Young Blood (PART ONE OF THREE)

The Goddess Legend

6. The Goddess Legend

Celeste was in the library, per usual. It was quite a regular thing. However, she'd lived long enough to experience the majority of the events detailed in most history books, she was in the ancient history section-reading about Selena, and all the legends based around her life and death.

Selena's story was ancient. At least, it felt that way.

It had happened about three thousand years prior to the start of the war.

Selena had been a beautiful goddess, with flowing black hair and tanned skin. She had, supposedly, these haunting gray eyes, and high cheek bones. Well, at least, that was her human form.

Like most deities, her true form was that of a star, bright and burning with a cold fire. But one day, she decided to simply stop watching.

She was growing bored of the humans, helpless and ignorant. So she decided she'd cook up some helping factors. From her powers, she bestowed the gifts of a witch upon a group of women. She touched the foreheads of children and gave them endless powers. She gave a man the ability to change form to any creature he desired. And she gave another, the undying thirst for blood.

After many years of blessing people with these gifts all over the world, she grew tired, and her powers began to dwindle.

And on the last night of her life, she received a visit from a man.

Most legends say that Selena knew this man was trouble, that he would be her demise. But she didn’t listen to instinct and instead, asked him what he desired.

"Eternal life," The man said.

Selena had laughed. "Without death, there cannot be life. You will live and watched your beloved succumb to the reapers scythe. Could your human mind handle such a thing?"

Then the man had laughed and avoided the question by saying, "I promise, for as long as I breathe, to remind the world of you-and only you."

Selena knew she was dying. She knew that people would forget how she'd gifted them, and she could not bear the thought. So she beckoned the man to her bed side, and as he knelt before her, she kissed his forehead and gave him her last gift. And the man lived forever.

Celeste shoved the book back on the shelf with anger. How had she forgotten?

Samuel. Even after thousands of years the man still leeched off of a lie. She wondered how he managed to get away with it.

Surely he continued to change his name. Continued to lie to women, pretend to love.

Continued to kill those just like him, and steal their powers somehow.

Celeste folded her arms and furrowed her eyebrows in disgust. How the hell did he do it? Selena would never give him such abilities. Selena was a good goddess. With good intentions. Why would she seek out the inevitable demise of her own children, her own creations?

And what kind of masochistic freak would simply just sit there, in the Underworld, watching this all happen?

Celeste nearly threw a book down on the ground, but remember how old it was and slumped her shoulders as she set it back on the shelf.

This whole thing was changing her. Changing everyone. It was only a matter of time before they turned on each other and the humans would win. Celeste cringed at the thought.

She refused, under any circumstances, to ever harm her friends, even if Selena herself asked her to.

Even if her own life depended on it.