Knowing

It would, of course, happen at night. Pandora and Hera could be found, as always, relaxing by the sacred pool located in the center of the temple; its scalding, rippling waters churning like the pulsating heart of their city.

"O gods." Hera stared at the other woman, the cold pit in her stomach swelling even as rage churned under her skin until she thought her fingers would tear right through the satin robe she was gripping. "I should have known."

Hera sat up from her perch on the couch, her gaze hard and direct. Her words bit into the ugly truth, dragging it out from under its rock and into the open to squirm like the poisonous, pathetic creature it was.

"You don't love him."

Pandora's distant stare snapped back to Hera's face. "But he loves me. He's in love with me. And if I make him blissfully happy..." she let her casual tone trail off.

"Well." She gave a sardonic grin that, for once, stretched all the way across her face. "Atonement could come in a much more painful form."

Hera's glare tracked her as she slowly placed her things in a worn leather bag. "Atonement?" Her voice was incredulous. "What-you haven't done anything to deserve throwing away a lifetime of happiness. What makes you think your actions have caused any more destruction than any murderer's or terrorist's?"

"You don't know everything about me, Hera. And that's the way it's going to stay."

"You should tell me, then. I need to know. I need to know it all."

"No! Don't you understand? This stops here. You keep pushing and pulling at me. I can't stand it. You already know too much. No way I'm letting you have any more of me than necessary."

She paused, controlling her breath with effort. "What makes you think I'd be happy, anyway?" And here comes the punchline, she mocked herself.

"I don't love. It's not even that I don't know how. I've watched, observed, tried, pushed, screamed myself hoarse by giving my heart directions. I've seen how others love. I can't."

She turned once more to her closest friend, her eyes impossibly luminous and glinting fiercely.

"But I won't let that get in the way of my plans. And he will never know."

Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera...