Achilles
I waited for the gods to answer my prayers for my love to see me, but they never answered. I sat with her as they prepared my body. I was a warrior, and I would be sent off as one. I continued to look over Alana, until the dungeon seemed to shake with trumpet sounds. The processes of sending me off was starting. I turned to look at her. She started to cry again. I realized she wasn’t afraid of being in there at all… She was afraid she wouldn’t get to say goodbye to my body.
She started to beg again. “Please! Please let me say goodbye to him. I won’t ever do anything else wrong, I swear it!” Her voice was hoarse, but she insisted.
Moments passed and then footsteps got our attention. I knew those steps anywhere; it was my mother. She stood in mourning for me, as she watched Alana. I knew my mother. She was not a bad woman. Everything she ever did was for me, and now, she had lost me. I understood her grief, her pain, but could she understand mine or Alana’s?
“Before everyone gets here...” My mother began. “You may go up to bid Achilles farewell. Even if I am not fond of it, my son loved you. He truly loved you, and I could never take that away from him.”
I looked over at Alana as she stared at my mother. “Get up love, and come see me, I beg of you.”
I felt like she heard my plea as she stood up and walked over to the front of the cell with weakened knees. No one said a thing as Alana followed my mother down a hall, then another, leading to the main room where my body was showcased.
As soon as Alana saw me, she ran to me. She ran to my body and sobbed. My heart was not at peace as I thought it would be. My love yearned for me, and there I was watching her and not able to get back to her.
“Gods, please. I plead with you. Give me another chance to be with her. Another chance to love her even more. One more chance to hold her in my arms.” This was my second prayer to the gods.
Maybe I was turning religious or desperation drove me mad enough to pray. My mother was decent enough to allow us some time alone. All the guards stood outside of the main room as Alana sobbed and touched my face. Her soft voice was life to my ears. “Achilles, you are my heart. You saw the depth of my soul and allowed me to be loved. You gave me the chance to love someone and, for this, I will forever be grateful. I will forever love you. My heart is yours, always.”
Her words were like vows to me.
“As is mine love. My heart is yours, always,” I responded to her, knowing she could not hear me.
A commotion outside caught our attention as the voice of Cyril boomed.
“Achilles is dead. Now, promise me what you owe me. I want Alana.”
Who was he talking to? I wanted to go see, but something made me look back at Alana. She was sniffling as she pulled something out from her thigh. I smiled, knowing I taught her how to hide a small weapon between her thighs with a strap holding it up. My chest swelled with pride, but that was shortly lived as I watched what was happening next. Alana caressed my face with a small smile on hers.
“I want to be with you more than anything else. I don’t want to live in this wretched world without you. I will not be Cyril’s in mind, body or soul. I am yours.”
As she said this, the small knife came into view, and she plunged it into her gut. She did it the way I showed her, in a way that would end a person’s life quickly and efficiently.
“NO!” I bellowed, but it was too late. No one could hear me.
I ran to her side as she sank unto the floor. I dropped to my knees as I tried to hold her in my arms but couldn’t.
“Love, love please live.”
“I will not live without you, Achilles. Don’t ask me to,” she replied.
Astonished, I stared into her eyes as she gazed right at me.
“You can see me?”
She smiled just like the sweet angel she was.
“I do. I want to be with you, Achilles. Don’t leave me,” she pleaded with me.
“I would have never left you, Alana. Never! I would have been by your side.”
She started to cough and rapidly lost more blood. Her life would end in a matter of seconds. I looked at the doors, yet no one stepped through.
“The gods have failed us. They took you from me, and, because of it, I am taking what they gave me, thinking it was precious. I am taking the life I didn’t want to live, until you saved me.”
“Shhh. Love, stop wasting your breath. Someone will come in time.” I was growing with hysteria.
She clicked her tongue. “A warrior ‘til the end. I love you, my soul,” she said as the essence of her life floated away.
I roared so loud the whole room shook, causing some plaster of the wall to fall around my body. Everyone stepped back in the room to see what had happened, and when they saw Alana, they rushed over.
“She’s gone! She’s gone, you imbeciles! You did this! All of YOU!” I bellowed out, shaking the room one more time.
My eyes burned, as this great warrior cried my soul out for the woman I loved. I watched as her blood made its way from under her body. It stayed there and disappeared into the floor. I gasped, and, as I was about to speak, Alana’s body vanished before their eyes. They scrambled to get mine, but they were too late. I, too, vanished into thin air. My ghost felt the pull and, before I could resist, I was sucked in to a black hole.