'She killed me!'
Cassian's mind reeled, unable to process the words he'd just heard. Shock rooted him in place as her chilling remark echoed:
'I saved you by killing you… so you could be mine!'
Only moments before, the goddess had introduced herself with a flourish,
"Goddess Seraphyra."
But before Cassian could even open his mouth, she launched into a breathless monologue about being the world's biggest fan of Idol Cassian Johnathan.
She didn't stop there, she began to sing one of his songs, perched in the middle of the bed, hands behind her, legs stretched toward him, crooning,
"I wanted you to wait for me in the bed, with your legs up and your guard down!"
She acted out the lyrics, her voice filling the room, and even sang two more songs before Cassian managed to interrupt, stammering,
"Please, tell me why am I here, Goddess Seraphyra?"
A faint chuckle escaped her, her face hidden behind her hands as she blushed,
"I can't believe the day would come when you'd call me by my name!"
She replayed that moment in her mind, eyes distant, lost in her own world.
Eventually, her satisfaction faded. Her green eyes shifted, glowing red as she fixed her gaze on Cassian.
Then, with a strange calm, Goddess Seraphyra began to explain everything she had done for him, how she killed him, "saved" him, and brought him to this place.
Cassian sat frozen at the edge of the bed, every word from Seraphyra sinking in, fear slowly creeping up his spine as she recounted her deeds.
One story, in particular, she savored, her delight unmistakable and her smile sending chills through Cassian's heart.
There was a female idol who once dated Cassian. Their relationship had been private, but the goddess had watched it all unfold.
Seraphyra despised their bond, convinced that idol was coming between them, like a beekeeper between bee and honey, in her own words.
So, the goddess made sure that idol was no longer in Cassian's life, in the most twisted way possible.
The idol had a stalker, an obsessive fan who messaged her constantly, though she never replied.
At first, the stalker was merely persistent, until the goddess descended to the mortal realm and whispered in his ear,
"She is in love with you, but she's afraid society won't allow it. The only way you can be together is if you kidnap her and live far away from everyone!"
Those words, sweet as poison, convinced the stalker they were destined for each other.
With the goddess orchestrating every step, the idol was led straight to her stalker.
When the idol was kidnapped and begged for release, the goddess whispered again,
"She doesn't love you anymore. She loves that idol, Cassian Johnathan, because you are ugly and he is not!"
Driven mad by jealousy, the stalker grabbed a hammer and smashed the idol's face, screaming,
"If you don't love me because I'm ugly, I'll make your face ugly too."
In the end, the idol died, and the stalker took his own life.
Both went to hell.
After sharing the idol and stalker's fate, Seraphyra moved on to another tale, her voice light and childlike, as if telling bedtime stories.
Eventually, she explained everything, even how she killed Cassian and brought him here.
"Let me tell you my favorite part again."
Goddess Seraphyra's eyes sparkled as she recalled the idol and stalker's story, laughter bubbling up uncontrollably.
She rolled across the bed, her laughter echoing through the serene flower field.
"Cassian was never yours. He was always mine!" she shrieked.
Her words haunted Cassian, nearly making him retch. He clamped his hands over his mouth, mind racing.
'She is a monster!'
Suddenly, her laughter stopped, as if a switch had been flipped.
Goddess Seraphyra rose from the bed, her gaze fixed on the sky, expression unreadable.
Cassian's terrified eyes couldn't leave her. In that moment, he finally understood:
Goddess Seraphyra was a true monster, one who would kill anyone for Cassian Johnathan.
Without warning, an unknown voice in an unfamiliar language echoed from above, interrupting the scene.
Cassian couldn't understand the words, but they were clearly meant for the goddess.
Seraphyra vanished, not even glancing back at Cassian.
The look on her face before she left made his heart sink, something terrible was about to happen.
He saw longing in her eyes, a sensation that dredged up old, painful memories.
If Goddess Seraphyra had to disappear without a word, something dire must be happening.
But Cassian wasn't about to wait and find out. He bolted from the bed, legs pumping.
'She is crazy!
Completely insane.'
He didn't dare shout those words aloud, so he screamed them inside, pouring every ounce of strength into his sprint, barefoot across the grass, vision blurring with panic.
With no plan, Cassian simply ran for the mountain.
'If I have to, I'll climb the mountain.'
He left the flower field behind, weaving between thick trees, branches whipping at his arms and nearly knocking him down.
Nothing could stop him from fleeing as far as possible from the bed where the goddess had rested.
'Damn it! How do I escape from her? She'll search for me like a madwoman if she finds out I left.'
A stray thought distracted him, and Cassian tripped over a root, tumbling across the ground.
Mud smeared his white shirt and black pants, a sharp stone slicing his left knee.
Dirt caked his face.
Yet the pain and grime barely registered. His mind was consumed by the goddess's words, the monster who had shattered what remained of his sanity.
Rage slowly replaced fear. Cassian punched the ground, knuckles stinging.
'That crazy bitch!'
He slumped against a tree, tearing a strip from his shirt to tie around his bleeding knee.
He wiped the mud from his eyes with the inside of his shirt.
After a while, alone with his thoughts, Cassian took a shaky breath and looked to his right.
A massive vertical mountain wall loomed before him, impossible to climb.
'There's no way to run from her, is there?'
Cassian let out a small, bitter laugh, but calm was far from his mind.
His hands shook, legs trembling, not from pain, but from fear.
If he couldn't escape, he'd be trapped here with that monster, with no way out.
Cassian desperately wanted to escape her, for one terrifying reason he hoped the goddess never discovered.
The Cassian lying here with an injured leg was not the same Idol Cassian Johnathan the goddess obsessed over.
He was just a guy who shared the same face, the same name, and even the same weak body as idol Cassian Johnathan from the posters.
He had never heard of the women or stories the goddess told him about the idol Cassian Johnathan.
But Cassian didn't have the courage to tell her the truth after hearing what Seraphyra had done to others, all because they got close to idol Cassian.
If he told her he wasn't the Cassian she had killed all those people for…
Cassian grabbed a twig and began to scribble in the mud, imagining what would happen if he told the truth.
'Either she won't believe me, thinking I'm lying to escape, and she'll kill me. Or she'll believe me and kill me for not being her Cassian. In the end, telling the truth means I'm dead!'
'Dead! Huh! Death!'
Cassian let out a small, hollow laugh and muttered,
'Even after death, I have to worry about staying alive! What a life. Can't live peacefully, can't die peacefully!'
He used the tree for support as he stood, surprised to see the bleeding from his knee had stopped. Usually, even a simple injury would have left him weak.
'No need for this anymore!'
He tossed the twig away and wiped out the scribble with his foot—a poorly drawn butterfly with no wings.
'Time to head back.'
If he couldn't run, he'd better return and pretend nothing happened, act like he just fell from the bed, while his thoughts running wild.
What would she do?
Would she really keep Cassian with her forever?
Did her slumbering face mean something more than the pain of leaving him alone for just a few minutes?
Cassian limped slowly toward the grass field.
As he stepped onto the flower bed, the wounds on his knee, the dirt on his clothes and face, all vanished as if they'd never been there.
The pain in his knee disappeared, his shirt was clean and white, his pants unblemished, and the scratches on his feet healed with every step on the flowers.
A strange calmness settled over him as he prepared to face Goddess Seraphyra.
"Welcome back home, my love. Did you enjoy the walk?"
The goddess greeted Cassian with a gentle smile.
She sat patiently at a royal picnic table and chair where the bed used to be, a teacup in her hands.
She took a small sip, her green eyes watching Cassian softly.
'She's back! I thought she'd send a search party after me when she didn't find me. At least she gives some space!'
Cassian forced a formal smile and sat directly opposite her.
He poured himself some tea and drank, while Seraphyra maintained eye contact.
Cassian struggled to say or understand anything, as she seemed extremely calm, almost distant, with the same longing look on her face.
Just seeing her face brought a sensation he knew all too well.
The last time he felt that was when his mother waved goodbye as his father sent him away to military school because he was failing at everything.
Without thinking, he asked,
"Are you going to send me somewhere, far away from here?"
Without hesitation, Seraphyra replied,
"Yes, my love."