Chapter V: Zeus

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Groaning, she waved her hands aimlessly and tried to reach the screaming clock beside her bed.

"Ugh, I wanna sleep."

After a few tries with no luck of silencing the beeping time bomb, she drowned a frustrated scream in her pillows and reluctantly rose from her bed and turned off the alarm.

9:00 am.

"Heck," she said as she looked at the time displayed. "I'm late."

Moving as fast as she could, she quickly took a shower and dressed up. Shoving a piece of bread to her mouth while grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge, she burst out from the door and ran towards the bus stop.

"I still have ten minutes. Please."

Luckily, she was able to get on the bus and arrive at the place at exactly 9:30 am. She rushed inside and was greeted by her manager with his eyebrow raised.

"You are late."

She froze and felt that her cheeks went red.

"I-I...almost broke my ankle and had a sprain while I was preparing for work," she lied. Her head was facing the ground and she couldn't look at him directly in the eyes. She knew that if she did, her eyes will definitely give it away, as she was a sucker when it comes to lying.

Her manager is a stout man, around his early forties. He was wearing a red polo shirt and oversized black slacks that reach the floor. His near balding head was covered by a red baseball hat that says 'Yay, Friday'. Looking at his employee, he raised his eyebrows again and crossed his arms.

After a long pause, he said, "Hmm. I see. Be careful next time. Now go to your station. We've got a lot of books to publish now."

She felt relieved and nodded, then hastily scrambled her way to her desk and started working.

❇❇❇

Dusk came in like a flash. There were a lot of demands she needed to finish that she didn't even noticed the day was finally over. It was time to get back home. Packing her things up, she grabbed her tiny sling bag and headed out to catch up on the next bus stop.

It was chilly outside and she forgot to bring her jacket. Looking up, she saw some birds flying around the tall buildings across the street. A few ravens were roaming the electricity lines and she saw one of them intensely staring at her with their wide red eyes. She blinked.

"They look so cute."

She find ravens attractive. If only she had enough money to have one, she would gladly take one and have it, not as her pet, but as a companion. She hated the idea of pets. Calling them companions sounds better for her.

The bus arrived shortly afterwards, making her scramble her way up to the vehicle before it drove to her destination. Her apartment building was located among the less fortunate parts of the city. The community wasn't that bad and not everyone was poor, but everyone has to work extra hard to earn money and live.

Her apartment is a small 36-square unit, but it is big enough for her since she was living alone. Growing up without knowing her parents, she used to live in an orphanage administered by a couple of Christian nuns until she was eighteen years old. All those years, no one decided to adopt her, maybe because she looks awkward and was dubbed as the most naughty kid in the place. She was indeed naughty, it was her front so that no one would lay a hand on her and hurt her. So the moment she got eighteen, she decided to get out from the institute with the help of Sister Wilma, the only person who treated her like family in the orphanage. At first, the nun was against with the idea, but she nagged and pleaded that she wanted to have her life and explore the world. After whinging for a thousandth time, Sister Wilma finally agreed.

She's twenty one now, three years living away from that place. The first few months of being independent was hard, but she figured it was an interesting new experience for her to explore. Even if she is having a bit of a struggle earning money and realizing that the outside world is pretty dangerous and unpredictable, somehow, she is currently happy and contented. She never thought about regretting her decision, not even once.

The bus came to a stop and she looked through the vehicle's windows. She had already arrived, so she held on her bag and jogged out. She still had to walk a few blocks away from the bus stop before getting to her apartment. Her unit was situated on the far right of the third floor of a seven-story high building that was owned by an elderly Mexican couple. The building's elevator was currently closed for maintenance checks, so she had to push her legs to climb a few flights of stairs, grudgingly.

Panting furiously as beads of sweat covered her face, she rummaged through her bag trying to find the key to the door. When she finally got it, she opened the knob and immediately headed towards the fridge, grabbing a can of Sprite. A sudden chill ran down her spine.

"Huh?"

She swiftly turned around and scanned her surroundings. Everything was still in place the way she left them when she got out this morning.

"That's weird."

She was still having goosebumps at the back of her neck and she felt like she was being watched. By what? She doesn't know.

"This is probably caused by the horror movies and mangas I read last night."

Dismissing the idea, she shrugged and headed towards the living room. Exhausted, she slumped into the couch and drank the can of Sprite. She opened the television and kept herself entertained with some lighthearted show when suddenly, a loud roar of thunder broke and made the whole room shudder with it's booming sound.

"What the heck," she exclaimed. She never really liked thunder for she is quite sensitive when it comes to loud sounds. Suddenly, the hairs on her back stood up again and this time, she was slowly starting to get anxious. She let the television play behind the background while she started to change. Dumping her worn work clothes in the hamper, she pulled out a black sweater in her closet and slid in some black, ripped skinny jeans. She then went to grab her jacket and wore her black beanie. Another loud blare of thunder came rumbling. This time, it was a couple of decibels louder than the first one that it sent her body shaking.

"It's gonna be okay, maybe a storm is coming," she whispered to herself. Putting on her socks and worn-out converse shoes, she tried to distract herself with the idea of buying new shoes in the weekend, in hope of making her feel collected and composed. Trying her best to gain her calm, she did a couple of deep breaths and grabbed her backpack. It was like her body was moving on it's own and she didn't even realize it. She didn't notice that she had already shoved a couple of items inside it.

"What? I'm not going anywhere though, I'm just going down to check what's happening."

Shrugging, she still went and hooked the bag up her right shoulder. She turned off her tv and lights and then locked her apartment. Trudging her way down the stairs going to the lounge of the building situated in ground floor, the walls started to shudder, emitting hollow grumbles everytime thunder roared. A few tenants were starting to go outside their units and check what's going on. She dragged her feet and approached the lady guard standing near the television of the lounge area.

"Oh there you are Luna," the lady guard greeted her as soon as she saw her.

"Hi Andrea," Luna replied while trying to gasp for air. The way downstairs took some toll of energy from her exhausted body. She glanced at the clock hanging on the wall behind them. It was nearly nine o'clock in the evening.

"So, what's happening. What's up with Zeus?," she asked, with a pint of Greek humor since they both shared similar interests to mythologies.

"Well yeah. This is weird. The news said nothing about having a storm. Yet now, Zeus is rampaging up there," Andrea smirked while shrugging her broad shoulders nonchalantly.

They then talked about their day and Andrea asked why she was wearing a backpack on her shoulders. Luna flushed. She was way too embarrassed to admit that she got scared of the thunder and had anxiety in her apartment. She was about to reply a made-up excuse when a sudden boom! stopped them.

Glasses from the windows shattered as everyone ducked down. A lighting bolt strucked the street infront of the building and destroyed the lines. Electricity went out and a few seconds later, the emergency generator hummed and went into power as it left a few light bulbs on. Luna was cupping her hands to her ears as she evaded the shattered glass. She could still hear some ringing in her earlobes as she stood up.

"What the hell?"

"The fuck was that?!"

"Oh my god..."

Andrea and one of the maintenance team went and advised the people to calm down as the air around them became weary and was filled with people's curses and fear. A child was heard crying as murmurs start to cram the area. Luna stared at the broken windows outside with her mouth agape. Hairs suddenly stood at the back of her neck as chills ran down her spine again. Without thinking, she ran upstairs.

❇❇❇

It was like her body was being controlled by something. Or someone. She kept running up the stairs until she reached the rooftop.

As if waking from her trance, she suddenly realized how dangerous it is standing there. She was about to move her feet and go down when a loud rumble, that took the whole building to tremble, stopped her dead in her tracks. Her eyes went wide as she stared at the wild lightning bolts striking down the grounds of the city. Goosebumps filled her whole body as she witnessed the clock tower, a few blocks away, got struck down and was blown away to pieces. Strong winds started to blow, making her hair messier. And then out of nowhere, somebody whispered in her ear.

"Run."