Retribution

“I know you are hurting and if I could ease your pain I would, I rooted for you and Kat from the very beginning. I’m sorry neither of you got the happy ending you deserved.”

“Look lady, I don’t appreciate all this cloak and dagger. You want to talk, then let’s do it face to face. You don’t like that option then you can send me back to my office and let me get back to my bottle of whiskey.”

Her hood fell and revealed one of the most beautiful creatures I had ever seen. It pained me to even think like that, considering I would never see Kat’s beautiful face and soul again, but it was still true.

Her body was toned, with a long neck and small curves. Her lips were such a shade of blood that they appeared to shimmer in the light. Mix that in with her bright violet eyes and she would take anyone’s breath away.

“My name is Violet, and I am the oracle and before you ask, yes I am the oracle who foretold of the Ebony Child. I’ve also foretold a lot of other prophecies, but no one ever wants to hear about those,” she said with a laughing lilt to her voice.

“Why did you want to see me, I can’t think of a damned thing I could ever do for you.”

“I’ve been here for a very long time, I’ve had the odd visitor but that’s always few and far between. But in all honesty, I wanted to meet you, my lone warrior, always surrounded by people but entirely alone at the same time. You have always been an enigma, you just appeared out of nowhere and slotted right into a prophecy that was foretold long before your life came into existence. You were never supposed to be a part of any of this and now you will have to see it all out until the very end.”

Her words confused me, but I didn’t even know where to start on questioning her.

“I asked you here, at this specific time to show you what the Gods are doing. Everyone has been fooled into believing they are being passive, bar that one incident on the news channel. No one is looking in the right places, consider the sway and influence they have over the humans, they can keep it hidden from you for as long as they choose, until now that is.”

She led me over to a waterfall and placed her hand into the stream, it changed until images were playing out on it, like it was some kind of mystical television.

The first one was in a church, with Athena and Zeus standing up on the alter with the body of a vicar lifeless at their feet.

“From here on out, you will only worship us. Pray, curse, sacrifice but only ever in our names. We are the only Gods you will ever need and just to show you we mean business we have selected one of you to come and stand up here with us.”

That had all been said by Zeus and then a human was marched up to them, quaking in fear.

“We have learned a lot since we were released, we watched, listened and waited. So Xander, we would like you to use that

device you call a camera phone and record what happens next. That way the whole world can see just how serious we are.”

Xander the human the Gods has chosen, pulled his phone free, but after the fourth time of dropping it on the floor, Athena grabbed hold of his wrist and held it in place.

Once the moment was being recorded, Zeus turned to face the camera head on.

“We are the only Gods you should ever love, what am I saying?” Her laughter rang out, it was such a sinister sound that it would fill anyone with dread. “Love isn’t necessary fear will do just as well. What is about to happen is for you all to bear witness to, this is what happens when you disappoint or insult us. If it happens again, you can’t say we didn’t warn you.”

Zeus called upon his powers and in moments the entire church was decimated along with its occupants, all perished except from the two Gods and the one unlucky mortal who had to record the entire thing.

The image changed to a beach, filled with tourists and beach lovers, enjoying the sun and cool water mere feet away from them.

The screams started long before the image came to us, as tsunamis covered the beach, pier and arcade areas. No one survived the onslaught, those who weren’t killed by the sheer force were dragged out to sea never to resurface.

Image after image was filled with death and destruction. Volcanoes, storms that tore roofs off some houses and destroyed others, brick by bloody brick until they were blown away. Earthquakes which tore massive cracks through the ground, sending any unlucky pedestrian hurtling down further than the eye could see.

The last image that appeared wasn’t connected to the Gods but Unya herself. She was travelling the streets with Malachi and they were killing for the fun of it.

Unya rejoiced in every life she took, and Malachi seemed like he was getting off on the violence.

The image froze just as they were starting to rip clothes off one another, thank fuck, and I stared speechlessly at the oracle.

“What’s happened to her? Is the Unya I knew and loved still in there somewhere?”

“She was supposed to be, Lawson sacrificed his life so she would have a chance at fixing your world and remain in it herself. She had to lose herself so she could be ready to face the Gods wrath, but I can’t see her future anymore, I can’t see anyone’s that ties in with it.

I could never see yours clearly anyway, but to not know if all my meddling could help this stupid world, it’s killing me. I’ve destroyed so much in the name of good and now it’s all going to Tartarus, isn’t life grand.”

“Snap out of it, Unya is a good person, she just needs to remember that she has people who love and care for her. Even if she never remembers why, I won’t give up on her, not while I still have breath in my lungs.”

She gave me a watery smile before placing a chaste kiss on my cheek, I was ready to return to the real world when she gave me one last parting message.