Ariadne and the Flaming Torch : The Quest
Chapter 12
Book 1 : The Quest
Chapter 12
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“Sister, you seem troubled. May I inquire the reason for this change in disposition? Are you unwell? What can I do to help, dear?” his concerned voice asked urgently.
“It is nothing, dear brother. I wish not to burden you with my plight. It is for me alone to bear. As for my mood, brother, it seems that a black cloud is approaching; I have a premonition, brother and my anxiety has come forth; I have no thought nor sense on what to do of the current situation. I am a prisoner to my creator’s will, it seems.”
“Well, sister, it seems whatever it is that is troubling you, must be of utter urgency; I swear, I have never seen you frown so much and I have not ever heard so many pained sighs escape from your sweet mouth. Please tell me sister, is there anything I can do?” he asked again, placing his warm hand on my forehead. Brother checked my temperature and then proceeded to hold my hand in his reassuringly when I didn’t reply.
I returned his comforting squeeze and patted his cheek. “Brother, I do not know what I would do without you; you look after me, you understand me; if only the same could be said for father.” I sighed. “However worry not, brother, it is nothing that my audacity cannot handle. Just wait and see! I shall beat back all the men with the stick used for farming; ingenious thought that was, don’t you think brother?” I asked, swaying from the topic; I wished not to think of the fate the future held for me.
I held back another pained sigh and smiled as brother nodded. I brought my hand up to his head and affectionately ran my hand through his thick hair. Brother and I were the closest of all of the siblings. If only father and mother would stop having so many heirs, then perhaps, the suspicions would finally stop.
Solis had found that someone had poisoned his soup; thank god for the royal taster or else I would see my brother’s affectionate smile no more! I shook my head; I didn’t even want to know what would happen were I to be abandoned; he was the only light in my life of eternal darkness. I have seen so much that I prefer to open my eyes no more; when will the sibling rivalry end? The throne was not such a desirable position, at least not to me; so why is it that, even after so many funerals, even after so many tears, even after hearing the pained cries of those who are now resting in their earthen tombs, that so much blood has been shed? That too of people who were meant to be loved ones? This world’s democracy is pathetic.
“Taste the bloodshed”, I muttered and Solis looked at me with inquiring eyes and raised brows. I shook my head, telling him that all was fine with me when the actual situation was far direr. Coming of age was truly a curse I had not anticipated; now I was paying the compensation for my lack of foresight. Long gone were the days of my happy disposition; instead maturity had poisoned my carefree abandonment with its iron vines of rules. I had been choked out of my happiness. I was paying; if only the world stopped its laws and society bound us no more; if only time would wait for us as we try to catch our breaths and catch up to the world and it’s boundaries. Free I am no more, happy I am no more; I must wait for the reverend Hades to shackle me up and bind me to his hell. O Zeus, have mercy! Have mercy on this poor soul bound to the laws you created!
I sighed knowing no mercy would grace me and no help shall come to a come to a soul as torn as mine. I got up from my safe haven and took Solis’s hand as he dragged me along to meet father. I rolled my eyes at his carefree personality and smiled a secret smile as he pulled me along, practically making me run to keep up with him. We raced down the halls, our laughter echoing and merging as one to produce a cacophony of the music of freedom.
We turned the bend and that was when I saw her; her beautiful body strode down the length of the hall way. She looked like she was blessed by the Goddess Aphrodite and as her hips swayed and shaped breasts bounced with every step she took, I felt Solis’s mad run turn to a slow trot until he was basically walking forward as if he was in a trance, his eyes focused onto the beautiful woman striding toward us.
Dark brown hair, sparkling blue eyes, slender and attractive figures with just the right curves; she walked as her long legs teased Solis’s imagination through the slits that ran almost to her hips. A smirk had graced her plump ruby lips and her eyes shone mischievously as she ran her tongue over her mouth -I saw how Solis’s eyes traced that single movement and smirked; it seems that an elusive figure has finally caught the high and mighty Solis’s attention. How mother -if she were still here- and father would feel if they were to hear this; their most precious son would finally have an heir! They were worried and they should be; already twenty-six and he hadn’t even looked at a woman, let alone courted her; whereas all the others had children by now! An assembly of dark red velvet, perfectly tanned skin, piercing features and a tall, graceful frame -though not as tall as me; she was definitely Solis’s type.
“Fair maiden, may I inquire your name?” Solis breathed out. My smirk grew; it seemed as if he was breathless at the sight of her!
Her inquisitive eyes turned to me and she proceeded to scowl disapprovingly at Solis. I saw Solis’s grin slacken; no wonder she misunderstood us - though we were brother and sister, we looked nothing alike; Solis had strawberry blond hair and beautiful green eyes while I had raven black hair, honey skin, the famously sultry Spartan features and large violet eyes -a color unheard of to be present in the eyes of humans. I felt Solis start as he finally deciphered the incentive behind her glare and he stuttered out, “Oh, my dear gods, no! This is just my sister; nobody important.”
Nobody important! What potent drink had he had that he had the right to demean me in a manner such as this! I subtly stomped the heel of my shoes into his shin and heard his exclamation of surprise. I smirked and raised my eyes as he glared me and mouthed the words, “Nobody Important”. Comprehension dawned on his face and he opened his mouth to explain but I raised my hand and he fell silent. I turned around to look at the beauty before me, just feeling the waves of animosity roll off of me. Nobody was right for my brother no matter what! I raised an eye-brow at her and she smirked at me, accepting the challenge. I snorted and her eyes narrowed into a glare.
“How about we settle this the way the great Artemis and Athena deal with their problems?” I proposed and her eyes lit up with excitement. I didn’t blame her, not really. It hadn’t been long since us women were given the right to hold a sword; thank god the men had finally seen that not only did we deserve to be able to fight without repercussions, but that the patron goddess of this land, Athena herself, was a fighter not to be reckoned with. I waved her over and she followed me with the finesse of an experienced warrior and the excitement of a child. I walked down the corridors with the girl and Solis trailing behind me, the latter glaring at me through narrowed eyes. He knew what I was doing and he knew that if she lost -which she would- then he would never gain my acceptance and approval. He also knew that I would do whatever was in my power to stop their union if I deemed her unworthy of my brother.
I reached the door to the armory room with all of its glistening weapons and instruments of torture and picked up a personal favorite of mine; the scythe. I grinned as I heard her gulp and watched as she studied all the weapons until she found my sword. She touched the shining black steel and stroked the slights dents in it; she picked it up and measured its weight swinging it to and fro to observe its balance. Once she seemed satisfied, she raised my sword and nodded at it and then looked at me, waiting for me to lead the way. She chose well; many chose to deviate away from my sword because of its complexion, not realizing that it was the most powerful weapon in this entire room when wielded properly. I hid a smile, knowing she’d already won this battle; I had purposefully chosen the scythe so that I could observe her judgment and she had proved her worth. I could see that she was skilled and that, matched with the power of my sword that was carved from heaven’s gift to mankind itself, she was invincible. I walked out of the door and strode with a confidence that blessed only the most skilled warriors till I reached my destination. “That doesn’t mean I won’t try” I thought with a smile.
The garden was the perfect place for “recreational activities” such as this. This was where Solis and I had fought when women weren’t allowed to go to battle; he had taught me everything I knew and I could best even him which was saying something as he was the best fighter in the whole of Athens. The garden had been abandoned ever since mother’s death; the hedges were overgrown and had an air of being abandoned, it was the perfect place for secrets such as these as its overgrown state provided shelter from prying eyes; the roaring sound of the mock waterfall cloaked the clang of metal against metal and drowned the pained cries of any injured fighter. I would know, this was where all of my battles took place and no matter how much they screamed and yelled, nobody, except Solis who made sure I didn’t kill my opponents in my rage, could hear.
We stormed our way through the shrubbery and reached our destination; mother’s pavilion was crumbling and the pillars holding the massive ornate roof seemed almost about to collapse but Solis and I knew that no matter how much time passed, that monument of our father’s love towards mother would never fall; we had tried, we had tarnished the place just after mother’s death, sometimes with father’s assistance, but it never broke. The foundation holding it together was stronger than all else. It’s rather pathetic to be honest; watching father was like watching a living corpse -the only reason he was still alive was because no one had ascended the throne yet. I’m pretty sure that he would take his last breathe when Solis, the eldest amongst all, would become King. I hope father will finally be reunited with mother.
I touched the pillars of the pavilion and closed my eyes, trying to remember all the times I had spent with my mother here. It was distressing, how much I still missed her even though it had been fourteen years since her death. I don’t remember her that well; the only things that remind me of her are all of the memories of laughter and flashes of green eyes and black hair. The songs she used to sing, the poetry she used to recite, the dances she enjoyed; it all haunts me and assaults my memories in the strangest of times -when I’m dancing at a ball; when I’m bathing; when I’m at dinner, trying to make feeble conversations with father and having to suffer through the glares of my brothers and sisters; watching Solis as he crumbled to the with a sword sticking out of his stomach and trying to save him. It’s strange and beyond abnormal.
I whispered a prayer to Athena, the patron Goddess of Athens and entered the pavilion. The floor was in ruins with trails and slashes of dried blood crusted onto the now rough marble; the black marble roof that once used to reflect the beauty of the art of the work and give the dancers lucky enough to be standing on this piece of elegance and history an illusion of standing in a world of fairytale whenever they observed themselves in it’s shiny surface, was now so cracked and layered with dust that just being able to identify it’s occupants as humans was a boon.
The girl followed me in, her curious eyes taking in her surroundings, her occasional gasps telling me she liked what she saw. Our sandals clanked against the once smooth marble floors and I spun around, finding that she was already in her stance. I raised my scythe and smirked. She held my sword up and gulped, but I could see that it was just for show as her stance exuded confidence and her eyes seemed calm; also the fact that her lips curved up slightly further proved the correctness of my judgment. I dislodged the scythe and that the handle broke away into two so that it was joined by an extremely strong metal chain. I raised the speared end of the dislodged scythe and twirled it into the air and spun it around in circles so that it gave out large masses of wind and blinded her with the dust blowing from the ground. I threw my wrist forward and the speared end of the scythe jammed into the wall behind her, missing her face by a few centimeters; my smirk grew as her eyes grew larger in surprise and pulled the scythe back, only to leave a gaping hole in the place where it had been jammed just a few seconds ago and started twirling it in the air above my hair again.
She raised her sword and I heard Solis mutter, “Take it easy, Ariadne. I actually like this one.” I rolled my eyes and slammed the speared end forward, the stick of the scythe still in my hand. The chain that joined the spear of the scythe to its stick wrapped around her exposed thigh and tangled itself into her red velvet dress, ripping the fabric easily; the spear slammed deep into her thigh and she screamed out in pain. I frowned and tugged at the chain causing the spear to dig in just a bit deeper before it slackened its hold on her thigh and the chain untangled. I pulled it back towards me so that I was holding the spear in my hand and lightly traced its polished edge, removing some of the blood dripping down it.
I didn’t think she would be this weak! I raised an eyebrow at her and thought I saw a kind of red glow in her blue eyes. I looked closer at her and then shook my head; her eyes were just blue and were swimming in a pool of tears. I scowled in disgust and looked at Solis as if asking him “see”? He rolled his eyes and I frowned; Solis liked tough girls so this one definitely didn’t meet the mark. I heard a growl from beside me and saw Solis’s eyes widen as a slow grin appeared on his face; I spun around, just blocking her blow. She had taken a jump start and the momentum of her blow disarmed me and knocked me back a few steps. She continued hitting blow after blow onto me and I barely blocked each of them, being as unbalanced in my stance as I was. Her hair blew in the wind and she looked like some sort of demonic angel; I scowled as the scythe went flying out of my hand and looked at her as her sword came down on me. I saw her startled eyes as she tried to stop her blow but was unable to do it. I raised both my hands and caught the sword in my palms and pulled it away from her hand. My hands were bleeding profusely but now I had my sword and I felt powerful; the pain was bearable, I had had worse. I stretched my leg out and looped my foot into the chain of the scythe. I brought the weapon up to my hands and retracted the chain so that it was once again just stick and metal. I tossed the weapon to her and she caught in with surprised hands.
I was impressed, I had to admit it. Nobody had been able to sneak up on me. Albeit I was distracted with the workings of my dear brother but she still managed to do it and there was no point in pretending that she wouldn’t have been able to come up behind me. I let down my guard -an amateur mistake- and now I was paying for it; the stinging in my hands proved that. The blood from my palms slid down my fingers, over the hilt of my sword and slowly made its way across the metal before dripping onto the floor. For the first time in its entire existence, my sword had drawn the blood of its master. I raised the word high in my hand and the blood dripped back, over the red, now glowing -which I had missed- stone inlaid into the silver hilt and down my palms, past my wrists.
I charged and was beside her in a matter of seconds; she seemed surprised by the expression on her face. I brought the sword down with twice as much force as she had struck me with and my free hand shot through the air only to tangle into her hair, keeping her in place. She barely brought her scythe up to block my hit before she was being pulled back until she was almost bent back in half; my hand in her hair remained intact and I bent down with her. Just as her long tresses were touching the floor, I brought my knee up and kicked her in her spine and she bucked against me. Her pained scream was muffled by my hair as it chocked her; I brought my foot back, hooked my hand under her knee and hoisted it up, let go of her hair and brought the sword to my left free hand and slammed the hilt into her stomach. Now that my hair was no longer in her mouth, she screamed out in pain and fear and I let go of her knee and let the momentum of my hit push her onto the ground, where she writhed in pain.
I had thought she was skilled and experienced; how wrong I must have been! I raised my hand up and slammed my blade into the ground inches from her head. She whimpered but even I had to admit, she had lasted a longer time than most. “Stop crying, child! You have a long time to go before you can win against me.” I whispered to her.
Then I bent down and looked into her eyes. “What’s your name?” I asked. She stared at me for a few seconds before her fingers gripped my hair and pulled my face down to hers. “Ninya.” She whispered before slamming her head into mine.
I choked and gasped. Hot, wet tears rolled down my cheeks as my heart constricted in pain. I gasped and struggled to breathe as the pain of loss and grief engulfed me. Ninya, my poor Ninya. I tried to see past the pain and didn’t succeed. It was the only thing that mattered; the pain was ever-consuming and demanding -like a tyrant inflicting his victim with tears and blood, the pain demanded my attention. I clenched my already closed eyes shut tighter and hissed out a breath through gritted teeth as soundless sobs racked my body. My Ninya, she was dead, and it was all because of him! I screamed in frustration and banged my head against the floor I was lying on.
I was lying in fetal position on the floor, arms cradling my own body. I stood blindly and ran towards the door, thrusting it open and running down the long hallway of endless doors. I opened doors and slammed then close in frustration when I didn’t find what I was looking for. Door after door, hallway after hallway, I searched through them all until I was at the last door; it was simple wood door with plain carvings in it. I twisted the knob and thrust it open. The door banged against the inside of the room and the sound bounced against the walls.
I steeped into the room; its promised solitude enveloped me and I walked slowly towards the single double doors in the room. There was no furniture, no decorations, and just plain white walls with a small paneled window letting the slightest amount of light in. I walked forward in a trance like stride and as I reached the double doors, I put my hand out and touched the wood gently. A resounding beat went through the door and a clanking sound was coming from the room, passing through the door until it reached my piqued curiosity. I turned the knob to the doors but they wouldn’t open! I tried again and furiously twisted the knob this way and that, but the blasted thing wouldn’t open!
Frustration came creeping down on me and I let out a scream of frustration. I banged against the door with all of my might and kicked it multiple times; but still it stood there, resilient as ever. Behind the door, the clacking noise was getting louder every passing second as I banged against the door again, something banged back. The clacking noise sounded closer than ever and I stood shock still, scared out my wits, my senses going mad and the oppressive feeling of danger crashed down on me. The banging from behind the door got worse and a whisper in the wind carried a message to me.
“Ariadne, help me...” That voice, it sounded so familiar. The banging got worse and screaming issued from behind the wooden fortress. I tried the knob again and beat against the door and it beat back. The screaming got worse and I was sure it was a banshee locked behind the door. But what would a banshee want with me?
“Do you really want to do that?” her superior voice sounded from behind me and I swiveled around. There she was, standing in all of her terrifying glory; my fire. I scrunched my nose in anger and marched up to her. My six-foot frame must have looked intimidating as it strode toward her with mad, flailing hair and an ugly scowl; however, she didn’t even look the slightest bit scared. She only seemed bored.
“Let me in there.” I said to her, getting into her-my personal space. Mine; it was all mine! Then why was she rebelling against me, damn it! She was a part of me, so why was she so insolent. Who gave her the authority; how did she get the audacity to defy me? Bloody wench! She smirked and that small movement infuriated me. I grabbed her hair and bought her face level to my stomach and then slammed my knee into her face. The sickening sound of bone against bone echoed throughout the room and I winced; I felt the pain for, after all, I was hitting myself. But it was so infuriating! I had been trapped here for over a week; who knew how long that was in the real world! Weeks? Months? Only the gods knew and they sure weren’t talking. For over a week, I had been stuck with this insufferable, miserable, spineless wench! She was a part of me! I created her! Yet here she was, being all smug and acting all superior; if I behaved like that in real life, I would’ve shot myself years ago! Bloody whore! I was the only who was her master, she was my fire, she was a part of my soul and yet she didn’t want to join me again. And because of this insufferable dumb ass, I now had to look for some dumb thing Hades wanted me to find. He didn’t tell me what it was that I had to find; the loon only told me I would know later.
Bloody pricks, the whole lot of them! I wish I could just take a shotgun and shoot them all then commit suicide and be done with it. But no, I didn’t get the luxury some, correction, all others got; I would have to live this blasted life for eternity and in case someone hadn’t noticed yet, eternity is a long time. To top it all off, Persephone was being a pain and playing dress-up with me every chance she got; if I didn’t comply she would start crying and throwing a fit and Hades would come in and threaten me about how he would never return me the part of my soul he had kept locked with him if I didn’t do whatever the hell Persephone wanted. It was a pain in the ass and then some.
“Ow,” she groaned. “Are you really so fatuous that you actually struck yourself?” My eyes twitched.
“Yes, duly noted. According to you, I am fatuous, melodramatic, know nothing of pulchritude, am always talking in circumlocution, am circumstantial, am incontrovertible, am an inconvenience, my mistakes are indelible, am indecorous, am lugubrious almost all the time, am a maelstrom of disposable and unnecessary emotions, suffer from machismo -which makes no sense, am tremulous and am a trifling tribulation to the world; yet did it ever occur to you, my troubled self, that you are insulting yourself?” I nodded at her. “Oh and a piece of advice; I’m not illiterate, so it would be wise for you to not treat me as such.” I added.
I held my hand out, waiting for her to drop the keys in my hand but she just stared at it and shook her head, muttering, “Trust me, Ari, you do not want to go in there.”
“And why should I listen to you?”
“Because I’m your only hope. I am a part of you and why would I stop you from carrying out an action? I want nothing more than to watch you suffer, which is stupid, I know, and that’s why I’m stopping you. You’re not ready for this, not now at least.”
“Oh stop with your tomfoolery! I have had enough of you torpor! Now you will either give me those keys willingly or I’m going to have to force them out of you.”
“That’s it; you asked for it! Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you!” I thought she was going to give me the godforsaken keys and was just being melodramatic, but imagine my surprise when I feel a horned tail smashing into my skull, effectively knocking me out. In case some didn’t figure it out yet, I was extremely surprised...
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I woke up with a pounding headache and a blurry vision; what the hell, man! Have I become some sort of a punching bag or something? No seriously, what is it with people always hitting me! Abusive bunch of morons!
Looking around, I saw that I was -once again- in my make-shift bedroom and that I had been unceremoniously bound and gagged. They liked the theatrics that much, eh? Oh well, to each their own. I suppose this has a positive side...if you look at it in a specific manner. I was finally rid of the vexation provided by the one person that wanted to make my life...well, definitely not hell, as I was occupying a room in the very foundation of “the big, bad place down there”.
I snorted -or at least tried to. The only result of my sense of humor was a tug inwards at the cloth stuffed into my mouth; the virgin cloth got dangerously close to my windpipe and I started to panic. This wasn’t good. I didn’t want to die because of a piece of cloth! It sounds ridiculous in itself; the truth would be even more horrifyingly humiliating!
I took a deep, calm breath and hummed to myself, ignoring the fact that the gag was, indeed, sliding further down my throat. I looked around and noticed that the room was extremely cramped, littered with miscellaneous objects as it was, and the walls were painted a dreary gray. They seemed to be closing in on me and I closed my eyes. Claustrophobia truly was an annoyance.
His voice whispered in the back of my mind and I scrunched my closed eyes, trying not to let the mere sting of begotten tears flow into a cascade of purity.
"Πήγαινε για ύπνο, θα είναι καθαρά. Σημειώνοντας θα σας βλάψει, γλυκιά μου. Είστε αγαπημένο μου και θα είμαι για πάντα σας προσέχει. Θα σας εγκαταλείψει όχι περισσότερο! Θα είναι για πάντα το αστέρι σας, απλά εφικτός και αν κοιτάξετε προσεκτικά αρκετά, θα ακούσετε μου ψιθυρίζει. γλυκιά μου, θα σας προστατεύσει. Νάρκη για τώρα. "
His sweet voice, how I longed to hear it! But hear it, I shall not! He killed my soul with one simple swipe of his hands and one simple step towards the tumultuous ocean. He left me for dead and let me be abused by that sick tyrant everyone mistook for an angel. I felt the wave of tears flood through and I tried to barricade it, self-preservation barely winning over irrational emotions. I didn't need the gag to slide down farther; I was already in enough threat of being choked. I took a deep breath through my nose, feeling my throat close up at the same moment. Paralysis numbed my body as tears streaked down my soul and ripped deep gashes into the corners of my mind.
I fought through the unyielding cave of emotions to think one last think before they overcame me and my control. "Είπες ψέματα." The thought held the deepest of longings and the tortured visions of what-ifs. However there were no what-ifs anymore. The time for change was long gone and not even the stealthiest of runners could catch its elusive tail. The jail cell of the human mind was my prison and my burden alone to bear. With that thought in mind, I let the water-works free and let soundless and breathless sobs rack through my body.
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It had been quite some time before I regained my strength and calmed myself down. Love; what a pitiful emotion! It did nothing but make it's victim weak and vulnerable. Love was like a virus. It latched onto some unsuspecting person's consciousness and put elusive thoughts of lust and "happily ever afters" in their minds and poisoned their judgment. It grew like an irritation and collected information and mutilated it until it was nothing more than a hollow echo of what once was a tactful existence. It controlled people's minds and shoved out all senses, making their victims do things they never would've done had they been sane. It ate away at people's thoughts and gave false illusions of faerie tales until they were nothing more than tortured carcasses with rotten hearts of self-pity.
I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply through my nose. I focused on the task at hand; getting out of these ropes ought to be easy enough but then again, stranger things have happened in the past, so only the Gods know. I really should stop praising their names since they are the ones that got me in this situation in the first place; exclaiming the expression, "only the Gods know", makes a statement of their power of the oracular. When we use this expression, not only are we commending them on their foresight, but we are also commending their pulchritude, their divine ways and their mystical lives. We are claiming them to be the eternal powerful; it is a sign of respect I do not want to show.
I tried twisting my wrists but the only result that got me were raw, bleeding wrists with steel wires deeply embedded into the flesh. I winced at the sharp bite of the wires and sighed I felt the beads of blood roll down said wires onto my hands. The splattering sound of blood dripping to the floor was my only companion as I thought about what to do.
Maybe I should just sit here and wait. As soon as the thought was in my consciousness, I reprimanded myself. Ariadne of the Flame sitting down helplessly as the prisoner of her tyrant father and waiting for someone to rescue her -the thought was inconceivable, unimaginable, incomprehensible. I simply refused to be a damsel in distress! Cliche as it might sound, I actually wanted to prove myself to these narcissists who thought they owned all and knew everything. These arrogant bastards needed to be put in their places and so far, I had been doing a pretty good job of defying them and their commands. I wasn't about to start obeying them now just because I couldn't get out of inconsequential wires!
I ran through scenario after scenario, imagining what would be the advantages and repercussions of each action I did or would do. Daydreams of throwing Hades into a pit of fire and watching him suffer and squirm floated through my mind. I felt a savage pleasure at the entertainment of these thoughts but, nevertheless, I pushed them out of my mind so that I could concentrate. How to get out of here?
The splattering sound of the dripping of blood was getting vague as the wounds in my wrist slowly healed; stupid wire was interrupting the healing session! If it wasn't there I would've already been rid of this stinging bite of pain! I sighed and forced my mind to not wander in unnecessary directions -sometimes having a short attention span was really troublesome. Ah, it seems the toughened and rational Ariadne is finally coming back to replace the place of the real harebrained and impulsive Ariadne. I preferred it this way -war was no place for childishness and this was war.
The sounds of the world seemed to get amplified as I concentrated on the footsteps approaching the room. Against all the odds, against all of the warnings of mind, I helt my heart soaring at the prospect of the unfamiliar emotion; I hoped. I hoped that someone was here to come and get me and tell me that this was all a nightmare and that I would be waking up in my momma's arms any second now.
I shook my head and tried to banish the foreign emotion; I didn't need another virus infecting me. The dripping sound of the blood smashing into the wood floors seemed to get louder as the footsteps got closer. My heart hammered in my ribcage; it sounded like a warning siren to me. I felt the ominous, yet strangely familiar, presence slink up the hall only to stop right before my room. A touch of warmth graced my frozen insides and thawed out my raw emotions as I peeked at the shadow of a man that showed through the door. The presence was familiar and that familiarity brought about a sense of safety; I felt the need to cry all of a sudden. My brain tried to catch up to my body as I opened my mouth to scream out a name.
My mouth clamped down at the last second and the ominous feeling of being the passenger in my own body passed. The gag loosened enough to almost fall off. I suppose that was the closest thing I could get to an out-of-body experience. My mind screamed at me; red lights were going off in my mind and I felt like cursing myself, for some reason. Cursing was something I could definitely do and so I opened my mouth and let all of the profanities under the sun spill free from my mouth as I saw the shadow slink away. All hope was lost. I felt the beginning of a sob building it's way through my throat and I resisted the urge of rolling my eyes; I preferred my incorporeal state to this vulnerable human body with a limited intelligence that would attack me with vivid memories and mind-numbing emotions at the strangest of times.
Like now, for example; I had no reason why I wanted to cry as I watched the shadow walk away. I muted the sorrow and fueled it into mindless anger. The profanities came harder and faster and I thought I saw the man's shadow stop but I paid little attention to it. My attention was otherwise occupied by the vividly clear surroundings and my perfect clarity of both thoughts and sounds. The dripping commenced and my mind screamed at me like it had as the presence of the man had halted at the room. I felt stupid, frustrated, irritated, vexed and I wanted to scream.
The odd emotions churned inside me as I tried to make heads and tail out of it. Bloody fucking hell! What's wrong with me! I gritted my teeth and the simple and almost inconspicuous sound churned and reverberated through my ear canals and send the impulses to my brain; if only there were such rational explanations for everything we felt! My hearing, as if it had a mind of its own, concentrated on the blood and focused on the echoes the simple sound made through the room.
Wait, echoes? Why were there echoes? The room was extremely small and cramped, so it simply could not have made the echoes that were being made by the blood pelting onto the hardwood floors. The sound seemed hollow and empty and I focused my mind on it. All of the accusations of conspiracy theorists filled my head and seduced my thoughts. There couldn't, could there? It was simply impossible and the fact that I was entertaining the notion in itself was hysterical! But then again, I had seen and bore witness to stranger things, one of them being my very existence.
I toyed with the notion and finally decided to test it out. After all, skepticism was the bane of my existence. I stood up, wincing as the steel cut even deeper into my wrists due to the movement and I sucked in a sharp breath as my muscles, bound, aching and numb as they were, screamed in protest. I stood to my full height of an unnatural 6"0'.
Think of your imperfections at a time not as crucial as this! I screamed at myself. Yup, she's definitely back; I liked the rational side of me. I stretched my back the slightest bit and squeaked when the pain got worse. Bad idea! I bent in on myself and felt around the blood drenched floor for any imperfections.
Nothing. It was smooth and perfect. Just as I was about to give up, the thought occurred to me to check at the actual pooling of blood. I ran my foot over the liquid substance and, at first, I was shocked by the amount and vividness of the blood; I wanted to be sick. I took a deep breath and started again. The blood smeared across my pant cuffs and it felt as cold as death itself under my feet. I ran it across the paneled wood and tried to find any latches or breaks in the wood. I almost let out a cheerful shout of victory but then remembered the loosened gag around my mouth; I didn't want it back in my mouth so I chose to keep quiet.
I pushed my toes down on the slight dent in the floor; I would've passed by it as it lay there, unnoticed, if I hadn't been paying such close attention. My toes caught on the hole and I applied more and more force on it, leaning my weight on my toes as the wood slowly began to give away; it hurt my toes, but I would do anything to be free again. I raised my foot up and, with all the force I could muster in my restricted position -hands tied behind me and wires slicing into wrists at the slightest movement- I smashed my foot down and the sound of splintering wood greeted my eager ears.
I beamed and proceeded to kick the rest of the wood out of the way so there was a big enough room for me to slide through. The end result of my efforts were bloody feet with splinters of wood inlaid deep within the soft and sensitive flesh. I winced with every step I took towards the hole -which was, mercifully, limited. I looked into the hole and saw utter blackness. Well, it's better than this anyway. I took a breath through my nose and jumped down the hole, the tapered edges of the wood cutting deep into the flesh of my arms in the meantime. I landed on the ground in an awkward heap of bone, flesh and pain. I almost screamed but resisted the urge. I was pretty sure if the wires cut in any deeper, they would hit bone.
I slowly erected myself and gazed around the darkness. Light seemed to shine at the end of a tunnel way and I hovered towards it like a moth to a light. I walked through the ancient hall and reaching the end, saw bright flames dancing suspended in the air. The entire hallway was was lit up with the gift of the deity! I watched the dancing flames with a reverence before remembering the reason I was here in the first place. I looked around for a sharp object and found an outcropping of rock with a tapered end sticking out of the earthen entrance to the hallway. I walked over to it and raised my arms from behind my back slowly and steadily to the front of my body, careful not to damage my wrists any further; sometimes being triple-jointed paid off!
My hands were aching and my wrists were a right sight, as raw and bloodied as they were! The wires were, as I had thought cut deep into my arteries and the loss of excessive blood was making me woozy. I shook my head to clear my dazed thoughts and sighed at the sight of my wrists. The pain was just about to get worse. I shook my head again and just got on with it; no point in delaying the inevitable. I raised my hands high and bashed my wrists against the rock, One side of the wires sliced my wrist straight through while the other side pushed outwards and away from it.
I wrenched my consciousness out from the realm of hazy pain and focused on the steel that was, at the moment, away from my wrist. I shifted my hand, my wrist screaming in protest -I should be dead by now and I would be if it weren't for the curse of immortality. I slipped my fingers into the wire and gently pulled it up higher. Then I retracted the finger and it hooked it onto the wire and pushed it back slightly, just enough that the side of the wire that was embedded into the flesh would separate. Then I started pulling it up and as the wire finally got off of my wrists, the relief that I felt was immense and I felt like crying. My wrists were a mess and I felt sick just by looking at them. I shook my head as sweat dribbled down my forehead and started easing the loosened wire to my hands where I was faced with a dilemma.
The wire was stuck at the frontal primary bone of my thumb and I sighed as I knew what I had to do in order to get the blasted thing off.
I gently slid my left hand down until it was positioned at the bulbing bone that was blocking the wire. I gently pushed the wire away and closed my eyes as I pressed with all of my might. The crack reverberated across the well-like encasement and echoed across the walls and back into my ears. The searing, white-hot pain had been produced before I even got the chance to utter a word and as the gag was still bound loosely around my mouth, I couldn't even scream. Slowly, I faced the silent torture and tears leaked from my eyes and rolled my my chin.
After what was seemingly a long time, I finally sucked in a breath and proceeded with the untying of the wires. They were a lot looser now and as I, once again, hooked my fingers around it and tugged at it, it easily came of. I sucked in a huge breath and wiped the sweat from my brow as my bounds finally released their hold. I walked over to the suspended flames, wrenching the gag away from my mouth as I did so.
Fucking idiots! Think they can stop me! Well, I showed them! I reached the fire and took a deep breath as I thrust my wrists into the flame. The searing burning of the white-hot flame was both welcome and relieving. I relaxed in the warmth of the fire as it stitched back my flesh and mended my wounds. The bone would have to wait till later. It can't be mended with fire alone.
After a seemingly long time, I finally retracted my hand and walked through the long, narrow hall-way. I massaged my throbbing hand as I walked towards a seemingly pitch black tunnel. A tunnel within a tunnel; this is a maze, it seems. I reached the entrance over with a huge slab of rock with words etched deep into it. My sanctuary of earth and light were seemingly lost to a world of eternal darkness and I as I stood there, feeling the aura of the forlorn tomb, I felt a chill go down my back. I craned my neck to look at the words engraved into the rock and struggled to read through the layers of ancient dust and cobwebs. As the words finally registered in my mind, all became clear; the reason that this place was hidden, the protective spells I had encountered but passed through as I was of royal blood, the maze-like structure, the sinister aura. It all came down to this.
"Οι Κατακόμβες. The Catacombs."
Chapter 12
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“Sister, you seem troubled. May I inquire the reason for this change in disposition? Are you unwell? What can I do to help, dear?” his concerned voice asked urgently.
“It is nothing, dear brother. I wish not to burden you with my plight. It is for me alone to bear. As for my mood, brother, it seems that a black cloud is approaching; I have a premonition, brother and my anxiety has come forth; I have no thought nor sense on what to do of the current situation. I am a prisoner to my creator’s will, it seems.”
“Well, sister, it seems whatever it is that is troubling you, must be of utter urgency; I swear, I have never seen you frown so much and I have not ever heard so many pained sighs escape from your sweet mouth. Please tell me sister, is there anything I can do?” he asked again, placing his warm hand on my forehead. Brother checked my temperature and then proceeded to hold my hand in his reassuringly when I didn’t reply.
I returned his comforting squeeze and patted his cheek. “Brother, I do not know what I would do without you; you look after me, you understand me; if only the same could be said for father.” I sighed. “However worry not, brother, it is nothing that my audacity cannot handle. Just wait and see! I shall beat back all the men with the stick used for farming; ingenious thought that was, don’t you think brother?” I asked, swaying from the topic; I wished not to think of the fate the future held for me.
I held back another pained sigh and smiled as brother nodded. I brought my hand up to his head and affectionately ran my hand through his thick hair. Brother and I were the closest of all of the siblings. If only father and mother would stop having so many heirs, then perhaps, the suspicions would finally stop.
Solis had found that someone had poisoned his soup; thank god for the royal taster or else I would see my brother’s affectionate smile no more! I shook my head; I didn’t even want to know what would happen were I to be abandoned; he was the only light in my life of eternal darkness. I have seen so much that I prefer to open my eyes no more; when will the sibling rivalry end? The throne was not such a desirable position, at least not to me; so why is it that, even after so many funerals, even after so many tears, even after hearing the pained cries of those who are now resting in their earthen tombs, that so much blood has been shed? That too of people who were meant to be loved ones? This world’s democracy is pathetic.
“Taste the bloodshed”, I muttered and Solis looked at me with inquiring eyes and raised brows. I shook my head, telling him that all was fine with me when the actual situation was far direr. Coming of age was truly a curse I had not anticipated; now I was paying the compensation for my lack of foresight. Long gone were the days of my happy disposition; instead maturity had poisoned my carefree abandonment with its iron vines of rules. I had been choked out of my happiness. I was paying; if only the world stopped its laws and society bound us no more; if only time would wait for us as we try to catch our breaths and catch up to the world and it’s boundaries. Free I am no more, happy I am no more; I must wait for the reverend Hades to shackle me up and bind me to his hell. O Zeus, have mercy! Have mercy on this poor soul bound to the laws you created!
I sighed knowing no mercy would grace me and no help shall come to a come to a soul as torn as mine. I got up from my safe haven and took Solis’s hand as he dragged me along to meet father. I rolled my eyes at his carefree personality and smiled a secret smile as he pulled me along, practically making me run to keep up with him. We raced down the halls, our laughter echoing and merging as one to produce a cacophony of the music of freedom.
We turned the bend and that was when I saw her; her beautiful body strode down the length of the hall way. She looked like she was blessed by the Goddess Aphrodite and as her hips swayed and shaped breasts bounced with every step she took, I felt Solis’s mad run turn to a slow trot until he was basically walking forward as if he was in a trance, his eyes focused onto the beautiful woman striding toward us.
Dark brown hair, sparkling blue eyes, slender and attractive figures with just the right curves; she walked as her long legs teased Solis’s imagination through the slits that ran almost to her hips. A smirk had graced her plump ruby lips and her eyes shone mischievously as she ran her tongue over her mouth -I saw how Solis’s eyes traced that single movement and smirked; it seems that an elusive figure has finally caught the high and mighty Solis’s attention. How mother -if she were still here- and father would feel if they were to hear this; their most precious son would finally have an heir! They were worried and they should be; already twenty-six and he hadn’t even looked at a woman, let alone courted her; whereas all the others had children by now! An assembly of dark red velvet, perfectly tanned skin, piercing features and a tall, graceful frame -though not as tall as me; she was definitely Solis’s type.
“Fair maiden, may I inquire your name?” Solis breathed out. My smirk grew; it seemed as if he was breathless at the sight of her!
Her inquisitive eyes turned to me and she proceeded to scowl disapprovingly at Solis. I saw Solis’s grin slacken; no wonder she misunderstood us - though we were brother and sister, we looked nothing alike; Solis had strawberry blond hair and beautiful green eyes while I had raven black hair, honey skin, the famously sultry Spartan features and large violet eyes -a color unheard of to be present in the eyes of humans. I felt Solis start as he finally deciphered the incentive behind her glare and he stuttered out, “Oh, my dear gods, no! This is just my sister; nobody important.”
Nobody important! What potent drink had he had that he had the right to demean me in a manner such as this! I subtly stomped the heel of my shoes into his shin and heard his exclamation of surprise. I smirked and raised my eyes as he glared me and mouthed the words, “Nobody Important”. Comprehension dawned on his face and he opened his mouth to explain but I raised my hand and he fell silent. I turned around to look at the beauty before me, just feeling the waves of animosity roll off of me. Nobody was right for my brother no matter what! I raised an eye-brow at her and she smirked at me, accepting the challenge. I snorted and her eyes narrowed into a glare.
“How about we settle this the way the great Artemis and Athena deal with their problems?” I proposed and her eyes lit up with excitement. I didn’t blame her, not really. It hadn’t been long since us women were given the right to hold a sword; thank god the men had finally seen that not only did we deserve to be able to fight without repercussions, but that the patron goddess of this land, Athena herself, was a fighter not to be reckoned with. I waved her over and she followed me with the finesse of an experienced warrior and the excitement of a child. I walked down the corridors with the girl and Solis trailing behind me, the latter glaring at me through narrowed eyes. He knew what I was doing and he knew that if she lost -which she would- then he would never gain my acceptance and approval. He also knew that I would do whatever was in my power to stop their union if I deemed her unworthy of my brother.
I reached the door to the armory room with all of its glistening weapons and instruments of torture and picked up a personal favorite of mine; the scythe. I grinned as I heard her gulp and watched as she studied all the weapons until she found my sword. She touched the shining black steel and stroked the slights dents in it; she picked it up and measured its weight swinging it to and fro to observe its balance. Once she seemed satisfied, she raised my sword and nodded at it and then looked at me, waiting for me to lead the way. She chose well; many chose to deviate away from my sword because of its complexion, not realizing that it was the most powerful weapon in this entire room when wielded properly. I hid a smile, knowing she’d already won this battle; I had purposefully chosen the scythe so that I could observe her judgment and she had proved her worth. I could see that she was skilled and that, matched with the power of my sword that was carved from heaven’s gift to mankind itself, she was invincible. I walked out of the door and strode with a confidence that blessed only the most skilled warriors till I reached my destination. “That doesn’t mean I won’t try” I thought with a smile.
The garden was the perfect place for “recreational activities” such as this. This was where Solis and I had fought when women weren’t allowed to go to battle; he had taught me everything I knew and I could best even him which was saying something as he was the best fighter in the whole of Athens. The garden had been abandoned ever since mother’s death; the hedges were overgrown and had an air of being abandoned, it was the perfect place for secrets such as these as its overgrown state provided shelter from prying eyes; the roaring sound of the mock waterfall cloaked the clang of metal against metal and drowned the pained cries of any injured fighter. I would know, this was where all of my battles took place and no matter how much they screamed and yelled, nobody, except Solis who made sure I didn’t kill my opponents in my rage, could hear.
We stormed our way through the shrubbery and reached our destination; mother’s pavilion was crumbling and the pillars holding the massive ornate roof seemed almost about to collapse but Solis and I knew that no matter how much time passed, that monument of our father’s love towards mother would never fall; we had tried, we had tarnished the place just after mother’s death, sometimes with father’s assistance, but it never broke. The foundation holding it together was stronger than all else. It’s rather pathetic to be honest; watching father was like watching a living corpse -the only reason he was still alive was because no one had ascended the throne yet. I’m pretty sure that he would take his last breathe when Solis, the eldest amongst all, would become King. I hope father will finally be reunited with mother.
I touched the pillars of the pavilion and closed my eyes, trying to remember all the times I had spent with my mother here. It was distressing, how much I still missed her even though it had been fourteen years since her death. I don’t remember her that well; the only things that remind me of her are all of the memories of laughter and flashes of green eyes and black hair. The songs she used to sing, the poetry she used to recite, the dances she enjoyed; it all haunts me and assaults my memories in the strangest of times -when I’m dancing at a ball; when I’m bathing; when I’m at dinner, trying to make feeble conversations with father and having to suffer through the glares of my brothers and sisters; watching Solis as he crumbled to the with a sword sticking out of his stomach and trying to save him. It’s strange and beyond abnormal.
I whispered a prayer to Athena, the patron Goddess of Athens and entered the pavilion. The floor was in ruins with trails and slashes of dried blood crusted onto the now rough marble; the black marble roof that once used to reflect the beauty of the art of the work and give the dancers lucky enough to be standing on this piece of elegance and history an illusion of standing in a world of fairytale whenever they observed themselves in it’s shiny surface, was now so cracked and layered with dust that just being able to identify it’s occupants as humans was a boon.
The girl followed me in, her curious eyes taking in her surroundings, her occasional gasps telling me she liked what she saw. Our sandals clanked against the once smooth marble floors and I spun around, finding that she was already in her stance. I raised my scythe and smirked. She held my sword up and gulped, but I could see that it was just for show as her stance exuded confidence and her eyes seemed calm; also the fact that her lips curved up slightly further proved the correctness of my judgment. I dislodged the scythe and that the handle broke away into two so that it was joined by an extremely strong metal chain. I raised the speared end of the dislodged scythe and twirled it into the air and spun it around in circles so that it gave out large masses of wind and blinded her with the dust blowing from the ground. I threw my wrist forward and the speared end of the scythe jammed into the wall behind her, missing her face by a few centimeters; my smirk grew as her eyes grew larger in surprise and pulled the scythe back, only to leave a gaping hole in the place where it had been jammed just a few seconds ago and started twirling it in the air above my hair again.
She raised her sword and I heard Solis mutter, “Take it easy, Ariadne. I actually like this one.” I rolled my eyes and slammed the speared end forward, the stick of the scythe still in my hand. The chain that joined the spear of the scythe to its stick wrapped around her exposed thigh and tangled itself into her red velvet dress, ripping the fabric easily; the spear slammed deep into her thigh and she screamed out in pain. I frowned and tugged at the chain causing the spear to dig in just a bit deeper before it slackened its hold on her thigh and the chain untangled. I pulled it back towards me so that I was holding the spear in my hand and lightly traced its polished edge, removing some of the blood dripping down it.
I didn’t think she would be this weak! I raised an eyebrow at her and thought I saw a kind of red glow in her blue eyes. I looked closer at her and then shook my head; her eyes were just blue and were swimming in a pool of tears. I scowled in disgust and looked at Solis as if asking him “see”? He rolled his eyes and I frowned; Solis liked tough girls so this one definitely didn’t meet the mark. I heard a growl from beside me and saw Solis’s eyes widen as a slow grin appeared on his face; I spun around, just blocking her blow. She had taken a jump start and the momentum of her blow disarmed me and knocked me back a few steps. She continued hitting blow after blow onto me and I barely blocked each of them, being as unbalanced in my stance as I was. Her hair blew in the wind and she looked like some sort of demonic angel; I scowled as the scythe went flying out of my hand and looked at her as her sword came down on me. I saw her startled eyes as she tried to stop her blow but was unable to do it. I raised both my hands and caught the sword in my palms and pulled it away from her hand. My hands were bleeding profusely but now I had my sword and I felt powerful; the pain was bearable, I had had worse. I stretched my leg out and looped my foot into the chain of the scythe. I brought the weapon up to my hands and retracted the chain so that it was once again just stick and metal. I tossed the weapon to her and she caught in with surprised hands.
I was impressed, I had to admit it. Nobody had been able to sneak up on me. Albeit I was distracted with the workings of my dear brother but she still managed to do it and there was no point in pretending that she wouldn’t have been able to come up behind me. I let down my guard -an amateur mistake- and now I was paying for it; the stinging in my hands proved that. The blood from my palms slid down my fingers, over the hilt of my sword and slowly made its way across the metal before dripping onto the floor. For the first time in its entire existence, my sword had drawn the blood of its master. I raised the word high in my hand and the blood dripped back, over the red, now glowing -which I had missed- stone inlaid into the silver hilt and down my palms, past my wrists.
I charged and was beside her in a matter of seconds; she seemed surprised by the expression on her face. I brought the sword down with twice as much force as she had struck me with and my free hand shot through the air only to tangle into her hair, keeping her in place. She barely brought her scythe up to block my hit before she was being pulled back until she was almost bent back in half; my hand in her hair remained intact and I bent down with her. Just as her long tresses were touching the floor, I brought my knee up and kicked her in her spine and she bucked against me. Her pained scream was muffled by my hair as it chocked her; I brought my foot back, hooked my hand under her knee and hoisted it up, let go of her hair and brought the sword to my left free hand and slammed the hilt into her stomach. Now that my hair was no longer in her mouth, she screamed out in pain and fear and I let go of her knee and let the momentum of my hit push her onto the ground, where she writhed in pain.
I had thought she was skilled and experienced; how wrong I must have been! I raised my hand up and slammed my blade into the ground inches from her head. She whimpered but even I had to admit, she had lasted a longer time than most. “Stop crying, child! You have a long time to go before you can win against me.” I whispered to her.
Then I bent down and looked into her eyes. “What’s your name?” I asked. She stared at me for a few seconds before her fingers gripped my hair and pulled my face down to hers. “Ninya.” She whispered before slamming her head into mine.
I choked and gasped. Hot, wet tears rolled down my cheeks as my heart constricted in pain. I gasped and struggled to breathe as the pain of loss and grief engulfed me. Ninya, my poor Ninya. I tried to see past the pain and didn’t succeed. It was the only thing that mattered; the pain was ever-consuming and demanding -like a tyrant inflicting his victim with tears and blood, the pain demanded my attention. I clenched my already closed eyes shut tighter and hissed out a breath through gritted teeth as soundless sobs racked my body. My Ninya, she was dead, and it was all because of him! I screamed in frustration and banged my head against the floor I was lying on.
I was lying in fetal position on the floor, arms cradling my own body. I stood blindly and ran towards the door, thrusting it open and running down the long hallway of endless doors. I opened doors and slammed then close in frustration when I didn’t find what I was looking for. Door after door, hallway after hallway, I searched through them all until I was at the last door; it was simple wood door with plain carvings in it. I twisted the knob and thrust it open. The door banged against the inside of the room and the sound bounced against the walls.
I steeped into the room; its promised solitude enveloped me and I walked slowly towards the single double doors in the room. There was no furniture, no decorations, and just plain white walls with a small paneled window letting the slightest amount of light in. I walked forward in a trance like stride and as I reached the double doors, I put my hand out and touched the wood gently. A resounding beat went through the door and a clanking sound was coming from the room, passing through the door until it reached my piqued curiosity. I turned the knob to the doors but they wouldn’t open! I tried again and furiously twisted the knob this way and that, but the blasted thing wouldn’t open!
Frustration came creeping down on me and I let out a scream of frustration. I banged against the door with all of my might and kicked it multiple times; but still it stood there, resilient as ever. Behind the door, the clacking noise was getting louder every passing second as I banged against the door again, something banged back. The clacking noise sounded closer than ever and I stood shock still, scared out my wits, my senses going mad and the oppressive feeling of danger crashed down on me. The banging from behind the door got worse and a whisper in the wind carried a message to me.
“Ariadne, help me...” That voice, it sounded so familiar. The banging got worse and screaming issued from behind the wooden fortress. I tried the knob again and beat against the door and it beat back. The screaming got worse and I was sure it was a banshee locked behind the door. But what would a banshee want with me?
“Do you really want to do that?” her superior voice sounded from behind me and I swiveled around. There she was, standing in all of her terrifying glory; my fire. I scrunched my nose in anger and marched up to her. My six-foot frame must have looked intimidating as it strode toward her with mad, flailing hair and an ugly scowl; however, she didn’t even look the slightest bit scared. She only seemed bored.
“Let me in there.” I said to her, getting into her-my personal space. Mine; it was all mine! Then why was she rebelling against me, damn it! She was a part of me, so why was she so insolent. Who gave her the authority; how did she get the audacity to defy me? Bloody wench! She smirked and that small movement infuriated me. I grabbed her hair and bought her face level to my stomach and then slammed my knee into her face. The sickening sound of bone against bone echoed throughout the room and I winced; I felt the pain for, after all, I was hitting myself. But it was so infuriating! I had been trapped here for over a week; who knew how long that was in the real world! Weeks? Months? Only the gods knew and they sure weren’t talking. For over a week, I had been stuck with this insufferable, miserable, spineless wench! She was a part of me! I created her! Yet here she was, being all smug and acting all superior; if I behaved like that in real life, I would’ve shot myself years ago! Bloody whore! I was the only who was her master, she was my fire, she was a part of my soul and yet she didn’t want to join me again. And because of this insufferable dumb ass, I now had to look for some dumb thing Hades wanted me to find. He didn’t tell me what it was that I had to find; the loon only told me I would know later.
Bloody pricks, the whole lot of them! I wish I could just take a shotgun and shoot them all then commit suicide and be done with it. But no, I didn’t get the luxury some, correction, all others got; I would have to live this blasted life for eternity and in case someone hadn’t noticed yet, eternity is a long time. To top it all off, Persephone was being a pain and playing dress-up with me every chance she got; if I didn’t comply she would start crying and throwing a fit and Hades would come in and threaten me about how he would never return me the part of my soul he had kept locked with him if I didn’t do whatever the hell Persephone wanted. It was a pain in the ass and then some.
“Ow,” she groaned. “Are you really so fatuous that you actually struck yourself?” My eyes twitched.
“Yes, duly noted. According to you, I am fatuous, melodramatic, know nothing of pulchritude, am always talking in circumlocution, am circumstantial, am incontrovertible, am an inconvenience, my mistakes are indelible, am indecorous, am lugubrious almost all the time, am a maelstrom of disposable and unnecessary emotions, suffer from machismo -which makes no sense, am tremulous and am a trifling tribulation to the world; yet did it ever occur to you, my troubled self, that you are insulting yourself?” I nodded at her. “Oh and a piece of advice; I’m not illiterate, so it would be wise for you to not treat me as such.” I added.
I held my hand out, waiting for her to drop the keys in my hand but she just stared at it and shook her head, muttering, “Trust me, Ari, you do not want to go in there.”
“And why should I listen to you?”
“Because I’m your only hope. I am a part of you and why would I stop you from carrying out an action? I want nothing more than to watch you suffer, which is stupid, I know, and that’s why I’m stopping you. You’re not ready for this, not now at least.”
“Oh stop with your tomfoolery! I have had enough of you torpor! Now you will either give me those keys willingly or I’m going to have to force them out of you.”
“That’s it; you asked for it! Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you!” I thought she was going to give me the godforsaken keys and was just being melodramatic, but imagine my surprise when I feel a horned tail smashing into my skull, effectively knocking me out. In case some didn’t figure it out yet, I was extremely surprised...
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I woke up with a pounding headache and a blurry vision; what the hell, man! Have I become some sort of a punching bag or something? No seriously, what is it with people always hitting me! Abusive bunch of morons!
Looking around, I saw that I was -once again- in my make-shift bedroom and that I had been unceremoniously bound and gagged. They liked the theatrics that much, eh? Oh well, to each their own. I suppose this has a positive side...if you look at it in a specific manner. I was finally rid of the vexation provided by the one person that wanted to make my life...well, definitely not hell, as I was occupying a room in the very foundation of “the big, bad place down there”.
I snorted -or at least tried to. The only result of my sense of humor was a tug inwards at the cloth stuffed into my mouth; the virgin cloth got dangerously close to my windpipe and I started to panic. This wasn’t good. I didn’t want to die because of a piece of cloth! It sounds ridiculous in itself; the truth would be even more horrifyingly humiliating!
I took a deep, calm breath and hummed to myself, ignoring the fact that the gag was, indeed, sliding further down my throat. I looked around and noticed that the room was extremely cramped, littered with miscellaneous objects as it was, and the walls were painted a dreary gray. They seemed to be closing in on me and I closed my eyes. Claustrophobia truly was an annoyance.
His voice whispered in the back of my mind and I scrunched my closed eyes, trying not to let the mere sting of begotten tears flow into a cascade of purity.
"Πήγαινε για ύπνο, θα είναι καθαρά. Σημειώνοντας θα σας βλάψει, γλυκιά μου. Είστε αγαπημένο μου και θα είμαι για πάντα σας προσέχει. Θα σας εγκαταλείψει όχι περισσότερο! Θα είναι για πάντα το αστέρι σας, απλά εφικτός και αν κοιτάξετε προσεκτικά αρκετά, θα ακούσετε μου ψιθυρίζει. γλυκιά μου, θα σας προστατεύσει. Νάρκη για τώρα. "
His sweet voice, how I longed to hear it! But hear it, I shall not! He killed my soul with one simple swipe of his hands and one simple step towards the tumultuous ocean. He left me for dead and let me be abused by that sick tyrant everyone mistook for an angel. I felt the wave of tears flood through and I tried to barricade it, self-preservation barely winning over irrational emotions. I didn't need the gag to slide down farther; I was already in enough threat of being choked. I took a deep breath through my nose, feeling my throat close up at the same moment. Paralysis numbed my body as tears streaked down my soul and ripped deep gashes into the corners of my mind.
I fought through the unyielding cave of emotions to think one last think before they overcame me and my control. "Είπες ψέματα." The thought held the deepest of longings and the tortured visions of what-ifs. However there were no what-ifs anymore. The time for change was long gone and not even the stealthiest of runners could catch its elusive tail. The jail cell of the human mind was my prison and my burden alone to bear. With that thought in mind, I let the water-works free and let soundless and breathless sobs rack through my body.
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It had been quite some time before I regained my strength and calmed myself down. Love; what a pitiful emotion! It did nothing but make it's victim weak and vulnerable. Love was like a virus. It latched onto some unsuspecting person's consciousness and put elusive thoughts of lust and "happily ever afters" in their minds and poisoned their judgment. It grew like an irritation and collected information and mutilated it until it was nothing more than a hollow echo of what once was a tactful existence. It controlled people's minds and shoved out all senses, making their victims do things they never would've done had they been sane. It ate away at people's thoughts and gave false illusions of faerie tales until they were nothing more than tortured carcasses with rotten hearts of self-pity.
I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply through my nose. I focused on the task at hand; getting out of these ropes ought to be easy enough but then again, stranger things have happened in the past, so only the Gods know. I really should stop praising their names since they are the ones that got me in this situation in the first place; exclaiming the expression, "only the Gods know", makes a statement of their power of the oracular. When we use this expression, not only are we commending them on their foresight, but we are also commending their pulchritude, their divine ways and their mystical lives. We are claiming them to be the eternal powerful; it is a sign of respect I do not want to show.
I tried twisting my wrists but the only result that got me were raw, bleeding wrists with steel wires deeply embedded into the flesh. I winced at the sharp bite of the wires and sighed I felt the beads of blood roll down said wires onto my hands. The splattering sound of blood dripping to the floor was my only companion as I thought about what to do.
Maybe I should just sit here and wait. As soon as the thought was in my consciousness, I reprimanded myself. Ariadne of the Flame sitting down helplessly as the prisoner of her tyrant father and waiting for someone to rescue her -the thought was inconceivable, unimaginable, incomprehensible. I simply refused to be a damsel in distress! Cliche as it might sound, I actually wanted to prove myself to these narcissists who thought they owned all and knew everything. These arrogant bastards needed to be put in their places and so far, I had been doing a pretty good job of defying them and their commands. I wasn't about to start obeying them now just because I couldn't get out of inconsequential wires!
I ran through scenario after scenario, imagining what would be the advantages and repercussions of each action I did or would do. Daydreams of throwing Hades into a pit of fire and watching him suffer and squirm floated through my mind. I felt a savage pleasure at the entertainment of these thoughts but, nevertheless, I pushed them out of my mind so that I could concentrate. How to get out of here?
The splattering sound of the dripping of blood was getting vague as the wounds in my wrist slowly healed; stupid wire was interrupting the healing session! If it wasn't there I would've already been rid of this stinging bite of pain! I sighed and forced my mind to not wander in unnecessary directions -sometimes having a short attention span was really troublesome. Ah, it seems the toughened and rational Ariadne is finally coming back to replace the place of the real harebrained and impulsive Ariadne. I preferred it this way -war was no place for childishness and this was war.
The sounds of the world seemed to get amplified as I concentrated on the footsteps approaching the room. Against all the odds, against all of the warnings of mind, I helt my heart soaring at the prospect of the unfamiliar emotion; I hoped. I hoped that someone was here to come and get me and tell me that this was all a nightmare and that I would be waking up in my momma's arms any second now.
I shook my head and tried to banish the foreign emotion; I didn't need another virus infecting me. The dripping sound of the blood smashing into the wood floors seemed to get louder as the footsteps got closer. My heart hammered in my ribcage; it sounded like a warning siren to me. I felt the ominous, yet strangely familiar, presence slink up the hall only to stop right before my room. A touch of warmth graced my frozen insides and thawed out my raw emotions as I peeked at the shadow of a man that showed through the door. The presence was familiar and that familiarity brought about a sense of safety; I felt the need to cry all of a sudden. My brain tried to catch up to my body as I opened my mouth to scream out a name.
My mouth clamped down at the last second and the ominous feeling of being the passenger in my own body passed. The gag loosened enough to almost fall off. I suppose that was the closest thing I could get to an out-of-body experience. My mind screamed at me; red lights were going off in my mind and I felt like cursing myself, for some reason. Cursing was something I could definitely do and so I opened my mouth and let all of the profanities under the sun spill free from my mouth as I saw the shadow slink away. All hope was lost. I felt the beginning of a sob building it's way through my throat and I resisted the urge of rolling my eyes; I preferred my incorporeal state to this vulnerable human body with a limited intelligence that would attack me with vivid memories and mind-numbing emotions at the strangest of times.
Like now, for example; I had no reason why I wanted to cry as I watched the shadow walk away. I muted the sorrow and fueled it into mindless anger. The profanities came harder and faster and I thought I saw the man's shadow stop but I paid little attention to it. My attention was otherwise occupied by the vividly clear surroundings and my perfect clarity of both thoughts and sounds. The dripping commenced and my mind screamed at me like it had as the presence of the man had halted at the room. I felt stupid, frustrated, irritated, vexed and I wanted to scream.
The odd emotions churned inside me as I tried to make heads and tail out of it. Bloody fucking hell! What's wrong with me! I gritted my teeth and the simple and almost inconspicuous sound churned and reverberated through my ear canals and send the impulses to my brain; if only there were such rational explanations for everything we felt! My hearing, as if it had a mind of its own, concentrated on the blood and focused on the echoes the simple sound made through the room.
Wait, echoes? Why were there echoes? The room was extremely small and cramped, so it simply could not have made the echoes that were being made by the blood pelting onto the hardwood floors. The sound seemed hollow and empty and I focused my mind on it. All of the accusations of conspiracy theorists filled my head and seduced my thoughts. There couldn't, could there? It was simply impossible and the fact that I was entertaining the notion in itself was hysterical! But then again, I had seen and bore witness to stranger things, one of them being my very existence.
I toyed with the notion and finally decided to test it out. After all, skepticism was the bane of my existence. I stood up, wincing as the steel cut even deeper into my wrists due to the movement and I sucked in a sharp breath as my muscles, bound, aching and numb as they were, screamed in protest. I stood to my full height of an unnatural 6"0'.
Think of your imperfections at a time not as crucial as this! I screamed at myself. Yup, she's definitely back; I liked the rational side of me. I stretched my back the slightest bit and squeaked when the pain got worse. Bad idea! I bent in on myself and felt around the blood drenched floor for any imperfections.
Nothing. It was smooth and perfect. Just as I was about to give up, the thought occurred to me to check at the actual pooling of blood. I ran my foot over the liquid substance and, at first, I was shocked by the amount and vividness of the blood; I wanted to be sick. I took a deep breath and started again. The blood smeared across my pant cuffs and it felt as cold as death itself under my feet. I ran it across the paneled wood and tried to find any latches or breaks in the wood. I almost let out a cheerful shout of victory but then remembered the loosened gag around my mouth; I didn't want it back in my mouth so I chose to keep quiet.
I pushed my toes down on the slight dent in the floor; I would've passed by it as it lay there, unnoticed, if I hadn't been paying such close attention. My toes caught on the hole and I applied more and more force on it, leaning my weight on my toes as the wood slowly began to give away; it hurt my toes, but I would do anything to be free again. I raised my foot up and, with all the force I could muster in my restricted position -hands tied behind me and wires slicing into wrists at the slightest movement- I smashed my foot down and the sound of splintering wood greeted my eager ears.
I beamed and proceeded to kick the rest of the wood out of the way so there was a big enough room for me to slide through. The end result of my efforts were bloody feet with splinters of wood inlaid deep within the soft and sensitive flesh. I winced with every step I took towards the hole -which was, mercifully, limited. I looked into the hole and saw utter blackness. Well, it's better than this anyway. I took a breath through my nose and jumped down the hole, the tapered edges of the wood cutting deep into the flesh of my arms in the meantime. I landed on the ground in an awkward heap of bone, flesh and pain. I almost screamed but resisted the urge. I was pretty sure if the wires cut in any deeper, they would hit bone.
I slowly erected myself and gazed around the darkness. Light seemed to shine at the end of a tunnel way and I hovered towards it like a moth to a light. I walked through the ancient hall and reaching the end, saw bright flames dancing suspended in the air. The entire hallway was was lit up with the gift of the deity! I watched the dancing flames with a reverence before remembering the reason I was here in the first place. I looked around for a sharp object and found an outcropping of rock with a tapered end sticking out of the earthen entrance to the hallway. I walked over to it and raised my arms from behind my back slowly and steadily to the front of my body, careful not to damage my wrists any further; sometimes being triple-jointed paid off!
My hands were aching and my wrists were a right sight, as raw and bloodied as they were! The wires were, as I had thought cut deep into my arteries and the loss of excessive blood was making me woozy. I shook my head to clear my dazed thoughts and sighed at the sight of my wrists. The pain was just about to get worse. I shook my head again and just got on with it; no point in delaying the inevitable. I raised my hands high and bashed my wrists against the rock, One side of the wires sliced my wrist straight through while the other side pushed outwards and away from it.
I wrenched my consciousness out from the realm of hazy pain and focused on the steel that was, at the moment, away from my wrist. I shifted my hand, my wrist screaming in protest -I should be dead by now and I would be if it weren't for the curse of immortality. I slipped my fingers into the wire and gently pulled it up higher. Then I retracted the finger and it hooked it onto the wire and pushed it back slightly, just enough that the side of the wire that was embedded into the flesh would separate. Then I started pulling it up and as the wire finally got off of my wrists, the relief that I felt was immense and I felt like crying. My wrists were a mess and I felt sick just by looking at them. I shook my head as sweat dribbled down my forehead and started easing the loosened wire to my hands where I was faced with a dilemma.
The wire was stuck at the frontal primary bone of my thumb and I sighed as I knew what I had to do in order to get the blasted thing off.
I gently slid my left hand down until it was positioned at the bulbing bone that was blocking the wire. I gently pushed the wire away and closed my eyes as I pressed with all of my might. The crack reverberated across the well-like encasement and echoed across the walls and back into my ears. The searing, white-hot pain had been produced before I even got the chance to utter a word and as the gag was still bound loosely around my mouth, I couldn't even scream. Slowly, I faced the silent torture and tears leaked from my eyes and rolled my my chin.
After what was seemingly a long time, I finally sucked in a breath and proceeded with the untying of the wires. They were a lot looser now and as I, once again, hooked my fingers around it and tugged at it, it easily came of. I sucked in a huge breath and wiped the sweat from my brow as my bounds finally released their hold. I walked over to the suspended flames, wrenching the gag away from my mouth as I did so.
Fucking idiots! Think they can stop me! Well, I showed them! I reached the fire and took a deep breath as I thrust my wrists into the flame. The searing burning of the white-hot flame was both welcome and relieving. I relaxed in the warmth of the fire as it stitched back my flesh and mended my wounds. The bone would have to wait till later. It can't be mended with fire alone.
After a seemingly long time, I finally retracted my hand and walked through the long, narrow hall-way. I massaged my throbbing hand as I walked towards a seemingly pitch black tunnel. A tunnel within a tunnel; this is a maze, it seems. I reached the entrance over with a huge slab of rock with words etched deep into it. My sanctuary of earth and light were seemingly lost to a world of eternal darkness and I as I stood there, feeling the aura of the forlorn tomb, I felt a chill go down my back. I craned my neck to look at the words engraved into the rock and struggled to read through the layers of ancient dust and cobwebs. As the words finally registered in my mind, all became clear; the reason that this place was hidden, the protective spells I had encountered but passed through as I was of royal blood, the maze-like structure, the sinister aura. It all came down to this.
"Οι Κατακόμβες. The Catacombs."