Disenchantment 14

*****

 

 

 

Persephone awoke.

 

She felt a little groggy, like waking up with the effects of drugs wearing off. She looked around, she seemed to be in a bright meadow. Slowly, her eyes focused on her surroundings, a definite meadow surrounded her, with occasional trees dotting the landscape, as far as her eyes could see.

 

She stirred, and felt...silk? It was smooth and comfortable, she was on a bed with white silken linens, pure as new-fallen snow. She was also on the most comfortable mattress she had ever felt in her life, like sleeping on a cloud. When she removed the thin sheet that was covering her, she found that she was nude. She did glance at her breasts, but didn’t notice anything different at that point. She didn’t see anyone around, so she arose, and left the ever-so-comfortable bed.

 

Her feet touched stone, or more particularly, smooth marble. She noticed that she was on a sort of dais, raised up above the beautiful meadow about a foot off of the ground. Four white, marble pillars jutted up to a domed roof, that also seemed to be made of white marble. It was a gazebo of sorts, a stone gazebo, apparently a marble gazebo. It held just the bed in the center

 

“Am I dreaming?” she asked aloud, to no one.

 

She noticed a robe hanging from one of the marble pillars, and walked toward it. When she grasped it, it was also very soft and silken, and she quickly covered herself. The fabric felt delightful against her skin.

 

She visually investigated her surroundings once more. It was certainly breath-taking, picturesque. Had she ever though about what paradise might look like, which she hadn’t until that moment, she would have pictured it like this. Birds were calling in the distance and a subtle breeze felt wonderful, slightly caressing her cheeks as she gazed around at the extraordinarily beautiful scene.

 

It took another moment or two, but then she thought of it: Her life. This...wasn’t it. It seemed that she had to work at it, but she pulled from the depths of her conscious mind, fragments, at first, but then with more work, bigger pieces of things that were her, part of how she defined her existence outside of her own mind and body; her husband, her home, her parents, acquaintances, her...life.

 

“Where am I?” she asked aloud, again, not exactly expecting an answer like her last question, but she was surprised to get one.

 

“You are in the best place to be in all existence, what you might think of as Shangri La, or Eden, perhaps heaven, or an absolute state of perfection.”

 

She turned around, sure that there hadn’t been anyone at all within sight. The nearest place to hide was the closest tree, still a good fifty yards off in the distance. What she beheld, was the absolutely perfect physical example of a man that she had ever seen in all her years of living and breathing, at least in her opinion. He was well-muscled, but not to the point of ludicrously using steroids in a gym to appear almost inhumanly muscular. His dark hair was slightly curly and slightly long, almost shoulder-length, something she never told her husband with his very long and straight hair was preferential for her in male looks. His broad shoulders and tan skin were also things she found attractive. A perfectly handsome face wrapped up the whole package quite wonderfully, a strong and unobtrusive nose, deep jawline, gorgeous cheekbones. What she found to be the most amazing of all was his deep and wonderful brown eyes that she felt she could lose herself in, yet another preference she kept from her hazel-eyed husband.

 

“Who are you?” she asked, then noticing his clothing, or lack-there-of. He wore what she could only describe as a toga, but seemingly made with an incredibly thin, cottony fiber that was partially translucent. She briefly glanced at his manhood before realizing what she was doing, slightly blushing, then once again gazing into the pools of ephemeral brownness that were his eyes.

 

“You can call me Hayden.” Then he smiled, and it seemed to envelope her, stir something in her. Lust? Maybe, but something more, something she didn’t know that she could feel for another person.

 

“Hello Hayden, I’m Perry.”

 

“Persephone, yes,” he replied. “I know.”

 

Her confusion came back momentarily. “I don’t know where I am. Where are we? Why are we here? How did we get here?”

 

“I don’t care for your change in attitude,” he said, his smile leaving his face.

 

“I’m just confused. I was with my husband. I think that we pulled over to the side the road. He got out... There was a bright light, then...nothing.”

 

“I don’t like you being confused like that.” Hayden then walked over toward her, and put his hand on her forehead. “There.”

 

She suddenly felt fine, not a care in the world. “I feel great,” she mumbled, and smiled. She felt a strong desire to reach out and hold the stranger, but stopped just short of actually doing so.

 

“Yes, I made it that way. Shall I tell you what I want?”

 

“Okay?” What he wants? If she was able to think much about it, that might have struck her as an odd thing to say.

 

“Out of all the women in existence, I have chosen you. I think it was your name, named after the first queen of this place. I have enhanced your physical beauty for now. You can see that if you like.” In less than an instant he was holding a mirror with an ornately carved ivory handle, and he offered it to her.

 

She took it and investigated her reflection. She was still herself, but less so, and more so. Her facial features had been slightly altered, nose minutely smaller, but prettier, higher cheekbones, and not a wrinkle or blemish to be found, no young crow’s feet that had started around her eyes within the last year, no tiny scar near her right eye that she had acquired as a child. She noticed her breasts in the mirror, then looked down at them. They were bigger, fuller, more shapely.

 

“I feel different.”

 

“You are different. You can stay that way forever, if you like.”

 

She smiled, even though a gnawing thought was trapped in the back of her mind, a thought proclaiming nothing was right about any of these things. She felt the thought almost tear free, but it was held back.

 

“I have taken some things from you,” said Hayden. “I will return them in time. I want you to choose me, to choose to exist like this, with me...forever. However, it will be your choice, so for that, you will be given back your mortal mind, but not yet. First we will get to know each other.”

 

“Know each other?”

 

“Yes. You will get to know me free of worry or guilt or any anxiety that plagues mankind. You will get to know me without the burden and strain of such negative emotions. Then, I will allow you to decide.

 

“I must admit, I did peak inside your mind a little, just to know what you physically like about a man. I appear this way due to that, but I can always appear this way to you, if you would like, my love. I refused to look any further and I cannot even tell you what your favorite food is. I want to learn these things from you. You can have all your favorite things here, anything you desire.”

 

“Anything?” Perry asked.

 

“Within reason. I won’t bring Oren here...yet. I will allow him to come when it is time for you to decide. Compare us both, side by side, a pathetic, small mortal thing, and a god. I think we know what you will choose.”

 

“You?”

 

“Yes, with a divine certainty, but now is not the time to decide. Come know me now, come to me.”

 

“Yes, I want that.” She smiled, feeling so very happy, loved and practically in love. Then she did hold him, and he delicately caressed her neck the way she loved, the way Oren never bothered to do anymore.

 

They made eye contact one last time before he took her to the bed. He smiled once again. It was truly beautiful, such a magnificent sight to behold, yet if she were able to think on her own, if she had had a different part of her personality with her, she might have noticed something else in that smile, beyond the beauty, something dark and selfish, something a far cry from human.

 

Something malignant.