"Luscious!" Jamal screamed in pain.  His mouth stretched back, agony present in his wide eyes.  "Come back!  Make it stop!" he pleaded to no avail.

"It won't be long, just bear with it," Luscious said from outside the door.  He head was tilted against the wall, his eyes staring off into nothingness.  Jamal's screams were too much for him to bear.  If he were to be in the room watching Jamal change into the same thing he was, all the memories he tried to lock away would flood out in an instant.

Inside the room, Jamal pulled himself up to a sitting position in the bed.  His hands began digging into the wood at the bottom of the bed, his nails embedding themselves deep within the surface.  Tears were streaming down his face as he moaned and screamed in pain.  His back felt as if shards of glass were ripping the skin from his body.  He could feel blood flowing into his mouth and seeping out from between his lips.

Jamal's eyes started to sting as his sight diminished.  Blackness was all he saw for a moment.  He was lost.  He figured that this was it.  There was no way he could live through something this horrific.  Besides, even if he did, what exactly was it that he was becoming?  The pope never did tell him exactly what it was, and although he knew that Luscious had survived it, though his sanity was supposedly gone, he could not tell what exactly it was that Luscious turned into.  Other than the dark look in his eyes and the somewhat new outlook on life, Luscious seemed to be almost the same man he once knew.  But something was different, he knew that for sure.

The screams stopped, but not by Jamal's will.  The urge was still there, but something within him made the sound cease.  His sight slowly cleared, revealing the same room, but in what appeared to be higher quality.  Every so-called perfection, every blemish, they were all so very clear in his eyes now. 

Luscious entered the room, his footsteps echoing in Jamal's ears.  "Well, how do you feel?" Luscious asked.

Jamal couldn't bring himself to say anything other than, "What are we?"

Luscious shook his head.  "We are an abomination," he admitted.  "We are blasphemous creatures, created by our holy father, my brother..."

"If we're so blasphemous and such an abomination, tell me, why did you stop him from saving me?" Jamal questioned Luscious as he withdrew his nails from the bed's wood.

"I was not saved," Luscious said flatly.  "Why should you be any different?  Besides, it's not like he didn't want this, you know.  The only reason he wanted to save you is because he still hasn't gotten it right."

Jamal opened his mouth, but Luscious cut him off.  "He wants to make something new.  Something powerful.  A pope that serves God...yet wants to play God at the same time.  This, what we are, is the opposite of what he wants.  He wants to make something holy.  I believe this is God's way of teaching him a lesson though," Luscious explained.

"So he only used us for power..."  Jamal rose from the bed, his body feeling more balanced and lightweight than ever before.  His stomach growled ferociously.  "I think I'm hungry..." he whispered.

"Yeah, that's what happens," Luscious whispered, mostly to himself.

Jamal looked at him, somehow hearing what should have been an unnoticable whisper.  "What do we have to eat?"

Luscious smiled.  "Follow me," he said as he turned around and headed down the dark corridor.