The last place most people expected to find gods- the ones who could end humanity with a snap of their fingers and bled in ichor- was in the middle of a bustling city, in a cozy 4 bedroom apartment.
Presently, the four gods were playing a rather intense game of Uno.
Morgan, the Goddess of Death and the Ruler of the Skies, let a slow grin unfurl across her face as she put a card down, a +4, and said, “Uno”
The room instantly erupted in yells.
“YOU CHEATED!”
“NO WAY!”
“I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS! YOU- YOU BETRAYED ME!”
The last bit was said by Kaito, God of the Seas, whose turn was right after Morgan’s and who currently only had one card remaining.
“Stop being a baby and pick up your cards,” said Evrin, Goddess of Life and Ruler of the Earth, who had opted out of that round to make tea for everyone.
“Sor- Nah, I’m not. You win Uno every single time! This is only fair”
Raye, God of Wisdom and Time, smirked, “I’m not quite sorry for this either,” and pulled two +2s.
Morgan looked at the table for a second and blinked.
Then, she put her final card down.
It was another +2.
Kaito flipped the goddamned table.
Morgan, unfazed, leaned back on the couch, her grin widening as she surveyed the havoc she had wrought.
Evrin, emerging from behind the counter with a tray of steaming mugs, rolled her eyes at the scene, "Must you always resort to such dramatics, Kaito? We are supposed to be enjoying a peaceful evening."
"Peaceful? There's no peace in Uno," Kaito retorted, eyes sparkling with mischief.
Raye, having collected the scattered cards, leaned against the wall with a bemused expression. "The purpose of the game is to create chaos. He’s just evoking the true spirit of Uno."
Kaito, now setting the table upright, rather reluctantly, shot Morgan a glare, "True spirit or not, that was uncalled for."
"It's Uno, Kaito. Everything is called for," Morgan replied, picking up her chai from Evrin’s tray.
“I will scatter lego pieces across your room”
“Kaito!” Raye admonished, shocked that he would propose something like that.
“That was so uncalled for!” Evrin added, handing Kaito his tea and settling down on the couch next to Morgan.
Morgan just rolled her eyes, “You’re like the little sibling I never asked for”
Before Morgan and Kaito could devolve into further argument, Evrin silenced them by laying an arm on Morgan’s, a gesture which shut her up instantly.
“We still need to discuss what how we’re going to go about that pride festival event which you wanted to host”
Morgan stretched, rather reminiscent of a cat, putting her legs on Evrin’s lap.
“We have plenty of time,” she said, “It’s just March!”
Raye raised an eyebrow, sipping their green tea lazily, “We need to plan the event, how it’s going to take place, how we’ll fund it, we need to make announcements, decide judges, etc.”
“What do you mean ‘how we’re going to fund it’?” Morgan asked, “We’re gods, we’ll just magic up the money”
“Do you really want to be responsible for increased inflation this year? I mean- this will take a lot of money and conjuring that could be… risky”
She shot Evrin a flat look, “Let a girl dream, darling”
They sat there for a while, leaning against each other, until Raye and Kaito had dosed off and the clock struck twelve.
Then, Morgan lifted her legs off of Evrin, “Come on, let’s get them to bed,” she said, nodding towards the two younger gods.
Evrin nodded and was helped to her feet by Morgan. Morgan decided to clean up while Evrin got Raye and Kaito to bed.
Later, when she was done, Morgan decided to check on Evrin before she went to bed, knowing the other goddess had been struggling with falling asleep recently.
Evrin was lying in bed, listening to music when Morgan knocked on her door.
She turned off the music and called out “Come in,”
Morgan turns the knob and peeks her head in, “Can’t sleep again?”
Evrin nods hesitantly, “Yes, I- yeah,” Then, gathering herself, she added, “What about you? Can’t sleep either?”
Morgan knew Evrin was just asking to get the attention off herself, but she couldn’t help but feel warm inside at the thought that somebody cared enough to ask. She elected to nod instead of verbally replying.
Evrin and Morgan just looked at each other awkwardly for a minute or so (you’d think they’d have gotten used to this after multiple millennia of living together, but no).
Morgan hesitated, “I should- I should leave. Night, Evrin”
As Morgan turned away to leave, Evrin started to panic. She didn’t want to be alone with her thoughts again. She didn’t want to lose the comfort of her best friend beside her.
Not pausing to give it a second thought, Evrin extended one hand to grasp Morgan’s.
Morgan paused, half turning.
“Stay,” Evrin whispered, voice trembling with a vulnerability Morgan knew it took effort to show, “Please.”
Morgan stayed still, considering.
Sighing, she turned around.
“Scoot over”
And if Raye found both of them sound asleep at 9 in the morning, arms around each other and legs tangled, more comfortable asleep than they had been for at least a few thousand years, they didn’t have to know.
◆◆◆◆
“I KNOW!” Raye exclaimed, about an hour into their brainstorming sessions, “We bring dragons! Humans love the dragons”
“Humans,” Morgan corrected, rather grumpily, “love the idea of dragons. They’ve never seen dragons. They were actually mad at us for not introducing dragons to the human world.”
“Well, yeah, but-”
“No buts,” Evrin said, “We’re not introducing dragons to humans.”
Kaito looked up, being the only one who was actually getting work done, “What if we have a fair thingy? Like, we have a fair with stalls for books and coffee and plants and like a pet show and stuff leading up to the contest? Then we actually have the contest”
“Sounds expensive”
“Sounds like a you problem.”
“Right, funding aside, that’s a great idea. But what is the contest going to be about?” Morgan interjected, not wanting to be caught up in the bickering.
“Whatever it is, it’s going to be pride themed,” Raye said,
“No shit, Sherlock,” Evrin rolled her eyes.
“What if we make it something to do with the wa-”
“NO” Morgan said, louder than she’d intended to.
“I thought I made it clear,” She said, eyes flashing and voice low, “To not bring up that subject in this house.
“I just thought-” Kaito started in a defensive tone.
“You thought what? I had thought,” Morgan stood up as she was saying this, “that you respected both of us enough to listen when we tell you to not talk about something.”
“GET OVER IT!” Raye did not know when they had stood up or why they were glaring at Morgan, but they knew they were being out of line.
“It was centuries ago,” they continued hesitantly, and in a softer voice.
“Unless I’m mistaken, you weren’t there,” Evrin said, in a low voice, the one that she used when she was angry. Evrin being angry was never a good thing.
“Yeah, well, contrary to your beliefs, your highness, more than the two of you were affected by the war!”
It was Kaito this time.
“OF COURSE YOU WERE AFFECTED, YOU DIPSHIT- BUT YOU DIDN’T LIVE IT, DID YOU?” Morgan was angry. Kaito and Raye looked at each other, alarmed. They had somehow managed to piss both of the goddesses, who were rarely angry, off to an alarming extent, “ YOU WEREN’T THERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WAR WHEN- WHEN OUR FAMILY WAS TURNING IN ON ITSELF AND I WAS ALONE, TRYING- TRYING TO-”
“Trying to help with the war,” Evrin continues, voice not higher than it usually was yet containing an alarming amount of rage, “Stuck on Earth, helpless, useless-” Here, Morgan seemed to snap out of her own anger a little and squeezed Evrin’s hand a little, “Trying to stop the war between humans. You don’t know how much I gave. How much we gave.”
“How much we gave just to protect you both. How much of my family I lost just so it would- JUST SO THIS DAMN THING,” Morgan tugged at the necklace she had previously been fidgeting with and broke it off in one swift motion, “WOULD NOT BE YOUR FATE, SO YOU-”
Morgan stopped halfway through her sentence. She looked at the necklace, which all of them were now staring at.
“Shit”
◆◆◆◆
The human world was in chaos.
The humans, those naive creatures, still hadn’t figured out what happened. To them, one day everything was fine and the next, the world was ending. Strange creatures were roaming the street, ones that would kill anyone they saw. Humans weren’t safe in their own homes, yet they couldn’t leave the house. Having to stew in paranoia, not having a single clue what was going on outside.
It wouldn’t be long until they figured it out, though.
Thankfully, the creatures- the monsters sensed that they were not strong enough to take on the four gods, and they were left in peace.
Well, peace in a sense.
“IT’S BEEN WEEKS!” Morgan yelled, smashing the laptop shut after a particularly intense 10 hour spree. The four of them had been trying to find a solution to their problem ever since Morgan took off her necklace. For the gate between the world of humans and the world of monsters to be intact, the chain of that particular necklace had to be as well. And Morgan, when she took it off, broke the chain.
Evrin leaned her head against Morgan’s, “I’m so tired”
Immediately, the other goddess looked apologetic, “I’m sorry- this whole mess is my fault- you can rest, I’m sure I can handle it alone-”
Evrin reached up and smacked the side of Morgan’s head.
“Hey!”
“I told you, we’re in this together.”
“But it was my fault-”
“And you’re going to fix it. Just not alone. Besides, you could use a break too,”
“Tell you guys what,” Raye said, coming into the bookshop with some snacks for the two of them “Both of you rest. Kaito and I will take over for a few hours, see if we can come up with anything.”
Morgan had been trying to pretend to still be mad at them, gave up and accepted the snacks with a tired sigh.
Evrin shook her head, “If you guys want to help, sure. But we cannot compromise this. So many lives are at stake, just because of a mistake we made,” she raised a stern finger at Morgan, “Don’t you dare apologize. Again. This is all of our mess, love. We’re all going to fix it”
“Please rest. I promise, Kaito and I can manage for a few hours. Taking a little rest will hurt no one.”
Neither of them had too much willpower left in them. Gods needed to sleep less than humans, but they still did. Morgan and Evrin looked each other in the eyes, then in unison handed their laptops, notebooks, pens and the billion other things they had accumulated near them to Raye.
And if it was Kaito, on his way to join Raye in researching/planning, who discovered both of them asleep, clinging to each other as if their life depended on it, looking just a smidge closer to peaceful than they had in weeks, well, they didn’t have to know that either.
◆◆◆◆
“I think we are the key.” Evrin said, biting her pencil. It tasted like ash in her mouth. Like the remains of what was once alive.
The other three looked at her in confusion. What did that even mean?
“Think about it. What is a monster?”
“Those evil thingies that are slaughtering humans as we speak?” Kaito suggested in a deadpan tone.
Evrin shook her head at him, “Now you’re just thinking like a human.”
Morgan met Evrin’s eyes from across the room, an understanding in her eyes. The type of understanding a needle has for thread, or wax for flame.
“Monster,” She whispered softly, “derived from the Latin monstrum. Inhuman, unnatural, bad omen, messenger of catastrophe.”
“Is that not what we are? Monsters?”
They exchanged looks. After all, what was a god but the reassurance of a forever that would never arrive? Was that not a catastrophe in its own right?
“So…” Raye broke the silence, “What do we do?”
Evrin met his eyes, expressionless, “we go to The Gates.”
“No way,” Kaito scoffed, “We are not putting ourselves in that much danger.”
“I didn’t expect any of you too,” said Evrin, “I’m doing it, though. Alone.”
Evrin turned to go, but Morgan stepped forward and grabbed her hand.
“You’ve truly lost it if you think I’m letting you go alone.”
Evrin sent her a soft smile. One person who would always be in her corner.
(Later, when Raye and Kaito tried to join them, they were turned down. They were told to figure out the details of the event, to have the event set up by the time they returned. They promised they would return safely.
It really was too bad that gods were known for being damn good liars.)
◆◆◆◆
The Gates, unlike what one might assume, were not real, physical gates. Rather, a transition between realms. A transition between the realm of humans and that of monsters.
That being the case, reaching there wasn’t really much of a journey. Not for gods, not for those who ruled the skies and the earth. Yeah, they kept forgetting they still held those titles.
“We’re here.”
It wasn’t like they expected at all. Trees (their bark crumbled under one’s touch), Rivers (water was poison, life was an illusion), Mountains (of bones, both human and monster), it was almost like the human world. Almost.
“...Now that we’re here, what exactly are we supposed to do?” Morgan asked, looking around, distaste evident on her face.
“This, where we are, it’s a physical representation of a transition between realms, so-”
“So we look for a physical representation of the magic that’s holding the gates down and destroy it so monsters can’t cross over to the human world? Ever?”
“That… wasn’t exactly what I was going for but let’s go for it.”
It took them a while, but they tracked down the source of all magic in that realm. The core of the realm.
It was in a place that looked a lot like a human house. In fact, they would say it was a human house if they didn’t know better (if it wasn’t for the blood that dripped from broken pipes instead of water and the detached appendages that hung from the walls as decoration)
There was a door in the house that stood out. There was a sign on the door. It read ‘Morgan’s room’.
A sense of wrongness settled in her stomach. Every instinct of her was screaming at her to ‘get out get out get out’ .
The sign was green. Green was her favourite color.
“This doesn’t-” Her throat was tight, she couldn’t speak, “I don’t know if we should go in.”
Evrin grabbed both of Morgan’s hands, forcing Morgan’s brown eyes to meet her green ones- green like the sign on the door (get out get out get out)- and pulled Morgan into a kiss.
For a moment, (was it just a moment?) none of it was real. Her name on the door, the blood that dripped on her shoulder from the ceiling above, the green of the sign, it was all drowned out by her. Her rough, chapped lips pushing against Morgan’s. Her hands in Morgan’s, Their bodies against each others’.
Then they were pulling away and Evrin was pushing open the door with a last whisper, “so you never forget.”
Before Morgan had a chance to ask her what she meant, she caught sight of what was inside the room.
A crystal (it was green, like the sign, like her eyes), pulling all the light of the room into itself, not dissimilar to a black hole. It was in the middle of the room, seemingly not supported by anything. It was just there.
“Is that it?” Morgan asked.
“It is. Go ahead, take it.”
Morgan would’ve once again liked to question what Evrin was saying, but the crystal was mesmerizing. It was like she was being pulled towards it.
A single drop of blood fell from the leaking pipes above onto the crystal.
Morgan picked it up.
She turned around to give it to Evrin. She gasped, almost dropping the crystal.
There stood eight gods. Eight gods she had not seen in centuries.
“How?? Sera? Atlas?? Dex- How are you all here?” Morgan was never one to get emotional, but these gods were dead. She was never expecting to see them again.
Their eyes were transfixed at her, but they didn’t say anything. Not until, atleast, they opened their mouths in unison, “Wake”
“What? What do you mean? I’m-”
“Wake up.”
“It’s been centuries- say something?” A tear fell down her face.
The faces of her closest friends, of the family that she thought she lost, were emotionless- cold, even.
“Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.”
They repeated the same thing. It made no sense.
“Please. Please, I’m begging- say something- anything” There were tears down her face now. She was a pathetic sight. Desperate.
They were advancing on her now (Wake up wake up wake up)
Morgan stumbled back. Their voices were overlapping, there was a drumming in her head.
Wake up. Wake up. WAKE UP
The crystal slipped from her grasp, hitting the floor and shattering into multiple pieces just as she fell, crashing onto the floor, the blood coming from her head meshing with the blood pooled on the floor until they were indistinguishable, unrecognizable.
Blackness was creeping up on her. She was losing both vision and consciousness.
Just before she went out completely, Morgan heard one voice, sweet and familiar, “so you never forget,” and she felt something being slipped into her hand.
“She had another one of her episodes, doctor” An adult, female voice was saying.
“It’s getting worse?”
“She keeps talking about all these gods and monsters and whatnot- even that she was a god herself.”
“..Interesting. We might detain her in the facility for a few weeks.”
“Do whatever you have to, doctor. Just, please, cure my daughter”
In a different room, not far away, a girl- who couldn’t be older than twelve, maybe eleven, yelled, “IT WASN’T A DREAM- I’M NOT CRAZY”
“Listen, sweetheart, you must understand-”
“IT WAS REAL! They were- they were real” she whimpered
“It’s not uncommon for children to-”
“I’M NOT LYING! I’m not lying- I’m not” Her breathing was choppy, snot and tears mixing together as they ran down her face.
“She’s hopeless” The man who was speaking to her said to another man. They left her there, locked in the room.
She was on her knees, pleading with some unknown power, “it was real it happened i’m not crazy”
She was rocking on her knees, tears dry, staring into the distance “i'm not crazy i'm not crazy i’m not crazy”
She rocked back and forth, repeating those three words to herself until the men came back, until they dragged her to a hospital ward and tied her to the bed, saying ‘she was a danger to herself’
The girl was, later, pushed into a mental asylum for life.
The girl, later, slit her own throat.
She left a suicide note. It had three words.
I never forgot
(they never found a knife on her. All she had was a jagged little piece of a broken, green, crystal.)