Chapter Three i Cupid

"Xavier, move over."

"Lilia, she's still sleeping. Give her time to rest, she's been up all night crying. She probably thought that we are so hard on her."

There is some silence, before I heard what sounds like a fist hitting the skin. "Ow, bloody hell, what was that for?

"O Xavier, ye duff. The ceremony will take place in about the next three 'ours and she still 'aven't fit her dress. We cannot delay. I know she is tired and she is feeling pressured but that's what it takes to be the next Cupid!" I could hear a set of feet shuffling across the floor and I hastily turn my back against the door, biting my lip as I hear it open.

"Rubin, I know yer awake. Ye don't sleep with yer mouth closed." Oh, okay then. I opened my mouth, and continue to pretend to be asleep. "Francesca Rubin--"

"Okay, okay. I'm up, already! Don't get your knickers twisted up your bottoms, Aunt Lilia" Well, that earned me a pillow zooming on my direction and hitting me on the head. I collapsed on the bed dramatically, snickering.

"I see that the princess is awake! Ready to shoot the arrows, are you, cupid?" Uncle Xavier exclaimed as he started pulling me from my bed and down on my lush carpeted floor. I giggled, trying to stop him as Aunt Lilia started tickling me.

Oh, how I miss this. The mornings that consisted of me laughing as the both of them loomed over me, their hands ready to tickle the life out of me. They really act like my parents but still, they aren't.

These distracting thoughts killed the mood that I am in as I stood, sitting near the window. I could hear Aunt Lilia and Uncle Xavier whispering to each other, making me snap, "We're not in the library, you know."

Uncle Xavier look around, awkwardly twisting the ends of his dress shirt. Aunt Lilia's frown etched deeper on her skin as she made a move towards me, capturing me into her arms. "I know ye are sad that yer parents are not 'ere but we cannot do anythin' about it. We 're here to support ye always, don't forget that."

She kissed my forehead and ran her hands on my ginger locks.

"I know that, Aunt Lilia. I know you loved me like I am your own but," I stared off the window, letting the tears I've been suppressing, to slide down my cheeks, "I miss them. I wish they are alive and well and--"

Uncle Xavier cleared his throat, momentarily distracting me. I look at him and just notice how he seems to be wrinkling his shirt so much because of his nervousness. I sigh, "Uncle, aren't you going to give me a hug?" He smiled, making me giggle as he snatched me off my Aunt Lilia's arms. I snuggled on his arms and sniffed, imagining that he was my father.

"I know that my father look like you too, but with a different hair and eye colour, of course." I ran my hands on my Uncle's hair and smiled at him through the tears that are falling on my eyes. Uncle Xavier momentarily look at my Aunt Lilia as if they are conversing silently. "Uncle? Auntie? Is there something you want to say?"

"No, dearie," Aunt Lilia replied.

"Yes, dearie," Uncle Xavier mused.

Their replies caught me off guard as I look at tbe both of them, a bit suspicious of the way Aunt Lilia had changed her sitting position and Uncle Xavier was now chewing his bottom lip.

"Ruby--"

"Xavier, no. We vowed to protect 'er!"

"Protect me? From what?"

They both stared at me, Aunt Lilia, now standing up whispered, "Xavier--"

"Lilia, I can't. 14 years is enough!" I could feel my Uncle's arms loosening, making me stand on my own.

"What are you saying, Uncle? What 14 years? What protection?"

"We vowed to protect you from the knowledge of your past..."

"What do you mean? What past? " I turn to my Aunt Lilia before looking back at my Uncle. "You told me that you raised me because Mom and Dad died during the war. You raised me like I was your own. We eat ice cream together, have christmas together. Isn't all of that true?"

"But can you remember your 3rd and 4th birthday? Do you have bizarre dreams about playgrounds that do not look like the ones we have here in Eros?" Uncle throw question after question at my direction that the memories flashed behind my eyes, blindingly "How about those times when you will wake up and scream 'mommy'? The little bunny bear you have, Goggie, and the reason why no other erosian child have a toy like that?" My Uncle's face is so red that I am afraid that he will collapse because of it. With a broken voice, he whispered "Do you wonder?"

I am speechless. I look at Aunt Lilia as she silently cried, hugging my bunny bear closer to her arms as Uncle Xavier panted, his face so red with his outburst.

"Aunt Lilia, is this true?"

"Yer memory 'as been tamprered with, Rubin. Me and yer Uncle agreed because we wanted to 'ave a child and ye are our opportunity. I do not want to lie to ye but in exchange of yer protection, we agreed."

"And Grandma knows all this?"

Aunt Lilia nodded on my direction, she hastily wiped a stray tear on her face. "Then why did you all lie to me? Why did you just tell me now?" I felt betrayed and lost. It felt to me that I have another part of myself snatched from me.

Uncle pulled me near the window with my Aunt Lilia and him holding my hands. He caress my cheek and whispered, "Your dad was just like you, a cupid when he met your mom..." Uncle snatched a cloud from the window and conjure it to form into a man with wings watching a woman.

The cloud man looks so real that I have to think that he was conjured. I smiled at the image and listen as Uncle Xavier continue the story.

"He was bold, intelligent and daring. Marcus wanted to change some laws here in Eros including the most sacred one--"

"To give love and not receive it" I recited it with my heart, having heard of it, and reminded of it's weight ever since I could talk.

"That made him so cunning. He stayed longer on earth, pretending to be human. With his wits, he had managed to capture a few women, dragging them across town like lost puppies. He made them obsess over his body and his face. He enjoyed the attention very much it scared him." Uncle Xavier shook his head as we watch the cloud man flirt with the other clouds which also took form into women. "But to his greatest disappointment, there seems to be a woman unaffected by all this."

"Well, I assume that it is my Mum, right?"

"Of course. Under the name of Emily, this gentle human didn't believe your father's stories of adventure and knew from the moment he started chasing her around, that the man, your father, was an ethereal creature. "

The cloud man started chasing around the woman cloud until finally he have caught her in his arms.

"In time, he had managed to break down her walls and she had fallen for him after all he had done to win her. She was a tough one, your mother. The longer they spend time together only deepen what your father feel for your mother. They are so happy; He is so happy, that he forgot the fact that he is still Cupid," I watch both of the clouds as they sat on the floor. They were laughing, chasing each other around my room.

Uncle Xavier gazed at the clouds for a moment, his hands weaving the air as to keep the man cloud and the woman, moving. He took a deep breath before Uncle look at me smiling, "Then they had you. You mischievous little snot." My uncle pinched my nose and I wave my hands on his direction, urging him to continue.

The clouds from awhile ago are now together with a little puff on the arms of the woman cloud. Aunt Lilia pulled me to her arms and I frown as Uncle continue his story, in a voice now filled with grief.

"Marcus, with great desperation, faked his death so he could be with you and Emily. Mother found out about his plan, of his faked death and his whereabouts. Eric, rejoicing of what our younger brother did, encourage our mother to hunt him down and kill you and Emily," Uncle Xavier's face is stony and cold as I stared at him, waiting for him to continue.

"I did not agree, of course. Killing Emily is horrible but killing you, a baby?! It is unforgiveable. Hearing out my opinion, Mother agreed that you will be accepted back to Eros, like a normal child and be told of a different past. That is how you are with us now, living and well." Uncle Xavier enveloped Aunt Lilia and me on his arms, his light gold wings sprouting from his back forming some kind of a shield.

Frowning, I wriggled and whispered, "But, my father...and my mother" Uncle Xavier withdraw his arms and Aunt Lilia looked down at me with pity, "Are they still alive?"

There is silence and I hang unto that. I do not want to hear the words as my Uncle look down and shook his head.

I sniffed, pushing Aunt Lilia's hands away from me as she tried to hug me, "What is the use of telling me all this if the ending is the same? They're dead. No difference! Nothing a-at...all." I bit my lip to stop myself from crying out loud. This felt a hundred times worse than before, knowing about my mother and father's forbidden love.

"There is a difference. You know the truth." Uncle Xavier took my face on his large hands and wipe my tears. " You are going down to earth, to the place of temptations, hatred and grief. I consider it going in a field that involves roses and thorns. It is a depiction of heaven and hell clashing and forming into one that we fear that you might just end up like your father..." of course they think of me like that. My hands steeled on my Uncle's hand but they didn't move an inch away from my face. I want to move farther away from them, and pretend that they are not in the same room with me.

"Rubin, I know. I'm sorry, it's just that we love you so much and we don't want you to end up with the same fate as your father. And might I add," he sighed his hands still on my face. "Well, we do not really, we did not confirm it but," Uncle Xavier's voice trembled as he continued "we--I mean I think, your mother is still alive."

That made me look at my uncle, examining his light blue eyes of any trace of tricks or maliciousness but I saw nothing. With a teary smile, I captured the both of them to my arms and cried.

After a few moments, Aunt Lilia told my Uncle to go off since she is going to prepare me for the ceremony. I had my bathe consisted of precious oils and scents from the trees blossoms. After I had finished my bath, I helped myself on the plain white cotton dress, the sleeves shrug down on my shoulderr like wings.

Oh wings! I'm gonna have my wings.

I wiggled my shoulders and blush as Aunt Lilia watch me across the room. She offered to braid my hair and place the crown of golden laurels on my red hair. I smiled at my reflection as she finished. I feel beautiful, for once.

She captured me on her arms and I can't help but cry a little.

What if I did fail them? What if I end up like my father? What if I become obsessed of living with the humans that I become like one of them?

And what about my mother?

These thoughts occupied half of my attention as my Aunt lead me to the grand hall. Grandma Aphrodite is seated on the front with my Uncle Eric on her left and Uncle Xavier on her right.

The arrow from yesterday stayed afloat in front of my grandma, gleaming as it is now appear solid gold. It started buzzing once I took a step inside which made all the Erosians look at me.

Grandma Aphrodite reckoned me and I hastily walk, nervously fiddling with my skirt as I bowed my head. The stare coming from everyone inside my room felt so hot against my skin that I feel flushed. Grandma began the ceremony by speaking in the Old Tongue, thanking the gods and goddesses and honoring them with a magpie killed beneath the laurel tree and burnt on the fire made from cedar twigs.

After a moment it was finally time for me to recite my vows. I bit my lip and stood in front of the other Erosians, " I, Francesca Rubin Hearthrowe, receive thy power, passed by Marcus Valentin Hearthrowe, my deceased father, to fall down to earth, to give love and not receive, any at all, and to not fall in love to any man or feel love for anyone to my extent."

I crossed my index finger over my middle as I took the pledge, silently praying that no one will ever witness this play. I cannot afford to be caught now. My decision is final and I have to prove that I choose the right path.

I watch as my grandmother wave her hands; two wings sprout on my back, pure white and golden on the tips. Two bangles enclosed my wrist following after the golden bow and arrow which settled themselves on my hands, fitting them perfectly.

"You've got one hundred forty three days to complete your task" 143-' I love you' my heart sang and I have to pinch my sides to regain my consciousness and get over from the clichè terms.

"With at least fifty pairs, a hundred hearts. Couple these, there and that. Everywhere you'll walk around in this city of love, of course, with grace and utmost care. The city on which our great power prevail; Shoot their hearts with nothing to spare. Don't fall to fail me my child, to you I send my greatest love. Now, Go..." Grandma Aphrodite raised her right hand and pointed up, clouds opening l as some kind of stairs began to solidify, ascending towards a door.

I didn't know that earth was up and not down.

I climbed each step, feeling the temperature rise up as I go higher. As I stood at the top of the stairs, I take a gulp and grab the knob.

Well, here goes everything...

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