The Pandora Principle

I pocketed the card and headed to the tape. After a wave from the detective’s hand, the policeman lifted it up for me to duck under. I hurried into the parking lot and to my car, squinting in the glare of the flashing lights. The few police milling about barely spared me a glance.

 

I slid in my car and drove to the parking lot on the other side of campus. It was deserted, as I thought it would be. One or two cars were parked with a sea of spaces between them. I sighed and gazed at the buildings then down at my wrist. Only my pulse answered my silent question. Why was I even here? The daimon had probably long left the school altogether.

 

Despite this, I climbed out of my car and walked to toward the dorms. A group of students gathered around the stoop and talked quietly with each other. They glanced my direction and continued whispering as I trudged by them. As I passed another dorm, my wrist began to tingle, like tiny pinpricks uncoiling. Another murmur of voices floated on the air from my left. I pivoted and marched the direction with quick, determined steps.

 

Hermes’s voice drifted from around the corner of the building. “This would have happened if I came here or not.”

 

The gritty bricks dug into my back as I pressed against the dorm and peeked around the corner. Serenity stood in front of Hermes with her shoulders stiff and her fists clenched while he stared down at her with an almost sad, pitying look. Once again, I had walked in on another argument between the two of them. I sighed and stepped out from the building, clearing my throat. Serenity spun around, and her already stormy expression darkened.

 

“Great,” she said. “Now the two of you are going to start making out or something.”

 

I frowned as a guilty feeling settled in the pit of my stomach. “What are you doing out here?”

 

She jabbed her finger in the direction of Hermes. “Ask him. He’s the one who dragged me out here.”

 

Hermes rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I was hoping we could trace the thing responsible. I thought if Serenity witnessed it, she could vouch for me.”

 

I crossed my arms with a smirk. “She already has, in a way.”

 

Serenity shot me a death glare and I shrugged. Hermes looked between the two of us with raised eyebrows.

 

“Really?” he asked Serenity.

 

I tilted my head with a raised eyebrow. “Anyway, if you’re out here chasing it, then you know who the daimon is.”

 

He gave me a mysterious smile. “Maybe.”

 

“Who is it?” I asked.

 

“What will you give me?” he asked.

 

“I won’t kill you.”

 

He yawned and tilted his head at me. “You weren’t going to anyway.”

 

Serenity threw up her hands. “Oh, just tell her. I’d like to go home instead of standing here in the dark looking for something I can’t find.”

 

“What exactly are you?” I asked. “I thought any god should be able to sense others.”

 

“I’m Serenity,” she snapped.

 

“That’s not any god I’ve heard of,” I said.

 

“You also took two months to figure out him.” Serenity jabbed her thumb in Hermes’s direction. “Honestly, you need to brush up on your mythology or something.”

 

“I don’t need to memorize it,” I muttered. “That’s what Google is for.”

 

Hermes chuckled. “Serenity is my daughter.”

 

My jaw damn near hit the pavement. “No way.”

 

Serenity sighed and crossed her arms. “Unfortunately.”

 

I studied the two of them with narrowed eyes. They both had dark hair, but his was almost black and hers had hints of brown and gold in it. Her face was more rounded at the cheek in comparison to his angular bone structure.

 

“I’m failing to see the resemblance,” I said.

 

Serenity rolled her eyes. “He took this form so he could try to win me over and a friend or something.”

 

He stuck his hands in his pockets and shrugged. “How else could I do it? You refuse to accept me as your father.”

 

She turned his direction and balled her fists up again. “You ignored me for seventeen years. What kind of father does that?”

 

He let out a long sigh and took a patronizing tone. “We’ve been over this before.”

 

“Not knowing I existed is a shitty excuse,” she said. “You go around fucking whoever you want, even my best friend here, and you don’t give a damn to what happens to them afterwards.”

 

His hot gaze locked me in my spot before he looked back to her. “This really isn’t the time to talk about this.”

 

She laughed bitterly. “It never is.”

 

Yeah, this was getting just weird. I glanced behind me, trying to resist the urge to back away from this little drama slowly. My heart pounded in my chest as my emotions went to war inside me.

 

It felt wrong to want him on so many levels, especially with Serenity here yelling at him for being a bad father. Yet, when I looked at him, my heart squeezed in my chest and my body craved his warmth.

 

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