Ephemeral Reverie #1 - The Silence Between

Chapter Ten - Monster

Only muted darkness clung to the edges of his vision now. He watched the pair leave in silence. Maybe it would be a simple reprieve after all. He wrapped his arms around his thin form, suddenly feeling so cold. A lot can change in nine years, true, but his eternity refused to allow everything to change.

He felt his vision spin. His heart beat crystal clear within his ears. But why was he so nervous? Everything was as it should be. He was awake; had his new Master to protect. And Charlie seemed so kind...

Adagium.

A chill erupted within him. Snow. Iron. Blood... The trembling increased as he slowly turned back, eyes roving over the thick shadows beyond where the light could reach. His heart thumped loudly against his ribcage, pounding in his throat, his ears, his soul.

Poor worthless creature.

A slender wisp of a woman stepped from the darkness, clad in the pale clothes of a Guardian who had passed into sagehood. A hood and shawl covered her entire head, except her eyes which burned an otherworldly hue of crimson.

Reiem tensed up, eyes wide. It was her...Marianne. One of the few who instilled such fear into him, back from the bowels where she so rightly belonged. Even now, he could feel the pain boring into his very soul, searching, reaching, burning.

"You are dead," he said quietly, shaking his head as she inched ever closer. He felt the pain becoming a little more tangible as it worked its way through his soul. He could feel his heart pounding in his ears as the woman stepped forward, continuing to speak as if he'd said nothing.

You never left my service.

He couldn't tell if what he saw was real or a hallucination. The pain—he knew—felt real. Where was Charlie? Where was the tower? The world was black. He hadn't even had a chance to taste the outside air. It was like that suffocating blackness was swallowing him up once more and locking him away—this time forever. Everything was so dark. And it was only Reiem and Marianne that were standing.

There, Adagium. Good monster.

Marianne smirked. Her voice was so loud, though it was barely above a whisper. It was a knife cutting through the intense black, leaving it frail and tattered, fall to nothingness. He took a step back from Hell. Marianne was Hell.

And the black was becoming white...then red. So cold. So...sharp. Was he bleeding? Yes, it was the day of his end; of eternity, the peace he'd lost. Frigid rain, red snow blossoming, swallowing up the ground at his feet at he took another step back. The marks across his body were burning. No peace, no light. She stood there, smirk growing, eyes burning. Burning his skin and melting his bones like the seals that bound him.

In the bloodied snows he saw himself. He turned his head away, wrapped his arms tighter; the shivering wouldn't stop.

Friends? Ridiculous. You'll never know that kind of peace, Adagium. Come. Stand at your true Master's side.

Reiem felt his body burn again, the ferocity of the heat clashing hard with the sharp cold that sent him quivering to his knees. His mind screamed; his skin boiled; his soul shivered. He'd have to give in to Hell, quickly, before he fell in too deep.

"Reiem?"

"Help me," he gasped. He didn't know where he was anymore. In the black abyss with Marianne? In the bloodied snows taking his final breath? In the tower with Charlie and Griff?

Marianne's face appeared before his. Reiem was so close to Hell; he would only have to stretch out his arm to beg for the pain to stop; for him to be released from his burden, but he didn't. It would only take a single, swift motion.