The Great and Lonely: Kai

THREE YEARS EARLIER—

Two females stand in the dimly lit store with grim expressions. Being from different age groups and backgrounds, neither of the two feels comfortable with the other's presence.

The old lady looks down at her book and begins reading, "Long time ago in the farthest part of the earth, there was a beautiful, young woman roaming round the deserted forest. She was all by herself, walking from place to place in the quiet forest with no purpose and it felt like the gods she once adored, all deserted her. But the most interesting detail about the young woman was that she carried a child."

The old woman lifts her head from the giant book to stare at the sixteen-year-old in front of her who blinks her big, round eyes with her mouth partly open. The old woman can obviously tell that she is appalled by the situation.

The sixteen-year-old had initially walked into the bookstore to get a simple book and she didn't expect to be attacked by the owner's weird, story-telling. The young girl gives the lady offensive looks, wondering why she has been chosen to listen to the story.

"She was in despair; all alone; cold at night with no one to care for her. Nevertheless, she deserved it. She was suffering from the consequences of her actions. The cause of her loneliness was very clear to her—she killed them all."

The young girl coughs loudly, trying to disrupt the woman's story but it is all to deaf ears as the old lady continues the story without sparing her a glance.

"This young lady used to be one of the highly respected Deities. And she formerly reigned amongst great gods and other goddesses but her greediness and envy brought forth her downfall."

The young girl begins tapping her foot on the floors of the bookstore, impatiently. She doesn't believe in myths and legends about gods and the supernatural, so she feels highly disturbed by the woman's story.

"What most legends and stories by famous authors lack, is the fact that Zeus and Leto didn't have twins but triplets."

The girl rolls her eyes at the dramatic pauses of the old lady. Despite the subtle actions she puts up, trying to stop the old lady from reading the book to her, her story-telling session still goes uninterrupted. All she wants to do is run out of the bookstore, into her parent's arms and never walk into a store owned by old ladies.

"It was Apollo, Artemis and this woman struggling in the deserted forest; the three were the children of King Zeus and Leto. Alas, her embarrassing and disrespectful actions caused the gods to wipe her off the Olympus—to be remembered no more."

The girl squints her eyes, getting confused by all the names spewing out of the old lady's mouth. She brushes her hands through her short, brown hair; a habit of hers whenever she is confused.

"She used to be the goddess of women in childbirth but because of her actions, her sister, Artemis took that title. Her actions were so human-like; it disgusted the Greek gods. She wanted power; to be recognized more; to be respected and feared by other gods, so she grew envious of the Queen and tried to overthrow her. She knew she wasn't powerful enough, so she sought magical power from lower spirits—an abomination."

The young girl tries to stifle a yawn.

"When the King, Zeus found out about what she had done, he stripped her off her divine status which made her a mere mortal with ignominious magical powers. Then she was cursed by Queen Hera to suffer the pain of childbirth. A goddess whom the mortals prayed to and worshipped for the safe deliveries of their babies, got a taste of what she ruled over and that left her where she was. From the agony of failure and the pain of the baby inside her, she killed every single human in sight. She also tried killing the baby; she rolled down hills, starved herself, tried stabbing her belly but the baby wouldn't die."

The awfully, irritating story begins to sound horrifying to the ears of the young girl so she moves farther away from the old lady.

"She kept on roaming round the forest until her new fate caught up to her. She stumbled across a village where she delivered the baby and died soon after; completely erased as one of the goddesses of the Olympus; both good and bad memories of her, gone. One thing the banished deity did not know before her death was that she had stumbled into a village filled with lesser and forgotten gods and goddesses just like her."

The young girl's phone begins to buzz in her pocket and she knows it is her parents, wondering what is keeping her in the store. Her parents calling only fuels her desire to leave the old woman and her creepy story but she can't; it feels like the woman is keeping her in the bookstore.

"The villagers immediately identified the newborn as a part of them, so they took Him in and raised Him as their own."

The young girl grows impatient as she looks around, wondering when the story is going to end.

"As the boy grew, the villagers noticed something different about Him. After all, He was a product of a curse and an abomination. He also took part of his mother's personality but He was much worse. He grew impatient and angry at every one; unable to show love and receive love. The older He grew, the more powerful He became and not to mention the evil that grew inside of Him."

The old lady pauses once again, looking up to stare at the irritated sixteen-year-old. The young girl immediately forces a brilliant smile; she doesn't want trouble.

The woman lowers her gaze to the book and the girl exhales. She soon picks up something weird about the old lady's eyes; they seem stronger than most women her age since she has no glasses on and appears to be reading well.

The woman continues, "So, the head of the lesser village gods decided to stop the chaos the boy was starting up. He couldn't be killed, so she sought power above every divine being and tore out a vital piece off the boy— the piece where most of His godly abilities laid. And she threw it far away where no one knew where it went, how far it went or what would be the end of it. She did that with one thought in mind— 'He must not find it. If He does, that will be the end of all gods.' Then she locked him up, frozen forever."

She takes in a sharp breath, "Both mother and son had terrible endings. The End."

The young girl's eyebrows furrow at the tragic ending.