@erisweekofficial day 4: monsters
Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3
Euphoria split Eris down the middle.
No longer tethered to the grassy edge of the cliffside, he felt free. It came on suddenly, with a swooping in his belly, and the pull and tear of the wind against his skin. She was howling a lament in his ears that sounded like childhood lullabies.
Erisβ birthright was singing him home.
It found him somewhere between specs of sea salt caught in the icy northern air, tugging him down toward the water below, where he could finally claim it. All his life, his mother had hidden it from him, but she was dead, and the sea was reaching for him now. It didnβt matter that Lucien denied the pull they shared; Eris was going to find out what it meant.
Iβve been waiting for you.
She sang with a voice that sounded like forgetting. It didnβt alarm him; even if Eris only wanted to remember what his bones had ached for since he was small.
When the first claws of the frigid sea dug into him, he laughed at the pain that ripped him apart and invited the water in. As his mind darkened, Eris sent out one final thought to his mother, knowing that wherever he was going, he wouldnβt be joining her.
You were right after all.
He hoped she heard him, wherever she was.
Regret was an unwelcome visitor after such absolute surrender. Unable to come up with a reason to move, Eris lay perfectly still on unforgiving ground. Lethargic and dazed, he couldnβt remember where he was or why he was there. Thoughts felt out of reach as they clattered around in his head like they, too, had drowned. After some time, drowning was the only conclusion that made sense.
Regrets and forgotten triumphs of his past no longer seemed to matter, so Eris knew he must have died. Whispers like water lapping on stone repeated the same thing over and over. The word Purgatory echoed off the walls with every sound, and cradled like a lost child by a tomb of cold, indifferent rock, he knew that must be where he had ended up.
Peace in life had been unattainable; Eris had no right to it in death. That knowledge did little to comfort him. Death was cold and lonely, and it hurt to know there was no place for him. Eris was left broken and forever unfinished, a stray left to wander until his soul tired.
How foolish it had been for him to come to this part of the world, given his mother's warnings. Despite the betrayal he felt at her hand, she was the only creature in his life that had loved him, even if only for a brief time. No matter the lies she had fed him in the past, Mariana would have kept her deathbed sacred. Yes, he had indeed been foolish not to trust her in the end. Now he would never see her again, forever denied the opportunity to beg her forgiveness in the afterlife.
He could almost hear her singing to him as he lay there, half out of his mind. Her sweet song was ancient and strange, like the sound of the wind whistling over the water in a storm. It made the ache for her that much more acute.
After being battered by the pounding waves against the cliffside, his mind was fractured. Awareness was slowly coming back to him, returning piece by piece. First, it was the thump thump thumping of his heart, beating against his ribs like a rabbitβs. Next, it was his breathing, harsh and broken like the water had torn his throat to pieces.
The dead did not breathe. Silenced hearts did not beat wildly.
He had to repeat that knowledge to himself over and over for several minutes before he understood what his body was trying to tell him. Eris was still alive. Eventually, he found the strength to push himself up on his hands. The cold of the rock under his palms was biting and cruel, making him wonder if he had been better off remaining in his imagined purgatory.
Light bounced dimly off the damp stone walls. It washed over the rock in hues of green and blue, making him feel dizzy. Thankful he was sitting, Eris surveyed his surroundings thoroughly, noting the hole in the ground a few feet away that led down into the ocean. It was the only immediate sign of an exit or entry point, which troubled him.
On unsteady legs, he rose, wincing at the sting of the cuts and bruises along the soles of his feet. He pressed his face against the jagged walls, listening to the ocean's rhythmic beat against the cliff on the other side. Breath shaking, Eris took a step back to look for another way out.
His gaze fell again on the large opening, turbulent water lapping quietly against the edges. Almost harmlessly. The longer Eris stared into that dark pool, the easier it was to imagine that something was staring back. He could only make out the edge closest to him; the rest of it was tucked away in shadow. He had no idea how big it was or if it was the only way in or out.
An exhale of hot, needy breath pushed past his lips in a panic, then another and another until Eris found himself curled up on the ground, hands curled into claws at the front of his salt-roughened shirt.
As his vision started to darken, the water broke its rhythm, ripples breaking their pattern. Eris shot up, still clutching at his heart, and thatβs when he saw it. Something, as dense and dark as a shadow, disappeared back under the surface. He swallowed hard and scrambled back until his head cracked against the wall at his back. Black spots dotted his vision as Erisβs thoughts tumbled away, leaving him alone in the dark.
Someone sighed into Erisβs hair. It ruffled the drying strands across his brow, tickling him awake. It sounded almost like the remnants of a song, something familiar but just out of reach.
Not a song, just the wind.
I must have left the window open.
Eris thought mildly, rubbing his eyes, still caked with sleep and glued shut.
His lips stung, and Eris winced as he ran his tongue across them. They were dry and cracked, tasting of salt. When he groaned, it echoed, low and close, startling him. It all came back to him: falling from the cliff, waking up in a cave, and something staring at him from the water.
With a cry, he shot up, prying his eyes open just in time to see water undulating in the hole in the floor just a few feet away. After staring at it for a while, ensuring nothing crawled out of it, Erisβs fear felt a little further away, more manageable. He clambered to his feet, rubbing the knot on the back of his head. A tiny sound of pain escaped him, and Eris grumbled at himself, cold, half-wet, and entirely miserable.
Touching the wall for balance, Eris was disturbed by how damp the rock felt. Slowly walking his fingers up toward the ceiling of the cave, as high as he could reach, he realized with muted horror that when the tide came in, it would fill the cave to its entirety. There had to be another way out; Eris would accept no other alternative.
It was darker inside the cavern than it had been earlier, and Eris wondered how long he had been there. As he made his way carefully toward the back of the cave, the back of his neck prickled. Against his better judgment, he glanced briefly back at the opening he had left behind. A shadow seemed to move within, but it was too dark to know for sure, and he could barely make out its shape. Eris shuddered and turned away, trying very hard not to think about how he had made it into this cave in the first place.
Step after careful step, he continued searching, straining his ears for anything useful. After a few minutes of oppressive silence, he heard something. A low whistle seemed to come from in front of him. As he took each step closer, the sound seemed to meld with his memories and the songs his mother used to sing to him. Then it changed, reminding him of the sound he heard just as he was waking up and the song that had called him off the cliff.
It was the sound of the wind whistling against the rocks, from somewhere up ahead.
The wall curved in front of him, and as Eris navigated around it, his knees buckled. A shaft of moonlight shone down on stair-shaped rocks that wound up and up and up. The cliffs were impossibly tall, and he didnβt know if the natural stairs would reach the top, but he had to try or risk drowning here, down below.
His battered foot had just stepped tenderly on the first stair when Eris paused. From somewhere behind him, a haunting, reverent sound sang out to him. It pulled at him in the same way the sea had. His eyes fluttered closed on instinct, breath quickening to match his racing heart. The sound struck his chest, filling it with a strange, sweet warmth that radiated throughout his body. It was calm and lovely, barely a whisper of sound in the vast darkness surrounding him, but the weight of it was immense as it vibrated the walls and the stone under his feet. Irresistible and claiming. It terrified him.
Heart hammering against his ribs, the staccato beat of it broke him out of his trance. A moment later, Eris was dashing up the steps, ignoring his pain as the rocks tore at his feet. He didnβt stop until he was reaching for the narrow opening on the surface above. Clumps of dirt and grass came away as Eris clawed at the ground, scrambling back up toward his little cottage.
The song of the sea and the creatures calling to him from within its depths seemed to grow louder and louder. Only when the rickety little door of his cottage was shut tight, and he was safe inside its walls, did it fade away.
Breath heaving from his chest, Eris slid down the door until he was crumpled on the ground in front of it. It took him a long time to calm down, still panting quietly as sleep forced herself on him.
First, it was his mother singing to him, from a time when he still felt safe in her embrace. Gradually, she faded away.
His mind replaced her gentle hold with strong arms that held him tightly against a solid chest as the push and pull of the waves dragged him deeper beneath the sea's surface.
When her voice changed, it became deeper, sweeter, and echoed around him as if bouncing off rock walls in a cliffside cavern.
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