Filed to story: Sorry Alpha I Am Wolfless Novel
“Hello, Riviana. I guess it is polite for me to give you a proper greeting before you die.” Hekate chuckled at me.
“Hello, Hekate. I would give you the title that you deserve, but I don’t know how many greats to be in front of the word granny. So, maybe I should just call you what I called Solanum. Though that seems a little rude. Hmm. Gram Gram? I can call you Gram Gram.” I saw the way that the fallen goddess’s eyes sharpened and hardened at my disrespectful tone and words.
“You are quite inconsiderate, aren’t you?” She ground the words out through her clenched teeth.
“I work very hard to act this way for the ones that deserve it. I mean, it’s not like this comes easy to me. I need to put a lot of thought and effort into what would best ruin your day and how I should go about it. It’s all quite exhausting, really.”
“HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!” She laughed again. I guess I once again said something that was hilarious. “Let me show you why I will be taking your power, Riviana.”
I watched then as Hekate pushed the door to her cell open and stepped out into the hall to meet me. She was not being restrained. There was nothing and no one to hold her back in the cell. She was literally leaving to do whatever it was that she wanted to. And this, here, was probably the exact reason why I was here. She was allowed to do too much, and I needed to stop it. Damn you, Thoth. You caused all of this, and I can’t even punish you for it. I mean, who sends someone to hell and lets them just walk around free? That was just careless and insane.
GAH!
****
Riviana
****
“As you can see, Riviana, I am not being restrained here. I can leave my cell whenever I want. I am not the same kind of prisoner that the others are. I am more free than they are. I can do as I please. And, right now, I want to take your magic.”
This was enough to piss me off completely. I was trying to figure out why in the fucking hell that the evil goddess would even need me here when she had this sort of ability. When she could leave her cell, what was the point of calling me here? What was it that she wanted from me? What did I need to do?
“If you can get out whenever you want, Gram Gram, then why am I here? What did you need me for? Unless you are actually too scared to leave. Would you rather me stop you just so that you have no more excuses left as to why you’re still here after all this time?”
“Still so damn disrespectful. You are a very rude descendant. Here you are meeting one of the reasons that you even exist and you’re treating me like I am nothing. If it wasn’t for me then you would not be here. And even if you still somehow existed, you wouldn’t be half the powerhouse that you are now. I helped to make you, Riviana, so you need to respect me.”
“Oh, thank you for that explanation, Gram Gram. I never would have figured that out on my own. And I am so happy that I have yet another bat shit crazy relative. You know you’re not the only celestial being that I have met face to face? So you can stop expecting me to be in awe of you. And I am already sick and tired of you and your bullshit. Now stop trying to dodge my question and answer me. What am I doing here? Why am I here if you can get out of that cell already? Why did you try to bring me right to you? Why were you mad that I was diverted and taken on a longer path? Explain it all to me.”
“I will relish in your destruction, Riviana. I will see to it that you are so thoroughly removed from my path that you will not be able to reincarnate ever. I will wipe you from existence and then I will destroy every single member of your family. Them and all of the ungrateful bastards that call themselves my descendants. Only the truly strong and the truly wise will survive. I will take them and fill the world with the true children of Hekate. And, this time, I will do it without my husband. I will find another partner, someone who has the same vision as me.” I swear that was the most maniacal face I had ever seen in my entire life.
“You still haven’t answered me, Hekate. Why did you need me here? What was the point of all of this? Why the hell did you drag me here and away from my family? WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?” I let my anger get the best of me as I screamed at her in the end.
“I WANT YOUR MAGIC, BECAUSE I CAN’T GET OUT OF HERE WITHOUT IT!”
Apparently, Hekate had reached the end of her rope as well. She was screaming back at me and hyperventilating to show me just how pissed off and angry that she was about this whole thing.
Not only that, but I could see that she was hunched over, curling in on herself with her feeling of powerlessness and inadequacy. Whatever the hell she was up to, she had just let a small fraction of her true self start to show through. I wasn’t completely sure, but I had a feeling that this was going to piss her off even more.
And, sure enough, there was a strange color starting to appear in Hekate’s cheeks. It was sort of like a lightening of the color, the blue in her complexion started to look a little like baby blue right where her cheeks were.
That was the oddest blush I had ever seen from someone. And probably the cutest, you know, if it weren’t on the face of this crazy bitch. As it was, I just wanted it to stop so that I could get back to business.
“What do you mean you can’t get out of here without my magic?” I crossed my arms and waited for this annoying bitch to continue explaining all of this and finally say something that made even the least little bit of sense.
“I mean exactly what I said, Riviana. I may be able to get out of my cell and I may not be treated like the other prisoners in this fucking hell hole, but I am still not able to get out of this Hall of Damnation. It is made so that no one gets out. No one was ever intended to leave this place once they entered. You could get out, though. You’re not dead, your soul is alive, and therefore, you are not bound by the same restrictions that the rest of us need to live with. You and your little boys are able to get out of here and that is what I want for myself. I am going to take your magic, and your soul, into my body. You will get me out of here and then I will destroy your soul. Even if I have to kill you before I leave here I will. I will just ride your soul out of this place until I am back in the land of the living. From there I will still destroy your soul and make it so that you will never come back to be a thorn in my side ever again. I will have my desire fulfilled and that will be that.”
“You are far more insane than I ever thought you would be. I am not kidding. You are certifiably and legitimately crazy. Do you truly think that it is going to work? Do you think that you will be able to destroy me that easily? Do you think that I am not going to make sure that I stop you?” It was time for me to laugh now. I was laughing nearly as hysterically as she had before. “HA HA HA HA!”
The laughter tasted bitter and disgusting in my mouth. I didn’t want to laugh even though it was something that I was not able to stop myself from doing. The laughter made me feel like her, like Hekate. And feeling like that fallen goddess was making me feel dirty and disgusting. I just wanted that to go away and this whole mess to be over with.
“Your laughter is not needed.” Hekate snapped at me. “The only one that will be laughing when all of this is over is me. I will be the one to end you. I will be the one to get out of here. Don’t worry, your little friends can have my cell, since they won’t ever be getting out of here either. They will be stuck here along with everyone else. And they won’t even need to be punished for all of eternity.. Aren’t I just so nice?” Her little giggle was so much worse than her maniacal laughter.
****
Riviana
****
“Let me tell you how all of this is going to go, Gram Gram. You’re either going to relinquish all the power you have and go back into that prison cell of yours for the rest of eternity, or I will destroy your soul. I will not now, nor will I ever, let you out of this place. Furthermore, I will not accept the way that you have threatened my family and my friends. You will find only ruin for yourself if you dare to face me. That is more than a threat. More than a promise. And that is more than a fact. This is simply the only way that things can possibly end for you.”
I was being a lot more confident than I had thought I was going to be when this whole process started. I don’t know why, but I had thought that I was going to be a little more scared and nervous about all of this. That wasn’t how it had happened though. That wasn’t what I was feeling at this moment.
Right now, all I felt was a burning rage that I was going to use to end yet another member of my bloodline’s reign of terror. I was going to turn that rage into a weapon and destroy Hekate once and for all. I may have given her an ultimatum, but I knew from the beginning that she was not going to choose anything that would be considered ‘peaceful’. I knew that this was going to be a deadly fight from the very beginning.
“You dare to threaten me.” She shook from the rage of my ultimatum. Yeah, I knew that was going to happen.
“I told you that it was more than a threat, Gram Gram. This is bigger than you think and I will not allow you to see the light of day. You will never beat me.”
“FUCK YOU, RIVIANA GRAY! FUCK YOU AND YOUR FAMILY! I WILL STEAL THAT SOUL OF YOURS AND DO AS I SAID! I WILL GET OUT OF HERE! UNFORTUNATELY, YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO SEE IT BECAUSE YOU WILL BE DEAD, BUT IT WILL HAPPEN!” I had to force myself not to move and cover my ears against her words. I needed to make sure that I didn’t show that sort of weakness to her. If I did that, then I would just wind up losing right here and now.
“Prepare yourself, Gram Gram.” I put myself into a fighting stance, sliding into it effortlessly and with a practiced sort of ease. It didn’t escape my mind that this was going to be the first time that I actively started the fight. I had waited for everyone else to attack me or someone else that I cared about. This was the first time that I was going to attack someone first, or at least told them to get ready to fight first.
“I was born ready to fight a little bitch like you.” Hekate mirrored my fighting stand, only she was much larger than I was and, therefore, took up a lot more space in the hall than I did.