#pelagosa plays with a skull like a fucking puppet

[techmomma]

Sun-bleached

“Isn’t there anything we can do?”

“Search for my bones. They will give me some substance. But they are buried; the sea is trying to take them.”

 Her father had begged her not to look for his bones but she would not relent; to not see or touch her father was a cruel mockery and she would not let his supernatural efforts to remain with her be for nothing, if he could not even grasp her hand. To look for something that would let him rest was the least she could do, after all.

Finding the island where he’d washed ashore after that hellish day had taken about a fortnight, hopping from island to island, staying in inns with unfriendly eyes and quiet whispers. Haunted, as they called it, was a dangerous thing. Only those cursed were haunted, and even without her father there they knew she was, eyes too cold for the living anymore. Fine. She didn’t need their pity. All she needed were her father’s bones.

On a dim, overcast day, walking the chilly beach, her father stopped over a dune and Pel got to work, shoveling away sand with her hands.  Her fingers met something smooth, yanking up by two indents to find herself stumbling back with her father’s skull in her hands.

“HOLY—“ she yelped, dropping the skull, the flesh stripped away to white calcium. She stared, a wide-eyed, uncertain look on her face as she watched the two empty orbits. A maelstrom of feelings pounded at the back of her head but she remained numb, blinking, looking to her father’s ghost as he watched her.

“Are you all right…?”

“Yeah, I’m—I’m fine.” Thunder and lightning drummed at the back of her head, the taste of saltwater in her mouth as she reached out, fiddling with the round skull until she had the fingers in the orbits, making the jaw move up and down. “Ra-ra-rah, I’m your father, go to bed, stop being a little shit Pelagosa, ra-ra-ra~!”

Edwin watched, unamused.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghoooost, ar-ar-ar~! … No?” Pel rolled her eyes, though a smirk snuck up on Edwin’s spectral face. “Do you just need your uh… skull, or do you need more?”

“A skull will do. But the more pieces, the more I have to attach myself to.” He offered his hands, Pel lifting up his skull. As though putting on a hat, his skull disappeared into his ghostly head, barely visible behind his face. But already, he looked more solid. More… him.

Pel stood and brushed herself off, reaching out hesitantly for him. Her fingers touched his coat, the texture endlessly familiar though it felt airy and empty behind it. He offered his hand, and Pel brushed her fingers on his palm, the calloused texture perfect. His hand had always been warm… he felt right but it was wrong still. She could feel him but this still wasn’t him. She swallowed hard, sniffling back tears.

But this time, her father could wipe them away.

“I know, my little Pelican… it’s not the same…”

Pel forced a laugh, looking away. “I’m fine.... It’s better than nothing, right?” She gave him a watery grin, wiping her eyes. Edwin sighed, holding her head to kiss her crown.

“Dad…” she laughed, taking a deep breath. “C’mon, show me where the rest are.” He pointed and like a child uncovering seashells, she got to work uncovering her father’s bones, piece by piece. Even after diving into the ocean, they could never quite find all of them, some already eaten to nothing by the sea, some lost in parts she could never reach.

But putting her father’s bones into a special chest after a long three days of searching, Pel finally felt like some little piece of her own life had been stitched back together. A small part of the still mending hole in her heart, but she knew there could be more done.

There had to be more she could do for her papa.