Cry, Nike! (The Judas Curse)

by Angella Graff

  Why not, he thought to himself. Why not, because Jude deserved a little reprieve from all of this. They all did, really, when everything was said and done. He planned on taking a vacation somewhere very sunny where everyone was half-naked the entire time, and he was drunk at least ten hours out of the day.

  His musings were interrupted when Alex came out of the room with Persephone at his heels. She looked haggard as well, her normally pristine hair in slight tangles, wearing a loose t-shirt and a pair of jeans that didn’t quite fit. Her face was almost yellowish, sickly, and Ben wondered if being forced to stay in her body was doing that to her. Not that it mattered, she was going to die anyway.

  She glanced up at Ben, and he met her gaze with an unreadable expression. For just a moment he struggled to remember her as he’d fallen in love with her. The laughing, hard-headed cop at the curry restaurant who’d fed him almond ice cream and made him feel lighter than he had in years. She was nowhere to be found in this ragged thing standing before him, and if he was really honest with himself, that twisting feeling in the pit of his stomach was pity.

  “The moment Mark is out, she’s going to look for Asclepius,” Alex said. His tone was hard with Ben, not that the detective blamed him. It wasn’t often that anyone took Alex to task, and Ben imagined it hadn’t felt good. He didn’t care though, he had no real feelings for the god and he was tired of bending to their version of morals and greater good. Yes, Ben wanted to save the world, but he was the one who would have to live with the consequences. He was the one who would remember the ones who died for it. Alex, who used humans as vehicles and psychological case studies, wouldn’t lose sleep over a couple of mortal lives lost. After all, there were billions of humans, and just a handful of gods.

  Freshly pissed, Ben’s eyes narrowed and he looked away from him. Jude was tense beside him, obviously picking up on what had happened between the men, and Ben tried to keep himself calm. “Great yeah,” Ben finally said in that awkward silence. “Then we can get the hell out of here.”

  As if on cue, Mark appeared, his hair dripping wet, looking completely out of place in a dark blue polo shirt and jeans that Alex had provided. Mark always had that sort of otherworldly air about him, belonging in perhaps priestly robes, but definitely not in designer casualwear.

  Ben stifled a laugh, the idea that he was analyzing Mark’s clothes funny to him, but he kept it together. They needed to get into action, and the sooner the better. Standing up, Ben clapped his hand together, making everyone jump slightly, and he smirked. “Let’s get this over with.”

  Walking ahead of the group, Persephone was close on Ben’s heels and she politely pushed past him once the bathroom door was open. Alex stood by, his arms crossed, eyes narrowed in suspicion, but it was clear to Ben that the god was in guard mode. He was going to make sure Persephone didn’t try anything stupid.

  Ben didn’t think she would, though. There was something different in her eyes, defeated and final, and Ben wondered if it would actually be a task to get her incorporeal form through the portal and into whatever lay beyond.

  “What are you waiting for?” Ben snapped after a few moments of watching Persephone stand there and stare into the glass.

  She gave an irritated huff and without looking at him, said, “I’m searching.”

  It was then he noticed her eyes flickering back and forth, a subtle, small movement, like someone reading words on a page. Her hands gripping the sink were white-knuckled, and the longer she stood there, the paler and weaker she got.

  Her knees nearly buckled when she stopped, letting out a heavy breath, and with a shaking hand, she reached out and touched the glass. “He’s here,” she gasped.

  With a frown, Ben moved behind Persephone and was startled. He expected to see his own reflection staring back at him, but instead found himself staring into an intensely unnerving, black void. He couldn’t take his eyes off of it. Though it lacked all shape and color, Ben got the feeling he was staring into true and actual infinity. His stomach lurched and he felt the little bit of coffee he’d had rise back up into his throat. His head began to spin, and just as he was sure he was about to vomit right there in the sink, Asclepius appeared.

  The infinite blackness was gone, and behind him was a large, stone pillar. Something earth-made, almost familiar, but Ben couldn’t place it. The god was there, in the form similar to what Ben had seen in the portal room, and he was smiling a little, his arms folded across his chest.

  “Ah, evening,” his voice echoed through the glass, but it was odd. It didn’t sound so much like Ben was hearing him rather than the voice sort of existing in his head. “Or well, afternoon I suppose, where you are.”

  “Where are you?” Ben demanded. He felt a sudden frustration rise up in him and he clenched the edge of the sink. “Where the hell are you? You were supposed to be hear.”

  “Ah yes, yes I was,” Asclepius said. He took a few shuffled steps to the side and smiled apologetically. “I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to join your little army thing. You see, with the extra time I had to myself in that portal room I realized that I can’t go.”

  “What do you mean you can’t go?” Ben demanded.

  “I mean, I can’t cross over.”

  “Can’t or won’t?” Ben pressed.

  Asclepius gave a chuckle and spread his hands wide. “Ah well yes, you seem to have me there. The thing is, I’m just not ready, and lord knows I am going to miss that spunky body Greg could offer me, but you know, I think I need to stick around here and see what else the world has to offer.”

  “You son of a bitch!” Ben shouted, but suddenly the mirror returned to its natural state, and Ben was standing there shouting at himself.

  Persephone had slipped to her knees, her hands still gripping the sink, though her head was hanging forward and Ben wasn’t entirely sure she was conscious. He reached out a careful hand and she let out a heavy breath. “Sorry,” she muttered. “He was fighting the connection and I couldn’t hold it.”

  Ben was absolutely furious and he stormed out of the bathroom and into the living room where Mark, Jude and Andrew were all waiting. “Can you find him?” Ben snapped at Andrew. “Can you drag his ass back here if we can get a location on that no good son of a bitch?”

  “It would take far more time than we have,” Andrew said.

  “Shit,” Ben said, but all of the anger drained out of him suddenly and he collapsed down into one of the plush armchairs.

  “We were afraid it would come to this,” Andrew said after a moment of silence. “Asclepius was a highly unreliable creature and I think we were all aware of the possibility he wasn’t going to help us.”

  “Well then why didn’t we come up with a plan B?” Ben asked irritably, his thumb and fingers pressed gingerly against his eyelids. “I guess I was the only one stupid enough to think he was going to stick by his word.”

  “We did have a plan B,” Alex said, coming up alongside Ben’s chair. “Andrew has volunteered to take Asclepius’s place.”

  Ben dropped his hand and looked sharply at Andrew who was looking back, face completely passive. “Are you serious?”

  “I have very little attachment to this place,” Andrew said with a shrug. “As you so thoughtfully pointed out earlier, this human host is dying with or without me, and while I might not have the human concept of self-sacrifice down the way you do, I’m happy to move on from this place. I love the elements, but eventually it’ll be my time to fade. Why wait?”

  A wave of guilt hit Ben, but he kept it down. He’d been so hard on the gods for nothing other than staying true to their own nature. Just as they didn’t understand self-sacrifice, Ben couldn’t understand their inherent self-preservation. But he wasn’t meant to, just as they weren’t meant to understand what it was like to be human.

  It was all just really fucked up. Ben rubbed a tired hand over his face and then nodded to Andrew. “Alright. Okay. So… it’s decided.”

  “It is,” Alex said. He
turned to Persephone, who was hovering a few feet away near the hallway and he looked her up and down. “Have you found it.”

  “Sedona, Arizona,” she said with a shrug.

  Everyone but Ben shrugged. The detective, however, laughed. Sedona, Arizona. He’d been there before, having been dragged there as a child by his mother who had momentarily quit drinking after Ben’s youngest sister had passed. His mother had gone on a brief spiritual quest to try and find the meaning behind the death of children. What she found were a load of hippies wearing crystals, chanting around giant stone circles meant to hold vortexes. Eventually, when none of them could ease her grief, she turned back to the bottle and her fate was sealed. Sedona, Arizona is when she stopped giving a shit about her children.

  It was fitting. Ben rose from the chair and said, “I’m going to tell Hades once we hit the road. We’ll have a few hours on them, which will give us time to prep everything and give us a chance to form our game-plan.”

  “We’re going to need some way to incapacitate Nike,” Mark pointed out from his spot next to Jude.

  “That drug,” Ben said, snapping his fingers, trying to remember the name. “The one Greg had gotten to force the Greeks out of their human hosts.”

  “We’ve got it,” Andrew said. “The night you left with Hades I took the security footage and all of Greg’s supplies. We have his serum he was using to allow Asclepius to use his body and the antidote.”

  Ben, impressed with that information, couldn’t help but smile. The expression felt foreign, but welcome. “Excellent. Let’s get packed.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  It was a tense drive, but it wasn’t going to be anything other than, as the group began their trek east, into the harsh desert state of Arizona. Just hours after leaving the city, it grew hotter, drier, and Mark shifted uncomfortably in the back of the large SUV.

  Jude was next to him, dozing against the side of the car while Alex wordlessly sped down the freeway, his car keeping pace just behind the smaller one that had Ben behind the wheel. It was sunny as they made their way through the winding curves and the harsh orange sands of the dunes, and it reminded Mark, just briefly, of walking through the desert thousands of years ago.

  “Few more hours,” Alex said. “You mind if I throw these on?” He had a pair of headphones dangling from his fingers.

  Mark gave his head a quick shake. “Not at all.” He returned his gaze to the landscape beyond, and gave a sigh as he heard the droning sounds of what was likely an audiobook coming from the small earpieces Alex had put in.

  He felt like he should be more concerned, worried, even anxious as they hurtled down the road toward what was likely to be a bloody fight. Nothing with Nike had ended as they expected, and the death toll was only rising. Mark knew he’d be a fool to believe they’d all walk away from this intact and all alive.

  Andrew was fading fast as it was. He was holding it together, but as the hours crept by he grew weaker, his skin yellowing, unable to eat or drink much of anything. Mark understood Ben’s frustration with the situation, though he was at a loss on how to compromise. The kid was dying anyway, and they needed Andrew now that Asclepius had abandoned them.

  Persephone knew she was marching on to her own death, but she didn’t seem to care anymore. The once-strong, persistent detective had been beaten, and whether or not she actually went through the portal, she knew it was over. Mark wanted to feel sorry for her, but seeing the betrayal in Ben’s eyes, he had a hard time drawing up any pity. It reminded him of a human child, so consumed with the ego, unable to see past their own wants, to differentiate between what they wanted and needed. It wasn’t her fault, but there wasn’t any other solution now.

  Jude gave a soft snore and Mark’s eyes snapped over to him, unable to shake off the constant anxiety he felt now that Jude had been… for lack of a better word… infected. He reached out with a delicate hand, letting the tips of his fingers rest on Jude’s forehead. The skin was cool, normal, and Mark let out a quiet breath of relief.

  His kiss had worked, letting Jude remember and believe that he had something else in his life, something big enough to eclipse and consume this sudden power Apollo had over him. But Mark wasn’t sure it would remain enough, and he was frustrated that Persephone could only offer a short-term solution to what was likely an immortal problem.

  Mark closed his eyes and tried to picture the portal. A ring of stones in the strange, reddish desert with the rock formations and plateaus. He had no idea what it would look like, but he wondered if he just decided it was over and stepped through, what would happen? What would happen to his body? To his soul? Would he be sucked into the beyond, or cast back to earth to live out this hellish existence with no hope or promise of it ever ending.

  He’d read once about how one day the sun would expand and consume the earth, and he had to wonder if that day would be enough to finally end this. It was agony, not knowing why they were there, what the purpose was. How to stop it, because he just wanted to finally rest. He felt a small surge of anger as he thought to himself, I’ve earned peace. I’ve done enough.

  A hand crept over his, squeezing gently over his clenched knuckles and Mark looked down to see Judas reaching across the space between them. His eyes were still closed but he was regaining consciousness slowly.

  “We there?” Jude asked as he used his free hand to run at his eyes.

  “Ah no, few more hours I believe,” Mark said. Absently he reached out to touch the window and grimaced at how hot the glass had become. “We’ll probably stop to refuel at the next pull out.”

  Jude gave a nod and looked out across the landscape. He’d missed the dunes, and now just mottled desert colors of red, grey and green spread across the land. Brush lining the freeway with the occasional yellow flower littered the view, ugly yet strong and consuming. Mark understood why people would choose to live out that way. It had a sort of quiet beauty, something you had to dig deep to appreciate, but Mark could definitely appreciate the beauty in what seemed barren and dead.

  “How are you?” Mark finally asked after some time.

  Jude gave a shrug and a small sigh. “Okay, I suppose.”

  Mark’s brow furrowed and he let Jude’s hand go. “You may as well explain it. This isn’t going to just disappear and the more I understand the better I can help you.”

  Jude gave a harsh laugh and shook his head. “You’ve done enough, don’t you think?”

  Mark blinked in surprise, completely taken aback by the accusation Jude shot at him. “I’m sorry?”

  Jude gave a frustrated growl and rubbed his hand over his face. “I’m not blaming you, Makabi, it was my own fault for not staying on my guard. But goddamn it, he was there, and warm and I don’t think you realize how long it’s been since I’ve experienced something even remotely akin to affection—”

  “Oh believe me, I know,” Mark said, his feeling of hurt masking the deeper feeling of guilt. “I never asked you to fall in love with me.”

  Jude froze, struck by the words, the harshness of them, and he pulled away from Mark even further. “This isn’t about that.”

  “So why are you angry?” Mark pressed, keeping his voice low so their argument didn’t attract the attention of Alex. This was an argument a long time coming, but Mark wasn’t sure he wanted to have it out with Jude right there in that SUV on the way to a battle Mark wasn’t sure they were going to win.

  Licking his lips in thought, Jude cast his eyes out the window again and spoke softly. “I’m not really angry. I’m… I’m lonely, and I’m tired. I’m frustrated and for a moment I thought, would it be so bad to just be with him? Would the price I have to pay be worth that moment of affection.”

  “Was it?”

  The silence stretched on for so long that when Jude finally answered, Mark had assumed Jude was going to remain mute on the subject. “No.”

  Mark gave a slow nod and reached out, gingerly squeezing Jude’s shoulder. Jude tensed, but didn’t push the
contact away and Mark let his hand rest there. “I’m sorry I lied.”

  “You didn’t lie,” Jude said with another harsh laugh. “I’m not so foolish as to think that you suddenly changed your mind, Makabi. I’ll never be so foolish as to think that I matter to you.”

  “Don’t—”

  “I’m an obligation and I’ve long since made my peace with that,” Jude snapped. “Whatever this is inside of me,” he said and pulled at the front of his shirt so hard the fabric nearly ripped, “it nearly destroyed my brother, and it’s eating away at me piece by piece. In a few more centuries, I doubt there’s going to be anything left, and you know that as well as I do. The return from madness takes longer and longer each time it happens. The slip into it quicker. The people around me steal from me and my ability to stop them gets weaker by the day, and eventually there’s not going to be anything left. You tell yourself that you had a choice to follow me, that you decided, but we both know that’s a lie. You had as much of a choice as I did when whatever had taken my brother shoved its claws into me and dragged me into this hell. You were caught in the wake, and you’re here now, unable to suffer a moment of madness and you have to watch me slip into mine, helpless. So hate me, because what else can you possibly feel for me?”

  “I don’t…” but that was as far as Mark could get in defending himself. Hate? No. Blame? God yes, because he hadn’t asked for any of this. Jude dragged him into this life, this immortality, this constant torture of watching the world around him crumble and decay. But he would be damned if he let himself admit for even a moment that he didn’t have a choice, because it was all he had left. Freewill was the only thing keeping him together in this mess and he couldn’t let Jude take that away from him.

  He turned away from his companion and stared down at the desert. It seemed to go on forever, just flat plains stretching out into infinity, mountains that seemed more of a painting in the background, just a way to fool the humans that there was something more than a barren wasteland of existence. He laughed a little, startling himself, and he shook his head.