Week 2 of the GhoulsGalore flash fiction challenge asks us to write a 250 word piece on Lucifer, using the word “chthonic.” My entry is a bookend piece to “The Dark Prince,” which I wrote for last week’s extended edition of Glitterlady’s Tuesday Tales.The main inspiration for this piece comes from “N.I.B.”, my favorite song by the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, “N.I.B.” Geezer Butler, the song’s lyricist, once said that “the song was about the devil falling in love and totally changing, becoming a good person.” Like the Lucifer of “N.I.B.,” my “Dark Prince” has finally found the woman of his dreams, and won’t rest until he has claimed her completely.
-oOo-
“Eternity”
Desperation. Fear. Desire. The air is thick with all this as I make my way through the dank tunnels leading from my chthonic lair. In the silence, I can hear your blood pounding, your gasps high and tight and heaving.
You have run from me, seized by the silly fears that have driven us apart time and again. When will you realize that the peace you seek, the serenity that you desire, will only come when you surrender? When you will learn that the answer to all your questions can be found in the circle of my arms?
I can see you in the darkness, even as you cower behind ruined pillars of stone. I can feel your heart beat as though it was my own — don’t you realize how connected we are, how truly and inextricably our souls are linked?
When I was cast into this abyss, when my body was chained here in the bowels of the earth, I did not feel despair, for I knew there would be one who would join me in my solitude. Aeons have passed since my fall from grace, and still I have waited.
Now here you are, trembling and confused, mere feet from my grasp. You cannot understand how your soul has compelled you to seek out my twisted love, but I can help you see the darkness that dwells deep within you. I can show you where you true destiny lies.
Embrace me, love, and taste eternity.
October 23, 2011 at 8:37 am
I love to seethe story from the other pov. I have to admit though, given a choice, I’d settle for being alone rather than living with the love of my life in the bowels of the earth. Call me shallow 🙂
October 24, 2011 at 10:52 pm
Don’t blame you, Sarah! Quite often I think of this whole ‘living underground’ business (the dangers of obsessing of The Phantom of the Opera as a child), and I always wonder whether or not I’d be able to give up sunshine and all the wonderful things about living out of doors for true love. Still on the fence about that one! 😉
October 23, 2011 at 2:45 pm
Heh, awesome! I like that you also tied Tuesday Tales to Ghouls Galore, guess it’s a seasonal thing that led to so compatible prompts.
Loving your Dark Prince and his very insistent approach to romance. Sort of makes me think of Persephone and Hades, and I really do want things to work out between them in such a way that both find happiness.
It’s this twisted relationship, but I see so much potential in it I can’t help but be excited.
October 24, 2011 at 11:15 pm
It’s so funny — I had had this tale planned when I first saw that “Lucifer” was one of the prompts, and then when I saw Glitterlady’s Tuesday prompt, I knew I just had to tie them in together.
I have to admit that the Dark Prince is loosely based on the somewhat-creepy, but extremely compelling, vampire-demon-evil dude who has frequented my dreams since I was young. It is perhaps no coincidence that I am highly sympathetic to Hades in the whole Persephone myth, or that I always want anti-heroes to “get the girl” (the Phantom of the Opera is a clear example of this — I’ve always wanted to rewrite the novel/musical so that Christine stays with him, instead of ditching him for Raoul).
Thanks so much for the wonderful feedback, David!