Page 12 of Claimed By Her Monsters

“You can’t see something in front of you if you’re already blind.” She spoke with far too much wisdom, and it simply broke my heart that a child would be stripped of the blessings childhood delivered and forced to absorb wisdom too grand for her to truly appreciate.

“What if I gave them the gift of sight?” I offered.

“Their pride would get the best of them,” she voiced and looked at her little bruised feet. “No matter what one does, the gods are wrapped in lies and I’m unsure how to save them from the web before the spider comes to vanquish them all.”

The spider signifies their demise.

“Would you cry if they perished?” I dared to ask.

“Yes.” There was not a hint of hesitation.

“Why, child?” I wanted to understand why she’d mourn those who neither appreciated her value nor saw what was before them.

What was being plotted in their own sanctuary of worship?

She proceeded to look up into my eyes once more, and for a moment, I saw a flicker of emotion I never thought would be left after all the torture this child had endured.

Hope.

“They are destined to claim,” she voiced like it was so obvious. “What’s lost…must always be found. I may be lost now…but they’ll find me again, and when they do, they’ll make me theirs and save me from this cycle.”

She mustered a smile as she looked up at me, and of course, I wished to go against my own rules to save this child who somehow managed to carry a heart full of light even as she was plagued with the burden of darkness.

Two halves of one coin.

“Farewell, Death,” she whispered, which surprised me.

“How do you know I’m a reaper, child?” My scythe was invisible and anyone with magic could wear the drape of black cloth that cloaked my flesh.

She looked away as she prepared for the ritual before her.

“You’ll be one of mine one day,” she vowed and smiled again. “I’ll give you hope. Just like you’ve given me a chance to dream.”

I wanted to understand what she meant, and yet I accepted her words like a prediction that would one day come true. There was simply something about this child that told me she’d be a part of my destiny one day, and it wouldn’t revolve around my role of reaping the souls from this earth as it crumbled into dissolution, but at a time that would bring me together with others.

It would deliver me a sense of new purpose while I unraveled the destiny our Creator decided to weave in our favor.

She began to take the steps into the pool of red, her face emotionless as she began to submerge her little body into the depths of blood that surely belonged to thousands of lost souls who didn’t deserve to perish.

I yearned to stop her.I wished to interfere in such heavy ceremonies that would plague her mind like another form of torture, but that wasn’t my place. Whatever I did could either change the past or destroy her future that I prayed would be filled with light.

“Farewell, Sweet Theia.” The words left me before I could try to understand their significance, but they were enough to make the girl pause as she was neck deep in the sacrificial lagoon. She glanced back at me, and her eyes of lavender twinkled with so much admiration and love that my very heart skipped a few beats.

“Bye, Atticus.”

She knows my true name…

Looking away, she took the remaining steps needed to submerge herself entirely, which ignited hymns in a minor key that echoed from the entrance of this place.

All I could do was stand in my place as I watched the last set of bubbles reach the surface of the thick lagoon, and I made a vow in this very spot to save this girl, who would one day become a woman destined for great things.

“I was brought here for a reason,” I voiced to myself and closed my eyes. “Return me to the present.”

The world around me began to shift, stripping away the little details before it would eventually take everything until I was left in a void of darkness that would steal my consciousness and return it to my archangel form.

I didn’t bother thinking about it as I allowed my mind to drift away — my consciousness now focused on a newfound determination as I couldn’t strip the girl’s image out of my head.

“What’s lost shall always be found,” I voiced again as the rest of the world began to fade. How could such simplistic words carry the weight of promise? I could see why they ignited hope, especially in the eyes of a child.

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