Captivated

Chapter 6: Eaten By Guilt

As the days went on, Helen was regaining her strength. Not enough to be with Paris. She had no idea what made her fall in love with him. It took time to fall in love with someone, didn't it? Of course his flawless appearance was rare to see in Sparta. But what ever made him completely irresistible to her she thanked it. Never in her life did any one love her as much as Paris.

Her greedy mother and distant father were nothing to her. The longest time Menelaus stared her down so much was at their wedding, and after that day he was too scared to even go into the marriage bed with her. She never understood what he feared of her but now she didn't dwell on anything of her past life. Now she was awed by the people of Troy as a goddess, and Paris treated her like the queen she was in and out of the bed room.

Yet sometimes he moped around the rooms melancholy as she sewed with her maidens. She didn't dare want to ask because that would disrupt their bliss they had, but it still questioned in her mind. At the moment she was still thinking about why all the bad things were happening to her now. What could explain her clumsy tripping and falling down the stairs? And why did Paris laugh at her? He knew would laugh at something like that, it just wasn't in him.

Her waiting ladies helped her in a rosy blushed colored gown that illuminated her complexion. On her neck, dangled a single ruby, looking lethal as a drop of blood on her neck line. In the back of the room Eris loathed everything about Helen. Her manner sickened the goddess and jealousy was fuming inside her. She was waiting silently for all the maidens to leave Helen alone with her.

When the time came, she emerged from the shadows greeting with an evil manner.

"Helen." She hissed.

Helen turned to be startled by Eris' powerful presence. Something about her was threatening. The young woman felt as helpless as a small pray with the tiger circled around before its lunge.

"Who, who are you?" She stuttered.

"I am the Lady of Discord. And you must be the little whore who started all this killing." The goddess snapped.

"NO! I would never dare for any harm on anyone—''

"Then why did you run off with Paris when you knew they were going to come after you!" Eris attacked.

Helen knew the answer but she remained silent. A cruel trail of laughter would follow after she told the Lady she loved him.

"Your silence is assuring." Eris mocked. "After this moment passes you will be condemned to live on hearing the groans of the dying."

Helen was confused with fear. She didn't know what to be more scared of, the goddess or what she was being condemned to.

"What?" she said spinelessly.

Eris raised her voice that soon bounced off the walls into Helen's heart with a thud. "You will not have a moment's peace away from the crying, pain, suffering of the people you so blindly spelled upon! Instead, his guilt will become your everlasting curse that will burn inside of you even long after this war has past!"

"STOP IT!" Helen bellowed, shielding her ears away from the torture. It only inclined Eris to keep going.

"You will become numbed with the terror of the hatred that is flaming over you!! And not even in the arms of Paris, will he have the strength to help you in the matter!!! Because I curse you Helen for all of entirety to never once again be loved and feel only the guilt of the downfall of Troy on your shoulders!!"

"SHUT UPPPPPP!" Helen seized the nearest object of a vase and hurled it at Eris, who was now nowhere in the room. Once the sound of the broken glass shattered to the floor, her maidens dashed to her aid.

Her knees gave out under her and she felt the weight of the guilt pour upon her shoulders. It was unbearable. She saw the blood, the crying, the pain of thousands suffered everyday because of her entrance into Troy. She felt the evil gazes from the widows piercing upon her flesh like hot pokers.

"LEAVE ME!!" she shrieks at her maidens who crowed around her. No soon did Paris rush to her side. The lady dove into his arms to dull the pain that now inflicted upon her by Eris.

He repeated many times what happened to her but she always answered that guilt now caught up with her. Paris didn't see Eris in the dark smiling down upon the tragic couple. She wanted them to die, the two together, to dissolve; so that Paris and Eris would become the replacing couple. She strolled to Mt. Olympus, hoping it would be a quiet evening.

But the appearance of Aphrodite dashed away all such wishes.

"How could you?! You switched Paris' guilt and planted it into Helen a thousand times worse!!!"

Eris kept her calm state as she poured a glass of water from the decorated pitcher. Aphrodite contained on lecturing Eris on the danger she has done, not only to Paris but to Troy it self. Still Eris wished she had heard Aphrodite later on but she was to concentrating on Paris and hers new coming love. When the fair goddess lost all hope in reaching Eris she stormed out of the room.

She was not alone for long because it was Ares that quietly walking in. It wasn't like him to enter without a greeting to Eris, so she supposed it was Aphrodite again.

"Will you not get the hint?!!!" She yelled, but shorted stop to find it was Ares. She covered her mouth in dismay. "I'm sorry my dear brother." Eris hurried to embrace her brother. He shrugged it off and walked deeper into the room. Eris was hurt from the rejection.

"Ares what is the matter with you?" she questioned.

"What is the matter with you!" he barked back. "Who are you?! Certainly not the sister I knew and loved!" His words stung Eris with appall.

"What have I done that is abnormal?"

"You care on how you look now! You never cared how people saw you and now you dazzle yourself with so many accessories or so little you are starting to look like Aphrodite! You have not once come to see the battle. You never have time for me...." His voice trailed off as he spoke the last line. Ares never spoke out his feelings which must have been horrible since gods have so much emotion running through them.

Eris now mulled over on how she cast him away over Paris. She was no better then their father, Zeus. The thought scared her.

"My love," She gracefully moved up to her brother to cup his chin. They were eye level but Ares didn't dare look at her. He knew her face would invite the tears he was holding back. She continued on whispering softly with sincere trust in her eyes. "I am so sorry my brother. I don't know what has been happening to me over the past week. My heart has been twisted and pulled more in these few days then it has been in an eon or two. Please forgive me my Ares. I would never dare change into something you despise so."

He melted in her palm by her words and they enfolded in total embrace. All the confused thoughts and pains in her heart flew out when she was back in the arms of her brother. They squeezed the terror and agony that they've experience over time out of each other. Paris, Helen, Troy, the war itself didn't matter to the wellness of her brother, Ares.

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