A Greek Tragedy

“Damn, she’s pretty” David thought to himself. It was a Thursday morning in the middle of a golden September, and David Ramirez was heading to the Student Union Building to grab a quick lunch before his next lecture. On his way there he was flagged down by a familiar girl who was blessed by the gods with sumptuous curves and a megawatt grin.... Bry. “David, hey!” she waved and made her way towards him. David smiled back and finished closing the distance between the two of them “Hey Bry, good to see you!”

“You too” Bry replied with her typical sparkling charisma “I can’t chat for too long because I have a class in like ten minutes, but I just wanted to check in and see if you were coming to the Kappa Rho Kappa party tomorrow? You missed our first two parties this year and everyone noticed!”

David smiled sheepishly “Yeah, sorry about that, I’ve been really busy” which was a somewhat honest response “but I’ll be there if I can for sure” which was a slightly less honest one.

“Well I guess that’s better than a no” Bry sighed “Anyways, I have to sprint to my Lit class or my Prof will eat me alive, I’ll see you around”. She flashed David one last blinding smile before turning in the opposite direction.

“See you!” David called as he watched her walk away. Once she had disappeared from his line of sight he exhaled and sat down to eat, shaking his head. “What an idiot” he muttered to himself. He didn’t know what his problem was when it came to Bry. David was generally a popular guy. He was academically and athletically successful, he was charming and he was well liked by most of his peers. Honestly, at times it felt like other girls just fell into his lap. But with Bry it was different, she was beautiful, smart and kind- a combination that was harder to find then he would have thought a few years ago, but they also had history. They had been friends for a while, and then last year they ended up hooking up in David’s room after some Greek party. The shitty part was David couldn’t really remember any of it because he had gotten trashed on tequila as usual. He woke up the next morning with Bry undressed beside him in his bed, and no memory of what had transpired. After that she seemed to avoid him, probably because she felt as awkward as he did about it. That was in April, David didn’t talk to her again until the first week of school, when she approached him immediately with her classic smile and glittering eyes, as if nothing had happened the year before. He intended to ask her out eventually, but whenever he made up his mind that he was going to do it, something in his gut would stop him at the last second and he never went through with it. Maybe he wasn’t the commitment type. He had a lot of experience with women, but he had never been able to stick to one person, why did he think it would be different with Bry? “ I mean besides the fact that she’s only my dream girl” he thought to himself.

After that night with Bry he had stopped going to parties, the whole thing had left a bad taste in his mouth and he found himself wanting to maintain a clear head. He was tempted to take her up on her invitation for this Friday though, if not for any other reason than to have an excuse to see her. But then with university swim team practices, plus the workload from his final year of undergrad, he was legitimately busier than ever. He decided he would wait to see how he felt tomorrow before making a decision.

“Yo, Davey!” a voice called out behind him. David turned to see his friend Matthias jogging to meet him. “What’s up man? Hey, did you hear about Andy Allen? Apparently he’s gone missing, no one has seen him for days!”

“Hey Matt. Ugh, that incel piece of shit?” David responded with a sneer “I hope I never have to lay my eyes on his stupid mug again. He probably just left without telling anyone, cause he knows no one would care.”

“Yeah, uh, normally I’d agree with you man, but this is like the third or fourth guy to go missing on campus in like two weeks so I’m a little less confident in his casual disappearance than you are.” Matthias frowned “Like I’m talking families haven’t heard from any of these brothers. Nothing, no trace whatsoever”

“So what, you think we have a serial killer on campus? Not likely.”

“I don’t know what I think, I’m just saying maybe we should be keeping our eyes peeled. Anyways, are you going to the Kappa Rho Kappa party on Friday? It’s gonna be a good one and we’ve missed you the last couple weekends!” Matthias continued with a sly grin and a wink “Also, Bry is gonna be there. She has been asking about you constantly and I think it’s time you made your move Davey boy”

“Yeah, she actually asked me about it today already.” David replied as he nervously ran his fingers through his hair “I told her I would be there if I can.”

“Nuh-uh man, use your chance or lose it. That’s all I’m gonna say about the matter”

“Yeah. Thanks Matthias, but this is my next class. I’ll talk to you later.”

“See you dude” Matt gave him a friendly slap on the shoulder before continuing on to his own destination, and David headed to class.

Later that night, David was seated at his desk in his dorm room finishing up some assignments when a knock at his door startled him out of his flow state. He made his way to the door and opened it, there was nobody there. There was however a small, mysterious box wrapped in brown paper resting on the ground just outside of his room. He brought it over to his bed and unwrapped it. Inside was a potted tropical plant that, if you looked closely at it, unsettlingly resembled a tiny person with a giant yellow flower blooming out of their head. Beside it was a large golden envelope with his name emblazoned across the front in red ink and the Greek Runes for Kappa Rho Kappa stamped in the left corner. Inside an invitation read in a looping script:

“Come play with your campus sirens on our Enchanted Island, Friday September 21st, 8 pm. Your most epic Greek attire is recommended. Be seen or be green”.

David chuckled to himself and took one last peek outside his door to see if anyone had lingered. No luck, but he figured that the culprit had to be Bry since she had asked him about it today. His heart beat a little faster at the thought of her outside his room.

It was now about 11 o’ clock in the evening and he had to be up at the crack of dawn for his morning training session, so he began to get ready for bed. As he turned off the lights he experienced a sudden intense sensation that someone was watching him. He looked around the room and his eyes landed on the window. He thought he saw a shape move outside in the darkness but when he looked again there was nobody there. Suddenly the sound of a woman’s unfamiliar laugh keeled sharply in the darkness, startling him because of how near it sounded. He instinctively slammed the window, and quickly closed the blinds. “Jesus, what the hell was that”, he sat on his bed attempting to slow the rapid beating of his heart . He continued to sit in silent darkness for a few minutes, listening to see if whoever was out there was going to try to enter his room through the window. There were no other sounds, and he eventually slipped into a disturbed sleep which ncluded nightmares about man eating plants and shrieking knife wielding women.

The next day though, everything was normal. He went to practice which helped work out any left over skittishness from the night before, and classes afterwards cemented his nervous system’s return to normality. It was like the weird events from the night before had all been a dream. By the end of the day he had decided he would go to the party.

8 pm rolled around and David found himself in front of the Kappa Rho Kappa house dressed up as Odysseus. He was immediately greeted by a chorus of excited chatter, a few enthusiastic waves and high fives also made it into the mix. He interacted with people constantly on campus, but he had forgotten how great it felt to be the (sober) life of the party. He started making his rounds through the handmade oceanic decor and giant sprawling potted plants that really brought that ‘“Enchanted Island” theme to life, but was quickly intercepted by a gorgeous glamorous mermaid sporting Bry’s face and a turquoise drink in her shimmering hand.

“David, you made it! It’s so great to see you here”

“You too Bry, actually I wanted to talk to you about something if you had a moment at some point.”

David detected a slight shift in her expression but disregarded it when her reply was made with her standard bubbly sweetness “Oh, uh… Yeah for sure. Give me a few minutes and then we can go someplace private.” She gave him a suggestive grin “In the meantime, I’ve brought you a drink, feel free to sip it while your waiting for me”

“Oh, actually, I’m not really drinking since… uh… you know what? I’ll just have one.” He ran his fingers through his hair as he took the crystal glass from her hand. As he watched her walk towards a group of girls dressed in a similar mermaid fashion -“Sirens” he reminded himself, “Like from the Odyssey”- he took a sip, and all went dark.

When David woke up his head was pounding. The room he found himself in was dark, but as his eyes adjusted he was able to make out the silhouette of large potted plants strewn throughout the room. He was standing up, but he was incapacitated from his knees down and he wasn’t physically able to move his limbs. A terrible pain worked through his abdomen and into his limbs. He tried to call out but no sound escaped his lips. Even so, a musical voice floated from the corner of the room.

“You cannot move because your transformation has begun” An inhumanly beautiful woman with obsidian skin and hair like silver moonlight stepped out of the shadows. “In atonement for your sins against my acolyte Bryony, you, like all the others whose brutal whims are forced on the wills of my sisters, will evolve from desecrator to life giver. Poetic, is it not?” She threw her head back and laughed, the sound struck terror into David as the recognition hit. “Pigs used to be my solution, but I just adore them far too much. This seems more apt.”

At that moment the door to the room opened and Bry stepped into the room, still dressed in her costume, David realized the party must still be going. She glanced toward him with a satisfied expression on her face and made her way towards his captor. He tried to call to her for help, but once again, all that came through was silence. Bry kneeled at the woman’s feet and kissed her hands

“Blessed be Circe, goddess of witches, avenger of wronged women. May this boy who took something from me now give back to you and to the earth.”

“Thank you for your offering child. He will do well in my garden.”