“We’re here, Mister.” The sun had long since set; the last remnants of dusk are now nothing more than a distant memory. The reds and purples of the sky had been replaced with an inky blackness. Stars pepper the horizon, as if an artist found the lack of color to be bland and splattered droplets of white paint across a black canvas. The scent of salt from gentle ocean waves is soft, but not entirely unwelcome. At the very least, it is a huge contrast from the never-ending current of maple and pine trees from the woods they had finally managed to escape. It is still a quiet world here, in this ocean outcropping, but it is admittedly pleasant. Waves crash gently atop the jagged rocks of the shore. They do not possess the strength to bring forth droplets of water onto the earth, but neither are they as weak enough to not erode away at the rocks. In this time and ‘now,’ the waves will do no damage, but perhaps in the next million or so years—
If this beach does not disappear before that time arrives, only then will these gentle waves truly dislodge the placid stone structures from where they currently reside.
“What exactly are you looking for, Noël?” The golden-eyed hunter chuckles, but it sounds strained. He is smiling, but the look is an indicator of his worry, or perhaps, how little he can trust the vampire.
Not that I blame him, Noël muses once again. His eyes wander towards a firefly, and as much as he’d always been fond of the tiny glowing insects, now is not the moment or place to admire them. “We are searching for something very important that was stolen away from me, a long time ago.”
“Could you be less vague?” the hunter questions, stumbling across the shiny gray rocks lodged into the sandy beach in his efforts to follow Noël’s lead as they continued on their descent towards the grotto. Fireflies lit up in a dazzling array of yellow light were swirling around the two travelers, but they proved to be nothing more than a mere distraction and deterrence towards where they were supposed to be.
“No,” Noël blandly responded in an abrupt fashion.
Rue shoots him an annoyed glance, but relents easily enough. There is something that he, too, has been searching for throughout all of these years. It’s best not to pry into the matters of another if he could help it. The fireflies had thankfully departed, but they seem to be wary of the grotto. Not a single glowing insect resides anywhere within its proximity, now that the hunter thinks about it. “Okay then….how can you be so sure it’s even here?”
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“Because it’s not something that you can see.” Noël is peering into the grotto, carefully avoiding the remnants of those burned skeletons to the best of his ability. Hope…it is what he had lost, long ago. Perhaps here, he will be able to reclaim it…if there is anything here that remains, his view could be restored.
But, as the vampire continued his search within the confines of this lonely grotto, there was nothing to be seen. There was not a single thing that had not disappeared over time, save for sand and the cremated remains of those lives snuffed out by Emerett all those years ago.
And…it was Noël who destroyed their bodies.
Somehow, these poor, lost souls…they had no physical tether to this realm, and it was all because he once again ruined the lives of those around him. Noël frowns. He’s always known he was a harbinger of misfortune, but even so……
“Mister, try not stepping on the remains,” Noël says, eyes redirected towards the ground. The ashes…they are too numerous. Even within the blanket of darkness, he can see just how the blackened ashes of those he had cremated have mixed into the sandy floor of the grotto.
“Wait, wha—” Rue’s eyes comically widened to the size of saucers as he stumbled back, tripping across the sandy floor in the process. His scream of surprise echoed across the grotto, to which Noël halfheartedly covered his ears.
“Please don’t yell,” Noël deadpans.
“I wouldn’t have to if you didn’t tell me this from the start,” Rue seethes. He has carefully recollected himself, one hand placed against the cold hard wall of the grotto. It seems that he has frozen in place, judging from how little he moved from his position despite the amount of room this grotto provides.
“Aren’t you going to come closer?” the vampire asks, head tilted to the side in curiosity.
“Nah, I’m good,” Rue mutters. “Don’t want to step on anymore dead people. How can you even tell where they are with all of this sand?”
“Simple. Just look at the ground, Mister,” Noël replies.
“It’s dark.”
Noël stares at Rue impassively, tilting his head in confusion. It is not until the hunter dramatically waves his arms over the vast emptiness of the grotto that the vampire realizes……
“It’s dark,” Noël mutters, blandly raising a pointer finger at Rue.
“I know—”
The hunter pauses mid-sentence, only to stop when a droplet of water falls on his face. Looking up, he can hear the pitter-patter of rain as it hits the rocky exterior of the grotto. While it is nothing but a mere drizzle, its abrupt appearance and increasing voracity is an indicator of just how likely its intensity will escalate in the upcoming moments. Rue’s gaze darkens for a moment as he assesses rain. It is a melancholy look, one of great longing and regret, but it vanishes as he grimaces at how the water is slowly starting to cling to the dirt and sand of the grotto.
He steps back, wary of the mud that has begun to form as a result of the rain.
“Looks like we’ll have to stay here until the rain lets up,” Rue says, mouth curved in a thin line as he looks for a patch of dry earth. Alas, if it weren’t so dark, he’d have an easier time……
Turning his head, Noël’s eyes land on a spot of the grotto that had previously escaped his attention. An accumulation of cobwebs accrued along the sand and walls of that particular corner, but they were nothing more than a testament of how dry the patch of earth was. It was completely safe from the elements. Sure, it would be mildly unpleasant, but at least they wouldn’t have to risk the storm brewing outside.