Rivers Flow Through Empty Canyons Sometimes

New Beginnings or New Downfalls

River was summoned many years before. He was a tall water ghoul. He had been summoned to replace Nihil's water ghoul for Ghost but the band had been ended by the time he even started learning how to play.

When he was first summoned he had been a kind ghoul. He enjoyed helping out around the ministry. He tried his best to be a good ghoul. He did whatever he was told within reason.

It was 2018 now. Things had changed drastically for River. After decades of torture and abuse from Nihil, he had changed into a completely different ghoul. He was essentially a bootlicker. He was mostly neglected by Nihil. He would do anything and everything to get attention from the old man. That meant ratting out ghouls for the smallest rule breaks. No matter how big of a thing he did, all he would get was a few seconds of attention. He lived for that attention.

If he knew all the damage he had been causing to other ghouls and their relationships with their summoners, he would have stopped. He didn't want to ruin other ghouls' lives here on earth. But he was blinded by getting attention from one person and one person only. He didn't care that he was badly abused to the point it was literal torture. He could push that aside. That's because he thought that deep down his papa did love him. He thought that deep down, Nihil appreciated all of the things he did.

He had new targets now as well. After Terzo had been pulled off stage and Copia had been promoted to the leader of The Ghost Project, there were four new ghouls that he could easily get in trouble. Plus the three ghouls who weren't brand new were still newer so he could probably easily get them in trouble too.

He disliked Copia as well. He didn't know why that was. Copia had never directly done anything to him. He just hated his guts or something. He knew that Nihil didn't like him very much either. If he could get some dirt on him, then maybe he could get Copia demoted. Those were his two goals at the moment. Get Copia demoted and get his ghouls in trouble.

Currently, River was sitting in the ghoul common area. The ghoul wing of the building was quite large. Though it was mostly underground. There was a communal lounge and kitchen. The ghouls for each papa had their own smaller wing which had a room for each ghoul which also had their own bathroom in each room, their own lounge area, and their own kitchen. Sister Imperator's ghouls also got their own wing as she had quite a lot of them. The rest of the clergy ghouls weren't so lucky. They had the remaining wing. There were supposed to be only two ghouls to a room though most rooms had four or more to a room.

River was keeping his eyes on Copias ghouls. At least the four that were in the room at the moment. Swiss, Rain, Dew, and Aether were squished together on the adjacent couch. They were watching some movie he had never heard of. It was a bit interesting though. He was losing track of his goal. He shouldn't be watching this stupid movie. He should be watching the ghouls and waiting for them to break a rule.

He was broken out of his watching by someone sitting down next to him. He looked to his side to see Omega sitting there with a disapproving look on his face. He sighed. He knew exactly what he was about to say.

"This is low, even for you" he could hear the disappointment in Omega's voice. It was like he was a disappointed parent even though he hadn't been on earth as long as he had. "They're new summons. They're going to accidentally make mistakes. Don't get them in trouble for an easy mistake."

River glared over at him now. He was tired of Omega acting like a fucking saint. "Why do you even care? How are they supposed to learn from their mistakes if they don't know when they're making one?"

Omega was the one who rolled his eyes this time "We both know that's not why you're doing it."

River growled at him. He couldn't believe that Omega had the audacity to say something like that "Can you just fuck off and let me do what I want?! I don't understand why you care so fucking much about this!"

He wanted to yell more at him but he realized that he had already screwed up. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself. He then glanced over at the four ghouls on the couch and cursed under his breath when he realized they were all looking over at him. He couldn't spy on them now if they knew he was watching.

He got up and walked off toward his room, flipping off Omega on the way past him. He made his way to his room quickly. It was late in the day, so most of his packmates were returning from their duties. They were all glaring at him as he walked past. They all hated him and he didn't understand why. They just didn't understand him. Most of them misbehaved often and he would get them in trouble often. Maybe if they didn't misbehave he wouldn't have to do this to them.

Thankfully, his room was only about halfway down the hall. He quickly slipped into his room and sat down on his bed. He didn't feel the best at the moment. He reached up and felt his gills. They were all sore and dry. He would need to soak again soon. That was a problem though.

Nihil had a lot of crazy or weird torture methods and he usually had specific ones for each ghoul element. One of the ones for water ghouls was that they weren't allowed to soak without permission. They could shower, obviously, but they were timed. They weren't long enough to actually benefit his water ghouls. They weren't allowed to bathe. Usually, at most, it was a few weeks between soaks which was torturous but they had to put up with it.

Currently, it had been about three weeks since River last soaked and it was really starting to affect him. He decided that he was going to go to bed now instead of suffering awake for a few more hours. He didn't even bother getting changed, he laid down and was asleep after a few minutes.

It was a few hours later and River woke up feeling like he was about to pass out again. He needed to soak now. He managed to get himself out of bed. His legs could barely hold him up and he needed to hold onto the wall to keep himself upright. He headed out into the hall and started to make his way to Nihil's room. He needed to get his permission to soak.

He didn't know if he would make it that far. He had only just made it into the ghoul common area when his legs gave out from under him. He managed to get himself onto his back but that was it.

He could hear the sound of the TV and hushed, panicked voices. He could hear someone rushing over to him but he didn't have a chance to see who it was as he passed out before they made it to him.