Ares And Mia

Chapter 52

I take a deep breath, my lungs feeling like they were squeezed into nothingness and remade. Death and redemption, the suffocating seconds that I had to witness after the books claimed me. My heart rate jumps into a million miles per second, fear spiking. I tighten my grip on his hand and he squeezes back, just as I realize we arrived. Ares stands next to me, looking around. I fidget with my fingers, realizing that we were in a room with piles and piles of papers around us. Not just papers, book spines, covers, and more were scattered around. Completely destroyed, as if some sort of creature was left to its own devices. I turn, taking in the mess. "Where are we? A library?" I crouch down toward a cover.

Ares doesn't respond for a second and I look up at him, his eyes distant. So much vulnerability. "It-It's a spell. The one I use for the journals." I stiffen as I pick it up, running my fingers against the familiar leather. The Book of Atlas or a piece of Ares? "It writes whenever there's a change in emotion. And..." He gestures all around us. I suddenly feel very small. "I guess I had a lot to write about, sweetheart."

"Did it always have the... piles?" Ares laughs, walking over to stack.

"No. In fact, it was pretty empty until recently." I join him, picking up a handful of ripped out pages from the journals. They all had something written on them and I flip to a completed page. The cover in my  hand drops to the ground. I flip the page, then look at the other. I can't feel my face. Then, at another. I gaze up at Ares who seems almost ashamed. "I lost the one thing I ever truly wanted to keep." His voice is soft. A confession to himself.

Mia.

My name, written again and again, in a harsh style all across each available line. Scores of ink, haphazard, yearning, desperate. My name is repeated over and over, so much said in the hurried style. I pick up more pages, my name covering every inch I could find. I paw through the pile, caring less about paper cuts and more about searching--searching for something. Something that I didn't even know about.

Over and over again, I find pages with my name on it. How... Lonely. Loneliness was etched all within the pages, nothing but an ode to my existence.

It was almost as if he were trying  to remember me, or forget me, I'm not sure. It felt like the extremes of temperature, touching something so hot it felt cold--writing something over and over again until it no longer seemed like a word, or a person. How many times has this room turned into warzone of parchment? Of pried books and spines, his realities laid out in front of him. How many times has he had to clean it up?

To reminisce about the words, written with or without permission, only in honest detail. His mind was painted in these piles, pillars of his conscious since I left. Since I died. Perhaps his emotions were too strong for the century old spell, laying everything to waste. Or, the spell understood to a level that was far too great for a page. Disregarding pen and ink, a whirlwind spun from the god and wrecked havoc upon journals that his human would seemingly never touch again.

I pick up paper and leather, fingers sliding upon edges and corners. My name, how many journals could I fill? Who would read these pages? I can't seem to breathe. I stumble upon another pile, with different words on them, repeated through something almost like muscle memory. My eyes catch on everything, consuming me from the inside out.

"Give her back to me."

"No, please."

"I don't want to bury her."

"Take me instead."

The heart is a fucking muscle. And it rips and tears in my chest, a hollow feeling falling into my stomach. This would've been the last pieces of me. Left here, in his journals, probably sitting upon an office shelf. Would I even have a funeral? Where would he bury me?

Gently, Ares eases the pages of his journals from my fingers. I would've ransacked this entire place, scoured every inch, if it weren't for the pain in his eyes. I don't know what to do. What to say. Beside hold both his hands to me as I let tears fall from my eyes. "I'm sorry, Ares." My voice quivers and he seems to shake.

"Don't be, please don't be sorry for knowing me." The god before me has changed so much. And stayed the same. We changed and stayed the same together. "I would go through all of this again, love, just to have known you."

"You're going to make me cry." I sniff, and he chuckles at the tears already running down my face. Eternity is a long time. Way too long for me to even fathom. What do I do with all this time? "I want to stay with you."

Ares lets out a breath. "Please do." He wipes some tears from my face again, helping me up as he scatters the pages. The fire that lights from his fingertips is blazing hot, scorching the paper around me. It catches almost too easily, burning brilliantly red and muted orange. Flames rise all around us, dancing as it transfers from paper to leather from pile to pile.

The firelight looks beautiful on him. Dappling his features and changing, evermoving like the rays of light that the Time Pools don't have. Ares's silver eyes were like the streaks of comets, shimmering and paving the way for the dark. He was the sky and all the stars. He was warmer than any fire around us, hands circling my waist as he kissed my cheek.

Ares, my god of war, holds onto one more piece of paper in his hand. There's only one sentence on it, missing the urgency, the devastation, the desperation.

"I love her."

- - -

omg it happened
Haha how do u guys feel? They reunited :) let's go thru the chapter
story telling and listening, how cuteee reminds me of the office nights they had together

The river :( the room :(

Ares must've been sad sad, to have the spell go haywire like that

Also, burning everything?? Hellooo global warming???

ares said ily

lmk what u guys think! Pls be sure to share, comment, and vote on the chapter, I love seeing what u guys think yayay