Chapter 8

I emerge from the ocean, drowsy and sore in my muscles. The restraining swim that lasted for almost two weeks toiled me. I need a place to rest while I try to figure out which direction I need to go in next.

I lay supine on the granite terrain, staring up at the night sky. “If only―” I breathe, feeling the fish scales dissipate from my body. “―if only he told me where to go specifically.”

The cold air bit at my exposed skin, sending a shiver down my spine. My arms and legs are decorated with goosebumps. It’s Winter.

But I thought it was warm on the other side of the ocean?

“Wait… I think they warned me about this beforehand.” I mumble breathly, remembering the entity I bumped into in the ocean.

I was gliding through the calm water with my eyes closed to let myself be bewitched by its inundated dream-like atmosphere while my mind altered the swim differently. I pictured myself being sheathed by the welcoming sensation that seemingly felt like I was swimming through heaven’s water almost. It just felt so amazing that I couldn’t fight the temptation and opened my eyes to look around.

The view was breathtaking. I was surrounded by mirages of crystal glaciers that flickered from spectrums of lights to the phantasms that made it hard to tell if it was real or not. I saw a few fishes that swam in shoals, disappearing where the light from the surface traveled down to the pitch-black darkness below.

I never swam in this kind of water before, but it gave me a sense of respite. The cool atmosphere calmed my nerves a bit. It covered me like a blanket of mitigation, serene relief, and gave me a reason to smile in reverence.

It was astonishingly stunning.

I could see why hundreds of individuals love to swim in the depths of the salty water. There are so many sights to see and animals to be distracted by.

But soon curiosity got the best of me and I swam lower into the darkness, slowly getting enveloped to the point I couldn’t see anything anymore. Not even the water. It felt like I had my eyes closed still.

I glanced around for a few minutes, searching for a hint of life down there before turning to swim back up to where the light was, but I felt a light tug on my leg that stopped me and made me turn around to see the faint view of something glowing from a distance. It looked like it was miles away, way too far for a simple swim to discover the sight.

I tried to turn around again but something tugged my leg again, this time harder than before.

I gasped, trying to shake off the unknown creature but when I reached down to yank it off. There was nothing there.

The feeling that I entered a trap made my stomach twist in knots. I nervously tried to swim backward to escape but the light approached me at a disquieting pace. I flinched in revelation and swam backward again in horror.

The light dimmed to reveal an entity similar to the one in my dreams, except this one had almost all of its bones piercing through its decaying skin that looked decrepit. The entity looked like it aged horribly and lost all of its human features, replacing them with devilish limbs ― each one had a different contorted feature that unquestionably seemed like they went through hell and back. Its eyes were gaped like the other entity’s eyes, staring at me with a nefarious glare. It was threatening me by not blinking or moving for a long time, maybe ten minutes, before it croaked, saying “You don’t belong here,” in an innuendo while smirking unsettlingly at me.

The smirk sent an unpleasant chill down my spine when I noticed it didn’t have any lips, just teeth. Yellowed, rotting teeth that looked loose and probably would fall out if I decided to snatch one out.

“I know.” I choked out, fighting the pressure of the water that made it difficult to speak. “I was just looking―”

“All humans say the same thing, you know?” It lowered. “Did you know a group of humans, about your size and height, swam down here with huge cameras and tried to photograph my form to profit off of? I don’t appreciate being exploited like that. It makes me angry.

So I expanded my mouth and ate them limb by limb to watch the water fill their lungs as they tried to scream pathetically for help. They thought I would sympathize with their antics but when I ate the last human, I felt full. Not a hint of remorse. Why would I empathize with money-hungry humans? To be seen as less monstrous than I am?” It wheezed as its eyes gaped more, almost popping out of their sockets, which held them inside miraculously.

“Not a chance.” It said, tersely. Its voice was dripping with venom.

It didn’t let me respond and told me abruptly without asking first that it despised profiters and eats humans with sympathy, indirectly warning me not to mess up my chance to make it out there alive.

“I’m not one of them,” I replied apprehensively. “I’m just passing through to reach the other side of the ocean.”

“You say that now but who knows when you’ll reveal one of those hideous cameras to capture my face.” It loured. “I get it. I’m horrifying. I eat humans.” It chuckled. “But eating humans isn’t as fun as killing them with my hands. I can feel their flesh much better and although their blood grows stale that way. I don’t mind. I still kill them either way. I hate meddling humans that swim for the economy’s starvation.”

“I didn’t know that.” I frowned, feeling pity for the entity.

“Of course you knew that.” It snapped. “What human does not know how the world works?”

“Me,” I said abruptly. “I haven’t been here long. And all I know is that there are souls that linger in different parts of the world, including the woods of Inu.”

“You made it out of those woods?” It asked me with eyes that were filled with surprise.”

“Yes, I did.”

“And you know the full story of what occurred back then?”

“Yes.”

“Then you can answer my question.” It craned its neck up and nodded to where the surface was. “Where is the sorcerer that was used selfishly by the woman? And I don’t mean specifically. I want you to tell me in the best explanation you can think of.”

“Easy. The sorcerer is you.”

“Why do you think so?”

“Because only the sorcerer knows which one of the wedded pair executed the curse.”

“What if I just know like you do? Maybe I’m not idiotic enough not to know this simple fact.”

“Indeed, that’s true, but my instinct tells me you’re the sorcerer.”

“Even if I was the sorcerer, which I’m not, I don’t have powers to prove I am.”

“You don’t need powers. You already proved to me that you are by expressing your hatred towards Seria through your tone.”

It scoffed. “I always hated that greedy, power-hungry woman.”

“She moved on to the afterlife with her husband so she no longer loiters in the woods.”

“Good riddance.” Its mouth twitched into a grin before it dropped to a frown again. “Though, I’m not fully convinced you’re passing through for that reason.”

“I am.”

“Where are you going then?”

“I don’t know… an old man told me to come this way and I’m just moving in the same direction he pointed me in.”

“An old man?” It looked me in the eye again. “Well, I see you met the bastard.”

“Who is he?”

“Not my place to say, Miss.” It stalked backward into the dense darkness again, taking the light with it. “But continue your journey, just be wary of the cold weather there. The sun doesn’t reach there well so it always snows. If you’re lucky, you might die of hyperthermia.”

“I doubt it,” I replied before swimming back up to the light, waving the entity goodbye as I finally leave the thrilling darkness.

I swam for a while after that and ended up here, on this granite ground. Exhausted.

“I hope that sorcerer finds peace soon,” I mutter, slowly sitting up to feel my throbbing head. I groan from the anguish and ineptly stand on my feet, partially wary of the little sway I did as the lightheadedness enveloped my mind, sending pulsating waves from my head to my feet that make me feel oppressively indolent. “I need to find a place to sleep before I collapse here.”

I stagger across the granite to the little medieval bridge that was dangling over a calm, suspiciously little river that wasn’t frozen from the piercing cold. I cross the bridge while clinging to the railing for support to trudge across. I stumble off with an inaudible grunt, hitting my elbow on the edge of the railing accidentally.

For a bridge that’s solidified in snow, it’s weirdly dangerous.

Or is that me just being too treacherous to walk decently like a drunkard?

Probably.

I trek further while my consciousness fades in and out, barely drinking in the moonlight that shines down on me, providing me with a light to safely guide me through this isolated place. The subtle crunches from the snow beneath my feet intermixing with the faint sounds of the ocean water colliding into the rocks give me a sense of nostalgia I never knew I can feel.

I let my imagination wander for a moment, allowing the euphoric atmosphere to create a world inside of my head.