Cruelty and Consequence
Disclaimer: All Fantastic Beasts names, characters and locations belong to J.K. Rowling. I own nothing that you recognize.
Written for the Character and Prompt Challenge
Character: Nagini
Prompt: bite
The air felt warm, stiflingly hot with very little oxygen, and when she woke her bedding was sticking to her scales. A combination of straw and shredded bark was strewn across the floor, one tenacious strand clinging to her face. It was irritating, poking her eye and making it difficult to see. But unless she changed back into a human, it would be impossible to blink it away.
The serpent tried rubbing her cheek against the bars, but for some reason this simple act required a great deal of energy, and she was tired. More tired than she should have been, her lithe form slumping against the bars, vision blurring.
What was Skender saying about proper discipline? About keeping his creatures in check? The Zouwu had been acting out, but it was only because she was in pain. Nagini had seen it for herself, the creature chained to the wall, her collar embedded in her neck. And then, because she had the nerve to speak up and request medical care for the injured creature, Nagini wound up in here, drugged and listless.
And then she remembered, those sickly fumes all too familiar to the unfortunate Maledictus who, when she was younger, had been forced to undergo several botched attempts to make her less threatening to those around her.
It took all her strength to lift her head, gazing into the flickering firelight that shimmered at the base of a nearby cauldron. A spiral of greenish-black smoke was rising from the surface of the liquid, perfuming the air with an acrid stench.
Her features illuminated by golden embers, the Maledictus lay still, feeling the subtle vibrations beneath her coils. The ringmaster was coming, drawing closer with every step.
He entered the room a short while later, pushing aside a flap of canvas that served as a doorway to Nagini's living quarters. Immediately her senses were assaulted by the scent of blood, scarlet stains coating a length of steel dangling from Skender's wrist.
The sound of the softly simmering potion mingled with the metallic clink of chains, followed by a heavy thud as the ringmaster deposited the broken collar onto a wooden crate.
"So," he drawled, turning and glaring at the captive serpent. "You wished for there to be a more effective method of treating these creatures. You wanted them looked after, cared for properly."
Nagini glanced at the discarded metal on the crate, watching as the blood slowly trickled down the collar. Her eyes then darted towards the cauldron, her pulse accelerating in a rush of panic.
"You got your wish," Skender continued, his lip twisting in a vile sneer. "But you," there was a slight pause, his wand positioned directly in front of her face. "I don't much care for your attitude, young lady. I've already concocted the necessary brew, for the Zouwu you were so deeply concerned about. Although I think it could have other uses."
Skender moved towards her, one thick meaty hand brushing aside the strips of fabric that covered Nagini's cage. He knelt before her, carefully reaching through the bars and caressing her cheek with his thumb. The snake reacted instinctively, jaws opening as she attempted to bite the ringmaster's arm.
He quickly withdrew his hand, her movements sluggish due to the lingering effects of the potion.
"Now that, that right there is what I'm talking about," said Skender, watching Nagini arch her back before collapsing to the floor of her cage. "We can't have that, now can we?"
The shadows shifted upon the hanging canvas, a serpentine form thrashing, hissing frantically, as the ringmaster seized her by the neck and forced a measure of burning liquid down her throat.
She was barely consciousness when the gleaming metal was forced into her mouth, pain exploding like a powderkeg before blackness consumed her senses.
.oOo.
Her room wasn't like the others. Credence noticed this the moment he stepped into the enclosure, seeing a small collection of furniture lining one side of the wall. There was a faded chair covered in brown leather, a pair of trunks and a wooden crate that served as a table. But then he turned, noticing a large cage on the opposite end of the room.
"Nagini?" he whispered, hesitatingly slightly.
The cage itself was barely three feet from floor to ceiling, wider than it was tall, and was draped in an assortment of fabric, offering the Maledictus a bit of privacy while she slept.
Credence knelt beside the cage, tentatively reaching for a cloth that covered the entrance. Slowly, he pulled back the strip of fabric, revealing the Maledictus nestled in a combination of human and animal bedding.
Straw and shredded bark had been piled in the center of the cage, her body making an indentation in the mound where she slept. Behind her there were blankets, cushioning her back and covering the bottom portion of the cage. There were also a few pillows, two of them small, one larger that had been placed atop the others.
Nagini was lying on her side, her dark hair trailing across her face. She had taken one of the blankets from the pile at her feet and covered herself with it. And although she appeared to be asleep, the presence of her human form was enough to indicate that she was still awake.
A moment passed in silence, the Obscurial lingering beside the cage, watching the slow rise and fall of her chest. "Nagini," he said again, raising his voice a little. "Are you alright?"
His words were met with a low groan, her eyes opening as she lifted her head off the pillow. She tried brushing the hair out of her face, and Credence gasped, recoiling at the sight.
Her once beautiful features were now visibility swollen, starting at her jawline and spreading outwards, giving her the appearance of a bloated chipmunk. There were strands of hair still clinging to her face and neck, matted and damp with perspiration.
"Nagini!" Credence exclaimed, to which she responded by turning and lowering her head, allowing her hair to fall forward into her face. "Wh-what...?"
"It was Skender," she muttered thickly, keeping her head down as she spoke.
These words conjured images of violence and cruelty in Credence's mind: his mother's hand, curled in a fist as she swung the belt against his back. A scream pierced the silence of his mind, echoes from the past, fading into silence.
He swallowed hard, forcing himself to speak. "Did he...?"
"No." Nagini shook her head, and immediately regretted her actions. She lifted a hand and brought it to her cheek, the throbbing pain making her feel lightheaded. "He decided to have me defanged," she finally managed, the pain and swelling making it difficult to speak.
Credence looked at her and sighed; his shoulders hunched, and he reached through the bars, placing the back of his hand against her forehand. "You have a fever," he murmured, feeling the heat radiating from her skin.
"I know," Nagini said, her tone positively miserable. "I have an infection. If I change into my serpent form, there's a good chance it'll get worse, possibly turning into mouth rot. So I have to stay like this for as long as I possibly can."
Credence tensed, lowering his hand and backing away from the cage.
Why would someone do this to her? How could they hurt her like this? Credence had endured harsh punishments from the day he first set foot inside the church, but he had never seen or experienced anything like this.
"I ha-haven't s-seen you at work," he stammered, his throat constricting as the parasite began clawing its way up his chest. "I wanted... I-I wanted t-to see you... To make sure you were alright..."
"Credence?" Nagini sat up straight, seeing a sliver of smoke gliding past his lips. He was shaking uncontrollably now, the atmosphere shifting, becoming colder as the color drained from his eyes. "You're an Obscurial," she whispered, her eyes widening.
Neither of them noticed as the water in Nagini's dish begin to freeze. The change happened so quickly that it shattered the bowl, sending a flurry of ice crystals soaring in every direction. This was followed by a sudden gasp as Credence toppled over onto his backside, looking round as though he'd forgotten where he was.
His chest heaving, Credence sat in a daze, unsure of what had happened. Nagini, meanwhile, had moved closer to the entrance of her cage and was now gazing at him through the bars.
"Wh-what?" Credence gasped as a violet tremor passed through him.
From the corner of his eye he noticed the remains of her water dish, sitting beside a second dish that had been filled with scraps of bread. The food was untouched, but that hardly seemed significant. What mattered were the chunks of ice strewn across the floor.
Silence stretched between them, his thoughts a jumble of confusion after what had taken place. He knew that Nagini was unwell and that he needed to do something in order to make her feel better. But why had the water frozen in response to his emotions?
And then he remembered. She had called him something, an Obscurial. Though he hadn't the slightest clue as to what that meant.
"You are," Nagini breathed, seemingly in awe of this young man. "You're an Obscurial. That's why he hired you." Her voice trailed off into silence, a low moan drifting through the frigid air, and one by one her fingers peeled away from the iron bars.
Exhausted by her efforts to move and speak, the Maledictus sank to the floor of her cage. With one hand she drew the blanket up to her chest, curling in on herself and closing her eyes. She wanted to sleep, to feel the blessed relief of unconsciousness, even if it meant falling victim to a terrible disease.
Credence observed her for a moment, carefully measuring each breath in an effort to calm his Obscurus. He then started towards her, his movements jerky, twitching as he bent down, fumbling with the laces on his shoe.
He removed his shoe and left it lying on the floor beside the cage. Next came his sock, which he filled with ice from the water dish. It didn't even matter what he was, or what they called him. Right now he only wanted to help. He could ask for an explanation later.
His pulse had slowed considerably by the time he reached for the latch on the cage. The rusted hinges squealed, and Credence winced at the sound, but his companion remained motionless on the floor. It wasn't until he held the makeshift ice pack to her forehead that Nagini began to stir.
"Mmph," Nagini mumbled, already half asleep. She shifted slightly, the tangled mass of straw spreading across the floor, clinging to her face and neck.
When she yawned, Credence was able to detect the warm stench of infection wafting from her mouth, making him wonder how long her condition had gone unchecked.
"Why did he do this to you?" Credence asked, picking a stray piece of bark from her hair.
Nagini's hand closed around the drippy sock, carefully positioning it over her swollen cheek. "He thinks I'm dangerous," she stated bitterly. "When I was a child, he used to have me defanged on a regular basis to prevent me from harming anyone. It's because of what I am. Snakes can't control the amount of venom they inject when they are young."
In that moment two things registered in Credence's mind, the first being that she was venomous, the second was that she'd experienced this multiple times. However, this didn't mesh with his knowledge of human anatomy.
"They grow back," Nagini said, answering his question before he had time to ask. "Though it doesn't take as long as it did when I was a child. I'm not as human as I once was," she added sadly. "I don't even have to transform in order for them to regrow."
Her eyes drifted closed, exhaustion stealing the last of her strength. And in the silence that followed, Credence began to look around, hoping that Skender had given her something for the infection.
There was a small bookshelf to his right, some books on divination and a handful of figurines lining the shelves. There were also potion bottles with the ringmaster's untidy handwriting scrawled across the labels.
Credence picked up one of the bottles, then turned and looked back at Nagini. "What's this blue liquid for?" he asked, but Nagini did not respond.
The fingers on her left hand twitched, smooth scales materializing along the back of her hand, spreading towards her wrist. She was nearly asleep when Credence's voice reached her on the edge of consciousness, calling her back once more.
"Potion," she muttered sleepily. "I need to take it for the infection."
"Do you want to drink some of this before you go to sleep?" Credence asked, trying his best to be helpful.
Nagini opened her eyes to find Credence's gaze upon her, his brown eyes tender. But despite his efforts to alleviate her pain, Nagini resisted his attempts to get her to drink.
"Please," Credence softly begged, sliding his hand beneath her back and helping her into a sitting position. "I don't like seeing you like this. I want to help."
She looked over at him, seeing a familiar sadness etched into the lines of his face. Like everyone else here, Credence was truly miserable. Though there was something of his past which spoke to her, a type of pain that few could understand unless they'd experienced it for themselves.
"You were surprised, weren't you, Credence?" Then, upon seeing his confusion, she added, "When I told you what you are."
Their eyes met in the shadowy confines of the cage, and Credence, his curiosity getting the better of him, gently whispered, "What am I?"
"You're an Obscurial." A pause, his confusion deepening at her words. "Didn't they tell you?"
"No." Credence lowered his head, his thoughts swarming with a thousand unanswered questions.
"We have something in common, Credence," Nagini continued, still struggling to force her words past the swelling in her face and neck. "You have seen and suffered much, causing you to develop this parasitic entity. It feeds on your emotions, it lives off your pain, just like those who exist to make us miserable."
Credence was quiet, taking a moment to process what she said. He had always had difficulty remembering his sudden outbursts, but the one thing he was sure of was that it always seemed to follow some sort of emotional upheaval.
He realized at once that there was truth in her words, but more than anything else there was sympathy and understanding. They were both victims of cruelty, the consequences manifesting in the form of physical and emotional suffering.
"I'll take my potion now," Nagini said, her voice drawing him out of his thoughts. "I've been putting it off long enough, Credence. I'm tired, and I really want to get some rest."
"Oh. Alright then." Credence held the bottle to her lips, helping her drink some of the murky liquid.
Nagini winced as the bitter potion stung the inside of her mouth. She'd been instructed to rise her mouth with the potion before swallowing, a difficult process that made her eyes water from the intensity of the pain. This process was then repeated once more before Credence carefully lowered her onto the floor, covering her with a blanket and making sure she was comfortable.
Within minutes her slender form had morphed into a monstrous serpent, the Obscurial sitting beside her while she slept.
He reached over and gently stroked her scales, allowing his mind to wander over all the things she said. Maybe, when she was feeling better, Nagini would explain his condition in greater detail. But even that seemed insignificant, seemingly distant, his eyes closing as he melted into the shadows.
He would stay with her, shrinking and hiding like he had always done. Nobody ever noticed, and the only one who cared was fast asleep.