The Ruin of Starlight

Searing, lancing pain gripped at her heart. She cried out but the wind stole even that, so she gaped wordlessly like a hooked fish as it pounded against her.

The rot.

Worming branches of something wrong something bad-

She tried to hold back a cough, black spittle against closed lips, until the feeling bubbled up too incessantly. She retched into her cupped palms.

What came out was tar. Sticky, viscous tar that wept into the cracks in her hand. She grimaced, trying to wipe it against her pant le...