Page 53 of Katya and the Young God

Pieter wrinkles his nose at her, and it’s such a human action that it takes her aback. “I don’t think you’re going to be dealing with much paperwork,” he says, keeping his voice soft. “That stuff’s boring, anyways.”

The little girl drops his hand, standing up in a fit of energy that children often have. “Do you wanna see what I can do?” She asks Katya, and if it isn’t for the fact that Katya’s heard children say that exact phrase before, Katya would be terrified.

But before Katya answers, the little girl stands, reaching up to the bones imbedded on the wall, and trails her finger on the nearest skull.

It comes away covered in blood.

“See?” She says, holding her hand a respectful distance from Katya. “It’s not my blood, it’s his.”

Katya takes a long look, a long moment of trying to not react horribly and scare the child.

“Well. That is something,” Katya says, attempting what she hopes is a smile, and gets one in return.

“How’d you do that?” Pieter asks, offering his towel and helping her back into her glove. “Is that all dead bodies or just bones?”

“I dunno,” she replies cheerfully, her eyes on the single smear of blood on the skull. “But it’s definitely that man’s blood. My hand is fine.”

And all Katya can do is exchange a look with Pieter.

* * *

Later,what might be hours later, when the girl is fast asleep with Pieter’s jacket spread over her for a blanket, Pieter leans his head against the wall and looks over to Katya. It’s dark, with only the two glow sticks used for light, the yellow glow sliding over his face and casting deep shadows under his eyes.

There’s been too much horror that day for her to be scared by him.

“What do you think,” she whispers, tired down into her bones.

He doesn’t answer immediately, instead tilting his head up to look at the small drops of blood on the skull. “Do you know of anything that can do that?”

“Not in the slightest.” Katya pulls out her gun from her bag, arranges it carefully on her other side, where the child cannot reach it. “Never heard of anything that gets blood from bones, or kills with just a touch.”

He looks at her again, as she arranges her copper knife next to the gun, carefully pointed away so she can grab it safely in low light. “I think she might be a god,” he whispers.

Katya sets down the knife, before his words fully kick in. “Wait, what?”

He nods down to where the girl is peacefully sleeping. “I think she might be some hyper local regionalized god of death,” he says, like this isn’t a ridiculous conversation. “I think that’s why she didn’t kill me. You know, half god.”

Katya breathes out of her nose, hard.

“I thought all gods were dead,” Pieter says, his voice tinged with just a bit of sadness. “I thought all that was left were Demigods and lesser.”

The little girl fidgets in her sleep, turning over, but her eyes remain peacefully shut. Like this is the first real sleep she’s had in...

Katya doesn’t want to continue that train of thought.

“When we opened the coffin, she was a badly decayed corpse,” Pieter says. “And then...” He trails off. “She’s just a child. A kid.”

“Christ,” Katya breathes out, finally.

“I don’t know, I can’t know for sure, not in...here...but ...” He stops, abruptly, before putting his head in his hands. “We can’t deal with this, not here, not with them.”

“You need to get her out,” Katya whispers, leaning over and grabbing his hand.

He viscerally starts at her contact, staring at her hand like it’s an attack.

“You need to just teleport out with her, get her far away, and I’ll deal with whatever else is here. She’s a kid, just get her out.”

“I can’t,” he whispers, staring at where she’s grabbing him, before dragging his slate gray eyes to her. “Can’t you see, I can’t do anything like that now.” His lips part, like this pains him to say, actually pains him. “Whatever your friend did, when she took Vanya, whatever she did, it took...” he ducks his head down. “I can only do small things, and I’d probably die if I did something as big as that, and she’d be caught in whatever middle void area my heart stopped.”

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