Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 99201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
I’m going to start a brand-new life. I’m going to walk through that magic door on the hill and I will begin again. If Pie can do it, so can I. After all, she was six. Six. I’m… well, my age is not important, but I am substantially older than six. And if a person whose life years are counted in the single digits can enter a new world and make her way, then so can I.
My chin lifts up, my shoulders go back, and I walk down the road towards the hill where the door is.
When I get there and start up the hill I hear voices. At first I think these voices belong to more travelers, but no. No. It’s just the man-boys and Eros.
“We swear,” the first one says. “We won’t come back. We won’t tell anyone.”
“We just want to go home, man,” the second one is saying. He’s imploring Eros with an outstretched hand, and that hand is shaking. Quaking like a leaf in the wind. “We just wanna go home.”
“We didn’t know you guys were here,” the first one continues.
“But…” Eros holds up a finger, rejecting this man-boy’s point. “You told—” That’s when he must hear me coming up behind them, because he pauses and looks over his shoulder. “Ah. There she is. Callistina. Did they or did they not tell you that they were looking for monsters?”
“They did.” I reach them, pass them, and head straight towards the door.
I am thwarted when Eros stretches out his wing and I am blocked by a large, black webbing. I let out a huff. “What is it?”
“Where are you going?”
I turn to face him. “I’m going to the Realm of Pittsburgh.”
“What?” the second man-boy says. “You can’t go—”
But the first man-boy interrupts. “She’s not a monster, dude. She’s a human, like us. She can come.” I glance at him, curious about this offer. It might be nice to have an instant acquaintance in the foreign realm of Pennsylvania. Pie had that Lisa woman, after all. She wasn’t entirely alone.
“No,” Eros says. “No, no, no. Callistina. Can you please wait a moment while I send these two morons back the way they came?”
“Well, why shouldn’t I take them up on it?”
“I don’t even know why you want to go yet. Or what you’re gonna do. We need to have a conversation about this. A discussion.” He glances at the man-boys, then growls out, “After they’re gone.”
He says all this with a tone of possessiveness. As if I am someone he gets to have a say over. Which I am not.
However, I cannot deny that his display of ownership sends a slight thrill up my spine. He is Eros, after all.
“Agreed?” he says, still growling.
I cross my arms and look defiant. But also, I give in. “Fine.” Because I have been sleeping with this god for many weeks now and he hasn’t paid me the slightest attention. But isn’t this so like a man? To become insecure and possessive once you have moved on?
He turns back to the morons. “Go. Now. Before I eat you. And if you come back you will be grilled for dinner. And if you tell anyone…”
“We won’t,” Moron Number One says.
“We’re not telling no one,” Moron Number Two says. “We promise.”
Eros uses a dramatic pause here, trying to make them squirm, which they do, but then he relents. Flashing his long, black bat wing in the direction of the open magic door. “Go, then. Quickly before I change my mind!” His voice echoes through the forest with a display of power, making both man-boy morons squeak in fear. Then they run up the hill, practically tripping over each other, and pass through the door.
Eros stares at it for many long seconds, then lets out a breath that sounds like relief. “It’s still there.” And then I realize it was a breath of relief.
I look at the door. And the retreating figures of the morons. They are running down a hill, not up. Which is an interesting perspective, since they were facing uphill on this side. I feel like my observation deserves a little attention, so I keep thinking about that change in perspective. It is literal, I saw it. They ran uphill, then down. But it’s also figurative, isn’t it? They were in the wrong place and everything was harder. Then they went to the right place and everything got easier.
“OK,” Eros sighs. “What are you doing?”
“Pondering the figurative and literal nature of the door, and the morons who just walked through it.”
“No. I mean, what are you doing with this door?”
“What do you mean?” I turn to him. “I’m leaving.”
“For fuck’s sake, Callistina. Why? That’s my question. Why are you going to the Realm of Pittsburgh?”
“Because my magic is gone, Eros. I have been turned human. There is no point in lingering in the fog for me.”