Chương 67: Chapter Sixty Two: The Bad Ball

I put my hand down reluctantly.

"Fine." He reached in and pulled out the cracked orb with swirling darkness inside it. With a determined look, he pecked at it with his metal beak until it broke apart like candy glass. What was inside it, though, immediately left the confines that had trapped it and swirled around the space eagerly.

"What's it doing?" I whispered.

"Trying to leave." Penguin followed its every move and a dozen screens popped into existence.

"Get in the house." You don't have to tell me twice! Penguin pulled out another blue screen and shot a virtual web at the black mist. It struggled but was eventually caught in its snare. That thing gives me all kinds of red flags. I left the field and hauled ass to the front door. I attempted to open it, but it wouldn't budge. I tried two more times before I realized what was happening.

"Melinoë you better pop this goddamn lock right now I'm not playing with you." Something cracked and shattered behind me. She leaned close enough to kiss the door."Pass-ssss-word."

"..." Fuck it. Who needs doors? I stepped back and kicked the door open hard with my foot. It swung back and almost hit her retreating figure in her ugly face. She made a buzzer sound and crossed her arms in an X.

"Eh! Wrong!"

"..." I stepped inside and put the barely on-its-hinge door back where it was supposed to be. I grabbed her by her shoulders and shook her roughly. She just grinned dopily like she was getting juice up her veins. I cut straight to the chase, still shaking common sense into her.

"What the hell is Divinity?" She stopped smiling and gave me a suspicious look.

"Where did you hear that from?"

"Penguin. He said you could tell me what that meant. If you know what that means…You know what, maybe I should…" I pretended like I was leaving, and she grabbed my hand and led me to the table. Bait taken. I knew it.

"It's a long story."

"Make it shorter." Impatiently, I crossed my arms. The demolition crew continued its ground shaking work to my chagrin. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. I guess this isn't going to be a five minute one and done job. She made a weird lizard sound in her throat, and I frowned. Her hands moved around chaotically.

"It's like the stuff that makes everything." The stuff? I raised an eyebrow.

"Like atoms?" Her head dangerously tilted to the side like a graveyard cat, "Who's Adam?"

"..." When I didn't speak up, she tried to surmise it better. Her hand found the table and long claws tapped an inconsistent rhythm, "It comes from this person who we shall not speak the name of." Nyx?

"She gave it to all of the Gods, and we used it to make things. Planets, people, plants, emotions, everything!" Her tone sounds a little agitated at the end. Leaning a little forward in my seat, I inquired while she was still in such a great mood, "Do only Gods have it?" Is the System a God?

"Did you just hear what I said? I said we used it to make everything. So…"

"Everything has Divinity. So, primordial soup. Gotcha." There was this mix-and-match game I used to play. Primordial soup was like an epic tier item you could make by mixing life, energy, something else, and pressure, I think. It's a crude example but I kind of get the gist. Atoms. Primordial soup. Big spooky ball. I don't know how that applies to this, but… Maybe that's helpful? If the space is made of this and it comes from me… Do I get to control things in here? Like you.

Mel purses her lips unaware of the increasing danger in front of her." Eh. Something like that. For Gods, it's the source of our power and our lifeforce. For mortals, it's just lifeforce." I continued." What about magic powers and abilities?" She shrugged.

"That's magic. Very different from Divinity. Magic is like a cheap knock-off of Divinity. It comes from something else. It's like runoff mixed with other things." The house rumbled, and dust came raining down from the ceiling. Holy shit. She looked up and caught dust in her eyeholes. I gagged. She screeched and closed her eyelids. Then she thought better of it and reached—Nope. Ghastly and nasty. I covered my eyes while she yelled at me, clearly in pain.

"What's going on out there?!" My voice came out a bit muffled due to my hand protecting my face."Penguin's trying to fix the hole with the bad ball. He said it's filled with Divinity."

"What! Why are we sitting here? Let's go help!" A calculative glint passed across her face. Sadly, I missed it.

"No. He said to stay here. I'm not leaving." I reached for her in an attempt to keep her in the house.

"Ugh! Coward." She threw my wrist away and left through our broken door. A mortar hit the space again, and it rumbled. Sounds like the construction is not going well. I clicked my tongue and left to go hide in my bed with the other animals. Harry made awful bleeting and crying noises that I couldn't bear to shush. A few minutes later, Melinoë ran into the room and crawled underneath the sheets with me. Smirking, I mocked her in a whiny voice.

"Why are we sitting here? Let's go help!" She glared at the pillow beside me." Shut up, harpy." I snapped my fingers in her face, and she quickly turned her head in its direction. In that quick moment, I followed up by booping her nose. I laughed at her, and she started a catfight. Harry bleeted from the foot of the bed, and I whisper-yelled, "Sorry, Harry." It said nothing back in response, but I decided to let it go. Traumatic things were happening, and everyone responds differently.

I crawled deeper under the covers. Harry screams. The chickens shiver and scream. Penguin wrangles a black fog named Divinity and causes horrendous property damage. And Mel…

"Do you have any snacks?" Mel stress eats. The one sane thing she's ever done that I agree with. Unfortunately, I didn't grab anything from the kitchen before the quake. We stayed underneath there for a long time, breathing in each other's breaths and making comments about the others hygiene. I don't think she's ever taken a shower since I've met her, which I guess isn't really necessary for a God-Person-Thing. But I should invest in a shower soon.

The banging and slamming on the ground outside stopped, and we shared a look.

"Go out there and check how it's going." I laughed in her face as she tried to give me an order. Hilarious. We both know I'm the boss.

"New Mission—" She struggles to cover my mouth with her hands, and I push her out of the way.

"Go see what happened. Now!" The illusory chains appear, and she groans in frustration. Instead of going alone, she drags me out with her, and I grab at everything I can in order to stop it. The bed becomes torn from my nails as I cling to the sheet. She yanks at me one more time and sets her feet in a horse stance. She growls while holding my left hand in her unyielding, clammy hand.

"Let go." I shake my head no, and she yanks me with her so hard I lose my grip. She drags me by my struggling hand out of the empty doorway into the living room and out into…sunlight? I tilt my head back and look up at the blue sky. Um…That's not good.

"Mel?" She stands still, transfixed on whatever she's looking at. If she's looking at anything. She could just be having an internal breakdown. I get up properly and look over her shoulder. The field is fine, so that's a win. But why is there sunlight and real trees everywhere? My soul looks like a paradise and it's freaking me out. Still, that doesn't explain why she's so fixated on something.

"What are you looking at?" She reaches up with a hand and silently corrects the position of my head until I see what she's seeing with her empty pencil sharpeners. Really. How does she see?

"..." Whispering so only she could hear, I ask a rhetorical question, "Is that a person?" I hide behind her and look aghast at the human-looking person in my soul, tinkering with a screen. It looks like a boy with short dark hair. Maybe around my age but…. What the fuck are you doing here? Mel quietly demands with dinosaur hands curled close to her chest defensively,"Go say hi to it." Scoffing at her attempt to wrestle dominance from me, I hissed.

"Really? It? Why don't you say hi to it?" She turns her entire mottled face away from mine to hide the cowardice.

"I don't want to. My hair's a mess and I haven't even brushed my teeth yet." To punctuate the statement she even tosses her hair back hitting me in the face with the sharp bristles.

"..."