Ricci Schwarzler - Bow

She felt the call arrive in her body. She could feel the insistence, the desperation, the intense feeling of uncontrollable rage. She walked out onto the deck and with wings outcast she cannoned into the sky.

She followed the feeling but it was strange. It was a dark feeling on a dark, moonless night. But she didn’t need light, she had the feeling emanating in her body. She began to shake. The feeling was immense. It had never felt like this before. Her body was racked with cold, she felt icy. Her wings started to shake, and she struggled to keep them under control. What was going on? She couldn’t stop herself from shaking and she was so cold. The shaking was coming from inside her body, not from the cold on the outside.

She could see the building where she had to go. Before she landed in the building she could feel the stage, she could see the female lead on the stage with a bow in her hand, by her side.

Why couldn’t she stop shaking?

She knew the play was over, the audience was standing and clapping. Cheering. The woman took her final bow. Her husband stood in a box holding their child and clapping enthusiastically. He was so proud.

Nemesis shook uncontrollably. She felt like she was freezing from within. With all her might she landed through the roof of the building to appear next to the husband. There was no noise, no shattering of roofing. She appeared as if by magic. She knew what was about to happen.

The woman on stage gradually raised herself from her bow and as she did so she raised her head, with evil eyes looking at her husband and child. At the same time, she raised the bow. Nobody realised. With the speed of an accomplished archer, she drew an arrow from the quiver on her back, placed it in the bow without very much aim, released it towards the husband and child.

It happened so fast that Nemesis did not have her spear at the ready. But in an instance Nemesis’ wing reached out to shield the father and child. With that, the women could see what was happening, and with the same amount of speed she draw another arrow and aimed and fired again. Nemesis’ spear appeared in her hand and she released it. In slow motion it struck the arrow and split it in half. Both halves disintegrated. But Nemesis wasn’t finished. The spear without faltering kept flying towards the women and struck her in the chest, pushed her backwards and stabbed into the stage floor. The woman was impaled at an angle above the stage. This time the death had to be fast. She didn’t want the husband to see what had happened. He was not aware that his wife had taken her fan’s opinions so seriously and disturbingly that she believed she could do better than them and had the choice of so many other people. She deserved better. She was unhinged and he had never realised. Her crazy ranting he put down to rehearsing her role. Her distance, he put down to her tiredness from rehearsals. Her nastiness he put down to the pressure from the play and her cruelty to him and their child he hoped would stop once she finished the season. He was too patient. He was too nice, and he loved her too much. He didn’t realise that by standing by her, he was sealing his and his child’s fate.

The woman’s death was over in an instance. Nemesis now felt warm. She wasn’t shaking. She was calm. Everything fell into place as always. She flew to the body, the spear was ejected and the wound healed.  Only a failed heart would be detected.

She flicked her wings and flew into the air. As miraculously as she appeared, she disappeared. She arrived home and couldn’t understand the coldness. Then she realised. The woman’s ego was fed by so many for so long that she was cold. She was icy, devoid of love and caring. She was evil built on ego. She would not be Nemesis’ last. More like this would come.