Vengeance Upturned

Vengeance Upturned - Chapter 10

“Come on. Open up.”

A soft, female voice tugged Etta out of the cold darkness. Her eyes fluttered open, only to be blinded by the light. She never thought that seeing light would hurt so much.

“No… not your eyes. Open your mouth.”

Etta obliged. Cool water trickled down her throat. She drank it up, and when there was no more, she licked the last drops off her lips.

“Now, sleep some more.”

Etta grasped at the threads of consciousness, only for them to slip past her fingers.

Darkness again.

#

Etta stood in a white field dressed in a crimson silken kimono with her tachi sheathed at her hip. Looking around, only vast whiteness surrounded her, stretching into eternity.

Where am I? she thought, and her feet sunk into a cloud-like surface as she stepped forward.

“My little harbinger of death,” a lilting voice said behind her. “We finally meet.”

Etta whirled around while drawing her tachi. She froze at the sight of a woman aglow with ethereal beauty. Garbed in a corseted, flowing dress, the color matching Etta’s blood red kimono, the woman’s dark hair flowed past her shoulders, brushing her breasts as it softly curled down to her waist. Eyes, pools of endless darkness, pierced Etta’s stained soul. But those plump, ruby lips, so salient against the milky white skin, held a promise of a kiss of death.

“Navinya,” Etta whispered reverently.

The woman’s lips quirked in an approving smile and Etta’s hand trembled, her grip on the tachi wavering. On bare feet, the Goddess circled Etta, not a word uttered. The weight of her regard and the knowing glint in those obsidian eyes twisted and coiled around Etta’s heart like living branches, squeezing tight.

Etta couldn’t handle the pressure, and so she dropped her gaze to the cloud-like surface beneath her feet.

“Regret. Remorse,” said Navinya as she perused Etta, drawing nearer with each step she took. “Shame. Fear. Guilt.” Etta shut her eyes as the Goddess continued, “Helplessness. Hopelessness. Despair. Hate. Anger. Fury. Vindication. Vengeance.”

“Stop it!”

“Ah… sweet surrender, my deadly Henrietta.”

Navinya, the Goddess of Death, halted before Etta. Putting a finger under Etta’s chin, she tilted her head up, forcing Etta to meet her gaze. “So broken, so perfect.”

A sob caught in Etta’s throat and she jerked her head out of Navinya’s grasp. “Am I dead?”  Etta said, her voice raspy and quavering.

“No.” The Goddess stepped back, her eyes never leaving Etta’s pale face. “Not yet. But you’re in my realm while sleeping.”

Etta nodded, still unsure on why she was there. The apprehension and fear quickened the beat of her heart, but all the suppressed emotions that Navinya named out loud, deepened the cracks already breaking it apart.

“She was right you know,” Navinya said and Etta slanted her head to the side. “You had no right judging and executing. You should be judged and executed in return, many times over. But I have other plans for you.”

“Why me? I’m certainly not the only one who has ever killed someone. And why now?”

“Because of the guilt bubbling inside you… and because I like you and you angered me. It tickled.” Navinya shrugged. “Your grief and anger resonate loudly. They keep you shrouded in a cloak of darkness. No matter how hard you tried to fight it off, you couldn’t. It’s rooted deep inside you. Yes, your father’s teaching will help, but you need to fall before you can soar… and this is you –” Navinya pointed to all of Etta with a flick of her wrist, “—fallen.”