Cupid's Kiss Ch. 03

The dinner was an amicable affair. The food was simple toasted bread topped with scrambled eggs that Psyche had made. Adam kept the conversation flowing but Psyche was quiet and gave strained smiles at Adam's jokes. Her gloomy mood was not lost on Melissa who was concerned but held her tongue. She didnt want to molly coddle Psyche and decided to give her some privacy.

Looking at her half eaten toast, she wondered, what the mirror was all about. The urge to look at it was so compelling that she still felt the itch in her fingers to rip the cover off and look at the reflection it had to offer. All in good time she told herself. There were a million of questions that she needed to ask Psyche but decided to hold her peace till Adam left.

As dinner came to an end, Melissa collected the dishes to wash and Psyche went towards the door with Adam as was getting ready to leave.

"Bye Meme, take care of Psyche and yourself" Adam hollered near the door.

Coming out of the kitchen Melissa bid him goodbye and watched in silence as Psyche slowly closed the door behind him. They both continued to stare at the door as Adam's footsteps began to fade away and the silence became ominous. It reminded them both of what lay ahead.

Feeling a little uncomfortable Melissa broke the silence and said, "I'll finish washing the dishes and then we can talk a bit more?"

Psyche gave her a strained smile and replied "Can we talk tomorrow morning? I'm a bit tired and need to sleep. You can go to Dad's study which is on the next floor. Second door to the right, read or watch some television. I hope you don't mind?"

Melissa was used to being alone and assured Psyche that it suited her fine. Returning to the kitchen Psyche started to put the dishes in the dishwasher and kept thinking about the mirror. She just couldn't get it out of her mind. She decided to talk to Psyche about it as it was driving her nuts and wouldn't let her side step the issue.

She walked up the steps in light steps and knocked on the door. Getting no reply she entered into the room to hear the shower running, she turned to leave the room but then felt the temptation grab hold of her. Her legs began to move towards the mirror as if on their own accord, unable to stop herself she pulled the cover off and found herself staring at a marble mirror with intricate flower designs of various jewels in laid in marble that incased the mirror.

Staring at her reflection she wondered why such a magnificent piece of work had been covered up. The mirror began to fog up, making Melissa touch the surface in curiosity. Her hand however seemed to go into the mirror's translucent surface and she felt a force of energy throw her back against the door. Alarmed she let out a cry and huddled against the door. Fear began to crawl up her skin as she saw a shadowy figure form in the mirror. Terror filled her lungs and she choked for breath as she watched a brilliant form pass through the mirror into the room. Unable to hold back she began to scream as the form began to take shape of a woman.

"Oh no, Melissa, what have you done?" Psyche's dismayed voice made Melissa's eyes skate towards her toweled body.

Staring back at the entity that stood before her, she gasped in sheer astonishment. The entity made other women look like dishrags. She was so magnificent to look at that any sane man would give up his life just to lay down with her. Her peaches and rose complexion was complimented with burnished hair that streamed down till her calves. Her magnificent sea green eyes threw daggers at Melissa's shaken form. Musically lit words left her luscious red lips making Melissa think of bells and harps.

Dumbfounded she gaped at the goddess and felt her heart race in her throat.

"So this is your maid Psyche? She is comely to look at."

Pulling her towel closer around herself Psyche answered, "She isn't my maid. She is my healer."

Aphrodite seemed to glide towards Melissa and her close proximity made Melissa feel like a fly in a web.

Her heart began to pound faster than a jackrabbit would run to save its life and as Aphrodite put her hand on her head she felt her very essence being sucked out and her life was laid before her very eyes and those of Aphrodite.

She was a young girl again running through the corn fields, tears streaming down her eyes as she saw her father's old crop duster coming down in a dreadful explosion. She was the little girl under the table at her father's wake eavesdropping at her drunk mother's conversation with her grandmother, telling her that she was going to leave the dead beat town forever and Melissa, the sole reminder of her dead beat father.

She remembered the loneliness and despair she felt, when her precious grandmamma died just a month later.

Cruel, cruel world took away her innocence when a foster father raped her at thirteen. She remembered in graphic details the violence, the invasion.

Tears fell from her eyes and she curled herself into a fetal position, rocking back and forth, she cried for the lost girl who wanted only one thing - to be loved.

"Stop it! Stop it right now, do you hear me? She has nothing to do with what lies between us. Let her be."

Psyche's harsh voice broke the spell and Melissa blinked back to reality.

Aphrodite moved away from Melissa and said thoughtfully "You humans are the cruelest creatures in the universe. The horrors you put your own children through are unimaginable."

Psyche knelt down and put her arm around Melissa who was still trying to deal with the demons that Aphrodite had bought back from the dead. Glaring at the goddess, Psyche said harshly "You had no right to bring back the most painful moments of her life. How dare you call us cruel when you are the one who derives pleasure from watching us relive the moments that devastated us. You're the monster who loves to break the very spirit that keeps us alive."

Letting out a tinkling laugh, Aphrodite settled down on a nearby chair and said in a contemptuous voice "I am supposed to be the goddess of love, but love is naught without thorns and pain."

Leaning down, she stared at the two women and continued "But what I really am foremost is a mother whose son is hurt and wasting away and yet because of love I have for him , I am here talking to you instead of destroying you for what you have done."

Pulling a visibly shaken Melissa to her feet, Psyche tried to talk in a calm voice "When we last met you told me that you will let me meet Cupid if I completed three tasks. What are they?"

Standing up Aphrodite stared at Psyche as if she was an insect that had crawled out of the filthiest drain, "I will give you very easy tasks. These tasks can be completed within what you humans call a minute but I will give you a day for each task and if you are not able to complete any one of them then your fate will lie in my hands. Do we have a deal?"

Moving away from Melissa who tried to hold her back, Psyche stared into Aphrodite's eyes and said "Its a deal. Now, let's have the tasks."

Walking towards the mirror Aphrodite touched a gem which began to shine brightly and as a kaleidoscope of colors lighted the room like a tacky disco ball with a divine twist, she turned and said in a loud dramatic voice, "Listen carefully, wench. Your task is simple yet unachievable, there is a spilled sack of rice in the kitchen. You have to tell me the exact number of grains there were in the sack. And you have a day to complete the task. I will be back tomorrow night the same time. If the task is not accomplished you forfeit your life."

With those words the light behind her became blinding making the two women turn their faces away and when they turned to look back the goddess was gone.

Psyche's feet gave away under her and she sat down on the chair that had been vacated by the goddess.

"Quite a drama queen isn't she?" Psyche tried to joke.

Melissa merely stared at Psyche and opened her mouth several times to speak but the scene that had transpired was so spectacular that she was lost for words.

Trying to control her wayward mind Melissa asked Psyche in a low voice, "Why did you accept the bargain? She will kill you, don't you know that? Is a good fuck worth dying for?"

Psyche raised an eyebrow and said, "Good fuck? Are you talking about Cupid? What you don't understand is that I fell in love with him and I shot him. I need to know that he is okay."

Getting up from the bed Melissa crossed the distance between them and knelt down near Psyche's chair and pleaded with her, "So send him a post card. Don't do this Psyche, it isn't worth it. That creature will kill you or do something even worse. She put me through hell in a matter of seconds."

Taking Melissa's clammy hand in her gasp she replied in an earnest voice, "Don't you understand? When she paraded the worst moments of your life she was trying to scare you away, she was trying to break YOUR spirit. But what she doesn't understand is that what doesn't kill us only makes us stronger."

Tilting her head to a side Melissa asked "What did she show you?"

Leaning against the back of the chair Psyche whispered "She showed me my mother laying in a tub of blood with her wrists slit and just for the effect she somehow slit my wrist so that I knew exactly what my mother was feeling and also what I had felt as a young girl who watched her mother die unable to stop the stream of blood."

"That's why you were so taken in by the site of the ink when it splattered the wall at the institution."

Giving a dry smile Psyche said, "My hands are colored by the blood of my mother's and my lover's. and I can atone for only one or at least die trying."

Unable to sit still Melissa began to stride around the room back and forth and then stopped and looked at Psyche and said in a rather loud voice "The task really cannot be accomplished. We better go down to the kitchen and take stock of the situation."

Psyche nodded and heavily pulled herself out of the chair, feeling like a deflated balloon. Trailing behind Melissa she wondered how she would complete the task. The sack of rice lay spilled in the middle of the kitchen floor and the women stared at it with hopeless eyes.

Melissa turned towards Psyche and asked, "Is there a Plan B?"

Psyche shook her head to which Melissa replied "Then we are fucked. I think we should call your father."

Psyche pushed past Melissa and began to collect the grains and carefully began to put them in the sack. As she worked she said to Melissa "And what good will that do? The parents are going to talk about their naughty children and then ground us? I don't think so. The only thing that will happen is that I will go up in smokes and my father will have to watch it or worse die along with me. So, that is not an option."

Turning around she looked at Melissa and sat down on the floor and said, "Why don't you take a short nap and then we can think this over and come up with something better?"

Melissa nodded and walked out of the kitchen heading towards her room where she pulled out her cell phone and punched Harold's direct number.

Within two rings a male voice answered, "Harold here."

Melissa took in a deep breath and answered, "You better come here as soon as possible."