Finally he spoke again, his voice having taken on its previous deep and calm timbre. “You allowed yourself to be in the position… you placed yourself in the position of prey to hungry and salivating predators. And… worst of all, young one…”

Did his voice crack, or did I imagine it?

“I was not invited to the party.”

I was devastated. I, by my selfish and thoughtless actions, had caused pain for this beautiful boy. This dear boy who had now saved me twice. In that moment I was the filth, I was the vile scum, I was the muck to be scraped from the boot of some Roman-statue-made-flesh. “Oh… oh, Riley, I’m so sorry that I hurt your feelings!”

“Don’t… concern yourself with that right now.” I felt him turn away from me. “Be quiet, now… this is the difficult part.”

Difficult part? I couldn’t pretend to understand what he meant, but I obeyed. I leaned back and tried to make myself comfortable in spite of my restricted movement and obscured vision. I was playing out an unfamiliar… but also, somehow strangely familiar… scenario. But with Riley as my pilot, I did not fear coming to any harm. I attempted to open up my senses to my surroundings, to take in as much as possible. I could hear the water lapping at the boat, the rhythmic sound of what I assumed was rowing and faint echoes of what might be some squamous cave-dwelling creature going about its business in the distance. The gentle rocking of the boat felt like a mother’s loving embrace of a fragile newborn.

Then, impressing with great urgency upon my senses, came the most beautiful sound I had ever heard. A wavering, delicate, yet somehow mighty and thunderous melody. It was like birdsong one moment, whalesong the next. It was Riley. Rileysong. The sound of it was simultaneously heartbreaking, energizing, forlorn, joyous. It was the song from my dream. I was bathed in it, my body pulsing with a thousand subtle emotions…

…When suddenly the air was alive with static electricity, and the bottom fell out of my stomach. I distinctly heard the sound b’chhk’tch, as though the universe were expelling something rotten and sinister from the depths of its gullet. Riley had ceased his singing and the boat had ceased its rocking.

“We have arrived,” he said.

“Oh god,” I gulped as my stomach continued to flip. “I might be sick. Please don’t look if I get sick. Where have we arrived, Riley?”

“R’lyeh,” was his unfathomable reply.

“What… Riley. That’s what I said.”

“No, it is not my name, it is the name of this place. My home. R’lyeh.”

A thrill shot through me, helping somewhat with the roller-coaster feeling still coursing around my body. Riley had brought me back to his place?

“Your house is named after you?”

“…If that helps you. Now please, be quiet. I am… drained.”