Chapter 2: Meet the "Devil"

For Paris, her day was wrecked, and her good mood ruined. Adorned on her face are the matching accessories to perfectly express her emotional fashion statement. Her haughty smile has been switched out with a venomous scowl; instead of the eyes that gleamed with hazel confidence, she brandishes a darkened glare. The eyebrows that were once curved and accentuated her above all attitude with a strong look of confidence, now are worn across her face, pinched tightly into a furrow with a pin of frustration to keep them there. She has added extra accessories like stress lines from constant scowling. She’s traded her strut of haught for a power walk with heavy steps. For added decoration, she’s crossed her arms beneath her chest rather than let one hand hang while the other rests on her hip.

Yes, this is the perfect outfit to match her mood. The reason for this cosmetic fashion change was the boy named Zeus. In each and every one of her classes today, he has been there. mocking her by matching her exam scores number for number, score for score, grade for grade, percentage for percentage. However, they don’t match in one class: gym. Physical abilities mean nothing to her. That is , they didn’t until Zeus held his results from the physical exam in front of her face.

“Well, well,” He taunts with that infuriating Cheshire grin, “looky here, little Lulu. Seems someone isn’t as ‘Highly Dignified and Unmatched’ as they make themselves out to be,” Zeus spoke with a hillbilly accent, then a royal high society impression. Clearly, he was mocking, taunting her, making a joke out of it all.

She fixes her cosmetics, tightening the frustration that furrows her brows. Then, opening her scowl wide into a teeth-baring snarl, accompanied by a low growling. The cherry on top is the intensity of her stare. Her eyes glare as if trying to inject her hatred into Zeus’ soul with just her sky colored orbs. She stomps over to him, and Zeus chuckles as she stands over him, her heels adding to her height, making her at least tall enough to look down on him. Her intimidation doesn’t work; Zeus laughs in her face, making her a joke.

The way Zeus laughs, the specific pitch in which he chortles and guffaws, the way he wheezes and snorts, it raises her blood pressure to all new heights. However, just when she’s about to lose it, the principal appears. She freezes, and panic sets in for a second. She thinks she could be in trouble. Then the principal stands over Zeus. Looking down at the teenage boy with a heavy sigh. The principal looked disappointed, wearing facial accessories like hanging brows and cheeks, a heavy frown, and red, puffy eyes as if he had been crying. The principal looks Zeus in the eyes and shakes his head, and sighs again.

“Oh, Zeus. We all had such high hopes for you.” The Principal’s face slowly turns from disappointment to a vein-popping, red-faced rage. “How could you do this to us? You made us out to be fools! Fools! Do you hear me? Fools!” the principal is screaming, his deep booming voice filling the strangely empty halls.

Zeus just laughs, but the principal finds nothing funny.

“Do you think this is funny? Do you? Cheating! Plagiarism! All of it! You liar! You fraud!” The principal roared, “I want to see you in my office, you will be expelled.” Then the principal walked off down the empty hall, and then he was gone.

Honestly, the entire bit came so far out of left field that Paris forgot to even react. She stood staring for a second, trying to process what had just happened. She and Zeus just stare at each other, blinking. For one minute, they stare at each other, then in opposite directions, then back to each other, rinse and repeat for at least five minutes. Then, finally, she grabs him by the shoulders.

“You, you played me for a fool,” She roars into his face.

Zeus just shrugs, with a smirk. “You know, you think someone like you would revel in my downfall right now?”

Paris roars, with her grip tight on his shoulders as she pushes his back against the wall. His back and the wall collide with a loud smack.

“You think this is some kind of joke!” She yells

Zeus just shrugs, “Yes.”

“This isn’t some kind of game you infuriating, pea brain! You could have ruined my plans! My super spring break island super worship Paris love extravaganza!”

“What?”

“Shut up!” Paris’ voice echoes throughout the halls. “This spring break, it was going to be about me, me, me, me, and you almost ruined that! Well, guess what, buddy, while everyone else is out on MY island having the times of their lives, you’ll be here missing out and wishing, just wishing you had fallen in line and knew your place like all the others.” Her breathing was heavy and forceful, with puffs of air out of her flared nostrils. A quick breath in and then a forceful exhale of the lungs. She repeated this as she gripped the collar of his t-shirt tightly in her sweating grip, a grip held so tightly the color disappeared from her knuckles.

Zeus just stared down at her in confusion, his mind still stuck on the “super spring break island super worship Paris love extravaganza,” he was having trouble wrapping his head around what that meant. Blankly staring with not even a dumbfounded expression as he looked into her eyes to see fires within them. She was serious, he wasn’t, and that made it all the harder to resist chuckling. Paris’ rage made him think of an angry kitten, and he couldn’t resist a smirk and soft chortle.

That one small sound set her off; it was the last straw. Her face burned hot as her eyes turned wide with intensity. She clenched her fist tight and reared it back, then, with a deep roar, she launched her fist, aiming for Zeus’ face. Zeus, unimpressed, caught her fist before it even got close to his face. Paris, lost in her rage, just screamed and kept trying to hit Zeus. She swung her fists, she kicked her feet, and Zeus would either block or dodge her attacks. Soon, he couldn’t hold back and started laughing at her flailing.

“You’re truly pathetic, you know that,” he was still laughing in her face.

Paris stopped and backed away a few steps, letting go of the grip on his shirt, tiring herself out with all the movement she’s done.

“Geez, get in shape,” he mocked her again, flashing that Cheshire grin.

She glared and clapped back with “shut up,” but that’s when she noticed that something wasn’t right. A minute ago, she had been screaming her lungs out, and yet no one came out to see what was happening. She turns her head to the left and then to the right; nothing. Not a soul, just empty halls without even an echo to fill them. She pivoted around and looked at the clock on the wall, and her face slowly dropped. It wasn’t moving yet still ticked; her heart dropped when she realized the ticking wasn’t coming from the clock. A dark shadow spilled over her, covering her in its shade.

“You finally noticed,” Zeus, laughed at her back. His laugh was different now, echoing and mocking. It reverberated into her very soul. It made her so mad. She whipped around to face him again and was met with a shock. The shadow that spilled over her belonged to Zeus. Her jaw drops as her eyes trace up from his feet to his face. He now stood over five meters tall and was looking down at her with a menacing smile. Paris fell back on her behind.

“What are you?” She spoke, her voice shaking from her core.

Zeus only smiled down at her and slowly leaned over into her face. “To you, I’m the Devil!” Zeus laughed in her face, his hot breath casting over her like a cloud. “You are truly an arrogant, spoiled little brat.”

Paris would clap back; she would get enraged, but she couldn’t. She could not even summon up her rage; she felt small, powerless. She looked left, she looked right, and Zeus slammed a hand down on either side to keep her trapped. He leaned down more and put his forehead against hers.

“You are not escaping!” He growled, his breath was hot against her skin.

Paris could do nothing but whimper, pathetically. “Let me go home!” She sounded pathetic; she hated it, feeling small, helpless, and powerless. She would hate for her father to see her like this, on the verge of tears. This is what she thought, and so she grit her teeth and dressed up her face with the accessories of anger the best she could.

“I Command You Let Me Go!” She ordered. “I can have my father wipe you and anyone else involved in this charade off the face of the earth; he’s that powerful.” She put on a cocky smirk as if she had gotten the upper hand of the situation.

Zeus roared with laughter, the very sound striking fear into Paris again. The sound of it, the pitch, the frequency of the laugh just rang through her entire soul. Now, she was paralyzed with fear. Zeus suddenly stopped laughing, and his Cheshire smile dropped into a giant frown.

“I am going to drop you into another world. You’ll have powers, but only one will be of use to you,” he says in a low tone.

“What are you talking about?” she crawls back, trying to put distance between herself and him.

“I am giving you a mission, in this new world, you are to defeat The One Who Controls The Spiders!”

“Mission?” Paris was dumbfounded. She couldn’t believe a word. “None of this is real, none of it. I swear to..” Zeus takes his hand and pinches her cheek, to which Paris approximately replies with a squeal of pain. She blinks, then slowly her fear returns to the forefront as she realizes this is all real. Zeus stands up and, in the air, he draws a circle around Paris. He waves bye-bye as a ring of light appears around her, and suddenly, she feels nothing beneath her butt, and she’s falling back as she falls through the ring and is dropping down through the sky, or a sky, as everything below looks unfamiliar.

A thought occurs: she’s falling, which means she’s gonna land at some point. The only thing she can do is flail and scream as her life starts flashing before her eyes, as she falls closer to the ground.