Sluagh

 

We sat inside the house as its walls shook and the windows rattled. A cacophony of voices, blades hitting each other, shields being bashed, and wild sounds that were incomprehensible filled our senses. It dominated our minds until it felt as though all that there was and would be was the sound of the wild hunt outside. 

Every window danced with shadows, the frenzied forces outside flitting from place to place. My companion hid beneath a table, body trembling, cheeks wet with tears. Her hands shook as she pushed her hair away from her face, eyes looking from her knees to mine. 

“What do they want?” she whispered, a sound swallowed by the howls of ecstatic agony from outside. 

I scooted closer to her, kneeling down beside the table. “What do you think they want?”

“What do you mean?”

“They weren’t chasing me. They were chasing you. You came to my home and hid.”

She looked around the old stone space, noting the strange assortment of tables and equipment. The fire had gone out in the hearth while a strange smell of ozone and magic filtered in from the fireplace. A darkness threatened to grow in the shadows, a sign the hunt would seep in if we didn’t rise to meet it.

“What is this place?” she asked, voice trembling.

“My home.”

Her brows furrowed, eyes taking in the implements of pleasure and pain that were resting around, here and there, a casual display of sensuality. Though to the uninformed eye, they would appear as torture devices, strange and terrifying. 

I smirked and shrugged. The wild hunt thundered on, creating a rhythm of fear that burrowed inside of us. It sent shivers through my skin and made the woman whimper, uncertainty of the future digging into her core. She had a right to be afraid. The world outside my door would swallow her. 

“Who are you?”

“It doesn’t matter. This is a safe place. But they’re not going anywhere. So what did you do?”

The eyes grew wider, a deer about to be shot. “What do you mean? I didn’t-”

“Don’t lie to me. You brought a wild hunt to my door and you, a human, are going to tell me you didn’t steal something or cause a curse or anger a fae king?” I raised a brow. 

She stared and then lowered her face back down to her knees, a sob racking her body. “I swear I didn’t know. I just thought-”

“Don’t. Just tell me what happened. They’re a trap for you. All fae, no matter how beautiful or horrible, are just designed to lure you in.”

“But we were in love.” More tears.

I sighed. “You were in love. I’m sure you thought it was the most phenomenal love you’ve ever felt. And then she asked you to what?”

Her dark eyes looked at me, red from crying. A hand slipped from her face to her oversized coat that belonged to a fae matriarch. From within the folds of fabric, a glowing orb of memories was pulled out, beating its knowing heartbeat against her skin. She offered it to me.

I pulled my hand back, the magic of it a promise of pain. “No thank you. You best get up, walk yourself out there, and give it back.”

“That’ll stop them?”

“No. But it’s better than what they’ll do if you don’t.”

“What’ll they do to me?”

I glanced out the window, rising to walk from her to the glass. “Tear your soul out, but they might destroy your body first. The sluagh take souls of the dying and weak. But I’ve heard they can take them from the living as well.”

Outside their twisted forms shuddered and moved as one, a flock of harrowing birds heralding the end of times. Sounds of hellish exultation came from their teethed beaks, skin hanging from their skin and swaying in the breeze. Long claws scratched on the stones, seeking any fault they could tear apart and pull my home asunder. 

“So now what?” she asked, setting the bauble on the floor. The house reverberated with the beating of its immortal heart.

“You face the consequences of your choices.”

“But she asked me.”

“And you decided. I’m sorry a cruel creature held you in her web, and I’m sorry you will suffer for all the cruelty she is. The only way out is through.”

Tears slid down her cheeks. I sighed, watching her quake. With a grim sense of knowing, I walked over, plucking the ball from the ground. It thudded into me, linking with my mind. A hiss escaped my lips before I slid it in my pocket and broke the bond.

“Stay inside.”

“But you just said…”

“I know what I said. I’m going to go out and negotiate on your behalf. If we’re both very lucky, they’ll take my deal and you’ll be free. I have a condition for this, though.”

She scooted from under the table, peering up at me. “What’s that?” Skepticism was in her voice. It was the sound of someone who had been taken advantage of too often and was used to bad deals.

“When this is over, you walk away from the fae and you never return. You break any deals, you sever contact, you never ever look back. Change your name, forget your family… whatever you need to do to ensure you cannot be found.”

Her eyes looked into mine, the sudden depth of her understanding deepening until nothing but a haunting sorrow remained. With one sharp inhale, she nodded. “I understand.”

“Good,” I murmured, pulling the key from my pocket. “Lock the door behind me.”

The woman stood and the world outside erupted. The walls barely held as they frenzied, swooping against the windows but never daring to break them. Their shrieks nearly brought me to my knees, but I knew I needed to stand tall and show this woman she could endure. My jaw tightened, the prospect of death gnashing its teeth against my door bringing a dour peace to my heart.

I gave her a nod and then pulled the door, unlatching it. The world outside held perfectly still, their inane minds thinking they could surprise me if they just didn’t move, grey bodies blending into the night sky. I closed the door behind me with a loud thud, letting them know I was here.

“I see you up there,” I said, loud enough they perhaps wouldn’t hear the door locking behind me. From the window she looked at me, curiosity getting the best of her.

Above me, the sky stirred. There were dozens of them clambering atop my house, clawed hands clinging to every nook they could find. Long nailed feet clambered and slipped, finding grip and falling against as they all slowly crawled towards where I stood, looking down at me with hollowed eyes. 

I pulled the orb from my pocket. “She’s sorry. She presents this as penance and claims asylum with me. I…” I paused, sighing. “I will stand in her sted.”

A clacking chuckle passed through all of the creatures, bony jaws slack and knocking awkwardly together in their laughter. Bones rattled, a weird thunder in the inky sky. One slid down the side of my house, nails gouging the rock until it hung off of the edge of a window. The empty eyes settled on me, wings twitching in known anticipation.

Another alighted behind me, dropping to the earth with a frightening thud. I turned, staring at it. In the darkness, it rose slowly, hulking form a mixture of hanging skin, exposed bones, and immense size. The grey skin, long necrotic and yet not fully dead, hung from the bones below. Within, it was hollow, yet even in the empty eyes, I could see its hunger.

I held my ground even as I felt fear crawl within and expand outward, chilling my veins. “Do you accept?”

Something flew through the air and landed beside me. The air was filled with them, their bodies blotting out the moon before they fell to the earth, landing around me until I was surrounded. I sucked in a deep breath and then held out my empty hands. “Shall we begin?”

One tilted its head before I felt an oddly light and yet incredibly powerful being slam into me. Its claws raked down my back, yet didn’t touch the flesh. An ice cold pain shot through me. My soul cried, speaking through my lips. The claws scratched its surface, distorting it with the simplest of touches.

The creature crawled off of me, leaving me on the ground in a small ball of existential pain. My physical body was fine, yet within me, I felt that things were wrong. I gasped a breath, eyes opening. My hand was clutching my chest and though my heart felt like it was pounding, I knew it was a soft steady beat.

I breathed into the pain. It was oddly comforting and familiar. Another claw played along my thigh, shredding a piece of my humanity as I cried out, animalistic. The claws came faster, each taking a shattered piece of my inward being. With each swipe and scratch, each caress, the creatures pulled my humanity from me.

My body shifted, kneeling before them as they swarmed above, diving to steal bits of my soul. Teeth touched my shoulder, biting into the energy I had and missing the flesh entirely. Clawed wings wrapped around me, pulling and tugging on the being within. Each splitting moment of tearing brought a cascade of pain, stinging my spirit more than my flesh. The tug pulled within me, rhythmical and steady.

Tears slid down my cheeks, my breath came in great gasps when I was lifted, pulled from the earth to the air above. My cries became louder, each one losing its human tone with every part of me that had been torn. Each piece sent ephemeral pain, drawing me closer to some edge I had never known before.

They didn’t relent, pushing me closer and closer. I could see the precipice and feel it approaching. Every piece of me felt hollow, an eerie peace that was left in its stead after each sharp and searing pain that the sluagh gave me, a gift of understanding. There was serenity in the void, that precipice promised eternity.

The sounds I made weren’t quite moans or cries, but groaning whimpers of understanding. My skin vibrated, sending encompassing sensations through me. I knew I was being carried on the winds of the earth. I knew that claws and teeth and wings and skin and hollowed bones were pressed against me, passing me from one creature to the next, each taking a drink of who I had become and who I was going to be.

I knew that there would be a pause, and then the sweet sensation of being torn apart and rebuilt would begin once more. Their wild hunt carried on in the night, chasing every part of me as it ran from them and succumbed. I began to anticipate the next taste, leaning against them, wishing for their unholy reach to push inside me and pull a part of me out.

The void came ever closer until the first creature I had seen grasped, teeth closing over my throat where the sounds of delight and agony were pouring out of. I couldn’t hear myself though I knew I was making noise. My mind wandered from the physical in the sublime below, skin shaking without my notice. 

Teeth pierced flesh, pulling the last of my soul from my center with one fell swoop. The guttural sound of release filled my mouth mixing with the sound of gargling and blood. A harrowing cry ripped from the soul’s shreds and I slipped into the darkness of the precipice, tumbling down into the subversive space below where I had no more control or fear, where I trusted the rhythmical pain and fell into its beauty.

I gasped, eyes opening suddenly to the night sky above. My hand flew to my throat, touching where I knew had been torn apart only to find the skin whole. The moon sat low, touching the edge of the trees in the clearing around my home. There were no more clacking bones or haunted howls, just the quiet whimpering of a woman’s cries. 

It took me long moments to realize it was I who was crying. Bereft of what I had been and what had been taken, I curled into a ball on the ground, body trembling. I didn’t hear the creature land behind me, but I felt its leathery wing curl around me, pulling me against its sagging skin on bones, frightening face pressed against my cheek. 

I leaned into it, letting it hold me as the quiet sobs wracked my body until I quieted, still trembling, in its embrace. The dawn threatened the horizon, stirring the bony creature from our respite. Dozens of eyeless faces stared at me from the trees, faces changing and shifting as I stared at them. 

They rose in unison, bodies shedding feathers instead of skin, their cackling caws filling the morning sky. My companion joined them, flying from me in a fury of down and feathers, skin forgotten and shed. We were all of us transformed.