Unlocking Olympus
Chapter Six: Adamaris
I could feel my pipes
being crushed as the serpentine tail coiled around my neck, tightening. I was
trying to harden my jaw, straining the muscles of my throat, a futile attempt
to stop the Lamia from breaking my neck. It hissed in front of my face and I looked
at its wide, unblinking eyes. I struggled to swallow air, opening my mouth,
trying to suck oxygen.
“Hiss…no use fighting
me demigod…hissss…I’ll make this quick for you.” A curtain of blackness
threatened to cover my vision. I was in desperate need of oxygen in my brain.
“Your breath stinks!”
I wheezed out as the Lamia’s horrid face contorted in rage. Its mouth opened in
what I presumed was supposed to be a sneer. My eyes twitched at the hideous
sight of its uneven, sharp teeth and its purplish tongue which was dripping
with human blood – an innocent infant’s blood. Hot, boiling rage surged through
my veins, invigorating me, lending me an energy to spend so I could fucking
send this bitch into the depths of tartarus.
With shaking hands and
no oxygen in my lungs, my fingers wrapped on the rough, worn out leather around
the handle of the Athena’s dagger, “Your breath fucking stinks!” I spent the
last of my energy in plunging the dagger into its heart, emitting a howl from
the creature. Instantly, the tail around my neck loosened for a fraction and I
hungrily sucked air to fill my lungs. Before the Liama could disentangle itself
from me, I dragged the dagger down to its gut, causing for its innards to spill
in my fists.
I groaned in disgust
as it let out a deafening screech, jerking away from me, extricating itself
from the dagger. Hot red liquid oozed from its gaping flesh, its eyeball
rolling at the back of its disgusting head. Seconds after, it fell limply on
the filthy floor of the sewer.
“Apparently, you’re
not quick enough.” I said as I threw the flame from my zippo to its corpse,
watching as the fire engulfed it and incinerated it until not even an ash
existed.
Two Days Later
I was writhing from pain by the time Cadence parked my car
in front of her lawn. She helped me out of the car and I brushed her help away,
hissing as my burned arm stung like hell. “I can walk.” I said through gritted
teeth.
I heard her sighing and made her way to her door and opened
it. She entered without saying a word even after I followed her, closing the
door behind me. Cadence lives alone in this one-storey spacious house after her
mother got killed by a Minotaur. Different witchy knick knacks adorned her
house, from stacks of spell books down to different kinds of herbs.
Cadence emerged from her stock room and sat beside me at the
plush couch. “You were burned by God-fire.” She said with a very low voice.
Cadence sounded eerily calm as she focused her attention into putting balm in
my blistered skin. The concocted ointment was like ice to my burning skin and
it gave a temporary reprieve. I knew this wound would heal after a day but it
still hurt like a son of a bitch! I would kill that blonde woman!
“You are so stupid,”
“Sorry?” I asked, not hearing what she said because I was so
busy plotting the demise of a certain goddess. Her finger stilled for a second
then she repeated what she said, this time a whole lot louder.
“Why are you so stupid, Adamaris? That God could have killed
you with a blink of an eye! Thank the Gods because she allowed you to walk out
of that place with a mere burn!” She was fuming with silent fury, her eyes
burning amber from anger. “I told you to give it a rest, don’t get near her!”
A short burst of anger flurried inside my chest, “Monsters
littered the Earth and they are fucking running amok and killing humans,
Caddie. I need to know what happened to Olympus and figure out how to fix the
mess they made, again. I just can’t
keep a blind eye to all those killings!” During those two weeks, after what
people now called as ‘God’s Storm’, monsters had walked the earth freely as if
the Gods had stopped controlling them. “Have you forgotten what happened to
those infants that were eaten by a fucking Lamia?” Cadence winced from my
question but held my angry gaze. It was just two days ago when I killed a
Lamia, one of the many monsters resided in Olympus which was supposed to be
governed and leashed by the freaking Gods. But they were all MIA, completely
neglecting the people they were supposed to be protecting, not that I was
expecting much from them.
A week ago, a series of missing infant cases had took over
the news, the media and people were all in frenzy for what they thought was a
kidnapping spree. But it turned out that a Lamia was behind the missing
infants. I could still remember its hideous face, those wide, unblinking crazed
eyes, the scaly hollow cheeks and its broad devious grin, revealing bloodied
uneven sharp teeth, the blood of its latest victim still dripping from its
hanging purple tongue. I repressed the shudder from rocking my body. I killed
it, remorseful that I wasn’t able to save those infants. I was blaming the Gods
for my own shortcoming. It has always been easier to blame others for the
things you failed to do, I grimly thought.
“But what good did it bring you when you went there carrying
just your dick? You were almost killed, Adam!” Treating the burn now forgotten,
Cadence threw her hands up.
“Then it’s her greatest mistake that she didn’t kill me when
she had the chance.” I knew she was worried for my wellbeing but I still
couldn’t help but be crossed that she wasn’t sharing the burning desire to
demand answers from the Gods.
As if reading my thoughts, Cadence heaved a long sigh and
when she spoke she sounded more irate than angry, “We can get information from
someone else. We just can’t demand answers from a goddess, Adam. We could
barely put a wrinkle in her clothes.”
“Then we have to do something about it.” I told her,
determination set on stone.
Knowing me well enough that that bitch had just gained
herself an enemy, I wouldn’t be stopping until I could get my retribution,
Cadence sighed again, her eyes rolling upward and muttered, “Gods,”
“We have to do something, Caddie.” I took her hand as her
eyes came back to me, not talking about that goddess but talking about saving
innocent people that could be victims of the Olympian’s neglect. Reading the
sincerity from my voice, Cadence gave me a brief nod.
“We are already trying to help them, Adam. We can’t save the
world with just the two of us.” She said, her eyes now trained at the general
direction of her working table that was just across us.
Damn.
She turned to me, mustering a smile, “You are doing a great
job saving people, Adam. Don’t beat yourself too hard for the death of those
babies. It’s not your fault, you did your best. Think about how many lives you
saved by killing that Lamia.” She has a point but I could have saved those
three babies, I wasn’t just sure how but I knew I could have done something.
“That Goddess is our best shot of knowing what happened
there if you are right that she fled here from Olympus.”
Cadence stood, her face reflecting that of someone who just
remembered something important, “I was on the phone with my aunt when I sensed
that you were doing something reckless and had to run and save you from your
own stupidity.” I cringed but remained silent even after she averted her eyes
and was lost again in her thought, “There was something she told me, a rumor,
but it wasn’t quite an answer.”
Getting my full attention, Cadence continued, “There was
this rumor among the sea nymphs at Jersey that Poseidon was in Olympus at the
same day because of a very important council meeting. And here’s the
interesting part, there’s a rumor among the sea creatures that all but one of
the council members were present before the gates of Olympus closed.”
“The gates of Olympus had closed?” I shoot up from where I
was sitting, wincing as my burnt arm stung from the movement. “Why? Are you
sure?”
“You know how Aunt Priscilla is communicating with the sea
nymphs in her county. That’s what she told me, I can’t evaluate if it’s true.
What would be my aunt’s intention to lie, right?”
“Why would the Olympians would fucking close their fucking
door!” It was a fear that I only learned I was harboring. What if the Gods had
finally closed their door to leave the humans alone? But no, the Gods needed
the humans as much as the humans needed them. It was how it worked. They
couldn’t just close their gates to us and neglect us.
Cadence’s brows were furrowed as she hummed thoughtfully,
walking the length of her living area, lost in thought. “No, no, no. I don’t
think they closed it purposely. Something happened. But for now, at least we
know the reason why these monsters were running wild here on Earth. No one is
controlling them.”
“We need to talk to that goddess, torture her for
information if we must.” I told Cadence.
“You hate her that much?” Cadence snorted as the gravity of
our situation was momentarily forgotten.
The frown in my forehead smoothed as I shrugged my shoulder
in response, “A burn for a burn.”
