Chapter 4 - Psyche

A note to self: when attempting to hide from a goddess, think broader than outside your bedroom. My scrambled brain led me down the well-worn hall to my sister’s suite and that’s as far as I got.

“Oh my gods!” Chara squealed when I barged into her room. Her blonde curls swirled around her shoulders like a golden whirlpool as she bounced. Apparently she didn’t notice I was freaking out as she danced and clapped.

Running past her, I dove into her bed and pulled the silk blankets over my head. Almost instantly, Chara tackled me and the bed shook under her continued jumping.

“What are you doing, silly? Come out.” Chara’s voice sounded light and airy enough to fly.

When I didn’t answer, she finally stopped her incessant bouncing.

“Psyche?” She shook my shoulder. “Is everything alright?”

No. It’s not alright. Not for me. Not for you. Nothing’s even close to alright.

“Not really,” I croaked.

The covers yanked away and I peeked up to see Chara standing over me. “Spill it. What’s up?”

I recovered my face with my hands. “You don’t even want to know. Seriously. It’s that bad.”

She tugged my hands free. “Come on. It can’t be that bad. You are Aphrodite’s daughter now.”

I nearly puked on the bed.

“Fine.” I sat up and took a deep breath. “Here’s the short version. Everyone wants me to get married. Like yesterday. Aphrodite demanded I marry Eros, but that didn’t work out--”

“Whoa. Wait,” Chara cut in. “The Eros? She wants you to marry her son?”

“The correct word is wanted. Past tense. He pretty much hated me, was a jerk and I kicked him out of my room.”

My sister’s silence confirmed that yes, it did sound as bad as I thought. I forged ahead, determined to get to the part affecting her too. “So, that was her and now she’s pretty ticked and all, which is one thing. But Mom and Dad are still on a rampage, planning a double wedding or something and sending out announcements for both of us.”

Chara dropped my hands in favor of slapping them over her soundless scream. Or maybe she was about to puke too.

When she finally spoke, her words tumbled out fast and reckless as rapids. “That’s imposs--. Are you sure? I was supposed to have another year.”

All I could do was huddle with her as we formed our own pulsing pile of tears, sobs and runny makeup. “I’m so sorry,” I moaned. “I knew she’d want something, but I didn’t know it’d be this. I should’ve asked.”

Chara looked up at me, her gaze telling me I’d slipped up before the accusation even came out. “What do you mean, ‘should’ve asked?’ You knew Aphrodite before today?”

Swallowing hard, I realized Chara had gone from sharing in my agony to looking ready to toss me to the lions. “It’s not what you think.”

Liar, liar.

“She’s just been visiting. Mostly as a bird. Sometimes helping me with the window.” I rubbed at my nose with the back of my hand. “It wasn’t that easy, you know?”

“How long?” she demanded.

“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Two months. Maybe three.”

“Three months!” Her shriek almost frieghtened me more than Aphrodite. “You’ve been having visits with a goddess for three months? What’d you think was going on? You had to have known.”

“I didn’t. I swear. She just told me it added to her power when beauty was important and that I was helping her. That’s all I knew.”

Chara thrashed off the bed, jerking the covers with her. “Unbelievable.”

“I know,” I pleaded, “help me. What am I going to do?”

“You?” Chara’s look was incredulous. “Help you? I’m supposed to be at least a year out from having to play nursemaid to some ancient king. I like it here, thank you very much. But now what? Now I have to suffer because you were too dumb to see the obvious?”

As I searched for the words that could possibly explain myself, Chara tore out of the room. “I can’t be here right now.”

The door slammed behind her like the crack of an axe.

Chapter end