I was overwhelmed by the room in front of me. The library was massive; the ceiling was barely visible from where I was, and it almost looked like it was growing taller by the minute. Rich gold-and-mahogany spiral pillars adorned the room as far as the eye could see.
There was intricate art depicting pictures of important historical figures, like Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, and Da Vinci; behind the portrait of every person, there was a more petite figure behind them that looked like they were writing in a book. The shelves reached the ceiling and were filled with books that seemed to come from every language, old and new. As I approached them, the words rearranged into a language I could understand.
A check-in desk appeared next to me, and with it, multiple small women appeared before me; they couldn’t be taller than a foot. All wore the same face: an older woman with gold eyes and thick, long white hair carefully pinned back in a bun— they were beautifully dressed, wearing a long, solid beige silk buttoned dress with long sleeves.
The women began rapidly organizing themselves around the ivory ‘U’ shaped desk. One by one, they took position. A small light turned on when one of them stepped on a button. Over them, a sign reading ‘Ready To Help’ lighted up. There were about 4 of them: one next to a huge phone, one next to the desk’s computer mouse, one next to a megaphone, and the last one by the keyboard. The one by the megaphone was the only one that addressed me.
“Welcome to the Library of Alexandria. Please state the reason for your visit and the books desired.” Her voice sounded like a woman who smoked her whole life. Her hoarse voice was not what I expected to hear.
“Phanes summoned me. I don’t need books today.”
A loud gasp from all four of them came out after I said I didn’t want any books. One of them looked deeply offended by the comment.
“No Books?” the megaphone woman scoffed.
“Not today,” I reassured.
Her small nostrils flared up, and her jaw clenched. “Fine,” She replied dryly. “Pull the book if you change your mind – Second Floor to the right, follow the cashmere scent.”
The desk then shrunk and folded into itself; the women became book pages with beautifully made watercolor portraits just as they were a minute ago. Then, the pages joined the desk, turning into a book that flew past me to the nearest shelf. The cover was red, and on the side, it read “Eliza.”
I followed the instructions and made my way to the second floor; she was right. The smell of cashmere was intense in this area, but it wasn’t just cashmere; it was mixed in with vanilla undertones and some other scents I couldn’t quite identify. I took a deep breath; taking it all in, the scent was strong but calming. I heard a humming coming from behind one of the bookshelves; as I followed the sound, I encountered a man sitting in front of me, his legs crossed, resting on a small black ottoman. He was leaning back on the chair, reading the world-famous Macbeth.
The man was indistinguishably Phanes. He was astonishing. His skin had a light glow to it. His hazel eyes were carefully glancing over each word in the pages. His dark hair was well-kept and long enough to be styled back. He was wearing a buttoned-up white shirt that did a terrible job of hiding his powerful figure; the sleeves of his shirt were pulled back just enough to see an arm tattoo of a snake twirling on itself with a crescent moon in the middle and another crescent moon pointed in the opposite direction on the top, with small beams of light popping off it.
He finally noticed me admiring him from a close distance and invited me to sit down, his eyes full of childlike wonder. He pointed at a chair beside his, separated only by a small side table. He closed his book and put it down on the table as he adjusted himself for conversation, removing his feet from the ottoman and changing into a more formal stance.
“Heracles, Castor and Melicertes. Does any of these names ring a bell?” he asked, genuinely intrigued by my answer. There was no greeting, just the random pull of names that appeared to be called upon just to give me some kind of reaction.
“No sir, it does not.” I had made it this far. Sitting before him, I could feel him studying every movement I made.
“I see.”
He snapped his fingers, and three books flew from different floors towards us. I braced myself for impact, given the speed at which they were flying. They swung by and slowed down towards the descent, softly landing on the table beside us. With the names of the people he had mentioned written on each cover.
“You should learn your history more. It might help a little with your situation,” he said as he pointed towards my shoulder. “Do you have it?” his eyes opened wide, and his arms showed how tense he truly was after asking that question.
“Have what?” At that moment, I wasn’t sure what he was asking of me, but judging by his expression, it was serious and important to him.
“My mark.” he then pointed at a group of people on the other side of the room. A few wearing more revealing clothing had a small white mark on their shoulders, some had a small sun, and others had different types of smaller constellations. I remembered that Milo said the inner circle wore the symbol of the North Star. but I didn’t see anyone with a visible one around the area.
I removed my jacket and lowered my sweater around my right shoulder. There it was, clear as day, a small white crescent moon. In front of Phanes Presence, it seemed to be iridescent, it didn’t burn, but it was distracting
He pulled his chair forward and looked at it momentarily, stupefied.
“That’s interesting.” He opened his hand, and a notebook appeared on it. He pulled his other hand, and a pen was on the other side. He took a couple of notes on it and made it disappear again. I took this opportunity to get my sweater back in place, hiding away my mark, and the light on it.
Two snakes, a white and a black snake, appeared around my chair; they slithered around me and made their way to my hand. I reached out towards the table, where I found the final resting place for them to slither through. Their scales itched my skin as they passed by.
Phanes took the opportunity to grab my hand and pull it to the table; before I knew it, he had stabbed my hand down to the table’s surface. I attempted to yell, but no sound came out of me; the pain spread through my body from my hand. A small black-reddish dagger kept me in place.
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My blood started coming down warm and slowly. Phanes ran his finger across my blood and took what felt like an eternity to look at it. He then took the dagger out of my hand and cleaned it with a piece of cloth that he took out of his pocket. I could start to see why Milo wanted me to steer clear of him.
“I’m sorry for all the experiments. Word travels fast around here. When I heard you were back, I couldn’t believe it. George and Frederick caught me up on what happened to you.” as he was saying that, the pain slowly went away, and the whole from the dagger started closing in my hand. So this is what immortality is like?
“Okay, you all mighty; no more games,” I said as I was holding my hand in fear that he would try it again. He let out a loud laugh, bringing the attention of some passers-by. I think he was enjoying himself a little too much for my liking.
“What happened to me? Where are my Parents?” I asked firmly; at this moment in time, I had an opportunity to gain some clarity and to find the only people I had gotten to know in this new life I was living. However, if Milo is right, I’m unsure if they would be classified as my parents.
“Rennee Daxon, that is you. That is who you are, or at least who you were. — Your Parents as you call them are safe” he played with the dagger as he addressed me, making me feel irritated he even had that thing still out.
“As what happened to you is a mystery to us all. You are right; I’m all mighty,” his smile grew, “But not all-knowing,” he stopped to look at me, to examine me.
From under his chair, he dragged a large file with pictures and paperwork sticking out of it. He then stabbed the folder and gave me all of it.
“According to these files, you were found deceased in the 1920s after you sent an emergency signal. The team meant to help you, found you with this very dagger. – This, Rennee, is the dagger that ended your life.” he pointed towards it with his chin.
“I thought we were immortal.” that came out involuntarily. All this information was coming at me too quickly, but I couldn’t avoid the facts. This was indeed happening.
“To an extent, yes. But nature always finds a way. This dagger is not the only one of its kind. It is made out of the blood of your brothers and sisters.” his eyes darkened, and his prior playful expression disappeared off his face.
“We believe they were in the process of extracting your blood to make more when you were found. They, however, didn’t finish the process all the way; we don’t know what stopped them and why.” His hands dropped below his knees in a signal of defeat.
His own creation was used against each other. What was meant to be good and last forever has been slowly exterminated like a pest. Who knows how many died at the hand of a dagger like this, and to top it off, who knows how they discovered that our blood could be used against us in such a way?
He grabbed the blade again and looked at me, giving me the most awful feeling going down my spine. “You aren’t what you used to be; your mark is still there. So that means that you technically still belong to me, but your blood – is human.”
He signaled a nearby woman to approach him; the girl seemed nervous but was happy to comply; after all, he was a God walking between his subjects. The girl was younger than the others; her red hair made her cheeks look even more flush than they were
“Your hand, Maribel.” He extended his hand out, and she placed hers on his. “Brace yourself,” She closed her eyes as her muscles began to tense.
He slowly ran the blade through her hand. Blood, or rather something similar to it, was running down her hand; it wasn’t the regular crimson-red color that people usually have. It was blue and gooey. As the blade finished the cut, her hand had already begun healing. He then made a gesture for her to leave. She nodded and continued her path along the library.
“Okay then, I’m not part of your golden children, and I’m not human, so what am I?”
“I don’t know,” he gave me a gentle smile; if it weren’t because the man had stabbed me mere minutes ago with such aggression and speed, I would have found him attractive. “A mix somehow?”
“Why would they do this to me?”
“You were a target, the way you were killed was rather violent to be described” He placed his hand in the folder and brought out some pictures, I let out a loud gasp, these pictures were too disturbing for me to admire for long periods of time. “They wanted to make sure you were dead, you must have crossed someone’s path, but somehow you are back — Alive” he was making small circles around the folder with his index finger, not daring to look me in the eyes.
“How is this possible, I have been dead for over a century”
“We don’t know, there was a signal that came from you, I sent the Daxon’s to investigate it, they more than anyone want to see the guilty parties brought to justice, they found you and when they noticed your human blood took you to the best doctor we know, he is one of mine” he finally looked up to me with a rather serious expression on his face “I want to try something. I don’t do it very often, mainly because I don’t have the need for it. But I would like to access your mind.”
“Access my mind? Are you going to cut me open again?” I scoffed; God or no God, I would not let him do anything to hurt me again, fool me once.
He let out a chuckle. And in his eyes, I could see some relief “No, Ren, We aren’t into that kind of lobotomy over here. Plus, it would be kinda messy, and I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m wearing white.”
“So you won’t lobotomize me because you do not want to stain your shirt?” I asked stupefied
“Yes.” he smiled. “The process is quite simple, really; I just need your permission to access your mind… Well, I don’t need it, but I prefer it; going into someone’s subconscious is a lot easier when they are not fighting back. I’ll see if I can access some of the lost memories. What do you say?”
I was starting to wonder if I was better off dead. There may still be time to undo my awakening and return to my eternal slumber. I certainly do hope that all of this will be worth it in the end.
I struggled to believe that this was what my life had just become; a couple of days ago, I was lying in the hospital bed feeling lost and frustrated; today, I’m sitting across from The God of Creation himself. But this was not the time to fear or be selfish. I belonged here, and perhaps there is a reason why I was brought back.
“I’ll do it.” I tried to make my voice sound as confident as I could; I didn’t want him to think that I was scared of what he would find in my mind.
“Atta girl!” he exclaimed in excitement. “I’m a little out of practice, but don’t worry, it’s like riding a bike.” he winked and extended his hands for me to grab onto.
His long arms exuded warmth, and the smell of cashmere became far more prominent than before. I could feel his body coming closer to me until we were inches away. His eyes went from hazel to gold, reflecting light all around us. It was subtle but noticeable. I surrendered to the gentle embrace of the light, allowing its warmth to envelop me completely.
I must have closed my eyes at some point after he grabbed me because when I opened them, the room was white. There was nothing around it. It was infinite whiteness; Phanes was standing in front of me, looking around – He was definitely confused by his surroundings. He decided to start moving forward, and I kept a close distance from him. The only thing keeping us company was the sound of our footsteps.
“This is not what it normally looks like” his voice echoed through the infinite nothingness.
“What are we looking for?”
“We will know when we find it” he shrugged
After an eternity had passed, or so it seemed, we reached a door. He attempted to open it, and when the door wouldn’t budge, he went with the more aggressive approach of attempting to kick it down. It didn’t move. He gazed in my direction, stepping aside to beckon me closer to the door. The moment I touched it, it turned red. The world around us started shaking. I fell onto Phanes, who held me tightly as if nothing and everything were moving simultaneously. After it was done, we turned to the door. It was Ajar.
The door led to what appeared to be an old warehouse; I could see my old self walking around the place in a surreal and out-of-body experience.