To His Hell and Back
Chapter 94: Death Comes Knocking

Chapter 94: Death Comes Knocking

Music rec: Psylosia. Beauty in you.

•

It was no secret that commoners were never taught to swim. Arabella had always harbored a deep, inexplicable hatred for large bodies of water. She did not fear lakes or rivers outright, yet something about them filled her with quiet, simmering unease. She avoided them instinctively, never questioning why, never daring to step too close. Unlike her sister, Ariel, who had easily taken to the water, Arabella had never once attempted to learn how to swim.

And why should she? She had never believed she would need to.

But now, as she thrashed against the freezing grip of the lake, she regretted every moment she had ignored her sister’s insistence.

The water was mercilessly cold, seeping into her very bones, its weight dragging her down like invisible hands grasping at her limbs. Her skirts billowed around her, a trap of fabric that only hastened her descent. She flailed, her hands clawing at the surface, but there was nothing to hold onto, only the yawning abyss beneath her, waiting to swallow her whole.

No, no, no—

She barely managed a gasp before the water surged over her head, swallowing her screams. The world above faded into an eerie, distorted silence. The muffled cries of distant voices blurred into nothingness, the rustling of trees lost to the depths. Even the frantic pounding of her own heart seemed to dull, overtaken by the vast, unfeeling expanse of the lake.

No one would know.

No one would hear.

Arabella kicked desperately, trying to force her legs downward in search of solid ground, but the lake was deeper than she had ever imagined. Her muscles burned with effort, yet the cold made her sluggish, her movements weak. The more she fought, the heavier she became.

Then, the panic started to slip away.

The sharp bite of the icy water turned strangely warm, her limbs no longer her own. The fear that had clawed at her chest only moments ago dulled into something distant, something... numb.

Her body stopped struggling.

Her arms floated, weightless.

Her final breath slipped from her lips in a stream of tiny bubbles, vanishing into the depths.

And just like that, Arabella sank into the darkness, the last traces of her heartbeat fading into the void.

Between the suffocating darkness, Arabella’s mind unraveled, slipping beyond the present and into the depths of something older— something forgotten.

Memories she had never known resurfaced like whispers in the void, pulling her consciousness into their embrace. The cold of the lake melted away, replaced by the soft glow of flickering lanterns and the echo of footsteps against pristine marble.

She was there, standing in a vast, opulent castle, its walls carved from gleaming white stone that shimmered like moonlight. The air was thick with the scent of water lilies, mingling with the faint trace of something familiar yet elusive. She turned, her fingers grazing the cool surface of a pillar, but her breath hitched when she noticed what lay ahead.

A river.

Wide, dark, and endless, it split the castle in two, its surface as smooth as glass.

But Arabella knew that this was no ordinary body of water.

Something about it felt wrong, its depths calling to her like a phantom’s whisper. A cold shiver traced down her spine as she took a step closer, the water’s surface rippling despite the absence of wind.

Then, a voice soft, melodic, achinglyfamiliar broke through the silence.

"You’ve forgotten, haven’t you?"

Arabella’s breath hitched.

She turned sharply, searching for the speaker, but the hallway behind her stretched into nothingness, an endless corridor of white and shadow.

The voice sighed, almost wistful.

"You always feared the water, Arabella. But do you know why?"

The river stirred. A memory, a truth, lurched at the edges of her mind, just beyond reach.

When she had looked up, she saw her mother’s face. Though this time her mother seemed happy although it was so briefly as someone approached them, someone dressed in white with the long thread like hair that was platinum in color. The man reached out his hand toward her, about to touch her until her mother shielded her smaller body behind her, arguing with the man whose face wasn’t clear for little Arabella to see.

Then the man pointed his finger to the water with a wide grin, "Fate is inescapable...-..."

Meanwhile, Cassius emerged from the swirling pool of black liquid, his form shifting, first mist, then bone, then flesh, until he stood at the lake’s edge, his boots sinking into the damp earth.

The lake was too still. Too still.

A dreadful kind of stillness, the kind that whispered of something terribly, irreversibly wrong.

His breath did not quicken, for he did not need air. His heart did not race, for it had long since been ripped from his chest. And yet, he felt it. A phantom thrum, loud, insistent, rattling against the cage of his ribs.

But Arabella’s heartbeat?

Silent.

A slow, suffocating rage curled around his spine. His jaw clenched. His fists tightened. The shadows at his feet writhed, mirroring the storm gathering beneath his skin and he moved, rushing forward.

Without a second thought, Cassius dove into the water, the surface breaking apart as he plunged into the abyss. The cold seized him instantly, but he barely felt it. His body sliced through the darkness, his limbs working in powerful, fluid motions.

His eyes, sharp as a predator’s, scanned the murky depths.

Where is she?

He pushed forward, deeper, faster, ignoring the weight of the water pressing against him, the silence threatening to swallow him whole.

Then, in the distance, a glimmer. A shape drifting further into the void. Her body floated inside the lake, her eyes closed tight and her chest that supposed to heave up and down had gotten completely still, her heartbeat had stopped, her lips blue, and her face drained from blood and oxygen.

Arabella.

Lifeless.

Sinking.

A growl rumbled in his throat, low and dangerous."Not yet," he swore, his voice lost to the water.

And with a final, desperate surge, he reached for her. With a powerful force, he pulled her body with his strong arm, diving upward to the surface of the water and releasing his breath. He rushed to the edge of the lake, pushing her body there and placing her down the grass.

His first instinct was to press his ears on her chest, realizing that it was still silent. He had read this in the human book before. Humans could drown easily and there was still time to save her by breathing into her mouth and removing the water that had clogged her breathing pipe.

Without a second thought, Cassius leaned forward. Waterdrops glistened his jet black hair like a glittering stone, his pale red lips then pressed to Arabella’s pink ones, the one which was usually warmer than him. He felt the softness of her lips, his tongue prying her mouth open as he breathed life back into her body.