Harm and Harmony

-Chapter 107-

Day: 145

Days Left: 5335

Lives Saved: 0

Everyone stared at the angler-fish monster mask on the table. Even Calixte was surprised, his eyes fixated on his mask.

He was a man that looked to be in his early or mid-thirties, with pale almost wispy blond hair and fair skin. Or at least he did, to begin with, but the longer she looked Corinna saw something quite different. The hair on his head was barely holding on, dry, brittle, and thin to the extent that the strands were almost see-through. His skin wasn't fair, it was paler than that as if all colour had been stolen away. It was so ghostly white that Corinna was only just able to see parts of his skin peeling off. His arms were so thin like there was no flesh but just bone. The clothes he wore were faded and damaged, clinging onto his skinny torso.

Calixte pulled his hand away from Corinna's. He gasped, swallowing a mouthful of air then clutched his throat, clawing at it with his nails.

"Hey!" Corinna rushed to his side. "Are you alright!"

In between sputters and coughs, the man shook his head violently and collapsed. His body writhed on the floor as he choked and gasped for breath, clutching at his chest.

"What's happening to him!" Corinna knelt down by his side, she glanced back at Harmony, hoping she would have an answer. "Is something stuck in his throat?"

Harmony went over to the suffering man, preparing to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre but Calixte shook his head. "Then what's wrong?" asked Harmony.

Still wheezing, the man pointed a shaking finger at his mask on the table.

"Corinna!"

"Got it!" Corinna retrieved the amphibian mask and handed it over.

Harmony held the mask over Calixte's face. After a few seconds, the blue scales of the mask spread across the man's entire body, and he was the amphibian again.

No longer choking, Calixte's breathing returned to low and deep heaves. He stayed lying on the floor, calming himself down.

Harmony and Corinna both sighed in relief.

"You okay now?" asked Harmony.

Calixte nodded. "Fank you, iss Har'ony," he croaked. Due to his long brush-like teeth preventing him from closing his lips, he was unable to pronounce the 'th's and 'm's.

"Hey, you got your voice back." Harmony smiled.

Doing his best to smile back, the amphibian opened his mouth wider, his teeth glinting in the light.

"Just don't push yourself. You'll damage your throat if you try talking too much, to begin with. Trust me, I speak from experience." Harmony grabbed Calixte's glass of water that he had not touched at all during the entire meal. "Here, you'll need to drink plenty of water to-"

Calixte screeched, whacking the glass out of Harmony's hand as she presented it to him. The glass shattered onto the floor and water splattered onto Harmony's trousers. Calixte screamed as a droplet landed almost on him. He retreated into a corner of the room, his body shivering and huddled small, all the while he continually apologised with his hoarse new voice.

"You're not hurt, are you?" Corinna held Harmony's hands, inspecting them for any cuts.

"I'm fine, don't worry," said Harmony, looking over to the amphibian.

Corinna remembered back to when she had retrieved Calixte's silver rattle that he had dropped in a pool of water. Despite it being so shallow, the amphibian dared not touch it. "I think he might have hydrophobia," said Corinna.

After the broken glass was cleared up, Corinna and Harmony began cleaning the empty bowls and cutlery. Calixte, who had mostly calmed down, lay on the floor covered in a blanket and clutching onto a soft toy frog that Harmony had given him. Occasionally, he would gently shake his silver rattle and quietly hum a tune along to it.

"It's a cruel joke." Harmony breathed out heavily, placing the bowl that she had dried into the cupboard. "He's scared of water, and they give a mask that turns him into a fish-monster."

"Yeah..." Corinna gazed down at the sink, seeing her reflection in the water as she continued to wash the cutlery. "He... his human form looked a lot like a water nymph."

"He probably was one."

"I thought... I thought that those were people in masks..."

Harmony hesitated, then replied in a hushed, almost breaking voice, "no."

Corinna remembered back to her first day in the Eternal Abyss, how she had almost drowned by the water nymphs.

"For the more... heinous criminals, they tie them down with rocks and send them through the same portal you did," Harmony explained. "Because of the rocks, they can't float up" She paused. "And since they can't die in the Eternal Abyss... they're stuck like that forever... forever to remain underwater."

Seeing Corinna's eyes watering, her hands trembling, Harmony wrapped her arms around her in a warm embrace.

"I can't believe that anyone would deserve such a fate," said Corinna, her voice muffled as her head rested against Harmony's shoulder.

"I'm not sure he did." Harmony glanced over at the amphibian Calixte. "I managed to check his brand whilst he was in his human form... 'treason' just like you."

"Is there any way we can help him?"

"His lungs must have taken in quite a lot of water when he was a nymph. That's why he couldn't breathe." Harmony stroked Corinna's hair. "The Eternal Abyss will eventually fix him back, but only when he's in his human form. He'll have to take off his mask and endure the pain... I'm not sure how long it'll take though."