DEMENTED | Romance | Fantasy | Slight Thriller

Chapter Seventeen: The Line Between Respect and Fear

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Darkness had always been a sign of beginnings and happiness for Ebony. It was the start of a new night - full of adventure and mischief and laughter, not the laughter one makes to avoid awkwardness, but the hard laughter that made eyes water and stomachs hurt. But Ebony had lived for months without the darkness, and the adventure, mischief, and laughter that came with it, and suddenly the darkness didn't feel so right anymore.

When she opened her eyes, she nearly did a double take. No. This had to be a dream. A split second ago, they'd just arrived in Lyria. They-they couldn't be back where they started. This was just a hallucination, or a trick of the light. It couldn't be real.

But as the Goddess lounging on her massive throne came into view, Ebony came to the realization that this was very, very real.

The Prince stirred on the floor beside her, rubbing his eyes and looking around blearily at their surroundings before it clicked. As soon as it did, he sat upright and quickly got to his feet, drawing his cloak deep into a bow. Ebony quickly followed his lead, averting the Goddess's overpowering gaze.

She was, quite evidently, not in a good mood. Her long white hair hung around her statically, as though it had been charged with volts of electricity. Her right eye was slightly tinted red, but her left eye was as red as it always was. And there was a sort of deranged smile spread wide on her face. She was going mad quicker than before.

"You, there!" She exclaimed, pointing in Ebony's direction. "You freak, you fool, you! Tick, tock, time is ticking! The heart grows weaker and with it your world!"

This made her laugh. "Yes, your world - they pray out of fear, not respect - it is the one thing I can never keep. I have unlimited power and control, and each of you I created and gave freedom - yet it is fear, not respect, that you will give me."

She paused for a moment, thinking about what she'd said before in a dreamlike state. "How cursed is the mind that fears its creator?" Her question reverberated throughout the hall, making a home in its gruesome memory. And then the world became silent, pondering her thoughts.

The Goddess turned to her prized creation, who stood tall and firm but quivered in silent terror under his cloak. Ebony could feel the trauma that showed itself in the aura around him - the unbearable weight of the Goddess's constant gaze and continuous pressure of such responsibility placed into the hands of his sole being. The Goddess noticed this, too, but it only added to her amiss state of euphoria.

"I expected better of you than to attempt to search in Lyria," she condoned slowly but sternly - the only unchanged emotion in her altered state. "It's become such a hostile place as of late - Ebony could've been killed!" Ebony scoffed at her mock sympathy. Since when did she care about her as a being?

"My Goddess, everywhere has become hostile as of late. There is death everywhere. I of all people would know." His voice was confident, but his aura shook - how much could he be sacrificing by speaking back to her at all?

The Goddess's eyes narrowed. "You were not supposed to go there. The heart is not there."

But how would she know? Ebony thought, and then remembered that everything was a game for her, even if it was about something as important as her heart being used as the achievable boon.

The Prince nodded. "I apologize and take full responsibility for our mistakes."

A sudden urge came across Ebony to run over and hold his hand, to still his growing nerves, but she willed it away and refocused her attention on the Goddess, who appeared to be in thought - while lacking the ability to think thereof.

"Well, then," she announced after a long while of silence had passed. "Ebony, you may leave."

In a split second Ebony realized what she meant. "Wait, where are you taking me to-" she reached out to the Prince as he whirled around to her in both shock and panic. "Ebony-"

She was gone.

Slowly, the Prince turned back to the Goddess, hands visibly shaking in terror. The Goddess smiled back at him, and winked as she made a series of magic-infused gestures he knew all too well. "Wait, no-"

He fell to the floor and suddenly life became his worst memories.

Pleased with her handiwork, the Goddess stood up and skipped down from her throne, waltzing around the hall and singing morbidly beautiful tunes that broke even those strongest in spirit. Her songs echoed throughout the world, and for a moment everyone and everything had stopped - listening to her music, entranced.

815 words

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First off, I would like to apologize for the delay in posting this chapter! I've had it saved as a bumper chapter while I was writing Chapter Eighteen, and I just managed to finish that chapter! 

I hope that doesn't make you hate me because my writing schedule will still be like this as I progress with high school. So that means that yes, you may have to wait for Chapter Eighteen (which is now the new bumper chapter) to be published until I manage to write Chapter Nineteen and so on. 

Although, I am now on Christmas break so hopefully I come up with enough writing to create more bumper chapters and work on updating more frequently!

Thank you so, so much for supporting me - if it's been this past year during COVID-19, or even before that in May 2020 on my old account, or if you're an incoming reader! I absolutely love reading your comments and receiving your votes and it really does make my day to know that there are other people out there who are reading and enjoying my story, regardless of updating inconsistencies and first draft-type errors.

You mean the world to me! I'm so grateful for your support.