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I'm about to lose my mind,
You've been gone for so long. . .

~Skylar Grey
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Conniving with annoying humans to get under my skin is the peak of it.

Anteros can be such a pain!

I decide to take a long walk round the hotel to appease my anger. A longer route to my room. The natural aura of the area, easing not just my anger but the throbbing pain in my heart. The sore spot my beloved left behind.

The further I walk, my anger turns into sadness. Dipping my right hand in my pocket, I hold unto the only piece of her - the locket. The little diamond locket.

"Why didn't you wait for my return, Óshún?" I whisper to the cold air of the corridors, "Why?"

Wasn't I good enough?

If only she stayed just a while longer, I could have convinced her not to leave.

Didn't I love you enough?

When all the gods on Olympus found my love for her to be a topic of mockery, I didn't relent. I kept on loving her.

Didn't I try enough?

Now, even humans mock me.

"What did mother ever say to make you leave me?" I whisper again, my patched heart breaking all over again.

Didn't I love you enough?

Now even nature mocks me by sending me fragments of her smile in every corner.

I sense her smile in one of the lower floors. That bright smile of hers that filled my life with so much happiness and love, once upon a time. With a clatter of joy and hope, I try to follow her aura but I keep going in circles.

Just when I start given up, her aura returns, even stronger than before. Like some enchanted animal, I follow it again and again. But each time, my hope gets chattered.

She is not here.

"Óshún, where are you?" My broken soul cries to the empty corridors.

Deep down, I know I am not imagining her smile nor her aura. I am convinced she is the divine being that has roamed this hotel before us. I just can't tell when.

In Olympus, it will be merely twelve days since her disappearance but the time counts differently on earth. She might have been here for months, years even, I can't exactly say. That's why we had to use the coin of transportation so it could bring us to the exact time and location she is in.

But what if the coin was wrong?

What if it brought us to the right place but at the wrong time?

With a broken heart, I retrace my steps away from the lower floors and return to my room, hoping to find sleep. Tomorrow might bring better options.

________**________

A loud knock wakes me from my slumber and I curse who ever is at the other side of the door.

"For a god, you sleep too much!" Anteros barks to my face the moment I fling the door open. Of course it had to be him.

"Brother," I mutter under my breathe, as I walk back to my bed. He could have just materialized in my room but no! He had to make so much noise!

"Do you realise what time it is? You abandoned the poor Sandra last night, yet you sleep till mid-day!"

"I didn't abandon her. I left," I tell him in a bored tone, hoping he gets the message and leaves.

"You brought me here to help you find your beloved, and that is what I have been doing. Yet you cram yourself in here all day and make my efforts look meagre?" He demands, joining me on the bed.

Looking deep into his golden orbs, I feel his concern. I was hurting him by my actions. Honestly, he really has been helpful and I wasn't making things easy for him.

"Anteros, I apologise. I realise that I make your efforts look wasteful. I really do appreciate it but I just don't think Sandra is the one," I tell him calmly.

"You haven't even spoken more than two words to her! How can you be so sure?" He cries out, devastated at my stubbornness.

I am not being stubborn, as a god and Óshún's husband, I can tell my wife's identity from whichever form she might hide in. But Anteros will be further angered if I tell him this. He wants Sandra to be the one, yet she is not.

"Listen, I know you are going over a thousand routes to explain how she isn't your wife, but do one thing for me," he says getting a hold of my arm, "converge with her. Talk to her."

Refusing this offer, will surely make him send us back to Olympus. Or even worst bring that annoying male human along.

"If I talked to her, and still don't feel any connection, will you let the idea go? I counter.

He regards me for a while, then mutters, " fine. But promise me you will go to her with an opened mind."

"I give my word," I say sincerely.

He springs up from my bed, "perfect!" He says, "now all we have to do is get you ready!"

"I am guessing you have set up the date?" I question with raised brows.

He moves to my bathroom and returns with a handful of garments.
"Yes, I have," he announces with a smirk. He picks up the phone on the reading table close to my bed and places it on his ear. After a few rings, a male voice that I recognise too well comes alive through the phone.

"You are calling the cleaning department, how may I help you today?"

The fool probably has that line written all over his palms. I doubt he knows an ounce of proper English.

"Uche, it's Anteros," my brother tells the annoying human on the receiving end of the phone.

"Ant-man! My guy!" He shouts making me cringe in irritation. Did he have to be so loud!

"I need you to come pick up some garments in my brother's room for cleaning."

"Shey, in y-your room?" He asks, his voice breaking a little in hesitation.

"No, not my room. My brother's room. Room 302," Anteros tells him. The line stays silent for a while and Anteros furrows his brows at the device wondering if they had lost connection, "hello! Did you get that?"

"Urmmm-yes! Room 302 abi? I'll be there!" He rushes before ending the call.

Rude!

"You still find that impossible human admirable?" I ask Anteros the moment he returns the phone to its position.

"He is good company, you should get to know him and stop prodding like a child," he says chuckling.

"I am not prodding!" I defend but he only scoffs at me and returns to the bathroom- my bathroom. Why is he messing with my belongings?

I am about to go after him to find out what he is doing, when I feel it. The same feeling I had last night. The one I felt in the lower floors. Her presence. Her smile. Óshún.

Taking slow steps, I move my body towards the door. The aura surges stronger, the closer I get to the door.

The feeling takes me back to that very day in Olympus. The moment before the wind announced her departure. When her smile was still freshly engraved in my brain. Before my emotions toppled and my heart shattered. The moment when thoughts of her brought music to my mind. I reach out my fingers to the door knob and my mind plays last night fruitless journey. "She isn't behind the door," it whispers to me.

She isn't here! It's probably that annoying human who's here to collect the garments Anteros arranged a while ago.

Retracting my now numb fingers to myself, I walk angrily away from the door swallowing hard at the pain that hits my organs, like she just left me all over again.

"Love-brain, what has gotten into you?" Anteros demands walking out of the bathroom.

"There is someone at the door," I say firmly before moving to the balcony - perhaps a sunny view of Lagos City will ease my pain. He considers probing me further but thankfully says nothing as he goes to the door.

After a long moment, I step back into the room hoping to be alone but he is still here, sporting a very happy grin. "Pray tell, what has gotten you extra goofy?" I ask against my will. Ignoring Anteros will only give him more leverage to make my afternoon even more miserable.

"How did you know there was someone at the door, I never heard you opening it?" He asks narrowing his eyes at me, like I knew something he didn't.

I know where he is going with this! This is the part where he preaches about Sandra's aura.

"Brother, it's obvious you have something to say. Get on with it." This back and forth argument about Sandra being Óshún in human form has weakened my very soul.

"Oh, I have gotten another Óshún candidate!" He announces with that handsome smile of his, suddenly changing the topic. But the announcement does nothing but soil my already mushy mood.

Now it's no longer Sandra but that annoying male.

"I hope this candidate isn't that annoying male human that just left here?" If I didn't consider the act foolish, I would have been rolling my eyes right now. I have had enough.

"Definitely not!" He replies me, springing from the bed, "and now, I have to go make arrangements for you to converge with one another by tomorrow night. Tonight you meet with Sandra." He marches up to the door and finally leaves but not before throwing me a smirk.

This is what my life has become. A life of trial and error. If I don't find my wife sooner, I am going to lose my mind.

That is, if I haven't already lost my mind.

A fresh ache fills my heart and I yearn to hold the only piece of her I brought with me, the locket I made for her. Tapping my pockets, I become agitated - the little diamond locket isn't in them!

Remembering I had it in my favourite black jacket the night before, I rush into my bathroom to get it. But an empty bathroom greets me. Of course, Anteros gave it to that annoying male!

Only Zeus knows what that fool will do with it!

What if he finds it worthless and trashes it?

Or worse, sells it to the highest bidder!

Without even thinking, I barge out of my room in search of the human.

I need that locket back!

_________🌹__________

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