Ancient Death

Gasping for air, the goddess awoke, and not in a good mood. She got up, and started pacing, not like there was much room to pace. She went to the window, and tried to remember her sister, the memories that were distant, but always there.

“Stop it Shara!”

Her sister used the nickname she came up with, long ago. She only said it when she was irritated, or at that precise moment, she truly was proud of her. Azshara could tell now that it was irritation. She didn’t know she would annoy her sister so much, as to tickling her from behind. She just wanted to have fun. There wasn’t much in their home for them to do. Their parents have always been strict, obedient, and lifeless. Knowing deities, it’s probably impossible, but that’s what they were. Their interior of their house was black and white, whereas the exterior was like a rainbow, mostly green colours. Her parents were dull, but knowing them, they wanted the other deities to think different.

“What’s wrong? It’s not like we have anything better to do” Azshsara says urgently.
“Yea, but you know I don’t like things creeping up on me, especially from behind” she catches her eye looking frightened. “It’s scary”

Azshara looks at her sister, her beautiful sister, then leans in to hug her She doesn’t want her hug to be forced, especially coming from Azshara who doesn’t do hugging. Aribeth leans in too, as Ashara wraps her arms around her back.

“I’m sorry” Azhsara whispers
“I know”
A moment of silence “I love you” Azshara adds
“I love you more”

A sharp pain erupts in her chest. Love you most, Azshara thought.
That was the day she realized no one will ever hurt her little sister. Not even her.
But of course, that vow was broken. She didn’t even mean to. It just happened. She thought older siblings were supposed to be protective of their younger ones, not kill them. Even if she’s only older by twenty-six seconds. Azshara never cried, but after being banished, it’s all she can do. Is cry. On the outside, people thought of her as emotionless, but that was never the case. She did have feelings. She just threw a good face on, and pretended everything was okay.

Everytime she and her sister went out playing, everyone would leave her out. The weird one, is what she was called. They all loved Aribeth. But then, Aribeth would put her foot down, and say for her to join. Boy, was she gorgeous when she put her foot down. Azshara felt, she drove her into that direction. Personality speaking, of course. They all finally agreed to let her join to play.
Azshara would be relieved, but then mad. Sometimes, she hated it when she stuck up for her. She could take care of herself. She knew how, she was, well, she didn’t know who she was. She thought she was independent, still is. But that doesn’t prove to them that she is. But Azshara was clueless back then to what was going on. She just went on with life, when such things ever happened. But now, all she does is remember, and repent them.
I guess you could say, she was jealous of Aribeth. She will admit that, but she also admired her. Aribeth got the attention from their parents, family members, friends and even Zeus that Azhara always strived for. Would die for. You could say that’s being a little exaggerating, but it’s the truth. Gods and goddess’ always tell the truth. More funny, that she is the God of Death, and cant die. She’s kind of like the undead. But, Life can die. She tried to remember the night she murdered her beautiful sister, but it was too tragic. She can’t, she doesn’t want to. Life is hard, death has always been simple and straightforward, humans doubted that it was, again, it was the truth. How did she even know that? Ever since she became the God of Death and Decay, she has been learning things, like it just suddenly came to her. Not just anything. Things about death. She thinks again, and its not like it just came to her, its always been there. In the corners of her mind, its always been there. Like she was destined to be the God of Death. She remembers now, its like a file opened inside her mind. An open book. That would explain the flower, that day when her sister was deemed. Deemed the Goddess of Everlasting Life. That was the day Azshara was truly proud of her. Never in her life was she that proud. She wasn’t going to play any pranks this time. Never. That’s why she went to the Fields to get that flower, to celebrate. A symbol for what she was deemed for. But when she got back-

Don’t think about that now. Aribeth was such a beautiful, cleaver, outgoing, and sweet girl. Every time Azshara tried to get some attention, there wouldn’t be any left. Aribeth was always one step ahead of her. Always took it. But Aribeth wasn’t doing it on purpose. It was just who she was, she couldn’t help it. Aribeth was always nice to Azshara nor was she ever nice to her. She always wondered what Aribeth thought of her. Was she proud? To have someone like her as her sister? Were twins supposed to be opposites, or the same? Of course it all makes sense now, they have always been opposites for as long as she can remember, always. So when Aribeth was deemed, then it automatically deemed her, the opposite of life. That would explain the flower, and why it was dead when she reached her sister. Azshara sighed. Aribeth thought it was some sort of joke she was playing on her. But it wasn’t. She would never do that to her for something so wonderful, for something that Aribeth was proud of. Being deemed is a gift. But it can also be a punishment. Not all deities get deemed. But after committing something horrible, Zeus deems you something you will regret for the rest of eternity. Like she will.

The goddess finally takes in her surroundings. A couple of houses, shops, and cars. Nothing out of the usual. Out of the corner of her eye, she see’s a bus, the Dublin bus. She decides to take it. Why not, right? So she is almost on when the driver asks for a ticket. Of course she doesn’t have one.

“Where can I get one?”
“Your not from around here are you?” he replies
Azhara picks up an Irish accent instantly, and wonders why she didn’t pick up any from the guy at the hotel, probably didn’t have one, or she was too exhausted and didn’t realize it. She didn’t know.
“No, could you help me?”
“Are you a tourist? Where’s your guide?”
“Yes, but I got lost, and couldn’t find her” She replied sweetly as she could. She hated when people answered her question with another question. Not just mortals. Immortals too. Her parents would always do it. It annoyed her so much. They probably did it because it annoyed her, and it just became a habit for them. Of course it was only her that got disciplined, so they only had to find out what she was annoyed of. She just wished he would have answered her question the first time, without going through the whole conversation scenario. She liked short, quick, and to the point talks.
He chuckled. Never in her life had she heard a chuckle as ugly as his. It wasn’t a warm welcome ‘I will help you’ laugh. It was the creepy, making front of her laugh.

“Little girls like you, shouldn’t be alone around here. Never should you get lost. Didn’t your guide tell you that? He said very provokingly.
Little girls? Was she considered a little girl? Did she look like one?
“Yes, but- I get distracted easily” She was trying to choose her words carefully, making sure they aren’t too forward. He chuckled again, as she winced.
“Of course you do” he said, winking at her.
“Tell you what, I’ll let you get on without the ticket, just this once, next time bring your money, understood?”

The goddess nodded and took her seat. At the back of course. Isolated from everything else, just the way she liked it. Now that she knows she’s in Ireland, it makes her journey a lot easier. Dublin, Ireland. Why would Zeus zap her here? Is this where all the deities go when they got banished? Or was this spot specifically for her? To help her figure out what she needs to do? Ugh, Zeus is complicated! Why?
She flumps back till she hit’s the cushion of the seat. She looks at who is on the bus.

Observing is one of her past times, although it may not look it, with all the thinking she does, she does both. Its called multitasking. She thinks sarcastically. Oh dear, she is giving attitude to herself, in her mind! What is she turning into? Anyways, she sees two pairs of old couples, a mother and baby, and a weird looking teenager sitting across from her, just staring. He seemed to be staring at her? There was no one else in her direction for him to be staring at, it had to be her. But why? How did she become an interest so suddenly. He was wearing some type of jewellery on his face, a face that needed shaving, the ends of his black hair were blue, and his fingernails were painted black. Who was he? It seemed odd that they were both staring at each other. Neither one of them pulled back and looked away. Like they were comfortable staring this long at each other. Eventually, Azshara got bored, and started to speak

“Take a picture, it’ll last longer”
“I would say, you do the same” he replied in a very sexy Irish accent you wouldn’t expect from a teenager his age or from a person like him. She started to think he probably didn’t look like this all his life. Something changed him, a crises, that made him change who he was. To think of it, he could have been the most popular boy in school, had the most snobby girlfriend, and idiot friends. Though, that’s very stereotypical of her. He could have been the most popular boy in school, had the nicest girlfriend who was so shy going into high school, and had the nicest friends, girls, and boys throughout the whole school. So why was he like this now? His family, is a possibility.

“And why would I do that?” she spoke with a hint of guilt.
“Don’t you want to stare at me all day? I am very handsome, aren’t I?” It was like he sort of read her mind? How? Yes, she did think he was handsome, without the clutter on his face, he was very handsome. But that wasn’t the point.
“You do, I’m not going to lie” she said through gritted teeth, like it was sort of forced out of her mouth.
He smirked. It was kind of cute, but in a childish way.

“I’m sorry, who are you again?” the goddess said agitated
“I haven’t introduced myself yet” he kept that smirk on his face, like he was amused.
“Blake” he said as he extended his arm for a shake. “My name’s Blake”
“Shara” the goddess said, shaking his hand.
“Nice name” he smiled this time instead of smirked.
“It’s a nickname my sister gave me. My actual name is Azshara”
“Even better” his smile grew. Was he actually flirting with her? Or is that how the Irish charm worked. It just comes naturally.
“Thanks” she said blushing a bit. Why was she acting like this? She never did. Some gods back home, would try flirting with her. She would give them a death glare telling them to back off. Yeah, its rude, but sometimes she would feel guilty when she even got attention, she thought her sister deserved it more. Also she wasn’t even interested. They weren’t her type. But, Blake, is mortal. Why is she feeling like this? Maybe its nothing. She cleared everything from her mind, and focused on him.
“My pleasure” he said. His eyes twinkled.

She said nothing after that. Instead she just looked out the window, like all those sappy movies she saw in Mortal 101 in her old class. If she hadn’t been banished, she would still be in her school. Which reminded her that she looked sixteen, no wonder the bus driver said ‘little girl.’ In Mount Olympics, it was like you never grew old, yet you did. It was complicated. The age was in the eyes. So, they decided every hundred years you lived, would be a year, well, to the mortals. So she didn’t entirely live sixteen years. More like, sixteen hundred. Which wasn’t old, if you lived in Mount Olympus. That was considered a teenager, which is why they came up with the one hundred equals one year scenario. The ‘code,’ is what they called it. Her parents were older than that. They were like four thousand years old, Zeus was way older. He is obviously the oldest. If she was to estimate, he would probably be fifteen thousand, maybe even older. He was present way before the human population started. To think, her school should be teaching her these things in her History class, but nope. Again, all these just came to her. I guess, life and death come hand and hand. Giving her the knowledge of how old Zeus is, which is odd.

Anyways, her favourite class was combat. Not much for combat when she’s stuck here. She doesn’t even have a mentor. The goddess sighed. She missed home.
She didn’t really need to worry about what stop she would stop at, just taking this bus till she wanted to get off. She didn’t need to dream, deities hardly ever do. An hour, to three hours were healthy though. So she decided to sleep. Take a nap, and get her mind off things. As she dozed off, her last glimpse of the world was the boy, Blake, the one she interacted with earlier. He was staring at her, again.
Maybe he never stopped..