06-29-2023, 04:08 PM
islas' boyfriend
Tiercel
AIN’T IT HARD KEEPIN’ IT SO HARDCORE
When the twins were born and he was able to be a part of it, he thought, “This is it. I will finally be happy.” For a short time, he was. He began to sleep through the night, waking from dreams of his family rather than of endless deaths in the Underworld. Islas’s presence became familiar again, and her touch felt like home. He began to laugh with his children and a stern look toward Kamaria was respected.
It didn’t last. Tiercel isn’t sure how it happened (and he spent the first trapped year trying to piece it together), but he knows it happened fast. One moment he had kissed his family good night and went for a solitary walk and the next his lungs were filled with water. The pressure of tons of water attempting to squeeze the life from his body, the nearly imperceptible amount of light turning shadows into deep-sea creatures, the relentless sensation of drowning — these were the days and nights he experienced.
At first, it was almost comical. The darkness and depths must feel drawn to him. The Underworld and now Underwater. If he wasn’t choking on seawater, he would’ve laughed. But the humor quickly turned to anger, which morphed into desperation, and eventually depression. Memories blended with hours and he felt dreamlike. The only thing keeping him tethered to reality was the overwhelming water filling his lungs — his body keeping him alive by draining them only to immediately fill again.
Drowning. For days, months, and years; until a day comes when a shadow so large it fills his vision connects with the bars that trap him.
The first breath of real air is painful. Tiercel’s body is straining and exhausted, but he manages to drag himself onto a coast freckled with sweeping willow trees. He is thankful it is night; even the stars feel too bright on eyes that have spent years straining in the shadows of the deep sea. Their autumn constellations glisten on his slick body, whispering a warm welcome home.
@Islas