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The first thing that greeted me upon waking up was a voice.
My head was still dizzy from vomiting out precarious amounts of food but I managed to squint at the blurry person shape in front of me, with the only noticeable features about him being his bright blue eyes and dazzling gold hair.
“Dad. How are you feeling?”
I stirred. “What?”
Blond guy prattled about some medical issues while I panicked over the words he just said. Dad? Me? What kind of life did I have? Was that even biologically possible?
“I’m sorry,” I interrupted, “but what do you mean by ‘Dad’?”
Blond guy blinked and stood up straighter. “You’re my dad,” he said slowly, as if I hadn’t heard him the first time. “Did something happen? Do you remember me?”
He said that a little sadly, and I felt bad for him and his apparent parent issue.
“I’m sorry, but I really don’t know who you are,” I said quietly, looking away.
Blond guy looked like he was about to cry, but firmly shook it away and smiled. “I’ll reintroduce myself then,” he said with a shaky grin. “I’m Will Solace, head healer for camp.”
Other words were still not making sense now. Camp? Healing as in doctor? And that name…it sounded vaguely familiar but I still couldn’t place a finger on it.
“So anyways, what happened back there, Dad?” Will asked me cautiously. “You showed up with another girl while spouting sentences and looked a bit crazed.”
Ah, Meg, who had somehow managed to carry me all the way over here. Bless her soul and her very freakish plant powers.
“Meg,” I said, glad that I was able to answer a question. “How is she doing?”
Will looked a bit apprehensive in that moment. “She’s doing fine,” he said slowly before muttering an ‘after she kicked Sherman Yang in the crotch and poked Conner in the eye’.
I snorted at that fact. It did seem like Meg had already made some friends here. And those other names…they still weren’t familiar with me.
“Otherwise that, how are you doing? I ran some vital tests, but they all seem to come out normal…and human.” Will stared at me silently before continuing. “I also tried to get you to drink some nectar, but…well, as you could probably tell…”
My mind suddenly went cold at the ‘human’ bit. What did he mean by human? Was I not supposed to be one? Was I actually an alien supernova monster sent by a different race to study the biological plants of this planet? And the other part...nectar...I ran my tongue over my lips. It was numb and painful to touch.
“Ah,” I said with not much confidence. “Before that, what did you mean about being human?”
Will looked at me confused. “Were you not aware that you were missing your usual-“ he waved his hands around “god abilities and stuff?”
I blinked. “Excuse me?”
“Your usual god stuff, you know where you go all divine and blow things up?” Will stared at me with concern.
“My what? God? Me?” I said, acutely aware of my voice gradually rising up an octave higher than usual. I was almost tempted to laugh, though that would’ve been seen as insanity. A god? Who tells people that they’re suddenly a divine entity that could rule the world? And yet, a familiar warmth inside my chest rose up. It made me feel a little sick.
I shook my head. “No way. No way I’m a god.” That sentence came out a bit as a laugh- a sincere, disbelieving giggle of a slight are you insane?
Will looked positively alarmed now. “No way,” he muttered. Then raising his voice he said “Apollo, Dad-whatever. Do you know where you are now?”
I paused at the first name he said. “Apollo,” I mouthed out. Suddenly a wave of nausea tempted me to throw up again all over the pristine white sheets of the bed. Don’t get too close, a voice whispered in the back of my brain, slowly covering my mind with a haze as I struggled to fight the bad taste in my mouth. Don’t find out who you actually are.
A snapping sound brought me back to the surface of the world. Will stood over me, looking a bit terrified. I was holding onto a quickly fashioned garden pot, presumably to catch any vomit that might spill out.
“You were gagging,” Will said hesitantly. “Are you alright now, Apoll-“ Another wave of sickness brought me back to the pot as I gagged and resisted the urge to spew.
“Don’t,” I wheezed. “Don’t say that name.”
While apprehensive, Will nodded and cleaned up the his workbench tools and other items that I couldn’t name. He also carefully took away the plaster pot and replaced it with a more hygienic, probably sterile plastic bucket that I eyed suspiciously. It reminded me of one of those mental hospitals near the city, all clean and white and cold – I frowned. How would I know what a mental hospital would be like? I silently filed that away in my head on the shelf of things that are mildly questionable and probably not normal. Another mystery of who I was supposed to be.
Will was just finishing tidying up his medic station when a knock sounded and a head poked into the room. I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing this familiar face and scowling expression.
“Meg,” I said. “How have you been?”
She threw me a raspberry before stomping loudly to my bed. “I kicked Sherman Yang in the crotch and poked Conner Stoll in the eyes,” she announced loudly before plopping herself onto the bed and messing up the covers. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “Yes Meg,” I said. “I knew that.” She pinched me in the typical Meg fashion for stop being dumb you idiot.
I blew her back a raspberry in return.
After she stopped continuing to pinch me, I rubbed the sore spot and turned to face Will who wasn’t meeting my eyes.
“Will,” I said and winced at the subtle voice crack. He looked away.
“Will,” I said again, trying to open up another conversation, and with worst luck this time. He ignored me and walked to the entrance. I sighed and went to face Meg again to berate her on messing up the sheets when something caught my eye. Some flowers, planted neatly in their rows next to the window. Hyacinths, maybe?
Hyacinths…A scenery slammed into my head.
A flower field, filled with blood red flowers. A young man, smiling, teasing laughing aliVE HE’S DEAD HE’S DEAD HE’S DEAD HE’S DEAD IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT-
I didn’t even notice I was throwing up before my vision cleared and I was stuck huddling to the bucket, gagging and spitting up the misery of a memory I didn’t remember. Meg looked away with a dispassionate expression, as well as slight disgust. I couldn’t blame her honestly.
Following the end of my pity party complete with the certain deterioration of my stomach, I shakily placed the bucket at the bedside table and slowly, carefully peeled myself off the bed. Meg watched me do that with varying degrees of pain and suffering before grumbling about incompetent servants and helping me hobble to the door.
Outside, Will was sitting on the stairs and was watching the sun set in the darkening sky. It made me feel sad and nostalgic, even though I didn’t know why. Letting go of Meg, I painstakingly limped over and sat down on the stairs with him. Swallowing the bile threatening to come up my throat, I reluctantly opened my mouth.
A voice hissed at the back of my brain. You don’t want to know. Stop it. Don’t do it. You’d be better off dead than realising what you did-
“So,” I started. “This god business. What was I like, as a god?”