Lieutenant no. I : Muerte
I close my eyes and center myself. My breath steadies and I go to that place where only killers can go. The place where you are turned to ice and stop caring about preserving human life.
Greetings everyone. I am the Goddess Athena. The Goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law, and justice, strategic warfare, the arts, crafts, skill, and war. I am happy to announce that I am returning to the mortal world to help keep justice and order. Zeus knows you desperately need it. Your world has run amuck with chaos and terrible evils. I am returning from Olympus to render aid to you and your world.
I close my eyes and center myself. My breath steadies and I go to that place where only killers can go. The place where you are turned to ice and stop caring about preserving human life.
“Oh yeah? What’s your type? You don’t like bad boys?”
I let out a laugh before replying. It looked like I was going to have to hurt his feelings. Too bad for him, I had run out of fucks to give for the night.
“No, I much prefer bad girls. You don’t interest me. Now get in here. You are bleeding all over my doorstep.“
Great, a secret telephone rendezvous in the Cholo-mobile. This better pan out, or I may beat the car into a coffee table.
My father loved you and it got him killed. I wasn’t assigned to you. I chose to work with you because you are the only other person that I thought knew him as well as I did.
Without warning, I swing the door open. I should probably start using the peep-hole to avoid having a shotgun blast to my chest. Normally I would have been more tactical and smart about how I answer the door, but I was just so exhausted. However, I wasn’t usually careless. I was distracted at times, yes, careless no.
What is the Goddess of Wisdom, war, and your ridiculous number of other titles, doing here?
Quietly, I walked through the graveyard and looked at the old and crumbling headstones. Leave it to the pirates to have the most interesting names. Honestly, I was surprised that there weren’t any Seymore-Butts…oh, wait, nevermind. There it is.
“Oh, but I am. I am you. The real you. What would your precious family say if they saw the real you? Do you think they would still love you? Would they love the Athena we both know you really are? Take a good look! This is who you really are. Who WE are.”
“So tag and bag, or should we just kill them? Because honestly, I am good either way.”
Everyone is finding love and pairing off. I wanted that, too. I just don’t know if I will ever have it. I don’t have the best track record for love.
“I had never loved a mortal before. And you chose him. You loved him. It broke something inside of me. I couldn’t kill him. He is my uncle…”
She was dead. Her head was literally mounted on my shield. How the hell was she here? Without thinking, I strode to her. Time was standing still and on fast forward simultaneously.
I sidestep and even kick him in the ass as he rushes by. “I can do this all day. Are you going to keep running by, or hit me? This isn’t tag. Of course, to play you would have to touch me first.”
The morning light has completely illuminated both my bedroom and the master bath. For the first time in a very long time, I do not loathe the morning for being so… well, morning.
He took another drink of his whiskey and watched me. His eyes rarely left me, as if he was trying to memorize me or was staring at a painting.