Echoes of the Past

Shareena woke with a start. 

She took a moment to lie there, calming her racing heart. Sucking in a deep breath, she held it for one, two, three, then out. Once more - two, three - and out. And again. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness as she took stock of her surroundings, flicking over the dark shape of the woman on a bedroll beside her. 

The city was a beautiful place, easily in the top five ruined cities she had explored. Large houses and open halls, wide platforms and tunnels, had all been carefully carved out of the rock wall itself, and the buildings scaled the high sides of the open cavern. Arching bridgeways and delicate stairwells linked each tier to the next, allowing for easy movement up and down the city. Her eyes drifted the length of a walkway, long overgrown with greenery, admiring the way it effortlessly curved through the city. The heady scent of wildflowers floated down from above overpowering the faint traces of mildew and decay.

The full moon above cast a peaceful glow across the entire city. It would have been comforting, soothing perhaps, had she known what spooked her out of her sleep.

It came to her a moment later. 

The soft breeze gave it away. It was noiseless as it snaked its way down from above, leaves and branches making no sound as it wove its way through. The insects too. She could see them flitting about, the glints of ladybugs and the larger shapes of crickets and dragonflies. But their constant droning was also gone, replaced instead by that unearthly absence of noise.

A string of curses left her mouth. Even those were muted, as if said through cloth. She got to her knees, reaching over to softly shake the woman beside her. Tiff awoke with a jolt, eyes flaring in panic before recognition set in. Her mouth opened in confusion. Before she could get a word out, Shareena held a finger to her own lips. 

Eyes wide, all traces of doziness gone, Tiff crawled her way out of the bedroll, the sound of her movements dampened as she scrambled to sit beside Shareena.

“We moving?” she said, voice barely above a whisper. She inhaled a sharp breath as the other woman shook her head. Shareena moved into a crouch, hand moving swiftly to the curved blade on the log beside them. Eyes concerned but steady, she motioned to the other woman.

Stay where you are.

Tiff was about to start protesting when the world around them came roaring to life.

It started with that quiet. It grew in intensity, pulsing. Smothering them. A foreboding, visceral silence. 

A beat, where the entire city around them hung frozen in one still, seemingly eternal moment.

Then a piercing scream, ringing out clear and horrific. Followed by another, this one higher pitched. Younger. Afraid.

Like a chorus the shouting began to multiply, the spectral cacophony building by the second.

Surprise.

Alarm. 

Confusion. 

Rage. 

Shareena darted to the edge of the platform where they had set up camp, gripping the handle of the blade tightly.

In the filtered moonlight Tiff watched confusion, unease, frustration, flit across Shareena’s features as she looked around the cavern. It was a long moment before her eyes sharpened in recognition. Expression tight, she stalked back to where Tiff was now knelt. She squeezed herself into the corner, broad shoulders hunched.

It came from all around now, a growing crescendo.

Ghastly sounds echoing with something more fearful, mournful. Cries tinged with defiant anger, wordless screams of hopeless desperation. All punctuated by barked orders in a grating language Tiff did not recognise.

She looked at Shareena, unsure of what to do. She paused, hand lingering mid-air, before reaching over and pulling closer towards the larger woman. Tiff felt Shareena stiffen ever so slightly before tucking her close between her legs. Strong arms cocooned around her as they took shelter.

The sounds grew louder, moving up from below, and noise from above soon joined them. 

“They’re death remnants. I’ve seen them before.” The words were soft, mere whispers against the noise around them. Tiff felt the arms around her tighten as the high-pitched wailing of a child hit their ears.

Shareena spoke again, breath warm against her ear. “Imprints. Leftover stains, from a tragedy or a massacre. They’re creepy, but harmless. And normally easy to get rid of. An entire city infested though, I... I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The two jumped as the noises hit their peak on the balcony below where they sat.

And that’s when Tiff caught sight of what Shareena was talking about.

Breath caught in her throat as shapes crested the ridge in front of them, materialising in a wave of ghostly, humanoid figures. 

The victims. 

The people of this city.

Empty, grey imitations of the humans they had been, forced over and over to relive their last moments. Some running, some turning to face whatever hunted them. All of them doomed to a fate that they seemingly could not escape. 

Tiff tensed as one came close, and stilled when the figure became clear. 

A child, no older than eight. Dull hair was twisted into a long braid down his back, and he wore a patchwork mixture of greyscale leathers and furs. He cowered behind the column beside them, tears streaming, face contorted in misery. The two women watched, unable to look away, as the child sank to the ground, curling up into a ball

It wasn’t long before the child moved again. He jumped to his feet, shouting at something. He held up a hand, fingers wrapped tightly around a small dagger.

"He's going to fight..." Shareena's voice had never sounded so defeated, so helpless. The two sat in silence as the boy rushed for his invisible assailant, screaming foreign words with a child’s fury, only to be knocked to the ground. 

He hit the cobblestones hard, head bouncing against the unforgiving ground. Tiff stifled a whimper as the boy let out a wail of pain, going still before them. His ghostly imprint lay there for a moment before fading, the scattered remains drifting away like ash on the wind.

“They’re just moments of time, stuck on repeat.” Shareena began to absent-mindedly twirl a strand of Tiff’s burnt orange hair around an index finger, soothing the smaller woman as she curled up even tighter.  “They usually happen with the full moon. Should've realised something might happen.” Especially in a place like this.” 

Tiff shrank back against Shareena’s chest, soaking in the warmth of the other woman as thousands of voices raged around them. A maelstrom of visions and memories that had been stuck here for decades, centuries even, as the last moments of those in the city were forced back to life time and time again.

“For them to exist on such a scale though…” A shudder ran through Shareena as she abandoned her train of thought. “No wonder this place was hidden away.”

Tiff went still in Shareena’s arms. “We’re going to wait it out?” There was a faint waver to her voice.

Shareena did nothing but hum her confirmation. She pulled the smaller woman even closer, and they hunkered down to weather the spectral storm raging around them.

***

Shareena woke with a start, the lack of noise once again startling her to consciousness. Though this time, as her senses slowly came into focus, she could hear the buzzing of insects, the rustling of leaves as the wind wound its way through the brush.

Her cheek was warm where a stray spot of sunlight had snuck its way through the overgrown city. Battling the fatigue that still loomed, she lay there a moment, soaking it in. She took in a deep breath, holding it for one, two, three, then out.

Never had she been more thankful for the quiet.