by D Wills
“I don’t care. This is more important than your fake school life. You need to come home now. I'm not giving you an option.” I slam the phone shut. I’m about done with people telling me what to do and not giving me options. This needs to end. I'm not new to all this anymore, and it’s about time they realized it
Depth
~14~
Screeching into the drive I brake hard and swerve, so I don’t end up in the back of Allana’s car or the side of Amora’s. Allana comes rushing from the front door before I’ve even stepped out of the car.
“Acacia what have you done?” her enraged tone from our previous phone call has given into something else. It’s back to the motherly hue I know so well forcing my rage at her to disappear. Looking behind her to Amora I can see she’s the same as ever, standing there conceitedly just outside the front door.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about” the words spill into the air as my mind flashes ‘the kiss’ like an enormous neon sign in my head. I don’t take my eyes off Amora.
Allana grabs my arm.
“Hey, what are you doing?” I struggle against her grasp.
“You need to get inside. Eros knows what you’ve done, and he’s furious.” “Eros knows what I’ve done? Well would someone like to tell me because I sure as hell don’t?” All my frustration rushes out uncontrollably as I wrench my arm from her grip. “And whatever crime I’m supposedly guilty of that seems to have pissed him off so much, I don’t care! This is my life, not his. I can damn well do what I want, and if he’s got a problem with it then he can go suck it! I'm done being his puppet” I’m breathless and so wound up I can hear the blood pumping in my ears. I stare at Allana waiting for her to react, but it’s Amora who walks forward. “So are you wanting a double funeral with Josh? Or two singles?” Her laughter fills the air, and I bite my lip so not to react to her even though I’m dying to charge her and do whatever damage I’m capable of to her pretty little well constructed face! “And interesting choice of words there - hell. You know you may be coming friendly with hell sooner than you think.” Amora winks at me deviously and smirks. Allana looks deflated. She doesn’t even curse Amora for taunting me. I push past the both of them and march inside, bored of their cryptic messages and orders about what I should and shouldn’t do. “Eros knows about you kissing Josh in that cave,” Allana calls after me disheartened. I stop dead, my worst fears confirmed, but how could he know? We couldn’t have gone to a more secluded spot. There was no one who could have possibly seen us. The only thing we could see was each other, the cave walls and the sea. Josh must be something else. The whole thing had to be a set-up, and now I'm going to pay the price. I allowed myself to walk on the edge of this life, risking everything and for what? “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I call over my shoulder back at them both. I know there’s no point in denying it, but somehow I figure if I pretend Josh hasn’t set me up I can believe he did actually love me. Amora flounces past me. “Bet you don’t,” she laughs. I turn to look at Allana who is so frail and afraid like I’ve never seen her before. Her eyes are wide and red from tiredness or crying, or most likely both.
“How did he find out?” I ask quietly. I can’t lie to Allana anymore, not when she looks so defeated.
Allana looks down at the ground and raises her hands towards the sky. She looks up as if searching for help from someone who isn’t there. “The merfolk you were in a merfolk cavern. They carved them into the rocks years ago so they could enjoy private liaisons, a bit like you and Josh had.” She raises her eyebrows at me. Red stings my cheeks. “There were two heading up there when they sensed there were Gods already there, they backed off, but curiosity got the better of them. Word spread about what they saw and somehow the message got back to Eros.” Allana takes a deep breath and sinks down onto the grass at the side of the house where the towering oak grows. She allows her back to rest against it while she twists her hands around the violet scarf she has looped casually around her neck. So it wasn’t Josh, it wasn’t a trap my heart lifts only slightly with relief.
“Why did they think there were Gods?” Why would she say 'Gods'? “What?” Allana mumbles preoccupied. “You said they sensed there were Gods, plural, as in more than one.” I walk over to where she’s sitting and crouch down next to her. “I meant you, they could sense you” She rubs her fingers in circles on either side of her temples. If we were in other circumstances I might have pressed her further, but she looks as if she is going to fall to pieces at any second. “So what do we do now?” “Well, your kiss happened days ago, and he hasn’t come raging around here yet, so maybe he doesn’t care enough. The word from Olympus is he is furious with how you’ve humiliated him, but if he were really angry, Josh would surely be dead by now, and you wouldn’t be here.” She chokes on the last few words, and I instinctively reach out to hug her. “Let’s just carry on as normal,” I suggest hopefully “If Eros comes back, we’ll deal with the problem then. Like you said, he would’ve done something if he were really that mad. We know he doesn’t care about me, so maybe he’s just ignoring it.” I hope he is. “His reaction isn’t about caring about you, Cas. His anger and rage come from the insult of you going behind his back to someone else,” Allana explains, swallowing down her tears as she does so. I nod. I know she’s right, but I can’t change what’s been done, and I'm not sorry about it so I won’t be apologizing to him.
“He’s the laughing stock of Olympus, and I don’t think he’s going to forget about this. I think you should stay home for the next few days, and we’ll see what happens.” Allana looks at me for my acceptance. I can see she is genuinely scared, which makes me shiver, so I nod in agreement and stand up pulling her up with me. There’s no chance I'm giving in now though. Things are about to change. “Let’s get inside. I’ll stay off school for the next couple of days, ok?” She looks slightly relieved at my agreeing to stay at home, but as she anxiously scans around the front yard I know she’s still on edge, and I know I should be too. Allana walks straight to the kitchen, and I mindlessly follow her. “Anyone for tea?” Amora chirps as we walk in. She’s holding a teapot in one hand, and tea cups are dangling from three of her fingers on the other. “Or perhaps you’d prefer champagne. We are celebrating, after all.” She looks at me with a vindictive smile which is quickly removed as she falls to the floor screeching. I look at Allana for an explanation to what's happened, and I’m shocked to see her eyes are boring holes into Amora. “Allana stop!” I scream, terrified something has possessed her. She snaps out of her trance and Amora springs up from the floor fully-healed, snarling and hissing like Eros. Instead of charging at Allana as I expect her to, she takes off upstairs, screaming insults and threats as she goes. “What was that?” I stare in disbelief between Allana and the floor where just seconds ago Amora was writhing in agony.
“I'm sorry, she just got to me. This isn’t a celebration, and I don’t care what her problem is with you. I wouldn’t even wish the Underworld on her, so she shouldn’t be so pleased that there’s a chance you could end up there.” “No, I get that, but what did you just do to her? I thought we were Goddesses of love - our only powers being to join people - not that we could tear holes into them just by staring at them.” Allana sighs but I can’t let this go. Is there more to my powers than I know? Could I possess something that could help me fight Eros? “I suppose there’s no harm in telling you everything now; you know my powers are the same as Eros’. Amora has the same ability as you. She can knit auras together, but she’s also gained the ability to manipulate mortals' thoughts to start love, or sometimes war when she’s in a spiteful mood.” Allana looks at me, to see if I'm following her. I nod. “Well, as you get more experienced, you gain more powers. Already your ability to hear mortal voices, no matter what distance has advanced so you can probably hear younger Gods voices too. At my experience level, I can not only channel the love of people around me and create matches, but I can also tap into the hate surrounding people.” I l
ook at her my eyes wide with shock. “So we start out as the Gods of love but somehow become the Gods of hate?” I ask, still unsure. Allana nods and shakes her head at the same time.
“In a way but the better way to see our powers is we are the Gods of raw emotion. Love is just the easiest one to see and control. Mortals really do wear their hearts on their sleeves.” She smiles a real smile which reaches her eyes, the first one I’ve seen for a while. “When you get to my level, the auras aren’t one colour, they’re more like a rainbow, and you can pick and choose the strands of emotions you play with. What you just saw me do to Amora was use her hatred towards you and reflect it back on her.” I start to shake. “So you can, and Eros can, do that to both Gods and mortals?” “Yes and Amora can now do it to mortals, so it won’t be long until she can do it to Gods. I bet if you tried you’d be able to manipulate the thoughts of mortals like the rest of us can. No one tells you when your powers mature you just need to try to do the more advanced things” I sit quietly absorbing this new information. Perhaps I can manipulate mortal’s thoughts. I’ve never actually tried. I was waiting for Allana to show me. I got on with knitting auras easily enough, so I was in no hurry to move on from there. “If you don’t try and move on from there you’ll never advance in your skills.” My mouth drops open “You can read my mind too.” “Of course to master the ability of manipulating thoughts, you need to be able to hear them. I’ll show you how to put up a better shield once the Eros situation has been sorted.” “Do you think I’ll still be here for you to train?” Allana reaches over and wraps her arms around the tops of mine. “I hope so, Acacia, I really do.”
I nod. I know she can’t give me a yes, but maybe I can give myself one if I can speed up learning these new powers. “Does Amora really hate me that much?” She must contain a lot of hatred towards me, for Allana to do that to her, and if she has that amount of hatred, how much has Eros reserved for me? “Don’t worry. When you start to see the other colors of an aura, and you can work on the Gods, I’ll teach you what you can do with them.” “Thanks, but can Eros do to me what you just did to Amora?” Allana’s face pales and that’s all the confirmation I need. I nod silently at her and get up to leave as she weaves her fingers into her hair and grips so tightly her knuckles go white. I wince as the sobs she has been fighting back break through. I go up to my room needing to be alone. I’ve got so much to try and process. I sit at my white painted dressing table on the intricately carved stool and stare out of my French windows. The sun is low in the sky. It must be getting towards late afternoon. I haven’t even eaten since breakfast, not that it matters. Oh no lunch with Josh! I grab my school bag up off the floor and scramble around for my phone. One message, oh hell! How could I have done this to him? He’s going to think I'm avoiding him again. I unlock my phone and press read. “Hey, Cacia, not sure where you are give me a call when you get this j x.” I didn’t mean to stand him up. My phone buzzes in my hand, another message.
“Hey angel it’s Josh again not wanting to take your crown of stalker away from you but could you let me know you’re ok? You never showed up at lunch, and I didn’t see you in last period either j x. “ I would give anything to call him and go back to our private beach. One kiss from Josh and I know I wouldn’t care about any of this. If he’s holding me in his arms, I wouldn’t be bothered about Eros, or the Underworld, or Amora and her venomous threats. I seriously need to work on my powers so I can use the God’s emotions to help me, the possibilities of what I could do. I could end Eros and be free. We’d all be free. I'm defenseless now, though. Eros can already do what I saw Allana do, and she said it won’t be long until Amora has the same power. I’ll be totally outnumbered. I should definitely figure out shielding as soon as I can. I just hope there’s some way of shielding my body as well as my mind.
Intruder
~15~
It’s Thursday night. I’ve been in this house since Monday afternoon when I raced home from school to find Allana almost in tears and Amora almost in heaven. I've been stood out on my balcony huddled up in my thick purple blanket, not to keep me warm as I don’t feel the cold, but I feel a bit more protected wrapped up. I'm not sure what a purple throw would do against the powers of the Underworld immortals if they came for me, but hey any defense is better than none.
I look out onto our garden, which is pretty much all lawn till the back where a small collection of trees merges, into one another. The moonlight beams down onto them casting eerie grey shadows that stretch out onto the grass, like demons clawing their way towards our house. I shiver. There could soon be demons clawing their way to our house to drag me to my fate.
It’s too spooky out here. I thought coming to gaze at the stars would take my mind off Josh. I haven’t received a single message or phone call from him since that last one on Monday afternoon. I bet he’s probably got himself a new date for the ball too. I tried to convince Allana that my going was a good idea that I’d be there strictly in a professional manner to create romance, that’s all, not to pursue my own interests, but she wouldn’t agree to it.
She thought it would be too dangerous because I would be too close to Josh. I spent an hour pointing out to her that if I made enough matches I might be reprieved of all this for good behavior. My plan didn’t work though. Amora was listening, and she almost choked on her own hysterics.
I managed to create myself a beautiful dress as well. I found an old corset in the back of my wardrobe. It’s gold with a lace overlay that’s interspersed with crystals. Then I took a dark gold silk sheet that used to cover the end of my bed, I pleated it together at the top, hemmed the bottom to create a full skirt. After sewing the two together, I had a beautiful gown I couldn’t wait to wear but now I’ll be waiting a long time if I ever get to wear it at all.
I jump at a rustling at the bottom of the garden where the trees are. Must be a cat or something; nothing immortal would take the time to skulk in the shadows. Even so I start to tremble slightly as my hands subconsciously climb to my neck and run along the swollen bruises that are taking longer to go down than I thought.
The rustling gets louder. I squint trying to get a clearer look as a darker shadow starts to emerge onto the grass, growing larger until it overtakes all of its companions and creeps gradually closer to the house.
Eros must have sent someone for me. He’s probably been watching the house waiting for me to be alone, so neither Allana nor Amora would be able to help me, not that Amora would bother to try.
I reach behind to grab the door handle so I can escape back into my room. The night air encircles my body as my blanket falls to the ground.
The shadow is getting closer to the house as the figure comes out from the trees. I find the door handle and push it down, ready to swing the door open and run inside. “Acacia,” a voice whispers. “Acacia,” it calls again. I release my grip on the handle and tread slowly back towards the edge of my balcony, drawn there by the voice.
With each step, I shake as I walk closer to the edge. What if this is the end? What if the figure jumps up and grabs me the minute it recognizes me?
I tentatively place my foot down, taking me inches closer to meeting my fate. I chew on my lip and suck in as much air as I can in case it’s my last. Reaching out, I grab the lip of the balcony to steady myself as I look up to the stars, praying to I don’t know who that whatever happens to me is over quickly and as pain-free as possible - then I peer over onto the garden.
It’s empty. There’s no one there; the figure has gone, I lean over further and scan left to right up and down the length of the lawn, and no one. What the …. ?
What if it’s gone inside? I push myself as far over the balcony as I can so I can see the kitchen window and back door. They’re both still shut, and I know they’re locked.
“Looking for me?” a voice to my right asks. I fall back against the side of the wall. It’s here, whatever it is. It’s here, and I'm done for.
I scramble backwards on the floor, so I�
��m pressing myself into the corner to try and hide as much of my body as I can. I squeeze my eyes tightly shut and use my arms to shield the parts of me that are still exposed to my attacker.
“Please don’t hurt me,” I manage to cry while I fight against my tears. All my strength and courage has left me. I'm backed into a corner with no escape.
“Acacia, it’s me. Josh.” I feel a warm hand pressing on my arm. The comfort I feel from the touch doesn’t match the tension in the voice I hear. I don’t believe it could be him. “Are you ok?”
I open my eyes slowly this must be one of the other God’s tricks. I know they can morph into animals, so I'm sure some can change into humans. But it is Josh. He’s here. I throw myself into his arms. He easily embraces me. I thought the force of me lunging at him would’ve knocked him over, but he stays steadfast, crouching, cradling me.
“I came to check you were ok. You never replied to my messages, and I haven’t seen you at school.” He pushes my shoulders gently, so I lean away from him slightly, allowing him to see my face. I quickly wipe my tears of relief away.