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 Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 6:59 pm
It could have been a nice garden. If it was just the trees, and the mushrooms, and the sense of magic, it could have been like Yvoire—natural beauty lost to time. Instead, the cavern seemed grim and haunting. Yvoire almost expected blood to bubble up out of the fissures. It smelled, to him, as if this place had once been saturated in it, like it was blood that served as sustenance for what grew down here.
He didn’t want Reims to draw closer, didn’t want to move closer himself. Yvoire stood frozen, unable to watch as Reims picked his way across the cracks in the ground, his unfocused gaze still locked on the stained stone slab.
It was like a bed, almost, big enough for a single body, roughly hewn at the base but smooth on top, with carvings along the edges. There were stains over the top and down the sides, darker where one’s head might have rested.
Yvoire thought of the doors at his Wonder, the smear of Ellis’ blood along the frame, and how his own now joined it.
He flinched at Reims’ yelp. Yvoire took an involuntary step back and squeezed his eyes shut. Maybe if he didn’t have to look at it… Maybe if he could pretend it wasn’t there…
“... do I have to go over there?” he asked in a small voice, feeling the throb of his heart in the cut he’d made on his palm.
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Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 6:59 pm
“It would be really nice if you don’t have to,” he frowned as he shook his hand out again after taking a look at it and making sure there wasn’t any additional damage done to it.
“I might just be able to… you know. Do that meditation thing that you did. I don’t think it’s sealed to this spot, but it seemed to have some kind of barrier protecting it,” he said over his shoulder, really hoping Yvoire didn’t have to come close to see the stone because… it did not look that great.
It was a beautiful piece of masonry! But he was grossed out by… everything about it.
“If you want to go back up and wait for me in the actual nice part of this place, I can meet you when I’m done?” he offered, not really wanting to sit down, but eventually lowered himself to sit on the glossy red leaves in front of the altar and Code on top.
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Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 7:00 pm
Yvoire had been planning to stay with Reims. He’d thought of lying down while Reims sat, much as Reims had done while at Yvoire. He could have finished his poptart, then closed his eyes and rested, or watched over Reims for however long it took him to meditate.
Now he could barely stomach his half-finished snack. He sent it to subspace so he didn’t have to look at it and think about eating. The desire to leave was like a stubborn itch; he couldn’t ignore it, and no amount of scratching seemed to ease it. He couldn’t make himself move closer, didn’t want to lie down near the stone slab and the blood red leaves around it.
The longer he looked at the stone, the more details stood out to him—the symbols of Ganymede carved within the designs along the edge; the shackles affixed to the top, two at the wrists and two at the ankles…
Yvoire swallowed again and forced himself to move. He went back up the stairs. Not all the way. He still didn’t want to leave Reims, especially if Reims might need his help, but far enough that he could no longer see the stone slab. Yvoire sat there in the narrow stairwell, grateful for once to be so small. It wasn’t comfortable, but at least he fit. He wrapped his arms around his legs and tried to breathe, tried to calm the pounding of his heart, tried to ignore the building whispers in his head, the distant screams.
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Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 7:00 pm
Reims let out a quiet sigh of relief when Yvoire turned to leave. Good… he didn’t want him, or anyone really, to see this place. To smell death and decay. To feel the heaviness in the air.
“Alright, let’s try to do this fast, okay?” he eyed the Code a bit skeptically, but maybe it wasn’t the Code’s fault that it was stuck down there. He couldn’t imagine it wanting to be in a place like this.
He closed his eyes and tried to relax. For a few minutes, nothing came to him.
Maybe he was thinking too much, too distracted. He felt bad that Yvoire was probably upset about all this.
And then--
His head throbbed again. There was a whisper of a scream. Sobbing. A shadowy figure stood in front of the altar, setting the birdcage with the Code on top of it. He held out his hand as though putting a blessing or something on it. The smell of fire--
Reims curled over on himself, trying not to retch from the sounds and smells. He was grateful that he hadn’t eaten much, otherwise he was certain he would have thrown up.
Around him, the ground seemed to have stitched itself back up together, although it was no less creepy. He stood and reached for the birdcage, this time able to pick it up. And then he ran towards the stairs. If this was the last time he was down there, then that wouldn’t upset him.
“Hey, sorry!” he gasped, turning the corner to the stairwell and trying to hurry up them with the cage in his hands. “Ready to go, Evie?”
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Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 7:00 pm
Yvoire sat and waited. He kept his arms around his legs, put his head on his knees, squeezed his eyes shut and tried to banish the sounds: screaming, whimpering, begging. His stomach turned over on itself, sour nausea creeping up his throat. Eventually he brought his hands to his ears and tried to block out the sounds he knew weren’t real anymore, but might once have been.
He didn’t know how long it took. Maybe minutes. Maybe as much as an hour. By the time Reims started back up the stairs, Yvoire was pale and shaken. Tears gleamed in his eyes, though he didn’t remember them building. He held them back stubbornly; they clung to his lashes, threatening to fall.
“Yeah,” he said, voice a little weak and strained. He was embarrassed for it but too creeped out to pretend.
Yvoire reached for Reims’ hand. He rose quickly and swayed for a moment, but Reims being back with him and away from whatever that cavern had been helped to steady him. Relief coursed through him at the site of the cage, glad Reims had been able to get it without him after all.
“Let’s get out of here.”
He hoped they never had to come back.
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Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 7:01 pm
He stopped in his tracks and stared. Evie had tears in his eyes. He’d clearly been freaked out by everything he saw, and possibly everything he felt.
Did Yvoire have memories there, too? He knew to touch the door with his blood. Did whoever he was in the past know about this place?
Reims shifted awkwardly, not knowing what to do. He wasn’t good with tears. He felt uncomfortable but also responsible.
“Come on, I want to put this near the organ. It’ll be nicer there,” he tried to offer something to get Evie to take his mind off everything.
He eased the birdcage over his shoulder to rest against his back, and then reached up to take hold of Yvoire’s hand.
“Have you ever played an organ? Let me show you what I’ve learned.”
He cast an anxious glance over his shoulder at the darkness below them. The faster they got out of there and never came back, the better.
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