The Death of Night

The Death of Night

Copyright © 2021 by Addyson Ramsey

All rights belong to Addyson Ramsey. No part of this book may be used or reproduced at all without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Chapter 1: Aglaia

Part 1: How We Met

I startle awake with my face and neck drenched in sweat. I absolutely hate it when Nyx-our ruler-will force Oneiroi, the Greek primordial deity of dreams, and Erebus, the Greek primordial deity of darkness, to curse all of the poor to have nightmares for no reason. I dreamt that everyone I loved had died. Including Aloysius, my best friend. His night is black-that means that he is a god. My Night is orange-that means that I am the poorest of the poor. We met on my first day of school when I was 10 years old.

I remember that day clearly. I was walking down the hallway, sulking trying to avoid the crowd when suddenly, I ran into a tall wall of bronze, burning flesh. I jumped back and lifted my head for a split second. The bronze-skinned stranger had dark brown, close-cropped hair, ocean blue eyes, and a bright smile. You could tell by his appearance that his Night is midnight black. Shit, I think. I just rammed into a god. Gamimeni kolasi. I curse. I cannot believe I ran into a GOD, of all types of people. Damnit. Keeping my head down, I mutter an apology under my breath. If possible, his smile gets even wider as he says in his abnormally loud voice, “Don’t worry about it. Hey, you seem like a nice kid. Why don’t we hang out after school? Where do you live?”

“Sorry, I don’t think that is allowed-or normal for that matter. But, I live in the poor sector of Mylane. My address is 8635 Oneiroi Street, Mylane Greece, 63730.

“Okay. I may or may not see you later, after school,” he says with a wink. “Oh, by the way, my name is Aloysius Filo. I am 8 years old, and I am the god Poseidon.”

“Aglaia Dougenis, 10 years old, and probably the poorest human being alive.”

His grin fades. Aloysius reaches into his pocket and pulls out a fistfull of somethig.

“Open your backpack, and close your eyes,” he instructs.

I do as he says, and about a minute later, I hear something make a distinct clink sound. He is so close I can feel his hot breath on my cheek, sending a shiver down my spine. I have only been this close to my parents, no one else. A second later, he pulls away.

“Okay, Aglaia, you can open your eyes now.”

“What did you do?” I ask. Even though I already know the answer.

“I put a few coins in your bag. Hopefully this will get you and your family through the week. I know what Nyx did to the poor, and I don’t agree with any of it. I am embarrassed to say that she is one of my kind. I will see you later, okay?”

“Okay. See you later…” I trail as he walks off.

After school, I was playing in my small, brown front yard when Aloysius appeared in front of me. First, he was a ball of water then he was a human. I jumped back.

“I told you I would come,” he announced. I scowl at him.

“Oh come on,” he pleads, “don’t give me that face. I honestly want to know you.”

I promise, he said in my mind. My power is telepathy, in case you didn’t know. The look on his face told me he was enjoying this.

I waggle my eyebrows. “Wanna know my power?” I take a deep breath, find my stance, and sprint around Aloysius and the house 5 times. When I skid to a stop in front of him, he raises his eyebrows but doesn’t say anything.

“Hold up. I have one more.” I said, “ask me anything about anything.”

“Okay. Um… Who were the 12 major Gods?”

“Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, Athena, Artemis, Apollo, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Ares, Hermes, Aphrodite, and Hades. Only 12 of those are the Olympian Gods, Hades was only summoned to Olympus when they were making decisions about his realm or when Zeus asked for him to be present. And Dionysus was a mortal but was changed into a god by Zeus when he was a baby. Hestia, One of the original 6 children of Kronos, gave up her throne on Olympus to make room for Dionysus. Hera, Hestia, Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, and Demeter are the original children of Kronos, the titan of time,” I finished with a smile.

“Holy shit, woman. You have two powers. That’s almost impossible!”

“2 things: 1, I know. 2, WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE, DUDE. You are 8. You don’t need to be cursing out loud. In your head it is fine, but not out loud.” He rolls his eyes.

“Whatever. I came here for another reason, though. Not so I could hear you complain about the cussing issues I already know I have.”He rolls his eyes again. “I wanted to give you this.” He holds out his fist, but doesn’t open it.

“What are you doing, you fumbling buffoon?” I ask annoyed.

“Excuse me? I’d like to think of myself as the king of the sea.” I stamp my foot. “Cut the crap. Seriously, what the hell are you doing here?” He fumbles with his fingers. “Why should I tell you?”

“All you’ve been is a real piece of shit. You could at least tell me why you are here!” I scream. “You really are a dick.” He jumps back. “Language!” I roll my eyes. “Yeah right. I’m way older than you. I think I can cuss.” Aloysius grumbles something unintelligible.

“Hey-no grumbling. If you can grumble it, you can say it.”

A wicked smile crosses his face. “Okay. I was just saying that you are the bitchiest woman I have ever met.”

Before he even had time to think, I ran across the yard to him, threw him to the ground, and pinned his arms and legs to the ground. I wrapped my arms around his neck and grabbed him in a choke-hold. Only when his face turned purple did I let go. “You’re lucky I didn’t kill you, asshole.” He gets up and starts scowling at me.

“I cant believe you did that to a god.”

“I cant believe you were too weak to throw me off,” I counter. At that, he smiles.

And from that day on, we have been best friends. Tears start to well up in my eyes, so I furiously swipe at my eyes to wipe them away.

I glance at my holographic alarm clock and suddenly it starts beeping. Time to get up, I think to myself, it’s another long day. Will be over in 8 hours. At least you will get to see Aloysius. At that, I smile. I hurry over to the clock and turn it off before it wakes up the rest of my family-especially my newborn sister.

When I arrive at school, Aloysius meets me in the hallway in front of my home room class.

“Hey, Aglaia! Wonderful to see you again. Its only been a day, but I miss my best friend,” he says mock-flirtingly.

“Haha. Very funny,” I say while laughing. “I missed you too, King of The Sea.” He laughs.

“Well, I should get to class. I don’t want to be late...again,” I sigh. I’d already been late to class once this year. My teacher let me off easy, but he said that if I’m late again, I will get detention.

After school, I have to ride the bus to get home. The bus drops me off 2 miles from my house because it is not permitted to go to the poor areas. As I am walking, I hear something behind me. I turn around and look, but don’t see anything. Quietly, I bend down and draw the knife from my boot. A hand is pressed against my mouth and an arm is wrapped around my waist pinning my arms to my side. I bring my knife up and slash my attackers arm. He lets go, and I whirl around and punch him in the face. He falls to the ground, and I rest my foot against his chest-keeping him there.

The problem with having an orange Night, is that everybody thinks you are weak, so they attack you. We have to learn to fight as we get older to keep ourselves from getting killed.

I bend down and examine his face. He has close cropped black hair, tan skin, a very sharp jawline, and beautiful silver eyes that bore into mine. Flustered and unable to breathe, I pick my foot up, allowing him to stand. He must be at least 6 feet 2 inches tall, probably 22 years old-a year older than me-and is not a twig, but lean and muscular. I recognise him from school. I have never talked to him, but I have seen him in the hall. His name is Castor Andino; the Greek God of the Underworld, Hades.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” I demand.

“What the hell is wrong with you?”he counters. “You are walking in a dark alley, and I wanted to scare you. To teach you a lesson about going in dark alleys at night.”

I am stunned.

“You wanted to protect me?” I stammer. My mind is still trying to wrap itself around what he just told me.

“Well, in a way. I just wanted you to stop going in dark alleys.”

“Well if I stop, how the hell am I supposed to get home?” I say incredulously.

“Have your BFF, Poseidon, take you home! I don’t care! Just stop going in the dark alleys!” With that, he pivots on his heel and storms off, back to the city.

I continue my walk home, and our conversation replays in my head.

Part 2: The New Addition

I walk in the door, and my mom is lying on the couch, moaning. I drop my books on the floor and run to Aina.

“MOM!” I shout. “What’s happening?!” She doesn’t answer, so I grab her face and shout, “Answer me!”

Her eyes are closed, and her blonde hair is fanned out across her pillow. My dad comes in and sees my tear streaked face and rushes toward me.

“It’s okay, Aglaia,” he says. “She is just having contractions.”

I stop sobbing. Mt baby sibling is on the way. My dad gets up and shoves a pillow under my mom’s head. Tells her to bend her knees and spread them. I peek over his shoulder, and see that see that she is dilated at 8 centimeters.

“Come on, Mama,” I urge. “Push. Push as hard as you can. You are almost done.”

I see an almost- bald head first. Then a face. Next a neck. Finally a torso.

“One more good push, mama. You are so close!”

She gives one more push, and a bloody baby lands in my dad’s hands. A deep breath hisses between her teeth. Her body goes limp, and her eyes roll to the side of her head.

“NO!” I scream.

My dad is frozen in place. The baby is wailing. I am sobbing. My mom is dead.

I take the baby from my dad’s hands before he drops it and take it to the bathroom to wash it.

I run the bath water and fill the tub, squirt a few pumps of soap into the water and froth it around. Then I wash the baby, making sure to get all the blood off…her. I wrap her in a towel and bring her to my room. Gently, I set her on the bed and pull out one of my old t-shirts from the dresser. I put it on, and get one of the cloths used for cleaning out of the linen closet and tie it around her. Then I cradle her in my arms and rock her to sleep.

I lay on the bed stroking her back while she sleeps, and find myself asleep, because my dad walks in and when he does, his face is full of things I can’t identify. I see some happiness, sadness, and awe. He stares at my sister and a forced smile-more of a grimace-crosses his face.

“What do you want to call her?” He asks me.

“I think…Inessa. It means pure, viginal, and gentle.” I say.

“Inessa,” Agaton says. Tasting the name. “Good choice. I think it suits her.” With that, he leaves my sister and I to go visit my mom on the couch.

I know I have homework that I need to do, but part of my mind is telling me to call Aloysius and ask him to bring Ambrosio, the God of Death-Thanatos-and Castor to either figure out a way to bring my mom back or arrange a funeral.

I decide to go to the living room, grab my bookbag, and then call Aloysius. When I walk into the living room, my dad is kneeling over the couch with cleaner in his hands. My mom’s body has been moved to the kitchen table, and he is cleaning up the blood stain on the cushions. My feet move to the door, and I pick up my books and bring them to my room. I set them on my dresser-careful to not wake Inessa. Digging through my bag, I find my phone and look for Aloysius’s number.

“I need your help,” I sob. “My mom just died giving birth to my sister. Can you call for Castor and Ambrosio and bring them over?”

“Of course,” he says, his voice soft.

Not ten minutes later, I am sitting at the kitchen table with the baby in my arms, Aloysius to my left, Castor in front of me, and Ambrosio to my right.

“Can you bring her back?” I ask hopefully. Inessa needs a mom and I can’t be her mom and big sister-not yet.

Ambrosio starts to say something, but Castor interrupts him.

“Of course we can. At least until she and you are ready to say goodbye.”

At this point, tears are silently streaming down my face. “Thank you so much,” I say-my face full of emotion.

Castor starts toward me with his arms outstretched, but in the middle of a step, his arms drop and he goes back to his spot. Aloysius on the other hand, slings his arm around my shoulders. I lean into his steel chest and stifle a sob.

Castor reaches his hands over my mother and Ambrosio is in the corner of the room with his face scrunched in concentration. They are both trying to bring my mother back, and I’m so grateful; but if they fail, my mother could be gone forever. If that happens, I don’t know what I’ll do.