God's Gaze

Chapter One: Rule of Thumb

       Tears pooled in her eyes as she strangled a chunk of her hair; its ends dyed an icy blue- symbolizing her as a martyr. She chopped it off with a dull pair of scissors, the colourful strands fluttering onto the floor in a dead heap. She let out a sigh of relief. No longer will she be the Godly Vessel for a tyrant. No longer will she receive pitiful or disgusted stares from onlookers. Now she can just be... herself.

       However, the dye only returned merrily seconds after it was sliced off- now it found a home at the newly chopped ends of her hair. She let a chuckle escape her lips, but there was no comedy in it. She was going to die soon, and it is fated to be.

       In this world, God's souls are immortal, but their body remains mortal. Even though they won't physically age, their organs will rot and wither away eventually and they'll need to find a new body to inhabit to restart the process. That is where a brave involuntary person is involved. One can be born as a Godly Vessel, or they suddenly become one no matter what stage in their life they are in. The life of a Vessel is an agonizing one. Having to wait for the day your God comes to find and take your body- resulting in your death- can be a depressing existence.

       To make matters worse, the ends of a Vessel's hair is magically dyed the colour according to what elemental power the God has. No matter how many times you try to cut it off, it'll always come back like an insufferable itch. Because of this, no mortal stands a chance of ever truly hiding what awaits them from the public.

       Once the body is taken, the God will take their original form- making as if the Vessel never existed to begin with.

       The final moments of a Vessel are hard to describe. Some Gods allow their Vessel enough time to say goodbye to loved ones, while others are more brutal and would take their mortal's life even if they are surrounded by onlookers.

       However, the existence of a God can be quite pitiful too. Imagine having to wake up every morning and look in the mirror to see how dyed your hair is. The higher up the coloured dye goes on a God's hair signifies the amount of Vessels they took in their lifetime- the amount of lives they stole just so they can continue living in this hellish cycle we call immortality.

       This girl crying before you are one of these unfortunate Vessels and is doing her best to rid herself of the burden of being one. This girl will die soon to a God that has nearly half their hair dyed a crystalline ice blue.

       She'll forfeit her body; and humanity will carry on as if she were a piece of garbage caught in the wind.

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       A stark shock stung her shoulder, causing her eyes to flip wide open. She glances around to see the entire class watching her with some giggling behind their hands. Her cheeks became warm, and she knew that she was blushing, which will be super obvious against her snow-white skin.

       Her teacher cleared his throat, redirecting the class's attention back to the front. "Nice of you to come back to us, Miss Belsara," Mr. Gaumont said, pocketing a pack of cigarettes into the breast pocket of his corset vest. His body is half-human, half-snake with everything below his waist being a nine-foot-long violet tail with a rattle at the end that jingles whenever somebody says anything idiotic (which happens a lot whenever she speaks.) He has pale skin with violet scales roaming up his neck, face, and arms with long, sharp, black fingernails. His greying, purple dyed hair has bangs covering one of his rosy, pink eyes with white slits.

       The class continued to chatter, and Mr. Gaumont sighed, his forked tongue slithering between his fangs. "As I was saying..." He trailed off, pushing his gold spectacles up his nose, "before Vivienne fell asleep, we were on the topic of the arrival of Gods." He gave her a glare before glancing at the empty desk near the window.