Job

“Damian, what’s the job?” “Nothing serious Senua but this job will test your morality. A lonely beast who is misunderstood and mislead has been killing innocents. I’m going to show you how to get out of these tricky situations or get payed a lot more!” she nodded adjusting her hair before studying her sword asked, “How do we kill it?” “I’ll explain it when we find it. As I said before certain beasts have a certain ways to deal with them. You’re a fast learner, so we won’t need to spend much time on it!” she nodded smiling as she spoke, “You think so?” “Yes, you are great woman! Less hassle than Keira but also more skilful; it makes me wonder why you were willing to travel and work with me... I thought Dillion would be your primary interest!” “He...” I nodded before saying, “Is just an decorative item now. I’m sorry we couldn’t help anymore... if you... if you want anyone to help you put his soul to rest then you know where I am!” “Thank you Damian; I just... I just don’t want to let go right now!” “I know but when you are ready then I’ll be there!” she nodded kissing my cheek, “I will know where to go!”

They marched through the heavy doors to hades sanctuary the guards alert but not interacting knew of who he was and by his manner knew he wasn’t going to do anything to their leader, “Hades!” Damian barked which made the fellow giant of an man turn to face him before smiling nodded as his way to greet his descendant, “Senua watch and learn” Damian whispered before stopping in front of Hades spoke bluntly, “What do you want?” “You know the job, it’s just the price we need to discuss!” “Okay, let me rephrase it... where are they?” “Near Thánatos’ rest! Four more dead today!” he nodded before saying casually, “Name it?” “250 gold coins for Senua and my citizenship restored!” “250? 250 gold coins... it’s not even worth 150!” “300 now, the more time you waste the more it increases!” “Fine 200!” “275!” “250 as you first said!” “Fine! But I want my citizenship” “That’s the thing, you need two patrons to sign it; these are the original Isu family; directly descended from the Titans or the underworld gods. Poseidon, Aphrodite, Artemis, Hera, Zeus, Hermes, Ares, Hephaestus, Apollo, Demeter, Athena or Dionysus. Then you require one of the lower ranked Isu; so this includes people like Thnatos, Nyx, Hestia, Leto, Eros, Deimos and so on. I will support you; that much is true but I only if the job is done” he nodded before contemplating it spoke, “Doesn’t seem too bad: me and Artemis are good friends, Athena had a crush on me and Hera well I know what she wants... then Nyx; well we were always close! Deal!” we shook hands before walking out he spoke to Senua, “When you don’t want to do a job, simply demand an massive but achievable sum. That way they will refuse to accept the terms and you are free from the contract or they agree; if they do then you are earning an extortionate sum for an job and in this realm money means everything!”

“Is this an easy job?” “Yes because we have this” I spoke lifting up the flask, “This is from Olympus. The creature will have an strong almost impenetrable armour shell, this makes the armour retract enough to land a critical blow!” she nodded before grabbing her flask to study the liquid asked, “So we just pour it over the sword?” “Yes coat it and we won’t have an problem in killing it, we’ll bring back its head to prove our truth!”

We watched the burning fire pit and next to it the creature was feasting on the carcass of a child which had tried to flee from the terror, “Let’s prepare the solution and circle it, I’ll go left and you right!” she already was moving whilst she crept around being cautious in not making any sound and I after coating my sword began to copy her in a parallel line. The beast noticed us it wasn’t hard from our foreign scent but what Senua didn’t know was I was aware of this. I jumped down drawing it towards me it’s fangs bearing preparing for its charge; when it came I rolled before striking it revealing pink flesh before striking it again revealed more before running towards Senua’s direction heard the collision of metal and a squeal from the wounded beast who not with the sword in it’s back turned to Senua who grabbed her knife to fend the beast off.

She is watched fending the bites off until she saw a another sword swing and a grunt when it made contact but not being deep enough to kill it, the sword fell out from the creature as Senua readied herself once more but seeing it being fended off by Damian’s metal grieved arms picked his sword up. Damian received blows but he retaliated kicking or punching it before seeing her rush towards it he nodded tackling it to the floor receiving a bite mark before crying retracted it’s fangs before laying still.

She of course removed the head and when asking about it being “easy” they found out it was female and had eggs nearby which in turn Damian burnt in the nearby fire with the explanation of, “If we don’t clear this up now, we’re gonna have more problems later!” and as Hades promised pay was exchanged for their job but now as they walked back from their job Damian started to walk unsteadily and her words felt distant to him before he could ask for help he fell over his feet falling to the floor, “Damian! What’s wrong?” “Should have mentioned that!!” he wheezed, “Their bite is poisonous; it causes mild hallucinations and the victim to feel weak, it’ll pass; just need to get to my room” she helped him stumble back to the street from where he was arguing with Keira earlier before falling in a thud Senua looked around contemplating on what she should do, “Guards, guards!” the metallic men marched towards her and recognising the Isu markings stood to attention waiting for her to speak, “He needs help. We should... we should... take him to Keira; no that’s too far. Let’s... let’s take him to Triss’ house; she’ll know what to do, follow me!”

*knock* *knock* the door repeatedly tapped until the door flung open to see Triss wearing her dressing gown rubbed her eyes, “Senua what’s wrong?” Senua encouraged the men to carry him in as she pleaded, “Triss, I didn’t know who else to turn to; he was bitten and he’s started to feel the effects; he said it’s only temporary but I couldn’t carry him home, I don’t even know where he lives!” “It’s okay Senua!” “I know I shouldn’t have put that much pressure on you!” “It’s fine, I will look after him. Get Asclepius and inform Keira; I’ll do what I can. What did he say?” “Damian said he would start hallucinating and feel weak!” Triss nodded pulling the cover over him before grabbing a bowl of warm water began to remove his armour to provide more access to the wound, “It’s been a while since I last did this to him!” “Really? When did you ever strip him?” “Well when we used to do it... all clothes were off and a lot of kissing was involved but go now and tell Asclepius first; he’s the physician not Keira!”

The next few hours were met with regular knocks on the door the first being Persephone who overheard Senua informing Asclepius of what had happened and had headed over; however it was then when Asclepius came less than half an hour after and then a hour after that was Charon; Damian’s friend and Keira. “How is he?” Triss asked Asclepius as he began to stitch the wound, “He’s in a comatose state, whilst his body digests and heals from the toxin within him; he will remain like this for a short while; it’s important he is kept hydrated and supervised in case something changes!” Triss nodded before stating, “It’s my house, so I’ll do it!” he nodded but Keira in her jealousy tone snapped, “Of course you would. Just like how he happened to end here!” Senua walked up to her before calmly snapping in defence of Triss, “I brought him here because of three reasons. The first being I couldn’t carry him all the way to your place and I couldn’t expect the guards to either, the second is he needed medical help and not being sure on how lethal this toxin is to him I took him to the nearest aid and finally... YOU. AREN’T. TALKING. TO. HIM! remember?” “I remember but I just find it fishy how he passes out near Triss’ house! “You seriously think... that he did this on purpose?” “Maybe not... but maybe he knew this would happen so sought to pass out here to be near Triss!” “You are even more delusional then I thought!” Triss snapped back and as Keira went to respond they heard from Damian a faint moan of, “Oooh Triss!” they froze apart for Keira who glared over to Triss but it was Asclepius who began to explain what just happened, “When like this the patient can dream and sometimes they reveal their fantasies, live their fantasies, reveal their feelings or the truth or even feel fake feelings/emotions where they imagine something that isn’t actually happening. Don’t worry Keira, this is only temporary!” “He’s still thinking about her whatever the way you sugarcoat it!” “Keira wait for him to awake and talk it out!” Persephone urged but refusing it Keira wrote on a blank piece of parchment, “It’s over, I don’t want to you near me or the children again. You filthy, dirty scum- Keira” before slamming the door on the way out, “Will you need anything?” Asclepius again spoke professionally, “Just the odd ingredients to control his body temperature!” he nodded before handing her the ingredients spoke encouraging the others leave, “I’ll be back in a week or so!” before leaving her alone with the Isu who lay peacefully in his sleep.