“Do you know what it is like to live but not be in control? To watch your ‘self’, your own body living a life that was supposedly yours… to becoming nothing more but a vessel of a parasitic being you weren’t even fully aware of that was just there, watching and waiting… simply existing inside you?”
Proserpina says nothing to that merely cants her head a touch in a barest hint of a nod because really… she understands.
Because this is the curse of things that should be dead but still failed to die… for as long it still had its consciousness, a vessel… it would continue to exist, would continue to remain.
…until the end of time.
And as the young goddess continues to appraise the being that disturbingly looked far too human than the others residing within the depths of Tartarus… she thinks it was like staring at herself in years she didn’t even want to think of.
In the story "The spider's thread" written by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, the Buddha decides to give one chance to a criminal in hell who did one good deed of saving a spider when he was still alive. The Buddha takes a thread of a spider in Heaven and lowers it down to Hell so that the criminal can climb up from the Hell to the Paradise. In the story, a thread of a spider is said to be a symbol of slight hope and fragility. It is a short fantasy tale which aims to impart a moral lesson on compassion and salvation.
“The stars, they said goodnight So, sleep till morning light Someday, I'll stay And dream for eternity With you… O beloved from above Until then It's only a matter of when When he draws near To take thee away O beloved from above Your hymns, I shall sing with love Until time passes me by So don’t kiss me goodbye Grant me another chance Spare me a second glance Let me… be with you again Beloved…” . . . . . . When Sir Hans Bathory finally came to, the world was already burning down all around him. And there’s nothing stopping it even as he sees the first, blindingly bright rays of the sun. Utterly confused and feeling panic and something like despair bubbling up from within the depths of his chest, the feeling of wrongness roaring everywhere around him, the knight finally gathers the strength, the courage to stumble and search through the torn-apart castle, one hand crawling and clawing at his neck (because he was so sure he was supposed to be dead–) while the other
Athena’s Sacred Tree Academy–or simply AST Academy to its students–was not only known for its silver-gray uniforms or the logo depicting a large, white owl with an olive branch on its beak but for its topnotch teaching and picturesque school buildings that the students and staff alike enjoy; popular and well-spoken despite the fact that it was still considered as one of the newest academy’s to be built in the country… it only goes to show just how well its reputation precedes itself. It was an international academy after all; and the academy welcomes anyone with a love for learning no matter what their race, their religion and socioeconomic status with open arms. The academy was beautiful and its reputation does not disappoint, of that, Proserpina, goddess of shadows, will not deny as she stood in front of the large clear-glass windows in the President’s office overlooking the school’s towering front gates with her arms cr
I–The Poisoned Apple The young Princess drops a single, red rose on her mother's grave as is her annual tradition during the dawn of her birth. As she watches the flower, such a stark red it was amidst the monochromatic stone of black and gray be covered with powders of white–her mother’s final resting place–she releases a breath and notes that this marks Queen Eleanor's fifth death anniversary before she spins on her heel, turning around to leave. Like any other year, today was cold. (She hopes her mother wasn’t cold down there.) Her small footsteps barely resounded on the snow-covered ground, her cloak of black fluttered behind her like a pair of raven wings, her long dark hair flying behi
II–Ashes of Innocence ‘Poisoned by my greedy stepmother,’ the Princess thinks miserable and wistful in her last waking moments in this cruel, cruel world that allows little princesses to look at Death in the face before they could have lived just a bit longer. She feels the poison's after-effects beginning to burn painfully inside her mouth almost instantly, ‘…what a wretched way to go. But I suppose it cannot be helped now,’ The Princess shall be graceful with this loss. In pain, she closed her eyes, resigned. ‘Let me die.’ Her dying wish was that death will be as easy as s
III – Garden of Corpses The Princess was not fond of going outside, the sunlight was too unbearable for her and even on winter, she had to wear a thick and furry cloak for the sake of keeping whatever little light there is away from her skin. So, she made up excuses after excuses that she has no business outside until her public appearances become near to nonexistent, until she was a rumor within a rumor–unless she was forced to make an appearance as the heiress of the crown–rare though it may be (no one would be glad to see her out and about, anyways…) but she was fond of flowers… so she made it a point to be seen at least daily, briefly, if only just to tend to them… her flowers, her garden. She twirled a daisy before plucking it's petals one by one, watching them being blown away by the winter winds away from her. The Princes
IV – Mirror, mirror While Sir Sanscroft was on his way to meet his old friend, King Arion after so many years and a thousand miles between them, the Queen herself was rather… preoccupied throwing a hissy fit inside her quarters. “That blubbering fool, what in the world is he thinking? Was he even thinking at all?! Why did he not even bother to consult me with these kinds of things? Had he finally lost it?!” she screeched, hurling an expensive vase violently across the room with a sweep of her arm and watching it crash into millions of pieces on the wall with little to no satisfaction before she rounded next to the closest item she could reach, “First, he had named that demonic brat of his as the crown princess, now he wants her to… to get a fiancé?! If worse comes to worst; what if the girl grows old enough to produce her
V– Anemone The Princess steps inside the palace grounds, her head rising slightly, and she narrowed her eyes as she took in the sight of the place that had been her home for oh, the last godforsaken decade. Such an awful thing to refer to my prison as such, the Princess scoffs, tugging at her hood a bit higher from the traitorous sun that was dangerously peeking in and out from the clouds overhead as dawn was close to approaching. She briefly nodded her head in acknowledgement to the guards who were stationed right in front of the palace gates, all who were automatically bowing right before her presence as is proper, never mind the odd hour of her appearance. Regardless of age, here and now, they have no right to question her. Her dark cloak was fluttering around her like a pair of raven’s wings as she
VI – The Little Knight Thirteen years old Jin Sanscroft smiled as he watched the clear skies and birds of white flying free over the vast, deep blue sea, the setting sun just shimmering ahead. It looked like the birds were going to a place where the ocean meets the sky, and he… He remembered this place. He remembered looking at the same view... This, this was home. A hand suddenly rested on his shoulder. Surprised, he turned around and his smile grew wider. She wasn't pale and sickly as he remembered during her last moments on earth. Her skin was rosy and her brown eyes were aglow with life he had never thought that could be