tales of killing lights

the raven's crown of shame

1.
the raven's crown of shame

«I always wonder why birds stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on the Earth. Then I ask myself the same question.» Harun Yahya

When Apollo still was a little boy, each evening, before he went to sleep, his mother told him everything about greek mythology : the gods, the demi-gods, the heroes, the wars. As he got older, his mother told about the mistresses of the gods, about the constellations and from which myth they had gotten their names... He loved some gods and heroes more than others. He loved Artemis as if she was his real sister, Apollo of course, he adored Athena and often pitied Hephaestus, that he liked to consider as his friend and also a role model because he respected this kind of master of fire. He hated some, such as Zeus. He often didn't know if he liked or despised Aphrodite. He was fascinated by some minor and/or mysterious gods, Helios, Thanatos, Hecate...

At the age of seventeen, he had already read tragedies, novels and poetry and seen a lot of paints about these characters so important in his childhood, and, because of his increasing desire of knowledge, had become interested in literature, art, cinema, history, even when it wasn't related to the greek myths. Books kept him alive when his parents died, when he was thirteen and had to live with his grandfather that found him weirder than anyone had before and looked at him with the same hatred he could see in the eyes of his school bullies.

At the age of seventeen, he fell in love for the first time.

*

When he first met her, he was in the high school library, talking with his friends about the last essay they had to go and then she arrived, telling to her bestfriend - the girlfriend of one of Apollo's friends, Arthur, and her name was Marlene. She was there and Apollo hadn't even noticed - to hurry up because they had to see someone.
"Guys, this is my bestfriend, Coronis but she prefers to be called Cora" Marlene said. "Cora, you already know Arthur, these guys are his mates."

When he first met Coronis, he couldn't help but laugh at her. Then he saw the confusion and the hurt on her face and said :
"Don't you find this comical ?"
"What, my name ? I already know it's ridiculous, thank you very much." she said, her face red because she was getting angry.
"My name is Apollo."
"Yours is as ridiculous as mine, you know. You're not allowed to laugh at it."

She didn't knew what he was talking about.

"Look, you know Apollo, right ? The greek god ?"
She nodded, waiting for him to go on.
"He had several lovers, included one whose name was Coronis."

She laughed.

"It's an interesting way of hitting me on."

*

It had started as an harmless crush.

He looked at her all the time. He created stupid schemes to spend time with her, and another one to have her phone number, and another one to ask her out on date.

Whenever he talked to her, he was suddenly a adoring idiot.

Coronis, well, Cora, was too beautiful for him to not be captivated. Seeing her entranced him. This girl was... She was his opposite. She was darkness. It wasn't frightening, not at all, it was entralling, so fascinating he couldn't look away. Being with her was like walking outside at night on a beach, looking at the stars and feeling the cold wind that made your whole body shiver. Apollo loved everything : her tall silhouette, her very pale skin, her slitted deep brown eyes, her sharp features - people often thought that asian girls had to be sweet, cute, docile ; she overthrew this stereotype, being as fierce as she was, and Apollo couldn't get tired of the vindicative, almost ferocious, her face had - and finally, her hair as obscure as an abyss.