Written in January 2016 for the second contest by Fantasy_Community 'Two faced Gods and Betrayal'

The second face

"Why not?" I ask him, the cold wind ruffling my hair, blowing it into my face and carrying my words away with it, out towards the sea, that's roaring underneath us. Dark and foreboding like a wild beast, struggling to be set free to wreak havoc.

I lift my head and gaze up at him, into his dark blue eyes, that are as deep as the water beneath us and as stormy as the sky above.

"Why won't you let me come with you?" I say.

He steps closer to me, until our faces are only inches apart, capturing my eyes with his, holding my gaze prisoner and drawing me even closer.

"The danger..." he chokes out and shakes his head.

I reach up and stroke his cheek, let my fingertips brush against his soft skin. The air smells of salt and goodbyes and that's exactly how his skin feels underneath my touch, after all, this could be the last time I ever see him.

I feel hot moisture in the corners of my eyes.

"Harvey," I beg, my voice nothing more than a whisper, drowning in the rushing of the ocean.

"Shh," he rasps, his breath feathering across my skin. And then his lips are on mine, warm and cold, gentle and firm all at once. The saltiness in the air mingles with my tears as he wraps his arms around me and crushes me against his chest.

His lips move against mine deliberately and achingly slowly, as if he too, feels that this might be our last kiss, our last touch.

Suddenly there's a loud crash, I pull away and see white lighting tear up the gloomy sky, thunder rumbles and reverberates against my diaphragm. The wind picks up and sends my hair flying, wrapping it around us like a blanket.

The sea is raging like a furious monster right now, waves lapping violently at the rocks beneath us, as if it was trying to crush them, to bring the whole cliff down with them.

"What is this?" I ask, raising my voice against the noise and the rumble.

"It's the end of the world," Harvey suddenly shouts over the wind, pulling me closer, trying to shield me from the storm.

The ground shakes underneath our feet, throwing me off balance and I stumble against him.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I cry out. "What's going on?" I look at him in bewilderment but he just shakes his head.

"I have no idea— h-he won't let me see—" His voice is laced with incredulity. For once, he, the boy who sees, doesn't know what's ahead of us.

A sudden sense of dread fills me, it goes through my body like a lightning bolt and chills my blood to ice.

"Harvey!" I choke out and clutch his sweater in my fists. He looks down at me, his blue eyes wide with fear, fear for me.

"It's begun," he whispers, his voice inaudible, I can only guess what he said from the movement of his lips, his mind in a faraway place.

Then his eyes begin to shift, from azure blue to silvery-grey within seconds. His tanned skin pales gradually, until it's white as a sheet. His face morphs and shifts right before my eyes, his features contorting and sharpening, growing into a cold and indifferent mask, taking away the boy I fell in love with and replacing him with the god that he is deep inside of him.

He stares at me with those fathomless silver eyes, assessing me. It's no longer Harvey standing in front of me, but a man so cold and immobile as a marble statue. I regard the angular shapes of his face, the hard lines of his visage, his strong jawline and prominent chin and can't help but shudder and take a tentative step back.

"My my, sweetheart. Is my new face not pretty enough? I swear you were kissing me just a minute ago."

His voice is cold and distant, like a shard of ice, boring into my ears and making my skin crawl. His pale sculptured lips, that are nothing like Harvey's soft mouth pull up into a cruel smile, oh so unlike Harvey's little lopsided grin.

I fail to answer, instead, I take another step back.

"What's going on?" I manage to utter, finally finding my voice and the courage to talk.

"I already told you. This is the end of the world, Apocalypse, Armageddon, Ragnarök, however you want to call it. It's the day your little human existence is coming to an end, the day your civilisation is going to be eliminated." His voice is cutting through me like a steely knife, hard and merciless.

The dread shoots through me once again, making me freeze and shiver at his words.

"How do you know?" I whisper, my voice barely making any sound, but he hears me.

He laughs sardonically, flashing a row of pearly white teeth, sharp and fang-like, making him look like a predator.

"I'm Ianus, remember? I see, you know, I see everything. The end and the beginning, the past and the future. Everything is just a glimpse away. And I know, today is the day you're going to die."

Fear grips my heart in a vice-like hold, all colour fades from my face and my blood runs cold. Suddenly, I want to be as far away from him as possible. I stumble backwards, trying to get my feet to move, to take me away from him.

In a flash he's by my side, grabbing my arm and pulling me against his stone-hard body.

"Uh oh, we're not done here, little one," he hisses into my ear, sending shivers down my spine, but not the good kind. I struggle to break free, to be rid of this scary version of him, but his hold on me tightens, his fingers crushing my arm and cutting into my flesh.

Lighting and thunder are still raging in the heaven above us. I gaze up at him, look at his scary stony face, cast in shadows, unmoving, unblinking.

"What do you want from me?"

He flashes that ghastly smile again, exposing his sharp teeth.

"Well, sweetheart, I needed a human sacrifice. And you were just perfect." His ice cold fingers reach up to cup my chin, forcing me to look him in the eye.

"This Harvey-boy came in handy, you know. I must say, it was my best disguise so far. Who could resist those deep blue eyes?"

His eyelids flutter shut for a second and as he opens them again, there they are, blue and deep and mesmerizing as ever. Those blue eyes I fell for immediately when I caught sight of them in the park so many months ago.

I stare into them for what feels like an eternity, but it's really only a moment, a flash before the colour drains from his irises and they are snatched away from me like a cruel twist of fate and I'm left there, gaping at these expressionless steel grey voids again.

Pain ripples through me, not from heartbreak or betrayal, but actual physical pain. It stings in my abdomen and spreads through my whole body like a wave crashing over me, taking me with it and drowning me.

I gasp and try to comprehend what happened. He lets go of me and I see a glimpse of a blade, a small piece of metal gleaming in the sparse light.

And then he throws me off the cliffs. I can't even manage to scream, to be shocked or surprised. I'm falling, the wind swishing past me. For a moment, it feels almost like flying.

Too soon, I reach the surface of the water, crashing through it with such force, that I feel my bones crushing and breaking. My limp body floats in the indigo depths for a couple of moments, before the pressure is too much and my lungs give in. Blood seeps out of the wound in my stomach, giving the water a scarlet hue.

My breath escapes me in a rush of silvery air bubbles, slipping out of my mouth and tickling my face as they float to the surface. Water seeps in through my opened lips, filling my mouth and my lungs, salt burning in my eyes and my nose.

I feel my conscience fading, slowly waning and leaving my body. I take one last shuddering breath, gulp down the saltiness of the ocean, tasting the blood on my lips.

And then I am no more, nothing more than a lifeless shell, washing ashore.

[word count: 1435]