by Nicole Thorn
Her heart thudded loudest, above all the other sounds, and I could focus on it, rather than the dozens of other things that I heard. The steady reminder that she still lived and had never died. She didn’t have to know about that stretch of darkness that came before waking up in the underworld. She didn’t have to watch people frantically hunting for coins, trying to find what would eventually save them from their years of wandering aimlessly.
And, because of that, because of her heart, I knew when she pulled on her magic. That muscle in her chest started to beat faster and faster. The sound of blood rushing through her veins took over the world, to where I could almost feel it against my hands.
The ground cracked underneath that woman, and it sounded thunderous. Green sprouts broke out of the ground, shooting straight into the air. They hooked around the chairs the woman wanted to sell, and started throwing them, almost casually. The vines tossed the chairs every which way. One cold cocked a man, and as he fell, Kezia put her hand to her mouth, and grimaced. “Oops,” she whispered.
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Verin said, waving his hand at the man lying on the ground. The man currently moaning and curled around his skull. “Don’t stop now, Auntie, it would only slow us down.”
The next chair that went flying, soaring straight for Verin. Juniper managed to catch it, and she glowered at Kezia. “I understand that Verin can be a pain in the ass—”
“Hey,” he said, sounding sad.
“—but he is my pain in the ass, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t break him,” Juniper finished, and tossed the chair aside. She had misjudged her strength, though, and the chair sailed through the air. It landed against a wall, and broke into a thousand pieces, that then rained down on the ground.
Kezia hadn’t stopped with the vines, either, so the chairs had been wrapped completely in the green stuff. The chairs now looked much better than they had a few seconds before.
The woman continued to scream, shouting, “I knew this would happen one day! I knew it!”
“I highly doubt that,” I muttered.
Kezia smiled and took my hand.
“Oh, bollocks,” Verin said. “Damn cameras on phones. What are we supposed to do about those?”
Kezia looked over. She grimaced and looked over at the trees. “All right, I’m sorry guys.” The trees began to sprout dozens and dozens of flowers that then started to swirl around everyone with cameras pointed at the screaming lady. The people began to curse, and try to move around, so that they could get shots of the actions. Instead, most of them ended up dropping their phones, where they shattered on the ground.
Jasmine put her hands on her hips. “This is all good and stuff, but I wanted to create a little chaos of my own.”
“No,” Zander said. “Please, no.”
Jasmine crossed her arms and stuck out her hip with a huff. “Why should Kizzy get all the fun. She could do this any day of her entire life. I’m freshly godded. I want to get something out of it.”
Kezia cocked her head. “Godded?”
“It’s better if you don’t focus on such things,” I said back to her.
Jasmine took off, shouting. “This will be so much fun.”
“Kezia,” I said, turning back to her, and putting my hands on her hips. “If you could stay here, and keep the chaos going, I’ll make sure that my sister doesn’t kill anyone while doing whatever it is she plans on doing.”
My girlfriend nodded and stood on her tiptoes. She kissed me, and I returned the favor, tenfold. I thought that I’d never get to touch her like that again and rejecting such a gift now felt like sacrilege. So I kissed her, and she balled my shirt up in her fist, to pull me down. Closer to her mouth. I could taste her, and it drove through my brain.
“Hey!” Juniper yelled.
I pulled away from Kezia, and whispered, “We’ll finish this later.”
She giggled when Juniper pulled me away and started walking down the rows of booths. “Why am I always the responsible one?” Juniper asked. “I’m the one that pays all the bills, I’m the one that keeps Jasmine in check, I’m the one—”
“That hid your boyfriend’s drumsticks, so that he would go crazy looking for them,” I said.
“What?” Verin shouted.
Juniper turned red. “You and I will be having a talk about this later, Jasp.”
We rushed out into the parking lot to find Jasmine. She rubbed her hands together, and then put them under the bumper of a truck. “No!” I shouted and rushed over to her. “Stop doing that!”
“Why?” Jasmine asked. “We have to create chaos. I feel like tipping over a truck would create a sufficient amount of chaos, don’t you?”
“But they didn’t do anything wrong,” Juniper said. “The person who owns this truck doesn’t deserve to have it totaled just because you’ve got a little extra god strength that you want to throw around for fun.”
Jasmine frowned and looked at the truck. She set it down, and the undercarriage groaned when she did. “All right, but how do we know that. How do we know that this person didn’t do something that totally earned having this truck flipped over? Maybe I’m doing someone a favor.”
“Doubtful,” I said.
Jasmine sighed. From inside the flea market, people continued to scream. I could hear Zander talking over a megaphone and wondered how the hell he got a megaphone. “If everyone would please remain calm,” he said. “I would be more than happy to direct you to the exits.”
They did not remain calm, because he didn’t put any Charm into the words. Zander hated Charming people, and only broke out with that when he absolutely had to. I suspected he just wanted to have fun at this point and did whatever he wanted.
A second later, Verin’s voice came over the megaphone. “Erebus? If you could speed this along, I would be very grateful. I’ve got about six shows saved on telly that I need to get back to.”
Juniper sighed and looked up at the sky. “He wants to get killed, I think. That’s the only explanation for why he would be so convinced that he can talk like that to a primordial being that has proven that he can’t be trusted.”
“What about the signs, then?” Jasmine asked. “If I can’t flip this truck, then can I rip all the signs down?”
“Sure,” I said.
“Gah!” Juniper cried out, covering her eyes. “I can’t handle this. Those signs are supposed to be up. Look how dusty they are!”
Heedless of our sister’s plight, Jasmine ripped a sign for the flea market down, and threw it. The bit of plastic and metal went flying through the air, into the market itself, where it crashed into something made of glass. The sound of it shattering broke the air, and I winced.
“Woohoo!” Jasmine yelled, throwing her arms up. “This is so much more fun than I thought it’d be!”
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Juniper whispered, doubling over.
“I don’t think gods get sick,” Jasmine said.
I patted Juniper’s back. “Ignore her, Juni. If you want to get sick, then you go right ahead.”
“I hate the both of you,” Juniper said.
Jasmine ripped another sign down, and screamed, “No one can stop the god, Jazzy!” She threw the sign, and it crashed into a car window. The siren went off, louder than anything I had heard thus far. The piercing whistle broke through the screams and chaos from inside and seemed to slice right through my head. I winced, trying to think happy thoughts.
“Please don’t be Jasmine,” I heard Zander say.
“Sorry!” Jasmine called. “You knew what this was!”
“I did . . . ” Zander said.
Jasmine continued to tear down signs, while Juniper followed behind us, making sly comments here or there. She did look ill, though. Chaos seemed like a great idea to bring Erebus to us, in theory. In practice, my more conservative sister looked seconds away from doubling over and vomiting.
As Jasmine pulled the last sign down, she looked around, with a frown. “All this screaming
and destruction, and nothing.” She broke the sign over her knee and tossed the two halves aside. “How much more are we going to have to do to bring Erebus around. Should I just walk outside in the middle of the night, and start screaming his name?”
“Please don’t,” Juniper said, looking all around us. Jasmine had singlehandedly, wrecked the entire parking lot. It looked like a tornado had run through it.
“Maybe there’s something that I can break inside!” Jasmine said, taking off again. Juniper and I looked at each other, sharing our silent horror at what we had unleashed. If I had known that Jasmine would get so into it, I never would have let her out of the house. There were times where I really wished that I hadn’t let her of her room.
Inside, Jasmine ran straight for a forklift.
“Oh, fuck no,” Juniper said. “Jazzy!” she shouted. “Stop right there, or I swear to the gods, I will find a way to break your legs, and keep them broken!”
“You can’t stop me!” Jasmine called, not slowing down at all.
Kezia could, though. Vines came up from the ground and wrapped around Jasmine so thickly that my sister couldn’t move her arms or legs. Jasmine struggled against the vines, and even managed to break a few. Nothing could stop Kezia when she set her mind to something, though. She stood there, with her hands on her hips, and a scowl on her face. “No, Jasmine!” Kezia said. “No.”
“Oh, c’mon!” Jasmine begged. “It would be so much fun to throw that thing. You can’t deny that.”
“I can,” Zander said, holding his hand up, and frowning. “As your boyfriend, and the person who loves you the most, I beg of you, don’t break a building with a forklift. We’ve already kind of spit in the gods’ faces with this display, after everything that they’ve done for you.”
Jasmine huffed. “If they didn’t want me to use my godly abilities, then they shouldn’t have given me any to begin with.” She struggled against the vines even harder, breaking a few more.
“Let’s not talk like that out in the open,” I suggested. “Or do you not remember dozens and dozens of stories where some idiot did that, and ended up being tormented by the gods?”
Jasmine huffed again and went still. “Fine! But then how are we supposed to get Erebus to come out and play?”
Kezia and Zander approached Jasmine, while my other sister went over to her boyfriend. I sighed, heavily, and tried to think of a way to calm my sister down.
“I like her,” someone said from behind me, making me jump.
I turned around, and saw Erebus standing there, looking almost interested in everything happening around him. My heart calmed down, and I tucked my hands into my pockets. “Then why aren’t you talking to her?”
Erebus smiled, and lifted up a thing of cotton candy. I had no idea where it came from, how he got it, or why he decided to eat it in Seattle, where the sugar would melt if someone looked at it funny. Somehow, it also didn’t surprise me that the sugar didn’t melt, even when water hit it directly. “Your sister is wild,” Erebus said. “She’s got too much energy, and nowhere to focus is. It’ll be interesting, watching her try to calm down enough to handle the power the gods have given her.”
“Please, don’t remind me,” I said.
“You seem to be adjusting rather well, though,” Erebus said.
“Thank you?” It came out sounding like a question, because I didn’t know if he meant that as a compliment.
“You’re welcome,” Erebus said, putting another piece of cotton candy in his mouth. It felt strange to watch the embodiment of darkness eat pastel pink candy, but I should’ve stopped assuming things a long time ago. “Now that you’ve got my attention, you want to tell me what’s so important?”
I opened my mouth to do just that, and sirens split the air.
Erebus frowned, and looked over his shoulder. I turned to watch as well and saw a wall of darkness appear out of nowhere. It looked like smoke or fog on the edges, but I couldn’t see inside the darkness. It took up the entire street, and I heard the sound of squealing tires. The sirens kept going, but even that felt muffled. Like the sound came from far away.
“If we keep going, this will be on the news,” I said.
“Good,” Erebus responded, and smiled. “I’ve tired of watching the humans and their complacency. They are so confident that they are the strongest thing on this planet. They even think they can hold me back, with their lamps, flashlights, city lights. They think that they can beat darkness, just because they can’t see the stars anymore.” He sneered at the wall of black that sat in the middle of the street.
“That’d be stupid of them,” Kezia said, panting slightly. She must have run as fast as she could, to reach me. She probably thought that I had been in some danger from Erebus, but I didn’t worry about it. Not because I felt indestructible, thanks to the gods, but because he hadn’t tried to hurt me to date. If anyone could bring down a god, it would’ve been someone like Erebus, or one of the Titans. Since the Titans had been locked away in the underworld for centuries, the only things that stood a chance against the gods were the beings like Erebus.
“Yes, it would be stupid of them,” Erebus agreed, and twirled his hand. The simple gesture seemed to blot out the sun, and what little light it brought. The dark fog came down around us, but it didn’t look as black as it normally did. I could see a foot in front of my face, for one thing.
“What’s this for?” I asked, lifting one of my hands. I could almost feel the darkness that brushed against my skin. It had a velvety texture, I liked to think.
“To conceal us from those dreaded cameras,” Erebus said, rolling his eyes. He crossed his arms over his chest. “Ever since those things have been invented, I’ve had to be careful.”
“You just said that you think humans have become too complacent,” I said. “Why would you hide from them.”
Erebus smiled, and tilted his head up at the sky. “Unlike those idiots who sit up on the mountain, I don’t want to be worshipped. If humans learned of our existence again, some of the weaker ones would want to worship the gods. However, if I am the only thing that they know for a fact exists, they will worship me instead. They will make mistakes, because people don’t understand how to worship darkness.”
“You like chaos,” I said.
“I do,” Erebus said. “And yet, I have full confidence in the human race to ruin that for me.”
I almost laughed.
Kezia stepped up. “So, you know what happened to the seers.”
Erebus frowned, and said, “I do.” Strangely enough, he didn’t sound happy. About knowing, or what happened to us, I couldn’t guess. We had offered him nothing before they turned us to gods, and we certainly wouldn’t offer him anything now. He had no reason to feel something for our deaths.
“And you know that we’re gods now?” I asked.
Erebus nodded. “I know that as well. I can feel it all throughout you three. That one over there, the one screaming about her power. She burns so bright that anyone could see it. She’s embraced her godhood without hesitation, but also without boundaries. She’ll need to reel herself in eventually. The other one, she’s tried to lock it down. It’s this small candle flame trying to beat back darkness. Eventually, it’ll set everything on fire.”
My sisters, he meant. “Juniper doesn’t like change,” I said. “And Jasmine . . . ”
“She . . . is like me,” Erebus said gesturing his hand to her and then to himself. “In the sense that she likes chaos. For her, she only likes certain kinds. She finds safety in the noise, in the confusion. She doesn’t have to hide from anyone there, because everyone feels the same things that she does.”
“Then why aren’t you talking to her?” I asked, again.
Kezia found my hand and squeezed it. I felt the pressure and understood how much she had been holding back before. How careful she had to be. It would’ve been nothing to break her hand by trying to squeeze her back. So, I barely pressed my fingers against her palm, and breathed a s
igh of relief when nothing snapped.
Erebus shrugged, and walked around us. “She is too bright for me. Like out of control fire. You are easier to talk to, because you stay calm.”
I stayed out of the fights, he meant. Never confrontational, just like Zander had said. I let things happen around me. I shoved that thought aside, to the very back of my head, where it couldn’t do any harm.
“Though, I think my favorite would have to be Hades’ son. He’s not only embraced the idea of chaos, but he has molded it into a tool that he can use. I appreciate that kind of thing.”
“So,” Kezia said, and I could tell she wanted to bring Erebus back on track. “You weren’t listening in on the conversation we had with the gods.”
“No,” Erebus said. “They like to think I did, because they are arrogant, and need something to feed that arrogance. They like to think that everything is about them. I’d imagine they think I’m listening now, as well.”
“Why would you be?” I asked.
Erebus smiled. “They are bored. There are gods up there that have been bored for a millennia. They meddle where they shouldn’t, poke where they would be smarter to leave things alone. And they’ve pushed where they shouldn’t have pushed.”
I didn’t know what that meant, nor did I want to know. If I could go the rest of my life without talking to the gods ever again, then I would’ve been happy. And how human that thought sounded. I didn’t have a time limit on my life anymore. I could live a thousand years, a million, or never die. My sisters and I were gods, though I hoped we never acted like those that we had met. I’d never be rid of them now, and that thought bothered me.
Kezia sighed. “I don’t really care what they’re dealing with right now. Whatever it is, it’s not enough to make up for what they’ve done to Jasper and his sisters. None of this would’ve happened if they just warned us. They didn’t even have to say we were in danger, outright. They just needed to hint at it, and we would’ve figured it out.”
“I like you too,” Erebus said. “If you punch a god, I’ll give you a wonderful prize in return.”
