Innocent As Charged (Completed)

Chapter 21

I lie there for a few hours with Jack, doing nothing but surveying my surroundings. There are numerous scratches on the wall, suggesting I'm not the first person to be locked in here. Some of the scratches appear incredibly old while others seem brand new, the dust barely settled. The scratch marks are mostly indecipherable, age having nearly worn them out of existence, the odd letter the only indication of absent words.

The marks seem randomly placed, some at strange slants while others parallel to the ground, all of the discernable words the nonsensical ramblings of deranged minds, the assortment of letters seemingly random, like some sort of code.

Absentmindedly, I begin to trace the letters, immersing myself in the task of deciphering their meaning but coming up with nothing. The closest I get to something meaningful is the word 'shifter', preceded by a mass of mismatched lines of varying length and width. Shifter is sort of obvious: he's a werewolf. He's in a werewolf pack.

Unless he isn't; that would explain why no one seems to stand up to him.

It's very uncommon for another supernatural species to be this far north and inland so that rules out merfolk. Vampires would never collude with us unless they have no choice, witches often prefer the nomadic lifestyle, and no siren would have a voice like his. That leaves only dryads but some sixth sense tells me that he's not that either.

He could be a god.

No. It's not possible.

Yes it is.

They don't exist Jack.

They do. We have evidence.

What evidence?

A guy went to the underworld and came back with his son.

Tall tales.

No. It's true. He brought his kid back with him.

They're lying.

His kid was dead. He's alive now of course but the kid was dead Iz. There's no coming back from that unless you are resurrected by the gods.

Which god then? Not Selene though. She's female and wouldn't hurt the very people who worship her.

Agreed. Not Aphrodite. As the goddess of love, sirens, and temptation, I doubt this is how she would use her powers. And she's female.

Not Hades. He's too powerful for this to be him. Why would he demean himself like this?

Mmm. The same applies to Poseiden.

Or Hectate.

It could be her. She can do magic so she could make herself appear and sound male.

Maybe. But why would she associate herself with werewolves? We don't worship her, only witches do.

There are other gods. Minor ones as well as the 12 well known ones.