Serpentine | ✓

6 | loved

*** L O V E D *** 

    HE LOVED TALKING.

    The prince had an obsession for words. He knew just what to say at the right person and at the right time. He had a swish of eloquence around him, a loquacious drive for conversation. So much that even his own words surprised me.

    “Pardon me?” I blinked and blinked and blinked again until my eyes burned just to make sure I heard his words right.

    “Have you ever felt like you had anything in the world, except for one thing; a choice?”

    I blinked my eyes again in confusion, stared at the plump outline of his lips. The prince was looking at me seriously, like he was about to confide a secret.

    “I know you do, I may not know much but I know your tale enough.”

    “Do you, really?” I smiled sadly, played with my fingers as I softly spoke, “believe words from men that don’t have anything better to do with their lives.”

    “I know that you are cursed by the gods, the very same curse they had put on Medusa.”

    I looked at his blue eyes and allowed myself to be vulnerable. His words were ignorant and innocent – all harmless on his part, yet the damage was almost insurmountable. We hold demons inside ourselves that will rip and destroy with just the sound of a word.

    The prince doesn’t know it, but the demons in me were just enough to painfully squeeze my heart. I tried to be strong, for myself but it came out futile.

    I am Nidus Serpentine son of Medusa and my greatest fear is myself.

    “I was cursed as penance for my mother’s sins.” I admitted out loud. The prince was baffled to hear this revelation about my bloodline that went dates beyond his lifetime.

    “when she had an affair with Poseidon, the goddess Athena not only cursed her with immortality and a gaze that could turn anyone into stone but she also cursed her offspring to bear the same fruit of his mother’s mistake.”

    I laughed bitterly.

    “I am merely a facsimile of my mother’s mistake.”

    “Don’t say that.” the prince interjected quickly. His hands had touched my shoulder and all I could do was flinch. “I’m sure you’re here for a reason.”

    “And what reason is that?” my words came out as bitter. “to turn anyone into stone? To live forever knowing the fact that nothing can ever fill up the void in my heart?”

    I forced myself to calm down when the snakes became alert again. I can’t keep going on like this – feeling bitter and enstranged with myself. If I can’t do this to my own, atleast I had to do it for the benefit of the prince.

    What came next was something I didn’t expected.

    The prince wormed his fingers through mine, and weaved them together. He brought the back of my hand to his lips – and I feel it. The electricty. The spark that zapped my entire body into intoxication. The feel of his soft lips were enough to make my stomach produce a swarm of butterflies, butterflies made my knees week, butterflies that made my cheeks into warm ashes of embarrassment.

    “I was raised to be charming,” he said. “But I was also raised to be sincere.”

    He brought the back of my hand to his lips over and over again until my bones dissolved and my blood dried and my sinews combust into fine powder.