Camila jolted up in her bed as a cry worked its way through her vocal cords and up her lips but was halted in its track as her hand clamped over her mouth with enough force to send a tremor of pain through her lower jaw. Her breathing was erratic, coming in shallow pants, and her heart felt like it was trying to rip its way out of her ribcage.
Another nightmare; in a way, she shouldn't have been surprised since they had been plaguing her ever since that night, but still, it didn't make them any better. Most nights, they would consist of running away from something unseen, unable to perceive what was happening, and those didn't really affect her; after all, it wasn't like she was having nasty dreams for the first time.
No, what she hated the most were the nightmare that took her treasured memories and contorted them into macabre shows. The soft and gentle memories reminded her of times when things weren't so complicated, lulling her into a false sense of security, only to twist them into morbid spectacles of blood and gore that shook her awake.
Checking the alarm at the side of her bed, she realized she had two hours before she actually needed to get out of bed. Usually, this would be her sign to go back to sleep, but her blanket felt too cold, her pillow too stiff, and the sweat clinging to her body too suffocating.
Forgoing her slipper, she walked barefoot toward her bathroom, and following a short shower, she checked on Luz. Walking past her family photos, she opened the door and entered the colorful room. The mp3 on the nightstand emitted a soothing tune that reverberated in the room, dispersing the patches of silence that clung to the room.
Collapsed like an untangled mess and curled in between fluffy blankets stood Luz's form, the limited edition Azura plushies tucked between her arms. A gentle smile bloomed on Camila's face as Luz continued snoring peacefully, looking like she was unburdened by nightmares.
Her girl had went gone through so much for the past weeks, even when excluding the dreaded night that changed their family life, that not even an adult, let alone a kid, could bear, and yet still manage to retain a semblance of innocence and kindness that could light up the entire room.
It was a heaven-given gift to raise such a beautiful and brave child, such a shame that said a child couldn't have a parent with the same qualities.
Exiting the room, Camila made her way downstairs and entered her bare-lit kitchen, throwing herself into the repetitive task of preparing her and Luz breakfast and lunch.
The first time she could hold Luz, staring at her small wrinkled face and looking into her v̷e̷r̷d̷a̷n̷t̷ hazel eyes, she knew that Luz was perfect, and such, it was only fair that she lived a perfect life. That was obviously impossible, yet under the shimmering and pale glint of the stars scattered aimlessly around the kind moon, nothing more than minuscule platinum orbs that illuminated her little town, she promised her daughter that no matter what stood before them, she would make sure that Luz will never suffer.
"For you, my dear, I will bring down all the stars in the sky."And every day, she lived by her promise.
Even when they laughed or cried together, fought or made peace, Camila vowed to ensure she would always be by Luz's side when the dust settled.
And the past weeks had shown that she was incapable of holding a simple promise.
It was disgusting, abhorrent even.
Clenching her finger until the tip turned white, she finished packing the food and went into her room to prepare her work uniform even though she still had so much time left.
Her daughter, her baby girl, was going through something no one should have to go through, and what did Camila do more precisely? She avoided her, like the coward her mother had raised. She should have been by her side these catastrophic last weeks, to be the shoulder Luz could cry on, and Camila was not there.
And for what reason could she even dare to do such a thing?
Nothing more than the fear that clawed at her back.
There was no excuse for her behavior. She was an adult after all, so she should get over her cowardly demeanor-and ; yet even when she tried to reach through the gap that was forming between them, she would always feel those ravenous orbs gazing from between sheets of shadows, locked away between mocking space and higher dimensions, and her mind would be forced back in the barely lit room of her daughter, staring onto a creature whose claws split the earth and heaven, teeth that imposed their evil logic upon decomposing civilization and pinpoint eye that erodes the barriers between her body and her soul which were nothing more than a mockingbird, whose wings were clipped-; and endured the pain for her daughter.
But even if she wanted to be something more for her daughter, her body was human to its core, and she would give into her fear, promising that next time would be different.
Yet it never was, proven by the fact that instead of waiting for her daughter to arouse from her slumber, she was already making her way toward the door, lying pitifully to herself that she wanted to walk to work to slightly improve her health.
The air was mild and pleasant, with slight traces of icy undertones announcing autumn's final days. Camila hated it every bit. She did not deserve the comforting breeze that washed across her body, wanting nothing more than to trade it for the merciless wind that followed winter's pale cloak zealously or even the cascading furry of the scorching rays that permeated the land once summer took hold.
Standing above her was none other than the brave but judgemental sun, humbled by the incoming winter, remaining nothing more than an echo of its glory.
Leaves scattered aimlessly as her boot touched the wet floor, disarraying the nature-made leaf rainbows modeled on the ground, sending flickers of flushed crimson, azure blue, and lustrous gold into the air. The once mighty trees that proudly wore their verdant crown now stood with their branches lowered to the ground, swinging unwillingly under the breeze, their crown stripped away by the cold hands of fate and sprouting near overflowing puddles, remained the last patches of grass whose tip of their scalp was kissed by a wave of silver brume.
Camila quickened her steps, the surreal beauty that could be found in nature too stunning for her eyes to survey.
It did not take long to arrive at her destination, the tall building rising from the ground and looming peacefully over her head, and with no effort, she pushed the door wide open. She moved past the door slowly, not interested in starting her job faster, considering she had another hour before her shift began.
Her eyes were glued to her phone even when she entered her workplace, already knowing the layout of the building. Lingering in the normally damned air of the veterinary clinic was the delectable smell of newly-brewed coffee with minor tinges of sweet pastry.
Hanging loosely on her ear were her old earbuds brought as a present by Luz, and from the worn-out speaker emanated the latest news regarding the world around. Each time the information presented by the radio station that rang in her headphones began to bore her, she changed the station with a single click.
Salma Hayek and Shakira, like other celebrity parents, raises their kids to speak multiple langu- Click White House eyes accountability for Silicon Val- Click A quarter of an ounce of this Egyptian Magic All Purpose Skin Cream will in no time he- Click All the eyes in the sky are stars.
An annoyed grumble reverberated in her throat at the inability of radio stations to produce note-worthy and essential news instead of the same bullshit that the masses gable it up.
At least she will improve her mood with the always-helpful assistance of coffee. Shifting her eyes from her slightly cracked phone right after depositing her earphones mindlessly in her purse, she almost turned left, but her body froze as if stuck by lighting.
Handing from embedded nails were different photos and pictures she didn't recognize. Standing where the door of the faculty room should have been was a wall that could be found in almost every rural house, with bricks stacked together to form a shielding but weak border.
Camilla whipped her head around so fast to scan her surroundings to ensure she didn't accidentally enter the wrong building; it almost gave her a whiplash.
But instead of the sickly green walls she was used to, brick walls with decoration hanging from every inch surrounded her. Instead of the worn down building her veterinary clinic was and always had been, she found herself in a small but pleasant café. The entire room was composed of shelf after shelf of different herbs, beans, and codominant, with a few bare tables and chairs arranged in an ordinary manner.
"Welcome to the one and only café across time, or C.A.T for short. It is so nice to finally meet you, ." To the other side of the long room, behind a sturdy but ancient counter, stood a woman with long, curly hair that cascaded across her shoulder and down her back. Even though there were few feet between them, Camila could see clearly as the day the small but odd smile stretched across the woman's face. It wasn't bizarre because it was creepy or insidious, quite the opposite, somehow managing to warm the deepest part of her soul. Like key memory was rescued from the abyss of memory that inhabited her mind by an unseen hand, her mind immediately attributed to her grandfather, husband, and daughter.
It was mind-boggling how quickly any defense or even the guilt that was feasting onto her mind dissipated into nothing more than a sense of perpetual serenity. For a second, she thought that somehow she was being manipulated into letting her guard down after being transported to an unknown place, but for the life in her, she couldn't find a trace of malice behind those amethyst eyes.
The panic button was disconnected, and the red flags that should have popped up were burned.
Camila did exactly as told, wandering over to the counter and sitting on the tall wooden chair right beside the bar.
Only for her eyes to widen for a second time. You see, the first time she laid eyes on the pale woman, she was too preoccupied with her own thought to realize something or, more specifically, some parts of the women's body were missing. It was like a talentless painter had brushed alongside the right side of her body, erasing her right hand and leaving a white scar across her face, barely dodging her eyes and leaving a dent in her skull.
"Who ar- how are you alive?"
Her question brought a wave of embarrassment at her insensitive inquiry, and if a steak of red bloomed across her face, only the women would know.
A quiet chuckle bubbles in the woman's throat, her curly hair bouncing on her shoulders, her laughter melodic in ways music could never be.
"No need to be an embarrassment; it happens to the best of us, name's Adhaya Aisha, but you can call me Ava for short, as how I am alive, well, a bit of luck and sheer fucking determination." Another giggle brushed past Aisha's slightly cracked lips and bloomed into the air as she continued.
"The more important question is, how are you alive?"
Before Camila could even register the question, Ava prompted herself off the counter, grabbed a bag of beans from the shelf to her left, and began busying herself with brewing the brown beans, placing in touches of ingredients like cinnamon and milk.
"What are you talking about?"
Camila looks up, startled; her voice betrayed the wariness brought forth by the odd question.
"You are not the first in this café, you know, and you won't definitely be the last. I'm sure you realize this isn't a run-of-the-mill place you can waltz into as you please. So many had entered those doors, from lost souls wandering the tin line before life and death to the occasional backstabbed elder devils, cast aside godlings and starving leviathans from the end of time. Yet you, my dear, are more impressive than any of them." With a click of her fingers, a small chunk of air beside her vanished, replaced by a gaping hole from which they peered through. Camila gasped in surprise, almost falling from her chair as the unholy verdant lighting that shifted and curled inside the "eyesockets" of the nightmare almost lunged at her. Then the hole in reality disappeared, and her fear once again molted into an unnerving calmness.
"I mean seriously, look how that bastard rough me up. I can barely stand as I am right now. And yet you, a human at that, stood in their presence and survived the nightmare that gods fear and the Forest worships, so all I can say is that I am a fan of yo-"
"You are wrong."
The interruption reverberated in the room like a gun shoot, as a glint of confusion flashed in the women's amethyst eyes because who wouldn't be confused to be contradicted about praising someone by the person they were actually applauding.
Camila herself also needed help understanding where her outburst came from. Maybe it was the fact that what was supposed to be a workday turned into being transported to some strange café with a crazy bartender who spoke of devils and gods like they were nothing note-worthy. Or maybe it was the gradually growing guilt cast away by the strange calmness permeating the café that was now returning to her once again.
Whatever it was, it compelled her to continue to speak.
"I am not brave enough to have a simple conversation with my precious baby, much less stand by her side. I am nothing more than a failure of a mot-"
And for the second time that day, someone's words were caught off as the right side of her face burst into pain. Clutching her stinging cheek, Camila didn't even see the slap make contact until a red imprint was left on her skin.
"Sorry, I got a habit of slapping people that are spewing bullshit" Ava straightened herself to a sitting position once again, running her remaining hand through her blonde knottedhair in what almost looked like exasperation.
"You are brilliant but also dumb because I got to be real with you, Camilia; I don't know what fantasy world you have been living but the number of parents that would even stay within a hundred-kilometer range of their child if the Hunter had shown one percent of what they showed you could be counted on one hand."
"Bu-"
"No buts, this ain't a strip club."
With a shake of her hand, the bubbling coffee levitated in the air from somewhere she could not see and poured itself into the porcelain cups that had formed into existence spontaneously. Ava took a small sip, the muscle in her forehead relaxing, although the clenching grip of her finger on the cup didn't go unnoticed by Camila.
"If I am honest with you, I do not have the same mentality as humans have, but if right now, you or anyone who had the chance to meet that monstrosity told me that they wanted nothing to do with this convoluting bullshit, I would shake your hand and thank you for everything you have done so far. "
"I don't know why, but I feel that despite this not being a strip club, I can feel a 'but' coming up". "Camila's voice was a bit more delicate and horse at the same time, the slap she had received after so many years of being away from her mother shaking her to her core.
"Forgive my own selfish, but I must ask you not to give up on Luz."
The statement forced its way into her brain, choking it.
"Wha-H-" Her tongue flopped futilely in her mouth, incapable of forming the syllables she needed to adequately express herself. The woman's eyes blew wide open, lids outstretched, as her iris shook in place.
The urge to return the slap to the woman she had just met a minute ago yet felt like she had known for a decade exploded inside her soul; the only thing stopping her was the realization that despite how much it tore her to pieces, she was hitting too close to home.
Camila could never, not in a million eons, be able to leave her daughter's side alive. But that didn't mean she had to abandon Luz alive.
No matter how much she pretended she was okay, that she was an adult who needed to deal with it, she
could
not.
"The choice is yours; I will not force you into anything by imposing my will onto you. Your daughter is brave, braver than any of us could ever be. She knows the rules and the consequences of not following them, but even the most courageous soul alone can not resist the will of the last nightmare-"
Before she could finish the sentence, a tremoring rumble enveloped the room, the table collapsing under their weight and shelves falling to the ground, spilling different and foreign condiments on the floor. The walls splintered and crumbled, and the roof caved in, barely missing the two.
Camila barely catches herself on the counter, feeling her heart rate spike as she feels something shift and ebb behind her.
"Pissy fucker can't wait a few hours before they throw another tantrum."
The women sneer and, with a motion of her hand that cracks the skin of her appendage, a wall of pure light fills the room, momentarily delaying whatever was forcing its way into the room.
"Nonetheless, even if we don't have any time left, it is enough to show you the memory that can give you the strength to hide Luz away from the Hunter and the world from your daughter, and if, by the end, you decide that is too much, you can walk away, and we will never meet again."
Proping her body ahead, the woman stretched her tender but firm finger forward, kissing with her fingertip the blister surface of her blind eye before Camila could even think of rebutting.
The world stands still for a beat before her eyesight is covered by light.
Her mistake was so stupid.
That night, under the gentle light of the moon, which casted a silver crown on top of her messy hair, she ran barefooted across the barely lit-up expanse of her town, just barely managing to escape the hand of her mother trying to drag her back into the house.
She knew how her mother would react to even the idea of her speaking with a man, much less dating one in secret, even if she was in her twenties.
It was absurd to even think that the icy charcoal block that replaced her mother's heart would be warmed by the idea of her daughter finding someone she loved. It was such a stupid and absurd notion, yet the naive belief that for once in her life, her mother would show a bit of affection was like a drug to Camila, one she had grown addicted to ever since she could speak.
Her feet pounded against the pavement of the street, and only when it gave away to the porch of the house, whose door was always open for her, did she stop.
Amber light flooded the doorstep as the man of her dreams swung the door open. Confusion and worry pooled into her eyes, and she felt her legs collapse under her, falling into his embrace.
She had many friends, and most importantly, she had Manny, and yet she wanted nothing more than to end it all; her mother's influence on her was like a noose around her neck. And like she was nothing more than a child, she wept on the old porch of the house, her lover's warm hands southing her spasming back. She felt her own heart fragment into little pieces, bits of it cascading into an encompassing vacuum of sorrow.
And yet, inside the grief-sicken hole where her soul resided, fury born from shame and frustration dug its roots in her body. An amber of exploding fireworks pooled into her veins like magma.
Through tears and broken hiccups, she feels her finger clench and teeth grind against one another.
"This time, I am never going back."
An unyielding statement that made Manny pause for a beat, his hot breath stuck at a standstill against her neck before a thin grin spread across his face.
"That's good because if that wrinkly hag decides to show her face again, I'm going to beat the living shit out of her."
The ground disappears around her as the memory fades away, forcing her body to lurch forward. Desperately trying to grab hold of the long counter, she can't silence the yelp of surprise that escape her lips as she quickly finds out that the table is gone, along with the strange room she had been in moments ago. As she had never left the hospital, she opens her eyes to see that she is standing in the ragged halls of her workplace, the gentle light of the setting sun illuminating the room.
She rises on tender legs from the floor, barely sensing the gentle hands of the cleaning servicewomen, unable to hear her nervous worlds over the blood rushing through her head.
Absentmindedly she apologizes, scurrying past the worried women and out the old door, barely feeling something break inside the door as she rips it wide open.
A gust of fresh air fills her lung as she steps outside, which is immediately expelled from her body as she rushes toward her home.
The shy rays of the sun were riding on her back, almost urging her to run faster. Despite the sun almost resting under the planet's curve, there was still enough light for the street lamps to be disconnected, leaving only a few patches of darkness that were hiding between the myriad of buildings that kissed the glowing sky, waiting patiently for the loving spotlight of the gentle moon to showed it's mercy.
The thudding of her boots against the seemingly unbreakable concrete reverberated in her ear. Still, it went unnoticed by the rowdy crowd of people spending their evening alongside their friends and family, oblivious to the turmoil that swallowed Camila's mind.
Her leg muscles quiver and spasm as she ducks left and right around people, eliciting a few gasps of anger from those she had slammed against in her unyielding dash to reach her home.
She didn't care. In the same way, she didn't care that she spent less than twenty minutes with the weird woman, who most likely was not human, yet more than twelve hours had gone by.
It could have been a minute or half an hour since she had begun running, but for the li̶f̶e̶ rage in her, she didn't know how much time had passed. She doesn't remember opening the door with a clenched hand and ragged breath or the same cold temperature she had felt on that eventful night, not even the tense and quivering body of her daughter, barely clutching with shacky hands against their sink, grinding her splintering and morphing molars together in the vain hopes to keep it together.
No, the first thing she saw was the shadow. No darkness, for it could not be so cruel, and no light, for it could not be so wicked. Unbeknownst to her, it was the shadow that had betrayed Life forever ago.
A mass of static shadows undulated against her kitchen wall, consuming everything in its path like a brooding plague. The shadows were nothing more than a gateway to the immaterial, a place beyond the regulation brought forth by the tip of the arrow that propelled life forward.
It parallelled an ocean so well she couldn't help but shudder.
Her world was nothing more than the sandy beach, stranded under the kind gaze of life. At the same time, the envious demons, grotesque aliens, and prideful gods lay beyond the shores, nothing more than predators in an ocean synonymous with war. Even the Forest so large it might as well be multiple existences unto itself if peered through the myopia of a simple and minute concept as an ocean, was nothing more than a colony of seagrass that spaned hundred of thousand of kilometers.
But despite her brain running through the higher thought processes that far exceeded what her mind could do, it wasn't those that almost made her want to grab the knife on her right side and cut her arteries. Because all of those mentioned before were nothing more than the inhabitants, while the verdant orbs that stared behind the veil of shadows were the ocean itself.
And there and there, Camila realizes that she is dead.
There was no other explanation, no conceivable way to protect herself from being erased the moment her eyes gazed upon the Hunter's true form. Eyes, but not really for how could an eye be a universe of absent logic, the burned with a tint of green and ionizing radiation that forces material and immaterial to reach equilibrium before rendering them nonexistent with an absentminded thought. Two null spots that stood furthest away from the edge of the material universe, consuming every benevolence and depravity committed and that will be committed.
Those were the eyes that had killed Camila Noceda.
Or they were supposed to do if it wasn't for the thin layer of energy that protected her mortal body from combusting into a red mist.
The touch of life that fends the gaze of nothingness
That was the gift that Camila now realizes Ava had bestowed upon her.
To survive the presence of the youngest hatred and the necessary memories that pushed her forward in her task to be by Luz's side.
But as always, fate does not follow once will, even if they are the last nightmare or Life herself. However, despite that statement has become synonymous with things going wrong, that was only sometimes the case.
Because those memories, those simple recollections of a human who in the grand scheme of things would mean nothing, had become the most crucial gift Camila had ever received.
The Gift Of Rage
Memories that were meant to rekindle the feeling of hopeful yearning to fight against the futile despair for her loved one instead brought forward an emotion that she had felt so many times before but never allowed its wrath to see the light of day. That emotion was a smoldering fury that began as a low flame but soon boiled through every cell, tissue, and organ of her body.
It was the rage that had lay dormant since the day she had forsaken her mother, now awakened in an eruption of a searing blaze that could and will tear down all the stars.
Unconsciously, as her mind stains under the unknowable knowledge, she feels the prickling heat that takes the place of the epidermis of the left side of her face, her blind eye morphing under the will of her Rage. Her eyelid fluttered open even though the extrinsic eye muscles were torn to shreds by the Hunter.
Camila blinks for the first time in what feels like an eternity, closing her eyes even though she can still feel the unyielding glare that shatters worlds and shakes the walls of creation.
No, she can still see it.
Despite her eyelids covering both eyes, she can see with her "blind" one past what her right eye cannot. She could not see her kitchen with the left eye or the azure sky even if she spent hours gazing upon it, yet she could clearly observe the calamities the Hunter caused to the immaterial.
Her eye, kissed by the touch of life and split by the claws of nothingness, allowed her to see what only one other human had witnessed.
Unbeknownst to her, the Emperor of Chain and Shackles was the name he bears.
The Hunter's mere presence snuffs millions, billions, maybe more worlds of the so-called abyss. War of wicked godlings and shapeless demons are brought to a halt, as creatures that had fought for eons join side not to fight the calamity, for that would be fruitless, but in the vain hope that at least out of millions of their brothers and sisters or even their enemies, at least one would survive.
Camila can see past the rationality of her mortality and preconceived beliefs that, despite her first impression, the denizen of the immaterial did not worship this Nightmare.
Those burdened with deformed shapes or with forms beyond comprehension that did not bear any titles, rotting gods, primordial demons, and all that once had worshiped the Forest were now massacred mindlessly by their master Nightmare.
Camila couldn't help but fill the Rage that simmered inside her expand exponentially. She may never understand what these creatures truly are, for she was a fragment of Life and them one of the Forest, but none of them deserve to be snuffed out just because this anathema of all there was conscious.
Yet, the monster that had wiped so many in a blink of an eye, crushing under its oppressing existence so much, dared to glare at her with hatred. Maybe "glare" was not the right world, for that would imply that it was something finite, and nothing finite could send cascading waves of endless entropy, but the exact sentiment of a glare, if reduced to infinity, was there.
And that, even though it was stupid and even a little childish, made her make an astonishing decision that no one would have fathomed even if they had an eternity to think.
She glared back.
An immature decision from a human perspective and a ridiculous one from a god's perspective that managed to define all odds. Camila used all the fury inside her and loved for her daughter to bare her teeth at the Hunter.
Staring into the orbs, she saw the gnashing mouth with fangs and fangs with eyes, that design reduplicating itself ceaselessly. She felt a piece of her mind chip under the strain as something grabbed ahold of her and whispered secret truths into her ear that made her skin and teeth bleed and put into perspective how microscopic her existence was.
But Camila does not back off even if the madness that sipped from the orbs of verdant null made her understand that infinity was finite and shows her mathematics that no human could ever vocalize.
The standoff went on for an exact two minutes, and thirty-seven seconds before finally, in a move that would send a ripple through the immaterial, the last nightmare was the first that broke the eye contact, being dragged away by the chains brought forth by the lie .
Even though no creature would know, for the first time since their inception, the Hunter hatred had faded for just a moment, replaced by curiosity and wonder toward a creature so insignificant.
As for Camila, from now on, she would not be remembered by a banal title as the woman who foolishly promised to bring down all the stars in the sky for her daughter, but by the moniker of the woman whose love and rage had pushed her to stand unyieldly before the nothingness between stars.
The lord is silent
-𝐀 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐚 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬
Notes:
The plot thickens, and the questions pile up, but one must ask, in a universe of creatures older than fire, how could the merciless Emperor of Chains subjugate so many?
