The Ancients Awaken (The Gods in Therapy)

Emily's life was in a state of disarray unlike any time before it. All of the Gods were unreachable, her new baby was defenseless in every way and needed every moment of her time, and despite the virus that shut down her world and her practice, she was still trying to see patients over Skype, facebook calls, or even through the phone. The fear over this new threat to human life had even her most stable patients scheduling time with her. Anxiety, depression, manic episodes, episodes of schizophrenia...all of it was coming up and she was often trying to help people through their fears while pushing down the terror in her own heart. The father of her child, Hermes, was as unreachable as the rest of them and she swung between moments of missing him so much her heart hurt and wanting to smash his dick with her hardback copy of The Complete Works of Shakespeare the moment he dared darken her doorstep again. The not knowing was the worst part of it all just as it was for her patients and she couldn't remember the last day she was able to get through without crying. It was not a good time to be a new first time mother, especially alone and without a mother of her own to turn to, but she forced herself to keep the faith that there was a good reason for it all and that the Gods would explain it to her as soon as they could...
        Emily was stunned to see her office around her. But she felt the weight of the world lift from her heart when she saw her beloved Hecate, in Her maiden form, sitting on the couch across from her. "Where is my baby?" Emily cried, realizing the child that was normally on her at all times was not there.
       "This is a world of dreams. She is sleeping in her bed at your side back in the room your body is lying in. I needed to speak with someone who was not a deity but I need you to forget every word of this when I go."
       "The entire world is going to hell! It feels like the start of a horror movie out there! All of you, including the bastard that fathered my child, have ghosted me...and you want me to forget anything you tell me that might help me through this? Fuck that! That is not fair and you know it!"
        Hecate sighed and Emily realized, despite Her young looking face, how old and tired Her eyes looked. This was something she saw a few times from vampires. Their skin carried no sign of their age but they could not hide the centuries from their eyes. Never had she seen this from one of the deities and it put a chill down her spine. "So it is that bad? Goddamn it!"
       "I have not yet said a thing and already you have your conclusions. Take a breath and sit down. I've missed you. Hermes has missed the two of you so much it's distracting him so he will see you soon. There's no point in having him if he's not focused..." Again, Hecate sighed. "We knew this fight was coming but we believed we had more time. We did not prepare the way we should have. How human of us! The vampires, the Fay, and now us...one after the other these gates have opened, forces in our case that even the oldest among us cannot remember. These forces are not Gods yet once they were worshiped and they have no names yet without them there would be no life. And they are angry, Emily. They are so angry! How do you fight something with no body and more power than we've ever seen? I know it can be done. I know it has been done. All of us have myths that humans long forgot about the oldest of our Gods fighting them. You cannot kill them because to kill them is to kill their energy and the energy of each one is necessary for life. But we must put them back to sleep, so to speak, and we have worked incessantly on trying to do just that. Every God from every Pantheon is there. We have even consulted with the Titans, something that took a great deal for me to do. But everything we've tried so far has failed."
        There was a thought that haunted Emily when she was up alone at night looking on the precious face of her daughter. But she couldn't push it away. "With the timing and all...I've been wondering...do you suppose the baby had anything to do with all of this?"
        "I don't believe so. As I've said before, we knew it was coming. The battle will come in waves. This is just the first. And we all agree that it would've happened with or without your daughter." Hecate replied.
        This made Emily grateful because it was a bone deep fear she couldn't shake. She knew mythology well enough to know, if it was her daughter causing it, even Hecate would not be able to keep them safe. As the two of them sat in silence, however, it dawned on Emily that regardless of the cause, as defeated as Hecate seemed in the moment, humans had just cause to fear and it was possible that Hecate wouldn't be able to save them anyway...
       "This will not wipe out all of humanity. Not the virus. Because the world you live in is not used to such a plague of sorts, it may feel like the end. But it certainly isn't. What we are dealing with is much larger than this virus. I do not mean to sound so flippant. I understand why this seems so terrifying. There are very few humans alive who witnessed the influenza pandemic over one hundred years ago so none of you in the developed world have any experience with this and the uncertainty is as terrifying as the virus itself. I do not mean to sound as if I do not sympathize with that because I do. This is why I had to bring you here because I need to tell someone...There are things much worse with far more power to wipe out your species than this virus. Even here I cannot tell you exactly what to do to calm these ancient energies. But I can tell you...If everyone is feeding the ancients their fear and anger and worry, that is what the energies will respond with. You do not want that! I cannot stress this enough!"
        "How the hell are we supposed to respond if not with fear, Hecate! I am not trying to disrespect you but Christ! I have patients who have had no symptoms of their illnesses in years who are one bad day away from snapping completely! I have so many new patient requests from people who have never dealt with panic or anxiety or depression before and they are suddenly having panic attacks or they are so deep into depression that they cannot get out of bed! People are losing their whole family in a matter of weeks and on top of that, they have been laid off from their jobs so they now have no money and no health insurance! What should they do?"
       Emily was in tears thinking about all of the suffering that was going on around the world. As if what people were going through a year ago wasn't bad enough! The homelessness, the debt, the hunger... "I did not say there was no reason to fear. Of course there is! A deity I may be but you will never find one among us who has spent more time with humans. Your history tells you man began at one date but I know your kind to go back much much farther. I've seen all of this before. And I know what the other people did in the cycles before. I know what works and what does not. While these energies have slept a long long time there are others like them that I have known. Change will come one way or another. People have before them a chance for great incredible change. You know history. This is the part of the chapter in a history book where it speaks of people having the option to go one way or another...Do what you can to guide people toward positive change. But also...encourage meditation, prayer, magick...While remaining in your quarantine of course. If people put out love and peace, it will be amplified and spread across the globe but so it will be with fear and hatred. Empires fall. Always. But society? Society changes, it grows, it evolves, and it becomes what each generation shapes it into. Sculpt it well and a decade from now, humans can have the most incredible society your history has ever known."
         "And if we resist this change?"
       "You will truly get a nightmare. No one wants that. I certainly do not. So I will try to send you all the best while I am away. As I said before, Hermes will be back to you quite soon. He's been useless to us anyway. He needs you and you need him. He will have to return to us when it is needed. There is no getting around that. It was a terrible time to have a child with a God." 
        Hecate's smile put Emily at ease for the first time since they all disappeared. For just a moment she held on to her tattered belief that all was going to turn out ok. 
       "Are you hearing our prayers right now?" Emily questioned, steeling herself for a 'no' in response.
       "Of course. Even when I am distant, I am with you, my child. Whatever happens might shake your faith in many things but never let it shake your faith in that. God, Fay, vampire, and human alike...We are all doing the best we can. Just keep doing your best. This will be over soon. Start thinking, though, of how you will all rebuild from the rubble because that will be the most important decision of your lives."
        "What good is it to tell me any of this if I am not allowed to remember?"
        "You will remember enough."
      Emily awoke alone in her bed, her daughter's screams cutting through her dreams. She wasn't sure why but she felt much less alone and much more certain than she had in weeks. Certain of what? She wasn't sure. But she felt like Hermes would walk through the door any day now and she also felt like she needed to find some good meditations for her patients to try. While she stroked her daughter's cheek and watched her feed, feeling the small weight of the baby against her stomach, she also had this feeling like the world her daughter would one day inherit was going to be a much better place than the hellish environment she herself was born into. They all just had to make it to the other side of this....