Well, that certainly piqued my interest. “And why would you do that?”
“Because you’re going to repay me with a kiss. Not a peck on the cheek, mind you. A real kiss. Tongue, and all. Three minutes, at least.”
Three minutes of French kissing, just so Sariel and his minions – mostly Lorna; she might have been his only minion, but fuck was she powerful, – wouldn’t pull off another disgusting prank on me? Hm… Let me think about that for a second. No.
“I’m good, thanks.”
He laughed out loud, attracting everyone’s attention. Great! Now, literally all the girls in the room were looking at me like I was fresh meat, just perfect to be devoured. Maybe I should just stand up and make a public announcement that, no, I was not interested in GC, and they could all have him for all I cared. They could pass him around like the horny manwhore that he was.
“You don’t have to give me an answer now, normie. Just think about it.” He winked and turned to the front of the classroom when the professor slammed his book on the table and told us to open to Lesson One.
“I’m going to warn you now, just this once, and then we’ll not mention it ever again,” he started in a grave, almost pissed tone. His hair was streaked with gray, but he was tall and quite ripped for his advanced age. I couldn’t tell what he was, though, but when he turned around to write something on the whiteboard, I saw the two long slits elegantly cut down the sides of his jacket. I wondered if only angels had wings. “We’re studying Mythology in this class, and I don’t want to hear from any of you that Mythology is meaningless fiction. Now, don’t get me wrong, it is fiction, but it’s far
from meaningless.” He turned back to the class and fixed each of us with his intense gaze. “We’re studying the gods and goddesses of death.” He made air quotes around gods and goddesses. “Now, we all know there is no such thing as gods and goddesses around here. We live in a dual universe where there is only one God, and one anti-God. The rest are false gods and false goddesses. Understood?” He looked straight at GC, but Apis didn’t seem impressed. He’d laid back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest. He held the professor’s gaze as if it was nothing. “What mortals have called gods and goddesses through the years, are just supernaturals who were doing their thing. In this case, their Grim Reaper duties. Even though we know the stories mortals have come up with through the ages are complete bullshit, we’re going to study them anyway. This semester only, thank God.”
“He doesn’t seem very passionate about his subject,” I whispered.
GC grinned. “Because it puts Grim Reapers in a bad light.”
“Mortals thought you were gods. How is that bad light?”
“It puts them in charge. The humans. They tell the stories, they define what we, the supernaturals, are, and they write, sing, and speak about us like we’re mere characters in their narratives. It was okay at first, in the old times, when they believed gods were all-powerful beings, so they brought us offerings and prayed to us. But then, psychology and philosophy happened. The modern world happened. And your scholars started saying all gods were figments of the humans’ imagination. They couldn’t explain perfectly natural phenomena, like fire, lightening, rain, and so on, so they came up with fictional all-powerful beings. Now, that’s offensive.”
“Mr. Apis, do you want to teach this class for me?” the professor growled.
“No sir, I’m fine back here. Thank you.”
“Ms. Lazarov, then?” Oh shit, shit, shit. What had I done?! I wasn’t the one talking. “Maybe you’d like to do us the honor? Your kind has proved time and time again how great they are at telling stories. And you should know these stories better than anyone in this class.”
“N-no. I’m sorry. I… It won’t happen again.”
He furrowed his brows at me, but I forced myself to smile innocently. No one could resist a smile, right? Wrong.
“For our next class, Ms. Lazarov, you’re going to prepare a paper on… let’s see.” He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against his desk. “Well, let’s not make your life harder than necessary. You pick a god or goddess of death.”
I gulped. My mind went blank. Everyone was staring at me, snickering and whispering. I could see they were enjoying this. The human no one wanted getting in trouble on the first day of school.
“H-hades,” I managed.
“Perfect. You’re going to write about Nergal.”
I blinked. Who the hell was Nergal? But the professor was done with me, and I wasn’t about to protest, anyway. I checked my schedule and saw the next Mythology class was the day after the next day. Crap. And he hasn’t given me any instructions on how I should write this paper, or how long it should be. And I’m not going to ask him after class. No way. I guess I’ll just have to do my best. I sighed and focused on the lesson.
“You should probably take me up on my offer,” GC leaned in to whisper in my ear.
I stiffened. He smelled like leather and tobacco. Which was weird. He probably smoked, sure, but I doubted he was wearing leather under his uniform.
“I’m fine.”
“Just saying. I might be able to get you out of that assignment. Tell him it was all my fault, and all that.”
“I don’t need your help,” I hissed. “I can write the damn paper.”
“Ms. Lazarov, if you’re going to make a presentation about Nergal, then include Ereshkigal, too.”
Fuck. I gave GC a murderous look. Thanks to him, my assignment just got doubled. I turned my back to him as best as I could, and focused on my books, covering my face with my left arm. He snorted, and I ignored him. What the hell had possessed him to sit next to me? I was totally fine on my own, then he came along and drew everyone’s attention to me. The girls were whispering and behaving as if I’d stolen something that was theirs, and the professor was watching me like a hawk. Just my fucking luck.
I had Rhetoric with Francis, Pandora, and Sariel, but gladly, the class was uneventful. Sariel ignored me all through it, which made me think that his cruel side came out when Lorna was around, and when she wasn’t, he was the kind of guy who preferred to live in his own world. I sat at the back of the room, as usual, and did my best to focus on the lesson. My eyes drifted to Francis ever so often. He intrigued me. With his noble features and almost neutral expression, I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on in his mind. Why had he defended me the day before? Well, he hadn’t exactly defended me, but he had put an end to the torture, and I was grateful for that. I wondered whether it could be a good idea to thank him at some point.