Apollo

I’m was on my back, lying on a green field, and above me were the stars sparkling. In the nighttime sky, I saw the shape of an archer, the constellation Orion. This is how the dreams always started.

I vaguely remembered the tale of Orion from Greek mythology. He was a hunter and friends with a goddess named Artemis. Apollo, the twin brother of Artemis, was jealous of their closeness, and sent a scorpion to kill Orion. Artemis grieved for her friend, and turned him into a constellation to honor his memory.

The first time I was sent to the field, I was amazed by the sight above, never having a dream so vivid before (at least one that I remembered). But when the dreams kept repeating every night, I learned to fear the constellation above. I watched Orion with dread and expected him shoot his arrow at me.

And I knew I’d be hit with it soon enough, because I was a part of it. I sinned with them, and like my friends, I’ll pay for it. But until then my curse was to only watch my friends go down one by one. I’m not sure why I’m the one to always get the visions. Maybe it’s because I was the one who came up with the idea, or maybe it’s because I was the one who slit her throat. All I know is I see my friends die in my dreams before they die in the real world.

Resigned to my fate, I pushed myself off the ground and stood, ready to witness another friend’s death. Sam, like the others, is standing in front of me and looks confused. In the previous visions, I tried calling out to them, and when that wouldn’t work, running towards them. But no matter how hard I yelled or how far I ran, they couldn’t hear me and I couldn’t get near them.

As scheduled, at the distance is a figure pulling back the string of his bow. Even though it was always dark in my dreams, somehow I managed to always see him in perfect detail. The thing standing there wasn’t a man but a rotting, decrepit corpse. A chunk of his jaw was missing, so his face was permanently stuck in a grotesque grin. 

Seeing the archer usually filled me with fear, but on that day I just felt relief. After Sam, I would be the next to go, and my punishment would finally be over. Maybe my soul would have gone to Hell, but I couldn’t imagine suffering worse than I did.

The copse let his arrow lose, and his aim was perfect. Sam’s expression turned into shock when the arrow hit him, and he collapsed onto the ground. 

I expected the dream to end there, but I was still on that green field after Sam’s death. I looked back at the sky and noticed a change that’s never occurred in these dreams before: the sun was beginning to rise. I turned towards the archer, and like the sky, he was altered as well. It was a very minor change, but I noticed that his body looked less decayed. Like somehow it had been healed. Flashing me his jawless grin, he turned away from me and walked away, putting an end to my dream.

I woke up in my tent, the new additions of my dream clinging to me. Eventually, they faded away, and I went about my day. My body went on autopilot as I performed my daily duties of cleaning and being on lookout. When I hear the news of Sam’s death, I don’t flinch, because for me he was already dead.

I remembered eating with him the night before, and how terrified he was. Three of our previous friends all went the same way. First they became pale and dizzy, then they began vomiting everything they had in their stomach, until finally they started vomiting blood. After hours of painfully bleeding from everywhere, they shook violently and died. There were also rumors that the back of their bodies had a wound that seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

Sam was pale the last time we ate together, but he wasn’t sick. Not yet. He was afraid that one of us would be the next to die, and that we were being cursed for what we did to that girl. 

Trying my best to put him at ease, I lied to him and told him that their deaths were just coincidences, that there were no such things as curses. But my heart wasn’t into the lie, and Sam wasn’t buying it. He was convinced that one of us would die the next day, and I absolutely knew it would be him. 

There wasn’t any use of telling him about the visions I had. We were both doomed, so we ate in silence. 

The sun set and the day Sam died was at its end. I walked back to my tent for what I was sure would be the last time and slept.

I was lying on the green field and saw Orion in the sky. I stood up and surprised to find I wasn’t the only one on the field. I saw a group of soldiers standing in the distance. Men and women that I would see all the time, but never talked to. Are they the witnesses? I thought. I’ve seen all my friends get shot, so will they watch me as I die too? 

For some reason, the thought gave me comfort. It was nice to know that others would be able to experience the impossible things I’ve seen these past nights. But the feeling didn’t last when I thought of another reason why they would be here.

The archer appears, and the changes from the last dream stuck. He’s was still a corpse, but now he appeared at least somewhat more human. And when I thought about it, I could see the sun start to rise, like at the end of the previous dream. 

I saw the archer nock his arrow and my apathy changed to panic. 

“What are you doing?” I shouted. “They weren’t a part of this! I’m the one you should be punishing, not them!”

Like the other times I’ve addressed him, he ignored me and aimed. I knew it was hopeless, but I called out to the soldiers in front of me and ran towards them, trying to get their attention. I never got any closer as I ran. The distance between us stayed the same while the archer shot them down. First it was a blond man, then a short woman, and then a skinny man. One by one, they dropped like flies.

I collapsed on my knees and looked at the pile of corpses in dismay. Since the start of his executions, I was convinced that the archer was doing this to punish me and my friends for our sins, and while this thought scared me at first, eventually I was able to numbly accept my fate. Understanding something- no matter how dreadful it is- brings finality, but I was back in the dark and was more afraid than ever.

Perhaps to mock me more for my ignorance, the sun rose more and brought more light to the field. Meanwhile the archer’s body repaired some of itself again. Scars, wounds, and scabs were replaced with fresh skin, like there was an invisible tube connecting the used arrows to the archer that nourished him.

His jaw still missing, he grinned at me again and turned away.

I woke up in my tent and waited for something. News that would announce that the soldiers I saw were sick, but no news came. If it was going to happen, it would happen later, like it did with my friends. Reluctantly, I left my tent to start my day.

As the day passed, I clung to the hope that my vision would be false for once. None of them were even guilty of anything, I thought. What could the archer be punishing them for? Surely he can’t punish them for just being in the same army as me? The idea chilled me, so I pushed it away.

Dinner came and I heard the murmurs of the others confirming that my vision had become true. Names I was only somewhat familiar with were passed around, and all of those soldiers met the same fate. Dizziness, vomiting, and blood. When I went back to my tent, I cursed myself for actually believing Hell couldn't get worse. 

For three nights I saw soldiers die from the archer’s arrows. And every time, I tried to act like I was with Sam’s execution and stay unfeeling to the massacre. Because what would be the use of stopping the unstoppable? But as soon as the first body dropped, I was back to screaming and pleading with the archer. I kept begging him to stop killing the innocents, but the archer paid me no attention and continued to slaughter them. 

Without fail, the killing made the sun rise further into the sky and the archer look more alive. At the end of the eight dream, he was nearly fully healed. Now I was able to see his muscular and tanned body, and if it wasn’t for his still missing jaw, the archer would have been very handsome. 

On the night of the ninth day, I sat in my tent and decided that after the next dream I would end my life. But before then, I would try to get an answer out of the archer. I closed my eyes to get sent to the green fields.

When I opened my eyes again, I saw the now bright sky. I couldn’t see the stars any longer, but it wouldn’t have surprised me if Orion was still above me and taunting me. I stood up and looked for the next group of soldiers, but I was alone. The archer came.

It sunk in that today was my turn to die. I should have felt fear or even relief, but fury seized me. Knowing it was useless, I stilled yelled at the archer. 

“Why did you do it? Why did you kill them all?”

The archer nocked his arrow.

“Us I understand. We kidnapped a girl from the enemy side and did things to her, horrible things. And then I slit her throat. I get why you had to punish us, but why them? They didn’t do anything at all, they were just as innocent as the girl!”

The archer aimed his arrow at my chest and prepared to shoot.

“Was there a different crime they were guilty of? Was that why you shot them down? Or did you do it because we were all in the same army?”

The archer didn’t respond.

“Answer me, Orion!” 

My voice echoed and I saw the archer pause when he heard the name. I couldn’t read his expression, but his body seemed to be slightly shaking. Composing himself, he aimed his arrow again and let it fly.

The arrow struck me in the chest and I fell back from the force. I hit the ground hard, but I could barely feel the impact, because compared to the arrow, the fall was nothing. I felt the poison that was on the arrowhead spread across my body, eating away at my soul. The soldiers I saw in my previous dreams always dropped quickly, so I had assumed mine would be a quick death as well. Apparently the archer made an exception for me.

The sun grew bigger in the sky and the heat became unbearable. I smelled smoke and wondered if the sun was slowly cooking my body, or if the poison was affecting my senses. I squirmed on the ground and I heard laughter in the distance, meaning my fall had finally brought back the archer’s jaw.

The laughter got closer until a shade partially covered my body, protecting it from the full force of the sun. I looked at the archer’s face, and my guess was proven right. He was very handsome with his jaw intact. He continued to laugh until he stopped to speak what would be his very first and last words to me.

“You were mistaken when you called me Orion,” the archer said slowly, like he was getting used to being able to speak again. “Look into the night sky, and you’ll know what I am.” 

He flashed me his real grin, and even with the jaw, he still managed to look grotesque. He walked away and my vision began to dim until everything went black. Pieces of light appeared in the darkness and formed a shape I recognized as another constellation. It was the killer of Orion, the scorpion. I closed my eyes and waited for my dream to end so my true death would begin.