A hiss resounded as the snake bore its fangs. Its tongue squirmed in its mouth, its jaw greedily snapping, snacking on the pitch that rolled off of the vulture.

As the vulture moved a web of deep cracks splintered between its oily scales, wings poising themselves to begin its climb back into the sky. As it rose, its head turned back, eyes locking.

The snake’s jaw clicked as it released, white feathers whistling and flapping while it fell. Frantically, it squirmed on the coarse rock, their eyes greeting each other as pools of black.

Resentment was the only way to describe the feelings they had for each other—fleeting things that rooted deeply in shallow pots. The hatred they had was thick, and it shrouded their minds and clouded their eyes with red.

As the snake slithered away it left deep chasms in its wake, cracks that leaked infected water and caused the land to ebb. The soil disappeared, replaced with stagnant water that encompassed, encircled everything. The waves were absolute as time raged on. Clouds passed and rain fell, the sky shifted as water swelled.

The air stood still until the air was crisp, and as Cass exhaled, a fine white swirled through the air. The moon hung low on the horizon, tickling the water with a dim light and weakly illuminating the city.

It was still early in the morning, and so the most obnoxious parts of the city were still subdued. There were no cars, no people, no chatter in the streets, only the sound of the methodical, crashing waves.

Cass sniffled as he stood up, boots clacking harshly against the metal grating that he stood on. Through the holes in the platform he could make out a patch of turbulent water far, far too far, beneath him.

He sucked in a hasty breath as he felt the ground wobble under him. ‘I’ll get used to this one way or another, mark my words.’

A metallic groan came from beneath him and Cass immediately stumbled, jumping up onto the stone wall behind him, falling onto his knees.

Raising a shaking hand, he rubbed his sleepless eyes, running it through his coarse hair and down behind his ear. The chill nipped at him.

Cass closed his eyes, indulging himself. To Cass, something was rotten in Pilar. Something stank and something festered and grew. It replaced the city’s foundation, sleeping, feeding in the minds of the people. It was hope.

People who found hope shunned reason, the faintest candle becoming their sun and illuminating their world with the light of change. In a world where everything was constant, change would eventually kill them all.

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As Cass walked through the streets, slivers of morning light finally began to show themselves. The buildings caught it, blooming into flowers of sunshine.

Perhaps his sun was a bit too literal.

******

‘Why… why must I be shown this.’

Darkness rippled throughout the stony alcove. Thin strips of light trickled in through the water and painted the floor with wrinkles of white. The dull, muted sound of displaced water filled the room.

A slender hand was raised to a throbbing head. In the dim lighting, the splotches of red that covered the skin were stark, painted with the undertones of shadow. A nail was brought to a collar bone, scratching, wincing as rancid water rushed into the wound.

The creature had no sense of time, the only thing marking its days were the shutting of eyes followed by warmth. It was cold. In its dreams it saw a world full of light where every breath wasn’t followed by burning lungs without relief or satisfaction.

It hated seeing those things. Looking around itself, there was only rock that scraped and hurt. When it thought of what it didn’t have, it felt its chest burning. It burned and ached with feelings that it didn’t want to understand. It raised a bloodied rock above its head and brought it down, mashing the messy thoughts that boiled out of its ears. But it went nowhere.

Water trickled through its ears, laughing as it nurtured the wounds.

It was too weak to even break itself.

It exhaled, a rasping sound that was drowned out in the water. Slowly, it exited the small indent and drifted out into the winding reef. Stone branched out in all directions, forming a dense maze of bumps and ridges.

It floated through, using its arms and legs to propel itself against the rough surface. Around it swarmed schools of colorful fish. They always gracefully avoided its hands as it reached out, never letting themselves be caught. The world was cruel in that way. As hunger gnawed at its insides, it could only wonder what beauty would taste like.

Suddenly, a giant shadow glazed over the opening as a white jellyfish, translucent and glimmering ethereally, floated high above the reef. White tendrils snaked from its body, tightly gripping a large crab that snapped aggressively at its attacker.

Even in the water, its powerful vices let out deep thumps. It savaged the jellyfish’s arms, crushing and tearing them off. But this act of savagery paled in comparison to the efficiency of the ethereal being. Unfazed, it raised a final arm and gripped the crab’s eye. Hooks grabbed its soft tissue, pricking it, paralyzing it, and ripping it apart.

Chunks of flesh floated out into the water, and the jellyfish brought a heap that glimmered softly with radiant light to its mouth. The remainders of the heavy carapace fell down towards the stony reef, filled with meat that it couldn’t be bothered to harvest.

It was terrifying, but it was the guardian of the reef. It killed all the terrors that tried to enter the stony labyrinth, protecting them, whether it realized that or not. These were its hunting grounds, after all, but to the jellyfish, the reef itself was inconsequential.

The heavy carapace hit a stony ridge and tentatively, the creature approaching it.

Another meal had been secured.