Chapter 38 #2
“What’s on your mind?” Aphrodite asks.
“Too much,” I answer.
“Do you want to sit?” Aphrodite asks.
When I nod, she sweeps her arm to her side, and two chairs appear. They’re surprisingly simple—white wicker rocking chairs, the kind Mom used to have on her back porch. Wait, they’re exactly like them. I look from the chairs back to Aphrodite, unable to hold back the tears pouring from me now.
“You know about Mom,” I say, and she nods.
“Please, have a seat,” she says, settling into the chair nearest to her.
Sitting next to a goddess is weird. She’s so close that I can feel the energy coming off her.
It’s like that subtle, fuzzy static that came off old television screens.
It’s also so much more casual than feels comfortable with someone so powerful.
Then again, I did come to the temple asking if we could just chat.
“I’m sorry,” Aphrodite says.
“How long have you known?” I ask.
Aphrodite’s lips flatten in empathy. “Since right before you came to Peripeteia.”
I shake my head. “What? How?”
“Do you think everyone here came by coincidence?” she asks. “Are you like some of those who think we’re just NPCs?” She shakes her head. “No, we watched all our players once they received the game.”
“I’m sorry, what?!”
“We’re not supposed to tell any of you this, but after all you’ve been through, I feel like I must,” she says.
“We are the real gods. The ones passed from myth and legends all over the world, the ones just as changeable as the weather. No one can ever really know us, not even the developers who created this world on our instruction.”
My mouth feels dry, and I realize it’s because it’s hanging open.
“You look thirsty,” Aphrodite says. “Here.”
With another wave of her hand, a white wicker coffee table sits before us. On top is a pitcher of lemonade and two glasses. Aphrodite fills a cup and serves it to me. A goddess—a real one, apparently—is serving me lemonade.
“But this world is so inaccurate!”
Aphrodite responds with a soft, half chuckle.
“Who’s to say what’s accurate? Even within the Greek pantheon, no one can agree on what stories are the original ones.
And we’ve overlapped with so many other cultures throughout the centuries, adapting to a changing world.
” She shakes her head. “No, it doesn’t matter what’s accurate.
We wanted this world because this is where we can be worshipped in today’s culture. ”
“By trapping people here?” I ask.
“What? No!” Aphrodite says, genuine shock on her face. “The worship comes from people buying the games, playing them for hours upon hours, talking about them with each other, sharing videos and fan art that reach people all over the world. Your worship is different. It’s reciprocal.”
“I don’t understand,” I say.
“Of course you don’t. Why would you? You don’t have enough information yet.” Aphrodite sighs. “When we saw that some beta players were destined to die soon, we brought them here instead. Then the game came out, and we did it again.”
“Wait, so…Cait and Guy and Doug and everyone…” I gasp. “Me? We were all going to die in the real world?”
“You all would have if we hadn’t brought you here,” Aphrodite answers. “Now, you can live forever.”
“And then something we did caused us to be assigned a class and which deity to serve?”
Aphrodite nods. “Although, with you, I knew before I even brought you here.”
“Because of my breakup?”
Aphrodite looks at me with proud eyes. “Because you’re my granddaughter.”
I already felt like the world had turned upside down when I learned Mom died. This news makes time stop, too. For a long moment, I’m sure my heart has ceased beating. Finally, I say, “No, you can’t be.”
“My son, Eros, your father—”
“Abandoned my mother.”
“Couldn’t stay with your mother,” Aphrodite corrects. “Eros loved her, but he always knew he’d have to leave. He’s a god. It wouldn’t have taken long for people to realize something wasn’t normal about him. He felt it was better for you to never know him than to lose him.”
“Well, I did lose him, didn’t I? And now I’ve lost her!” I shake my head. “I can’t believe I thought you actually cared about me.”
“Lauren, you’re my granddaughter; of course I care about you!
” Aphrodite reaches to squeeze my hand, but I shirk away.
“I only govern the power of love. I had no way of making anything better for you or your mother. However, I knew you were going to get in your car, grab your phone, and see that missed call. I knew you would get in a car accident on the way to the hospice. I had to rescue you, and I hoped this could be my chance to have you in my life.”
“You just delayed my death, though. Zeus is out to get me.”
“I won’t let anyone hurt you,” she says. “I’ve already broken so many rules to keep you safe. Just the fact that I brought my own blood into the game isn’t allowed.”
I squint. “Why?”
“How else could a player break this game?”
“Fuck.” The word croaks out of me, barely audible, just a sob framed in consonants, followed shortly by a torrent of tears. I curl my legs up onto my chair, bringing my knees up to my chest, then lean my elbows on my thighs and rest my face in my palms.
Aphrodite rubs my back. “I’m so sorry, Lauren.”
Her apology means nothing when she’s provided an excuse for everything. She’s been lying to me from the get-go.
I snap my face up and cast my burning eyes on her. “You knew about Mom this whole time and didn’t tell me! I’ve been fighting for so long to get you that offering so I could go home, when there’s no one to go back to!”
“I was afraid you’d hurt yourself if you knew.”
“If you just wanted to keep me safe, then what’s the point of promising to grant me a wish?” I ask. “Of the offering? Of any of it?”
Aphrodite stares at me in silence, studying me while chewing on her bottom lip.
“I can’t tell you everything. Yet. I’ve already told you too much, but if you succeed, I’ll tell you what you want to know.
All of it.” She strokes my hair. “Cait and Guy are waiting for you. Let them care for you. They deserve that. You deserve that.”
“The Why Choose quest,” I say. “I thought it was about them, but it was about the NPCs.”
“Who says it wasn’t about both?” Aphrodite asks. She kisses my forehead. “In every instance, you’ve chosen well. You definitely did with the two of them.” Getting out of her white wicker chair, she adds, “Grab your cloak.”
I take it out of my inventory and tie it on. Aphrodite waves away her beach, and I have my hood covering my face the moment the temple surrounds me again.
“Good night,” she says before returning to her statue.
Though she isn’t there, I also wish her a good night and exit the temple.
All the information Aphrodite gave me swims around my mind, and I struggle to keep my heart from shattering into a million pieces. Mom’s dead. She’s been dead this whole time. I never stood a chance of saying goodbye, not even before I came here. The last time I saw her, she said…she said…
I don’t want to relive that moment, but I can’t stop it.
In my mind, I’m in that hospice. Mom’s staring blankly into nothingness, but she still takes a moment to look at me, and she remembers my name.
She said Lauren. She still knew me in the end.
Was she like the NPCs, trying to say goodbye but could only say my name?
An icy breeze whips the hood of my cloak from my face, shaking me out of my reverie.
I realize I have no idea where I am, just a random dark alley.
I look up to spot the light from the temple several blocks away and use it to reorient myself.
I’ll pay better attention to where I’m going now. I just need to head—
Sparks overwhelm me, whether from my vision or in reality, I have no idea. They’re gone soon enough, though, because now I’m swimming in inky black. There is nothing. I am nothing. It’s all…nothing.