Love and Panic at Uncle D’s Olde Fashioned Ice Cream Emporium - 7

And we were on the ground. Things were normal, for a given value of normal. Selene buried her face in the dirt and clawed her hands in.

“Don’t look.”

I closed my eyes and gravity switched directions. The ground became a dirt cliff and I was hanging on. A light of no color burned into my face and I pressed my face into the dirt. There was a sound I couldn’t hear and then it was over. I head a familiar sound.

“Mrrp?”

I open one eye, and the cat was looking me.

“I don’t have any food,”

“Mrrp.”

“Is over?”

I peeked an eye open and looked at Selene. The cat was pawing at her head. She lifted her head from the dirt and blinked.

“I guess so.”

I flopped over on my back and looked. There was nothing but a hole where the shed and pasture had been. Just a circular bowl carved out of the ground. I looked at Selene.

“What the hell was that?”

“Which part: where the universe folded in on itself or when Pan got killed by his women?”

“Both!”

“The Shed was an extension of Pan’s will and belief pushed into the real world. Call it a reality pimple. When Pan died, the pimple popped. This is…this is the scar, I guess.”

“Pan was a god, right? How can a god die?”

“Pan was an echo of belief. The cultists summoned him into the world with their belief, and he maintained that through the dairy and the brides. Once they woke up, every one of them wanted them only for themselves. They believed it so hard that his existence shattered, and my non belief destroyed him.”

“Non belief? You just killed him.”

“It’s learned skill.”

“I’ll bet.”

“Am I supposed to understand that?”

“A wizard did it.”

“That’s more like it.”

We sat and looked at the hole. I’d seem some weird stuff, but this was probably the winner. Selene looked pleased. She stroked the cat like a Bond villain.

“So why do it?”

“What?”

“This. Offering yourself up as a bride of Pan.”

She half smiled, shrugged.

“Somebody has to. Beside, I get extra credit at Misk U for this kind of thing.”

She got up and dusted off her make shift toga off. I scratched the cat’s head. Who he was, that’s a story for another day. Selene walked away.

“Hey.”

She turned.

“What would you have done if I hadn’t shown up while you were on the altar.”

She smiled and winked.

“I’d have thought of something,” she said as she walked away.

And you know what? I’m pretty sure she would have.