The Cursed Sons of Dionysus

Love me Tender

It felt like centuries since Jin looked at you like this. You had become accustomed to his weary and impatient gaze.
You missed how his eyes softened when he looked at you. 
You just missed him.

"Did something happen?" You asked.

He shook his head continuing to play with your hair. There was a strange but comfortable silence as the moment passed. You were unsure of what to say next because you weren't sure if you were able to remain tactful. A lot of feelings swept up in your body as you focused on not crying out of relief. You wanted to swing your arms around him and pull him in for a hug, but the situation felt so delicate you feared that if you did that he would simply disappear. This was so frustrating you wanted to slap him for making you feel this way.

"If I am being honest I missed you," Jin spoke first. "I promised that I would always love you...when you love someone you stay by their side when they need you most"

He trailed off

"I can only say I am sorry."

"You missed me?"  Was all you could manage.

"I can't be without you."

The words triggered something in Jin as a fleeting image passed his vision. It felt like he was reaching for something just out of reach. This had to be insanity...that was the only explanation for all of it. His mind could only linger on the possibility for a nanosecond before it become preoccupied with other things. As for you a sense of dread started to creep on you. It was easier to deal with Jin at a distance. Yes, it had been painful without him but thinking about Nour whilst he looked at you the way he did seemed so criminal...

In the corner of your eyes, you saw your rose covered in a cloud of red that flickered lazily like a flame but moved like a wisp of smoke from burning wood. Totally overwhelmed you flopped back into your bed and closed your eyes. You cursed yourself for not being obedient and marrying Zeus. The sun had heaved itself up from the horizon and was making its way across the sky so it could shine centre stage. Blinking you forced yourself to adjust to the harsh light.

"Do you understand that I would stop at nothing for Nour Gamal?"

Jin nodded. What could he do? Stop you? He almost let out a bitter chuckle at the proposition. One thing he had learned about was that you did not answer to anyone. Your mind beat to the drum of its own tune. The fact that none could hear the melody was the least of your worries.  He suddenly felt a pang or irritation that itched his brain, he couldn't explain the sensation or where it had come from. A distant past perhaps? A forgotten memory?

—

More and more out-of-body experiences chased Jin like skipping stones across the water. He had lived shadows of foreign lives  whilst you searched more frantically for your servant lover.  Days flittered past; he didn't dare disturb your tireless search with his own reports of mumblings of confused memories and lost sensations, but it was starting to wear him down. He felt like he was losing his grip on his reality. He couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't.  At night he could hear whispers and distant laughter. In the deep of night, he could feel gentle sun rays coat his arms with warmth and embrace him like a hug. In the quietest moments at the edge of that white noise, he could hear it.  The gentle chanting, that would enter every tiny crevice of senses, he felt he could taste, see, smell, touch as well as hear the stupid chant.

He wondered sometimes if loving you truly destroyed him. If it really was breaking him apart. Would loving you cause him to one day cease to exist? He felt like it. It was almost like he was becoming a host body as a parasite ate him from the inside out, bringing him memories from days he had never lived.

It was when Ariadne had gone searching for him and found him in his room with his head in his hands that hell broke loose. A shadow hung over him, it didn't feel like this was one of her sons but rather someone completely different. 

The way Jin was...the way his head sat in his hands. The foreboding that drifted around him like a snowstorm. The self-loathing that permeated the air was something she had seen just once in her life. It was so long ago. So so long ago.

Ariadne rushed to Jin's side desperate to help him to his feet. The way he was it looked like he could never get up again.

"Jin?" a whispered plea cut through all the heavy emotions that lingered around the two of them.

"She still hasn't stopped chanting" he muttered in response.
-
Dusk hit the side of your face like a kiss, as your slippers brushed against dew-encrusted blades of grass, that was shielded by a mystical blanket. The cold air was crisp, you shivered but were too stubborn to do anything about it. The sun breached the fine line of the horizon and despite its cheerful egg yolk-like glow, a sombre mood tainted it all.  Velvet petals brushed against your inner wrist, there was also a warmth there similar to the warmth of a small creature as if it was truly alive. You still weren't sure about the importance of your Rose,  but you felt like you were close to understanding. Meanwhile, you would make sure it never let it out of your sight again. There were times that you had thought that perhaps  your past self was being pretentious and the rose was just a metaphor that meant nothing. But then you had placed a curse on it. Your past self had fully refused to die until they saw that your new self was ready to be reborn. It couldn't have been for a meaningless metaphor...

In the last day or so the Rose had been far more lively, the petals were glowing, and occasionally dust of gold would fall out of it out of seemingly nowhere. Examining it at the first few rays of dawn, you held the rose high above your head.

-

Ariadne was in shock.

She still hasn't stopped chanting

Those were his last words before he died.

That chanting had been the fuel to his flame. It was the only thing that had given him the courage to raise his sword. Even then when he had chosen to fight Ariadne could see in his eyes that he knew he was going to die. She had wished she had prepared more for that eventuality, however,

No one tells you how painful it is to die.
-

Your heart filled with a sadness. You had wished Nour was there with you. His eyes would have danced in amusement at your strange behaviour. At times like this, you really yearned for him to appear right in front of you and tell you that it was time to go answer your prayers.

Then you would sing your songs to the universe , for the universe. It's been a while since you had sung that song. Did you even really remember the lyrics?

You could always try.

Collapsing to your knees and holding your Rose in clasped hands you tilted your chin to the sky and Sang.
-
Ariadne saw past the blood, the decay and the pain and she saw...

"Nour?"

...Her Twin