For the first time in his existence, he knew he was drowning and he wasn't thinking about survival.”
― Christine Feehan
. . .
When I managed to come to, I feel like I was having the worst hangovers in my entire life… which was weird because I don’t really remember drinking. Pearl isn’t against alcohol, but she doesn’t really like it when I get drunk because I often get too handsy–
My eyes shot open.
PEARL–!
What… what is this smell? Smoke? No… incense, I realized a few seconds after–wafted ominously around me, clinging to my very being like they were intending to suffocate me with the smell alone as I blearily tried to make out my surroundings, squinting through the darkness.
The scattered candles were not even helping to give me a clue about what the fuck just happened and where the hell am I as I tried to move my head.
Keyword: tried.
Because someone suddenly grabbed my neck from somewhere behind me and forced my head down–and they weren’t being nice about it either.
…Motherfucker.
“W-Who… who the fuck are you?” I tried to hiss the words out but my voice only came out as a pathetically weak slur.
Three figures slowly stepped forward from the darkness one at a time… somewhere to my left (or was it to my right?) I couldn’t really tell; I even had a hard time known which way was up or down. And for a moment, I can only blink at them, becoming even more confused the longer I looked at them. Because I don’t think I really understood what they were doing here right now.
Bobby.
Junior.
…And the weird, Chinese lady.
“What-…? What’s going on?”
“Valiant Cross… how nice of you to join us,” the Chinese lady began, ignoring my question as she lightly took a step forward and despite being surrounded by the candlelight like the others as well, something else caught my attention–
She… she doesn’t have a shadow.
Before I could dwell on this strange fact even further, the person standing behind me suddenly released my neck.
I turned and barely hold back a gasp.
Because looming right behind me, was my own flesh and blood–Wallace stood, imposingly large, still dressed in his police uniform, splattered in still fresh, dripping blood and…
And somewhere right behind him, I can make out a familiar figure of a woman dangling like a worm on a hook by the neck within the same fucking chains I’ve been seeing ever since I came back to this god-awful place.
“L-Lorelei…?” I called, weakly.
Her body was still, not a sound.
My chest heaved, frantically.
Lorelei was the seventh victim.
“She… she loved you,” I managed to choke out, my tongue feeling like lead as dread wormed and curled within my stomach like live maggots, “S-She… she still loved you even after you two split up. Wallace, you fucking coward how could you–?!”
“It wasn’t supposed to be her!” he yelled.
And despite myself, I flinched.
Wallace had never raised his voice at me before.
“We were going to meet up with you two on the beach,” Wallace continued, running a distressed hand through his weary face, nodding at Junior’s direction (who had the grace to at least look guilty when I turned to stare at him in disbelief–what the hell, he had been on this shit too?!), “but then that… that goddamned bitch,” he snarled, glaring daggers at the Chinese lady who simply smiled, almost indulgently, “–suddenly started fucking things up! We already had the last offering prepared for It!”
“Ah, ah, ah!” the Chinese wagged a finger, tauntingly, smile shifting wider into a wolf’s grin, “You think you fools can deceive the Fallen God even as it slumbers? What do you take us for? Boy, we know for a fact that Valiant Cross is a local’s child. His death would have been pointless.”
My eyes widened.
“You… you were going to get me killed?”
The guilty but resigned look on Wallace’s face hurts almost as much as the impact of the car crash, more than the feeling of shattered glass slicing at my skin open and raw.
“And isn’t that just priceless?! So much for blood, hm?” the woman cackled, wrapping an overly familiar arm around me but before I could angrily shrug her off, she was already slinking away, “But no matter, Our God has decided. It shall forgive you for your wretched attempt at deceit.”
“What’s the catch?” Junior demanded, eyes narrowing.
Within the dim light, the woman’s dark eyes glows an eerie blue, almost warping and splitting her face in half.
“It calls for an eight offering,”
Swallowing inaudibly, Wallace turned to look at me.
And my stomach practically dropped when I realized that there were tears streaming down from his eyes now as he took out his gun while Bobby visibly gulped, turning to look away when my horrified gaze turned to him as he crossed his arms but even from here, I can see that his hands were trembling.
“No…” I hissed, “No, you can’t do this–!”
“I’m so sorry, Val…” Wall choked out.
The cold nuzzle of the gun felt so cold against my rapidly beating heart. I can hear the sound of gunshots ringing in my ears, one, two, three…
They all sounded so far away.
Then, the meager flames died down slowly… then all at once.
“Wall, what…? What are you–? Guys, what’s happening? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!” I demanded, frantically turning my head left and right, my heart feeling like it was bound to leap right out of my throat any moment now when I can only see nothing but a never-ending darkness in every turn.
It was dead silent, not even a whisper of a breath save for my own, as though I was the only person left in this world, “Guys, what’s happening? Why… why are you doing this?!”
Something so cold landed on the back of my neck.
…Something thick–and slippery.
“To protect your home, of course,”
My stomach practically dropped.
That wasn’t Wallace’s voice…
Or anyone’s voice.
I tried to crane my head to look over my shoulder, but some sort of instinct suddenly made me stop as soon as I even managed to do so–and it wasn’t just the chains wrapped around my body.
Somewhere, far away, I can hear the crashing waves.
And it was cold.
…so, so cold…
“W-What are you…?”
“How rude,” the voice remarked, like a ghost of a whisper, soft, humming, continuous and melodious like the song of the sea, “A follower of mine does not even recognize its own God?”
I flinched, “But… but you’re not… I don’t…”
“Hush, little one,”
Something wet and slippery suddenly covered my entire face, muffling the screams that I barely remembered doing as it forces itself within my mouth.
“The ritual has been completed,” the Chinese woman’s voice suddenly intones from somewhere beyond the darkness, but even her voice sounds so faint, murky, almost incomprehensible, like she was getting farther and farther away, “The Fallen has been appeased. They will allow this island and its people to live… for another half a century that is.”
A choked whimper managed to escape from my lips just as seawater flooded my entire throat till everything hurts and burns.
“Valiant Cross…”
I looked down and saw my ring for a second, a flash of white amidst the darkness. Pearl, I… I’m so sorry–
“…thank you so much for your sacrifice.”
And then, I felt myself being pulled down.