“Here’s the symbol that was on the building,” you say, placing your phone in the middle of the table in Kai’s loft. It feels great being with your pack again after this long; everyone except for Suho and Chanyeol are here, and this time it also includes Minjoon, Heejin, Eun, and the Jungs. Seon and Myungsoo tagged along, too.

The photo on your phone shows the symbol that you found by the entrance to the shopping center. At first, it looks a bit like a dot; after taking a closer look, you notice that it’s a few symbols layered one over another. Someone made it, and somehow, it made everyone in the building go nuts.

“Do you recognize it?” Luhan asks you.

“No,” you say. “I called Siwon, he’s coming over.”

“We could use Suho on this,” Min notes.

You lean over the table, looking at the photo again and trying to tell apart all the lines and edges, but it’s not going well. Amber shows up at your side.

“I could use an algorithm to pull the symbols apart,” she says. “If we knew what language this is. If it’s even a language.”

“I think it’s Greek,” Yunho speaks up all of a sudden. Half of the pack whips their head around to look at him, and he looks surprised at the attention. “I—when you were gone I was trying to recognize the language I heard in that girl’s memories.”

“Wait, what?” Eun asks, confused. “I’m lost. I need a recap.”

“Yunho has the power of psychometry,” Kai says quickly. “He touches objects and people and he sees images or feels certain sensations of them, or their memories. We went to the morgue, and he saw some memories of the girl that died of starvation.”

Eun closes with a click.

“Well, that’s not grim at all,” Minjoon says. Heejin elbows him.

“Greek,” you deadpan, a bit shocked. You’re blinking at Yunho now. “Greek. Right.”

You blink a few more times, then feel a wave of energy hitting you. At the same time, Amber cracks her knuckles and snatches your phone off to get the photo of the symbol into your laptop. You grab your car keys.

“I’ll be at the gym,” you say. “I gotta look something up. You try to decipher that damn symbol, yeah? And keep me updated.”

“I’ll go with you,” Kai says.

“Me too,” Tao proposes.

“Nu-uh, I’m not letting you anywhere near the gym’s basement,” you say, stopping short in your advance to the door and pointing a finger at the boy. “Xiumin and Sehun can tag along.”

Xiumin stands up from a chair, and Sehun walks past Tao with a smirk. Tao kicks him on the .

“You already have Sehun every day,” says Luhan, sulking. “Why are you taking him away from us?”

“Oh, does that make you sad?” Kris questions, giving his boyfriend a stink eye. Luhan scoffs like it’s a joke.

“Well, duh!”

“Should I be jealous?”

“I don’t know,” says Sehun, suddenly wrapping an arm around Luhan’s shoulders and looking down at Kris, “should you?”

Kris stands up from his own chair so suddenly and quickly that Sehun yelps in surprise and dive-jumps behind your back to shield himself from Kris. You push him out the door before anyone can say anything more and then you laugh the entire way down to the gym.

*

“Look in mythology,” you say, pointing at the right bookshelf the second you enter the basement. The lights aren’t even completely on, but you already head for the cupboard full of herbs and ashes to restock your backpack. You want to have everything on you in case something bad happens again.

“What are we looking for, exactly?” Kai asks you.

“Greek demons and monsters,” you reply.

As you pick out the ashes and dried flowers that you suspect you’re going to need, the boys look around for the right books. They bring them all over to the nearest table, and then the four of you sit down and start reading, staring with demons, and looking for something that might remind you of the two deaths that happened in the city in the past days.

“Are Greek demons really different from regular demons?” Xiumin questions. “There’s nothing out of ordinary about them, it seems.”

Twenty minutes pass by, and then you get a call from Amber.

“You’re on speaker,” she says. “Siwon’s with us.”

“Hey old man,” you greet. You get a grunt in reply, and you smile. “Been spending time with Kai, huh?”

“Shut up,” Kai says next to you.

“So I tore down the symbol,” Amber says, her voice serious. “It’s made of four different, uh, letters? Kinda. Definitely Greek. The first one is simple, it’s alpha. The letter for alpha.”

“Okay,” you say.

“The second one is this tiny symmetrical wave,” Amber continues. “Then you have some kind of an astrological sign—I don’t know what it is yet. I only just managed to get all the symbols. It was tricky, since you added that line to them when you broke the spell with your knife. I’ll send a drawing of the third symbol to you.”

Your phone pings when you get a photo on Messanger. You look down to see it and frown.

“Do you recognize it?” Sehun asks you. You shake your head. “What’s the fourth symbol?” he asks Amber then.

“Omega,” she replies.

“So alpha and omega for beginning and end, and then something in between?” Xiumin asks. 

“The third sign might be connected to astrology or astronomy,” Siwon says. “It looks like it could be a zodiac sign symbol, but it’s not, I checked. So maybe some other planet’s symbol.”

Xiumin stands up right away, heading to the right book section.

“I also hacked the security cameras from outside the building to see who left the symbol there,” says Amber. “And guess what? Nobody did. Nobody came close to the wall, one minute it just appeared there like a creepy spider, or something. It’s barely visible on the cameras, though.”

“Wait, so nobody left it? It just appeared on its own?” Kai asks, confused.

“Seems so.”

“That is freaky,” Sehun comments.

“Here,” says Xiumin, coming back with a book about astronomy, and a tiny one about astrology. “Should be in one of these.”

You start going through the pages, looking for the symbol.

“Look, there’s a wave,” Sehun says, pointing at a page full of tiny letters and signs. You spot the wave there. Right under it it says ‘claiming’.

“A symbol for claiming?” Kai whispers.

You write it down on a piece of paper, together with the number of page you found it on, and then look for the second sign. You finish the first book without any luck, so you start the second one, the boys huddled around you and peeking through your shoulders. You can also hear Amber typing away on her keyboard; you haven’t disconnected your call yet.

You flip the tenth page and spot the symbol.

“Here,” you say, sounding like you just shouted ‘Eureka!’. And then you look at what’s under the drawing.

Eris.

Your eyes widen.

“Eris?” says Sehun, squinting. “What’s that?”

You gasp when he says it out loud. Turns out, you’re right about being scared of that name; the lights around you start flickering, and then, a second later, everything goes black.

*

“What?” says Amber, barely hearing what you’re saying on the other side of the call. And then her phone goes off, and her laptop suddenly turns off as well, and the lights around them flicker.

Amber looks at the nearest lamp, then tries to turn her laptop back on. Siwon flinches next to her, and she looks around feeling paranoid.

“What’s just happened?” Minjoon asks. “Why are the lights out?”

“My phone just stopped working,” Min says. “Guys?”

“Mine too,” Seon grumbles.

“Same here?” Heejin speaks up. “What’s going on?”

Kris goes over to the window. The sun is setting, so it’s not completely dark in the loft, but it is a little creepy. He notices that he can’t see any lights in the nearest distance; not in the windows, not on the streets. There’re cars driving past, but no street lamp is on, and it should be at this hour.

And then Sulli screams.

Everyone in the room freezes.

“Sul?!” Amber shouts, almost tripping as she gets off the chair. The whole pack follows Sulli’s frenzied gasps, and they find her on the kitchen floor, holding at her head and rocking back and forth.

“It’s gonna hurt Sehun,” she whispers, tears welling her eyes.

*

At first, it goes completely dark in the basement. And then you feel the table vibrating under your fingers, and the whole place begins to shake; you hear books falling off the shelves, jars falling off walls, and sounds of cracking and crashing coming from every direction. You see the boys’ eyes flash blue in the darkness, and then Sehun grabs your arm as you’re just about to fall over your chair. You’re all standing up, and you have no idea what’s going on.

You wave your hand around to create a ball of light.

The first thing you see are completely black eyes staring right at you, mere inches away from your face.

They’re too big, too bulging, and too unreal, and they belong to a very pale face that’s covered in wave-like hair; they’re floating in the air, and they look like hair underwater.

The shriek you let out is probably the least elegant one you’ve ever made, but you cheer yourself up when you hear Sehun outwardly yell in fear.

You don’t think about your actions – you put more magic into your ball of light and you throw it at the face. Thing is, it disperses in air like it was never there in the first place; it changes into transparent fog that you feel on your skin. The second it touches you, you feel anger building up inside you that comes like a wave of hotness. You shout when you feel your blood boil in your veins; it does feel like someone has just put fire inside them. Your light disappears, and then you hear Sehun shouting.

It’s short and it’s panicked; then he goes quiet, and you create a huge ball of light right above your head.

Sehun is standing in front of you, staring at something behind you. At first, you freak out, and wisp around to see if the woman is there. Was she a woman? She had long hair and pretty lips, but it could be a man. It’s hard to say.

“Dal!” Xiumin shouts when you turn away from Sehun.

And a huge blow hits your whole body.

You fly up, your back hitting the table you were just sitting at. Your whole body curves at the impact, your spine taking most of it, and you yell in pain as something inside your back cracks. You then hit the floor with your face and entire front, and sadly, you land on your nose. It cracks. You yell even louder.

You look up, your fingers closing around your now broken, blood dripping nose; your legs are entirely under the table, while your arms are sticking out. In front of you stands Sehun, and his eyes are completely black. He’s not looking at you, he’s looking at something behind you, his face blank.

“Sehun,” you whisper, feeling panic in your gut; it wrecks your whole body. You pull yourself up onto your elbows, your spine aching so hard that you actually cringe and close your left eye from the pain. You spot your backpack lying a few feet away, by one of the chairs, and you know that you need to get to it if you want to get the demon out of Sehun.

So you throw your arm out, mustering magic inside you, and your head aches when you use telekinesis.

You push the demon – who is now inside Sehun – using your powers. His body flies back like a ragdoll, and he hits the floor with a heavy thump. Before he does that, though, you get to stand up and throw yourself at your backpack.

At the same time, Xiumin and Kai stand in front of you, shielding you with their own bodies. You start digging around your backpack; you pull out a handgun.

Kai glances at you over his shoulder, checking on you, and his eyes widen at the sight.

“Dal!” he says, both shocked and completely scared.

Sehun chooses that moment to stand up from the floor and use his powers again. His telekinesis is much stronger than yours, and it only takes a small flip of a finger to make Kai fly up. You gasp when his body actually hits the roof, and Kai lets out a loud grunt.

You load the gun.

Kai begins to fall back onto the ground, and as he goes, you see fur appearing on his skin. A growl sounds from his throat, and his eyes flash red; when he lands on the floor, he’s already in his wolf shape, enormous and strong.

He moves fast. He throws himself at Sehun and pushes him away with his huge head; Sehun flies to the side, as fast as a bullet, and hits the nearest bookshelf, some of his bones cracking soundly at the impact. He doesn’t react vocally, though, nor does his eyes change; the demon inside him is quiet and doesn’t get angry easily.

Sehun falls onto his knees and then has to prompt himself on his hand to keep standing. Well, crouching. At the same time, the bookshelf he hit begins to tilt back, and hits the one behind.

“There goes the domino,” you hear Xiumin mutter.

You’re too busy to look at the bookshelves falling down, though; you aim the gun at Sehun’s shoulder and you fire.

The bullet that flies towards him has a Devil’s Trap engraved in it. It’ll stop the demon from escaping Sehun’s body, and then you can trap it and exorcise it; it’s the only choice you have right now.

You don’t even look to make sure that the bullet hit. You hear the sound, you throw the gun onto the ground, and you crouch down to your backpack again, looking for some rope.

“Kai!” you shout, finally finding it. You throw the end of it towards the wolf, and he catches it between his teeth. The demon is standing up, but he’s very slow; he looks like he’s either in shock, or very sleepy. You don’t like that at all. It’s not how demons usually act.

He just seems so…slow.

Kai jumps towards the monster. It doesn’t even react when a rope touches it; Kai pulls, until the demon is closer to you, and then you make a loop with the rope and wrap it around him a few times.

In the meantime, the demon is quiet and not doing anything.

Xiumin stands next to you, and you give him your end of the rope, knowing that he’ll be able to tie the monster down tighter. You wonder why he’s not attacking. She. He. It. You have no idea what it really is. Do demons even have genders?

Kai and Xiumin both stand behind the demon, both holding their ends of ropes – Xiumin in his hands, Kai in his teeth. They’re both pulling at it, ready for the demon to move and try to escape. And the demon – trapped inside Sehun’s body – is staring at you. Or at least you think it is. It’s hard to say when its eyes are entirely black.

“Regna terrae, cantate Deo,” you say, sharply and out loud. “Psallite Domino, qui fertis super caelum, caeli ad Orientem—“

He snickers.

Sehun snickers. His lips curve up in a sarcastic smile. 

You try hard not to get distracted, not to stop, not to care. You barely stop yourself from swallowing hard; Sehun looks scary. You know that he’s inside, battling the demon from taking over.

“Ecce dabit voci Suae, vocem virtutis, tribuite virtutem Deo.”

His smile grows wider, until his teeth flash in the dimness of the basement. The ball you created is still the only source of light there is.

“Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus,” you continue, your voice beginning to fade. You hesitate; your words aren’t doing a thing to the demon, and even though you’re using your magic, you can’t feel it affecting the monster in any way. “Omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio…”

And then you remember.

Eris.

Eris wasn’t a demon. Eris was a goddess.

Sehun throws his head back, laughing. It’s deep and loud; his entire body shakes from laughter. Behind him, Xiumin and Kai are staring at you in surprise and fear. They can probably hear your heart going crazy. Your breathing becomes erratic.

You’ve never met anything as strong as a goddess. You didn’t believe they actually existed. It couldn’t be her, right? What was she the goddess of? Why can’t you remember?

Sehun opens his mouth. He’s about to say something when the lights come back on, and the rope that’s been wrapped around Sehun’s body suddenly drops onto the floor, closing around nothing.

He’s gone. And just as you realize it, your pack runs into the basement.

*

“Eris, the Greek goddess of chaos, strife, and discord,” you say, throwing an open book on the top of the living room table. “I kid you not.”

“Hold up, tell me one thing,” says Amber, raising her hand. “Did she look like the one from Sinbad?”

“Oh my God, Amber, priorities,” Jessica says, shaking her head. Amber sticks her tongue out at her and whispers ‘spoilsport’ under her breath.

“She’s the goddess of chaos, so she causes chaos wherever she goes,” you explain, ignoring them both. “And she has children.”

Half the room gives you deadpan expressions. The other half looks utterly done.

“We’ve met some of them already, I think,” you say. “Limos is the god of hunger. Neikea are goddesses of arguments, and Lete – of oblivion. And Ate is the goddess of delusion that leads to mischief.”

“The jumper,” Krystal whispers.

“Okay, wait,” Eun says, looking like it’s hard for her to wrap the idea round her head. “You’re telling us that we’re dealing with some kind of ancient Greek gods, here? Even for you, that’s just…unreal. It’s like an episode of Supernatural.”

“Literally,” says Minjoon, mostly to himself.

“I don’t think that Eris’ children have actual forms,” Siwon speaks up. You all look at him. “They’re ideas. They don’t have bodies, they’re not monsters, they’re…ideas. Motions. Tiny seeds she leaves behind to enjoy the chaos they cause.”

“How do we even defeat a goddess?” Kris asks. “Can they be killed?”

“No,” Siwon shakes his head.

“Even by Father?” Tao questions.

“Leave that old prick out of it,” Siwon says, his voice dripping with malice. “Eris is an ancient being. She’s immortal, nothing can kill her or even trap her. She causes chaos, but at the same time, she doesn’t make enemies. She strives on anarchy and disorder, but doesn’t hold grudges, and doesn’t hunt.”

“Why’d she take Sehun, then?” Sulli asks, speaking up for the first time. “Why him?”

“He said her name,” you say quietly, sending Sulli a sideway glance. You feel guilty for letting Sehun get possessed by Eris, and you especially feel it when you look at Sul. God knows why.

You’re about to say something more when you feel your triangle tattoo warm up.

“Oh,” you say quietly. “Suho and Chanyeol are here.”

Eun and Heejin stand up in perfect unison, and they exchange surprised glances. Eun snorts, and Heejin grins. They go to greet their boyfriends, and soon, the four of them enter the loft, Suho and Chanyeol carrying some backpacks.

“Hiya,” says Suho. “We decided to drop by.”

“That’s very nice of you,” you say, nodding in content.

“What did we miss?” asks Chanyeol, looking around the room with a grin. It slowly fades from his face, though. “Where’s Sehun?”

*

“Sulli?”

She opens her eyes with a startle. You’re staring at her.

“Sorry,” you say. “I was—I need to talk to you.”

As usual, it takes Sulli a few seconds to get used to the fact that she’s not talking to spirits anymore. She blinks a few times, then nods and sits up on the bed. You look at her wrist to see it empty; she’s not wearing your charms anymore. She’s told you that she stopped, but it still feels weird.

She can control them now. More or less. More, on a good day.

“Your visions,” you say. “How—“

“They only started a few days ago,” she interrupts. “It’s all new to me. But I knew they were going to come.”

“Father?”

She nods. “Mhm.”

“How are you feeling?”

Sulli shrugs, her face showing indifference. You raise your eyebrows at her, and she sighs after a few seconds of just looking into your eyes.

“It’s—I’ll get used to it. It’s weird, and it honestly scares me, but it’s not like…it’s not my first time. It’s not my first time handling something like that.”

You nod, looking at her hopefully, prompting her to tell you more.

“I wish I could be excited about it,” she says. “New powers, yay, all that. But I just—“ She looks to the side, at the window. It’s dark out. “It just feels like another burden.”

She stares into the dark sky outside, and she suddenly remembers the sensation she got right before Sehun was attacked by Eris. She remembers every detail of the vision she got; she remembers how she felt like she was Eris. Like she was the one occupying Sehun’s body.

She shuts her eyes, clenching.

“We’re gonna find him,” you say, placing a hand over her own. “She won’t kill him. She’s using him as a vessel; they can’t occupy anyone’s bodies unless they get invited in. Sehun spoke her name, and she treated that as an invitation. She won’t kill him.”

“But she might hurt him,” Sulli says, her voice cracking. She looks at you again, tilting her head to the side slightly. She looks innocent, worried, and sad. “Who knows what’s going on in his head now. Can you imagine having someone so ancient stuck in your mind?”

You shake your head. “No. But I know that Sehun won’t give up this easily. He’s going to kick her out if we don’t manage to do that ourselves.”

Sulli snorts at that, but her eyebrows are still raised. She looks hopeless, though a bit happier now. You stand up, and then you hear someone run up the stairs. You look over your shoulder to see Tao practically barrel into the room.

“We found something,” he says. You run out after him, Sulli catching up, and Chanyeol starts talking before you even reach the table.

“Eris has a counterpart,” he says. You hunch over the table to look at the page everyone is silently pointing at. “A goddess of peace and harmony.”

“Harmonia,” you whisper. “Daughter of Ares and Aphrodite.”

“People prayed to her when in need,” Chanyeol explains. “They thought that she can push Eris away. Get rid of the chaos she causes. We can’t take on an evil goddess, but maybe another goddess can.”

“Can we summon a goddess?” Baekhyun asks. They all look at you, and you look at Siwon. He shrugs.

“We can always try,” he says. 

Here's the big reveal!

Hope you guys are enjoying the arc :) Shoutout to those who have seen the Sinbad movie by DreamWorks and knew right away who Eris was.
That movie was freaking a m a z i n g. Still one of my faves.

Love you lemon blueberry tarts!