Chapter 7

We didn’t call it an existential crisis back when I was just a young green witch. The philosophers and Athena had a different name for it, but the concept was the same. Athena got kind of annoyed if we had one because she thought it should be beneath us as her priestesses. Not all of us sprung from their father’s forehead. She had way more family drama than any of us, but excuse the fuck out of the rest of us for being bothered by ours.

I always had one every time someone ended up a statue because of me. Even when they technically showed up trying to kill the Gorgon, it fucking bothered me. I knew it wasn’t my fault. Like I could have fought a god off. Athena didn’t have to punish me instead of him. She didn’t have to keep dropping into my life like a period fart and breaking my glasses either. I avoided people unless I had the glasses and if I even thought she was coming, I ran again.

If someone found me with the intention of killing me, I usually tried to get away. Trying to fight my way out without looking them in the eye was pretty hard. Sometimes I managed, sometimes I didn’t, but I always tried to avoid hurting them.

But this? I’d intentionally lured her into my cell with the intention of hurting her. And I didn’t feel bad about it. It felt about as righteous as Sister Mary Eugene pretended like she was. We weren’t the same. They could have stopped this at any time. They could have stopped when we spoke out and said angels were supernatural creatures just like us and we were born like this. They could have when they lost the support and funding of their churches.

They didn’t. As far as I knew, the angels hadn’t made another appearance in a very long time. None of these people had probably ever seen one. But I’d not only seen what went down in the basement of one of these facilities, I’d experienced it. I was half starved, seriously underweight, and could barely stand up without getting dizzy and I had things easy because they couldn’t experiment on me like the others.

I didn’t want to stop with Sister Mary Eugene. And she didn’t even deserve that title. She wasn’t a real nun. After the Church excommunicated these people, I had to run again. My car was in the shop, so I just left it. I ended up on a bus full of nuns who were going to see some musical called Nunsense. They ended up being pretty great. They had an extra ticket and invited me. I learned the real nuns had a massive sense of humor because that whole musical was one joke after another about their faith and they were laughing the loudest.

I wish I knew Sister Mary Eugene’s real name because she didn’t deserve to wear that habit or the honorary name. I suppose it didn’t really matter now since she was a stone statue. I really wanted to turn every single person here to stone because they were in on this.

I just wished we hadn’t made eye contact with her blocking the door because now I couldn’t get out. I was pretty sure the guard and the orderly down here might be willing to open the door rather than end up stone. Because Athena hadn’t given me any kind of failsafe in my curse. It was everyone who looked me in the eye and I couldn’t exactly fix them if was an accident.

But fuck. I couldn’t even move someone I’d turned to stone before I’d withered away to practically nothing. And the really pissed off guard hiding behind the fake nun statue couldn’t either. Jezebel wasn’t helping.

“Shit, she stopped talking. Is she stone? She’s stone, isn’t she? Score one for Medusa!” Jezebel hooted.

I couldn’t see out of my cell. I wasn’t trying to because there was only one person who deserved to be stone. The demon girl they just brought back had finally stopped sobbing. She was pissed now.

“Yeah, that fucking bitch is stone. She had it coming. She just had that orderly beat the shit out of me.”

I felt my anger rise. This wasn’t the same orderly Jezebel thought she could seduce. I got bad vibes from this one.

“Why don’t you come in here and try that with me?” I taunted.

“You’re in enough trouble,” the guard snapped, trying to tug at what used to be Sister Mary Eugene.

“Oh, you aren’t moving that statue. That’s solid stone. You might have better luck if you lifted whatever is dampening the magic and let a shifter or vampire try.”

Yeah, I was enjoying this a little too much. And I really needed to get out of here. I was going to hit up the first restaurant I found and gorge myself. I’d probably get sick, but I’d be stopping for ice cream after. Ugh. I didn’t need to think about ice cream right now.

The door opened, and I heard the click of hard-soled shoes. All I saw was a hand slip something to the orderly. He slipped a gas mask over his face and moved away. I tried to make it to peer around the statue, but I was so weak.

The entire basement started filling with some kind of gas. My eyes were burning, and I started choking.

Everything went black.