Ze- Lost Gods
by LaVerne Thompson
Copyrighted 2016
CHAPTER 1
“He can never remember.” The collective
entity making up the Fates warned Kratos.
He never raised his head to look at the
four identical beautiful beings, shrouded in shimming white cloth from head to
toe, with the planes of their faces barely visible, even then their features
were ever changing. Seemingly to represent all the peoples of the world. At
times all four appeared feminine, but others he was not so sure all were
female. It mattered not. “Tell me nothing of what can or can not come to pass.
Would that I could have that gift or curse to forget. Forget we no longer have
the powers we once did. Have been all but forgotten.”
“It is as the world should be Kratos. You
know this. Humans must make their own decisions, be the makers of their own
will. Not that of the gods. No matter how powerful.”
He scoffed. “Yes. The gods.” He placed
his hand in the water swirling it and dispersing the image they’d been looking
upon. At one who in another age, other times had been the most powerful amongst
them. Reason enough for the Fates to condemn Zeus. The Father of them all and a
god he himself had killed, his body dispersed down to dust, carried off unto
the four winds and mixed amongst all matter. Yet, never completely destroyed,
pieces of him being reborn over the ages. God no more, each time just a man.
A fate worse than death for one such as
he. Unfortunately, for them all, Zeus’ destruction had created a chain of events
opening the world to chaos, the fall of Olympus and everything they had once
known. The Fates had no choice but to take control and punish them all. Perhaps
their plan all along and the excuse they needed. There could be none more
powerful than they. Still Zeus must be called forth once more.
Kratos, pulled the black hood over his
even darker locks, walked out of the obsidian hall into the crumbled ruins of
what had once been Olympus, home of the gods. Even with his eyes open he could
still see the opulence of the buildings as they once stood. The gleaming golden
doors twelve feet tall, the music that lulled and pleased ones senses filling
the halls. Gone. All of it. And he no longer had the power to change any of it.
He would wish the Fates to a mortal hell,
but they’d already placed him there and there was no release for his soul. His
body melded into the dark matter making up the night, and he returned to the
nothingness he was.
The four who remained behind continued to
watch the water in the pond as it settled. Returning to its calm state and the
vision came once more.
“He can not remember, everything.” The
husky whisper came from the center form.
“No. That would not bode well for what he
must yet do,” the tallest of the four stated.
“As the son destroyed the father so to
must the father destroy the son,” one whispered.
“For all the powers the All Father had he
too came to his inevitable end. Death comes for all, even a god,” the final
sister pronounced shaking her head.
“All the gods are dead. Long live the
gods.” The cry came in unison vibrating with the power of the Fates.
****
“Hey
Ze, you ready, man?”
Eyes
the color of a summer storm zeroed in on the tall man standing at the door. “Sorry,
Linc.” Ze shut his laptop, pushing his chair away from his desk, he stood. All
six five of him, situated on a solidly built frame.
“Is
that the Chinese?”
“Yeah.”
Linc, his president of operations and right arm, refereed to the latest deal
his company, Lightning Enterprises was working on.
Linc would be shocked if he knew not only
had Ze not been working on any last minute tweaking of their deal but he hadn’t
been working on anything related to business legit or otherwise. Since at times
they straddled the gray. Instead, Ze’d been dreaming.
He wanted to rub his throbbing temples,
but he’d show weakness in front of no one, not even his oldest and most trusted
friend. The visions no longer came to him at night, when his eyes were closed
and his defenses down. In the last month he’d been wide awake, eyes wide open,
yet still dreaming. He didn’t know what else to call it, no matter how real
they seemed, it couldn’t be, but shit had to stop. Too much was at stake.
Linc frowned. “What’s wrong?”
He almost smiled, his friend knew him too
well. They’d spent a lot of time in hell together. Linc was the only one who
knew he’d been to see a doctor but even Linc didn’t know why.
At
first he’d gone to his doctor for sleeping pills, fuck lot of good that shit
did. Only took him under deeper to some seriously fucked up shit. Where he’d
turn into a big ass white eagle, at least he thought it was an eagle who knew
they could be white. But that was not the only thing he could do in these visions,
he could also call lightning down from the sky in the form of a thunderbolt.
Which he’d hold in his hand and toss at an army of beasts, misshapen dinosaur
looking creatures in front of him. All stuff he could never tell anyone. They’d
either lock his ass up or someone would put him out of his misery with a bullet
to the head. Show no weakness. That mantra kept him alive these 34 years.
He rubbed his hand across his face,
lingering a little at his small dark brown goatee. It matched the color of his short
cropped hair. The darkness of his hair in sharp contrast to the color of his
eyes something women loved. Friends and enemies just called him a silver eyed
son of a bitch. Once he fucked a women though they called him a god, the men
just call him bastard. He grinned banishing his headache.
“Zeus.”
The sharpness in Linc’s voice told him of
his concern. He grinned even more. Damn straight with a name like Zeus he
better have no weakness. His adopted mother loved Greek mythology and thought
his gray eyes reminded her of lightning storms. “I’m fine. No worries.”
“So?”
Linc prompted. Don’t leave me hanging. You have to leave now but we can walk
and talk.”
Ze
shook his head. “Nothing to talk about. I’ll be flying out soon and in
twenty-four hours this deal will be locked and we’ll have in roads into a
billion strong market. The money we sank into the Asian lobbying firms worked.”
“For a fucking change it will be our
products in the Chinese market and not the other way around.” Not that they
always conducted business within the red tape, this time it was the only way to
go since it also meant dealing with the Triad. He did whatever was necessary
for the country or products he dealt with.
“I hear that. The planes all ready, the
pilot’s on board.”
“Good.” Most of the time Ze preferred to
drive himself, but since he was heading for the airport and planned to be gone
for about a month. Two weeks in China and Hong Kong, then another couple of
weeks in their office in London, he let Linc take him to go over anything last
minute.
“Oh, I almost forgot you’ve got a
passenger.”
“What?”
“Remember, we signed up as part of the
Angels In The Air Program, if we’re flying anywhere in the world where someone
needs to go for medical care we agree to give them a free ride.”
“Yeah, right,” Ze nodded. “Brilliant move
on my part. It was part of the deal that got us those medical contracts.” Along
with the very timely death of their chief competitor. Something that Ze had
nothing to do with, this time. “Okay. I hope it’s not a sick kid flying by
themselves, shouldn’t at least one parent be with them?”
Linc shook his head. “Yes, all minors are
required to travel with a parent or adult guardian.” He pulled out his phone
and must have checked the information he had on the passenger. “In this case
it’s an adult. Kassia Jamison. She’s twenty-eight and terminal. There’s a
doctor in China who’s had good results with a radical treatment the US and
other countries haven’t approved yet.”
“Figures. All right.”
“So try to be charming.”
Ze snorted. “Like hell. I’m going to be
busy going over my notes. I’m assuming she’ll be settled in the front of the
plane and leave me alone in the rear to work.” He’d had the plane outfitted so
that the rear was almost like an office. Everything he’d need to work. And if
he needed to take a nap on the flight there were eight seats that unfolded into
beds to choose from. Four toward the front near the cock pit there was also a
kitchen and bathroom there, the flight attendant sat up there. Then four seats
in the center, then a bedroom and office area in the rear, with its own bathroom.
Once he was on board he planned to say the
obligatory, hello, to his passenger
move to the back and get in a few hours of work, then sleep for a couple
before they landed. He had his pills with him and hoped this time around when
he closed his eyes sleep would claim him for a few. In the last month, he had a
collective total of maybe a hundred hours, but he did manage to get a lot of
work done and things finalized for this deal with the Chinese government.
However, those sleepless nights were starting to show.
At six five and two hundred pounds of
muscle even his frame was beginning to show signs of fatigue. Those lines at
the corners of his eyes and around his mouth weren’t from stress but lack of
sleep. He rubbed his hand over his face and glanced at the airport terminal coming
into view.
CHAPTER 2
Ze and Linc took care of some last minute
details then shook hands. He took the few steps needed to get him to the plane
and climbed up. The captain and second pilot who also acted as steward were
there to greet him as soon as he stepped on board.
“Morning, sir, welcome aboard,” Dick
Peterson his captain said.
“Thank you. Good to see you Dick, hi Pilar
how’s the family?” He’d flown with both many times over the last two years
since he’d bought the jet.
“Doing great, sir. Thanks for asking. Our
passenger is on board. After you get settled is there anything you’d like me to
bring you.”
“I’m good for now, but maybe some of
those sweet crescents in about an hour.”
They both nodded. “Well I’ll let the
tower know we’re ready,” Peterson said and moved back to the controls.
Moving past them Ze spied someone sitting
toward the middle of the plane in one of the window seats, the passenger no
doubt. He sighed inwardly, he hoped she didn’t expect him to keep her company
during the flight. He hated social chit chat, even when he had to do it for
business. He was just about to offer a quick hello and let her know if she needed
anything just ask Pilar.
His words wouldn’t come out. The woman
was leaning forward, a mop of short curly hair adorned her head, her face
turned toward the wing of the plane so away from him. His first thought was
pleasure, at least she wasn’t bald and he liked the short curls the way they
caught the early rays of the sun tinting it red, gold, and brown. He wondered
if they’d be soft to the touch. What the
fuck?
Just as he drew in breath she turned, for
some reason he forgot to let the air out of his lungs. He didn’t know if he
blinked or not but suddenly the plane, even the woman in front of him
disappeared and he stood before a lake. No longer did he hear the soft hum of
classical music piped through the sound system, in fact he was no longer even
on the plane.
The sun was just setting, casting its
shadowy fire to dance upon rippling waves. He stood at the edge of a lake, he’d
been there before yet how could he? He stared hard as the ripples it looked
like real flames blazing across the surface then the flames slowed, dying down,
revealing for him the reflection of a woman. He spun around thinking she stood
behind him, but he must have blinked because he was back on the plane. Staring
at the features of the woman whose reflection was that of the woman in the
water, but this one was of flesh and bone. What
the fuck?
Copyrighted 2016 LaVerne Thompson
