The wind blew along the rocky Greek country side, bringing with it echoes and whispers. Some nights when the breeze was just right, horrible screamed and howls could be heard. The people of the town said it was just animals or drunks, travelers falling over rocks in the dark, but the old men and women spun tales of men turned monsters, cursed forever by the gods.
It was just a fantasy. The delusions of the senile, or just tales to frighten the gullible. None of that guff really existed.
"But it does." An elderly woman at the market said indignantly. The young man laughed, throwing back his head of dark curls. "Listen here boy, do I look like a lier?"
"No not at all," He back tracked quickly. "I didn't mean that, but surely you don't expect me to believe-"
She cut him off. "Weather you believe or not is no skin off my nose, but it doesn't make it any less true." He smiled dubiously at her. She rolled her eyes and beckoned him closer. "Listen here," She said again. "He used to be a man, just like you, young and handsome. He angered a goddess. She fell in love with him and he rejected her, for he loved a mortal girl. She was not happy. So she changed him into a monster. If he didn't love her, then she'd be damned before she let anybody else love him too. It is a horrible curse. The body of a snake, eyes that turn men into stone. His hair," She gabbled at her own grey mane and shook it lightly. "Turned from curls, the color of the sun, into snakes! At night you can hear the wind carry his misery to the town as he cries, cursing the goddess who ruined him."
"Uh-huh." The lad said doubtfully, his smirk firmly in place, shifting his basket of olives to cross his arms. "And where is this monster? I haven't heard anyone speak of a snake man slithering through town."
"Beyond the hills there is an abandoned city on the cliffs. It's in ruin, and that is where he lives, collecting the statues of those foolish enough to come and call."
He didn't believe her to say the least. He shook his head and chuckled. "Well, you do know how to tell a good story." He said as he walked away.
"Listen for him! I'm telling the truth!" The woman called down the market street after him. He raised his hand in farewell, not looking back. She was just an old woman, to much wine with her breakfast, or driven crazy by loneliness or something. Monsters didn't exist.
But that still didn't push that story out of the young man's mind as he worked. He hurded his goats along the rocky hillsides, pushing them far out of the limits of the town. The sun was hot, burning the back of his neck, but a blessed cool breeze blew gently. A faint cry mad the man look up. Cliffs rose up not far before him, the wind whistling along their face.
"It must have been the wind." He laughed, reaching down to rub the head of a goat. The cry came again, louder and more tragic...a.k.a, not the wind. He looked up the cliff, curious. The old woman's story came back to his mind.
"Beyond the hills there is an abandoned city on the cliffs. It's in ruin, and that is where he lives," He muttered. He cast a look at his flock, they would be fine, they didn't move unless he tried hard enough to herd them. Throwing caution to the wind, he kicked off his sandals and jogged to the cliff base. Finding hand holds he started to climb.
The wind tugged and pulled at his tunic, grabbing firm handfuls of the fabric and yanking. The rock crumbled slightly as the sun beat down, making his hands sweat, drops running down his face. His muscles strained and his arms shook, the veins standing out by the time his fingers grasp the lip and he heaved himself onto solid ground.
He panted on his back, his eyes closed. The old goats story had better be true after that. He sat up, shaking his damp curls out with his hand and gasped. It was like the temples of the gods, all marble columns and stone steps, carved with sprials and flutes. It really was in ruin though. Columns had tumbled, buildings collapsed in the streets, broken stone and brick littering the ground all around as vines and foliage creeped up to take back the earth. And statues...many statues of people. Some standing, cowering sprawled on the ground as if trying to escape. Every one of them had an expression of fear and horror, forever etched on the stone faces.
He stood up, slowly. This was just as the woman had said it would be. How much of her story was really true. Too curious to turn back now, he pressed on, picking his way through the ancient city, pausing now and then to look at the visages of men and woman made of stone. It looked as though thr city inhabitants just up and left. Bowls were left on tables, books, destroyed by time, were fallen on floors or hastily shoved onto shelves. Clothing lay in tatters half outside of dressers and chests and tarnished jewelry glittered dully under dust and dirt.
There was one building that wasn't destroyed or falling apart. At the very center, the grandest of them all. It was a towering confection of sugar white marble, veins of pink and gold shocking through the stone. He took to the steps, the collection of statues growing thicker and he moved inside. It was cool and dark, no dust on the floor to cushion the sound of his padding feet.
This building made him uneasy. His stomach clenched as the hairs on the back of his neck and arms prickled. Goose pimples erupted along his skin as he felt eyes watching him. Then he heard a sound. A soft hiss rent the air. Movement made him snap his eyes shut. All he'd seen was a silhouette. Tall, moving tendrils of hair and a sleek bottom half, no legs. It was real.
He tried to run but tripped. Crashing to the floor he still refused to open his eyes and felt clawed hands grip his arms and flip him.
"No!" He yelled trying to cower away from the monster. "I'm sorry!"
"Who are you?" A deep male voice snarled through clenched teeth a constant hissing close by. "Why did you come here? To see the monster with your own eyes!" The voice drew to a near hysteria and he was soon screaming. "Then look at me! Look at me! I'm the monster! Open your eyes!" He shook the young man by the shoulders his cruel nails drugging into the tanned flesh.
"I'm Y-Yurik, I'm nineteen, I h-have a sister, I heard goats, I take care if my m-mother, my father died when his ship crashed and he was lost at sea when I was six." He said quickly, stuttering and stumbling over his words. He was told when he was a kid that if sombody was going to kill you to tell them about yourself and they were less likely to do it. He sniffed as tears stun at his eyes.
The hands loosened their grip, but didn't let go. "Why are you here, Yurik." He said in a voice of forced calm.
"I heard a story. I didn't believe it was true,"
"So you came to see if there really was a monster!" He snapped his vice like grip returning.
"No! No, I head a yell, I thought sombody was hurt." Yurik invented wildly.
The haggard breath of his captor was suddenly on his face, his lips brushing against his cheek as he spoke in a deadly soft whisper. "Don't lie to me, Yuirk." His skin crawled and he desperately wanted to push him away, only made worse when smooth scales brushed his face and neck. Snakes, many of them, small darting tongues flicking out and touching him, hissing insistently.
"I'm not lying." Yurik insisted, turning his face away from the other man's. He jerked him around by the chin, they were nose to nose, the medusa's lips brushing the Greek's as he spoke again.
"Why don't you look at me?"
Yurik pulled back, or tried, but his arms were twisted, held together at the wrists and the hold on his chin was redoubled. "Let go!"
"WHY WON'T YOU LOOK AT ME!" He bellowed, the angry hiss of the snakes growing louder. "Is it because you know? You know what I look like! I'm hidious, ugly! A monster! Remade from the wretched creatures of this earth! IS THAT THE REASON!"
"YES!" Yurik screamed, knowing that one word would be the death of him.
The hands of the medusa closed around his throat. They squeezed, cutting off his air. He gasped and choked grabbing and tugging frantically at the hands strangling him. Yurik couldn't form words, he had no oxygen.
"...I know..." The medusa breathed coldly.
Yurik saw stars behind his eyelids and his head swam. He slumped and the hands around this throat were the only things keeping him upright. He let go and Yurik hit the stone floor with a thud and a crack.
"I'm, not, a, monster." He snarled. Yurik coughed and sputtered on the air, tears running down his face from behind closed eyes.
"I'm not a monster!" He screamed. A heavy sound and cool hands made Yurik flinch as the medusa lay next to him, pulling him closer by his face. His voice was suddenly soft and desperate. "I...I didn't do anything..."
This was his chance, if he got this monster to trust him, he could get away.
"W-what happened? What happened to you?" Yurik asked sitting up slowly with the medusa, leaning into his hands.
"...I-I...I loved her..." He mumbled. "I said no, because I loved her. There was so much pain..." He whispered, his voice cracked and wet sounding. "Then," the hands tightened on Yurik's face as his voice got louder and angry. "Then I was a monster! She screamed! I wasn't Iodex anymore!" His fingers tangled in Yurik's dark curls and he was dragged across the floor and thrown onto a pile of stone rubble. "Look at her! She was scared of me!!!!!!" A sob broke his voice and he wailed and screamed. Yurik opened his eyes, staring down. There was a broken statue under him. The only things left intact was the head. It was a woman and she was screaming, tears in her eyes, her expression just like the others, terrified.
The medusa had moved away, screaming in agonizing sorrow. He was insane. He had lost his mind. Everyday he was reminded of her of what he had become...Maybe Yurik was insane to, but it broke his heart.
"Iodex." He said, taking a moment to muster up the courage. "Iodex." He called louder. The sobs stopped and with a heavy dragging sound the medusa crawled back. Yurik closed his eyes, but he felt Iodex heavy body as he pulled himself into his lap. He hiccuped softly, clinging to Yurik's tunic front like a child. The snakes hung, sad, along his shoulders, seeking comfort from Yurik as well.
Holding back a shiver Yurik put a hand to Iodex's back and rubbed it lightly. "You're not a monster." He said. He actually felt the breath catch in the medusa's chest. The tears soaked through Yurik's tunic and he brought his hand up to past the snakes to cup his cheek.
"Really?" He breathed, grasping at straws, hoping beyond hope.
In answer Yurik tipped his face up and lent down to press a off kilter kiss to the cool smooth lips. Iodex surged upward, kissing with fever and desperation. He had been starved affection for so long. He would never let go, never again...and Yurik knew. He was never getting out, he'd be here until he died. They broke apart for air and he opened his eyes. The sight that met his eyes made his heart skip a beat...
Copper and blonde snakes curled in ringlets where hair should have been, his smooth pale skin transitioned into deep green scales and the heavy muscular body of a snake at his waist. He was lean and fit, his face smooth and forever youthful. His eyes were a clear brilliant blue, sparking with tears as he gazed in wonder at Yurik. The last thing he ever though was...he wasn't a monster, monsters weren't beautiful.

The wind still whistles along the cliff face, the city is still in ruin and at night the breeze will carry the saddened cries of a man turned monster. Iodex lay in a pile of rubble in the center of his home. A compilation of every statue, shattered in a tragic rage...all but one. He slithered over, red eyed, to Yurik and crawled into the stone lap, fitting perfectly in the arms. He reached up to lovingly stroke the face.
"I'm not a monster." He whispered slumping dramatically, supported by his arms around the stone shoulders. "You said so."
Yurik's face stared forever forward. His expression wasn't of fear. He looked curious, relieved, in wonder. His eyes fixed firmly forward, his lips slightly parted, the shadow of a smile there forevermore.