Muse Unexpected

by V. C. Birlidis

  The redheaded woman stood up and gave her a single kiss on the forehead, and her mind spun. Sophie’s body slowly drifted to the ground. She was conscious, but couldn’t move.

  “It is time. Her mother approaches and we must be quick,” the women said, as they surrounded Sophie and reached down to gather her into their arms. A wind rushed forward, lifting the group upward towards an opening in the clouds and the glowing beams of the moon bathed the women as they disappeared into the sky, the clouds closing behind them.

  Chapter 10

  Callie rushed through the woods as roots and branches tore at her. A leafless branch slapped across her face, drawing blood. Tripping, she cursed under her breath as her shin scraped across a fallen tree. The wind had picked up to compete with Callie’s fury, and a violent downpour of rain made it difficult for her to keep her footing. Georgia caught up to her and helped her to her feet.

  “This is crazy,” Georgia shouted over the rain and claps of thunder.

  A lightning bolt struck a nearby tree, shattering it and sending shards of smoldering wood in all directions. Georgia tackled Callie, sending both women sprawling to the ground as a large shard of wood landed behind them, missing them by inches.

  Callie shouted in frustration.

  “Callista, they won’t let us out of this wood until it’s over. It must be done. Stop fighting it.”

  “Stop fighting?” Callie yelled. “Never, Georgia. Not when it comes to Sophie. I have to stop it. I have to.”

  She pushed her mother away and scrambled to get up. She could barely see the clearing, but still fought her way through the underbrush. A faraway crash of lightning, followed by eight similar crashes, shook the ground beneath them. The shaking stopped and the forest fell into a deep hush as the now gentle rain died away.

  Callie had heard the nine lightning strikes and knew what they meant. Defeated, she walked out of the woods, not surprised to discover she had been only a few yards from its edge. She told Georgia to stay back and ran toward the makeshift temple.

  Sickened by how much it resembled the temple where her mother had taken her to receive her gifts, Callie dashed around, trying to find a way in–but there wasn’t one. An intense interior light shot from every crack in the structure’s exterior and she cried out in anguish, the anger building in her heart. She saw Georgia fling an energy blast that struck the temple and sent shards of wood into the air. She rushed into the hole Georgia created, ignoring the splinters of wood tearing at her feet. Callie stopped and dropped to her knees as she saw her daughter suspended by the arms in a cruciform pose, supported by invisible hands.

  Oh, no. You aren’t getting off that easy.

  “Show yourselves. I know you’re there, the cause of all of this. You were never cowards. Do not hide from the mother whose heart you have broken.”

  Blinding light appeared around Sophie and then died away as the Muses materialized. The group drifted to the ground. Sophie, still sleeping, didn’t stir as she was laid onto an uprooted pile of moss. Without a word, a redheaded Muse stretched out to the heavens and shot into the air, followed by the other Muses.

  Callie stood up and walked to her daughter. Sophie lay sleeping. She was a living and breathing piece of sculpture by some Old Master. Her once unruly hair now cascaded into reddish brown pools. Her face, which she had always believed to be beautiful, was so breathtaking Callie couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy. Sophie’s skin was smooth with a touch of summer tan and Callie noticed the slightest dusting of freckles on her nose and cheeks.

  Georgia walked up from behind. “She’s breathtaking. I expected incredible, but this is…”

  “Yes, you’re right, except she was always beautiful. She didn’t need this.”

  Georgia became silent and reached out to hold her daughter’s hand, but Callie rejected the gesture. The strange buzzing moved through her head again.

  “She can’t live here in this world anymore, at least not until she can learn to control her powers,” Callie said. “We’ll have to leave before anyone sees her. How could I possibly explain the way she looks to anyone who has seen her before? We have to return to Greece and set up residence at the Vasilikós.”

  Sophie stirred and opened her eyes, which now twinkled with starlight. Callie knew Sophie hadn’t become the same as she or Georgia. Sophie wasn’t a run-of-the-mill-Muse.

  “So much more,” Georgia said under her breath, and Callie cringed at the greed in her mother’s voice.

  Chapter 11

  Sophie’s cries echoed in the large room and she thrashed her arms with such force she threw herself off the bed. She was dreaming of attending her own funeral. As she stood in front of the open grave she turned to see a perfect version of herself staring back at her. The clone’s perfection was like a slap across her face and she wanted to cry. She tried to call out to her mother and tell her she wasn’t dead, but a flash of energy was thrown at her and she fell into the grave, crashing through the coffin. She landed on something cold and damp. It smelled like the frogs she had dissected in biology class. Dead arms wrapped around her and a mouth with a foul smelling breath whispered ‘die, filthy Nothos’ in her ear. She tried to yell for help but the coffin gave way and she started falling towards a fiery pit she knew was Hell.

  The fall from her bed brought her fully awake. Sophie shuddered at the thought of her dream. She sat on the floor, not sure what to do.

  Where the heck am I? This isn’t my room. She shuddered again as her feverish skin dropped in temperature.

  The room was vast; the bed she rested her head against was huge and ornate, it belonged in a museum and not a bed she would choose to sleep in.

  Sophie examined the rest of the room. Two large stone fireplaces flanked it and without doing so she knew she could easily stand in the mouth of each of them. She walked toward one of the ceiling-to-floor windows and touched the heavy embroidered drapes hanging from iron rods. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and couldn’t help but smile because the scent of the sea brought back fond memories of family vacations she had long since forgotten. The breeze blew a thick strand of her hair across her face, and once her eyes focused on it she panicked.

  “My hair…oh my God, my hair. What is wrong with my hair?” Sophie said, grabbing and examining a clump of it.

  “Nothing’s wrong with it. It’s beautiful,” Callie said, closing the door behind her. She stood for a moment, staring at her daughter and then walked toward her.

  Sophie looked at her mother. “Where are we?” Her hand drifted to her stomach and she looked down when she didn’t encounter the amount of stomach she expected.

  “Mom?” she wailed and started to sob. “Have I been sick? What’s happened to me?”

  Callie walked toward Sophie and embraced her. “Oh honey, no, you haven’t been sick. It’s, well—sweetie, come sit down over here.” Callie motioned for her to sit on an overstuffed couch. “I know you have a lot of questions, so let me start with an easy one. We’re not in Ohio. We’ve come to stay with Georgia, in Greece.”

  “Greece? Mom, I don’t even have a passport. How can we be in Greece?”

  “Well… Let’s not worry about how we got here and deal with why we’re here.”

  “Mom, did you do something illegal and we had to leave? Were you selling drugs? Oh my God, you’re like that mother on Weeds.”

  “Oh God, no, that’s not it at all,” Callie laughed. “Honey, do you remember anything about Daddy’s funeral? Do you remember what happened after we left the church?”

  Sophie didn’t know what her mother was talking about. She shook her head.

  “Okay… here goes…I need you to suspend your disbelief,” Callie said, “because I’m about to tell you myths, fairytales and things that go bump in the night are real.”

  “What?” Sophie said, starting to get frustrated. She glanced over her mother’s shoulder and noticed a floor length mirror. The mirror’s massive frame, with gold gilded swans, mythical creatures an
d reclining cherubs almost took up the entire wall. Callie’s eyes drifted toward the mirror and she threw up her hands, sending a burst of light towards the heavy curtains on each side of the mirror. The curtains abruptly closed by themselves.

  Sophie’s mouth flew open. “Mom, how did you do that? Did you just do what I think you did?”

  Callie stood up and walked towards the mirror, and turned back to face Sophie, gripping the curtains behind her.

  “Honey, I have so much to explain and I’m not doing a good job of it. I never thought I would have to have this conversation with you. Think of your soul as a small room with millions of tiny doors. For most, the majority of those doors are shut.”

  “Mom, step away from the mirror. Let me see what has happened to me.”

  “But I need to explain first. It’s like this, some people may have a few additional doors open and because of those open doors, they have some extra abilities like being able to tell the future or being able to speak with the dead. Now, beings like us have the majority of our doors opened and our soul is expanded to allow us to do the things we can do. Otherwise, our soul would be ripped to shreds.”

  Sophie’s arms shook; a searing heat building inside her as crackling electricity filled the air. “What has happened to me, Mom? I need to see.” She lifted her head; her eye’s meeting her mother’s. The heat was almost unbearable, burning in her eyes and moving toward her clenched fists. Her hands tingled and burned. She was sure they were going to explode.

  Callie held firm. “Honey, calm down. You don’t have control of your emotions. It’s always difficult at first, but—”

  Sophie was furious and she let whatever control she had slip away. Her eyes were burning through her mother, in an attempt to reach the covered mirror.

  With a steady voice, Sophie said, “Let me see.” She shook her hands, in an attempt to shake off the heat pooling in them. Instead of feeling relief, the energy surged from her.

  Callie threw herself out of the way, falling forward onto the floor as the energy burst hit the mirror, ripping the heavy curtains and massive iron rods off the wall and cracking the mirror from top to bottom. Sharp pieces of mirror rained down, as both women crashed to the floor.

  “Ow!” The slivers of mirror glass sliced her palms. She grew silent watching the mirror-shards pushing themselves out of her skin. The cuts bled a little then stopped bleeding and healed before her eyes. She stood, afraid to move, trying to get her mind around what she was seeing.

  “What the heck is wrong with me?” Sophie said, as she burst into tears.

  Although a good portion of the mirror was destroyed, Sophie could still make out most of her reflection. She lifted her right hand and touched her face, realizing she was staring back at the girl from her nightmare. It was the girl who had pushed her into the grave.

  This is more than just a little liposuction or a hair straightening. Am I a victim of an alien attack? Was this the work of body snatchers?

  The voice coming from Sophie’s mouth was sorrowful and lost. “Was I so hideous you couldn’t stand another moment of looking at me and you had to change me into this?” She gestured at herself, feeling years of fear and inadequacy bubble up inside her. “What did you do to me, Mom? Knock me out and put me through some sort of Princess Diaries program from hell? Did you look at me and wonder how something so ugly could be created from you and Daddy? Do you finally have the daughter you’ve always wanted? I always knew I was a big disappointment, but this is…are you happy?”

  Callie stood there, eyes downturned.

  “No, Sophia, she’s not happy. If there is someone to blame, blame me.” Sophie was surprised to see Georgia standing in the doorway.

  Georgia walked deeper into the room and noticed the shattered mirror.

  “Now, I know my daughter didn’t do this because she knows how much this mirror means to me.” Georgia stooped to pick up a few pieces of mirror before throwing them onto the floor. “Sophia, was breaking the mirror necessary? You are going to have to get control of your powers because I can’t have you tearing this Vasilikós apart. Not to mention I find such wasteful demonstrations of your powers vulgar and tasteless.” Georgia flicked the tips of her fingers away, as if brushing a piece of lint off her dress and the motion swept the pieces of shattered mirror into a neat pile. Again, she flicked her hand in dismissal—sending the fallen curtains, brackets and bar back to their rightful place. “That mirror has been in our family for longer than I can remember. It was given to this Vasilikós by Athena herself. I believe it was forged from late evening mist, Hades gold and starlight.”

  Sophie snorted in response, unable to stop the laughter from bubbling out from her. “Evening mist and starlight? Don’t forget pixie dust and cotton candy.”

  Georgia grimaced. “Callista, you will teach your daughter to hold her tongue and to give a Demigod of my status the respect I deserve or I will bind her tongue until she learns her lesson.”

  Georgia clapped her hands, which sent the pieces of mirror into the air. They hung like miniature prisms, filling the room with a light.

  “Assemble,” Georgia said, a spark shooting from her right hand. The pieces zoomed around each other, each acting like they possessed a mind of their own, as they located their original starting place.

  “With all due respect, Georgia,” Callie spat out, fighting the buzzing in her head urging her to remain quiet, “stop showing off.”

  Callie stood and walked over to the floating pieces of mirror and placed her hand flat against the mirror’s surface. Her hand began to spark and glow with heat, and with a slight push the floating wall of glass slammed into the mirror’s frame with a loud crash.

  Sophie walked past her mother and stared at the mirror, while dripping bits of light slid over the cracks, fusing them together and restoring the mirror back to perfection.

  “Are we witches? Vampires?” Sophie asked.

  Georgia snorted. “Goodness, no. How silly to even suggest such an idea. In addition to requiring a natural ability to cast, witches require spells, potions and other nonsense. I’d go out of my mind having to remember the correct pattern of words or carry a wand. Don’t misunderstand me; some of my good friends are witches. As for the vampire thing, we are a far cry from those horrible creatures. Vampires aren’t the tortured, brooding creatures that possess a strong jaw-line, piercing eyes and six-pack abs. Such rubbish, but I digress,” Georgia said, as she walked toward the hallway.

  “Callista, why you have such difficulty doing a simple task like this, I’ll never know.” Georgia stopped and straightened a tilted lampshade. “We’re Muses,” she said, glancing at Sophie, and walked out the door, calling behind her. “Hopefully your mother can explain the rest without my help.”

  Without anyone touching it, the door slammed closed behind Georgia.

  Chapter 12

  Sophie snorted. “We’re insane. That’s got to be it. Either I’m nuts or this is a dream. And I’m leaning towards crazy. I mean I’ve always known you lived on the border of Crazytown, but not me.”

  “Sophie,” Callie started, but Sophie motioned for her mother to not say a word.

  “Muses?” she said, twisting a piece of her hair as if the action could help yank out a better understanding of what her grandmother said. “Muses don’t exist. They’re not real. They don’t even make decent movies about them. The only Muses I know are from that sucky movie you made me watch where they were on roller skates and wore peasant blouses and leg warmers. So if you think I’m about to throw on a pair of skates and feather my hair, you’re crazier than I thought. Out of all of the supernatural secrets my family had to sprout from, I get to be part of the losers of Greek mythology. Muses are so lame. Please just tell me you guys are kidding.”

  Callie shrugged. “You don’t understand how much I wish it were so. There were moments in Ohio when I began to believe the lie I told myself. That Muses were left in mythology, as mere explanations to what was unexplainable for the ancient
Greeks. But that’s the thing. They—I mean—we…exist. We’re Muses. We’re not vampires or fairies. We’re not werewolves, nor witches, and trust me, there were moments I wished we were, but we’re not insane. We’re Muses.” Callie sat down on the couch, motioning for her daughter to join her.

  Sophie walked toward the couch and sat with her back to her mother on the farthest possible edge.

  “I’ve always known what we were,” Callie said. “It’s not like Georgia would ever let me think about anything else.” Callie sighed out a deep breath. “Sophie, I didn’t have a normal childhood like you. I grew up always knowing I had a role to fulfill and each day Georgia took great pains to make sure I walked the path she thought I should walk. I knew I was expected to live a certain way and dedicate myself to…” she paused and smirked, “to the family business. I was raised to be obedient and being a Muse required great sacrifice. When I, like you, went through the change, the pressure to live up to Georgia’s expectations was like being crushed.”

  Sophie looked at her mother. “Why is she so horrible? She wasn’t like this back in Ohio. She was nice. A bit strange, but nice, and what the heck is a Demigod?”

  “Well, I wish I knew why she is so strict, but I’ve never known her not to be.” Callie laughed nervously. “I believe she is that way because she has to be. Georgia has a lot of responsibility. I’m not making excuses for her, but the responsibility takes its toll on her. Everything in our world has its cost. Unfortunately, with Georgia the cost comes across in being cruel and controlling. But, she always means well. And since we are now living under her roof, we’re going to have to walk on eggshells a bit until we figure out what we’re going to do.”

  “So what happened that made you a not-so-obedient daughter?”

  “Your father happened. Being a Muse requires a woman to give up so much. She serves as a vessel for inspiration.”

  “A vessel? I don’t…”

  “A topic for another time, but let’s just say falling in love isn’t part of the deal, or at least not with someone who isn’t part of our world.” Callie, paused and mumbled, “They had to be part of Olympus.”