ENTRY 5900117

Eyes of Little Gods

~°°~

Unlike her, Mother carried bright golden blood. Hereditary was a distinction. Theirs were of gods, she often told. This was the reason, she said, our eyes are different. Jeweled and bright green like emeralds.

"Choose." The Principal's smooth voice contrasted against her icy, dark gaze emitted through the two small holes of her mask. A hideous being growled behind her. Rotten, melting flesh. The Principal advised her not to look at them, for they interpreted eye contact as a sign of aggression. Plus, it was not as if she could see the actual demon. The wilting flesh that surrounded it was not its body—they were their undigested victims.

Rycella flinched, forcing herself to not avert her eyes to the ground as they suddenly tried to lurch forward and attack the two Elderstires at their front. Hungry.

"Quickly." The Principal offered her hand. "Yes or no?"

One took her hand readily, shaking in his boots.

As he did, vines of runes crept from his hand, slowly covering his whole body. Groaning, he collapsed to his knees. Shaking, convulsing, and foaming in his mouth. Painful. But alive. Slumber soon took him as the curse completed. The sigil of the sun was made.

The other—Kai Fharan watched in silent, utter terror, pursing his lips into a thin line. A slither of uncertain determination flickered in his eyes. With a look, Rycella knew his answer. She saw the same eyes a lot of times.

He shook his head. Soon enough, his choppy, golden hair was sprinkled with his own blood. Tomorrow, Kai Fharan would be forgotten.

Bad choice, Rycella thought, wrinkling her nose at the smell of copper as she watched the strange being withering Kai's corpse. With or without him, the cycle continues and the world would still turn.

He should have accepted, Rycella concluded. But he didn't. He took the easy way out. Just like Mother did. In his seventeen years of life, he lived a good life—friends, food, shelter. And now, he slept in eternal slumber and did the 'right' thing in his final seconds.

After all, dying for the 'better good' was easier than actually doing the better good. Isn't that so, Mother?

But at the very least, he died staring at Death unflinching, braver than he looked at his last hour. Her family died, quivering and begging for their lives.

She thought of the body near the Walls and wanly smiled.

Hereditary of the gods, indeed.

~°°~

Understandably so, guessed a mile away, foretold by the stars and other thesaurus inducing words—that pissed Eris Heindell off. "A threat, is it then?" Their eyes narrowed and Rycella knew they were itching to punch her again. "You're just gonna leave me again."

Rycella shoved her away. She saw a shadow with gleaming red eyes, crawling on the cliff. She swept away the humid strands of hair that kept blocking her vision.

"Huine, Krowan ID 86.903. Kruger, Thalia ID 67.130. Poitraz, Boreas ID 14.547—" A monotonous voice called out above. "—Sevhe, Helen ID 2.98. Walth, Lethe ID 93.452. Passed."

"What would you have me do Eris?" Rycella kicked the fiend off the edge. "It was a mistake. You would never understand."

"Come with us. Let's all escape," Heindell begged from behind, as they begrudgingly helped cover Rycella's blindspot and shortcomings. "We'll find a way, Rycella." Eyes widened. "Behind you!"

Rycella ducked. When it lunged, Heindell's heavy fist was what it met. It recoiled in pain. Rycella then rammed her upper body to the legs of the monster. It fell. "Escaping the walls is not the answer. There is no way to survive."

A hand yanked her away in haste. Sharp, gleaming talons barely missed the side of her head. "Stop making the conversation always about survival. Because it's not. You said you want to live right?" They panted as they ran, dragging her with them. "This is about being human and if you want to truly live, that's the first thing you have to be." Warm black eyes met green eyes. They grinned. "And look, we'll never know unless we try."

They were surrounded. Rycella looked at their current situation and almost snorted. "You can't fix all things by being... that.."

"You could've talked to me. We were best friends. Right?" Heindell said voice low as they watched the circling beasts meticulously. "Trust in me. And I'll trust in you."

Rycella's lips thinned.

"Did you really think we'd be happy, being Professors and stuck in this prison? Teaching a bunch of kids and flocking them to their deaths?"

"I would be." Rycella confessed. "As long as you're alive."

They gritted their teeth and swallowed. "I wouldn't be."

Rycella looked agape, hurt written all over face as if she was the one left behind and Eris wanted to throttle her but, instead they forced their voice to soften. "Help us escape. We can figure it out. We'll all escape together."

Shut up.

Shut up, you don't know anything. I'm sorry. For what will happen.

Rycella stiffly nodded. "Fine. Okay, Heindell." The demons were circling closer and closer, knowing they had power in numbers. It was then did she notice that they were back to back. She sighed. "I'll take the guys to the left."

"Okay." Heindell nodded fervently. "I'll take the ones behind you." They then paused, grabbing her arm. "Wait. Wait. Just so we're clear... You're gonna help us, right?"

"For fuck's sake, Heindell."

"I just wanted to be clear!"

Rycella looked exasperated. She crossed her arms. "Yes. Si. Oo. Ja. What other languages do you want me to—"

"Right, right okay I got it." Heindell raised their arms in surrender. "You're gonna help us," They said in awe of the basic, barest slimmest human decency. "I always knew you would." They beamed, grinning ear to ear. Rycella swallowed the bile in her throat.

That optimism could kill a man. Blinding. Dazzling. Shimmering. Other words in thesaurus that meant shining. Rycella would rather choke herself than be that optimistic. And without warning, planning or any sort of semblance of a brain cell, Heindell charged to the left, screaming like a maniac.

~••~

"I am not gonna heal that. You honestly deserved that," Rycella said, flatly. Clearing her throat, she made her voice extremely high-pitched. "'Oh, I'm just gonna charge a horde alone!' Gods."

Heindell cringed. "I don't sound like that. And it's not like you got a better plan." They pushed their cracked glasses up their nose and made a constipated face. "'Hur dur, let us just stay huddled up on the edge of the cliff.'" They clicked their tongue. "'You would never understand.' Wait, I forgot the crossed arms."

Heindell then proceeded to cross their arms and furrowed their eyebrows. "'I have a secret, tragic backstory.'"

"Ha. Ha. Ha. Comedian." Rycella rolled her eyes, voice monotonous as she crossed her arms. Eyes flickered to the swelling bruises etched in their arms. "Come here. Let me heal that."

"I thought you're not gonna heal me. Gods, make up your mind."

"So, you do not want to be healed?" Rycella arched her brow. "No takebacks."

"No, no—wait, heal me." Eris pouted. They begrudgingly trudged forward.

Rycella sighed and scrunched her nose, thinly amused and annoyed at the same time. Gently hovering her hands atop the bruises, green light flared.

Heindell winced. Just like every time they had a conversation, awkwardness and silence ensued. Rycella watched the bruises fade like thawing snow. Energy thrummed in her veins and it felt like atonement even though it would never be. The scent of blood lingered.

Finally, she cleared her throat. "You are aware that your friends aren't gonna take the whole thing well. I don't think you're taking it well either. Don't act kind to me."

Heindell blinked.

The last thing she wanted was to force someone to comply with her in fear. Rycella wouldn't be her Father. "I do not want you acting like you are walking on eggshells. Just be straight to me." The red-headed girl said quickly as she looked at Heindell's bleeding knuckles. It had been there before the fight. "You can be mad, Eris. At the world. At me. In fact, it's pretty normal." She shrugged rather tiredly. "I can bear another person hating me, do not worry."

"Why do you think I—I.." Heindell stuttered. "I don't hate you. I say lots of dumb things. I understand why you did what you did. Or well, I'm trying to. I'll believe you." They confessed, softly.

Rycella clenched her teeth, oddly ashamed. "I don't want your sympathy. Don't patronize me."

"Okay. I won't." Heindell said simply. They blinked then planted their eyes to the ground, looking hesitant out of the sudden. "Did you mean it?"

"What?"

"When you said that you'd be happy as long as I am alive."

"I did."

Pretty black eyes observed her. Something unspeakable flickered past through them, the admission known but ignored. This wasn't the time for such. Instead, Eris said, "Understand then, that Lethe and Boreas are my lifeline." They yanked Rycella's hand, eyes sharp and goring. The green light faded. The grip tightened and it stung. "If something happens them, I will kill you, Rycella. Don't betray me, please."

Heindell didn't have the eyes of a killer. She doubted if they'd ever have.

But, they meant it, Rycella thought. Good. Finally, something Rycella understood.

~••~

"I lost vision of you, earlier." The Principal's back was turned, her gaze in the small window of the Light Tower as she sipped tea. Her suit was buttoned incorrectly.

Rycella petted the purring black cat beside her. It snarled and ran off. She blinked, looked at her hand as if it betrayed her. "I fell off a cliff. And fought an ID 13 amid their tantrum. What did you expect?"

The Principal turned around, mask on, beady eyes piercing. It was a half mask, with the lower part revealed, wide eyes and a small, curved beak. A bird, of course, although Rycella was unsure of the exact species.

"Okay. I trust you." Her tone softened like she really meant it. She was lying though, the redhead knew. A small part of Rycella preened, anyway. "You're not an idiot, after all. What did little 13 want?"

Rycella shrugged, nonchalantly. "Eh, the usual. Still wanting to beat me up to a pulp."

The Principal looked at her calculatingly calm, cascaded by the shadows as she grabbed the teapot and poured in two cups. "Rycella, what do you think is the most important thing in this world?"

"Survival?"

"Wrong," she sang. "You've forgotten. In a world on the brink of death, survival is necessary but what is it that people crave the most?" She snapped her fingers and immediately the room lit up. "Entertainment."

Fifteen screens projected on the walls, each and every of them showing everything that was currently happening around the Dome.

"When the world ends, people don't want to learn how much they fucked up. They don't want to think—they don't want to know how pathetic they are or the things that are wrong in their lives." She took her cup and dropped five cubes of sugar. "What they want is something that makes them feel alive." She mixed them all up with a teaspoon, took a sip and hummed contentedly. "Remember that my dear. Be unreadable."

The room doesn't look like a school office, more like a messy bunch of cinemas mushed together in one seating. And it was. The screens were controlled and edited by the Principal, which she will send to the Districts of every demon household and even to the men beyond the Greater Wall. Really Rycella almost forgot, amidst of remembering curly braided hair, smooth dark skin and dark eyes, how truly fucked up this place was.

The Principal sipped more of her tea. "Currently, our Dome has the highest rating. Both in meat and in entertainment. Considering this will be my last term, I will have to make something special in the ending.Then, we will have our freedom. Just as I promised to you."

Rycella nodded blankly.

The Principal finally looked at her.

"You're thinking too heavily of calculations." She handed the other cup of tea to Rycella, a silent seething veiled in her tone. "You're hiding something. I know everything, don't you remember? I thought we're passed this, dear."

She said it with such disappointment, and something gnawed on the redhead's stomach.

"I am not. I really wanted to learn." Rycella bit her lip, unconsciously patting the cat faster. "It's just... pitying to see some people chase someone who doesn't really exist."

"Why don't you drink your tea?" the Principal hummed pleasantly. She placed down her empty cup. "I found that such drinks make these conversations run more easily."

"I prefer not to." Rycella smiles acidly.

The Principal leaned forward until they were eye to eye and Rycella knew that if she back down or averted her eyes, she will lose. "So, you do have something to hide."

Rycella forced herself not to flinch nor move and stared straight and unblinking against dark, dark eyes.

"No. I just prefer that I am in my sane mind and have control of what I say. Nice teapot, by the way. Assassin's teapot, I presume?"

The Principal sighed and placed the teapot on the table. Her fingertips left the small, subtle hole on the teapot. "Smart, little girl. I never know why I always try slipping in truth potions. You always know, somehow." She stood, her shadow towering over the bespectacled girl. "People's thoughts are so loud, obnoxious yet so juvenile. Your thoughts are so muted. So mysterious," she snickered. "Everyone in this Dome is nothing of importance. Except for you. "

The black cat stirred up and jumped to the Principal's shoulder. "And you too, of course," she laughed, affectionately.

"I'm tired of your narcissistic rantings."

The Principal snorted. "No, you don't get it—the alliance is crumbling, Rycella. The demons are hungry and the people beyond the Great Wall are angry. I hear their wanting thoughts every day. It's vexing." Her eyes turned dark. "Especially when I'm hungry and angry too."

Rycella looked away. The Principal continued.

"If either side knows you, your Peculiar and well... your history, both you and I know what will happen. I'll spell it out to you, my dear; no one will help you," she said, slowly as if relishing it. "No one. Not even your ID 13 and their friends. But I can. I will, my dear."

A hand filled with messy scribbles caressed Rycella's cheek. It's cold like porcelain and she had the urge to shake it away. She wouldn't though. Because it's something—because it's there, and it's disgustingly comforting. But then, the hand became hard and caged her whole jaw. There were only black eyes and blue from dying light glyphs. Only confined breaths and broken glasses.

"I hear it, finally. Your real thoughts. Some of it atleast." the Principal cackled like a madman. "I see. Now this is entertaining." Her eyes glinted. "What did you do?"

She saw. She saw what happened with—

There was a cold knife on Rycella's stomach and it twisted her insides. She pried the hand off and stumbled away. The voices were back. And they were clamouring for blood. Her's. They were calling her god.

"I didn't do anything. I didn't make it." Her lips trembled as she hastily ran to the door. "Leave me alone."

"You'll come back, we both know that. You always will." The Principal's laughter rang and the voices shrieked as if in a chorus. "And I'll be here because no one else will be."

(Trust in me and I'll trust in you, mouthed with sincerity, the firm stroke of their eyebrow that managed to be soft still. I'll believe you. I'll believe you. )

~°°~

Wednesday came.

Optimistic, foolish Eris Heindell dragged the redhead to the Mirror Room anyways despite her protest.

"I think we should try to go to Dome Wall," said a voice. "Lethe, do you think—"

Eris cheerfully interrupted. "Hi, guys! Sorry I was late." The three of them decided to come to the Mirror Rooms at different yet specific times so that it wouldn't be suspicious. "Also, I hope you guys don't mind—I brought Rycella with me! I figured out she's the traitor. Don't worry, she's a good guy now."

They dragged Rycella out of the darkness. The redhead felt an odd sense of fatigue washing over her body as Boreas stared at the two of them as if they grew two heads while Lethe looked absolutely murderous. There was a pregnant silence that begat another silence who got like twin silences as its children and so on and so forth until it stops.

"What the actual fuck."

~°°~