Red String (Under Revision)

Chapter 7

"Do you enjoy your stay on that post, Cupid?"

I look up. Hercules glides down, slowly pressing his toes on the cement in front of me. He wears his shining silver armor on his arms, body, and legs.

He grins wickedly. "Do you like the punishment that your father gave you, Cupid?" he asks. "It suits you."

I sneer. "What do you want? Why are you interfering on my doings, Hercules?"

"Easy, my dear cousin. I just did the right thing," he utters in a calm voice as if he's saying a matter of fact. He jumps, stepping his right foot first on the small space beside me, and tiptoes. He taps me on the head. He leans forward, closing his mouth to my left ear. "You deserve it."

I hiss. If only I can move my arms, I smack his stomach already.

He taps my head again. "You stole everything I have, Cupid. It must be enough to make you suffer like that, sealed in a motionless statue." He burst out a devious laugh.

"Yeah. Like I care. And by the way, I do not know what you're talking about. I did not steal anything from you."

"Are you sure, Cupid? You do not know? You don't know that you stole Psyche's heart from me. I am the one who first saw her before you met her. She's mine. But you showed up and took her away from me." He jumps back to the top of the wall. He walks back and forth, sending me death glares.

"Come on, Hercules. I did not steal her. You just did not make a move to make her yours. Seeing her first is not an enough reason to claim that you owned her; her heart; herself."

"Fool!" He grips the handle of his sword.

"And at the first place, I was sent on a mission to kill her but I refused to do the later. Instead, I love her. And she loves me back."

"No. The mission is just a cover-up to make her fall for you," he insists. He tightens his grip.

"Nonsense. If that was a cover-up, Psyche must be still alive, Hercules. Just accept the fact that she loved me and not you. She didn't even know you and your existence," I argue.

"That's not true. You're lying, Cupid," his voice raises. He unsheathes his sword. He lifts it, pointing the sky, making glints of sparks on its blade. He swings his sword.

I close my eyes. There's nothing I can do but to look on my situation; I can't defend myself; I am hopeless. If this is the end of me, I'll accept it. And if I survive, I'll go back to my usual doing which is to take the happiness of humans. I wait, expecting that the blade of his sword cut my flesh but nothing hits my skin. I open my eyes.

I see Zeus riding on top of a cloud. His right hand stretches in front, palm open. I look at Hercules. His sword sticks in the air, lighting wraps around it, stopping it in motion.

"F-Father," Hercules stutters, facing his father.

"What are you doing here, Hercules?" Zeus speaks out with a cold but terrifying voice.

"N-nothing, Father. I'm just here to visit Cupid. Nothing more, nothing less."

"But why did you unsheathe your sword?" Zeus asks, walking closer to Hercules.

"I just let Cupid see my sword, Father," he forces a smile lopsidedly.

Zeus raises one of his eyebrows, not believing on what Hercules just said. He looks at Hercules' eyes intently.

Hercules moves back, stepping his left foot backwards. "I'm leaving, Father."

Zeus takes a deep breath. He puts his arm down, letting Hercules' sword go. The lightning entangling around the sword's blade loosens, fading out.