Constellated Virtue

Oracion's POV

"Oracion!" Requis yells into my ear, trying to regain my attention back towards Akira and Ira.

"F-ine. I'm fine" Ira tries forcing himself up, managing to stand but having to slump himself onto Requis' shoulder.

I reach my hand out to Akira but he hesitates to take it. Following his eyes onto my own bloodied hand that trails onto my clothes. I kiss my teeth a little bit in annoyance, forcibly grabbing his hand and throwing him onto my shoulder. 'North' A spark of electricity runs up me, through my own hand.

I look down at it, noticing a cut I hadn't previously seen or even felt. 'Grabbing Akira forced my wound to be tainted by it, didn't it?' I think to myself, pressing it against my clothes to try and wipe it away, 'They left me...to go North.' Again, sending a jolt through me as the vampire's voice fills my head.

"Oracion?" Freya's hand tries to grab mine, but I flick it away, not wanting risking the contact with her.

I smile at her, leaning down to pick up some of the enthralling metal that broke off during the fight, "I'm fine, let's keep going. We have no clue how deep this goes or how to even get out." I answer, no longer wanting to linger within this room and instead looking towards the newly lit path from where he came from.

With a few grunts, Requis manages to get Ira moving with some occasional help from Freya. As we enter the tunnel, I can't help but glue my eyes onto the two pillars. Walking between them forced a an indescribable warmth to run along my skin, one comparable to the Veil from when I exited it.

And along my back I felt a squirm from Akira, "Why are we here?" He asks randomly with weakness to his voice.

"You tell us that." I quickly answer.

His body felt off for the few seconds that I answered him in. Almost like he was trying to make himself lighter, lifting himself off of me. "And who the fuck are you?" He pushes off of me, kicking my back and throwing himself to the floor.

"Akira!?" Requis asks, attempting to kneel down to him but not wanting to let go of Ira.

"You guys are here too!?" He yells, almost forgetting his own condition.

"We're here to help, can you stand up on your own?" Freya asks.

"Sure" He answers with haste, wobblily but nonetheless able to stand on his own.

I look his body up and down, clearly still showing his own injures but almost forgetting the pain of them on him. "And who's that?" He points towards me.

My stomach sinks in response, a deep nauseating feeling as I'd hoped to never hear those types of words again. 'Who am I?' I think to myself, turning and continuing to walk as I didn't even want to hear his voice anymore.

Freya places her hand on his shoulder, "That's Oracion, what's wrong Akira?"

His eyes widen in both confusion and shock, "You." He deadpans.

"What?" I ask back.

"You're the reason we're here." He spits back with rage.

"We?" I point out.

"Me and the others!" He shouts as groans from behind me make it evident that we're not alone just yet.

I turn to face deeper into the hall, watching as shadows become people through the light. Faces recognised, and others forgotten. "How long...have you been here? How long have you all been coming here!?" Freya shouts while looking towards him, not even wanting to gaze at their torn clothes and discoloured states.

"Help..." A missing woman calls from behind, walking alongside many others who shared the same fate as her.

"Cyrus" Ira calls out, pointing to one of the men leaning against the wall.

"Oracion" Akira whispers, but just loud enough for them to hear.

"Oracion?" One responds.

"Oracion?" Another calls.

"It's him!" Akira shouts, attempting to grab onto me but I shake him off.

"Mael wanted you!" Cyrus grabs me from behind.

"Who the fuck is Mael!?" I question while trying to take his grip off of me.

"He said to pass this onto you." The woman places a red vial within my hand, the texture and colour of a deep red. Something with clear importance.

"Oracion..." More come to swarm me, grabbing onto my limbs but I continue to take them off of me with my free bloodied hand.

Annoyance overwhelms me just as my body gets slammed to the wall with the sheer amount of weight. Raising my fist into the air and clenching, uncaring for who gets hurt next. "WAIT!" Freya shouts to me, panicking for the others.

The jolt returns as more blood enters my wounded hand, soaking through and forcing not only words. But images this time.

Akira's lost and panicked face is painted within my mind as he enters the dark tunnels, forcibly turned nonchalant by the words of this Vampire's influence, "Return here, three times a week for me to feed. Bring more. I need far more." I can see from his point of view. I can feel his body as if it was my own. I can hear his name echoing through me.

"Mael, the one who was left behind. The forgotten prince, the abandoned, the outcast" The vampire chants to himself in the dark, scratching his nails against the wall in an accelerated pace. "North. They went North. They left me. They said Aluca's time here was over. That it was time for a new race to take home here. But I didn't want to go." He panics, scratching his head and drilling his nails into himself until hair falls out.

The timeframe of hours, days, years. Told to me within seconds as this man's sanity continues to swallow itself whole. "How was I supposed to know? How was anyone supposed to guess that!?" He rages at something. "I can still hear them whispering, over and over and over and over. That fucking name, that name that I've scratched along these walls. That name that's whispered out of fear and sung out of grace. Oracion." He spits up blood, smothering it in his palms while laughing at his own damaged state, "That's what he is, human. And that's perfect. That's manageable. Under the Veil, across the Veil, either work. But I need them all to come to...this side, not inside." His words become incoherent as he riddles to himself while scratching the pillars to the hall, trying to damage them as if they mean something more to him.

"Pass the warmth, through the ever-growing evergreen and tread the whispers of white. That's what they told me." The memory finishes as my vision fades back to normal. Showing all the deluded humans standing still, fixing my own clothes despite their raggedy ones.

"What the fuck are you all doing!?" Ira screams, standing between me and them in defence with the help of Requis.

"He just saved you all and you're doing this!?" Requis yells at them, calming down ever so slightly after seeing their faces drain of anger.

I step back from the wall, still trying to process what I just heard and saw. Running my eyes along the flooring and noticing the familiarity of it. "We're the one of many" I repeat the answer that the vampire shouted before dying. From the main room, light traces along through the stone and fills  the corridor with some form of sight, finally allowing us to navigate somewhat safely.

"We're going home, follow if you care to live anymore!" I shout to the group that just tried to manhandle me. I begin to walk forward, not caring whether or not they're following me as I hear hushed voices try to speak under their breaths.

"You don't live there, I don't remember you." One says.

"I've never seen him before, why's he lying?" Another adds.

"I'll follow him, but I don't trust him." One more whispers.

My fist clenches in annoyance, but nonetheless I continue walking with Requis, Ira and Freya beside me. 

"They're just confused, it's fine." Freya takes my hand, stopping me from clenching too tight. Jokingly swinging it like an infant to their parent as we come up to where the light ends. 

-

"If I said that I wanted to leave the Veil...would you follow me?" I look towards the three.

Their heads turn, showing the exact same expression that honestly makes me laugh in reassurance. "Dumb question, my turn. Why would you want to leave?" Requis answers for them.

I tense and relax my hand, trying to keep the vampire's memory fresh in my head. "Just a thought." I reply with a smile. "Thanks." I finish before speeding  up a bit, ensuring that I reach the end of it before anyone else in order to clear it of danger. What appears to be nothing more than a wall of darkness, turning out to be a literal blank space. "There isn't a wall..." I speak to myself, trying to put my hand against it but falling through into nothingness as a result. 

"So, where next?" Requis asks, sticking her hand through like me and scaring herself from the sudden feeling of falling.

Just when I believed the crowd finally shut up, "See, he doesn't even know where's he going" A voice trembles with rage.

"And he's supposed to save us?" A female laughs.

My fingers twitch as my body's frustration only grows from their comments. Stomping my foot and facing forward to the dark. "Oracion?" Ira questions.

"Don't you dare!" Freya tries to leap for me, but I already have one foot in. Purposely throwing my arm in the air to avoid her grabbing me as I put my entire body through.

My eyes widen as I glance around, a perfectly round circle from where an opening is, far above us. I look around for some sort of way up to it, only noticing the balcony sized rocks that stick out from the walls, something that's impossible for Ira to climb at the moment, much less those other humans.

I walk around the empty floor as if I'm standing on the literal night itself. 'A...way up?' I begin thinking to myself. Taking a step towards the centre as my foot sinks in at a certain point, dragging me under and into pitch black water. Panic sets in me as I start beating my fists against where I just fell in from.

'A way up?' My mind repeats. 'Others?' It asks.

'Injured, damaged, confused, insulted...dying and you still think about others?' The thought crosses my mind as something resonates beneath me. An electric like sensation that sends a chill down my spine as if I'm being watched from further below. I arch my head down, blinking past rising bubbles and watching what I can only describe as a star, glimmering from the depths and only getting brighter and brighter as time passes. From wall to wall it bounces, covering them in additional constellations. One, two, three I count before one fades out with immediacy, leaving only two. 

It peels from the wall, gliding up through the water with ease and plastering itself onto my skin, 'He said its skin was made up from the sheet of darkness that covers the sky at night, wearing the stars that decorated it like veins.' The quote piercing my thoughts as I look at my current appearance, scanning my entire body as it's retextured to something's wish.

Fear jolts through me as I'm plucked back to the surface, "Are you okay!?" Requis screams into my ears, hurting me a bit to where I cover my ears in defence. 

"Shout a little louder, maybe I'll hear you" I answer.

"Okay!" She inhales, preparing for it.

"No, no and absolutely no." Ira flicks her head suddenly, causing her to lose her breath from the lack of concentration.

"We called out to you the moment you went through, didn't you hear us?" Freya asks, helping me stand back up.

"I didn't-" I answer, checking my skin for the same design but it appears to of faded from being taken out from the water.

"Our situation hasn't changed much, but this place is sick!" Requis cheers, trying to bounce on the squishy part from where I fell in. Real smart.

"So, how exactly are you getting us home?" These people, who seemed to of forgotten their injuries in sake of belittling me, ask with full confidence.

"T-######" My words are drowned out by the sudden gushing of water pouring in from high along the walls. 

They begin visibly panicking, running to and from different ends of the walls as they try to find where we came in from. I watch them, scattering like ants without orders. Glancing around the room to find my true friends standing completely still and calm. 

I try to gesture and mouth to them a simple, 'Why?' as to ask why they're so calm.

They look at each other before silently laughing a bit, 'Cause you're here'. I read off their lips, warming my heart a little as the floor beneath us starts to rise with the water, pushing us higher to the top and one step closer to home...their home.