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Giselle lives with the love of her life, Tyler, in a city of gods like them. Tyler is the god of light while she is a god of music and art. The two live happily together in their paradise and practice their craft, but their paradise is not free from violence as the dark gods attack them and expose the cracks in this so-called paradise.
Chapter
3 - Reality
Flying into the city of dark gods,
I see that it’s an invert of the city that I came from. Instead of small
buildings, this one has towering skyscrapers that almost completely hide the
sky. There’s another detail about it beyond the obvious that makes it different
than the other one. Why can’t I think about it despite having just left? It
must be because I was always focusing on Tyler who was always by my side. He
was my world. He is my world and I won’t allow the dark gods here to separate
us any longer.
I use the creativity of my stories
to make these dark gods start fights with one another and take their own lives
as I scour the city looking for the love of my life. Every single person I meet
comes to a gruesome or quick death as I yell out my demand to have Tyler or
else everyone in the city will perish at my hands. Eventually, Xara steps out
of the shadows and charges at me with knives in her hands. I dodge her attacks
while trying to use my magic to make her stab herself, but she keeps punching
me in the face, stopping me from finishing the story.
“Since when could you fly and use
your magic to influence people?” Xara asks. “You’re more of a dark god than I
am.”
“This is my world! My paradise and I
won’t let you ruin it!” I say.
Using the extent of my magic, I tell
a story that involves a noose just as one comes down from the sky and hangs Xara.
She struggles to get out of it while suffocating, kicking her feet, and crying.
“Yes! Hang you, whore! Suffocate
and die!” I say as the last breaths come out of Xara’s mouth.
As she hangs dead and I laugh at it,
her body becomes the only thing visible to me. It then disappears and I find
myself in a shed.
“No, no, no!” I say and then look
into a broken antique mirror.
I see that my godlike appearance
has changed back to my normal, ugly self with dark blue eyes and dirty blonde
hair that’s browner than anything.
“What is going on?!” I say out
loud.
A light in the dark corner of the shed
shines in my face as I hear the voice that’s been telling me to wake up.
It says, “These fantasies of yours
have gone on long enough. It’s time for you to live in reality again.”
“Who are you?!” I ask.
“I am the God above gods, the only
and true God.”
“That can’t be true. An angel of
light came to me and told me to be here and put me into the dream.”
The angel that I mention appears as
a bright light in this shed, its face and body are indiscernible, but it must
be an angel. It gave me the happiness I wanted.
“Yes, Giselle,” the angel says. “Go
back to sleep and when the family who truly loves you discovers you here in the
state you are in, they will take you in as one of their own.”
“Do not believe this devil, Giselle,”
the voice from the other light says. “They are not your true family.”
“But they treat me so well! They
even let me work in their restaurant, play music, and sing songs!”
“But this isn’t where you belong.
They already told you that you should go back home to your real family, so you
shouldn’t cause them any grief by forcing them to take you in,” ‘God’ says.
“What ‘real’ family? They’re the
reason why I ran away from them in the first place! They always talk about how
other kids are better at everything than me and belittle my dreams!”
“But they are proud of what you do
and love you.”
“I don’t believe it when they say
it. Why are you even telling me to go back to them? They don’t even take me to
church anymore or practice the faith they claim to believe in.”
“Yes, that’s right, Giselle,” the
angel says. “This false light is the true devil. Would God tell you to go back
to a family that’s trying to drag you down to Hell with them? Would God want
you to go back to a miserable reality than a happy existence in a dream?”
“I can’t promise that you’ll be
happy for the rest of your life, but what I can promise is that I’ll be with
you through it all and you will experience moments of joy and glimpses of the
true happiness that will come afterward.”
“He is giving you a bad deal. Take
mine and you will be happy forever. It’s what you want, isn’t it?”
“What I want…”
“What would Tyler want? What were
you taught?” ‘God’ asks.
“Tyler…he always said to do the
right thing even if it wasn’t what I wanted.” After thinking about it for a few
seconds, I say, “Okay, fine! Just leave me alone!”
I get off the floor and walk as fast
as I can out of the shed and into the rainy night while trying not to look
back, however, I can’t help but look into my friend’s house through the window as
they are eating dinner. They all look so happy together, laughing, smiling, and
talking to one another about their day. My family isn’t like them and looking
at them makes me feel all the lonelier so I pull myself away from the window
and continue walking away. While continuing on my way home, a familiar car stops
next to me, one that I try to walk away from.
“Giselle!” they say from behind me.
Turning my head around, I see Tyler
and Xara behind me who look relieved to see me. As for me, I’m sick of seeing
them.
“Leave me alone!” I say.
“We’ve been looking all over for
you,” Xara says.
“Your parents have been worried
sick about you. Where have you been these last couple of days?” Tyler asks me.
It’s only been a couple of days? It
feels like I’ve lived a lifetime in the dream I was in, and yet, it also feels
like I’ve only lived in the dream for mere minutes.
“Come on, we’ll drive you home,”
Xara says.
“I don’t want to go back home!” I yell.
“Listen, if there’s a problem with
your parents, I’m sure you can work it out with them.”
“Shut the hell up! You don’t know
what I go through with them.”
“Talk to me about it then. We’re
friends.”
“No, we’re not! I hate you!”
Tyler and Xara are silent for a
moment.
“What? What do you mean?”
“I hate you for pretending to be my
friend, stealing the heart of the man I love, and being better than me at everything!
All everyone talks about is how good of a person, hard of a worker, and smart
student you are while looking down at me as I do nothing but mess up all the
time.”
Xara struggles to speak, so Tyler
steps closer to me and says, “Giselle-”
“I don’t want to hear you say
anything either! You betrayed me for her! It’s like I don’t even exist ever
since you two got together. What happened to helping me through my struggles
and grow in this faith that you introduced me to?”
“I’m sorry that I haven’t been
there for you as much as I could. Look, I promise to help you more tomorrow. For
now, let’s get you home.”
Looking at Xara, I imagine her hanging
with tears on her face again, but Tyler’s kind face reminds me that I shouldn’t
feel good about imagining it and tepidly agree to go home. Neither Tyler nor Xara
talk to me on the drive back, so I just sit in silence like I want to, but when
they drop me off, they tell me that they’ll talk to me tomorrow.
“We’re here for you, Giselle,”
Tyler says.
“We really are your friends and
care about you,” Xara says.
I storm off to the front door of my
house while trying not to cry because I don’t want to believe what they said. Before
I make it to the door, my parents open it, run out, and give me a hug.
“We’ve missed you so much!” my mom
says.
“Where were you all this time?” my dad
says.
Pushing past my parents, I say, “Shut
up.”
My parents stop me from heading
straight to my room.
“You aren’t going anywhere without
telling us why you ran away,” my dad says.
“There’s no point in telling you
anything. It wouldn’t matter anyway,” I say.
“Why’s that?”
“You can tell us anything, Giselle.
We’re your parents-”
“Shut up! You never listen to me
even when I try to ask you for help.”
“What are you talking about? You never
ask us for help.”
“Shut up…” I say under my breath.
“You have to stop being so
reclusive and open up to us.”
“Shut up…” I say with clenched
fists.
“Please, for once, just be honest
with us. Your friends-”
“Fucking shut the hell up!” I say
before grabbing a family picture and throwing it against another, breaking
both in the process as they collide and fall on the floor.
Now that they’re quiet, I continue
by saying, “You always talk about how other kids are better at me at everything!
You always say how they have their life in order while I don’t no matter how hard
I try to prove otherwise! My dreams of being an artist, writer, and singer mean
less than nothing to you! My beliefs don’t mean anything to you! I hate you and
I don’t believe you if you say you love me or that you’re proud of me because
everything else you say and do says otherwise!”
I’m really starting to cry my eyes
out now even as I hold my face as if trying to keep the tears in and put the
ones I’ve shed back in.
“Giselle-”
“Don’t touch me!”
“We can work this out. I’m sorry we
haven’t been as open-minded to you as we should have been,” my dad says. “Tell
us everything that bothers you and we’ll listen this time without interrupting
or contradicting you. Help us understand why you’re so upset.”
“I don’t want to…”
“Maybe we should talk tomorrow,” my
mom suggests. “I’ve made your favorite dinner, chicken parmigiana. You should
eat since I’m sure you haven’t eaten in a while.”
“Okay…”
I eat my “favorite” dinner, head to
my room, close the door, and immediately fall on the bed. It’s funny. I feel
more alone here than I do in the shed. Being around my parents and so-called
family and friends has always made me feel alone because I know that if I want
to talk to them about something, they’ll either not care or not understand why I
care so much about the things that interest me. This is why I didn’t want to
come back home. There’s a chance that nothing will change even after the fit
that I threw.
I’d like nothing more to be back in
the dream, to be a god, and to live happily every second of my life, but I also
see why it was wrong. What could be more godlike than defining what is true and
what isn’t? I can’t be doing that when I’m the furthest thing from a god or
even a good daughter, so I can do nothing more now than to hope and pray that
God holds up His end of this bad deal and makes my miserable life worth living
in the end.
The
End
Chapter
2 – Fractures in Heaven
Before Tyler wakes up and lights up
the day, I’ve already made breakfast downstairs for us, eggs overlight, bacon,
and bagels with cream cheese and orange juice, a usual special that my family
makes on Saturday or Sunday to get us full and ready for the day ahead.
When Tyler heads downstairs, he
says, “Ah! What’s the occasion for this special breakfast? It isn’t the weekend
yet.”
“I thought I’d just make something
today. Am I supposed to make breakfast only on special days and the weekend?” I
ask.
“No, no, no. I’m just surprised is
all.”
“Wake up, Giselle.”
“I’m awake. I got enough sleep last
night.”
“I didn’t ask if you did. Are you
alright, Giselle?”
“Yeah…yeah, I’m fine.”
Someone must’ve said that. I want
to say it’s an echo from my dream, but it sounded like someone just said it in
my ears. After shaking off my worries, Tyler go about our happy, daily life
together. While working at my family’s restaurant, I hear whispers behind me.
“Being an artist isn’t enough.”
“It doesn’t pay the bills.”
“You can’t just sing, play music,
and draw all day.”
These whispers cause me to mess up
a bit while playing and singing. Looking around me, people seem to have
noticed, but I try not to be too embarrassed and keep enjoying my craft.
“They aren’t your real parents.”
“Tyler isn’t yours.”
“Wake up, Giselle.”
“Shut up!” I say.
Everyone is silent now. I apologize
for my outburst and walk away to get some fresh outside. While outside, a
backup musician takes my place.
“I don’t think you’re okay today,
Giselle,” Tyler says as he joins me outside. “You’re acting really off.”
“Maybe something is wrong. Maybe
one of the dark gods or Xara has something to do with it. Xara always finds a
way to continue to be a pain in my side,” I say.
“She’s nothing compared to you. You
should relax today or at least take it easy.”
“You’re right. I’ll take it easy
and let whatever is happening to me pass. Thank you.”
I kiss Tyler and head back in,
ready to play and sing again.
“Why are you being so lazy?”
“You should be working harder.”
“That lady can play and sing so
much better than you.”
“It’s why she has a career while
you don’t.”
Ignore the whispers, Giselle.
Ignore them. I play and sing as I usually do while doing my best not to let the
whispers get to me, and thankfully, I manage to make it through the day without
making another mistake. By supper time, I notice that it’s quiet. Hopefully,
that’s the end of that. The rest of the day goes off without a hitch and Tyler
even treats me to deserts after learning how to make it thanks to my family.
He’s made cupcakes with all different kinds of sprinkles and colorful icing. I
have my fill of them and leave the rest for my family to enjoy as I leave them
and head back home with Tyler.
Again, I see the familiar face
reach out to me, this time with an open hand as he says, “Wake up, Giselle.”
As I wake up, I see that I’m in a
shed for an instant before everything reverts to normal except for Tyler being
mysteriously gone. I call out to him and hear nothing in response. As I begin
to get worried, the whispers respond, but they’re different.
“He isn’t yours. He’s mine!” I hear
before behind taken down by a punch to my face.
I look up and am somewhat surprised
to see Xana.
“I figured you’d show up sooner or
later. You’re always the reason why something is wrong with my life,” I say.
Tyler is beside Xana who has a red
energy emanating from his head that is swaying around.
“I am only trying to make you see
the truth. Tyler is mine and you’ll never have him!”
Xana disappears in a flash thanks
to Tyler’s teleportation magic. I run out of the house and go to the city of
the dark gods, but I find that this city is under attack again by the same
gods as yesterday. While trying to help as best I can with my singing and
supporting music that I play on a conjured violin, two dark gods try to stop me,
both of whom I barely recognize. They have aspects of my face, and yet, they’re
disgusting and terrifying to look at as if my face has been filtered through a
nightmare.
“We’re your real parents, Giselle,”
they say.
“Come back home to us.”
“We miss you.”
“You need to be back where you
belong.”
“Shut up and get away from me!” I
say as I play my music more intensely.
“This music will do nothing for
you.”
“It’s a mere hobby.”
“Do something more proactive and
profitable.”
“You’ll need to if you want to
survive in the world.”
My conjured violin starts to sound
terrible as it breaks apart and my singing voice becomes raspy. With nothing to
fight back against the dark gods, I resort to my last option. Using my creative
imagination, I tell a short story about two parents who corrupted their child
to the point where the child committed suicide. Because of their guilt, the
parents killed themselves as well. This story makes the two people in front of
me take their own lives by tearing their heads off. They then explode into
particles of light and finally cease their endless talking.
I continue to use my creative
powers by making the other dark gods kill themselves, turn on each other, and
empower the other gods to show them no mercy even as the enemy retreats. Some
of the gods look at me with worry in their eyes at what I’m doing.
“What? These bastards don’t deserve
to die honorably or live another second. Now, if you’re not going to help me, I
have to find my husband,” I say and then fly off to the city of the dark gods.
As Tyler rises from his sleep and
our bed, the sun rises on the earth. He is the god of light and the light of my
life, after all. His white face and eyes outlined by black lines and constant
smile shine brighter than the sun on me and give me more energy to rise than
the feeling of another great day.
“Good morning, my love,” he says
before kissing me on the head.
Tyler changes from his nightwear
into his usual white dress shirt with golden lines on it, black body suit,
white shoes, and black pants in a flash of light.
“Good morning,” I say back and then
change into my usual clothes as well, a long, dark golden strapless dress, and
light golden shoes.
My hair has changed from its
disheveled look and curls into something presentable like that of a crown with
two horn-like ends to it. I look into the mirror, look at my bright blue eyes,
and then apply light gold makeup to my cheeks, eyes, and lips, and then make
sure my gold and black choker with a dark golden sun on it appears around my
neck.
“All ready, Giselle?” Tyler asks.
“With you, I’m ready for anything,”
I say and then kiss him on the lips.
Tyler teleports us to the streets
of our wonderous city streets that are already busy with other gods like us who
are going about their daily business. They tell us good morning and say hi to
us and we do the same while holding each other’s hands. We go to my family’s
restaurant and are seated almost immediately. My parents, brothers, and sisters
join us for breakfast and enjoy each other’s company while making small talk
about business and how things are going. After we’re done eating, Tyler and I go our separate
ways for now to do our duties for the restaurant.
I play the piano and sing to add to
the restaurant’s atmosphere while Tyler uses his light to brighten up the place
to make it shine more than it usually does while also providing nutrients to
the plants outside and my parent’s gardens. It’s a humble and repetitive
lifestyle, but it’s one that I appreciate and enjoy living every day of my
life. While playing, Tyler stops by to give me kisses, check up on me, and
later have lunch together. For my final performance of the day, he acts as my
dancing and singing partner as we sing one of our many favorite songs to end
the day. The crowd cheers and claps for us as Tyler and I kiss.
After the crowds leave, my family,
Tyler, and I eat supper together. My parents remind me how proud of me they are
and my siblings tell me how cool I was. Tyler and I say goodbye after eating
and teleport back to our room in an instant and switch into our nightwear just
as quickly before falling into bed because of all the work done today. We rest
in each other’s arms, kiss each other, and say goodnight as Tyler turns out the
last lights of the world, and the god of night takes over for now. The god of
dreams weaves for me a reality in my head that I wish were real as I dream
about dancing with Tyler forever while singing song after song all the while
being praised and adored by all who watch us. A familiar and disgusting face in
the crowd catches my attention, and as soon as it does, I wake up in a cold
sweat.
Looking around, I make sure Tyler
is with me and I’m still in Paradise. Thankful that I am, I lay back down,
cuddle up closer to Tyler, and fall back to sleep. I see a different face that
I recognize who reaches out to me before I wake up again to see that Tyler has
made the sun shine on a new day. We go about our daily routine like yesterday
except we don’t stay to work at my family’s restaurant. Instead, today is our
day off so we roam the city of gods, taking in its sights, sounds, and
pleasantries. The first place we go to is the art gallery, or as some call
it, the Artist’s Heaven.
It's called the Artist’s Heaven
because all gods of art, like myself, gather here to share their craft, are
rewarded for their work, and give feedback on them. The gallery is separated
into three sections: writers, painters, and musicians with subsections in each
gallery for every particular kind. For example, there’s a horror section in the
writer's area, sculpting in the painter’s section, and separate piano and
guitar sections in the musician’s area. Since I’m interested in everything, I
look at pretty much everything, get Tyler involved with the art activities with
me such as drawing and singing, and talking to other gods of particular forms
of art. By the end of it, I see that it’s almost afternoon.
“I’m so sorry for taking up so much
of the day with activities that you weren’t as interested in,” I say.
“No, it’s fine. It’s worth it just
to see you happy,” Tyler says. He raises his hands and pushes the position of
the sun back a bit. “Besides, I am the god of light after all. I can put a bit
more time into the day.”
For the rest of the day, we do activities
that Tyler is interested in such as getting involved with sports and watching
the horse races. At the end of it, we eat dinner at a restaurant inside one of
the stadiums, but we both notice something is wrong when the night seems to be
darker than usual.
“Do you think something is wrong
with the god of the night?” I ask.
“No, no, this is something else,” Tyler
says.
Fireballs start raining down on the
city as the dark gods attack us. Tyler and I race out into the streets to lend
our support to the city’s defenders. I play and sing songs that give strength
to the guards while Tyler uses his light to blind our enemies and fire to burn
them. One of the dark gods, who I saw in my dreams, comes after me and tries
cutting my head off with her knives. Her name is Xara, a dark god of thieves
and a lifelong enemy of mine. She has a black halo around her head, strains of
red hair coming from her bald head, red and black eyes with tears of blood
coming from them, a black dress, and a black necklace with a red teardrop-shaped
stone. I use my music to confuse and cause her pain in her head as she wildly
swings her weapons at me.
“I’ll defeat you this time, Giselle!”
Xara says.
“And I won’t let you escape alive!”
I say back.
“You’ll kill me? Ha! As if you
could do anything but uselessly play your music. You can’t defeat me,
especially when I can do this!”
A bright light comes from Xara’s
necklace that gets the attention of Tyler and seems to temporarily put him in a
trance. I use my music to counter Xara’s dark magic and give Tyler to break
free from her influence. Tyler then uses his fire magic to blast her away into
the sky. Seeing that the other dark gods are retreating, Xara curses at me and
then retreats with the rest of the scum.
“We can’t let her escape this time!
We have to finish her off!” I say.
“No, it’s fine. She can never do
any lasting damage to us and will never separate us,” Tyler says as he grabs my
hands.
The look in Tyler’s eyes convinces
me of his words and I reluctantly agree with him. He’s right. The gods of
repair and healing instantly repair the damage done to the city and bring back
to full health those who were hurt during the battle. Since so much happened
during the day, we go home to rest. I’m still uneasy about letting Xara go and
worried about what she might do when she comes back. Even so, I manage to fall
asleep because of my exhaustion. While sleeping, I see a familiar face in my
dreams, but this time, it isn’t Xara. It's the other person. Someone whose face
I should better recognize and who I feel I should love more than I do.
He points to me, and says, “Wake
up, Giselle.”
Download for free at select online bookstores and counting - https://books2read.com/b/bWAgvx
After hundreds of years of suffering and trials, Priscilla's journey comes to a close. Her final task is to break the curse over the world that she placed over it at a time of grief and hatred of God. She carries her cross to her Calvary while being constantly tortured by demons who won't let her forget her past actions, and yet, God will be with her helping her carry her cross till the end.
