Her

Him

Calypso

It's getting dark as she stands on the cliff, her hair billowing in the wind that rages around her, tugging at her dress, her limbs, pushing and pulling as if it wants to throw her down into the maelstrom below.
Sprays of water wet her lashes, cool against her bronze skin. She licks her lips, absentmindedly, savouring the familiar taste of salt, of home. And yet, this time, it does not bring her the comfort it used to. It's tinged with bitterness and goodbyes.
She will be lonely once again.

She sighs.

It's hard to say what's good and what's bad, evil even. But there are rules: laws, common sense of decency.
She knows it was probably wrong to hold him captive on her island for so long. To enchant him with her voice and her looks, when all he wants, is to sail back home and see his wife again. But she did it anyway, too deprived of company for so long. She had felt like losing her mind.

And isn't it as bad to be condemned to live a life on an island all by herself? With nothing else as the rush of the ocean and the cries of the gulls for company.
Didn't she deserve some happiness herself? Someone to hold her and love her.
Hasn't she suffered enough for a mistake she made centuries ago?

It was too easy almost. Men are all the same after all. A little skin, a well-placed smile, a flutter of lashes, and they are lying at your feet. What she did not expect, however, was to get so attached to him. She hasn't felt anything in so long.

And now her body and soul are storming with emotions. Lust, fury, desperation... love? They swirl to and fro, back and forth, just like the ocean beneath her.

It rages, clashing against the rocks as if trying to make them crumble to tiny little pieces.
The water is almost black when she looks out over the ocean. Usually, the last rays of sunlight would burn like fire against the horizon in bright hues of gold and orange. But not today.

Today, clouds, heavy with rain and thunder are hanging in the sky, laden with the promise of a storm. They move closer as the ground below grows colder, the wind more biting with every second she remains standing at the top of the rocks, unmoving, unyielding, like a statue.

In a way, the scenery seems to fit her mood perfectly. As usual, for it's her island after all.

She sighs again, heavier than before, wonders what she will do once he is gone, once she is all alone again.
The chilly breeze blows her hair into her face and makes her shiver in her thin tunic when her gaze suddenly wanders down towards the abyss. The water is beautiful, despite the rough waves disrupting its surface. It's deep and blue and incredibly mesmerising.
As she remains lingering by the shore, hesitant to return to the warmth and safety of her cottage, where he waits for her, she can't help but ask herself what would happen if she just lets go.

She tilts her head to the side as she looks at the sharp rocks below. There's a rattle in her head, her thoughts flying back and forth, colliding and leaving chaos in her mind.
The sea seems to call out to her, singing a siren's song she has been ignoring for so long. And all of a sudden the ache is there, the wish to go there, to become one with the waves crashing against the shore, to be the foam dancing atop the rushing water.

She never wanted to become a Goddess, never wanted to collect the poor souls of drowned sailors. All she ever wanted, was a normal life, a husband and children.
All she wanted, was to be kissed just once by the handsome boy she ran into when she was seventeen. Noticed by those mossy green eyes and gifted with a sincere smile from his lips.

But the Fates spun their threads in different directions.
Things never seemed to turn out the right way for her. She wasn't as radiant in beauty as her sister, not as charming and outgoing. And it seemed the handsome boy was looking for those qualities in a bride.

Blinking, she slips out of her numbness. There's no need in reminiscing these old stories, dwelling in the past has never helped anyone, especially not her. Slowly, she steps closer to the edge. The wind whistles in her ears and pulls at her even harder as she peers down.
Unsurprisingly, it's high, higher than she expected. As the wind caresses her legs and the cold creeps underneath her dress, she shivers again and involuntarily, sways a little, but finds her balance again.

She looks off into the distance, up towards the inky blue sky, the endless horizon, that she can barely make out against the twilight and the violet clouds anymore.
It would be so easy, she thinks to herself. I would just need to take one more step, a tiny jump, just let myself fall and make it all end.

***

Her eyes slide open languidly when a tiny sound penetrates her ears. As the world slowly comes into focus, her senses returning to her one after the other, she's able to identify the noise as the early song of a lark. Perched on a twig right outside of her window it sits, announcing the new day to the world.
She remains for a few more moments, waiting for her body to awaken, basks for a few more seconds in the warmth of the blankets weighing down onto her, the body right behind her.

His breath warms her neck, tickles her skin and sends the tiny hairs above her ears flying. She can tell he's still in slumber from the soft movements of his chest against her back as he breathes in and out and in again.
She doesn't dare move, afraid to wake him too early. She wishes this could last forever, she yearns for moments like this, that almost make her feel like a normal young woman. But she has to face the truth shortly after.
It will be most definitely the last time she'll wake up next to him, the last time she'll feel his arms around her, the last time his scent will saturate the pillows she's lying on.

She hates to admit it, hates to be weak, but she will miss him. Tremendously so.
She snuggles closer into him, feeling his firm body press into her softer one, his presence encasing her. Slowly, she moves, turns her body around to face him.
They say mortals look peaceful when they sleep. Not him, however. His face seems to be set in a constant frown, the little crease between his brows never really seems to go away, the hard edges around his full lips look as if set in stone. And yet, he's perfect in every way.
If it weren't for the fact that he's not even supposed to be there.

The last seven years have been like a dream. She remembers the day she first met him like it were yesterday. But then, seven years feel barely like a few days when you are immortal.
For a moment, she allows herself to get lost in the memories, lets them stream forward as she takes in his gorgeous face, her fingers running across his jaw. If she didn't know any better, she might've thought him a God himself.
But the day she met him, it was pretty obvious he wasn't, for he was drowning, barely holding onto the threads that tied him to this realm.

She was swimming in her favourite lagoon that day, intending to spend her afternoon lying naked in the sun by the shore, watching the dolphins, when she felt the pull, the silent outcry of a dozen souls.

By the time she reached the wrecked ship, they had already taken their last breaths and all she could do was make sure their souls found their way to the other side, where the ferryman would wait for them.
All except for the man with the sculptured jaw and the pretty lashes. He was barely breathing, his chest only making the tiniest movement. And yet, even unconscious as he was, he was clutching onto a wooden board with all his remaining strength, refusing to let go of his lifeline.
He was strong, but that strength was fading fast.

She drew nearer, gliding through the water like a fish, entranced by the sight in front of her. She rarely got to see them up close—or alive. But this one looked too young to die, she thought. Too pretty to be rotting away in the underworld.
She touched his cheek, let her fingers skim over the scruff on his face, mesmerised by the rough feel of it against her fingertips.

She felt herself hesitate, for the first time in centuries. After having witnessed so many of them swallowing bucket-fulls of water, she could not imagine herself to stand by and wait for him to die, not this time.
Something stirred inside of her. It wasn't pity or compassion, she had been walking this earth too long for that, had been stuck on this island for too long to even care about another human being.

But a strange feeling rose inside of her—she wanted to get to know this mortal man. She was strangely captivated by the way his wet hair clung to his forehead, how the salty water dripped from his lips.
For the first time in forever, she wondered what it would feel like to kiss those lips. Not since meeting—and losing— the green-eyed boy.

And so she did something she had never done before: She saved him.

She pulled him out of the water and laid him down on the sand. His chest heaved with the effort to suck in another breath until he finally coughed and water spilt from his mouth.
She sat next to him, waiting anxiously, not knowing what to do. Her knowledge on saving people was non-existent. So she just said there and watched him closely as he rolled to the side and more water spilt through his lips.

Finally, he calmed down enough to breathe normally and with an exhausted sigh, let his head fall back onto the sand.
He remained silent, unmoving for what seemed like an eternity—an ironic word coming from her. Was he dead? Had she saved him only to have him die anyway?

Panic began to swirl in her stomach and she finally stirred, reached out for him with trembling fingers.
The moment her cool hand touched his shoulder, he groaned and opened his eyes.
And time seemed to stand still for a couple of seconds before it began playing backwards at an alarming speed. Until she was seventeen again, taking a walk in the park and bumping into a hard chest.

She was staring into a pair of forest green eyes.

'Where am I?' he finally rasped. His voice was soft, yet rough all at the same time. And it was melting her insides.

"You know... it makes me uncomfortable when you keep looking at me like that." That same voice tears her out of her reverie.
She winces, doesn't know where she is for a moment. Images and memories are jumbled up in her head. Thoughts of the boy she can't seem to forget, the one, she dares not remember. They race through her mind at lightning speed until others come to replace them, another pair of green eyes, another mouth on hers, hands on her body.

All of a sudden she's out of breath, out of words to say. She presses her eyelids tightly shut, a tortured whimper escaping her lips.

"What's wrong?" Warm hands touch her waist, pull her forward until her chest is pressed against his, so close that she can feel his heartbeat, slow and steady, thumping in sync with hers.

"I had a bad dream," she says, "I dreamed you were leaving me forever."

He moves and leans forward until his forehead rests against hers. When he speaks again, she feels his breath caress her face.

"Why would I do that?" he asks. "You know I'm stuck on this island, I've been here for the last seven years. I've been trying to find a way to leave, but there's none."

Just because I won't let you, she thinks. Because I've been hiding the tools you'd need to build a boat from you. But she remains silent, soaking in the warmth his body has to offer, the tingles that spread through her when his fingertips skim her bare skin, move down her spine.

She opens her eyes and falls right into his. Up close like this, she can see the golden flecks that spread all over his irises. They sparkle in the light like sunlight on treetops.

How am I supposed to ever let him go? She thinks when his lips envelop hers and a rush of heat spreads through her body, her eyes fluttering shut again. When his mouth melts into hers, his hands pull her close, closer still, until there's not an inch left between them.
Sighing, she throws herself into the kiss, unthinkingly, as if he alone can take away the pain of her loss, her broken heart. As if only he can make her forget. Even though, in a way, he's part of the problem.

She kisses him as if she were drowning, clutching onto him like he had onto that wooden board all those years ago. And somewhere from the deepest darkest corners of her mind, a tiny thought finally registers.

You do love him, after all, she thinks. That is why you can't let him go.

And that knowledge almost has her dissolving in tears. She knows, he doesn't feel the same. Because even as he holds her and makes love to her in the night, his mind is with another woman. Sometimes, she hears him whisper her name in his sleep.

History seems to repeat itself all over again. She is doomed to want things she cannot have and again, she has picked a man, whose love is lost for her.

She breaks away from him when the press of his lips gets harder when his hands start to wander across her skin to places far less innocent than just her back.

She presses her eyes closed again, not wanting him to see the tears forming inside of them and wills herself to stay strong.
She has to do it now, before he gets her infatuated again, before his touch chases her sanity away and turns her into a moaning mess. Even though it will hurt more than anything.

The warning was clear. She is a Goddess, yes and reigns over this remote little island, but the Olympians are way more powerful than her and she can't afford to get in trouble with them again.
The last time she tried to snatch the man she fell in love with away from his beloved, she found herself banished onto this very island, for eternity.

So she bites her lip and says the words that will rip him away from her.

"I need to tell you something... I think I have some tools you might find useful."

The look he gives her is puzzled at first, but as he registers what that means, his lips pull up into a smile, the first real one she has seen on him ever since she pulled him out of the ocean.

This story was originally written for and posted in talesofthedeep 's Sands of Time anthology. If you'd like to read more ocean tales by some fantastic Wattpad writers, be sure to check that collection out!