The Reckoning at Dusk

2020, Boston, Massachusetts

The blood on the pavement wasn’t mine. It belonged to the woman who lay next to me, eyes glazed over. Wet earth mixed with the metallic stink of blood. That woman was my sister. Her gaze was fixed on the cloudy sky, face permanently slack and lifeless. The rain fell as ruthless bullets, and the storm drain sucked up the blood greedily.

My hands wouldn’t stop shaking.

I’d broken something. Maybe a law. Maybe an oath. Maybe one of the gods.

I stared up at the stormy sky until I was convinced I’d fused with the asphalt.

I couldn’t stop him.

The rain washed the blood toward the storm drain.

I watched it disappear.

She deserved better than disappearing.

Tears blurred my vision until I could no longer tell where the rain ended, and the blood began.

I sat up, and my chest clenched painfully. I gasped, sucking in air greedily as I tried to get my bearings.

My gaze drifted to my sister. Her eyes were still open, impossibly blue even beneath the storm clouds. The same eyes she had inherited from our mother.

“Lena.”

She didn't answer.

I crawled to her anyway.

“Lena,” I whispered again, scooting closer to her. “Wake up.” Blood seeped through the tear in her jacket beneath her ribs. “Please don’t die on me.” The words reached only the rain.

My fingers knotted in the fabric of her rain-soaked shirt.

I folded over her, pressing my forehead against hers.

She was already cold.

More tears ran down my cheeks.

My fingers lingered at the silk scarf wrapped around her neck.

Our grandmother had worn it before her.

Before that, her grandmother.

My hands trembled as I untied it.

It was the last thing I had left of Lena.

I placed it around my neck. It felt wrong. Cold.

My sister deserved a grave, but if I stayed, we’d share one.

Footsteps splashed somewhere beyond the curtain of rain.

I tightened Lena’s scarf around my neck.

Then I ran.

~ ~ ~

I don’t know how long I had been running, or where I was running to, for that matter. I eventually slowed to catch my breath, leaning up against the wall.

I saw a blur in the corner of my eye, too quick for me to react.

“Finished running?” A male voice.

My eyes widened.

How? I didn’t even hear him coming.

I turned to face him.

He wore athletic shorts, a basketball T-shirt from some team I wasn’t familiar with, and white sneakers. He was smiling at me, simply smiling, as if I had nothing to fear.

“I’m glad you made it.”

My fingers tightened around Lena’s scarf.

“Did you kill her?”

My voice came out smaller than I’d intended.

He tilted his head. “Lena?”

Hearing her name from a stranger made my stomach twist.

“You knew her?” Confusion swirled in my brain. I had no idea why Lena would be involving herself with a man like this.

Silence stretched thin between us.

“Why did you kill her?” I whisper.

His expression changed.

“She wasn’t supposed to die...and you were never supposed to find out.”

I stared at him.

“What?”

“You weren’t supposed to survive.”

“Then, why—”

He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “I hate this.”

My brows creased. “Then why are you—”

“Why else do you think I’m here?”

Ice flooded my veins. I didn’t think—I ran. I didn’t care how tired I felt, or the pain from my hip that shot jolts of pain down my leg. I didn’t want to die today; I couldn’t.

The man sighed heavily, like he was bored. “Humans are strange. You fight so hard for something temporary.”

I didn’t have time to question what he meant by that; I had to focus all my energy to stay alive.

My shoes struggled to gain traction on the wet pavement, but I refused to fall and be at his mercy. I turned a sharp corner and nearly collided into a chain-link fence, but veered off to the right at the last second.

This was my home, my alleys; I knew them like the back of my hand. I’ll use that to my advantage.

I cut hard around one corner; my shoulder scraped brick, then ducked into a narrow alley barely wide enough for two people to pass. My feet carried me down shortcuts I’d known since childhood, weaving through rusted gates and crumbling passageways that strangers never noticed.

At the end of the alley, I squeezed into the narrow space behind an overflowing dumpster. Rotting food and sour grease clawed at the back of my throat; I was suffocating in it. I pressed myself against the cold brick wall, willing my ragged breaths to quiet and my heart to stop hammering like a caged bird. The rain drummed against the metal above me and the night seemed to hold its breath.

So did I.

I listened, yet heard nothing.

The corner of my mouth twitched upward.

Maybe I had finally gotten away and lost him. Maybe I was free, maybe—

“You done?”

My lungs seized.

That voice.

Calm. Unhurried.

The same one I’d left blocks behind.

Impossible.

If I was going to die, I wasn’t going to go out hiding like some hermit crab.

A loose brick protruded from the wall beside me. I ripped it free, shoved myself out from behind the dumpster, and sent it spinning through the rain toward him.

He caught the brick, barely looking at it. He frowned slightly, looked down at it, then back at me. “Why do you humans always default to violence?”

A bitter laugh escaped me. “That’s rich coming from the man who murdered my sister.”

“Fair enough,” he said.

I was slowly beginning to realize that I couldn’t escape him. Death was inevitable.

My lower lip trembled. “If you’re going to kill me…” My voice shook. “Then do it already.”

He laughs. “Eager are we?” He sighs with disappointment when I don’t laugh or even smile. “I won’t.”

I freeze, trying to process what he just said. “What?”

“You’re much more useful alive.”

“What do you mean?”

He frowned. “No one told you?”

“Told me what?” I snarled.

“You’re the daughter of Hestia.”

I stared at him. “That’s ridiculous, I—” but now that I think about it, my mother had never really been around much except for when we were very young. It was mostly our father that took care of us. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s simple, really; you’re a demigod. You belong with us.”

“If belonging means you have to murder innocents, then I want nothing to do with it.” I snapped.

He tilted his head. “Your sister was a necessary casualty to your path to greatness.”

Fire burned in my veins. “Necessary causality!? Are you fucking serious!?”

He simply nodded.

“Then I want nothing to do with you people; now leave me be,” I said, waving a hand at him and turning away.

He frowned, “I’m afraid you don’t have a choice; you have to come with us.”

“Then I say, fuck you.” I picked up a glass bottle from the ground and threw it at him.

He easily dodged and sighed, “I was afraid it would come to this.”