Remy Charles | Copyright February 2020 | All Rights Reserved
Genre: Horror | Content warnings listed below.
I take in a long, deep breath filling my lungs, and after a brief moment my mind, with stunning euphoria. Fireworks began to ignite behind my eyes and the most comforting bliss ran through my veins. It’s not that I haven’t done this a million times, it’s literally why I was created but each time just before I get the ever so smallest amount of jitters. I opened my eyes and set firm my resolve, it was time to go to work. Who else is going to ignite the sparks of romance at the most appropriate time of the year?
I have known many names over the years, and my artistic depictions aren’t exactly what you would call accurate. I am indeed a fully grown man, though my hair is quite curly and blonde which is why I keep it cropped tight to my head. My parentage was uniquely perfect and the result, being me, mirrors that perfection. From the snow white feathered wings stretching powerfully from my back down to the expertly toned muscles rippling throughout my body I do represent that which many aspire to. On the off chance it hasn’t yet become extremely obvious, Hi! My name is Cupid.
I picked up my quiver and slung it over my shoulder, snatched up my bow and set off to work. Like most days, there was a crowded mix of many people in the park. With all of its walking trails and beautiful trees as well as the expertly manicured grassy hills, it was a perfect gathering spot to lay out a blanket and read on the sun with a light snack, playing Frisbee with the pooch, and all sorts of recreation. A large number of folks brought their domesticated animals with them for exercise, which was a wonderful tactic if used properly to foster new relationships! As luck would have it, I arrived just in time to change all of their lives! Finding a suitable perch and no longer nervous I nocked the first arrow into my bow and took a good look around from my vantage point atop one such grassy hill. I was feeling positively ecumenical when choosing my first target. I hold the most important job in the universe after all, for love will bring us together.
Finding the perfect mark, I sized him up. My godly eyes allowed me to discern his characteristics as he walked, alone on a trail. Six feet tall, athletic build, chestnut hair and a clean shaven face so as to not take attention away from the pale green eyes. A perfect specimen with which to start creating magic. I drew the arrow back, exhaled on release and watched intently as my arrow found its mark. A little known but obvious fact is that my arrow must strike the heart! The heart is the home of love of course and my magic takes its root within the home. My aim was true, and the arrow silently struck the bullseye of tall clean and pale eyes. Love began pouring out of him where the arrow struck. Having the sight of a god affords me such wonders, as witnessing the effect of my work in vivid detail! The handsome man fell to his knees in wonderment, overcome with desire and unable to contain himself. I quickly prepared another shot, for he needed a companion to whom he could express his swelling emotion!
It took nary a moment to find her; my target seemed frozen in place just for me. My shot made not a sound as I released the string of my bow and the arrow found its mark. She was almost a full foot shorter than my first target, but no more difficult to aim, and her hair was long and luxurious reaching better than three quarters down her back. She immediately burst forth with swelling desire for the handsome one, her full lips parting in joy the moment she had been struck by Cupid! My first two shots were rousing successes and there were still many people who I could expose to the warm and healing nature of love! Riding incredibly high on the excellent work completed so far it was time to bring another into the fold.
I found the next best target and loosed another arrow, then again, and many more times before my quiver began to lighten. Each time the arrow found its mark and each time I received the gift to bear witness to the love now within them spouting out and finding another to share. Mother would be incredibly proud of the spectacle I created here today and father with his War obsession would too find pride in the truth of my bow strikes. It is true my god’s sight allows me to see things that mortals can not, but all were witness to the wonder that is love on this day.
I closed my eyes for just a moment and took a deep breath of the crisp clean air surrounding me on this most glorious and joyous day. I felt the sun beaming radiantly on my face and let its warmth permeate the layers of my perfect god flesh, a truly phenomenal gift from Helios surely to congratulate me on a job well done. The world is brighter today because of the love brought into it by me!
And yet, I began to experience the most odd sensation akin to falling and my wings seemed to be doing nothing to keep me aloft despite my cries and commands for them to flap. Where before within my veins I felt warm almost like having hot cocoa circulating in my system I now could feel ice water. My skin was cold and clammy and damp from what seemed like profuse sweating and though the sun just moments ago welcomed me with a tight welcoming embrace it now began to harshly beat into my head though my closed eyes creating a hateful migraine that threatened to black out my consciousness. It was then my heart beat thundered into my head and the world threatened to turn inside out, something was terribly off. What could possibly be affecting me in such a way? I tightened my closed eyes as hard as I could before opening them to try and catch my bearings. The last thing I remembered clearly and not through some dull haze was holding the pipe in my hands and preparing to take a long, well deserved hit of the stuff I had just bought from Marco. Marco, that guy, and his wife Venus. Who actually names their child Venus?
If I had thought myself dizzy and uncomfortable before, the sight before me when I opened my eyes made me feel like I just got off the merry-go-round when it was spun by 3 different kids. I had a lot of math to do in an extremely short period of time to discern just what in the actual fuck was going on. I closed my eyes again and tried desperately to fill in the blanks in my mind of the events of the past…how long? How long was I in a daze and completely not myself? The memories began to rush into my mind like a stampede of buffalo attempting to escape a hungry predator. Just as the nausea set in I heard a voice from behind me followed by an gut wrenchingly familiar click click
“Sir! I’m going to need you to drop the bow and put your hands on your head.” I opened my eyes and looked down at my hands, I was still clutching the compound bow I had won at the marksman tournament just a year before, first place. The prize money afforded me the ability to buy my first hit in celebration of my victory and what harm could it possibly do one time? What harm indeed.
I surveyed the area surrounding me and finally came to the conclusion that I was the architect of this carnage. There must have been 30 bodies surrounding me at the base of the hill atop which I stood, all with arrows sticking out of their chest and back and forming a veritable moat of blood from the open wounds. All of their faces told the story of abject terror as they attempted to flee the man on the hill with a bow and arrows. I slowly turned to face the voice who commanded me to drop my weapon and could offer only a solitary bit of defense as I dropped my bow to the ground to comply with the officers commands. There was no escaping this, no version of me living any life of freedom beyond this moment in time. And yet despite knowing that my life was over I could think of one and only one sentence, the only words that would form in my mouth.
“But I’m Cupid.”
