⚔️wattpad featured story--1st place for science fiction in multiple awards. 🛸
Cornelia's eyes burned with the liquefied salt of her shattered soul; her feet pounded against the rough terrain of the untamed forest. The straps of her sandals flappin...
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**everybody knows—Sigrid**
Abandoned
Darkness enveloped her in a thorny blanket, as depression sucked away the light. Cold carved stone left impressions on her body and soul. Her only warmth came from a protective layer of filth.
Forgotten
Gastonus ensured each mealtime was a humiliation, an opportunity to break her. Leather bound her hands, neck, and legs, making it impossible to consume it as a human would. Instead, Gastonus would watch as she devoured the slimy rations like a caged beast.
Lost
Yet despite all of Gastonus' efforts to break her, this prison of impenetrable solitude was not what tormented her. It was not what kept rousing her from sparing and fitful bouts of sleep. No, it was not Gastonus; he was not worth it. His presence infuriated her. His attempts to break her could be considered ironic and laughable. Gastonus enjoyed thinking he was, though, and she allowed him to do so.
I am sorry, Hades.
Asphodel flower fields, a small wooden horse, and a family he lost. His story played in her mind, as percipient as the movies on the tablet he gave her. It repeated his regrets, his sorrows, his life. A constant reminder that her hesitation was what bolted his prison doors. That none of it added up to the holographic image Zeus had shown them as damming evidence.
I knew better, yet I did nothing. Yet I cannot shake what I saw. None of this makes sense.
Cornelia could not shake the convincing holo-image of the dark-haired silhouette that wielded sparks of blue electricity. The explosions of the life support systems replayed in her mind. The reckless destruction was so unlike him, but his abilities were unique to him. Who else could it be? She could not shake the feeling that the video lied, but how?
It couldn't have been, Hades? Who could it be?
The reckless fury of the image did not match the cold calculation he had with every interaction. One exception, one time he struck without thought and reason. Only one day in her entire history with him had he lacked restraint, and that day he was not himself.
Was it the wraiths? Cornelia stopped the thought before it could take hold. No, that could not have been it. The video showed two people fighting with full cognizance, not feral abandon. Wouldn't they have been infected long before I met them?
Another memory answered her question. A piece of a cherished memory that had slipped to the back of her mind. The rest of the life that Hades had shared with her. A moment in time, she wished had never ended.
In a world where she could see nothing with her eyes, it made her memories and her imagination that much more tangible. Cornelia smelled the soft sweet perfume of the Asphodel field. The gentle late summer wind whispered through the petals and tall grasses, crickets sang their evening song, and for that moment, they were at peace. Some time had passed since they had spoken. They had spent time enjoying each other's company and listening to the sounds of the night.
