Vampire Greek: The Burning King

Roman emerged from the tunnel, carrying a big rock to hide himself.

“Janus, you gotta make me some clothes.” said Roman as he entered the opening. Janus was staring at the void like sky, holding a hand up to Roman to shush him.

“Something’s watching us. Its presence is everywhere, I can’t place it.”

“But you can make me some clothes right? I can’t go to the fates looking like this.”

Janus turned around, “Why do you want to go to the fates?”

“So they won’t snip my life away the first time Zeus throws a bolt at me. I’m not trying to die like that again.”

“You have to bargain with the fates. You can’t just show up empty-handed and expect them to betray the gods.”

“What would they want? What do they even look like? I hope they like small rocks, because that’s all I have right now.”

The ground began to rumble beneath their feet, and rock began to fall from the sides of the cliff. The water in the pond began receding until nothing was left, but there was no hole for the water to go.

“What are you doing?!” Roman shouted.

“Nothing!” said both heads of Janus. “This is a power higher than me!”

Roman noticed Tityos’ portal was still open. He tried to run for it but the ground beneath them crumbled and gave way, sending him and Janus both spiraling into the darkness below. As they fell their speed of their descent slowly began to lessen, as if some type of wind was acting in their favor. They landed on something cold and scaly, something that felt so snake-like Roman nearly jumped out of his skin

There are no snakes this big. There are no snakes this big. There are NO snakes this big. He tried to reassure himself. He scrambled to his feet and reached out blindly in the darkness for the rock he used to cover himself. He could hear someone breathing a thousand times louder than him, Janus, or even Tityos himself. As his eyes adjusted, he could make out the outline of Janus in the darkness, kneeling down and praying silently.

Who do gods pray to? He wondered. Then he saw the creature for himself. They were standing on two long snake legs that went up farther than Roman could imagine. The monster was mostly humanoid in shape, towering over every mountain in existence. Snake coils surrounded his waist and wings sprouted out of the back of the creature, and his serpentine face shifted from one head to seemingly a hundred different animal ones, all while his eyes and mouth spewed smoke and fire. His head wife touched the stars if any existed for it to do so.

“Typhon…” Janus whispered. “Roman, kneel before him, now.”

Roman tried to comply but his body wouldn’t move. He struggled against his invisible restraints until Typhon spoke in a language he couldn’t understand.

“What is he saying?” Roman whispered. “Translate it, quickly!”

“I cannot! It is not Latin or Greek, it must be a language spoken only by monsters themselves!”

Typhon lifted his left hand and Roman’s arm mimicked his movements. A black ring appeared around his fourth finger and a black line appeared on his wrist, slowly wrapping around his arm and getting thicker until it reached the top of his shoulder and turned into the head of a snake. The snake wriggled, hissed, then black smoke came off it as the snake burned into his skin. The smoke enveloped his body entirely until he was covered in a new black tunic. Typhon held his palm upwards so Roman did the same, no words exchanged. Janus looked on in awe as a string-bag appeared in Roman’s hand while Typhon spoke again in a thundering voice. Roman stared at the monster, no longer with fear, but with determination.

“I will,” said Roman, and the ground rumbled again as they began to fly back up into the air returning to the area they were before. Janus stood before him, shellshocked.

“You have the blessing of the father of monsters himself!” Janus cried as he grabbed Roman’s shoulders.

“You absolutely cannot fail now!” Roman looked at his newly inked arm and smiled.

“He’s been watching us this whole time. He told me to give this bag to the fates, I wonder what’s in- holy crap its eyes! Ugh!” Roman dropped the bag in disgust.

“Be careful idiot, this is your bargaining chip, this is how you’ll persuade them.” Janus carefully picked it up and dusted it off.

“They don’t have eyes?” He asked curiously.

“They have one they share, together. If your life ever returns to normal, you should look up our history.”

“I’ll make sure I do. But in the meantime, take me to the fates.”

Janus closed Tityos’ tunnel but did not open another one.

“It’ll be a lot more dangerous to send you to the Fates. They don’t reside in Tartarus, so it might put you on Hades’ radar.”

“How bad is that? I thought Hades hated Zeus. Wouldn’t he want someone to usurp him?”

“That’s mostly true, but he might not be happy with someone escaping his domain. Hades doesn’t just rule the underworld, the underworld is Hades.”

So I’ll be fast. I’ll be back to meet the other prisoners in no time.”

Janus raised a hand and Roman’s vision blurred. His surroundings became warped and his body stiffened.

“I hope so.” said Janus as he disappeared into a gray swirl. Roman became dizzy and lost balance, he couldn’t tell what was up or down. He fell to his knees only to find out there was no floor, everything was the same color, spinning and swirling continuously, giving him vertigo.

“Janus, what’s taking so long? Stop this!” He shouted into the void. As the world began to stop he started hearing footsteps in all directions.

Please don’t be a monster. He thought. Please don’t kill me. I’ve come so close.

“Hurry up!” an angry old woman snapped.

Huh?

Roman looked up to see a withered old woman covered in a ragged black cloak staring at him. Her feet were hairy and disgusting, with gnarly toenails and boils all over. They appeared to be in some sort of gazebo, there was nothing but darkness on the outside except for the entrance, which was filled with a dim white light. He looked around and saw two more elderly women dressed in the same garments, one on each side of him. All of their faces were sunken in, only one had a tooth and another had one eye in her left socket. They all looked at him expectantly with their zombielike faces, the one in front holding out her hand.

“Boy, does it look like we have all day?”

Roman held out the little bag and she swiftly snatched it from his hand. She walked away quickly and her sisters walked behind her. She reached into the bag and passed the slimy eyeballs to her sisters. They all started chattering about being able to see while putting their eyes in place.

“He should’ve given you some dentures too!” The one with the tooth remarked.

“You know who gave me this?” Roman asked her.

“Typhon, father of all monsters, of course. He wants you to succeed, so you will.”

“Quiet, Enyo! We’re supposed to keep him alive, not tell him things.” The one with the tooth snapped.

“So you won’t cut my string when I fight Zeus?” Roman asked. The sisters looked at each other and laughed.

“Wrong Fates, idiot.” said one of the ladies. “We’re the Graeae, the Moirai are the ones that measure the string and snip it.”

“You don’t have to be that rude Deino.” said the last one. “But we do control fate. From the moment a child is born. We knew you would come to us before you even became a vampire. It’s fascinating to see how monsters evolve, isn’t it?”

The other sisters nodded in agreement, still squinting and examining their surroundings with their new eyes.

“They won’t cut your string, trust us.” said Enyo. “Now begone, we have business to take care of, and we don’t like you company.”

“Thank you, Enyo, Deino, and…”

“Pemphredo.” said the last one.

“Pemphredo.” he repeated, instantly thinking about chicken alfredo. He bowed before them while they tried to wave him away.

“Will this portal take me back where I came from?”

“Maybe. But Janus’ magic is what will actually return you.” said Deino.

“That’s what I was afraid of.” Roman took a deep breath and stepped through the portal. He felt a cool wet mist for a second before his body went stiff and the gray swirl appeared, giving Roman motion sickness. He closed his trying to avoid nausea, when someone came behind him and tightly gripped his arm.