𝐅𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐄𝐝𝐞𝐧 | 𝘈𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯'𝘴 𝘊𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘥 |

86 | 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥

*play audio*

"Deimos, no!." I wake up by the sound of a voice calling out to me, distraught by the memories as well.

All my view is coated between red and gold, the silhouettes of the people around me being confusing.

"How did you think this was going to end? With you wearing a crown and being proclaimed queen? With that foolish Loki ruling over a land that was never meant to be yours? Never did I think you were be this naive.." Aphrodite's specter comes accompanied by three more, Ares and who look to be similar to Eros and Phobos.

I rip out the monitor cables attached to me ands slip off the Animus, the hard and cold ground welcoming my trembling form, the feeling of impending doom and failure swallowing me entirely.

"I fucking told you to not play another, Crane, now look at her!." Shaun's distorted voice comes from afar, the specters coming closer and analyzing me.

"I—I'm sorry! You know how she is if she—Dee, sis come on, look at me." Rebecca's slim and golden figure is not enough to drown them out, but rather entices them as Shaun also walks towards me and places his hands in my cheeks, fingers too cold for my overheated skin.

"Love? Come on, wake up. It's not real, yeah? It's not. Don't listen to them, come on stay with me, baby please." He implores as he guides my face to him, Ares being directly behind him.

'It's not real', is it? Because the figures of my deceased family are standing too close for my liking. That seems too real for me.

"They will leave after this. No one can stay with the harbinger of death itself for long." Phobos whispers, the eldest of us three never having taken a liking towards me for some reason.

"Dee! Her pupils are dilating, and pulse is really fast, the borderline of a panic attack. Try to calm her, Shaun, I'll go for some meds." Says Rebecca as she leaves in a hurry, the male in front of me nodding repeatedly.

"The story is out, it is only a matter of time until they realize the mistake they did when they let you in this Creed." Eros cackles as maniacally as ever, his favorite hobby always being the act of disturbing me.

"Whatever is going on, listen please. This isn't real anymore, alright? All these people you see, are dead. Thousands of years old, they won't spring up and follow you. That will stop. Okay? I promise it will, but you have to breathe for that to happen." Shaun places a firm hand on my chest, making me realize I haven't been breathing right.

My body shakes and trembles as all of them start talking loudly, voices mixing in hushed tones and going up into screams. Shaun presses a few times and runs his palm up and down the my chest, inciting me to breath in accordance to his movements.

The world around me spins as beads of sweat run down my body, the room growing colder within seconds. They all crouch in front of me and stare, the black void in the eye sockets are sure to hunt me for the rest of my life.

"It is what you deserve, to be punished just like you needed when you were a child. I should have listened to the Nexus and killed you when we had the chance, it would have saved us all this nuisance." Aphrodite says, a sad tone turning into a mad one.

So they never loved me, did they? All they wanted was for the family name to continue without problems, and I was the target. Phobos wasn't into anything other than a casual weekly relationship, rarely did they lasted months. Eros well.. every kind of two legged species could be seen leaving his room every morning when he came to adulthood.

No children were envisioned for them by my parents, so they had me playing a good girl paper and cater all their desires while guilt tripping my own. You want liberty? Get married. You want to be recognized? Can't do it unless you're married. You want free will to create your own life? Get married and then we'll talk.

It was the only answer I ever heard, and the one that got me to my limit to commit the atrocities I did with Loki, to the point of deciding my own path and leaving Týr hanging to be with him.

All of that simply because I chose to create something for myself without their nagging behind me, and they loved to have power and inflict fear over the rest.

"Come on, sweetheart. Breathe with me, it'll be alright." Shaun says while a stinging feeling comes to an arm as something is placed on the other, the specters cackling at my state as they slowly vanish.

Why did I have to be born to such monsters? Why couldn't I have been born a human? That would've been easier to deal with. The Nexus. Of course it would've selected where I came to be from, everything that happens in life was predicted by the damn thing years before it even happened.

I only hope it doesn't have anymore control over me this time, because if it was foretold that I was going to be tormented by my own family, I don't want to see what else could be in store.

"Okay.. BP levels are going down, pulse is slowing, pupils are going back to normal.. you're alright sis." I look down and find a used syringe in the floor, Rebecca having administered something, a cuff is placed on my left arm, hand laying limply on my lap.

"You're okay now." I lay on Shaun's lap as he runs his fingers through my hair, making me close my eyes and breath at his rhythm, which helps as everything becomes the usual still in the hideout, my vision going back to normal and the specters disappearing completely.

Where would I be without them? Without this creed and the people that have composed it for centuries? All of them have played a part in my transformation to who I am today, they all made me realize that not everyone has cruel and malicious intent unless they desire so. All of them have taught me something Bayek good virtue, Aya perseverance.. and there was that one guy.. Basim, I think he was.. strange malàka taught me the art of patience.

They all sacrificed a part of their time to teach me something that life taught them, and I couldn't be more grateful now.

I bring my heavy arm up and over his thighs, where I use the little strength left in me to hold onto him.

The only person in this world and every century to show me the art of real love.