Chapter 21 - The Shadows Return

Weaver

I got on my bike and rode for hours. Now that I was far from Selene, I was furious. Markus was out fooling around with another simpleton while Selene was at home, swathed in an empty nightmare.

I rode around at breakneck speed to ease the rage. It was in vain.

Why had Markus chosen to delude an innocent child? Was it his way to feel omnipotent again? Did it give him the sort of rush he had felt when he had fashioned the mortals' dreams? Had he so missed being a god that he decided to toy with a child's feelings?

Except that I didn't see a broken child when I saw Selene earlier. I saw a selfless human being yet again thrown a disappointment she didn't deserve.

I waited for the dawn to break. I didn't want to sleep and inadvertently find myself in Selene's dream. I doubted I'd be able to restrain myself. Despite what Father told me, if I saw Selene dejected again, I wouldn't be able to stop myself from approaching her-comforting her-whether in my monstrous figure or winged form.

But that look on Selene's face before I left her. I hated it that even though Markus had deeply hurt her, she was still seeking him out.

I got home an hour after sunrise. I would ask Francis to check if Selene's already awake before I drink a glass of milk and find the tunnel to Father. I needed to ask-beg if needed-another favor.

The last thing I expected was to see Markus sitting at the breakfast nook, a self-righteous look on his face.

"Well, you definitely took your time to get home," the douchebag drawled.

I saw red.

Markus was a few inches taller than I was, but I didn't care. I growled at him as I shoved him to the wall, "You primordial giant! You should be thrown into the pits of Tartarus! Don't you have enough girls to mess with at the university?"

Markus pushed me back as he drew himself up. "What is wrong with you? I never expected you to grow attached to these mortals. They are mere playthings."

My left hand shot up and wrapped around his neck. I was tempted to strangle him, to feel his bones crush beneath my fingers as I squeezed. He had not seen how distraught Selene was. He was not a god who could fiddle with anyone's fate.

Even as gods, we had no right.

Was this the lesson you wanted us to learn, Mother?

All this guilt, hatred and grief-how did the mortals contain all these sentiments? I felt like I was going to combust. Every single emotion that radiated off Selene as she formed her barbed prison was incapacitating. I only had a glimpse of the burden she carried-and hid so well-every day and it tasted bitterer than roasted coffee beans. All these feelings combined was crippling.

"Selene is a mere human to play with," Markus choked out as he tried to pry my fingers off.

Did Markus have a death wish? I'd never witnessed a god die a mortal death. Perhaps today. By my hand.

I would drag him to my tunnels.

Markus' eyes grew wide as he watched my fingers turn into claws. My talons bit into his skin and drew blood. I was just starting.

He gripped my claws with both his hands in an attempt to free himself. I closed my right hand into a fist and rammed it at the wall next to his face.

The entire structure shook.

"Release me," Markus rasped.

I wasn't listening. This insect didn't deserve any mercy.

I felt the shadows shape around us. They loomed around us. My old friends. My flesh-eating monsters had returned.

Markus could be a weak mortal or an invincible god. It didn't matter. Today, he would pay for his sins. Typhon would cower in fear when faced with the horrors my shadows brought.

The gloom converged behind me and transformed into my leathery wings. I felt an ounce of benevolence and granted Markus his own pair.

Markus' eyes grew even wider as he sensed his black wings attach to his spine and he immediately tried to use them to push himself off the wall. This irked me and impelled me to be malevolent. My shadows dripped black acid over Markus' wings before they ripped his feathery appendages off.

"Aaarrrrgghhhh!!!" Markus screamed.

My shadows started gnawing on Markus' severed wings as the dream god watched in horror.

"You find this painful, Morpheus? This is nothing compared to the agony I saw in Selene's eyes!" I roared as I shook him.

My sinewy wings grew bigger and I enveloped Markus and myself in their stifling heat. Then I made my wings burst into flames. All those feelings I'd felt the past hours. All that misery Markus had triggered. I translated it all into a blaze that would consume this arrogant god.

Markus would wake once I was done with him, but I wanted to make sure this was a nightmare he would not forget.

"Icelus, stop it! You're going to torch the entire place and kill us all!"

What? How did Francis get in this nightmare?

I turned around.

Francis was standing next to the dining table. Holding something.

I looked at Markus who was still thrashing in my grip. The flames from my wings were licking at his skin. His face had turned pink then red and swollen. Sores began to bubble at the top layers of his skin.

Then ice cold water hit me. Francis was holding a bucket of water and he doused the fire.

And just as quickly as it had started, my scorching wings and shadows vanished along with my rage. I was surprised. What had I done?

I was also not prepared for Markus' fist connecting with my face. I staggered and did not strike back.

"I knew it," Markus grumbled as he dusted off his shirt. The blisters he obtained from the fire were gone, but oddly enough, he had soot on his clothes. Had my nightmare crossed over to wakefulness?

"You knew what?" I asked, confounded. My wings and the fire were gone, but I could still imagine the oppressing heat. I thought I had dragged Markus into a realistic hallucination, but it appeared something else had happened. "You knew that I can now form nightmares, but I couldn't control them once they escape to reality?"

"That's something else we'll discuss another time. For now, I just know you're an idiot. I can't believe we're related," Markus said, once again composed and self-assured.

"I'm the idiot?!" I cried out.

Fiery shadows once again formed around me as I attacked Markus, but this time, he was ready. He managed to evade me and for a second, I saw black feathers extinguish the blaze and smother the gloom.

I was perplexed. Were we awake?

"Mother was right. You are the dullest among her sons," Markus stated as he went to the fridge and finished a glass of water. "Not that I'm dull at all."

Francis sat at a stool and opened a jar of cookies. He took a piece and ate it while he observed the exchange between his brothers.

"You are not making any sense. None of this makes sense," I muttered as I slumped against the wall.

Markus placed the glass in the sink then he approached me. I frowned at him and he scowled at me and told me, "I know you like Selene. You were supposed to take her to prom."

"Well, you asked her and you bought her a princess start-up kit," I snapped at him.

"I only did that to make you jealous. Sometimes, you should watch those sappy TV shows," Markus said, then a little too dramatically in my opinion, continued, "I decided to do the honorable thing and not show up, but you didn't follow the plot. She's supposed to be dancing with you at the ball. Francis has caught you watching YouTube videos, trying to learn the basic steps."

Huh?

"Zeus, do I have to spell it out for you?" Markus gritted his teeth. This new act he was putting on was obviously straining him. "I know I'm Prince Charming, but you were supposed to play the Beast to her... uh Belle."

It was difficult to process the idea of a selfless Markus. But I felt rather guilty for singeing him earlier so I'd play along.

But how?

I looked at my feet and mumbled, "She doesn't see me that way."

Markus let out a long, exasperated sigh and said, "Doesn't she?"

Then he left.

Francis had eaten half of the cookies in the jar then he wiped his hands and walked to where I was still leaning against the wall.

"First, congratulations. You've obviously regained your powers," Francis smiled at me briefly then said, "Second, you have to contain your shadows. Mother is going to banish us to Tartarus if she caught one of your conceptions running around."

"I don't know how that happened," I said. I looked at Francis and glimpsed an outline of his grey wings. He also seemed older.

"What should I do?" I asked.

"I wager it's your first time feel all these intense emotions," Francis inferred.

I was enraged. Then confused. Now guilty. I had felt these sentiments before but not at the degree I experienced earlier. How did these mortals deal with these feelings that made my skin itch? These feelings made me want to rip off my skin and fracture my rib cage if that would ease the pain throbbing inside me.

"Yes," I answered quietly.

"Called it!" Francis said to no one in particular, once again looking like a human adolescent.

Then he reverted to his more serious version and sagely told me, "Learn to control your human emotions. The shadows would follow."