Chapter Text
~Y/N PERSPECTIVE~
"See you on Monday!" Ophelia called as you walked out the door.
You felt the Hot Topic bag press against your side as you hummed softly, walking into the night. Moths flew around the soft buzzing light of the streetlamp, and you eyed them curiously. You were going home early after a trip to the mall with your best friend, Ophelia, because you had to study for a test in one of your college classes. Everything in your life was moving past in a blur, and Ophelia was the only thing that really made you feel like you were alive and not a rotting corpse. Everything felt the same every day. College classes, work, study, sleep, and the occasional hang out time with friends but that rarely happened. You had stopped dreaming of your future, knowing that you'd always be trapped in the cycle you were currently in.
You felt hopeless.
You stopped at a crosswalk on your way down the street, waiting for the stop lights to cue the cars so you could cross the road safely. You listened to the roar of cars passing by, blowing their toxic fumes at you. Finally, the cars lulled to a stop and you began to cross. You were almost halfway across when you heard a car quickly approaching, assuming it would see the stoplights and stop you continued your way down. But it didn't stop. You felt the hot headlights glare at you.
You froze.
The car was only a couple feet a way from you, and you braced yourself, knowing you didn't have enough time to get to the other side.
That thing about your life flashing before your eyes? More realistic than you thought. All of your previous memories flew by, a wave of emotion coming with them, all of it lightning fast. Bolts of fear burst through you, and you realized you weren't ready to die. The world around you felt as if it was slowing down, almost as If it was in slow motion.
You and the driver made eye contact as the car was inches away, and you saw fear in their cloudy gaze as well. From the way they looked you guessed they were intoxicated, but you didn't exactly have much time to dwell on that
You were going to die
Your eyes squeezed shut, and you braced yourself.
Thats when you felt someone grab your arm.
You looked and saw a tall man who seemed to glow as if the sun was shining down on him, even though it was the dead of night. He quickly pulled you out of the way as the car raced by. The world sped up again as the car raced past, but when you turned to look at your savior again he was gone. After a moment of hesitance you scurried the rest of the way across the road. You tried to slow down your breath and calm down, but you couldn't. After all, you just almost died.
You continued on your way home, pondering your own mortality. When you got to your apartment you slid off your combat boots and put them by the door. You immediately threw yourself onto the couch, needing a moment to sit down.
You could've died, and yet you didn't.
You're alive.
But why? Who was it that saved you?
And why did his appearance feel so... wrong?
*****
You woke up on the couch, still wearing the same clothes you wore the day before. You must have fallen asleep again.
You groaned as you slowly rose to your feet, hoping you hadn't overslept and weren't late for class. You looked up at the clock and were relieved to see that you had only slept in ten minutes more than usual. You slowly stumbled to the bathroom to change clothes, weighed down by exhaustion.
As you got dressed that morning, you thought about the night before. You were still shaken, still perplexed. Your mind spun with curiosity, trying to untangle the knots of confusion that filled it. Who was that person who had save you? Why did they do it? And why didn't you trust it? You couldn't help but think that whatever it was, it wasn't exactly good. How had he disappeared? Where did he come from? Why did his appearance feel so wrong? He glowed without the sunlight, and you swear you thought you saw feathers somewhere. But you never got to really see him. And you knew you never would.
~HERMES PERSPECTIVE~
It had been a slow day.
Hermes sighed as he looked down at the mortals below him, bored out of his mind. Him and Thanatos had been taking turns taking souls to the afterlife that day, and Hermes knew his break had ended. He begrudgingly let his caduceus transport him to his next soul he needed to guide.
He looked around for a moment, searching for who needed his guidance when he saw what was happening on the road below and realized he was early. Usually he would arrive right after the soul had already died, but he was a couple seconds off.
He didn't usually like this part.
A girl stood in the road, eyes wide as a car came speeding towards her.
Perhaps he could do something about her fate.
After all, he had nothing better to do. A chance to mix things up and break a few rules sounded just about perfect right now.
Hermes flew down and fiercely grabbed the girl's arm, pulling her away from the vehicle. And just like that, a life was saved. Less work for him. The god watched in amusement as the girl quickly scurried away, continuing her way to wherever she was going. He noticed her unusual clothing, black fishnets and fingerless gloves with a ruffled skirt and T-shirt. Usually not the kind of thing to wear on a random Sunday night, and not a style he saw often. That didn't really concern him that much though. After all, why should he care? She was just a random mortal.
Though, Hermes couldn't deny that something about her had piqued his interest. Perhaps he could keeping watching for a while longer. No harm in it.
Right?
****
Hermes lounged on Olympus, pretending he didn't hear Apollo furiously approaching.
"You idiot! You ruined my whole plan!" The music god yelled, his gaze furious.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"That mortal! She was supposed to die that way I could-" Apollo started, cutting himself off. Hermes curiously raised an eyebrow, wondering what he was up to.
"Could what, dear brother?" He asked innocently, batting his eyes.
"Not your business." Apollo muttered, storming off.
Hermes shrugged, continuing to eat grapes off his plate. He knew he shouldn't be worried about that mortal girl he had saved, but he couldn't help himself. He was more curious than anything about what Apollo was planning.
Author's Note: Hellloooo friends! Welcome to my newest creation mwahahhahaha. We'll see how uploads for this will coexist with Divinity, as I'm still not completely sure I can handle two projects at once.
Edit: So I changed Sage's name to Ophelia because she is ending up being a more major and reoccurring character than I thought and the main character of one of my other stories name is Sage, and I don't want to use the name twice. I got the name Ophelia by searching up goth names and went with it because I recognized the name. Don't worry about it having any symbolism, I swear I just picked it because it has a story behind it and it sounded pretty. This early on I might have more edits like this but when I get later into the story I probably won't do this again.
~Published 5/15/25~