Ch5

I was in a familiar space at the center of a lush field with a babbling creek, and before me was a goddess, one that I barely recognized. The halo floating over her head had drooped to the side, ready to fall off at any moment. The wings sprouting from her back were frayed and unkempt. Her pure transcendent beauty had been almost completely drained, not in terms of age but rather that it was now blemished by raw fatigue. The radiant aura that I remembered had been replaced by an air of distress and depression that seemed to engulf its surroundings. The pain on her face outdid any I had ever seen in either of my lives. I had little doubt that anyone in history had ever been as overworked as this goddess was at that specific moment, as she frantically dove through the giant piles of paper that lay about the desk where she sat.

"I guess the wages of sin really are death huh?"

At the sudden disturbance in her work, the girl spun in her chair. Her face snapped up to look at me with bloodshot eyes and fully dilated pupils that portrayed a fear reminiscent of a rabbit about to be scooped up by a predator. As her body turned she knocked over a trashcan that was under the desk that had been overflowing with cans and various prescription bottles. As we stared into each other's eyes, her fear began to transform into a combination of terror and disbelief.

"…no no no no No No NO NO. What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean? You told me to come see you. I was worried I had taken too much time to check back in."

"No but… how did you wake up early?

"Wake up? Aren’t I asleep right now in a church? That's what you told me to do at least, go sleep in a church. Though I won't pretend like I understand how any of this metaphysical stuff works."

At that moment, the goddess who had appeared to have already lost all her composure, lost the last bit of composure she didn't even know she had. Unable to support her own weight, she fell to her knees and looked up past my head to the distance with eyes that had glazed over.

"You've been conscious this whole time?"

"Since some point in the womb, yeah."

"Oh my God… You were preborn…"

It might have been a hallucination, but I was almost sure I was able to see the manifestation of her will crack in half. The goddess began to claw at her own face and whisper to herself.

Yeah… I kinda figured she had fucked it up somehow.

"It's over… It was all for nothing… They said one more mistake… just one more… it was over before it even began… I played myself…"

As I watched her wreath in mental agony, the bit of sadistic amusement I had been taking from the situation up until this point started to fade as a sense of disgust began to well up in the back of my throat with each time she bleeted into the void.

Ewuhh… I hope it isn't possible for a god to commit suicide.

Suddenly I could hear the sound of a clock chime, it somehow sounded as if it was coming from inside of my head and from some far away place at the same time. On the first ring of the bell, the goddess looked off into the distance with a snap, as if she knew exactly where the clock was. With each successive hit, her thoughts visibly began to race more and more. Each time her eyes darted to a different spot in the field, obviously looking for some sort of out. The final toll rang, and she looked straight at me like a gambler with their last dollar in hand staring at a penny machine. Her gaze filled with an uncertain determination.

"You have to help me!"

She ran up and grabbed my shoulders.

"My boss is coming right now! You're the only one that…"

The click of a key undoing a lock made us both turn our heads. A door had appeared just a few feet away from where we were standing and had begun to open. From the hole came the din of business chatter and ringing phones came through, and over the top of it all, the voice of the one pushing on the door.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

"Surely you're done by now, right?"

An angel I hadn't seen before stepped in from the other side. His brown hair had grey streaks and was slicked back neatly. Everything about his demeanor, from his suit to his well chiseled jaw line, gave off an air of utter confidence. He mildly gaped at me in surprise, then at the statue that still had me in its grasp, and then at the mound of papers that had somehow doubled in size while I wasn't looking. Finally, he turned back to us with a perfect business smile.

"I guess if you were going to slack off, then waking him up wasn't the worst use of time."

He stretched out his hand to me for a handshake. I took it gingerly while making an attempt to match his grin in order to greet him.

"I'm glad the state of my self-awareness is such a high priority to the upper cosmos."

"Well of course! The fate of a universe rests on your shoulders. So how does it feel to be back alive? Although I guess for you it must have only felt like a few moments."

At some point, a certain air-headed girl had slipped behind the man's back and had begun to miserably plead to me with a fervor that would make a saint question the extent of their own devotion. Her hands were clasped together shaking as spit flew from her mouth with each silently mouthed word.

"Well, actually…"

She froze knowing that I knew that I held her very existence in my hands. The man looked at me quizzically.

"To me, it's been a few hours. You see, I bumped my head while training. Something about that must have caused my memories to begin returning on their own. I went straight to the nearest church when I realized what was going on."

"Hmm, I don't think that's supposed to happen. Oh well, not much we can do about glitches like that now."

The goddess fell to the floor in a puddle of relief. The man gave me a pat on the shoulder.

"Personally I’m a big fan of yours. Not many people can stay celibate multiple lives over. Very impressive.”

“Want me to sign a tissue box or lotion bottle for you?”

“No we don’t need those up here.

He had taken me seriously.

“Everyone up here is rooting for you, so do your best. "

"I'll try."

He glanced back at the girl laying unconscious on the floor behind him.

"Don't keep this one here too long."

He turned and kicked her in the head with enough force to break someone’s neck. The poor girl was now awake again as she looked up at her boss as if prepared for beating.

"She's got quite a bit on her plate. Isn’t that Right?"

Still on her knees, she wildly nodded up and down in response. He walked back out the door, paying her little mind. As the door closed the goddess turned to me with tears in her eyes.

"You're my savior! I'll worship you until the day I die!"

She crawled over and began to kiss my feet. I would have kicked her away if I hadn't just witnessed a display of workplace brutality.

"Get off of me! Relax!"

I helped the sniffling disgrace to her feet.

"That wasn't free, you owe me."

"Yes yes yes, of course."

"Do you have any idea what it's like to be trapped in an unborn baby's body?"

The words visibly hurt her.

"Look...How many times do I have to say 'I'm sorry'?"

"You haven't even done that once."

She clicked her tongue in annoyance.

…This ungrateful fucking bitch...