Forsaken Deity

Chapter 9

Looking in the mirror for the fourteenth time, Thea tried again.

"So, Josh, I'm actually this re-incarnated Greek deity and the guy you saw last night was this Titan who’s trying to kill me – no, too blunt. He'd never believe it."

Shaking her head, she tried to think of something else to say.

Waking up early, Thea had been standing in front of her mirror for the last hour trying to figure out what to say to Josh. So far she'd come up with nothing that sounded remotely believable.

"So Josh," she said to herself in the mirror, "have you heard of the Greek gods? Well, funny story – no, no!"

She scrunched up her hair and sighed in frustration. There was no way this was going to end well.

Her door opened and Hermes poked his head in. "What are you doing? All I can hear is you talking to yourself. You're not going mad are you?"

She twisted her hands. "No, I'm trying to figure out what to say to Josh. He rang last night and said he's coming by this morning for an explanation and I don't know what to tell him."

"You don't have to tell him the truth, Thea. Just make something up."

"How can I tell him the monster lion that nearly killed us wasn't real?"

Hermes shrugged. "I can call in a favour and get his memories wiped."

"What, no! I can't do that."

"Well, what if you distract him so he forgets about it?"

She snorted. "Like it's possible to forget about a lion almost killing you."

A knock sounded at her front door and she jumped.

"Okay." She started hyperventilating. "I can do this."

Smoothing her hair back down, she tugged her jumper lower. Hermes walked over when she still didn’t move, and pulled her out towards the door. "Good luck, Peaches."

He went around the corner, staying out of sight, and she opened the door, completely unprepared. Josh  looked as angry as he had sounded on the phone last night. His face was set in stone, eyes guarded.

"Hey Josh," she said weakly. "Come in."

He stepped inside, but only enough so she could close the door.

"Would you like a drink -"

"No, I'm fine." he interrupted. "Did you sleep?"

She was touched at his concern, considering  how mad he looked. "I did, thank you. Are you all right?"

"Yes and no. I'll be better when you tell me what the hell happened last night."

Her arms curled protectively around her front. "Right...last night. Well I'm still unsure how to explain, it's going to sound crazy -"

"Humour me."

She swallowed. "Okay, well first of all, do you believe in God?"

"I believe there's something greater than all of us out there."

"What about Greek Gods?"

"Like Zeus and such?"

"That's right."

He began to look sceptical. "Is this going somewhere, Thea, or are you just giving me religious education?"

She took a step back from the harshness of his tone. "It's going somewhere. I guess it all started the night Shae was killed. Those two guys that attacked Shae and me, they weren't exactly human, so to speak."