by Elisabeth
I watched him until he finished. Then, without turning around, he asked, “You wanna play?”
“How’d you know I was here?” I asked.
“You showed up on my game as an extra player. Let’s play.” He set it up for the next song as I removed my heels and took my blazer off.
The song Ice, Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice blasted through the speakers. I knew Paris changed it to the ‘Hard’ level. What he didn’t know was I was competitive, and I loved that song. It was one my mom would always play over and over like a broken record.
“You’re going down!” I yelled with glee as the dance moves appeared on the screen, and we began to play.
I felt so carefree as we continued to dance, laugh, and I didn’t miss not one move. I don’t know where I got the energy to do the dance moves and rap along with Vanilla Ice, but I did.
The song finally ended, and I won. I screamed with glee and did my own victory dance, which consisted of me doing the running man. I heard Alexander laughing in the background.
I turned around to face him.
“When’d you get here?” I asked him as I caught my breath.
“I was cooking,” he said. I noticed he had an apron on that said kiss the chef below pointing to below his pants.
I shook my head. “Nice apron.” I smiled.
“Thanks. Paris got it for me.”
“And, he liked it.” Paris chuckled, walking over to me. He pulled me in for a hug. “Thank you for making this old man laugh. It means a lot to me.”
When he pulled away from me, tears were ready to fall out of my eyes.
“Thank you for approving of me.” I smiled back as Alexander leaned in and kissed my forehead.
“He liked you even before I liked you, so there’s that,” Alexander said.
“Does this mean I get like extra credit or something?” Paris asked with a sly grin on his face as he began to tidy up, looking away.
“Boy,” Alexander said.
He laughed, looking up at me. “I’m just kidding, but I would like a little sister.” My eyes grew as big as saucers when he said that.
Alexander threw his head back and howled. “You’re an idiot, kid. Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
“I do,” he said as he shut the TV off. “As you know, I have another play coming up. This time, I play Achilles. There’s this adorable little boy named Brodie who gets to play the young Achilles since we have the same kind of eyes.”
“Same kind of eyes?” Alexander asked.
“Yeah. Right eye sea-green and left eye gray.”
“That’s weird. That’s just like yours. What about his mom’s eyes?” Alexander asked, still curious.
Paris’ shrugged. “I don’t know. Never met her, but he said she has it kind of like yours. Reverse from ours. Freaked me out a little at first. It was like looking in the mirror, but anyways I gotta go. Save me some food, Father, will you?”
Alexander groaned. “I hate when you call me, ‘Father.’”
“I know that’s why I love it so much. Okay, see you later. I’ll go get changed and tell Banner I’m ready to go.”
“You’re annoying,” Alexander called after him while I laughed. I loved their relationship. It was so cute, and I was so envious of it.
Alexander
When the door-bell rang, McKenna ran to the door as if she was getting a package from Amazon. I only learned about online shopping from her recently. She does most of her shopping online. She calls it ‘saving’ time and money. I completely disagree, but I didn’t have the heart to hurt her feelings with that. I heard squeals as I removed my apron and made sure I looked somewhat decent, before making my way toward the foyer.
When I got to the foyer, I saw a female who looked so familiar to me, but I couldn’t place where I’d seen her before.
“Hello. I’m—” Before I could finish, her eyes widened, and she gasped.
“Oh my God! Paris? Prince Paris of Troy?” She took a step back, while I stood there frozen in place.
I know that face but from where? When was the last time someone called me Paris?
I opened my mouth to speak, but then a voice I will never forget stole my attention.
“Babe, I’m all parked.” As he came up and into view, my eyes traveled from his wide strides all the way to his face.
I gasped, taking a step back, not because I was scared, but because it was impossible. That’s when I remembered who she was.
“Alana…” I whispered. She was Achilles’ most precious jewel, the slave he loved that he died for and his one weakness.
Who was playing tricks on me?
The moment her name slipped past my lips, I shifted my eyes back to Achilles, and he recognized me. His eyes went wide, and determination crossed over his face. He had the look of a killer as he walked faster. All I had time for was to shove McKenna near the other end of the foyer, which probably hurt her, but that was the only way to protect her. As soon as I did that, Achilles fist connected to my face in a power punch that could’ve hurt much more had I not anticipated it. My head swung to the right, and I growled as I tasted blood on my tongue. I turned to face him again.
“This is what you want to do?” I asked him.
He tried to swing again. That time, I dodged it as I swung aiming for his ribs. He grunted.
“Stop! Oh my God, Alex! What are you doing?” McKenna yelled, but I was concentrated on trying to stop Achilles from killing me. I could see the look in his eyes.
Then, Alana, or rather Elani as they called her, yelled out at Achilles.
“Ales stop! You guys are going to kill each other. Baby, please!” She was trying to get through to him, but nothing but anger and revenge was in his eyes.
I don’t know how long we were fighting, but one voice stopped us cold.
“Dad, please stop hitting him!” I heard Paris call out to me. The whole time I thought he was gone, but he was still in the house.
It was a fair fight. As many blows as I had in, so did Achilles, otherwise known as Ales. I grunted and stopped, causing Ales to uppercut me. My head snapped back, and I was out of it for a moment. Ales stopped fighting too as he turned his head to see what had happened.
Elani and McKenna had moved farther down the foyer away from us. I turned to look at them as they were behind me. Everything in our path was broken. Paris was the first one to brave it as he got closer to me, knowing the look in my eyes. He snapped his fingers once, twice, and then it was like every fighting part of me disappeared. I taught him this trick for whenever I would get lost in myself.
“Get me the First Aid kit, kid.”
“You took a good punch, old man.”
“Paris Troy.” I never called out his full name, so he knew that wasn’t the time. He nodded and walked off in the direction of the First Aid kit.
I wasn’t sure who was pissed off more, Elani as she threw daggers at Ales with her eyes or McKenna as she had her hand on her hip. I’d never really seen her mad, but she was already turning me on as she fumed.
“What the hell is wrong with the both of you?” Elani shrieked. “Do you know how long ago that was?” She looked at Ales like he had lost his mind. “You are holding a grudge about something that was inevitable! It was a war, Achilles! A war and men die at war!” She yelled the last part so loud that I took a step back for fear she’d damage my hearing.
I looked over at Ales, and he cringed as if the fighting we just had wasn’t as dangerous as the woman who was yelling.
I tried to hide my laugh.
“Now, what the hell are you haha’n about?” My humor fell as McKenna scolded me like I was her child. “You didn’t even try to stop, and you pushed me like I was blocking your path! I should kill you right now! What the hell is the problem between the two of you anyway? Why did you call him Achilles, and Ales, why did you call Alex Paris?”
“The problem is, he killed me, and he deserves more than this for it,” Ales answered, shrugging. Then, he looked at me as we bot
h acknowledged we were even.
“She doesn’t know,” I said to him.
“You mean to tell me that you didn’t tell her you were Paris this whole time?” Ales turned to face me. “Who the hell does she think you are?”
Before I could answer, McKenna chimed in.
“Paris who? The only Paris I know is his son. Will someone explain it to me? It seems as though you all know, but I don’t.”
I watched as Elani turned to her friend with a sad look on her face.
“I am Alana, but you won’t read about me anywhere. This is Achilles, my husband. I fell in love with him back before the Trojan War. You know the other Paris of Troy.” Then she turned to look at me. “I forgive you for what happened with Achilles. It would’ve happened eventually. Without you ending his life, we wouldn’t have had another chance at being together free and happy.”
“I don’t understand,” McKenna questioned, looking over at Achilles and me.
I bent over and reached for my ankle, removing a knife from it. Ales eyed me. I faced McKenna not moving for fear she would run.
“Baby, I’m going to show you something, but I don’t want to scare you, okay? You trust me, right?”
“Alex…”
I shook my head. “Baby, please,” I begged her. It was important and crucial that she saw I wasn’t lying.
She didn’t say anything, letting me know I had a small window to fix this before she left. I flipped the original Aphrodite knife open. I never left without it. Before anyone could stop me, I slit the palm of my hand. McKenna gasped as she took a step toward me, but I shook my head. I squeezed my hand tight into a fist as the blood dripped near my shoes. All it took was three drops. One drop hit the floor hard, the second drop even harder, and then when the third drop hit the floor. The room shook as a light manifested from within me. I pulled the knife near my mouth whispering, “Please show her who I am. Who I really am.”
When the words were spoken, I knew I couldn’t take them back as McKenna’s eyes went glassy first, then I was pulled into memories. It was like we were all standing in front of a big screen as every scene unfolded from my original birth where the prophecy was given that I was evil for my family and then I was exiled, raised by another. I could still hear McKenna as she gasped at the scenes. Then, it flashed forward to when I returned to the palace, how I was welcomed in, but then I met Helen and from then on everything zipped through. It highlighted important moments in my life, how I mourned when Hector died and how I killed Achilles. It pained me to see it because the cause of all of this was my lust for the most beautiful woman on earth.
Did I even ever love her? All of those lives were lost because of my lust for a woman. Now that I had found the one I loved, what more would I do for her? War seemed like a simple thing at best. Then, it showed my death after it showed all my lives, me being a baby, but never truly born from anyone. Then each life one worse than the next. Each death much more painful than the last. Then, it came to this life as my adoptive father, Menelaus or as he called himself on earth, James, beat me within an inch of my life each time. The first time he took me and raped me, and then he brought other sick men and women to rape me while he drugged me each time, so I couldn’t have the chance to fight back. Things I didn’t want to remember or resurface, but they had in this instance. I felt the room change with this life, and then the happiness I had when first saw Paris at my doorstep. The way my love grew for him, and how I killed my father because I didn’t want him around Paris. The tears I had shed for that bastard when I used this same knife to get rid of him forever.
A sob I recognized as my son’s caused everything to stop. I refocused on the scenery of the foyer as I had never done this before, but I knew it was possible if I simply shed blood and whispered to the knife my deepest wish. I turned to look at my son who had dropped the First Aid kit as he was on his knees sobbing. I knew why he was crying because I never told him about my past, and I knew how protective he was of me. Sometimes, he thought he was my dad instead of vice versa. I wiped away tears that threatened to escape.
“Paris…” I called his name gently as I walked over to him and kneeled down to his level. “I’m sorry you had to see that, Son. I never wanted you to see that.”
He looked up at me with such sorrow in his eyes. He jumped up as he wrapped his arms around my neck like he used to do when he was a kid.
“Daddy, I’m so sorry. I really am.”
I rubbed his back as tears escaped my eyes, not for me but for my kid who felt like he failed me when he never could. I turned my head to McKenna as she was staring at me.
“I’m so sorry, baby. I should’ve been much clearer with who I was and showed you.”
She wiped her tears from her eyes as she shook her head. She came closer to me reaching out and cupping my cheek.
“No, Alex. It’s okay. I’m so sorry about what you endured.” She tried not to cry, but more tears escaped her eyes.
Then, Ales cleared his throat. “We’ll help clean up.”
“Thank you,” I answered as this was no longer about him and me but my son who meant the world to me. I would never change him for the world.
McKenna eyed me. “I love you,” she said to me and my heart, which beat so hard for her, beat even harder. She leaned down and kissed me. “I love you Alexander of Troy. I know that now, and I saw it,” she said.
I was perplexed as to what was she referring to.
“What did you see?” I asked as Paris quieted down now but wouldn’t let me go.
“I saw why you fell for me at first glance. I was made for you, and you for me, but really? You started a war because of a woman?” She grinned, and I heard Elani and Ales laughing in the background.
“Is that a rhetorical question?” I asked her.
She gave me a quick peck and walked away to help clean. I looked down at Paris.
“Kid?”
“Yes, Daddy?”
“You okay?” I remembered one time at a low point this was the simple conversation we had.
“I am now.”
I laid the side of my head on top of his. “Love you, Paris,” I said to him.
“I love you too.”
“Promise?” I asked him as he had asked me.
“Always,” he answered, the same way I answered him.
“Forever kid?”
“I’ll love you forever, old man. I promise you that much.” I lightly chuckled at the same words I said to him. I don’t even know how he remembered that.
Chapter VI.
McKenna
I can’t say I didn’t want to freak out about finding out who Alexander was or rather, is. Of course, I wanted to scream my head off, but I couldn’t deny it even if I wanted to. He showed me proof of who he was and then some. After cleaning up the foyer, and Alexander convincing Paris he was okay, he could go out with his friends. We all sat at the table eating the big feast Alexander prepared. He was able to warm everything up as if he just made it, and I never knew what it felt like to have a home cooked meal with people you loved that loved you right back. I smiled as I watched both Ales and Alexander wolf their food down. I looked at Elani who watched Alexander in amazement. After she told me her bits with Ales, I couldn’t believe I was face to face with the Achilles.
Though I wasn’t greatly obsessed with Greek myth, my mom was. She made sure I knew about it whether I blocked her out or not. I smiled at the fond memory of my mom. Lately, I was thinking of her much more, and it warmed my heart that it didn’t pain me as much as it used to.
“What are you smiling about, beautiful?” Alexander asked me.
I didn’t even realize he was looking at me as much as he was eating. I smiled even wider. “Just thinking about having dinner with you guys. I like this.”
“Me too,” Elani said as she smiled at me.
Ales grunted like an animal, and after he finished his mouthful, he spoke, “Did I hear Paris mention that you have a boxing ring?” He posed the question to Ale
xander.
Alexander looked from me to Ales. “It will be settled,” he answered as if what Ales said made sense.
Then, Ales looked at me and smiled. “If he makes you happy, then I will gladly get in the ring with what they call ‘the mad boss of Nevada,’ once and for all. You’re important to my love, so that means you’re important to me.”
I smiled at his sweet words. “I thought you’d never bring that up,” Alexander said to Ales, and I shook my head at how proud he looked at that name.
“Well, I do hear things, but I just never bothered to look around since it isn’t my job.”
“I hope you heard good things.”
“What I heard is that Carlos’ crew is trying to challenge you for your territory.”
“Who’s Carlos?” I looked over at Alexander.
He looked at me for a moment, his expression saying, ‘do you want to know?’ I nodded my head. I was ready to be entirely in his world. He would do what he had to do, and I was oddly okay with it. I was a teacher, not a saint, plus Alexander was so honest with me, he deserved my honesty and loyalty.
“Carlos is part of the small Mexican crew that’s been trying to take over some of my territory. He’s been punking everyone else down, and he thinks he can take over. I know someone made him think I was touchable,” Alexander said as he finished eating and pushed his plate away from him.
I watched Alexander as he stood up and began clearing the table since everyone was done eating. I looked at Elani as she smiled back at me winking, indicating I follow Alexander to the kitchen.
“We’ll clean up. Go talk to your man, boo.”
I smiled shaking my head at her. I followed Alexander. He stood at the sink facing the window. He looked out at the night sky as if he were deep in thought. I walked up to him, wrapping my arms around his waist and laying my head on his back.