36. at last, a different perspective

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36. at last, a different perspective


A P O L L O


(this chaper is in Apollo's POV)

I'M STATIONED OUTSIDE the room, pacing about back and forth and hoping that everything works out smoothly and that Gayle will make it out alive.

My hope dwindles every time I hear her screams from behind the door. I know that she's unconscious, and that for now she has no clue what is going on but her screams are throwing me off.

"What did you do?" Ariel's voice blares through the halls as she marches towards me, brows furrowed and lips pursed into a straight line. "I gave you an order, I told you to send her home."

"Would you just cool it with the queen bitch routine? I did what's best for her." I retort. I've had just about enough of Ariel's attitude. I don't know what happened to her the year I was gone, but she's not the same.

Well, for her it was a year. For me it was an eternity. Time works differently in Tartarus, it stretches on like a loop of eternal torment.

I brush those thoughts away, pushing down the chill racing down my spine and the goosebumps emerging on my skin as flashes of my time down there surface from my memories.

I think about it often. Too often. Sometimes when I close my eyes I can still feel it, every single whip and crackle of pain I underwent in hell.

It was harder being human, needing to sleep every so often. I would always awake in a pool of cold sweats, praying that it was just a dream and that I wasn't back there.

Ariel frowns. "Do you realise how dangerous this is? She could die–"

"Don't you think I know that?" My voice cracks at the end of the sentence as my eyes meet Ariel's hazel ones. She's taken aback. "This is all your fault! You're the one who swiped her memories the first time, you're the reason she's damaged!" I growl, anger clouding my better judgement.

Ariel takes a step back, realisation dawning on her face as she tears her gaze away from me and looks down, ashamed. "Apollo, you know that if I knew that memory wiping had these consequences, I wouldn't have–"

"It's too late for all of that." I snap. Suddenly I feel cold, much like when I was a human. The thought of Gayle not making it out alive haunts me. The look in her eyes before she agreed, the pure unadulterated resolve to do what's right for a soul that tortured her, garnered her sleepless nights for days on end.

I knew something was wrong, despite what she might think. From the moment she woke up, I knew she was lying to me, I'm the god of truth for fucksakes, of course I knew... but I couldn't figure out why she was lying to me, what she was lying about. I figured it was personal. Never had I imagined that Cyrene would threaten to take over, to imprison her in her own mind.

This is all my fault. If I hadn't let Cyrene die in the first place... if I–

I pull myself out of the well of thoughts I've fallen into, realising that I've somehow wound up on the ground, leaning against the door as Gayle's tortured screams continue to echo through the halls.

I feel tears prickle my eyes, threatening to spill loose at the sound of Gayle possibly not making it. It's been hours now, she's been screaming like that for hours on end and there's no signs of stopping.

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