Antigone

An exert from my upcoming novel, THE REIGN OF HER, the opening passage from one of the three short stories, ANTIGONE.

*For those not familiar with Greek mythology, Antigone was the eldest daughter of Oedipus; a king of Thebes famously known for defeated the Sphinx and fulfilling his long ordained fate: to kill his father and marry his mother.

I found my mother, hanging. Her crimson robe was wrapped around her neck, dangling her

from the pillar above, her eyes closed.She looked at peace, and beautiful, even in death.Her eyelids were still shadowed with that new, mulled wine

colour eyeshadow she bought from the mall. Wine o’ Dine, I think it was called.

Her lips, still stained with her cherry Chapstick, so potent I could smell it from where I stood. I can still smell it now, in the darkest corners of my mind.

Or was that her perfume? She liked to collect perfumes and choose a different one every day, expecting my sister and I to guess the name of it. Issy always came up with better names than me. She’ll get all the perfumes, I decided, and the jewellery.

I had no use for it.

I remember not wanting to look away as her face turned to a pallid grey. I think, if I’m being honest, I had hoped she would suddenly wake, and it would all be a prank. Maybe Issy was hiding behind the curtains, filming me.

But it was real. It was too real.

I wanted to hate her for it, for leaving me, or maybe I wanted to hate my father or myself, but it was the gods I hated more. I could imagine them, sitting on their gilded ivory longue chairs, peering down at the world like watching the next episode of their favourite Netflix show, something old and classy, wine in their cups and laughter in their bellies.

Had this all been a game to them? A sick, twisted game to let time pass? To see if they have a heart if they are as broken as mortals?

How could they be so cruel?

I scoffed, in that moment, as I stared up at my mother’s dangling corpse. I thought to myself; of course, they are. They can do what they want. They are gods, the gods, and we are merely their puppets hanging from the Fates golden thread of life.

I decided, in that moment, I would not be their puppet.

Intrigued what happens? THE REIGN OF HER is available to preorder!