33 - A God, Persisting

Lin

Bin boy decided to make an appearance.

Him and his friends were literally the rudest ever, standing in the stairwell so that I couldn't get to the shared toilet on the 1st floor. And I know they were mocking me. Motherfucker could've gone straight to his room. Doesn't look that scared of me to me.

And surprise surprise, one of his bunnies died due to his negligence.

I'd love to know if he could be put in jail for that, because if he can, I might take it up with my other neighbour to talk about, as he has proof that this arsehole wasn't taking care of his pets.

Before people start going "it's giving me obsessed", I was actually trying my darndest to forget about him until last night.

The prick even had the nerve to cry when he found the rabbit dead. 

Lo and behold, fuckface, the consequences of your actions!

His appearance has now put me in a state of soft panic mode and I'm struggling to eat again.

I was doing well until he showed up.

And yeah, it might seem selfish of me, but given the fact that he was quite literally involved in covering up multiple rapes done to me, as well as being verbally abusive and deliberately not having a concept of boundaries with anyone but particularly me, I think it stands to reason that I can chat shit about him if I like.

You fuck around with me, you find out.

I probably won't even be able to go to my Universal Credit appointment today because of it, so I had to leave a journal message to say that I couldn't make it, asking for a phone call.

I didn't want to say it was anxiety, lest I get told I was overreacting, then have a repeat of last time I went, and we all know what happened that day.

Nann, trugarez.

Luckily for me, I have found some solace in reading The Women Of Troy by Pat Barker again. I think I needed something inherently tied to my ancestry to prevent me from losing my mind.

It's from Briseis' perspective, which makes it all the more interesting.

You rarely hear Trojan perspectives on the Trojan War, so it feels like a breath of fresh air in comparison to what most media covers.

They almost always focus on the men and Gods, but never on the women they displaced and enslaved. My thought is that a lot of this was Gods and fake Gods alike fighting in a proxy war, though I wasn't there, so I couldn't say. I could always ask Aphrodite when she next visits.

As I think about this, Nyx snuggles into my lap as I feed her lettuce and basil leaves, her favourites.

Again, at least I'm not alone.

Erebus comes up to me too, nuzzling into my knee as he curls up on the throw, having just finished another bowl of cat food.

If my fur babies are well taken care of, I'm happy.

A knock at the nemeton door catches my attention. Then, an acorn appears on the altar.

Who?

Nyx hops off my lap, and Erebus crawls away, still lying on the throw as I rise to my feet, plodding over to the granite slab I call a door. I shove it to the side, and more daylight streams inside. Standing before me is a person I wouldn't have expected to have time to see me at all.

"Ma Yia-Yia!"

"Kali mera, my dear."

It certainly isn't an unpleasant surprise, but I am caught offguard.

"May I ask what you're doing here?"

"I'm here to give advice, and perhaps be of some solace to you whilst you recover from everything. May I come in?"

"Of course."

I lead my great-great-grandmother into the nemeton, and as I'm about to push the door shut, she says "Let me."

Before I can protest, she's moved the door/slab with ease into the exact same position it was in before I had opened it.

"Trugarez." Usually I wouldn't let anyone else do it for me, but Gaia is a deity of Earth as much as I am, and with regards to Greek hospitality, even if she's a guest, she would not want me, as her host, to struggle to serve her.

"Of course." She sits on part of the stone in my nemeton that forms a seat like shape. As she gets comfortable, she smiles. "This reminds me of your father's nemeton. Well kept, even after thousands of years..." She trails off, but quickly regains her focus. "I need to talk to you about Rickmansworth and Greenwich."

So the word really has gotten out among the Greek Gods about it. I didn't expect it to be this quick, but then again, if Hermes figured it out, it's probably everywhere now.

"Did Hermes tell you?" I'm not worried if he did, more that if the wrong people were to approach him, he'd need protection. Even a God as high as him would need it.

She shakes her head. "Aristaeos."

Aristaeos? Then again, that would make sense. He probably asked for help with Maybury, and I happened to come up in conversation. That happens a lot.

"Is he alright?"

"He's with your mother and grandmother drawing up plans to help him heal." She sighs. "It seems like Rickmansworth wanted to target the whole pantheon, as if near destroying the Gaulish-Celtic Pantheon wasn't enough for him."

I have no words for how angry I feel on everyone's behalf who has had to deal with this.

I roll my shoulders back and take a breath. "He's disgusting. What do you want to tell me about Greenwich?"

It seems to be Gaia's turn to take a breath now. "I think Rickmansworth has made, or is making Greenwich into a doomsday clock."

Oh, he's got to be off his fucking head if he thinks he'll get away with that.

She continues. "All of it lines up far too well to be anything else. The O2 Arena, Greenwich Mean Time, the Meridian Line..." She releases that breath in frustration. "He's so obvious, using your hallmark to do whatever he likes, and yet nobody has thought to stop him! Or at least, nobody's done anything." 

I quietly take in this information, and it makes sense.

Of course he'd try to use me. I'm the perfect scapegoat for this kind of thing.

"How many people do we have willing to help?"

She pauses, deep in thought for a minute. "Well, I know Zeus wants to help. I'd say add anyone who visited or left you offerings as a 'maybe' on that list." Running her hands through her leaf adorned hair, she looks me directly in the eye. "And also, you are right about that 'bin boy' fellow and where he got his information about you from." She seems to seethe about him as much as I do. "Little shit."

I had assumed that Rickmansworth had told him some rather personal things about torturing me. After all, I don't see bin boy harming me or triggering me in the same way without that information. He's not intelligent enough.

"How do you know?"

"He gets it from his mother." Her nose wrinkles in disgust. "Ironic that he tried to project that onto you. Oh believe me darling, I have knowledge of all the skeletons in that little brat's closet, and after how he's treated you, I am more than happy to expose every single one of them."

"Trugarez, Granny. I love you." I haven't said those words to much of my family in a while.

"I love you too, dear. I'm afraid I'll have to go now, but I'll be making these visits more frequently. You ought not to be alone.

"Also, I'm going to need you to eat as soon as you can."

Busted again.

"I will." She's right. I need to eat so that I can persist in bringing down those evil bastards, for everyone else's sakes. 

I outstretch my arms for a hug, and Gaia reciprocates gladly. "Take care, my love."

She opens the door and takes her leave, raising a hand as she walks into the horizon.

I'll do my best, Granny.