A Veil Haven fanfiction featuring my OC Shiloh, taking place AFTER chapter 36 assuming {REDACTED} wasn't an issue yet, so be aware of spoilers below the cut.
I am still a learning writer, so constructive criticism is appreciated but please go easy on me.
Insp. ‘The Line’ -Arcane
Before I knew it, I was sprinting into the treeline, Shiloh once again chasing me from the hospital parking lot. This time, they are determined to make sure they don’t lose me. As she feels the ecstatic tingles of the divine light laying onto her skin, her bones begin to break and stretch, and I realize I am prey. There is a drive in the claws forcing themselves out of her feet. It’s easy to forget the literality of the monster inside her. Even when she is transformed against her own will, I have seen it dozens of times without a scratch. Even now, she would never hurt me. She knows me even by instincts, but she still has a prey drive. Even if she isn’t chasing to kill, there is little to stop her until her game is caught. I see glimpses of my friends, at least the ones who are still here. Josie, Logan, and Shakira are still gone. Even then, I still get a flash of Lydia’s unnaturally restful face. My hyperfocus on the shifting flesh at my back keeps me from imagining how rotted she should be by now.
“Ash! For fuckssakes hold on!” She yelled, her voice low and layering. It was uncomfortably familiar, a likeness to that of the narcissistic deity that I really hoped wasn’t planning to interfere. But I knew better.
I chased the apparition, and I was chased just the same. I needed to catch Declan, needed to figure out what the hell he was doing to my home. All I had was theories, flashes from the outer world, that girl. I don’t have time to think about it as the woods begin getting darker. The surrounding creatures’ eyes follow us; their gazes are wary and knowing. I brace myself and hope the weight in my gut is wrong. Just as I had hoped against, that same forceful euphoria sparks up. The heavy padding behind me abruptly cuts off. I turn just in time to see Shiloh fall to her knees, all of her sets of arms draped along her sides limply.
This loving, loyal, sweet person had become a grand creature of predation; not even they were immune. Shiloh had chased through the wildwood for me. Bounding over logs and roots and vines, but she was stopped several meters from the threshold that her god had decided. Sprinting so fast on so many limbs, all to be suddenly stilled on her knees, head heeled back towards the dense, living canopy. A single fragment of moonlight on her nose bridge and right eye. It is repressive to see this magnificent beast, my friend, so instantaneously halted. I have never seen the forest eye do this to a person, or to anything without using plants, for that matter. Hell, I don’t know if Shiloh even counts as a person right now. I can’t see into her much anymore, and I can’t tell if it’s because of the moon or because of the cryptid god holding her soul down. Yet, there is an aura of energy around her, reminiscent of how it feels after crying in early spring. Just by knowing them, I know that they feel like a pinned dog, thoughts thrashing against the nervous system in a plea to snap, but she is powerless.
My panting allows the cold to bite at my esophagus. I turn towards the ‘path’ implied by damaged trees and seemingly trampled brush. “I-.. don’t do anything to her.. Please.” I push out. That same ethereal, heavy, detached voice purrs back.
“It will be fine, child. I couldn’t have it interrupting our little..” I feel the world sinking out of me, growing isolated. Comfortable. Held. Restrained. “Visitation.” It would have scoffed the word if it had lungs. “I told you to keep away from him, Ash. Why do you persist?”
“Because those are my friends!” The words force themselves out before I even choose them. I am not speaking to a hateful, absent, negligent god. I am speaking to somebody I loved and trusted. I am speaking to a loved one who hurt me. I am begging my parent, my father, my mother. I am begging it to understand. “I was under the impression that I was safe! That I was cared for! I thought you loved me! But my best friend is dead, my other friends are missing! The ones that are still here are in so much pain..” I fall to my knees, crying for the dozenth time this week. For once, I am overwhelmed by absolutely my own. My friends, my life, my fear. It’s almost regretful.
“Ash, you left Ve-”
It is cut off by my wordless cry of grief, then I speak. “No! I left because everyone I’ve ever relied on is either dead or missing or betrayed me! You were supposed to keep me safe! My dads were supposed to keep me safe! What the fuck am I supposed to do when everything I’ve ever known is either turned upside down or ripped away from me?!” I punch the ground, eyes cinched shut as I yell into the forest. I keep my eyes closed, even as the omnipresent energy manifests before me. I let out a scream, fingers and nails digging into the earth, my body trying to ground itself as I feel my soul fighting to implode and lash out against every injustice I’ve been bombarded with. “Mun manipulated me! You manipulated me! Iliana abandoned me! I am losing everything and my people are continuously taken from me! Why did you stop keeping my people safe? Why don’t you love me anymore?!” I pause, looking at the ground as I panted, eyes slowly opening as a realization appears. I crane my neck slowly to look up at the Forest Eye, eyes reddening and tear glazed. “Was I ever even loved in the first place?..” I.. have never questioned that aloud before.. Not to those it concerned, at least. I feel the weight and watchfulness ease up as the energy fades. My head turns as I hear a thud accompanied by leaves crunching. I see Shiloh fallen onto her side,all eight eyes relieved in their closed state.
“You will never be unloved, child.” I turn back around, somehow surprised with that hazel iris not staring me down. It’s like both my physical and mind’s eyes blinked at once. I look at Shiloh’s barely waking form once again, and I realize that he wasn’t really there. Whatever he, or it was, it wasn’t real enough to abandon them again. I drag myself over to Shiloh and lean down, hugging her upper torso, feeling her protruding and expanded rib cage, cheek brushing the small bumps of her spine, the wisps from the end of her ungelled mohawk tickling my forehead as I grounded myself with her cold skin.
“It’s okay..” I breathe out, “I’m here.. C’mon.. Let’s go back to Hayden. He’s listening for us.” For what feels like the first time in my life, the noise of the world returns gently.
I love my stoner, party boy, death spotter, future himbo(/hj), punk coded, inked up, lab retriever, confused bisexual husband :3
If you haven't read the book or been in the discord server this is extremely confusing, kinda concerning, and possibly offensive and I have to admit it's a little funny. It's also 12:30 A.M. and I went to work today and am currently coming down from so much caffeine so might edit this later, scheduling it to post at 6 in the morning cause I don' wanna spam post but I wanna post more.
