. Would they be so willing to stay in Insomnia? She doubted it.

She stepped carefully into the den for the first time since they'd all arrived. She winced at his raspy voice, though it had little to do with his pitch but everything to do with her name. Every time it was said aloud she felt tied even more to her mother and she couldn't want to be more detached. She hesitated before answering, wondering why she had even come here to begin with. Of course she cared for her siblings at least a tiny bit, and Ghoul had been pretty broken (though she would argue to the death that he deserved it at least to a point).

"You look like shit," she teased with a smirk, though she had little room to talk. She was doing better than she had been, but she still had a long way to go.

"Speech!"
Code © Skelle | Art © Lila-hyacinth

Leaning up onto an elbow as he carefully dragged a bandaged leg to help support the weight of his head, he looked on at his sister. Ghoul knew that he and his brothers had never been their sister's favorites so her visit was... surprising. At birth, one may have thought that they could have been twins, he the day and she the night, but that had never come to fruition. His lack of emotion toward anyone except Recluse and Macabre made him unable to really care about his relationship with his other siblings. If his only sister didn't want to befriend him then, he wasn't expecting her to do it now.

Her comment did bring about a wry smirk and a dry laugh. Maybe as they aged they could find a way to forge some sort of friendship. Especially now that Habari had fallen... "You don't-" Ghoul's words cut off as his nose twitched. A second scent, similar to Widow's but not hers, wafted closer to him. Curious, his brow furrowed as he tried to peer into the shadows. His eyesight had never been the best. "Are you alone?" He asks, hesitant to ask her any questions about the challenge or what he had missed in his days of recovery if she indeed had brought along others. While he trusted Medusa, he did not trust her pack.

G H O U L

She was foolish to think that her daughters presence would go unnoticed, but she had been hopeful. Ghoul had started to jab back at her when he seemed to catch a scent, but Widow knew already that it was her daughter that he found. If only it had been one of Medusa's children following her instead of her own, then she wouldn't feel forced into introducing Morte to her... uncle.

As soon as the question came from his mouth, Widow sighed. Not annoyed really, at least not with him. If anything, she was annoyed that Morte hadn't listened and stayed in the den. "No, I'm not," she finally replied before pausing, unsure of how to explain. Did she admit that Morte was his niece, or hurt her daughters feelings by lying? She took a long second to pause and consider her options before sighing again. "My daughter doesn't know how to listen when she's told to stay," she scowled in the direction of the den's entrance, where Morte had been sneaking a look only to suddenly hide again once she'd been caught. She turned back towards Ghoul, her expression softening as she sighed and waited for the questions he was sure to have.

"Speech!"

Art & Code © Skelle 2022