Page 25 of Thanatos' Craving

I groaned again and gripped the pillow tightly. Athena pulled on it, but her grip was too strong, and she pulled it away.

“Come now, you mustn’t wallow in self-pity, you need to hit theground runningas they say. You have such an opportunity here.”

An opportunity? Is she serious?

I was sitting on a bed that could very well be hundreds of years old. The room smelled of old worn books, paper, and cloth. On top of it all, I have Death in the other room who had an anger problem, and if I say something wrong, he just might off me.

Then again, he saved me, which makes little sense. Death shouldn’t save a person. It's much easier to just take their soul, right?

Athena’s lip slightly curled, and she patted my hand. “Much better. I knew you could see reason. Your ability to accept the reality that gods exist is just fascinating, but of course, it is because–” she leaned forward, nose to nose with me. My eyes go cross-eyed staring back at her.

“Because what?”

She backed away and shook her head. “Never mind. It isn’t important now, but what is important,” she pointed at me, “is that you be patient with Thanatos. He is not around mortals very much. Alive ones anyway. He needs company, he needs to learn more about emotions, joy, peace, happiness. He has anger, frustration, sadness, and depression down to a science. We need the better part of him to come out.”

I opened and closed my mouth several times.

Since when is it my responsibility?

Athena hummed, standing up and pacing the room. “Fate!” she said, making me jump. “Do you know what fate is, dear child?”

She called me a child.

“When something is meant to be?” I grabbed the pillow she took away from me and held it close.

“Yes, partially. Fate led you here. Thanatos was supposed to find you.”

“Because I was dying?” I stated.

Athena narrowed her eyes at me.

“I was supposed to die, right? Then he brought me here, and you fixed me up with your rad sewing skills.”

Her eyes lit up. “They were impeccable, weren’t they? You know it was because I shrunk my fingers to the size of my owl’s claws,” she explained.

Meanwhile, I looked around the room for an exit, but there was none. Just the curtain where Thanatos left. This room was dark, besides the candles and all the different relics inside. Busts of heads, tiny stone statues on shelves, stones of beautiful gems. No pictures of people or gods, but there were pictures of various places, of hell.

One included a large lake of fire.

Cheesus.

Definitely didn’t want to go there.

While she talking, I quietly got out of bed and took one of the books from the shelf. It wasn’t in English, it was written in maybe Greek or Latin? I flipped through the pages and saw other pictures not of hell but of naked bodies, glowing. They were doing the nasty with one another, gold threads twisting, weaving fabric around them.

Athena slammed her hand down on the book, which landed on the table. Dust went flying around me and I waved my hand, pushing the cloud of dirt away.

“And then I tied it up into a neat little bow.” Athena pretended to tie an invisible knot. “I should write it down. That way, the physicians on earth can find it and use it with their fancy machines. They have a laser called theDa Vinciup there, you know?”

No, I don’t know.

Athena led me back to bed and sat me down.

"Now we also know fate as The Fates. There are three, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, and they are the ones that take care of a mortal’s string. Their life. It starts with a mortal's birth. They follow the string of their life and see how they live and what trials they face until finally what decisions lead to their death. The fate of a mortal’s life is in their hands.”

I don’t like where this was going.

“Atropos decides when a human is supposed to die for their soul to come to the Underworld for judgment.”

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