REIGN OF THE MORTALS | BTS FANFIC |

ATHENS

You were on your way to 'The Acropolis of Athens', one of the main reasons for your presence in this country. You couldn't contain your excitement for two reasons; one, this was the first time you have travelled alone without your family, and two, Greece is something you have come to love for the past - four months. You came across Greek mythology, all thanks to 'Iliad' by Homer, and were intrigued by it to say the least; something about it pulled you in. So you spent most of your time learning about the gods and goddesses, which helped you grow accustomed to the Greek mythology at the same time aiding you in procrastinating your studies. You landed in Athens yesterday afternoon but being jet-lagged, you slept early in the evening as soon as checking into your hotel and woke up at noon; sleeping in a different country hits differently, was your excuse. But now you were finally going to visit the place you were yearning to go to for so long; The Parthenon.

While walking past a beach, you saw that there was a surfing competition taking place. You didn't know that such events were also held in March, you always thought surfing to be a summer sport. Intrigued, you paused to take a look; a surfer was maneuvering over the waves. You were awestruck by his skill, it looked like the wave was having trouble keeping up with him and not the other way round. Even from a distance, you could sense that he was enjoying what he was doing, something you couldn't relate to. You would have stayed longer but you had to cover all the sites of 'The Acropolis' before leaving for Santorini, tomorrow. So you dejectedly walked towards your original destination.

Soon, you reached 'The Acropolis' and bought your ticket at the counter. After entering through the main gate, the first thing you saw was the ancient theatre,'Odeon of Herodes Atticus', the enormous structure capable of housing more than five thousand spectators. After you were done admiring its beauty and role playing as 'Julis Caesar', you walked through the 'Beulé Gate' before reaching the 'Propylaea', which is the dramatic main entrance to the Acropolis. You could see the 'Temple of Athena Nike', which is the most elegant and well-preserved of the Acropolis buildings, perched up high, while climbing. When you exited the 'Propylaea' at the top, you could immediately see the 'Parthenon' on your right and the 'Erechtheion complex' on the left, with the familiar statues of the 'Porch of the Caryatids'.

In front of you, on the highest point of the hill, stood majestically 'The Parthenon', one of the most magnificent temples of the ancient world. You were mesmerized by the sight in front of you as you walked around the temple admiring its excellent craftsmanship. At the east end you could see the pediments depict the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus; a story you vividly remember.

Another thing you noticed was how there weren't as many visitors as you expected, 'lucky me', you thought to yourself. There was a group of ten college students led by their professor and a guy; though being around the same age as the students, clearly not a part of their group, due to the lack of the varsity t-shirt, following them around listening to the professor's explanations about the history and architecture of the place. You found it funny how he looked way more excited to listen to the professor than the students.

The professor who was leading the group looked incredibly young, almost the same age as his students. If it wasn't for the tag around his neck, you would have never guessed it. 'He must be very intelligent to make it this far at such a young age', you revered.

Since it was your last stop for the day and you still had thirty minutes before it closes, you were in no rush to leave. You were walking towards the west end to see the illustration of the conflict between Poseidon and Athena over Atticus when your phone buzzed. It was a message from your best friend asking where you were, you replied to their message and reminisced about the first conversation you had with him and how that led to an unexpected friendship - a serendipity. This put a smile on your face and when you looked up coming back to reality, you realized that you almost bumped into someone's back. The said person was filming a vlog probably, so he didn't notice you too. You tried to skillfully dodge the guy when a loud thunder boomed, startling both of you, and a heavy rain started pouring. What was weird was that this rain was not gradual like it usually is, it started strong like someone was purposely pouring water on you, which is clearly impossible. There was no prediction of it raining today so you didn't carry an umbrella with you. Thinking it was dangerous to get hit by such a heavy downpour, you decided to take cover in the temple. Though you knew its off limits, you had no other choice. The vlogger apparently had the same thought as you when he overtook you to stand in under the roof. The sky got extremely dark and the lights were not working; the only source of light was the striking of lightning from time to time.

You were getting agitated by the sudden turn of events; you were looking around to see if there were anyone else stranded here just like you when you saw a movement inside the temple. Since it was very dark, you couldn't see clearly, but swore that you saw a figure hide behind a pillar inside the temple. You looked at the vlogger guy next to you to see if he noticed too but he was busy on his phone. Reluctantly, you walked over to see what it was knowing well that whatever it was - it isn't meant to be seen. You felt sick with apprehension, but at the same time wanted to make sure that nothing bad was happening, at least on your watch.

With careful footsteps, you reached behind the pillar to witness a guy holding a knife to the throat of another person, pressing him against the wall and his other hand covering his mouth preventing him from making any sound. All logic and reasoning left your mind and you did the first thing you could think of in an attempt to stop his actions; you threw your shoe in their direction making it hit the wall next to their heads. You didn't want the shoe to hit the perpetrator's head as it might make him press the knife harder by mistake - you only wanted to divert his attention towards you, which you succeeded in doing when he turned to see the cause of the hindrance. Taken aback, the killer lowered his weapon from his victim's throat and stomped towards you angrily, while pulling a pistol out of his pocket.

His cold stare filled with murderous intent made your blood run cold, it could also be due to the fact that you were getting drenched in the heavy rain.

You remained rooted in your position, things were going as you expected. Summoning all your courage, you shouted at the poor guy cowering behind the pillar to run, earning a malignant laughter from the perpetrator who now stood right in front of you. The reason you didn't run away from him is because you thought he would rather kill you than him; it's not like you had much to live for anyway, so you were ready to sacrifice yourself in order to save someone else.

You shouted at the unmoving guy to run, again, which finally made him come back to his senses. The killer had the nozzle pointed at your head while you looked him dead in the eye. If he expects you to cower in fear at the face of death, he most definitely came to the wrong person. You were not afraid of death, what you were afraid of was living; especially without purpose and wasting away life, something you were currently doing.

He looked like he was enjoying what he was seeing, "Now this is something I like. No crying, no begging for me to spare your life ", he complimented. "But your valour needs to come to an end, say goodbye to the world sweetheart."

You swallowed hard and looked behind to ensure the safety of the guy you were doing this for. Relieved to see that he was not there anymore, you smirked, "What are you waiting for then, honey?", mimicking his tone. "Go ahead and pull the damned trigger, or are you one of those who give a long ass speech before doing the deed." It was a bad idea. Very bad indeed, you had no idea from where these words were coming from but you were already on the brink of death, what's the worst that could happen?

It irked him, his eyes darkened but at the same time he found you amusing. "It's a pity you have to die. We could have become friends, you know", he sighed disappointedly, his eyes never once leaving yours. "Addio, sweetheart", he said for the last time and pulled the trigger.

A bright light flashed, blinding you.