The scent.

I inhaled sharply as the musky scent of an uncared home entered my nostrils. A terrifying symphony of my worst memories rising in a catatonic din that seemed to reverberate in my hollow chest. 

I walked as if through a viscous fluid, my mind reliving that moment eight years ago when I had fled into uncertainty. Sometimes, I still wondered how different my life would have been had I not run away that day. Whether I would have been taken away by the authorities, whether I would have lived with Geoffrey. The vile thought sent a shiver down my spine.

I still remembered the two hungry, cold nights I had spent shivering in the city alleys, terrified to my core. I supposed I had been lucky that I had survived. By the time Miss Whitman found me and took me to Tender Hands I had almost starved to death. And at that time, it hadn't seemed like such a bad thought. In a sick, twisted way, I had been angry at her. I had thrown temper tantrums, hurting caretakers under uncontrolled fits of anger until I had been too exhausted to do anything except let them force-feed me. 

We entered into the dark hallway. "We should've brought some light," Aris said, his voice terse.
I glanced back and saw his gaze flitting to the door.

"I think the upper floor will have light," I replied, my voice sounding strangely alien. Aris nodded, his eyes suddenly wide with what could only be fear.

"I...I don't like places without light, Zeke." 

I looked at him as if coming out from a haze. I saw his slightly trembling figure, his panic-stricken eyes, and his chest rising and falling as he took in shallow breaths. And it clicked. "That's why you understood. That day. On the dragon," I observed, finding some semblance of reality.

He nodded as he gulped again, his face was ghostly pale. "Scotophobia. I...I can't go."

I could feel my blood running cold at the thought of going inside alone. At the thought of facing my memories all over again. At the feeling of drowning in it.

"Zeke..." he whispered, his voice shaking. "I...let's get out of here. Come back, lat-''

His voice cut off and he took a sharp breath as a loud bang sounded from the upper floor. My throat became dry with panic as Aris grabbed my arm in a vice-like grip.  "Let's fucking get out-"

A series of loud bangs followed as our breaths quickened, and Aris started panicking. I was paralyzed. My vision tunnelled and disappeared in a single pinprick. A solitary thought. As if I was back on the scarlet soaked battlefield. Memories of my childhood littered the vermillion earth like mangled carcasses. A lone beast loomed over me. My childhood seemed to flash in front of my eyes. 

The grief. The terror. The pain. The hunger. 

Geoffrey.

He was here.

"Zeke- please-" Another loud bang and Aris screamed, my reverie breaking as his grip loosened. He stumbled backwards and hit his head on the shut door.

"Fuck!" He gave a pained yell, immediately trying to fiddle around with the door as the bangs quickened, and my brain flew into panic mode. He yelled, "Where's the fucking handle?" 

He shrieked as I saw what looked like the shadow of a four-legged creature pound down the staircase. My heart froze instinctively before momentary relief flooded it. My first thought was that of the Zverya, but I knew I would take the Zverya over the Devil anyway. I raised my hand as if to shield myself, and suddenly a blinding flash of light bathed the room in a white glow.  A bushy dog stared at me innocently from the top of the staircase with a substantial wooden beam in his mouth. His eyes glowed eerily under the bright light. I gulped, taking long, deep breaths as I finally managed to choke out. 

"Aris?" 

I turned around as I saw him shuddering, his eyes wide, unseeing as terror swept through him.

"Aris?" I repeated, walking closer to him and somehow moved to comfort him. He trembled uncontrollably, his skin paler by the second, incoherent. I felt a pang of pity and without thinking, crouched in front of him. 

"Aris?" He seemed unable to hear me, and almost by instinct, I reached for him, placing my hand on his shoulder to trying to get him to stop shivering. "Hey, we're okay."

He stopped shuddering and looked at me, blinking slowly, as if escaping a dream-like state. I placed my hand around his face, startled by his warmth and even more shocked by the way my heart reacted. Somehow, I didn't feel the familiar icy fear imploding my chest, instead, I felt a strange familiarity. I marvelled at the way the light seemed to shimmer against his emerald irises; enigmatic, hypnotic somehow. His lips were parted slightly as he struggled to even his breathing. 

His cheeks flushed, the soft pink somehow amplified against his pale cheeks and I lowered my hands, finding my breathing shallow but strangely steady. His gaze held mine for what I felt was just a second too long.

"What...what was that?" He glanced around the now illuminated, dirty walls around us. "Was that...sun? Is your power... sunshine or something?" 

His voice rose hysterically, which would have been almost comical had it not been for his terrified expression. The dog bounded up to us innocently as I gently pulled Aris away from the door and opened it, letting the canine happily prance away, the pillar still making noises as he dragged it across. We were quiet for a while, a strange amalgamation of wonder, fear, and nausea was slowly overpowering my senses. 

"Th..thanks," he said after a while, taking deep breaths as he tried to steady himself.

I stared at him. "I...don't even know what that was. What I did."

He shook his head. "Sunshine. I'm seventy per cent sure."

It was hard for me to tell if he was joking or not. However, I was relieved that he was still finding it in himself to joke. Or maybe he wasn't joking and my power was actually sunshine. There would be time to deliberate after we got out of the hellhole.

We made our way up the surprisingly sturdy staircase. We reached the sliding door at the top of it, the single washroom a few feet away from us. Aris opened the door with some difficulty as we stepped into a room bathed in the glow of the sun. The golden rays cascaded onto the floor from the large windows, as if, trying to inject some joy into the inferno of terrifying memories. It was all in vain.

I coughed as the sudden dust entered into my nose. We walked slowly across the ample, empty room. A single table with an empty vase stood on one side of it. The other had a small kitchen.

I gazed at it for a while, my heart constricted with a flurry of emotions. I stood there, my breathing shallow. My body numbed by the terrifying familiarity.

Aris walked across the room, studying everything curiously. "Hey, Sunshine," 

He called me after a while as I walked towards him, realizing that I may just have received a new nickname. He stood near an old bookcase standing against the very back of the room, beyond which was another door. I almost expected Geoffrey to step in front of us at any moment.  It took all my effort to keep breathing normally and to keep my thoughts rational. Being back in the inferno that razed with past scars and present anguish seemed to split my wounds open. 

I shook my head, trying to listen to Aris as he spoke, "Is that..her?" He pointed to the few photo frames hanging above the bookshelf. I gulped, my throat feeling like sand. I crashed into reality with a breathtaking fall and everything rushed back to me, burning under an overwhelming avalanche of emotions. 

Mom.

There were numerous old photographs in handmade frames. The sunlight was glancing off the dusty glass. Aris had blown some of it off, and I could just make out the face of my mother. He reached up and unhooked the frame, holding it in his hands. He wiped the glass off as I stared at it, my body tingling eerily. It felt surreal. Like I was floating in zero gravity. Like I was an outsider in my own life. 

"She is beautiful. But..." He looked at me and then back again at her. Surreality seeped through me, drowning me. I glanced at him as if through a thick fog. His voice seemed hollow, soft, as if from an infinite distance away. As if echoing in a void. "You look more like your father." 

I took the photograph from him and gazed at it, my heart beating ferociously. My arms seemed to move of their own accord, refusing to yield to my commands. I could hardly feel my own skin. In the photograph, my mother stood with cotton candy in her hand, a massive Ferris wheel visible behind her. She wore a sundress, a wide-brimmed hat covering some of her auburn hair. Her eyes shone, full of life. Happiness.

I tore my eyes away from the frame and handed it back to him, as my heart spiralled into my stomach. "Let us leave." 

He followed me after placing the frame back on its hook as I headed towards the door of the single room in the house. I opened it to reveal another dingy bedroom, the light from the sun just enough to illuminate specific parts of it. "You can stay here. I'll look for it," I told Aris as he nodded and stepped back.

I took a deep breath and entered the dark womb.

And at once, my heart tumbled into a dark abyss. 

I shut my eyes, taking deep breaths, the scent elevating my panic. I needed to search for the ring. Then I could get out and never return. Ever.

I walked towards the closet where empty glasses remained. I reached over and pulled it open, revealing rows upon rows of pungent-smelling liquid in bottles. I reached the topmost shelf, my hand trying to feel the surface, the dirt making me cough again. I felt around for the ornament as a strange ringing started in my ear.

I just want to play.

I gasped and retracted my hand as if stung, the words echoing clear like a devil's whisper. I took a deep breath, shutting my eyes as I reached for the topmost shelf again. I let my hand wander deeper into it, my heart lurching as I felt the unmistakable hardness of the metal. I gripped it firmly and pulled it out, another storm of dust attacking me in protest. I gazed at the amethyst ring now sitting on my palm, the astounding colour glittering. I slipped it into my breast pocket, my sense of dread somehow mounting and walked away from there as fast as I could. I shut the door behind me, taking deep breaths as I tried to calm my racing heart. I was relieved I had found the ring. But the dread of stepping foot into the realm of my nightmares was greater.

I found Aris with another photo frame in his hand, his eyes were glassy as if he was envisioning some distant world.

"Aris," I said breathlessly, struggling to keep my voice even.  "I...found it. Let's get out of here. Please. Now."

Aris didn't look up at once, still staring at the photograph intently. I repeated, my desperation mounting. "Aris?"

I walked over to him and saw the picture of my mother and me. I scarcely remembered anything about that day, except that we had gone to the beach and I had been terrified of the massive water waves. She had sat with me, holding a two-year-old Eejay in her arms. I was smiling in the picture as my mom cradled me. I felt a wave of melancholy wash over me. I wondered for the umpteenth time if she would be happy that I was with my dad, or would she want to keep me with her instead. Or would both of us live in Evimeria?

"Aris. Let's...go. Please," I said, my voice breaking. He glanced up finally.

 "Do you mind if I keep this?" he asked, his eyes still distant. 

I stared at him, my shock dispelling an iota of the grief. "Why?"

He shrugged. "I...think your memories deserve a better place than this shanty."

I stared at him before nodding. "Okay. Let's just please leave."

He nodded in return, slipping the photograph safely into his pocket as we quickly made our way downstairs. We stepped outside and even the squalor of the underbelly seemed like heaven to me as a weight was lifted off my chest. I felt like I had finally broken through the surface of water as my lungs expanded gratefully. Aris shut the door behind us as the light disappeared of its own accord, plunging the hellhole into darkness. As if the flames had been buried under an infinite deluge. The trickles of water engaged in a passionate battle with the tongues of fire, finally emerging the victor. 

A small smile played at his lips. "We did it, Sunshine."

I laughed, relieved. "Yes. Thank fucking god."

We made our way out of the alley feeling considerably lighter. I was filled with an unparalleled sense of power. I had managed to enter that building which I had hated from the bottom of my heart. I had managed to retrieve the one legacy of my mother. I placed my hand on my chest, where I could feel the comforting weight of the metal. I could feel my mother's warm hand caressing my feverish face as I lay down, after an evening of illness. I remembered her eyes lighting up when I returned home. I remembered her arms as they swung around me, embracing me.

I touched the talisman of the amethyst ring, making a silent promise to protect it, even if its previous owner had failed to protect me.