"Wake up child!"
"Agh!…..
A sharp, pain throbbed at the back of Lucian's head as his consciousness crawled its way back to the surface. His eyes slowly opened to expansive white ceilings, walls, floors, everything, the same blinding shade of a seemingly rectangular room without any windows or doors.
His clothes and countenance had been changed as well, kinda like what's talked about when you cross into the afterlife.
"Guess im dead."
Laying his head back; the surface beneath him being neither warm nor cold, Lucian closed his eyes and in the quiet of the moment devoid of sound, scent, or the faintest movement, he reminisced on the life he lived before and what he was leaving behind. A single fragile crystal clear tear rolled slowly down his face and was quickly wiped away in acceptance.
"I'm dead…so what? What the hell am I crying over, it's not like my life was that great anyway and the future of servitude that awaited me was nothing to look forward to."
Seems like he is trying to convince himself that death would be better?
A feeling of regret crept in as he thought what life could have been outside of enslavement. Traveling the world, falling in love and having children, were possibilities he had never imagined before. Lucian sighed and started to tear up again.
"Shit this death thing is turning me into a bloody sissy!"
Acceptance turned into bargaining,Lucian got on his knees to plead his case.
"Please, please, please…. if only I could have another chance I'll live differently I swear!"
Of course, he had no idea who he was to pray to but a drowning man will grasp at straws. As he knelt there pleading with an invisible deity, his bargaining finally turned into anger as the memories of the betrayal that had gotten him into this dilemma surged like raging waves in his mind.
He stopped then rose to his feet, his fingers clenched into fists, nails pressing into his palms as his body trembled then abruptly stopped. His lovely brown eyes narrowed and his teeth clenched until his jaws were like hard ridges. Vengeance was on his mind.
"Oh they think they've won!" he snared.
Then came a frantic, sadistic fit of laughter, his head tilted back, eyes gleaming wild, something utterly terrifying. (was insanity a part of the 5 stages of grief?)
"You thought death itself would silence me, I bet you think that this is the end…. I will make you pay no matter the cost. Even if I have to sell my soul to the devil, it's a price I'll gladly pay."
Lucian's lips now reached his ears , his teeth bearing a grin devoid of all humor. The once innocent looking boy seemed possessed by a devil itself. Hate, pain, loss, and betrayal had now consumed his entire being.
"Make my words, ill make sure you suffer from beyond the grave, every last one of you. I curse your entire bloodline and all you hold dear. Whatever you build I will destroy and grind it to dust, eternal torment shall be your portion."
His voice then dropped to a whisper, in a calm glacial tone.
"And when you come graveling, begging for mercy, and when you finally realize what true pain and suffering is….I'll be the one laughing just like this, as scavengers feast on your corpse."
Lucian started laughing uncontrollably again, his voice spiraled louder and louder, his eyes bulging from their sockets while drool ran down his cheek into an abrupt silence.
----
It felt like months since lucian had been trapped in the white room and his sanity was now on the edge of spilling over. His hair a crazy mess, his eyes feral, yet the constant conversations he had with his own echos were the most alarming.
Just as he was about to reach his breaking point, a thick intoxicating metallic scent swept across the room.
"Something different finally." he thought excitedly. (I swear why does this man even bother to get excited).
Lucian then could hear what sounded like some sort of bubbling liquid, a stream maybe? Unsure of what it was he moved closer to the wall where the sound was coming from. As if by magic, the sound stopped abruptly leaving him puzzled. Before he could collect his thoughts the bubbling sound started again, only this time it was coming from another corner of the room. Lucian's curiosity got the best of him as he slowly tiptoed to the corner where the sound grew louder as if not to startle the sound.
"The hell?"
As he got there a dark thick crimson liquid came flowing from the bottom of the wall where the wall met the floor. The sickening metallic scent now permeated the room to the point of suffocation. It was blood.
It slithered towards Lucian like something alive. Instinctively Lucian stepped back only to feel a warm thick substance beneath his feet, he was surrounded. Within a few seconds, the blood was already at his ankles, then his knees. The room fill up rapidly.
"No,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no…."
Lucian's breath quickened, his pulse hammering into his skull; his eyes began to shift quickly, desperately scanning the room for a switch, a knob, or just something to stand on, but there was none. There is no way of escape. He was trapped. Desperate, he began to claw at the walls like a trapped animal, scraping his nails to the cuticle, however, they offered no grip.
"Help! Can anyone hear me? Help….!"
He shouted and screamed repeatedly until his throat was hoarse but the room swallowed every sound.
'Think Lucian, think…. Wait, I'm dead! Can someone already dead, die again?.... No no no, wrong thought Lucian now's not the time for that kind of logic.'
'Shit, my mind has gone blank. I'm alread dead and im going to die again. Just my luck!'
As if his efforts to escape had now pissed off whoever was in control, the blood rose even quicker than before, reaching his chest. He took deep breaths steadying himself, all the while cursing in his mind, "Fuck, fuck fuck". Reaching his shoulders, the weight of the pool of liquid began to pull him down along with the exhaustion of trying to escape his bloody prison... Fear swept over him as the tip of his chin came into contact with the ever-rising flow.
"Fuck! He screamed desperately, as he realized he was losing yet another battle. With nowhere to turn, no way of escape, and no glimmer of hope, he went under. Still fighting to survive his second stint at death, Lucian tried gasping for air but found none; just a thick suffocating flood.
Lucian kicked and thrashed around yet the flood was merciless and with blood filling his nose, mouth, and lungs, Lucian sank like a stone,his consciousness faded once more into nothingness…dead again…(this dude cannot get a break).
----
Lucian's eyelids flung open wide, his body lunged forward, fingers clutching the ground beneath him as an anchor .his breaths came in heavy gasps.
"Im still alive," he uttered as his hands moved across his face and chest to confirm it.
The taste of iron had suddenly passed, replaced by the golden glow of sunlight streaming through trees that danced in the wind. Lucian found himself in a field. Fresh air, clear skies, wild flowers and birds overhead. He slowly pushed himself up to get a better look at his surroundings.
Beyond the field , was a village. Hermit-like buildings that were covered in lush vegetation. He then moved closer to the village and noticed an unusual sight. Villagers sported crimson red hair, dressed in flowing ancient Greek-like garments moved about whimsically. Their laughter light and carefree. Women carried baskets of fruits and loaves of bread, while the men conversed in shaded courtyards, and children with familiar beautiful golden brown eyes dashed past him playing a game of tag.
"The living should not walk among the dead!"
An unfamiliar voice startled Lucian as he quickly looked around for its source. His eyes then stopped on a wrinkly old woman, looking exactly like the rest, with red hair and golden brown eyes.
'Who the hell is this old old hag, and what does she mean living? Im pretty sure that im dead.'
The old woman yawned.
"Who are you calling a hag you little shit!"
Surprised, Lucian didn't dare have another thought.
'I said those words in my mind, does that mean she can read minds? Is she hearing me right now?'
Lucian stared at the old woman confused, weary, and a little impressed.
The old woman sighed and then shook her head, as though she was disappointed
"There is not much time left child so listen well, you are not dead but momentarily between the land of the living and the dead, limbo if you will. The people you see here are all your ancestors and have been trapped here unable to move on for decades."
Lucian looked confused.
"I say all this with the utmost respect, Ancestor Granny, but I wouldn't exactly call what I've seen here as trapped; everyone looks happy, really happy in fact."
Ancestor Granny's demeanor shifted to a more serious one.
"Then let me pull back the veil so you can bear witness to the fate that awaits us all."
Ancestor Granny quickly curled her fingers as if she had caught the very air in her grasp, and an unnatural silence spread outwards like a ripple in a still pond, as she raised her hand to the sky.
The blue sky cracked like glass, its color bleeding away into an abyssal black. The sun once proud and blazing, withered into a sickly ember before it vanished altogether, and darkness surged forth, swallowing the landscape, creeping over trees and buildings as if it were alive. At that moment Lucian felt all warmth flee and an unnatural cold took its place.
In an instant Lucian found himself standing in the middle of a battlefield where the once peaceful village was. The happy villagers now stood defenseless against vicious knights clad in gleaming armor that had descended upon them like death it self.
Men, women, and children were all slaughtered senselessly and mercilessly.
Lucian, rightfully angry tried to help the people but was unable to, he moved to pick up a sword to defend them but as he went to grab it, his hand passed through for he was nothing but a spectator, he couldn't do anything but watch. This was only a vision, a glimpse into his ancestor's tragic past.
Eventually, the bloodshed ended and a depressed Lucian stood alone among a pile of bodies.
The vision shattered and Lucian found himself back in the white room but this time Ancestor Granny stood before him.
We exist in this place forced to relive our deaths over and over for decades. Only by breaking the curse that binds us here and returning our blood and bones to the earth can we truly have rest.
Lucian was confused, but before he could say another word, she vanished echoing only a few last words.
As a parting gift, the conditions for a blood curse have been initiated, as well as a title.
[Child of Perdition].