Chapter Eleven

My eyes fluttered open to a faint, bluish glow. For a moment, I couldn’t tell if I was dead or dreaming. My body ached, my throat burned, but the cold stone beneath me made one thing clear, I was alive. Somehow. The villagers hadn’t finished me off. Not yet.

I tried to move, every inch of me hurt. My hands throbbed, raw where the ropes had dug in. Though the bindings were gone, my skin was tender, and each pulse of pain reminded me how close I’d come to death. My drenched clothes clung to my body, the dampness seeping into my bones. Every movement felt slow, as if the weight of the ocean still pressed on me.

The cave around me shimmered with an otherworldly glow. Algae coated the walls, casting shifting patterns of blue and green across the wet stone. The light pulsed gently, almost like a heartbeat. It wasn’t entirely dark, but the shadows crept in strange ways, curling into corners the light couldn’t touch. Above me, jagged stalactites dripped steadily, glistening faintly in the glow.

I touched my face, searching for my glasses. They were gone. Yet somehow, I could see everything clearly. Every groove in the rock, every drop of water catching the faint light, it all stood out in perfect detail. My heart sank as the realization hit: The algae. It had changed me.

I forced myself to stand, my legs trembling. The air was damp and thick, clinging to my skin. My fingers brushed against the marks on my neck, the same ones left by the creature in the water. They pulsed faintly, an unwelcome reminder of its bite. I didn’t need to see them to know they were worse now, darker, deeper.

My steps echoed lightly as I moved deeper into the cavern. The floor was uneven, slick with moisture. A blue hole waited in the cave’s center, its surface perfectly still.. The glow from the algae reflected on its surface, making it look almost alive. I leaned over the edge, trying to see how deep it went, but the bottom was lost in darkness. Just looking at it made my stomach twist. It felt as though the water was watching me, waiting.

I backed away, my breath shaky. My foot struck something solid, and I turned to find myself face-to-face with the carvings.

They covered the walls, etched into the stone with a precision that felt impossible. The algae’s glow highlighted every detail, every jagged line and curve. Figures marched in chains, their bodies bent and broken. Some reached out toward a monstrous shape at the center, their faces twisted in worship. Others clawed at the ground, their mouths frozen in silent screams as they were dragged forward. The creature in the carvings was unmistakable. Hollow eyes stared back at me, an abyss within an abyss. Its form was serpentine, with tendrils and fins that seemed to ripple as the light reflected on it.

My fingers trembled as I touched the stone, tracing the lines of one figure’s outstretched hand. The rock was cold and damp, but the carvings seemed to radiate something darker, despair, hopelessness. This wasn’t just a cave. It was a temple. A place where people were brought, not to worship, but to be offered. Sacrificed.

My stomach twisted with realization as I stepped back. This was where they’d wanted to send me. This wasn’t just about the villagers’ rituals or their fear of the Abyss. This place had existed long before them, carved into the earth by something ancient. Sebastian was right all along.

I was so focused on the carvings that I didn’t notice it at first. The edges of the stone seemed to glow brighter. I blinked and looked up. There it was, an opening in the cave ceiling. A thin beam of sunlight streamed through, getting stronger. Sunrise.

If I could reach it, maybe I could escape.

Clinging to that thought, I moved to the wall, feeling for handholds. The rock was rough, uneven, but climbable. I grabbed the first ledge and started pulling myself up.

But just then, something yanked me back.

I hit the ground hard, the impact knocking the air out of my lungs. Panic shot through me as I scrambled to my feet and looked around wildly.

Before I could react, there he was.

I stumbled back, hitting the cold stone wall. I avoided his gaze. My heart pounded in my ears. I knew who he was. The creature from the dive, the one who left the marks on my neck. The one who attacked Jonathan in my room. I couldn’t look into those black eyes, endless, empty, with no white.

Behind him, the blue hole stirred, the water swirling as if he’d just climbed out. The surface calmed, but it still felt alive, waiting.

I didn’t want to see him, but I couldn’t ignore what he was now. He stood on legs, strong, lean, covered in that same metallic sheen. Muscles shifted smoothly beneath his skin with each step. His feet and hands ended in webbed claws. My eyes dropped lower, and my face burned. He was naked, but nothing about him looked human. His body was smooth, and where a man’s genitals would be, there was only a hidden slit, keeping everything tucked away. His whole form looked built for strength and speed, like a creature perfectly made for the water.

Then I looked at his face and when his obsidian black eyes, devoid of any white, met mine, it felt like drowning all over again. His features were sharp, too perfect. Thin fins flared along his head, pulsing gently. Gills on his neck opened and closed, drawing in the damp air.

I couldn’t look away. Everything about him warned of danger. The algae’s glow traced his body, marking him as part of this place. He stepped toward me like he already knew my fear.

“You shouldn’t try to leave. The sun isn’t for you anymore.” The words weren’t spoken aloud. They echoed in my mind, pressing down until my skull throbbed.

I flinched, my back pressing harder against the wall. “How did you do that? You can get inside my mind?”

He smirked. “I can enter your mind... and other places too.” His tone held a hint of something else. Was he being suggestive? No. That couldn’t be right.

“What... what are you?” My voice shook. I hated how weak it sounded.

He tilted his head, those black eyes narrowing. “I am Rynar. I guard these waters... for the Abyss.”

He hesitated on that last word. A flicker of something I couldn’t place passed through his eyes. But that word, “Abyss“, rang in my mind. Since we stepped into this cursed village, it was all anyone spoke about.

“The Abyss,” I said. “What is it?”

The question made him bare his sharp teeth. “The Abyss is hunger. It’s the dark beneath the dark. The place where light dies and secrets decay. It’s everything the ocean swallows and hides, endless, vengeful, needy.” He paused, his voice lower. “It was born when the first shadows slipped beneath the waves, when life gasped for breath. It’s the pulse beneath the currents. The maw beneath the surface.”

His words hit me hard and instinctively my fingers dug into the stone wall,”Why does it need guarding?”

A cruel smile twisted his lips. “It doesn’t. The Abyss doesn’t need anything. It takes. It devours. It has no mercy. The ocean reflects it, carries its power and rage. The water is the line between your world and its hunger.”

He stepped closer, towering over me. “I guard that line. I stop your kind from taking what isn’t yours.” This time, he spoke the words aloud.

I knew he meant the algae.

“We didn’t steal anything. We were studying the algae, “ I need to explain but he cut me off with a low growl.

“You took. You always take. You strip the waters. You tear at secrets. You demand answers never meant for you.” A muscle in his jaw twitched.”The only reason your kind hasn’t drained the ocean’s last breath is the Abyss. It shrouds the deep in darkness. It buries your greed in fear.”

I tried to meet his gaze, but the pressure behind it made my knees weak. “We didn’t mean, “

“Mean to disturb the balance?” he interrupted. “But Pearl.. You did disturb the balance. And you consumed it… the algae.”

I froze, the blood draining from my face. “It was an accident,” I whispered.

He stepped closer still, crouching so that his face was level with mine. The motion was unnervingly smooth, his body moving with a predator’s grace. His dark eyes seemed to pull at me, peeling away every layer of my defenses.

“Do you understand what it’s done to you?” he asked with an impossibly calm voice.

I shook my head, tears welling in my eyes. “No,” I choked out. “What do you mean?”

“The sunlight,” he said, his voice softer now, almost gentle. “It will burn you. Your body isn’t what it was. You’re changing.”

The words sank into me like stones, dragging my thoughts down with them. At once my mind went to Amanda, her pale skin, her dark eyes filled with terror for the sunlight. The way she had wanted to die instead of living in the darkness. I thought of the mice, specially Willy. How slow and tormenting his death was after being exposed to the sunlight.

“No,” I whispered, shaking my head. “No, that’s not… that can’t…” My voice broke, and I pressed my palms to my face, trying to block out the memories.

“You saw it,” Rynar’s voice whispered in my mind, like a low tide pulling at my thoughts. “You knew what would happen. And still, you took it.”

“I didn’t have a choice!” I snapped, anger flaring through the fear. “Jonathan would’ve sold it to the highest bidder. I couldn’t let him, “

“So you consumed it,” he interrupted, his tone darkening. “You thought you could protect it by making it a part of you.”

“I didn’t know this would happen,” I whispered as my voice broke.

He leaned in closer, locking his eyes onto mine. “Oh Pearl, you knew what you were doing. You definitely knew. And just because of what you did, you are alive. I saved you.”

“And..what about the others?”

“The others are dead.” His voice invaded my mind again and reality, the graveness of what happened, hit me.

“No,” I whispered, shaking my head. My knees buckled, and I slid down the wall. “No, you’re lying.”

“You know I’m not.” His tone didn’t change, as if the deaths of my friends meant nothing. He stepped closer, and I flinched. His webbed claws flexed at his sides, and the heat of his body pressed against the damp chill of the cave. “They were claimed by the ocean.”

“Then why didn’t you let me die?” My voice cracked, desperation bleeding into every word. “Why didn’t you let me go with them?”

He crouched in front of me, towering over me even at my level. “Because you belong to the ocean now. To the Abyss. And to me.”

A sick jolt shot through me. “I didn’t ask for this!” The words came out raw. “I didn’t want this! I don’t want to belong to anyone.. Or anything!”

My stomach twisted. “I don’t belong to you,” I hissed.

He tilted his head, that unsettling smile curling his lips and brought his webbed claw to my cheek. I flinched but he still touched me. “Not yet. But soon, you will be.”

His touch and his words made my skin crawl. “You disgust me,” I spat as my voice shook with anger.

His fingers slipped away, leaving a faint heat on my skin. He stood, towering over me. “Hate me if you want. It changes nothing.”

Before I could respond, he turned and stepped into the blue hole. The water rose around his legs as he lowered himself in. I followed him to the edge, anger bubbling inside me.

“You can’t just leave me here! I can’t stay here!” My voice shook.

He paused, looking back at me. “You can, and you will. The water chose you. You’ll understand soon enough.”

Then he sank deeper, his body disappearing into the water. Just before he vanished, his tail flicked upward, a flash of silver scales catching the algae’s glow. The water rippled, then stilled, leaving me alone.