Salvation [manxman]

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

I shot up in my bed, blindly grabbing at my sheets as a loud bang echoed throught the house and made the building tremble. It didn't even take five seconds before a door was ripped open and heavy steps stomped towards the stairs as I hurried to get up and follow them downstairs. I snuck out of my room and downstairs more quietly than the god had in case there was something dangerous waiting down there. I didn't want to run head first into a trap.

Erebus, Thanatos and Alexios were standing around what seemed to be a soldier, lying on the wodden floor, slowly bleeding onto it. Weirdly, my first response wasn't to try and help or to question where the other two had come from but to worry about the blood stain on the floor and how I was going to get beaten for being unable to properly clean it up before I remembered where I was and who I was staying with. I shook my head, trying to get the sleep out of my brain to be able to think clearly.

"The Gates, they have been attacked." He choked, his breathing sounding weirdly raspy and wet.

I could see Thanatos move towards him before he stuck a finger into one of the three, giant holes in the man's chest where most certainly intact skin was supposed to be and soon after he brought his blood coated finger up to his face to look at it. For a few seconds I thought he was going to lick it and that made me almost throw up where I was standing but I just dry heaved a little instead.

I snuck closer, hiding behind Erebus as I peered past him at the guy just lying there and wheezing. He didn't look like he was doing okay and I didn't know what to do. Alexios seemed to think the same and knelt down beside him as if he were going to heal him but nothing happened. He frowned and seemed to try again but it didn't work. Thanatos squeezed his shoulder for a mere fraction as if to apologize and I would have missed it if I hadn't paid attention to them.

"There is nothing you can do." He murmured quietly. "They poisoned him with a substance that blocks our magic."

"Can't you figure something out?" Alexios asked, seemingly pained by the person suffering next to him.

"You want to help." He replied, eyes flickering over to him. "I understand that. I just don't know how."

So much for him having trouble to interact and communicate socially and to relate to others. He may not be able to show what emotions he was currently having but in moments like this, he was showing a certain degree of emotions even if it was just minimal. I could see the pain in his eyes as he watched Alexios try to help and fail and I could see that he wanted be able to make him feel better. Why did it matter if he wanted that because he couldn't bear to see his boyfriend in pain or if he actually felt for the injured person?

The soldier gasped for a second before his eyes glazed over and his body went still. I could see Thanatos look at something or rather someone in the room before nodding and turning his attention back to us. He caught me staring at him but didn't react. I wanted to say something but Erebus shift next to me and much to my horror just left the corpse lying here, turning to walk back upstairs.

"Where are you going?" I wanted to know, hurrying after him.

"To war." He replied coldly, making me wince.

"What?" I asked alarmed. "There hasn't been a war in decades!"

Hades had signed a treaty, bringing the war between Hades and Hell to an end and since then, no one had dared to declare war on this sphere. The last war had been devastating and had left Hell as well as Hades in ruins with citizens dying left and right of unsanitary conditions and diseases spreading like wildfire. The gods and goddesses of both spheres had soon realized that it just wasn't worth it and the costs outwayed the benefits by a gigantic margin.