Hubris

Cassie stared into the reflection of herself in her smartphone.

“Woman, if you keep making that face it is going to get stuck that way,” said her friend, Hamal.

“I’m an Internet goddess, okay? I need content,” Cassie answered.

“I have almost ten million followers so far,” she bragged.

“I know. I help you make the videos,” said Hamal.

Cassie returned to her own image in her phone.

“Damn, I’m fine,” she said admiring herself.

“I need more filler, though,” she added.

“You had lip injections done this week,” Hamal reminded her.

“They don’t look big enough,” she complained.

“You’re tripping,” he laughed.

“Oh really? Then why is my new video is going viral?” she mentioned.

“Which one?” he asked.

“This,” she said handing him the phone.

“Hey guys, Cassie the Goddess here,” said Cassie in the recording.

“I just wanted to show you my new Gucci thong,” she continued.

She changed the frame to show an up close shot of her crotch.

“I just got a Brazilian bikini wax!” she gyrated her pelvis for the camera.

“Be sure to subscribe to Goddess Entertainment, and follow my handle @cassiethegoddess. Like and share our posts, because I’m a goddess, you guys!”

Her logo, a picture of herself in the nude, flashed by.

The post transitioned to the next one of her twerking in front of a pink Ferrari.

Hamal laughed, “You deserve an award for this.”

“I want do something really big for my next video,” said Cassie. “Something that will go viral.”

“How?” asked Hamal.

“I noticed that people comment more when they are mad at me.”

“And I’ve already got a ton of followers.”

“So I’m going to be so infuriating that people have no choice but to go off on me.”

“Why?” said Hamal.

“Because then I’ll get millions and millions of views! I’ll be so famous there will be no stopping me! No matter what anybody says!” she laughed.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Hamal asked her.

“Yes! The only thing that matters is being famous!” she responded.

“And looking perfect,” she added.

“What did you have in mind?” he said.

“You’ll see,” said Cassie.

#

“So I was shopping at the big box generic retail outlet when the craziest thing happened.”

“I like to eat and shop at the same time. It’s like this weird compulsion I have.”

“I was walking along pushing the shopping cart and eating a tube of chips, minding my own business.”

“You were drinking,” said Hamal who was filming.

“Oh and I was drinking a bag of wine,” Cassie continued.

“But I was going to pay for it!” she insisted.

“I also picked up multiple palettes of my makeup line Goddess Cosmetics while I was there.”

“Self-care is so important. And if you want to look like a perfect goddess, you should run out the door and buy this makeup.”

“Goddess makeup will take years off your face in an instant! It’s literally a miracle!”

“But anyway, as I was saying, I was minding my own business when this bitch comes up to me.”

“And she says, ‘Hey, you can’t do that. It’s illegal to drink in the store, and you have to pay for that.’”

“So annoying.”

“It’s like, I know I have to pay for it, right?”

“What did you do?” asked Hamal.

“I went off on her. She has no right to disrespect the goddess like that just because she is working full time.”

“Then they tried to take away our phones because we were recording, and I was like, oh hell no. I am so over this.”

“And then my nipples were exposed in the fight,” she emphasized the word nipples.

“So now I’m like banned for life, and the store is dropping my makeup line.”

“We had to pixelate some faces and some boobies, but it’s all in our latest video streaming now — because they can’t stop free speech!”

“And free speech means I can say whatever I want even if the haters don’t like it!”

“I’m a goddess, you guys!”

#

“Ma’am, you can’t wear that on an airplane. You will have to cover up or you cannot board,” said the flight attendant at the podium in front of the airport gate.

“What’s wrong with my outfit?” Cassie asked her.

There was a long line of people behind them waiting to board. The plane was late and they were feeling impatient to leave.

Hamal was discreetly filming the encounter.

Cassie had dressed up for the occasion in a pair of fish net biker shorts, and a sheer crop top over pasties.

This airline has a dress code, ma’am. And we have determined that your attire does not meet those standards,” said the attendant.

“What’s the dress code?” said Cassie.

“All passengers are required to cover their upper and lower torsos.”

Her eyes lowered meaningfully at Cassie’s decolletage.

“Do you know how much these boobs have cost me? I will show them off if I want to!” said Cassie.

“And you also have to wear shoes,” the flight attendant continued.

“These are shoes,” said Cassie.

“That looks like two boards tied to your feet with shoelaces,” said the attendant.

“These are the latest house slippers from Off-White!” responded Cassie.

“I don’t know what that is, ma’am,” said the flight attendant.

“How dare you? A goddess wears whatever she likes!” Cassie declared.

“While I admire your, uh, self-confidence, I have to ask you to move aside and cover up. There are a lot of people waiting behind you who are anxious to board the plane,” said the airline employee.

A group of security guards was approaching.

“Ugh! Fine!” Cassie screamed at the flight attendant.

She jerked her bags aside to the waiting area and began going through the contents.

“Are you filming this?” someone yelled in the background.

The video footage ended.

The video continued playing with Cassie and Hamal seated inside the airplane.

Cassie was wearing a hooded sweatshirt over her ensemble. She had undone the zipper.

“This is an outrage,” began Cassie. She spoke under her breath to avoid being overheard by the other passengers.

“I’m here aboard the plane. I’m in first class, of course. We’re cruising at an altitude of 36,000 feet.”

“I have been seriously disrespected by this airline. So I’m about to hit them with a twerk attack.”

“No, not the twerk attack,” said Hamal.

“Yes. Yes, I’m going to do it,” whispered Cassie.

She unbuckled her seatbelt and stood up as though making her way to the lavatory.

“Twerk attack!” she yelled without warning, startling all the passengers in first class.

She began twerking at a man in his 70’s across the way from her seat.

“What are you doing? Stop that!” yelled the flight attendant rushing toward them.

Cassie continued moving her rear end suggestively in the man’s personal space.

“I’ll have to ask you to stop!” repeated the flight attendant.

“Ma’am, it’s a felony to sexually assault someone on a flight!” the frustrated flight attendant spoke again.

“If you won’t stop, I’ll have to call security,” she urged her.

The footage ended and transitioned to Cassie sitting in confessional.

“After that I was arrested by the airplane cop. But luckily the other passenger didn’t press any charges. So they had to let me go!” she exclaimed.

The police did confiscate our phones. But they did not count on one thing, the Cloud!” she laughed.
“The Cloud!” Hamal repeated in the background.

“Also multiple people who were there caught the encounter on their camera phones. And they posted the videos online too!” Cassie laughed.

#

“Self-proclaimed ‘goddess’ Cassie Underwall was caught on video outside an Orange County nightclub last night,” said the television announcer.

“The social media model appeared to be drunk and disoriented,” she continued.

The frame switched to a paparazzi video of Cassie stumbling down the street in a cocktail dress and heels. Her makeup was smudged.

“I am the goddess of gods!” she proclaimed.

“Cassie, are you okay?” a cameraman asked, snapping a photograph.

“I don’t fuck with you!” she tripped over her own shoes but regained her balance.

“Can we get a statement, Cassie?” said someone else.

“Buy my clothes!” she slurred her words.

“Like me! Follow me! Adore me! Obsess over me! Worship me!” she continued.

One of her companions attempted to direct her away from the photographers.

“I am Cassie, the Goddess of Gods!” she shouted as Hamal pulled her into a waiting car.

#

They were back at the condo for the after party.

“Shots!” Hamal yelled disappearing in the back with their friends.

“Is there anymore coke?” Cassie asked.

“Never mind. Here it is. I found it.”

She dumped the powdered substance on the mirrored coffee table in the living room. Arranging the drug into rows she bent over and snorted a line.

“I’m so hot!” she said enamored by her own reflection.

“I’m the most beautiful person in the world!”

“I’m a goddess!”

She laughed and rubbed her face back and forth in the mirror sweeping aside the remaining cocaine with her hair.

There was a sensation of dizziness, as though she were falling a long way.

Drunk, she blacked out.

#

When Cassie woke up later that day she found that she was not in bed. Confused she drew herself up and rubbed her eyes.

She was in a strange forest. It was neither light nor dark but a perpetual state of twilight. Floating lights glimmered in the air. Mushrooms glowed from the fallen trunks of trees. The air was thick with the smell of flowers. As far as she could see there was endless trees, mossy banks and ferns.

“Where am I?” she said out loud.

Her voice echoed as a response.

The sound of a creek flowing over rocks nearby drew her attention.

Standing up she walked towards the sound of water.

She saw the shape of a man hunched over a stream. She approached him.

“Hello? Do you know where we are?” she asked him.

He made no motion to indicate he had heard her.

“Hello? Can you hear me?” she asked placing her hand on his shoulder.

He took a while to notice as though mired in deep thought.

“Oh! Another person!” he said, turning to face her.

He had perfect bone structure and a sculpted physique that was naturally muscular.

“I apologize. It has been so long since I’ve seen another face.”

“Who are you? What is this?” Cassie demanded. “Did you kidnap me?” she asked.

“No! This is… It’s sort of an in between place where the rules of space and time don’t apply,” he tried to explain.

“My name is Narcissus,” he introduced himself.

“I’m Cassie,” she said.

“How did I get here?” she asked him.

“I don’t know,” he answered.

“The last thing I remember, I was hunting when I came across a beautiful pool of water in the forest.”

“It was such a lovely place to sit. I stopped to look at my reflection.”

“I must have passed out and fallen in the pool.”

“When I woke up I was here.”

“That was eons ago,” he reflected.

“Why don’t you leave?” she asked him.

“You can’t leave,” he told her.

“I don’t understand,” said Cassie.

“It was the will of the gods as punishment,” he explained.

“You must have really pissed them off. Because I haven’t seen anyone else here for ages.”

“Something about your personality must be so annoying that they had no other choice but to interfere,” he said.

“Are you serious?” said Cassie.

“You’re like really hot,” she told him.

“Thank you for saying that. I’m flattered.”

“But you see, I’m asexual. And I’m not interested in that type of relationship with you.”

“No one could ever be as perfect as me,” he explained.

“You sound a lot like my last boyfriend,” Cassie remarked.

“So I’m stuck here forever, and we can’t hook up?” she asked him.

“Yes, exactly,” he said.

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