Chapter 10: The Depths Call
The waves crashed louder now, the sound like the distant wail of some great, unseen creature stirring from the deep. Lydia stood at the edge of the shore, the salty air thick in her lungs. The sea stretched before her, vast and unyielding, pulling her gaze toward the horizon where the last remnants of daylight were swallowed whole by the dark, endless depths. She could feel its pull, an insistent tug in her chest, as though the ocean itself were reaching out to claim her.
Beside her, the man—the man she had once loved, the man bound by the same curse she now bore—stared out at the water. His expression was one of grim acceptance, as though he had already reconciled himself to the inevitable. There was no escape. Not for him. Not for her.
“I thought I could save us,” Lydia whispered, her voice barely audible over the roar of the waves. Her hands trembled at her sides, and she felt her breath catch in her throat as the sea’s weight pressed upon her, an invisible force pulling her downward. “I thought I could end it.”
The man glanced at her, his eyes dark and fathomless, like the water before them. “You cannot end what has no end, Lydia. The pact was made long before you or I were ever born. It was forged by those who came before us, and it will be passed on to those who come after.”
“But I—” Her voice faltered, and she took a step back, her gaze locked on the rising tide. “I thought… I thought I could break it.”
The man’s lips curled into a bitter smile. “You have broken nothing. The sea remembers everything. And in its depths, there are no absolutes. There is only the call… the endless call. The souls that drown here are never truly lost. They linger, and when the time comes, they claim those who belong to it.”
Lydia swallowed hard, the weight of his words sinking into her like stones in the pit of her stomach. She had been so sure, so determined to free them both from the curse, to save him, to escape the pull of the sea. But now, standing on the very edge of the abyss, she understood. There was no breaking the pact. The ocean had claimed them, just as it had claimed the cathedral, just as it had claimed all those who had come before.
Her eyes fell on the decaying structure behind them, the cathedral’s crumbling spires silhouetted against the darkening sky. It was a monument to what had been and what could never be undone. And now, its silence seemed more oppressive than ever, a hollow tomb for the souls trapped beneath its waves.
“I wanted to escape,” Lydia said, her voice barely a whisper. “I wanted to run… I wanted to live. But now—now I understand.”
“You understand nothing,” the man replied, his voice low and almost distant. “This place was never meant to be escaped. It was meant to be endured. The sea claims all things, and in return, it offers no forgiveness.”
She shook her head, feeling the weight of everything crash down on her at once. Her heart ached for what could never be. For the life she would never have. For the man she could never truly save.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, though she wasn’t sure who she was apologizing to. The man beside her, the souls lost to the depths, or herself.
The ocean answered with a deafening roar, a swell of water that rose high above them, as though to swallow them whole. It surged around her ankles, pulling at her feet, dragging her closer to the water. She could feel it—the cold, relentless embrace of the sea, its grip tightening with every passing second.
Her vision blurred as the waves rose higher, swallowing the last remnants of the shore beneath her. She took one last, shuddering breath, bracing herself for what was to come.
But as the water surged up to her waist, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to look at the man, but he was already slipping away, his form dissolving into the mist that now swirled around them, thick and suffocating.
“You were never meant to escape, Lydia,” his voice echoed in her mind, faint and far away. “You were meant to remember. And when you forget, the sea will call you again. The call never ends.”
With a final, overwhelming surge, the sea swallowed her whole, and everything faded into darkness.
Lydia’s scream was swallowed by the waves, and the cathedral, now consumed by the ocean, stood silent. The sea returned to its endless, mournful rhythm, carrying with it the ghosts of all that had been lost.
The curse remained, as it always had. The ocean’s depths would never be silent.
And it would call again, when the time was right.
