Thanatos wasn’t going to waste time teleporting here and there in search of Damien. Instead, he focused on Damien’s essence, his aura, and took himself to its location. Death found himself in an empty black void. He walked through the blank space, his shoes echoing off a floor that did not exist. He found Damien sitting, his knees brought up to his chest, his arms wrapped tightly around them. “Damien?”
Damien lurched his head up and cleared his throat, feeling the need to compose himself in the presence of his father. “Hey. What’s up?”
Death crouched down before him. “Damien, where are we?”
“Er...” Damien gulped, but laughed off his panic. “I don’t know.”
Thanatos turned and sat down next to him, mirroring his position, “What happened?”
“What do you mean?”
“You disappeared from the party. I doubt it was without reason.”
“I uh...” Damien closed his eyes and tried to remember. He shook his head. He didn’t remember the last few minutes of the party at all. He only remembered the hall, the sound, and the hellhound. “I’m fine,” Damien said with a smile and a shrug.
“Of course you’re finehere. But what about back at the venue?”
“Yeah. I’m fine.” His smile and tone were too convincing.
Death had come to recognize this tone of his. It was practically an audio recording. Damien was lost somewhere in his own mind, and this version Death was speaking to was an autopilot setting. “Alright. Prove it.”
This challenge brought Damien back out a bit. He gave Thanatos a small glare, and they were back at the ball, face to face by the bar.
“See?” Damien shrugged. “I’m fine.”
Damien flashed him a crooked grin, but turned around to see several fire-eyed hellhounds cruising the dance floor, looking for scraps and the occasional scratch behind the ears. Damien’s chest hardened to stone as he backed away. He backed into Thanatos behind him, which startled him even further, but Thanatos put his hands on Damien’s shoulders.
Death knew how much he hated being touched, but it was all he could manage to do to keep Damien from flying out of his skin or disappearing to an unknowable dimension. “Is it the hellhounds?”
Damien swallowed in response.
“Odin’s hounds are harmless. Unless, that is, you’re a lost soul they’re hunting.” Death couldn’t help but chuckle a bit, but Damien backed up further into him at the notion. Thanatos ceased laughing as dots began to connect in his mind. “Ah. I see.”
Death moved around Damien to block his view. In order to keep Damien from flying out of his skin, he never removed his hands. What Death said next was meant to be reassuring, to draw his son’s eyes away from the fear to something steady. He said in an even, monotone voice, “Look at me.”
Damien became rigid and started to hyperventilate. Look at me. Those words echoed from a hazy space in the back of Damien’s mind. In the haze, his arms were suspended over his head; his toes hovered above the floor. A voice said, Look at me, but he couldn’t. The room was too dark. He couldn’t see- He couldn’t see.
Death’s son stared back into his eyes with nothing but pure unadulterated fear. Thanatos began to panic too. He didn’t know what he was doing or saying that was making it worse. “I want you to go home,” Death said. “I’ll follow you momentarily. Go home.”
Damien did as he was commanded and vanished. Death just hoped he had gone home and not anywhere else. Thanatos pinched the bridge of his nose and felt something wet trickle down his finger. It tumbled only halfway down his cheek before turning to stone. He caught the little black gem in his palm as it fell. Without hesitation, he dropped it into his breast pocket. Death cleared his throat, straightened his suit, and walked back into the party.
He wandered around in circles looking for Loki who was nowhere to be found. He and Eros had probably found some dark corner or upstairs room to hide away in, but Thanatos saw Eros at the bar, being forced into a conversation with Apollo and Artemis. He made his way to Eros, but being stopped every five feet to make pleasantries with someone was slowing down.
He had nearly decided to give up the endeavor and just abandon the party. Surely the gods could handle the rest of the event without him. Someone would step up and take his place in his absence, but that thought put his teeth on edge. Whoever stepped up would start a war. Odin and Thor would get wasted and they live to have a good fight. Zeus would start a riot if someone wasn’t able to keep him away from Isis. He had nearly made it to Eros when he was stopped by Shmeaglebobenzoar.
“Death, old boy!”
Thanatos smiled politely. Shmeagle was his only true business ally in New Bedlam, and he had to stop for this.
“I see you’re on the warpath, but I must leave soon and need to tell you this incase I don’t see you before I depart. A bit of gossip. I wanted to tell you that our dear Mr. VanGarrett has been very keen on finding a very particular weapon for his collection, which, might I say, is growing quite quickly. He is sparing no expense.”
“Yes. I’m aware he has been trying to enter the artifacts business.”
“I’m afraid he passed through the threshold a while back now. Spared no expense, I tell you. But, this weapon he’s been inquiring after, The Beasty, they call it- Have you heard of it?”
Death’s feet, which had been eager to get going, settled into the ground. “It’s a gun, isn’t it?” He tried to feign a lack of interest.
“A gun whose ammunition can kill anything. I figured you would be well aware of it... given its nature.”
“Come, Shmeagle. You know these objects are often legend and nothing more.”
The demon gave him a patronizing look through his monocle.
“It’s nothing for you to concern yourself with.” Thanatos continued, “The revolvers don’t exist, and Alec can’t find them even if they did.”
“So, it’s a revolver, is it? Or multiple? Revolvers is quite specific. My accounts of it simply call it a firearm."
Thanatos’s polite smile fell as he realized his error.
Shmeaglebob adjusted his monocle. “You must misremember, old boy. The accounts only ever call it a single firearm. They don’t get any more specific than that.”
Thanatos put a hand on the demon’s shoulder. “Good man. Now, I must run. I appreciate you greatly.”
“But, of course.” The demon tipped his hat.
And Death took monstrous strides to Eros. His hands behind his back to hide his nervous fingers, he nodded and smiled to his guests as he went.
He cleared his throat when he was standing behind the twins, Apollo and Artemis, and Eros. Each one eyed him with a completely different expression than the other. “Do you mind if I borrow your great, great, great primordial uncle?”
Eros glared, and Artemis and Apollo slipped away with mocking faces. Eros blinked. “You know, I want to ask you why you hate me, but you’ve already insulted me enough for a lifetime.”
“I don’t hate you, Eros,” he said, almost sympathetic, then, “Hating you wouldn’t be worth my while.”
“Wow!”
“Listen. I need a favor-”
“Um. No. Whatever it is, no.”
Death snarled, “It’s for Damien. Not for me.”
Eros sighed and looked away for a moment. “What is it?”
“I can’t find your husband-”
“Boyfriend,” Eros corrected, as he sipped his ambrosia.
“Whatever! I cannot find Loki. I have to leave. Please. Find him. Please, tell him I need him to hold down the fort and keep this ball from descending into chaos.”
Eros blinked, chuckled, and said, “I’m going to let what you just said sink in for a moment.”
“I don’t have time to argue with you. If anyone can manage the chaos. If anyone can keep chaos at bay and control it, it would be the god of Chaos. Honestly, you claim to love him yet have such a one-dimensional view of his capabilities.”
Eros’s face turned to stone.
“Think about someone other than yourself for once. Find him. Tell him. Get it done. It’s not hard.”
Eros raised his eyebrow and took a cigarette from his case sitting on the bartop. He tapped the filter on the bar, and as stoically as he could he said, “Fine. Got it.” He lit it the way Loki taught him to, with magick. The accusation stung, but he wondered if it was valid. In truth, they hadn’t been dating for long, so he shouldn’t be expected to know everything about Loki. But, when marriage was on the table as a possibility, though an unlikely and mostly unwelcome possibility, he should have felt more confident that Death’s harsh words were just that. Harsh, empty words for the sake of insult.
Thanatos vanished without another word, and Eros took a moment to reflect and smoke his cigarette before finding Loki.
