Dear Secrets, Please Fly Quietly

5) Apollo to the Rescue

I stopped in an alleyway, breathless, but happy. I stole a 7 million dollar necklace while being mortal. And being attacked by the most powerful Olympians ever. I closed my eyes to relive the success.

When I made the last water pun about seals, Poseidon got angry and I grabbed the table, and the necklace, backing away in fear. After he splashed me, I took my hand which had the necklace in it off the table and slipped it into my sleeve. When I shook the water off my hands, I was actually shaking the necklace to my shoulder. When I sighed, it fell to my waist, where it remained until my father and uncle threw me to the ground. The necklace almost came out then, but I managed to hide it. When Zeus pushed me farther, the necklace came out of my shirt collar so I held it in my mouth. After kicking Hades, I unintentionally swallowed it.

There was no sense in throwing it back up now, not with police sirens still screeching in the distance anyway.

Suddenly the warm sunlight was obstructed. I opened my eyes to see Zeus staring at me. His brothers were on either side. Styx. "As I was saying before you just up and left, you have too much power so I'm going to fix that. And where's the necklace?"

"Why do you care? It's not yours. Actually, why are you still here? I still have time to find your precious Masterbolt." I just realized my lisp was gone. When had that happened? Oh well, I'm not complaining. Actually I am because I'm hungry. I wonder where I can get some food.

"You haven't even been looking for it! And so I think you need some more motivation." He grabbed my leg and yanked it out from underneath me. I fell and face planted on the concrete, red blood running from my head. So I truly am mortal. Hades twisted my arms behind my back, pinning them and my flightless wings. "Hades your hands feel like a corpse. And that's not a compliment."

"Thank you anyway." He replied.

Poseidon stepped on my face for no apparent reason. "Your feet smell like the New York Harbor, water boy." In reply, he pressed harder, making my headache worse. "Ow." He then shoved some presumably dirty rag between my teeth and tied it.

I felt Zeus grab my left foot. What in Hades is he doing? I heard something that sounded like a large pair of scissors being opened and closed. What in Hades?! Metal touched the base of one of the wings on my foot. Just as I realized what was going on, the shears closed and I screamed into the presumably dirty rag, tears streaming into it. The next time I felt the shears, I tried to push them off with my other foot. Zeus just stepped on it and continued. By the time I lost 3 wings, I had bit the presumably dirty rag so hard it ripped. At the last cut, I simply cried. My throat hurt too much to do anything else.

The three gods flashed away with my wings, leaving me alone in a soundproof bubble with a torn, presumably dirty rag. I took it off and threw it against the opposite wall. I slowly dragged my bleeding feet underneath me and sat there, wailing. I was human. I was weak. I was punished unjustly. I was injured. I was bleeding. I looked around at the pool of blood from my head and the bigger one from my feet. Two thick, red trails lead to my current position. There was so much blood. I looked away, but saw red on the wall. Red on the ground. Red on my clothes. Red on everything. I groaned and squeezed my eyes shut. Red covered the back of my eyelids. They flew open, and blinked rapidly. Red, red blood.

"Stop." I mumbled. "Stop signs are red. Blood is red."

"It's roses are red. Then violets are blue, then two phrases, the last one rhyming with 'blue'." Apollo said, standing just inside the soundproof shield.

"It's called a quatrain, Hermes. Like this: Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Your feet are bleeding,
I'm awesome so I'm going to help you."
Apollo came to me, skirting around the pool of blood. "Wouldn't want to mess up the crime scene."