See It / Gods

A storm was brewing; the gods swelling in anticipation at the show that would unfold before them on the little blue and green planet amongst the stars. A noisy little planet with so much potential and so much curiosity, mixed up in the higher battle of good and evil, right and wrong. And they had no idea.

You see, everything is connected. Every thought that occurs is a version of the truth, and every version is a part of something whole and out there; The belief that there are higher beings, the belief that you might one day acquire super powers and fly like Superman, or even that Santa is real. The human race, insignificant in the bigger picture concerning the gods, created their world and thus, in their own little way, had become the most significant element to those higher deities. And neither man nor god knew it until now.

Stepping out of doors, looking out of windows, peering through the bars in prisons, every human felt it. They felt how the gods watched in both shock and anticipation at what the tiny beings would do next. You could smell it in the air that whipped hair across your face in such a fierce manner it stung. And it all started with a simple love story.

Before you dismiss it, you have to agree that everything normally starts with a love story. Life starts with a love story; now isn’t that a thought. And it made Cupid so very smug, as long as he didn’t think of Aphrodite and Ares... Ew.

The basic form of love is friendship, and these two were the best of; Jacob Jacobi and Elisa Donatello. The children of the gods fighting the universal battle with their parents, but not just yet. Now they are just sitting. Sitting on the green, green grass outside their school building at lunch time. They had known each other only a few years, but in that time had developed a true bond. They would laugh and talk about the smallest things, punch each other playfully and have in jokes that changed so rapidly no outsider could ever keep up. No one believed that they were just friends. It was always ‘he likes her’ or ‘she likes him’. The fascination others held behind their motive amused the two equally and they loved to play up to it, just for giggles.

But this is not the love story you think it is. Yes, there may have been some extra chemistry between Jacob and Elisa, but they aren’t the ones in love. No, not this time. In the span of a week Jacob had met, fallen for and been taken by another; Eris. She was foreign. Greek, I believe.

This would not have bothered Elisa if only Jacob had not started to ignore her in their every day life. He was always on the phone talking to Elis, or with her in person and thus making Elisa feel like the definite third wheel. There was no more laughing or talking about the biggest things never mind the smallest things, no playfulness nor any in jokes. People could understand their conversations now …

Elisa tried to get to know Eris, but there didn’t seem to be a mutual intrigue. Every move to get to know anything about the mysterious Eris was blocked to the point Jacob started to get angry at the suggestion of a meeting, so Elisa simply gave up - disheartened.

This went on for weeks, months. Elisa and Jacob grew apart. It was the end of an era. The end of Elisa calling ‘I’ and having Jacob appear with that slightly frustrated look at his name shortened to the one letter difference once mocked by others. The end of the Teenage Mutant Ninja jokes. Jacob was in bliss with Eris and Elisa… well, Elisa got by.

But let’s not see Jacob or Eris as the bad guys here. They were just doing what every couple does. And in a relationship where you give all your time to someone and another is introduced, the time has to spread evenly, right? Jacob would still have conversations with Elisa - that could not be avoided, unlike the topic of his new gal. He believed that Elisa was put off due to jealousy (in his more egotistical moments) or because their friendship had changed so rapidly.

Elisa didn’t see it like this, however. But soon she gave up trying to make the ideal world in her head come true and carried on with her life. Only in moments of isolated silence did Elisa feel any strong emotion toward the situation, but she hid it well. Until, on a walk with her dog Thea, Elisa came across Eris in the clearing between the forest and the sea. Elisa had seen pictures of Eris on facebook and would not have recognised her in any other situation.

As Thea ran ahead of Elisa, barking at the wind, she noticed a sentient figure stood at the edge of the drop into the sea. There was a heavy wind playing with the woman’s dress and lifting her hair to the gods. Elisa only noticed her due to her position; people were known for throwing themselves to their watery death here. Walking slowly toward the woman Elisa soon recognised the sharp nose, the deep auburn eyes, the slender, majestic frame.

‘Eris.’

Simply said. Not a question, nor a statement, nor a call to attention. Just an escaped thought. Eris didn’t seem to take it that way. Whipping around to glare at the intruder to her moment she held the fiercest look Elisa had ever seen. It was the look that chilled bones. The look that made you want to run. It wasn’t human in its coldness. Elisa, however, held her ground. She was frozen by shock and confusion and, most of all, fear. Suddenly the wind got strong, the clouds darker, the air more electrified. Thea started to bark at the sky, soon whimpering away from it – he could sense it too. Within seconds Eris disappeared. One second she was there, the next she wasn’t. There was a whirlwind where she stood.

Elisa panicked, thinking Eris had thrown herself off the cliff, and ran to its edge. The waters were rough and swelling ferociously, but there was no splash, no sense that something had fallen in – no bubbles, no nothing. As Elisa began to look around – maybe she had dived into a bush? – Thea ran up to her and started trying to push her away from the water, getting more panicked as he went. Finally, to Thea’s relief, Elisa decided to put Thea back on his leash and head home fast.

As soon as they got home Elisa called Jacob. The phone was engaged - many times – but she wasn’t going to give up so easily. She sent messages, called all numbers she could think of, spammed every method of communication she could. Finally, he picked up.

‘Elisa?’

‘Yes!’ Elisa practically shouted down the receiver in relief, ‘Where are you?’

‘Woah, calm girl. I’m at home, waiting for Eris.’

‘Who have you been on the phone with all this time?’

There was confused silence on the other end.

‘I haven’t,’ Jacob said, perplexed, ‘The phone hasn’t –‘

He stopped mid-sentence, ‘Listen Elisa, I gotta go, Eris is here now. Thanks for calling. Bye.’

Elisa tried to stop him, but he didn’t let a word of hers in and he was gone before she had the chance to say stop.

A tight ball had formed in her chest. She had to do something. Now.

She had quickly left the house and within minutes was at the door of Jacob’s house three streets away from hers. She banged on the door so hard it shook. The skies had settled by the time she had reached home, but now, the louder she banged on the doors, the more the heaven’s swelled, almost defensively.

Finally Jacob opened the door. Eris was nowhere to be seen.

‘You’ve got to stay away from her,’ was all Elisa was able to say before the lightning started.

Jacob pulled her inside and closed the door.

‘What are you talking about?’

He had a look of confusion, concern and, most hurtful of them all, frustration.

‘I saw her,’ Elisa started to panic, looking around her frantically to check if the witch was near enough to strangle her, ‘I saw her by Seacliff, standing by the sea, she had this look…’

Jacob exhaled deeply, as if he was dealing with the problem child who constantly lied for attention.

‘Then,’ Elisa tried to continue, ‘Then…’

She stopped as she could see Jacob wasn’t listening to her.

There was a moment of silence before there was the loudest crack either of them had heard ripped through the air. It was like a tree had been split and had fallen on top of them. The lights in the house flickered and were, for milliseconds, replaced by blinding bright flashes of lightening. Suddenly the television in the next room turned itself on.

‘There have recently been freak weather conditions,’ it cracked and fizzed, ‘meant to be sunny.’

It popped and turned off at the next strike of thunder.

Jacob started to panic and hold his head in fear of something falling on him. He started to curse under his breath. Elisa could only look up and around at the walls. She moved to look out a window to see the trees nearly uprooting themselves and lawn furniture swept up in the air. Then she did something nothing could explain.

Getting angry she moved back to the front door and opened it. It burst open nearly flinging her backwards with its force. She could hear Jacob questioning her angrily in the background. Elisa moved outside in the wind and it started to rain little bullets that threatened to break skin on contact. Jacob followed her trying to get her back inside.

‘STOP IT!’ She shouted at the sky like a mother telling her quarrelling children off, ‘STOP IT NOW!’

‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!’ Jacob called out from behind her, just as the majority of the gods were doing to the one who compelled Elisa to do what she is doing.

‘STOP!!!’ Elisa carried on glaring at the sky.

Suddenly there was a flash of light in front of them then Eris appeared in its place. Jacob fell silent. Before the two of them could be shocked, Eris had moved at lightning speed at Elisa and had pinned her to a wall by her throat. Eris’ nails dug into Elisa’s jugular and she pressed her whole weight down on Elisa. Elisa’s vision was filled with the sight of Eris, transfixed on the grey, bulging pupils. The tunnel vision she developed after a second just made Eris’ pupils more prominent and terrifying.

They stayed like this for a moment. Elisa rapidly losing focus as her brain starved of oxygen. Then, without notice, Eris pressed her lips hard to Elisa’s. Elisa started to panic and struggle, grabbing hold of Eris’ hair and pulling, hard. Eris was forced away from her with a curious look of hurt on her face. The breath that Elisa managed to get back was instantly taken away from her again at the sound that came from Eris now; a high pitched screech that was neither human nor animal. It emitted from her like a torture device and reached all the way through to Elisa’s bones. Jacob threw up at the sound and nearly collapsed.

The noise carried on going, making Elisa wanting to throw up too. She had to do something.

‘STOP IT!!!’ She screamed back, and ran at Eris, tackling her to the ground.

The screech stopped as soon as they made contact. The floor came up incredibly fast and the two hit it with force enough to break bones. A struggle ensued that left both women with blood dripping from their hair lines. Eris pushed Elisa away from her and stood up and stalked over to Elisa.

‘STOP!’

This time it wasn’t coming from either woman. Jacob was struggling to keep himself upright at the front of his house. The rain gave up and the wind died down slightly as both women turned to stare at him in shock. He doubled over in exhaustion. Elisa glared at Eris who towered over her at this point.

‘See what you’ve done?!’ Elisa said so quietly, almost to herself, but definitely pointed at Eris, who glared back at her. She then looked back to Jacob, then back at Elisa. A tear escaped her eye and fell to the floor.

‘See what you’ve done.’ It escaped Elisa as an after-thought and didn’t come as a question this time. Eris continued to stare at her in silence.

‘You, you see your life, your love,’ Elisa continued, out of breath and slightly pleadingly, ‘but you don’t see how your life impacts on everyone else. You never will. No one ever will. But this,’ she gestured to the weather and the situation, ‘this affects everyone, and you can see it. So see it.’

There was a moment of horrifying silence in which no one knew if Eris would cry of kill someone. She looked at Jacob who was staring back. Then back to Elisa. Her expression had softened ever so slightly.

‘How ironic,’ she said just before she disappeared in a whirlwind.

The sun broke through the cloud and the wind died down completely. Elisa stayed on the ground, in the middle of the road, perched on her elbows and looked at Jacob who held the same dumbfounded expressions as the gods above did.