“Where are my shoes?” she asked. She didn’t bother inquiring about her backpack or phone. Somehow she didn’t think they’d survived. If they had, she didn’t think anyone would help her retrieve them.
“Your clothes do little to emphasize your beauty, and it’s much easier to get what you want when you properly use beauty as a weapon.” Melinoe led her to the alcove where a large bath awaited.
Cyane didn’t want to follow her, but the strange feeling of reverence, or something otherworldly,compelled her to.
“As for shoes,” Melinoe said, amused, “you weren’t wearing any when I found you.”
Cyane frowned.
Without preamble, the goddess grabbed Cyane’s shirt and tore it from her body as though it were tissue paper. Cyane yelped and tried to cover herself, but Melinoe laughed and plucked the rest of Cyane’s clothes off of her body, tearing them with outstretched fingers.
Naked and shielding herself, Cyane scurried away, saving the note from her pocket and putting it aside. The goddess snatched her hand, spun her, and pushed her into the bath with a splash. Her strength was shocking.
Cyane emerged from the steaming water with a gasp, flailing her arms wide.
“You can’t do that!” she shrieked. “I have rights!” She moved to the side of the tub to hold on.
But Melinoe was already on the other side of the room, laying out a long, cream gown on the bed. “This will make you look like one of us.”
Cyane stared at it, at Melinoe, then wrenched her eyes shut and turned back around. She didn’t want to go to the party, let alone get dressed up. Fear was very close to taking over her again. Fear that all of this was real. She didn’t know if that was better or worse than insanity.
She slipped into the warm, soothing water, and drew her knees to her chest. She appreciated the bath despite her lack of privacy, though it did little to ease her. The last time she’d been submerged, it...it hadn’t been in proper water. She knew that now. At least she hoped she knew that.
I’ll have to speak to Cerberus again if I want to leave...
Cyane shivered.
Fear could easily become terror.
Metamorphosis
Cyane rubbedthe chiton dress between her fingers. The material was like feathers and warm air had a love-child, and the dress was the result of that union. Melinoe’s excitement increased with each passing moment, making Cyane’s head ache further.
The goddess stepped back to reveal a mirror on the cave wall. Had it just appeared? The spinning behind Cyane’s eyes increased.
“You’re ready,” Melinoe announced.
Cyane didn’t feel ready, though she turned to the mirror anyway.
The dress was as lovely as it felt, and it flowed like waves around her legs. A gold and purple sash wrapped around her waist, emphasizing her curves. A similar ribbon held up her hair in a loosely braided knot atop her head. The ends of her braids curled around the back of her neck where her hair dripped, still wet.
I look like a Greek goddess...
She blushed and fanned out the skirt. The dress’s neckline hung low on her chest—which was comparably larger than the average woman’s—and she couldn’t help but compare herself to Melinoe in the mirror.
Her curves and height were outlandish next to the petite goddess. It wasn’t like she was super busty, overweight, or overly tall. She wouldn’t even consider herself outside of the norm. But next to Melinoe, Cyane was all those things and more...lacking in every way. Or having too much. Whatever she was, she felt outrageous and unpretty beside Melinoe.
Cyane turned from the mirror and pushed the thoughts away.
I need to get away. From her, from this.The longer she spent with Melinoe, the worse her head spun, and...shapes began to flutter at the edges of her vision.
Unreal shapes. From the corner of her eye, she’d glimpsed odd shifts of light, flickering humanoid outlines, and wraiths of sobbing women, but each time she tried to catch them head-on, they vanished into the shadows.
A screaming man appeared beside her.
Cyane wrenched her eyes shut—holding in a shriek—begging for it to end. More sobbing women appeared behind her closed eyelids. Cyane snapped her eyes back open and shoved her father’s note into the neckline of her dress, securing it as best she could in the folds.I’m okay. I’ll be okay.
“Let’s get this over with,” she gulped, turning towards the door. “I have someplace to be.”
