In The Embrace Of Death

By Jashashree Das

The arrow from hector came tearing the winds. A pointed sharp death perfectly set on a thin line of hit or miss. Patroclus shut his eyes to accept his fate. All he thinks in his last moments are: Achilles. However, he feels no pain. When the war land is covered with a blanket of shock, defeat, gasps, cries and horror, he flutters his eyes open. His gaze is set on the fallen body on his lap. Achilles. A shock runs through his veins. Achilles took the arrow instead. His golden hair shining like the early autumn leaves, runs down his shoulder, his tunic muddy from the raw earth, his feet brown from the mud and mixed with splashed blood, his eyes slowly lose their luster the rich redness of the blood which was spilled everywhere from the golden body reminds everyone that their Aristos Achaion was a life, which with every breath was destined to die. With the iron wind of the late spring his soul drifts away into the underworld where death itself was dancing for this young blood.

The sea screamed from beneath.

The mountains howled.

Then she came. Thetis.

She wore a dress even more pale than the moon itself. She had no expressions but all she said was, “You disgraced him, do you understand?”

Do you understand?

She vanished.

Rage, regret , pain and sadness were painted on Patroclus’s face but they were washed away by the rain of tears. He holds the body tight to himself as if to transfer his soul to the dead. He said to his best part “you were the life in me, the spring blossoms, the summer wind, the sudden bursts of joy, the winter sun, you were my best part!”

Silence. Vacant.

All the life in his world lost their reason to live.

Hector smiles at his victory and says “the best of Greeks seemed to have the worst weakness. A man in a skirt who danced on the heartbeat of his so-called lover is no man to me!”

Patroculos’s sun came down and touched the earth, then came the silver moon who always brought bad dreams to him and this one was his worst nightmare.

By Jashashree Das