Depression Saga: The Crystal Shards.

3.14

Cassidy Strike, Miami Beach Florida, 11/13/2012

The truth is, I've been living in this world since 2012 years ago and in some weeks it'll be 2013 years.

I grew up in ancient Greece. It was a beautiful place, and I've always regretted that I couldn't keep the wonders of the world. Even when some parts are still beautiful, it will never be like those years.

When I first appeared in what is now called Athens, a guy was at my side, holding my hand. It was there that I met my first friend.

He seemed my age. By far way more intimidating than me. He was handsome, tall, and his gaze inspired respect and power, soon I realized that he was an incredible warrior too. I was nothing—neither respectful nor powerful. I was not even able to walk without falling; my body told me that I was, at least, 15 years old, even when my mind knew that those were my first seconds on this planet.

It was that boy who helped me. He stood up first and offered me his hand, soon we learned the right way to walk, and we even developed a good communication system without words, it was enough for us just to point and use what is now called sign language.

Eventually, we crossed paths with his sister, she was lost and confused, but her eyes showed relief when she saw him, from that moment, we started our journey the three of us.

Of course that we met more and more friends on our way, but that will take so long to explain, after all, before we could learn how to talk, we were 7 people in our group, then, she appeared.

A blonde girl was fastened to a board with iron collars around wrists, ankles, and neck, and the collar around the neck was tightened to strangle the wrongdoer. Her green eyes were injected in blood, and even still, people keep dying around her, the ones that wanted to see the execution were death in less than three minutes, we stay alive and helped the girl after she passed out. She would teach us the proper way to talk very soon.

Then came the night that one girl of our group was kidnapped by our rivals, the Sunlight Circle, thing that affected us deeply, after all, the only thing they gave back was her eye.

By that time, the Gods have already talked to us, and they ordered us to retrieve and specific weapon crafted by Hephaestus, and apparently, the Sunlight Circle received the same order.

The purpose was to get the weapon back, and that way the winner would be decided without violence, but they attacked us first, it was a command given by Hemera, at least that's what they said. Anyway, when Oizys realized what Hemera did to her daughter, she decided to punish her, and as soon as the night arrived, with the help of Moros, and some beast from the deepest part of the Tartarus five guys of the Sunlight Circle were massacred.

Zeus soon heard about it, the only one that could calm his rages was his brother, Hades. He had always stood a little apart from the other Gods and was the only one with enough common sense to realize that what was happening was nothing but a shitty fight between a mother and a daughter. But that time, Zeus didn't listen, as he said, Hades should have been watching over the Tartarus, and because of his mistake, a big portal was in our dimension.

He didn't punish his brother after the confession of Oizys, but it was Nyx who took the blame, Zeus was going to punish one of her children in order to pay for the actions of other people. Soon, it was clear; his son was going to die for the actions of a Goddess who acted searching revenge.

I loved him, I still do. He was my closest friend, he could even become my lover, and I was happy to be with him. When we learn what was going to happen, I decided that he wouldn't get that punishment, he was what we needed to retrieve that weapon, and he was the best of us after all.

After hours and hours talking with the last daughter of Oizys, she accepted the guilt, and we decided that she was going to be the one who would sacrifice herself.

The date eventually arrived, as noon was getting closer, we decided to depart, with a quick kiss on the forehead I said goodbye to my beloved and started walking with my friend.

The trip was silent, maybe we told a joke or two, but the truth is that I don't remember, I only remember the hot sand touching my bare feet, and the angry face of Zeus when he saw us arriving.

He was pissed when he couldn't find my beloved there, and with the most terrifying gaze that I have ever seen, he commanded me to tell everything that I did. I couldn't resist, and I told him everything he wanted to know. He told me that my bravery was surprising even more than my stupidity, but I was not going to go unpunished.

With a quick hand movement, he disappeared my friend, and in her place, there was the weapon that we needed to return. In a blink the Sunlight Circle were around me, each one with a weapon that looked a lot like the one Zeus was holding. I don't want to talk about what they did to me, I rather not think about it. But long story short, they killed me.

There was nothing, all I can remember is total darkness surrounding me, but then, a voice said my name.

"Cassia Pólemos," it said. "What the son of Cronus did to you was forbidden by us. We were before everything, but we won't be at the end of everything, at least not as we are here today."

"He just killed me, it's no big deal," I said.

"It is a big deal," it said. "The final hit came from the golden sword of Athena if it could cut the head of an immortal hydra, what chances do you have? The hydra was captive in the Tartarus, it took it some time to heal, but is now back in the game, with you, well, you should be in the Elysium by now, but you will never be. You're dead, and you won't return, you won't see your beloved again."

"If Zeus knew it, why did he do it?"

"For the same reason he killed his father, he likes to disobey us."

Purple lighting showed me that it wasn't darkness where I was standing. I was surrounded by fog, and in the immensity of that fog, I could see snakeheads, only silhouettes, the light provided by the lighting was not enough for me to see everything.

We kept talking more and more until he offered me something that I took.

"You won't return unless you take a hearth of one of us."

"What do you mean with that?"

"There were seven of us until Apophis decided to leave this realm and fight Ra face to face, leaving what made him one of us here, he decided that it wasn't enough his projection to fight Ra, and he left some time ago."

"Then you must be the Hydra, am I right?"

"My projection is the Larnaean Hydra, who was killed by Heracles some time ago, but as I told you, am back now. What I'm offering you is the hearth of a dragon; you will be able to leave the Nothing, you're here because I summoned you, otherwise, you would be lost there."

"Will my body resist it?"

"Oh, it will, but, with some exceptions. First of all, your skin will have part of Apophis, and your brain will have part of his brain too. If you want to remain alive, you will need to consume blood, human blood, as a sacrifice for me and the other dragons, if you stop doing it, then you will die. You're going to have a lot of abilities that you'll discover with time."

"Then do it, give me what I need."

For my bad luck, it did it. My skin started melted with scales, just like my brain, it's the second more intense pain than I've ever experimented, and when it removed my hearth, I passed out.

When I woke, I was covered in blood and guts; I'm still trying to figure out what happened, my memories of that night are just a blur.

By the time I could concentrate, I felt powerful, complete, the way that I used to see my beloved one. Having that thought, made me run and see him where he should be waiting for me. But he wasn't, instead, he was carrying a baby, his baby, and with him, was my friend.

Then I realized that I was going to live a lonely life.