SHORT STORIES

Wrath of Calypso

Contains homophobia and a LOT of bugs

A man in a pinstripe suit awakens in… nowhere like he’s ever seen before. Rocky ground with sparse, but brightly growing, foliage. Ferns of various colors, some flowers, the occasional tree. He’s laying against one such tree: a towering, leafless thing, glowing magenta and gently raining… dust? Pollen? Spores? But the oddest thing beholding him about this place? The sky. It’s a bright, saturated cyan. No toning or nuance like the blue hues of the normal world’s sky, just a solid, hideous color that strains the eyes to look at.

That is to say nothing of, of course, all of the bugs. Glowflies, spiders, beetles, isopods, anything you could name and reasonably call a “bug”, everywhere as far as he could see was teeming with them.
“Wha th’ell?” he croaks out.

As if to answer him, someone else does emerge. Someone presumably human. A remarkably beautiful woman in a dress made of chitin with a blue sheen. She has an ethereal presence about her, as if your hand would go right through her if you reached out to touch. She is both the strangest and most normal thing here. The man sits straight up.
“…Who are you?”
She answers, a voice like wind chimes in the fall. “You may’ve known me by another name, but here I am known as Calypso. You’ll do well to remember that name.”
He ponders. “Wait, aren’t you the broad I was just dinin’ with?”
“So you remember.” “What’s this about, then eh? Can you tell me where the ‘ell I am?” “Physically? You’re still in the back of your fancy executive, fast asleep as far as your driver can tell. In soul, you’re in my own personal realm.” “WHAT D’YA MEAN I’M-”
He stands up in protest, but something grabs him from behind and binds him to the tree. He looks down to see a massive centipede coiled around his chest.

“Shhh, don’t struggle sweetie. He might accidentally sting you. His venom is not pleasant to have your nervous system full of.”
“WHAT THE FUCK IS THE MEANING OF THIS?”
She furnishes a photograph and holds it where he can see it.
“Do you recognize her?”
“Wait, her? That thievin’ rat dyke? Yeah I know of her. What’s she to you?”
“Then I presume you know how she died?”
“…”
“Try not to lie to me.”

“Look, I didn’t kill her.”
“Maybe not with your own hands, but you called the hit.”
“…It was just business. She was stealin’ from us, she was a liability. Besides, they weren’t supposed to kill her, just muscle a lesson into that head of ‘ers. Again, what’s she to you anyway?”
A pause. She closes her eyes and answers somberly. “That ‘thieving rat dyke’ was my girlfriend.”
“Ohhh… shiiiiit. Look I’m really sorry for your loss but like I said, it’s business. She shouldn’t have crossed us. You try building up a successful business from nothin’. You show any weakness and folks will walk all over you.”
She scoffs.

“Please, you gave me your whole rags to riches feel-good success story over our second wine bottle. You offer loans with absurd interest rates to immigrants then sell them coke on the side to keep them in debt. Some honest business.”
“…Your little lover girl was no saint either y’know. She worked for us. Was involved in the dirty work too.”
“I’m well aware. I knew what kind of life she was caught up in. But I also knew her heart was in the right place in spite of it. She risked everything to give back to the families you robbed, and to provide for the both of us on top of that.”
“So what d’you want from me? An apology? Money? An ass-kissin’?”

She doesn’t answer, instead she picks up a moth the size of a watermelon and cradles it to her bosom, gently stroking its head, neck, and wings.
“You know, I was utterly devastated when I lost my Alice. She was the first bit of real hope I ever had. She made me actually want to live again. When even my own family told me I’d never be anything more than a faggot in a dress, she alone saw me for what I really was.“
The moth flutters a little. She plants one last kiss on its forehead and lets it fly free.
“But even without her, hope found its way to me for the second time. At my absolute lowest, the gods spoke to me. They told me I was an incarnation of one of their own. They beckoned me to arise and take up Her mantle. And I did. And they etched Her name into my being.”
“…C-Calypso…”
“You understand.”
“Ah jeez. I can’t fuckin’ win against a god.”
“Your observation is correct my dear.”
“W-what are you gonna do?”

She lifts a finger towards him. In unison every creature around turns and faces the businessman out of his depth, and gazes motionlessly.
“You will remain here for now. I will hunt down every one of the miserable crooks on your payroll one by one. I’ll kill you last, so that you can see me take them all down, and suffer, suffer, suffer all the while. Your friends will surely realize you’re not just sleeping drunk soon and become paranoid, so I’d better get started now. Get comfortable, you’re going to be stuck to that tree for as long as it takes.”
“YOU FUCKIN’ FREAK. DON’T LEAVE ME HERE GODDAMMIT.”
“Oh, my children. Playtime.”

Calypso turns around and walks away from him. All at once, the bugs that had been surrounding with eyes locked to him scamper and flutter towards him, climbing all over him, until his vision is covered, and his ears are drowned out by buzzing…