Chapter Text
As soon as Frank steps foot into the church that day, he’s aware something is wrong. He glances at his mom walking next to him, and sees a worried expression overtaking her face. The same two dozen people that are here every Sunday are mostly already present as well, a similar concerned look painted on all of their faces.
Linda Iero leads the way to where the Toro family is sitting in one of the pews. Alfonso, Sofia and Ray have concerned expressions on their faces as well, though Ray gives Frank a hesitant smile as Frank comes to sit next to him.
Frank and Ray have been pretty much the only ones in their age-range who visit the church for years now. There’s a handful of others their age that come for celebratory mass, but nobody in their twenties comes here weekly. It’s meant that Ray and Frank have gotten quite close over the years. A bit hesitantly initially, but when Frank learned that Ray is somewhat of a guitar prodigy, he’d not minded it nearly as much. Once in their teens, they’d even started hanging out outside of church quite a bit, until Frank would’ve been absolutely lying to call Ray just a ‘church-friend.’
“I would say something feels off today,” Frank states once he’s seated, “But I suspect by the expressions on everyone’s faces that announcing that is quite unnecessary. Has anyone determined a reason yet?”
“No. But I suppose if one is known, we’ll know it as soon as mass starts. I doubt Theo is going to leave anything like this unsaid for very long,” Ray responds. Frank nods, because that is probably true. He glances around the church, at the visages of the gods that have become so familiar to him over the years. He hasn’t paid them active mind in years, really, they are simply there. On the painted-glass windows of every church, on candles and dangling on key-chains and printed on really anything that’s easy to sell.
Most houses only have one visage present-the god that family has chosen to pray to. Their patron god. Linda Iero had chosen Hera after Frank’s father had left. She’d left the choice for Frank’s deity of preference up to him though, she hadn’t wanted to force Frank to pray to the god of women. Frank hadn’t had a strong preference. He suspects if he’d been a bit older when his dad had left he would’ve just picked Dionysus. The guys he runs into at the bars he goes to generally have them as their chosen deity, but Frank had been too young to think about the excuse to drink copious amounts of alcohol. Instead he’d chosen the one god that spoke to a Frank who was just trying to convince his mother that he should be allowed to be a vegetarian. He’d chosen Artemis.
Many don’t understand his choice in that. Artemis being the god of the hunt, people assume those who pray to Artemis would prefer eating meat the most. And while it’s true that Artemis does represent the hunt, Frank argues that eating meat that you have hunted is hardly the same as eating meat that you buy in the supermarket. People don’t hunt their meat anymore. Farmer’s raise livestock, preferably as cheaply as they can, with little regard for animal welfare and maximum regard for how much meat the animals will produce. When they’ve fattened up enough, they mercilessly get brought into a slaughterhouse. None of it is hunting. None of it is fair to the animals. And Artemis does protect animals too, they don’t just hunt animals. And so, Frank’s young mind had been drawn towards Artemis, and Artemis’ visage is the one that hangs in Frank’s room to this day.
“Do they seem bleaker to you?” Frank questions. Ray follows Frank’s line of sight to notice that Frank is looking at the visage of Artemis on one of the tapestries. Frank watches as Ray’s eyes dart ever so slightly to the right, to Apollo right next to Artemis, Ray’s chosen patron god.
“I think the tapestries have just been in the sun. Big windows here, after all,” Ray determines.
Frank isn’t so sure. He’ll never claim to be the most religious person. Yes, he comes to church every Sunday and he’d obediently chosen his patron god, but both of those were really for his mother’s sake. Linda is very religious and she had raised Frank to hold those same beliefs. Truth is, he simply doesn’t find church all that important. Frank visits church because Linda drags him along, but he recites the prayers without thought or effort, merely droning along with the others, and he hasn’t prayed outside of church in a long while. It’s not that there’s absolutely nothing there, Frank really had felt a pull towards Artemis. After all, his initial thought when he felt bad for animals wasn’t ‘Let’s go pray to the god that hunts them’. But 11-year old Frank had stood in front of the 12 altars and it felt like Artemis had pulled him in, like Artemis gave him the understanding to know the difference between hunting and consuming meat in the present day.
As he looks at the visage now though, that pull isn’t there anymore. As Frank looks at the others, he realizes he doesn’t feel the pull towards any of the visages on the tapestries. Which is quite good, because you’re not allowed to switch your patron god randomly. But despite Frank’s lack of ‘proper faith’ as Linda would surely say, Frank doesn’t remember a time in his life that he hasn’t felt a pull towards one of them at all.
Absentmindedly, Frank puts his hand in his pocket, trailing his index finger over the key-chain he has with Artemis’ visage on it. Nothing is there either, though this one at least isn’t surprising. Frank had put the key-chain on years ago to please his mom to always carry his patron god on him, because she believes it will keep him safe. Frank had never felt any pull from his key-chain.
Priest Theo steps into view and the quiet muttering dies down immediately, every single face turned towards Theo as he steps up to the dais. Frank feels a restlessness settle into his bones, but he forces himself to sit still, resists the urge to tap his feet on the floor or drum his fingers on the wooden pew.
“Welcome, everyone,” Theo greets them. “I am afraid I have bad news to share with all of you.” There’s another rumbling that follows this statement, as if people had been hoping Theo would tell them that they’re hallucinating the collective feeling of something being off.
“What is it?” Frank asks, loud enough to be heard over the quiet mutters from others. Several people glare at Frank for daring to raise his voice in church, but then they seem to think getting an answer is more important, so they turn back towards Theo, silence resuming.
“As of 4 AM, the presence of the gods hasn’t been felt anywhere on earth. We are afraid…” Theo trails off, eyes casting down. Frank watches Theo lift his head, set his jaw, as if forcing himself to finish the sentence. “We are afraid the gods have left earth. We are not sure if this was a voluntary decision or that something made them leave. But they are no longer watching over us.”
This causes a ruckus you’d scarcely believe only two dozen people could ever cause. Frank merely exchanges a glance with Ray, but there’s a helpless cry from Linda and Sofia, Alfonso begins speaking in Portuguese and, though Frank can’t understand Portuguese, he can guess at the general idea behind Alfonso’s words. Several others vocalize their sadness and their anger. Some fall to their knees and begin to pray, clearly hoping to get their presence back, their voices getting louder and more desperate with each unsuccessful prayer.
“How can they disappear?” Ray questions. There’s an expression on his face that Frank is really quite sure is mirrored on his own as well. Guilt. For so long both of them had gone through the motions just because their parents asked it of them. Neither of them had actually believed, though too Ray had chosen his patron god, though he had done it at the common age to choose yourself, when he’d turned 18.
“I don’t know,” Frank responds, quietly, eyes cast down. He hopes their parents won’t look their way and see the guilt so clearly written on their faces. Frank feels like he’s worse than all those people that are only here for the holy days. He feels worse than all those people who hadn’t even bothered to choose their own patron god, just simply went with what their parents had raised them with. He even feels worse than those that never even chose a patron god at all because they haven’t once set foot into a church.
Because they, at least, were honest. They didn’t believe in the gods. They had no obligation to the gods. Frank? Frank had felt Artemis’ pull. He’d chosen to accept the pull. But he’s spent his adult life never once thanking Artemis for what they had done for Frank, had spent his adult life merely pretending to be religious. And now? Now the gods are all gone.
That afternoon Frank and Linda Iero sit on the couch in front of the TV. Linda had turned it to a talk-show, which had featured one of her favorite cooks moments earlier, sharing the news that one of her new cook-books was expected to hit stores all over the US in just two weeks.
But despite the percentage of religious people having been dwindling for years now, the apparent disappearance of the gods is still big enough for a day-time show to pay any attention to it. Linda tenses up next to Frank and Frank’s hand tightens on the arm-rest, feeling guilt wash over him anew as Linda tenses up quite so much just from seeing a priest on TV.
“Good afternoon, priest Joseph,” Ellie greets him.
“I personally find it far from a good afternoon, but hello,” Joseph responds as he takes the seat that had been vacated.
“Of course,” Ellie tries to look apologetic, but even through the turmoil in his gut and head Frank isn’t the least bit convinced she’s actually apologetic. “Because what you’re here to discuss is the apparent disappearance of the gods, am I correct?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“Can you tell us about it?”
“Well, there’s not that much too tell yet. We simply know too little about what happened last night,” Joseph sighs and rubs a hand across his face. “It has come as a surprise that they disappeared last night, but the disappearance had been predicted to happen in the not-too far future anyway. I was only 19 when I became a priest. Back then, the churches were full. And I will acknowledge that the gods have blessed me with a long life, but unfortunately that long life has allowed me to see that changing.”
“You’re saying people visit church less?”
“Yes. People used to visit every Sunday. But during the sixties, when all those hippies started protesting everything on the gods’ green earth, that began to dissipate. More people began to think it was okay to not go every Sunday anymore. Some even thought it was okay to go only for the special masses, such as the summer and winter solstices. The number of church attendees has been steadily decreasing since the sixties, young lady. Some no longer visit church at all. When asked, they respond they’re atheists. Can you believe that?”
“Aren’t people free to believe what they want? Under the US law, we have freedom of religion, after all,” Ellie reasons.
“Big mistake,” Linda mutters next to Frank.
“Thanks to those hippies,” Joseph responds, looking properly angered about that. “What freedom of religion do people need? There are no other religions. Sure, there are two streams of our glorious religion, one that has proclaimed Zeus as the only true god and one that has proclaimed Poseidon as the true god, but we worship them too. A lot of our church-goers have them as their patron gods.”
“What about the church of Hades?”
Joseph’s face turns even more thunderous. Frank is quite certain that if this Joseph were to be Zeus, the heavens would pour open right now. As it is, he is a priest and Zeus is apparently gone anyway. “We don’t mention the church of Hades.”
“But even in your church there are those that have Hades as their patron saint, aren’t there?”
“Only for those who it is appropriate to. Funeral undertakers, medical coroners, such professions allow someone to choose Hades.”
“What if someone were to choose Hades without having a job that justifies it.”
“The church will offer counseling to these persons so they may work out what darkness lies in them that makes them chose the god of death as their patron. But it’s very, very rarely needed. People realize what Hades represents, they know better than to be appealed to him.”
Frank startles from a noise, so badly that he hurts his ring-finger when it catches on the couch with Frank’s surprise movement. It’s just the phone though and Linda gives Frank a curious look. Frank’s sure that it would be a look of amusement if it were any other time. After all, Linda is a little fond of making fun of her son sometimes.
Frank decides to get up to answer it, picking the horn up and opening his mouth to let the caller know they’ve reached Frank. As soon as the horn is against Frank’s ear though, there’s a voice already chattering incessantly.
“… must check up on her. She is old and without Apollo to guide her health who’s to say how long she’ll remain healthy? Oh dear, what if it’s already too late? What if her poor body has given…” Frank decides that he’s not going to be able to interrupt aunt Cathy’s chatter long enough to tell her she’s not talking with Linda, so he simply hands his mother the horn without informing Cathy that Linda hadn’t precisely caught onto what has been said already.
Not that it seems to matter. Linda has always been much better at interrupting her sister’s stream of words than Frank has and it takes maybe three seconds before Linda is talking, informing Cathy that yes, of course they can go check up on great-aunt Suzanne, but that she’s not going to be helped by Cathy talking her ear off, that it’s much better to agree on a plan on how to get there.
In a true display of how well Linda is used to her sister, the phone is already hung up by the time Frank returns from the kitchen with a glass of water. “Frank, honey, I’m going to pick up Cathy and we’ll go check on aunt Suzanne. We’ll stay over for a bit as well, since we’re making the drive anyway. You can make dinner tonight, right?”
“Of course, mom,” Frank responds.
“Are you planning on going anywhere?”
“Just to Mikey’s.”
“Be safe, Frankie.”
“It’s just Mikey’s, mom, he lives like two blocks from here,” Frank protests.
“I know, honey, but the gods are no longer here to watch over us. You must promise me you’ll be careful.”
Frank casts his eyes down, feeling that knot in his abdomen tighten again. “I promise, mom. You drive safe too. Especially with aunt Cathy next to you.”
Linda gives a small smile before she quickly presses a peck to Frank’s temple.