Feros and the Underworld Prince

by A. L. Bridges

  Isis smiles at me seductively as she reaches behind her back. A slow zipping sound and the gradual downward slide of Isis’s dress accompany the front of my pants becoming pressed for space. I down the remainder of my goblet, regretting not asking for scotch or vodka or something to make me feel a bit more like Bond. Also because, according to the legends, this is the woman that had sex with her brother’s detached penis so I’m pretty sure it’s safe to assume that things might get a little weird… but if I want more information on Horus, this is the best way to do it.

  (She also may or may not have a diaphragm made of honey and crocodile shit up her twat at this very moment)

  “Seriously?”

  (Yes, that was the ancient Egyptians most common form of contraception. They had some pretty fucked up practices by today’s standards and there’s still a great deal that you are unaware of)

  I start contemplating asking for several more drinks, or just calling the whole thing off, when my thoughts are interrupted.

  “MILADY DON’T! COLE IS SPEAKING THE TRUTH REGARDING HORUS!” Naia shouts as she bursts into the room with Hel right behind her.

  “Oh you bitch! You always have to ruin my fun, don’t you!?” Isis says accusingly, but lightheartedly, to Hel.

  “Haha! Right on time! Payback completed!” Hel announces.

  I have to admit that this child-like side to Hel is slightly creepy compared to her business side, but it’s also a little endearing.

  “Oh, come on! That was nearly two hundred years ago!” Isis expounds.

  “And I told you that I would have my revenge, and now I have!” Hel giggles… this is officially freaking me out.

  “Are you unharmed, Cole? I thought Milady was torturing you…” Naia asks.

  “What? Yeah, I’m fine. Isis was just giving me some information about Horus.” I inform her.

  “That didn’t look like all that she was giving…” Hel says with a sly grin. Then things get even creepier as Hel wipes the expression from her face and goes back to being her usual self.

  “Anyway, my son and Reyna are back in Niflheim with your fiancée, your girlfriend, and Pinga so we had better get back. Naia, do you wish to stay here?” Hel asks with her ‘all-business’ tone.

  “Yes, for now.” Naia replies. Hel nods and grabs my arm.

  “I have so much to tell you, Milady! I met a boy, his name is Ryuji…” is the last thing I hear before the black mist consumes Hel and I.

  Chapter 39: Bum-Rushing is not Allowed

  “COLE!” Cheza screams when she notices me port into the room with Hel.

  Uh-oh… she does not look pleased…

  Cheza approaches me slowly and I prepare myself for the possibility of another stabbing, but it never happens. Instead, Cheza flings herself at me, wraps her arms around me, and begins bawling into my shirt.

  “IDIOT! I CAN’T LOSE YOU TOO! …not again…” Cheza bawls.

  “I’m sorry, Cheza…” I softly tell her as I hold her.

  “*Sniffle* He killed our daughter so I’m coming with you…” Cheza sobs.

  “…Alright… but only if we reconnect first.” I tell her as I hear a sniffle to my right. I turn my head and see Jason crying… and once again he has a fucking erection!

  “Bro, do you seriously have a boner right now!?” I accuse as I release Cheza.

  “No, I sarcastically have a boner right now.” Jason replies.

  “Regardless, if this happens again, I’m forcing my blood down your throat, knocking you out, and then I’m going to delete any memories you have about the CT channel!” I say.

  “Perhaps we should give you two some alone time. Feel free to use the bed, or the couch, or the walls to ‘reconnect’.” Jason responds.

  “What we need is a bucket, not some time alone.” I reply.

  “CT, I just don’t understand you sometimes! First you’re threatening to delete all my memories of the kinky sex that I’ve watched you and Rei have, and now you want us to stay and watch you two have kinky sex that involves a bucket! Make up your damned mind!” Jason shouts.

  “You are an irreconcilable idiot…” I say while staving off a headache and shaking my head. “I have to transfuse my blood into Cheza to connect us in the way we were before I died. The bucket is to drain some of Cheza’s blood into so it doesn’t just make a mess on the floor.”

  “Can the blood be ingested to do that?” Reyna inquires.

  (Yes)

  “I’m told that it can.” I reply.

  Reyna tweaks her head upward in thought before shaking it dismissively, perhaps remembering that blood doesn’t taste good to people who aren’t vampires so no one would drink it when there are other alternatives.

  “So what’s the word with Horus?” Reyna asks.

  “According to Isis, he’s on the jinn plane, Duniya al Jinn. Based on what I saw in Naia’s memories, he has the backing of the jinn so he most likely has an army covering his ass.” I answer.

  “So what’s the game plan?” Jason asks.

  “Port to Duniya al Jinn and slaughter my way through the army until I reach Horus.” I reply.

  “That sounds like a piss-poor plan that will end up getting you killed.” Natasha says.

  That’s kind of the point… I only need to stay alive long enough to kill Horus, then I can disappear so nothing like this can ever happen again.

  Natasha walks over and gives me a swift uppercut to my solar plexus through my unzipped jacket, doubling me over and leaving me breathless.

  “Cole! You are not offing yourself!” Natasha shouts.

  Shit… well, there goes my plan to reconnect with Cheza, knock her out, and port to the jinn plane while she’s unconscious.

  “Cole? What were you planning to do?” Cheza inquires with a hurt expression.

  “His plan was to knock you out and launch his little suicide mission so that no one else has to die because of him!” Natasha angrily answers for me. Cheza gives me a concerned look, but doesn’t say anything.

  “Hel, I recall something about you having undead armies?” Cheza asks.

  “Yes I do, but they are unable to fight anywhere besides the Norse planes.” Hel replies.

  “I think I may have a solution for to your problem… I’ll make some calls tomorrow. Anyway, it’s getting late so let’s get some sleep and think on a plan. Chezarei, I should have some sleepwear that will fit you. Natasha, I’ll show you to the guest bedroom and I definitely have some pajamas that will fit you.” Reyna says.

  “Cole, you and Rei can sleep in here while I shack up with Reyna in her room.” Jason tells me as everyone leaves the room.

  “Have the sheets been cleaned recently?” I ask.

  “Maids change the sheets daily.” Jason smirks and leaves the room, shutting the door behind him.

  I strip down to my underwear and climb into bed, concerned about what may be awaiting me in my dreams.

  ****

  “DADDY!” Addie calls out as she runs across the room. She leaps at me and the room spins.

  “DADDY!” Addie cries with the gun pressed to her temple.

  I watch the bullet pass through her head. Her body slumps to the ground, her dead eyes staring back at me as the room shifts.

  I’m holding the gun to the back of Jessica’s head as Ryan watches with a horrified look on his face. I laugh at him as I pull the trigger and Jessica’s brains splatter across Ryan. I look down at Jessica’s body, but I only see Addie with a confused expression on her face and an exit wound in her forehead as the gun shakes in my hand.

  ****

  I spring upright only to find Cheza straddling me in bed. I wrap my arms around her and start crying into the soft button-up shirt that is covering her chest; she wraps her arms around my head and holds me tightly.

  “It’s my fault she’s dead… she had her entire life in front of her, yet I stole that away from her.” I quietly say into Cheza’s chest.

  “You didn’t take anything from her; you gave her the lo
ve of a caring father. Horus and Ryan are the ones that stole her life away.” Cheza replies.

  “No… Ryan may have pulled the trigger and Horus may have given the order… but I supplied the weapon. She wouldn’t be dead had she never met me.” I quietly expound.

  “You can’t blame yourself for this. You’re a good man, Cole.” Cheza whispers.

  “No, I’m not. A good man doesn’t do the things that I’ve done.” I reply.

  “You only gave them what they deserved.” Cheza tells me.

  “Nobody deserves to go out like that…” I respond, thinking of the emotional anguish I put Ryan through before giving him a brutal death.

  “Okay, so maybe you went a little overboard with the force feeding of his own intestines, but I would have done something along the lines of slowly shoving a knife up his urethra.” Cheza tells me.

  I look up at her sadly smiling face and move my mouth to hers, despite the fact that she was just talking about torturing someone by shoving a knife up their dick-hole.

  “Wait, how did you know what I did? And why do you taste coppery?” I inquire.

  “For the same reason that I’ve been talking to you without opening my mouth.” Cheza thinks with a smile on her face.

  “You were stuck in your nightmare and I couldn’t wake you up, so I thought that if we were reconnected, I would be able to. So I bit into your neck and sucked out some of your blood, which I don’t understand why vampires like so much because it wasn’t very tasty…” Cheza adds.

  I reach up and touch my neck to find that the left side has been torn open, but isn’t bleeding; I guess that Airi just allowed my blood to flow for Cheza to reconnect us.

  “I love you, Cheza.” I whisper and she presses her mouth to mine.

  Cheza swings her leg off of me and lies down to snuggle into my right side.

  “Cheza, you know that you can cry for Addie anytime you need to, right?” I think to her.

  Cheza nods her head a few moments later as a couple of droplets hit my chest.

  …

  [October 11th]

  Try as I might, I end up staying awake through the night, my memories giving me a fright, and I didn’t just spend the last two hours thinking up that rhyme, alright? Cheza is squeezing me tightly on my right side. As I reach over and brush away the tear drop in the corner of her eye, Cheza’s eyes flutter open. She groans and stretches, looking fantastic in that shirt, while moving upward to kiss me.

  “Good morning.” Cheza whispers with a smile, but a profound sadness is in her eyes. I try to probe for the answer, but the door between our minds is slammed in my face, causing me to physically recoil back slightly.

  “It’s nothing. I’m going to hop in the shower.” Cheza says and gets out of bed. She walks into the bathroom and I hear the click of the door locking before the shower turns on.

  Now, I don’t claim to be an expert on the creatures known as females, but in my short time on this planet, I have learned that phrases like ‘everything’s fine,’ and ‘it’s nothing,’ are usually strong indicators that everything is not fine and something is wrong. I stand up out of bed and walk over to the bathroom door. Now how to get the door open? I could use explosives, but that will defeat the purpose of sneaking up on her to catch her in the act; this also means that shooting the lock is out. I could try slicing through the doorknob, but then Cheza would hear the thud when it hits the floor.

  What I really need is for the doorknob to just disappear… oh, right. I grab the doorknob with my left hand, recalling that I have the ability to make things disappear like smoke, presumably through some means of superheating to a gaseous state or by splitting the bonds between molecules until there are just free-floating atoms left. Well, Jason will most likely forgive me for the door. What was it my Drive had said?

  “I create nothing. I preserve nothing. I only erase.” I whisper, but nothing happens. Then the doorknob starts gradually loosing presence until disappearing from sight. Perhaps my attempt at this was just too slow or the molecules weren’t broken apart in scattered enough patterns to give the cool smoke effect.

  I quietly push the door open and see Cheza’s naked ass. The guy from Happy Madison Productions says Terrific! Then I notice Cheza’s hands are by her face and her body is heaving spastically, as though she were sobbing.

  (Less terrific)

  I silently strip off my boxers, open the shower door, and step inside behind her. After quickly wrapping my arms around her, Cheza becomes rigid and turns around to face me.

  “Did you really think that I wouldn’t notice that something was wrong just because you blocked me?” I ask.

  Cheza responds by audibly sobbing into my chest. I hold her tightly as the warm water buffets our bodies. Once she’s calmed down enough, I pour some shower gel into my hand and start scrubbing us up. I start tickling her just to get a smile out of her in a lame attempt to make her feel better.

  “It is pretty lame… but thanks.” Cheza thinks with a teary-eyed smile.

  After shampoo and conditioner, we get out and towel off when I learn something interesting. It seems that, regardless of the shampoo Cheza uses, the smell of her hair always reminds me of frozen mandarin oranges; I wonder what I smell like to her…

  “Bananas usually, sometimes with a kind of coppery tang, which I don’t really mind, but I imagine it makes you smell delicious to vampires; like if Orange Julius made a blood smoothie…” Cheza thinks as she puts on the t-shirt and jeans that she was wearing yesterday.

  “I actually really missed that smell while you were gone. When I first moved into the sorority back in July, one of the girls cut off the tip of her finger while making a banana smoothie and I started bawling… you’re not going to leave me alone again, right Cole?” Cheza asks as she halts her movement. I finish pulling my jeans on before walking over and hugging her.

  “No, I promise that I won’t leave you again. Watching you try to follow me the first time around was the single most painful experience of my life, and one memory that I wish would have just stayed forgotten.” I think.

  Recalling how I felt watching her sobbing on my bed as she dragged my switchblade through her throat, I realize that I truly mean it. Extracting myself from her life cleanly is impossible, so I guess my only choice is to get strong enough to protect everyone I care about… alienating everyone else isn’t a bad idea either… I should make a ‘people I’m stuck with no matter what’ list and focus on protecting them while cutting myself off from everyone else, like Travis… shit, did anyone tell him what’s going on?

  “Don’t worry; Natasha told him about it and that the case would most likely be settled very soon.” Cheza butts in.

  “Good.” I reply as I put my t-shirt on.

  “So, do you have any plans for an assault on Duniya al Jinn?” Cheza asks.

  “Well, my plan of bum-rushing them all by myself doesn’t seem like it will fly anymore, but that doesn’t mean I can’t take out a great deal of them at once to protect you guys if you’re coming with me.” I tell her and exit the room.

  “Cole, what are you scheming?” Cheza asks with slight concern as she follows me out of the room and down the hall.

  I walk past the kitchen and to the door that leads to Reyna’s room. I knock twice and wait so I don’t accidentally walk on them having sex again.

  “What’s up bro?” Jason asks whilst shirtless.

  “I need a place to train with roughly forty homunculi or flesh dolls. In absence of those, I can work with pig carcasses.” I tell him.

  “Sounds like you’re going to be doing something fun!” Jason says, snaps his fingers, and swirl of black mist overtakes Cheza, Jason, and I.

  Jason ports us to some sort of training facility that is a large circular room, roughly one hundred feet in diameter. He snaps his fingers and two scores of homunculi appear.

  “Thanks Jason, I’ll just port us back when I’m done.” I tell him.

  “Can’t I stay and watch?” Jason asks
with a questioning look.

  “Normally I’d say yes, but I don’t trust the things I’ll be using. They seem to follow my will, but if I lose control, they may end up leaving you without any of your skin. The only reason I’m letting Cheza stay is because I know they won’t hurt her with the amount of my blood that is in her.” I inform him.

  “Alright CT… I’ll see you guys in a little while!” Jason says with a grin and a swirl of black as he disappears.

  “Cheza, do me a favor and pull out your phone to record the results in the notes app. I also need you to have a stopwatch app open.” I request; Cheza nods and gets ready.

  “Gaze upon erasure, and return to the void.” I command while holding my left arm out.

  And nothing happens.

  “Gaze upon erasure, and return to the void.” I command with slightly different enunciation while flinging my left arm out.

  Once again, nothing happens.

  I start flailing around like a child throwing a tantrum for a few minutes before Cheza puts her hand on my shoulder.

  “Don’t worry about it! It happens to everyone sometimes and I don’t think any less of you because of it!” Cheza says with a half-smile, which only serves to exacerbate my frustration.

  I sprint forward and punch my left arm through the torso of one of the homunculi, when a crazy thought pops into my head.

  “Hey Airi, is it possible for me to spin the blood around in my hollowed out left arm to create a kind of vacuum effect to suck the blood straight from my enemies and replenish my own supply?”

  (Hmm… theoretically yes, but it would take some time… definitely not something you would be able to do without taking cover)

  “Still it’s a good thing to have under my belt in case of emergencies.”

  “Let’s head back. I’ll try again later.” I tell Cheza and she walks over to grab my hand. I touch my Haglaz and port us to Jason’s room.

  “Perfect timing, I was just about to have Jason go get you two.” Reyna says.