Myth Gods Tech - Omnibus Edition: Science Fiction Meets Greek Mythology In The God Complex Universe (7 page)

“
Thank you,” I said and put it on my wrist. It was bulky and
entirely not fitting with my wardrobe, but who cares about that
anymore?

Chapter
26

“
I told her
you kissed me,” I said, teasing him, as I was throwing stuff in my
schoolbag.

“
What?” Billy yelped. “I-I didn’t kiss you Mahi, I was onl-
I’d never kiss you! No, sorry, didn’t mean that. Of course I would,
if you were to… You’re gorgeous. But not like that!”

I let
him babble on for a while and then shushed him. “Relax, I didn’t
tell her anything about that. Just the rest of the
facts.”

I heard
a chair squeak from weight, and a sigh. After a while, he said,
“Mahi? Do you need me to come with you?”

I
thought about it. “Ohi. No, I’ll be fine. I ran away from her the
first couple of times, I’ll just do it again. I’m prepping my bag
now, got my clothes, my sneakers, all I need. Don’t worry titan
boy.”

“
Hope your plan works. Tell me where you’ll be in case
something happens. I need to know.”

I
sighed. “At that little forest at the border with Kifisia. I’m
telling my parents I’ll sleep over at Deppy’s, so if they happen to
ask, cover for me.”

“
Of course.”

My
overnight bag was ready. A light sports jacket, comfy pants,
running shoes, water, a snack, a torch, the watch Deppy gave me.
What else? I had looked around for my sleeping bag, but it was
nowhere to be found. I decided I could manage a single night with
just an old blanket, after all it was warm even late at night.
After that I’d either look for it in the house’s closet or go buy a
new one.

I was
clutching my nécessaire and was deciding if I needed it or not. If
someone would see me, I’d be an unattractive mess. Then again, the
point was to avoid everyone. I put it back to the rest of my makeup
stuff, and just took a jersey hat with me for the morning. I threw
in my toothpaste and my toothbrush though. We can’t ignore basic
hygiene.

I looked
outside, and then at the countdown. It was almost
nightfall.

The
clock was ticking down.

I lifted
my schoolbag on my shoulder, made my excuses, ignored mama’s
complaints and hurried out.

Twelve
minutes to go.

Chapter
27

It was the
longest night of my life.

Chapter
28

In the morning, I was feral.

There is
a reason people chop down trees and go live in frickin
houses.

It’s
cause forests are scary.

Even
though I was in a narrow ribbon of leftover forest, a tiny part of
what had been there decades ago, and without animals and such
inside it, I was terrified. The strip of land was so thin that you
could see houses across it through the trees, so there was a
modicum of safety, in that you were near civilisation. They were
all pine trees, not that I knew how to recognise any other ones but
I’d been living there all my life, yeah, I could make out one type
of tree. The pine cones pretty much gave it away. They were tall
and their branches were spaced out. Pine cones and pine needles
made a thick layer on the ground. A row of lamp posts were at one
side, lighting a path around a school.

At
night, it was still scary as shit.

Allow me
to recap.

The
first attack came at once, but I was already buzzed out about it so
I think I handled it pretty well. I ran and screamed like a girl,
which I am, so no shame there. The Erinyes chased me between the
trees into the twilight, her arms always stretched towards me. My
flashlight did the trick but it was harder than I had imagined to
run into the night with so little a light source. I didn’t really
know the lay of the land. It was a place were we had played years
ago as children, but I overestimated my knowledge. As I said, I’m
the worst kind of navigator you could possibly find, but come on,
this was practically a city park, a tiny part of the wild, smack
dab in the middle of the place I lived. How hard could it be to
find my way around in the dark?

Pretty
hard, as it seems.

I ran
from her, the minute was up. My adrenaline went down, I breathed in
again normally. I was lost. I spent almost a full hour trying to
find my backpack again, and that left me with not much time to
rest.

I tried
to doze off but it was impossible. So I just waited.

Forests
are scary. Did I say that? Well I’m saying it again.

Even
though I had a perfect timepiece that was ticking away the precise
minutes till the predator attacks, I couldn’t make myself calm.
Every distant noise, every sway of the branches, made me stand up
and get ready to bolt. It was ridiculous, I knew, my logical self
knew, that there was no attack yet, but my hypothalamicus or
whatchacallit was screaming at me, making me wanna run
away.

In
retrospect, choosing the forest was a bad idea. I know. We haven’t
gone to the second attack yet.

The
second attack found me running even as the watch beeped.

Sure,
reason said that a running start wouldn’t hurt, but this wasn’t
coming from any logical part of my brain. She found me running and
chased after me, flowing in the air as if through something thick,
just as she did every time.

Thick,
thick kariola. Never giving up, always chasing me. Always following
me. Thick, thickety-thick.

My
running brought me towards the houses, a plain road separating them
from the forest. I ran a wide arc and got back towards the forest.
My feet slapped on the pavement and made a lot of noise, but nobody
seemed to get rattled. Even if they had, I didn’t even look back. I
jumped over a bench and dove between the trees. There was nothing
to throw at her, and I would have tried to, even though she didn’t
seem to mind any obstacles in her path.

I was so
scared.

Sixty
seconds is an eternity when something is chasing you in the dark
forest.

I
panted, my foot giving out and I fell to the side as I cursed. Pine
needles pricked my hands, not that sharp so as to make me bleed,
but enough to feel it and decide not to do it again. The Erinyes
came at me around a tree, smiled, so I threw a handful of brown
pine needles at her and dashed away.

I had
made it.

The
third attack found me facing her head on. I stood myself high, my
feet wide in a stance of projected power. She came at me, leaning
down as she closed the distance, her hand sweeping the dirt floor
with purple sparks.

My
armour of confidence shattered and I fell back, stumbled on a small
crevasse on the dirt, probably carved by a small winter stream that
was now dry, and sharp rocks scratched my hands. I fussed, kicking
dirt and ran away in a straight line more or less, zig zagging
through the forest.

The minute must have been up, well,
minutes
ago but I still ran till I
found the far end of the forest. It came to a wide road, after that
were condos. I looked back, panting, but not that much, checked the
time, confirmed that I was running away from my shadow for a good
six minutes and turned to walk back.

Then the
adrenaline left me and the pain kicked in. Cramps, scratched arms,
a pounding head, a wheezing chest. Boy, was I out of practice. I
promised myself I’d hit the gym tomorrow.

I was
calm, body aching, walking slowly back at my ‘camp.’

Then a
bat flew over my head, scared me shitless and I ran the rest of the
way.

The
fourth attack found me up a tree.

I know,
I know. She floats. Yeah, you can say that, sitting in your cozy
bed, hugging your pillow tight, safe and sound. It was impossible
at that point for me to think properly. It was around two o’clock,
I hadn’t slept all night even though I thought I’d manage to sneak
in a nap, and I was aching and tired and terrified.

It
seemed like a good idea at the time, climbing up a tree to avoid
something that followed me. When she came, she lifted her head
straight at me and began climbing the trunk of the tree as if
lifting herself from her fingers. But it felt wrong somehow, you
know, not… realistic.

Who
cares, as soon as she got up to me I leapt down in a soft patch of
shrubbery and ran away. At least I tried, cause my leg hurt like
hell and I couldn’t move.

The
Erinyes stayed above me for a few seconds, still holding on to the
tree. I looked up, a tiny ray of hope in me, that she maybe was too
dumb to get down, that I had found an Achilles Heel. I rubbed my
leg and looked at her.

Then she
dove down, falling, her toga rippling on the air, but impossibly
slow, as if a different sort of gravity applied to her. I twisted
my body to the side and barely missed her nails coming down on my
leg, but her hair caught up to me. They billowed and spun, grabbing
my throat. A flashback of the previous encounter where she had
choked me came to me, and I decided not to let her do it again. I
thrashed, kicked, yelled, threw dirt. I’m not sure how but I did
manage to get out of her hair (pun alert!), and I stood up in pain
and ran away.

The
fifth attack was at daybreak.

I was
out of my mind at that point. Exhausted, terrified. She appeared in
a circle of streetlight. I did a u-turn, fell on my old school’s
metal railings and tried to climb up. She approached, and I let go
of that plan and simply ran up some wide steps, paved with rocks at
a side of the forest. She followed. I ran to the adjoining street,
between cars. She followed. I ran to a house, trying to find a spot
to climb a fence, looking frantically around. She followed. I
ducked behind a car, tried to hold my breath so as to not give me
away. She appeared over the hood of the car, following me. I ran
back into the forest, fumbled, scraped my knee for the tenth time
on the uneven ground and lost my flashlight. She followed. I ran
into the dark forest, jumped over a rock, found a large, old tree
with a wide trunk and hid behind it, my back to it. She
followed.

I cried.
I just cried. I couldn’t take it anymore.

I
couldn’t move.

I just
sat there, on the ground, my back to the tree. Waiting for her to
get me. Her seconds were up, she never came.

Chapter
29

“
You look
like skata,” Billy said as soon as he saw me.

“
Jee thanks Romeo. Tell me more of those compliments of
yours,” I said and rubbed my eyes. I hadn’t slept a peep. He was
staring at me, worried. His eyes fell on the my scraped knees, the
cuts on my arms. He couldn’t see the bruises I had acquired on my
belly, but I felt them just fine. My hair was a mess, my eyes
sunken and dark. I was brushing my snot on my sleeve.

Selfie
time!

No
way.

My tall
friend had come by himself, being worried all night about me. I was
sure he had lost a bit of sleep over me, but he sure had had a
better rest than me. He had called me from the outskirts of the
small forest, looking around for me.

“
I’m gonna sneak in home, I need a shower,” I said, pulling my
schoolbag in one strap over my shoulder.

“
Let me walk you there. What else can I do to
help?”

I
shrugged and led the way. “Get me a flashlight. I lost
mine.”

We
walked back to my house. The light of the dawn washed over me. I
was feeling tired, sleepy, hurting in places I didn’t know I could.
But there’s something about the light of a new day that washes the
worries away. And some of the fear. Physically, I was still feeling
horrible. Emotionally, I wasn’t that bad.

I opened
the front door as quietly as I could. I had done it so many times,
that I knew the places I needed to apply pressure to avoid all
noise.

I snuck
in the hall, carefully placing my steps on the wooden floor. It
creaked all right, and in the silence it sounded dangerously loud.
But I had tested the noise, and was fairly confident that it didn’t
get through the room walls.

I took a
few steps, exhaling as I neared my room, where I could drop off my
dirty clothes which would give me away in an instant. I was just in
time to avoid dad, and mom should be avoided anyway cause she would
assume the worst. That I was doing excessive physical activity in
the forest, more likely.

Just a
few more steps.

And then
I heard a massive yawn and I froze midstep.

“
Mahi?” My dad said and clinked his coffee mug.

Chapter
30

It was
still an hour till my dad’s normal wake up routine, but he must
have had another sleepless night. He was drinking a cup of warm
coffee in the kitchen. The door was at an angle so he couldn’t
really see me, but I had to get past him to go to my room and put
on a bathrobe or something.