She was a genuinely happy woman. With every breath in her heart and each step in her soul she exuded calm and joy. Her friends knew her as kindness and her lovers knew her as comfort; she brought joy to all she knew and all that knew her. Never in all the lives of the world would anyone think to mistreat her or bring her to harm, nor her friends or their friends. Because that joyful woman gave herself to the world, the world in turn loved and cared for her. Though her gaze was intense you would not see her scowl; though her body showed strength you would not see her scorn; though her voice rang clear you would not hear her scold. Forever was she alive in this way.
No one would witness a time where she wept, not even the man that would take away her world. A thoroughly deceitful person brought darkness to her eyes when he cut through the throat of that joyful woman's wife, and for what but a bloodied hand full of unsorted bills and the wrong set of keys for a house he knew nothing about. With each mistake taken his grim follies grew deep, but not with resentment (another mistake) rather simply frustration at "failures this week". Him, as rotten a man as a rotten thing can be but his worst mistake then was in crossing the Furie.
Everyone called her Joy, was that really her name? Simply, she was That, from her name to her mind, and each step in her stride left her name in her wake by her slight, softened footsteps which echoes the same; steady, confident, unhesitant, "Joy, Joy, Joy". When her gaze found it's target, despicable cur of a person, still she would not scowl but strong and assured was her sight anyhow. Joy would smile at him, not obscenely or jestful, just peacefully, sweet as it ever would be. And he knew right away what Joy intended to do.
It was not just the echoes of footsteps that told. It was not just her face, calm and stony but warm. It was not that she strode closer, culling his fear and consuming his will to appeal to his safety. What warned him at first was the falling of air all around, like the Earth took her breath away from that place where he stood. The very air cascaded away, giving room for dearest Joy's footfalls to enter; And that let him know that he marred someone's love, that he ripped away comfort from the life of another. While unable to breathe and unwilling to scream, evil found on his face inextricably moved ever forward that all he had done would bear witness to his imminent undoing.
Treading calmly into the trembling one's view, Joy's dark pupils grew. In the depth of her gaze the evil brought forth was absorbed and eroded leaving only the scars of sin on the man's wretched visage. He recalled every fight, and every injury caused, and every life pulled into the darkness; He relived every slight against those of his kind, and every trespass against his community, and every bridge to a friend torn down; He was returned every cut, and subsumed by every shock, and left bare to each gust of cold that would grace the flesh of his victims. That man cried every tear, and bled every drop, and ended with each life which lead to the one that was HERS. A killing silence possessed reality itself, bringing darkness down around the murderer who by then was gasping for air, was blinded by sadness, was suffering the doubt and the shame he had given the world.
Then with even his will to apologize taken away, the man buried his face in the floor and lay motionless. His body made no sound, not as Joy turned away, not as the air returned to the space, not when his mind sparked for the very last time.
