“Hey, coach canceled practice on account of how cold it is, but the girls want to go out together.” Sarah told Orion. “They…”

Orion hugged her. He wasn’t sure about anything that had happened this morning, but what he knew was that his friend was hurt and she needed to be cheered up.

“I guess you heard I got dumped, “ Sarah whispered as her throat tightened. “I need a raincheck on the rest of this hug. I can’t cry right now. The girls want to take me out to cheer me up and I don’t want to be that girl that breaks apart in public because she got dumped.”

“Whatever you need,” Orion promised. “Text me when you’re home and I’ll come over.”

“Deal. Bring that Belgium chocolate your mom brought back?” Sarah said as she opened the door to head out. Orion nodded in agreement.

As Orion watched her jog back to the field for her things, he couldn't shake the image of Sarah's sad and brokenhearted expression from his mind. She was one of those genuinely nice people and sometimes suffered for it. Orion wished he could do something more than just offer her some chocolate.

“Pretty girl. Are you in love with her? I wouldn’t really know about that sort of thing.” A woman’s voice rang out behind him. The voice was clear, firm, and confident; it sounded familiar to Orion.

Orion spun around and found himself staring at a short girl… or woman? This person stood merely at his shoulder height, but her face was one that held eons. No wrinkles appeared on her face and her skin looked flawless, but her face was taut with the tension of age. However, it was more than perceived maturity emanating, there was an unseen force from her that Orion could sense would burn him alive without effort if provoked.

“Who… who are you?” Orion barely was able to ask before he felt her life force slam the air out of his throat. He doubled over and gasped for air.

“Hera,” she replied with a look of concern for Orion. “Oh drat, I’ve overestimated your constitution. Here, this should be better.”

“Orion felt the force diminish and he could regain his breath. Putting both hands on the floor to help himself up, he slowly stood up again. Looking once more at Hera, he wondered if he dared speak.

“Hera, as in wife of Zeus?” Orion mustered the courage to ask. He wondered if she had come for the arrow.

“No.”

Orion didn’t know what to say next. Her voice was oddly familiar despite not something any human could produce. She had to belong to the pantheon of gods that his arrow belonged to and yet she claimed not to be… or more strictly speaking she said she wasn’t Zeus’ wife. Maybe this was one of those fiction that only has a seed of truth. Orion racked his brain for who she could be and recalled one other name.

“Are you also known as Mother Flame?” Orion hesitantly asked.

“Goodness no!” Hera exclaimed and once again nearly knocked Orion over. “And I’ll thank you not to use her name so lightly!”

With that exclamation, Orion’s mind recognized the voice finally.

“You saved me when I first touched the arrow! You commanded the voices!” Orion was sure of his suspicion.

“Voices? Oh, is that how your brain perceives the Multitude? Yes I suppose that makes sense. Oh, yes I was the one who saved you. I thought it fair since I’m the one that put you in danger. I seem to have a habit of overestimating your constitution. I had no idea you couldn’t handle The Multitude. It’s a shame. They really are quite convenient and friendly, you know.” Hera stated all this casually as she circled Orion looking him up and down. Her observation was eagle eyed raking every inch of him and more.

Orion noticed as she walked that her black dress didn’t rustle or shift. It was as if it was an extension of her body and moved only when commanded. Everything about her was curious and overwhelming. Nothing she had just said made any sense to him, but he did understand that she seemed to know about this situation he found himself in.

“I think I have to give this arrow back to Cupid. Do you know him? Can you give it back to him for me?” Orion hopefully asked.

“Back to him? Not when I’ve gone to so much trouble to steal it from him and give it to you. I know that the Multitude was unable to instruct you, but surely the Voice gave you some clarity?”

“You mean the mysterious one that speaks at random? It’s helped a little I suppose, but I still have so many questions.”

“So ask”

“Why did you give me this arrow? The voice said I had to give it back to Cupid. What do you want me to do with it?”

“I want to see if you can use the arrow. Candidly speaking, I’m starting to doubt it, but I suppose I might as well see the test to the end. Find someone to shoot the arrow with and we shall see the results.”

“Use it? But the voice said the arrow was dangerous around people. I don’t want to hurt anyone”

“True, the test has risks, but what I’m hoping to achieve outweighs them. In addition, an instrument of the gods is most dangerous when there isn’t a god around to shield them, but here I am. I may not hold the arrow, but I’m close enough to prevent catastrophe. Now enough questions, time for you to see if you can shoot this arrow. I have other candidates to try, you know,” For most of this conversation, Hera seemed like she had all the time in the world, but now she looked eager and ready to move on. “Take out the arrow”

Orion reached into his backpack for the arrow. It was full of his books, so it was proving difficult to find. Orion rummaged around until he started to worry it had fallen out of his backpack.

“I swear I put it in here! Did it fall out? I don’t think I have any holes in my backpack.” Orion started to get worried and frustrated. Why did things have to go so wrong when all he did was spot a stick in the morning?

Hera stood there without any emotion or expression. She betrayed no movement; not even a single lock of hair rustled. It seemed like time stood still for her and Orion lost all sense of it.

“So… it seems I was thrice wrong. You have indeed utilized the arrow,” Hera finally spoke. “Time to see the results.”

“Wait, I didn’t shoot the arrow. I don’t even have a bow!”

“Fool! An instrument of the gods is not so clumsy as to rely on your body. Did you think we would allow our instruments to be bound by the natural physical laws of the universe? Our instruments answer to a higher power.” Hera immediately pulled Orion through the double doors out into the cold. It seemed her body too did not obey physics as she casually dragged him along without effort.

“Wait, hold on, where are you taking me? Hang on. I can walk. Stop dragging me!” Orion cried out.

“Walk if you want, but keep up. We don’t have any time to waste. We need to see the results of your choice.”

“Choice? What choice?”

“The test is a choice!” Hera snapped. Orion saw the capricious nature now; Hera was only moments ago a far more pleasant individual. “If you’re going to replace Cupid, we have to know you’re in tune with his arrows to make the best choice for each arrow. Every arrow has a destiny and Cupid is best at figuring out that destiny and enacting it. When an arrow isn’t perfectly used, an imperfect event will unfold. If you got it really wrong, it will be death and tragedy. And if I was really really really incorrect in my assessment of you, the entire world will end.”

“Wait someone could die!? Who?” Orion breathlessly asked as he sprinted to keep up with Hera’s stride.

“Fool again. I already told you that the arrow doesn’t obey the physical world. It obeyed your will. Your thoughts. Your mind. Whom have you directed all these at?”

Orion paled as he came to a conclusion. He ran faster and followed Hera across the field after Sarah.

Below Orion’s sneakers, he could feel the crunch as the frozen blades of grass were broken. The sun just barely cleared the three story red white brick building as it kissed the football field. The glass walls of the high school lobby focused the sunlight on the field. Orion kept his gaze downward to shield his eyes from the sunlight; his hoodie kept the morning draft from biting him too badly. Nonetheless, Orion kept moving at a brisk pace to get out of the cold sooner. Although he was early for his first class, he enjoyed the peaceful walk in the morning before most students arrived.

As he made his way across the field, his eyes spotted a dark line across the ground. A long narrow shadow was cast in his direction as the stick that cast it protruded upright from the ground stood spotlighted by the morning sun. Orion kept walking, not paying much attention to it; however, as he got closer the stick glistened. The sunlight reflected off the stick almost looked like it was winking at him.

Wondering what kind of stick could reflect light, Orion walked up to the stick and bent down to examine it. Much to his surprise, it seemed to be made of metal. In fact it was so smooth and rose gold colored, he wondered if it wasn’t some sort of expensive piece of jewelry one of the rich kids had lost. As he squinted in the sunlight to see clearer, he found that there were fins on the top as if it was an arrow.

“Arrow shaped jewelry? I guess rich people have different tastes,” Orion thought, but he knew the right thing was to turn it into lost and found. “I suppose it might have sentimental value and be irreplaceable,” he rationalized as he bent down to pick the arrow up.

Immediately as soon as he touched the arrow, a thousand voices whispered in his mind. Each one was conveying different things. Some told him stories of gods while others spoke of eternity. Orion fell to the ground and knew that he was destined to go mad. The onslaught was more than just voices although that was enough to destroy anyone. As the voices spoke, they seemed to have a direct connection to his mind. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t hear any single word as they all overlapped with each other; the information they imparted was being imprinted on his mind with no relief in sight.

“Peace,” an overarching feminine voice commanded. Suddenly it all dulled down and faded away. All the stories, counsel, and details the voices spoke of faded from Orion’s mind leaving only a faded imprint. He had curled up on the ground by now and despite the return to normalcy, couldn’t quite muster the energy or courage to get back up. As he focused on taking breaths, he eventually found his sanity. By the time he opened his eyes, the sun had settled into its place in the sky and was firmly shining over him.

Orion looked around to see if the woman who saved him was still around. Seeing no one, he became more confused. He knew that he must have been on the floor for more than just a couple of minutes so perhaps she simply didn’t want to wait for him. Of course even that explanation hardly explained a tenth of what had occurred. Deciding that he needed a mental health day, he decided to get up and go home.

As he got up, he saw the arrow was still in the ground. “Nope. No way. It’s going to be someone else’s problem,” he thought. “But what if someone else experiences what I did? It’s dangerous to leave that lying around.” And yet he couldn't bring himself to touch the arrow again; the fear of having to suffer like that was quite strong. As Orion stood there deliberating, the arrow flew out of the ground.

Only the shock of something flying at him, could have made Orion do what he did next. Without thinking, Orion grabbed the arrow as it flew backwards at him. Instantly, as he touched the arrow again, he knew he was safe. No voices came to overwhelm him. Instead, he became filled with purpose. From within him, a singular voice spoke; it was genderless and without tone or inflection as only a soundless voice could produce.

“You hold within your hand an arrow of Cupid. Any instrument of the gods holds within it the ability to upset the balance of the world for both good and evil in equal stride. Only in the hands of a god can it be safely shielded from the world. If it were to be left alone in the mortal realm, death will follow without fail, for that is the price for any cosmic shift. So did Mother Flame and Father Aether decree and so has it been for all time.”

“If only gods can touch it, why am I holding it?” Orion nervously thought. As he stood there with the arrow in hand, he heard the sounds of a crowd of students. Not sure how much of the day he had missed, he suddenly realized he had no idea what time it was. As he listened to the students through the large floor to ceiling window of the school lobby, he realized that the school day must be over as the students were making their way from the classroom to their lockers and then exiting the building.

Orion wanted to get out of there, but he also felt drawn to the crowd. He desperately wanted some sense of normalcy and needed to talk to someone about all of this. He scanned the crowd and looked for a familiar face. As luck would have it, his best friend, Sarah, walked out of the school. He started to walk towards her when she spotted him and smiled and ran towards him. Still weak from his experience, Orion stopped and waited for her to get to him.

“Hey there stranger! Were you in class today? I didn’t see you in Geometry, “ Sarah smiled again as she approached him. She was always a positive bubbly person that seemed to embody joy itself. “What’s that in your hand?”

“Hey Sarah, man am I glad to see you, “ Orion started to say. “ This thing is -”

“Sharing even knowledge of the gods' tools is enough to disrupt the pendulum upon which we swing,” the voice of knowledge spoke once again stopping Orion from telling Sarah his tale. “The arrow must be returned to Cupid for the safety of all.”

“This thing is what?” Sarah asked. She watched Orion still smiling waiting for him to finish his thought.

“It’s…” Orion began, but still not sure what he was going to say.

“Hey Sarah, let’s go! Practice is starting!” Orion was interrupted again by a group of girls in cheerleader uniforms. They were standing on the side of the football field. “Coach wants us to do a few warm up laps around the field before we head back into the gym.”

“Ugh, I’ll catch up with you after. Will you hang out and wait for me to finish practice? We can walk home together.” Sarah asked. Her smile suddenly faded as she said, “There’s something I need to talk about.”

“Um, sure.” Orion agreed as he didn’t really know what he’d do even if he was to head home right now. It wasn’t like Cupid would be in his living room. He also thought it would be good to sit down some more before moving too much. Orion slipped the arrow in his backpack.

As Orion headed into the school lobby to sit down, he watched the cheerleaders start their lap around the field. By the time he settled himself on the benches in the lobby, two very cold cheerleaders had finished their laps and walked into the lobby. They sat on the benches across on the other side of the lobby as they waited for their teammates to finish.

“So he did it in the middle of biology? What an asshole!” One of them asked. Neither of them paid much attention to Orion, only focusing on warming themselves up and chatting with each other.

“Yea he’s a tool for sure. Poor Sarah. No one deserves to be dumped publicly like that, least of all a sweetheart like her”

“Let’s take her out after practice and cheer her up.”

“Great idea! Let’s go tell coach we need to end practice early”

The two cheerleaders ran back outside. As the doors opened, a cold gust of wind from the outside hit Orion, but he didn’t mind. He couldn’t believe Sarah’s boyfriend would do something like that to her. Another gust of wind slapped Orion’s face and he noticed the doors didn’t close. He got up to close the door. As he reached the door, he could see the coach talking to the team. It seemed like she was letting the team skip practice completely.

Orion stood by the door watching the girls gather their things and head to the parking lot and their cars. Only Sarah was heading towards him. She jogged her way across the field and quickly reached the doors. Orion opened the door for her so she could get out of the cold quickly.

I know that by poke, you mean you poked his ass checks and it was probably gentle. But my mind won’t let go of the image you jamming a finger up his asshole and yelling “Gotcha!”