Blue Eyes
Agatha was resting when she saw her again, the girl from a week ago, Rio. She was scared that Rio would see her and Agatha would turn her to stone so she quickly hid so she wouldn't be seen by Rio.
“Why are you hiding?” asked Rio. Her dress was different from the one she had on the first time they had met.
It was rare for Agatha to receive guests, well she did receive guests but they all had one purpose in common, to kill her. Since meeting the girl a week ago she hadn't been able to get her out of her mind, how the girl didn't seem scared or nervous that Agatha would do anything to her, how carefree she seemed, how she looked around the cave and admired the statues, the way the girl's body acted to Agatha's touch.... Agatha hadn't been able to touch someone in many years, maybe centuries, she really didn't know how long it had been, but to feel the warmth the girl emitted, the material of the dress soft under her touch, that's how the girl's skin would feel under her touch? Agatha had wondered one of those nights.
“Why did you come back?” Agatha ignored the question.
“I was bored...and wanted to see how you were doing.”
Agatha chuckled to herself watching the girl strolling among the statues, the girl's hand examining and touching some of the statues, her eyes trying to find Agatha among them, her feet tapping against the floor.
“How cute” Agatha slipped between the pillars lowering herself so the girl would know where she was. “That's your way of trying to get my trust and then kill me?” Agatha accused her now a little closer to Rio.
Rio smiled as she felt Agatha now closer, her eyes moved to where the girl was, in front of her was a not-so-tall pile of broken statues, above it was dark, the only place where there was no lighting not counting the hiding places in the ceiling.
Rio could only see the tail full of scales sticking out of the shadows, she moved closer to see the woman but it was backing away at Rio's steps.
“I'm not going to kill you” Rio could hear Agatha laugh.
“Yeah right, everyone's trying.”
“I'm not everyone” Agatha laughed louder at the girl's words. “Besides, I don't kill” Rio confessed.
“Explain yourself.”
“I can't kill, it's against the rules” Agatha paid attention to what the girl said, it's against the rules..., what did the girl mean by that?.
“What do you mean by that?”
“That I've never killed and I never will, I can't do it” The girl didn't seem distressed or angry at what she said, she was calm, as if not being able to defend herself was no big deal. Agatha didn't realize that as she listened to the girl talk she had unconsciously moved closer to where she was standing, Rio could see her better now.
“You have blue eyes” Rio stated but didn't ask. Agatha was puzzled by the statement but quickly composed herself even without realizing how close she was to Rio.
“No, they are not blue.”
“Agatha I can literally see them don't lie to me” Rio laughed a little puzzling the woman at her words.
“What? no that's-” Agatha's heart raced as she realized how close she was to Rio and how Rio was approaching Agatha with slow steps. No, it's impossible... how could this girl see the color of her eyes... her, her-, Agatha's breath caught at the thought, she quickly scurried to one of her hiding places on the roof, completely ignoring Rio's disappointed sigh.
“ Leave, now.” Rio was confused.
“What?”
“Get out of here!” The woman said angrily through the shadows, the voice full of anger made Rio flinch, she was going to say something, try to convince the woman to let her stay, but as if the universe was playing tricks on her, the call of souls waiting to be collected echoed in her head, making Rio have to leave.
“Fine...” Rio sighed in disappointment when she received no response.
Rio turned to leave, her footsteps grumbling again throughout the cave, she tried to leave as slowly as possible so Agatha would take pity on her and let her stay a little longer, it didn't work.
Agatha watched as the girl left without any objection, she got angrier and just rolled her eyes in annoyance as she saw how the girl was taking so long to leave, she saw how Rio, already at the entrance of the cave, stopped and whispered something that she couldn't catch because it was so far away.
Rio stopped and thought of something for Agatha, she stretched out a hand and invoked a small bouquet of purple azaleas, she took a few seconds to arrange them in a correct way and then left them on top of one of the chests with riches. Agatha observed everything from afar, she didn't quite know what it was that the girl had put on top of that chest so she moved a little closer.
“Te veo Agatha Harkness” Rio said and then left the cave, leaving Agatha alone again.
Agatha waited a few minutes to make sure Rio was gone and quickly went to see what the girl had left in that chest.
Flowers.
Rio had left her flowers, and not just any flowers, purple azaleas, her favorite.
“God...” she whispered as she ran her scaly hands over the petals of one of the flowers, it had been a while since she had held a bouquet of flowers in her hands, no, it had been a long time since she had seen any kind of flower and this was the first time someone had given her a bouquet of her favorite flowers.
Agatha took the flowers carefully and went in search of a recipient to put them in water, after searching among the countless stone statues she found a green glass vase that was buried in one of the barrels full of jewels, she threw the jewels on the floor and smiled when she had the vase in her hands, she carefully went to one of the farthest parts of the cave where there was a small waterfall that provided water, she filled it carefully and introduced the flowers there.
Agatha stood looking at the vase with the flowers, she felt her cheeks heat up a little at the thought that Rio had left those flowers for her even when Agatha had kicked her out so abruptly. Agatha was a little depressed as she remembered how the girl had seemed so disappointed when Agatha had kicked her out, but she couldn't risk turning Rio to stone, if the girl had seen Agatha's eyes for real that meant that if Agatha had fixed her gaze on Rio's brown eyes, Rio would still be in the cave, but she would just be another in her pile of statues and Agatha didn't want that, not after that strange girl made her feel things she hasn't felt in many years, not after Rio made her feel alive after only two encounters.
Agatha couldn't see Rio again, Rio couldn't come to the cave.
___
Since the first time Rio had met Agatha she had been enchanted to learn more about the woman.
It had been a week since they had met and Rio hadn't been able to stop thinking about the woman, how her hands felt on top of Rio, how warm her breath was against her, the beautiful voice echoing in the cave... Rio had been affected since their first meeting and she was eager to see the woman again.
Rio knew that Agatha was a gorgon, so in that week before their second meeting Rio searched for any information that spoke of that species and that would help Rio understand why Agatha was hiding from her.
Unfortunately she didn't find as much information as she wanted, but she found a book written by one of the humans who idolized Poseidon. The little book talked about 3 gorgons, Stheno, Euryale and Medusa. It also talked about how the gorgons were wild monsters and that they had flaming eyes, big fangs and bronze hands. There were some parts of the book that could not be read because of ink stains, as if someone had tried to erase them, so the information was incomplete and that bothered Rio.
Rio wondered if the other two gorgons were Agatha's relatives, since in the chapters about which they talked about these two gorgons it told that they were sisters and daughters of Phorcys and Ceto but they also named a third sister that when she was born, she had not been born as a gorgon but as a human, according to the book, the third sister was so beautiful that all men went after her but the third sister always rejected them.
Rio had tried to go to the chapter that was dedicated to Medusa which was the final chapter, but when she found it she was disappointed to find how the ink stained all the pages of that chapter leaving her without any information, she sighed tired and angry, she was going to close the book when she saw a very short chapter dedicated to the third sister of the two gorgons.
The chapter about the third sister was also stained with ink, but suspiciously it was only covering the name of the third sister. Rio skimmed through the chapter quickly trying to find a name, but found nothing. The chapter talked about the beauty of the third sister, how some people said at the time that the young girl was more beautiful than Aphrodite. Rio laughed as she read that part, she wondered if it was true, she had seen Aphrodite and even if she hated the goddess, Rio was not blind and indeed Aphrodite was the most beautiful woman in the world, and Rio had known many in all existence.
Death continued reading the chapter trying to find something useful, he learned that the third sister was a priestess of Athena very faithful to the goddess, there was also something very interesting in that book but most of it was censored with suspiciously intentional ink stains, Rio read aloud: “~~~~~~~~ was a young woman resplendent with beauty, hope of many suitors full of mutual jealousy, but in all of her there was no part more admirable than her hair, someone who claimed to have contemplated them, told how exquisite were the hair of the young woman. It is said that the God of the sea (Poseidon) ~~~~~~~~ of Athena; the daughter of Zeus turned her back and covered her chaste look with her aegis. And so that the deed would not go unpunished, she changed the hair so exquisite in ugly ~~~~~ and cursed her ~~~~~~~~~~ “.
Rio sighed in annoyance at the lack of information about the third sister of the gorgons, closed the book and put it away as she leaned back against the tree where she had spent so many nights watching the stars. Rio wondered why they had censored the story of the third sister, or why the chapter that spoke of Medusa was ruined.
Maybe the second time she went to see Agatha she could ask her.
___
Rio was confused by Agatha's attitude when she told her that she saw her eyes, she didn't know why the woman was so set on Rio not seeing her, but a part of Death was happy to at least be able to see the color of the woman's eyes.
Agatha had gotten careless and moved closer to the light and there, Rio was able to behold one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen in her existence, her eyes.
Agatha's eyes were blue like the sky and sea and they shone brighter than all the riches that the woman had in the cave, Rio believes that those beautiful eyes were like two stars fallen from the sky and sent to torment Rio in every thought she had, Death could also see the woman's nose and holy universe it was a beautiful nose, it seemed as if the same universe had carved it and had turned it into one of the wonders of the world, Rio could not stop thinking about her.
She was in the same tree as she was a week ago before seeing Agatha for the second time, Rio had been there after guiding the new souls to their eternal rest and the time that passed she could only think of one thing, Agatha's eyes and well maybe how beautiful her nose was, but Rio kept that to herself. She didn't realize how much time she spent in the tree daydreaming about the woman, nor did she notice the portrait she had started to draw to try to get those eyes out of her head.
Rio looked at the sheet of paper in her hand, she observed how the ink had perfectly portrayed the silhouette of Agatha's face, or what she had been able to make out. She tried to make the drawing as close as possible to what she remembered, but it was difficult to draw a face only knowing the eyes and nose. The portrait portrayed Agatha's eyes and nose well, Rio tried to push her memory to see if she could capture something more of Agatha's face, she could vaguely remember the eyebrows and lips, but she knew it was not perfect, the hair was the most difficult thing so she only painted black spots trying to copy the silhouette that the darkness gave Agatha in that cave.
She smiled when she saw the portrait, for the moment it was all she had to put a face to the name of Agatha Harkeness, she looked at it again and with a sigh of happiness she placed it on her dress, right on her chest where she could feel her black heart beating devilishly. Death lay on the tree looking at the stars and thinking about Agatha. Death wasn't supposed to sleep, but Rio when she was very comfortable she indulged herself in sleep, that night she went to sleep thinking about Agatha's beautiful and captivating eyes.
The next time they met, Rio was going to make Agatha show herself to her. Death was not going to give up on that mysterious woman.