The God Who Haunts Worlds

Grandfather

(Amelia Garcia)

The golden light of the sunrise flooded the bathroom. I stood in front of the sink and looked at my reflection. I wanted to take Rigel's offer. I wanted to be more than just the family mortal, but last night's disaster taught me a hard lesson. The real world was dangerous, if I look for trouble, I'll most certainly find it.

The bathroom door opened and a woman stepped in. I tried to ignore her as she stepped in front of the mirror to do her make up. What the hell was I supposed to do? Should I listen to my desires and become a champion, or do I listen to my fears and go home?"

A splash of red caught my attention. The woman who had been doing her make-up was now standing there, looking down at the black, shiny, obsidian blade that was sticking out of her bloody chest.

Standing behind the woman was a jaguar Zoo sapien. The head was that of a jaguar, save for the eyes, which had black sclera and golden irises. His body was muscular and covered with golden fur decorated with black spots; however, his neck, and possibly his chest and belly, were covered in white fur. I couldn't be sure, though; as the man was wearing a black T-shirt and a black pair of shorts. He didn't come in through the door. There was no sound to indicate his arrival. It was like he simply came into being, and his first act as a new person was to commit murder.

I ran to the door, desperate to escape. I pulled on the handle, but the door wouldn't open. I frantically pulled on the door and even checked the lock, but no matter what I did, there was no escape. I screamed for help and pounded on the door.

"Don't panic," the jaguar-man said. "I am not here to hurt you."

He removed the blade from the woman and let her fall to the floor. The last thing the woman saw was the jaguar-man reaching into her chest and ripping out her heart. I couldn't handle gory horror movies, and I certainly couldn't handle this. I slapped my hands over my eyes, backed into the wall, and sank to the floor. I prayed that someone heard my screams and was coming to help.

"Sorry, bout that," he said. "I didn't intend for our first encounter to be... messy, but I just couldn't let this opportunity go to waste. Although in retrospect, I should've brought a cooler or a lunchbox to put the heart in, just in case. I used to eat the heart immediately after removing it, but then the grill was modernized and A1 was invented, and the two completely revolutionized my heart-eating habits."

I slowly removed my hands from my eyes. The blood-cover jaguar-man had knelt in front of me, the woman's heart in one hand and his obsidian blade in the other. I whimpered, "Who...who are you?"

"I'm offended," he said with a frown. "The angel, you, and even my son had a conversation about me in the GA's office not five minutes ago."

"You're...Tezcat....Tezcatli....Tezcatpoca?"

The jaguar-man sighed. "Why do so many people struggle with my name? The people of my culture had no trouble with it; and how is it that people have no problem pronouncing other long names like Alexander, Kaminari, and Constantine? But if it'll make your life easier, you can always call me Grandpa or Grandad or Grandfather T or whatever."

"You....you killed her."

"I did." Tez nodded. "But if you aren't careful you'll suffer a fate more brutal than hers." Tez held up a finger. "Not by my hand, but by the hands of the Grand Pantheon."

I didn't say anything, although I did raise an eyebrow.

"Yeah so while you were having that lovely little chat with the GA, I was in the room, listening in on the conversation. Of course, no one had any idea I was even in there, not even the angels, but that's not important.