I step in front of my mother as the red-eyed man advances towards us. I try to stop him, but he moves me aside with a wave of his hand. He reaches out towards my mother and a scream is caught in my throat. 

Then he unlocks the necklace and throws it to the side. 

“Get out of here,” he says. 

Neither of us move. He pushes my mother towards me and she helps me to my feet. 

“Nix, get back to Earth. Hide. Go back to pretending you are human. I’m sorry for what I’ve done to you,” he says to my mother.

“What the fudge is going on here?” I ask. 

“Your mother is one of us. She was sent down to Earth to have you. The plan was to get you back up here as a replacement for the Divine. But something went wrong. They found out.”

“Who’s they?”

“The Divine,” says a voice from behind us. I turn and see three men with solid gold eyes. They are dressed in white flowing robes and hold their hands behind their backs. 

The red-eyed man swears. “My Lords! What a surprise! I didn’t expect to see you so soon.”

The three men turn their heads to the red-eyed man. His face goes blank and the color leaches out of him. He drops to the floor, dead. 

I stare in horror at the body on the floor. I can’t think. I’m in shock. I numbly feel someone grab my shoulder and push me through the door. I look next to me and see my mother walking by my side. She grabs my hand and smiles. I see a flash of gold in her eyes and remember what the red-eyed man said.

“Who are you?” I ask. 

She opens her mouth, but one of the gold-eyed men puts his finger to his lips. I feel my voice disappear. 

We stop in front of a large gold door.

“I’m not going in there until I know what’s going on,” I say, pointing to the door.

My mother squeezes my hand. “It’s the Divine. They are the leaders of our species. The Divine is all who have ever ruled and all whoever will, all residing in a single body. They are God.”

 I open my mouth again, but my mother puts her finger to her lips. I feel my voice disappear again. The gold-eyed men push open the door and shove my mother and me through the opening. Then the door shuts behind us. 

We are standing in a large room. It is completely empty except for a large white and gold throne in the very middle of the room. A tall woman is lounging in the chair. She has long silver hair that is floating like it’s in the water. She wears a simple circlet on her head. 

My mother gently pushes me down onto my knee. 

“Stand,” says the Divine. Their voice echoes through the room. It sounds as if a hundred different voices are speaking in unison. 

We stand. 

The Divine stands and as they do they change. They now look like a young girl, maybe ten years old. 

“Nix, my daughter. You sought to betray me?” the Divine asks. 

My mother kneels and puts her head on the floor. 

“I apologize sincerely for my deception, Great One. I was a pawn in the hands of your contesters. I was flattered by beguiling words and an attractive plan, but I can see the error of my ways. But I have borne a son, and he will join you,” my mother says. 

“I’ll do what now?” I ask. 

“You’ll join me,” the Divine says, turning to me and changing to a towering man with striking blue eyes. “Take my hand, Kire.” 

“Oh,” I say, starting to laugh. My laugh sounds deranged. “Oh, that explains it! You have the wrong person. My name is Erik. So, if you don’t need me, I’ll be going back to Earth with my real mother.” I turn and begin to walk away again, but a tingling sensation sets over me and I find myself walking back towards the Divine against my will. They’ve now changed to look like a Walmart brand Harry Styles. 

“Kire,” they say. Now it sounds like a thousand voices. “Take my hand.” 

I take a step back. “No!”

The room splits and I’m facing thousands of people. Some look human, some look almost human, and others look like something completely alien.

“Take my hand and become one,” says the figure directly in front of me. 

The room spins and I’m facing someone different. “Become a God.” 

Someone different again: “Become whole.” 

A chant starts accompanied by a stomping. “Kire, Kire, Kire.”

The walls echo it. “Kire, Kire, Kire.” 

The room spins again and I’m facing my mother, but she looks different. She has gold eyes and her hair is a striking red. 

“Become Divine.”

The entire room empties and I’m facing a mirror. I see myself as I could be. I could be a part of the Divine, the Mighty. Then I see something else. My dad, standing behind me. 

“Hello, Erik.”

“Dad?”

“Yes.”

“But you died eight years ago.”

“Son, I’ll always be with you.”

“What should I do?” I ask. I sound like a child.

My dad grabs my hand and pulls me to the ground so we’re kneeling across from each other. “That’s up to you. The Divine, the Mighty, the God of this people, is a powerful force. They are also benign. However, the balance is tipping. There are so many of the Divine that they are beginning to falter. You would be another voice, but you would be a voice of reason to help restore balance. If you truly wish to go home, they can make this seem like little more than a vibrant dream, but the power and the influence you would hold by staying would put all leaders on earth to shame. Whatever you choose, I will be proud of you.”

He fades away. I take a deep breath. I look beyond, down at the Earth. I long for a life there, but I can feel the power running through my veins. I feel that it is barely more than a glimpse of what I would have if I join the Divine. 

“Alright. Let’s do this,”  I say.

The mirror shatters and a young boy, barely more than seven, steps through the glass. He holds out his hand. 

“What do I need to do?” I ask. 

“Take my hand,” says the boy—no, the Divine. “Then you will be complete.”

I look at my palm and hold it out. Our fingers touch and I feel my body change. It hums and I can feel it as it turns to dust and swirls around the young boy. Then I am falling through a hole. It pulls at my mind and I scream. I am once again in the throne room, but now I can feel it all. The stars and the other Divine. I have become something new.

“I am the Divine,” I say. And I hear the support resound through my mind from the thousands before me. I stretch my hand forward and the doors fly off their hinges. The gold-eyed men in white robes, my servants. My friends. They look up in terror and awe. I smile and feel a burst of power run through my body, reflecting and multiplying off of my friends. I am aware of everything. I am perfect. I am eternal. 

“Bow before me.”