by Candy Crum
“It’s possible that since Kylie has started being the conduit between the two worlds that your wife no longer is,” Grace said. “I mean; I know about as much about all this as you do. But it seems to me that there wouldn’t need to be two. Not if Kylie is the descendant of Hades.”
“It makes it easier. Knowing that all of this is a real thing. It makes it easier to know that my pain serves a purpose, but it doesn’t make it better. It doesn’t make it go away. It doesn’t change the fact that someone passes through me when they die,” Kylie said.
“People die every minute of every day,” Alee said. “Why aren’t you constantly being bombarded?”
“More than likely it’s because she’s still not very powerful. Hundreds of people died in the Italy eruption. How many people actually passed through you?” Brittany asked.
Kylie thought for a moment. “I lost track. It was one right after another. I thought I’d die before it stopped. If I had to guess, I’d say a couple dozen people.”
“A couple dozen out of hundreds,” Brittany said. “I don’t think that they are meant to pass through you. It’s likely that spirits are wandering all over the world.”
“I wish we could speak to Agatha. She had so much information. Without a doubt, she knows way more than she was able to tell me. It just sucks because she said that she couldn’t stay long. Her pull to me was too great,” Kylie said.
“Uh, might be a long shot, but maybe it’s possible to talk to her,” Alee said.
“How?” Kylie asked.
“You have a link to the dead, so you can sense her. Joe has the power to see things. Maybe between the two of you we can contact her,” Alee replied.
“I wouldn’t even begin to know how to use that kind of ability,” Kylie said.
“Me neither, Alee,” Joe said. “You know how random mine is. It’s pretty useless at the moment.”
“Where is your sense of adventure?” Alee asked. “Besides, we have a Ouija board upstairs.”
“What?” Grace asked. “Those things are terrible! You never know what you could get ahold of.”
“Mom…” Alee said, a bored and sarcastic look crossing her face as she pointed to Kylie.
“Oh,” Grace said. “Right. Well you could still get ahold of someone scary. I don’t know if I’m comfortable with that.”
“But you’re comfortable with us going out blind, having no idea what we are doing, where we are going, or even where to start?” Joe asked.
Grace sighed. “There isn’t any winning this one. Of course I’m not comfortable with that! Gah! Right now being a mother stinks. I have no idea what I’m supposed to do. How am I supposed to be a parent to children that are destined to save the world?”
“I’m asking myself the same thing,” Kylie’s father said. “It seems we have no choice but to let them go out on their own, but they’re our babies. This doesn’t seem right.”
“Exactly!” Grace said. “See? He gets it. Why don’t you jerks get it?”
Joe and Alee both smiled at their mother. She’d been there when no one else would, or could be. She was their best friend.
“This isn’t something that I want to do,” Joe said. “But it’s becoming obvious that I’ve been preparing for it my entire life.”
Grace sat back in her seat, sighing heavily. “Fine. Go play with the Ouija board. But if you summon something terrible, don’t come crying to me.”
Joe and Alee made a point to give their mother a hug, Kylie following suit with her father. Brittany wrote a number down on the dry erase board hanging on the fridge.
“This is my mom’s cell phone number. Call her. Tell her who you are. I know this has to be hard for you, even though you’re doing great keeping a sense of humor. Still, I know that if I were in your shoes, I’d want to talk to someone in my own situation. Another mother. She was raised the way that I was. She can answer all of your questions and put you at ease,” Brittany said.
She gave a quick smile before heading out of the room with the rest. The foursome made their way upstairs to Joe’s bedroom. Alee stopped to grab a few candles and a box of matches from her room.
“You’ve done this before, I see,” Brittany said.
“Eh. My aunt got the Ouija board for me. My mom didn’t think it was funny. She hid it for a while, but I found it and put it in my closet. My friends and I would play with it when my mom would go to bed. Candles always make the experience better,” Alee replied, smiling.
The girls finished gathering supplies with Alee before heading back into Joe’s room. He’d been busy getting a spot on his floor clean enough for everyone to sit on.
“Does your bed actually sit on the floor now?” Alee asked. “Like, if I sit on it, will it rock back and forth like a teeter-totter?”
Joe gave her an incredulous look. “Oh hush. I’m sure it looks better than yours.”
“What?” Alee said, smiling. “It’s funny! The room was a mess. You had to shove it somewhere. Also, mine looks fabulous and smells even fabulouser.”
“Fabulouser?” Joe asked.
“Shut your face. It was an accident. I was on a roll,” Alee said.
Joe rolled his eyes before snatching the board game off the bed and putting it in the floor.
“How about you light some candles?” Joe asked, giving an exaggerated smile.
He sat in the floor, setting everything up as Brittany and Kylie joined him. They placed several candles around the room and lit them before turning off the lights.
“Ready for this?” Brittany asked, giving Kylie a reassuring pat on the back.
Kylie shook her head. “No. Honestly, I’m very nervous. This is killing me, no pun intended.”
Joe fought a laugh just under the surface at the obvious joke, knowing she was being serious.
Alee got things started by helping Kylie place her hands on the planchette.
“Just get a feel for it. Once it all gets started, the idea is to not touch it at all. Let it move on its own,” Alee said. “You know her name. You and Joe should be the main focus, but we’ll all do it.”
“Agatha,” Kylie said.
“Right,” Joe said. “Just keep thinking her name. Over and over. Say it out loud.”
“Agatha,” Kylie said. “I know that you can’t talk easily, but we have no other choice.”
Moments passed and nothing happened. The room was silent enough that every breath could be heard.
“Please, Agatha,” Kylie said. “We have so many questions. We need to know where to start.”
Another five minutes passed as they sat in total silence. Kylie was just about to give up when the planchette moved.
“Was that you?” Kylie asked, looking at Alee.
“Definitely not me,” Alee said. “Everyone pull your hands up a little. Make sure you’re not touching it, just hovering over it.”
Everyone followed Alee’s instructions, making sure that they weren’t touching the tiny piece on the spirit board.
“Agatha,” Kylie said. “Is that you?”
The planchette began moving again, spelling out one letter after another.
Y – O – U – K – N
Alee was writing down the letters as they came.
“You. Got that. K - N… You know?” Alee asked.
The planchette moved to “Yes.”
It began moving again. Kylie was very cautious and worried, while Alee and Brittany remained very excited. Alee began writing down letters again. After a few moments, Alee began piecing the words together.
“Are you serious?” Alee said out loud. “Okay. Who is touching the piece?”
“Why?” Joe asked. “What does it say?”
“It says, ‘You know this game is for children don’t you?’” Alee replied. “So, who’s touching it?”
Joe laughed hard.
“It’s not funny!” Alee said.
“I thought it was,” a woman said from across the room.
Everyone looked up to see a spirit sta
nding next to Joe’s door.
“Agatha,” Kylie said.
“Holy crap,” Alee said.
“I thought it was quite humorous,” Agatha said. “Kylie, you do not need such a tool to speak to the dead. They may, which is why they can see me now, but you do not. All that aside, you called, and I am here.”
“Is this like last time?” Kylie asked. “Do we only have a few moments? Because that was a lot of time wasted for a joke.”
“I would assume that in your shoes, there should always be time for a joke,” Agatha replied. “However, to answer your question, yes. We are limited. I have answers for you, but we must be quick. I am glad to see that you found the others.”
“We have no idea where to start,” Joe said. “If there are twelve of us, there’s no way we can find everyone else without some direction.”
“I must say,” Agatha began, “that we have to be very careful. Witches are watching, and they can see anything in the spirit world that goes between. What I mean by that is they have no access to Hades. They cannot see what happens there. They also cannot see you, because there are good witches protecting you, as they have done so for the bloodlines since the prophecy was first told to Apollo. They can, however, see anything that happens in this realm by using spirits. Creatures may be used to track you as well if the witches are able to control them.”
“They can find us that easily?” Kylie said.
“That explains how we were attacked by a chimera. So you’re saying that they can see you right now, if they are looking,” Brittany said.
Agatha nodded. “Yes. Therefore, my instructions must be vague, lest they know your plan. First, I will tell you that there are seven of you in this country alone. I could not see them before, because my only ties are to Joe and to Kylie. However, after a lot of searching and a lot of help, I have been able to locate those most local to you. You must head west to find the other three.”
“We need more than that,” Alee said. “We are in Indiana. There is a lot of west.”
Agatha thought for a moment. “I cannot say without risking the safety of the others. Please forgive me. I will simply say there will be quite a bit of ground to cover and that you should dress light. There are many large cities, but much land. There will be many cattle, but also many young men to tend them.”
Alee’s eyes narrowed. “You pretty much described every western state.”
“Those are the directions that I have to give. You must figure the rest out on your own. My time has, once again, come to an end. I leave you with one last thing, Kylie.”
Kylie perked up a bit. With having Agatha speak directly to her, she hoped for something useful.
“Your pain is only temporary. Once Hades has been reopened, you will no longer need to be the gateway. Once you find the others, you must use their power to help you open the portal. Open it, and you will be free. Hades is now yours to command, as are the spirits and beings held within. Any information that you seek, you may find there, without fear of prying eyes. You must hurry, though. I fear your future comrades may soon be in danger. There is only so much that I can see without the powers that I once possessed, but I will always be an asset when I am able. Do not call out to me again, or any other spirit unless it is an emergency. Even though the dead are yours to command and yours to seek answers from, until you are at full strength, or have the others with you, you may be in danger if you do. You must do as I instructed. Only then will you be free from pain and free to use whatever knowledge you may need.”
Agatha crossed the room, then. Kylie knew what was about to happen, and prepared by taking a sharp breath before extending her own hand. Agatha gladly accepted, giving a soft smile to Kylie before the pain overtook her. Kylie cried out, her entire body tensing up as Agatha passed through. As always, it was over quickly, though the pain made it seem like an eternity.
“That looked horrible,” Brittany said, her face full of sympathy. “I’m not going to lie. When I figured out what you could do, I thought it was really kind of cool. Now that I’ve seen it happen, it was terrible. I’ve never seen anyone in that much pain before.”
“It’s the worst physical pain I’ve ever felt,” Kylie said, a tear coming to her eye. “Nothing in this world compares to it. I’ve had broken bones. My appendix exploded when I was a kid, and I had to have emergency surgery. I was out of school for weeks because of it. I was septic. They didn’t think I’d make it. Still, none of that is as painful as this.”
“Why does your voice sound so cheerful about it?” Joe said. “It’s admirable, don’t get me wrong, but when you first came here, you were nervous, scared. Now you seem – well – you seem almost happy about it.”
“That’s because I am,” Kylie said. “All of you saw her. All of you saw what just happened to me. I saw a massive gryphon out back when I got here. My dad saw it. This is all real. My mother has been locked away in an institution almost my entire life because she thought she was crazy. Now I know that the pain I saw her go through at random was her being the gateway. She locked herself up, and my dad helped her because he loved her and knew it was what she felt she had to do. She was terrified that she would have to drive somewhere with me and an episode would happen and she would wreck with me in the car. She was afraid that she would go off the deep end and hurt me. She had no idea what was wrong with her. Now, we know that it’s all real. My mother was never crazy. She is a healthy woman that was dealt a painful hand. My dad can get her out of that terrible place now. I can save her. I can help her. So, yes. This hurts – a lot. But I have never been so happy in all my life.”
Joe smiled at Kylie. “That is probably the most motivating thing I’ve heard since this all started. We need to get that portal open to make sure your mom, and you, never have to feel that again. We need to pack and plan our trip. We should leave around noon. That gives us a couple of hours.”
“We don’t even know where we are going,” Alee said.
“Right,” Brittany said. “She was an oracle once, so she was obviously speaking in riddles.”
“A lot of land to cover,” Joe said. “That could mean that it could take a while to get there, which is pretty clear since we are in Indiana, or she could have meant the state, itself, has a lot of land.”
“Let’s go with the state,” Brittany said. “Because anywhere west will take forever. That would have been a useless hint.”
“Okay,” Alee said. “So we have a western state that has a lot of ground to cover and will be hot because she said to dress light.”
“’There are many large cities, but much land. There will be many cattle, but also many young men to tend them.’ That’s what she said. I have a feeling that’s the actual clue,” Joe said.
“Hot. So extreme mid-west, I’m assuming,” Brittany said. “Colorado has a lot of land, but the heat doesn’t match.”
“Right,” Alee said.
“So, we can check off Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and the Dakotas, too,” Kylie said. “Illinois really isn’t known for much more heat than here, and neither is Missouri, though both have big cities.”
“Oh my God,” Joe said.
“What?” Alee asked.
“Texas. It’s Texas,” he replied.
“Are you sure?” Brittany asked.
“A lot of cattle. Cattle. Cows. Lots of young men to tend them. What is another name for a young man?” Joe asked.
“A boy,” Kylie said. Realization crossed her face. “Cows and boys. Cowboys.”
“Exactly,” Joe said. “The Dallas Cowboys is what came to mind. Plus, it has a lot of land to cover, a lot of huge cities, and whether she meant actual cowboys, or the Dallas Cowboys it still works. It’s also ridiculously hot. I’m pretty sure we are heading to Texas.”
“Even if it’s wrong, at least it’s a direction,” Brittany said. “However, she’s dead so I’m sure she doesn’t follow too closely with football.”
“Hey,” Joe said. “Don’t rain on my riddle-solving parade o
ver here.”
“Sorry,” Brittany said, smiling. “Didn’t mean to hurt your little girl feelings.”
“That’s alright,” Joe said. “If they are little girl feelings, then I’m sure they will change again in another forty-five seconds. Or… I could be angry with you for the next week. Should be fun to find out.”
“Ha-ha,” Alee said. “Well, I’ll be driving. We can’t trust Joe in case he goes into vision mode. Kylie can’t drive either, because someone may need to pass through her. Brittany and I can take turns driving.”
“Sounds good to me,” Brittany said.
“Okay, then,” Joe said. “We need to work on getting the best route possible and getting some supplies together. We can’t pack too much in the truck because we will all be sardined in the front, and we will have a gryphon in the back. We can pack emergency supplies only. With anything else, don’t pack more than you can hold on your lap.”
SATURDAY AFTERNOON
(Eastern European Time)
Athens
A press conference had been called in Athens in response to the strange phenomena happening all over the world. Several interviews had been conducted with scientists, theologists, and historians. These experts had all spoken from all over the world in regards to the strange sightings of: beasts of lore, the erratic and dangerous weather patterns, earthquakes, and, of course, Mount Vesuvius. There was no longer any denying something was happening. Thousands of Italians not only saw the strange way that Mount Vesuvius had erupted, but also the giant that had climbed out.
Several people had come forward with videos that had been recorded on their phones. All videos showed the same thing, but from different places and angles. They’d told similar stories: the area had been so frantic, smoke billowed into the sky as the mountain prepared to blow, people were terrified as they packed up everything they could carry in order to flee the area. Then everything seemed to stop. There was a strange calm that fell over the people of Italy as they all turned to look to the volcano.
Each person experienced different feelings during the events, but the calm that fell was unanimous. They each described the sounds coming from miles away. The deep groans coming from within the volcanic walls. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to see what could possibly be happening. That’s when several people had reached for their phones, recording whatever may happen. After having seen the viral video that Davide, Antonio, and Mark had posted, they didn’t want to miss it. They weren’t disappointed, though they were nothing short of terrified.