The Curse Of The Gargoyle

Of The 7th Sea

Somehow in the time we took to reach the kitchen area, I had managed to catch the eye of Inga, Charybdis' consigliere. Her grandmotherly instinct had led her to me like a hound to ribeye steaks. She offered to make the hot cocoa while Sebastian and I had our "story time" as Inga called it. The heavy Irish accent lacing her voice warned us against turning her down. And so while Inga whipped up her hot chocolate, Sebastian and I sat down in the empty dining room. Sebastian was quiet for a moment, and I opened my mouth to tell him he didn't have to try to comfort me but he spoke before I could.

"I was young. Too young. And everything always hurt. The screams of my parents in my ears. The looks on my teacher's face when they saw me crying outside the school at 7pm the first couple times.

Then there was a night, my parents were fighting yet again. I covered my ears and ran for my bedroom upstairs. After I let go of my ears, I opened my window, and screamed in my mind at the sea. Like a scene out of a twisted Peter Pan, I fell asleep at the windowsill. They found me. I'm not even sure who They are. All I knew was that they didn't care if I was hurt as they jostled me around, hissing and clicking like dolphins to each other. I was blindfolded, and carried for many minutes that felt like days.
"We don't even know if He desires a sacrifice!" One voice exclaimed in heavily slurred English after awhile.
"What other choice do we have? He will destroy us otherwise." Another called back in a growl. Eventually we reached a building. I heard the doors creek open and felt the air change to thick and dusty.
"A young boy," an older voice whispered in front of me. "Perhaps this will be enough." I could almost imagine the voice stroking a goatee. The blindfold was lifted and I saw the alter. A marble slab covered with velvet and shells, candles lighting the scene circled it, all burning at different levels, as if having been used for several years, maybe even hundreds. I was lifted onto the slab, forced into a laying down position. I wanted to struggle and scream. But looking into their unnaturally unblinking eyes, it was like a fog had rolled into my mind, making it hard to move or feel. Their eyes were all solid black, and if I looked closely, there were lines in the skin of their necks that sometimes raised like gills. I would later call them the Sirens. 15 of them surrounded me like vultures, anticipating. The oldest one, with eyes milky with blindness, made his way towards me. Around his wrists and chest were bands of shells and fishbones, and he smelled of the sea. He pulled a knife from his belt of sharpened coral and had it to my stomach, not daring to pierce me yet, as if he were waiting. He whispered a few words in a language I never heard before, and turned his eyes to the sky,
"Accept this sacrifice, O' Great One of the 7th Sea."

And then it was like the sky had waged war on the land. Lightning and wind howled around the building, rain slapping the windows like pounding fists. A vague concern over a hurricane passed through my mind, but I couldn't move. Not on my own. I felt myself being raised up and hunched over, waking from the fog that had taken over my brain. The waking was not a mercy, as now I could feel it. Burning like a brand crawled from the center of my spine and went outwards, burning and scarring the skin. I didn't know it was a design until a doctor looked at me later. I felt unnatural, like I had several extra limbs I couldn't control. A portal had spawned above my back, attacking the Sirens instantly. They didn't stand a chance. A pounding like waves against my brain was all I heard, the sound of the ocean in my ears. The rush of power. But my eyes only saw carnage. I managed to see 2 final Sirens escape the massacre. 13 hadn't made it. God there was so much blood. The portal and tentacles didn't leave until nothing moved any longer. And I was left, feeling hollow and full of agony, all alone... I was too young.

When the investigators found me they didn't know what to make of it. They wrote it off as a failed cult massacre, and that slaughter was their way of sacrifice. Nothing I said mattered, because they believed me to be too young and to be in shock. But I knew better.

They sent me home. But I could no longer take the screaming. I ran away."

I hadn't noticed I had leaned in as he spoke. I was enrapt and emotionally torn. I felt guilty for the relatively normal childhood I had had with my father, while Sebastian had to suffer through so much all alone.
I hadn't noticed Inga waiting in the doorway, the hot chocolates already lukewarm in her hands. She didn't seemed surprised by the story, only not wanting to disrupt. She was a kind, all knowing type of person. The wrinkles carved deep in her face hid stories that I would pry for later. With a twinkle in her pale jade eyes, she final strode forward, placing the cups down and clasping her long spindly fingers over Sebastian's.
"Now lad, I know you think you're helping by telling the child, but you'll get yourself riled up again, and I don't have it in me to fix a table today." The second hand embarrassment hit me like a wave, thinking that her words would only anger Sebastian. For a moment, it was quiet. And then Sebastian laughed breathlessly, shaking his head. I couldn't see his eyes, as they were hidden behind the mess of dark locks.
"Okay, okay. Don't worry Inga. I'm alright. I just wanted Meridian here to know she wasn't alone in being cursed. Because I know that's what I needed to hear when I was all alone." He stood abruptly, not even having so much as glanced at the hot chocolate that Inga had made. I took mine in my hands slowly, not wishing for Inga's drink to go to waste. With a careful blow, I took a sip and watched Sebastian stall out of the room, more like a predator than a cursed man.
Inga let out an audible sigh and sat heavily in the seat beside me,
"He can't handle the story very well, poor lad. Perhaps that's why he took to you so well. You remind him of himself." She smiled reassuringly and the wrinkles in her face deepened, making me oddly think of A Wrinkle In Time.
"Will he come back?" I asked warily, taking a hesitant sip of the hot chocolate. It didn't taste bad of course, it's just it tasted strange and I wasn't sure if I liked it or not yet.
"Not for awhile, he usually sits and sulks in his room for a little while, so drink up." I didn't dare to disobey, and took another sip. I finally decided it was a tolerable taste.
"Inga, how long have you been working with Charybdis?" I wondered aloud, gazing into the swirling drink.
"Well only a few years, maybe 3?" She said simply, and my brain almost screeched to a halt,
"What but you're-" I stopped myself from commenting on her age.
"Oh lassie, I may be old but that doesn't mean I've been here forever!" She exclaimed and I felt the flush crawl to my cheeks in embarrassment.
"I promise I won't assume anymore, but why, at your age, would you join Charybdis?" I was curious and I couldn't help but feel like the cat in this situation.
"Well I'll tell you that story another time. I think you should head off to sleep." I slowly nodded my agreement, finishing off the drink and setting the now empty mug on the table. Everything was a story for another day. But I am fine with that.
This is my new family after all.