by Noah Layton
‘Feels pretty good, doesn’t it?’
James’s eyes went wide just as he reached the peak of his jump.
That wasn’t his voice.
The shock of the intrusive, gruff words in his head sent his concentration entirely off-balance. The street below moved towards him too quickly, and he dropped out of the air.
Lunging forward desperately, James grabbed hold of a sixth-floor fire escape, four stories down from the rooftop he intended to land upon, and slammed into the metal railing hard. A brutal, wrenching pain ran through his ribs, and his eyes clenched as he heard the loud crack inside his torso.
At least one of his ribs had broken.
Gasping for air as the ringing, metallic sound caused by the impact twanged through his ears and steadily quietened, James pulled himself up onto the fire escape platform, clutching with shaking hands.
Suddenly the lights inside the darkened apartment window giving onto the fire escape flicked on. A dog barked viciously, and footsteps moved quickly within.
‘Shit…’ James grunted, clutching the railing and keeping one hand at his ribs as he pulled himself up and onto the steps. He hurried upwards, his heavy, booted footsteps clanging against the metal as he raced feverishly to the higher stories, every step sending bursts of pain through his torso until he reached the roof.
He hopped over the brick guardrail, rolling onto the floor and laying on his back on the cold concrete of the roof, panting against the night air as he held his painful ribcage.
‘Oh, god…’ He groaned, exhaling sharply with pain and clenching his eyes shut. After calming himself, James pushed himself up from the ground and sat on the brickwork, peeling up his shirt to see the cut, purple-red mess that had come about just below his pulsing pectoral muscle on his left side. At least one rib was broken, that he could tell just by the sensation of it.
‘Okay, maybe that doesn’t feel pretty good.’
James jumped forward again, looking about rapidly.
‘Who… Who is that?’ He asked in panic. ‘Are you another goddess speaking through my thoughts?’
‘Do I sound like a freaking goddess to you, kid?’
The voice had a point. Gruff and manly, but with a confidence that made him easy to listen to.
‘I really hope not.’
‘Well, you’d be right.’
‘So… What are you?’
‘An intelligent person would be able to join the dots together, don’t you think? Our mutual friend Elena could speak to you through your thoughts, so who do you think I may be?’
James cast his mind back quickly, trying to think clearly through the nagging, terrible pain in his side.
Elena is his mutual friend, James thought. A man… Wait… The souls of Alerian and Ascevious are lurking inside of me. Which means…
‘It’s me,’ the voice said. ‘Alerian. Part of me, anyway. Nice to finally speak to you. I must say that I’ve been having an interesting time watching all of the things that you’ve been getting up to.’
‘The things I’ve been getting up to?’ James repeated. ‘Wait, you didn’t… You weren’t looking when me and Elena…’
‘Oh, no, definitely not. That’s disgusting. I don’t think about the goddesses in such a way. Your adventures over the past few days, on the other hand, have proved most intriguing.’
‘Wait, how am I supposed to know that it’s you I’m talking to? I’ve never met you before. As far as I know I could be talking to Ascevious right now.’
‘You are talking to him. He’s just not saying anything. He prefers to soak up information, let other people do the talking so he can use it against them.’
Silence… James’s hands shook at the thought of Ascevious, listening intently… Then…
A cackling, grating, choked laugh sounded inside James’s mind. He had quickly gotten used to the idea of Elena speaking to him through his thoughts when she had been trapped inside of her dimension, but this ignited another feeling entirely, a sensation that he knew he would never adjust to.
His psychology professor in high school had once tried to warn him about the dangers of smoking weed by playing a YouTube video that imitated the symptoms of schizophrenia – auditory and visual hallucinations, with whispering, mocking voices in the background and images in the foreground distorting and twisting horribly.
The idea hit again that all of this was an impressively structured schizophrenic episode, but the problem with that was that hallucinations were, well, hallucinations – you believed that they were real.
James was questioning all of this, and questioning it even more so when the palms of both of his hands began to glow, one a warm yellow color and the other a dark, scheming purple.
The laugh continued as his hands proceeded to glow more and more, the light eventually spilling in streams, two pieces of rope their respective colors moving before him until they found spots just a few yards from him upon the concrete. The ends of the light ropes poured onto the ground, and steadily two figures began to appear.
The forms of Alerian and Ascevious stood before James, attired in the archaic wear they had been sporting since arriving on Earth. James had never met either of them before, but he knew who they both were.
James kept his hands in place carefully, glancing between his palms and his new acquaintances, who both stood watching him, Alerian with a serious expression and Ascevious with a quiet smirk.
Testing the streams of light, James slowly lowered his hands to his sides. Nothing happened – no burning sensation, no explosions. Figuring it was safe, he imagined there was nothing stemming from his hands at all.
‘You’re them, aren’t you?’ James said. ‘You’re the goddess masters.’
‘Parts of them,’ Alerian said.
‘The real deal,’ Ascevious said snidely.
‘Don’t listen to a word he says. His primary goal is to ensnare you and betray you, just as he did with me.’
‘Oh, hush.’
‘You killed me. I will not fucking hush.’
‘Wait, shut up, the both of you,’ James said quickly, not knowing if there was some retribution for speaking to the literal masters of goddesses in such a disrespectful way. ‘How are the two of you even here right now?’
‘When you opened the locket that contained us both we were promptly released from a prison of eight decades. What we didn’t realise was-’
‘What my learned colleague is trying to get to,’ Ascevious cut in, ‘Is that we were so caught up in beating the shit out of each other that we didn’t anticipate being set free so suddenly, even after so long. When we emerged from our prison we flew straight through you, and-’
‘And parts of your souls are now inside of me.’
‘Precisely,’ Alerian said. ‘Know that neither of us can do anything to harm you, not that it’s me you need to worry about. But you may experience things uncharacteristic of a typical human’s abilities.’
‘Like being able to jump really high and run really fast and feel occasional random jolts of confidence to do insane things over the past few days? Like killing monsters and bedding goddesses…’ James paused. ‘So that confidence… That’s been you two?’
‘The essence of the gods,’ Ascevious said. ‘Feels good, doesn’t it? Don’t worry, it’s fine to admit.’
‘Yeah… I mean…’ James tried to catch himself from admitting anything to Ascevious.
‘There’s something else,’ James continued. ‘What… Are you two? I mean, I know you’re gods, but what am I seeing right now? Alerian, you said you’re dead? So Elena was right? And what about you, Ascevious? Are you relaying all of this to your actual physical self right now?’
‘Well-’
‘I’ll talk first-’
‘Shut it-’
‘Both of you, shut the fuck up,’ James cut in, sick of the back and forth interrupting. ‘You’re stuck inside my body, and I’m the host, or whatever we’re calling me right now, so talk one at a time or I’ll trap t
he pair of you again. Jesus, 80 years of fighting you’d think you’d both have got it out of you by now… Alerian, seeing as you’re the non-asshole here, you can talk first.’
‘Thank you,’ Alerian emphasised. He may have been a god but he was still rubbing it in. ‘Shortly after we emerged from our cage our real physical forms remained locked in combat. Within our dimension we were suspended in an immortal battle, but in your world we found ourselves in a weakened state. Ascevious destroyed my physical form, and this version of me that you see before you is the only thing left of me. I know not what his current movements are, but I can tell you his plans for a fact – he will be seeking to free his minions from their dimensional cages across this city of yours. Once he can wreak enough destruction he will seek to do so, and as he grows his group of monsters and creatures, so do his powers become greater. The one thing that will make him unstoppable is acquiring the fractured part of his soul from you.’
James considered the god’s words for a moment before turning to Ascevious.
‘If you were a lawyer right now you’d be fucked,’ James laughed nervously, the movement of his torso reminding him of the brutal pain in his side. ‘Go ahead.’
‘Here are the facts,’ Ascevious began, a smirk at the edge of his lips that both frightened and intrigued James in its psychopathy. ‘No, this version of me cannot tell my corporeal body anything, unless I’m exorcised from your soul and allowed to re-join my actual self. Yes, everything my idiot companion said is true; I am unleashing my monsters to help me in my bidding… But that doesn’t mean that you need to stop me.’
‘Oh, shut it,’ Alerian cut in. ‘James, don’t listen to him.’
‘Hey, I thought we were speaking one at a time,’ Ascevious retorted.
Even though James had come to know Ascevious through Elena’s words as nothing but his enemy, a part of him wanted to hear this supposedly evil god out.
‘No,’ James said. ‘Go on.’
‘Much appreciated, human,’ Ascevious grinned. ‘Yes, my intentions are to cause havoc and to rule this world of yours, but is there really anything wrong with that… Particularly when we could be ruling it together?’
‘… What do you mean?’
‘I’ll be straight with you, seeing as I’m often not with most humans… Okay, all humans. Our original intentions, as your goddess companion has already informed you, were to use this world of yours as a go-between, but it didn’t take long for me to realise how much of a complete and total disgrace this world is. I have travelled across countless dimensions, spent time amongst worlds and people that you wouldn’t believe. The hedonism, the beauty, the wealth, the women. And of all those worlds, this place of yours that you seem so desperate to protect is by the far lowest cesspit that I have ever had the misfortune of visiting. The stench, the beings that exist, the nature of you… Things.
‘So of course I attempted to destroy you all, as well as taking over the goddesses’ worlds. Warring with the others only came about because they opposed my plans. If they had all gone along with my genius notions then none of this would have ever happened, you probably would have never been born, and we’d never have to have this conversation. But that isn’t how things played out. Now we’re here… And this god has an offer for you.’
James gulped, staring carefully across at Ascevious. He flitted his gaze quickly towards Alerian, who shook his head slightly but intently.
‘You can both hear my thoughts, can’t you?’ James said. ‘But you can’t do anything about it. All of this stuff that has happened to me over the past few days, the overheating, the powers, I know they’re all because of you… But that’s just an after-effect. You can’t control me… But if you’re a part of me, that means I’m a part of both of you, too. Which means I can hear your thoughts as well.’
James listened to the void that drew out between the three of them, clearing his mind and searching for some sound that existed… But there was nothing.
‘We cannot think,’ Alerian said. ‘We are but images of our real selves. But what you have before you is a perfect picture. One that you can take or leave. What we say may not reflect what we mean – especially so for my… Acquaintance, over there.’
‘Okay…’ James muttered, looking back at Ascevious. It doesn’t hurt to ask. ‘What’s your offer?’
Ascevious smiled once again, bearing his teeth.
‘You are the first human that I have deemed worthy of anything since I first set foot on this god forsaken place. I know because it was I who did forsake it in the first place. As far as I can tell, it is a pointless effort to fight with you. You have the souls of the gods within you, at least parts of them, and from my perspective it would be far more productive to form an alliance with you than to fight it out in the ridiculous way that we may end up doing.
‘Here is my offer; seek me out when my real self begins to cause havoc, which will no doubt be soon, and together we can rule not just this world, but all of the worlds that the goddesses stem from. The luxury that I mentioned previously to you? You and I would share it, and you would get to experience pleasures that you have only ever dreamed of. I have sat within your soul, James Torrance, and I know that what you most desire is what all humans desire – pleasure, wealth, power, sex with the most beautiful beings that you have ever seen.
‘There’s no shame in admitting it. Gods such as us desire the same. We just have one thing humans don’t – the ability to have it all. Would you like it all, James Torrance?’
James hesitated, suddenly finding himself considering the temptation of it all.
He’s right, he thought, frowning. That literally is what I and most people secretly want. That’s what it is to be human.
Suddenly realising that he had thought about it, James’s eyes flicked up at Ascevious. His smile grew wider.
He had heard his thoughts – every word. The god knew that he had him.
Alerian just shook his head.
‘That’s it,’ Ascevious continued. ‘You know what it is you really want, and I can provide it to you. All you have to do is seek me out.’
James threw the caution of protecting his own thoughts to the wind, because there was no protection for them that could be provided.
‘Fuck you,’ James said through gritted teeth. ‘You can’t tempt me like that. Sure, some part of me wants that. Every human wants that in some respect. I don’t care if I have to admit it. It’s true. But don’t for one second assume that I trust you and your bullshit offerings. My grandfather told me all about your kind. No morals. You’d lure me in and wouldn’t hesitate in cutting me down the moment you got the opportunity.’ He turned to Alerian. ‘I am gonna stop him.’
‘Good,’ Alerian said sharply. ‘Take care of the goddesses. They are fierce fighters, and they will stay by your side through anything.’
‘Oh, fuck me,’ Ascevious said with exasperation. ‘What is this, some kind of fucking reunion? Are you seriously going along with this idiot?’
‘I’m going along with the option of the two that will let me sleep at night.’
‘Then have it your way,’ Ascevious said sharply. ‘I attempted to make an offer, and you rejected it. Now my corporeal self will have no choice but to enslave you and the rest of your kind, along with the beings in every other dimension. We could have built something great, Mr Torrance. What a dear, dear waste…’
‘I’ll bet,’ James said. ‘I’m gonna need you to… Like… Get back inside of me, as disgusting as that sounds.’
‘He cannot be returned to within your form unless I go with him,’ Alerian said through gritted teeth. ‘As unfortunate as that is.’
‘Fine,’ James sighed. ‘So… How do I do this…?’
The images of the gods remained silent as James brought up his hands once again and clenched them into fists, focusing on controlling the energy in his body. The channels of light slowly began to stream back towards his hands, and looking up he found the images of his acquaintances fading
from view, until they and the streams finally vanished.
The light was gone. James took a deep breath in the cool night air and found himself greeted by no pain. He lifted up his shirt and saw that the wound had healed completely. Pressing against his ribs, no further pain responded.
He laughed nervously to himself.
The healing factor really works… This godlike thing isn’t so bad… Unless I consider the fact that these two have the ability to watch everything I do… And hear everything I think. They’ll stay quiet down there in the reaches of my soul, but I’m gonna need to quieten them for good somehow. Even if Alerian is on my side, I don’t like the idea of him or that Ascevious asshole watching me while I’m with the girls.
He had already bonded with Elena, and tomorrow he would need to introduce Arifa to the world… And he would need the both of them on his side if he was going to have any hope of stopping Ascevious.
Plenty of people wanted power, but now that James stood atop the roof looking down on the city below, the people weaving amongst each other in the internal worlds of their own minds, entirely focused on themselves, he realised why the old story always said that it took god seven days to create the universe, and why he needed to rest at the end of it all, even considering the fact that he was an omniscient being.
Being part-god was a full time job, especially when he had parts of two real ones clinging on to life inside of him.
Chapter Sixteen
Waking Up with Goddesses
‘Breakfast in the 21st century is amazing,’ Arifa said, strolling around the apartment in her underwear as she chugged casually from a gallon jug of milk. To James she had looked almost ridiculous at first – the petite girl in her mid-twenties, secretly a goddess who was thousands of years old, drinking down enough milk to fill his cereal bowls for a week.
And that wasn’t a euphemism.
For a girl who had been wearing the same clothes for 80 years, she smelt pretty damn good, bringing a scent of citrus and roses with her as she sauntered about the apartment, clambering over couches and balancing effortlessly on the coffee table as she traversed across it every so often.
