We Bent Fate

Chapter 21

I waited for Martha to say goodbye to her friends as usual and fell a step behind her as she lead both of us outside the campus towards my car. Both of us heaved heavily as we slid into our seats. I was the first one to break the ice.

"Whatever are you telling them about me? They keep looking at me and smiling."

She smiles, "That you are not as perverted as you look."

"You don't know shit." I grin and she giggles.

"But seriously, what have you been telling them?"

"They think that we are still not in a relationship but that we like each other." She says and I roll my eyes. 'Sure' I murmur as the engine roars to life. 

"By the way, are your parents as horrible as your two sisters?"

She glares at me.

"No, I mean if they are then I am bailing out." I say and she gives me a hard look that soon turns into a smile. Soon enough her smile is on my face too.

"They are good, alright." She rolls her eyes and I shake my head. "I have only met my mother after the revival but I have researched about him."

"Tell me about them." I suggest.

"Well, my mother is the goddess of night. Nyx, is her name. She was one of the first few to exist on this planet. She is terrifying but beautiful. A lot of people admire her because of her beauty. Her powers lie in illness, suffering, war and death. Even Zeus is afraid of her." She grinned and I nodded.

"So she cures illness and suffering?"

"No. She brings all that." She says and I felt suddenly very bewildered.

"Fascinating family!" I remark after a few minutes.

"Why, thank you." She giggles and I smirk back at her.

"Your father? Tell me about him."

"Erebus, his name is."

"Is he a God too?" I asked curiously.

"Yes, well he is not an original like my mother but a primordial deity still. He is the God of darkness and shadows." She tells me and a thousand more questions arise in my mind.

"Not an original?"

"The first thing to have existed on earth with divine power was Chaos. Born out of it were a few deities such as my mother, Nyx, Gaia, Tartarus, Uranus and Hemera." She told, her eyes and expressions passing through a series of animation, as of a mother telling her child a bedtime fairy tale.

"Mother was bewitched and split into another power by Chaos itself. My father, Erebus was thus created and darkness emerged. Technically, they were siblings first but then later they got married." She struggled a little, her eyes lowering and I nodded.

There were a million more questions that I wanted to ask but seeing her discomfort in confiding in me about her family incest history, I let my queries slide. Despite of it all, she tried to continue after a few minutes. 

"When mother was single, she found an egg. It was called the Orphic egg and from it Phanes was thatched. Phanes, my brother is the personification of life. Soon enough, my mother was married to Erebus and as my brother grew up, he became a naughty child.

"He has these golden wings which flapped all the time whenever he was irritated and with them, he scattered the mists of darkness and created a flicker of brightness. One day, my mother's womanhood got spilled onto the little flicker of brightness that Phanes had scattered and thus, my other siblings, Aether and Hemera, the twins were born. They created light."

She paused for a minute and I realized that we had been so engrossed in the story that I didn't realize that we had gone way past Martha's house. I nodded at her as I backed up my tires a little and took a u-turn.

"After all, when life was fully created on Gaea, who had later mated with Uranus- the sky, things had finally settled or so my mother thought. Life evolved and so came many other Gods like Chronus, who personified time, Ananke, who meant to bring inevitability, came to life. They became good alliances with my brother Phanes, especially Ananke. My brother became mischievous with time but inevitable like Ananke and so mother created us, the fates." She sighed.

"We were meant as the proofs of life and later we were told to distribute the shares of everyone's life. That is how we are known as the Goddesses of destiny or The Fates." She says with a triumphant smile on her face and I don't say anything for a few minutes.

"I don't know what to say." I admit and she nods. "You read all this in that-"

"Some of it and I asked Lila. She told the lot of it." She said and I nodded.

"Exactly how many siblings do you have?" I asked with a huff.

"I have lost count." She says solemnly and I try not to smile. I pull up in front of her house and she quickly slips out. "Aren't you coming?"

"I am thinking if I can still give you a rain check." I joked and she pouts childishly.

"Come on, they won't be so bad. Besides, I'll be there."

"Sure, I will come." I wave her off. "A mortal among a ton of great Greek deities who probably even hate to spell the word 'human'. What could go wrong?" I said and she gave me a 'you're-being-rude' look and I sigh. "I will come. At least let me go back and wear something decent."

"Like a tux and a tie?" She giggled and I rolled my eyes.

"Hmmm...not a bad idea." I say and she shakes her head.

"I was kidding. Wear a rug for all I care but come and don't come naked." She giggled and waved me a goodbye.

I sigh to myself, trying to steady my breath.

Here comes the day I meet my girl's parents and they might as well be the last people I ever meet.