Short Story Archive

Power

I breathe in the storm. I feel its power swirl inside me, engulfing me in a sense of holiness I have never felt prior. My eyes sparkle as the world is thrown into sharp focus. People running in terror, the weak minded and soft hearted. A wicked grin flashes across my face, and before I can stop myself, I pull with everything I have.

The world stops turning for a moment. I can feel everything being held in suspended animation as the Earth halts the timeline. For just that precious moment, I can feel every strand of energy. I can see emotions, laid out in front of me in the most beautiful of arrays. I can hear thoughts, listening to the panic in the civilians around me. I can taste power.

Then I let the Earth continue on once more.

A cyclone has wrapped itself around the city. I see the panic switch to terror as mothers shield their young children. I feel nothing but the cold-hearted righteousness as the world became mine to control. I felt the rain intensify, caused the winds to howl, allowed the streets to rumble. The entire city shook in pure, undiluted fear of me, of my capabilities. I have never felt more alive in all my days. The storm gives me a sight I had never been blessed with prior. My nostrils flair as I inhaled the sweet aromas before the downpour washed it all away.

For the first time in forever, these people were mine.

It felt good to reclaim the throne.

"You don't have to do this!" she sobbed to me. "You don't have to do this! Leave them alone! I'll give you what you want! I swear! I swear!"

I saw her face twisted into the most horrified grimace, and I could not hold back the chuckle of content. Her people, the ones she had loved and nurtured for too long, were now pawns in my game of chess. I controlled them, I told them when to walk and when to conquer. Controlling the game as an outside god was not something I previously considered, but now I was cursing myself for having not thought of it sooner.

It was a brilliant game I was playing.

I have never felt so alive. Not as a princess, not as a queen, not as a bandit. I truly was meant to be a goddess. This is where I belonged in the world. My soul had been a small price to pay, my humanity having been eliminated years ago. I felt nothing for these pathetic creatures that I used to align myself with. They were maggots, worthless and disgusting. Yet, I could hear their pleas. Cries sent to a god that does not care. I saw everything with a sharper clarity, after nearly two decades of being away from this town. It is good to be home.

Or at least, what's left of it.

The memories that swirl in my mind do nothing but make me grin. The darkness of my heart overtakes anything that may have been a motivation to halt my funnel of storms. My sister kneeled before me, my twin sister who once presided over me in our court. I can conjure a thousand memories, and only a dozen would tear at my heart to see the tears that streak her face. She was always the perfect one, the beautiful one, the pure one. I was the controller of darkness, the sinister one, the scarred one. Our parents, especially our father, had always preferred her. She would make an excellent queen one day, he would tell us. She would land a very wealthy, very powerful husband. Did it matter to him that I was the eldest, therefore I should be the one to preside over the court? Not if it meant losing the potential that was my sister.

I wished he could see the look on her face now.

Her poised, gorgeous face that used to ensnare half the empires that surrounded us, now twisted into a hideous rendition of sheer horror. Her makeup smeared across her porcelain skin from my downpour, her hair matted and twisted from my winds. I destroyed her, and there was never a sweeter victory in all my years. Not after I took the throne, not after I killed her husband, nothing felt better than tearing her to pieces. Actually, the only thing that made this moment truly perfect was to watch her ever-loyal people below watch her cower beneath me. Seeing their noble queen in complete shambles was the icing on the cake, and I swear at least half a dozen women fainted, while another four or five actually threw up.

My rain washed away my old reputation as a nuisance.

I would be remembered as their new goddess.

I could see it now- the sacrifices they would make, the feasts they would throw, even their terrified whispers in the night. People telling their children to never speak ill of me. That was the life I craved, the life I deserved. I breathed in the power. I would need a god beside me, and I knew just the one to fit the role. I search for him in the crowd, allowing my rain to soften as my gaze ran over the sprinting victims. My brows furrowed as I looked harder, never quite sighting him.

"I take it it's me you're looking for," his deep voice rumbled behind me.

I turned to him, my hooded lids telling him all he needed to know.

"Cease your attack."

I shook my head. That was the one favor I would not fulfill.

"These people do not deserve this. You should not hurt them."

"You must be stronger than that to rule these maggots."

"Who said I wished to rule?"

I stepped closer to him. "Who said I was giving you the choice?"

"After all these years, you still love me?"

I nodded. "Of course I do. Don't you? You promised me you would. You promised no matter what happened, you would always love me."

"I never have broken a promise."

I didn't see the arrow until it was too late.

"Not until today."