Gift From a God

You’ve never heard of me. You don’t know my name, and you have no idea what I look like. Despite all of those things, I am perhaps the most powerful human in the world. That was part of the deal. I get all the power, but I can’t have the fame. And honestly, I was fine with that. Who needs fame when you can do what I can. Fame is a small price to pay. If you were offered practical godhood as long as you didn’t tell anyone your secret would you reject it?

How then can I write this story?. Honestly, who would believe it? This story is posted in a place full of fantasies and dreams. If I manage to hold your interest until the end then I think you’ll agree with me that it is quite unbelievable. A quick explanation of the deal: It wasn’t a deal with the devil, as some of you may be thinking, but rather a deal with Gods. Stick with me, all will be made clear.

I was living in Arizona at the time, having just finished school, and was doing my part to contribute as a functioning member of society. I worked, paid my bills, went out on the weekends with friends...all in all a very normal life. That day, I came home, opened the door to my apartment, set my keys down and began sifting through my mail.

“Mine....Mine...Kristel's...Mine...Krist...”

It was at that point I became aware of someone in the room with me. I glanced up and noticed a figure sitting in my living room. I jumped around, “Oh SHIT!,” I had to take a moment catch my breath, “You scared the hell out of me man.”

“You..whew...are you a friend of Kristel's?” I looked around, expecting to see her in her room maybe or in the bathroom. The apartment was empty, the lights off, the only sound besides my labored breathing being the soft whir of the air conditioner. I looked back at him and he shook his head with a slight grin on his face. I took a point to really study him.

It was hard to judge his height because he was sitting down, but he looked to be at least as tall as my 6’ 1”, and very lean. He had short blonde hair in a spikey punk fashion that looked to be tipped with red and was wearing sleek looking black sunglasses that seemed molded to his face and a black leather trench coat. I saw deep royal blue shirt on underneath with black pants and some type of animal skin shoes that gleamed faintly in the dull light of my living room.

“Okay...who are you then?"

“Why don’t you sit down Stephen, we have things to discuss.” He gestured to the love seat sitting near the couch.”

At this point I began to get a little worried. I wasn’t wanted by the law, I had no criminal dealings (well I cheated slightly on my taxes that year, but I don’t think the IRS sends punk looking agents to break into your house and wait for you to get home and audit you) and I could think of no one that I might have pissed of enough to have someone sent to my house.

“I’m not sitting down until you tell me what the hell your doing in my apartment. Wait...as a matter of fact, get the fuck out of my apartment.” I reached behind me and pulled my butcher knife out of my knife block on the kitchen counter and spun around pointing the knife at him. “Now.”

He just shook his head and clicked his tongue at me.

“You’re making this much harder then it has to be mortal.”

What did he say? Mortal? Who talks like that.

He stood up in one fluid motion and faced me. He didn’t move like anyone I had ever seen. If a viper could get up and walk around, it would be something like the way he moved. Almost like he didn’t have bones, but his body was just a fleshy shell for fluid power. He pulled off his sunglasses, sliding them into an inner pocket of the trench coat, and all thoughts of the knife were gone from my head. All thoughts of everything were gone from my head.

His eyes were silver. I don’t mean silver contacts or maybe a grayish color, but silver. They glimmered in the dim light like pools of living mercury. He had no pupil, no iris, no cornea just a gleaming silver from eye lid to eye lid.

“Now put down your little knife before you cut yourself and come over here and sit down. We need to talk. I’ll not say it again.”

The hair on the back of my neck stood up and I found myself too terrified to speak.I felt his power crash into me like a physical thing. It’s an impossible feeling to truly describe unless you’ve been in the presence of a God. Any strength or confidence in your own abilities completely evaporates and you’re left with an overwhelming desire to crawl into a corner and weep and pray for the emptiness of insanity. That might give you some idea of what I mean.

The knife fell from my hand and clattered to the floor and I started walking towards the love seat almost without realizing I was doing it. I dropped heavily onto the cushions and he flowed back into his seat and studied me with his metallic eyes for a moment.

“That’s better. Now tell me, what do you know of the Gods?”

That was completely off the wall. It took me a moment to collect myself enough to speak. I wasn’t totally sure whether or not I had just wet myself. The stranger waited patiently.

“I...uh..God..he uhh...well Jesus and Mary, the Devil. I don’t really go to church anymore. I used to be catholic, went to catholic school, did the alter boy thing but I never paid that much attention, I always got bored.

“I didn’t say God, although I should have expected as much from you. No, I said Gods, plural. In particular the Greek and Roman gods. Surely you studied it in school.”

“Well yeah, I guess. Zeus defeated the Titans and fucked anything that walked right? Hera was his wife and was always getting jealous and killing his girlfriends and his kids or something like that. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, Poseidon, god of the sea. Umm...Hercules. I used to watch that show every once in awhile. I saw Clash of the Titans once.” I looked at his eyes again, swirling and shifting in his head. “Are you...you’re a god?”

“Darn, did the eyes give me away. Happens every time," he said, with a sarcastic smirk. "Yes, I’m a God. I’m surprised you know that much about us. You people are so ignorant of the world and confident of your own beliefs these days. Why should you even bother knowing of the past and of those who came before you. Still your limited knowledge gives me something to work with.”

“But that’s just mythology, it wasn’t real," I stuttered. "You...you aren’t real. Are you?”

He held his hand in front of my face and I watched as it glowed blue and what looked like electricity coursed around his fingers and across the front and back of his hand.

“Look real enough to you?”

I just stared, wide eyed and nodded. ”Uh...why–”

“Why am I here? I’m here because you’ve been chosen by Zeus to receive some very special gifts. Since I am the designated messenger I’m here to give you these gifts. You will be practically immortal for all intents and purposes, along with all those godly powers you always hear about. Unless you want to refuse. I don’t advise that by the way.”

Well how does one respond to that. You suddenly find out that all those gods you read about in history are real, one of them is in your living room bearing gifts from Zeus, and you are the benefactor. Shit on me. Maybe I was having some sort of hallucination brought on by heat-stroke. The desert can do that to you. Still, the best I came up with was:

“Seriously?”

“Yes seriously you ignorant human. You think I would come here just because I had nothing better to do. Or maybe you think I have an overwhelming fondness for cacti and dust storms and heat the sucks the moisture from your body like a hellish succubous.” He glanced upwards with a look of disgust and said, “Gods I hate the desert. I’m much more suited to cooler climates.”

“So you’re just going to give me powers?”

“There are some restrictions of course, ”he said calmly.

“Like what?”

“For starters you may not run around telling everyone you’ve been in contact with us or that we are the source of your powers. You may not make it public knowledge that you possess these gifts, and you may not set yourself up as a God and start recruiting followers. Last time that happened we ended up with the Mormons.

“The Mormons? You mean that Joseph Smith guy–”

“Never mind that," he said quickly. "You also can’t start killing people. That’s high-profile and is much to hard to conceal. You may also not put yourself into any position of political power or influence. You are not to interfere with any political manuverings your fellow humans undertake. Not even a local PTA meeting, understand? If you violate these rules the consequences would be swift and severe, they are in place for a reason. Do not ever make the mistake of thinking you actually are a God and could stand up against even the weakest of us. Are we clear?”

Crystal. You don’t negotiate with Gods, they aren’t known for being flexible.

“Okay. Why me though, why was I picked. There are millions of people out there, what made me stand out. I can’t even get an interview at The Arizona Republic for a design job but here you are telling me I qualify for the powers of a God.”

“You don’t need to understand," he responded, firmly. "You were chosen and that is all that is important. Now, are you ready? I am on a schedule after all.”

“You mean now?”

“Must I always repeat myself. Stop questioning me and stand up.”

We both stood and he faced me. It’s very unsettling to look into the eyes of a God. It’s similar to the feeling you get when you stand at the shore of an ocean for the first time and suddenly begin to realize how completely small and unimportant you really are.

“What do I do?” I asked.

“You don’t do, I do. Hold still.”

He took a deep breath and brought his hands up to the sides of my head. They were glowing again, this time with a reddish light. He started to mumble in some odd language and then suddenly the universe exploded behind my eyes. I died and was reborn. I fell from an infinite height and flew to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. It passed in an instant but took so long that time itself lost all meaning.

When I came back around I was on my hands and knees with my heart racing in my chest and I felt somewhat nauseous. I sat up slowly and when I felt well enough to open my eyes the room snapped into focus with incredible clarity. I could see everything. Every detail on every surface in every shade and color. I groaned at the sensory overload and clamped my eyes shut.

“Take a deep breath," he said, softly. "Think about not seeing all that you just saw, but just as things are on the surface. As you’ll come to understand, you new-found abilities will pretty much all work that way.”

Once I felt brave enough I opened my eyes again and for a moment I was assaulted again but I concentrated, trying to do as he said, and then it all went back to normal. Mostly anyway, colors seemed to be more vivid and my focus was still incredibly sharp, but it wasn’t so much I that I couldn’t handle it. I looked up at the God and gasped. He was outlined in a pulsing gold light. His skin burned with a golden fire and every so often little wisps of it would shoot up and evaporate off him like smokey solar flares. His eyes were tiny supernovas.

“Jesus Christ...” I whispered in astonishment.

He gave a snort of contempt. “ Jesus Christ. Cocky little bastard, that one.” Then waving that aside he said, “You’ll be able to recognize us now, should you see us on the street. We’ll all appear to you similar to this.” He gestured with his hands and left tracers in the air that faded out after a few seconds. “They will see you for what you are as well, but don’t be surprised if they ignore your existence. Do not pester any of them. If any of us wishes to speak to you, we'll make our presence known. Otherwise it would be best not to interfere, they aren’t all as good natured as I am. They won’t kill you because you are protected, but there are other things in life besides death that are even more unpleasant and they can do all of them. We only hold so much sway with the other Pantheons.

“Now," he continued. "As I’ve said your powers will work on thought. Think it and you can do it."

“So I just think about something and it happens? What about if I think about killing someone in a dream, that doesn’t seem like a very good idea," I told him.

“It’s not automatic. Think about moving your hand but don’t move it.

I did.

“Now," he commanded, "move it."

I did.

“See the difference. There must be force behind the thought. You must apply your will to it in order for it to happen, just as with your hand. You can think about moving it all day long, but it won’t move until you will it to move. Try and move this candle into your hand from where your sitting.

He motioned to the candle on the coffee table in front of me. I reached out towards the candle and thought about it moving into my hand. At first nothing happened, then as I focused another few seconds it slipped across the table right into the palm of my hand.

“Holy shit! It moved into my hand.”

“I told you it would.”

“What else can I do?” I asked, eager for more.

“Almost anything you want. You can’t change night to day, or brew up a thunderstorm, although if you concentrated, you could probably make a few gusts of wind. However you can now read minds, control minds, alter perceptions, teleportation, telekenisis, heightened senses, superior strength...as I said, just about anything you want. You are not, however, given any power over the domain of the other Gods. Hence the thunderstorms, or time or any natural laws.

That sounded like something I could live with.

“What am I supposed to do now?”

“That’s not my concern, although knowing you as I do, I’m sure you’ll think of something.” He gave me a small humorless grin, “You just obey the rules as I’ve told you and there shouldn’t be any problems.”

“Can I die?”

“It would be extremely difficult to kill you. If you somehow manage to get your head separated from your body or a nuclear bomb goes off there won’t be much we can do, but otherwise, you should be fine. You will age but at a slower rate then your fellow homo sapiens. You will not catch any disease or get a cold or break any bones. Same goes for getting shot or beaten. I think you’ll find it very difficult to get hurt as you are now. This is not a simple or casual thing that we have just done and we wouldn’t want it spoiled if you went off and died.”

“You said I could read and control minds. What did you mean by that?”

He gave me a long suffering sigh. “Exactly what I said. There is no way you have a hearing problem now. You’ll figure it out.”

“And altering perception? What does that mean.

“Have you ever wished you could be in a room with people and have them not know your there? To be able to be invisible to them, any sounds or action go unnoticed. Or perhaps make someone see something that isn’t there or feel something that they otherwise wouldn’t. That’s what I mean.”

“And the teleportation?" I asked.

“You must be able to visualize where you wish to go," he explained. "You can’t pop yourself over to China if you’ve never been. When you have the place you want in mind, just apply your will to your desire and it shall be so. Visualization is also the key when manipulating minds. You have to be able to visualize the person and there relative location to establish the link. Line of sight will always work the best, but if you can see the person in your mind you should be able to do it. This means you can’t control some random woman in South Dakota if you have no idea who or where they are.

I sat for a moment trying to absorb all of this. It was just so much to take in.

“Who are you?”

He gazed steadily at me for a moment, he seemed to be thinking something over, and then said, “I am known to some as Hermes, Messenger of the Gods.”

“What would have happened if I had refused?”

He gave me that humorless grin again and this time there was something sinister in it that made me shudder so I let it drop. He cocked his head sideways as if hearing something in the distance.

“Now, if I’m not mistaken, you’ll have a chance to test some of your powers. Anything else you wish to know you’ll have to figure out for yourself. I must leave you now.” He stood and looked back at me with a cryptic smile, then putting his sunglasses back on said, ”Farewell human. Enjoy yourself.”

Suddenly silver blue spheres of light swirled up from the floor around him and in a quick flash that left after images in my eyes, he was gone. I only had a few seconds of silence trying to comprehend all that had just happened when I heard a key in the door. Kristel was home.

Kristel and I had been living together in a strictly platonic

way for about a year and a half, I had met her through a roommate website service. I needed a roommate and she needed a room. It was pretty much a business partnership. We had never become close friends, she was a little frigid honestly. Not to say that I hadn’t been wanting to fuck her since the day I met her, but we didn’t have that kind of relationship. Since we hardly ever talked or hung out with the same group of people, there was never any chance for an opening.

She was probably about 5’ 4” or 5’ 5”, just a little slip of a thing, with long blondish brown hair a little past her shoulders and an ass that made you want to cry for your momma it was so plumb and firm. She had beautiful blue eyes the color of cornflowers and skin of fresh buttermilk and if I remember correctly, was a 32C. Her face wasn’t drop dead gorgeous pretty, she had a thing with her jaw. It was just a bit too strong to make her as beautiful as she would have been otherwise. She was still fine though, make no mistake.

She came through the door and set her purse on the counter. From the moment she walked into the room I was completely aware of her. I could smell the sweetness of her skin, I could hear her heartbeat in her chest and the way the fabric of her clothes glided across her body. I thought I could even feel the small currents of air she made as she moved through the room. Hermes wasn’t kidding about heightened senses, this was amazing. She smelled like mangos. I could taste it on my tongue.

“Hi Steve.” She glanced over at me.

“Hello.”

She looked up again, studying me, “You okay? You look kind of pale.”

“Uh..no, no I’m fine. Just had a rough day.”

“Why is your knife on the floor?”

“Huh? Oh, I dropped it.” I walked over and picked up the knife and reached over the counter to place it back in the block. I still wasn’t used to all this new information my senses were feeding me and standing next to her in front of the counter only increased the effect. She stood there going through the mail as I had so recently done and all I could do is stand there inundated with all the sights, sounds and smells of her. The pure sensuality of experiencing her so intimately was dizzying. Of course I may have been dizzy because all the blood was rushing away from my head.

“Are you sure you’re okay? You’re just kind of standing there with a dazed look?”

“I think I should go lay down," I told her.

“Well, if you need anything let me know.”

She gathered up her mail and went to her room, shutting the door behind her. Typical. I followed closely behind and went the opposite way down the short hall to my room.

I shut the door and laid on my bed and started to think. I now had God-like powers. I could...I could do almost anything. Not totally believing it, I looked across my room on my shelf and willed one of my textbooks to me. It cleared the other books smooth as a whisper and moved across the room and hovered about a foot over my stomach. I broke out in goosebumps and was so excited all I could do was giggle as my mind abounded with possibilities.