“What’s happening to me?” she asked.
Sebbie didn’t answer her. With a sigh, he sat down on the bank, and suddenly I could move again. I walked back toward him, laying down beside him. He rested a hand on my back. I could sense sadness in him.
The woman’s face got more and more slack, like her very personality was being leeched out of her and into the river. I wracked my brain on underworld rivers. I thought that erasingsomeone’s memories and personality was a result of touching the river. I had forgotten about that. Acheron was also known as the “River of Woe,” if I remembered correctly.
The woman looked like she tried to move, like she tried to walk out of the river, but she fell to her knees in the water, her hand sinking down as well to support herself.
That was when the wailing began.
I’d tortured evil souls. I’d made people scream in pain and agony and misery. I’d never particularly liked the sound, but I had known that it was deserved, and I hadn’t felt sorry for the victims. They deserved the pain for the evil things they had done.
This… This was far worse. I had never heard such sounds come from a mortal before. There was something about it that was utterly heartbreaking. I looked over at Sebbie, and I noticed that he had tears running down his face. I leaned over and licked at his tears, resting against him in comfort. He turned toward me and snuggled into my fur, like perhaps that could block out the sound of the woman’s keening.
It seemed to go on for a long time.
Eventually, raspy weeping was all that was left. Sebbie stayed huddled in my fur, and I watched as the woman… sort of melted. I’d never seen anything like it. It was like the river consumed her, making her a part of itself. Soon there were only dull lights where the woman had been, and the way the lights pulsed and fluttered in the water made me think of pain. Then, as I watched, there was nothing.
Whatever had happened to the woman was done, and it seemed very final.
Sebbie eventually lifted his face from my fur, wiping his eyes. I wanted to be able to hug him, and then I was human again, sitting on the ground next to him.
I grabbed him, pulled him into my lap, and wrapped my arms around me. I gently rocked back and forth, making soft noises against him and rubbing his back and his arms.
“Shh, it’s okay, baby. It wasn’t your fault. She made her choice,” I assured him.
“I didn’t know how awful it would be,” Sebbie said, sniffling against my chest. “I knew it would be bad, but I didn’t know how bad.”
“It’s okay. She was evil. She killed many people and caused much suffering. She was an abomination,” I reassured him.
“She’s a lost soul now. There’s nothing left of her but woe.”
“You didn’t send her into the river. And she would have been tortured in hell anyway,” I told him.
He sighed, pulling back and wiping his eyes. “This is worse. I’m not sure how I know that, but I do. The pieces of her soul will suffer forever, but she won’t even know why. There’s nothing left of her. I should have saved her.”
“No, little reaper. No. She didnotdeserve to be saved, and perhaps what happened to her is for the best,” I told him. “She made herself into something unnatural and wrong, and now that thing is no more. Perhaps she wasn’t meant for hell. You did the right thing.”
Sebbie nodded against me, his head hidden in my chest, although I wasn’t sure I had convinced him. I didn’t want him to feel any guilt, though. Her actions were not his responsibility. She had come to the end that she was supposed to come to.
I turned my head, sensing something, and I saw the man in black standing further down along the shoreline. He looked sad and worried for Sebbie, and he nodded his head at me. I nodded my head back. I would take care of him.
“I’ll be here when you’re ready, old friend,” he said, looking at Sebbie, and then he was gone.
In the next blink, I was suddenly back in the bedroom. It was slightly dizzying. Sebbie was still in my lap, but his cloak and staff were gone—not that I was sure where his staff had been when we were cuddling.
I continued to rock him, giving him time. Finally, he lifted his head. I gave him a soft kiss on the mouth, letting our lips linger against each other.
When he pulled away, he let out a long sigh. “That was real, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” I answered. “Although I wish, with all my heart, that I could take the pain of that memory away from you.”
“It’s okay,” Sebbie answered, sounding a little dazed and out of it. “At least you were there to share it with. I wasn’t alone. I was always alone before.”
“You can tell me about it if you want to, but you don’t have to remember if you’re not ready. I’ll love you no matter what.” I leaned forward and kissed his lips again. “And it’snot your fault. Do you understand me, Sebbie? It’s Not. Your. Fault. You havenothingto feel bad about.”
“I guess so,” he muttered, and I knew I’d have to continue to tell him that until he believed me.
He was obviously lost in thought, and I let him have a moment, just being present for him. Not five minutes had passed before he gasped, his entire body tense.
