The boy with the mischievous grins, with the exuberant wiles, with the rapturous zest for life disappeared, replaced with devilish hymns, with a molten heart, with a thirst for rebellion and an outcry for bloodshed. Gone were the days of silliness, of foolishness, because all he craved was destruction, too enticed, too enraged, to see beyond a ring of scattered bones and ichor-trails. He could’ve burst into flames, into a blistering, chaotic inferno, shuttered and cloaked the cave in one mighty infernal gallows, scorched, seethed, until the chains of his rage finally fizzled down into coals, into embers, into ash. But they were unrelenting now, unsettled, frenetic, sizzling below his skin, over the sparks of his innocence, along the course of his corruption. He was a violent torrent, a storm, a kindling of hell, smoldering and unholy, because she’d been hurt, she’d been cast aside, she’d been violated and mauled and didn’t want him to do anything about it; spurned his efforts at every turn. She couldn’t comprehend the lengths he’d go, the ways he’d delve into soullessness, into ferocious bedlam, into malicious enmity, just so someone suffered as she had, just so someone would never do it again, just so the world seemed right, seemed whole, seemed fair. The prince didn’t care if he was harmed, didn’t care if the winds drew the blaze back into his face, didn’t care if he brought down walls and empires on himself, became a skeleton beneath the rubble and ruin. His pursuits had been mixed with valor, honor, and then upheaval, disastrous and malicious – and he couldn’t separate them, couldn’t cut away the roughened fringes and harsh, brutal edges, piercing, puncturing the cavern with the treacherous lengths of his wrath. Too turbulent, too distraught, too caught up in the waves of anguish and derision, her words practically fell on deaf ears. The scion failed to see the flicker of fear settle across her features, failed to notice her flinch at the weight of his statements; too fargone, too dragged down by Lucifer intentions, Mephistophelean pursuits (they purred against his soul, scratched and crawled and seethed until everything combined, a flash of the sublime as an enemy’s carcass fell to the ground, as they took their last breath and he stood over their corpse, sword bloodied, heart solidified). He didn’t hear the morsels of tenderness stretched across the hollowed void (I don’t know what I did to deserve you), didn’t touch upon the nuances of comfort she attempted to proffer in the wake of her reproach.
 
All he could snare were the contradictions, the ways in which she’d hurt someone for his sake too (why, he wanted to growl in her face, why won’t you let me do the same?). His lips curled upwards in a snarl, stare forced elsewhere so he didn’t bend down towards her again and spit out something vile, something vicious, when she didn’t earn his ire (just had to watch it transform him). Erebos couldn’t fathom what it would take for her to understand, for her to comprehend that he needed to do this, and he glared at the walls, at the curls and coils of lava, at the ominous cut away in their paths. "Good. I want him to feel pain. I want him to understand what its like."  His vocals simmered, glanced off the apertures and warrens like a knife, like a dagger, like a blade, a rapier, a scythe, drawn, sketching over the figure of his enemies, immune to her regrets and rue. The scion turned back to her then, a vehement plea on his lips, begging for permission he should’ve known she wouldn’t grant – pondering the lengths he’d have to pursue it alone, without her aid, without her consolation, and if she’d ever forgive him for disregarding her appeals. "So let me." 
 
Then she disappeared on a puff of smoke and something stung him; the blatant nevermind as she gave up on him, as she realized his audacity would also be his ruin, as she tried to escape her wounds, her horrors, and left him to his own.
 
"Let me," he begged again on a heathen’s whisper, asking only the shadows and the wicked decadence brewing in his chest.

enna & erebos

for you, just you