Mirai

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As I started watching Tamah's life play out, I smiled. She was adorable. So kind and loving and sweet. However, I felt jealousy over the closeness of her relationship with Kiya. The fact that Tamah pushed her friend to pursue another did little to settle that jealousy.

I giggled to myself as her birthday came around and the way that she handled her suitors. But what followed, what came that night, horrified me.

I didn't want to look, but I also couldn't look away. I tried to push myself into the vision, tried to materialize and tear Zeus off her. But I could only feel the bile rise in me as I watched him destroy her. I hated him so much. I didn't care that he was a god, if I ever found him I would make him beg for mercy at my feet but never grant it.

It went on for almost three months. During that time, Tamah became a shell of herself. I saw how she struggled to keep smiling, how she did her best to find happiness in the things around her. But her smiles were forced and became more so as time passed.

She didn't shed a single tear, though. I hoped she would, or that she would scream and be angry. Just let out all the negative emotions she had to be feeling. But nothing came. Not even one tear.

At first, when she found out she was pregnant, I got worried. I thought Zeus would do something even more horrific to her. But it turned out to be a turning point.

As Zeus' visits ceased, her smiles became less and less forced, until they weren't forced at all. And it was clear that she loved her babies. She loved them and, as they grew and gained more and more life, they gave her a new life.

But even as I watched that play out, I knew things were far from over for her. The mark was still missing on her shoulder. So every time she smiled or laughed, all of her happiness, made the knot in my stomach increase as I waited to see how it all would be taken from her.

A month after the babies had been born, the night that changed everything came.

I listened to Tamah's and Hera's conversation and my anger, that had been solely focused on Zeus before, split its focus to include Hera as well. She had to know Tamah held no blame, but instead of punishing her husband that had done wrong, by both her and Tamah, she took her anger out on Tamah.

I watched the smoke surround Tamah. Watched as it entered her body and listened to the scream that followed. It was a scream that made me tremble. It carried so much hate, so much anger, just so much. More than I could imagine inside one person.

But the fear that scream caused me was nothing compared to what came next.

It started with her hands. Her nails grew and became more like claws. Then the rest of her body grew a bit. Enough to press on the fabric of her clothes so they were torn apart. As the fabric fell from her body, I saw green scales that had erupted on her skin. It covered her breasts and went up her face in patches, but down in a straight line until it reached her waist. There it spread out over her whole lower body. Her legs were covered, only she didn't have legs anymore. They grew together and formed a long tail that she stood on. The tail slithered out underneath her. Long and thick and looked able to squeeze the life out of the strongest of men.

She had transformed into something that was in between a snake and a human. There would have been an eerie beauty to her if it hadn't been for the hatred her aura emitted that was strong enough for me to taste it in the vision.

Hera made a shield appear before her as Tamah lashed out with her tail. Then Tamah's attention was drawn to the crying baby girl. Her eyes held a menacing and angry glint. Her eyes that weren't big and brown and full of wonder anymore. They had become yellow and the pupils were slits.

She snatched the baby up. Clawed at her until she became quiet. Then dropped her to the floor and did the same with the baby boy who had also begun to cry.

Hera had said that she wouldn't hurt Tamah's babies, and she hadn't. What Hera had done was much crueler than that.

When both babies were dead, Tamah stopped. She breathed heavily, but it slowly calmed down and as it did, the scales receded until she stood naked in the room, her hands and body stained by blood and the mark had finally appeared on her shoulder.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Hera said. "What a hateful person you must be. You won't even spare your own children. The name Tamah doesn't fit you, it never did. There's nothing innocent about you. Lamia is a better name."

Then Hera disappeared.

Lamia...

She was a myth and a monster. A villain that killed everyone, spared no one. I had heard and read about her, always wondered how such an awful being could exist. It didn't surprise me anymore that Nox had called her a monster. I could understand why Mom hadn't wanted me to find her. But the truth was just like the sphinx had said, it was a heartbreaking story.

Tamah wasn't a villain or a monster. She had lived a happy and peaceful life until Zeus had interfered. Though in that moment, I didn't know who I hated most. Zeus that had started it all the moment he had raped Tamah, or Hera that had punished the victim. But I knew Tamah held no blame. Not for what had happened back then, nor for anything that had followed.

That in itself became even clearer when Kiya entered in the morning. Tamah had stood still and stared at her dead babies during the whole night. Kiya screamed and rushed forward. Only then did Tamah move and I could see the tears that I had wished she would shed earlier finally come forth.

"I... I killed them. But I do not know how," she whispered as she continued to cry. She hadn't been aware, hadn't had any control at all. She was Tamah and the monster was Lamia, born of Hera's jealousy and anger.