clawed at the stone, her fingernails splintering against the cold basalt, but she felt no resistance from her own body. Her fingers were no longer entirely under her control. Through the translucent skin

onto the damp stone floor, her cheek pressing against the grit. The impact jarred her teeth, but the physical pain of the fall was nothing compared to the chemical fire raging beneath her skin. She

...a web of throbbing, ink-black roots.

The heat of it was agonizing, a slow-burning acid that cooked her from the inside out. She collapsed

sinking beneath her skin, dissolving her boundaries until she could no longer tell where her own flesh ended and the rot began. It seeped through her pores, turning the pale network of her veins into

the black grease clung to her hands like living tar, stretching in elastic threads before snapping back against her raw flesh with a wet, sticky slap. It was not merely on her; it was