The mall is scary, once I'm alone.

  But scary doesn't exactly bother me. It's the silence, I find. The way the air around me feels as if I'm suffocating. There are sounds, faint–cars in the distance. A dripping sound, I can't exactly figure out where it is coming from. Avery moving around. She's surprisingly quiet herself, which makes me glance back on occasion to see where she is. Her phone's light, bright enough to illuminate the walls of the abandoned store, made me know she's still around.

  "Can you hurry?"

  "Shhhh!" Her voice hitches, a swear following when I hear a light crash.

  "Avery?" I turn my head, trying to peek into the store. For a moment, it looks like she's flashing her light in my eyes, enough that I stumble back, squinting my eyes tightly. But no matter how many times I blink, I can't stop seeing the flashes of it in my vision. Like she's snapped a photo. I have a swear bubbled up in my throat, palms digging into my face. My heel catches on something, causing me to stumble backwards.

  I still can't stop seeing the light, and my ears are ringing suddenly. A sound I can't fully pick up, but it feels like pressure is building up. It stops just as quickly as it does, but by then, I've crouched down, hands moved from my eyes to my ears. My temple is throbbing, and there's a tightness in my throat that makes me want to vomit.

  "Avery?" I called out again, voice cracked.

  Silence.

  "Avery...?"

  I'm standing, swallowing thickly. She won't respond. In fact, I can't even see the light of her phone anymore. I'm stepping in, forward, trying to get to her and then I hear it. A low, rumbling, the shake of debris at my feet. There's a hiss sound, one that makes the nausea I've been feeling skyrocket. I'm okay, I say. I'm fine.

  I repeat this, over and over. More steps back, and I know there's a way to go. But where is Avery? Where is my friend? Why can't I see the light? I call out to her again, and the rumbling stops, just for it to be replaced by a low, hissing noise that rises above me.

  Run.

  The thought slams into my head, my limbs move as if I'm being pushed. I run.

  It's sickening, knowing I'm leaving behind my friend. Avery hasn't called out back to me—The hissing sound pitches into a rumble, and I hear a whoosh that rushes past me. A slam.

  But when I glance back, there's nothing. No creature, no monster. So why am I running? A logical side of me says to go back, find Avery, sneak out. Maybe she was playing a prank. Another side of me thinks that if Avery was playing a prank, would she have not come out when I ran? Would she not try to soothe the panic?

  Why do I feel panic?

  Bad enough that I'm feeling queasy. Bad enough that I even ran. I've prided myself in being someone reliable, someone—Someone that my Aunt lets know they can be alone for hours without worry. Someone too mature, too closed off. Someone that wouldn't abandon their friends because they heard a spooky noise.

  My footsteps slow, my breathing uneven. I'm only scared because Avery scared me. Maybe she's back there, maybe she's calling out to me? I try to refocus my breathing, try to settle my heart. Fingers at my chest, curled up against the rapid beat of my heart as if it would help.

  I listen.

  There's nothing for a long pause.

  A drip of liquid in a place I don't know.

  The rush of cars.

  And then, everything implodes at once.

  The mall shakes, the ground cracks and my feet slip as the floor beneath me dips as the three-headed snake from the news bursts through concrete. It's hissing–and looks less like a snake, and more like a mashed up lizard that you would only see in horror movies. Three long, wriggling heads that twist around one another, biting. A tail that slams into a pillar, causing it to crack and slam down. I've jerked back, trying not to fall into the sinking ground, grabbing onto one of those bolted down benches, clinging.

  I'm... not sure how to feel. My heart is loud, and I feel like my breathing keeps catching. There's more nausea, and I hate it.

  Then I see her.

  Avery.

  She's not dressed in the school uniform—instead, she's in a sort of flowing dress that looks as if it reflects the light around her. Gold trim, and her top white. Her hair is longer—tied back with something gold, but it spills behind her in waves, and... more blonde than she actually is. Almost white.

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  She's running faster than I've seen someone run. It reminds me of the satyrs. Quick, sort of like she's running track? Maybe inhuman. I wonder why I'm questioning this, torn between laughing or just finally throwing up when my stomach twists and the Monster turns one head to the sound of her feet.

  ??The mall isn't even ground. Avery has to hop over the pillar, standing with practiced elegance. She sees me, after letting clear blue eyes scan over the scene. It takes me a minute to register that her eyes are blue.

  They're usually brown.

  "Noemi!" She calls out, waving a hand. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to just vanish, but—"

  The Monster lunges for her, and she squeaks. Jumping up, high, onto a railing.

  " — Uh oh. Stay there, Noe! I'll deal with this."

  ??I want to laugh. It bubbles up in my throat, but all that comes out is a shaky exhale.

  The snakes focus on Avery, their tongues darting into the air, heads twisted in different directions before it lunges for her once again. Avery moves around in a sort of floaty manner. Her feet touch air, and she makes a bow motion, before her hand reaches out into the air and what appears moments later, in a flurry of vibrant colors that make me blink past black spots in my vision, a large, silver bow appears.

  ??I should question this more, I think. I should be screaming, running. But I'm clinging to the bench, feeling ice cold, and Avery is talking. I can't make it out, fully. It sounds like I hear it, but my mind isn't processing it.

  The snakes don't seem to care either. They sort of look at her, then turn away. She huffs, fingers drawing the string of the bow back and just as she justs it into position, a gold arrow appears.

  "Bullseye!"

  The arrow flies.

  . . . And bounces off their skin.

  "Eh." Avery does it again.

  Once more, the arrow simply bounces off.

  ??She looks at her bow, shakes it and scratches her head.

  The whole scene is comedic, if not for the fact the Monster was now turning it's attention to me.

  "Ah—Ah! Noe, Noe, run! I got this!"

  ??Run? Run where? The mall has two stories, but the entire second floor has collapsed, and the ground floor has cracked. I look, breathing in sharply. I dart for an opening. Security office, the door on it's hinge, but the room should be small enough that the Monster won't be able to push itself in.

  I can still hear Avery shooting. Or trying to.

  "What the hell man?!" She cries out. "No one told me snakes have iron skin! This is bullshit! Gods— "

  ??I don't know exactly what to say to her, yanking at the door to open it. I'm shaking hard, so it feels like no matter what I do, I don't have the strength to pull it. I yank enough to begin slipping in, only to find something sharp and icy hot digging into my arm and pulling. I go flying into the air, a loud shriek fills the air and I think, it's Avery. Something else grabs my leg, and I feel wetness at my shoulder, smearing at my cheek.

  "NOEMI!"

  I hear another arrow flying, and this time, it makes contact. It smacks into a dangling light, causing glass to shatter and the Snake thrashes.

  My back makes contact with something hard, and something hot pricks at my skin all over, as I roll to my side and keep falling...falling.

  ????I see someone at the corner, with large wings that block out the sun for a moment. Avery doesn't notice them, her arrows are still missing, and I can see her panic from here. My head is dizzy, and I choke on something that tastes like iron. I try to swallow, but everytime I do, I just gag and wheeze instead. The Monster has focused on Avery, but I can't... think. I don't know what's happening, because the winged man has come closer.

  He's crouching next to me, and it feels... cold. So cold. Everything is cold, his hand reaches out, brushing over my hair.

  "Hey there, little one. It's okay." His voice is soothing, comforting. It reminds me of something familiar. I open my mouth, to respond, but choke on iron. "I know, it's going to be okay—"

  He reaches back, and I notice a sword at his hip. He's standing now, hand at the hilt, pulling it out—and a gold arrow bounces off his wrist. If I wasn't cold, and shaking, I think I might have laughed. Avery can't hit anything, even if she looked so cool.

  "Hands off, dead dude!"

  "Avery." His tone remains calm. "I'll pretend you didn't just try to hit me, considering how bad of a job you're doing now."

  Avery bristles. "Leave my friend alone."

  "She's dying." He turns to me again, the sword drawn out. It's dark black, and when I look into it... I see myself, but images. Flashes of things I do not understand. A life I can't—

  ??"Hands off!" Avery shoots again, and the light of the arrow blurs the image. I turn to look at her. It feels horrible. My vision keeps going dark at the edges, like I've squeezed them tight. The Monster in the background, in the midst of the clog in my ears and focusing on the man, one head has been trapped under a piece of roof. So while she couldn't hit it, she realized she could hit things around it, so now it wriggles, trying to get free.

  The sword is pressed to my chest. I notice a gem at the hilt, the iron reflecting more blurred images. The gem starts to glow a dark blue, pulsating. I breathe out, and something light feels as if it's leaving my chest. Like a weight has finally been lifted from my shoulders.

  "HEY—!"

  I'm sick of lights.

  ????I'm sick of the flashing colors, and the way they make my eyes throb. I'm sick of not being able to see for a few seconds, and then I want to laugh, because it comes with the horrifying realization, I'm dying. I'm dying, and I'm okay with it, because —

  "Thanatos, man, I'm not one to usually get in the way, buuuuut..." Another voice, warmer. Lazier, almost? It feels catlike, slurring at the end. There's large hands at my shoulders, dragging me up, I'm standing, but my feet won't do much as my knees knock and I finally let myself cry. "I called dibs!"

  "Dibs—"

  "You can't call dibs on my friend!" Avery shouts, then pauses. "I can save her! Please, just, leave my friends alone—!"

  ??My head knocks back, and for a moment, it's just me and the man holding me. He's... pretty. Beautiful. There's a softness to his features, almost feminine, before I notice the growth of a beard, purple-like eyes with narrowed pupils, almost like a cats. The smell of lavender and grapes burns my nose, but it soothes something in my chest.

  He has curls, and his hair reminds me of a bush you would pick berries from, and there's vines, tangled in with them where... grapes? Grow? I have the funny urge to grab a grape and eat it.

  He's warm, compared to the other infront of us. Thanatos? With his large wings, and dark hair that look like the night sky. His eyes are scary, however, compared to the purples in the man holding me. White. But his pupils are pitched black.

  ??The sword is still out, and the snakes are pushing at the debris to get it off one of their heads. The people around me are bickering, fighting—I try to lift my hand, but I can't do much but have a shaky finger raise, and blood spills out instead of words.

  The man holding me pauses. "Oops, I forgot — "

  "She's dying, Dionysus, give — "

  ????"No, no, I got this. You know, rebirth, all that! Zagreus won't mind me stealing his thing for a bit." His hand is digging into my side, he's murmuring something low, in a language I do not understand. All I feel is hot, hot, hot and my legs give out, finally. I hit the ground.

  Avery stumbles forward, to grab at me, crying. Apologizing.

  I choke out a single word before Dionysus is shoving the end of a staff I hadn't noticed him carrying at my temple and blurting:

  "By Hekates Will and Fates Blessing, I, Dionysus, God of Madness, wine, religious ecstasy—Hereby claim you as My hero." He pauses, turning to Thanatos. "Now, you can't steal her soul!" It's singsong, how he speaks now.

  I'm too busy crying, clawing at my chest as the heat rises, with Avery apologizing again and again, to take in the hilarity of the situation.

  "It was not stealing." Thanatos pauses. "I'm not fighting with you."

  ??"My dad said the same thing yesterday." Dionysus replies, as ever chipper. He ducks down beside Avery,ignoring Thanatos, a hand to his cheek, watching me writhe in agony. "Sorry, little one. I would've come sooner, but when the maenads are complaining about the satyrs—"

  He stops, as the Monster finally breaks free and lets out a rattling noise. He glances at Avery.

  ??"I'm very sure Apollo told you about using your gift." Stern, but even then, he sounds positive. Amused.

  Avery lets out a shaky sob. "I'm sorry. I didn't— Where did the dead dude go?" Panic in her tone, as she grips me tighter.

  ??"Thanatos comes and goes." Dionysus answers, flippant. "Stop questioning me, secondly. Thirdly, I'm talking to Apollo and his choice in, what was it you called it? Magical Girls?" He stands, digging a hand into his hair, and pushing his bangs backwards.

  Avery whimpers in response.

  "I'll deal with this." Dionysus says, softly. His staff presses at my temple again. "Rest."

  ????My vision blacks out.