Chapter 3
Sixteen-year-old Yelena clicks her tongue against her teeth as she peers through a pair of binoculars. “This is the leader of a human trafficking ring? Looks more like a car salesman.”
“You should know by now that appearances can be deceiving, child,” Khonshu comments over her shoulder and Yelena pulls her binoculars away to peer up at him.
“And why do you insist on waiting? We know it’s him. We can get him right now,” Yelena points out with a huff. It’s been only a year since she died in that tomb and had been resurrected by Khonshu with some sort of magic that Yelena doesn’t even pretend to understand.
“Patience. Too many witnesses,” Khonshu tells her, and Yelena peers back down at him. “We only harm those who deserve it.” He reminds her like he constantly did on every mission she did for him. “No innocents.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Yelena murmurs, watching as the man leaves the office building where he worked. “Who’d of thunk that some nerdy computer man sells girls on the side?”
“It is often those we least expect when it comes to evil,” Khonshu replies and Yelena drops her binoculars to look up at him. “You are but a child, yet you had so much death on your hands.”
“You like to remind me of my age at every turn,” Yelena huffs, rifling through her backpack for her last granola bar. “I’m sixteen, not six.” She tells him before peeling the wrapper open and stuffing half of it into her mouth at once. She always looked young for her age, that was why the Red Room liked her so much. She could always pose as someone younger but with much more experience. She’s pretty sure that since Khonshu made her his avatar that she wasn’t really aging very much.
“Every mortal is a child in comparison to me,” Khonshu rumbles and Yelena sticks her tongue out at him. He lets out a long tired sigh. “If you do not wish to be referred to as a child then finish chewing before doing such childish acts.”
Yelena shoves the other half into her mouth and digs through her bag for her water bottle, disappointed to find it nearly empty. “Aw fuck.” She can feel Khonshu’s disapproving stare. “I’m thirsty!”
He sighs. “There should be a fountain across the street.”
Yelena starts to pack her things up. “I’m gonna go fill it then. You follow Mr. Pretend Cars Salesmen and I get water. Win-win.”
Khonshu stares at her before he disappears and Yelena grins.
“This is a very not cool way to die,” Seventeen-year-old Yelena comments as she grits her teeth, tying a tourniquet tight around her thigh.
“If you’d just summon the suit--” Khonshu starts and Yelena lets out a growl.
“Shut up!” She snaps at him. She only called ‘the suit’ when she was on death’s door. Wearing it made her feel weird and she worried about learning to rely on it too much. “I’m not dying or dead.”
“If you perish then I am leaving you waiting to be judged on the scales before bringing you back,” Khonshu threatens and Yelena rolls her eyes, wincing as she tightens the belt.
“Yeah, yeah. I know, you only threaten me with that every time I get hurt. Yet, each time, you don’t let it happen,” Yelena grins up at him as much as she could with the extreme throbbing in her leg. “I think you like me.”
She’s pretty sure if Khonshu could roll his eyes then he would.
“Ha,” Yelena watches as the clock rolls over to the next day, leaning against the wall of the tiny safehouse they had. “I win.”
“Win what?” Khonshu appears, glancing down at her.
“I am eighteen now. I am no longer a child,” She boasts to him. Never did she think she’d actually make it to eighteen. She thought she’d graduate from the Red Room and finally lose all the pieces of herself. “You’ll have to find something else to call me.”
Khonshu leans down into her face and Yelena leans back in response, startled at how close he was. Khonshu seemed to be scrutinizing her, tapping her cheek with his staff before straightening.
“Hrm.” He hums out before he tilts his head to the side. “Happy eighteen birthday child.” He says before he disappears.
“You get back here!” Yelena jumps up from her bed, wiping at the cheek that the staff had touched. “Hey! Hey! Listen to me, bird-man!”
“What happens when I die?” Nineteen-year-old Yelena questioned, peering up at the night sky as she watches the stars.
“You already know. Your heart will be judged on the scales,” Khonshu tells her. He was sitting next to her, his head tilted back to look up at the stars with her.
“Well, what would have happened before if I died at your statue? If I said no?” Yelena can’t help but question curiously. “Would I still be judged at the scales?”
“You’re asking about multiple afterlives,” Khonshu surmises and Yelena shrugs slightly.
“I guess… some people believe in a heaven and hell. Some think they’re reborn. Where would I have gone if I didn’t believe in anything?” Yelena squints her eyes up at the stars, idly counting them. “Would I simply… cease to be?”
Khonshu was quiet for a few moments and Yelena drags her eyes away from the stars to look up at him. “I am not one to say that there is a correct answer. Had you died at my alter, I would have ensured that you made it to the scales if you did not believe in anything. Not all souls go to be judged.”
“So there are different afterlives?” Yelena questioned. “Some think that they see family and stuff when they die. What if they believe in two different things? Will they never see each other again?”
Khonshu was quiet again and Yelena feels unsettled at the silence. “This is about your sister.” He finally says.
“I mean… I guess I kinda hoped she wanted to see me. We couldn’t be together here in this life so I just thought… I dunno… nevermind,” Yelena trails off, twisting her head away from Khonshu to peer up at the sky again.
“I am afraid that taking souls to the scales is as far as I go,” Khonshu tells her, his voice unusually soft. “But I do not doubt that you will see your sister again, for that I am certain, child.”
A shooting star streaks across the sky and Yelena is hit with a memory of wishing upon them with her big sister as a child.
Yelena closed her eyes and wished as hard as she could that her big sister was doing okay.
“One-two-three-four, one-two-three-four,” Yelena taps a staccato rhythm on her knee from where she was curled in a ball against the wall, her eyes rapidly flickering around the room as she tries to catch her breath. Her sheets are still tangled with her legs where she had fallen off of the bed in a hurry to escape the demons that plagued her dreams. “One-two-three-four.”
“It’s not real.”
Yelena violently startles at the voice, flinching hard at the appearance of the large looming figure over her. “Khonshu…”
“The men you saw. Those who hurt you. They’re not here.” Khonshu tells her firmly, tapping his staff against the ground in the same staccato pattern. Yelena focuses on the soft thump-thump-thump-thump it makes against the ground. “They’re dead. You killed them.”
“One-two-three-four,” Yelena murmurs under her breath, her eyes focused on the staff held in Khonshu’s hands. It’s the same timing as the ballet songs they used to play in the Red Room. “One-two-three-four.”
“You are my avatar.” Khonshu tells her and Yelena halts her tapping. “I chose you. If you were truly an unforgivable monster then I’d let your soul be judged.”
“I’m killing people…” Yelena manages to get out, her mouth dry. She swallows hard before adding. “I’m helping.” She knew she was. She was stopping those who hurt others. She killed a few of her own guards from the Red Room with Khonshu's help. She was helping people. Khonshu inclines his head when he sees her doubt.
“That you are, child.”