Authors: Rain Oxford
God of the Abyss
God of the Abyss
By Rain Oxford
God
of the Abyss © 2015 Rain Oxford
All
Rights Reserved
The
Guardian Series Book 3
A loud crash woke me from a deep sleep. When it came
again, I very carefully got out of bed and into the closet. As I had learned
the second time the house was broken into, burglars in this neighborhood didn’t
have many moral dilemmas with hurting anyone. My mom had her boyfriend install
a lock on the inside of my closet door after that.
It was the high-pitched cry that had me opening the
door. I heard the sound of someone being hit and knew Mother was home. After a
few minutes, the front door was slammed and it was mostly quiet. I went to the
kitchen, careful to watch my step. I kept the house immaculate, but the men
that came around here liked to throw things… they were usually more destructive
the
cleaner
the house was.
Mother was leaning against the cabinets under the
sink in the kitchen. Her light blond hair was mangled from being pulled and
damp with a few spots of blood. Although the dark red blood that covered my
mother’s face was gory, it was too dark to see if anything was broken.
I carefully stepped around the shattered remains of a
cup that had likely been thrown in anger as I made my way to my mother. Only
when I kneeled beside her did I consider flipping on the light switch, but then
I couldn’t reach it without leaving my mom’s side. I looked back at her and the
lights flickered on. It drove Mother crazy when they would do what I wanted.
She said I was unnatural and would go to Hell.
While Mother’s face didn’t look cut or anything, her
right shoulder was angled oddly. Why did people always have to break my mother?
I knew she wasn’t a nice woman, that she stole and lied; however, she was still
a person. In fact, she was the only person I had.
“Mom, wake up,” I said. She didn’t stir, so I checked
her pulse. Despite the strong thud, my fingers were bloody when I brought them
away. I wiped my hand on my white t-shirt. “Mom, wake up or I’m calling an
ambulance again.” It was the first phone number I ever learned. “Mom!”
She moved, only to start crying. I got a hand towel
out of the drawer and wet it with warm water from the sink, then tried to wipe
the blood off her face as gently as I could.
“What are you doing up?” she asked me.
“I was hungry,” I said. It wasn’t a lie. On Sunday
night, I had gone most of the weekend without food. I learned quickly to
ration, but Mother hadn’t been back for over two weeks. I just couldn’t tell
her I was woken by her boyfriend smacking her across the room.
“You don’t eat at night, you sleep at night, you
stupid kid. You’re just useless without me, aren’t you? Can’t get anything
right. Go to bed. I want this mess cleaned up before I get up in the morning,”
she said.
That was easy; I could clean up when I got home from
school, because I would have several more hours before she dragged herself out
of bed. I put the hand towel in the bathroom hamper and returned to my room.
Only, I wasn’t alone.
A man sat on the chest at the foot of my bed. I
wanted to scold him; that chest was not meant for a seat, but I hesitated. It
wasn’t nice to scold adults, no matter how much it bothered me. His hair was
short and reddish, though the room was too dark to make out the exact color. On
the other hand, his light brown eyes had a slight glow, or reflection to them
that made them very visible in the dark. I felt like I should know him, but I
had never seen him before.
“You’re in my room,” I said.
“I am.” He rose from the chest and came to stand in
front of me, before bending so that we were eye to eye. He smirked. “And you’re
too little to do anything about it.” He went to my bookshelf, pulled out a
book, and flipped through the pages. When he tossed the book over his shoulder,
I ran to pick it up. I had to pick up several more books before he turned away
from the shelf. “Are these alphabetized?” he asked, as if it were the strangest
concept in the world.
“Of course. Who are you?”
“Vretial, the most powerful god you will ever meet.
Or I was. Now I’m not sure what I am. Still powerful, though, plenty powerful
enough to destroy you.” He approached my dresser next and started opening
drawers, pulling out clothes and dropping them to the floor. Still, I held my
tongue. “You fold your socks?”
“I never have to try to match a pair when I’m in a
hurry,” I explained. He turned to give me an insulted scowl.
How did I manage
to insult him?
“What kind of kid were you? I expected more from you.
To think, the warrior whose name sends demons running in fear was a stickler
child. Do you at least fear me?” he asked.
The odd stranger looked very upset for some reason. I
studied the man who had come into my room in the dead of night and rearranged
my stuff, examining every feature closely before opening my mouth. Adults
didn’t like it when I said what was on my mind.
There were no disfiguring scars, no gang tattoos, no
leather attire, and no weapons that I could see, nor were there folds in his
clothes to hide them. He didn’t have that addict look in his eyes, or the sweat
from withdrawal. His nose was perfectly straight in a way that it had never
been broken. Of course he was odd with words and rude in that he went through
my stuff, not to mention he was in my room without permission, yet nothing
about him looked scary.
“Why would I fear you? You weren’t very nice with my
stuff, but you don’t act like a bad man.” I knew bad men.
He looked a little taken aback, and a lot curious.
“What does a bad man act like?”
“What are you doing in my room?” I asked instead of
answering.
He sighed. “It was an accident… again, and it’s your
fault,” he said, not looking angry at all. When I didn’t answer, he went on.
“You and that son of yours.”
“I don’t have a son. I’m seven. Why are you being
silly?”
“I’m not being silly; you are. Keep up. You haven’t
met me yet, but I have you and you caused me a lot of trouble. That’s alright
now, and you did your part to repair the damage you caused… well, you haven’t
now, but you did then… and now my future lies in the hands of your children.”
“I’m not going to have any children when I grow up.
Why would I have children? My mom said I was the worst thing that ever happened
to her. Why would I want that?” I asked.
“You should change your mind. Children are great.”
“Why?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I have no idea. I’ve been told that
before. Honestly, I agree with you; human children stink, they constantly
wiggle, and they never stop making noises. They creep me out. You, too,
actually; you’re too neat. Besides, if you don’t have children, I can’t finish
what I started. I hate leaving business unfinished, can you understand that?”
he asked. I nodded. “Good. Then you will have children because if you don’t, I
will do something… I don’t know what yet, but something that you won’t like.”
“I would have to find someone I love first.”
“Don’t worry about that. Here, have an apple,” he
said, holding out a red apple, which had just mysteriously appeared in his
hand.
I took it, but thought immediately of the evil queen
offering a poisoned apple to Snow White. I could never trust a man offering me
food; I saw Mother fall for that trick several times and she never learned. “I
can’t eat at night. I sleep at night.”
He rolled his eyes. “Then save it.”
“I don’t like apples.”
“It isn’t a regular apple. It’s an omen. I can do a
magic trick with it. Watch.” He took it from my hand, tossed it in the air,
caught it with one hand, and covered it with the other. When he took his hand
away, he held a playing card with the image of an apple on it. “It does one
more thing, but it’s not ready to do it yet. I will hold onto it for you until
you’re older. Just remember that when you see it again, it means that
everything is about to change.”
He sat back on the chest at the foot of the bed as if
he had no plans to leave soon. “And one more thing; there’s something in the
dark.”
* * *
I woke startled, confused, and panting. I sat up
without thinking, causing Divina to stir. Looking around our bedroom, my
breathing started to level as I realized I had just been dreaming.
“What’s wrong?” Divina asked, her voice sleepy. It
always amused me that as a god, she loved to sleep in so much.
“Nothing,” I said, adjusting the duvet over her bare
shoulder. “I was just dreaming… I think I was remembering when I was a kid. It
started out normal… then something changed. I don’t remember it well enough. I
should, it was important.”
“If you don’t remember, it must not have been that
important.”
I shook my head. Since my son was born, I began to
have occasional dreams, but this one was different. “It was, though. Something
I forgot a long time ago. I’m gonna go clean the kitchen.”
She sat up with a sigh. “Damn it, Dylan. Every time
you have a dream or something reminds you of when you were little, you clean
something. Were you a neat freak as a child?” she asked.
I didn’t answer. She was right and I didn’t like it.
It took many years to overcome my childhood hiccups, but having the magic to
defend myself as well as a family I could trust definitely went a long way. For
the most part, my sarcasm could be blamed on youth instead of a defense
mechanism, even though it wasn’t something I planned to grow out of. As I woke
every day safe and surrounded by people who loved me, my childhood on Earth was
reduced to the occasional nightmare.
“Focus on your book. It’s safe. It’s safe, so
everything is going to be okay.”
I did. Focusing on my book, I could feel that it and
Earth were fine. No perceivable threat. No Vretial back to take it from me…
just my own war scars. Dealing with a god as powerful as him had to leave
scars.
As soon as I settled back on my pillow and Divina
snuggled against me, there was a knock on the door. “Daddy, Ron’s hungry.”
* * *
It was an average day when I picked up a book in my
lawn. There were no storm clouds or creepy wind, and I didn’t feel like
something was watching me. Maybe there should have been, for I had no idea that
it was the beginning of my future. My life until then was mediocre at best.
When I met Edward, became the Noquodi of Earth, and started learning magic, I
knew that there would be many adventures in store for me.
The first major adventure was saving Earth from
Vretial. The second was three years later, when I saved Sammy from an ancient
demon and all the worlds from the damage caused by Vretial’s demise. That was
when I discovered that, for some reason, I had Iadnah energy; the magic of the
gods. Sammy was the same.
Divina told me she was pregnant, which was
impossible, because she was a god. Nobody understood it, but even the gods
didn’t understand how Sammy and I had Iadnah energy. I didn’t care
how
Divina was pregnant; I was satisfied with calling it a miracle.
Sammy was a jewel in my life. When his parents came
to take him back, I was sad. Though I tried to be happy that he was back with
his real family, I missed him. That was not the worst part, however; he told me
the reason that he was so afraid of the dark was because Vretial would find
him.
I discussed this with Divina and she said it was not
conceivable that the god had survived. Still, Sammy had been so scared. My wife
trusted me, and I trusted that little boy, so Divina did a spell of protection.
Basically, it protected him from anyone getting into his mind or dreams, to the
point that nobody could even read his mind except for her. That was that and he
went to live with his parents.
Then our son was born.
* * *
I had just gotten home from the springs with Sammy
and Mordon. His parents had dropped him off for a few days to have a couple’s
weekend, so Mordon came to spend time with Sammy, as well. Mordon, Sammy, and I
had spent all day at the springs, but Divina wanted to stay home. She was very
pregnant and still had a lot of fears about being a mother.
When Edward mentioned in passing that she could have
twins, I found out that a goddess could actually have a panic attack. I had to
call Regivus in to get her to calm down, and he assured her it was just the one
baby. Sometimes I worried that I was being too inconsiderate about her fears,
but I felt like she would be okay once the baby was actually born.
Over the months of Divina’s pregnancy, I tried to include
the baby in our lives. I would talk to him, sleep with my hand on Divina’s
stomach, and use his name. Regivus said it would be a boy, so we named him
Ronez after my father.
It was my Guardian instincts, or maybe our mate bond,
that encouraged me to head home before sunset. Divina had gone into labor just
a moment before we arrived. We heard her cursing my name from the trees, so
Mordon went to get the physician who was living an hour away. Fortunately, the
doctor and his assistant made it just in time.
I held Divina’s hand through the process, but her
worries were not of the pain. I had only ever seen that desperation in her blue
eyes once. “You can’t leave me if I’m a bad mother,” she demanded.
I nodded. “I could never leave you.” Everything went
according to plan. One minute, I was holding Divina’s hand, and the next, my
son was in my arms. He was so tiny and cried so hard. Then after about a
minute, he stopped crying and stared up at me. I knew in my head that babies
didn’t focus or were even aware enough to understand what he was seeing, but I
knew in my heart that he knew me.
I leaned down next to Divina so she could see him
and, when her eyes met his, her breath caught. Just as I had hoped, her fears
melted away at the sight of that tiny face. “This is our baby. He’s not wrong.
I mean…” She couldn’t put her words together, but I understood. She really
thought that any baby of hers would be screwed up somehow; that she was
incapable of being a good mother even at that biological level. But the baby
was perfect.