FFXIVWrite Prompt 15: Portentous
Rating: M
Word Count: 1493
Warnings: Descriptions of illness, major character death
Summary: Persephone meets her fate. [Vampire AU, Hythazemet, Continuation of Prompt 14.]
Master Post
Persephone cracked open eyes stuck together with sleep and a portentous stinging that she knew normally would herald the coming of a terrible fever. Throat dry, she struggled to push herself up, only to jump in surprise at movement in the dark.
“Shhh, it’s just me,” she heard Hythlodaeus’ voice, and a moment later a dim lamp on the side table clicked on to reveal him looking drowsy in the desk chair.
“Why are you just sitting in the dark?” she croaked as he poured some water into a glass and passed it to her.
“Well, you were asleep, and I was starting to doze off, so I thought-“
“No, no, I mean, why are you watching me sleep?”
“Oh,” he shifted a little. “We figured since we don’t know how long your transformation will take, that we should stay nearby in case you need something.”
“I thought the goal was for me to die,” she said, more conversationally than if she’d been fully awake.
“The process is unpleasant enough without having to suffer through it with no care at all,” he took the water cup back from her, setting it on her side table as she settled back into her blanket.
“I didn’t feel this bad before,” she mumbled, already on the edge of sleep again, but uncomfortable enough to keep her awake.
“Like I said, there are a lot of factors in how fast it goes.” Hythlodaeus pulled a few blankets out of a nearby dresser, setting them across the foot of the bed. “I hope it continues to go this quickly. It’s bad no matter how long it takes, but most tend to agree the less time it takes, the better.”
“Oh? Anything we can do to speed it up?” she asked blearily. He chuckled quietly.
“No, it will take as long as it takes,” he shrugged, touching his hand to her forehead. She leaned into it, the coolness a relief.
“Ah, that’s nice,” Persephone mumbled. “Just stay there, would you?” Another huffed sound of amusement as he reached over with his other hand to turn the lamp back off, but he didn’t move his hand. Or she didn’t think he did. It wasn’t long before she fell back into unconsciousness.
The next few days were an ocean of symptoms; each time one receded, another rose to take its place. If the fever subsided for a time, a cough would emerge, or her eyes would water and itch, or she’d struggle for breath. It was like her body knew all the attempts to rid herself of this infection were futile and desperately was trying everything it had to rid her of it.
The worst was day three, the day her body attempted to purge itself of everything she attempted to eat or drink. The two vampires fussed the worst over that, insisting she keep drinking more and more water even as it continued to come back up. Said she needed to stay hydrated. She pointed out if the point was dying, why were they trying to keep her healthy? They both tried to explain, but her head was so fuzzy she couldn’t grasp the concepts.
Hades fussed just as much as Hythlodaeus, she learned, just went about it a different way. Instead of kind smiles and friendly conversation, he was all scowls and angry admonishments of foolish behavior. The day she tried to go get her own food when her legs shook with chills, he lectured her the whole time she ate the bowl of soup he made for her. But a smile and a thank you seemed to be all it took to crack through the harsh exterior and spy something a bit more bashful just behind. But before she could prod further, he fled the room, switching out with Hythlodaeus.
During the good moments, when she could fathom doing anything but curling up in bed and waiting for it to be over, she asked for her phone. She knew she’d had it with her during the attack, and it hadn’t been on her person when she awoke in the aftermath. After a couple of days, Hythlodaeus approached with something small in his hand.
“So, good news. We finally found your phone, but um, there’s also some bad news,” he presented to her, and she grasped for it only to be filled with disappointment as she realized it was in a sad state. The front was shattered, the metal body bent almost to breaking. The port appeared as if someone had tried to jam something inside. She sighed in disappointment and set it aside.
“I guess the last thing I need right now is people blowing my phone up looking for me,” she mumbled, though it was clear she was far more let down by the news of her phone’s fate than she was letting on.
“I’m sorry we couldn’t find it before it got like this.”
“Don’t worry about it. Things can be replaced,” Persephone shrank into her blankets (the chills were almost constant now, so she slept with two thick quilts that did almost nothing to relieve the cold). “You must be hot; go cool off for a while.”
“In a little while,” he always answered her concerns, which she knew to mean only when Hades appeared to swap out. Despite his prickliness, Hades had refrained from complaining about the heat in the room when she was so cold she felt she would never be warm again. She appreciated it. Persephone felt guilty enough about it already without his barbed comments being directed at it. She rested only slightly easier knowing they’d closed off the room as much as they safely could, to keep the rest of the house cool. Not just for their comfort, but her future comfort soon enough, once this heat was just as unbearable to her.
But for now, in the midst of a fever that seemed to just get higher, it was as if she couldn’t get warm enough, the warm air around her still cool on her skin.
~*~
Everyone knew something was off on day seven, when the two vampires realized mid morning that Persephone had yet to stir for water or food. Hythlodaeus woke her first, with great difficulty, food and drink at the ready. She sniffed just a little at the food, a breakfast spread with just about anything she might want, but ultimately refused to eat any of it. The water she choked down clearly only to make him happy, then dozed back off, either unwilling or unable to pull her blankets around her as she had before.
She slept most of the day, the two taking turns watching her like a hawk, abandoning the pretense of keeping busy in her vicinity. Persephone’s occasional shivers and puffs of breath stirring the hair in her face were the only signs of life for hours. Late in the evening, however, Hades looked towards her to find her fever bright brown eyes watching him.
“Would you like some water?” he asked her, clearly deciding that she was far enough gone that insisting she stay hydrated was pointless. She nodded weakly anyway, and he carefully helped her sit up before helping her drink. She took a few sips before pushing it away, and he settled her back before placing the glass back on the table.
“…I’m scared,” he heard a small voice, almost too quiet to catch, and he turned to see Persephone still watching him, tears slowly dripping down her face as she tried to keep them in.
Goddammit, he thought. This is really more Hythlodaeus’ strong suit. He took a breath and pulled the small chair he and his companion had been practically living in for a week closer to the bedside. Hades reached across the blankets to take her hand in his. She clutched it with what seemed to be as much strength as she could muster.
“What’s it like?” she asked, and he could only assume she meant the act of dying itself.
“I don’t rightly remember.” He ran his thumb over her fingers. “It was a long time ago for me. I barely remember the sickness. But I do know Hythlodaeus has assured me over and over that this part you’re going through right now was by far the worst part. So I think you could say that it’s all downhill from here.”
“You do know that has two meanings, right?” Persephone’s mouth twitched into the ghost of a smirk.
“I mean the good one.”
“You better,” the smile faded again, and she stared into nothingness for several moments before Hades tried taking back his hand. Her eyes snapped back to his, and she redoubled her grip.
“Please stay?”
“…Of course.”
And so he did. He stayed when she drifted into sleep again. When her shivering subsided and her fever spiked higher. When her grip loosened around his. When her breathing faded.
And when her heart stopped.
