Genesis

Chapter 40: Brood

I could oh so suddenly see it all unfolding in front of me. It was as if the memories had never been gone to begin with. They had been repressed, sealed within the confines of my brain until a time where I could see them with my eyes, and in my mind also see them differently.

I could see Sarah, the beautiful girl I had nearly forgotten, the girl who had captured my attention for so long I could hardly remember a time where she hadn't been on my mind. Yet, for the past months, I had been entirely incapable of seeing her at all, except for a small glimpse of her before I saw the Guri. Even then I couldn't truly see her for how I had seen her before, when my memories were intact.

I had never encountered, in my short life, anyone who was even close to being like her. She was smart, cunning – in a good way – talented to many degrees. She could see the good in a person who outwardly showed none. One person in particular being Erik.

Erik, who my previous memories played off as the bad guy, the guy I hated. Now, though, they were showing me something entirely different. I was feeling entirely different.

He no longer seemed so bad. He honestly didn't seem bad at all. I cared for him, not in the same way I cared for Sarah, and felt towards Sarah, but he had become like a brother. How could I have forgotten either of them. They were...are my closest friends.

Erik, beneath all the rust of his exterior, was one of the most genuine people I knew as of yet. He wasn't afraid to be honest, previously even to the point of brutality. I could remember many fights he and I had, one of which could have ruined his life, but I held back and I'm glad I did. Sarah had convinced me to give him a chance, a chance was given, and he proved himself capable of actually being mature.

I wanted to see them again. I wanted to see them all: Sarah, Erik, my mother, my father. They had all played an important role in shaping who I had become, and I ran away in the blink of an eye without even a thought to saying goodbye. How could I have been so thoughtless. I wasn't even on the same planet. I didn't even know how to get home, but I wanted to try.

But, deeper still, behind the emotional discord that was so suddenly the life I remembered, I recalled something else: the fear. I could see its cause. I could see the horror that brought it forth and the pain that accompanied it. It left me wondering how I was even alive.

I had faced and ancient evil that slumbered beneath the depths of the oceans. In my mind I saw the images flood by. First I saw the caverns, the place I had come to call the Spectral Cavern, where tunnel after tunnel burrowed into the ocean floor. I then saw the path I took that led me to the glowing, violet room, where a thickset, eel-like creature stood guard as a sentinel.

Then I had been too naïve to know what I was doing, but now I was well aware of how stupid and rash my decision was. I thought myself strong. I had been proud when I cleaved the creature's skull and watched it as it floated dead to the ceiling above. But it had not been the only one; in fact, it had been far from it.

I examined the creature closely, seeing its dead carcass as it rested against the ceiling. Its head twitched now and again, hitting the ceiling. I could hear the subtle tap each time, seeing as the water darkened while its blood poured out from its skull with every tap.

Its head finally stopped cracking against the ceiling and it finally came to rest, but the tapping had not ceased. It continued strongly, slowly increasing in speed as it beat like a drum. I searched around the massive cavern for signs of what was causing the noise. My eyes fell on the multitude of coves that lined the walls from floor to ceiling. The walls at the back of many of the coves had cracked, some more outward than others. The tapping continued. The coves kept my eyes locked.