Hollow Voices

The voices are back pleading no, demanding to be heard. I dig my claws in bright drops of blood trickle down my wrist. Why are they back? Give us more they say. Set us free. You'll die without us, one croons. Just a few more wisps of power, don't be selfish.

"Enough!" I dig my claws dipper into my crown yet nothing helps instead they laugh. Their voices like cicadas trapped in my mind. Strong hands pull my claws away, the voices stopping momentarily.

"What are you doing?" Kazuki asks.

Oh, he's delicious a voice croaks, you should let us taste him another adds, yes, yes that would be grand.

"Let go of me," I say, wanting nothing more than to drain him and his coven of existence. How am I to be remembered when I am trapped here? I need to get out. Cerin can take my place.

"Selene," something about the way Kazuki calls my name causes the voices to shrink back.

"What are you?" I ask, realizing for the first time since I got here, he's not who I thought. So much power in one man isn't just.

Kazuki's eyes lock with my own, as silver chains wrapped around me, "I'm sorry," he says. The sadness in his eyes is the last thing I see as I'm pulled under.

###

I find myself inside the cave Halley brought me to after I removed the barrier. How did I leave the Nether Realm? Claws dig into me, pain erupting through my being. It's as if hot iron were clawing at my belly, its poison sipping into my core. There's a clicking as the chains that bind me fall.

"Selene did you forget about me?" a familiar voice asks.

Halley stands at the caves entrance that twisted aura still engulfs her. She tilts her head this way and that her ruby eyes glowing, her barre skin is covered in ash.

"You said you wanted to help us, you said you wanted power, but you left," her eyes continue to glow. The chains that bind her clank as she takes a step towards me.

"Halley, I…

Pain surges through me the closer she gets. I try to speak once more but I find my voice is gone.

"You won't let her kill us, will you?"

I shake my head, it's all I can do my voice is gone. My throat feels like I swallowed lightning, breathing's becoming more difficult. What's happening to me.

There's a different voice in my head, she wants me to fight to break free.

###

Cerin watches as Selene struggles to maintain conciseness. The Guardian that brought Selene in seems torn between helping her and cutting her head off. Cerin shakes her head as Selene continues to scream, she's been trapped inside her own mind for three days now. Question is will she learn her lesson? Or will Cerin have to kill her?

Eve thought she didn't say it out loud, it's evident what the Shadow Queen's orders where. Selene has to die.

###

I watched as Selene claws at her abdomen and throat wriggling on the cold metal table like a worm. Her screams are ear piercing yet Cerin seems unaffected by it. She watches as our sister continues to wriggle in pain. Eira said the spell would have some side effects, I don't think this is what she meant. If only I could help her, when Mother found me it was Cerin who tried to name me, it was Cerin who kept me company when I was scared.

While Selene kept her distance occasionally sharing some of her meat or showing me a new trick, she learned. No matter how hard I try I can't think of a single moment when she wasn't trying too hard to outdo Cerin. It was as if she only saw us, as nothing more than competition. I've always pitied her.

###

"Why did things have to turn out this way? Why couldn't you just be happy they chose us?" I send Selene these questions as she continues to struggle. Whether or not she hears them I don't know. "Just fight it, break your connection with her. I don't want to kill you."

Eira lends me some of her energy as I continue to break down every defense Selene has set in her mind. I break down walls of obsidian, walls of ember and ice, walls of thorns, no matter how many I break down there's always another to take its place. Truthfully it doesn't surprise me, she always kept to herself.

At first, she had no problem playing with us even training. Then one day, while Father was undergoing one of his trials in the Mortal Realm, I accidentally fell in after him. When I came back, she had changed. Roan couldn't place it, Mother figured it was her fox nature and left it at that.

Honestly, I think she knew all along, but being the Empress of the Underworld, she could only watch it all unfold. I figured out what our parents were one night, as I snuck out of the Dark Palace and wound my way into Mother's garden. So many pretty flowers lined the path to the Underworld and through the Cypress woods, I went.

When I told Selene she didn't believe it, but Roan did. She was always to distrustful insisted I had a dream and was making things up.

For whatever reason, she always believed I wanted attention and that I got too much, to begin with. She even threw of the Bridge of Eternity had Father not sensed it I would have plummeted to my death. After that, we only saw her during training or when scent on assignment. Of course, in front of others, she always pretended to love us. Perhaps, in her own twisted way she did.

What I have seen of her soul is sad, the smallest seed remains. If she can let go, perhaps I can still save her. After all, we were born on the same night.