A Year of Stories: January Story 1

(Was not my month . . .)

 A Haven in the Sky

By: Chase L. Currie

“Heavy is the head that wears the Crown of Knowledge.”

One light comes on above Janus sleeping in a bed, with a white crown with red and black rubies at the eight tips of the crown.

Janus: Does thou hear the sounds on the edge of the world?

There, where the sun begins and the night fades away,

Lies the sounds of rolling thunder,

Of fiery rage and calming love,

The sound of storm to bring,

A storm that rages in the wake of all joy,

Only to bring rain and hail,

Not of my grandfather, the god of thunder, the one who wields lightning,

He casts down his judgment on the land,

He shows his hash love with angry hands of a loving father,

Zeus the once mighty king of the sky, in which all gods and mortals look to,

And we didn't come to him,

We ran to him,

We laid our sorrows at his feet,

And threw our rage at him like stones in our hands,

We gave him all, in the dying hope that we would be all he wanted,

But the sounds, the thundering roar on the edge,

Is not of him, for he is long gone, lost in the blackness of the endless sleep,

The sounds I now hear, are the long weeps of a time past,

I, the one of things to come and things that have been,

The ghost of Christmas Past and Christmas Future, lies,

Awake in a dreamless night, listening to long howls of the weeping children,

I, watch the rays of the golden warmth paint my ceiling,

And wonder, what to do now?

In the wake of the emptiness that keeps my mind from dreaming,

Dreams all dreamer wish to dream,

What does it do now?

Janus sits up on the bed looking at the rising light.

Janus: What joy you once brought to me,

What hopes I had for a day to come,

But all I see is the shadows of the past,

Walking, haunting me at my side,

O, what joys you once brought me, but now . . .

I wish to never lay my eyes upon you.

A child with bat wings sits beside Janus, who hides his face into his hands.

Janus: Do, you come for me now?

Angel of Death, is this my time to awaken in your house?

Thanatos: My dear friend, the one who knows of my footstep before I do,

Should know, that my door, to my house of many,

Is locked to you, for now and hopefully until the last sun rise,

I do not come for your hand,

I come for your ear.

Janus: To befriend, Death, is a lonely friend to have,

But he whispers all the prayers of the dead in my ear,

He speaks the word I wish to hear,

But now, you bring me not the joy of things that have been,

But of hardship that is at my door,

What does the Angel with dark wings, wish to tell me?

What troubles do you lay at my feet?

Thanatos: Do you not wish to hear, of what the dead have said to me?

Of the truth that must be known,

For it can save or doom your mother, Demeter, your grandmother, Hera,

Does thy wish not to have those troubles placed on thy shoulders?

Tell me now and I shall forever flee.

Janus jumps to his feet, mad and enraged.

Janus: What is it that you wish me to know?

To do? Jump at this man, wish a sword at his throat,

This one they call Odysseus!

Do they wish me to send him to you?

Why not call on you for that dreadful task?

Odysseus, the man whose life was full of sorrow,

Odysseus, the man who walks the halls of my grandfather house,

By the love of Hera, he sleeps, eats and drinks there,

What do you have to tell me?

Why not tell my mother?

Could be that sinful?

Thanatos: Could and it is,

But you, a child of a child of Hera, wish to know,

Wish to save them all,

To free your mother from the obsession,

That is driving her mad, into the darkness of the soul,

To the depths of Hell.

Does one wish to know?

Janus: Hold your tongue,

Do not speak a word of this sin,

I wish to know, I wish to take action,

But this is as great as you speak, then,

We shall tell my dearest mother about the sin,

And then the rightful action will be taken.

Janus pick up his crown and lays it on his head . . .

Thanatos and Janus head for Mount Olympus, and they meet Ares and Artemis on the way. During the night, they all set up a camp and drink by the fire. Janus called by the night heads off into the woods, he finds tree to climb, and sits in dreams of a life with Nyx, in the sky far above the world, in the kingdom of Selene. They would live on the moon, watching all the glory of the world below.

Janus: How does the world judge Heaven, so?

When we look up and all it does is look down,

How can we judge the stars, so?

O, what is this longing in my heart,

That of a task to come, my hands dirty with blood,

I see it and I fear it.

O, but that is not the longing in my soul,

I will carry the weight of the battle as all men do,

Silent and emotionless,

But that is still not what I long for,

For after the war, the long days full of red skies,

I long for the tears falling from your eyes,

How I wish, No! How I beg for those tears,

What man or god would not fall to the ground,

Kissing your feet, whispering your sweet name,

Let your cold pale hands fall into my hair,

Lift the blood from my skin,

Release the cage of the sorrows of war,

O, how I long for you,

By my side,

To make me nothing but a man.

Artemis lightly tip toes on the end of the branch which Janus sit. She smiles at her close friend.

Artemis: The gauntlet of war is being raised,

In the name of so many gone,

Fallen at the end of your brother’s axe, Ares,

And yet his favorite brother,

Sits in the dark of the night,

Dreaming of the goddess, he so longs for,

Does Nyx hear you, my dearest friend?

Or does she keep chasing the sun,

In a failed hope to kiss the warmth of the sky?

Janus: Wishing for love is the greatest longing,

In a world so cold,

On the eve of what's to come, all should wish for it.

Artemis: Aye, we all do wish to be held,

In the woes of joy’s lust,

In the calm of a caring soul,

We all wish for it,

But a fool thinks only of it,

On the eve of battle.

Tell me, my friend, the one I know better than thy self,

What eats at you, chews against your thoughts, like a mad dog?

What keeps you from drinking the blood of war?

Janus: I see, what you cannot, I know what I dare not think of,

What choice is there? What is this right action?

Ares speaks of the joy, Hera now rolls in,

He tells us, of the smile across her face,

Like the moon smiling on to the world,

And she has found a joy, in letting go of a past we cannot,

But, then, as I wish not to know,

Thanatos, the Angel of Death, wings as black as night,

Tells me of the truth that is to doom us all,

And I sit here just like you,

With a choice, I wish not to make,

Do we speak the truth, no matter the cost?

It is not our lives that will be destroyed,

We walk out of the hills, to cast stones of rage,

But has this rage blinded us?

Artemis: And if your grandmother was to fall on the sword,

By this man, now poisoning her halls,

And you did nothing about it,

Are you not as wrong as him,

Or as evil, and blinded by the rage you so fear,

For you would, and you know what must be done.

Janus: And yet I stand at the stone of Zeus,

Beat against the ground he is beneath,

With my tears of regret,

And I wonder, why I still stand there,

What right do I have,

When I fought for him to notice me,

When my mother, gave up everything,

Even her nose for him,

Only to be tossed aside like an unwanted dog,

I stand as his stone,

Full of a burning wrath for what he did,

Full of a sorrow, that I feared him so,

He was a giant to me

And I was nothing more than an ant,

An ant that looked up at him,

So they ask me, to put that aside, like an old book,

To forget what is in my heart,

I love him and I love my grandmother,

But do I have this right,

Must I, destroy her again,

What if she already knows of this dark sin?

. . .what is right?

Artemis: I can hear it in your voice,

Your heart speaks against you,

You know what is right,

You know you must lift the truth high,

And let all see it,

And let all know it,

For it must be done.

Janus: What a horrible thing this is,

To know what is good, and yet,

To be in so much agony over it,

To be so alone in the glory of the truth.

Artemis: My friend, you fear too much,

Throw these worries aside, at least for tonight,

Come and drink with us,

For tomorrow, we shall be at your mother's house,

We will walk among the halls of the gods,

And eat at the table on Mount Olympus.

So the night went on, and the small group of gods drank the stars into the day. After a short time of sleep, they awake to travel on the long road to Olympus.

Janus: My mind, weak from the sleepless night,

My bones ache from the long duty of drinking,

And yet my mind wonders, not on the task at hand, but the pain in my heart,

The night has become lost without her,

I long for the goddess, the one they call Nyx,

She once laid with me,

If only in my dreams,

We ran in the glory of the burning midnight sun,

We danced the dance of all lovers, as the stars sang to us,

But in a flash, a ray of heat, she faded and I was left dreaming,

Nyx, the one my heart forever longs for,

Does not see me, does not kiss me,

She, on her quest to steal a kiss from the burning star a high,

And now every breaking day, I feel the boiling rage at the light,

It took her from me, it tosses me in the agony of never being free,

Free from a thorn in the side of my heart,

I hate the light, for I can't dream of her anymore!

Ares drops his giant blood stained hand on the shoulder of Janus, while laughing.

Ares: Did the battle of the drink, beat my little brother?

Did you fall to the will of the wine?

Or is this task, the dreadful quest of ours that which weighs upon your soul?

Janus: If you must know, if you really care,

It is all that, weighs on my shoulders,

I suffer like the curse of Atlas.

Ares: Aye, don't we all?

I see the agony in you my friend, I see the tearing at your soul,

As if you are a soldier who seen far too many battles,

Aye, I understand the worry that is beheld in your eyes,

You long to know that the man in our mother's mother house is righteous so,

But can we judge him?

Janus: If not us, than whom?

Hera is blinded by the arrows of Cupid,

Love is her curse, but we, the ones sitting on the outside, must save her.

Ares: I fear, this heart is in the right place,

And our mother means well, and must do what is right,

But it at the end of the day, there will only be a war lost.

Janus: Aye, O' brother, I fear you are right!

They travel the rest of the day, stopping at a small fishing town for lunch and dinner. And now they climb the golden steps to the house of the gods, where on the steps they meet Ares and Janus’s mother.

Demeter: My children, my great sons,

How my eyes can barely hold back the joy,

I am truly grateful to see you here now.

She hugs and kisses them both.

Ares: Mother, my dearest mother,

The joy fills our hearts as well,

And I must know is our sister, Athena, home as well?

Demeter: Ah, no, I fear not,

She is off and will not be able to return,

But has written to me, she shall not return for quite some time.

Janus: Then my mother, I bring sinful news,

News that you must hear with your own ears,

A truth that will only bring you pain from the dead.

Thanatos step forward and bows to his knee.

Thanatos: Great Demeter, the mother who feeds many,

The goddess with the greatest of loving hearts,

I tell you now of a truth that pains me to speak.

Demeter: Speak now Angel of Death,

Speak and remember only the words of the greatest truth must fall from your lips,

Do not speak one lie.

Thanatos: This man, you have come to fear,

This man, you have to come judge, and rightfully so,

Odysseus is the name he calls himself,

But greatest goddess, the name is a lie,

He loves only greed and death,

I have seen his blade across your mother’s neck.

Demeter: Do not lie! Angel with black wings!

I do not believe in him but these are great sins you put at his feet,

If you lie, your punishment shall be worse than his!

Janus: Mother, he does not lie,

I have seen with the Crown of Knowledge,

That he speaks only the truth,

These words fell on to his ears from the dead,

And the dead do not lie,

For they fear no punishment.

Demeter face fills with anger as they rushed to find Odysseus. And there at the side of Hera's bed sits the man. He smiles up at the goddess but a lying smile across his face, for a sword rests in his back hand. Demeter storms in the room, throwing the man away from her mother.

She picks up the sword, holding it to his neck.

Demeter: Mortal, man of nothing but wild dogs,

You step foot in this holy place, bed my mother, sit in my father's chair,

To speak lies and to plan death.

You shall burn a thousand years for this,

And then Hades will find new ways to bring you pain,

And I shall watch and smile!

Hera: Enough! You have stepped too far this time, Demeter,

What sins do you throw at this man's feet?

What lies do you speak?

Demeter backs away letting Odysseus go.

Demeter: I speak no lies, highest mother,

I have been told by the giver of the dead,

And told by my son who knows all,

That this man is a lair,

He only wants your gold,

And then your death.

Hera: No! You have grown angry with him in this house,

You feel it is wrong that I shall be happy,

Your father is gone and like all passing things I have moved on.

Demeter: But my mother - - -

Hera stops her from speaking and turns her back.

Hera: I will not listen to anymore,

Speak another word about this,

You shall be tossed to the wind.

But unseen to Demeter and Hera, Odysseus picks up his sword and tries to plant it the back of Demeter. Before he can hit her, Ares kills him with his axe.

Hera: How dare you!

Demeter: Mother I beg of you - - -

Demeter falls to Hera's feet.

Ares says nothing.

Hera: You kill this man in my house,

His blood now stains my floor,

And you say nothing in your defense.

Janus: Hera, the goddess of goddesses,

The man, you so love, was about to,

Take the life of our mother,

My brother, fool that he might be,

Did what was right,

He only saved our mother's life,

Show mercy great Hera, show mercy!

Hera: Mercy! I'll show you mercy,

You, Ares, along with your mother,

Shall be forever cast out of my house,

You shall never set foot here again,

For if you do, you shall meet your painful death,

And I will make all the curses of the Titans seem like Heaven.

With their heads hanging low, Ares and Demeter left Hera's house. And Janus removes his crown, handing it to Thanatos.

Janus: I wish to never know,

I wish to speak the truth no matter the cost,

But now, I wish to sleep in peace,

My dear friend, I gave you the knowledge to know all,

For I no longer desire to know any,

My dear friend, I give this to you as a farewell,

I leave this world, I shall sleep in an endless night,

I will make my home on the midnight sun,

Well, I live with time that have passed,

A time that was happier,

A time where a family was whole,

And I sat with my grandfather,

You shall not see me again,

Or hear my words, for I have paid the price of truth,

And truth has won.

Fade to black.

Edit_1 By: Amber Funderburk

(http://ofmonstrousgods.blogspot.com/)