Silencing The Siren

17. Family Affairs

(The God of Lightning and Fire, and the Lost Girl)

"What the hell happened here?" Asmodeus asked when he stepped through the door of The Tipsy Piano. He looked around at the destruction. There were broken chairs everywhere, tables were knocked over, and there was a lot of blood on the floor.

It looks like a crime scene in here, Asmodeus thought, horrified.

'You'd know all about that, wouldn't you?' Asmodeus' demon asked him while laughing.

Asmodeus yelled at the demon inside of his mind to shut up as his eyes landed on Calliope. She was sitting on a barstool, panting and appearing disheveled. He immediately noticed the blood that was staining her brand-new shirt. It was spilling out over her hand, which she had pressed as hard as she could against her abdomen. "Calli, are you alright?" he asked as he ran over to her, leaning down to cup her cheek, and staring into her eyes. "Mi amor, ¿qué pasó?" he asked her.

"This woman who had... All these shadows surrounding her... She attacked us," Calliope answered, her breathing labored. "But, it was worse than that... The shadows were, like... Alive? I don't know." It was taking a lot out of her just to speak, her breathing becoming more labored with every word.

"Um, okay... Does anyone wanna translate?" Asmodeus asked, looking at the other men.

"Yeah, just what da hell happened here?" Xena questioned, readjusting the armful of tobacco that she was carrying so it was sitting on her hip. She was carrying it the way that a mother would carry a toddler.

"And how did Calli get hurt?" Nagaveni asked in a small voice, looking concerned for her friend while simultaneously looking sick from all of the blood. She glanced at Calliope nervously, then back toward the men who were in the room.

Amarok addressed Xena, asking her, "Do you remember Zorya?" Xena nodded in response. "Well," Amarok began. "It turns out... Some of the shadows that she had the power to manipulate... Were corrupting her from the inside out. They were from the Shadow Realm. The shadow spirits drove her insane and convinced her she needed to kill Calliope. I guess someone made a deal with the Shadow Realm to get her killed."

"That woman was a fuckin' lunatic," Dysnomi added, crossing his arms. His jaw was clenched, showing that he was still annoyed.

"Okay, so where's Zorya now?" Xena questioned, glancing around the bar anxiously.

"Well... I sent out a big burst of magic light to kill all the shadows," Dysnomi started.

"But, unfortunately, the shadows had corrupted her too much. She was dying... Quickly," Amarok added.

"So, I called Baron Samedi... And offered him some rum," Calliope finished. She grunted as she lifted herself and leaned forward, holding the 'death' tarot that he gave her between two of her fingers.

"So, she's... Dead, den?" Xena questioned. She looked crestfallen for a moment as she thought about the woman.

"Not that we know of," Dysnomi answered with a shrug.

"She was dying... But, I convinced Baron Samedi... To take her to the crossroads... Between the world of the living... And the land of the dead. He said one of three things could happen," Calliope elaborated. "Either she'll stay there and help him... She'll be healed and sent back here... Or..." She hesitated. " Or she won't heal... And she'll end up passing on," she finished through labored breaths. "It's too soon to know which will happen."

"That's... Just wonderful," Nagaveni said uncertainly. "Calli, are you sure you're okay? Here, just let me look at your wound." She rushed over and pulled the bottom of Calliope's shirt out from where it had been tucked into the waist of her skirt. Then, before Calliope could protest, she pulled the shirt up further to inspect the wound.