Her beauty was unparalleled.
Unseen before.
And unseen again
After you saw her.
With long thick hair,
Snaking down her back,
And glistening eyes,
Causing even the coldest man to stop and stare.

He thought she didn't hear him.
He thought she didn't smell his human stench.
He thought she didn't know of her fate.
He believed he could,
Unlike every hopeful man before,
After he saw her,
Be seen again.

She knew he was different.
She could hear the clinking of metal against air.
A shield.
A hope for him.
A weakness for her.

She stretched her fingers,
Silently, stealthiy, unseen by arrogance.
Her fingers curled around
The blade beneath the rock.
She reached her hand up and across to her tangled hair,
And sliced.
The snakes she hit, hissed and wriggled in pain,
And made their way to the safety of the back of the cave.

There was the swish of a sword,
The clunk of bone.
Medusa is gone,
But you, her snakes, live on.