by Brey Willows
“I need coffee. Or something stronger.”
“How about an iced coffee, and we’ll take it down on the sand?” Alec turned onto the Promenade and parked in a back lot.
“Sure.”
Selene looked slightly defeated, almost sad, and Alec wasn’t sure what to do about it. She could still feel Selene’s caress on her feathers. It had been a very long time since she’d allowed someone to touch her that way.
They got their coffee and started walking. When they passed Fin, he gave Alec a nearly indiscernible nod and she returned it, before returning her attention to Selene. If Fin needed to talk to her, he’d let her know. Still, it was nice knowing he was around.
Selene shook her head. “I was one of these people. Who walk around not knowing there’s something…else. Something completely unknowable, undefinable…well, not undefinable, because we know what you are. But, I mean…” She shrugged helplessly.
They walked to a spot on the sand. The beach was nearly deserted, the waves crashing softly, rhythmically, onto the shore. Alec sat and motioned for Selene to sit next to her. Selene hesitated only briefly before doing so.
“What if I pretend? What if pretend I never met you and didn’t see what I’ve seen?”
“Could you?” The thought sent a shot of pain, and panic, through Alec.
Selene sighed. “No. Of course not. But I really, really wish I could.”
Alec rolled her coffee cup between her hands. “I get that. And I’m sorry you had to find out that way, I really am.”
“You were going to tell me anyway?”
Now or never. Do it, you coward. “Selene…it’s not just me that exists. There are others. A lot of others.”
“Alec, you’ve told me you’re a five-thousand-year-old fury. Unless I am actually having a total mental breakdown, which I admit I’m really rooting for, then that’s not an entirely surprising statement.”
“The thing is, Selene, there’s logic to this.”
Selene’s look of disbelief was so strong it made Alec laugh. After a moment, Selene started laughing too. “Okay. Hit me with the logic. I’m ready.”
“Human beings are believers. They have been since they crawled out of the primordial ooze.”
“You, of all people, are going to talk to me about evolution?”
“You promised to listen.”
Selene shrugged and threw herself backward on the sand. “Yes, I did. Go ahead.”
“The moment people, humans, started believing in things, and believing in them wholeheartedly, they started creating things. People are made of stardust and energy. The world itself is built of it and perpetuates it. When groups of people start thinking of something simultaneously, their energy, the energy raised by their collective thoughts, creates the thing they think about. The longer they think about it, the stronger it becomes, infused by the energy, the actual matter, of life.”
“Thoughts manifest reality? If that were true, we’d all be lottery winners.”
“No. Group thoughts, mass-group thoughts, manifest beings, not outcomes. A singular thinker can begin the nucleus of the process, but it doesn’t go any further than that unless a substantial amount of others add their energy to that process.”
Selene closed her eyes, and Alec sat quietly, allowing her to contemplate the idea. After a few minutes, she shot up from the sand and looked at Alec, her eyes wide. “You’re telling me God is real?”
Alec nodded. “He is. She is too. Enough people believe to have made both aspects real, although she isn’t quite as high up the food chain as he is, because of his number of followers.”
“I think I’m going to be sick again.” Selene moved quickly to the water’s edge. She let the waves crash over her boots, not seeming to notice. Alec stayed still, unsure what the next move was. Would this kind of thing break Selene’s mind? Alec thought she was strong enough, but she realized the enormity of what she was asking Selene to believe. She’d lived with the idea for so long, it seemed natural to her. But now…
Selene came back, her feet squelching in her boots. She crossed her arms and stayed standing, staring down at Alec. “Go on.”
“Are you sure? I can take you home, let you breathe for a while. It’s a hell of a lot to take in.”
“No. I want more. I want to understand. I think I can follow, to some degree, your idea about energy, although there are a billion loopholes in it. But if there’s more, I want to hear it.”
“Okay.” Alec pointed over her shoulder with her thumb. “See that big building, with the mural of clouds on the side?”
Selene looked where Alec was motioning to. “There’s no…No. That building was not there before. Am I having a seizure of some kind?” She fell to her knees, staring.
Alec looked over her shoulder at the building. “You can see it now because I’ve told you it’s there, and allowed you to see beyond the veil, so to speak.”
“How very kind of you,” Selene said, not taking her eyes off the building. “What about it?”
“That’s called Afterlife, Inc. It’s where God works. All the gods, actually. Every god with a large enough group of followers, in every religion, works in that building.”
“They work. From a building in Santa Monica.”
Alec ran her hands through her hair. When Selene put it that way, it did sound ludicrous. “Yeah, maybe it sounds a bit weird. We used to work from places all over the planet, the way you think we would. But then people started moving. Really moving. It used to be only nomads, bards, or crazy people left their countries and moved around. But then, humans created transportation, and suddenly, believers are all over the globe.” She tilted her head toward the building. “So they decided to start a kind of cooperative, where they could work together and support one another.”
“Of course they did. Why not?” Selene looked at Alec. “I’ve spent my entire life disproving religious belief and teaching logic. Now…” She stared at the building. “I feel like I’ve been swept out to sea, and I’m going to drown.”
Alec took her hand, relieved when she didn’t pull it away. “You’re not alone. I’m here, and I’ll help. Trust me.”
“Trust you. Trust.” Selene looked angry. “Trust you. I was so into you. I wanted you, bad. You made me feel…happy. Sexy. Wanted. I haven’t felt that way in so long.” Tears flooded her eyes and began to course down her cheeks. “And now you tell me all this. You show me this other world, and now I don’t know you, now I don’t know me. I don’t even trust the ground beneath me.”
Alec took her hand away. Patience had never been her strong suit, and she felt it slipping. Convincing someone that she existed, that her friends existed, and had their own place in the world was a little harder than she’d anticipated. Why couldn’t showing Selene that she was an ancient being be enough? Her irritation rose. “Should I have left you in ignorance, Selene? You don’t strike me as the type who would want to spend her life believing in something that isn’t true. In a world that doesn’t exist the way she thinks it does.”
“The way I think it does? You mean the way every frigging human on the planet thinks it does?”
“There are plenty of believers—”
“And where has that belief gotten them? Can you just walk in there and make an appointment with God? Can I go ask him about the meaning of life, about why bad things happen to good people, why there are wars?” She got up and started pacing, kicking wet sand in her wake. “Can I ask him about plagues, and poverty, and genocide?”
Alec was out of her depth and flinched in the face of Selene’s anger. Her irritation died out, replaced with a sense of weary capitulation. “He doesn’t really take appointments anymore. A few of his angels do, and Mary, she does—”
“For fuck’s sake. This is…insane. It’s insanity. I’m locked in a mental hospital somewhere, aren’t I? On some good fucking meds.”
Alec let her pace and rant, waiting her out. When her tirade slowed, Alec said, “Maybe I should take you home.”
Selene turned and pointed at her. “Oh no. Nope. You don’t get off that lightly. You’ll drop me off and I’ll never see you again, and then I’ll think I’ve had some intense, crazy-ass hallucinatory experience.” She grabbed the front of Alec’s jacket and tugged on it. “No. You’re taking me there.” She pointed with her other hand. “You take me and show me where God works.”
Alec covered Selene’s hand with her own. “Are you sure?”
Selene threw up her hands. “Sure? What the hell does that have to do with anything? No, I’m not sure. But I want to go in there and see what you’re talking about.”
Alec stood and brushed the sand from her jeans. “If you think you’re ready, I’ll take you.” She held Selene’s upper arms gently, stopping her pacing and forcing her to look at her. “Remember this: don’t leave my side. Stick with me, and I’ll introduce you—”
“To God. You’ll introduce me to God.” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Alec.
“No. I told you, he doesn’t see people anymore. Not he himself, anyway. But there are a lot of other great…people…I can introduce you to.”
Selene stepped back and hugged herself. “Lead on, your Fury-ness.”
Alec sighed and started walking. She thought about texting Zed to let him know they were coming, but he had eyes everywhere, so in theory, he knew. One of his nasty little sea nymphs had probably been eavesdropping the whole time. She heard Selene grumbling behind her.
Maybe it’s us who need saving from her.
Chapter Fifteen
Selene looked up at the building in front of her. Surely it’s a bizarre dream. Some surreal, drug or coma induced dream. She’d fallen and hit her head, and her brain was messing with her while she was out cold. Strangely, she wasn’t sure she wanted to wake up from it just yet. The concept was fascinating, and she did want to know more. If it’s a dream. If it’s not… She shuddered at the idea she might have no true knowledge of her world anymore. That everything she trusted in, had learned and taught, was somehow false.
Alec cleared her throat softly and Selene started, realizing she’d been standing there lost in thought. She looked at Alec, and her stomach did that irritating flip thing. How can I still feel that way when she’s…what? Human-ish? Batwoman? Still, standing there in her faded jeans, her soft black sweater, and her hands stuffed into her pockets, she looked adorable, and Selene desperately wanted to tell her it was all okay. But it wasn’t. Not yet. Not in the least.
“Sorry, lost in thought. I just can’t believe I never saw the building. That people don’t. I don’t understand.”
Alec nodded. “I know. I really do. It’s going to take some time. Maybe meeting some of the others will help.”
“Maybe. Or maybe it will convince me I’ve gone batshit crazy.”
“Yeah. Or that.” Alec opened the door and motioned for Selene to go in.
Selene took a deep breath and crossed the threshold, reminded of Dante’s line about abandoning hope.
The receptionist at the desk smiled at them, though she looked slightly puzzled. “Hey, Alec. Who’s your friend?”
“Hey, Cerb. This is my friend Selene. Selene, Cerb.”
Selene held out her hand, and only just managed not to pull it back when the hand that shook hers was far more claw-like than it should be for the tiny blond woman.
“Oh. Well. Really?” Cerb stared at Selene, wide-eyed.
Alec took Selene’s hand. “Yeah, so we’re heading up to Zed’s office. Will you let him know, please?” She pulled Selene toward the elevator and then turned back. “And no one else, please. No gossiping.”
The woman pouted. “But—”
“No. Seriously. Don’t.”
She nodded and picked up the phone, still looking petulant. “Fine. Just Zed.”
The elevator doors closed on them and Selene saw the quick furtive glance she threw at them before picking up the phone again. Alec sighed next to her.
“Cerb?”
Alec winced slightly. “Cerberus.”
Selene laughed and knew it sounded slightly hysterical. “The guardian to the underworld? The three-headed dog? She only had one head. And she wasn’t a dog.”
“She wears her modern look well, don’t you think? But her true form, like mine, can come out when it needs to. In fact, she’s often in real form when I come in.”
Selene closed her eyes. Coma. Drugs. Something.
The doors opened and Alec tugged gently on her hand. “Zed will be waiting.”
Selene followed silently, glancing around as they went. It looked like any other open-plan office. Cubicles dotted the room on either side of the soft carpeted path leading to a row of glass meeting rooms and offices. People worked quietly, tapping away on computers or talking softly on the phone. “Are any of them normal?”
Alec let go of Selene’s hand and faced her. “Look. You need to watch your language, okay? I mean, it’s one thing when it’s directed at me, but it’s downright rude to insinuate that the other people working here are abnormal, just because you don’t get it yet.”
Selene stared blankly at Alec. “You’re upset that I’m saying hounds to the gates of hell and furies aren’t ‘normal’?”
Alec crossed her arms. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m saying. Consider your ideas about perception and reality. Think about what you teach, and apply it here, to some degree.” She uncrossed her arms and held out her hands, almost pleadingly. “Please, Selene. I brought you here because I thought you would be open-minded. Please don’t prove me wrong.”
Selene regretted her words. The situation might be absurd in every sense of the word, but they still had feelings. Probably. “I’m sorry. You’re right, that was rude. I’ll rephrase and ask if any of these beings are human?”
Alec grinned and Selene caught her breath. It transformed Alec’s face, and she seemed to light up from the inside. She was truly gorgeous.
“No. You’re the first human to step inside this building.” She motioned with her head. “Come on. We don’t want to keep him waiting.”
Selene followed Alec into a large glass office with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the ocean. The winter sun created a golden path across the water that seemed to lead straight into the room, an almost magical effect. She turned when a man came around the desk, and once again considered the idea she’d fallen down a rabbit hole.
He was at least seven feet tall, with snow-white hair and a matching beard. His face was angular, strong. In fact, she’d seen it thousands of times, in books, on statues and painted on vases. She reached for a chair and felt Alec help her into it, although she couldn’t take her eyes off the man. Finally, she said, “Zed. The letter Z in Europe. Short for Zeus. Is that right?”
He threw back his head and laughed, a booming sound she felt in her stomach.
“Indeed. That’s me.” He picked up a pair of glasses from his desk and motioned at her with them. “Although I find my eyes aren’t what they used to be, what with all the typed print they use now. Stone tablets were easier.”
He grasped her hand in his, and she wondered if she’d ever see it again, his hands dwarfed hers so completely.
“It’s such a pleasure to meet you, Selene. Really, I can’t tell you how much.”
From the corner of her eye, Selene saw Alec shake her head slightly. He frowned but recovered quickly. “Any friend of Alec’s is a friend of ours.”
She glared at them both. “Spill it. I don’t care if you’re some ancient god. I don’t care if you’re some kind of flying woman demon thing. What the hell is going on?”
Zeus looked at Alec. “I’ll let you handle this, and if you need me, I’ll be in the cafeteria. It’s Hindu day, and I do love their date parcels with the drizzled honey.” He gave them a nervous smile and left.
Alec sighed.
“Alec? What the hell?”
“Why don’t you ask some specific questions and we’ll go from there? Or I could give you a general rundown?”
“I think you’re getting your tales mixed up, but no. It’s just water.” She waited until Selene had taken a long drink and motioned for her to continue. “Okay. We’re on the Greek floor. All ancient Greek deities and beings work from this level. We’re ancient, and although there aren’t a lot of people who still pray directly to us, there are enough relics, museums, books, and general historical information about us, to keep people believing. We’re also the oldest, and by virtue of that, we have the most say in board meetings and things like that.”
“And if people don’t believe in you? What then?” Alec physically flinched and Selene narrowed her eyes. “Alec—”
“Wait. Let me continue, and we’ll come back to that. So, like I said, this is the Greek floor. The Roman floor is in a similar situation, although theirs isn’t quite as big, because they took a lot of their pantheon from other cultures, and diluted their gods, so to speak. So our work tends to overlap a lot.”
“You said they work. Work doing what?”
Alec motioned toward the cubicles. “Answering prayers. Responding to people who want responses, cataloguing large-scale issues going on in the places that house the majority of their followers, and attempting to give people what they want, in a way that doesn’t negate the other people praying to them. In the old days, that meant actual home visits. But now it can be done almost entirely virtually in most cultures. There are still some outlier cultures, with lesser known gods, who still need physical visits. But for the most part—”
“They answer prayer by email.”
“Well, yeah.”
“And you? Where do you fit in?”
Alec shrugged. “I guess I’m lucky that way. There are plenty of mentions of me in history, so I’ve got the belief. But more than that, I have a purpose, and it’s a purpose that never goes away, because the concept, the ideology behind it, is always there.”
