Kay Clingman
Kay Clingman is a freshman at Bennington High School. He’s obsessed with the show Bungo Stray Dogs and can talk about it for hours, although they can talk for hours in general. Within the last year they developed a monster addiction, and can be seen with one every morning. Mainly can be seen writing fantasy, usually Greek mythology retellings. Also Kay can and will doodle during boring classes. “Why let society horrify you when you can horrify society,” - Kay 2025.
Soul Blossoms in the Daylight
Prologue : My Boyfriend Talks to My Corpse
I was dead but I could still hear voices, one familiar one not.
The voice I knew spoke up, “You think I’m just gonna let you take his soul. Well, I’m not letting you!”
A more raspy voice I didn’t know responded, “Oh, Apollo cease the dramatics, it’s a mortal.”
“Easy for you to say,” Apollo’s tone became much colder. Were they arguing over my soul? Who could the second god be then?
The unfamiliar voice seemed to darken. “Whether it is or not, this is just my job.”
Only two gods that I knew of, anyway, collected souls. First, Hermes who was one of Apollo’s many brothers, secondly was death himself, Thanatos. Thanatos was a name people knew, sure, but it was rarely spoken.
Apollo’s voice interrupted my thoughts, “Screw your job!” he yelled. Grunts and sounds of someone falling to the grass came after Apollo’s words. What could be going on?
“Seriously, kicking me?” Hermes or Thanatos groaned, seemingly trying to mask pain.
“You got in my face.”
Even though I can’t see, I had a good idea as to what was going on.
“Next time, you won’t be so lucky!” Mystery god said before seeming to disappear.
Apollo muttered something before addressing my corpse. “Cyn, I’m so sorry…”
Suddenly the world went black.
Sunlight seared into the back of my eyes. “What?” I thought, “This isn’t right? What kind of afterlife has sunlight?”
Despite the bright light, I opened one eye. Immediately I regretted that decision, rays of bright light made it hard to see much. After I adjusted, I observed my surroundings. It was a cloudless day with lush green fields and unfamiliar violet flowers scattered about. The sun was blindingly bright too.
Standing on wobbling legs, I audibly sighed. Nobody was in sight and these fields stretched out for miles.
“Odd, the underworld isn’t said to be anything like this,” I observed.
Cold chills ran down my spine as a familiar sounding voice replied, “Because this isn’t the underworld.”
Turning to find the voice, I looked around, but nobody could be seen.“Who are you?!” I demanded.
“Usually I’m a little more feared, you know,” the voice paused, “Spartans were always bolder, though.”
I crossed my arms seeing my breath fog up despite the summer day. “So you know who I am then?”
They let out a chilling chuckle, “Why of course.”
“How?”
“Simple, I attempted to take your soul until your little boyfriend, a pain in my butt, by the way, refused to let that happen.”
So this was the god who Apollo fought with. Now I had a sneaking suspicion as to who this was.
Speaking up, I asked, “So Thanatos, why bother hiding? Unless you’re scared?”
As I expected, the god of death appeared in front of me. He was as pale as well death with dark blue veins peeking through. Thanatos narrowed his pale violet eyes. “How’d you deduce who I am?”
“You see only two gods collect souls, and well Hermes is unlikely to give someone chills,” I played off coolly.
“Despite your modicum of intelligence,” Thanatos seemed mildly impressed, “there’s still no sign of your sun boy.”
“Sun boy?” I raised a dark eyebrow.
“Must I explain everything?” The god of death asked me. “It’s an underworld term, mortal.”
“Damn, you have your own phrases down there?”
The god’s eye twitched, likely in annoyance. “Is that not common sense, princeling?”
“Hey!” I fired back, “what’s your problem?!”
He looked at me without blinking large eyes looking through me. “Problems with you, none. However, your boyfriend can be a pain.” I stayed silent for a few moments before Thanatos spoke again. “I see I have you stunned silent,” the god mused
“Well uh, you’re definitely quite unlike Apollo,” I explained. “He looked less-”
Thanatos cut me off, “Creepy, eerie, bone-chilling?” He kept listing synonyms for scary. I just nodded. “Less spunk now?” The god leaned down to be at my eye level.
“Oh please,” I casually leaned against a nearby tree, “I’ve died once already so there isn’t much to fear.” The tree suddenly rotted and crumbled, and I flinched back. “Hey! Some warning would be nice!”
The death incarnate meanwhile just stood there and laughed. “Death isn’t nice.”
“What’s with you and referring to yourself as death? You have a name.”
Thanatos or I guess death as he calls himself shrugged. “Why not?”
“You’re impossible,” I groaned while sinking to the grass.
Death aka Thanatos seemed amused, “No, I’m death.”
I decided to just concede to his absurdity, “Okay, okay, you’re death, now can you tell me where the hell we are?”
“The same place you died,” he answered plainly.
“Okay, Than no need to overwhelm the poor boy,” a new voice scolded from behind me.
Thanatos seemed irritated at the new presence. “Hermes.”
“Oh c'mon, it's not like I’m banned.” Hermes’s accent seemed to somehow be a mix of all of them at once. Which makes sense for a god of travel
“Well,” Thanatos’s voice took on an edge, “I could always just pickle your organs .”
Hermes stepped into my sight revealing a mop of chocolate hair and emerald green eyes. “I do what I want, darling.” Then he proceeded to boop literal death on the nose. I suppose Hermes wasn’t intimidated since Thanatos was so thin and bony for a god.
“Don’t touch me.”
The other god smirked. “Nah.”
“I will literally murder you,” Thanatos warned.
Hermes shrugged his broad shoulders and sat on a nearby weathered rock. “Literally murder me not figuratively?” he joked.
“Okay,” I finally spoke up, “what in Hera’s name is going on?”
Thanatos gave me an incredulous look. “Obviously I’m threatening the twit.”
“I’m not a twit!” Hermes fired back.
“Fine,” I was sure I looked exhausted, “everyone’s a twit, happy?” The messenger god seemed amused at my words while death over here seemed even grumpier than usual. I continued to speak anyway, “So is anyone gonna tell me what you two even want?”
“I could sense you were back so I came to check,” both gods said in unison.
“Uh I get how Thanatos could sense that.” I turned to Hermes. “But how did you do it?”
Hermes just smirked. “Well darling, I was informed by Apollo since he was the one to turn you into a plant. I’m only the messenger.”
“Apollo turned me into a plant?” I asked furiously.
“Do you know another Apollo?” The god asked cheekily.
“No,” I admitted, “but why would he turn me into that?” I said the last word like it offended me.
“Hey, I don’t claim to be an expert on my older brother.”
I rolled my eyes. “I dated him, and I still don’t understand that idiot,” I grumbled under my breath sourly.
Thanatos scoffed, “Of course you don’t, who actually understands sun boy?”
“Thanatos, darling, can you leave?” Hermes dismissed. The death incarnate shot him his deadliest glare before disappearing into the shadows.
“He was certainly an uhm eccentric one,” I observed.
Hermes just shrugged. “All gods are, darling.”
“Why do you call everyone that?”
“Call everyone what?” He played dumb.
I resisted the strong urge to strangle this guy. “Darling, that’s what I meant,” I clarified to him.
“Ohh,” the god pretended to finally understand, “because it annoys people and I just love to do that. It gets me so damn excited when I see their expressions, kinda like yours now.”
“Noted, annoying people excites you.”
“Yep,” the slightly concerning god answered.
“So watcha gonna do now, take me to Apollo?” I joked.
“Ahhhh!” I screamed while Hermes laughed manically. Why hadn’t I seen this coming? Suppose past Hyacinthus screwed over current Hyacinthus by accepting a Hermes ride.
“Don’t be a baby!” Hermes grinned clearly, enjoying my suffering. The word twit was starting to apply to him.
“I can take a lot but being dangled in the literal sky is definitely not one of them!”
The jerk just kept laughing. “Oh, c’mon Apollo never gave you a sky ride. I really need to offer him some pointers.”
“I’d much rather you not.” I was still gasping for air after all my screaming. Remind me why I just had to trust a trickster god of all people. My suffering was on me this time, godsdamnit.
My thoughts were then interrupted by the sensation of falling, great. White mist surrounded me, likely meaning I was inside a cloud. My mouth opened in shock, and I inhaled cloud, before Hermes caught me.
“What was that for?!” I shot him my nastiest glare.
“Oh, just a silly little trick, darling.”
I raised my voice, “Silliness doesn’t include almost giving a man a heart attack!”
“It can,” Hermes grinned.
“Screw you!” I crossed my arms in annoyance.
Hermes seemed unfazed by my words. “We’re almost there anyway, doubt you’ll be mad once we get to Apollo.”
“We’ll see,” I said skeptically.
Once we got to Apollo’s palace, glittering and golden like stars on a new moon, Hermes set me down and disappeared. The place was massive compared to my old palace in Sparta. Currently, I was in the entrance hall with a chandelier looking almost made of sundrops dangling over my head. I almost felt out of place. My hair was dark not golden and my eyes were just hazel.
“Where’s Apollo?” I wondered aloud. The air shockingly did not reply. Now that Hermes was gone I had a fat chance of finding my way around.
“Isn’t Apollo supposed to know I’m back?” I wondered. “Hermes was the one to relay that information to me though and I’m not sure if I trust him.” As a compromise I plopped into a nearby leather couch and propped my feet up on the table. This was a decent waiting spot.
After what felt like an eternity but was actually at most fifteen minutes I could hear footsteps approaching. I sat up to look around but annoyingly it was too bright to see much.
A second later I could hear a familiar voice, “Cyn?” Only one person used that nickname.
“Apollo, finally, took you long enough.” I leaned back in my chair.
My maybe boyfriend just laughed, “What else would our reunion be besides you sassing me. You always did have a lot of nerves.”
“Oh please,” I scoffed, “you like it, always did.”
Then I felt warm arms wrap around me before I heard Apollo mutter, “I missed you.”
“Wait, how long have I been dead for?” I asked. Apollo simply stayed silent and I raised an eyebrow, shooting him a look.
My probably boyfriend relented, “Fine,” he paused, “uh around three-thousand years or so…”
“What?” I yelled, unable to get anything else out.
Apollo’s expression turned solemn. “Yeah, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
I finally got hit with a hard realization, “So everyone I know or I guess knew is dead?”
“I’m still alive and right here,” he reassured.
Looking anywhere but him, I replied, “Sure but you’re an immortal being, surely you moved on by now.”
The golden god just sighed at that, “Not really.” Remembering something, I slapped him. “Hey what was that for?!” Apollo asked, stunned.
“It’s called you still made me a plant!” I crossed my arms. “I was a warrior and a Spartan prince so your great idea was what? Turning me into a flower!?”
“But you always liked flowers!” Apollo defended.
“That doesn’t mean I wanna be one. I love you but I’m still gonna break all two-hundred six of your bones!”
“Uhm” Apollo seemed to be trying to think of a way out of this, “how about I spill the tea on what happened while you were dead?”
I gave him a perplexed look. “Wouldn’t you rather drink your tea?”
“Ugh that’s not what I-nevermind,” for some reason he facepalmed.
Snatching the tea out of his hand, I dumped it onto the floor. “There.” I set the empty cup on the table.
“Cyn, spill the tea is an expression,” Apollo explained, exasperated.
“Not my fault, that makes no damn sense.”
Apollo just laughed at that, “Oh typical Cyn.”
Feesh
Some say sharing is caring
Which people will include food in that
No
Sharing is for communists
Free the food!
I will never share mine
Bread is my Helen and I am Paris
Dinner is the Trojan War
Paul Verlaine slapped a man with a fish
That is what I mean
Achilles shatter your heels
Before I steal them
And offer them to the mighty fish slapper
Arthur Rimbaud can tell you how it is
To be on the receiving end of a fish slap
Communists beware
The holy feesh