Tragedy Changes Everything
I wonder if any kind of coherent story could be made out of my random, discordant dream pieces.
Prompt: A fire in the neighborhood brings hundreds of people to a service shelter operating out of the local school. Many almost died but not all were placed in fatal danger. Injuries and smoke inhalation all vary. Groups are kept together to monitor for discrepancies and to better focus and administer cooling.
But besides typical symptoms and sicknesses starting to emerge are personality changes across the board. Some adults act like teenagers but not their own teenage children who weren't acting like themselves anymore either.
Everyone's personalities swapped around and melded into other people. No one was... themself anymore with no sign of swapping back.
That is, until they do but their decisions are lasting and they're not the same people from before.
Aphrodite
He comes home late past the time she expects him,
He arrives as a storm of liquor, anger, and love.
She embraces him in warm, welcoming arms, ignores the familiar scents of whiskey and another woman’s perfume.
He grasps her arms to unwind the hug - vulnerability is not something
he subjects to.
He kisses her with his fists and bruises her with his words,
He transforms her body into a wonderland of art,
An image so spectacular nature is jealous.
Blues, purples, greens, so perfectly swirled together
Her legs resemble a seaweed- infused ocean.
He loves the turbulent sea, he loves making art, he loves transforming her helpless skin into his own canvas.
He groans the name Aphrodite while restricting her lungs; the only way he knows to honor his goddess.
Aphrodite, goddess of sexual rapture, loses her charm, falls limp, gasping for air.
He loves the sound she makes, like a young child who has held her breath for too long underwater. A memory from long ago.
“I am your Poseidon.” He suspends his trident over her head then
shackles her to his “love” and never lets her go -
Even she, Aphrodite, cannot break free.
She does not make beautiful waves of foam if she is silenced.