Sweetpea - SOTD PT3

Chapter One - Ruine

RUINE

His lungs were burning. Choking on what little air was left in them as Ruine tried to claw his way to the surface. Yet he kept sinking.

Down, down down.

How did he get here again? The thoughts were fuzzy. It was so cold here below the surface. He couldn't feel his hands or feet no matter how many times he kicked and struggled. The light at the top was fading as well as his own life.

His mouth cracked open in a muffled yell, bubbles rushing out with the last of his air as Ruine felt his body jerk once.

Twice.

Everything was fading. Everything was disappearing from the edges of his vision as he sank lower.

There was no coming back from this. There was no swimming to the surface

There was nothing of anything anymore. All Ruine had left to do was drown.

Down down down.

His mind focused strangely on the last bubble of air that left his throat, the way it warped and moved through the water away from him.

Slithering to the surface. Towards the light where he'd never reach again.

Down, down, down.

Dead. Dead. Dead.

Ruine jerked awake, his body sitting up quickly as he wheezed air into his lungs like they were desperate for the oxygen. Fucking Hell, how many times did he need to have that dream?

His heart was beating so fast it might break a Gods damn ribs. Pressing his hand against his chest, he could feel the heavy thump hammering there. It's real. It was fine, it's not real. Closing his mouth, Ruine did the routine his mother had taught him from childhood when his anxiety and fears tried to get the better of him.

He closed his eyes and inhaled slowly through his nose. A long breath in. A long breath out. Calm.

He was calm. There was nothing to be afraid of.

It was just a dream.

Repeating his routine until his pulse became a slow, stable beat, Ruine shoved a hand through his long hair and whipped it back from his clammy face, gripping the back of his head for a second.

It always started with dreams. His intuition, his instincts giving him images to try and make sense of. He didn't need to read too much into it really. Not until he had some concrete information to go by. After all, that's what made him so good at finding things.

Inklings. Instincts. The pull to where he was supposed to go.

Right now, that pull had taken him to Nimue, the city of sirens. The part of his brain that liked to gloss over issues wanted to say the dreams of water was thanks to this place. That he was surrounded by the stuff right now and that he didn't need to look any closer than the surface.

But the other side, the bit that had proven him right over and over again said he was going to have to work on holding his fucking breath because if he wanted to squash his curiosity, he'd need to take a decent Gods damn breath and sink.

Sink, being the optimistic word. Not drown.
Collapsing back against the plush pillows by his head, Ruine huffed out his anxiety before his phone buzzed on the bedside table. Reaching blindly at the  sound of vibrating, his hand slapped across his phone, bringing the small rectangle to his view.

Brim. Fantastic.

For a long second, Ruine just stared at the phone, watching it ring. He contemplated letting it go to voicemail just to piss his brother off. Fucker hated that and it was Ruine's job, as his younger brother, to do exactly that. Ruffle the feathers of the big man just for shits and giggles.