Κασσάνδρα

COURAGE

She hesitates, although she does not know WHY.  Here, in the doorway, she can smell the sea and the sweet summer air.  A warm breeze plays with her hair.  Sunlight dances on her skin.  Happiness blooms in her chest in a way she hasn’t felt since she was a child. Everything, even the comforting solidity of Erebus’s hand seems to melt away before it, a candle before the burning sun. 

There’s no room for sorrow. Here she’ll be with her family and with her city.  She has missed them with all her heart, all her soul. 

She STRUGGLES, pulling away sharply, suddenly attempting to stand and run from him. But he’s STRONGER and as much as she squirms and twists, she cannot escape his grasp. 

         Her eyes are wild. In them, she’s a cornered          animal. She sees her own death before her,          in the jaws of the predator. Even now, Sparta's          forces approach.  She can hear his pleading         but she does not LISTEN to it. 

Cassandra collapses against him. Sobs rattle off in choking gasps. It takes several moments before she finds the will to sit up again. 

She closes her eyes and draws a long, shaking breath. She holds onto that for a moment, as if it is the last thing that keeps her firmly planted in reality...

He’d opened his mouth to say something.  But there wasn’t anything, what they’d lost was too big. He’d lived with it for centuries and she’d have to live with it for her new human lifetime. Too long either way. 

“I tried,” she repeated. 

She had torn out her hair and screamed her throat raw from trying. She had tried and tried and tried. She had met her end shortly after Troy fell. How long had he lived with the same loss? 

We’re reliable with the ladies.

Look into your eyes and the sky’s the limit.

I’m helpless.

I have never been the type to try and grab the spotlight.

You walked in and my heart went “Boom!”

Yo, this one’s mine.

I’m so into you.

I’m about to change your life.

Now my life gets better every letter that you write me.

I’m just saying, if you really loved me, you would share him.

I’m dying inside as you wine and dine.

I don’t have a dollar to my name.

My love for you is never in doubt.

I’ve been living without a family since I was a child.

May you always be satisfied.

I just might regret that night for the rest of my days.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw your face.

When you said ‘hi’, I forgot my dang name.

Where’s your family from?

So this is what it feels like to match wits with someone at your level. 

What the hell is the catch? 

That doesn’t mean I want him any less.

I’d have to be naïve to set that aside.

If it takes fighting a war for us to meet, it will have been worth it

You will never find anyone as trusting or as kind.

At least I keep his eyes in my life.

I know he will never be satisfied.

If the tomcat can get married, there’s hope for our ass, after all!

From what I hear, you’ve made yourself indispensable.

I heard you’ve got a special someone on the side.

I’m afraid it’s unlawful.

I will never understand you.

If you love this woman, go get her!

What are you waiting for?

We keep loving anyway.

When they died they left no instructions, just a legacy to protect.

Death doesn’t discriminate between the sinners and the saints, it takes and it takes and it takes.

We keep living anyway.

If there’s a reason I’m still alive when everyone who loves me has died, I’m willing to wait for it.

I am the one thing in life I can control.