The Rise of The Gods: The Rapture

The Science of Change

    It was so damn cold here, and feet upon feet of snow still. As he trudged along clutching a backpack he wore backwards. He never should have gone to France and tried to be a part of ghost hunters. Their last season had lead him to the catacombs where, as much as he wished he could help it, he succumbed to the worst series of events he would ever witness under the pretense he had made a deal to get a cure. He should have known better he was desperate, there wasn't a cure, but he was weary of it and weak false hope brought him to take a deal he knew was far beyond evil. Since the first step there was no going back, he was promised worse than death and worse than his condition if he tried to break the bond and worse than he could ever imagine if he didn't do what it asked. 

    That was the only truth of the world and all it's botched history Cade never got. what "It" really was. "It" was a deep, dark alluring voice that he heard in his head the night he found the ancient relic that looked like a petrified big fish scale. Only after he touched it did the voice sound in his head. So soothing at first, going straight for his soft spot, having empathy for his condition. Cade was born sickly, doctors pretty much said, he was allergic to most everything, he had to be a vegan, and gluten free, his lungs and heart didn't work right, there wasn't a diagnosis just a long list of how unhealthy and weak he was due to being born from a mother who was an addict to anything she could get her hands on. It was a miracle he was even carried to second trimester. None the less Cade was an extremely premature baby born in a gutter and thrown away in a cardboard recycling bin. His mother threw him away without a passing thought. And the cycle of his life continued, he was found and from there a ward of the state, a tiny baby raised by hospitals, and foster parents. He was always hateful of his existence. Exactly what "It" preyed on. "It promised him health, respect, love, and above all else power. Power to do as he pleased to those who made his life a hotter hell than it already was. He didn't want that, he just wanted to be a normal guy, who could eat a cheeseburger and have a beer, with a wife and some kids who would go see the grandparents, his parents, because he was normal and had those, he wanted to be normal. "It" , the sultry voice in his head said it would be anything he wanted if he just did what it said. 

    Thus, far Cade had done what "It" said. "It" guided him throughout the world to places for information to learn what he needed to help "It" get back on earth in true form to places where "It" had richest beyond all belief to fund all this. To where he was at now. Dragging himself through Yellowstone park in very early spring, to throw what was in this backpack into a particular hot spring at a precise moment. This act was supposed to bring "It" back so the deal could be finished and Cade could be normal and on his way. 

    That was all that kept Cade going, he had done horrible things and learned even worse in the three years  He really wanted no more to do with this. It had gone far enough, he was now on a task to probably destroy a good chunk of the world and hurt or even kill thousands of people and change the modern word in such a way so abruptly than ever before. At this point he was a shell of who he was, he was in so deep, that "It" was able to cause him pain if he didn't do what it wanted or argued. "It" would never kill him just cause pain that was so close to death Cade longed to push it, "It" never did, just kept him in torment until Cade relented. He kept walking and was soon pulled from his thoughts as the sounds of water being shoved up in there air from a hot vent in the ground reached his ears. 

    He stopped for just a moment, to be himself, and revel and admire the strength and beauty of it. His eyes soaked in the millions of tiny rainbows it created as water shot so high in the air. It was warmer now, he took an extra second to enjoy that too. Two small springs north of Old Faithful, that was where "It' thought it was trapped and a powerful enough explosion could be created to draw all it's pieces together and "It" would be itself again. "It" promised so once back in its glory to reward Cade. That reward was just a few hundred feet away. Cade lurched forward with "It" in his head whipping him to his knees at the edge of the spring, he checked his paper and then his latitude, longitude compass and time, linear line time watch. ten seconds.

    Ten mere seconds, he held his breath and the backpack over the spring. The count down began..10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1.... He let go. And got up and ran as fast as he could. He found shelter behind a very large rock, covered his ears and waited. He could almost feel the deep inhale of the earth as it sucked the backpack hundreds of miles into the unknown depths of its belly. Then, a surprised sharp stop to everything. The quiet was restless and eerie. Cade felt a slow deep, rumble rattle through everything around him. The very earth itself let out a groan, a howl of pain, and then a bright light followed by an explosion a million times greater than an atomic bomb burst forth from the ground.The shock wave ripped through the air a whipped around Cade, he watched the wave of destruction spread like an angry ocean under and away from for miles upon miles he did not know. Water upon water rained down forcing him to flatten out under the pressure. Then the eerie was back. It was so thick, and pressing he felt his lungs burning, his boy feeling g forces if one would describe it.

    Cade found himself trying to be a small as possible, he cracked a cautious eye upwards to see a group of the most breath taking beings standing piercing him with their gazes. 

    "Are you "It"?", he asked in very small voice. He was answered by a booming laugh.

Zeus himself laughed at the question."Who is it, boy? I am Zeus and these are the Gods standing before you. Who were you expecting?"

    Cade dared to sit up and bring himself to his knees. "Zeros, I was expecting Zeros! This is all wrong, all wrong. I have to go!" He was in a panic, he couldn't quite move, he more floundered, this was bad, bad bad. A very serious, unearthly beautiful woman stepped forward with a menacing power. "Zeros," she said, "You were expecting Zeros? For that you will pay. Do you know how long we have been down there? It is quite certain there has been a mistake, you poor fool!" and before he could respond she swiped him up by the neck and squeezed. About when he thought it was finally his death. Artemis spoke up. " Hera, let him breathe, the mistake could work in our favor, we have a prisoner of the enemy, let's make him a friend and use him to our advantage."  With that he was dropped. Roughly he crumpled to the ground. He rolled away from the group. 

    As quickly as they noticed him, they forgot him as they began to argue amongst themselves. Inch by inch Cade stole away, "It" urging him on. There had been a mistake, no matter "It" had said. I am now more than I was and just listen and I will help you find me and you shall get your reward. So Cade continued with his ill fated path in the world he would had yet to see how he changed.