A/N: As short as this chapter turned out to be, I'm really proud! I hope you like it.
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Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil, See No Evil
Chapter 10: Asleep, a Hymn, a Talk, a Swim.
Ooh, so you're back. A matronly voice cooed from the darkness, and Ormi spun around, his fists tight at his sides.
"Yeah I'm back, not by choice." Ormi said too quickly, his words blurring together with a rough scared squeak.
A too wide smile flickered through the inky blackness, sharp as a knife and wickedly gleaming. My dear, you have to sleep sometime. You need your rest.
Ormi gave a nervous laugh, "Ehh hhe he, yeahhh, I'll get plenty of rest when youse are gone."
Gone? The smile stretched into a pale face, black eyes appearing on the smooth surface and darting around wildly like swarming bees, I'll never be gone.
"Gawd." Ormi breathed, flinching back at her revolving revolting eyes. He backed up, his foot sinking down into a belching black hole of goo. He yanked free of the sticky substance, before stepping on more solid albeit no less squishy ground, smells and sounds reminding him of the worst of his dirty deeds with Yevon. A white powdery dust stuck to his shoes, and the goop crunched suspiciously. "I don' know whut this shit is, but it's gross."
It is the fools that have came before-
"Ah, really gross!" Ormi shook his foot, trying to dislodge the jam-like gore that clung to him. There was a reason he didn't eat raspberry preserves, and this was a clear example as to why. Logos didn't have the same hangups, thinking it was stupid that he made these connections at all. But Ormi couldn't help it. While the stuff smelled sweet, and that helped, it reminded him too much of the sour stuff clinging to his leg now. He suddenly sunk up to his knee, before it climbed up his waist towards his chest, crawling like it was alive. He tore at it, feeling suddenly very sick and exposed. "Look lady, keep your skeletons in your own closet and offa me!"
I'll miss your humor when you're gone.
"I's ain't going nowhere!" Ormi reached up and grabbed at the air, sinking up to his chest into the squelching material that slowly gurgled. He found himself swimming in it, the sound of water lapping into his ears. The goo was no less sticky now, but more soupy. He swayed as he dipped suddenly and splashed his chin in the ill smelling stuff. He coughed, the horrid perfume clinging to the inside of his nostrils. There was shift in the coppery and thick odor; it smelled bleachy, like metals and rubber.
He's coming back!
What already? No, we're not done, put him down again.
He convulsed, walking the veil somewhere between wakefulness and sleep. There was a bright white light, and he heard machines beeping and whirring. Suddenly, he was thrust back into the wine-dark water, sinking deep below the waves that crested high over his head.
He was swiping upwards, digging himself out towards the light hanging low in the blackish sky. The water became less liquid, and more thicker, turning to rotting gelatinous pudding as he made his way towards the top. Then there were chunks against his palms. He looked at his hand as he breached the surface, gasping, and shook it out as familiar scents floated back towards the back of his throat. Those Yevon days were behind him. They weren't going to be used to haunt him, no way.
He coughed, gagging as he pulled himself free of the squishy meat. He flopped back onto his back as a mocking laughter flooded his ears.
"Shud up." He moaned, wiping his sweating face and smearing brown ichor. White faces contorted in fear floated past him, slurping through the dark bog, looking familiar and all at once strangers. After all, he hadn't really known any of them, but their death masks were painted with dreadful accuracy. Ormi stared dully at the sky, the light hovering and buzzing.
Kill them.
"I'm not likes that anymore," Ormi said, refusing to look as the death masks rotated in the sludge to look at him accusingly, echoing all his words in so many hissing whispers. "Not anymore."
not anymore not anymore not anymore so many voices chimed.
Why not?
"Magic" Ormi answered, feeling his eyes droop as he continued to stare up at the dull light, swarming with shadows of moving bodies and the sounds of a machine beeping. A humming drummed in his ears, coming from a very faraway time and a familiar tune. A grandmother's voice, stern and sorrowful but bearing comfort on stormy nights.
Ieyui Nobomeno
He was whistling it when the voice pestered.
I know that song.
"Youse do?" Ormi laid with his limbs outstretched to keep from sinking back into the muck. He was remembering when he and Logos had stood under a Bevellian alcove, staring up at the sky past a Yevon banner as a singing ship led them in the Hymn. Tears actually welled up in Logos's eyes and they decided at the same time to leave all that dirty stuff behind. They found a new banner to sing under and they knew that a new age was about to begin, without being told or ordered or nothing. Machines kept a steady tempo as he resumed his whistling.
Renmiri Yojuyogo
It was magical. He had told the Former High Summoner that over the nifty blue machine, and he had meant it. Magic transforms people, and he and Logos found out they liked being their new versions of themselves better than the old ones.
Hasatekanae
Kutamae
The smell was starting to not bother him as much, he could ignore it, just like old times. That was discomforting. His eyes drifted closed as he raised his voice to sing again like he had back then.
Ieyui Nobomeno. He didn't want to be like his old self, never again. His old self that killed people and recorded them on spheres. He had to admit, those monkey spheres were maybe not so hard to watch for him and Logos as it was for everyone else. Well, they were, but not for the same reasons.
Renmiri Yojuyogo Transform! He thought, staring up at the dull white circle hanging limply in the sky. Back to his new self. He didn't want to hurt anymore, and be the one hurting other people. The slime oozed, living death faces smiling suddenly as he continued to sing in a low voice.
Hasatekanae
Kutamae
You know there's an end to this curse.
"Oh yeah?" Ormi gave the sky and echoing voice a lethargic blink.
You just have to die.
"How would that break the curse?"
The pain is the curse. Death is the end of it. The only way. The release.
"I don' believe youse. Youse are kind of crazy, youse knows that?"
I'M NOT CRAZY! The dark world rumbled, the light swaying above. Ormi hoped it wouldn't go out, and dug his nails down into the viscera to stabilize himself and keep from sinking down into the slop again. No, it wouldn't go out, and he wouldn't sink. He fought all of this in the only way he could, with his own resolve. The tremors faded, and when they were gone, the last ripples lapping wetly against his arms, she continued in a calmer voice.
I'm just trying to help you. You're in pain.
"Am I?" Ormi asked dully, before his eyes widened suddenly as a loud report echoed in his head. He gripped his shoulder, phantom pains ripping down his arm. He remembered suddenly the teeth of a snapping monster crushing his arm, and the anger. He rolled on his side, the sludge threatening to give beneath him as it shifted like gelatin. Ormi struggled to stay upright, but as tears started to roll down his cheeks he slipped, dropping down into it despite himself. It swallowed him hungrily, gargling around the space where he once was. A second passed and he burst free again, yelling and ripping back up with tearing hands. He made it, rough wheezes rasping in his chest, as he fell back onto his back with a slap to the reddish ooze. Fatigue was wearing on him, and with arms dripping in thick grime, he reached upwards grasping towards that light.
Ieyui Nobomeno
She was humming. He was still singing in a tired voice, his lungs contracting on barely recovered air.
Renmiri Yojuyogo
Disembodied hands slowly reached out of the muck, black and tendril like, wrapping around him and pulling him down with gentle tugs. This eerie embrace went unnoticed, as his own attentions was focused solely on his goal. His own hand wrapped around that dull light that floated low in the sky at the same moment that the tendrils stilled in their coiling, tensing. It wasn't a light, it was a white shimmering sphere. The same one from the ruins.
Hasatekanae
Kutamae
Her voice rung on the last note, his absent, as he was yanked under the surface.
A/N: One at the beginning and one at the end? I'm indulgent! I find it's easier to draw these kinds of trippy scenes than to write them, but hopefully its meaning can be read! Is it sufficiently chilling?
