Aphrodite and the Cursed Pearl (Short Story)

Chapter 3

✨Please vote, comment, and ENJOY!✨
*******
Every nook and cranny was carefully examined by the goddess herself, and nothing was left unsifted. Aphrodite scoured the North Atlantic Ocean from day in, to day out, and all through the night, for several agonizing days, but came up with nothing. A lost, sparkling pearl was nowhere to be seen. She even wrestled a few octopuses just to see if they had the pearl with them, and that, to me, is pure commitment.

But then, came the fourth day. As Aphrodite continued on with her search in the blazing heat of the sun, she happened to make out the faintest, little glow at the bottom of a beautiful coral reef. She would've actually missed the glow completely, had she not turn around one last time to look at all the florid fish going on about their lives.

The goddess frantically swam down to the bottom of the reef to see if it really was the pearl that had her searching half an ocean for 4 days straight without any kind of rest or nourishment.

As she drew closer, she saw that the object was almost completely submerged in the white sand, except for a fraction of its top half. Aphrodite proceeded to dig the object out with hasty movements of her hand. And just as she suspected, the pearl that has the entire world talking, was the source of the faint gleam in the sand.

Filled with giddy, Aphrodite quickly resurfaced to examine the pearl, and as soon as it hit the sunlight, its true beauty was unmasked. The newsstand vendor in Paris was right. The pearl was unlike anything she'd ever seen in all of her existence. It was as if she was holding a delicate orb of never-ending light. The pearl was the size of a golf ball, was so white that it almost hurt to look at it, and had the perfect shape of a sphere.

However, what Aphrodite didn't know was that this pearl wasn't as innocent and perfect as it seemed. See, here's the thing, such a beauty had to have a price. As everyone could see, this was no ordinary pearl. It shines like there's no tomorrow. A wretched curse was placed on this twisted pearl thousands of years ago so that no one was able to keep it in their possession for long. Whoever dared touch the pearl died within a day, and the pearl's most recent victim was Adam Parker, the British scuba diver who died a "mysterious" death.

So as Aphrodite made her way back to her gleaming, white chariot, the pearl still clutched tightly in her hand, unleashed its curse upon her.

However, instead of dying, Aphrodite lost all her immortality. She didn't die likes others would've because her previous immortality mitigated the effects of the pearl's punishment. All the curse was able to do was turn her mortal.

As a result, Aphrodite could no longer see her chariot since only the gods had that ability, and was stripped of all her powers, no longer the Greek goddess of love and beauty. Just a plain mortal human being who just so happened to be pretty.

All the while, Aphrodite struggled to find her chariot that was parked next to the biggest boulder on the entire beach. It was not until she tripped and fell over a small rock that she realized she's no longer immortal.

When Aphrodite fell, she skinned her knee badly, but the thing that horrified her the most was the crimson substance that was coming from the scrape. Instead of blood, all the gods had golden ichor flowing through their veins, so since none was present coming from the scrape, that only meant one thing.

She was no longer one of the gods.

Fear coursed through her veins like a poison as her world crumbled around her.

She sobbed in the sand at the realization.

In a blink of an eye, everything she ever knew was gone.

Stuck a mortal.

Her days were numbered.

Death was never a problem for her, but now the fear of it lived inside her.

It burned.

*******
Thank you everyone so much for reading my first work on Wattpad!!!! :)

Sadly, this short story must come to an end, but there may be more stuff comin' in the future......perhaps😅

And I am also VERY sorry that the story had to end on a bad note, but believe it or not, most myths about the gods don't usually end very pretty because their lives aren't as flawless as people make it out be😁 (which I found out in the book mentioned below👇🏼 or next....I dunno😂)

I would also like to mention that I got the idea of writing about the Greek gods, but more specifically, Aphrodite from the book Rick Riordan wrote called, "Percy Jackson's Greek Gods" 😝✨👍🏼 (awesome book by the way)🤓

🎉I deeply appreciate ALL my friends' encouragement, support, and feedback! I couldn't have done it without you guys💖🎉

Thank you for voting, commenting, following, and reading! BAI👋🏼 ;)

P.S.👇🏼

🔮✨ALL YOU PEOPLE NEED TO STAY WEIRD!👍🏼✨🔮

Until we meet again!

~Noel 💚✨🤓

👋🏼✌🏼