NMOCT r1p10 (text- edited)

  The centipedes coalesced, fusing into a vast, squirming pillar that throbbed like the heart of some alien beast. For a moment it bulged grotesquely, sprouting tumorous lumps and protrusions, but in seconds the protrusions had thinned out into recognizable limbs, knitting themselves into pallid flesh. Where moments before there had been torrents of thrashing bugs, there now stood a boy.
  He cut a rather comical figure. His tatty purple vest, more patches than original material, clashed magnificently with the scarlet horns that curled from his forehead, and a pocketwatch that looked suspiciously like a rock had fallen out of one pocket. A pair of heinously rumpled socks hung baggily around his ankles. Tall and lanky, anyone looking at him couldn’t help but get the impression that they were being glowered at by a thoroughly disgruntled lamppost.
  Aislin glanced back down at the now-crumpled photograph of her target. Shaggy black hair? Check. Dumb spiky bracelets? Check. Terrible attitude? Check. This was him, alright: contestant Cai de Cyprian.  Now all she had to do was take him out.
  Cai nailed Aislin with a baleful magenta-eyed stare, trying hard to look imposing as he stuffed his pocket-rock back into his pocket. “You’re not scared of me? Well, you SHOULD be.”
  “And why’s that, leo? You gonna nibble me to death?” She didn’t even try to keep the bemused smirk out of her voice.
  Cai was getting flustered now. “Well. Um. Because I am Caius Cicero de Cyprian, LORD OF PESTILENCE! And you can’t kill me!” His glowing eyes turned shifty. “At least, not with your silly little toy whip there.”
  Aislin cocked her head slightly, a trace of a smile flickering at the corners of her mouth. “Huh. That so?” She wound her hand back, almost playfully, in preparation for a strike—just a little one for now. No need to end the game so quickly.
  CRACK! The room flashed blue-white as the whip found its mark. Cai yelped, clapping a hand to the shallow cut on his cheek. A few beads of sticky black blood clung to his fingertips, and a couple of charred centipede corpses fell from his face like autumn leaves. “Ow….”
  “How do ya like my toy whip, then, leo?” Aislin stood, arms crossed, looking smug. She pressed the button on the whip again, just so that Cai could watch the crackles of lightning dance down its length, sparkling like a firecracker. “Think it’s enough for you to handle?”
  “Electric,” Cai groaned, backing away. “It figures that of all the people I could’ve been matched up with, I got somebody with an electric weapon. Just my luck.”
  “It works wonders for tamin’ the beasties… seems to make a mighty fine bug zapper, too.” She struck again, letting the tip of the whip wrap itself around Cai’s ankle. He crumpled to the ground, convulsing. The whip was digging into his skin, humming with electricity. Electrical smoke, dark gray and choking, spiraled into the air and hung there, wraithlike. Every muscle in his body was spasming; his centipedes were bursting away like popcorn kernels.
  He ripped his leg free, dazed and shaking. He didn’t know how long he’d been in contact with the whip; it could have been seconds, it could have been minutes. He was injured. He was confused. His nostrils were searing with the acrid stench of his own scorched bugs. Exhausted, he rested his head against the wall, feeling the cold wet surface press against his scorched skin. And then, dimly, it registered somewhere in his frazzled little brain that Aislin was still there. And she was getting ready for another lash.
  “Shit!” Cai rolled out of the way and clumsily scrambled to his feet. His breathing was quick and ragged; his eyes held the crazed look of an injured animal.
  Aislin was growing impatient. “Come on, kiddo. Stop stallin’. It’s a death match, haven’t ya heard? One of us has got to die, and it ain’t gonna be me.” She stepped forward to close the distance and raised the whip a final time.
  Cai bolted. Aislin didn’t even try to stop him. Instead she just watched as he tripped over a crate and tumbled to the floor.
  The fall was spectacular. In an attempt to steady himself, he grabbed for one of the many chains that dangled from the ceiling, only for the chain to give way and send half of the suspended cages crashing to the floor. Then, staggering, he careened headfirst into a wrought-iron shelf and knocked that over too.  The room reverberated with clashes and clangs, as loud and echoing as a belltower.
  And then it started. The low, buzzing hum of the electrowhip, faint but still audible even through the din of falling chains and cages. Cowering, Cai hugged his knees to his chest, eyes screwed tightly shut. Oh, fucking hell, this is it. She’s gonna fry me. I’m gonna die. I can’t look.
  He must have sat that way for a couple of minutes before he realized two things: first of all, he wasn’t getting shocked, which was a relief. Second of all, the hum was still going, which was weird. After a few more minutes, he finally worked up the courage to open his eyes. He peeked tentatively through his fingers, dreading what he might see.
  And then he burst out laughing, a hysterical half-guffaw, half-sob that sounded terrible and strangled even to his own ears. “No way.”
  In all of the chaos, the lion tamer’s electrowhip had somehow gotten wrapped around one of the brass chains. It had evidently landed button-down, too, because it was on and whining ominously, pumping electricity through the collapsed network of chained-together cages. And neatly pinned below one of the sparking, popping cages was Aislin the lion-tamer herself, sitting forebodingly still.
  Cai shook his head, mystified. “No way in hell.”