Chapter 3
Mei
Past
A few days after Mei is brought to Earth
Ihuddle tighter, drawing my arms up around me.
The cold has gotten into my body, and I can feel it down to my bones.
This incessant, endless torture of rain will not stop; it just keeps coming.
My skin is so waterlogged that one harsh move feels like it will peel it off.
My helpless wandering has provided no shelter or warmth, and my energy has dwindled.
I creep towards the hum of humans talking. Maybe they will show mercy; maybe they will have compassion. I just need to get my bearings. A corner to hole up in out of this miserable water.
“Nah, the umpire is blind, you saw that. We all saw it.”
What’s an umpire? How did it become blind? Were its eyes consumed by pure evil like mine?
“Dude, you are blind drunk, is what you are. It was clearly a foul.”
I don’t understand these words, but I creep closer anyway.
The smell of meat fills the air, and my stomach growls violently.
It took everything I had to heal the omega.
It was long and rough, and walking out of there pretending I was fine almost undid me.
A worse fate would have befallen me if the likes of the Grim, Styx, or those Fae had realised how weak I’d become.
Everything was going so well. My mother used to say that the best-laid intentions…
I can’t remember what she said, but I had good intentions, and I laid them, and now they are ruining me.
Two night cycles ago, it started raining and things have just become impossible. How can so much change so quickly?
Everything smells wrong and different, even the food. I can’t find my way in this world. I’ve never been more lost.
I must let out an involuntary sound because, all at once, the air is filled with electric tension, the scent of sour human fear. The rain doesn’t dilute the smell, but amplifies it until I’m gagging.
“What the hell is that thing?” one of the male humans asks.
“I don’t know. The freakish creatures that are invading our planet just keep getting weirder. But, fuck this, not in my backyard.”
Something heavy slides against metal, and I still my movements, suddenly conscious of the danger.
“Timmy, let the boys out!” the voice calls.
“Are you sure? What if it kills them?” The voice is younger, further away, full of fear.
“Nah, they can do it. Let them out. We got this, don’t we, boys?”
AROOO.
What is aroo? What is that scrabbling sound? It’s like the Grim but smaller. I step back.
“You with me, Jimbo?” the aggressive voice shouts.
“Heck, yeah!”
“Hey, you! Get out of here!” the voice of the child calls out, louder and full of panic.
Chains rattle, and suddenly, I can feel the movement of half a dozen creatures rushing towards me. With a burst of speed, I dodge, jump, duck, and twist. One move flows into another, keeping me out of the snapping jaws that try to rip me to shreds.
The growling is fierce.
“Dad!” the kid cries, and I’m distracted.
That sound hits something inside me. I want to fix it, creep over and help until the sound stops.
The distraction costs me. Dearly.
A bark right beside my ear goes off like a cannon. I jerk at the sound, then scream in rage and defiance when the animals rush me. Their snarls are loud and determined. I could fight them off easily, but they are a pack and are moving around; the rain is distorting the origins of their sounds.
Maybe Earth was an awful choice, I think as I whirl in circles, lashing out with my claws. A creature yelps and suddenly, something flat and hard crashes into my back, sending me into the mud. I spring up before those teeth can snap me.
“Don’t hurt them!” The cry comes, and I find myself retracting my claws, unwillingly stepping back from the fight.
“Get out of here, monster!”
I stumble back, hearing more and more humans coming, drawn to the rage that is pouring off these adults.
“Get her,” he commands, and the animals spring at me.
I bolt, racing for my life. It feels like forever, but it could be just heartbeats. The sound of pursuit has stopped. I’m alone in this noisy world. I may as well be back in the ocean, unable to tell which way is up.
It’s only been two days of being in this world. I’m hungry, I’m cold, in a way I’ve never been, I’m-
A mechanical sound screams, and a horn booms into the night. I’m struck by something really hard. Enough that it sends me flying, tumbling easily down the wet rock beneath me. I land hard, lying there while I try to ignore the pain and get up, except my body is hurt badly.
The runes flare on their own, and my energy levels deplete as my body repairs itself.
The pain is intense. It’s in every breath, every part of my poor, abused body.
“Fuck, I think I hit something, Grace. It came out of nowhere.”
Grace. A name. I am…Mei.
I let out a sob and push myself up. My body is healing itself, knitting the broken bones back together, fusing the torn skin. The pain eases, but exhaustion throbs behind my skull, beating in my brain, begging me to lie down and sleep for a week.
A shrill female squeal pulls me up. I stop moving.
“Kenneth! Look, get away from us. Go. Shoo!” The shrill panic sets off mine until I realise she’s talking about me. Then it gets worse. I try to scramble up to my feet, but I’m still healing, and I can’t move easily.
I tilt my head to the side, but I am braced to run. As soon as I can, I’ll be gone.
“We don’t want no trouble. Be on your way, monster. Honey, call that Diablos character, you know the one on the adverts.”
“Oh, but-”
“Call him. This creature shouldn’t be out roaming around. Look at it; it’s confused, and confused is dangerous. She’ll kill lots of people.”
Kill?
I blow out my cheeks, frustrated. At least the shock of pain has stolen my ability to notice the cold.
With a whine, I jump backwards when something loud explodes, stone flicking up into my ankle.
“Get going!”
“Grace, stop shooting at her!”
“She’s a monster! She shouldn’t be here!”
I bolt, running blindly, trying to rely on my senses, but not understanding this world at all.
Not for the first time, I wonder if coming here was a mistake.
***
I clutch the metal so hard it bites into my skin. The cold has pushed past pain into a comfortable numbness. I don’t know where I am or how to get back, all I know is I’m high, very high.
“Come down with your hands up!”
I twist back towards the voice. The icy wind is whipping past me, but I’ve been curled up around this structure long enough to get a little bit of sleep and recover, though my stomach grinds on itself painfully.
“Come to my voice.”
I heard jumbled words. Jumper. Suicide. Freak.
I’m not sure what they mean, but the voice sounds friendlier, so I unfurl my body and turn towards them.
“Holy fuck, it’s one of them monsters! What the fuck do we do, Sean?”
“How the fuck should I know?”
“Stop where you are.” The first voice commands.
I keep walking, unsure of what they want. I can’t stop here; the wind will blow me straight off into the void below.
“Fuck! She’s still coming.”
“Tase her.”
“Last warning: stop moving.”
I crouch when four sharp spikes bite into my collarbone. A moment later, I tilt my head back and scream, unable to fight the electric currents that run through my body. I lurch sideways, my limbs rigid and shaking.
I fall.
I fall for a long time.
And like so long ago, I’m back in the terrifying brine of the oceans.
Hearing their song.
Again.
***
I race after the small thing that squeaks and tries to escape me. I crash into something metal that tips over, making a horrible noise. The smell of rubbish and rot covers me, and I gag, losing the will to keep chasing my dinner.
“Stop that!”
A stick comes down across my back. I stumble back, hissing.
“You get back, you!” the woman shouts. “Leave my dog alone.”
Dog? What is a dog?
I rub my stomach and crouch down, wishing everything wasn’t so hard. Two long weeks have passed since my last meal, and I’ve barely eaten since.
Humans are violent creatures.
“Where are your clothes? Are you one of them mentally disturbed people? I can call an ambulance, but I’m not sure you can afford it.”
I drag my claws through the dirt, thoroughly frustrated to be deprived of dinner again.
Something booms in the sky, and I stand up, turning towards it, my whole body aching and listening to the sound.
“What is that?” My voice is rusty and harsh, even to my ears.
“Thunder? It’s the sound of the storm coming.”
The woman approaches and stands beside me. She smells like flowers and death. It’s a nice smell.
“Honey, you really don’t look good. I can count every bone on your body. What happened to you?”
I purse my lips, catching a faint hint of something that is similar to the Siren that tried to kill me. Electricity in the air. The thunder booms, rattling my bones.
I ache for them. I wish I didn’t, but ever since I heard their song, saved my Lirin, my inner thoughts turn to them when I least anticipate. They were mine. Or at least, they should have been. Now they are just the enemy.
“Humans are mean.”
She makes a hacking sound in the back of her throat. “Aye, we are. We can be good, but we are not good with change or anything that is different.”
“There’s no food. The rain is constant. People have weapons with stones and burning fire.”
“You aren’t human, are you?” she says with a tremble of fear. “Don’t come closer.”
She backs away, but I ignore her. This is nothing unusual, and I don’t fear this helpless old lady with her stick.
The dog screams, and the old lady bolts in that direction before I can stop her. I follow but take my time. It’s not until I hear a rasping wheeze that I connect the dots. A death rattle.
When I smell the blood and a familiar decay mixed in with it, my heart slams into my chest and threatens to explode. My limbs lock up, and I shift into the creature that has survived Nightmare.
No, he can’t be here. I won’t be able to survive if I have to escape him here.
I approach carefully, but by the time I find the old lady, her insides are holding her tied to a tree, and she’s gone back to the Earth that birthed her.
There’s no one here.
Just a faint hint of a memory of something so frightening that I have no doubt even humans will feel uneasy.
I leave the old lady and her dog, running as fast as I can, putting distance and time between me and whatever killed her, just in case I’m right.
Just in case he somehow found a way to follow me across. It should be impossible. I’m supposed to be safe.
My hands shake, but fear drives me on, long past when I should stop. I just keep running.
I hear their song in the world growing stronger and stronger, and I make a decision based on desperation.
The enemy of my enemy isn’t my friend, but they might keep me alive a little while longer.
Becky opens a portal to save her Fae lover. I can feel the power blaze into the world. Her rage turns it into white flames that shoot high in my mind. I am drawn that way like a moth to a flame. It doesn’t matter that she is a stranger. I will always recognise her now; I spent too long inside her.
“Wait-”
She whips around, turning all that power and presence that she is morphing into on me.
“You can’t get him out. The Prince. You can’t do it. You will drown in those oceans.” I say, tripping over the words, trying to find the right ones that will save me.
“I can,” she snarls at me.
“You can’t. But I can help you.”
I hum three notes. Just three. It’s so quick and so quiet she doesn’t even notice. Three notes that are all Lirin. It’s a summons, a stroking of his energy, a defiant challenge.
It’s the first time I’ve reached out. But I know they will come.
They appear between us, all five of them focused on me with all the rage in them. Like thunder booming across the sky. If I wasn’t so tired, I might say something sassy. Like ‘good to see you swimming around.’ ‘How’s your pet you tried to feed me to?’ Or maybe even a simple ‘how’s it swimming?’
That ought to stir them into a murderous fury.
Despite everything, feeling them is a relief and a balm to the loneliness that is plaguing me. Their song crashes into my world and brings me back to those happy moments on that stupid island before I found out that I was ear marked for death.
My stomach cramps so violently that I almost drop to my knees.
“I propose a deal!” I rush out and say, hating everything and that I’m here, helpless to do anything but reach out to my enemy for survival.
They’ll accept.
I know they will.
They won’t pass up a chance to kill me again. Slowly and painfully.
But maybe if I’m clever, I can find what I need to survive.