Chapter Nineteen:
On my Knees
Nicodemus
By this time in the night I had completely tuned out the steady rhythm of the heart monitor to my right, and the decompressing oxygen tank just behind that. My mind was completely void of all thought beyond my father’s hand, which I was gripping like my life depended on it. He hadn’t moved for over six hours, and as of right now, it didn’t seem like that was changing anytime soon. Tears continuously slipped down my cheeks as I buried my face in his palm, praying desperately that he would open his eyes soon.
Behind us the hospital room door creaked open, and I heard a soft yet familiar sigh. “That bone head still out of it?” Galaxy asked, winching slightly as he sunk into a chair at the end of the bed. I picked my head up in awe, and darted from my chair to embrace him gratefully.
He had taken quite the beating himself, but walked away from the fight with a bandaged head, a couple broken fingers, and a crutch to keep himself steady. Beyond that, he grinned behind an incredibly swollen face, and was well enough that I could hug him tightly without hurting him. “Thank Gods you’re ok…” I whimpered into his shoulder.
He tsked and rubbed my back with his splintered fingers, “I’ve gotten smacked around much worse than this. More importantly, I’m glad you’re ok?”
“Nick…?” Mom morosely called as she slowly opened the door. Galaxy nudged me towards her warmly; I ran into her open arms and snuggled into her chest as lovingly as possible. She whispered my name in relief and buried her face in my hair, rocking us back and forth as she kissed me repeatedly. “Oh my love… I thought I lost you…?”
“Are you ok?” I whimpered, lifting my head with tear filled eyes to assess her injuries.
She nodded sincerely, “I’m perfectly fine, I promise. Galaxy surely made that possible.”
“Thank me with a round of sushi later,” he called tiredly, which made us giggle.
“How ya gonna use chopsticks with those cement fingers?” I teased to make him laugh a full, yet somewhat pain-filled, wheeze of a laugh. Mom rolled her eyes before slowly turning to Dad, shuttering to see him synced up to more wires than anyone comfortably should be. I patted her arm gently, “Lysander said it looks a lot worse than it is. I’ve been charging him up while you were getting checked out, and that’s helped a lot. He should be awake soon.”
She blinked and turned to me with wide eyes. “Charged him up? How?”
I scoffed once in disbelief, “Um, how I always do?”
“Nick, there is no way you have enough energy to heal him…?”
I threw my hands up, “How many times do I have to tell everyone, I’m perfectly fine!? Lysander himself said there isn’t a scratch on me? I mean, I did scrape my knee, but beyond that I’m a-okay? Why would I let him suffer if I can help?”
Mom turned to the other Gods, who had been in the room with me waiting for Dad to wake up, but they all simply shrugged. She finally slacked her shoulders in defeat, “We’ll, talk about it later.” Was the only thing she could say.
“Since you’re such a spring chicken…” Galaxy fished his wallet out and tossed it to me, “Be a doll and grab me some coffee? I have a splitting headache.”
“Yes headmaster,” I teased before skipping out of the room. Mom watched me do this with a concreted frown, but shook it off to ghost towards Dad’s bed morosely.
I returned with Galaxy’s coffee and a honey bun for myself, but when I went to go towards the door, I could see that Dad was opening his eyes. As badly as I wanted to greet him I knew I should give he and Mom a moment, so I sat behind the door to listen. My honey bun kept me occupied briefly, and I munched on the corners while trying to keep the plastic crumpling sounds to a minimum so I wouldn’t be disruptive. Dad stiffly picked his head up, looked to each face in the room, then inevitably fell back into his pillow with a groan of pain. Mom mumbled a few loving words before Dad weakly coughed, bracing himself with the bed rail. “Where is he?” He wheezed brokenly.
“Atlas, not right now…?”
“Where is he? Where is he, Ash…?!” Dad winced violently, and gasped in pure pain.
Mom took his shoulders gently and laid him back, her voice much sterner then before, “He’s fine, so please, stop trying to get up. You’re lucky to be alive, and if you want to see him you need to be patient, or Lysander will ban us all from your room.” Dad sighed miserably, but complied for the time being. He and Mom exchanged a few more soft words, but eventually, an awkward quiet strangled the room. “What happened out there?” She finally asked.
Dad coughed a harsh, sarcastic chuckle, “Guess Galaxy was finally right.”
“About what?” Galaxy sang obnoxiously to make the other Gods giggle.
“I think I’m fizzling out…” Dad’s voice grew thick with pain, not physical, but emotional, “These are the signs, aren’t they? I’ve never been hurt this badly in a fight, let alone by my own powers. Gods, what if… What if I’m not strong enough anymore…?”
“If you’re not strong enough, we’re all dying,” Blaine tried to lightly tease.
“Blaine, I think that’s what he means. Atlas is hands down the strongest of us all, and if he’s losing his powers, we’ll surely be next. Our little demon problem just became astronomically bigger, and our main demon defense got his ass kicked double time.”
“Thanks, Dev…”
“I don’t mean it offensively. I’m petrified, Atlas; if you can’t kill demons then who can?”
“I have an idea.” Galaxy flatly grumbled.
There was a long, eerie silence as Dad finally came to grips with reality. “He really killed it, didn’t he? I wasn’t just imagining that?” Dad shivered at the thought.
“No, you weren’t. Nick absolutely crushed that monstrosity, and walked away from the battle with a smile. I’ve never seen anything like it before. Not to mention how he did it…?”
“Elizabeth!” Mom snapped, which made Dad turn to her nervously. She knew she wasn’t going to get out of this explanation, so she pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed in disgust, shaking her head, “He turned into Grim.” She said flatly before bracing for his reaction.
“He what?!” Dad gasped, wincing to clutch his chest. Mom tried to keep him still, but he started panting on adrenaline as much as the pain, “W-What do you mean he turned into Grim? What kind of sick fucking joke are you trying to pull…?!”
“He didn’t manifest completely, but he did halfway, just enough to draw the necessary energy to disintegrate the demon. It was exactly the way you did when you were training to be a God, except no one ever taught him the incantation…” Dad’s head hit the back of his pillow, and he stared up at the ceiling in horror.
I figured now was a better time than ever to come back into the room, especially since I didn’t want to push getting caught, so I lightly tapped on the door. Mom, who was happy that I had interrupted the unbearable discussion, invited me in but warned Dad to take it easy as I politely shut the door. “They only had decaf,” I said, handing Galaxy his coffee and wallet before coming to sit beside Mom, “How you holding up, Bag of Bones?” I attempted with a nervous smile.
“Been better, but my ticker’s still working,” he joked, reaching forward to lace our hands together. I clutched his back with tears in my eyes and squeezed his lovingly. He brushed my tears away with the back of his fingers, “I’m going to be fine, I promise.”
“I thought that thing killed you…” I brokenly hiccuped, my lips trembling violently before my body caught up, “I… I can’t let that happen again. I can’t see you like that again.”
“Nicodemus…?”
“I can’t lose you guys, I just can’t…!” I let go of his hand to bury my face in my own, choking back a sob that was sitting at the back of my throat. Mom wrapped her arms around me tenderly and tried to calm me down, but my chest kept tightening by the second, “I don’t care what it takes, I won’t ever let you die, never!”
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“Hey, Nick? No one is going anywhere…” Mom took my face in her hands and gently guided me up so I could look into her eyes, “As scary as today was, we’re all going to be just fine, and that is what is most important. Don’t ever think that your father or I will leave you.”
“What if I wasn’t there?” I choked.
Blaine crossed the room to pat my back, “If you weren’t there, I would have strapped Atlas to my back and left that thing to snack on whatever it wanted to!”
“It’s not funny, Blaine,” I seriously barked to everyone’s surprise, “That thing was an incredibly dangerous Yokai, and the fact that we all walked away alive is astonishing.”
“And to think I’m supposed to train you, know-it-all.” He scoffed uneasily.
I frowned, “I didn’t mean to be disrespectful, I just, know more about them, I guess.”
“How did you know how to kill it?” Dad finally asked, staring at the ceiling again.
I turned to face him and swallowed in fear, “I couldn’t think of any other way besides destroying the bones themselves. I remember from your books that the only being in the universe that can destroy the bones of a Gashadokuro is the Grim Reaper, so I, er, well…?”
“So you stupidly attempted to take a form that no other being in history besides myself and Seraphine have been able to take?” He snapped violently.
Blaine and I jumped slightly, and Blaine scoffed in disgust, “Dude, lay off? He saved all our asses out there today, especially yours. Of course it was risky, but…?”
“But nothing, Blaine.” Dad shot him a demonic glare that made Blaine physically bite his tongue to keep from saying something stupid. Dad then turned to me with the same penetrating look, “I am very grateful that you did what you did, Nicodemus, but that does not mean you are out of the loop. You could have killed yourself faster than the Gashadokuro would have. The fact that you’re unscathed should be a warning to never, EVER, risk that again.”
“Are you seriously yelling at me for saving your life?!” I shot back angrily.
“I’m yelling at you for being so reckless!” He shot back sternly.
“Do you hear yourself?!”
“Boys, please?!” Mom cried, but I squirmed out of her arms in a frenzy. “Nick, he was just afraid of losing you, you know that…?!” She attempted as she reached for me again.
“Afraid, afraid?! You think I did what I did because I was trying to show you up or something? You want to talk about afraid? Try seeing the only person you’ve ever looked up to almost die right in front of you!” The hysterical sob I was holding back broke free, and my voice weakened slightly, “You selfish asshole! I don’t care about what happens to me, I’m not going to watch my father die!?”
“Nicodemus Crawford!” Mom yelled over me.
I huffed an angry breath and turned my back on Dad’s shocked expression, throwing the hospital door open, “Next time I’ll let that thing rip your head off! Or better yet, I’ll stay out of it completely, since I’m just a stupid kid who has no right to interfere with your GODLY duties!” I screamed before slamming the door shut as hard as possible behind me.
╪
Sebastian and the rest of the gang were sitting at our usual lunch table, though none of them were talking. Sebastian kept poking his chicken, staring at it as if he were waiting for it to grow legs and walk out of the container, while Odysseus and Praxis were flicking a bawled up straw wrapper back and forth. It eventually fell between the holes of the iron table, which made them grumbly angrily. Soren went to finally say something, but I stormed out of the school and across the courtyard, slamming my tray down so violently that I woke Griffin out of his dead sleep nap against Praxis’s side. “Gods, Nick; might want to leave the table intact next time.” Griffin grumbled as he rubbed his eyes wearily.
“Bite me,” I shot back, ripping the top off my pudding to stab the substance repeatedly.
“Call me crazy, but I think you’re upset about something?” Sebastian sarcastically offered to try and break the tension.
I scoffed, my hands shaking with anger as I whipped the pudding wildly, “That fucking asshole actually yelled at me for saving his life; can you believe that!?”
“He what?” Odysseus snapped.
I slammed the container down and began violently stabbing my fries, clouds of black smoke pillowing from my hands, “Said I was stupid for trying to become Grim and save him. Well you know what, I’ll make sure the next demon rips him in half, since that’s less dangerous than trying to save our lives!”
“Hey now, don’t talk like that. You have every right to be mad, but he was probably terrified too. I mean, how would you feel if you were the God of Death and you got your ass kicked by a demon?” Soren offered, patting my arm lovingly.
I simmered to a tolerable temperature, but my eyes were still pitch black, “It’s not like I was trying to show him up, I thought he was dead! Did he consider for a single moment that maybe I was protecting my family? What’s the point in teaching me how to fight demons if you’re going to scream at me for doing it?”
“So it’s true, then,” our group turned as a boy and girl walked up to the table, crossing their arms with wicked smiles, “You are the kid that killed the Gashadokuro?”
“And who do I have the pleasure of meeting?” I sarcastically sniffed.
The boy’s yellow eyes darkened, as did his smile, “Delias; I’m a sixteenth year Electricity Elemental, and this is my sister Lillian.”
“Wind Elemental,” she added.
“Grab a seat if you’d like…?”
Delias began to melodramatically laugh, which made my blood boil even more. “I didn’t come by to make friends, I came by to challenge you.”
“To?” I sighed miserably.
He was displeased by my nonchalant tone, “There’s a competition coming up in a month, and I want you to face me.”
“You know newbies aren’t allowed to compete, so get lost,” Soren barked.
“Maybe not, but newbies who slay the biggest demon in Japan surely have a spot.”
I slammed my fork down and spun on the bleacher; Odysseus grabbed my waist to keep me from standing to get in Delias’s face. “Look, I’m not exactly in the mood for any additional shit today, so if you want to fight, fine. You get Galaxy to agree, I’ll whoop your ass from Tuesday to Saturday.” I said with acid in my tone.
Delias rolled his eyes, “I like your confidence, but I’ll have you know I’m one of the top Electricity Elementals on this campus, so you should be a bit more modest.”
“And I am the top, and I’m telling you to buzz off before I make sure you drop down to the bottom of the list.” Griffin snarled, turning with pure yellow eyes.
Delias yelped under his breath, but flashed a toothy grin, “Hey, hey, I’m just pulling your leg?! Friendly competition is all this is. I want to see for myself how much of a punch Freckles can pack. He’s been the talk of the town all day, so I wanted to get first hand proof that he’s as special as everyone keeps telling me…” Delias breathed with such a dangerous smile that I almost smacked it off his twisted face.
“Is there an issue here, gentlemen?” Blaine snapped, coming around the corner to stand menacingly behind Delias.
Delias turned on a dime and shook his head, “Of course not, Mr. Levasseur!”
“Then I suggest you report to your own lunch table before you land a spot in Galaxy’s office.” Blaine said in such a deep and stern tone that all of us, even Odysseus, shuddered.
“See ya on the field, Freckles.” Delias winked and skipped to the other side of the courtyard, though he ground his teeth in annoyance. His sister slid a sticky note across the table and made the ‘call me’ motion before following her brother.
“Did she just do what I think she did!?” Odysseus barked jealously, bright red with rage and not trying to necessarily hide it.
I snickered at his adorable anger, “Simmer down there; like I’d ever date anything related to that dickhead.” I assured while patting his hair lovingly.
“Speaking of, what was all that about?” Blaine scoffed, dropping his menacing God stance in an instance, and wiggling in between Odysseus and I to steal a handful of fries off his plate. He doused them in ketchup and stuffed some into his mouth, ignoring Odysseus’s side glare.
“Sure, invite yourself,” I teased, rolling my eyes before smirking at his innocent giggle, “He was asking me to fight him in the upcoming competition.”
“He what?” Blaine asked with his mouth full.
“I told him to get Galaxy’s permission and I’m game.”
“Hello, Earth to Nicodemus; did you consider talking to your trainer about this?! Atlas will kill me if I-…” He sunk into a ball at the way I glared at him, and cleared his throat before dusting salt off his fingertips, “I suppose you should have your chance. Regardless of what the asshole says, you did kill that thing, so I’m sure you can scrape Delias off the concrete.”
“How is the asshole?” I sniffed.
Blaine cracked a smile and ruffled my hair, seeing right through my charade, “He’s back to being his usual asshole self.” He teased to make us all laugh before growing a bit more serious, “Ash brought him home an hour or so ago. He’s on bed rest for a few days, but should be up and around by the weekend.”
“Yay me. I can’t wait to spend my weekend arguing.” I snorted venomously.
“It’ll be ok, Nick. I’m sure your Dad’s going to want to make up rather than continuing to fight like this. Give him a chance at least?” Sebastian offered.
“Yeah, whatever. I’ll see you guys later.”
I swung my legs out of the bench and went inside; Blaine groaned loudly and waved his hand at me before diving back into Odysseus’s fries with a shake of his head. “Him and Atlas, two stubborn peas in a pod. Like father like son, those two,” he sighed to my friends.