Chapter Text
“Welcome ghoul,”
He felt himself sink away further into the drowning darkness, the feeling of getting swallowed by it was overwhelming.
“I would like to inform you,”
Reduced to just a fraction of what he once was.
He felt like he could not survive here anymore.
“that your services are no longer needed here.”
He could not feel his body anymore, did he even have a body? His mind was foggy.
The voice haunted his mind, the voice that sent him away from everything. That deep demonic voice, a voice without a face.
“Therefore you shall be sent back to the pit. “
Was it even worth it to survive? He lost his pack, his body, his mind, everything, he... had lost everything.
“You will be sent on your way immediately.”
His mind fogged up with memories of his pack, his first and only pack, his lovely, chaotic pack, filled with love, pain, tears and tenderness.
And his friends, his best friends, his amazing friends, he lost them all.
“Your pack has been informed of your situation,”
Was there a light? Had he found light? Did he finally die? No, he could not die, but, death, it was always described as darkness with a light in it. A light you should follow.
“and a new ghoul has been summoned to take your place.”
A replacement, already, he was not even gone that long, right?
“Since you are the only one leaving,”
He was alone, always alone, forever alone.
“You will be going alone.”
Alone.
From the beginning,
all the way to the end.
~~~
When he woke up, he was back in his ghoul form. His body felt weak, as he sniffed the air he froze.
He sniffed again,
but no change, he was indeed in The Pit. Out of the four places he could have been sent too, it had to be the Pit, this was the darkest ring to get sent too. There was no way out, not even death, you’d come back. His resolve crumbled down, he would never find his pack, or a new pack again.
Before he passed out, he begged that he had it wrong and that he was in The Third Ring, that would not be too bad, he could go to the other rings sometimes. Life would not be so bad.
But deep inside, he knew that was not the case, he would never find the others again, there would be no way he could get back to Earth.
He was truly alone now.
~~~
When he woke up again, he saw a tall shadow lunging at him and biting him, scrambling away from the ghoul, he ripped his arm out of the ghoul’s jaws and he changed to his elemental form, and ran away.
While running, he looked at his surroundings to try and get a better idea of where he was, when that did not work, he just looked at other ghouls, to see how they were. Seeing ghouls ganging up on each other he realized this was not the place to fight fair.
Hoping to see some kind of shelter, the ghoul went to a cliff near the sea of lava keeping the islands of the Pit apart, under the lava he found an entrance to a cave, going in, the ghoul put hand on the cold rocks for guidance through the dark passageway.
Coming into a bigger cave, the ghoul sat down and wanted to cry, the feeling of incompleteness, the feeling of forgetting something important was weighing on his chest.
“That is a problem for later,” he mumbled to himself. “First, I need to find food.” Going out of the cave he saw fish like creatures swimming in the lava.
“To catch a fish, you need to make them come to you, or be very fast.”
A memory...
but of who?
“Since you are only a part water ghoul, you will not be fast enough in the water to catch them by chasing, so we need to make them come to you.”
While voice continued, he saw the shimmering of scales in his mind, the scales shining like a rainbow felt peaceful, something he needed, peace.
“This plant is what the fish like to eat, now all you have to do is sit completely still in the water and wait.”
The ghoul looked around and saw something that the fish-like creatures were eating, he swam towards it and picked it up, it was slimy, Kinda like a slug, he thought to himself.
“When a fish is close enough, grab it, make sure to unglamour your claws, else it will slip away, human hands are not made for catching fish.” The voice gave a chuckle.
So he waited,
and did not wait long, a big fish came to him, the ghoul wondered if it was coming to the bait, or to him, either way, he had his dinner so he waited a bit longer.
And then he lunged at it. The fish tried to get away, but his claws were sinking through the scales, into the soft skin of the fish, drawing blood. Bringing his teeth to the head and biting down to instantly kill it, the blood came in his mouth and he felt ecstatic from the feeling. He needed more of this.
Going back into his cave, he sat down to eat, placing it on the stone floor, he looked around.
“Your room is SO boring!” A short full figure stood in the doorway, her face unrecognizable.
The ghoul chuckled at the new memory seeping into his mind, the cave was boring indeed.
“Its just a nest, closet and a drawer for clothing,” He hands waved around as she talked
The cave was empty apart from him and perhaps a small bat flock. So bare, he thought to himself.
“get some stuff in here, steal a plant,”
A bit of decoration would make it feel better, a plant would die in the lava though, he could bring the seeds and grow them, he had a connection to both earth and water so that could work.
“Get a record from the shop,” a slim tall figure joined her: “Raid the basement from broken stuff, that still works by the way.”
“Hmmm” he mused, “What else can I do?” While thinking about how to make his home his, the ghoul picked the fish up and started cleaning it.
“Great catch! You want me to cook it or do you wanna do it yourself?”
A different memory entered his mind, where did they come from?
“Okay, first you scrape off the scales, you start at the tail and go to the head.”
As the voice in his memory talked to him, he followed the instructions it gave, using his claws, the scales were scattering around him as he made quick work of it.
“Now we, or you, remove the organ. Be careful with the gallbladder, else the fish will be ruined, the gallbladder is this thing.”
His fingers remembered what he did that day, far away in the past.
“Amazing job! now comes a tricky part, removing all the bones, it will be quick, as long as you don’t fuck the steps up.”
When he was done removing the bones, he started eating.
After eating, the ghoul went out again, this time to find stuff to make a nest.
Going out, he wandered around, looking for something, he did not even know what, he would find it, he just knew it.
Running through the Pit he found multiple habitats of ghouls, lakes filled with water ghouls, they at least lived in a sort of peace.
The forests filled with earth ghouls, living together, earth ghouls cared for each other, but they would never accept an outsider here.
The Hellfire swamps of the Smoke and Hellfire ghouls, if you wanted to live, you would not go there.
Eventually he got to the biggest forest he suspected he would find, and went in. The sounds of burning creatures getting torn apart faded away as he went deeper into the forest. As the ghoul roamed the forest, a different voice entered his mind.
“When walking in the forest, be careful, even I don't know what lives here.”
The ghoul moved more carefully through the forest as he called upon his earth element.
“Use your earth connection and your air connection to listen to anything that could be here, feel the sounds of the forest, feel the nature around you, and feel when something is there.”
The ghoul used the memory to listen to the sounds of nature. The forest felt peaceful, but too empty, too silent, as if something, or someone was lurking in the shadows.
“There will be slight changes, a bird flying away too fast, the crickets being silent all of a sudden.”
As he creeped through the forest, nature seemed to go silent, he noticed and slid behind a tree.
“When you sense something, don’t run, it will get the creature's attention, keep moving in the slow pace you had and hide behind a tree.”
As the ghoul froze, he saw an earth ghoul passing him by, his throat dry with fear, he looked at it.
And the ghoul looked back.
He was certain the ghoul saw him, but the earth ghoul turned around and walked away. Is it a trap? Is he gonna get his pack?, his thoughts got hurried and loud in his mind as he continued through the forest he eventually found it, a soft plant with fireproof leaves, he remembered it when he touched the leaves and the memories of a Fire ghoul came flooding back, the fire ghoul wanted plants in his room too but he kept burning them, so they found this one.
He pulled a few plants out and quickly left the forest to go back to his cave.
Back in his cave he felt more at peace as he put the plants in the sand and opened his hand filled with seeds from other plants he could eat.
Finally he felt like living here would be possible. As the lack of sleep got to him, he felt alone.
All alone again but safe.