❝ I DRIFT THROUGH THIS OCEAN OF FEAR, MOOR ME DOWN. ❞
• SHORT-LISTED FOR THE SPECTRE AWARDS •
Delilah Dire has had everything taken from her. Her rights as the next leader of her family's pack, her friends, her home; everyone and everything she...
"Delilah, come sit." Sybil gestured to the space on the floor in front of her. I glanced around the room as I slowly made my way over to her. The walls were lined with jars of strange objects, bowls full of black liquid, and different animal skulls and bones. Light poured into the room through large windows that were almost floor to ceiling. I carefully sat down, being careful not to disturb anything that Sybil might have done. And as I looked around, I noticed that the girl who asked me to come here had seemingly vanished. "Don't mind Jacq. She has a strange habit of disappearing." Sybil commented, so I heeded her advice and just ignored it.
"So... did you need me for something?" I asked, curious as to what I'd been called for.
"Yes!" She put her bowl she was working with to the side and snubbed out her cigarette. "Now, what is about to happen, it will be a rather strange experience. You'll feel kind of heavy, sluggish. And most of all disorientated." She began to grind up her herbs in her bowl again.
"And what is it that we're going to be doing, exactly?" I didn't want to get in over my head, particularly when it came to things I knew nothing about, like Oracle work. Sybil let out a small sigh. "I need to get into your head. Learn what you know, kind of thing. How you came to us. If that's okay of course." I thought about it for a moment. Sybil was an Oracle, surely she had some legit reason for doing this, but at the same time, I didn't want to open myself up that much. My thoughts drifted back to how Talos trusted her with keeping our bond a secret. Her job was, more or less, keeping secrets for the pack and finding out more. Maybe I could trust her with this. "Okay, lets do this." Her grin quickly returned to her face.
"Great! Now say 'aaah!'" I couldn't help but give her a strange look before I hesitantly opened my mouth.
"Aaaaa--" Sybil quickly stuffed a glob of the herbs she was mashing before into my mouth.
"Don't chew, just swallow. It's not that tasty." She handed me a small flask of something and I quickly washed it all down. The liquid in the flask didn't taste like anything, but left a strange feeling as it went down. Almost like popping candy, but softer. Everything was fine for a moment, nothing was happening. Then it was like a shock wave had exploded inside my head. A loud boom and suddenly everything was fuzzy and I could feel myself swaying. Sybil reached towards me, a black mark was etched into her hand that I couldn't make out, and she pressed her palm to my forehead. Then everything went black.
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When I opened my eyes next, it felt like I was in a dream. I looked around at where I was, and it brought tears to my eyes. I was home. People said hello to me as they walked by, I saw Ethan's figure off in the distance as he trained with the other warriors in the light of the setting sun. "So, this was your Pack." I quickly turned to see Sybil beside me. Her smile seemed sad, an unusual sight for her. "It seemed homely." She took a few steps up towards the door of the house, before turning to me. I was shell shocked, it was all to real. "Come on, D. Show me around."
"O-okay." Was my choked response around the lump in my throat. I walked up beside Sybil, and with a shaky hand opened the front door. My friend Vivian was waiting for me in the hallway.
"Delilah! There you are! Flo's in the game room. She wanted to talk to you about something, she seems kind of off..." I reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. Her skin was warm underneath my palm. Alive.
"Vivian...can you hear me? Run." But she only sighed and crossed her arms over her chest.
"I'm kinda worried about her, but she asked for you so, yeah. Tell me about it later, I gotta find my folks." She gave me her trademark finger guns before bouncing off upstairs. My gaze followed after her as my chest caved in on itself. It was in that moment Sybil rested a hand on my back.
"I'm sorry, Delilah. We cannot change the past here. Only relive it." I quickly blinked away the tears forming in my eyes.
"It's like they're there."
"We are only seeing what has happened before. It's all in your head. Come, we better see Flo." She gave me a reassuring pat on the back. I took a few deep breaths, steeling myself for what was to come.
"Okay. Lets go."
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I lead Sybil down a small flight of stairs to the game room, where Flo sat in the big chair by the window nook. Something about her seemed off. She looked scared. I couldn't forget how she looked that day. It was so not like her. But her eyes lit up when she saw me. "Oh good, Vivian found you. Sit with me, D." It was impossible not to feel Sybil stiffen beside me. She had used Florence's nickname for me only minutes ago. Her face was perfectly framed by her pristine silver hair, like always. But something about her eyes seemed wrong. "Whats going on, Lawrence?" I asked her as I climbed up into my seat in the window nook. Her face relaxed as she chuckled at my nickname for her. It was like nothing bad had ever happened. And then she tensed up again. "I need to talk to you. Strange things have been happening in my dreams again."
"Like what?" I asked her, opening the window behind me to let the breeze into the stuffy room. Hopefully it would help clear the air, even though I knew what was going to happen. "It's so weird, I'll be looking at the night sky. And it's pitch black, when all of a sudden, six stars fall from the sky. Now I know how the creation story goes, there were five fallen stars, so why are there six? Then it cuts to a man made of burning coals, and he's slowly burning his way through a forest towards me. When I first started having the dreams, he was far away. But now, he's so close he can almost reach out and touch me."
"Would you like me to talk to mom and dad about it? I know your a healer, but you've said your mom's side is from Celene Pack. Maybe this could be something important." At this Florence nodded her head.
"That would be good, thanks D." A relieved smile graced my friend's face before it was quickly engulfed by terror. Her gaze fixed on me.
"What's wrong, Flo?" I asked her, even though I knew what was going to happen, tears brimming in my eyes. All of a sudden, she rushed at me and shoved me hard, and out through the open window onto the grass below. Not even a split second later, there was a loud boom and the smashing of broken glass, as the game room exploded into a burst of flames.
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Crazy crazy stuff... I can't help but feel for Delilah, idk about you guys. Please don't forget to vote if you enjoyed, every little one helps. And thanks to all who have been reading so far. Your support is what keeps me going. ♥
