:Broken Boards, Broken People: (arcana & arrows)
Jan 23, 2020 23:02:14 GMT -5
Post by AlteredArcana on Jan 23, 2020 23:02:14 GMT -5
storm cho
I shiver a bit as the surf laps up over my bare feet. The sun has just begun her long, vibrant descent beneath the waves. The tide is beginning to turn again, bringing with it to me a serenity for which I’ve been longing all day now. Another day at the Academy, training to be a child killer. Another few excruciating moments with my mother, to whom I could be miles away and it would make little difference. And now, I feel miles away from another soul. All the better.
No sooner than I had stepped into the shack that I call my home, my heart began to long for the cold foamy waves against my skin. I said hello to my mother, waited for her to acknowledge me, of course to no avail. And then, I left. Twenty minutes later I found myself sinking into the low tide, digging my feet into the hard-packed sand. Nothing could pull me away now, I’m sure of it.
At night, my mother would tell me, it’s dangerous to be in the waters. Scary things happen in the ocean after dark. Old ghosts come back to haunt you. Things with sharp teeth lurk beneath the waves, waiting for a lone straggler to throw themselves to the ocean. Demons can drag you into the black just as easily as a shark can, I’ve found. But now, as long as the sun graces me with her dying light, I feel safe. It’s as if Auntie Aphra blesses the sand upon which I sit, still watching over me and protecting me after all these years. In this cove where she lost her life nine years ago, I find solace. Respite. Comfort. And what form she takes after the moon rises high, I do not want to know.
And as I throw back the black sheet of curls that cascades from my crown, I feel the warmth of her presence with me. A long sigh escapes my lips and with it another stream of worries and troubles leave my mind. I lose myself in the waves, my breath rising and falling in time with the lapping of the sea at my ankles. I almost don’t notice the beaten surfboard that washes up beside me, marring the beautiful sand with its artificiality.
I pick it up and examine it. It’s been scratched and pocked to the deep and back. Who knows how long it’s been floating in the ocean? I shrug. Perhaps some poor fool rode too close to the rocks, dashed to pieces and lost beneath the foam forever. And so I toss it aside, closing my eyes once again; troubled with the thought that this cove has claimed two lives in my presence, and wondering just how many more she would take. One day, maybe she would even take mine. Perhaps, Aphra is vengeful in death.
I begin again to lose myself in the lull. When I hear the voice, my blood runs cold.