Still Have a Family
2314 Words
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*
Icarus does not show it but he is panicking inside his head when suddenly, a god and four demigods appear behind them. They even got Hera in their clutches. He never sensed them coming.
“She's my captive!” he insists. “Give her to me!”
The god in the middle rubs his chin and says, “I think… no.”
“You asked for it!” Planting his feet on the ground, he prepares to charge. “Fist of Tw-” Diamonds come sprouting from his feet up to his whole body like fast occurring frost. Only his face is not covered. “What?” he asks confusingly. “I can't move! Release me!”
The god did not mind him and starts to untie Hera's bindings. Icarus and Hera are confused. Then the god says, “You're safe now, little girl.” and pats her head.
“Be safe around the people who destroyed the world?” Icarus scoffs. “Give me a break!”
“We're not those people,” the god reasons. “but we are here to help the survivors of the Realm like this little girl.”
“Lies!”
The god ignores him and kneels before Hera. “What's your name?” he asks her.
She looks around as the huge men surround her. Their shadows are covering her and they make her uncomfortable. It takes a while before she finally feels less fearful of them. Releasing her from her right bindings gives her a slight idea that these men are here to help them. Also, their masks are different. Unlike the Masked League, the masks of these men are all green as emeralds with carvings of Eastern styles.
“Hera,” she says.
She can see the eyes of the god squinting because of his smile underneath his mask as he says, “Like the first Queen of Olympus—what a beautiful name.” She feels a little flattered but since he is a stranger, she does not show it to him. “Are you hungry?” he asks. “Your tummy is growling like a beast.” It is true and she can feel it so she nods. “Come. We will give you plenty of food. You can eat all you want.” He holds her hand, walking to the center of the crater.
“Don't be fooled, Hera!” screams Icarus madly. “That's what evil people do! They are good at fooling people!”
“Like you?” she asks, glaring at him.
He could not say anything until the god looks at his comrades and tells them, “Take this boy with us. He needs our help but he stays like that until he believes we are here to help. We don't want him to ruin Hera's peaceful eating time, now, don't we?” He smiles at her and she feels more comfortable than before. She smiles back.
“No!” screams Icarus but she ignores him like his voice is just a passing breeze.
In the cafeteria of the bunker of Olympus survivors, Mila is eating with Aurelia at her left and Juliet and Hyeon at the opposite side of the table. She is deep in thought and could take a whole day to finish her vegetable soup. Aurelia is busy eating her share ravenously. She is on her fifth bowl. The supplies have been overflowing since Leo and Darius brought in more survivors as well as buying time for the fauna and flora deities to make food.
Hyeon is sleeping. He has been like this for quite a while since he does not drink the blood of a person but they still send him out to missions. It seems that only Juliet notices Mila deep in her thoughts.
“It will go cold if you keep staring at it,” says Juliet. “Especially from you, the Goddess of Death.”
Mila is startled. “Oh… uh… pardon me.” Then she starts to eat.
“What's the matter?” she presses on.
“Nothing.”
Scoffing, Juliet says, “As if. Come on, spit it out.”
“I think it's not my place to talk about it.”
“It's about Leo, isn't it?”
“Really?” asks Aurelia, giggling and poking her sister with her elbow. Juliet went along with her.
“Stop it!” Mila insists, feeling uncomfortable as well as angry.
“To be fair,” says Juliet with a grin. “Leo is quite popular. Now that he and Darius are the last hope of Olympus, everyone adores her. I know it when I say that girls want to be near him all the time because they feel safe. Every time he walks in, there are always girls dying to get his attention. He's so cool that he ignores them.”
Aurelia laughs so hard but gets a glare from her sister. She answers by sticking her tongue out. “You like him, don't you?” she teases.
Mila's expression did not change, clearly stating that she is not affected by their teasing nor fond of it. “Stop it. It's not what you think.”
“Then what is it?” Juliet asks. “If you don't tell us, what we assume will be the truth we believe.”
“He found his parents dead, okay!” she explodes and realizes that others heard what she said.
Hyeon startlingly wakes up. Juliet and Aurelia are immediately staggered by the news. Mila rubs her eyebrows, feeling her head aching about her outburst.
“Are you sure?” asks Juliet.
“That's what he said to me,” says Mila, sitting down very slowly.
The faces of Leo's family dwell inside Aurelia's mind. She recalls the first and only time they visited their home and how sweet they are. “No…,” she mutters, shaking her head. Her appetite for eating two more bowls is gone.
Juliet asks, “You said ‘his parents’, what about his sister?”
“He didn't find her there so he thinks she might've survived and is somewhere around the Olympus Capital.”
In concern, Aurelia asks, “Where is he?” while using her senses to try to find his presence but she cannot.
“Somewhere here in the bunker but I can't find him as you do. His concealment is too difficult to crack.”
“I'll go find him.” Aurelia stands up from her seat.
“What for?”
“To let him know that he still has a family.” With a c***k of lightning, she disappears.
Mila looks down at the table and thinks about what her sister said. She is right so she decides to do the same. “If you'll excuse me,” she says to Hyeon and Juliet.
“Go ahead, we'll meet you again next time.”
They nod to each other and Mila leaves the cafeteria.
*
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I sit here alone on the floor of the recently dug-up tunnel. This allowed them to make more rooms for everyone. I don't have to share our room with dozens of people after all. This place is in my favor by being a place to be alone. Using my concealment, nobody can find me here. Unless someone has the luxury of time searching every passage inside this vast bunker. I brought with me food and beverages that we found during our time outside. This might be the last time I could eat these kinds of food so I eat them slowly.
How I treated Lady Mila a few days ago, pops into my mind all of a sudden. Maybe I shouldn't have said that to her. I was angry and sad and not in the right mood. She didn't have an idea of what happened and I was mean to her.
Then an electrifying embrace gets a hold of me. I never sensed it coming. Golden hair spread over my face and suddenly my chin is over someone's shoulder.
“Lady Aurelia?!” I blurt out. “How did you-”
Argh! She's crushing me with her abnormal strength! I should have expected that she could find me in no time because of her speed!
“I'm sorry for what happened to your family, Leo!”
“What? How did you-”
“You still have a family—us!”
What is she saying? As much as I don't understand what she's saying, it made me feel warmer inside. That's when Lady Mila found us and stands not far from where we are. I remember what I said to her earlier. She looks like she doesn't know how to approach me. The her that I know is not like this. She doesn't care about who I was nor she cares about my existence. That's what I like about her. The way she acts like she doesn't care about me and Darius, the more we want to be stronger so we could be worthy of her attention.
Just when Lady Aurelia lets me go, I bow before Lady Mila and tell her my apology. “I'm sorry, my lady—for how I treated you when I arrived.” I receive no answer so I stand up straight and look at her.
She looks to the side and says, “Why would I care about that?” and scoffs at me. She frowns but I can't help but smile. That's the Goddess of Death that I know.
Then… why the hell is Lady Aurelia looking at me like that? She has a smug on her face and standing beside her sister. “What are you two been up to?” She's biting her lip.
“What?” I ask uncomfortably. What does she mean? I'm tired and my mind can't work to decode what she means.
“Say another word and you're dead,” Lady Mila threatens her.
“Oh, really?” asks her sister. “Leo,” she says to me with a suspicious smile. “I know you're strong so take care of my sister for me whenever I'm gone. Take care of her for me.”
Lady Mila squeezes her fist and glares at her. “Why you-”
“I will, my lady,” I answer. “I will protect her, you, and everyone. I don't want to lose anyone again. All of you are important to me. No matter who they are, even if they are deities that can destroy planets, control suns, or even time, I will defeat them all!”
Looking at me, Lady Aurelia's face suggests that she didn't like what I said. “Remove me from your list,” she demands. “I'm stronger than you so I don't need your protection.”
“Same goes for me,” says Lady Mila. She's looking at me in despise. I just got shot down.
“Yeah,” says Darius from afar. So, he's there the whole time? “You talk big.” And with him, are Lady Juliet, Hyeon, and Cairo—who I haven't talked to recently. They are smiling at me and I think they are about to say what others said earlier but they don't need to.
These are my friends that I know. They are the strongest people I know and the cleverest. “Okay,” I nod.
“Let's go back, shall we?” asks Lady Juliet.
We nod but I have something in my mind I want to tell her and Hyeon. “Wait,” I tell them. They turn towards me not knowing what I'm about to say. Darius knows and allows me to tell them.
“What is it?” she asks.
“When Darius and I were looking for survivors in the Human Districts—in the Athena District to be exact, we found… both…”
“Both what?”
“Your brothers.”
She widens her eyes, as well as Hyeon. Then when I look around, Lady Mila and Lady Aurelia look so curious. Glints are coming from their eyes.
“Are you sure?!” Hyeon asks me, holding both of my shoulders. This is the first time I witness him so worked up about something. His red eyes are widening and his breathing gets harder.
“Yes, I found-”
“I will kill him!”
“Calm down, Hyeon!” yells Lady Juliet as she pulls him away from me. “Let him talk, geez.”
He clears his throat, calms down, and says, “Forgive me, my lady.” She pokes his forehead with two of her fingers.
“Alright,” she says and looks at me. “What were they doing?”
“They're following this peculiar goddess.”
“What goddess?” Lady Mila asks.
“As I remember, they call her Lady Sayuri.” Their faces fall into a deep pit of curiosity. “Was I right, Darius?” I ask.
“Yeah, and she's very strong…. Nah… but I'm stronger!”
We let him be and I continue describing her. “She could be fifteen to seventeen years old. Looking at her face, she's an Oriental like you,” I look and referring to Lady Mila. “and your family, my lady.” Looking at her eyes, she wants me to tell them more so I continue. “She has this unusual sword. Like I sense thousands of souls emanating from it. She sliced us with it but we didn't receive any wound but we felt pain. Like parts of our soul have been cut. Her eyes glow violet as the fire from her sword. And what's more alarming is that she knows Dimensional Touch.”
- Writer
