Mia Darien: Good Things

He found himself standing on a vast expanse of soil. Not one blade of green grass sprouted from the earth. The moist dirt was warm. Overhead, the blue-black sky rumbled, and flashes of lightning provided lingering illumination.

He looked up at the sky. The top of what could be some sort of netherworld. That was when he heard it.

The demonic wail. Beating wings. Scott locked his feet to the ground and braced himself.

I can make you capable of god-like feats. You need not know fear or vulnerability.

Scott swallowed, squinting at the sky . The winged demons were there. They would come for him. The tearing and pulling would begin. His soul would be thrown to Hades.

They would make him into nothing.

Standing his ground, he began to tremble. He looked down at the hot soil flashing in the ethereal glares of lighting. It confused him. He felt he had seen these creatures, heard them before.

No…I remember the pops and cracks of enemy fire. I remember the helicopter blades. That’s it… That’s it. Right?

In that moment, Scott knew that if he surrendered himself to Nyx, devoted himself to her, she would free him. She would put him in a position where he could dominate the mortal world around him if he so chose.

Beautiful women would flock to you. Women with hazel eyes. You could pick and choose amongst them. For your own comfort. For your own joy. The beauties with enticing lips and smooth bare shoulders, ever ready to reveal more. A collection of willing, personalized favorites.

Temptation was there. A hook that pulled him from the base of his simplest desires, and fear of being so human and exposed before unconquerable powers. Before people who saw no value in love. Before people who saw kindness as a joke.

The lure threatened to tear him from himself. To make him something else.

It could be amazing. I could have heaven on earth . Maybe she doesn’t even exist, my St. Ann’s wife.

Scott took a deep breath, understanding that this was some sort of test. Grasping what was on offer.

He looked to the rolling darkness above him and pressed his feet into the soft ground.

“I accept that you might take away whatever it is you’ve given me, Mighty Nyx. But I want to live my life as a man. I want to go to St. Ann’s. I don’t want to be anything… unnatural .”

The expanse above him rolled into dancing mists. The cries of the Keres dimmed until he could hear nothing. He couldn’t feel the soil beneath him. The temperature meant nothing. And soon, he could see nothing.

Scott woke to find it was night.

His blackout curtains had been pulled open just a little. The moonlight shone onto the carpet. Worried someone had broken in, he sat up and turned on the light. The sudden glare made him reach to adjust it. He wound up knocking a magazine off the bedside table.

It was a popular film magazine he bought from time to time. Trying to keep up with what was in cinemas. The magazine was open to an interview with a stunning actress.

Her skin was flushed with an ethereally golden tone. Her tawny glittering eyes revealed a hot-blooded goddess. She shone with every imaginable power of desire and love.

Like she was a bit of an authority on such things.

Scott’s heart began to hammer in his chest. Focusing on her eyes, it was like she was looking at him. It was a look of approval.

Scott leaned back in bed for a moment. “Well, I’m glad you approve of me.”

He went downstairs to the kitchen and checked the answering machine.

“Hiya. This is Scott. Leave a message I’ll get back to you. Cheers.”

First was an offer of a job by the very school he’d wished to teach at. The second was an army mate, someone he had been in Afghanistan with, who wanted to know how he was. Scott stretched his arms overhead, staring at the landline on the tiled floor.

There was a fragrance in his house, the aroma of burning incense lingering in the air.

Scott moved towards the circular armchair before the window of his front room.

He stopped when he saw the crown of her ebony tresses, shining. Her eyes met his. She spoke to him.

“I’ve given birth to many terrible things, Scott. Death, the Keres, many entities of the Underworld fall under my domaine. But you, I am proud of. I can’t lay claim to creating you…” She stopped.

He heard the rustling of fabric. Nyx adjusted her mortal form.

The goddess was thinking before she continued speaking.

Then she said, “But it is an honor to give you back to this world. Much good may you do here. And I would desire greatly that more men had hearts like yours. Good night…Scott.”

And Nyx was gone.

Scott spent the night researching the Goddess Nyx.

One website said that Homer called her a “subduer of gods and men…Zeus himself stood in awe of her .” And that the Keres were just some of her many children.

Amanda was trembling with her knees drawn to her chin. Every shadow was a threat. A lurking man of Greek appearance was in one corner. The ghost of her would-be love was in another.

She pushed herself off the bed and went to her kitchen to fix some tea. Though every space seemed a potential harbor of spirits, she willed herself to make a brew.

Morpheus’s haunting continued. He could use the voice of her love.

“You’re so beautiful. God, you’re beautiful. I can’t believe you are going to be mine…”

The whispered words hurt. Morpheus was cruel. Before her love could even say hello, before their lips could even meet, then why show him to her?

“Leave me… Leave me… Leave me,” Amanda said through her teeth.

The whispering stopped.

A fragrance hit her nose. Floral but not too sweet. Enticing fruit. It made her think of the word ambrosia.

A slight tingling happened under her skin. Even through this, Amber continued to remove the tea bag and pour in the milk. As though someone shouted for her, she went back into her bedroom. She placed the hot drink on the sideboard and lay down.

There were fingers threading through her hair, nails running down her scalp. It wasn’t like the heavy sedation that had attacked her before once the night lady left.

“Daughter, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to see you. But now it appears you have attracted a primordial one.”

Mother?

Amanda had always dreamed of her mother being gorgeous, but this was beyond anything she could have imagined. The warm colors lit up her shadowy room. The lady was all soft textures and comfort. Tawny, golden, and ruby-hued.

“I love what you do, by the way. Weddings.” Aphrodite’s hazel eyes glowed with pride, then her supposed mother’s voice changed when she looked to the corners of Amanda’s room.

“ You. Show yourself, Oneiroi leader.”

The one called Morpheus emerged.

“Stunning Aphrodite. Whatever can I do for you?” Morpheus spoke in playful tones.

“I would know why you play a cruel trick on my daughter. Is it not enough that she suffers? That jealous Hephaestos marked and called the Keres to murder her father as well the male she was destined to love?”

Morpheus gave Aphrodite a closed mouth smile.

The Oneiroi leader remained silent.

So she spoke again.

“How goes never being able to feel touch, Morpheus? How goes your loneliness? Do you know I could make beautiful women worship you, love you with an intensity that would rival that of the greatest known physical encounters? The greatest pleasures begin in the mind. Do they not? I’ve always valued you, Morpheus. But I must demand to know what you are doing here, what part you are playing.”