Behold the Final chapter
Palyphemos Lekkakos walked down the stairs of to what he assumed was the DeNiles' basement. I know it's not really a basement but this cray-cray old family seems too proud to have a dungeon; the really old families would torture in the living rooms with the kids watching. Family values have been lost, Pal thought.
She's basically my sister so I shouldn't stare, Pal thought as his eye stayed on Cleo DeNile's hair. It was a very full head of black hair with dark blue streaks, not as supple as her wallet or jail-bait-bottom- dammit, baby sister- baby sister- dead pegasus- baby sister- dead Pegasus- baby sister.
"Sweet that you have a portal to the underworld, Baby Peggy."
"What did you just call me?" The mummy princess demanded.
"Um, it's Greek for 'future-sister-in-law'."
"Do not. Lie. To me." Cleo's voice could've sliced him in half, if I wasn't the owner of such a hot car.
"Yes ma'am." Pal told her.
He will make such a supple sacrifice, Cleo thought as she led the man down to her family's boat. There are some creatures in this world older and greater than me, but the real kings and queens are in the beyond.
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The air was smoky; the kind of delicious smoke that reminded Deuce of Cleo's poolside during a barbeque. If the barbeque used very old timber and the pool was a salty ocean. He didn't find the air was as appetizing as the memory.
His eyes were closed. He felt fine, not bad nor good but fine. He flexed his fingers and toes. He felt another sensation, behind his ears and across his scalp there was slithering. Deuce released a chilled breath. The sound of snakes hissing and reaching outward from his head filled him with joy.
Deuce ran his finger through his hair, "Sup, dudes."
The gorgon debated on opening his eyes. He didn't feel sunglasses near him and decided to keep them closed. Deuce sat up and put his hands on his surroundings. He felt her was in an open crate, he reached out and felt water.
"You were always comfortable in my oceans, boy." Deuce heard his father say.
"You took your first steps on the Petros beaches. You had your first kiss at a pool party and you know as much about sailing as you do about cooking." Poseidon told his son.
"Thanks for taking an interest. Creeping on me and all." Deuce said, he stood in what he understood to be a boat. It didn't rock, at dock I guess.
"Deuce, do you blame me for being killed by Ra?"
"You gotta admit you had something to do with this."
"From the beginning I have only tried to help you."
"Pops, I really couldn't care less about your plans for me."
"Do you not realize this is a great opportunity for a legend? My son escaping death and Ra's clutches?"
"I am going to sit here and enjoy Egyptian hell, if you want to just chill and talk I say okay." Deuce said, sitting against the boat's side.
"Unbelievable. You are unbelievable. Why do you think this is Egyptian hell?"
"My Egyptian heaven is missing a princess but I can wait for her to finish her undead life. "
"What you see in that raccoon-faced barnacle eludes me." Poseidon said.
"Too bad, Pops." Deuce crossed his arms behind his head. In death I'm how I was hatched, dude how is the debt to Thrake going to go down? If she tries to chase down Mom then I'm scared for Thrake.
Poseidon twisted his trident while glaring at the monster he called his son. "That is it, mister king-crab! Isis! You may have at him!"
Deuce remembered Cleo mentioning Isis when they talk about her birthcontrol. He felt the boat rock and sensed the presence of a new creature. Deuce heard a chirping sound, not like a bird but more like a pinching, hissing scorpion.
He felt another rock on the boat and more chirping from behind him. Deuce opened his eyes. He saw a ghoul with an armored exterior, and large snapping claws. She was stone in his sight, as was her friend. Deuce felt guilty for a moment, in the next moment the statues began swinging their claws at Deuce's head.
"Do you want all seven of my daughter against your boy?" The goddess asked, she allowed a miniature scorpion-child to scuttle up her wings.
"No thank you, however I truly wish to see them beat some sense into his thick skull." Poseidon told the woman sharing the cloud he sat in.
"I'll assist however I can to bring a family together again." Isis told the buttery-smelling god.
The scorpion ghoul with the prominent front fangs threw punches at Deuce with both claws. Deuce held up his arms in defense before sliding under the scorpion ghoul with the bigger biceps. Ms. Biceps' tail hooked around Deuce's throat and slammed him against the boat's side. held up the dangerous end of her tail to Deuce's face.
"Ssssurender." told him.
"No, thank you." Deuce said, kicked in the abbs. She was distracted enough in that second for Deuce to grab her claw and punch her sister.
Ms. Fangs spit on the boat's side. Behind her appeared another scorpion ghoul. She had two pairs of arms, each cracking knuckles.
"Ask nicely and you get a sword, boy. Go ahead, beseech my help." Poseidon called from the clouds.
Poseidon's son twisted ' tail. She let go, grabbed the back of his neck and slammed him into the boat. Ms. Gemini and Ms. Fangs stomped in the direction of Deuce's snakes. He rolled and stood up. He went for their noses but met with their open fists.
Poseidon had no control over the sea under him, just as he had no control over his son's will. His agitation could've created a hurricane. "Boy, beseech me!"
"Stop telling him what to do!"
Deuce's heart skipped a beat. He punched in the chin. Ms. Fangs put him in a chokehold but he smiled as he saw the luxurious boat approaching his party.
Cleo stood at the bow of the boat with her arms crossed. "Telling him what to do it my right."
Pal jumped from behind Cleo. He picked up Ms. Biceps and threw her overboard.
She poked her head out from the water with two more sisters at her side. Cleo saw this and lifted an idol she was holding. She watched Pal and Deuce knock the other scorpion ghouls off the boat, tails hitting them as they went.
The ghouls had claws on all sides of the boats when a sonic blast from Cleo's idol pushed them down. In the dark sea Cleo saw them glow. They swam as synchronized swimmers did, lethally around her boat.
"Dammit, that smarts." Pal said looking at the venomous piercing. "Father, I beseech you for healing water."
Deuce was about to say something when Pal pointed his finger at him. "You might be dead but that venom will still own you. Just take it from me, bro."
Poseidon aimed his trident at his one-eyed son. A stream of water shot gently at Pal's piercing. Deuce said thanks to his brother, and a nod to his father. He closed his eyes; Deuce kept a hand on Pal as he walked around him. Deuce found Cleo's expecting hand, she pulled him close while they both stood on separate boats.
"Please tell me you're not staying here long." Deuce asked, he reached a hand out into the air before it landed on Cleo's cheek.
"Neither of us is." Cleo said. She bent down and picked out the sunglasses she kept in her purse. She liked the three-piece burnt-at-the-stake-sienna-vested with black-jacket suit he wore. This is exactly the kind of suit I'd want him married and buried in, Cleo thought.
Isis looked down from her cloud. "I see we're soon to be in-laws."
Deuce's snakes saw Poseidon aim his trident at Cleo. Deuce jumped on the boat. He pushed Cleo back a bit and blocked her from the three-prong blow.
The gorgon braced for the pain of being harpooned. He opened his eyes and saw the trident was floating still in the air, less than an inch from his neck.
"I think I'm close to giving up on him." The Sea god said.
Deuce sighed, "He always says that."
"Your mother was right, you're old enough to take care of yourself, though you'll probably just give way to whatever she says." Poseidon said, pulling his trident back into his hand.
"Deuce, say goodbye to your terrible daddy." Cleo said, taking his in her hands.
"It's never the end with him." Deuce whispered to her but turned to his father sitting in a cloud. "Pops."
"My boy." He nodded at Deuce, and then looked at Pal. "Well?"
Pal blinked his large single eye. "Oh right."
The cyclopes walked to the boat's port. "Bro, I came expecting to see the three of us demi-gods in a fight. It'd be hard to kill you and even harder for you to kill her but it'd be a drama the gods would love."
Poseidon mouthed 'I would' to Isis who shrugged her shoulders.
"But you look like that thirteen year-old kid I couldn't kill the first time around so," Pal's lip trembled and he raised his arms, "Give me some sweetness, my brother from another mother."
Deuce looked at his half-brother up and down before deciding to give him a hand, they chest bumped and patted each other's shoulder. Pal held his hands open to Cleo.
"Not in any dimension." Cleo said coldly.
"Got it, see you at the family picnic." Pal told her before jumping into the water. "Hello, sweet thing. Do you like cars?"
Deuce heard screeching and splashing come after. He noticed his father had disappeared from the cloud. Isis had not left.
"Young one, you know that boat travels in one direction." Isis told the princess from her bygone era.
"I do, Great Mother. I will tell him what he needs to know." Cleo spoke with more respect than Deuce ever heard her say in one direction.
The winged goddess titled her head and gave a small smile before becoming a bright light in the sky. Oranges and pinks painted the once grey sky.
"Have I told you how much I love you recently?" Deuce asked his ghoulfriend.
Cleo slapped his arm. "At the end of all of this you are going to listen to a long list of reasons why it is never right to keep secrets from me. "
She is really in her zone; the colors, the smells and the great dominance just make her look more wow.
Deuce felt the boat move forward. "Babe, you will have me on my hands and knees but can I ask first where we're going?"
The mummy ghoul wrapped her arm with her boyfriend's arm. "We're going to meet Osiris… "
The boat stopped at a dock with a grim looking door. It shined under the murk. The entrance reminded Deuce of Cleo when she dressed for the Zombie Shake Dance. The two monsters walked in, holding hands.
A green-skinned man twice the size of Clawd Wolf sat on a chaise lounge couch. "Hello, my special guests."
"Hello." Cleo said flatly.
Deuce tried to imitate her aloof voice. "Hell-oooo."
So cute when he tries, Cleo thought.
"You will find the necessary tools to your right. Princess, you know a servant isn't to assist you, correct?" Osiris told the ghoul with the eyes of Nekhbet.
"I do." Cleo said coolly. She walked to the table with the blade made to cut out hearts. "Watch me so you'll know where to start."
Deuce held the hand holding the knife. "I cannot watch you do that."
"Well I don't deserve to watch you go through the trial." Cleo didn't want to sound weepy in front of Osiris but Deuce brought out her softside. I hate when he does that.
"You're not dead, Cleo."
"I've always had one foot in the sarcophagus, Deuce. I'm doing this for us."
"Is there any other way out?" The gorgon asked, he considered begging but he didn't want to look weak in front of Cleo's (probably) Great Uncle.
"No, there isn't. "
Deuce put his forehead on Cleo's forehead. "I don't want you to walk away from me again."
"We will make it out together on the other side." Cleo said, her voice trying to sound kind and hopeful, "You are mine, of course we'll be fine through this. It's just Judgment Day."
Deuce made her hand aim the knife at his heart. "Do me first, then I'll do you and then we go in. Together."
Cleo looked at his face, she felt vulnerable and mighty inside.
"You're not the first couple to weigh in together." Osiris told her.
The triangular-jewelry-wearing ghoul touched her boyfriend's chest. She took a breathe before plunging the blade under his collarbone. Deuce made small groaning sound but didn't retreat, he felt Cleo open the wound. Her thin hands went past his clothing and then past lungs. She kept a palm on the heart and used her other hand to cut it from the veins and vessels.
The sunglasses-wearing dude was surprised to see his heart wasn't as large as the pictures in books made it out to be. Cleo cradled the heart, her thumb rubbed it slowly.
Deuce watched her hold the heart to her stomach, making her chest available to him. He took the blade from her. He went around her neck to unhook the golden-snake necklace. It was tight around her long neck, and a bit heavy he thought, but it shined against her short black hair. Deuce dropped the necklace to the ground, pretended to be made of stone and then stabbed Cleo above her heart.
Breaking past her dress, lace bra and bandages was not psychically difficult to do. Deuce cut out her heart the way she did his. It was a larger heart, no surprise there, he thought. He pulled the heart out and dropped the blade.
"How did you want to get proposed to?" Deuce asked as his true love held his literal heart in her hands.
"On a beach at sunset, with a million roses and my sister with a broken nose. Oh, and my closest ten friends watching." Cleo told him, I am actually relieved he asked now because other times seemed too soon.
Deuce smiled, I would've guessed right. "Good to know."
The two shared a look for a minute. They walked to Osiris and his goblin-size scales.
"Place the hearts on the right scale and then every vice you've ever had will be reviewed to decide both of your fates." The God of Death told them.
Cleo and Deuce put their hand son each other's backs.
"I understand." She said.
"I do, too." Deuce said.
They held their hearts over the scale.
Cleo chuckled, "You are in so much trouble."
I will make this up to her, "Bring it on." Deuce said.
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Daphne Thrake drew a star on four blanks spots on the contract before her. "Initials there, if you please."
Toralei whined a meow before writing down her initials with the tip of her claw dipped in red ink.
"How did you get her to agree to take the first day's shift?" Clawdeen asked Jackson and Frankie.
"Yarn and a lot of tuna." Jackson said, adjusting his glasses to the lighting in the office.
" Everyone took on a shift of Deuce's Payment. I didn't love that he asked for a new head but the moving-portrait of Cleo is too voltegeous to not keep." Frankie told her furry beastie.
"Oh they owe us so huge!" Clawdeen said, running a hand past her curls to rub a pointed ear.
"They're our friends, they would've done the same for us." Frankie thought for a minute, "Well, Deuce would put in the work while Cleo got her servants but she would mean well."
So sweet, Jackson thought. "Any idea when they're coming back?"
"Oh, it can't be long now." Frankie said. She smiled, she was out of the funeral-uniform and excited to see everyone in the maid's outfit. Best calendar to be made in a centuary!