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James Vale was an astrophysicist. A remarkably intelligent man, but not a particularly social one. He spent most of his time, including his supposedly “free” time, unravelling the mysteries of the universe.
This might have been what drew Athena to him. It probably was. He never told anyone, and neither did she. For that matter, I’m not sure he even noticed her presence, beyond the fact that she’d taken on the guise of an intern. He was so distraught and absorbed with his work, that he never really noticed her beauty, and he only cared for her intelligence because it was useful to him in his research.
At some point though, he heard someone knocking on the door, but when he opened it, no one was there. He was about to step outside to see if there was anyone, when he stumbled upon a basket. A basket with a baby boy inside.
Although he was cynical and cold, he was not quite cold enough to leave it outside, so he took the basket and placed on his living room table. Only then did he notice the letter pinned to it. He ripped it off and read it,
“Dearest James
I am aware that you might have no idea who I am, even when you’ve finished reading this letter, but I will say it anyway. I am Athena, the intern you hired some time ago. The boy in the basket is your son.
I know you’re going to deny it to yourself, so feel free to check his DNA. Unfortunately I have duties which do not allow me to keep him, so take care of him. He IS your son.
His name is Alexander.
Yours forever,
Athena.”
He stared at the piece of paper stupidly, denyingly. Finally he decided it had to be some kind of joke. It kept bugging him all through the night though, so in the morning he took a sample from the child, and a sample from himself and send it to an acquaintance of his, to run a paternity test on them. It came back positive a few days later.
Growing up, Alexander lacked nothing. Nothing material anyhow. James had money enough to satisfy his every need, including extra tutors when his dyslexia started show. What he couldn’t give Alex, was the love every child needs. Alex grew steadily colder with each nanny that left. Eventually he stopped trying to connect with them at all.
He was an intelligent kid, extremely so. His father tried to have him test for Mensa, but Alex didn’t want to. He said it was a stupid club for smart people.
He graduated high school at 12, started college at 13 and had finished his first bachelor by 16. He’d experienced something strange in the shower on his thirteenth birthday, some trick of light her thought, but didn’t think further on it.
At the party his friends from college threw for him for finishing his bachelor in biochemistry at 16, an empousa crashed the party. She drew him aside, to the appreciating howls of his classmates, but when they got to the bathroom, he accidentally smelled her breath, and suddenly noticed her legs. He ran. He ran fast and long, until he could hardly run any more. He ran into the centre of town, hoping to somehow escape her by fleeing into the crowd.
He didn’t. She followed him and no one seemed to notice. Not even when a silver arrow pierced her chest and she turned to golden dust. He followed the trajectory of the arrow with his eyes, and saw a girl with a bow, crouched on a nearby rooftop.
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