Psyche awoke-- alone and shivering as she groped blindly in the darkness to feel something, anything that resembled her home. As her thin fingers were only enveloped in the folds of a silk-like substance, she froze as her blood turned to ice: this was not her home. She squinted at the shadowy piles looming ominously over her bed, recoiling as their outlines only revealed objects that most certainly were not human-made. Where was she?
The only semblance of light shone through a nearly opaque fabric that, upon reflection, could be thrown aside to reveal a midnight black sky with a gloom unrivaled by any dark cloak that Pluto could drape across his shoulders. Psyche peered into the night cautiously, leaning out to find a star-- any constellation that could give her some sign of where she was. She was sorely disappointed by the yawning chasm of a sky that seemed to extend further and further-- past the sky, past Olympus, even past the Underworld.
A searing pain shot through her mind as she recalled the events that had occurred only a few hours prior, the events that had led her to a deceptively beautiful land that was to become her home. A sweep of the darkness outside would reveal that the beauty of the land had fled in her terse sleep, one that she began to regret as the frigid air wrapped around her-- one without the warm glow that Zephyr’s had left her with.
Was this punishment fit for the crime that Psyche had unknowingly committed? As she had met with many suitors, she had always been privy to the sly whispers of the barely concealed rage and jealousy harbored by a certain goddess, but she had always been quick to dismiss them with a modest wave of her hand. She had assumed those comments to be a strangely specific compliment that most certainly did not go over well with her sisters; she had experienced enough of those to be able to forget about the comments swiftly.
Her imagination taunted her as she almost collapsed in herself, as she remembered the main part of the prophecy that had horrified her: she was to be with a monster, and an irresistible one, at that. Though Psyche had never been one to judge those around her for looks, she grimaced as nightmarish figures cackled at her in her mind, dancing with fiendish grins while strange lights flickered behind their eyes. No, this was not the life that Psyche had pictured for herself.
Then again, her previous life was not one that she desired either. As time began to slip away from her grasp, so too did her sisters, her playmates. Once so childish and pure, the innocence of her siblings began to dissipate before her eyes, replaced by that devilish look that she had always hated in her father: the lust of greed. Married and whisked away along with their husbands, Psyche oft found herself trapped in an inescapable silence, not unlike the one that she was jailed in now. A fear began to grow like a sprout in her stomach that she would end up like her sisters, that she would too be consumed by the savage avarice that had stolen her sisters.
Perhaps it was better that Psyche was here, wherever here was. Had she remained with her parents, she would have been married off to one of the many suitors who came knocking on her door with a gleam in their eyes and a bounty in their hands. Psyche would open the door with a closed heart, only to close it back in their faces with disgust on her own. She would have been repulsed, absolutely revolted, but her father would eventually tire of her constant denials and excuses. He was kind, but not that kind.
Still, though, Psyche couldn’t relish in the absolute terror that struck each of her parents when the oracle laid her future in front of all of them-- no, she was silent. Though her sisters only filled her ears with their laments and sorrows, Psyche was deaf to the words spouting from their accursed mouths and saw only the glee and triumph that flashed momentarily in each of their faces. Again, not a word escaped her pursed lips as her gaze drifted elsewhere, refusing to grant them more joy by breaking down in front of them. They would not see a tear. Although her sisters had always been envious of the other-worldly beauty that people traveled across the land to catch a glimpse of, Psyche never realized the extent to which that beauty could poison their hearts. They would not be sad to see her go.
Psyche, on the other hand, was brimming with tears. She had long accepted the fact that her sisters loathed her entire existence, but she had always assumed that there would be some chance for reconciliation and apologies on both sides. It had never occurred to her that it was possible to never see them again. There was a part of her, deep inside, that twisted like a knife in her gut with regret and an alien emotion bordering on fury, but Psyche was too ravaged by mourning to give that feeling the time of day.
As a shimmering tear finally broke through the glimmering sheen over her eyes, Psyche felt the gossamer sheets tug away from her grip as the mattress tilted in the opposing direction. She clasped her hands over her mouth to smother the exclamation of surprise that ached to be made. When the creature occupying the other side of the bed finally spoke, her eyes widened at the waves of tenderness and unbridled love like she’d never heard that radiated from his voice.
“Hello, Psyche."
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