Chapter 2: Out of Time

AN: Actually, here’s a second chapter. Weeklies start next week. Let’s at least introduce our main character.

Annita was a fairly normal girl. Pale, with wild black hair that could never seem to untangle. About five foot five with a petite build. Her life was mundane, at best. She graduated from an art university in 2011 but couldn’t really make any headway off her work. With some help from her parents, she found an apartment to live in with her two cats, Emeril and Pixel.

For a couple of years, she got a job in customer service at a few restaurants and eventually a call centre. Her daily commute took the local bus system.

The last thing she remembered was on one of those seemingly endless commutes. She’d had her headphones in, listening to some random song that had caught her interest a couple of months ago, when there was a commotion toward the front. There was shouting, and a loud bang, and then the world went black.

It had been black for a very, very long time. Now and then, she thought she could hear voices from other people, but could never tell if she was dreaming. Over time, the black began to shift. The voices had been gone for longer than they’d been around. It grew brighter and brighter as the seemingly infinite time she was stuck here passed.

Eventually, the world became so white she could call it blinding. She had been walking. Since time didn’t seem to matter here, she didn’t know how long. Then she saw something. It was the first thing other than herself she’d seen since she wound up wherever this was.

Shockingly, it was a couch. A nice, plush, modern couch with a lot of leg room and a pillowy back that looked like she could just sink into it. Even more shocking was the woman sitting on it. A ridiculously beautiful woman with platinum blond hair, button chin and nose and a splash of freckles over her cheeks that only elevated her beauty.

She was focused on something, and as Annita got closer, she saw there was a TV set up with some game being played. It was surreal.

“Come, darling, sit for a while.” The woman beckoned without glancing back at her.

Annita knew she should be suspicious, but something about the woman disarmed her. A warmth exuded that made her comfortable and relaxed. She rounded the edge of the couch, and her eyes widened as she saw that the woman was completely naked. She had a gorgeous figure, wide, full hips, with large, pert breasts that didn’t seem to have a hint of sag to them.

It was this that shocked Annita into realising she could sense her own body for the first time since she arrived in what she’d called The Void, also that she was similarly naked. Blushing furiously, she took the seat next to the woman, trying desperately not to stare, and even more not to drool.

“How are you feeling, love?” Annita jolted as she realised she’d been staring despite her efforts.

“Uh… fine? I guess? Who, who are you?”

“Ah, a good question. We’ll get there in a bit, but for now, we need to talk about you. How much do you remember before all this?” She waved a hand airily at the white infinity.

Annita took a moment, sitting back and letting her head sink into the soft cushions. “Not much, to be honest. I remember my life, my family, my cats, some friends, but it gets kinda vague toward the end.”

“I would imagine so. Now, this is the unfortunate part. I have a bit of bad and good news.” The woman put down the controller and turned her full, breathtaking attention to Annita. “You have been, what’s the best phrase for this, out of it for a long time, sweetheart. A long time ago, you were shot. A man came on the bus you were on and opened fire. He hit you in the head but miraculously didn’t kill you.”

“Wait, wait, hold on.” Annita interrupted. “I was shot?” She ran her hands through her hair and over her face, looking for a bullet hole or blood or anything that could match the trauma she’d experienced. “Then what’s this? Why am I wherever the hell this is?”

“Patience, patience. I’m getting there.” Annita immediately calmed as the woman’s melodic voice washed over her. The woman smiled and continued. “You were shot, yes, and have been in a coma ever since. Annita, darling, you… never woke up from that coma. You were there for years. Before you get worried, your family cared for you deeply. They were there as much as they could be, and your family watched after your adorable kittens. They brought them to see you as frequently as they could.”

Annita sat in stunned silence for what felt like a long while. A warm hand settled gently on her shoulder, but the woman let her be, let her process the horrifying news. Eventually, stomach still in knots, she let out a long, shaky sigh. “So, sorry.” She sniffed and wiped away tears she couldn’t remember shedding.

“No, no, child. Do not be sorry. Your grief shows how important they all were to you. Never apologise for what you feel.” A knowing and sad smile graced the woman’s beautiful lips.

“So, you were saying? You were talking about this like it was a long time ago. How long have I been in a coma? Am I still in a coma? Is this even real?”

The woman took her hand back and placed it in her lap as she turned to sit cross-legged, facing Annita. “This is going to be the other difficult part of this conversation. Let’s start with the latter. No, you are not still in a coma, or at least not really. Also, yes, this is real. I’m not some wonder of your imagination. We are in your head, though. Second, yes, it has been a very long time. Millennia, to be more accurate. I think it’s about four or five thousand years since your incident? When we…”

“I’m sorry THOUSANDS OF YEARS?” Annita burst out, bolting upright, eyes wide. “That’s impossible. No freakin’ way.”

“Yes freakin’ way.” The woman chuckled with the sound of a choir bell section. “And trust me, a lot has changed, chiefly that we returned. We being the Gods of this world.”

“Wait, wait, Gods? Real Gods? Like, Shiva, Zeus, all those Gods?”

The woman laughed again, Annita’s confusion and bafflement clearly amusing her. “Yes and no, child. We were around a long time ago, before most of the civilisation you knew got started. We had many names, but it wouldn’t shock me if some of us carried over into your mythology, if not our true names. I am Orenous. I mostly preside over love, connections, emotions, and minds. My brothers and sisters have their own domains, but it’s a bit too much to go over for now. You’ll fill in the blanks as you go. Any questions so far?”

“Uh, yeah, yeah, a fucking ton of them. I guess the most pressing is why am I here, and why are you here, and how the hell am I still alive if it’s been thousands of years?” Annita was starting to get a headache. Way too much was being revealed all at once, and she didn’t have the emotional capacity to deal with it after the news about her life. She was drained, and Orenous didn’t seem like she was close to finishing.

“Well, those are probably the most important you could have asked. First, to explain, you’ll need a bit of a history lesson on the future of your world. As silly as that sounds.” A wry grin on her lips shone as bright as the midday sun. “I mentioned we returned to what you called Earth, didn’t I? Well, that was not without incident. Your lot had made advancements that were, let’s say, incompatible with our simultaneous existence. Large portions of the mechanical infrastructure and whatnot? Perfectly fine. Your electronics? Completely and irrevocably ruined. It is a shame. I quite enjoy the toys and trinkets you children came up with.” She gestured to the dark television and game console. “I can only experience them through old memories I have saved in my domain.”

“Back on track, though, yes, we accidentally caused a lot of chaos on our return. The world’s advancements slipped backwards for a long time, and they’re only now beginning to recover. During this time of chaos, we walked the earth as our divine selves. Understandably, this also caused a lot of problems due to the multitude of religions your people had established. There were wars, droughts, plagues, and famine. The population shrank, but eventually, things stabilised as people became accustomed to their new reality. It was not all doom and gloom, though. Through our influence, magic returned to this world as it had long ago. Unfortunately, this also led to another period of chaos where our gifts were too strong for humanity to wield and control themselves, so we limited them. You remember games, correct?”

Annita nodded dumbly. She was trying to take in everything the Goddess was telling her, but a lot of it was too much for her to really fully grasp or have any emotional reaction to. It didn’t help that she kept having to pull her eyes up from the gorgeous breasts that rose and fell with the Goddess’s breath. Orenous’ eyes twinkled now and then when she caught Annita’s attention drifting, but she never made a comment on it.

“Well, good, because this world has some new rules to it. Magic abounds but is bound to people’s chosen Paths. These Paths are many and varied, but also serve to make the people stronger, better at what they seek to accomplish. Say an artist strives to create better and better masterpieces. Depending on the time and effort spent on this Path, they will gain skills and physical attributes to help further their goals. Better colour acuity, increased finger dexterity, and more strength if they happen to be a sculptor. You get the idea. This is true for all living beings in this world. Well, save one, but we’ll get there too. I’m sorry, dear, this is a lot, but I promise you’ll appreciate it soon.”

“I… is there like, paper or something I could write this all down on?” Annita asked, mind thoroughly overloaded with information.

“No, sorry, but rest assured that this new world you will be walking soon will help contextualise it enough. Continuing, there was one other gift we gave to the people of this world. Seeds of our divine nature, places that embody who we are as deities. There are quite a few of these, so they were scattered around the world. Some larger, some smaller, depending on the breadth of our influence. Well, something happened in the last, what was it, two thousand years or so? Something that cut us off from these gifts and began changing them. What were once places of divine influence slowly became warped. Things that entered them changed irrevocably. It was subtle at first, small things. Some were even beneficial. The singular human race became many races, a few that you would even draw analogues to fantasy stories. Longer lives for some, stronger bodies for others; there are a multitude of changes present, even today. Then, nine hundred and twenty-four years ago, the subtle became overt and malicious. Changes were quick, rampant, and deadly. Warping the creatures and people who entered the Seeds into unspeakable monstrosities. Their minds were broken, their flesh twisted, and a madness drove them to an endless rage.”

“This, above all else, is why I have called you to speak with me, and incidentally, how you survived this long. When you were in the hospital, dear Annita, languishing in your coma, was when we returned. It also happened that one of our Seeds was planted nearby. Mine, actually.”

“Hold on, have a question!” Annita’s hand shot up as if she were back in school. “If these Seeds were your influence and your gifts, didn’t you know what was in them? Why was I left alone? You have domain over the mind, right? Couldn’t you have woken me up? While I still had my family around? What the hell? You’re a Goddess, right? You’ve got all that power, and you couldn’t fix me? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

A sadness fell over Orenous’ face as Annita’s anger flared. “I apologise, my child. I know you will not believe this, but I thought this was for the best. To not see your family and friends thrown into chaos, to sleep peacefully. A mercy. I will be the first to admit that we, the Gods, are fallible. I believed what I was doing was for the best.”

Annita was fuming. This bitch had taken her whole life from her, her choice to remain with her parents, her pets, her brothers and sister. They were all just gone, and this woman was the one responsible. The urge to strike out flared, but just as she was about to act on it, she felt a pressure on her mind push the feeling down.

“I truly understand, my child, the anger that pushes you, but now is not the time. In fact, our time here grows somewhat short. You have been a singular existence for some time. Even my Seed has been corrupted, but I somehow never lost my connection with you. You slept and slept, never changing, never ageing. When the corruption finally reached you, I did my best to prevent it from influencing you overmuch, but your body has changed. Let me show you.”

With a wave of Orenous’ hand, the TV suddenly leapt to life with a hiss of static. On the screen was a woman. She was tall, easily over six feet, strong, lithe, and unmistakably beautiful. Tan, almost brown skin that was as flawless as Orenous’ own flesh. Her hair was dark, iron grey that shone with a lustre that Annita had never achieved. Adorning the top of her head were a pair of fluffy wolf’s ears standing at attention. Her face was fierce, with defined cheekbones and a pronounced jaw. Set in those features were piercing green eyes under a pair of thick eyebrows of the same colour as her hair. Looking closer, she could see defined abs and thigh muscles as the figure rotated. Sharp, claw-like nails tipped her fingers, and her legs ended in paws rather than feet. Annita almost fell out of her chair as the full front of the woman was revealed. Well-proportioned breasts with dark nipples adorned her chest, but that wasn’t what hit her. It was the cock. The eleven-inch, as best she could guess, cock that was in between the woman’s thighs. Situated right below a nice tuft of the same iron-grey hair. She couldn’t see any testicles, though, but the image wasn’t at an angle where she could get a good look.

“You have got to be fucking with me.” She looked up at Orenous for confirmation as her jaw hung open. “That’s ME?”

“Yes.” Orenous intoned, with a hint of worry in her voice. “I know it’s a lot. For what it is worth, I do find the alterations you went through to be somewhat of an improvement myself. I certainly wouldn’t mind inhabiting a figure like that.”

“Yeah, well, you’re a God, so you’ve got to be used to different bodies! I’ve only had the one! This… that? That’s a lot. How the hell am I, just, I mean. It’s not bad, but still!” Annita couldn’t help her fluster. She definitely liked what she was seeing, but couldn’t imagine herself being what she saw. If that woman had approached her, she’d be a shivering mess of desire, and now that woman was her.

Orenous scoffed at her fluster. “Darling, it’s fantastic. And considering you’re to be my sponsored champion, I think it will help you fit the bill wonderfully. We need to keep our talk moving, though. As we speak, your body is moving. No harm will come to you, I promise, but I am having it moved out of the Seed. Once it reaches safety in a place near others, you’ll regain consciousness, so time is of the essence now.”

She leaned down and picked Annita up with surprising ease and placed her back on the couch. “Last part of our talk, I promise. Your mission. Your representation of my influence. I need you to look further into what is causing this corruption. Since we, the Gods, are cut off from the affected areas, we grant minor blessings of protection through our churches to the mortals who wish to explore them. You will be different. You will have my full backing as my personal emissary to the world. The choice of paths for you will be subsequently narrowed to allow you to focus on this task.”

“So I don’t get a choice in this?” Annita blurted out. “You’re talking like this has already been decided, but I haven’t said yes to any of this.”

“Sweet child. I know your mind better than anyone. Maybe even you. You do get to say yes or no to this, but I know what you will choose.”

Annita crossed her arms, trying her best to look defiant. “I… OK, fine, you’re not wrong. It sure beats the eternity in nothingness, I guess. Fine. OK. So how’s this champion thing going to work?”

Orenous smiled, leaning back as Annita accepted. “Well, there will be responsibilities. You will be representing me among the mortals, and I expect you to declare who you are, though you can leave out the whole from the before times part if you’d like. I’ll leave the rest to your skills and intuition. You have the tools you need to grow, plus a little extra. Just don’t forget to have fun along the way. With a body like that?” She gestured at the screen. “I’d be disappointed if you didn’t.”

Annita flushed deeply at the implication that the Goddess of love had basically just given her the go-ahead to fuck people. She nodded, eyes trying to avoid the smirk that spread across Orenous’ lips.

“Well, time’s up. Someone is nearing your resting place. Ooh, I think you’ll be in good hands with this one.” Another giggle, somehow more beautiful than the last. “Very good hands. Oh, and I’ll see you later. You’re not getting away from me that easy.” With a wink, Orenous reached out, tapped Annita’s nose, and the world went black once more.