Featured Title
Alex
Anderson The Last Son of Zeus
Sevan
Paris
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"Perhaps
we should leave, yes? Before the local mob decides to blame everything on the
nearest teenager?"
Alex
turned away from the carnage that had once been downtown Athens. Zeus stood
behind him. The god put his hand on Alex's shoulder and gestured to the nearest
alley.
Alex
didn't say anything. He didn't think anything. He just stood and moved into the
alley. Zeus followed and they both stopped under a bright light outside the
rear exit of a Mexican restaurant named Taco Loco.
The
light hurt his eyes, so he turned and faced the mouth of the alleyway. "I
can't go back." Alex looked at Zeus. "I can't go back to...to the way
things were, can I? It's all gone. My whole life, it's just--just gone."
Zeus
sighed and sat on an empty tortilla crate. "Such is the curse of all
knowledge."
"I
don't--what do you mean?"
"Every
time you humans learn something about yourselves, you can't forget it. It's not
the way you're designed. Your kind can, however, choose to ignore it as you
often do with disastrous consequences. You ignored what you were and look what
happened."
"I
didn't ignore it, alright? This--this just doesn't make any sense! In one
day--just one--I went from being a nobody to the son of a freaking thunder god.
Can you understand how maybe this would take a little bit of time for me to
adjust?"
"Last son."
"What?"
"You're
not just 'the son.' You're the last son of Zeus. And that makes you special,
not just to me but to the other gods as well."
"That's
why..." Alex pointed to the street. Somehow the fire had spread to one of
the buildings. Alex couldn't tell which one.
Zeus
nodded. "That's why. Some of them want you. Some of them need you. They
all hate you."
"What?
Why? What did I do?"
"Quite
simply, you were born. Born during a time when all gods are forbidden to have
children."
"Wait
a minute. You're the big guy. You're like the daddy god. The big, bad uber. So
who could've forbidden them?"
Zeus
straightened his pant leg.
"You?
You told them not to?"
"You
should've seen us, Alex. We were pitiful excuses for deities. We were supposed
to help humanity, in a way to atone for The Fall. Instead, most of us used them
like toys. We only helped them when they provided some form of entertainment
or, at the very least, distraction. So many mortals came to our temples,
praying to us when they lost their way." Zeus seemed to look past the
brick wall of the alley. "How ironic that we also lost ours."
Zeus
stood. "I grew sick of it. I told the gods no more. No longer could they
use their powers or have any children here on Earth."
"But..."
"Oh
there are those who still try. Most of the time it's small enough that I can
ignore. Occasionally, one will go too far and I have to punish them. As I soon
will tonight."
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