Nyx.
Scott placed his hands on either side of the oval white sink and looked at himself in the mirror. He still bore the results of an endless sunburn. A few new freckles had cropped up around his nose. His eyes were a little red from fatigue. But they were his original blue color. His previously cropped hair had begun to grow out, the strands still short but becoming shaggy.
He needed a shower.
He licked his lips and swallowed, then opened his mouth, taking note of every breath. “I’m knackered. Why am I so…” He paused, trying to digest all the things whirring in his mind.
Scott closed his eyes then opened them again. He placed one hand on the side of his neck, squeezing. The moment he did that, he found himself lightheaded. The light behind the frosted privacy window beside his white bath/shower flickered. As though something large and dark flew past.
A familiar voice hit his head. Her.
“You walked all around town last night, unable to find rest. But now…you will find it. Worry not.”
One of the horses from the field behind his back garden whinnied. He was brought back to the moment.
Scott showered, enjoying every moment of hot water and cleanliness.
It’s like I haven’t experienced a shower in ages, but…it’s just all that time in Afghanistan. When normal hygiene was a major luxury. When the stinking heat infiltrated every bastard pore. It’s not like it’s been years…
Leaning his head back and rinsing the last of the shampoo from his hair, he closed his eyes. Remembering all the months of fighting the sweat endlessly dripping into his eyes. At the same time fighting to remain alive.
Toweling off, Scott went into his room. The walls were a deep blue. The blackout curtains had been drawn. The duvet was black, inviting him to crawl into an oblivion-filled, restorative slumber. Scott decided to turn on a lamp on the bedside. He paused to stare at his unpacked things, then went into one of the boxes to find a plain white t-shirt, clean boxers and sweats.
He wanted…nightfall. Like a blanket.
Nyx. He swallowed.
It felt lonely without the goddess’s presence.
I can give you abilities. Make things happen for you. You would grow to enjoy worshiping me.
She’d been like a comfort in the darkness. He was suddenly sensitive to the temperature, despite it being midsummer.
Scott switched off the lamp and climbed into bed. He’d never been a person to kip during the day, but this fatigue was overwhelming and the sheets beckoned him like a siren.
He slid his body beneath the duvet and found himself at sleep’s mercy. Unbidden dreams brought a reality he could smell. He felt it in the very soles of his feet.
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.”