Into The Heart

By: Lazy Laziel and Silverwriter01

All characters are ours and ours alone. If they look like anybody you know, or think you know, its sheer coincidence. This story does contain some violence, foul language, and spooky stuff.

Lazy Laziel: While I have indeed written parts of this, any and all kudos should go to silverwriter01@yahoo.com for this piece. There are several reasons, chief among them being that she’s the one that made sure this got made. My hat off to her.

Silverwriter01: Laziel’s is just being modest and deserves lots of kudos as well at LazyLaziel@gmail.com. It wouldn’t have gotten done if I couldn’t have bounced ideas off of him.

Special thanks to Sherri for editing.

This is dedicated to everyone who has waited two years since the first story was posted. We’re deeply sorry for the delay.

Synopsis: Jenny and Rebel have moved on to college and the pair haven’t really spoken since the incident with the Neck. They are brought back together when Bliss, son of Cupid, decides to get creative with his work.

 

***

“So let’s see what’s on the agenda for today,” Bliss said, checking his phone. He scrolled through the major headline of the news first: Zeus found with some new woman; Hera furious. After reading a few gossip columns by the muses, Bliss finally clicked on his work email. Sixty thousand unread emails from his boss and father, Cupid, flooded the screen. Cupid forwarded those emails from his boss and mother, Aphrodite.

“Make this person happy, matchmaking, matchmaking, matchmaking, break this couple up, matchmaking, matchmaking, same old, same old,” The stunningly handsome blond stated with a sigh. It had been easy back in the day, with the population being what it was. Now they usually had to work overtime. He stood up from his breakfast table and stretched his wings, “Best get to it.”

Bliss walked through his bachelor pad until he came to his weapons cabinet. He went through his series of recognition tests (Athena was very strict on weapons safety and regulations after one too many gods had stolen another god’s weapon) before his cabinet opened. Framed in the center was his bow and quiver full of arrows. They were a gift from his grandmother to spread love and happiness throughout the world. It had taken several centuries to earn them, his infatuation with the weapon as a child having made his father and grandmother somewhat nervous.

Now, though, he wished it was something cooler than an old bow. A few centuries back he had tried to talk his father and grandmother into letting him use a rifle, to differentiate him from his father a little bit. He was always getting called Cupid and he wanted to make a name for himself. He still didn’t know why they'd reacted so badly to idea of a gun. He thought it was cool.

He looked at the bow and then he flicked a glance at today’s list. It was just a bit lighter than usual so maybe... He absent-mindedly smiled and nodded. It was finally experiment time. He took out one of his arrows and crushed it into a fine powder. He would try sprinkling it in someone’s food to see if it did the trick. It would be a much better way to make someone fall in love, and he would get to interact with people more.

Looking over his list he saw he had a perfect chance to use his new invention. He was scheduled to make a college girl fall in love with the boy of her dreams whom she had never paid attention to before. They were both going to be in a cooking class and that’s where he would make his move.

The blonde flew to his closet and walked inside. It was the size of a football field, but it was all he could afford with his faith-salary being what it was. He put on a tailored suit, taking several minutes to make sure the dimple in his tie was in the correct spot. After he was satisfied Bliss collected his bow and quiver before going on his way.

*

“Dude, you should totally give her this chocolate heart.”

Brian peaked a glimpse at the girl he had spent more than one class daydreaming about before looking back at the new friend he’d made.

“I don’t know, man. She’s so pretty and out of my league. I wouldn’t stand a chance with her.”

“You would if you gave her this heart,” the man said. He was wearing a dark suit under his apron, which was hot pink with the words ‘Love is Bliss’ stamped on it. The strangely dressed fellow looked like he belonged in a boardroom instead of a voluntary college cooking class. Yet it somehow didn’t seem weird for him to be there -- there was something about his open and childlike face.

Brian was also completely confused as to why he made a heart. He had been making Halloween candy before the strange man showed up. He had mindlessly gone digging through drawers in the cooking classroom until he found the Valentine’s cooking molds just to make this heart.

“It’s an eye opener, a way in.” Bliss reassured.“She’ll know you like her and it lets her go from there. Chocolate, when used correctly, is the greatest tool for love there is.”

Brian looked down at the heart he had made and then back over at the girl he liked. He gazed at that auburn hair for a beat then he nodded, confidence blooming in his chest. “You’re right, buddy. I’m going to give this to her now, and then give her one every year on Halloween’s Day while we grow old together.”

“That’s the stuff!”

Brian grinned and turned to his new friend, “Thanks for your help, pal. I never would have gotten the courage to do this without you.”

“No problem, amigo. I’ll see you around campus,” Bliss said as he shook the man’s hand. While Brian had been distracted, he had sprinkled a pinch of crushed arrow-love dust onto the heart. When that girl took a bite, which she would since the dust gave the heart an irresistible glaze, her dormant love would come rushing out.

“My work here is done,” Bliss said as he walked out of the classroom.“Onto the next… oh, a breakup,” he mumbled, looking at his schedule. Then he smirked. “Breakups tend to mean breakup sex. Whether the couple has sex or I’m the one having sex, both are still fun. Time to fly.”

Bliss left the college campus, pink hearts just like his grandmother’s in his wake, and he didn’t give Brian a second thought.

Brian stared down at the chocolate heart he had made and frowned. He had left a fingerprint smudge on it without thinking, and he couldn’t give the girl of his dreams a print-smudged chocolate. Completely ignoring sanitary issues, he broke up the chocolate back into the large melting pot the class was using and stirred the pieces until it was all melted in. With a ladle he poured chocolate into his heart mold and went about making another heart.

After a quick stay in the blast chiller, his new heart was ready. Brian went up to Patrice, the girl of his dreams, not having a terrified clue where the courage was coming from, and held out the chocolate heart, “Would you have my heart?”

Patrice had never given the guy in front of her a second thought in her entire life. He just wasn’t her type, and besides, what idiot makes heart candy so close to Halloween? But the chocolate did look yummy, which was strange since she didn’t even like chocolate. Truth be told, she was only taking the class to impress another guy she had her eye on. She took the heart from Brian and had a bite, just to humor him she told herself.

As the first mouthful started to melt in her mouth and the sweetness spread, she knew she would always love chocolate and the man who gave it to her.

“You want to go on a date sometime?” Patrice asked, and Brian almost swallowed his tongue.

“Yes! Wh-when is good for you?”

“How about now?”

Brian could only nod as Patrice took him by the arm, leading him out of the kitchen.

For the next few days that chocolate melting pot would be continued to be used by everyone. The edict ‘waste not, want not’, being the slogan of the teacher that ruled that particular kitchen. More chocolate was added every day to make new chocolate lollipops with candy corn ears and spookily decorated chocolate-covered strawberries. It was drizzled over pretzels and pumpkins.

It was almost Halloween and everyone with half a cooking bone in their body and a Pinterest account had decided to use up the university’s funding to make their own candy.

But magic grows. Brian’s chocolate heart had the perfect dose on it, something only a god associated with love could have measured. Bliss hadn’t calculated the side-effects caused by eating the magical dust, especially so close to All Hallows’ Eve. He hadn’t calculated what the magic could transform into. Now it was free. Free from its arrow, free from restraint. Every piece of chocolate that came out of that pot had a little bit of crushed magic in it.

Half the campus was soon infected.

***

“I don’t want another cup of coffee, I want you to take me home and spank me!”

I watched as the coffee shop grew very quiet and everyone turned towards the speaker. The man who had blurted out the confession was turning a bright red and soon rushed out of the shop, looking mortified. The woman whom he had been talking to also left the shop very quickly. It was hard to tell if she was embarrassed or excited. Perhaps she was both.

“Well, that’s a first in my book and I’ve worked here a while,” The cashier behind the registered said. “Jenny! Your order is ready.”

I stepped up to take my white mocha latte though all my attention was still on the couple that had just run out. I walked over to where my friend was sitting with her own drink.

Carly said, “Wow, man. That was crazy.”

“You’re telling me,” I replied. I absent-mindedly took a sip of my drink and quickly regretted the decision when the fluid burned my mouth. I hurriedly swallowed and gasped, “Hot, hot!”

Carly smirked, “I know I am, but what are you?”

I gave my friend a looked that said ‘I am not amused’ and took the lid off my cup in hopes of cooling it off. As Carly pulled out her phone to answer a text, I took the time to look around. The coffee shop was full of college students. Not surprising considering it was only a block from the main campus. Everything was decorated in colors of black and red with random ghosts and skeletons everywhere. Halloween was only a few days away and the world wanted you to know it. I was surprised there weren’t pumpkins on my coffee cup.

“Don’t look now but there’s that girl you try to avoid,” Carly said, nodding out the window. I looked even though I knew very well who Carly was talking about. I caught a glimpse of Rebel before I quickly turned away from the window. I stared intently at the cup in my hand and scowled when I realized there were tiny little pumpkins drawn on it.

“Are you ever going to tell me why you dislike that girl so much?” My friend questioned.

“Nope.”

Carly persisted, “Is she an ex-girlfriend? Did she cheat off one of your tests? Did she finally report you for using men’s bathroom?”

I heavily sighed and glared at my friend, “I ask you to watch the door for me one time, and I’ve never heard the end of it.”

“We've gotta get going. Class starts in twenty and you know how Griffin gets when you’re late to his class.”

We walked out of the coffee shop and toward the school.

Carly asked, after taking a sip of her coffee, “Why didn’t you change classes after you realized she was in 3012 with us?”

“Because the only other class available at this time was with Walker and I would rather die than take her again,” I stated firmly. I was still very bitter about an unjustified B the woman had given me. “Besides, then I wouldn’t be get to share a class with your charming self.”

My best friend winked at me as we walked across the commons. We were both surprised to see several people making out all over the place.

While I was happy to see so many same-sex couples getting it on, I thought they should get a room. Carly seemed to agree, “Jesus, look at that couple. They couldn’t even wait to take off their aprons.”

I watched two guys practically clawing at each other outside Moral Hall. They both wore the blue aprons that were standard in the building’s teaching kitchen, meaning they were taking a cooking class. ‘Were’ being the key word.

Carly squinted to get a better look at them, “I could have sworn that one guy had a girlfriend. Oh well. That’s what college is for. Have you ever taken a cooking class in there?”

“Nope,” I answered happily. “All I need to know about cooking is how long to set the microwave. We’d best hurry up. Dr. Griffin doesn’t like to see coffee cups in his class since he gave up caffeine for New Year’s. I have to admit he’s been good to stay strong for so long.”

“I liked him better when he was addicted,” Carly replied, draining the last of her cup before throwing it away.

Dr. Griffin walked in holding a white bakery box. He set the box down briefly to walk over to one of the walls and flipped a few switches to turn on the projector and lower the screen. He cleared his throat before he spoke, “Alright boys and girls, before we get started, I wanted to share with you some cookies that I bought from the cooking club. Normally I don’t do such things but the advisor of the club convinced me it was a good cause.”

“Is he blushing?” Carly asked, barely above a whisper. I gave the faintest of nods. This was very unlike Griffin, who could discuss the darkest and most taboo of subject matters without even changing his tone of voice.

“Now let’s talk about the assignment you were supposed to do since last time. You were to write about the story of an important kiss in your life. It didn’t have to be a romantic gesture or even a gesture of familiarity. In this writing course, you are expected to open up in your work. Either that or be a very good liar,” The professor stated as he passed handed out individually wrapped cookies like they were homework assignments.

After he had them all handed out and the projector was ready for use, he pulled up a file from a flash drive

 “You will be working as partners to review your papers.”

Carly fired her finger gun at me and I rolled my eyes good-naturedly.

Griffin continued on, “I expect different levels of work of course, since this is a mixed level class. So what I have done is paired the higher level students with those taking this course as a filler elective. I expect the 3000 level students to review the 1000 level students work for mistakes we have taught you to look for. You 1000 level students will review your partner’s work for similar things but also focus on how the story made you feel. Did you relate to the story? Did you believe the story? This is what you’ll be doing for the next 75 minutes. Here is the list of partners. Find yours and begin.”

I felt my heart sink when I saw who my partner was. The world couldn’t be so cruel to me. I had to be misreading the list. I blinked and refocused my eyes, but the words remained unchanged. My partner was Rebel Reeves.

“I can’t do this,” I whispered. I grabbed Carly’s arm, “Switch places with me.”

“What?” My best friend said, shaking off my hold, “Why?”

“Please, Carly. Please,” I begged. Carly looked up to read who my partner was and a look of understanding crossed her face. “I want to, Jenny, but I can’t. Griffin will know what we did and kill us both. It will be okay. Get out your red pen, read her paper, write some notes, and leave. You’ll make it.”

I looked across the room at Rebel who seemed to look just as upset by the partnership as I did. With a will of steel, I picked up my bag and walked across the room to the girl I haven’t spoken with in almost four years. If you excluded the few polite ‘hellos’, we haven’t spoken since the night at the cave. It was the subject we hadn’t discussed, but it was also the subject of my paper.

I settled tersely beside the blonde and slid my paper over, “Let’s get this over with.”

Rebel nodded her agreement and handed me hers. I set about reading the most important kiss in Rebel’s life.

I could feel my mouth twitching as I read her assignment. It was obvious that Rebel was not interesting in writing and hadn’t tried very hard on the paper. No, in some respects it read more like a research paper. There were some parts that were touching and worthy of merit. The part about kissing her grandfather goodbye before he died was very moving. The conclusion of Rebel’s paper caused my face to crinkle into a scowl. I could feel my anger rising.

In conclusion: Kissing, as an act of expressing love, has been fetishized in our culture and we now place far too much value on this simple act of pressing lips together. We constantly hear how important it is, how it can make or break a relationship. Since starting college I have heard from no less than 19 various students, and one teacher, that their first kiss was disappointing and the relationship wouldn’t go anywhere.

Kissing is simply an action. A technique that can be improved. What matters most is the intent behind the kiss.

I have one last example to give and that is my first ever romantic kiss. It happened in the heat of the moment. It was certainly not planned. And our surroundings was certainly not conducive to romance, dark and not a little wet. But still, it happened. And it was an utter disappointment.

It was sloppy, mismatched, and as awkward as it could be. If first kisses set the tone for a relationship, then ours would have ended the very next minute. But my boyfriend and I are still together, because the intent of the kiss mattered more than the act itself. We were expressing our emotions, our care, even love, young as it might have been, for each other.

Kissing is an act. A nice act, but an act all the same. I have yet to swoon over a kiss, my leg still hasn’t popped up as I ‘surrender’ into one and I doubt I will ever do these things.

But that doesn’t matter. The fuel behind the act does.

I tried to bite my tongue. I really did. Maybe she hadn’t meant to slight me by claiming her boyfriend was her first kiss. I didn’t know if I was Rebel’s first or not, but I had certainly kissed her before this college boyfriend had. He was her college boyfriend because she hadn’t dated anybody, let alone guys, back home. Not that I kept tabs on Rebel or anything.

It might have been easier to read if not for the fact that for a few moments, I thought she had written about us. It was a little insulting for her to think our first kiss was so sloppy, awkward, and disappointing. That slight was nothing compared to the insult I felt when I realized she was talking about someone else.

I tried to see her side of the story. Maybe she wasn’t ready to come out yet. Maybe she didn’t want to share what really happened with a complete stranger because it meant so much to her. I’m a creative writer; I can think of lots of explanations. But none of the explanations I thought of made what I read easier to take. Then resemblance of control I had was lost when she spoke.

“Nice piece of fiction you have here,” Rebel said.

Fiction? It wasn’t fiction. I started to grow angry at her denial of our past.

“I can say the same thing about your conclusion,” I snapped. “And you misused a colon!”

***

I looked up from the paper, slightly taken aback at her attitude. It was nice. Not something I’d put much stock in myself, but it was good. So why was she looking so angry? At least I think it was anger. She kept staring down at my paper and wouldn’t meet my eyes so it was hard to be sure.

My mind flickered through the possible reasons. Was it because we hadn’t really talked since high school? That couldn’t be it, could it? We hadn’t been enemies back then, but we hadn’t really been friends either. I could only recall a few conversations between us and-

A cold shiver rushed down my spine and for a terrifying moment my mind became a gaping hole with me standing on the precipice. I froze, the air stuck in my lungs. Then I somehow shook it off, backing away from the pit as I got back on track.

I couldn’t recall any conversations between us, and that pattern had continued at college when I noticed we were both here.

And if it wasn’t personal, it had to do with my writing, plain and simple.

“Hey,” I whispered in an attempt to keep things calm. At least I think that’s what I was trying to do. It was kind of hard to tell since my tone was harsh in return. “My writing is rooted in fact without any ‘fiction’ mucking it up! The opinion and conclusion might not be the popular one, but it’s mine and I stand by what I wrote.”

“Oh please,” she said with… something in her eyes. “You might have written it, but this drivel is about as real as Harry Potter.”

“You might not like it,” I spat out between clenched teeth. “Since it apparently flies in the face of your nice, little romantic notions, but tough luck!”

“Well obviously you’ve never even had a romantic notion so you wouldn’t know one if you bit you on the ass.”

One retort and she was already under my skin and shredding my nerves. It was like she had found the little, nagging voice inside my head about my relationship with Jason and spoke it aloud.“This isn’t a debate on who’s right, Engine, just a silly little task we have to complete. So I suggest that you get your head out of the clouds and let’s just do the assignment.”

“One, you don’t get to call me Engine,” she growled. “And two, screw you.”

Jenny quickly jammed her belongings back into her backpack and rose from her seat while others looked on with incredulity. She can’t be leaving, I thought as my eyes stalked her march towards the exit. She can’t leave in the middle of-

The sound of our classroom door slamming shut behind Jenny made me wince. Anyone that hadn’t been watching our argument before was certainly looking over here now.

I glared around the room, daring anyone to say anything, and almost immediately the soft din of a filled classroom returned.

So, that hadn’t exactly gone well. And I still didn’t know what had caused it. My previous theory of her disliking my prose didn’t hold somehow and I was stumped.

Why did I call her Engine? I wondered. I felt the cold rush again and backed away from that line of thought.

“Well, her loss,” I mumbled as I picked up her paper again. She might be willing to do a dramatic exit, but I was planning on getting an A.

I glanced down at my own paper hidden behind Jenny’s and narrowed my eyes. I was planning on getting a –decent- grade, I slowly amended. It hurt, just a little, to admit that writing with a creative bend just wasn’t for me. But as they say, ‘know thyself’.

Now wasn’t the time for introspection, though. If Jenny didn’t want to be around, I figured that I just had to go at her writing extra hard.

With a determined face I picked up my blood red pen and started to re-read her version of what had started this whole argument.

Not many can claim any of their kisses were magical but it is a claim I hold dear to my heart. It wasn’t my first kiss but in many ways, it was. It was the first that mattered, the first that opened up the world before my eyes.

It happened in almost pure darkness. The blue lights of spirits and yellow flames of fire had faded but my eyes were strangely adjusted to the dark. It was almost like nothing had happened but the bow in my hand proved to me it had. I started to laugh at the madness at it all but also at the overwhelming joy that filled my body. She wrapped her arm around me and pulled me close, joining me in laughter.

I dropped the bow to hold her closer and the energy around us seemed to build. The climax of the moment could only be sealed with a kiss. I don’t know who started it but we both were engulfed by it. It started off as a hard, searing kiss but soon faded to something softer. For a few moments, it wasn’t about what had just happened. It was about me and her kissing because it felt so nice to kiss.

As quickly as it started, I knew it had to end. I didn’t want it to but all moments fade. I swept my tongue forward to lick her lip, a promise that I wanted to do it again. She made the same promise. Yet we didn’t keep it. I never got to kiss her again. Neither of us spoke of the night afterwards. We never really spoke again. Still, I haven’t forgotten. That moment showed me a world of blue lights and kissing women.

And that’s how I spent the rest of the class, cutting and slashing, pointing out flaws and logical inconsistencies. I was merciless, my pen a sword used to vent pent up frustration on a defenseless paper.

What annoyed me even more was the fact that it wasn’t as defenseless as I’d hoped; even after going through it several times, I mostly encountered spelling errors. In the end, that just felt petty, so when the class ended I put the paper away with a huff.

“Well, at least I feel better,” I said as I gathered my things, Griffin’s cookie ensconced in my bag, and walked towards the door. Then with my hand on the handle I paused in confusion and looked back. Any other day there’d be a rush out the door, but now there where only one or two walking out. The rest were sitting around with their partners, staring deeply into each other’s eyes.

“Weird,” I mumbled as I left the classroom, but I pushed it aside. It was odd, yes. But it was nearing Halloween so people were entitled to behaving oddly.

So why aren’t you behaving like that?

The thought came sneaking out of nowhere and it would have stopped me cold if it had been the first time I had thought it. Sadly, it wasn’t.

I love Jason, my boyfriend, of that I have no doubt. It feels good when we’re together and things are just a bit more fun. But it wasn’t the crazy love I could see all around campus right now. No heat that made me crave a kiss right then and there or-

I looked down and blushed slightly as I gave a clump of bushes to my left a wide berth, the amorous noises from the foliage revealing what was happening.

Where was I? Ah, passion. Yes. On the whole I was okay with it all. But a small part of me kept wondering. Shouldn’t there be more?

So maybe I had fibbed, just a little, on my paper. And compounded that lie when I defended it to Jenny. The kisses really hadn’t gotten that much better since the first. They were adequate but that little voice inside, the few times I would deign to listen to it, kept crying out for ‘more’.

I looked around at all the couples I could see. They were spread out over campus, ignoring the elements as they lost themselves in each other. For a brief moment I wondered if they were all high since I had never seen a display of love like this before, but I dismissed it. They were just succumbing to the expectations of society. Letting Eros, and commercialization, overrule their higher functions. And if they could, why couldn’t I?

I smiled as the idea bloomed in my head. I had one more class to go to, but Jason was free today so maybe I should listen to that little voice and get some of that passion for myself.

It didn’t take much to convince myself to ditch class, mostly because I was already so far ahead in it, and steer myself towards Jason’s place.

I loved Jason and he loved me. I was going to inject some passion into this relationship and sate that tiny voice that was always crying out for more. It was almost Halloween after all. You’re supposed to try something random for Halloween. Right?

And as I walked through a school filled with love, figuratively and literary, it didn’t even register that the tiny voice inside had always sounded like Jenny.

***

“The freaking nerve of that woman,” I said to my empty apartment. It wasn’t really empty, just appearing to be. I walked over to the stand holding my most prized possession and run my fingers down the strings of hair centuries old. I could hear soft echoes of a violin playing and water pouring before Lek suddenly shimmered into existence before me.

“Tough day at the office, dear?” He asked. I sighed as I looked him over.

“I regret introducing you to television, I really do. And put some clothes on!”

“Not like you notice anyway,” Lek pouted before shifting his image to look like he wore a skin tight speedo.

“So much better,” I said sarcastically.“Thanks.”

I sat heavily on my couch while he stood over me. It was by pure accident I got him to appear the first time. I had been using his bow to learn how to properly play the violin with the help of YouTube channels. I had tried using other bows, but eventually the hairs would break and need replacing. His bow never seemed upkeep and for a teenager with needs, the thought of not having to spend money unnecessarily outweighed any potential consequences.

After hours of horrible practicing though, he suddenly just popped up right in front of me, naked as the first time I saw him.

“Stop, stop. For the love of all the waters in the world, I beg you to stop. You are tearing what’s left of my soul to pieces with that horrible playing!”

To say I freaked out is putting it mildly. I screamed and ran to get the lighter from where I kept it to light candles. The last time I saw the Neck he had tried to kill me and I wasn’t going to let the stupid mistake of keeping the violin bow be the end of my life.

“Wait, wait!” He cried. “I can’t do anything! Except to appear before you! I have no real powers. I can’t even touch anything.”

He tried to pick up the violin I had dropped but his hand went right through it. “I’m not the same spirit that I was, Jenny. You burned that part of me. All that is left is a tiny part of me in the bow and you control that. You have a good heart and that… influences me.”

I ended up not burning the bow and he showed me how to play better. He laughed as he taught me, “You are lucky. I used to charge three drops of blood, a black animal, and a bottle of vodka for lessons.”

I would never be a fantastic musician, but I’ve improved to the point where he says it no longer makes his ears bleed.

Lek Atte Elof Jordan (that’s his name…sort of) has been a good spirit. He was a good spirit though he was also mischievous, sly, and heavily sarcastic. He does seem to regret killing all those people though. Some people deserved it, he still insists, and I don’t linger too deeply on that part.

We’ve discussed so many other things, like history or the supernatural, that I now sometimes forget that he once tried to drown me and Rebel.

“What happened?” He asks once I’m done reminiscing to myself.

“It’s something involving matters of the heart,” he asserted. “I know that look.”

I sighed heavily, “Rebel was the one who read the paper I wrote and that you proofread.”

A look of sympathy marked his face. “Oh, tough one.”

I nodded as I kicked off my shoes and drew my legs up on the couch, “Yeah, but that’s not the worst part. She claims that her current boyfriend was her first kiss. I kissed her way before he did. We got into a big fight about it. She didn’t even seem to realize why we were fighting.”

Lek sat down on the couch next to me. How he sits but can’t pick up stuff is a never ending question in my mind. He said, “Do you know what I think?”

“That I should get a new woman,” I repeat tiredly.

“You should get a new woman,” The blond spirit acknowledged. “Now, I understand true love, I do. I’m a lover, not a fighter at heart. I came to America for Gilla and I was with her until the day she died. Still, I moved on and so should you. Rebel seems confused and that is not something you need in your life right now. You two, you’re my OTP, but for now, move on.”

“OTP?” I repeated slowly. “Have you been on Tumblr again?”

He ignored me and continued his lecture, “Move on, Jennifer. There are bountiful women all around, just waiting to be eaten. I mean, I can practically smell the lust in the air!”

Lek made sniffing noises that caused me to wrinkle my brow in disgust. Suddenly his eyes widened and he kept sniffing, “Hey, I really do smell lust.”

He stood and walked over to the door, sniffling like a blood hound. He finally pointed at my backpack, “What’s in there? Empty it now, Jennifer.”

To amuse him, I did as he asked since it wasn’t particularly full. Just a few books, notebooks, pencils, tampons, and the cookie Griffin had given the class.

Lek zeroed in on it immediately. “Open the bag and hold it up, please. Don’t touch it. Leave it in the bag.”

Once I again, I did as he asked. I opened the tiny plastic wrapper, leaving the cookie separated from my hand by a thin sheet. It was a chocolate cookie with orange icing smeared on top of it. Perhaps it had been a pumpkin before it entered my bag. Fucking pumpkins.

He reached for it. I knew it would be pointless since he couldn’t touch anything and braced myself for the cold shiver that always happened when he touched me.

Except he didn’t touch me. He picked up the cookie and started examining it. He then took a bite out of it and chewed it thoughtfully.

“Close your jaw, Jennifer. You’re not a codfish.”

“How are you doing that?” I practically shouted.

“Hush now. It’s magic. It’s definitely Greek,” He mused and took another bite. For a flickering moment he reminded me of a snobby wine taster. A snobby wine taster in a speedo.

“Not as powerful as Aphrodite and not as harmonious as Cupid. No. This seems young and eager… relatively speaking, of course.” He took another bite while nodding to himself. “Which could only mean one person. This was made by Bliss.”

“Who the hell is Bliss and why is he making me cookies?”

Lek chewed up the rest of the cookie before telling me anything. “Bliss, a love god from the Greek pantheon. The son of Cupid and is often confused for his sister, Voluptus. Kinda touchy about it.”

“Well that’s who. Now why is he making cookies?”

“Haven’t the foggiest,” he stated. After licking his fingers, he made me tell him about how I came by the cookie.

“But this… could be bad,” Lek said, and for once he seemed concerned.“Bliss deals with making people fall in, or out, of love, now that Cupid has moved up to deal with heavier stuff. It’s basically an easy gig, but it needs oversight. You just don’t throw love magic around like it was sand on a snowy day. It needs to be… measured.”

“So, how is this bad? Details, playboy!” I asked as I swiftly repacked my backpack. His lips pursed at the mocking use of his name. Lek means Play in his native language and nicknames irk him more because he insists on calling people by their first given name.

“Well if you had eaten that cookie, you’d have fallen in love with the next person you saw. Or possibly the next table. When it’s handled, the love gods are responsible for a flare of pure love to get the ball rolling. But then it dies down and free will takes over. But this? You’d have been madly in lust for the rest of your life. It might have started small, but pretty soon you’d have done and said anything to please who you loved. And since you can never please anyone all the time the consequences would be dire.” He glanced at me and the worry on his face was almost palatable.“I can’t imagine that this was the only cookie laced with love handed out. I’d imagine that they all were. We must go the college and find the source at once!” Lek stated firmly.

He changed from his speedo into skin-tight jeans that barely covered his hips and a thread-bare t-shirt that showed off his abs. Since others couldn’t see him, this was purely for his own satisfaction. And mine somehow, though I’ve yet to figure out why he thought so.

“You just want more stuff to eat,” I commented as I picked up my backpack for a trip back to campus.

He pouted, “You’d be hungry too if you hadn’t eaten in four years.”

“Yea, yea,” I murmured. “Now, let’s go solve a mystery.”

*

One would think I would be used to traveling with Lek by now, but I wasn’t. The sounds he made as people walked by were enough to make me blush. He thoroughly admired everyone though, I had to give him that. But his appreciation for the female form tended to shine through the most, like when he nearly fell to his knees over a pregnant college student. I’m just glad she couldn’t see him.

Our first stop was the cooking club’s advisor who directed me to the teaching kitchen in Moral Hall. Lek let out a long whistle when we entered the room.

 “There is magic everywhere! On almost every pot and pan,” He then pointed at the big pot in the middle of the room.“The highest concentration is on that pot over there though.”

We walked over to investigate the chocolate pot. I had thought up a good story for if we were questioned, but the six people in the kitchen seemed more interested in making out. Lek dipped his finger directly in the pot and gave it a tentative lick.

“Yep, this is where it started. I can taste Bliss as clear as day in this.” His tone was part distaste, part lust and I couldn’t help but wonder if the magic was getting to him somehow. Then again, he was acting almost like he normally did, so maybe not.

I left Lek to lick his way through the chocolate while I puzzled things over. He stated he was cleaning up the mess and preventing any more infection. I just think he wanted to eat chocolate.

It was clear that the chocolate had spread further than our own class by the amount of dirty dishes and trays. I was willing to bet that a quarter of the campus was infected by now. At least.

“How do we fix this?” I asked Lek as he joined me.

“You’ll have to summon Bliss of course. He should be able to fix all this. Well, him or his dad or his grandmother. But it’s his magic after all, and it’s only courteous to give him first crack at it.”

That didn’t sound too hard. Which meant that there had to be a catch. Lek did not disappoint.

“It’s not going to be easy. You have to have two people involved, at least.”

“So… you and me?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I said people, my adorable little knucklehead. I’m magic. From a different pantheon no less. I might belong in his area of influence somewhat, being a sexy seductive seducer, but I could scream myself hoarse and he still wouldn’t pay any attention to me. No, you need two humans,” He explained it slowly, like talking to a child. It was all very annoying. “Now, back in the day you could have done it yourself. There were less people around and more faith, so a quick yell and he’d mostly show up to see what’s what. But in this day and age? Two. Minimum.”

My mind went to Carly, but I didn’t know if I wanted to include her in all this supernatural stuff.  It would be a lot to take in. Then, as if the world had a cruel sense of humor, my phone started buzzing with texts. All from Carly.

‘Hey girl! I got myself a boyfriend. He’s the cutest piece of white chocolate.’

The next message was a picture of a shirtless white guy who I was sure was in our class. Which couldn’t be since I knew he dated the black woman that was always sitting next to him. Carly had been the one to point it out. As if on cue, the next message came in.

‘And I got myself a girlfriend.’ The next picture was of a shirtless, smiling woman who was obviously quite excited. I was still in shock as the next message came in. ‘We make an Oreo.’

I refused to look at the final picture she sent. Carly had obviously eaten her cookie, probably with the couple around. I was starting to get a sense of what Lek meant. My best friend was adamant about not dating a guy already attached and she was adamant about dating guys. The magic was already going too far.

“Where the hell am I going to find someone to summon a Greek god with me?” I whispered harshly as the last couple slid by us and left the kitchen, all the while quite attached to each other’s neck.

Lek gave a mischievous smirk as he looked over my shoulder. “Well, you’re not going to enjoy this,” He said slowly.“Though I certainly will. Look who just entered the building.” He pointed and I peeked over my shoulder.

“On no,” I mumbled as I saw Rebel in all her infuriating glory. There was no way to avoid it since she had already noticed me. And then her eyes left mine and she looked up at Lek. She could see him.

This was bad.

***

Perfect,I thought as I grinded my teeth. I start investigating and who do I run into? Little miss yells-a-lot with her… boyfriend? They were standing fairly close together and I could see him half whisper in her ear as he pointed at me. He looked somewhat smug while she just looked, well, guilty.

I gave him an onceover and I had to admit that the guy looked good. A build that would be the envy of everyone this side of the pearly gates, and to top it off the guy had abs that you could grate cheese on.

I didn’t like him.

Then again, after what I had just seen at Jason’s, I didn’t like anybody at the moment.

“Jenny,” I said with narrowed eyes. “Fancy meeting you here.”

I looked around, zeroing in on the giant pot, pan, or whatever it was called in the middle of the room.

There was a reason I was here right now and not at home, cuddled up with Jason, and that piece of kitchenware was somehow to blame. I could feel it in my waters.

“What are you and your boyfriend doing here?” I asked, trying to make small talk. I heard the guy start to chuckle, but I paid him no mind. My major concern right then was how big a sample I could get of the chocolate, so I completely missed the man breaking down in laughter and tears. I had brought three test tubes, but I was starting to doubt if that would be enough. I planned to test one myself with the available drug testing kits at the Police Academy, have one tested at the hospital, and have the last one sent to the…

“He may be a boy toy,” Jenny interjected, the clear voice pulling me off track. “But he’s not my boyfriend.”

I looked up and noticed her furrowed brow. Apparently she hadn’t liked me connecting the two that way. She suddenly had my attention.

That’s when the gorgeous man cleared his throat, finally having calmed down. “Now, Jennifer. That’s no way to act. Why don’t you introduce us properly?”

I took a moment to study the fellow again. He spoke as if he was from another lifetime, with a musical cadence that was definitely not American.

Jenny looked confused, “What do you mean introduce you? You’ve…”

She sucked in a breath as her friend touched her arm. I blinked a few times when I thought I saw his hand go through her but knew that couldn’t be possible. He leaned closed and whispered something to her. I only heard one word, “-forgotten.”

Jenny clenched her fists and took a deep breath before speaking, “Rebel, this is Lek. Lek, Rebel.”

“Nice to meet you,” I said as I walked up to him, holding out my hand. Manners were, after all, manners. No matter how much I wanted to start taking samples.

Lek’s Colgate white smile beamed. “Pleasure to be introduced to you, Cathryn. Though my name,” he said, giving me a half bow and Jenny a mild glare. “Is Velam Lek Gyllenstierna af Nordlanden.”

“Now that’s a mouthful,” I started before my brain caught up. “Wait, how did you know my…”

“Name?” he asked.

“Yea,” I replied suspiciously.

“Well, I could say that I never forget the name of someone so beautiful, which would be true in this case, but let us settle on… your reputation precedes you.”

I looked over at Jenny who maintained a blank look on her face. She’s the only one that could have said anything, good or bad, and I groaned internally. I still didn’t know what had set her off earlier and I could see that this road was heading in the same direction.

I closed my eyes and gently pinched the bridge of my nose. This day was just getting better and better.

“You know what? No. I’m not going to go down that road.” I said forcefully as I spun around and returned to the pot containing the stuff that was the root of all, or most, of today’s problems.

“I take it that you’re here for the same reason that I am?”

I opened my bag, taking out my vials and I gave them a habitual onceover to check for damages.

“And why are you here?” Jenny asked from behind me. “Planning on making a Halloween treat for your boyfriend?”

“The cookies were drugged,” I replied, once again gritting my teeth.

“Oh, they’re drugged?” Lek chimed in.

I stopped what I was doing and looked over my shoulder at the pair.

“A piece of advice?” I said as I looked at their faces; they didn’t look innocent, but more like they had a tummy ache. “Never play poker.” 

“Okay fine!” Jenny huffed. “We’re here about the cookies, okay? More specifically the chocolate.”

“I knew it,” I said. “You don’t really look like the cooking type.”

“Hey, I am so the cooking type!” That was accompanied by a snort from Lek. I still didn’t like him, but unfortunately he was starting to grow on me.

“Sure you are.”

“I am!”

“I believe you.”

“I really don’t think you do.” She glared at me for a moment. Then she took a deep breath and I could almost see her letting this thread of the conversation go.

“If we could get back on track,” she said. “How did you know where to look? Because I know you didn’t track it the same way we did. For that matter, how did you know there was something wrong?”

After a moment I could see her eyes widen and she gave Lek a quick glance, one that he returned with a tiny nod. I wonder what that was about.

I turned back to my vials and grabbed the largest pipette I had in my kit. Time to take some samples of that molten chocolate, but the job didn’t look like it wasn’t going to be easy as someone had tried to lick the pot clean.

“It wasn’t that hard to determine the logical points of origins once I had an idea of what caused everything,” I said. “I also did some data mining on the schools social networks, checking status and relationship updates, to check for clusters and the area around here had the largest one.”

I reached into the pot with the pipette and sucked up a sizeable sample that was in a corner. I started to slowly put it in the vials.

“As for how I knew?” I asked slowly, my hand coming to a stop as I started to stare at nothing, losing myself in the memory of earlier today.

“Jason?” I called out as I stopped in our hallway to take off my shoes. “Are you home sweetie?”

“I’m in the kitchen!” I heard him reply and I smiled. Yea, this had been a good idea.

I walked to the kitchen doorway and took everything in. Candlelight flickered over the good plates, which just meant that they weren’t chipped, and I could smell Jason’s pancakes, the ones he had made for our first date. Apparently I hadn’t been the only one with a plan for today. It was so crazy that he decided to do something romantic near Halloween as well.

Only when I lifted my eyes higher I froze. I could only imagine how I must have looked, that smile of mine slowly twisting until my face was a study in confusion.

“Jason?” All I could do was stare, because the scene in front of me was just so surreal.

There he was. My boyfriend. The man I had shared a disappointing first kiss with. The man I was kinda-sorta living with. There he sat, on someone’s lap, feeding them pancakes.

It was the pancakes I focused on first. How he’d cut a chunk and slowly moved them up to someone else’s mouth, seeing them disappear between white teeth before the whole thing was blocked by the back of Jason’s head as he followed up the bites with little kisses. How he’d take up a napkin to oh so softly wipe the syrup from his date’s goatee.

Goatee?

That’s when everything else came into focus, and when I fully realized what I saw, I wondered how I hadn’t seen that first. He wasn’t in the lap of some floozy.

He was sitting on Daniel Stevensson, our friend that hailed from Hawaii, weighs 350-ish pounds and kinda looks like the standup comedian Gabriel Iglesias.

He was cheating on me with Dan!?

“Hey Cat’,” Jason finally said between bites. “Could I mayb- *kiss* Maybe have our place for myself tonight? I just put a ham in the oven for us to share and it’ll only be enough for the two of us.”

It was clear he didn’t mean me.

“S-sure,” I said in a daze. “I’ll just… go.”

I stumbled around back into the hall and slowly pulled on my shoes again.

Dan? Really!?

It just didn’t want to compute.

“Take some cookies with you for a snack! It’s on the tab- OH!”

The moan was too much. I just grabbed my bag from the floor and the only thing that was actually on the hallway table and I sprinted out of there. Coach Jeremy from high school would have been proud.

I actually got three blocks away before the rubik's cube inside my brain started to click into place.

Jason was a lot of things, and he sure wasn’t perfect, but he wouldn’t just do something like that to me. If he ever had wanted out of the relationship, not that he had indicated anything like that, he would have told me and not thrown a new relationship in my face like that.

So why?

I clenched my fists and the sound of breaking cookies made me look down at my hand. I had actually forgotten that I had brought them with me.

And that’s when things clicked into place, the cube in my head finally having one side all the same colors. The damn cookies.

The thought hit me, and all of a sudden it was like a fog lifted. I looked around and even here, far from the campus center, I could see people acting all lovey-dovey. Too lovey-dovey. No way did college libido explain all of this.

“Something is wrong,” I said to myself. “Really wrong.”

I had seen people create the beast with two backs in some bushes and done nothing. Well, now was the time to make up for that wasn’t it?

I looked down at the tiny cookie bag in my hand.

“Time to find out where you’re from, you mind altering piece of baked goods.”

“Well, let’s just say that after today, I most likely won’t have a boyfriend anymore.” I glanced back at the pair and I saw Jenny give me a sympathetic wince.

“I’m sorry,” she said slowly. There was an upbeat tone to her voice though, one I couldn’t quite nail down.

“Yea, well. I’d say it happens but I don’t think anyone had this experience-“

“STOP!” Lek’s scream froze me and I looked at him, only to see him starting to run towards me, eyes on my hands.

I whipped my head back around just in time to see a piece of chocolate drop from the pipette only to miss the vial and hit one of my fingers.

I should have worn gloves, I thought absentmindedly. But it was a faraway thought. A slow though. One that wasn’t really important as I stared at the dark fleck that seemed to meld with my skin, the vial slowly tumbling towards the ground where it surprisingly didn’t shatter.

“Skit! Skit Skit! Skit!” I heard someone say. Sounded foreign. Lek probably. He seemed nice. Not my type, but still nice.

“Woa, what’s wrong?” Jenny said, her voice caressing my ears.

“This isn’t good,” he said as I struggled to look up and behind me. “The magic is focused in there, and she’s more susceptible that most. She’s gotten whammied big time.”

Magic? And interesting thought. There is no such thing, but interesting thought nonetheless. It would explain any number of things, like the rapid spread and the fact that no one was really showing any concern. A part of me thought of that, because I could remember it later. But at the time all I could focus on was the slow turn I did, because I needed to look at something.

It took a moment, but then I managed to focus on the vision in the room. My body burned. I could feel my pupils dilate, because I needed to see more of –her-. My nostrils flared, and even standing in a room filled with spices, melted chocolate, and produce I could still separate her scent from it all.

As my eyes locked on –her- I actually started to pant, which was good because it let me soak up more of –her- scent, let me taste it on the back of my tongue. A fire raced through my body, making me sweat and hardening my nipples before coiling lower and lower, making me throb with desire.

I needed to kiss –her- again. I needed to feel her against me like that time in the cave. No, more. I needed more of -her-.

“Um, Lek…” She said as she eyed me. “We've got to do something. Like now.”

“Skit. Okay, okay. I can fix this. I can.” He ran his hands through his hair. Possibly. To be honest I couldn’t focus on anything besides –her- and what she was hiding underneath the clothes she was wearing.

I started to walk towards -her-. My steps were slow, seductive, determined. I was going to take what was mine, take back what was ours. We were going to make the world sing and-

All of a sudden Lek appeared before me, blocking my view of –her- and the deep growl that came out of my throat probably surprised everyone.

“Just know this is going to hurt me more than you,” he said as I moved to shove him out of the way. I didn’t manage it thought, because he grabbed my hand and after less than a heartbeat my chocolate covered finger was sucked into his mouth.

For a second everything came to a standstill, everything besides Lek’s tongue which licked at the chocolate on my skin. There was a sudden flash of light and then the Lek was flying across the room, hitting a table, a hanging frying pan and a chair before coming to a stop by slamming back first into a wall.

“Åh helvete, det här är vad goda gärningar ger dig,” he coughed out weakly.

”What the hell!?” Jenny shrieked as she ran towards Lek after giving me an onceover, but he just waved her off.

“It was the fastest way to fix things before she knocked you out and dragged you to her cave by your hair.” He was slowly starting to get up while I just stood there, my eyes shifting from Jenny, to Lek, to my finger and then back again. “It was all too potent, the magic, the emotions and the souls involved. This was fun, real fun, but we need to stop this now.”

“Engine,” I started slowly and I winced as I could see Jenny stiffen slightly at the name. “I… I’m sorry. The cave was… and the story where I… I just… I forgot.” I winced again, because that was just horrible.

Whatever had happened just now, it had shaken a few things loose. A few major things, like the fact that my first real kiss had been just about perfect in an extremely imperfect way. Or that I had forgotten about it.

“You didn’t forget,” Jenny said, and if the edge of the words were sharp, it was no more than I deserved. “You don’t forget something like that. You bury it.”

And she was right about that.

“We need to talk about that,” she continued. She glanced at Lek who had now limped up next to us before looking back at me. “But right now I need you to do something for me.”

“Sure,” I said.

“I need you to follow my lead for a few minutes, our lead, and I need you to trust me. Even if it seems… silly.”

“I trust you,” I said, and it was true. But I couldn’t help what slipped out. “But what are we doing?”

She grinned at me and I couldn’t help but to blush and grin back.

“We’re making a very important call.”

She moved us to the middle of the room where we stood facing each other and then we followed Lek’s directions.

“Right! Okay children, here’s what we’re gonna do. First, I want you to look into each other’s eyes. I mean really look. Not the kind of look that most people share, but really get int- Oh god!” Lek stopped his instructions all of a sudden and part of me wanted to check to see if he was okay, but I just couldn’t drag myself away from Jenny’s eyes.

“S-sorry. I just need to sit down for a bit.” I could hear him panting a few yards away and I had to wonder just how much the trip into the wall was bothering him. He said he was fine, but most people didn’t really shrug something like that away. Though now that I thought about it, he was starting to look really familiar.

“Exactly like that,” he said breathlessly. “Now take each other’s hands.” I reached for Jenny’s hands at the same time she reached for mine and a small shiver went up my spine as our fingers threaded together.

We were standing in a school kitchen, fully clothed and holding hands while just looking at each other and this still felt more intimate than most of my relationship with Jason.

“Perfect,” he said softly. “Now repeat after me. It might sound silly Cathryn, but we need to do this.”

“Bliss, child of Love and Soul…”

What?

“Bliss, child of Love and Soul,” we said.

“In the name of the love you serve and the pleasure you are, we petition thee.”

Yea, this was really weird.

“In the name of the love you serve and the pleasure you are, we petition thee,” we continued.

Then we just stood there.

“That’s it!?” Jenny slowly hissed out of the corner of her mouth.

“Yep,” Lek said. “If it had been anyone else but Cathryn with you we’d have been talking for 10 straight minutes. Now though? This is all we need. What’s inside you will do the rest just fine.”

And as if on cue, we suddenly heard a clear bell chime, right before a flurry of golden sparks and pink hearts surrounded us.

“My, oh my. What do we have here?” There was a rich voice right next to us and all of a sudden there weren’t three people in the room -- there were four.

***

Even after destroying the evil part of Lek and living with the rest of him for the past several years, I still couldn’t believe we had summoned a Greek god. Yet beside us was Bliss, son of Cupid and grandson of Aphrodite. He looked every much the part of a Greek god but inside a Wall Street suit. He also looked rather turned on which confused and worried me a little.

“Ladies,” He said, loosening his tie haphazardly. “Allow me to start off by saying it’s a pleasure to meet both of you. Truly a pleasure. I simply couldn’t resist coming to meet the two women who have such a wonderful calling card. What can I do for you?”

“This…this can’t be real,” Rebel muttered, her widened eyes taken in Bliss. Her hands tightened so hard in mine that I was starting to lose blood circulation. “This isn’t real. Where did he come from?” Her earlier calm was clearly disappearing rapidly.

Lek coughed, embarrassed at how she was acting in front of a fellow love deity. “You must forgive her. She has blocked out any knowledge of the other world and she’s just now getting back into the swing of things. I told them how to contact you, sir.”

I was more than a little surprised Lek was acting so polite and well-mannered. But I guess Bliss was older than him by several centuries.

Bliss nodded a greeting as he took a moment to produce a handkerchief out of thin air and dap himself off.  Rebel had started to whisper on repeat, “I’m dreaming. I’m dreaming. I’m dreaming.”

I pulled my hands out of her hold to deal with the junior love god in front of me. “Look, we got a problem.”

Bliss arched his eyebrow at me, “Well obviously. One quick arrow and I can fix you two’s problems in a heartbeat. She’ll remember everything, including her feelings for you.”

I did a double-take between him and Rebel who was slowly starting to come back down to Earth. She frowned when she realized what he had said, “Whoa, now. Nobody is shooting me with anything. I also have a very excellent memory and would definitely remember if I had feelings for someone.”

Rebel didn’t seem so sure about the last part. The chocolate had really shaken things loose. In fact, she looked like her world was in the middle of an earthquake.

I just shook my head, “Not why we called you. From what we can deduce, something went wrong with your magic and chocolate here.”

Bliss scoffed at the idea of him making a mistake. Still his eyes began to glow and he looked around. After a moment he pursed his lips, “I guess I miscalculated. You see I sprinkled some of my magic onto a piece of chocolate for a young gentleman to give the woman of his dreams. I failed to consider how ingesting the magic would affect the human body and how the magic could spread through the cocoa.”

Rebel interrupted him, “Wait a sec. Do you mean to tell me that you sprinkled drugs onto something to get them to do screw someone they didn’t really want to? That’s date-rape!”

Bliss looked highly offended, “I would never! Granted, add a gaggle of geese and it’d be right up my great granddad’s alley, but I wouldn’t! My magic doesn’t work that way. It’s meant to release hidden attraction and feelings. It’s about love, not simple carnal lust!”

“But I’m afraid you gave several people an overdose,” Lek pointed out.

“Which is date-rape,” I chimed in. “Really, dude. Sprinkling magic on someone’s food just sounds wrong. Next you’ll be putting it in their drinks.”

He stroked his chiseled chin as he stared off into the distance. “You aren’t… wrong. I can see your points. I’ll shelve this experiment for the moment until I’ve tinkered with it some more.”

“So what about everyone affected?” I asked, “Can you fix them?”

“Simply,” He beamed. He cockily snapped his fingers and we waited. Rebel finally asked, “Did it work?”

Bliss coughed and snapped again. He tried a few more times, looking more and more desperate with each snap of his fingers. I looked at Lek, who shook his head.

The Grecian god looked thoroughly embarrassed, “I swear nothing like this has ever happened to me before.”

Lek took a few deep breathes and Bliss joined him. They shared a nod. I rolled my eyes, “If we’re done with magical meditation, can someone tell us humans what’s going on?”

“Love is in the air,” Lek stated, matter-of-factly.

“Everywhere I look around,” Bliss added.

Rebel seemed to be losing her patience, “Thank you, John Paul Young. Care to explain that?”

“The love in the air is clogging my powers. This will not be a simple fix.”

I sighed, “Well it’s time to go up the ladder right? Do we call your dad or grandmother next?”

Bliss went dead-white. He cried, “Neither! I can fix this! We don’t need to get them involved!”

My Scandinavian spirit walked over to pat his shoulder, “What’s wrong?”

“If they know I screwed up this badly, they might take my arrows away. I worked hard to prove that I’m worthy. I’ve worked hard. Harder than my little sister.” He stopped and looked around. “Anyone telling you that the second born has it harder is lying! Lying I tell you! And all because of some incident as a toddler.”

“There, there,” Lek soothed. I’m almost certain Lek was patting his ass but it wasn’t my business if he wanted to hook up with Cupid Junior.

I sighed, “Fine. If we can’t call papa or grandmamma, what can we do?”

Rebel pulled out a little flip notepad and pencil to start jotting down ideas and notes. She was thorough, I gave her that.

“If we could find the original couple, we might be able to reserve the spell through them. The magic was supposed to be for their love. It would be the best place to start,” Bliss confided. He hardly seemed to notice Lek’s sexual advances. Maybe it was common amongst love spirits.

“What were the two victims’ names?” Rebel asked. We all turned to stare at her and she held up her hands in apology, “Sorry. I was in criminology mood. What were their names?”

Bliss pulled out a phone and made a few swiping motions with his fingers. “Brian Hinkle and Patrice Ryan. Here are their pictures.”

Both Rebel and I studied the pictures on his phone. The couple looked familiar to me and it clicked into place where I knew them. “I saw these two earlier. They were at the coffee shop. He blurted out he wanted to be spanked and ran out. She ran out after him.”

Bliss looked concerned. “The magic really has spread more than intended. Sexual fetishes are up there with my grandmother’s level of work.”

“How are we going to find them?” I asked.

Rebel seemed suddenly uncomfortable and as she started to talk, the regret that that she had to speak up was almost palpable. “I think we have to go somewhere… kinky. And I know just the place.”

***

I could not believe I lead two supernatural spirits and Jenny to a porn shop. Jenny’s jaw slightly dropped as she took in the sexy Halloween costumes in the window. I found the sexy Ebola nurse costume particularly distasteful. She then turned her shocked looked towards me.

I shoved my hands defensively into my pockets and muttered, “I came here with some police officers I was shadowing. They were investigating some rumors of underage activity.”

“I’m not judging,” Jenny quipped.

“I certainly approve,” Lek added.

I tried to keep the blush off my face and roughly stated, “There’s a theater in the back.”

Bliss nodded, “Yes, I think I can sense the two nearby.”

We walked into the store and the cashier didn’t bother to card us as he was supposed to do. He seemed rather mellow, like he had been smoking cannabis. I thought of making a note to report him but I deduced it might be an effect of the magic.

I shook my head at my last thought. Magic? Summoning gods? I was still trying to adjust to everything going on around me, and I’m not ashamed to confess I was ready to snap at a moment’s notice.

Jenny’s snicker refocused my thoughts. When I glanced at her, she pointed at something on the hall. Since we were now in the back room, sex toys were displayed everywhere. Someone had placed a strap-on on a posing skeleton with a sign that said “Replacement bones sold here.”

The corner of my mouth twitched but I refused to smile. This was official business after all.

We continued on to the back room which housed sixty seats for showing porn. We walked in and the smell of sex and must hit my olfactory senses. I flinched at the smell, as did Jenny. Lek and Bliss seemed to rather enjoy the smell.

Trying very hard to ignore what was on the screen, I started looking around the room for our suspects. “I think that’s them over there.”

Lek tried to wave off my statement, “Not during the money shot.”

Jenny looked as if she would have slapped him if she could have and followed to where I was pointing. There were only six people in the room and each couple was engaged in some aspect of coitus.

“Leave,” Bliss ordered, pointing at the two other couples in such a deep and powerful voice that I almost obeyed the order myself. It was a very godly voice. It really was a work of magic, as the two couples almost sprinted for the door when seconds before they didn’t realize anyone else existed.

“Come forward Brian and Patrice.” He ordered again and the final couple came towards us.

Nudity, for the most part, doesn’t bother me. I’ve seen plenty of dead naked people. It’s just the live naked people that bother me. The male half of the pair that comprised patient zero was only wearing crotch-less chaps, and his female counterpart was dressed in a leather suit with well-placed holes.

“Finally, we can fix this,” I heard Jenny muttered.

Bliss reached out his hand and touched Patrice’s heart. He started pulling his hand slowly back towards him, closing his fist as he did. It looked like he was pulling back just air, but I could almost see wisps of white floating between him and Patrice.

I frowned as I saw Bliss’s arm start to tremble. I didn’t think this is going as planned. Jenny voiced my thought, “What’s wrong?”

Through gritted teeth, Bliss grumbled, “It’s fighting me.”

“Fight back,” I ordered. “Show it who is in charge. You’re its commanding officer.”

Bliss straightened his shoulders and pulled harder. I saw the last wisp of whiteness leave Patrice, who promptly fainted at the loss of such heavy magic energy. At least that’s what I assumed. I was new to applying logical reasons to illogical events.

“I can’t hold it!” Bliss shouted. Lek rushed to help it but it was too late. The magic got away from Bliss’s hold and it started swirling around in a tight ball.

“What’s it doing?”

“Becoming alive,” The Greek deity answered in a whisper. “This is not good.”

I could not begin to explain what happened next. There were events but I could not place them in a logbook if I tried. The only thing I can report is that within a few moments of the white wisps --

Wisps. Blue wisps. Melding into a violin. Jenny. The cold made me shiver as I tried to close off that part of my mind, but I knew the door didn’t shut completely this time.

--wisps forming a swirling white ball turned into a large, chocolate monster. How that happened, I do not know. With a single roar, it ran through one of the walls and out into the real world. Staring at the bricks that were crumbling around the large, monster-sized hole, I muttered, “All points bulletin. Be on the lookout for a monster approximately the size of the Kool-Aid Man, chocolate brown colored, and made from love wisps.”

Jenny turned to give me a concerned look and that caused me to break. How could she look so calm?

“That’s it. I’m done,” I snapped. “I’m leaving.”

I turned around and started marching out of the store through the proper exit, unlike a certain chocolate monster.

***

“Go get her,” Lek ordered but I was already on my way.

“Rebel, wait!” I shouted. “Please wait.”

It would have appeared strange to anyone watching from the street to see a furious blonde woman leaving a sex shop with a brunette. Of course no one was watching because if they were, they would be focused on the chocolate monster making his way downtown. My mind inanely wondered if he was walking fast and he was homebound.

Of course no one was watching the monster either because they were drugged on love.

With a burst of running, I was able to catch Rebel by the arm and swing her around. I was all ready to give her a lecture of a century but the look on her face made me stop. She looked like her world was crumbling.

“What’s wrong?” I asked and flinched at the stupidity of my own words. She answered anyway.

“This has been the worst day. You yelled at me and I don’t know why. Jason is probably having sex with Dan right now after lovingly feeding him ham and I’m stuck here seeing things that can’t be real. They just can’t.”

“Hey,” I said, grabbing her hand. “I’m sorry I yelled at you. I was upset because you don’t remember things that happened, but I shouldn’t have yelled at you. Your paper wasn’t that bad.”

She sniffed. “Yes, it was. Stupid kissing assignment. I hate fiction. I think that’s why I hate today.”

“I can understand that,” I stated, and I did. I was barely grasping what was going on, but I had also been living with a Neck since sophomore year. I had a great advantage over her.

“Engine, this is stupid. How can any of this be real?”

I smiled, “Because you and I have stupid adventures, Cathryn Elvis Reeves.”

She blinked at me, “How do you know my full name?”

“You told me once. Also, how you thought you got it.”

She winced at the memory of her parents having sex and said, “I don’t remember that.”

“I know,” I said, giving her hand a squeeze. “But we can work that out later. We need your help with this monster thing. Your analytical brain is something we could really use with those two nut-job spirits. Help us fix this and maybe we can fix this whole day. That thing with Jason, whatever it was, will disappear I bet. We can start over.”

Starting over wasn’t what I wanted, but I could see it was what she needed to hear. She nodded her agreement and we walked hand-in-hand back to find the guys. It wasn’t hard; they were following the monster.

When Lek looked meaningfully at our linked hands, I suddenly let go. I missed the connection instantly.

Bliss beamed at us. “I figured out a way to stop this. I’ll kill it. I shoot it with an arrow. It will fix everything.”

I hated the thought of killing the thing since it hadn’t done anything to deserve death, but the town really did need to be fixed. I had to kill most of Lek to find the good part of him. I nodded my approval.

Bliss, with an eye towards the choco-creature, slid into a stance that even someone like me with zero experience could tell belonged to a master archer. He drew an arrow from a quiver that magically appeared on his back and notched in a bow that appeared out of nowhere. That’s when he aimed up at the sky and looked at us with a cocky grin.

“Relax,” he said as he released the string and let the arrow fly. “I got this.”

Well, he was the expert and-

A screech made us all break eye contact. We looked up only to see the magical arrow jutting out from a pigeon before the projectile slowly dissolved.

"Oh... crap." Bliss mumbled with a red face, looking at the bow and then back up at the bird. I didn't know how it was possible for a bird to look seductive, but that bird somehow managed it as it suddenly flew down towards a nearby parking lot and out of our sight.

I just hoped, and I doubt I was alone, that it had spotted another pigeon down there and had not fallen in lust with something weird, like a cat. Or a car.

“Stop messing around,” Rebel shouted.

            Bliss shook his head at the words and straightened up, finally aiming properly at the creature. This time his aim was true and the arrow flew directly at it. I was about to shout in victory when the arrow hit it, only to have my joy die in my throat as the arrow bounced off, like a fly hitting a mirror.

The Grecian love god dropped his bow in horror and started a soft chant, “Shit, shit, shit. I’m so dead. Why didn’t that work? Fuck me backwards why didn’t that work!?”

We watched the choco-monster start moving down the street, away from us, while Bliss continued a harangue of curse words that started to turn fairly impressive.

“The failsafe!” Bliss suddenly screamed. “I’m such an idiot. How could I forget the failsafe?”

“What's the failsafe?” I finally asked. God or no, I was starting to get very tired of him.

“My father thought of it a few centuries back when my sister and I were finally getting some proper archery lessons. He embedded the arrows with a failsafe to undo any misplaced magic. When we shoot people, we can still see the arrow though regular humans can't. To undo the magic, we just have to pull the arrow out. It makes the person forget any feelings the magic brought to the surface. They forget everything that happened.”

“In case you weren’t looking, there’s no arrow to pull out of Hershey over there,” I stated, gesturing firmly with both of my arms. Of course, I could be a regular human who couldn’t see it, but somehow I doubted that.

“Yeah but the monster was created from the arrow meant for Patrice. All I have to do is pull the arrow out of her and...” Bliss's voice halted.

I didn’t understand why he had stopped, it sounded like a great plan. Then I groaned as I remembered. The arrow was dust, crushed into powder for his new, ‘brilliant’ plan.

Rebel sighed and asked the question none of us wanted to. “So I’m guessing that what you did destroyed the failsafe?”

“Not… necessarily,” Bliss said slowly, though he sounded very unsure. “I think it’s still in place. The arrow is still there, technically, just not in its original arrow shape.”

He got a far off look on his face and I think he was running calculations in his head. Not just mathematical ones.

“I…,” he started. Then stopped. Then started again. “In theory I should be able to create a sympathetic link between one of my remaining arrows and the dust in chocolate thunder over there. I shoot someone, set up the link, and pull out the arrow. That should drag the dust with it.”

“Fine,” I said, after the situation some hard thought. “Shoot me. Shoot me and pull the arrow out. If that will destroy the monster then it will be worth it. What’s the worst that can happen? I fall in love with a table?”

Bliss studied me for a moment and then turned his head to look at Rebel. He finally nodded, “Yes, it should work. But shooting you won’t help.”

He nodded his head at Rebel. “It has to be her.”

“Has to be me, what?” Rebel asked. “Why?”

“Yeah. Why?” I repeated.

“Because Jenny, you already have feelings for Rebel. They started when the night you met Lek and they’ve grown ever since. Your feelings are old by comparison but Rebel, yours are new. You pushed them down deep and they are just now starting to come back up. It’s like you’ve managed to hit yourself with an arrow you yourself fired. This is really rare by the way. Organic love is so uncommon these days, which is why my family works so much.” He stopped for a moment before shaking his head.

“The point is, emotions are like plants. Jenny, yours have deep roots already, which would make pulling this arrow a herculean task. And I’m not being metaphorical there.”

The god glanced at Rebel. “But yours? Yours have barely any roots down and are still flush with that new love glow. Which is almost identical to what my arrows are infused with. That I can work with.”

I could feel myself reddened as he kept talking about my feelings. I risked a quick glance at Rebel and felt slightly relieved that she was also blushing. Having a Grecian God spill your secrets is not fun.

Lek interjected, looking like a who that was not only waiting for the other shoe to drop, but who also knew that it was a soccer cleat. “And I don’t suppose we can just grab a random passerby for this to work?”

“We probably could, but it’d be a crapshoot. Emotions are complicated at the best of times and these aren’t the best of times. This is our only real shot. I shoot Rebel. I reach through the arrow, and her, using the emotions involved to create a chain that I link to the dust. Then I go back and pull out the arrow. That will activate the failsafe in the arrow and, with the link, the arrow dust. Everything will be undone. Things go back to normal and almost everyone forgets. I’ll just bribe a few of my cousins to take care of any matters that are… messy.”

If the giant boyish grin was any indication, Bliss seemed very happy to have a plan again. It sounded like it might work but then I suddenly remembered something he had stated. “You said pulling the arrow out makes the person forget they were in love. Does that mean Rebel would forget?”

Bliss nodded and the smile dropped. “Yes, I’m sorry. The feelings wouldn’t be taken away permanently though. She’ll still have them for you. The seed is tough. It just might take years for it to start and resurface again.”

“No. Absolutely not,” I stated firmly.

If Rebel did have feelings for me, I sure as hell wasn’t going to let them disappear. I had waited years for the chance to get to know this woman again. I wasn’t waiting a day longer to explore what we had left unfinished. “Call your dad or grandmother and see if they can’t fix it. You had your shot, call them.”

Bliss shook his head, suddenly afraid, “No. I can’t. Not only would I be soooo dead, you don't know what they might do. In case you haven’t noticed, Halloween is about to start. Everybody back home is focused on this, not to mention that they’re still arguing about the Olympics in Sochi. My grandmother, and my father, would be furious having to come down here and clean up my mess. They might decide to destroy everyone involved and I don't even know what they would do to you two.”

He chuckled weakly.“I didn’t want to mention it earlier you know, to keep morale up. You only have me. I promise you, this is the easiest and quickest way. You’ll sacrifice much, but I will never forget the debt I owe if you two help me. I promise you will be together again.”

Bliss had made several campaign promises since he had showed up so I wasn’t about to take his word then. I opened my mouth to protest more when Rebel took a hold of my hand. She gave it a gentle tug, “Let’s talk.”

***

“No,” Jenny stated before I could say anything. “Absolutely not. This might not even work and then we’ll be stuck with you forgetting everything about today. You already don’t remember what happened back in high school.”

“What happened back in high school?” I asked, since I was about to forget again. “From what I gathered in these past hours, it has something to do with Lek, you, and me.”

“He was bad, killing people for years, killed Mr. Cartwright, you and I tracked him to his cave, he tried to kill us, we burned his violin which destroyed most of him, we kissed, and barely spoke every again.” Jenny stated, given me the short, simple version, I’m sure.

I was left rather speechless for a moment. Pieces were starting to connect in my mind that I had left disconnected for so long. It made sense. Part of me always knew that Mr. Cartwright would never drown by accident at the lake. It made sense why I never went near the lake by the end of my senior year. It even made sense as to why Jason and I never really had much connection. I don’t know if he likes guys but I started to remember I liked girls. At least, one girl.

“I’ll remember again,” I stated firmly. “We have to do this. We have to save this town. Everything is getting out of hand. And you heard what Bliss said. If he has to call his family, everyone could die.”

Jenny made a sound, but I couldn’t decipher what it meant.

“Engine, I have this vague feeling that you saved the day last time. Let me save the day this time. Let me be a hero and not remember. It’s like my greatest dream,” I grinned. “To be a hero but not be mobbed by adoring fans. I can be a bit shy.”

Engine briefly smiled which is what I wanted.

“You’ll forget and I’ll be left alone again,” She stated softly, the loneliness already in her voice. That hurt me. I took her hands in mine and held them tight.

“I’ll be lonely too. I already was before this morning. It wasn't working out with Jason and I and now I know why. It might take me some time to work things out again, Engine, but I will. You and I will have another chance. I promise.”

And then I kissed her. I could deduce from Jenny’s story that I read this morning (could it really have been just this morning?) that we had our first kiss in the cave with blue lights and magic. I don’t remember that, and I might not remember the kiss we shared then, but it was a kiss worth remembering. I dropped her hands to cup her face, pulling her closer. She grabbed tightly to my shoulders, not wanting to let go. I surrendered into the feeling and I think I felt my leg wanting to pop up. I suddenly realized that kissing was more than an act. I made a note to rewrite my essay, though I knew I wouldn’t remember.

That somber thought brought me back to reality and I regretfully pulled away. Jenny looked like she wanted another kiss, and I rather wanted to give it to her, but a moan distracted us.

Lek had his hands clasped in front of him looking like Christmas had come early and Bliss was collapsed against a car. He gasped, “I nearly…nearly. Wow! That’s love with a capital L. That was forever and a soul mate. That was like smashing two atoms together. That was it. No wonder my grandmother spends so much time with that green-eyed blonde and blue-eyed raven. This feeling is addictive as hell.”

He completely took off his tie as he leaned heavily against a car. “Please, kiss again. I need to start having more organic. It’s definitely better for you.”

I was too self-conscious to do it again and Jenny gave me a smile that said she understood. She pulled me into a hug that lasted until Bliss pulled himself together.

The chocolate monster had wandered back to us. I guess it was also attracted by the kiss. I felt sad about destroying it. It hadn’t really done anything except break down a porn shop wall. It was the most anti-climatic monster ever. But it was made by a mistake that everyone was paying for. It was time to undo it.

It was the hardest thing I ever did, moving to stand in line with the monster and Bliss. It’s incredibly hard to stand in front of a god who is about to shot you in the heart with an arrow and take away your memory. I could only do it by looking at Jenny. I ignored Bliss lining up his sights, pulling back his arm, and firing. I just stared at her.

I only felt a warm glow as the arrow went through me. Everything came back to me in that moment. Everything. I remembered our first kiss, our first adventure.

“I remember,” I whispered, still looking at her. Tears spilled down her cheeks and she choked out, “Goodbye.”

*

I wake up with Jason beside me as I’ve done for the past several months. I’m not looking forward to today. I have to have my paper on kissing edited. I hate fiction.

Jason’s already awake. He’s sitting upright with his back against the headboard. I have a feeling I should skip class. Jason confirms this by saying, “We need to talk.”

***

Only Bliss, Lek, a few stray lesser-gods, and I know what happened that day. Time reversed when Bliss pulled the magic out of the monster through Rebel. I have to confess, I didn’t think it would work. The monster disappeared and all the love magic in the air with it. Time slowed to a crawl while everyone went to work fixing things.

A few thousand memory-altering spells and a hell of a lot of rearranging, the campus went on like a normal day. I personally supervised Bliss as he reset Rebel and her boyfriend’s memories and timelines.

She wouldn’t remember going to class that day, let alone our time together. Everyone in class would recall proof-reading our papers by ourselves and going on our merry way. Rebel actually stayed home to have a talk with her boyfriend, trying to figure out their relationship.

 Bliss confirmed to me that Jason was gay and didn’t have romantic feelings for Rebel even though he wanted to. He left Jason’s memory of being happy with another man. He said they would break up as friends.

Bliss dusted off his hands and placed them on his hips, “I think that’s everything. I’ll check in throughout the next week or so to see if we missed anything.”

“Great, thanks.” I said, almost choking on the words.

He gave me a pitying smile which made me want to slap him. “I gave you my oath, Jenny. You two will end up together.”

I simply nodded. I just wanted to go home to scream or maybe cry. I couldn’t decide which. I think both supernatural beings could sense I wanted to be alone.

“Lek, would you like to accompany me to a pre-Halloween party?” Bliss asked. Lek turned to me with begging eyes. I am his keeper and could decide when he was allowed to leave my side. I nodded my permission. Someone should have some fun at the end of this day.

“Thanks, Jennifer. I’ll be good,” He promised with a devilish smile. I didn’t even care if he was good or bad.

Lek moved closer, almost touching me. “It hurts now, Jennifer, but it will ease. One day you will be together, but you must live your life freely until then. You know what I recommend?”

“That I should get a new woman?” I asked.

“No,” he stated with a smile. “You should go home and rest. Tomorrow, you should get a new woman.”

Damn him, he made me chuckle.

Bliss saved me the trouble of walking home by popping me back in my apartment before he and Lek disappeared.

Once again, I alone held the memories of what happened. Rebel wouldn’t remember today and she would still have the memories at the lake repressed. She wouldn’t recall either of our two kisses, and I knew I would never forget.

With a heavy sigh, I walked to the kitchen and pulled a bottle of whiskey down from a cabinet. I stared at it a long time, debating if I should pour some. It seemed like a dangerous road. Before my father had found a job that made him a workaholic, he had briefly been an alcoholic. I knew I could easily fall into those shoes, but the hole inside of me ached so much.

A sound of a motor softly turning on caused me to turn. My laptop was on and a Word Document was open on the screen. There was only a title rewritten at the top “The Case of the Chocolate-Love Monster.”

I chuckled as I sat down at the desk. I wiggled my fingers while I thought of where to start. The first line I added was right under the title. “By Jennifer…”

I paused, debating on adding my real last name or to create a penname. I then smiled and finished typing.

“By Jennifer Lek.”

It was, after all, our shared story. I could only imagine the fun we were going to have.

 

The End

 

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