Chapter Text
2.
sciamachy — a battle against imaginary enemies
The sky looked grim, furious red and midnight black swirling in angry flames together. Hades was definitely not pleased at the turn of things, and Persephone couldn’t help but feel a bit at a loss. She didn’t understand why her husband seemed to care so much about the boy that was the result of one of his escapades to the living world. So what if his mother didn’t intend to tell him about his heritage, that he was a demigod? Who on Earth even cared? The worst thing that could happen was the boy blowing someone up. Of course, it looked as if no one shared her opinion. Even Thanatos seemed to share his friend’s pain. The only one who was apathetic was Bahram, but then again he never really showed any emotion that went beyond anger and lust, so she felt completely alone in her annoyance.
“Who does she think she is?” Hades seethed, a glass breaking somewhere in his wake. Bahram looked up with a cocked eyebrow, ignoring the warning glance of his father as he opened his mouth to offer his input on the situation.
“Why is the child so important?” he asked, swaying his leg with an absentminded expression clouding his face.
“I know that he has a great deal of power already,” the King answered, his tone so confident no one dared to question his words. “I can feel it,” he shook his head with a scowl. Persephone rolled her eyes, but otherwise remained silent. Thanatos didn’t seem to know what the right thing would be to say, and so he chose to wisely stay quiet.
“So bring him here,” Bahram said with a shrug of his shoulders, sitting up right and preparing to stand up. Thanatos watched his son with furrowed eyebrows, wondering just where he wanted to wander off to yet again. He had always known Bahram was a peculiar child, what with being cursed at his birth and being doomed to unhappiness for eternity. However, with the way he spent so much time away from the underworld, Thanatos couldn’t help but think that something major was up. Something that was not big enough to catch his attention, but big enough to make his son disappear for extensive amount of times.
“You absolute fool!” Hades bellowed, turning his head sharply in Bahram’s direction. “Are you suggesting I kill my own son?” he snarled, stepping closer to the young god. Bahram stood up simply, not wavering beneath the murderous glare of his king. He knew there wouldn’t be a bloodbath that day.
Bahram smirked, and licked his lower lip with glowing eyes before he answered. “I mean no disrespect by this, my King, but if it is that important to you to meet him, then I see no other option.”
Hades heaved a heavy sigh, his facial expression softening into a deep frown after a few seconds as he fell back into his throne. A skull cracked beneath his weight but he paid it no mind as he shook his head and grunted in defeat.
“I suppose you’re right, boy,” he admitted grudgingly. “It can’t be helped then. There’s only the hope that Danai can keep him out of trouble.”
☽
Liberty Avenue was bustling with life. Rainbow-colored flags were swaying everywhere as the chatter throughout the street provided Justin with background noise. He did his best not to touch people as Daphne and he walked down the busy roads, but he still managed to run into a few guys. At first he had turned to apologize to everyone he had stumbled into, but after a few occasions he noticed that no one else did, and so by now he didn’t bother to say sorry to any of them. Daphne was looking around in wonder, ogling everyone that passed by them, her eyes nearly falling out of their sockets. Justin snickered, thinking that his best friend was so obviously and painfully straight. He had to give her credit, though, not once in their four years of being best friends had she said anything even remotely homophobic. In fact, she had always done her best to support Justin throughout everything, starting with the realization itself that he was gay, up to the point where he had come out to his parents.
His father, of course, had been a bigot about it. Justin hadn’t expected anything less, however, that it hurt any less when his father had started verbally berating him, blaming his sexual orientation for everything he had done wrong in his life. He had immediately thrown a duffel bag to Justin’s chest, telling him to get out and to never come back. Justin had gone to Daphne’s house, where they had spent the following week alone; Daphne’s parents out of the country as usual. His mother had persuaded his father to allow him to come home, and no matter how much Justin wanted to stay in the safe bubble of Daph’s home, he couldn’t help but feel a bit relieved that his family hadn’t been torn up completely just because he had come out.
Granted, his relationship with his father had been strained at best ever since, but it was a small price to pay to see his little sister grow up with two parents who were together. Justin thought that sometimes Molly was the only one that kept him from running away or doing something even worse, despite the differences they obviously had. Molly was a very loud and lively child, with an annoying high-pitched voice that just seemed to rip through Justin’s eardrums every time she started shouting about something, but he loved her nonetheless.
Daphne snapped him out of the depth of his thoughts with a tug on his hoodie’s sleeve as she pointed towards a street vendor who seemed to be selling some kind of jewelry. He rolled his eyes, but allowed himself to be dragged over to the strange, old man who watched them with his lips turned up into a funny smirk. Daphne was completely in love with all the designs of the bracelets and necklaces hanging from sculptures made of wood. The man smiled at her warmly when their eyes locked, and Daphne’s grin became even wider, a glint of something Justin didn’t recognize flashing in her eyes.
“Would you two younglings by any chance be interested in something here?” he asked, a friendly, almost fatherly edge to his voice. Justin’s chest tightened as involuntary images of the last time his father had talked to him like that creeped before his imaginary eyes. He shook his head a bit in order to snap out of it and smiled politely, letting Daphne do the talking.
“What do the inscriptions mean?” she asked as she held up a bracelet with a silver plate, a few words in a language Justin didn’t recognize engraved into it.
“Polyktonos,” he mused, “is a word written in ancient Greek. It means murderous, or much-slaying.”
“How uplifting,” Justin snickered, shaking his head lightly. “We should get two of those, Daph, and then go on a killing spree,” he smiled at her wickedly, biting down on his lower lip as the girl rolled her eyes and smacked his chest.
“Shut it, Jus,” she huffed, picking up another bracelet. “So what’s this one?” she smiled mischievously.
“Ah, that one’s Telephilon,” the old man replied with a smile of his own. “It means ‘far-away love', but is also a name of a plant which was struck with a hand to see if one’s love was returned. It’s the ancient Greek version of ‘Love me, love me not’, I suppose,” he said gruffly.
“Sounds nice,” Justin hummed, picking up a bracelet with the same words etched into the shiny plate. "Do you have anything that has to do with friendship?" he asked, and almost shy tone to his voice. He felt pink embarrassment creep up his neck and color his cheeks at the incredulous look Daphne gave him, but chose to ignore her. If he wanted to be nice, then he damn well would be nice, and Daphne could just shove something up her ass.
"This one's Philia," the man picked up another accessory, holding it out for the young boy to take. "A word used when describing deep platonic love, something one would usually feel towards an important friend," he supplied helpfully as his gaze held onto Justin's gentle fingers examining the bracelet in his hand. The boy twirled it around for a few moments before looking up at the vendor.
" We'll take t—"
His sentence however got interrupted by someone knocking into him. Justin's hair stood at the nape of his neck, an involuntary shiver racing down his spine. He could feel his muscles tense under the lingering accidental touch of the stranger and he whipped his head around without really wanting to. Dangerously glistening hazel eyes bore into his own gaze in an instant, the swirling myriad of emotions deeply penetrating the blond boy's soul. He felt his breath hitch as he blinked once, and the next moment the stranger was gone.
He frowned, not being able to stop the hollowness from weaseling its way into him, spreading around his lungs like black poison, attaching itself to his every fibre and leaving him with a feeling of emptiness he knew all too well. He couldn't fucking believe he'd just had a hallucination in broad daylight, in the middle of a busy street, in front of so many people. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, willing the angry tears back as sharp pain suddenly made itself known. He could feel every painful pulse of his veins in his head, and with a deep inhale of air he dropped the bracelet from his palm as if it burned him.
He refused to look at anyone as he impulsively started making his way down towards the street they had come from, not even caring if Daphne was following him or not. Ropes of sadness tightened around his neck, an uncomfortable lump settle into his throat, making it difficult to breath. He knew he had to stop from walking so fast soon, he could feel his lungs screaming for air but the desire to get away from the crowd was much greater than his shortness of breath.
He couldn't believe it. At first, the hallucinations had only been confined to the four walls of his bedroom, solely appearing at nighttime. After a while, he had seen the figures in various points of his house, despite of it being daytime, but that, he could get used to. He, however, could not make peace with the fact with the possibility of seeing them at any point of the day, no matter where he was. It was unnerving, and he could feel the uncertain anxiety creeping up his spine, hugging his lungs into it in a deathly embrace.
He took a sharp turn into a tiny alley, and stopped abruptly, throwing his back against the cold, unwelcoming brick wall. He closed his eyes tightly, starting to see stars with the strength he clenched them shut. His huffs of breath came out as wheezes, although he couldn’t be too sure with the way his ears were ringing. He faintly heard the sound of someone calling his name, but he was too afraid to open his eyes, in fear of finding out that the voice was just a hallucination too. He could feel his body tremble with the erratic pace of his heartbeats rocking through him, and he suddenly felt his legs give out as he slid along the wall onto the harsh ground. He pressed his head between his knees, taking huge gulps of air as he desperately tried to calm down.
He didn’t know how much time passed. The seconds, the minutes or even hours spiraled together in a colorful blur before Justin felt like he could open his eyes and walk without fainting or dying. He blinked a few times, focusing on the concrete beneath him before he glanced up warily and was met with Daphne’s worried eyes. Sharp pain jabbed at his chest as guilt settled in and his lower lip quivered.
“I’m sorry, Daph, I’m so—”
“None of that,” the girl answered as she crouched down in front of him, gently placing her warm hand on his knees for support. Justin flinched for a second but eventually settled into the loving touch and bit down on his lower lip. “You need anything? We could go to the diner and buy some food,” she said with a soft smile, rubbing his leg. Justin let out an unelegant snort.
“And have my head split open by the screeching of that redhead waitress? Spare me,” he waved his hand dismissively, letting out a deep breath and wiping away the dry tears on his cheeks. “Just let me gather myself for a few more moments.”
“As you wish, your highness,” she rolled her eyes. “We will talk about this later when you want to, Jus.”
“Well, I won’t fucking want to talk about it,” he said heatedly, rubbing his hands over his face with a frustrated sigh. “Sorry, Daph, it’s not you. I just- I saw another hallucination. It’s nothing,” he exhaled.
“It’s obviously something if you had a freaking panic attack over it, Justin,” she huffed out. “And stop calling them hallucinations,” she added silently, a faraway look suddenly resting upon her face. Justin’s eyebrows creased into a deep frown, scowling at this best friend.
“But that’s what they are, Daphne. They are not real people. You don’t see them, my mother doesn’t see them, Godiva herself couldn’t see them if she knew,” he spoke rapidly, his hands clenching into frustrated fists. “Because they aren’t there. I’m just so fucking fucked in the head, that’s it,” he finished curtly, snapping his mouth shut and closing his eyes.
Daphne chewed on her lower lip, frowning. Hades have mercy on us, she mused in her head as she tried — and failed — to give Justin a reassuring smile.
☽
Bahram surveyed the meadow stretching across in front of him with a stoic facial expression. The dead flowers dissolved into fine dust before his very own eyes, making his chest tighten with an unknown feeling. Icy blue eyes swam around in his head, accompanied with the angelic smile of the boy he kept seeing for the past few months.
Bahram didn’t know who he was, but he knew he yearned to have him. It was a scary feeling, the longing embedded into his chest. What he longed for exactly, he could not really pinpoint despite the baby blues that have seemed to completely take over his every waking thought. Shaking his head with a scowl, he watched as yet another daisy faltered and became dust, the wind softly picking it up and carrying it across the sky. He sighed, turning his back to the meadow and started making his way down the hill.
His musings could wait for another day, or a few centuries.