However fearso or large they might be, pets are all alike.
They have people that they prefer, and they can be coaxed into shirking their responsibilities if the applied motivation is sufficient.
The pets were largely indifferent to Behemoth, but with Yemaja there, it was like she was a vip. The creatures were not only docile, but playful.
"Mind letting us pass for just a minute?" She asked them warmly.
Only Camazotz looked nervous about the idea of letting her pass.
"T-The master said we weren’t supposed to let you near him..."
"It’s okay, I know you’re trying to be a good boy, and I don’t want to make things difficult for you. I just need to talk to him for a quick mont." Yemaja’s voice was sweet and her deanor was gentle.
As a patron deity to sirens, she was just as alluring as they were without even aning to be. Even Camazotz wanted to curl up in her lap and take a nice nap.
"... Okay then." He sighed.
The bat shuffled out of her way and gave her access to the glowing barrier behind him.
Behemoth did as she had been instructed beforehand and fed their furry accomplice.
It was harder to be upset about being made an accessory to a cri with sugar in your mouth.
Yemaja and Behemoth walked up to the barrier, knocking on the glass-like surface as quietly as they could.
This, along with so hushed whispers, was enough to cause the body on the floor to stir.
Ziz had never slept so heavily in his entire life. Waking up, he had a headache so bad he thought his skull was being pulled open.
"Are you okay..?"
Ziz’s blurred vision stabilized when he laid eyes on Yemaja. Sothing inside of his heart clenched tightly.
"You’re you, right...?" Yemaja asked. The hope in her voice was palpable.
"...For what it’s worth." Ziz croaked.
Behemoth pressed her face up to the glass next. "I-Is he still inside of you?"
"Phrasing."
"Are you still being possessed?"
Ziz shrugged. He honestly had no idea. He felt calm enough, but who knew what that foul demon had put into his heart and soul.
"Don’t worry, we’re going to figure out a way to cleanse you and make sure your body is fully yours again." Yemaja smiled nervously.
But Behemoth was less hopeful and far more inquisitive.
"How did this even happen to you...? How is it possible that you beca possessed when you never leave ho??"
Ziz swallowed.
He wasn’t prepared for this level of interrogation right out of the gate. He was far too exhausted to put together a concise story to put him in the clear.
If he gave her an answer now, he undoubtedly would not rember the story he told later.
"...I don’t know." He dropped his gaze to the floor. "It was all kind of a blur."
"That’s okay." Yemaja didn’t press him. "We’ll figure out everything together. That’s what couples do, right?"
Ziz could barely muster up the strength to lift his head.
Percival had accused Behemoth of not knowing her brother. It wasn’t a complete lie, as she didn’t spend nearly enough ti with him to know all of the intricacies of his personality.
But she knew when he was being untruthful. They were made together.
"Why are you not being honest?"
Behemoth didn’t even apply any force into her voice. And yet the atmosphere of the room completely changed in the wake of her question.
Ziz looked up from his lap abruptly.
"W-What are you talking about..?"
"Yeah, Bebe, your brother is-" Yemaja began.
"He’s hiding sothing. It’s unproductive. If we don’t know everything, then we can’t help him, and there might be a chance he could get possessed again."
Yemaja was trying not to dig too hard into Ziz after he’d just woken up. He had been through a great ordeal, and he deserved a chance to rest more than anything.
But with Behemoth bringing up such good points, she couldn’t find it in herself to ignore her.
She turned to Ziz with a nervous look.
"Do you think... There might be sothing else you can rember if you try hard enough...?"
Ziz swallowed.
"Actually.... yeah." He said hoarsely.
Behemoth and Yemaja didn’t know what they were expecting to hear, but what Ziz unloaded in their laps was so far beyond it.
Even the pets had stopped eating their bribes. No longer affected by food, their faces were contorted in anger, and lines of drool dripped from their snarling maws.
At the end of Ziz’s revelation, he made the mistake of looking up at Yemaja and her reaction.
He wished he’d never done it. He barely recognized her.
Her eyes, which were so filled with love and concern a few monts ago, were now empty and lifeless.
She was barely alert. The shock had practically turned her brain off.
Ziz started to say sothing, but before he could, Yemaja whirled around and took off. Bayle and Gandora ran after her.
Behemoth felt equally powerless. All that she could do was hold her face in her hands.
"I... was expecting her to at least yell at a little bit." Ziz said quietly.
If he thought Behemoth was going to respond to him, he was wrong yet again. All the dinosaur queen could do was continue to hold her face.
"...Can you at least look at , or-"
"Shut up!" Behemoth lashed out and punched the barrier hard.
She didn’t break it, but her strength did make the already destroyed living room rumble.
"Do you have any idea what you have done...?! They will kill you for this!!" Behemoth roared.
Ziz couldn’t disagree with that. "Probably, yeah... can’t really bla them though-"
"You unbelievably self-serving bastard! Did you even think about what kind of position this would put in when you decided to keep your damned secrets!? What am I supposed to do now??"
"T-The stuff I did doesn’t have anything to do with-"
"Obviously, it does because I don’t want my fiancé’s family to kill my brother! How am I supposed to live with these people if every ti that I see them, I think about..." Behemoth suddenly covered her mouth abruptly. Her eyes bulged out of her head.
She stumbled over to the empty fireplace and proceeded to empty the contents of her stomach. The pets stepped away from her.
"Bebe!" Ziz yelled in panic.
Behemoth finished retching and leaned against the charred brick while holding onto herself tightly.
With her trembling and hunched over, she didn’t look like a dinosaur or a queen of any kind. She looked petrified.
Behemoth wrapped her arms around herself to stop the shaking. The tears running down her face only contributed to how sick she felt inside.
"We were supposed to get married.... we were supposed to get married..."
Ziz thought that he hit rock bottom when Yemaja ran away from him without saying a word.
He didn’t yet know just how hard he could fall.
Because the sister whom he had only recently beco attached to was so loyal to him that the idea of having to choose between her wife and him made her physically sick.
She was willing to stand beside him as he slid down the fiery slopes to hell.
And there was nothing in the world that could have broken him more than that.
-
Courtney opened her eyes slowly, only to realize that she was staring at herself.
A reflective mirror was plastered onto the ceiling above the bed she lay in. A decorative choice that she was already quite familiar with.
When she was a kid, and she used to co ho and hop into this bed freely, she thought it was super cool.
It wasn’t until she realized what the mirror was for at fourteen years of age that she realized just what the mirror was for, and she never ca back.
"The star of the day is awake. I’m so relieved."
Smiling wryly, Courtney sat up and ca face to face with a slew of familiar faces.
Her grandfather, her grandmothers, and her youngest siblings were all sitting at the foot of her bed and staring at her with smiles.
"Oh, my baby..." Yara grabbed Courtney’s head and pulled it into her chest. "I’m so very proud of you. The amount of lives you saved is... unbelievable. I’ve never heard of anything like it in all my years."
Courtney’s cheeks turned red. "I-It was really no big deal, granny, I promise."
"Sha on you, I beg to differ." Asmodeus said. "I don’t even have soone under who could have pulled sothing like that off. You should be proud."
Complints were Courtney’s kryptonite. She was used to them, but she was also really bad at taking them.
She was a bit like her father in that regard.
With her mind becoming fully alert, Courtney started to rember all of the events from the day.
"S-So everything’s fine and dandy..?"
"You could say that." Asmodeus shrugged. "Right now we’re just... rebuilding and healing. That’s the only thing that matters."
Courtney swallowed. "Are you... still going downstairs with Apophis..?"
Asmodeus, Yara, and Imani all looked at each other.
"...I am, but-"
"I need to get ready." Courtney suddenly sat up. "I’ve got most of my things packed, I just need to grab my sword and-"
"Courtney, wait..." A new voice said.
The young woman looked across the room to an occupied chair, where her boyfriend Aj was staring at her with a deeply troubled look.
"I don’t wanna tell you what to do or anything, but... I really don’t want you to go."
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