Creatures in Depth | ❚❚

Chapter Five: Victim or Culprit?

One moment there was unexplainable silence, and in the next, it nearly got wiped out of its previous existence as the piercing cries took hold of it.

The crowd broke away like a discovered army of ants. There were people either running or collapsing on the ground. My brain appeared to slow everything down, forcing me to endure every moment of it. My body felt like it had been beaten down right on the floor, as I struggled to move. The crowd started to get violent and I had to move away before they turned me into their dart board.

My guardian angel came in the form of Daine, who whisked me away like a cog in a machine before the crowd could hurl anything at me. My heart ached. All our sacrifices are down the drain, yet a question remains: was it all for nothing?

Things like this remind me of how delicate we all are, yet how magnificent. What sort of miracle must a person's intellect be to create such flawless beauty? In our ordinarily little importance, we have learned the power to elicit unexplained emotions. It makes me believe that all other creatures must feel inferior to us, and that must be why sirens were our ultimate disaster.

A sinister chuckle slipped past my guard. No one ever told me delusions were a symptom of flickering sanity. But for that, no one had ever known that there would be a phase in your life where you realized all you had done was for nothing. Nothing. In name, we might have killed thousands of sirens, but whether they were dead was another question.

My heart clutched so hard that it weighed a hundred pounds more than it was like a boulder was set free. It hurts. Tears build up in my eyes, playing house as they rise higher and higher, just like us, only to slip out and drain while I don't even attempt to catch them.

The crowd faded, as did the loud cries. Our group of five remained silent. It made me realize that even silence could be so loud that it could make ears bleed. Daine still had a firm hold on me, gripping my shoulders so hard that they might tip apart while I tried my best to act like I couldn't see her trembling, even though the watery lines of tears sliding down her cheeks betrayed her.

No one said anything. Not even an attempt to console. We just kept walking towards the carriage stop, our legs moving purely on muscle memory as it directed us to the place where the hunter's carriage awaited.

We are all humans after all.

I turned around and was met with four pairs of soulless eyes. Everlee didn't even attempt to hide anything, smiling crazy like some unhinged psycho with widened eyes and fisted palms. Jasper's face spoke of fear; he walked almost unnaturally still as if he were walking on leaden legs, his pupils dilated and his respiration shallow, trying to settle himself so hard that I was widely concerned.

My eyes drifted to Delaney, who stared ahead with a darkly shaded emotion. April's face spoke nothing, maintaining her stoicism even now as if what had happened meant nothing to her, and I hoped I was wrong.

When the carriage appeared, I halted, followed by the sounds of eight other boots emitting squelchy sounds as they were dipped in overgrown grass on the ground that was heavy with dew. And one by one, we loaded ourselves into the carriage with soundless movements. The driver of the carriage frowned at us before he started on the route to take us back to the site.

And then Delaney broke the ice, "Alec." My heart ran an unmeasurable amount of beats as I heard him. Delaney spoke of him as if the mere mention of Alec's name had burned his throat. "He's the one to blame. He's the one who made those ridiculous weapons. He's the one who gave us hope."

April replied almost instantly with the click of her tongue. "It's easy to blame people when things don't go your way. But mind you, it's a coward's way."