Her Dying Wish

The sorcerer merely had the time to half-open his mouth when resonated the sound of a droplet. A ripple then spread all around. Giving the illusion that he was upon the surface of a stretch of water of the same tint as clouds after sunset.

     In the middle of this vast expanse, she was there. Sat on a woody bench, made of tracery of leafy branches. Her legs crossed, she kept her joined hands against her thighs. A choker of leaves around her neck had a single blossomed flower. Wearing a white dress moulding to her curves, letting appreciate the seeming softness of her belly. She smiled at the sorcerer.

“Of all the beings inhabiting this world, I would never have expected that you, you’ll ask me the question.”

     Kishar replaced behind her ear one of her long strands of hair, blond and wavy. Her eyes, a blend of pastel hues, remained fixed on the sorcerer. There was a certain curiosity.

     A snigger. At Henox’s lips, a sarcastic smile.

“Well, I manage to surprise even a goddess. I guess it was worth living until now if only for that.”

     Keeping her calm, Kishar nevertheless mid-closed her eyes.

“In a thousand years, it’s the first time you give me your attention. I have to admit, it piqued my curiosity.”

“Good. I was about to say you had to be particularly bored to grant a meeting to each of the creatures asking you a question about your current fad.”

     This audacity.

     Kishar tilted her head quite slightly, leaning her temple against her fingers.

“Did you know it was possible for me to turn any living creature into a slug?”

“I think we are veering off the main subject.” He calmly noted. “More seriously, I would like to understand what can motivate the one supposed, more than anyone else, to love this world and those living in it.”

     The smile adorning the goddess’s features stretched, assured.

“My love has never been blind.” She began. “I don’t hate those who go astray, but I don’t either forgive all the crimes. And after having spent all these years observing all of you, I had to look at the evidence. This world is stained.”

     A hint of disappointment. Henox already regretted he had lost his time asking the question to hear such blatancy.

     Though she didn’t stop here.

“You must have noticed it yourself. Well, normally I wouldn’t have intervened. As far as it is true that I don’t mingle with you all any more, I don’t appreciate you less. Time is so precious to mortal creatures that take it away from you seem far too cruel.”

“There’s still time to take a step back.”

“Hohh? Since when do you care about the fate of this world?” Kishar raised her arms in a measured gesture, turning her palms towards the sky. Or at least what was the equivalent of a sky. “However, I never go back on my word. And know that to end this world is not my own wish.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re not without knowing every creature in this world can address their most sincere wishes to me. Sometimes, I pick up one. And I fulfil it.”

     A beat.

     A spark glowed in Kishar’s gaze as she considered Henox.

“That of all the creatures you were among the ones having asked me the reason that led me to act, I have to say… that it is rather quirky. As it is Gretel who wished for the world to disappear.”

     Slowly, the sorcerer widened his eyes.

     The picture of the little fairy, smiling, innocent, flicked before the latters.

“You lie.”

“A goddess never lies.”

“Gretel is unable to have wished for such a thing. Of all the creatures I know, she is certainly the one who loves this world the most.”

     Kishar sighed.

“You think you know all of her? Nevertheless, you don’t know anything from her past. Sure, the one I permitted her to be today could. But there’s a part of herself even she has forgotten.” She continued while extending a hand in front of her, bringing her thumb closer to her index finger. “Let me shed some light on you.”

     And she snapped her fingers.

***

Her father wasn’t particularly poor, nor particularly rich. But he loved his daughter a lot. He took care of her alone. This, since her birth.

     He loved her a lot.

     Though despite all the passing years he hadn’t the will to move on from his grief, thinking day after day about his delightful spouse.

     In a last effort to forget and give her daughter a mother, he got close to a woman. The latter had tried to seduce him since Gretel was in the cradle. So, this time. He yielded.

     She moved in with them.

     The father, a soldier, could then leave serenely for the battlefield, entrusting the child to his new partner.

     Serenely?

     He loved her a lot.

“Do me a favour Gretel, sit in a corner and stay there.”

     Gretel never left her house. Not when he wasn’t there.

     The leftovers of what this woman ate – when she had the decency to leave any – did not allow her in any case to waste her energy going anywhere.

     Mocking laughs.

“You look like a rabid dog.”

     He loved her a lot.

     The woman’s face distorted in an expression of disgust. With her hands, she flung out the bowl the child had thrown herself at, sending it bang loudly against the wall.

“Loathsome sloven…”

     She despised her.

     She despised the place she took in her father’s heart.

     Fortunately, her father ended up realising it.

     Fortunately, really?

     He scolded Gretel’s new mother. He reassured her daughter before leaving again.

     He could have chased her away. He should have chased her away the first time. Though then… Who would have taken care of his daughter during his absence?

     Whenever he left, it was to fight. Whenever he came back, it was to see his daughter beaten.

     Sat in a corner. Her hands wrapped around her knees. Curled unto herself, afraid of taking too much space.

     A morning he was at home, they went for a walk through the forest. The three of them.

“Let’s lose her into the woods.”

     She had whispered near his ear like the snake she was.

“She only ties you to your past, to her mother. If she disappeared… you would be freed, at last. Your present is with me. What do you say?”

     There was a silence.

     And then…

“Gretel,” said her father’s flat voice “go play a little farther, would you?”

     While Gretel obediently walked away in the woods, Gretel’s new mother displayed a thrilling smile.

     A smile which soon vanished. Replaced by the dread when his hands found her neck.

     He hated himself for having let such a woman enter his life and his daughter’s. A woman who was nothing compared to his deceased spouse. He loathed himself for having betrayed her by trying to move on.

     And in a state of temporary madness, he strangled the woman who had turned pale to his rage. She already wasn’t moving any more.

     Why…? Why did she die so effortlessly? On the battlefield… Enemies were more difficult to kill.

     It shouldn’t have been so easy…

     Panic-stricken when he realised his gesture, he only loathed himself more.

     Was he also at risk of harming his daughter?

     The man who had already lost his mind took a knife out of his pocket and… he slit his throat.

…

     Gretel, afraid by the screams, had frozen behind a tree. She had seen the whole scene. She had been unable to move.

     Her eyes bulging.

     Then her legs reacted before her tears. She ran as far away as she could, as fast as she could. As if to attempt escaping this nightmare.

     Though it had by then tightened its claws around her.

     She ended up falling exhausted. Without having enough strength nor reasons to stand up any more.

     The coldness of the night came to take away her latest strengths while her eyes were already blank. While last thoughts came to her mind.

“Dad… Dad, where are you?…”

     Her fingers tightened against the soaked grass.

     She was only nine.

“This world… I hate it… I wish for it to disappear.”