'Stay, stay, stay,' goes off like a chorus in his head through the howls and screams and visions, the calm the Helmsman provided giving enough room for just that.

And then his body seizes with one final terrible burst of pain.

The crunch made this time is loud and wet, and he screams even louder, a bone deep horror that pierces through every mother fucking thing else.

His body refuses to function then, and, twitching but otherwise paralysed, he falls to the side, arms loose and eyes wide.