The Kid Lich Awakens

The Kid Lich Awakens 33 Will P.

Billy the Kid Lich Pt.  33

Artemis's Answer

Because you don't stay a virgin for two-thousand years for no reason. Because I'm afraid of what you could do to my heart. Because I hate losing the people I love; and you'll die one day and I'll still be forced to live. These were Artemis's first and most honest thoughts; but the feelings behind them were so complicated that she was having trouble distilling them down into a neat reply to Billy's question.

Or rather, Billy's questions. The Kid Lich had really put her in a corner as far as arguments went; and he'd left her with nothing but her own honest opinion to give and the truth to tell. "I- I don't know, Billy! Okay?! Is that what you want to hear? That I'm a goddess and I don't know!"

The Kid Lich had not expected such an explosive reaction; but he definitely didn't enjoy watching her be in emotional distress. "Hey, listen." The goddess was currently looking at the floor. It seemed that, for the first time since its installation, the freight elevator had gotten stuck once it hit the 20ft depth mark at the level where the floor doubled as the ceiling for the bottommost floor of the base.

"Artemis, look, I don't know either, okay? I literally don't know what love feels like. There's an argument to be made that I can never know what it feels like, being what I am. But if someone was ever going to instill it in my heart?" The Kid Lich paused here to dare to touch the temperamental Olympian. Using his right hand, he ever so gently hooked his index finger under her chin and lifted to make her meet his gaze.

"It would be you." Billy said. The two immortals stayed that way for more than a few moments; one pair of green and one pair of brown eyes gazing into the depths of one another's souls. Searching for that missing piece that would make them complete again. Billy noticed the elevator had stopped moving, yet the doors weren't opening.

Breaking the eye contact and taking a step away from the goddess, he walked over to the buttons panel in the elevator and tried the "open doors" command. Nothing happened. "Huh." Was all Billy said.

Oh gods, what's he broken this time? Artemis thought to herself. Seeing as they were in a private location, with no one else within earshot, the Kid Lich dropped a superpower reveal on the goddess. "You know, in all fairness, the elevator broke on its own, I didn't do diddly squat. The only broken thing in this room is my heart; and you hold at least half the blame for that. Anyhow, we're stuck in here until someone comes to bust us out."

"Wait, hold on. How did you just say that? I didn't say anything!" Billy considered some dumb cover up here like well, it was written all over your face or something like that, but figured the literal goddess could wrap her mind around the concept of telepathy, so he just told her. "Oh, right, that. Aside from being a natural-born lich, I'm also a telepath."

He's gotta be lying. The Olympian thought to herself. "Why does everyone always accuse me of lying? I don't lie. I tell the truth; it's not my fault the truth is weird as hell and super hard to believe." Said Billy. It's gotta be some kind of mentalist stage trick. He's just reading thousands of minute facial twitches, my body language, my posture, judging my character based on my outfit, and then he's just getting lucky at guessing something close to what I thought. The Kid Lich stopped to let this longer and more complex thought wash over him.

While what she was thinking of was a real stage act humans could learn to do; Billy had certainly never invested the ten thousand hours required in order to have that skill set. "Dude, I'm a telepath, sue me. I didn't ask to be born a telepath, yet here I am. I'm not sure how much more thoroughly you want me to read your mind before you accept I'm not lying. Plus, we're diverging from my original point: Why can't you just admit that you harbor love for me in that predator's heart of yours?"