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As consciousness returned, the first thing I noticed was the smell–strong, thick, heavy, metallic–the overwhelming scent of iron. Blood and the stench of decay, of rotting flesh festering in the air. My stomach churned, bile rising in my throat as I sensed the horror around me without even opening my eyes.
My stomach... I remembered. The monster. Its claws, its teeth. The searing agony as it tore me apart, feasting on me while I was still alive.
How am I alive?
I was afraid to move, fearing the pain would return, that I'd feel my insides spilling out again. My chest felt tight, my breath shallow. I forced my eyes open, the weight of reality pressing down as the world came into focus.
I took a deep breath–a mistake.
The stench hit harder, and I gagged, my stomach lurching. I coughed, the sound ragged and dry, my throat raw, but there was no pain in my gut. My heart pounded as I cautiously dragged my hand across the floor, bracing myself to feel torn flesh, a gaping hole where my stomach should be.
But there was nothing. No slick warmth of blood, no raw, open wound. Just smooth, unbroken skin.
I blinked, struggling to process what I was or wasn't–feeling. My stomach was healed. Whole. My fingers trembled as I pressed them harder against the flesh, expecting pain, torn muscles, and a gash that should have been there. But there was nothing–only the faint stickiness of dried blood on my skin and the wet, tattered remnants of my clothes clinging to me.
What the hell...?
I forced myself to sit up, leaning against the rough stone wall behind me. Every movement was slow, and deliberate, as if any sudden shift would bring the pain crashing back. But it didn't.
I was alive.
I glanced down at my stomach, staring at the blood-soaked fabric clinging to my skin. The fabric was in tatters, shredded, and stained dark with my own blood. The memory of the monster feasting on me came back in flashes–the claws, the teeth, the pain–but there was no sign of it now.
I should have been dead. I had felt myself dying, my insides torn apart, my life slipping away... And now?
But how? How was I fine when just moments ago–or was it hours? I had been nothing more than a feast for that thing?
My head spun, confusion swirling like fog in my mind. None of this made sense. My memory was fuzzy; nothing seemed to surface. I swallowed, my throat dry and aching, but still, there was no pain. The only thing that burned was the confusion.
What had happened? How did I end up here?
Dragging my legs closer, I forced myself to move, muscles stiff and aching as if I hadn't used them in days. I leaned back against the wall, breath coming in short, shallow bursts as I stared around me. The monster's corpse lay on the ground, flattened in a pool of dried blood beneath it.
What did I do? At least that ugly creature is dead.
I remembered the rage–the blinding, all-consuming fury that had surged through me like a firestorm, burning hotter than anything I'd ever felt. The power Exira, I recalled–ripping through the air, tearing everything apart. And then nothing. Darkness. I must have fainted.
My fingers clenched into fists, gripping the dirt and stone beneath me. My heart thudded faster as fragments of memory pushed through the fog. I had killed it. Silence pressed in, heavy and suffocating, broken only by the distant drip of water somewhere in the darkness. I glanced at my hands, still trembling, the blood–mine or the monster's? drying on my skin.
I looked up, gaze drifting over the dim surroundings. The darkness was broken only by the faint, eerie glow of moss clinging to the walls. It wasn't much–just a dull, sickly green light that barely illuminated the cave–but enough to make out jagged rocks and uneven ground. The moss grew thick and abundant, its soft light painting the place in shades of green. Shadows clung to the edges, shifting and flickering in the dim glow like ghosts haunting the cave.
The light didn't do much to fight the suffocating darkness, but it was the only thing keeping the cave from swallowing me whole. In my current state, I'd be lost without it. My heart still pounded, but the panic that had gripped me before was ebbing away.
I need to think. To breathe.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, the foul air filling my lungs. It didn't help much, but it was a start. I had to calm down and clear my mind before I lost myself again in confusion and terror. I needed control, or at least the illusion of it.
Without thinking, I shifted into a more comfortable position, back pressed against the cold, damp stone. I crossed my legs–a posture familiar, instinctual. My hands rested on my knees, palms facing upward. I focused on my breathing, drawing in slow, steady breaths.
Meditation.
The thought flickered in my mind, surprising me. I knew how to do this. My body remembered, even if my mind was still swimming in fragments of forgotten memories. Was it muscle memory? I wasn't sure, but I didn't care. It was something to hold onto, something to ground me in this nightmare.
As I breathed in and out, the noise of the world around me–the distant drip of water, the hollow silence of the cave–began to fade. My mind, still fractured and chaotic, started to calm. The frantic beat of my heart slowed, and the tension in my muscles loosened. For the first time since waking, I felt a sense of stillness. I focused on that feeling, letting it wash over me. My thoughts stopped racing; the confusion and fear dulled, just enough for me to breathe without that crushing weight on my chest.
Maybe I didn't understand what was happening. Maybe I was still lost in the dark, surrounded by death and monsters and memories that didn't make sense. But for these few moments, I had control. I was alive. I was breathing. I took another breath, feeling the cold air fill my lungs. The trembling had stopped. My hands were steady now, my heart no longer thundering. The fear was still there, lurking in the back of my mind, but it had lost its grip.
I'm not helpless. I'm not lost. Not anymore.
I opened my eyes and stared into the dim glow of the cave. The shadows no longer seemed so suffocating, and the oppressive weight of the darkness had lifted, even if only slightly. I had control again. Maybe not over everything–not over the memories still locked away, not over the horrors that had brought me here–but I had control of myself. And that was something.
I started to piece it together, breaking down events in my mind, step by step, trying to make sense of it all.
I had woken up here, in this cave, and a fucking ugly creature had been feasting on me. My body had been broken, shredded, and too weak to fight back. Too weak to even resist. I remembered the pain–or rather, the absence of it–the numbness that had crept in as my life slipped away. But there was something else. Something more important.
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My memories.
They are... sealed somehow. Locked away in a dark corner of my mind, out of reach. As I lay there, dying, I didn't know who I was. No name. No past. Just a cold, empty void where everything should have been. It was like a piece of me had been taken, ripped away, leaving me hollow.
I shuddered at the thought. What kind of power could do that? What force could bury someone's entire identity, leave them drifting in the dark without any sense of self?
I almost gave in. Almost let myself go.
That voice... sweet, soft, lulling. It had been so tempting, whispering to me, telling me to stop fighting, to let go. It promised peace, an end to pain, and an end to the struggle. And for a moment, I believed it. I wanted to give in, to stop resisting, to just... disappear.
But then there was the shock–a cold, biting jolt that ripped through me, dragging me back from the edge. Like plunging into icy water, the chill waking every nerve, every cell. And with that shock came fragments, pieces of myself that had been hidden, buried beneath the numbness.
My name.
I remembered my name.
That was the first piece. Alexis. The word echoed in my mind–a lifeline, something to hold onto as the rest came flooding back. Not everything–just bits and pieces, fragments of memories, disjointed and blurry but enough.
Enough to give me strength. Enough to make me fight. I had killed it–the monster. I didn't know how, not really. But I had felt it, the power surging through me, dark and wild, tearing the world apart around me. And then, nothing. Blackness.
But I remembered now. Faint, like a whisper, but there.
Exira.
The word surfaced from the depths of my mind–unfamiliar and yet... not. Like a half-forgotten dream, a memory that didn't quite belong to me, but I knew it. I had used it. At that moment, on the verge of death, I had called upon it. The power that had saved me. Exira.
A flash of memory, more vivid this time, surged to the surface. A field. Soft sunlight filters through trees. The scent of flowers on the breeze. And her–Mom. I saw her clearly now, standing beside me, her hand on my shoulder, guiding me, teaching me. We were practicing, and a shudder passed through me at the blurry memory.
My chest tightened, emotions flooding in before I could stop them. I remembered her face–kind, gentle, but strong. Stronger than anyone I'd ever known. My mother. She had taught me this. She had taught me how to survive.
The thought of her made my heart ache. And not just her–others. Names, and faces, flickering at the edges of my mind like shadows. I could feel them there, but they were just out of reach, blurry and distorted, like looking through a fogged window.
Mom. Aunt Nora. Ari.
The names hit me like a punch to the gut. I could see them now–faint images, but still real.
Still mine.
Aunt Nora–her sharp smile, the way she laughed, always teasing. Ari... My breath caught at the memory of her. I couldn't see her clearly, but I knew her. I felt her–the warmth, the closeness. Like a sister. Like family.
But that was it. That was all I had. The rest–my life, my memories still locked away. And the more I tried to reach for them, the more frustrated I became. It was like grasping at smoke, the pieces slipping through my fingers no matter how hard I tried to hold onto them.
I slammed my fist into the ground, frustration boiling over. Anger flared, threatening to consume me again. Why can't I remember? Why is everything so fragmented, so broken? Why did this happen to me?
But no matter how hard I tried, the memories stayed out of reach, taunting me with glimpses of a life I could no longer grasp. The more I thought about it, the more rage I felt.
A chill passed through my body, sudden and sharp, sending a shiver up my spine. It wasn't the cold air of the cave. No, this was something else. Something familiar.
My hand instinctively moved to my ear, fingers brushing against the metal earring hanging there–the shape of a dragon curled into an elegant figure-eight. Cold. The metal always had a chill to it, but now, as I touched it, something stirred. A flicker in the darkness of my mind.
And then, another memory.
It came in flashes, fast and disjointed, like flipping through pages too quickly to grasp details but leaving behind feelings. The emotions hit me first.
Laughter. Joy.
We were sitting on a blanket spread over soft grass, the sun warm on our faces. Alice's smile was radiant, her laughter like music as she sipped wine. Edward was beside me, tearing into a loaf of bread with his usual carefree grin, crumbs falling from his mouth. The three of us together, happy. The kind of happiness that felt endless, eternal.
The memory shifted.
.
.
The earth shook.
I remembered the ground trembling beneath us, cups and plates on the picnic blanket rattling violently as if the world itself were tearing apart. We jumped to our feet, laughter gone in an instant. The sky... the sky was wrong. Dark clouds gathered, swirling violently as thunder cracked overhead. A sound like ripping fabric echoed through the air, followed by a deep, guttural roar.
Something was coming.
The memory shifted.
.
.
Monsters.
They poured out of the sky like nightmares made flesh, emerging from a tear in the very fabric of the heavens. Horrid creatures with claws and fangs, dripping with malice. We were forced to fight, weapons drawn. I felt the fear, the helplessness against them. No matter how hard we fought, we were losing ground, overwhelmed by sheer numbers and the savage brutality of the creatures.
The memory shifted again.
.
.
Edward.
I saw him, caught in the grip of something monstrous–a devil-like creature with wings of shadow and a twisted, grotesque smile. Its clawed hand pierced through his chest, fingers wrapping around his heart. I screamed. I tried to move, to reach him, but I couldn't. All I could do was watch as Edward's eyes widened in shock, his mouth opening in a soundless gasp as life drained from him.
The creature ripped his heart from his chest.
Another shift.
.
.
I was on my knees, sobbing, hands pressed to my face as the world crumbled around me. Thunder crashed in the distance, and the sky continued to tear, reality unraveling. I screamed, voice hoarse, calling out Edward's name, but it was drowned by the deafening roar of the storm and the monstrous wails of creatures swarming around us.
The memory shifted once more.
.
.
And then, I saw it.
My gaze was drawn upward, past the chaos, past the storm, to the tear in the sky. Through that tear, staring down with malevolent intent was an eye. A titanic eye, impossibly large, gazing from some dark, otherworldly place. It was pure evil, its gaze sending a wave of dread crashing over me, suffocating me in its presence. I couldn't look away. My body froze as that eye bore into my soul, and for a moment, everything stopped.
The world went dark.
The memory slipped away as quickly as it had come, leaving me breathless, and heart pounding. I touched the earring again, fingers trembling as I tried to ground myself, but the weight of the past pressed down like a crushing wave.
Edward.
His name echoed in my mind. And that eye... another memory came, this time a poem.
When the sky is torn asunder,
And shadows stretch with growing thunder,
The Eye of Devour peers below,
Bringing forth eternal woe.
Beware the gaze that sees your soul,
For no mercy will it know.
Its hunger vast, its darkness deep,
In its stare, your end shall creep.
Turn away, do not defy,
For beneath its watch, all must die.
A fate far worse than death awaits,
Where hope is lost and time abates.
When the heavens break and tremble,
And the world begins to crumble,
Seek no answers in the skies—
The Eye devours, and never lies.
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