Only feels haunted today.
It has been weeks since he first thought he saw
her. Over time, this delusion grows worse and worse like infection - it festers in between his ears until his mind is feverish with the idea. It was not Florentine that drew the midnight murderer into the dark-dark depths of Tinea - not at first - the red girl in white had been there first. Only is certain of this and so is Stephan. Together, their eyes stare as far out into the wintry void off shore and it stares back at him.
Soon, Only tells Stephan who buzzes fever hot like venom underneath skin,
soon - we will see her again.
For once, they agree on something.
Faida.
The storm continues on,
-the wind and the rain - it rages.
The ocean roars as it makes murderous monsters out of life-giving water.
And the waves,
-they rise up and they roll,
-they twist and they turn,
-they make spiraling mountains out of molecules -
Then, they bash themselves into oblivion against the rocks that make up most of the spit which reaches far out of the inlet. Only is too distracted to know the dangers of being so close to the actual
edges of this world - too distracted with a burning pain that itch-itch-itches deep under his skin. Her scar. The first and last time he ever saw the Hydra and learned of her name.
The storm elevates as lightning laces thunderclouds together in brief flashes of white-light.
Snow white Faida.
Astart, as beautiful as poppies, as toxic as mercury, that red-red muse of
his - of Stephan's.
Wind knots and tangles the wild mane of yellow hair, the black skin is slick with salt-water, his bleachy eyes stare into the void of a storm and it stares back at him.
She is here. She is here. Stephan paces like a panther in his cage, screaming and laughing as he knocks his forehead against the cement walls until it bleeds.
He feels her before he sees her.
He tastes her before he smells her.
.. but he waits.
..
You never turned. She coos, Only's eyes close as a warm and tangled feeling arises within him. The duality that makes Stephan -
Stephan and Only -
Only blurs in such a way that, in a sense, he is an entire whole when addressing her. The scar on his neck feels fresh again - the rain streams off of the raised edges of it the way the blood once did. He has nothing to say to that, his heart stills when she curls around him as intimately as the storm has and he welcomes her.
You never joined me. She says with all the sorrow he has only ever heard the Sea sing with.
"You terrify me," comes a breathless reply - he realizes that he has forgotten to breathe.
"You haunt me," Only leans into her touch with a need he never knew he had.
"I hated you. Everywhere I look I see you but you are never there." Only's voice steels itself against the dulling wind and cuts sharp against her soft quivering neck. He wants to tear her open but he wants to keep her whole as well. He doesn't know what he wants - - clarity, perhaps.
"How do I know you are even real this time?" For his delusions of Faida have led him down dark-dark paths into unspeakable night terrors.
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