Well its been quite some time since I've updated, but to my excuse it has been a stressful semester, also I was having some serious writers block. I did not know where to go with the story! Because I tend to write each chapter separately it was hard. Anyways thank you all for your awesome reviews and please let me know what ya'll think about this chapter. By the way i've started posting stories on fictionpress just because fanfic is very limited. The story i am writing there is called Dreadful Sorry by solarissis and its about ghosts and past life. Anyways i hope you guys like this chapter. Enjoy. : D
She sent me to the house I had come to call my own in Argos. If my heart did not feel as if it had been torn asunder and my mind scattered to the winds, I would've been in curious awe that nothing had changed since my departure. Being in my own home brought me joy. It was something to cling to. Yet my home, with its' familiar walls and furniture, screamed of solitude. The floor and furniture were covered in a thin layer of dust, indicating that none had been here since I had left. It was my house, I loved it so, but that night it simply added to my pain. For as much as I wanted to grieve in solitude, a part of me wanted to be held. To be reassured that I was not alone in this world. But some wishes are not meant to be heard. Some Dreams can never come true. And so in my loneliness I sought comfort in the familiar feel of my soft bed, wrapping myself in heavy blankets, and weeping in the darkness of the night.
It was still dark when I awoke. I came to consciousness in a state of alertness that caused my heart to beat furiously within my chest. I wanted to close my eyes and sleep again, but when I attempted to do so, my body felt much too restless for the deep slumber I sought. My heart beat much too quickly and my teeth chattered.
Despite my unrest I found a beautiful sight awaiting me. Through my window I could see the subtle lightening of the sky, and the moon, which reigned in the night, as it had not done so in a year. It's ghostly rays filtering through the window, illuminating my chamber. The darkness that had beheld the land in the past year would finally give way to the sun. Apollo would ride his golden chariot across the skies in minutes timed.
I quickly rose from the bed, wrapping my body in a warm robe. In attempt to calm my nerves I descended from the stairs. It was still much too dark for my eyes to discern every single shape from the room, but where the moonlight filtered through the window it casted a glowing light upon the room. Though the furniture was still arranged as I had left it, there was unfamiliarity in my eyes gained from the many months I had been away.
I saw him when he stepped from the deeper shadows of the living chamber, walking into the moonlight and granting me the ability to recognize him. Ares stood before me just as I remembered him from earlier tonight. His body powerful and strong despite the subtle weight loss gained from a lunar year of imprisonment. He did not appear as filthy and pitiful as he did in that dark dungeon; he appeared as furious and as wild as when he fought against the Aloadae. He appeared as demented as when I first laid my eyes in him on the battle that decimated the Amazons.
Even in the soft glow of the moonlight there was no mistaking his wildness. His emerald colored eyes, which I loved so very much, were demented, focusing on everything and nothing in the room. His newly scarred body and face making him appear all the more menacing. Yet there was something different about my beloved. A small alteration in his appearance but surely large enough to matter. He appeared more like Brennus today than any other time I had known they were one. There was a subtle human flush to his skin, a more tamed color to his hair. Even the freckles that I had come to know of his Brennus' form were once again upon Ares. But combined with the scars he had acquired in his year of imprisonment, it made everything all the more devastating. At that very moment he appeared to me not the god of war he was but a human.
For a god could surely withstand imprisonment, but how could a human do so? I had to remind my eyes that he was not human, though he appeared it so and I knew his body would delude me so. Aphrodite's words rang through my head 'You are human. You will not last the night if he takes you like this. He will snap your bones in the throes of passion, and in the morn when your lifeless body lays in his arms, he will hate himself'
Every part of my body told me to flee, to run from the danger he represented, from his crushing grip and his male body. Instinctively I turned on my heel and attempted to run from the warrior-god that I loved. I got to the top of the narrow stairs when I felt him behind me, brutally pulling my ankle, making my body collapse against the edge of the steps as I fell. I felt his hand around my body pick me up, carry me fully past the steps and unceremoniously drop me on the cold floor. My knees hit the floor harshly. I quickly rose from the floor with the urgency to flee.
A frustrated sob tore through my body as his fist grabbed a hold of my robe and the fabric tore. When I attempted to run again, his arm went around my waist and pulled me to him. His body was unyielding against my back its' ruthlessness in great comparison to the warmth I had known in his bed.
He growled against my cheek, sending vibrations through my body.
Tears pooled on my eyes and fell over my cheeks. I wanted my lover to return to me. The passionate man my body sought, not this powerful being brought to the furthest point of insanity.
When I did not respond he pulled me tighter against him, nearly crushing my ribs. His other hand tightly slid over my thigh, between my legs, over my navel and higher still until it reached my throat. It firmly clasped my neck and whispered again the only word he seemed to understand. "Mine." He said again.
There was no doubt in my mind his intend to take me. I wanted to be with him again, to feel his arms around me. But I did not know if I could survive this encounter. He sought comfort in one such as I who was not strong enough to give it.
But I would try to bring him back. The tales of old that spoke of the brutality, the bloodlust and the insanity of Ares were true. He was a berserker. Yet I loved him so. I knew he was just as passionate in making love as he was in a battlefield. Yes he was untamable in his bloodlust, in his ruthlessness. But he was also untamable in his ability to laugh, to enjoy, and to live fully and endlessly. In his ability to love fiercely. Perhaps I would not see the today's sun fade over the horizon and give way to the moon. But I would love him one last time, even if it destroyed me.
I placed my arm over his around my waist, treading my fingers through his.
"Yours." I said feeling my tears fall over his hand on my throat.
"Forever yours." I felt his body relax against mine. And I believed that I had brought him back to me then.
But then he released me, and if felt the air change. I felt it become hostile. He came before me and when my eyes fell upon his face, all my hope was lost. He was not the Ares I came to love and doubt that he would ever be again clouded my mind.
"You mock me!" He raised his hand and I moved a few steps, fearing his wrath.
"You run from me! You fear me! And I love you; I ripped my immortality from soul because of you. So that you'll not fear me….But to you I'll always be a monster! A BEAST!" His voice echoed through my empty house as brutal as thunder in the fiercest storm. I leaned against the wall for support. Sobs shook through my body, threatening to break me. "Always a beast in your eyes!" His grass colored eyes glowed bright with accusation. His body trembled with rage.
"You fear me! You whom I love!..."He paused taking a deep breath, his eyes glazing as if remembering the past. "I can still smell the stale air, the blinding darkness, and the chains around my body! I can still feel the soul-robbing coldness in my bones." His chest heaved with exertion, his tendons stood out in his rage. And then his large body began to shake uncontrollably. He furiously punched the wall besides my head.
"Flee now! Run from me as you always do! Run!" His warm breath caressed my face.
Indeed I wanted to flee, but it was not because I feared him. I feared the impossibility of our relationship. I feared that I loved him so profoundly and endlessly. But I also felt guilt, guilt that he stood in such manner because of me. Guilt because he was in pain because of me, he had sacrificed himself because of me. My turmoil of emotions kept me rooted into place.
He took a step back from me and looked at me with the saddest green eyes I've ever seen. He nodded and then began walking away from me and towards my bedroom.
"Call them if you wish, I'll not fight them this time. I'll just be waiting." He walked into my bedroom and the door ajar as I had left it. I could see the window as the sun finally rose over the horizon, as the darkness of night gave way to the first day in a lunar year. He sat on the bed facing the window, his back towards me. The pale light darkened my view of him.
A thousand thoughts crossed my mind and he did not move. After what appeared like an eternity, he laid his body on my bed on his side, and all I could see was his back. If it were not for the steady rise and fall of his back, he would appear dead. A part of me wanted to go back in time, to erase everything that had happened, for too much chaos had derived from our relationship. But one ting I had learned was that we couldn't change the past. We could only change the future.
I gathered my thoughts and then walked into the room. He did not move as I knelt on the bed and then lay my body behind his, nor as I pressed my body against his. Rising on my elbow, I brushed his hair from his face gently. As if my touch would frighten him away. I leaned my cheek against his cold one and slid my arms around his waist, bringing one of my hands up against his rib where I felt the frantic beat of his heart. There was no change in him, but after a few minutes he placed his hand over my own, holding it against his heart.
I felt shivers enter his body, but then they would subside. And he held himself rigid as if holding these tremors in place.
"I surrendered my immortality and made myself one of yours. Human." His voice was a weary whisper. "I believed that being human would lessen the pain, but it doesn't."
"Why….why would you yield your immortality?"
"I don't have any use for it. I don't want the endless procession of centuries in which nothing matters. The gods do not live, Liah. They simply exist…We envy you, for humanity despite it's weaknesses is more powerful than we may ever be…You live, you love…" I felt the tremors begin anew in his body, but this time he did not rein them. He could not. "It hurts more, what…what do I do with this hurt? How do I survive?"
Ares had given his immortality. He would be human; he would live like a human and thus like one too.
"I'll be by your side if you allow me so." His hand tightened on mine. But his tremors did not subside.
"Hold me, Liah. Hold me." Tis what I did. I tightened my arms around him and whispered to him sweet soothing nothings while his body shook uncontrollably. I held him so until the last of his tremors died. Later on I heard his soft snore as a stupor of exhaustion took hold of him.
No worries, this is not the last chapter. Anyways my initial idea was to have the gods actually kill Ares but then I realize that they loved each other too much and that they deserved a second chance. Anyways review and let me know what you think, I truly appreciate them. Later : D