Heart of the Serpent: Ominis Gaunt (temporarily paused)

Chapter TWO - My Darkness

Muscles aching, bones numb and soul exhausted, the whispers of the world were the first to coax my reality back to a life I'd never known.

A dull roar pounded through the room, thick and constant. Droplets lapped at glass in unhurried chaos, minute crackles of wicks and flames danced behind my head. A faint scent of old books, thick smoke and burnt matches brushed across my cheeks and I was suddenly aware that the space around me felt far more warm than it had a few moments ago.

Or has it been longer?

I sat up quickly, realizing my back had been pressed against the ground, my arms tucked out quickly to both sides and pressed firmly into cushioned fabric. A sort of padded silk, too soft for my dry fingers. My bones ached with the movement and I froze as pain wracked up my spine.

A remembrance of what I'd endured.

Blinking rapidly, I willed the darkness, shadows and faint light to crawl back and reveal a candlelit reality. Yet, no amount of shifting seemed to do the trick.

The darkness remained.

The blindfold.

Yanking my arm up to my cheeks I tore at the space the fabric was.

Tore at the space the fabric should be,

but wasn't.

My fingertips brushed over skin, painted over lashes, dusted over eyelids.

Darkness pooled over every edge of my reality.

Chills followed close behind.

I can't see.

I let out a sharp breath as my lungs constricted.

I can't see.

Panic ate the air in my throat, dry and shriveled.

I can't see.

I clawed at the space my vision should be, hot burning tears welling at the corners. My nose felt too warm, my fingers too stiff, my heart pounding too fast.

And suddenly I couldn't take a breath in.

I can't see.

I can't breathe.

I can't see.

I can't breathe.

I'm blind.

"Hey..." a voice from within my darkness. "You're safe now."

I'm not alone.

Startling backwards, I pulled my aching knees up to my heaving chest. One hand out straight as if my palm would be enough to shield me from harm. As if it would be enough to shield me from a chaos of pain at the hands of a single muttered word.

"They cannot hurt you now." My darkness spoke again.

I'm blind.

I tried and failed to haul in a trembling breath and scream to the void to leave me alone.

But my strength,

my breaths,

my vision

...gone.

"I shall not hurt you."

I gasped in attempts to regain control of my body.

I'm blind.

I can't breathe.

I'm not alone.

"I am going to step closer now."

A soft pad in the dark.

"You are safe. They do not know you are here."

My heart stuttered, a hint of air climbing through my lungs and the words came out far more helpless than I intended them to.

Pleading to my darkness.

"I can't see."

My darkness fell silent.

Only the staggered intake of breath peered through the black ahead of me.

"No."

My darkness a young man, voice inches away from me.

"No?"

I can't see.

I can't breathe.

"Please. I can't- can't breathe." I'm not sure what brought forth such a trust in the dark.

Perhaps it was the terror in his voice.

Perhaps it was the terror in mine.

Perhaps it was a final plea in a world void of anything I'd once known.

His silence left me alone, tears tipping over my cheeks and silently grasping to the dark.

"Please."

What I was asking for I didn't know. I just needed something.

Needed some remembrance that a life lived past my blackened vision.

My darkness found my hand.

Cool fingers tapped gently through the black before hesitantly brushing against my skin.

A tether.

I'm not alone.

His touch my only connection to the world outside my body.

I'm not alone.

My only reminder that my heart still beat.

I'm not alone.

I wrapped my fingers quickly around his.

I'm not alone.

My only reminder that air still existed in my lungs.

His words my only reminder of who I was.

"You're not alone."