Page 113 of An Unexpected Ascension
And Garroway... he only smirks. That wretched God of Mayhem.
“I-I’m not made for Hell, my God. Please, I beg of you?—”
He waves her off, dismissing her pleas like he’s heard this a million times.
“No, no, my dear child. You don’t deserve Hell.”
That horrible, conniving smirk appears again. Trickery entwined witheach word he gives her. I know what’s coming, and the look of the other Gods’ faces confirms it.
“Mom, no.”
A tear slips from my lower lash, splashing against my cheek. I reach for her and within the same moment my fingertips find her shoulder, she’s gone.
Ashes in the wind.
Disintegrated into thin air.
Nothing.
I drop to my knees in shock. Particles of my own mother rain down on me, coating my hair and shoulders in a thick dust.
All those days of searching for her, calling her name, they were useless because she doesn’t exist. She was never in Heaven, and I was never going to see her again.
These Gods! These horrible, wretched, unjust Gods!
A cluster of raging hate builds deep in my gut, rolling and rolling, growing at an unstoppable rate that I can’t seem to hold it in any longer. They can’t hear me, they can’t see me, but it doesn’t keep me from screaming until my lungs burn with a fire from the deepest parts of Hell. With each molecule of breath expelled is a promise for their demise.
Upon opening my clenched eyes,I find myself alive again.
“Stop, please! Ben!”
I stand there in my own living room watching as the sound of bone hitting bone deafens me. My face whips to the side, his fist colliding with my cheek. I drop to the floor, curling in on myself and staring back at me is the same man from my nightmare.
This can’t be real. Hewasn’t real.
But this isn’t a dream, these are memories and this one in particular is mine.
“Give me your phone.”
“Please, Ben. I promise, I was just?—”
“Give it to me!”
He screams, pulling me up by the collar of my shirt to meet him face to face. A face that’s red, veins pulsing, muscles tensing. It’s so much like the nightmare that it frightens me. Only, I know that wasn’t real. It couldn’t have been.
I slip my phone from the back pocket of my jeans, handing it over with a trembling hand.
Snatching it, he unlocks it with the passcode he’s forced me to share and scrolls through all my messages.
“You deleted them.”
“Deleted what? What are you even looking for?”
“I know you’re sleeping around on me, you whore. Where were you today when you were supposed to be at work?”
With his attention glued to my phone, I retreat toward my bedroom, subtly trying to put space between us. Only, it’s no use, he follows, his presence looming over me like a dangerous tidal wave, ready to sweep me under.
“I’m not sleeping around! I was at the doctor's office, you asshole!”
