When I was a young boy, I lived in the eternal city. I remember walking down those streets and drinking the water that still ran though the ancient aqueducts of the city. My mother’s sweet voice, and her beauty in the sun. She was tall, and thin like me. A delict Rose, my father would say. Her pale blonde hair flowing in the wind like silk. Her skin was fair like mine, and her eyes were the same. We both shared a straight nose, and thin lanky bodies.
My Mother and Father weren’t married when they had me, but he still called her his wife, although they were only engaged. She giggled. Never correcting him. She was a Di Angelo; he was a Romano. My mother heard the choir as I do. We all do. We are the bridges between the living and the lost. My mother would take me along the banks of the Tiber to tell me about the gods. Our god. The family patron. Thanatos God of death.
Learning death blessed your family isn’t something you’d often think about. Maybe it explains why I was a ‘disturbed’ child. I’d read anything I could about death, the burial rights of cultures from around the world, and how they honour their loved ones. For all my reading, I still couldn’t process my mother’s death properly. I knew where she was and I could see her almost every day.
People think ghosts don’t look dead, and they look like the person before they died. They don’t. A victim of Burns will look burned. Sometimes they can look so much alive. I’ll have a full conversation with them before the question comes.
‘Who are you talking to?’
The living is dreadful to talk to. That leaves me with the dead. Their stories. I don’t enjoy it all the time, but it helps people get peace. They join the choir when they are lost.
Dad and I moved to Black Rose city after she died. He’d gotten and opportunity and took it without a seconded thought for how it would affect me. I was an afterthought in his grief. He buried himself in work, and left me alone, to the voices in my head that sung their song.
After a few years my dad got married to my stepmother. She already had a daughter only a year older than me. While my stepmother and dad didn’t care whom I talked to, she did.
I remember her throwing things at me, saying I was a freak, for talking to something not there. I learnt to keep my mouth shut quickly.
My stepsister was the one to take me to the hospital when I was fifteen. Waking up in excruciating pain, so much so I’d throw up and never be able to keep my meals down. She was the one to call my father and stepmother, they thought nothing of it. They were wrong.
My father and I had a strained relationship, as I grew up. Degrading in my teen years. I’d leave the apartment late and light, and he wouldn’t bat an eye.
It was a midsummer night, and I was down by Murry harbor. I sat on the docks letting my feet dangle in the cold water. It was silent apart from the choir. It was humid and there was cool breeze coming off the ocean. The sky was clear, and moon was full. I watched the dark waters and was about to get up and walk home when I heard it.
“Hello,” somebody called. Their voice was smooth and light.
I looked around, but I couldn’t see anybody.
“Down here,” the voice called. There in the water was a creature. It had fins, gills, greyed skin, freckles and dark eyes and hair. It smiled and I could see those razor teeth. It tilted its head and looked at me.
“Why are you crying?” They asked. I hadn’t even realised. I wiped my cheeks and sure enough, I was crying.
“I didn’t notice…”
We talked for what felt like hours. They had interning stories about monsters and his people the Shakli. I sat, and I listened. I laughed and smiled.
“You must be dead,” I said through tears of joy.
“Oh, and why is that?”
“You’re interesting.”
“Well, the last time I checked I was alive.”
“That doesn’t prove much to me.”
“Oh, how about this?”
I was about to ask; ‘how about what?’ when they grabbed my feet and pulled me into the water. It was icy and sent a shock through my body. They swam behind me and pulled me above the water, resting their chin on my shoulder. They were warm as sunshine.
“Does that prove it?” They asked.
“Yeah, that proves it, you’re a grade-A dick.”
“Who’s Alive.”
I laughed. “Who’s alive.”
I was pulled into the present by the sound of a train whistle. Next to me Koa, sat his shoulder pushing agents mine. I stared at my feet, where beneath them I knew there was moss, and that fog that left my pants damp.
We were sat of uncomfortable plastic seats. Plants hanging aimlessly off metal pipes.
Why did Pandora love this place so much. I know she’d been stuck her to a decade, and she thought of it as some sort of home. But I didn’t understand the willingness to come back. To get lost in Limbo.
Koa, Squeezed my hand in a reassuring gesture. The night before, I had the worst dream in my entire life, the mound captured me and I join it’s writhing mound, I tried to scream to fight back, but nothing worked. I became a trapped soul in that screaming cacophony, and I woke up, screaming. Koa holding me tight. I think he felt bad, for me.
“What were you dreaming about?” He asked resting his hand on my
“What were you dreaming about?” He asked rubbing his thumb along the top of my hand.
“The first time we met, down in the harbor.”
“Oh, my gods, when I pulled you into the water! I forgot about that.”
I laughed a small dry laugh. “simpler times,” I smiled.
When the train finally stopped, it felt like a weight was lifted off my chest. I sighed as the door shuttered open; and we stepped off. There was a slight rain. It was light and left everything if touches damp and cold, it made me wish I’d brought an umbrella. There was still the mist and I could hear children laughing and what sounded like screams. I knew they weren’t human.
I hated the valley.
There were monster that lurked deep in the undergrowth and in the seemingly harmless rivers. Koa was still holding my hand as we walked down towards the den. I doubted it was out of affection. I could barely walk straight, and the trail was muddy and slick. I wished it was out of affection. His hands were so warm and rough from his years, of battle training.
When the den came into view, the forest went silent, Koa’s grip on my hand tightened. I scanned the tree line, but there was nothing. The choir remained at a steady volume, then all at once exploded.
Ear piercing screams filled my hand and I felt like it was going to explode. I crumpled to the floor and screamed, as they got louder and louder. Koa readied his spear. The choir started to calm down, as someone stepped out of the dense forest onto the trail. They wore, a Lolita dress, with black stockings, long sleeves, and a black waist corset. The skirt of the dress was decorated in dancing skeletons and skulls. Around their neck, was a necklace of an Ankh and a golden heart locket. Their skin was pale, and their hair was done in pigtails, with hair framing her face. The left was black, while the right was neon green. Their purple eyes glowed in the dim light of morning. They were holding an Umbrella.
“Mariana!” Koa exclaimed. I winced my ears still ringing. But she shook her head.
“Whisper?” I asked. It nodded.
‘Good morrow,’ It said inside our heads drowning out the choir. It was a long and gruff voice unlike Mariana’s sing song tone. ‘Warlock are you alright?’ it asked.
I nodded. Whisper came over and helped me to my feet. It seemed satisfied and walked towards the entrance of the cave. It was around the size of a manhole cover. It wasn’t tight, but it was well hidden and hard to get into when it was raining. It didn’t flood, but the rocks would be slippery. Inside the cave, there were steps carved of stone and glow worms hanging from the ceiling like stars. As we walked down the stairs, I noticed wet footsteps and almost slipped multiple times. Once we came to the bottom, there was a door made of dark mahogany wood, with veins of gold in the groves. Koa rasped his knuckles on the door, and we waited.
I could see light and hear hushed voices coming from the inside. When the door finally opened, the three of us stepped inside. The den was always quiet in the mornings. I could mainly see other members of henbane eating their breakfast in peace, before they slept the day away. We found Drake with ease, and I prayed he was alone. His hair fell lazily around his face. He had died red hair in the peekaboo style while the rest was pure black.
Koa, rushed over to him letting my hand drop, whisper took it in turn and helped me over to the table. Koa stepped back when he got to the table, when the rest of the Booth came into view, I knew why. With him, were Skyla, Atlas, and Pandora. She was staring daggers at him when I came into view.
“Kaʻaukai,” She said, coldly. Koa swallowed.
“Shit.”
Before long, were shoved into a back room by Pandora, and Skyla began fussing over my head would, and my ears, Glaring at Whisper.
‘not me,’ It said, raising arms in surrender.
I looked over to Koa, who was backed into a corner with Pandora’s dagger pressed to his throat. His spear long since turned back into the necklace he wore around his neck.
In the dim light Pandora’s eyes burned as bright as lightning. Her exotic grey skin and hair made her blend into her shadows perfectly. What drew my eye was the hair that framed her face. It was black, and the roots turned dark blue getting lighter until it turned white. It behaved more like water than hair.
“I’m sorry,” Koa, whimpered as the blade was pressed deeper into his throat. She growled and he shut up quick.
“No, you fuck up!” She growled. “You should have made a report and taken him to the hospital.”
Koa glanced at whisper who shrugged. ‘she’s right.’
“Pandora please, I’m fine.”
She glared at me, and my throat close. Pandora Aceial Delmaria, was a person to be feared. Physically, she wasn’t intimidating, being five foot three, but what she lacked in height she made up for in aggression. She had a short temper and an itchy trigger finger. I’d seen her take down men twice her size, and three times her weight. She could take bullets, and never let anyone walk over her.
“Pandora,” Skyla said, her voice sweet like sugar. “Koa made a mistake. I’m sure everything will turn out okay, however I cannot be sure. The future is a turning point.” She squeezed my shoulder, and I looked at her, and she smiled. I could see the worry in that smile.
Pandora ignored her and didn’t break her gaze from Koa. Behind me Drake, rebandaged my head, and inspected my ears, before handing me a vile labelled DHE. It was grey and tasted like cinnamon buns. My pain subsided and the raining in my ear dulled.
“Thanks,” I sighed.
“I didn’t think that it would be a problem. I healed him!”
“And what would you have done, after that? Pretend that nothing happened!”
Koa, stayed silent, ringing his hands together. Pandora rubbed her thumb and index finger in between her eyes.
“How did this happen?” She asked.
“He slipped on some ice,” Koa said. Although he didn’t mention the mound of living flesh, and how it got away. She sighed, and she lowered her dagger.
“Do you swear that is all?” Pandora asked. The room went cold, and the air turned to ice. Koa was really backed into a corner now. Pandora chose her words carefully; she knew if he was going to say was a truth of a lie. If he lied, it would not be pretty.
She was a stone-cold bitch sometimes, but she kept us safe. She cared for us, and we knew that. She loved us all; treated us like equals and her friends. But she was also our leader, she had responsibility to keep us safe.
“…There was a monster, that attacked us, and we ran away. But only because Virgil was hurt!” He said, adding the last part so quickly it sounded like one word.
Pandora started to steam, and her shoulders tensed. “WHAT!” She yelled. “O’Conner is going to be livid! GODS Koa!”
“I’m sorry…”
“Oh, like that makes it better! Come on, we’re going to find that monster. Virgil.” She turned to me, and I froze. I was afraid. I’m not scared to admit that. I was afraid. “You have a week off on probation. Heal, process, rest. Whisper escorts him home now. Drake, Skyla, Atlas you’ll go to the station to inform O’Conner.”
Whisper nodded and grabbed my arm, while the others left the room.
“Wait, Koa needs a partner!” I protested.
“He can go one week alone. Right now, you need rest.”
I wanted to Argue, but Whisper took my hand and we faded from the room. Koa gave me an apologetic look and Pandora and he left the room.
When Whisper and I arrived outside my apartment complex the sun, was high and my Stepmother and father would be out at work. I looked to the top floor where we lived and was immediately hit with vertigo. A pair of hands rested on my shoulders.
“Woah,” Mariana’s voice cooed, “I’ve got you,” She helped me ready myself.
She helped me get to my apartment before leaving and returning to her own home. I opened the door, to the large apartment. It was excessively large. There was no need, but my Father thought it appropriate for the large amounts guests he invites over. I walked down the hall of a moderately sized room. It was larger than most, certainly larger than Koa’s. I tried hard to make it seemed lived in and not hollow like the others.
I had a double bed, with a space patterned bedsheet, next to a window overlooking the city, I had a dark wood, desk. I decorated my room with jars filled with insect wings, Mariana gave me, and Bones I’d found over my years. In one jar was an animal skull covered in moss. I had deer antlers, and jars filled with teeth. I had a tapestry, with the tarot card, the sun hung over my bed. A metal bat that held my jewellery, and my mother’s old jewellery boxes. Another bat the hung from its feet and held tea candles. On my door was the Gay Pride flag strips of blue, purple, green and white.
I smiled, walking over to my bed, where curled up, was something that looked like a black hole. When I sat down, the creature raised its head. He looked like a panther. Sleek and black, but he looked like he was made of deep space. His eyes were purple. He was only the size of a domestic house cat.
“Hey Prometheus,” I smiled, he responded by huffing out stardust. I chucked. I felt like lead, and that I’d been hit by a bus. I crawled into my bed, and Prometheus joined me as I drifted into sleep.
When I awoke again and Prometheus was gone, and my body was filled with pain. I could hear my Stepmother and Father, rushing down the hall, quickly opening to door, and coming over to my bed side. In the chaos of it all I forgot to take my medication.
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