I put my hand down. "Fine."
He reached in and pulled out the cracked orb with swirling darkness inside it. With a determined look, he pecked at it with his metal beak until it broke apart like glass. What was inside it, though, immediately left and swirled around the space.
"What's it doing?"I whispered.
"Trying to leave. Get in the house."
You don't have to tell me twice!
Penguin pulled out another blue screen and shot a virtual web at the black mist. It struggled but was caught by the blue web. I didn't need to be told twice. That thing gives me all kinds of red flags.
I left the field and hauled ass to the front door. I attempted to open it, but it wouldn't budge. I tried two more times before I realized what was happening.
"Melinoë you better pop this goddamn lock right now I'm not playing with you." Something cracked and shattered behind me.
"Password."
"..."
Fuck it. Who needs doors? I stepped back and kicked the door open with my foot. It swung back and almost hit her retreating figure in her ugly face. She made a buzzer sound. "Eh! Wrong!"
"..."
I stepped inside and put the barely on its hinge door back where it was supposed to be.
I grabbed her by her shoulders and shook her roughly. She just smiled dopily like she was getting juice up her veins. "What the hell is Divinity?"
She stopped smiling and gave me a suspicious look. "Where did you hear that from?"
"Penguin. He said you could tell me what that meant. If you know what that means…You know what, maybe I should…" I pretended like I was leaving, and she grabbed my hand and led me to the table.
Bait taken. Knew it.
"It's a long story."
"Make it shorter."
She made a weird sound in her throat, and I frowned. "It's like the stuff that makes everything."
"Like atoms?"
"Who's Adam?"
"..."
She continued. "It comes from this person who we shall not speak the name of. She gave it to all the Gods, and we used it to make things. Planets, people, plants, emotions, everything!"
I frowned. "Do only Gods have it?"
"Did you just hear what I said? I said we used it to make everything. So…"
"Everything has Divinity. So, primordial soup. Gotcha." There was this mix-and-match game I used to play. Primordial soup was like an epic tier item you could make by mixing life, energy, and pressure, I think. I don't know how that applies to this, but…Maybe that's helpful?
She purses her lips."Eh. Something like that. For Gods, it's the source of our power and our lifeforce. For mortals, it's just lifeforce."
I continued."What about magic powers and abilities?"
She shrugged. "That's magic. Very different from Divinity. Magic is like a cheap knock-off of Divinity. It comes from something else. It's like runoff mixed with other things."
The house rumbled, and dust came raining down from the ceiling. Holy shit.
She looked up and caught dust in her eyeholes. I gagged. She screeched and closed her eyelids. Then she thought better of it and reached—Nope. I covered my eyes while she yelled at me, clearly in pain. "What's going on out there?!"
My voice came out a bit muffled due to my hand protecting my face."Penguin's trying to fix the hole with the bad ball. He said it's filled with Divinity."
"What! Why are we sitting here? Let's go help!" A calculative glint passed across her face. Sadly, I missed it.
"No. He said to stay here. I'm not leaving." I reached for her in an attempt to keep her in the house.
"Ugh! Coward." She threw my wrist away and left through our broken door. A mortar hit the space again, and it rumbled. Sounds like the construction is not going well.
I clicked my tongue and left to go hide in my bed with the other animals. Harry made awful bleeting and crying noises that I couldn't bear to shush. A few minutes later, Melinoë ran into the room and crawled underneath the sheets with me.
Smirking, I mocked her in a whiny voice. "Why are we sitting here? Let's go help!"
She glared at the pillow beside me."Shut up, harpy." I snapped my fingers in her face, and she quickly turned her head in its direction. In that quick moment, I followed up by booping her nose.
I laughed at her, and she started a catfight. Harry bleeted from the foot of the bed, and I whisper-yelled, "Sorry, Harry."
It said nothing back in response, but I decided to let it go. Traumatic things were happening, and everyone responds differently. I crawled deeper under the covers. Harry screams. The chickens shiver and scream. Penguin wrangles a black fog named Divinity and causes horrendous property damage. And Mel…
"Do you have any snacks?"
Mel stress eats. The one sane thing she's ever done that I agree with. Unfortunately, I didn't grab anything from the kitchen before the quake.
We stayed underneath there for a long time, breathing in each other's breaths and making comments about our hygiene. I don't think she's ever taken a shower since I've met her, which I guess isn't really necessary for a God-Person-Thing. But I should invest in a shower soon.
The banging and slamming on the ground outside stopped, and we shared a look.
"Go out there and check how it's going." I laughed in her face as she tried to give me an order. Hilarious. We both know I'm the boss.
"New Mission—"
She struggles to cover my mouth with her hands, and I push her out of the way. "Go see what happened. Now!"
The illusory chains appear, and she groans in frustration. Instead of going alone, she drags me out with her, and I grab at everything I can in order to stop it. The bed becomes torn from my nails as I cling to the sheet. She yanks at me one more time and sets her feet in a horse stance.
She growls while holding my left hand in her unyielding, clammy hand. "Let go."
I shake my head no, and she yanks me with her so hard I lose my grip. She drags me by my hand out of the empty doorway into the living room and out into…sunlight?
I tilt my head back and look up at the blue sky. Um. That's not good.
"Mel?"
She stands still, transfixed on whatever she's looking at. If she's looking at anything. She could just be having a silent breakdown. I get up properly and look over her shoulder. The field is fine, so that's a win. But why is there sunlight and real trees everywhere?
My soul looks sorta normal and it's freaking me out.
Still, that doesn't explain why she's so fixated on something. "What are you looking at?"
She reaches up with a hand and silently corrects the position of my head until I see what she's seeing with her empty holes. How does she see?
"..."
Whispering, I ask a rhetorical question."Is that a person?"
I hide behind her and look aghast at the human-looking person in my soul, tinkering with a screen. It looks like a boy. Someone around my age with black and blue hair. It's cool but…um the fuck are you doing here?
Mel quietly responds."Go say hi to it."
I look at her. "Really? It? Why don't you say hi to them?"
She turns her entire face away. "I don't want to. My hair's a mess and I haven't brushed my teeth yet."
"..."