Metamorphosis

Chapter 11: A little bit of Nector and a white fluffy cat

"Hey, buzz off!" I heard Annie say as I came out of the bathroom. Her hands were gripped around her gleaming green dress, and on the other end was a tiny fairy-like creature fighting her for it.

"What the-"

"Don't just stand there; help me!" Annie shouts, the creature makes strange clicking and tweeting noises as it pulls. I hold my towel tight and use my free hand to help Annie, and to my surprise, the creature was strong.

"Jesus, what did this thing eat for breakfast? Steroids?!" I shouted, and as we yanked back hard, a high-pitched whistle noise came from the fairy-like creature. The sound instantly gave me a pounding headache. I let go of the dress, pressing my hands to my ears to muffle the sound. 

"Ay, nohae," 

I hear someone say, and the sound stops. I looked up to see Eros, who has the creature by its wings. The creature struggled for a bit then ultimately let go of the dress. It hung there with its arms crossed, swinging to and fore like a pouting toddler.

"I apologize, ladies; some of my fae are attracted to shiny objects, dresses included," he says as he turns the little fae around to face him. "And we won't be doing that again now, will we?" he asks; the fae babbles at him. Eros lets it go, and it zooms away like a hummingbird.

"Where the heck are we?" I ask, knowing I probably wasn't home anymore...

Eros smiles as he walks towards us, " My home away from home, not quite in the human world and not quite in the god's realm. Somewhere you won't be targeted by Phobos."

"Phobos? Wait, was that the guy who stabbed me? You know him?!" Annie asks.

Eros shrugs, "Unfortunately, trust me, we aren't close."

"And you, you saved us? Why? Who are you?" I could see Annie was on the verge of a panic attack, I decided to step in.

"Annie, before the accident, I wanted to talk to you about something. Half of it was him-" I gestured to Eros," but the other was a note I had found recently in my so-called mother's painting room; it turns out my parents aren't my real parents..."

Annie's eyes grew wide, "And believe it or not, this is Eros..." Even as I explained it, it sounded so fake. Here I was explaining to my best friend that we were alive because the god of love saved us; she must think I'm nuts.

She looked at me and then Eros, "Oh god...I need a drink," she says as she sits on the bed. Eros walks over to a solid wood dresser with a crystal bottle on it. As he opens it, the golden liquid appears; he pours a tiny glass and hands it to Annie.

"Here, this will calm your nerves," he says.

Annie looks at the cup and takes it, "If this poisons me, God or no God, I will come back to haunt you," She says, leering at him.

Eros just grins; his smile made my heart flutter. There's just something about him that catches my attention. The way he holds himself, not like a man who is full of it, no, he reminded me of a man who had secrets, who stays in the shadows watching and observing, like predators do to their prey. The way he looked at you was like he was reading you.

I subconsciously wrapped my arms around my chest; the thought of someone reading the deepest, darkest parts of myself made me vividly self-conscious.

"Oh holy hell! This is good! What is it?"

"Nector, but it's known to drive humans mad, so that's all you'll be getting," Annie pouted as Eros took her glass away.

"Okay, well, I feel more relaxed now," she says as she falls backward on the bed.

"Hey, don't get too comfortable, Ann, we need to get back to our own world," I said as I wrapped my towel tighter; Eros looks at me, his hands tucked in his pockets.

"I wouldn't recommend you go back right now," Eros warns.

I raise a brow, "Oh? Why not? Your brother got signed for whatever I did to him. Wouldn't he need to heal?"

"Not necessarily; he may already be healed and looking for you."

I sighed heavily, "You know I don't get it. Why am I the one being hunted like a wild boar? My birth mother-" I stopped mid-sentence; I didn't know anything about my actual mother or what her part was in all of this.

"Your mother is the reason there's a target on your back, love, "Eros says.

I rolled my eyes, "This is ridiculous; I did Nothing. Your brother has a problem with my mother, not me. So take us home, I'm done with this," I hastily make my way to the bathroom. I didn't want to hear any excuses of why we should stay. I wanted things to return to normal.

A soft knock comes from the other side of the door, "Occupied," I shouted.

Dove, if you go back home, you will be in the same situation I saved you from; why are you willing throwing yourself before?" Eros asks; I bit my tongue; the little voice in my head made a couple of comments like "Because I just don't care what happens to me anymore," or "I'm just a burden..." my mother's favorite line.

Her claws dug deep into me, and I never learned how to dig them out. The part of me she dug into was the little girl who was always told to "do better" or "you make my life harder" or the recent one, "my life was fine before you came back."

My eyes started to burn, I felt so broken; how could a mother be so cruel? The tears poured out of me like blood from a severed artery. A puff of pink smoke comes from under the door, then forms into a fluffy white cat. It purrs as it bumps its head on my leg; I sniffle and whip my tears as I pet it.

"Believe it or not, I know how this feels for you. I have lost someone as well, and the wound that person left still bleeds," Eros' voice echos in my head as I pet the purring cat.

"Why are you helping me?" I ask, "And don't tell me you like helping damsels in distress cause I'm not buying it," I added. 

Eros is silent for a moment, "Well?" I ask.

"You're not going to like the answer..." he says.

I scoff, "Great, so you're just going to lie like everyone else has? Because if you're going to do that, I am definitely leaving with or without your help."

I hear a soft thud on the other side of the door; a moment passes, " If I tell you, you have to stay."

"Excuse me?"

"Please," Eros's voice was soft, and I could hear a slight shift in his voice, not like the charming, playful tone he had earlier; this was sad; it was odd I could feel his emotions through the door just by him touching it. I remembered this emotion from before; it was deep and hollow and called out to me to invade it, to probe deeper. I sat on my knees and pressed both hands on the door, I didn't know how I knew what I was doing, but it was like muscle memory. My body knew, and I followed it.

"Okay, but only if you tell me the truth," at that moment, I pressed my whole body against the door, my eyes closed, and it was like I was looking through a thermal camera; only these colors could only appear in galaxies. Eros's whole body flashed with bursting stars and splashes of sunset colors. I knew it means something but...what?

"Remember I found you at the bus station?" the stars began to snap and crackle.

"Yes."

"That wasn't on accident; I was sent down to you," chills rippled through my body as the stars fizzled out into a navy blue, " Dove, I was supposed to kill you that night, not save you."

My breath caught in my throat; the colors became dark, so dark they resemble only a shadow of himself; with shaking hands, I let go of the door. 

"Who? Who told you to kill me?" I asked, my voice trembling from what I just saw and felt.

"Please don't-"

"Tell me!" I screamed; I didn't need excuses; I was so tired of that s**t. If I was going to be hurt, I wanted to be hurt by the truth, not lies.

And after a moment, Eros spoke up, "My mother, she wants you dead."

"The Goddess of Love wants me dead?" My head was spinning, wasn't a goddess of love suppose to be love itself? And yet she wants to strike me, a girl she barely knows, dead.

"Like I said before, she's a b***h," Eros adds, his voice rippled with shame. 

"But you love her, which is why you tried to kill me for her, yet you didn't. Why didn't you?" I asked.

"I didn't think anything of it a first; mother always has bouts of jealously, but this-this was definite. This was hate; she has nothing but hatred in her heart for you, Dove, and I needed to know why. But once I saw you-" Eros stopped for a second.

"What? I looked like a pathetic drama queen missing a heel on the side of a street, and like you said before, "I looked like a train wreck."

"That was it."

"Huh?" I paused, not understanding what he meant.

"It was your humanity, Dove. You can't fake that; you looked so raw, so real. Gods and Goddess, we tend to lose our humanity; we live for so long; we see it all, yet we're blind to so much of it, but you reminded me of what I loved about humanity. The beauty, innocence, and strength. There's a spark in you, Dove."

His words took my breath away; how was it that others could see such a thing in me, but I couldn't see it in myself?

"Please, will you stay?" He asks; I bite my lip, something feels like it's breaking away inside me, but I can't put my finger on it. I stand up and pick up the cat; I open the door.

"I'll stay, but only if I can keep the cat," I say with a meek smile; Eros smirks and nods.

"He's all yours,"