Chapter 10, welcome to the final chapter of the first Writing Prompt Wednesday! I’ve learned a lot during this process and I think Writing Prompt Wednesday is going to be relegated a bit to a semi-flash fiction that can be written in one post because, while this has been fun, this has been a lot! Let me know if you’d prefer to see something different or if you have any comments on Malia and Sebastian’s story!
The Night of the Renascent: The End
*Copyright 2024 by Kaye Roan & Blue Dandelion Press, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Sebastian’s POV
I could see and feel everything. From the moment The Dark swept me away from the campsite I shared with Malia, slicing into my skin and seeping beneath the surface, I had no control of my body. I raged against the control that it gained as the oily feel of the shadows slipped through my veins but the strength of my body, the strength of my mind and soul, none of it helped. I was a lost cause. Fear, thick and cloying, suffocated me. That The Dark had left Malia alone at the campsite told me enough of its plans. It was playing with us, playing with her specifically. I was just a pawn it would use, like a cat toying with a mouse until it finally made the killing blow.
I was aware of being strung up on a wooden post like a scarecrow, my arms outstretched and my legs tied together. The slick evilness of The Dark stabbed its way into my mind, spinning images behind my eyes that made me wish for a quick death, one that happened before Malia made it to me. Worse, I knew the moment that The Dark severed the line between the energy of the world and myself. I felt the loss like a piece of my soul had been carved away.
Malia stormed into the clearing and I wanted to scream at her, beg her to run as quickly and far as she could. My mouth wasn’t mine and I couldn’t move as she cut me loose of my bindings. A menacing laugh filled my head, shafts of thick black smoke stabbed through me, lancing up my arms and down my legs, breaking down any resistance I’d gathered and wresting any control I’d maintained, from me. Horror swamped me as I watched my body take up a fighting stance against her. Every movement against her was a mark against my already battered soul. The energy that sustained me was already slipping away, The Dark inhabited my body more than my own soul did at this point.
I felt my arms close around her, a mockery of the embrace I wanted to give her. I felt the searing pain in my chest at the same moment I felt the dagger in my hand slide home between her ribs. The clearing filled with a horrid screeching; the inky darkness in my veins slithered away as the screaming faded. My body slowly became my own and I felt the blood gushing over my hands where I held Malia and the dagger that was stuck in her body.
Malia’s hands went to my cheeks and I could stop the tears that streamed down my face. The absolute destruction I knew was on my face, in my eyes. But she smiled at me, soft and reassuring, a gentle light began to glow from inside her body, breaking through her skin and spreading until I held a brilliant beam of light and heaven in my arms.
The light faded and I was left with nothing. Malia was gone. Her body had never dissipated into shafts of bright light before. Each time, I’d been left to weep over the broken body of my soul-bonded. This time though, I slipped to the grassy clearing floor, my energy flagging and I hoped I’d be joining her soon. My Malia. At least this time I would get to go with her, even if she hadn’t been the one to take me out of this world.
Across the clearing, I could see the inky stain spreading on the grass, seeping into the dirt, and killing every living creature where it touched. The Dark was gone. Malia had purged it, not only from his body but from the world. For the first time in 500 years, they could have been at peace. Instead, all that was left was destruction.
I lowered myself from my knees to my side, focusing on the feeling of energy draining from me and trying to recall Malia’s face to my mind; I comforted myself by knowing I wouldn’t be forced to live in this world without her anymore.
Night fell and my consciousness waned. The moonlight on my face was comforting, and reminded me of a long-ago touch, from my earliest days in the world.
“Wake, Sebastian.” The voice was familiar in the best way. It called to the soul that had been lying here in the clearing, dying, wishing for death.
“Open your eyes,” the voice came again. I squinted up at the sky. I knew who was calling for my return but it seemed cruel. Why should I remain when she was gone?
“I’m right here. Open your eyes and drink!” Her voice was breathless, almost frantic.
My eyes flashed open, shock overrode any rational thought, especially as Malia shoved her wrist against my mouth and forced her blood to flow. I resisted, trying to pull away. What was happening? How was she here? I wasn’t dead, my soul was in too much pain for that.
“Drink Sebastian, I’ll explain in a moment.”
I obeyed, trusting her. If I could stay with her, I would listen to anything Malia said. Her blood slid down my throat and I choked. Within that blood though, there was something familiar. Not familiar in a Malia way but rather, in a life-giving familiar way. There was an energy there, a life-sustaining energy. I drank deeper. And was reborn.
6 Months Later – Malia POV
Months had passed since The Dark had been vanquished, that dark stain on the world slowly faded with time and my dreams had been blissfully uneventful. Sebastian spent the first weeks refusing to leave my side and I couldn’t blame him because I didn’t want to leave his side either. He told me what had happened in those moments after I turned to light and disappeared. In return, I told him what I could remember beyond simple warmth and a sense of fading, then solidifying again, right next to his pale body as he lay nearly dead on the ground. Instead of panicking, I felt an odd sense of calm as I knelt beside him and slashed my wrist with one of the fallen daggers. I could see the energy that flowed through my blood, into his body and I knew, without a doubt, that I would sustain him. We would sustain each other.
Since that night, Sebastian hadn’t been able to go into the sun without feeling like he was set aflame. His canine teeth had grown into sharp points that punctured her wrist to drink, usually once a week. He could no longer siphon energy from nature, but from her, he would continue to live. He’d spent the nights building them a cottage on the cliffs they had flung themselves from that first night he appeared at her home. They would split their time between the cottage and The Galaxy, the ship that waited beneath them on the sea.
After 500 years of death and uncertainty, Malia and Sebastian were together, The Dark was gone, and the possibility of truly living was before them. A perfect dream indeed.
And there you have it, Malia and Sebastian’s Happily Ever After. Thank you for reading their story; I hope you enjoyed it!
Happy Reading!
