11 - Echo
If this is as good as it gets, I’ll take it.
When I open my eyesall I see is purple. All around me is nothing but purple. It’s blurry, and misty, and magical. But as the seconds tick off, my eyes begin to focus and the fuzzy haze condenses into something recognizable.
Lines. Squiggly lines ofglowingpurple. Like a neon sign might glow.
“They’re roots, Little Baby.” Josep speaks these words directly into my ear. “The Tree of Life.” He laughs softly and this laugh sends a chill through my body that makes the little hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up.
Not in a bad way, either. It’s… a shiver. But the good kind.
This realization almost sends me into a panic because?—
“Little Baby?” He interrupts my thoughts.
“What?”
“Don’t overthink it. Just… enjoy. Enjoy everything. I’m sorry for waking you up earlier without the proper preparations. I made a mistake. But I’ve since course-corrected. Forget about everything that came before this moment right now because none of that matters.”
I can’t say I agree with him. I can’t say I disagree with him either, of course, because he’s…
“Insane?”
He knows what I’m thinking? He can read my mind? This is like the abusive relationship from hell.
Josep chuckles. “I’m not reading your thoughts, Little Baby. I’m part of them. I’m part of you. I’m inside you. Both as the Darkness and as the Seed.” His hand, I realize, is caressing my stomach.
This is when I remember what happened earlier and what he said.We’re expecting a Dark Baby, Little Baby.
Immediately, my heart begins to thump inside my chest and I start sucking in air in short frenzied gasps.
“Shhhh,” he says, petting my head as he continues to caress my stomach. “Don’t panic. I’m going to show you what this all means and how beautiful it is. And then we’re going to drink, and fuck, and sleep, and grow old together.” He laughs again. “Well, we won’t grow old. Ever. We will be the same pretty demons we are right now in a thousand years. Because you are the Dark Mother, Echo.”
When he says my real name, something inside me changes. Some little part of me—the part that was dying—starts to come alive again.
“Echo.” He repeats my name right into my ear, causing another inexplicable shiver of delight. “You’re my Dark Queen, Echo. You’re my Dark Mother. But first and foremost, you’re my Little Baby. My one and only. Forever and ever. For all infinite eternity.”
Despite the fact that I know better—that I understand what this thing is and what it has done to me—I relax and begin to feel… safe. I guess.
I must be drugged. Because the one thing I am not is safe. Not with him.
“I understand your misgivings, Little Baby. I am quite a spectacular creature, after all. But look around. Look at what we’re a part of.”
I let out a sigh and refocus on the roots all around me as they glow the gentlest of purples.
“Are you looking?”
“Yes.”
“And what do you think?”
“It’s… pretty?”
“It is. I really like being in the earth. It’s so soothing, isn’t it?”
I want to deny this, but I can’t. He’s right. The glowing rootsaresoothing. It’s something out of a fantasy. Like a fairy realm in a movie.
“Do you know what they do?”
