His POV
My eyelids flicker as the unrelenting snow cascades past my vision, feeling something foreign between my neck I grab it with both hands. Pulling and tugging on it I begin to sway myself with the force.
"Need some help?" A figure walking above the snow speaks out, gradually making their way towards me. I ignore them, continuing to tug on the object despite no obvious signs that it's even remotely getting loose. Looking up to see the figure gone I twist my head to try and glance at the object, falling to the ground in shock when she appears behind me.
"Didn't you hear me the first time?" She giggles, handing me her arm to help myself up with. Her height standing just a bit above me as she examines me with curiosity. "Did you forgot us...didn't you?" She stares with sadness while her hair blows alongside the blended snow.
"I-" I pause, holding my head as I panic. Words that are supposed to define me, letters that make up something...a name. "What-is my name?" Pieces of static flashing past my eyes and pounding against my head as I try to recall memories that aren't there.
She extends her hand out again, ignoring the heavy snow falling on top of our heads. Taking it into my own I feel her tug me into her arms. "You wanted this out, didn't you?" She lets me go, placing an iridescent item into my hand and smiling back at me. Staring into it I begin to recall a name..."Irene"
"Yes! That's me!" She excitedly jumps before pulling me along without warning. "But you still don't remember yours do you?"
I form my lips, moving my tongue and releasing a sound to be shaped along with my faint memory I regained. "...Jackson?"
"There you go!" She briefly looks behind her to stare at me, revealing her half smirk. Dropping it when she sees my frown, "You want to know where we're going, right?" She waits before smiling at my desperate nods.
"Well we're in the middle of a blizzard, this one however...doesn't feel right, ya know?" She shakes a little bit, making me confused.
"Is it cold?" I ask her
"Don't you...oh" She stops herself, glancing me up and down and smiling again, "No it isn't that bad" Continuing on and carrying us up a snow covered mountain that seems to only get steeper by the second.
"Just a little more Jackson" She leads me, pulling us up the final trial to the steepness and onto the top of what seems to be a tundra. She lets go of my hand, instead gesturing for me to follow her.
Getting a little distracted as I gawk at the environment in awe, turning around to view the blizzard we were once in still raging behind us but somehow leaving the land around us untouched. Continuing my pace I end up pumping into her, "Sorry" My eyes shoot to the ground in embarrassment but she shrugs it off with a laugh.
"Recognise anything yet?" She points towards the darkened lines across the ground that eerily feel as if they're sapping my very life from me. I shake my head in disagreement which causes her to sigh with disappointment.
"Sorr-" I go to repeat again but she places a finger across my lips to silence me.
"Shhh, don't give form to the ones around us" She points towards a black drop that rises from the floor, another, another I count until the number becomes unclear. The blobs of...ink? Rising from the cracks within the ground and rising into the sky as if dripping from the floor and falling upwards.
"What are they?" I whisper in Irene's ear
"The person who made this place...and well-" Her hair flicks around as she stops herself from walking into a giant stoned wall. "Every damn time this is gonna happen huh?" She slides her finger down it as if shocked by the appearance of the giant structure. Although admittingly I didn't acknowledge it either.
She grabs my hand again as we both touch different sides of the gargantuan wall, "Well we're here" She smiles before the wall sinks inward with our hand print, causing lines of gold to extend from mine and violet from hers. Tracing along the wall zigzagging as if dancing along with each other from corner to corner until the structure begins to shake, turning the coloured lines into a pure white and causing the doors to slide open.
..."Scared?" She turns to me while stepping back into the opened darkness. A gale of wind passing through her and throwing her hair past her face as she giggles. "That tickles" She smiles widely before running off into it.
The door's patterns shifted, fading back into the stone and giving way for us to proceed inwards.
"C'mon" Irene gestures for me to come in with her as she runs in excitedly.
My own advances paused by the howling wind pulling me as if the temple itself is trying to breathe. Step by step I gradually lose sight of Irene as she disappears into the lightless room.
"Try and keep up Jackson!" I hear her cheer.
Faint whispers filling the empty space soon become accompanied by a flicker of blue flame, lighting up not too far in front of me. Extending my hand only to retract it immediately. There's...something blocking it's full exposure. A shadow walking past it back and forth as if trying to find it's caster.
Using my raspy voice I manage to speak out to it, "I can see you". My not so smart comment earning me silence, the paused shadow not retaining any physical features but I can feel it, staring at me, analysing me.
A few more moments of silence feeling like hours from the emptiness of the space. Unknowingly I haven't blinked since I first laid eyes on the flame, feeling my eyes water up I look down and rub the irritation away with my fists. A sudden chill to the back of my neck alerting me of a change in the environment I go to step back but something stops me. A cold weight placed upon my wrist as I look up to see pure white eyes leaning towards me, "What...are you?" The irony of the question as the shadow stares at me with his eyes running up and down my body with curiosity.
"I'-"
"Jackson" Irene's voice takes over as she steps through the shadow, grabbing my wrist and pulling me further. "Didya get lost or something? It's just a straight line c'mon!". I continue looking back in hopes of seeing it again, but even the singular flame illuminating the hall remains gone.
-
"We're getting closer, I can hear it" She whispers as if trying to not disturb something
"Where are we going...?" I finally ask but she places a finger to my lips
"Shh, spoilers" I feel her jump a little as if skipping a gap in the floor
"Irene..."
"Yes Jackson?"
"Can you...see?"
"Can I see what, be specific?" She sound frustrated but I can't tell with the lack of light
"I mean...can you see me?"
"Of course, why wouldn't I be able to?"
"Irene it's too dark in here to see anything, how can you see me?" Feel slightly uncomfortable I tug my hand away from her and instead making my own way forward.
"Hey wait up!" She yells to me as I speed up my walk in hope of eventually gaining sight of something. Staring down I see a trail of black tainted with red, craved into the floor and trailing down the hall. I pick up pace knowing that I must be close to whatever it is, the walls now copying the same patterns and shaping into recognisable figures. Wolves...humans...weapons and something I can't distinguish at all, it's form standing high above the rest of them alongside three orbs of light surrounding it.
"Recognise her?" I feel a hand press against my shoulder. Scaring me but holding me in place so I can't jump.
"Jackson you can't leave me even if you wanted to" She laughs to herself, twisting my body to face another door similarly to the one at the front. Guiding my hand to the prints once again it lights up, gold on my side and violet on hers. Dancing together and fading to white.
The thick stoned wall slides downward, blue flames lighting up symmetrically and showing me something...I'd of rather not seen. "You're not scared, are you?" Irene taps me on the back to keep me moving but I nod my head, I'll admit I'm afraid when the time comes...and right now I'm afraid.
The walls carved up like a wild animal or rather...beast made it's way through here. Slicing up the stone all around to where even the ceiling is torn up. Fragments of nail and blood littering the ground still carrying a heavy scent of death on them as I choke up on air trying to speed past them.
"We're here" Irene gently speaks, standing in front of me and blocking my view of what we've came all the way in here for. "Try to remember". She winks at me while moving to the side to finally show me the room.
Marble textured walls and flooring engraved with the same patterns as the doors, flickering with light but unlike the halls it remains untouched by claw marks. I walk forward still taking in the environment, feeling a small clank resonate from under my foot I notice something metallic and broken under my shoe...a chain?
I step down to pick it up, pausing when a hot breath scorches the back of my neck. Jumping back to Irene she laughs a little before clicking her fingers in front of me as if I zoned out. "Did you not see him?"
She points towards the source of the breath, a cloaked figure leaning down but held up by chains. Blood surrounding the entire floor around him as the hooks dig deep within his flesh although the positioning of them seeming odd...almost as if he put them there himself. 8 in total including a collar around his neck, covered in dried blood from the spikes dug deep within his neck.
"Who...allowed you in?" His voice rumbles the space around us, an unintentional display of power and authority. The figure that's wrapped up in chains, wearing them more like accessories than an actual hindrance to him.
"This place was a gift to you, was it not?" Irene walks up to him, spinning around with a finger trailing across the cloak.
"Yes"
"And who was it that gifted you it...?" She smirks
A pause before he deeply inhales as if regretting something, "Leave" the chains to his hands rattle
"Where's your sword? I don't see it placed over there" She hops from the gaps in the floor toward a pedestal where there's a slot befitting of a weapon.
"You've been watching these past five years...you know where it is, Irene" He grumbles out in annoyance, "Why are you two...here?" He questions with confusion
"We were bored sitting there, and what occurred all that time ago allowed for an opening...the slightest gap in logic, reality if you will. So we took it, our mother isn't watching us anymore and nobody's giving us the attention we crave for." She stops in front of the figure, tilting what seems to be his head upward and staring at him.
"A monster made by the desire for recognition..." He growls out, spitting blood in her direction.
The comment making her laugh uncontrollably as she makes her way over to me, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Called us the monster! The audacity, am I right Jackson...Jackson?"
I hear her clearly...but. Something's in my head, calling even louder than her. A beating resonating from within the chest of this figure. My fear of him suddenly gone as I make my way towards him, extending my hand out and reaching under his cloaked form. Fur with the texture only suited to royalty...I can feel the countless battles it's had despite being unphased to those harsh conditions.
"Look at me" He demands, getting up from his knees and standing despite four chains tearing flesh from him. Tilting his head down and staring at me, the familiarity I feel to his different coloured eyes almost welcomes me. The ringing sound in my head growing insatiable by the seconds that pass, "I...feel something" I barely breathe out, beginning to feel faint the longer I hold it in.
"Jackson wait!" Irene tries running up to me but a giant slam from behind me blocks her off, looking behind I see his arm bending down to cover me.
"I know you can do it, please" He pleads. The heaviness within my hand growing unbearable as I lay it against his chest, pulling sparks of red and black outward and cupping it between my hands I see the beast visibly grow exhausted...or rather feel at ease?
"JACKSON!" Irene's eyes light up as the sparks release into the air, shaking the earth and splitting some of the marble. Gradually wrapping around us I hear the screeching voices, the pain, death, the searing heat of the sun and the weight of all the death time has to tell. I look over at the beast as he stares at me with a look of approval, bowing his head slightly as if thanking me.
"I'll remain here...until she needs me" He speaks, cloaking himself back up and laying down.
"Ja-" Irene continues to try and make her way towards me, fighting through the heavy aura of the sparks as it digs up the ground, wrapping around our limbs and pulling us downward like a drill. The memories of his time, the people he's met. I see...me?