➼ closed starter for @monstrums !!
minutes, hours, days, weeks — he wasn’t sure how long he’d walked, nor what kind of distance he’d covered in that time; there simply wasn’t any space in his already scattered mind for such lines of thought or attention to detail. it was, instead, the simple things that kept him moving forward: the sound of his steps echoing in rhythm on hard stone, the weight of his lyre hanging on sweat-soaked shoulders, and the feeling of his fist desperately clenched around the stem of a single, red carnation. if that weren’t enough, he at least had the thought of his sole mission — the thought of her — to keep his gaze turned away from the suffering souls around him and directly on the never-ending road ahead of him. There was simply no other option in his mind, and even if it killed him, orpheus wouldn’t be stopped until he’d found her and brought her right back home where she belonged.
determined or not, it had been a fruitless quest so far. his hope had begun to waver with each unfamiliar face that passed by, and in spite of his best intentions, the fear of failing her had slowly but surely began to creep its way into the edges of his consciousness. or, rather, it had until his eyes landed on a familiar silhouette. a warier hero would’ve been skeptical — hades of all people was too smart to be fooled so easily, after all — but ever the optimist, orpheus wasted no time in reveling in his own victory. “ eurydice, ” he breathed, a slow grin spreading across his face, only to repeat it again — louder this time so that she could hear it, in spite of the way his voice cracked out of sheer emotion, “ eurydice ! “
the walls weren’t going to build themselves, and it was now eurydice’s responsibility to grab a hammer and join the assembly line of other misled and condemned souls in their eternal damnation. it was whiplash-inducing how quickly her life had turned upside down, and all that was left of her was the shell of a girl who was so desperate for warmth and comfort that she was willing to risk her individuality in order to achieve it. hades was a force nobody had dared to reckon with; nobody even dared to speak up to him, and so the longer eurydice spent in hadestown, the more helpless she felt. she hadn’t even been able to say goodbye to orpheus. . . he was beginning to feel lightyears away --- even further than before she left, though she could’ve sworn that was impossible. at least back home, she could see and feel him. down here, he was a mere memory, and she feared more than anything else that he would become a distant one at that.
how many days had passed? weeks? months? keeping track of time was impossible down below. it was beginning to make sense why the rest of the workers were so mechanized; they had nothing left from above to cling to for humanity. eurydice felt blessed enough to have spent what time with orpheus she did, but as time progressed, her fondest memories were starting to become faded and blurry. what had she given him for his birthday? what was his favorite restaurant? the boy with the lyre who saved her life had grown unbearably distant.
eurydice! she instantaneously turned on her heels at the familiar voice, and it sounded angelic to her tone deaf ears. he was standing just outside of her view, and so she hastened out of the assembly line and towards the source of the voice. “ orpheus ! “ she threw herself into his arms, tears threatening to fall from exhausted bloodshot eyes. “ you came. how -- how’d you get here ?! “