She Spends Her Life In Dying

The room was ringed in shadow, the faces of the other spectators little more than grey shapes beyond the brightness of the sand-strewn arena. Argen pulled on his cigarette and opened his mouth, letting the smoke escape in a languid drift. He leaned over and whispered in Damian’s ear.

“You’ve never seen anything like this, I promise you. I come most every night, myself.”

Damian said nothing. At the far right of the arena, a curtain stirred, and the next instant a tall woman in a shimmering white gown strode through, followed by three men clad in black. Argen dropped his cigarette on the floor and stomped it.

“Ah! Jesha is very good,” he whispered eagerly. “You’re in for a treat.”

Damian hardly heard, for he was already absorbed. The woman stood motionless at the center of the arena, her white gown resting in the sand, her lips full and slightly parted. She looked as though she had a secret to tell, but a secret so weighty she dared not speak it. She was beautiful.

When the men started to cut her, her expression did not change.

“You see!” Argen exclaimed.

Jesha’s companions drew their swords across her wrists, and her hands fell into the sand; they drew them through her shoulders, and her arms followed. Piece by piece, her body fell away and her gown turned deeply red, and yet her face remained a peaceful enigma. When the swords cut her throat and the blood ran down her naked chest, Damian was almost sure she was looking at him. She died with exceeding grace.

When it was done, the men raked sand over the pieces and left in silence. An eternity seemed to pass before Jesha finally rose up from beneath the sand, the same look upon her face: profoundly knowing and achingly sad. She bowed and walked out, and Damian found that he had forgotten to breathe.

“She spends her life in dying,” he said.

“As do we all,” Argen replied.

This weird little story is my response to this week’s Trifecta Writing Challenge, for which the word was Grace. It’s also peripherally related to my work in progress, and writing little stories like this helps me to firm up my conception of what the world and settings should be like.

Comment below to let me know what you think, then head on over to Trifecta to read the rest of the week’s stories!