International Legends

Chapter 17 - Jasper

In spite of all the random angelic choir music and the flying sphinxes that made their way across the sky, I found myself being very bored with this situation. I just wanted to go home, but instead after being tortured for hours by Aphrodite (her trying to molest me and me literally fighting her off), she wanted to show me off at dinner with the insinuation that I would "love her eventually."

Only Carmen was there. Sitting wedged between her two kids and their constant complaints, she looked on the spot and slightly angered at the sight of Aphrodite and I. Zeus, who had been watching from afar, was amused by the situation. He patted me on the back and said, "Going at it with my sister aren't you?"

"Zeus! I AM YOUR SISTER!" said Hera.

"I gave you the entire spoils of Mount Olympus," roared Zeus, looking at his wife. "Now you are taking the time to complain about incest?"

She just looks down at her wine.

At this point, why anyone would want God status is beyond me. My eyes are drawn to Loki, who is standing in the corner, snickering about something that nobody understands. Really, it's quite histrionic. Does he think that acting this way is gonna get Daddy's attention or is he just enjoying the Chaos?

"Sorry to have arrived so fashionably late," says a voice.

The room turns to see Mr. DeAngelo and his ex-wife sauntered through the door.

"Oh hell no," says Carmen, straining to get out of the door only to look up at Thor. That gorgeous muscle man with long blonde hair looked down at her and shook his head saying, "Not right now young lass. You must listen to the tale."

"Uh... uhhhhhh... Okay Mr. Thor," says Carmen.

I feel my fists clench and my chest tighten as I watch her eyes follow him all the way to the other side of the table where he sat, watching, as if he were an angel. DAMN HIM!

"Why are you even here?" asks Sol. "I thought you Vortexians left us at the harbor."

"Well, to be honest, we weren't supposed to be here. That Jasper of yours had us locked up in the dungeon of Diva of the Seas," says Mrs. Campbell. "Then the second he got off the ship, we were able to do what we wanted. The Golden Rope expired."

"AAAaaah" says the chorus of gods and goddesses in the room.

"I would like to tell the story of how it happened," says Mrs. Campbell. "Once upon a time..."

"I couldn't give two shits what you have to say or what kind of dumb-spun story you have to read to my step-daughter, wherever the frick she is," says Carmen, staring up at this woman. "You abandoned my sister, your own daughter, splitting up her soul across all realities just so you could make my narcissistic father happy. What do you have to say to yourself?"

Mrs. Campbell is speechless at this, causing a spin of pride to wheel its way through my heart. Yes. A woman after my own heart.

"Naomi had to be the sacrifice," says Mr. DeAngelo. "She had to be the one to do it. She was the only one who could handle this transition."

"Every time something has been going wrong Dad," says Carmen, "You have been at the center of it all. When Antonio's mom died, when the clones came off the MariCorp ship, it turns out you were responsible for my sister becoming an inter-dimensional tree that is going to destroy all of reality. Not only that, DEATH himself is escorting us to an intergalactic grave. It's only because I have two teenagers who are scared shitless that I am not throwing you off the ship into the Vortex Sea myself for whatever god-awful monster is lying between those waves."

Adam snickers, "It's probably just Mom eating her victims out there."

Suddenly I was intrigued with an interest that took over my very being. Carmen, who ruled her ship through a lens of fear, had been strangling her victims below the waves - sucking the life out of them and consuming them whole. In my dreams, I thought I was like that love-lorn Theo dreaming about a princess that he could never have. In actuality, my fairytale was coming true. In front of me was the very own Ursula herself, and boy, Daddy likey.