Damien sat in the darkness. There was a bulb hanging from the ceiling, but he didn’t turn it on. He didn’t want it on. He wanted to remember. He wanted to punish himself for forgetting. He wanted to feel the Darkness.
There he is. The Darkness cooed. I knew you’d come crawling back. Didn’t I tell you it was rough out there? Didn’t I tell you no one would want you out there? But, who’s here for you when you’re all alone? I am. I’m always here for you. Unlike some people. He’s not doing this for your own good. Please! It’s for his own good. He’s not thinking about you. He doesn’t want you to be free. He wants to rule you. He is lying to you to make you complacent, so that you, on your own free will, remain his prisoner. You can’t trust anyone. They are all out for themselves. I’m here for you, though. I’m always here for you. Fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave. Just let me rule you and you can have everything that you want.
Damien pulled his fingers out of his hair and peered up into the blank face of the Darkness, “Did you just quote Labyrinth with David Bowie?”
A door opened in the pitch. Death was silhouetted in the light at the top of the basement stairs. The light above Damien’s head clicked on with an electrical hum, and the brick and concrete basement illuminated in the yellow glow. Death walked down the creaking wooden stairs, and Damien stood to meet him.
“Damien, I apologize for-”
“Don’t bother. I’m not going to forgive you for this no matter how much you think this is in my best interest.”
Death tried to hide a smirk. “Actually, I’m apologizing for not having the basement light on for you. It was an oversight on my part.”
Damien glared. “Oh.”
“I am not apologizing for putting you down here.”
“No. I got that.”
“To be clear, I’m apologizing for the light. We both know how you get in the dark.”
“Yeah. I got it.” Damien rolled his eyes.
“You took Fates’ side, Damien. They came to you. You are compromised. I don’t expect you to understand.”
“To be clear, I understand. Perfectly.”
“No. You don’t.”
Damien laughed. “This is about power. The power the Fates have over you and the Cosmos. Power you want for yourself.”
“Don’t be ridiculous! I don’t want it, but somebody has to do it. And it has to be done with precision. The balance of things is at stake.”
“What happened to the balance of things be damned?”
“That was if they took you from me. Imprisoned you.”
“What do you call this?” Damien gestured to the basement walls.
“A basement.”
“With all the fortifications of Tartarus imposed on it!”
“It is to keep you safe!” Thanatos snapped.
“But, apparently, I’m already compromised. So, don’t they already have me in their clutches? Let’s just call a spade a spade already. ”
“I’m dying to know what spade you think this is.”
Damien spat, “Fear! Fear of having a liability. That they might have something over you. Weakness. You’re afraid they might be able to control you. This isn’t about me. At. All.”
“Think what you will, because you have the choice to do so.”
“Well, anything else would just be some pretty little lie.”
“I can see talking to you will be frivolous. I’ll give you some time to think. Tomorrow we can reevaluate.” Death walked up the stairs.
Damien remained silent with his arms folded until Death turned the handle on the door.
“Turn out the light, please,” Damien called.
Death asked. “You want the light off?”
There was another moment of silence as Death contemplated what sort of game his son was playing with him, but he was also too aggravated to care.
The light vanished, and Death said distastefully, “As you wish.”
Death left the basement, and Damien heard the skeleton key lock in the door. Red hot anger ignited inside him. His chest rose and fell like a bellows fanning the internal flames.
Well this will be fun. What are you thinking? What are you going to do?
“I’m getting the fuck out of here.”
***
Loki finally found the right mansion in the right mini-verse and busted down the door. “Thanatos! Thanatos? Hello?” He called through the house.
Death strolled out of the study at the sound of Loki’s booming voice. “Why are you yelling?”
“Where is he?” Loki demanded as he marched towards him.
“Who?” Death continued his nonchalance, despite Loki’s rage.
“The boy. Damien. You-” Loki took a centering breath. “You didn’t let me say goodbye, and I just wanted to-”
“He’s fine, Loki. He’s downstairs in the basement.”
Loki’s rage resurfaced. ”What?”
“He’ll be safe down there.”
Incredulous, Loki growled, ”Safe?”
“The Fates, Loki. He said he saw them. They came for him. They’re back.”
Loki thought for a long minute. “I-” Loki shook his head. “I am so mad at you I could spit! This war on information was meant to be used against the Fates, not against me! Not against us!”
“What are you talking about?”
Loki boomed, “I’m talking about you! Withholding information from me. Me! Until you decide it’s pertinent for me to know. Until it is convenient for you to reveal. That strategy was my idea! Mine. But leave it to the gods to take what I make and use it against me.”
“Do not compare me to them.”
“I can if the shoe fits. You didn’t tell me about this portal business. You didn’t tell me Damien saw the Fates.”
Death confirmed. “I did not.”
Loki’s voice was still roaring. “This was not the plan. What’s next? Are you going to lock me away? Do you think I’m compromised? Is that why you’re doing this?”
“I’m doing this because this is what must be done. Forgive me if you don’t approve.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because, you didn’t need to know. The portal business is exactly that. It’s Grim Enterprises’ business and has nothing to do with the Norsemen or you or the Fates.”
“Bullocks, it has everything to do with the Fates!”
Thanatos said, “And my son’s safety is my responsibility. Mine and mine alone, despite my recent lapse in judgment.”
“Oh that’s rich!” Loki sniped.
“It is what it is.”
Loki chewed on his lower lip. “If you try to do this alone, you are going to sabotage everything! Quit being a martyr, or a-a-” Loki was trying to restrain his insult.
Thanatos snapped, “I’m not being a martyr!”
“- or a bloody stupid dunce!”
“A dunce?” Death looked slightly amused.
“That’s what I said. A dunce.”
“Loki, I have planned this all out very meticulously. Can you just, for once, trust that I did what I did, and am doing what I’m doing, for a reason? Trust that I know what I’m doing, and I have all of this under-”
Death was interrupted by a piercing boom that cracked through the mansion. The floor shook beneath their feet. The walls vibrated and priceless works of art fell from their hooks, shattering their frames.
Death closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He hung his head in shame.
Loki raised a hand to examine his nails. “...You were saying?”
A chunk of plaster fell down from the ceiling and crashed to the floor between them.
Death sighed. “Let’s go check on Damien.”
***
The basement was completely destroyed. The concrete walls were crumbling with twisted cables of wire supports jutting out of them. Pressurized pipes spewed water everywhere, and live wires were sparking in the puddles on the floor.
“Isn’t this basement fortified with the magicks of Tartarus?” Loki asked sardonically.
“Yes,” Death admitted, “and Damien just blew a hole in it as if he were a stick of dynamite.”
“Not just a hole...” Loki said, approaching the black howling in the corner of the basement. It was a vacuous darkness. As they neared it, it ripped at their clothes and their hair, trying to suck them in.
“What is it?” Loki asked over the roar of the wind.
Death waved a hand over the darkness, and it closed in on itself, quickly becoming smaller and smaller until it was just a pinpoint, and then gone. Only scarred concrete remained. “A void in space and time. He’s done it before. I just thought the basement would stop him.”
“A void in space and time? He can do that?” Loki asked.
“Yes.”
“And so you thought a basement would hold him?”
“Tartarus! It was designed after Tartarus,” Thanatos argued.
Loki tried to restrain a cocky smirk. “Which he also escaped from.”
“His powers are sporadic. He doesn’t have a grasp on them yet. I thought the basement would-” Death cut himself off short “No. I didn’t think.”
“Well, we both know where he ran off to-”
“Hypnos!”
“Okay, maybe we both don’t know. Alec. He ran off to Alec’s. I don’t believe he trusts Hypnos or any of us at the moment.”
Death was offended at this notion but knew it to be true. “But he trusts Alec?”
Loki put a congenial hand on Death’s shoulder. “Come along.”
***
