Chapter 2: The Truth

“Poseidon? What are you doing in the temple of Athena?” I always come here to talk to my mother. His look is unusual. He looks exhausted. There is fire in his eyes, and not the good kind. “Did you have sex with my brother?” he asks me. “What? Of course not. I love you. Only you.” “You are such a lying bitch. Zeus just told me that you came over, begging him to take you.” I can feel myself getting smaller and smaller. Why would he think this? Wait… “Have you been drinking with Zeus again?” “Even if, he’s my brother.” It never ends well when Zeus and Poseidon go drinking. There has been this rivalry between them ever since Zeus was named the highest of the gods. “He was probably just joking. I have met Zeus once. Besides, you shouldn’t go drinking with him anymore.” My heart is beating faster and faster. “No one tells me what to do, especially not a whore like you.” I feel my heart break into thousands of pieces.

Never has anyone spoken to me like this before. I wouldn’t care if someone else said it to me, or any of the other gods and goddesses, but hearing something like this from the person I love is killing me. “Undress yourself now,” he commands. “What? No! We are in a sacred place!” “I don’t care. Show me that I am the only man for you. Prove it to me, Medusa.” I am frozen. I cannot move. How could he say something like this? He knows that I am a virgin and that I take my beliefs seriously. No sex before marriage. “Are you deaf? Take off your dress. It covers too much of you anyway.” Suddenly, he is walking aggressively towards me and puts his right hand around my throat. I can barely breathe. With his left hand, he is opening the buttons of my dress. “No, please. Leave me alone. I can’t do this now, Poseidon. Not in this temple,” I am using every ounce of breath I have left. “You said you loved me. That means you belong to me. Which means that your body is also mine. And even though you belonged to me, you still went and fucked my brother.” He spits in my face. “Poseidon, please don’t do this,” my voice is no more than a whisper now. I feel him ripping my dress apart. It is the dress my mother gave to me before she died. He pushes me to the ground, right in front of the altar of Athena’s temple. I hear him taking off his leather pants. At this point, I cannot move anymore. I am numb. He is entering me from behind. Penetrating me. Against my will. The person I love. Loved. In Athena’s temple. “How did you fuck my brother, Medusa?” I used to love my name, but now I despise it. “Answer me!” I can’t. He is again using his right hand to choke me. I am struggling to breathe. Maybe I will die. Mother, please end my life right here. I feel something running down my legs. I risk a short glance to see what it is. Blood. It is dripping at the holy altar of the temple. My blood. Dirty blood. Blood that now comes from an impure woman. Me. I am a disgrace.