Psyche

Chapter Twenty-One

I had the leverage. Leverage tears people apart, but I listened to Aphrodite. Phoenyx was gonna drop me like a bad habit once he knew about his sister. But all those times I woke up to see him stumbling around the house, drunk, high. I didn't get it. He took all this shit to forget. But I saw his dreams, he only remembered-he could remember. I wanted to fix this. I wanted to fix him. But, then, I've even wished I could just go back home, never to have ever pursued Phoenyx. Then I remember, it wasn't me. It was the Other World. There was something about me that seemed so important. I hated it. I hated knowing I had importance, and it wasn't actually even me that was important. No one wanted to be to know me. It was stupid Psyche.

I also hated the way Aphrodite wanted to get down with Phoenyx. I mean, way to be stealthy as fuck, "Your Majesty". I get it, the whole goddess of love thing. Who cares? Love is not fucking your hot soldier. But that's just me.

I woke up with a start. I felt vibrations thunder across the floor and the sound of the world around me crashing to the ground. But my eyes were glued shut. I could only hear him (or I assumed it was him) throwing shit around, frantically looking for something. Then I smelled something burned. He's really going to do drugs while I was asleep here? I'm not an idiot, Phoenyx. I'm an American teenager. Drugs are just part of the fun.

The next thing I knew, I was face to face with a curtain. I didn't know how I knew it was a curtain. I just did. I glanced down to see light leaking out from under the heavy cloth, illuminating my bare feet. I held my breath and swiftly parted the curtains. They make a snapping sound in the air. I was suddenly smacked in the face with a frozen sun. The room was so bright but the ivory walls, floor, the dais, everything, was cold. I knew then that I was probably lucid dreaming and if I tried to move my paralyzed body to search for a blanket, I would wake up. I was curious. Now that I knew I was dreaming, I was going to do what I wanted.

***

Curiosity killed the cat, August Park, a teacher had once told me with a tone that was a mixture of annoyance, sarcasm, disappointment, and I suspected she was hiding the regrets of her own life choices somewhere behind those words.

Bitch: I'm not a cat. I'm a fucking goddess! Wait. What?

Suddenly, Aphrodite appeared, sliding, I assumed, between dimensions or worlds or what, and glided over to sit on her throne, a thin, yet amused smile spread across her red lips, her warm eyes as cold as the room. Her entire expression made me feel like she was staring down a frenenemy of some sort. I didn't want to get mixed up with her. She seemed evil and she wasn't trying to hide it.

Phoenyx's little dog form padded from behind the curtains, barely noticing me. Their exchange of words is so fierce, so intense-I feel like I'm intruding. Each letter passed through me like a ghost passing before my eyes, unclear and although the memory and story of seeing it may be memorable, that exact moment eventually blurred the farther I ventured into this world.

But then, there were those words that Phoenyx uttered that became tattooed onto my brain; I will always remember them, for better or worse.

"What the fuck have you done lately?" He asked, coldly, his voice barely above a whisper, yet so strong that it casted dead silence upon the room. It was the most badass thing I'd ever heard. I bit my lip, trying hard not to giggle in the midst of this epic animosity. What is wrong with me?

He called me to him like I was his pet. If it wasn't for the leverage, I would have been. But I guess dogs have leverage, too. They watch their owners day in and day out, absorbing the secrets. If I had one-? Well, I would have been fucking screwed.

I let my head hang as I walked towards him. I glanced up to see him staring down the goddess. He knew something was bound to happen. I never cared for he said to deny his petty emotions, he felt fear. Anyone could see it in his eyes.