THE VOID BEAST

CHAPTER 5: THE WATER

---

The water swallowed me whole.

Cold. Dark. Silent. I sank, my clothes dragging me down, my lungs already burning. The moon above shrank to a pinprick of light.

This is it, I thought. This is how I go back.

Then something moved.

A glow cut through the darkness. Small at first, then growing. Expanding. A shape emerged from the depths.

I blinked, certain my oxygen-starved mind was playing tricks.

It was the rabbit.

What the heck? A rabbit swimming?

She glowed like moonlight on water. Her cloudy eyes burned silver. And beneath her glow—something enormous shifted in the darkness. A shape that didn't match her tiny body. A shadow that seemed to stretch beyond her, filling the depths.

I couldn't tell if it was her, or a reflection, or something else entirely.

She opened her mouth—

And everything went dark.

---

I woke to a ceiling I recognized.

The dark wood beams. The chandelier. Darian's room.

No.

I squeezed my eyes shut. Opened them again. Still the same ceiling.

No, no, no.

A face hovered over me. Mira's—her eyes red, her expression frantic.

"Young master! Thank the stars—" She pressed a hand to my forehead. "Why did you go back to the lake? Why would you—"

I didn't answer. I couldn't.

I'd gone under. I'd seen the rabbit glow, grow, swim toward me. And then I'd woken up here.

Still here. Still trapped.

"Please, young master." Mira's voice cracked. "Please stay. Let me get the healer."

She hurried out, the door clicking behind her.

I lay still, staring at the ceiling.

Darian?

No answer.

Darian, can you hear me?

Silence.

I reached into my mind, searching for his presence—that quiet warmth that had been there since I woke in this body.

Nothing.

The space where he used to be was just... empty. A hollow quiet that made my chest feel wrong.

Is he weak? Is he mad at me?

I'd gone into the water. I'd tried to leave him alone in this body. Maybe he'd shut me out. Maybe he was gone entirely.

I tried to access his memories—the ones that had come so easily before. The layout of the house. The faces of his tormentors. The sound of his mother's voice.

Nothing. Just darkness.

What have I done?

I pressed my palms against my eyes, trying to remember what Darian's presence had felt like. It had been like a second heartbeat. Like a voice just beneath my own thoughts. Always there. Always watching.

Now there was nothing.

I'd been so desperate to escape this world that I'd ignored his fear, his pleading, his warning. Please don't do this. If you go, I lose you too. And I don't want to be alone in this body again.

And I'd done it anyway.

The guilt sat heavy in my chest.

Then—

The door slammed open.

Lord Valerius strode in, his eyes like ice. Before I could speak, his hand cracked across my face. My head snapped to the side. Pain bloomed across my cheek.

"You disgrace." His voice was low, controlled, terrifying. "You bond with a rabbit—a rabbit—and then you try to drown yourself again? In front of everyone?"

I opened my mouth to explain. He didn't let me.

"As if choosing that lowly creature wasn't enough. As if embarrassing this family wasn't enough. You had to make a scene. You had to remind everyone what a failure you are."

"Father, I wasn't—"

"Silence." He turned to the guards at the door. "Take him to the dungeon."

The guards stepped forward. I scrambled back on the bed.

"Please, Father—"

"No food tonight." Valerius's voice was flat. "Let him think about what he's done."

The guards grabbed me. I struggled, but they were too strong. Their grips were iron, their faces blank. They'd done this before. They'd dragged Darian through these halls before, probably many times.

"For how long, my lord?" one guard asked.

Valerius didn't turn around. "Until he remembers what he is."

The words hit me harder than the slap. Until he remembers what he is. A bastard. A failure. A stain on House Vex.

The guards dragged me through the halls, down stone steps, into darkness. The air grew colder with each step. Damp. Musty. The smell of mold and old stone.

A door clanged shut behind me. An iron gate. A cell.

I sank onto the cold floor.

---

I lay there, staring at the ceiling of my cell. Damp stone. Dim light from a single torch. The flame flickered, casting dancing shadows on the walls.

Darian?

Nothing.

Still mad at me?

Silence.

I'm sorry.

No response. As if he wasn't there. As if I was alone.

I pressed my palms against my eyes.

I shouldn't have gone into the water. I should have listened to him.

A soft sound came from the corner of the cell.

I looked up.

The rabbit was there. Small. Shaking. Her cloudy eyes fixed on me.

How did she get here?

I remembered the guards dragging me down. Had she followed? Could bonded beasts always find their masters? Or had the guards left her with me because they considered her as worthless as I was?

Maybe they'd laughed. "The rabbit too? Lock it up with him." I could imagine it. Their sneers. Their laughter.

"Hey," I whispered. "Hey, little one."

She didn't move closer. She just stared, her nose twitching.

I remembered the water. The glow. The enormous shadow beneath her. Had I seen it wrong? Had my oxygen-starved brain invented the whole thing?

How could a scrawny rabbit create a shadow that big?

I pushed myself up slowly. My body still ached from the beating. My ribs screamed. But I needed to reach her.

I moved toward her. She hopped back.

"Wait—"

Another hop back. Distancing herself. Avoiding me.

I stopped.

She saw me jump. She saw me leave her. She must hate me.

A beast can only survive when the one it chooses is alive. And I'd jumped into a lake right in front of her.

"Hey," I said, softer now. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I wasn't trying to leave you."

She stared.

"I was trying to go home. My real home. But I—" I stopped. "I don't think I can. I think I'm stuck here."

Her ears twitched. But she didn't move.

She stared a moment longer. Then she turned and hopped away, disappearing into the shadows.

"Seriously?" I called after her. "You're ignoring me too?"

No response. She was gone.

I sank back to the floor, pulling my knees up, wrapping my arms around myself. The cold stone pressed against my back. The torch flickered.

Is this really the end? I thought. Will I be stuck here forever?

A fantasy world. A hated body. A rabbit that hated me.

No way home. No way out.

I closed my eyes.

---

A figure towered over me.

I looked up, blinking against the dim light. I couldn't see their face—they were cloaked, covered from head to toe. A shadow against the torchlight.

"Who are you?" I asked.

The cloaked woman didn't answer. Her voice emerged—feminine, old, achingly familiar somehow.

"You've grown. And you have a special beast now."

I almost laughed. "Special beast? That D-ranked scrawny rabbit?"

"She isn't what she seems."

"Right. And I'm not what I seem either." I gestured at myself. "I'm not even supposed to be here."

She didn't react. "Your mother wasn't a maid."

I froze. "What?"

"Your mother didn't die from poison."

The words hit me like a physical blow.

"Wait. What are you talking about? She was poisoned. Darian—" I stopped. He was the one who showed me the memory. But he's not here anymore. I can't—

"They said it was an accident," I managed. "That's what everyone said."

"They lied." The cloaked woman's voice was flat. "She was killed because she refused to surrender her beast."

"Her beast? She didn't have a beast. She was a maid. She had nothing."

The cloaked woman tilted her head. "Is that what they told you?"

Wait.

That wasn't just what "they" told me. That was Darian's own memory — his mother's face, her death, the word nothing wrapped around her like a shroud. He'd handed it to me like a fact, not a lie.

Had he believed it? Or had someone made sure he would?

I opened my mouth. Closed it.

"Who are you?" I demanded. "How do you know this?"

She turned. Walked away.

"Wait—"

She didn't stop. I scrambled to my feet, reaching through the iron gate. "Come back! How did she die? Who killed her? What beast?"

But she kept walking, disappearing into the darkness.

I gripped the cold iron bars, staring at the empty corridor.

My mother didn't die from poison. She was killed because she refused to surrender her beast.

She had a beast.

My hands were shaking.

She wasn't a maid. She had a beast. And someone killed her for it.

I stared into the darkness, my mind racing.

The torch flickered.

And then I felt it.

A cold breath on the back of my neck.

I spun around.

The cell was empty.

But I could have sworn—for just a moment—that something had been standing right behind me.

I pressed my back against the iron bars, my heart hammering.

Who was in here with me?