Romanowski and Rosemary

13. Medisa and Althea

"P- Please, no!" she thrashed out, shaking her head. "W- Why me? If you want to c- curse him, find someone e- else. Why me?" Tears soaked her beautiful face.

"Because you are his beloved little flower." he snarled, squeezing her cheeks till her mouth opened. "And what could make him weak, if not getting cursed by his little love, huh?"

Gripping her throat, he poured the entire contents of the goblet, just in time to leave her neck as the cursed drink rushed inside her.

She coughed violently, dark blood sputtering on the ground, staining her lips.

"Just wonder how nice of a show it would be," he smirked, "Getting cursed, then watching the love of his life kill herself before him."

In real life, I had killed him. Tied to a pole in a dark chamber, where I had made his skin melt out of his body, day after day. But now that I see him like this, taking so much pleasure in torturing my Medisa, I wondered if I even inflicted half the pain to him that he caused her.

"When does Julian arrive?" The writer stood up, throwing the goblet at one corner.

"Tomorrow, noon."

"Perfect," he grinned. "Tonight..." he bent to her level, moving his fingers around the slave mark on her arm, given to her when she was young. "Tonight, I'll teach this little slave how to curse the big, bad man. It will be fun."

And then they left her alone.

It felt as if I was dying a thousand times from the inside. More so because I wasn't able to wake up and save her. Anger rippling around my body reduced to a pathetic trembling, leaving me with a sense of disability. As if I was a disabled, crippled man, who couldn't do anything to save the woman he used to love so much.

"Medisa..." I whispered again, tears pouring out of my eyes. I'd never felt so impaired and helpless.

"It will be me who'll burn in Hades, for not being able to save you," I confessed. I couldn't even close my eyes, stop seeing the monstrosity done to my Medisa as I saw her twisting against the cold prison walls, crying at the pain that had started engulfing her body.

"J- Julian..." At last, she called out, and a tide of fear doused me. It looked like she couldn't breathe anymore, her words constricting in her throat. "S- Save her. P- Please...

"Please save A- Althea..."

My breath knocked out of my heart. Even as she was dying, she was asking me to save... save Althea...?

"W- Why Medisa?" I gulped, my heart slamming against my chest. "Why would you say that?"

"Save, Althea..." This time she repeated with much force, "Save... save..."

I couldn't tear my gaze as she faced the prison's ceiling, and squeezed her eyes, tolerating the excruciating pain. But when she lowered her face and opened her eyes, I felt my heart tearing apart at the sight.

At the sight of the sky-blue eyes staring back at me.

She wasn't Medisa anymore, but... Althea...

Blood gushed below her right eye, staining her neck and the dirty white linen below. I swallowed in horror when I looked lower. More blood around her thighs and some sprinkled over her lap. Her wrists lay hung on the wall exactly like that of Medisa's.

"J- Julian..." she breathed out as if she didn't have any strength left in her. She looked into my eyes and uttered something I hadn't expected.

"S- Save, Medisa..."