Deep in the Void

Chapter 29: Call of the Siren

Ceris

Ceris was awakened by a soft sigh somewhere near her chest. It was a gentle awakening, at least compared to the usual, and Ceris took her time waking, gently blinking as she slowly opened her eyes.

She yawned, causing her chest to rise. In response, something tightened round her torso.
She glanced down, and saw Arabella. Or more specifically, she saw Arabella's white hair and the top of her forehead. The rest of the half-vampire's face was buried in Ceris's chest. Her arms circled tightly round Ceris's upper body, clinging to her like she was a teddy bear. Or a life belt.

Ceris stared down at Arabella. She remembered the previous night, and her lips tingled. She'd experienced a lot of things, good and bad, but kissing Arabella had been something else. It had felt only half real, like a part of her had been experiencing it on a completely different level of reality.
She flushed, and removed her hands from where they'd been resting in Arabella's hair for some reason.
'Arabella.' she murmured softly.
The pirate stirred, but didn't change position.
Ceris moistened her lips, and tried to gently remove Arabella's grasp.
'Time to get up.'
She made a muffled noise of protest, tightening her grasp, but Ceris pushed her off. Arabella's face became visible, looking somewhere between grumpy and amused.
'What? We've only been sleeping for a few hours.'
She smiled, and Ceris flushed.

Quickly forcing her expression into neutral, she said, 'We don't want to waste time. Pontus said he'd maroon us as soon as we reached an island. We need to find a way out.'
Arabella shrugged.
'It's at least a day to the nearest island. We're still in the open ocean currently. But fine, if you're in a hurry. Just let me get ready.'
She leaned forwards and pecked Ceris on the lips, which Ceris was sure caused her cheeks to invent a new shade of red.
Then she got up and went into the bathroom before Ceris could even form a coherent sentence.

Arabella

Arabella leant both hands on the iron sink and stared into the rectangular mirror above it. She was looking decidedly dishevelled.
Her eyes were still puffy and red from crying, streaks of Ceris's blood ran along her cheeks, she was even paler than usual - thanks in no small part to the energy drain from Lilith taking control last night - and her headband had come loose, allowing most of her pure white fringe to flop freely down into her face.

Turning on the tap, she splashed water on her face to wash off the blood. The water was freezing, but Arabella languished in the pain - it was nothing compared to what she felt inside herself.

She re-tied her headband, split her fringe and pushed the fabric up, pushing the two locks of hair to either side.

She stood up, then hesitated. She splashed more water on her cheeks, and rubbed some more. She was putting the next thing off, she knew that, but refused to admit it.

But eventually, her cheeks were rubbed raw, and there was nothing else to do.

She sat down on the floor, and reached out to the back of her mind. To the dark ball of malice and spite she called Lilith.

It was worse than she expected. She and Lilith conversed in the mindscape occasionally, but that was usually when Arabella was sleeping. Lilith just had to divert her dreams. This time, Arabella was fully awake, and consciously allowing Lilith to pull her into the mindscape.
Arabella had expected just to pass out, like when Sakura had first activated that damn mind reading spell.
Instead, she was horribly conscious when Lilith's consciousness surged forwards, surrounding her own, pulling her deep into the trappings of her own mind.