I ran until my legs felt like they would give out beneath me. Being a werewolf, that took me far—miles away from the carnage, from the failure that now gnawed at my soul. But eventually, I couldn't run anymore. I collapsed onto the damp earth, the weight of my defeat pressing down on me like a suffocating blanket.
"I failed," I muttered to the moonless sky, the words tasting like ash in my mouth. "I failed spectacularly."
"That you did," came a voice from behind me, one that sent a chill down my spine. Eris. The goddess of chaos herself.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, not bothering to turn around. I could feel her presence, cold and unyielding, like the night itself.
"Am I not allowed to visit my future husband?" she replied, her voice laced with a sinister sweetness that made my skin crawl.
"So you're spying on me?" I shot back, trying to muster some defiance, but my voice cracked, betraying the despair I felt.
"I'm a god," she said, suddenly hovering in front of me, her eyes gleaming with a cruel kind of amusement. "All we do is watch you mortals struggle, well unless we actually try to help you be more entertaining. But you, my dear, have provided me with quite the tragic show this time, and all on your own without any external help."
"Why didn't you help us? Why didn't you help me?" I shouted, anger and desperation twisting my words.
'I nearly died against that bastard!' I think annoyed.
"Help you?" She laughed, a sound devoid of any warmth. "And waste a perfect opportunity to teach my future husband a lesson about life?"
"So, what's the lesson?" I asked, my voice hollow. I glared at her, searching for answers in her cold, unreadable eyes.
"That's for you to figure out," she said, her form beginning to dissolve into wisps of smoke. "And for me to evaluate."
I sat there, alone, on the wet grass, the weight of my failures crashing down on me like a tidal wave. I tried to piece together where it all went wrong, but every thought led me deeper into despair.
"My first mistake was assuming that MoldFart would be the same as I've known him to be," I muttered, the truth of it like a knife to the gut.
*Silence.*
"My second mistake... was aligning with the wrong people. I thought backing would change things the way I wanted, but that logic only applies to the weak, to those who follow blindly." The bitterness in my voice was sharp, cutting through the night.
*Silence.*
"And I didn't ask for anyone's thoughts or opinions. I just barreled ahead without thinking about the consequences." The third mistake weighed heavy on my chest, pressing the air from my lungs.
Then, from the darkness, came the sound of a bell, clear and haunting.
"You're an idiot," Eris's voice whispered, and suddenly she was in front of me again, her presence as overwhelming as it was terrifying. "But at least you've got the capacity to learn. Yes, those were your mistakes, but they were far from the biggest ones. You're impulsive. You didn't take the time to understand the powers you possess, you hesitated when you should've acted, and you let yourself be influenced by Severus's memories—memories that weren't even yours to begin with."
Her words were like daggers, each one stabbing into the heart of my guilt and shame. And then she was right in front of me, closer than before, her left hand resting on my face, her right tracing my chest. I felt a burning sensation where her hand touched, searing into my skin.
"But your dumbest mistake up to date," she hissed, her voice dripping with contempt, "is making deals with demons, you stupid ass idiot." I gasped as a thick, black substance oozed from my pores, writhing and pulsing as it gathered in her palm.
"What is that?" I asked, horrified as I watched the black goo try to escape her grasp.
"This is corruption," she said with a deadpan expression. "In your case, it's the shit that makes you impulsive and even stupider than you already are. Demons use it when they're faced with cunning foes, people who actually know their stuff."
"And you couldn't have helped with that from the beginning? Also, what does it do?" I asked, my anger flaring, though it was weak, more out of frustration than real fury, but there was also curiosity mixed within.
"Again, the lesson needed to stick! This stuff influences probability to make the worst possible shit happen to the people that you care for, and trigger negative emotions within you." she replied, shrugging as if my suffering was merely an unfortunate side effect.
"Why?" I ask.
"Well, to drive weak mortals to go for the next deal! Once the forst deal is closed, they'll never leave you alone, they'll come after you again and again to get your soul. It is just the way they're." she explains as she looks at the sky.
"What now?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper. "My idiocy cost me my grandfather."
Eris's expression softened, but only slightly. "The old man would have died anyway by the end of the year," she said, her tone almost indifferent.
"What? Why?" I asked, my heart sinking deeper into despair.
"Mmh," she mused, a smirk playing at the corners of her lips. "The old man burned through his life span to give you a chance to survive that shitty ritual he designed for you, and you underwent to become a pure blood. If he hadn't, you'd be six feet under by now."
Her words hit me like a physical blow, the guilt crushing me from the inside out. He sacrificed himself for me, and I threw it all away. I let him die for nothing.
Eris seemed to relish in my agony, the cruel pleasure evident in her eyes as she watched me crumble. And as the last of the black goo seeped into her palm, she vanished, leaving me alone in the dark, with nothing but the cold and my regrets for company.
The night was silent, but inside, everything was screaming.
I am a certified idiot.
"That you are, my darling." she says with a smirk on her full lips.