Your Lucky Day in Hell
Draft_2
Part 7
By: Chase L. Currie
The Night holds a stillness to it. A stillness is begging the heart to open in the comfort of nothing. Not to let the feelings go but to stand with it in the dark. In the dark where the emotion can leave and breath and become something moving for Paige to face. She could, would stand up to the thing her emotions brought into the world and face it. Beat the thing down, gain power over it, become its master or at least that what she would do if she were back in the world of man. Here among the dark tree floating on a sea of white, she didn’t know dear to bring her emotions to life.
There was no stillness in the snow this time, her boots echo into the Night like a crying baby, and all she wanted to do was to sit down. Her legs groan in agony at the miles she had walked, but she couldn’t sit. Something in her in told her to keep walking, keep moving. The cold around her snapped at her like a wild wolf forcing her to rush for the warmth which was nowhere to be found.
Why?
A simple question. A question we ask far too much when things don’t work out the way they should and never ask when things are going right. Maybe, we should ask why more often when life is good. A question is knocking at the back of her teeth.
Why?
Why did she find out she was a goddess?
Why did she find out Hades was her true love?
Why did she long for him even now?
Why did she leave him so many ages ago?
What sin did she commit which force her to find a man to take her memories away? Did she lie to Hades? Did she cheat on him? Did he cheat on her? Does any of it matter now?
Why does her life keep moving from one disaster to another?
“I don’t understand,” Paige told the Night. “I don’t understand why all of this is happening to me.” The tears pooling in her eyes started to walk out into the cold but stepped back in once the wind petted them away. She wanted to cry, but it was too cold for her to do so.
She walked a few whiles longer talking to herself, reliving everything which had happened to her over the last few hours. Had it only been hours? Or was it nowadays?
It didn’t matter how long it had been because nothing was changing. To Paige, every day in the Land of People fears what tomorrow would bring. She knew when the sun races back up into the sky to wave to the world her life could meet an end, and she could have to start again. She could bleed for someone else only to be left bleeding. Tomorrow, sacred her but here on the Other Side, nothing changed. It was all the same. It was all safe.
Even if the woods felt unsafe, she knew nothing would happen to her. She could walk for years, lifetimes if she so chose to do so and it would all be the same. She stopped dead in the tracks because it didn’t matter. Nothing matters anymore.
She sat down under a tree looking up into the stars letting everything go. She was numb but couldn’t tell if it was from the cold or the overwhelming emotions. She no longer wished to find a warm place to rest for the night because if she did find a fire to sit beside she would feel something. Right now, in this still moment, feeling nothing was better than feeling anything.
She watched the stars wishing she could smile, but her lips would not move.
I love the stars, a friend’s voice told her from memory at the farm. I look up there hoping to see angel looking back at me. Those little lights remind me to take a moment to breathe and no matter how bad things are they, the stars, the moon, and the Night are always there for me. I love the Night.
“And I love him,” a smooth voice said from beside Paige. The voice calm like a cat resting on a pillow drafting off the sleep. She glanced over at the woman who spoke to her and saw a pale face staring back at her. This woman’s hair was the hue of the night with stars dancing in it and ran down her thin body like a river of black water. She wore a simple dark blue and purple dress and a smile of a grinning moon. Her eyes were a soft gray the same as her irony skin.
She pets the side of Paige’s face kissing her on the forehead. “I miss talking to you,” she said.
“Nyx?” Paige asked.
The goddess of the Night smile and nodded. “There you are my Persephone.”
“It’s odd,” she said.
“That your friend talked about me before,” Nyx said, “and it is how he image me to be.”
“Yeah,” she told her. “It was as if he could see you.”
“That’s because he would,” Nyx said. “I dearly love your friend.”
“I guess I’ll te ---” She stopped shaking the words from her mind and sitting back against the tree. “I’m never going to see him again, huh?”
“No,” Nyx said. “He and everyone in the Other World is gone from you. You may be locked somewhere in his or anyone’s imagination, but you are removed from them. The moment you took of Hades’s apple you were never to set foot back into that world.”
“I guess, I have to learn how to love Hades then,” Paige huffed pulling her knees up to her chest and resting her arms on them.
“You have to learn how to love him again,” Nyx said. “But that is what we all do when we love someone, learn slowly how to do so.”
“Wait, you can give me my memory back,” Paige said. “Can’t you?”
“I can,” Nyx said, “but I’m sure it would do any good.”
“Why?”
“Because you couldn’t forgive Gabriel when it was difficult, I doubt you could forgive Hades when it is devastating,” Nyx whispered.
Paige took her hand and begged, “I need to know.”
Nyx looked down at the tiny hand holding tight on to her and nodded. “Yes, that you do, but what at cost?”
“Whatever the cost is I’ll pay. It is worth it.”
Nyx grin looking into her eyes and said, “Humans ask why an often a lot but they don’t understand that if they found the answer, it might be harder than a question. The answer you seek might be madness, and it will change everything.”
“I need everything to change,” Paige said with the tears marching out in rows.
“Very well,” Nyx sighted standing up and putting her hand on top of her head. “I’m sorry, I truly am.”
(Writer’s Notes: I knew from the beginning Nyx the goddess of the Night was going to play a role in the story. Nyx plays a heavy in my mythology, and some could say she is a strong archetype for me. A lot of my writing in my journals find her in the text somewhere. Sometimes, she is a lover, other times a wise woman guiding me down some path. So, I knew she would have to end up here.
These kinds of stories I write like ‘A Cracked in the Heart’ and ‘Artemis’ and others are building my internal mythology. A place where I can give me emotions or fears a mask to wear for a while and I can sit down to speak with them. A lot of times these characters step into my writing but I try to hold a few back for myself and Nyx is one of them. And yet, she wanted to be in this story, so there was no stopping her.
I also must state, I only believe there will be two more parts of the story before it ends. You do not have to read too much more.)
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