The moon god can barely think as he process what he saw.
Blood...
The strong odor, the smell of blood is the only thing he is seeing right now, and at the figure standing in the middle of a pool of blood.
…KILL…
Time seams to slow down as everything became a haze, all he could hear was the dripping sound as it echoes inside his mind. Then that haze starts to turn red as blood. Primal instincts as old as time starts to rise from within the god.
...ĐłɆ!
Immediately, the zombie sensed a very angry disturbance in the air and turned to see a short figure standing close to the alley entrance.
The air around the figure seems to be shimmering, like an illusion of a mirage, but instead of being created by intense sunlight. This mirage is born of intense moonlight. The zombie quickly took a few steps sideways, showing the 2 still living children at the end of the alley. The undead was blocking Khonshu's view, so the moon god didn't saw the 2 kids. And they have pushed themselves to the far wall, trying to get as far away from the zombie.
Witnessing the 2 children shook him out of his anger and his initial rage quickly died down just as fast as it rose. Once that haze disappeared, Khonshu noticed that there is a corpse on the ground, directly at the feet of the zombie where it stood.
Seeing the corpse finally extinguished whatever primal rage he has.
But in it's place, a million questions ran through Khonshu's mind right now. Starting with, What is going on?
The god looked up at the zombie Moon knight again, hoping that it can answer these questions. Khonshu can see splashes of blood on the cloak, and all over its right side. But whatever it is holding is practically dripping in the red liquid, he even see the droplets fall on to the ground.
Khonshu found himself drawn to whatever the zombie is holding. He wasn't even trying, his eyes just moved like a magnet.
He thought that his divine senses have dulled, but something deep inside him is tingling very wildly the moment he laid his eyes on whatever the zombie is holding. He knows it is divine-related, but unlike his over divine aspects of navigation or healing, this one is much feels older and very primal.
But he just found this primal urge to be an annoyance. He also reminded himself that there are more important matters to focus on. So he easily pushed his urge down to a point of being a minor inconvenience.
There are still 2 underage kids terrified to the bone, he said to himself. And that he needs to get them out before Officer Grey arrives.
Khonshu carefully started too walked around the corpse. But he glanced at whatever the zombie is holding, confused at first about his odd reaction. Then it dawned to him why.
The zombie is holding freshly disembodied heart.
Then sensing Khonshu's attention, it moved. Turning until it is now fully facing the moon god and lightly raised his bloody hand towards him.
The moon god then felt that primal urge within him rise once again but this time, it is accompanied with the feeling of pure, and raw hunger. He knows this very well, the primal urge to take that bloody heart and sink his teeth on it like a soft, jelly potato.
Once upon a time ago, he would have immediately done it. It was one of his earliest aspects, and the oldest way of sustenance even before the Egypt was even established. During a time of chaos plagued by constant conflicts, tribal wars and famine so catastrophic that humanity resorted to cannibalism just to survive. And in reflection to that era, his first incarnation.
Though it changed drastically once the lands became united and order was restored. And Khonshu followed with the changing times, adapting to what is the norm. Not to mention after the mess of Sekhmet's out-of-control rampage, having nearly the entire kingdom's population massacred while feasting on their blood and guts, it leaves quite an big impression. Khonshu blames his father Ra for thinking that letting Sekhmet loose on mortals was a good idea.
And it turns out, being a god known to eat hearts is not very appealing to mortals who survived a massacre from another god. So Khonshu's old job of protecting the King via cannibalism was replaced with a more efficient method that doesn't involve him eating hearts. And with his old duty "out of fashion", moon god focused on his other aspects; the ones that is more appealing and preferred by the masses.
Offerings and other sacrifices became replaced with ushabti dolls, mummified animals, and later, regular human food like bread and milk. Khonshu's interest also changed as the moon god grew to like bread, milk and honey. Developing a bit of a sweet tooth. Yet despite the changing times, Khonshu can still eat hearts, it's just not that frequent nor is it a requirement anymore
Then the banishment happened. A combination of desperation, and nearly being driven mad from starvation made him act on his primal and base urges once again. A last resort he uses during the intense distress and hardship of banishment as the old ways of worship became heavily restricted, ostracized, banned, and later abandoned.
Though now, things changed once again when he found himself in a new world. He may be limited to a mortal body, but Khonshu can once again eat stuff other than hearts. No longer does he need to wait for someone to bring him offerings, when he can just buy one for himself. Being both the god and the follower, a way of self-worship now that he thought about it.
And since Khonshu is not running on pure instincts now, he can think beyond the urges. And he finds that he does not trust the zombie Moon Knight one bit. Even though the zombie is clearly offering the heart, Khonshu won't forget the night it and all of its zombie brothers tried to kill him multiple times. After all, he remembers every night.
Slowly and cautiously, he walked around the corpse. Carefully navigating around the zombie while putting as much distance between him and said zombie. All while not taking his eyes off of it, as well as completely ignoring the disembodied heart like it is the biggest insult to his presence.
The zombie didn't move nor react at the rejection, only watching Khonshu as he walked.
By the time he reached the other side, the boy god turned his attention towards the two children. "Are you two okay?" he asked.
The girl nodded. Khonshu can see her slight shaking, but he is relieved to hear this.
"What happened while I was away?" he then asked. She didn't answer immediately, still in shock.
Khonshu gently touched her arm, waking her from her reverie. He then hold both of her arms, not too tightly but just enough to keep the girl grounded. The moon god kept eye contact, looking at the girl in the eyes as he slowly instructed.
"Breath little one. Breathe with me. One… two… three..."
The girl followed, taking deep breaths. And once she calmed down, she slowly recounted what happened the minute Khonshu left.
"After you left, a man came saying to come with him. He kept on saying that he was your friend. I knew it was fake when he said your eyes are blue without mentioning your hair. So I yelled at him to get lost, but he started trying to pull both of us out...a-and…"
The girl stopped mid-sentence. Khonshu can see that the girl is still in shock so he said lowly. "It's okay, the mean man is gone now."
A few seconds passed before the girl found herself able to continue without stuttering.
"...then this white guy appeared out of nowhere and pulled the creep away. And started punching him, again and again. Then he punched the man's chest really hard and the man just dropped. There was blood everywhere, so much blood."
Khonshu knows that the something is the kidnapper's own heart.
He can still feel the girl shaking, reminding Khonshu why he was there in the first place. "Let's get out of here." He said gently and pulled the other two to follow him. They avoided the corpse and the zombie Moon Knight as they left. It is still standing as still as a statue, except for its eyes as it continues to track the moon god's movements.
The moon god felt very exposed under its gaze. He already felt uncomfortable when the zombie was out of his sight. But now that it is only meters away, Khonshu can directly feel the intense weight of its gaze. Like it is expecting something from him but Khonshu doesn't know what.
The boy god just avoided eye-contact with the undead. But before they exited the alley, Khonshu did one last glance at the zombie, and left. After a beat, while still walking, Khonshu thought of something and turned to the girl.
"The white guy, he may look scary, but he save your life. If he didn't arrive, then you would have been taken again."
The girl didn't respond, but Khonshu can tell that she is listening. He added, "I think it would be best if you didn't rat him out to the authorities. At least, just say that you are too shocked to see him clearly." After a while, he added "And, can you not tell anyone I told you that? It would be annoying to say the least." He said low enough that the girl can hear.
Henry E. Jacobson was a 30 something guard just doing his job. So far, his day was mostly uneventful, something he is happy about. No alien attacks, robberies, or eldritch space tentacles coming out of the sewers.
Except for one pretentious kid he found trying to sneak in. He immediately didn't like the kid very much, easily labeling him as a spoiled brats despite not even dressed like one. The only thing to complete the look was if the kid was wearing a super-clean uniform from those private schools and cut his overgrown bangs. Henry just tried to be professional, patiently explaining the situation. He hopes that the kid will let it go and not go on a self-righteous rant about how his father will hear about this.
The guard already experienced people like that before and is not looking forward to that experience.
To his surprise, the kid actually let the matter go and just walked away. Now that raised an eyebrow, but Henry shrugged. Happy that he doesn't have to do anything drastic.
But his day is about to get more interesting when he noticed the same pretentious kid running up to him and started asking if he knows Lieutenant James Rodriguez. This surprised Henry since he had met the Lieutenant before, and also have the man's number.
Is he another psychic?
The guard wondered. The kid was so adamant that Henry decided to try it anyway.
Besides, James can handle this kid.
He thought as he dialed his friend. And to his surprise again, James asked to talk to the kid.
Henry just looked in confusion as the kid talked with the Lieutenant like they know each other, then handed back his phone. Before the kid walked away, not even explaining what his connection with the senior officer was.
It took a while before Henry saw the same kid coming back, and this time, he brought 2 other kids. The guard is immediately alarmed by the blood splotches on their clothes and shoes.
"Who are these kids? And what happened?" he asked as soon as they got close. At that moment, they heard a car approaching. It had the police emblem on the side and stopped close to them. Soon female officer stepped out.
She walked casually towards where Henry is, and she greeted the kid first. "Hey kid, a bit of a surprise to hear from you. And nice bangs." Officer Amelia Grey said, immediately noticing the hair covering the Khonshu's eyes. She knows that the kid is glaring at her, but she knows that it is generally harmless.
The moment she notice the other two kids standing beside the Khonshu, she quickly changed to a professional stance. Once she got close, Khonshu went to explain about how he found the two kids and their situation but left out on describing the zombie Moon Knight's attire. Specifically, he is being very careful with his words that they can't pinpoint it immediately to the Marc Spector of this world.
Grey's eyes widened after hearing this and asked for more details.
"Where and when did this happen?" She said.
"Very recently, when I arrived there was already a dead body on the ground."
Grey looked pensive and asked the girl if this is true. She nodded, confirming the murder. The officer then requested that Khonshu bring her to the alley. They are reluctant to bring the two kids with them, but Henry heard everything and offered to watch over them.
"I'm not going anywhere, so might as well keep an eye on them." He explained.
Khonshu actually forgot the man was there, and is still a bit pissed at the guard for not letting him in. Grey, though, have no trouble in accepted his help. "C'mon kid, lead the way." She said. Khonshu just glanced at Henry but didn't say anything. Turning around with the female officer following behind.
The Moon god was a bit worried that the zombie might still be there, but to his relief, the undead is gone by the time he arrived.
The smell of blood is still thick in the air, but he still had to hold his breath when he went closer, only stopping a couple of meters from the corpse. Grey was also taken by the scent and pulled out a handkerchief from her pocket to cover her nose.
"You should stay here kid. I'll get a closer look." Grey said and walked closer to inspect the body. Scrunching her nose at the smell of fresh blood. Khonshu have no trouble agreeing with that statement, even he is getting tired with the smell of blood. But more so that his subconscious urge to devour hearts gets annoyingly loud when he gets close to the body.
This confuses him as Khonshu have killed other people in a very bloody manner, but there was never the urge to rip out its heart. He easily suspect that the action of the zombie Moon Knight is causing this change.
As Grey walked further inside, the moon god settled with staying at the entrance.
A minute later, while Grey was deep inside the alley, Khonshu spied something shiny on the edge of his vision. He quickly glanced at the female officer who is still crouching down and with her back to him. Quietly and quickly, Khonshu sidestepped until he got a better view of what caught his eye. And right there hidden behind some trash, is a slightly bloody silver crescent-shaped blade. Too small to be held like a knife but can still be thrown. Almost like a trinket that you hang on the window. Without missing a beat, Khonshu picked it up pocketed it. Carefully covered up any traces of his movement and quietly returned to where he was standing. Acting like nothing happened.
It took a short while before Grey walked back to Khonshu.
"Did you find anything?" He asked as they return back to where Henry is.
"I'll have to call in the experts to inspect things further. Did you know that the heart was ripped out?" she said, looking at Khonshu.
The boy kept his face as neutral as he can when he replied, "You remember the white man the girl mentioned? When I arrived, it was already there standing over the body. Didn't saw the corpse at first since the stranger was blocking my view, I also saw it was holding something very bloody, but it was too dark to see clearly. I really don't want to get close to the puddle of blood officer, I was more focused to getting the others out" He reasoned.
"And you have no idea who it might be?"
"Not a clue, there are a lot of superheroes in this city and they all tend to wear flashy outfits. Though I have one guess, but I doubt anyone of them would enjoy ripping out hearts." Khonshu said.
Grey didn't seem to find anything too suspicious about that pulled out her phone, "The investigative team should arrive in a few minutes." She said. As he waited for the call to connect, Grey thought back about the white man. The way the girl describe him, she felt like she heard it before. Maybe she'll ask some of her colleagues once she gets back to the station.
Beside her, Khonshu took the time to get a closer look on the two other kids. Gently asking the girl to lift her wrist, but avoided commenting about the scars on her exposed arm. Up close, he can see that the cuts are deliberate, careful and too thin to be a forced slash. Khonshu knows that it is still a sensitive subject and he decided that he don't have the patience to open that can of worms in the middle of the street. He also learned that the girl is name Jenny and is currently 14. The god raised an eyebrow as she looks skinnier. He mentally noted that it could be malnutrition. The same can be said with the younger boy.
"He's Tim" Jenny said once Khonshu asked about the younger one.
"Is he your sibling?"
"…cousin." Jenny replied after a beat.
Khonshu tried to look at Tim's wrist but the younger boy is even more terrified of strangers than Jenny. Quickly hiding behind his older cousin when Khonshu bended at his direction. Though the god noticed that Tim will easily follow Jenny without hesitation.
Grey then called them over. Beckoning the Jenny and Tim to go with her.
Jenny clearly doesn't want to enter the car of someone she doesn't know. Khonshu noticed this and had to convince her to cooperate.
"It's fine, she's someone I trust to help you. I told her not to send you back to your father. It's going to be okay." He said in a low voice that only Jenny can hear.
Jenny still looks unsure, but knowing that Khonshu actually trust the police woman is enough to slightly convince her. Though Khonshu had to gently push Jenny for the girl to finally cave in. The god just gave a tired smile as she glanced back one last time, before pulling Tim inside the car.
He then walked over to Grey's side of the car. The female officer saw his approach and said, "Thanks for calling us about this. But please bring your phone next time kid". She then opened her car door, getting ready to enter.
Khonshu just nodded, but it is mainly so Grey won't ask again.
But at that moment he remembered something, quickly stopping Grey before she could close the door.
"Grey, did anyone file a missing kid's report? I found a lost girl this morning but we got separated. He name is Eva, and her mother is Rose. Supposedly Rose works at the Supreme Court." He quickly asked.
Grey just gave a confused look. "I'll have to ask around. That sounds recent though, hopefully someone had called by then." She said and closed her door. But she pulled down her car window to face Khonshu
"Hey, thanks for informing us about this. But next time, please bring your phone with you. I'll call you if I get any news about Eva. See you around K." She said and drove off.
A few seconds later, Khonshu heard the arrival of another set of cars. He easily assumed them to be the investigative team Grey mentioned, and watches as people exit the car. Some in uniform, some in casual clothes, but they all head to where the dead body is.
The sound of clicks and tapes being unrolled can be heard echoing in the alley.
"Man, this day just keeps getting better and better." Henry piped behind Khonshu, startling him for a moment. The god actually forgot that the guard is still standing behind him, and turned around to look at Henry.
"Sorry to startle you kid, but you were just standing there." Henry said once he got the boy's attention.
Khonshu just replied a very deadpan stare. The guard is starting to feel a bit nervous at the boy's piercing stare, until the kid said in an equally deadpan voice. "Yes it does." Then Khonshu he turned around and walked away.
Henry stood there annoyed at the rude kid. He didn't have a very good opinion on the bratty boy but seeing him try and help 2 orphans made Henry think that maybe, the kid's not that bad. But he still thinks the boy is a pretentious brat with an attitude.
Khonshu speed walked until he is sure that he can no longer see the overpass behind him, then he slowed down to a more tolerable pace. Easily blending in to the crowd.
To other's it looks like the boy is on a casual stroll, but inside is another story. Questions and thoughts storm inside the moon god.
What is the Zombie doing here? Why did it kill the man instead of him? Did the Zombie leave any other traces behind?
That last one reminded the boy of the blade in his pocket. His slow and casual pace is calculated so that each stride will not cause the blade to cut through his shorts. The crescent blade itself looks and feels light. So light Khonshu felt like he was holding a very heavy feather when he picked it up. But at that moment, the blade feels like a ton of bricks in Khonshu's pocket.
He is wondering if he made the right decision to pick it up before Grey could find it, but then the Cult of Khonshu is still very much active in this universe. One look at the crescent blade and anyone with a brain could recognize the symbol, the same symbol Khonshu plastered on his ceremonial armor.
The existence of the zombie dressed like Moon Knight will only cause confusions, questions and an inevitable confrontation. The type of confrontation that Khonshu would rather avoid, at least until Khonshu can find a way to get rid of the zombie.
The boy god internally groans as he can still feel the undead watching him from wherever it is hiding, and this did nothing to make him relax one bit.
...To be continued