What's Said in Silence

Vessel- XXXXXXIII

We turned down the long dirt drive leading to a grotesquely run-down house. The siding was worn and cracked and the windows were caked in dirt. It looked like it hadn't been maintained in well over a decade. It was the perfect spot for a squatter- or for someone to take a hostage if they wanted to hide.

I looked towards Jessie and he nodded in confirmation. This was the second house we'd been to. The first one had been more of a shack, but it had been empty nonetheless. Even so, Jessie did exactly what we'd agreed to. He stayed behind in the car just on the off chance I had to make some less than legal decisions.

I stepped out of the car and tentatively made my way up the stairs, which groaned and creaked beneath my weight. The door was a jar, which was neither a good sign nor bad. Out of pure caution, and half instinct, I reached for the gun behind my back and wrapped my fingers around the handle.

I pushed through the door, looking in both directions upon entering. I went left into what had to be the living room first, the old floor boards creaked beneath my weight. As I rounded the corner, I was met with a wall of stench that would make sewage rats gag. Upon looking around the room, I found the source of the rancid smell. Bodies. Three of them scattered across the room, each laying in a pool of blood. I jerked around, swearing I'd heard something but couldn't see anything.

This was it. It had to be. I had to wonder which of these men were Preston, if only so I could revel in his death. Confusion and adrenaline gripped my stomach. If they were dead, then where was she? Who ever had killed these guys had done so ruthlessly, what if they got to her first? Would they have taken her? Or worse...

"...gods grow tired..."

I froze in place, there was that sound I could've sworn I heard, but perhaps it was a figment of my imagination. I turned away from the bodies and made my way back through the house into the kitchen. I steeled my spine ready to find more bodies, but I found the kitchen empty, save for a few take out boxes on the counter by the stove.

"...along both lines of a pathway higher..."

My heart pounded against my rib cage. It was unmistakable. I'd definitely heard a voice, faint and weak, scratchy yet... feminine. I wasn't alone in this house. My adrenaline kicked up a notch and I ran back into the living room where I'd first heard it. I stood in the middle, so still an earth quake couldn't have moved me, and listened.

"...grow back your sharpest teeth..." A sob followed the lyric. A lyric I knew all too well. I paced the room trying to find the source of the sound, but coming up blank. I scanned the room looking for anything that resembled a closet or something of that nature, but there was nothing. I'm not imagining this. It's her. She's here. Where?

"...I will travel far beyond the path of reason..."

I looked down. The voice was coming up through the floorboards. A basement.

"...take me back to Eden..."

More sobs and the voice was growing stronger. I bolted towards the kitchen and all the way back. There to the right, a small wooden door. I tried the handle but it didn't budge. It locked from the outside and there wasn't a key insight. I grew frustrated and started banging my shoulder against the door. For a house as old as this one, the door had more strength than I had anticipated.

"...take me back to Eden..." The voice sang out again, louder and rattled with sobs. It fueled me and I rammed my shoulder into the door with ten times the ferocity. My Sera, my little fox, trapped in a basement, singing for me. The wood splintered and the door sagged on one hinge. I pushed it out of the way and stepped into the darkened space.

At the bottom of the stairs, lit by the stream of light behind me, were those beautiful eyes. Crimson dripped between them and dripped off of her nose, catching on her chin. Her hair was beyond dirty and mussed. Her lips were blue from the cold. Her arms, bound behind her to a wooden post, frailer than I remembered. The dark circles that rimmed her eyes was a stark contrast to the paleness of her skin.