This is Emmorta

13 Devil Devil

Rune

"No, we haven't seen or heard from him. When was the last time you saw him?" Mom asks.

She holds the phone to her ear while I barely pick up on Orion's voice on the other side.

A deep line forms between her brows while Alex shakes his head as his lips form a flat line.

"Did you get in another fight or...?" There's a pause, and I notice she's not surprised to hear Orion and Evander aren't together. "When he got suspended from school, he used to play his piano. Does he have one he uses regularly?"

How could one god lose another god? Besides that, Evander is one of the loudest people in all the realms, with the largest presence I've come across apart from Fate.

She finishes the call with Orion and it seems he is set on finding the nearest piano as though Evander left him a trail.

So, they're both the type to run from their problems, or is this how gods are supposed to find the answers to the complexities of the universe? I am genuinely interested to know.

"Rune, are you sure about this? There are other ways of doing it," Alex says, reminding me of the reason we're here.

There aren't other ways of doing this. It has to be undone, meaning the way it was done. And if I'm separating myself from him, I'm going to break this piece of what he made me into, whether I have Alex help or I do it myself.

For the first time in months, Phantom doesn't disagree with me.

Perhaps that should worry me.

I won't be told to blindly accept Lucifer's commands while he disregarded everything I asked of him the other night. I haven't slept since he was here, nor have I felt the urge to eat at all, since food tastes like ash now that he imparted shame on me. Something tells me it's because of him, only I don't understand why. And now, instead of that new freedom I've grasped onto for the past several months, the feeling of burning chains tightening around my neck has surfaced while my insides twist, with no prospect of untwisting.

Eyes closed while I steady my breathing, I open to stare at the blank ceiling and answer, "Just do it."

My lower half sits bare on the bed with my knees spread wide while Mom and Alex stand over the exposed part of me. There's nothing left to hide on the exterior.

Glancing down toward them, I find their reactions overdone. I'm here, yet they keep overreacting, as though what happened was a personal attack made at their expense. It's my burden, after all.

Her face darkens in color the longer she stares at it, and I almost imagine some sort of booming noise outside in the distance. Did she do that? Meanwhile, he turns more pale and sickly until a deep breath settles him. He holds himself together despite the perspiration across his forehead. Steady hands, even breathing.

"You were five when he did it?" he asks.

"I believe so."

"And those horse guys held down a child while he did it?" Mom asks. "And then they just watched him mutilate a little girl?" Her lips turn down in disgust while her chest fills with air.

Did they both forget what I told them? Alex left the house originally and there was one-sided screaming outside, so their questions now strike me as rhetorical.

Alex snaps on a pair of light blue gloves and clears his throat while he rummages around on the side table. He holds up a silver object for me to see, and I immediately note the chill in the room. "I have to open it up, and he didn't exactly leave a clean job. It's going to hurt, Rune."