exile;;

marriage had never been an institution that bella was willing to place much weight on, which made it all the more ironic that she’d found herself engaged at 18 with an impending wedding growing ever closer on the horizon. even more shocking was that, at least for the most part, she’d been more or less okay with the idea of being someone’s wife in spite of her own misgivings on the larger issue. the fact that the ‘someone’ in question was edward played a tremendous role in that state of mind — the only role, so far as most parties of interest were concerned — but even greater than that was the implication that came along with their vows: a mutual promise of forever in the most literal sense of the word. 

forever aside, there were some aspects of the whole ‘wedding’ situation that she’d found a keen dislike for. in particular, the actual process of planning said wedding was a prime example, especially considering her misguided belief that handing it all over to alice would absolve her of any and all responsibilities. that bubble had been burst quickly for her; in spite of alice’s best efforts, there were simply some things that required the bride’s participation, and the fact that she’d been the unwilling subject of a dress fitting for the better half of the afternoon had all but exemplified that. it had taken what little was left of her mental energy after the whole affair to drag herself up the stairs after dinner as she bid charlie a hasty “ g’night, “ before dropping onto her bed face-first, and it was right then and there that she’d decided that wedding planning would be the death of her.

        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 ?! “

hadestown had quite the knack of sucking the life out of everything it touched, like a cold, bitter blizzard in the midst of a never-ending winter. it certainly was no place for someone as lovely as his eurydice, so much so that it almost seemed wrong to see her amongst the gaunt, hopeless faces that surrounded her. still, that hollow ache of guilt — the one that had, at the very least, admitted to the fact that he was to blame for her being here in the first place — was one that could wait; there wasn’t a thing in the world that could keep him from savoring in this moment while he had it.  instead, his chest heaved a heavy sigh of relief as she turned in his direction, his weary knees going to jelly at the realization that he’d actually done what he’d set out to do. there was no doubt now that it was her — a breath of warm spring air in the desolate hellscape of hades’ own invention — and that was enough to set his muscles into motion before he could even realize they were moving. he stumbled a couple of steps forward, arms already opened wide to pull her close as she launched herself at him only to wrap impossibly tight around her slight frame. there was no letting go of her now so far as orpheus was concerned — he’d already made that mistake once in his own foolishness, and he’d be damned if he’d ever be so stupid again. 

he was so consumed in the moment — in her — that it took him a few long moments to realize that she’d even asked a question at all. it was only once it had registered that a shaky, sheepish breath of a chuckle escaped his lips, though he hadn’t yet bothered to pull his face from where it was comfortably tucked in the crook of her neck. “ what — me ? well ... ” it sounded stupid now that he’d had the time to mull over exactly how he’d gotten there in the first place. what was he going to say — that he’d just ambled his way through the entrance without so much as a word thrown in his direction ? he’d hoped to have a better story, something more exciting, but with no time and too little headspace to come up with a good enough excuse, he simply had to settle for the truth. “ I, uh... I walked, actually. mr. hermes showed me the way — some back door, i guess. ” 

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.