by Dee King
Chapter Nineteen
Where there is a will, there is a way.
Sebastian is screaming for me as I begin to scream for him. This place had trapped me, or I had somehow trapped myself in this beautiful damn prison. There were glass windows, but too tall for me to reach. Possibly finding something that could break the window would be useful? Searching around me, trying to find anything that could break the glass in these windows wouldn’t be difficult. There were gold vases lying around everywhere. I grab one, stepping a little farther back from the window so that I can see where to aim. Throwing it with all my force, the glass shatters. YES! Finally! With the window broken, I should be able to get a way to climb out of this place. Yelling at Sebastian to hang on I had an idea, but he couldn’t hear me. Hurrying, I gather all the blankets, tying them together to make a rope of some sort, when I watch the glass begin to come back together. Piece by piece is was trying to climb back into the window sill. What in the worlds? I throw the rope into the window before it can repair itself, but as it continues it cuts the blankets in half. The blanket of rope falls to the ground. This wasn’t happening was it? How do I get out of here and why was this happening? Staring in disbelief, the window is back to exactly the way it was. It was like magic, and if I wasn’t totally freaking out, this could have been cool. Nevertheless, there had to be a way out of this god forsaken place. If I was a goddess how could I not figure out something so simple? Why was the house against me? Sitting down on the oversized white couch, I gather my thoughts. Alex. Maybe Alex is the key for me to get out of here. The only thing I can think is that this was a safe guard put in place by Zeus if he were to die today. But why trap someone in? Wouldn’t you want to keep them out instead?
Nothing was making sense to me, but I had to try Alex.
Alex. I need you.
Selene?
Yes. Please come help Sebastian. I’m trapped.
Where? Where could the goddess of the worlds possibly be trapped, and why would you need me?
Look, I don’t know how, but I’m trapped inside your father’s house.
Oh. You went in?
Yes. Now come get me out of here.
I can try, but it won’t be easy. The house was made to be able to fight the forces against my father. I’m kind of in the same spot you are.
You going to come or not?
Yea.
Breaking the tie between us, I wait… Impatiently, starting to try to search through the mansion, maybe looking for an answer of some sort of how this could even happen. Running up the stairs, making my way to the second floor, I chose to go to the left wing. Every door is shut, but slowly I open the first one I come to. It’s a bedroom, but not just for anybody, I would assume this was Hera’s bedroom here. It looks like she hasn’t been here recently, all the walls are lined in some weird gold wallpaper with diamonds hanging down from the high ceilings making it look like sunlight was streaming through the room. It was kind of weird, yet elegant. This was a room for someone who was a little full of themselves. It must be her room; I snicker to myself. Walking in slowly, looking for something to hold the door open, I find a small chair sitting in front of a huge vanity mirror. I run for the chair, hurrying to put it in the door way. Now, one step down. I begin to search through the room, tossing clothes, bed linens over, searching for anything that would give me an answer to what was happening, when I stumbled upon something. Tripping over it, I look behind me. It was a leather-bound book the same as mine. Taking it in my hands, flipping through pages, when I see my name. Stopping at that page, I begin to read.
I found her today. Selene. Poseidon hid her well on Earth. If I hadn’t been to see Alex off for his Earth-bound trip, I wouldn’t have seen her. I would know my child anywhere. She looks like her father, but she has my eyes. She’s beautiful just as I had always pictured her to be… Alex will abide by his father’s rules trying to seek the hidden Migades child. She isn’t a Migades though, and one day the rewards will be high from all of this. Alex will never know that she will never be his true love. It’s sad in a way, I would like to see my own child with the child I raised, but Hades made it clear that it will be his son. This is all for the best. My daughter will one-day rule these worlds and there will be no one to stop her. Possibly not even me…But I must try in every way possible. Alexander will be heart broken, but he will not stand in my way. For I’m the only mother he has ever known- and she will be the only one to be able to try to take the throne from me. May the gods help us all when that day comes.
Dropping to the floor in the bedroom, reading her words, was harder than I thought it would be. She had seen me? She knew who I was, and never once said a word? She held this secret for so long. Hera must have hated Zeus something fierce to hide a child, raise a child who wasn’t even hers, just to see if the future would turn out like they had planned. Was anything ever real in my life? How did they keep this charade up for so long? And how did Zeus never find out? Sitting on the floor, holding this book, it started to become clear. All this had started over love, one loved another, so another found love somewhere else, and so forth. Persephone must have been devastated to know that her husband kept her a prisoner as he had kept his lover a prisoner. Medusa had given birth to another son, and Hera had taken him for her to raise to keep up the rouse. This was a nightmare. They had all hurt each other so much with all their hidden secrets that they in turn put all this on us to do their dirty work. Nothing was ever going to be real with them… My heart began to hurt… No one truly loved anyone in this game they had played, it was all for revenge towards one another. All for the throne that I never wanted. I didn’t think I could take any more from this world. Throwing the book across the room, it hits a window, shattering it into pieces. Standing slowly, to see if the pieces would close back together, but they didn’t. The warm wind began blowing into the room. Step by step, I walk to the window. Glass broken all over the floor, carefully, looking out the window, Alex was standing underneath the window. I think he knew exactly why I was trapped in this house and now I knew why, too. He had found out the same truth before I had ever known, and his heart was broken, the same as mine…
Chapter Twenty
When you think you knew, but you had no idea…
Standing atop the ledge of the window sill, peering out in the land in front of me, it struck me that Sebastian and I had done the job they had wanted done. They just didn’t know how or have the courage as we had. We took a life today of another god. So many lives had been lost to all of this. People fighting for what they had believed was right or wrong. It was true that Zeus was a tyrant, but it didn’t help the situation that I had held in so much anger that I had made others begin to feel the hate I had growing. Alex had known this whole time that Hera wasn’t his mother. He knew that pain I carried all too well. He led me to believe that the day I found out that my mother, Elizabeth wasn’t my mother that he and I were now siblings. But that was just another lie, a lie to get me to do his bidding for him. Unsure of why he would risk his life for mine today, I looked down at him. Sebastian and he are now standing there, Sebastian yelling for me to jump, that he would catch me. But I didn’t know if I wanted to be caught anymore. I stood there, ignoring them, staring out into the great unknown, questioning everything. How would I raise my children to understand any of this world? A world I didn’t understand. A world I didn’t even know if I wanted to be a part of. Placing a hand on my growing belly, I smile. Somehow, someway I was going to make all the worlds a place for them to know love, not the way I had. With that thought, I jump off the ledge, soaring down to the ground. Landing on my feet, in a summersault form, with my arms stretched out, this was going to be the first of many ways that I would be who I was. Just me, not the goddess that everyone was searching for, but me. Just Selene.
“Alex.”
“Selene.”
“How did…. What happened?” Sebastian questions how I just jumped out the way I did.
“Well, I figured out why I
was lead here, or should I say why I was there.” Pointing up to the window I had just jumped out of.
“And?” Sebastian questions me.
“Alex. You tell him.”
Alex stares at me, afraid of Sebastian’s reaction.
“You’re a coward. This was always a damn game to you people, till we did the dirty work for you.” I tell Alex moving closer to him.
“No, it’s not what you think...”
“It’s exactly what I think.” Rolling my eyes at him, crossing arms over my body.
“I… I didn’t actually think you guys would risk your lives or my father would die.”
“Are you stupid? You knew we were going to. You know that this had to end.”
“Alex, you better fill me in really quick, because I know where Selene’s loyalties lie.”
Alex’s body tenses up; he knew he was going to have to tell the truth. There wasn’t a way out.
“I just think maybe your fathers could explain all this better.” Alex rubs his hand through his hair, while looking down at his feet.
“Alex, I’m warning you…” Sebastian moves away from me, nearing closer to Alex.
“I… I knew.”
“You knew what?”
“I knew that Selene was Hera’s daughter, and I wasn’t her son. I also knew that they had been plotting against my father long before we knew.”
“You what? You knew? Are you kidding me?” Sebastian now stands directly in front of Alex.
“I found out about this when I left after Ian died on Earth.”
“He’s joking, right? Because I’m going to kill him!” He asks me, shaking his head back and forth.
Shaking my head, no, I was as mad as Sebastian was, but there was nothing we could do about it now. Sebastian lunges for Alex’s throat, taking both hands around him, closing in tight.
“STOP! STOP this!” I yell at Sebastian, pulling his hands away from Alex.
“Why? One good reason why? I told you, I told you time and time again that he was not to be trusted.” He drops his hands from Alex’s neck, searching my face for answers to this madness.
“Because too many have already died for them… Alex may have known, but he was just as hurt and angry as we were. What’s done is done.” I say calmly laying my hand on top of his shoulder.
“You… You get the hell away from me or so help me…” He points at Alex.
My words were true. What was done was already done, and we had fallen right into their game, playing the roles they had wanted. Alex wasn’t at fault; he was just too blind to see that he was used his whole life too. Alex leaves quickly before anything else could be said.
“What do we do now?” His face askew from thoughts of our future.
“For the first time, I don’t know. I really don’t.” Grabbing his hand, walking away from this house that was never a home; it was just a pretty prison.
Chapter TWENTY-ONE
There’s no place to call home…
Neither of us spoke as we walked around the Mount. Many people bowing at us, trying to give us gifts, each one kinder than the last. It was nice to be adored by many, but mind boggling to me. Sebastian had years of experience on this, and I had none. Unsure of what to say or even what to do, I would smile, but my heart was being pulled in different directions. It felt like this part wasn’t or shouldn’t be awarded. It should be that we defended ourselves, but that’s not how this will ever be portrayed. We were the rulers of all. We were their queen and king so to speak. My fears that they would see us as they saw Zeus, made me sick to my stomach. Parties were beginning to pop up all over the place. It was like they had been living in prison and the gates had been open for all to be free. There was no sign of our parents anywhere, which didn’t make me feel any less queasy. Since we had done what they couldn’t, were they now plotting against us? Rubbing my stomach, I felt movement. Stopping Sebastian where we stood, placing his hand on my stomach, it was becoming more real. We both smiled at one another, knowing that something so beautiful was going to come from something so awful. As we stood there, hands on top of hands, touching my stomach, a sharp pain took me down to my knees. Sebastian kneeling as fast as I did.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Sebastian still trying to help me.
“I don’t know, but…” I scream out in pain, as another stabbing feeling rips through my stomach.
“Can you stand?” He offers his hands to help me up.
“I… I don’t think so.” I try, but I’m back down on my knees in seconds.
Sebastian picks me up in his arms, carrying me as the pain grows stronger. My eyes begin to fill with tears. It was too early for them to be here, and I wasn’t ready. He carries me down to my father’s house, as people were scurrying by us, offering their help. I tried to look brave, but I couldn’t hide all my pain and fears. As we approach my father’s home, Colin sees us, running towards us.
“What’s wrong with her?” Colin asks, trying to take me from Sebastian’s arms.
“Find Aphrodite! Find Apollo!” He tells Colin, still carrying me into the house.
“Hold on… Just hold on.” Colin says running into the house, yelling for our father.
We made it into the house just in time as another pain strikes me again, making me cry out in pain. The pain was growing stronger by every step he took. Sebastian’s eyes are staring down at me, and his lips pursed. He didn’t know what was happening, but we both knew something was wrong.
“What happened?” My father rushing to my side along with Colin and Cato.
“Pain… babies…” Is the only two words I could get out as my body tried to give way.
“Babies?” I hear all of them say at one time, before I went out of consciousness.
Somehow, I could hear them, but I couldn’t answer them. My mind and mouth wouldn’t work together. My eyes stayed closed, drifting further away from reality. My body was being lifted again, and yet, I was unable to open my eyes. They were panicking, and I just wanted to tell them I was okay, but there were no words being spoke aloud. Beginning to drift further away from reality, my dreams now becoming my reality. There they were… Running in the snow, Sebastian following behind them, tackling them down, while their laughs filled the mountain air. Running to catch up with them, I fall beside them, making snow angels all the while they were laughing and giggling. Trying to keep myself buried in this dream of my future, the pain seared through me again, waking me, my voice screaming out for Sebastian. Then back down again I went into my dream world. They were older now, talking to Sebastian about something, whispering, hiding something behind their backs, walking towards the three of them, all at once, each pulls a bouquet of fire and ice roses behind them. Tears stream down my face, thanking them for their thoughtfulness as they all three hugged me. Whatever dream world this was, I never wanted to wake from.
“Selene, Selene, are you awake?” Hearing a familiar voice, opening my eyes slowly from my dream.
“Yes…” My words barely above a whisper.
“I need you to wake up. I need you to be aware of what’s happening around you.” The voice still very familiar.
Trying to open my eyes, keeping them open, searching for the voice that was hovering over my head. Pushing myself up from the bed I now lay in, seeing so many people I love around the bed, was overwhelming. Almost falling back down onto the bed, Sebastian, grabs my head before it can hit the pillow, helping me to sit up.
“Selene.” Apollo’s voice very clear now as I turn my head towards him.
“You can’t hide this anymore. They are growing stronger; their powers are growing stronger than anything I could have imagined. As they grow, you are going to have to make a choice.”
“Huh?” It was like this may still be a part of the dream world I had been in.
“Okay, everyone, step back.” Another voice speaks up.
“Bring me everything. Now!” The voice says clearly upset.
My eyes gaze down at my stomach and it was
n’t what I thought I would see. Shouting out loud as I stare down at myself. My stomach had grown at least three sizes bigger from when the pain first started. Grabbing my stomach trying to protect myself and my unborn children, I try to find the woman’s voice I had heard. There stood Iris’s mother, Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty raising her hands over my stomach. Iris running to her mother’s side, as everyone steps back, except Sebastian. She begins to pour liquid over my belly, cold liquid, making my entire dress that I now wore, soaked with it. The smell was intoxicating as it filled the room I lay in. Roses, sweet, sweet roses, filled the air, as gold dust from the liquid began to make figures on my stomach. Trying to sit up to see what she was doing, I saw it. Everyone could now see it too. The gold specks of dust formed two little bodies in my stomach. There they were for all to see.
“The choice you made for carrying twins has now changed the fates of yours... They now will hold your fate whether you live or die, they will someday rule these worlds...” Apollo’s voice is loud but clear.