Chains Made of Stars- ON HOLD

Chapter 8: The chronically depressed lyre

Hello, here's the Saturday chapter as promised! 

Will and Mith pounded across the sky, their hearts slamming against their ribcages like agitated birds in a cage. Above them, Orion's star chains had wrapped around his arms, softly-glowing silver vines that strangled and suffocated and trapped. He continued to scream, but he could no longer swing his club at them. Relieved, Mith paused to take a breath and doubled over, her deep exhales fogging up her oxygen mask. Will stopped next to her. Unsurprisingly, he had enough energy to give her a look of deep disappointment.

"Well, you're not the brightest, but I suppose I'll have to make do," he said with a theatrical sigh, over Orion's screams.

"But seriously though, next time you plan on turning into a manic sparkly princess who goes around singing kumbaya to monsters, please tell me at least a couple of minutes in advance so I can knock you out, okay?"

Mith looked up and glared at him.

"I was trying to help," she said darkly.

"Keyword here being trying," Will replied dryly.

"Shut up," Mith snapped.

"Stop behaving like a five year old," he retorted.

"Seriously, shut up, I can hear something," Mith hissed.

Will was silent for a moment, and then he paled.

You might be wondering what Will had heard that scared him. You might think it was a horrifying scream or maybe even Cetus's roar.

You are wrong.

There was a Beatles song playing from somewhere deep in space. Mith recognised it because it was one her dad hummed it all the time.

"Am I going crazy or is someone actually blasting the Beatles in the Ark?" Mith shook her head like she was trying to rid her ears of water.

"Something, not someone," Will said in an undertone.  "We are officially screwed," he added with that manic grin of his.

"What are you talking about?" Mith demanded.

"Lyra," he replied, as if that explained everything.

"As in Orpheus's lyre?" She asked suddenly.  Orpheus's lyre was one of the cursed objects housed in the Ark. After that fateful day when Eurydice returned to the underworld because Orpheus turned around to look at her, the lyre changed. 

One very little-known fact of life: Tragedies and happily-ever-afters, heartbreak and love, death and life;  all musical instruments can sense them, and the music they play will change accordingly. 

So the lyre, witness to a tragedy, changed. It was as ugly now as it had been beautiful before. The music that emanated from it could drive people to suicide, and legend had it that the true love of whoever listened to the lyre for too long would die.

"That's the one," Will said. "I suggest we start running."

"Best idea you've ever had," Mith replied, and they took off again.

The music got louder. The Beatles song had morphed into something else. Mith cringed; the high notes were too high, and had an almost screechy quality to them. It was still music, but it sounded like nails being raked across a chalkboard.

High above them, the golden lyre appeared between the stars of its constellation. Its golden strings vibrated. 

"Goddamn," Mith groaned, covering her ears. "Where are we going now?" She yelled to Will, hoping that he could hear her over the music.

"I don't know!" He yelled back. "We can't go back to the entrance we came from; not after your little stunt with Cetus!"

"Do you know where the nearest Carcerem Society outpost is?" Society outposts usually had some form of protection against the lyre's music.

Mith did not know, so she lied. 

"Yeah! It's over Mangalore, we're too far away!" She yelled back.

Will swore loudly, but Mith didn't hear. Because of the music, her head was beginning to spin. All she could think of were all the times someone had broken her heart or hurt her feelings. Her worst memories drowned her, washing over her like acid. Despair settled over, making it hard to breathe. Running became as difficult as trying to climb a vertical rock face. She wanted to lie down and give up, never feel anything again, throw herself off a cliff; anything to make the pain stop.

Orion and Cetus could hear the music too. Cetus's roars intermingled with Orion's bellows and the lyre music, creating some sort of hellish symphony. Monsters and musical instruments watched as Mith and Will skittered across the sky-floor, their hands pressed to their ears. They were no longer running in any fixed direction, trying to get as far away from the lyre as possible.

The music changed. It was no longer a Beatles song, but a classical piece. Piano notes wafted from the lyre, but wrong somehow. Too high, too tinny, too shrieky. Cold night wind whipped Mith's face, numbing her cheeks. The wind tossed strands of her hair around so she could barely see.

The pain dulled a little, so Mith turned to see if Will was alright.

He was not.