Storytime: Soulless

One time when I was in class - Greek class - we were discussing Greek mythology. There was this story on these two sons of the renowned Oedipous who married his mother (those Greeks know how to spice things up) who were given their father's kingdom to rule since he discovered that he married his mother and wasn't quite happy about it. So. Yeah.
I think the oldest brother was given the kingdom, actually, which, of course, caused a fight between the brother.
And sadly both of the brothers killed each other. (Well, that helped a lot, didn't it? haha.)
And now comes the part that has really inspired me for this blogpost:
So Kreon, their uncle (at least I know one of the names, haha), said that one of the brothers was allowed to have this official funeral, or a state funeral as they called it, and that the other one was to be left there on the battlefield. But Andromeda, the brothers' little sister didn't agree on that. She got angry and secretly did bury her other brother and did all these rituals to honor him and the gods and make sure that he ends in the underworld and blablabla. Kreon found out. He sentence her to death. Yep.
Now our teacher asked us: who would you be Kreon or Andromeda?
Or in other words: Would you leave your brother to die and follow the rules or would you break them because of your emotions?
And that made me wonder: Is it always right to stand up for someone? Even when they brought this awful fate on themselves?



In a village, far away from the inhabitated world, was a girl who was called by many names. No one knew her very well nor dared to come close and talk to her, for she scared them. Even the ones with the tiniest bit of sympathy for her, thought she was sad and very strange. Well, she was raised by that woman of a witch who always was stuck in her tiny little cottage on the ugly hill, doing god knows what. 
But strangely that wasn't the thing they feared the most of her or even hated about her. It was her coldness that scared them. She always seemed to know more, or at least had different ideas on the outside world and life. She would tell you that you had too much fate in God. That you shouldn't rely so much on Him, maybe even stop believing in Him. And she didn't feel for family - it almost seemed like she didn't even care about them. Rumor has it that she even killed her own father! Who the hell would commit to such a crime! 
Though that wasn't entirely true - she did indeed help them. She cooked for her brothers from Monday till Wednesday and she'd tell them to be strong and be happy. She would walk them to school and kiss her older brothers on their cheeks when they went off to work.

But there was something about her, something wrong, but the people couldn't tell what it was. Or actually they could, but they didn't dare to say it, didn't dare to believe it. 
Perhaps the girl was just feeling out of her place in her home. Maybe she was adopted! Maybe she was just a scared little girl suffering under the hands of her brothers! No, wait, that couldn't be true.
The brothers seemed normal, kind and bright even. Their bright souls shone through everything they did and everything they said. 
Would she be a soulless monster then?
How could someone not feel for their family? How can someone not catch the bullet for them? How can someone not believe in God? How can someone think of different worlds outside this village? 
It was preposterous!
The only thing that could explain all these irrational thoughts, was the fact that she didn't have a soul. She wandered around like a ghost, quiet and emotionless - no smile on her face - and she did nothing but stare at the people passing by, observing them, taking them in. Taking bits of their soul to fill the emptiness in her body. She was a danger to them all. And everyone agreed, even her brothers.
Everyone but the son of the village elder.
The son of the village elder trusted the girl with his life. She was a mystery. A mystery he wanted to unravel.
She was so beautiful when she stared at the night sky and slowly smiled as the stars twinkled. Her auburn hair falling into her face each time she looked at her feet when he complimented her. Her big green eyes that stared into his soul each time he came close and made her hold his gaze for a while. The shy giggles when he said something funny.
 He loved her. And he was sure she loved him too. She had to, because he was the only one she had actual conversations with. He was the one who could get her out of the house for a walk through the woods. He was the one she kissed.
And though the times of actually conversing were rare and he was the one who was talking most of the time, he could see something burning in her eyes when she looked at him. It had to be love. It was love. They were in love.
Everytime they went out for a walk they would find a secret, unnoticable spot between the trees and let their bodies do the talking for them.
But the girl had a reason for saying not more than a few words. Every word that left her mouth would be twisted and turned into something bad. Only because of that on thing she had done in the past. That one thing only her family knew about.
But one night when the village elder and the girl reached their secret spot once again, the family secret went through the village like a fire, lit by her brothers.
And the people prepared themselves. They knew they had to act now, for she might gain the guts to do the same thing again. 

After a long night dawn breaks and the girl awakes in the strong arms of the son of the village elder.
She smells something funny.
She gets up and turns her head to were the smell might come from. At first she sees nothing, nothing but trees and bushes. But then, there in the light blue sky, black smoke rises. It's from the village!
She wakes up the village elder and together they hurry toward the village. But when they reach the village, nothing seems to be wrong. Questioning if she just hallucinated it, she looks around.
And then, on the top of the ugly hill a house is on fire.
Her mother's house is on fire.
She scurries to the house and there she found her brothers and the other villagers surrounding it, with torches and swords in their hands.
"What is this?" she asks, her eyes going from her brothers to the other villagers. She notices that they even managed to convince a few children to join their stupidity.
"You," one of the says, his face a mixture of fear and anger, "have been sent by the devil."
"What is happening here?" the son of the village elder shouts, but as soon as he sees the house on fire and sees the responsible onces surrounding it he turns to them angrily. "What you done?"
"My boy," an old woman says, her voice a bit unsteady. "The girl-"
"What about her?" the son of the village elder says and he puts an amr around her. 
The villagers burst out into whispering and suddenly a tall man steps out of the crowd, facing his son with his dark, intimidating eyes.
Father and son stand there for a while watching each other and silently cursing each other for what they have done. 
"You are such a disappointment," his father said after a while.
"So are you," his son said coldly. He wouldn't let his father win this time. He was stronger than his father. He was a better man and he would prove that now by protecting the woman he loved.
"How can you protect this girl?" he asked. "She wouldn't do the same for you! She'd let you die just like anyone else in this village!"
"Shut up!" his son snapped and he attacked his father. Now he'd show him what kind of strength he had. He would show his father that he would be the better village elder.
The villagers watched in fear as father and son fought, but they also dared to glance at the girl who once again stood there doing nothing. She looked away.
Why, she thought. Why did you had to be such a fool? What good will come from this?
Father and son had both cuts and bruises on their bodies and both were tired of fighting, but both were too full of pride to give up now. They would fight till the death. His son hit him in his weak spots several times forcing him to go down, but he was smarter and faster. 
"Do you know her secret?" the village elder yelled, as he avoided his son's strikes.
He growled at that, but the girl gasped and let her eyes fall on her brothers who were watching the fight intently with a wide grin on their face.
"Do you know what she has done to her family? How she killed her father? How she told her brothers that her father wasn't worth living his life if he wanted to kill the witch?"
Of course her brothers would've said that, she thought. She knew she'd made a mistake then. She shouldn't have killed her father. Her father was protecting his mother. He was just protecting her.
She didn't stop the tears as they came. She couldn't.
And now she would lose the man she loves. The foolish man who didn't want to miss his chance to beat his father. She couldn't stand watching this go on. She knew who would win.
She slipped away.
"LIES!" his son yelled and he held his fist in the air as he ran toward his father on full speed.
When his son made to give a final blow, the village elder managed to kick his sore leg and take the sword out of his hands and set it against his throat. "Now you shall see the truth."
Instead of slicing his throat, the village elder kept the sword against his throat and forced him to get up. He made him stare at a girl walking away from them.
His lover was walking away from him.
"Monster!" his father shouted, whilst grabbing his son's head tightly and letting the sword cut deeper and deeper in his throat.
The girl stopped and slowly turned around. Her face was wet, but her eyes were cold.
"May I?" he asked and his son cursed him for his strength. Why couldn't he beat him?
Once again the girl looked away and continued her walk to the village. The boy's heart broke.
"You see, boy? She killed her father mercilessly and now she'll let you die the same."
Perhaps his father had always been right. Perhaps he was indeed a fool.
All he could think of at that moment was the foolish ache in his heart and the realisation that followed.
She was indeed soulless.

As she walked away she heard the whole village gasp and saw black birds flying away. She knew the village would come after her in any minute. Let them come. She was going to die anyway.
But the boy didn't deserve what happened. The boy could've lived if he just had put his foolish pride aside.
Her heart ached for him. She missed him so much that it hurt and she had considered throwing herself at the village elder for a second, but- "There she is!"
And they came for her, just as she predicted.

Well. That was quite a sad story, now wasn't it? 
Let me know what you thought about it in the comments down below!
O, and what do you think: is the girl indeed a soulless monster? Did she have to help the son of the village elder?
Let me know!

{ Photo used in this blogpost is from shaliara.deviantart.com (WITHOUT MY EDITS) }

Until the next blogpost, then! :)