Where The Monsters Grew by Mariam Dodd

Author:Mariam Dodd [Dodd, Mariam]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2023-11-21T00:00:00+00:00

Volume 2

Insanity

“The most important step a man can take.

It’s not the first one, is it?

It’s the next one. Always the next step.”

- Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer

CHAPTER 12: RORI

It's… quiet, here in Ellesmere. After all, I don't think that there are any more people left here to scream. I think there are five of us in total that are hiding in the temple to Proserpine, and as we fan out looking for survivors I think that the five of us may be all that are left.

I'm standing in the rubble of the old lighthouse as the pale sun feebly rises over the wreckage, shining weakly as clouds cover the sky and frost smothers the ground. A sharp gust of wind skitters between the cracks in my old house, and I shiver, pulling my bloodstained sweater closer as I hunch my shoulders. It really shouldn't be this cold in November.

The waves are crying, their salty tears streaming as they try to put out the ash that had burned the ships where they lay, roaring in anguish as they realize that the boats that they had once loved so dearly lie in soggy cinders. They're begging me to fix things, their singing wailing at the corner of my mind, a broken screeching sound. They want me to sing them a song, a soothing lullaby that will let them know that everything's alright. But I don't think that I can sing right now; my throat's closed up, and my voice keeps shaking.

The soldiers burned the bodies. I can't really blame them for that. It's more efficient, after all, far easier than just digging a mass grave. And there was no one to tell them that Ellesmere didn't burn their dead. That the villagers desired to be wrapped up in robes and rosemary, so that not even a coffin could separate their skin from the soil that would break them down into the forces they were formed from. That Ellesmere desired the fate of other broken small towns, that were so enclosed by the earth around them that when they passed the land claimed them for their own.

"It is an insult to burn them." I try to tell the soldiers, but they roll their eyes. "They wish to be returned to the earth, not scattered as ash." I can't really blame them for sneering. They couldn't have known, none of them had come from small towns after all. But I still screamed until my throat ran red when they still lit the bodies on fire. I still burned my skin, drawing the corpses towards the softened soil. It is unfair to blame the soldiers I suppose, there are far too many bodies to deserve a proper burial. But I can't help thinking, just how many more could have been saved if they had helped.

I don't think I ever quite realized; how small the town actually was until it was lying in pieces around my feet. Until the stone walls fell down like children's building blocks and I was stuck sifting through them for bones.

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