THESE CELESTIAL BODIES (Demetre)

Chapter five

Getting into that carriage was the last thing Rose wanted to do. A miserable, shaken sigh escaped her lips as two Vylewrought escorted her towards a dark, gothic horse drawn carriage that waited beneath the unblinking gaze of the sky's eye. Sy, the watcher. The air was grim and foggy, heavy with the scent of metal. The two horses were Vylewrought breeds, their skin decomposed, stale and leathery. Their ribs exposed. Their flesh, or what was left of it, had pulled over their skulls to reveal bone, rotting muscle and hollow, eyeless sockets.
     She felt her misery ripen to fear as the carriage's heavily decorated door clicked open as if by itself.
     Shadows trickled out.
     Her captor sat in a mass of darkness inside. "We don't have all night."
Night. Her desire to run or fight battled across her mind until it became no more than a fickle splinter of hope. She glanced over the Vylewrought and their hanging eyeballs and rotten teeth, to the caves just beyond. She had been fighting the day they brought her, Cato abandoned her as soon as they entered Hel. She didn't see where they had taken her, she was too busy screaming. But now she had finally stepped out from that mad, awful place, she could take it in in its entirety. The entrance had the face of a skull, massive pillars flanking each side. The mouth of the skull was pitch black. Skeleton trees scattered about, mere silhouettes against the gloomy, brown-green cloudy sky.

     I'm taking you away
     Where?
     To my home.
     Where was his home? He said it so casually, as if he truly found solace in his home. Would her life be worse than the caves? Would he lock her in a cell until she died? what could be worse than this? She had asked herself the exact same question when Cato offered her what she wanted. And it was, in fact, worse than what she had endured already. One day...one day she might give up. And the clock was ticking, the days slipping. One day she will. One day she'll find peace.
      Rose climbed into the carriage and settled by the window on the opposite side well away from the strange man covered in shadows. The door slammed and the coachman's whip snapped the air. The carriage jerked into an unsteady, uncomfortable movement, and Rose watched the caves grow smaller with a pang of relief. "Are you going to kill me?" she whispered, staring out of the window, watching the skeleton trees. Ash forest, she heard them call it.
     "You've asked me that already."
   "I'm asking again."

He didn't reply. Blanked her completely. "What is your name?"
     She turned her head and fought a recoil when she saw one of his shadows slither its way across the carriage floor and slide onto her seat. He hissed and the shadow shrunk back, falling away. "You know it already."
   "Your full name."
      Did she really want to give him her full name? giving him her full name felt like she was giving him a piece of her that was already dead and gone. Who cares, anyway. She'll probably be murdered by the time they arrived at him home. He will probably become famished during this ride and decide to make a meal of her. "Rosalie."
     He was quiet, Rose almost thought he didn't hear her. "Demetre."
     Demetre. It felt like he had given her something. Rose fought against leaning back in her seat, she didn't want to get comfortable, nor did she feel comfortable around him, but she was so tired. The caves do not let prisoners sleep well, the darkness dredged up old memories that made it nearly impossible for one to sleep. Frightened humans tasted better, so they say. Fear was like seasoning to them, the more frightened the mortal, the sweeter the blood.