Page 69 of Monsters in Love: Lost in the Stars

Eryxxus

It came again.

A presence. A sensation—like the brush of sunlight against skin, but much warmer, much more... alive . It rippled through the blackness, like a soft current of water against the jagged edges of my fractured mind.

Her voice.

Unfolding myself, I growled, physically clawing toward the sound as if she was just an arm’s reach away. Her whispers filled me with a growing strength that bordered obsession. And the moment I concentrated on it, it was as if gravity began bending itself just for me.

Sight was still lost in the void around me. All I had was the resonance of what she left behind in her wake. Her voice ebbed and flowed, resonating deep in my chest, vibrating at decibels that wouldn't have been possible if I was a lesser being.

I felt a surge of power pulse through me, weak, but still there. The void began to thin, becoming a little less suffocating.

Another pulse as if the wretched organ inside of my chest started anew, syncing itself to her breath.

Her voice was delicate, yet strong. A melody that wrapped itself around me, threading through the fragments of my mind like a fine, silken thread. As clarity began to solidify around her words, they wound themselves around my essence, attaching, embedding deep within the core of my being. The music, the rhythm of her voice—it was as though she wasn’t just speaking, she was shaping the very fabric of reality around her… around us.

Her words twisted and danced in the air, like glowing threads of stardust. Colors bloomed within the emptiness: violet, deep and rich, weaving with golds and silvers. I had no concept of color anymore, not since being thrown into this abyss, but somehow, I could feel them. Each word she spoke unfurled new possibilities, new sensations in my broken mind.

And with each note, my body began to reshape itself, my bones cracking as it contorted itself to fit the calling. The numbness in my limbs, the weightlessness I had grown so accustomed to, started to ebb away… making way for the agony of physical transformation. My claws grew, and the spikes on my spine extended as a tail began to extrude in order to propel myself out of the prison.

A grin warped my face as insanity took root alongside this new mania brought forth by her.

The music. It shaped me. My body—a twisted, corrupted thing—began to respond, flickers of energy sparking within my form, pulsing in tune with her call. I felt the power of it, of her , coursing through me, unlocking pieces of myself I thought had been long lost.

"Who are you?" I forced the question out telepathically.

She didn’t answer. Not with words.

Instead, the music changed. The rhythm grew faster, more intense, like a heartbeat quickening. My heart, if I even still had one, followed its tempo. The sounds collided, pumping long-dead adrenaline through my veins, filling me with an impossible ache—a longing. A hunger I hadn’t felt in what seemed like forever.

The need to conquer. The need to devour. I felt... alive . Alive in a way that terrified me, and yet, I could do nothing but surrender to it.

She was not just a voice.

She was something greater. A being beyond comprehension.

And she was mine .

Focusing, I began to propel through the space continuum—my mind working to unravel the loopholes in the vacuum that existed here. There was power in her, undeniable, raw power, and I was going to claim it. She was my salvation .

I was going to reach her and nothing would stand in my way. I couldn’t see her yet as my eyes began to adjust to the luminous spheres around me once I tore through the makeshift prison walls with a vengeance behind the power of my claws. I didn’t know where she was, but I continued to follow her presence like a fine thread. Each time her voice faded out, it was like a star long extinguished in the fabric of space, yet her light still burned in the dark in my mind’s eye.

Just as quickly as it had come, her voice faded, taking with it what sustenance it gave me. But this new silence was alive, alluring, inviting with an aftertaste.

You will not hide from me.

I couldn’t speak, not yet. Not until I forced my jaw to unhinge and reshape itself, ripping in two. With what energy I buried, I formed a long and dexterous tongue as black as the prison that held me. I had no mouth, no voice. But I felt the question, and in that stillness, I heard the answer.

She hadn’t left.

Not really.

Her voice lingered between the expanse of the scattered stars. A soft hum, a gentle reminder that she had touched me, and I was no longer the same.

In the weeks that followed, I couldn’t escape the music. It echoed in my mind, a constant hum that resounded through my fractured thoughts. The coldness that had wrapped around my mind like chains no longer held me.

But it was more than that. Her presence—her voice—had changed me.

And I knew, somewhere deep in the recesses of my being, that the macrocosm of destiny would be forever changed by this turn of events, by my escape.

I would find her, no matter the cost. The universe had locked me away, but now... Now it was time to set it aflame.

And I would burn it all down, for her.