𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖆𝖎𝖑𝖑𝖊𝖘 𝖒𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆𝖋𝖆𝖍

"And do you promise to honor the Gods and their blessing and use the powers they bestow on you to help your fellow people?"

My eyelids nearly fluttered shut, but I sat up and yawned into my palm so I could refocus. If I'd known the blessing was going to take three hours, I would've waited in dorms with a cake and balloons. But I didn't know, so here I was on a couch that felt like it was made a million years ago, covering up my sneezes so that the people beneath me didn't look up.

"Yes, I do."

I muttered mockingly along with Cher, who was chanting the words beneath me. The more this continued, the more it sounded like a wedding or rather a very strange cult, they had her down there sounding like she was giving up her life to the Gods, and in a way I suppose she was.

Settling back into the couch, I let out a sigh, my nose twitching at the dust that flew everywhere at my disturbance but just as I was about to get comfortable two hands clasped my shoulders making me jump up off the couch. I snapped my head back to see the girl from earlier, her hand covering her mouth as she snickered into it, "Relax," she whispered, before sliding off the satchel she had on one of her shoulders, "I brought snacks."

She dropped the bag on the couch and the buckle flipped open, allowing the colourful packets of food inside to slide out a bit. She walked around the couch, tucking a curl of her hair behind her ear, "Help yourself to some, the fun part's finally about to start," She reached into the back and pulled out an energy drink before tossing it at me. The cold can narrowly missed my outstretched hand, and I had to dive to get it before it could hit the wooden floor, catching it when it was only an inch from disaster.

"Yeah, try not to drop anything else," she shook her head, "I'll be right back."

I watched as she stalked off, her hips shaking to whatever was playing in her earphones before finally disappearing down the stairs. Glancing back down at the ceremony, I could see that Cher was now getting some headpiece put on her head, it was made almost entirely out of diamonds, and I hoped she'd get to keep it afterwards because I definitely wanted to see that up close.

They'd now moved away from the centre of the temple and were now at the front of it, where a large statue of Seotl stood. We had no idea what the God looked like, they never arose a temple of their own so we made one for them and even now comparing this temple to the other ones you can see clear as day that even though we tried our hardest to replicate the wonder the detail of the other ones, this one was just so human.

So desperate.

The statue of Seotl was unlike the other ones, it was vague, their face covered by a veil because we didn't know what they looked like. One hand was extended outwards holding a large scale, and the other faced downwards with a chain wrapped around the hand at the end of the chain was a clock that actually told the time.

Liquid poured out of Seotl's eyes and down their body to a small pool at their feet, the liquid was a direct source of the 'blood of the Gods' that ran in our streets. It was black now, of course, as it'd been since they 'died' but apparently once the chosen one was dipped in the blood it would glow gold for a week, signifying that they had indeed been present during the blessing.

Now that I couldn't wait to see.

The whole concept of the whole 'the Gods bless a person but we choose who it is' had never really ever made sense to me. If the Gods wanted to bless someone, why not just do it themselves? Why did we have to choose them? It's not like mankind was well known for being fair creatures.

I'm sure the entire planet was just as sceptical about the idea as I was. That is, until the third person we chose nearly wiped out half our population, I think that's when people actually sat up about this whole blessing thing. 

World leaders everywhere were no longer comfortable with just anyone getting the blessing because it was now clear that no matter if we chose a heartless criminal or the nicest person alive, the Gods would bless them. They didn't care who we chose, and they had made it exceptionally clear that whoever was picked would get the magical powers.

No matter what.

Whilst still keeping my eyes on Cher, I lifted my fingers to flip open the can tag, not anticipating that jostling it around had consequences. Like a trapped volcano, it burst in my face and I pointed it away from me before realizing too late that I had accidentally sent some of the fizzy substance to the crowd below.

Not thinking it through, I instead pressed my lips to the mouth of the can, almost immediately choking on it but swallowing as fast as I could. Peeking at the people, I noticed that only a little boy had noticed the raining juice and was currently glaring above him whilst holding his head.

Taking a step back, I relaxed and let out a sigh of relief before finally taking a sip of the drink. From the corner of my eye, I saw a dark figure dart into the shadows, making me quickly look. After staring at where I'd seen the movement for a moment, I shook my head and took another sip of my juice. "You're losing your mind Versailles," I muttered to myself, going to take a seat back on the couch.

I only set my drink down when the sound of something falling caught my attention once more. I wasn't that stupid. To walk aimlessly in a dark basement filled with old shit. No, I was definitely not that stupid, I told myself as I walked towards the disturbance.

Despite my thoughts, I felt myself feeling very much like a stupid person as I approached the discarded broom lying mockingly on the ground. I ran a hand through my braids as I picked it up and perched it up again, "Acting like a white girl in a horror movie," I laughed quietly to myself before turning around.

A droplet of sweat ran down my forehead.

My shaky hand lifted to wipe my eyes, and when nothing changed, I began to wipe more furiously. A lump formed in my throat as I slowly took a step back and the figure took a step forward. I began to slap my face, still taking steps back before changing tactics and using my hand to pinch my other one.

In front of me stood me.

Dressed in the same shitty outfit and with the same worn-out hair and facial expression. The replica just stared at me, watching all my movements and not moving themselves. When I took a step back, they took a step forward and when my hands moved, their eyes followed. "What the fu-," The words died in my throat as I slowly reached up to touch them, when my fingertips were an inch from their skin their hand shot out to grab my own and just as our flesh met theirs began to turn black.

And not black like me.

The light stealing black, the kind that was so dark that only the glow from the large chandelier in the centre of the temple was showing me that they were still there. Shaking my head, I tried to yank my hand out of their grip but they were unrelenting, I started to struggle against them trying my hardest not to make a sound to disturb the ceremony.

Their grip only grew tighter, almost painfully tight, and I only grew more panicked. Just when I thought things couldn't get worse, something else came up from behind me and was quick to grab my other arm and twist it behind my back. I shook my head, almost afraid to look back and see who it was and when I finally gained the courage to lock eyes with another soulless pitch-black version of me I opened my mouth to scream and that's when it shot out to close my mouth.

Together, the two began to manhandle me, dragging me off my feet and carrying me near the Seotl statue. With tears in my eyes, I tried to struggle against their hold, but they grabbed every limb that went flying and weren't kind with the way they held me either. 

When we were finally at the point where the large stone head of Seotl intruded into the basement and that's when they changed missions. Suddenly I was being folded over the rails, my back pushed against the hard metal as they tried to push me over it. Taking a second to look down at the bottom of the temple where Cher was being led to the pool made tears reach my eyes, as she looked completely happy and without a care in the world.

I wouldn't survive the fall.

That much was obvious to me, sure the pool beneath me had a shallow amount of liquid, but the landing would not matter once I hit the stone it lay in. I was going to die, and I was going to die on the most important day of Cher's life. I looked at my captors with tears in my eyes, shaking my head and trying to plead through my covered mouth to let me go, but all they did was tip me further.

I tried to hook my legs onto the bars, determined to not let them do this to me, but just as I thought I would have a fighting chance, another figure emerged from the darkness. It wore my face and wore the large smile that I rarely let people see as it reached down to grab my ankles and tilt my body completely off its axis.

And then I was falling.

I barely had a second to take a breath before I hit the bottom, and then the screaming started. Pain that I'd never felt in my life exploded in my brain and I was pretty sure the only bone not broken was the one that let me control my neck. "Versailles!?"

The blood I was in was sticky and came up to my shoulders, my head flopped back over the edge of the pool to see a frantic Cher running to me, her lips moving but I could only hear the sound of my every organ shutting down.

Before my eyes could shut and I could completely succumb to my injuries, I found my eyes staring at the statue that was staring down at me, crying for me. Almost as if it were mourning my death as I lay broken at its feet.

Every tear a drop of bright shimmering gold.