The two police officers inside the apartment had found their voices again, and were screaming at Seph, with both weapons trained on her. Samantha couldn't make out what they were saying though, as her heart was pounding too loudly in her ears. Is this how I die? Gunned down in my cramped living room?

Seph was saying something to her now too, but she still couldn't make out what. Everything seemed to be happening so fast, Sam struggled to comprehend anything with all the simultaneous stress. 

Before Sam could try and decipher what she was saying, Seph’s unarmed hand lashed towards her, throwing her across the apartment in a swirl of bright red and orange light. Why isn't this fire burning me? Samantha tried to think as she smashed painlessly through the wall her kitchen shared with her bedroom, and plopped down onto her bed, as the ‘flames’ harmlessly extinguished .

Ear shattering cracks ripped through her apartment, destroying her meager possessions. That sound is gunfire, holes in me would be bad, a helpful part of her brain reminded her. 

Bullets continued tearing through the walls, creating plumes of dust from the disintegrating sheetrock. Samantha crawled down to the floor and tried to stay as low as possible as she slowly made her way to the closet. 

No sooner was she in the closet when a spatter of gunfire tore through the bed where she was just lying, sending a cloud of feathers from her pillow and down comforter into the air. As quickly as her shaking hands could manage, she closed the closet door behind her. The thin apartment walls did little to silence the automatic gunfire, crashing, and screaming that was coming from the next room over. But then, as quickly as it had started, there was relative quiet. 

In the silence, Samantha’s heart seemed to pound with even more fervor in her ears, and she tried to calm herself as she concentrated on listening for anything else. Soon, her ears were able to hear approaching footsteps enter the bedroom and pause. Some part of her mind worried her heart was pounding so loud that it would be audible from outside the door.

The footsteps resumed and they were approaching her hiding spot, as Sam failed to quiet her breathing. There was nowhere left to run, she just had to hope and pray to her newfound goddess that this wasn't one of the men in unmarked black body armor sent to kill her. The door opened and light spilled into the small room. Standing in the open doorway was Seph, still clad in her smouldering hoplite armor, and expressions of concern and relief were visible on her face through the opening of her helm. 

“It’s okay Samantha, they aren't going to hurt you” Seph said softly. As she spoke her armor faded in a thick embered smoke until her regular clothes returned, completely unaltered. Seph dropped to her knees, and gathered Sam into a hug. Only once she was being held did Sam realize she had been sobbing, and the rush of adrenaline faded in a crash of emotions- foremost being relief. Samantha had never been anywhere near a fight of that magnitude, and combat was an unforgiving place to have your first near death experience. For the first real time Samantha wondered what did I get myself into?

Seph began to pad her hands around Sam’s back, presumably feeling for blood or other signs of wounds. “Did anything hit you? Are you bleeding Samantha?”

Sam regained her voice and choked out “n-no, I don't think so,” although she was so rattled that she may not have even felt it if she had. 

Seph let out a sigh of relief “I’m so glad you're not hurt. I’m so sorry, I don't know how those bastards found you so soon, but all we can do now is make sure you're safe, honey. Can you stand, I need to get you out of here.” Seph was speaking softly as if she was coaxing a prey animal out from hiding. After she saw Samantha’s subtle nod, she helped her to her feet and steadied her in case she was going to fall. 

The bullets that had torn through the apartment had shredded most of her belongings, and what appeared to be most of the new clothes they had bought the day before, that had never even made it to her closet. Sam couldn't help but feel her stomach twist in sadness at all that she’d lost in so little time.

Slowly they made their way back into the living room, and Seph paused, turning back towards Sam with a hint of worry on her face. “Wait here, I need to grab David. If you're in danger, so are your friends.”

“Don't leave me!” Sam said on instinct, as Seph moved to continue on. 

“It's okay, I just don't want you to see all this… mess. I’ll be right back, you're completely safe.” Seph squeezed Sam’s shoulder before turning back and disappearing around the corner towards the front door. 

From where she stood, Sam could see a black tactical boot on the floor, and blood was pooling on the ground, and a small splatter had streaked across the far wall. Morbid curiosity got the better of her as she slowly padded to the main living room. Scorch marks littered the walls and ceilings, and smoked lazily. She could see at least two bodies on the ground, but they were no longer in single pieces. The sickly sweet smell of burnt flesh filled her nostrils, and Sam felt a wave of nausea, as she began to turn away before she made herself even more sick. 

Before she could fully turn though, a spiral of flame burst open in the middle of her living room, and it quickly expanded until it was the size of a person. A man stepped through, wearing smouldering black armor that resembled Seph’s, but looked more like volcanic stone than wood. He was armed with a sleek black two pronged pitchfork, and a glare that spelled murder. Why did Seph have to leave me alone?

A blood curdling scream filled Sam’s ears as the man met her gaze, while twisting his body and weapon into a fighting stance. Sam stumbled back as she faintly realized that the scream had come from her. Seph came bursting back into the living room, with a shocked David in tow. “Sam?!” She quickly gathered what was going on, and tersely told the man to put away his ‘bident.’

“It’s alright Sam, this is Hades, he's here to help.” Seph helped Sam back to her feet and the two men made their way back down the hall towards Sam, looking uncomfortable with the carnage on full display in the living room. “Let's talk in your bedroom.”

Once inside, David shut the door, and turned with a look of confusion and fear stricken across his face. He quickly glanced around the bullet holes in the room, and his gaze finally rested on Samantha, who was holding back another wave of tears. He closed the distance and wrapped her up in a hug, but said nothing.

“We don't have much time, I need to get these two to a safe location” Seph said to Hades. 

Hades took a second to look over them before replying “we can't exactly take a couple mortals to the underworld. What about the Garden of Demeter?”

“I haven't spoken to my mother in centuries'' Seph said in a huff, before looking at Samantha again and finding some resolve. “But I can't think of anywhere safer .”

A swirl of shadows appeared in the corner of the room and then coalesced into an attractive, young woman with midnight black armor. “You summoned me father?” the girl spoke in a formal tone, taking in the new faces with a skeptical hostility.

“It’s alright, Mel, these are friends.” Hades replied, sensing some unreleased tension in the room, and deciding to take a moment to make formal introductions. He looked at David and Sam while gesturing to the new girl “this is Melinoë, Seph and I’s daughter.”

Seph helpfully added “this is Samantha, my new arch-priestess, and her friend David.” She pointed to each as she spoke. A look of what Sam thought might be admiration flitted across Mel’s face as she took in Sam’s form, as if she’d heard of her before.

“We don't have much time. Mel, I need you to take them to Demeter’s garden, and convince her to train Sam.”

“What about the Vilongo Deal?” Mel said turning to Hades “I thought I was leading that mission! Lives are at stake!”

“Vilongo?! The energy company?” Sam interjected before she could second guess herself. “I worked on the Vilongo Merger with NamozaCorp, I basically wrote the terms.”

“See, you'll be in good company.” Hades clapped the frustrated looking Melinoë on her shoulder. “Make sure she's safe and find out all the information you can from her before you return. Your mother and I can pick up where you left off. Now go.”

Melinoë rolled her eyes before roughly grabbing both Sam and David by the arms “try not to puke on me.”

**

Mel was a good soldier. She’d worked hard to prove herself, and build the Shadow Stalkers into a formidable group of young chthonic beings that were basically super ninjas, and now she was on babysitting duty. Sure, she got to see her grandmother, who famously dotes on her, and sure, the two ‘babes’ in question were smoking hot. But none of those things changed the fact that she was a good soldier, and she wasn't where she was needed. Leading her troops, and saving lives. Just get the intel you need, dump ‘em on grandma and get back to the fight.

Mel reformed the trio into solid matter on the edge of Demeter’s Garden. Her grandmother was famously snooty with mortals, and this wasn't going to be an easy sell. To make matters worse, both Sam and David simultaneously vomited upon being rematerialized and splattered partially digested wine and burrito chunks all over her freshly cleaned matte black boots. Perfect.

“Was the request ‘please don't vomit on me’ too unclear?” Melinoë huffed annoyed, as she tried to wipe the mess on a nearby shrub. “You mortals are like cans of soda; shake ‘em a little and they go spewing everywhere.”

Sam glared with as much fury as Mel assumed she could muster. “First, excuse me for having a little trouble getting my atoms torn apart for the first time, won't happen again. Second, we are also severely hungover, so next time maybe let us grab some anti-acid and a garbage bag before you transport us into another friggin dimension. And thirdly, you actually said ‘try not to puke on me,’ as you ripped us away from proper physics and…” Samantha looked like she was going to continue but Mel noted that her face took an abnormal green hue, so she turned the mortal away, and let her continue heaving.

“Point… but that doesn't help my boots,” Mel replied, taking a glance at the other mortal with a sigh. “David, right?” she asked hopefully, in a bid to help smooth things over. The handsome man looked completely disheveled, and confused. He didn't even acknowledge her question, as he stared at the ground. He looked as if he'd been through the roughest day of his life. That might actually be true, Mel thought with a hint of shame at her behavior. “Look I’m sorry, I got us started off on the wrong foot, I’m just frustrated from being pulled off my mission. This next part probably won't be pleasant, but let me introduce you to Demeter, and then we will get cleaned up.”

Samantha stood, her heaving apparently over, and made her way to the shell shocked man with a ragged look of concern. “David, are you okay?” When he still didn’t respond, she put her hands on his wide shoulders and then cleared some hair that had fallen in his eyes. The young arch-priestess spoke more softly to him, something Mel couldn’t make out, but she started to cry and pulled the man into a hug, which he numbly returned.

Mel’s guilt burned hot in her veins, she could only imagine what these two had just been through. “I’m really sorry, I’ve been a complete ass to you both. I mean you've only known about the existence of gods for a week, and you're already knee deep in the fighting.” Mel took a seat on a fallen log, and started wringing her hands.

“David just learned about your existence last night” Samantha seethed, turning to Melinoë with a frustrated angry glare. “And now we are apparently fugitives. Homeless fugitives, with a bunch of dismembered cops in my old living room. Not to mention we just got fucking literally ripped out of our home dimension. So fuck you if you’re upset that we are struggling a bit with everything that happened in the last ten minutes.”

“Alright, I deserve that” Mel nodded solemnly. “You're not in another dimension, by the way. This is still earth, upstate New York to be more specific.” Samantha made no move to respond, so Mel continued. “And those cops were actually soldiers for Ares. I’m not sure how they discovered you, but they were on a kill order. We don't operate like that, and would only kill someone in defense, but Ares and his goons don’t play by those rules. I know it probably feels like your whole world is crumbling down around you, but you're safe now. We are going to get this all figured out. For now, let's get clean and get you both some much needed rest.”

Mel placed what she hoped would be a comforting hand on each of their shoulders and guided them up the overgrown path to Demeter’s home. The goddess of the harvest and agriculture was a recluse, even by Chthonic standards of being shunned by all of Mount Olympus. She and Poseidon were the only two of the six Original Olympians who chose to remain on earth after the agreement was reached, and like the god of the sea, she had promised not to consort with the mortals, not that she had any interest in it anyway. 

Mel just hoped she’d have an opportunity to explain the situation to Demeter before she killed the two mortals for trespassing. As if they’d heard the thought, a swarm of vines shot out from the underbrush and whipped Sam and David into the sky. “Stop! Grandma, it's me! Don't hurt them!” Mel shouted frantically as she searched the foliage for her hermit of a matriarch. 

Slowly the vines lowered the two mortals to the ground and they caught their breath, not even bothering to stand back up. “Melinoë, darling! I didn't know you were stopping by?” The goddess stepped out of a hedge, her body made entirely of thick vegetation but slowly regaining the appearance of a woman in her forties. “Still lovely to see you, dearest.”

D.B.Blackwood

Who would have thought that Samantha would have to go back in the closet so quickly after coming out, amiright? *kidding*

Hope you enjoyed! Please, please, please give me feedback, so I can improve my writing!