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Entering the palace, my Palace, is strange. It has been twenty years since I last walked these halls yet I still know them like the back of my hand. I can see her, my Penelope surrounded by men, she carries my bow in her hand twelve axes are lined up as she declares, “Whoever can string My husband's old bow and shoot through twelve axes cleanly will be the new king, sit down at the throne and rule with me as his queen.” Seeing Penelope makes my heart skip a beat in my chest, even now after all these years, gods I love her, and I have missed her every moment since I left.
I want to laugh hearing her words, there is only one man who has the strength to string that bow, and it is me. I do not laugh though, instead I bite it back not wanting to reveal my true identity to the crowd just yet. I am disguised in beggar's rags, my face covered by a hood.
I watch as the Suitors try and fail to string my bow. Until the leader, Antonious starts to plan telling the assembled men, “Hold Telemacus down, cut him into pieces, throw him in the ocean, and when the deed will done the queen will have no one to stop us from breaking her bedroom door, stop us from taking her love and more.”
Rage, unadulterated rage fills me hearing Antonious’s words. I find their weapons and throws them in a room, as the Suitors finish planing I string my bow, the one they struggled with, just as easily as I always have, and wait for the perfect moment to shoot, when all eyes are on Antonious I let my arrow fly hitting the man in right in the jugular with a satisfying squelch.
“For twenty years, I've suffered every punishment and pain, From the wrath of gods and monsters to the screams of comrades slain. I come back and find my palace desecrated, sacked like Troy, Worst of all, I hear you dare to touch my wife and hurt my boy.” I say shooting more of the suitors, one-hundred and eight men, all who made advances on my wife, all who planned to hurt my son and do much worse to Penelope, they all thought me dead and now none of them will live to see morning light. I pull my hood down revealing my face as I let more arrows fly growling, “I have had enough.”
I kill them methodically, shooting them. Rage fills my form, blood coats my skin.
“We know these halls, the odds can be tilted,” A suitor says to the small group he is running with.
“You don't think I know my own palace? I built it.” I snarl as I shoot the suitor dead, more screaming as they watch the others die. Even in my anger I can remember building this palace shortly after Penelope and I wed. I can remember kissing her against these walls, when we were just two newlyweds lost in each other, gods I have missed my wife.
I corner one suitor, Eurymachus I realize, a noble of Ithaca, he should know that Penelope is mine, even if I were dead she would still be Mine.
“Old king, our leader is dead. You've destroyed the serpent's head, now the rest of us are no longer a threat. Old king, forgive us instead, so that no more blood is shed. Let's have open arms instead,” Eurymachus pleads, the last word is barely out of his lips before I let another arrow fly.
“No,” I tell the nobleman’s dying form. I continue my slaughter until I hear a commotion from the Armory, and head there.
I see a man, hardly older than a boy, talking to two of the suitors telling them, “I don't wanna hurt you, but trust me, I've come prepared.”
“Ha! Your very presence has doomed the king, young prince. We don't fight fair.” The suitor tells the man, the prince Telemachus, my son Telemachus.
I freeze hearing the title of prince, this man is my Son. The last time I saw Telemachus he was just a baby. He fit in the crook of my arm and now, now my son is a man and I missed seeing him grow, a wave of bittersweet nostalgia fills me, combined with grief of all I lost and all I missed. I can see myself in Telemachus and I can see Penelope. I see the mole on his face, the one he shares with Penelope, I remember kissing it when the boy was a baby and then kissing the one on Penelope’s face. I am snapped out of my memory as I hear the suitor, Melanthius I recognize now, another noble of Ithaca who should really know better, say, “Brothers, we got company and he's made a grave mistake. Left the weapons room unlocked, and now they're ours to take. Brothers, come and arm yourselves, there's a chance for us to win. We can still defeat the king if we all attack the prince.”
I watch from the shadows trying to figure out how to help my son as the suitors capture him. I take the opportunity. I do not grant Melanthius the mercy of an arrow, no I use my sword instead stabbing the man in the back.
“Me-mer–” Melanthius, gasps.
“Mercy? Mercy?” I ask a laugh bubbling up from my chest as rage fills me. I continue slaughtering the suitors all around, aware of my son, my Telemachus guarding my back, I growl telling them all, “My mercy has long since drowned. It died to bring me home, and as long as you're around, my family's fate is left unknown. You plotted to kill my son, you planned to rape my wife. All of you are going to die.”
“You've filled my heart with hate, all of you, who have done me wrong. This will be your fate!” I roar as I behead Melanthius. The suitors scream and the noise rings in my ears as I kill each and every one of them.
“Father?” Telemachus breaths as the final suitors draw their last breaths and rage leaves my veins.
“Son,” I say and I can’t help the way my voice cracks.
“All my life, I'd have died to meet you. Thought about your name so much, it hurts, for twenty years, I've dreamt of how I'd greet you. Oh, and now you're here, I can't find the words. All this time I've wondered if you'd embrace me as your own. Twenty years, I've wandered, for so long I've felt alone” Telemachus says, approaching me, his arms open wide and I can see the ghost of the much younger boy Telemachus once was yearning for his father written all over his face.
“Oh, my son, look how much you've grown. Oh, my boy, sweetest joy I've known, twenty years ago I held you in my arms. How time has flown. I used to say I'd make the storm clouds cry for you. I used to say I'd capture wind and sky for you. I held you in my arms, prepared to die for you. Oh, how time has flown. All I've ever wanted was to reunite with my own. Twenty years, we've wandered, but today you're not alone. My son, I'm finally home.” I tell him, tears tracing my cheeks as I wrap my arms around my son for the first time in twenty years. I know we are both covered in blood, but right now I do not care, all I care about is that I am home, all I care about is that I am holding my son once more.
“Father, how I've longed to see you,” Telemacus breathes into my neck.
“Telemachus, I'm home.” I promise my son, before I catch the movement of an owl, Athena probably in the corner of my eyes, and I tell Telemacus, “Go, tell your mother I'm home. I'll be there in a moment.”
“Of course,” Telemachus breathes, squeezing me once more. Once the boy is gone I whisper, “Show yourself, I know you're watching me, show yourself.”
Athena appears and I join her, laughing to myself as I tell her, “You were never one for hellos.”
“I can't help but wonder what this world could be, if we all held each other with a bit more empathy. I can't help but feel like I led you astray. What if there's a world where we don't have to live this way?” Athena muses staring out into the distance.
“If that world exists, it's far away from here. It's one I'll have to miss, for it's far beyond my years. You might live forever, so you can make it be, but I've got one endeavor, there's a girl I have to see,” I remind her, Athena maybe a goddess but she has seen Penelope and my relationship grow and change throughout the years, she should know better than most that no one will ever outrank my wife.
“Very well,” Athena says.
“Father? She's waiting for you.” Telemechus says and Athena disappears as I head to my and Penelope’s chambers.
I force myself to take a deep breath as I enter our room.
“Penelope,” I breathe seeing her illuminated from behind by the sun setting over the horizon. I take in our room, nothing has moved, our bed stands where I carved it out of the tree where we first met, gods I have dreamed of that bed, of being in it with her once more. The door creaks as it closes behind me.
“Is it you? Have my prayers been answered? Is it really you standing there, or am I dreaming once more? You look different, your eyes look tired, your frame is lighter, your smile torn. Is it really you, my love?” She asks, like she cannot quite believe her eyes and I think if it was not for the blood I just shed to get to her, I would not believe this was real either.
“I am not the man you fell in love with, I am not the man you once adored, I am not your kind and gentle husband, And I am not the love you knew before,” I tell her lowering myself to kneel before her, like a worshiper kneels at the altars of the gods, as I ask, “Would you fall in love with me again, if you knew all I've done? The things I cannot change, would you love me all the same? I know that you've been waiting for love.”
“What kinds of things did you do?” She asks me kneeling to be level with me, her hand cupping my cheek.
“I left a trail of red on every island, as I traded friends like objects I could use. I hurt more lives than I can count on my hands, but all of that was to bring me back to you,” I confess before asking her, “So tell me would you fall in love with me again, If you knew all I've done? The things I can't undo, I am not the man you knew. I know that you've been waiting.”
“If that's true, could you do me a favor? Just a moment of labor that would bring me some peace, see that wedding bed? Could you carry it over? Lift it high on your shoulders and take it far away from here,” She requests and horror fills me, our wedding bed cannot be moved. I carved it with my own two hands into the olive tree where we first met.
“How could you say this? I had built that wedding bed with my blood and sweat, carved it into the olive tree where we first met, a symbol of our love everlasting. Do you realize what you have asked me? The only way to move it is to cut it from its roots.” I say my absolute horror and revulsion bleeding into my words, at her request. I back away from her hand standing up, I cannot believe she would even think to ask that of me.
“Only my husband knew that, so I guess that makes him you” Peleolope tells me, standing up well cupping my face in her hands.
“Penelope,” I breathe into the space between us.
“I will fall in love with you over and over again, I don't care how, where, or when, no matter how long it's been, you're mine. Don't tell me you're not the same person, you're always my husband and I've been waiting for you.” She tells me, and I can see tears in her eyes.
“Penelope,” I breathe once more, my hands clinging to her chiton and her hands cling to my own.
“How long has it been?” She asks, burying her face in my neck.
“Twenty years,” I tell her, tears falling from my eyes as I bury her face in her neck.
“I love you.” She says and I echo the same.
I pull her into a kiss then needing her lips on mine once more. Gods it was all worth it, every battle I faced, every monster I met was worth it to hold my wife in my arms once more to feel her lips on mine. I missed her so much and now I am finally blissfully Home, because Ithaca is not really my home she is, My Penelope, My Home.