"Ugh, father, what the hell is that?!" Socks asked with a disgusted face. The dead tortoise lay on its back.
"Hm, probably a threat." He sighed, crouched down by the tortoise.
"Threat? With a dead turtle?" Socks asked, clearly shocked.
"Tortoise. Yes, indeed. It's my sacred animal." Hermes explained easily.
"Is someone going to kill us?" Socks queried like a mere child. She was a bit frightened by the thought.
"Nope. I'll kill them first." Hermes stood up and stretched.
"What if it's a god?" Socks asked once more.
Hermes stopped stretching when she asked that question. "I doubt it is. If so, it would be a minor deity. Who would be so stupid to challenge me, the messenger god?" Hermes beamed like a cat.
Socks tapped her chin, gazing at the sky fondly. "Well..." she wanted to refuse her father's argument. What if it's a stronger deity...? She asked herself.
Hermes finished stretching. "You should probably take a shower and pick out nice clothes for tomorrow."
Socks tilted her head slightly, a confused look on her face. "Eh?! Why?"
Hermes sighed, looking back at her. "Goodness, Socks, did you forget already? Tomorrow is the meeting of Paidiá Tou Theoú! Remember?"
Socks jolted up. "Ohh!! The meeting of the god's children, right! I completely forgot about that!" She began to open the door of the house, but turned around to face her father. "The title is Greek, right?"
Hermes face-palmed. "Nooo, it's Arabic." He spoke sarcastically.
Socks made a grunting sound. "Jeez, father, stop picking up on the common day sarcasm," She joked, sticking out her tongue playfully, and finally entered the house.
Socks closed the door behind her, and took something out from her back pocket. It was the bloody letter. "All right, time to see what this is." She opened it carefully, trying not to get the now dried-up blood on her hands. Blood covered the letter, but did not touch the words. It smelled horrid.
Little letter,
Little piece,
You are the header,
Of the fleece.
Not known—
but new,
It is hand sewn—
but by whom?
Surely not by me,
Or he,
But by you,
because he is new.
Socks looked at the letter, astonished. Was this referring to her? Letter, letter....who's the letter?
Then something clicked in her brain. She's the letter! Hermes is the messenger god...he delivers things...so, he therefore helped deliver her into the world.
Socks shook her head, repeating ,"No, no, no, no." Many times. She went to her room, her sister found asleep. Socks went to her bookshelf, and pulled a lighter from behind a book. She then grabbed cloths, set them on her bed, and went to the bathroom. Socks closed the door, locking it tightly. She flicked the lighter on, burning the paper. The bathroom now smelled of smoke, and blood, along with burning paper.
She watched it burn into ashes, and turned on the shower by moving a knob. Hot water started pouring out swiftly. Socks started undressing herself, and tossed the lighter on the floor. She entered the tub, bathing her hair under the water.
A weird smell started emitting from the shower, and the water suddenly turn from hot, to warm. Socks shivered, facing the wall that was away from the shower faucet. She turned around slowly, and gasped loudly. Socks then started to yowl and scream, causing Hermes to dash inside the house.
"Socks?! What's going on?!" He demanded, trying to open the door of the bathroom, but it was locked.
"Socks!" Hermes called, then pulled something out of his pants pocket. It was a small knife. He stabbed it through the door, and the door suddenly disintegrated entirely.
Hermes heard sobbing. His eyes widened at the sight he saw. Blood. Warm, gooey blood covered the walls, filling up the tub, and slowly dripping from the shower faucet. Socks was drenched in it, her hair sticky with it, and splotches on her right cheek. The rest covered her body like a coat. What really was interesting was that implanted in the sea of blood were jewels-form diamonds to beautiful, green emeralds. Rubies stuck out in the mess, too. They shined brightly like stars in the sky.
"S..Socks?" Hermes started approaching, blood squished under his shoes, but stopped mid-step.
Socks shook her head, sitting on the side of the tub, cradling herself. "I give up on life." She chuckled lightly.
Hermes sighed in relief slightly. "Socks, it's all right, I'm here." He tried to step forward, but heard a weird sound.
Footsteps.
Socks lift her head up curiously like a cat. "What..was—" She got cut off before she could finish her sentence.
The room burst into flames, in a small circle.
It dispersed after five seconds.
Socks jumped from the tub, flailing her arm around.
Hermes rushed to her side. "SOCKS!" He put out the flame that stuck to her arm.
"OW!!" Socks slipped on the blood, bringing Hermes with her.
Hermes managed to put out the flames, and he stared at Sock's arm, startled.
"What's this?" He yanked her wrist up, examining it thoroughly.
"What's what?!" Socks asked, crying silently. Her voice cracked.
"This!" Hermes practically shoved her wrist in her face.
A black image was plastered on her wrist. It was of Earth, and hands surrounded it. Black fog came up from under Earth. A heart wrapped in paper was on the top left side, and a bat was on the top right side. The Most intriguing thing about this was the small, bloody hand print on Earth.
"What the hell is that?!" Socks screeched much like a dying animal.
"Prophetic mark." Hermes stated calmly.
"What's a propertic mark?" Socks questioned, saying the word wrong.
Prophetic. It's an old word, but sounds nice." Hermes explained.
"I wasn't asking that," Socks frowned.
"Oh. Well, it's a mark that declares something. Whether it be war, or sickness. Each god and goddess has their own. These are plastered on the children of the gods they are challenging. Such as, Apollo's mark it of a scroll, with words. If it showed up on you, he'd be challenging me to something, whether it be a battle, or card game." Hermes groomed his chin, thinking.
"Then who challenged you?!" Socks asked.
"I do not know." Hermes sighed irritatingly. "It's of multiple pictures, so about five or four gods. However, I don't know who."
Socks looked shocked. "You...don't know who the enemy is?"
Hermes shook his head viciously. "As I stated, I do not. It seems it's a war declaration." Hermes stated, "But that's all I can interpret. I'll discuss this with the other gods tomorrow at the meeting of Paidiá Tou Theoú." Hermes nodded. "Yes, I'll do that."
Socks watched her father pace around the room. "Um, could you please call Step-Sis?" She asked, shivering again.
Hermes snapped his fingers. "Ah, yes! That's perfect. Go get the phone, and call Katharós." He commanded.
Socks sighed. "Father, I don't mean to disobey you, but I'm drenched in blood." She reminded him. "Not to mention naked. I'll need to go past a window to get to the phone. I've already reminded you that the neighbors think it's suspicious to see a nineteen-year old boy visiting a way older woman?" Socks pointed out.
Hermes grunted, rubbing his chin. "Yes...I'll go call her." Hermes left for a quick second, and came back moments later.
A bubbly, red-haired woman peeked into the bathroom, covering her nose with her hands. "EW! Did you, like, finally kill Apollo, dad?" She asked Hermes.
Hermes frowned. "No...why would I ever do that?"
Socks started coughing, and in between coughs said 'Gods are immortal, they can't be murdered.'...Cough.
"Because he got married. To a Japanese woman." Katharós giggled.
"So...?" Hermes raised an eyebrow.
Katharós sighed. "Wow...I thought you'd understand it was a culture jump..and plus I thought you were gay for Apollo. You two hang out all the time together." Katharós had her mouth as a circle, looking up at the ceiling while tapping her chin.
Hermes slammed his head into the sink dramatically. "What was the last thing you said?!" He asked with an unbelievable face.
"Um...just a culture jump!" Katharós giggled, hiding behind the bathroom door.
Socks started laughing. "Oh my...That's great, Kath!"
Hermes blushed ferociously. "It is not! I understood what you said!! Can you please just clean my bathroom?!" He asked, beckoning to the whole room with his arms.
Katharós covered her mouth. "Whoa, what happened here? Is this paint that smells like blood?" She asked, covering her mouth.
Hermes knew that Katharós was color-blind, so he didn't say anything. "It's plain blood. We'll need it cleaned before Ageláda wakes up."
Katharós nodded. "Yes, I'll clean it." The goddess of cleaning smiled. "But can you watch Chroma?" She smiled.
A tiny girl came from behind the door. She had multi colored hair, and Heterochromatic eyes that were differently mixed with all the colors of the world. Even new ones that could not be explained. She looked nine years old, very young.
"Oh! Is this the new goddess, the goddess of color?" Hermes asked brightly. It was always nice to see more deities.
"Mhm." Katharós purred like a cat. "Her name is Chroma. Her parents are the rainbow goddess, Iris, and Zephyrus, the west wind god. Isn't she cute?!~"
"Very. Now, clean the bathroom." Hermes frowned, still phased by the comment about him being gay about his brother.
"Fine, fine!" Katharós puffed her cheeks out like a child. The tiny wings on her wrist fluttered, in which she obviously interpreted from Hermes, her father.
With one swift gesture, the white marble bathroom was sparkling with cleanness.
"Ew! Now my wings are dirty!" Katharós exclaimed, rushing over to the sink and turning the water on. You see, when her wrists move, they clean whatever she wanted to clean, but the worst part is that it absorbs the dirty things, in this case, the blood.
Hermes started picking up the jewels that were left behind. "I'll send these directly to Hades." He stated.
Socks, meanwhile, had jumped into the tub, hiding behind the black shower curtains. "When father said 'clean the bathroom,' he didn't mean clean me too!!" Socks exclaimed, blushing wildly.
"Oops," Katharós giggled. "You're the one that happened to be in here."
Socks was now angry, she grabbed a towel from the side of the tub, and wrapped it around her body. Still blushing, she marched out of the bathroom with her head held high.
"Man, Katharós, that was cruel." Hermes chuckled loudly, picking up a diamond.
"Well, I never said I was nice." She shrugged, and they both watched Socks leave the bathroom.
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