by Dee King
“I don’t know, but it doesn’t look good. That’s why I asked you. You and Sebastian are supposed to be running the worlds. So, you have to do something.”
“Like what?” I ask, my voice shaking.
“You have to stop it. Stop them now before they do any more harm.”
“Them?” Puzzled I ask.
“Our… your… Parents!”
“What?!” I blurt out, turning back around to the glass, seeing if I could see the image any closer.
“Where’s Sebastian?” I ask him.
“I don’t know. That’s why I got you, but we need to do something quickly.”
“Why would they do this?” Shaking my head back and forth, staring back down at Earth through the glass.
“Because this is who they are. Damn! Don’t you ever learn?” He’s becoming angry as we stand here.
“Calm down. We will handle this.”
“How?”
“I guess it’s road trip time?”
“You can’t be serious?” He asks me as if I just grew three heads.
“Why can’t I?” Placing my hands on my hips.
“You need to find Sebastian.” He tells me, leading us out of the room.
“No. Why can’t I do this by myself?”
“Just find Sebastian. Like NOW!” He screams in my face, then runs towards Ian’s home.
The first part that was making me nervous was why couldn’t I go and stop them by myself? Two, what were our parents doing on Earth, and three where was Sebastian? Running back towards my home, thoughts raced through my mind. This was a test. It had to be. Could we truly run the worlds, raise our children, and not have any chaos in all the worlds? This was just a test. Another stupid test. There was no way we were going to fail. We were the god and goddess of the worlds, we couldn’t fail, could we?
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Who says you can’t find beauty in the chaos?
Finding Sebastian became quite the task. From the babies and all that was going on around me, I didn’t see him as often as I thought I had. We searched for a while, until it came to me. He was hiding. Not hiding from me but hiding from our lives in a form. He had taken on everything like a true god and it must have been weighing on him. Telling everyone that I knew where he was, and we would be back, their faces confused. I knew him better than any of them. Walking down to the river that flowed behind our homes, I see the little boat he had docked. He was hiding in his cave he had made as a child. Stepping into the water, it turns to glass below my feet, I walk fast to find him hidden in the room. His head buried in his hands, I touch his shoulder announcing I was here. He turns so sharply the chair he sits in falls backwards.
“It’s okay, it’s just me.” Consoling him.
“Thank the gods.” He hugs me tightly, like he hadn’t seen me in days.
“What are you doing in here? Hiding huh?” I smile while looking up at him, stepping back from our embrace.
“Yes.” He begins to laugh at the fact I caught him.
“I know how you feel. Sometimes this is just too much.” Shaking my head in understanding what he felt.
“I should have told you, but I knew eventually you would find me.” He smiles that smile that could light up any room.
“No, it’s fine, really. We need a break. Everything has happened so fast, we just need to catch our breaths, so to speak.”
“That look on your face though says that there’s no time for catching breaths.”
“No, there isn’t. You need to see something.” I lower my head, hating that this was one more task we had to deal with.
“Alright, but first…”
Sebastian bends down, taking my face in his hands, kissing my lips like he hasn’t in a long time. Embracing one another, getting lost in the moment, things escalated quickly. Stopping before we both lost complete control, we step back, smiling at one another as I take his hand onto the water. This time there is no glass shield and the river flows around our ankles.
“Guess it doesn’t work all the time, huh?” He laughs at me.
“I think you’re too hot and you break the ice shield.” Laughing at myself for truly believing that, then watching him blush; it was worth that comment.
Walking hand in hand along the river bank he questions what has happened now, and where were we going. Trying to tell him the whole story, I sounded like a rambling idiot. Nothing I was saying made sense to Sebastian, and he was just going to have to see for himself, but the words, ‘What did they do now?’ was never too far from his thoughts. As we arrive to the back of our home, walking up to the oversized yard, Ian and Zack are standing at attention.
“You are needed now, your majesties!” They both say loudly, catching me off guard.
We follow them, at first just walking, until Zack came to my side and whispered in my ear. That’s when I began to sprint. My hair flowing all around me hitting Sebastian’s body as he kept up with every stride I took. I could hear his thoughts of how beautiful he thought I was as we ran, but his other thoughts worried me. He was wondering what Zack had told me to cause me to sprint, but what he had told me made me more nervous than anything. We run harder as we get closer to the ‘seeing’ room. Alex scurries to open the door for us, finding Cato, Colin, Iris, and Cali, leaning into the glass shield that surrounded Earth. Then we hear the gasps. I push them out of the way to see what was happening. The little speck of dirt was now covering a whole portion of a continent. What was this? A black plague of some sort? Zack had warned me that I wasn’t going to like what I saw. Sebastian stares down, moving his hand over the glass, making it appear larger than I knew to do, and we see it. Chaos was running rampant on Earth. There were storms building all over the place, massive waves crashing against shores, and darkness in many places. Were they trying to kill humans or just testing us to see if we would come to Earth to save them? Searching Sebastian’s face for answers, his eyes meet mine.
“We have only won the battle, we obviously didn’t win the damn war…” His words cut through the air like a razor blade.
No one spoke, we all just kept watching the storms grow stronger, taking out towns one by one. My heart began to race. Why were they doing this? Were we capable of defeating our parents? Just when we thought that our lives were going to become normal, they do this. Again. How were we going to stop all this madness on Earth when we are barely holding it together on the Mount? Sebastian turns sharply on his heels, motions to Zack and Ian, then the three of them walk out of the room. Left standing there, Alex keeps watching the storms grow.
“Is that Hera?” He asks me.
“Where?” I try to see if I can see her.
“No, I mean is she causing the storms? How could she do that? Unless…” His eyes go to mine, then back to the glass.
“Unless??” I move to stand in front of him.
“My father’s lightning bolt… has anyone seen it?”
“I thought it turned to dust with him. No offense. Really.”
“No, I don’t think that happened. I… I know she has it. That’s the only way…” He keeps shaking his head back and forth.
“I thought only your dad, or you could use it?” Fearing the worst, my words barely above a whisper.
“No. She would be able to. She could…and she would know how to control it… She could destroy Earth with your father’s help, hell along with Hades, they could have it destroyed in what would be hours here, but years there.” His hands are beginning to shake.
“WHAT? Destroyed?” My mind racing with the thought of destroying Earth.
“You guys…” Iris says, interrupting us.
We turn around to see what she’s pointing at and I wave my hand this time over the glass making the Earth larger than before, seeing a small figure. Moving in closer, we all take a big step forward, then before I could stop myself, my mouth drops open and I gasp. There was my father standing on a beach, trident in hand, making the waves bigger than I had ever seen before. Almost, almost as
if he was building a tsunami to take over the whole region he was standing in. No. Not my father. He couldn’t do this. He wouldn’t do this to them, he had talked about how he was for love. This wasn’t love, this was hate, a deep hate, this was going to be a massacre of the world. But why? Then the word slipped out of my mouth as they all glanced towards me, Hera. This was his love for her and he was willing to do whatever to please her. She was no different than Zeus. I had been right, she wanted the power, and this was going to be the way she did it. There was no more time to waste, leaving the room with the rest of who was left standing with me, I could feel the change happening again inside of me. My clothes changing quickly right in front of their eyes, different shades of black now covered my body. Turning to them, all their clothes changed too. Black was all you could see among us. They had caused us so much pain, but no more. We weren’t going to take anymore. Whatever it took would now be the answer and the ones who were left standing were going to be the ones who deserved to be. They wanted a war of worlds, a war to see who the weakest among us is, but we already knew… The strongest would be the ones to survive, and I wasn’t counting on it being them.
Chapter Thirty
It’s like a bad sequel to a movie that plays on repeat…
Running towards our new home, Zack steps out of the front door, with arms crossed behind his body, legs spread a part. His true military stance. Telling him to move, he won’t budge. At first, I think he’s just playing a joke on me, but this was no time for jokes.
“Move Zack. Stop messing around.” I try to push him out of the way.
“I promise; this is what’s for the best.” He doesn’t move.
“Zack, I’m not messing around. Move.” I push against him, but his body was like a brick house.
“Selene, please. I’m trying to protect you.”
“From what?” I ask him.
“I’m doing what was asked of me, to help protect you.”
“You better move, Zack, or you won’t like me anymore.” Growing tired of this charade he was playing.
“I will move when I get the all clear.” He nods at me.
“You will move now! You are my protector not anyone else’s!” I scream at him, trying to dash beside him to get into my home.
“Stop. Please. I don’t want to hurt you, I’m trying to protect you.” He blocks my body.
“You listen to me, and listen good, my children are in there, and if you don’t want to find out how protective I can be, I really suggest you stop this.” Stepping back from him, trying to build a fireball in my hand.
“Please stop. I don’t want to hurt you.” He tells me one more time, but his plea falls on deaf ears as I try to get my powers to work.
My fists were clenched beside my body, I could feel heat, but no fire. Something was terribly wrong with my powers. I couldn’t get a fireball to come no matter how hard I concentrated. Staring down at my hands, I open them and I had drawn golden blood from my finger nails digging into my palms.
“What did you do to me?” I yell at him.
“What? Nothing. I’m just guarding you. What’s wrong?”
Opening my hands, he sees the gold blood dripping from my palms. He gasps, trying to take my hands into his to stop the bleeding.
“Selene, I didn’t… I couldn’t have… Oh my gods…” His voice shaking.
“Move Zack! Something is happening to me, if you didn’t do it then something is definitely wrong!” Pulling my hands away from him, using all the energy I could muster, pushing him onto the ground.
Making my way into my home, I see what he was trying to protect me from. My children were being held in the arms of two people I would have never said yes too. Sebastian, turning around quickly, telling them to go now. Before I could stop them, they were gone, with my children. My heart felt like it was just ripped out of my chest. Screaming every profanity I can at Sebastian, I begin beating him in the chest, asking why, as he tries to hold me. Wrapping his giant arms around my body, I keep hitting him, telling him to let me go. Where had he taken our children to, and why with them?
“Listen! Stop! Stop!” He yells at me, as I am now crying.
“Get off me!” I yell at him, pulling away from him, furious.
“They took them to a safe place. It’s for their safety. That’s all.” His voice quiet as the others in the room goes silent.
“What the hell is going on, Sebastian? You let Alex and Colin take our children? Why would you ever, ever think that was going to be okay?” I move closer to him, mad as a hornet.
“Because, they want them. And because they will be safest with the two of them.”
“Who wants them? Safest? Safest? No! The safest place is with me, with us.”
“No, not right now. We are a liability to our children. Our parents want our children. We must now protect them at all costs.”
“Have you lost your damn mind, Sebastian? I mean it. Have you gone mental?” Moving closer to him.
“No, but I promise you; they are safe. They will remain safe. We now have to save the world.”
“Oh hell no. I’m not saving anyone anymore except for my children, and you better tell me where they took them, right now!” My face is in his face.
“Selene, they are safe. But you should know by now that being the goddess you are has responsibilities and one of them is saving others who can’t fight against our parents. I want them with us too, but I promise they will be safe.”
“Sebastian, so help me...” My breath is heavy and I place my hands on his chest, ready to push him.
“What’s wrong with your hands?” He grabs them quicker than I can pull them away, and he sees the blood.
“Nothing. Let go. Sebastian, just stop all this. Tell me where our children are.” Pulling my hands away from him a spark ignites.
My hand lights with a small fire ball but burns out quickly, leaving a little puff of smoke filling the air. The shock of this took me off guard, staring down at Sebastian’s hands, which are now fully engulfed in a fireball. He shakes them, watching the fire dissipate from his fingers.
“Your powers…” He says quietly to me.
“I don’t know what’s going on and I don’t care. Just tell me where our children are, why are you doing this to me?” I no longer could hold back the emotions I felt.
“Selene, your powers are tied to our children, aren’t they?” He asks me, trying to take my hands back in his.
“I don’t know? Stop. Stop this. What’s going on?” Pushing him away from me.
“I knew I was right. Please, get your battle gear ready everyone, it will be time to go soon.” He tells the small audience in our home.
“What? You have lost it. You all have gone mad.” I shout as they all run in different directions.
Sebastian pleads with me to take a seat and he will explain everything. This wasn’t what I wanted or even understood, but I felt I had no other choice if I wanted my children back in my arms. He begins to tell me that my powers are still there, just not as strong as they were as when I was pregnant with our children. They were the ones who held the powers of all the gods just as he had feared. My powers were strong, but still very connected to the water. I was my father’s daughter after all. He proceeds to tell me how he knows, or believes he knows, why they are causing mass chaos on earth and that for our children to be safe they would have to be hidden. None of this was making sense until Cato appeared in the room. His voice deep and sweet, strolling over the side of the couch I had taken a seat on. He tells me how our parents were doing this to distract us from what they really wanted. Our children. Our children were now and would always be the strongest god and goddess to have ever been born, and they wanted them. By distracting us with what was happening on Earth, that would take us away from the children, and in return they would kidnap our children, turn them against us, and we would no longer reign. They would. This was why they hadn’t been there when they were born, this was their plan from the day they found out we w
ere with child. Hera had stolen the bolt while we had watched Zeus die and they had masterminded this whole plan from the beginning. Twins could and would be their only way back to the throne, and having our children with them, would create this for them. Here we were again, the power for the throne was too much for them. They chose the throne over us, once again. If they thought, they were going to ever lay a hand on our children, they would suffer grave consequences. Understanding now, the fury began to grow inside of me. We had to stop all of this, before they could get to them. We had to save our children and we had to save the world. A life for a life. They take the lives of the ones on Earth, knowing we would try and stop them, all the while trying to get to our children. When would this stop? When would all the lies and deceit stop them from trying to get to this throne that none of us had wanted?
Chapter Thirty-One
Hell hath no fury like a mother scorned…
While I tried to stay calm, tried to listen to Sebastian make sense of all this, all my mind could think of was my children. Were they okay? Would Alex and Colin even know how to take care of them? Alex had been shady for so long, he could just hand them over. Probably wouldn’t even bat an eye, and then I would kill him. My mind wasn’t in this anymore, I just wanted my children safe with me. No one could ever protect them the way we could, or the way we would. My anger towards Sebastian for hiding them from me was growing intensely. Standing to my feet, pacing, my mind no longer cared about anything or anyone except for them. Had I been betrayed by the one person I loved with all my heart?
“Sebastian, I want my kids.” I blurt the words out while he’s still talking.
“I know, I know you do, I do too. I promise they are safe.” He begins to try to stand.
“Now! Sebastian! Now! I want them now, and may the gods have mercy on anyone’s souls that lay a hand on my children.” I push him back down.
“Zack, go get them… I knew she wouldn’t go for this.” His eyes staring up at mine, while he orders Zack.