Eurydice

I felt the fangs pierce my skin and crack the bone… and then the venom. When I fell, my flesh turned to sap and leaked out of me. I soaked the earth, through the roots and the worms and every dead thing until I melted into a boat. I knew where I was. I knew where I was going. It happened fast but not too fast. I didn't have time for regret. There was a flash in my head. I saw the dark tunnels ahead of me, and then I thought of him. I thought of my husband.

I remembered our wedding day. We should have seen this tragedy coming when Hyman sang of our deadly fall. He looked at Orpheus and told him that his lyre wouldn’t save his wife. His predictions and soothsaying seemed ridiculous when Orpheus and I had our whole lives ahead of us. We ignored him. He must have been drunk on the wine of that special day of all days.

Such fools we were.

It was only a few days after the wedding when I had been invited by the nymphs for some dancing in the fields just past the forest of the sheppard, Aristaeus. I was like a child, ignoring consequences and following my desires for reckless pleasure. I did not bother to tell my husband. He was still sleeping. Besides, he is my husband, not my keeper. When he awakens, he will come to find me. I was sure of this.

It wasn’t long before Aristaeus made himself known. There was a shadow and then he stepped into it. He leaned on his staff and dropped his eyes upon me. The nymphs were lost in reverie and either didn’t see this or didn't care.

Aristaeus made a move towards me, and when he did I slid just out of his reach. He was old, and I was so young. I began to run. Oh, if only my husband were there. Why did I come out here without him? I ran as hard as I could through the thick forest when a branch on the ground made the slithering hiss of a snake. That’s when I was bitten.

I was trapped in hell. I was crossing over from life to death. I could hear my husband’s songs echoing in my head. The songs that would now rip his heart to pieces without me there to hear them.

In the forest where I was killed, the villain, a wanton man, a minor man, who chased me into the mouth of that snake, ended my marriage. His lust ended my life. I did not choose to be chased. I did not choose to die. Yet there I was in the underworld, being ferried through the arteries of the earth. Eventually, I left the boat and found an uncomfortable place. I twisted into the roots of a tree that became my home. You cannot wait when you are facing eternity. There is nothing to wait for. Everything is present time. Everything is now. That’s how eternity works. There is no looking forward, and even your memories will eventually die. And then that is death. That is the end that is unremitting. That’s when you know you are mortal.

In my mind I tried my best to recreate the songs of my husband. He played his harp so perfectly. He could charm the Sun to set and the moon to disappear. His powers were unmatched. When he put down his instrument, he would lie with me in our bed as a man. He did not need to sing the songs of seduction. There was no need for songs like that for me. It was his love alone that wooed me and made me his. I wish I had thought of this before leaving him in our bed. His hands, his smile, the muscles of his back. These were the instruments we played together. The only song he had to sing was me.

I settled into my lonely sleep, listening to his songs leaving my heart. As I sank into the oblivion of my death, I was stunned to hear his songs playing somewhere else in another chamber outside away from me. The songs grew louder and anyone with ears would be falling under his spell. He is here! Orpheus is here! He has used his music to seduce his way into hell. He is here.

It wasn't long before I felt his hands on my cold skin. Like the ice that cracks when the spring sun is shining, life spread across my body and I was awake. He told me that there was only one way to escape. I would have to follow him out of this darkness. He was not allowed to turn back and see me.

As he spoke I barely listened. It wasn't my life that I was glad to have again; it was the love that came with being alive that filled me with ecstasy. He had defeated death to be with his wife. I would follow him anywhere. As we left, I could feel the air in my step. It was as if I was literally floating out of hell. He was several steps ahead of me, and I was quiet. I was holding in everything that was now living so that I could give it all to him. I know my husband. There is no greater confidence on Earth than this man with his lyre in hand.

But there are other times when his confidence isn't as strong. Living as a mortal, he can feel the uncertainty of breathing. I saw his beautiful face walk into the light of the living, but before I could escape the shadow, he nervously looked over his shoulder to make sure I was there. There was his doubt. I know that the silence terrified him. Sound was his heaven. Sound was his other love besides me. I felt that. My quiet steps worried and terrified him. He made only this one fatal turn, and I was pulled directly back to the underworld. I could read him as he disappeared from sight, and his expression told me everything.

He would see to it that we would be together again, but at such a cost. He would send himself to hell for me. He would turn away from his music and crawl into the crooked roots I had made my home just to end his life next to me.