Amaryllis
@necro-mancers
‘Amaryllis, amaryllis, bring my love back to me... Amaryllis, amaryllis, halt my tears in my eyes... Amaryllis, amaryllis, they lie before me... Amaryllis, amaryllis, dead as the dead can be... Amaryllis, amaryllis, she lays before me... Amaryllis, amaryllis, bloated with air and gas... Amaryllis, amaryllis, why have you forsaken me? Amaryllis, amaryllis, why do my fingers squeeze? Amaryllis, amaryllis, awaken the monster in me... Amaryllis, amaryllis, oh prideful amaryllis... Keep the secret within me.’
Devil’s rhyme, that’s what he thought of such a chant. The words that fluttered through his skull made him dizzy and heavy. When had he heard that? The voices of children chanted and cried it once didn’t they? So long ago they had, he swore it, based off of a gentle flower. His fingers felt the silky petals of the plant that bloomed from the flower pot that rested on the bench before him. The greenhouse was hot, filtering the heat of the sun down, amplifying it for the bright colored plants that blossomed in such an elegant array. Red eyes were still for a moment, his mind wandering until--
“Elias? Are you okay?” He snapped back almost violently, nearly loosing his balance as he tottered onto the back of his heels. He caught himself, of course, long before his center of gravity could be thrown so far off that he can’t right himself. He looked to the source of the voice to see grassy hues watching him, burning red hair framing her pale face. He didn’t know what to say, there was a dull throb in his skull that he wasn’t sure he understood. “Yes... I’m fine, Chise...” He responded gently, his lack of facial features that could move like a human’s prevented the girl from seeing through the facade he held. What was that emotion in her eyes? He wasn’t sure... Was it... Concern? Perhaps. He never was able to understand human emotion...
The day went along as normal, with only the dull throb in his brain to be any indicator that the memory of unknown origin struck him. He hadn’t found himself all by his lonesome again until late that night, when the moon hung loosely in the sky, the fairy lights glistening in the distant branches of the forest. Reds, oranges, and blues gave way to purples and black, the stars that blinked to life seemed to be taunting him from their position in the sky. So perfect, so precise, pinpoints that knew all that they were and weren’t ever seen as-- He stopped himself as he walked beneath them, the grass gently dancing in the soft spring breeze.
He didn’t like leaving the bed this late, didn’t like leaving Chise like this, he didn’t enjoy passing Silky by as she watched on in concern, it was something that left a foul taste in his mouth, something that made him shrink back in shock and distaste. But there was nothing else he could do about it. Stepping upon the path he let the forest swallow him into the darkness, he vanished without a sign that he was ever out of that lost world to begin with. As he slipped deeper and deeper into the wilderness, the soft chant of children returned to his head. It was a pounding force, drilling into his brain, and he hated it. At some point it felt as though he could feel hands pressing upon the inside of his skull. They were trying to rip his head open, they had forced themselves out of his brain and now they were trying to claw out into the world.
Demons of memory with grins of illusion, they were going to kill him. That’s what it felt like-- but of course death would not come. At least not from something like this. There has been worse in this wretched life for him. Humans with arrows, spears, torches, screaming words of disdain and hatred. Chains that bound and spikes that ripped open skin and tore away muscle. Memories of leather binds that he couldn’t quite break out of as easily as he would’ve wished. The growing knot of his stomach tied itself tighter and tighter, he felt himself growing ill, what was this emotion!? He didn’t like it, and he could feel the shadows beginning to thicken around him.
Was that his magic or was it--
When he came back to the world, the lights were so bright... The fairy lights that glimmered in the night hurt his head but all the while he didn’t think he was asleep as he was sitting upright on a tree stump. Elias gazed about, disoriented, confused, a little pained at the thoughts that raced through his head. A trick truly! He was so distracted by his mind and the emotions they brought back that he hardly was paying attention to some stray spell or trick, perhaps this was revenge from the fae, or perhaps this was some mistake by nature... Perhaps it was a goddess that wished to forsake him for just existing.
Those thoughts were halted as he saw white hair catching the moonlight, the flowers in the beast’s hands melted suddenly into darkness and faded into the night. There was no reason to inspect, no reason to admire, only to watch. There was something far too wrong, far too distorted, his mind screamed that he should disappear not because he was frightened but because this would somehow be worse for him than he thought. Fight or flight, that’s what Chise had told him that feeling was. Anxiety and instinct. He wasn’t sure what he could say in order to get anywhere, time felt fake, the world was bending in his mind’s eye and it only made things worse. There was something terribly wrong here keeping him from clarity.
They aren’t human.
The thought screamed in his head and he almost recoiled but stopped himself-- he refused to show weakness. From the outside he looked as calm and collected as he always has and will.
