Elysium's Love Triangle

by Aoife Metcalfe

  He scrutinizes me again, obviously coming to the conclusion that he is losing his marbles.

  He mumbles something about giving up ‘the whiskey’ before shutting the door to his office.

  I bolt away quickly.

  I need to find out what is happening with me.

  *

  Rejon is upset with me.

  He is so upset, in fact, that he left me a note.

  Dear Katy (AKA Weakling Number 110)

  Why do you run away? You remind me of a deer in headlights.

  I just wanted you to join me.

  I would’ve thought that you would see it as an honour.

  Apparently not.

  You have hurt my feelings.

  Regards

  Rejon

  P.S. We will see each other soon.

  The last line makes me freeze with fear.

  The creepier thing is that the message is written on the back of a photo of me. It was taken a long time ago, on my first day of middle school.

  I have no idea how Rejon got this.

  There is only one way. He must have snuck into my home.

  I gasp.

  I take my new phone out of my pocket.

  I dial my Mom’s number as fast as I can.

  He wanted me to know he was there. That was why he wrote the note on the back of this photo.

  Suddenly nowhere seems safe.

  Mom answers the phone and greets me.

  I am beyond relieved to hear her voice.

  The emotion hits me in a burst and I almost cry.

  There is no way I could deal with losing her too.

  I sit down on my bed.

  “Hi Mom,” I say, my voice sounding weak.

  “Are you okay?” She knows there is something wrong straight away.

  I can’t say anything.

  I’m afraid that I’ll blurt out everything about the Arachnes and Rejon, if I say anything at all.

  I wish I could tell her about it all.

  I could always tell her everything before. It hurts that I can’t share anything now, especially when I’m this scared.

  “Is this about me and Riley?” She sounds concerned, her voice goes so sad, “Katy, I meant to tell you face to face. . . No-one will replace your father, you know that . . . I know I don’t talk about him a lot, but that’s because it hurts, not because I don’t care . . . Maybe I should’ve talked about him more.”

  I try to hold back the tears. My voice cracks a little, “I love you, Mom. I want you to know that.”

  If Rejon gets me I may not get to speak to her again. I try to ignore this thought but it keeps coming.

  Her voice is deep with emotion, “I love you too, Katy.”

  She composes herself before she speaks to me again. Unfortunately she asks how school is going.

  I tell her everything it just fine. I must sound convincing because she doesn’t sense my lie.

  A bit of cheer comes into her voice suddenly.

  Riley’s home, she says. She tells him that I’m on the phone.

  He sounds upbeat too. For some reason he wants to talk to me.

  “Hey Katy!” His joy is almost infectious, “Guess what?”

  “What?” I am somewhat intrigued, despite myself.

  “My work is bringing me up around your school this evening,” he tells me happily.

  Riley works for a courier company. He’s on the road most days delivering stuff across our State.

  “Awesome! Will you get to visit?” I ask, rather excited despite myself.

  I would like to see family right now.

  “I was planning on it,” he says. “I’ll see you soon.”

  He gives the phone back to Mom.

  She begins asking me about boys. Who was that boy she heard the other night?

  Daniel, she thought I called him.

  I inform her that Daniel is not a person I know. She is imagining things.

  This only makes her twice as suspicious.

  She is in the middle of grilling me further when she laughs.

  Riley is staring at a spider like it’s his dinner, she says. She tells him to get rid of the thing.

  I hear him laugh. It’s so happy there on the wall, he argues. Why disturb the pretty little thing?

  She doesn’t find it pretty, apparently. He is to have the thing out of the house by the time she’s off the phone.

  Riley sounds fascinated with the spider.

  I smile. You would almost think that he was an Arachne.

  This is the horrible moment when everything comes together in my head.

  The horror completely fills me.

  Riley.

  I don’t know how I didn’t see it before.

  Charismatic. Someone people love. Someone people will follow. That’s what Andrew said about Rejon.

  Riley has been showing those characteristics since he was in high school.

  He also showed the cruelty.

  This is why he wanted me to join him. Why he didn’t want to kill me.

  We’re family.

  I hear him saying that he will get rid of the spider.

  My shock doesn’t abate.

  He just told me he’d see me soon.

  That’s pretty much exactly what the photograph said.

  Rejon didn’t need to break into my house. He lives there.

  I am about to warn my Mom when the line goes, quite mysteriously, dead.

  I don’t know what to do.

  I need to warn my Mom somehow.

  I need to find Angelica . . . Nate . . . Daniel. Any one of them will do. I need to tell my group who he is.

  I try redialling Mom’s number. My phone, inexplicably, cracks in half.

  I swallow, afraid for her safety.

  He made this happen to my phone.

  Somehow he knows I’ve figured it out. His powers are that immense.

  I run out of my room. I need to find a phone somewhere.

  Waiting at the end of the hall are two people I don’t exactly want to see.

  Tanya and Cairo.

  I begin to back away and run.

  It is too late.

  Tanya puts her hand on my shoulder.

  Her smile is filled with malice. “Goodnight sweetie, Sleep now.”

  *

  I wake up in a moving car.

  The first thing I notice is the rope tied around my body. It is extremely tight and uncomfortable.

  It is chaffing the skin on my arm.

  I can’t move too much.

  All I can do is squirm. Whoever tied this knew what they were doing.

  It isn’t hard to figure out who done it. There are only two suspects.

  Tanya is driving. Cairo is in the front seat chatting happily to her.

  Beside me is Greg. He is still asleep.

  They got him too.

  I feel completely overwhelmed. He doesn’t deserve this.

  Cairo glances back at me. I look him straight in those grey eyes of his.

  I don’t say a thing.

  It is extremely obvious that he is surprised.

  He tells Tanya, with a hint of disbelief in his voice, that I have woken up. At first she doesn’t believe him. The spell she put on me was far too strong, she says. People don’t wake up for days after it.

  This is when I choose to speak, “He isn’t lying. Perhaps you used the wrong spell. You know, you Cezers are awful pests, what with the constant kidnapping and whatnot.”

  She nearly crashes the car.

  I realise then that I really shouldn’t be awake. It causes me to wonder about my powers once more.

  Tanya regains her composure and answers, “Rejon really wants you on our side. I am not sure why but he is insistent on it.”

  I know why. He is my Uncle.

  I am not as afraid of facing Rejon now. At least I know who he is.

  I wonder if he would really kill me.

  He told Greg that he would. This may have only been to get my friend to do his bidding.
<
br />   Still, there is always a chance that it is the truth. He has killed people before without remorse.

  I realise that I am not that safe at all. He was always acting as my uncle before. Today will be my first meeting with the real him, the psychopath who started this cult.

  Greg twitches in his sleep.

  I feel so sorry for him. He will awake to this nightmare also.

  “Does Rejon want him too?” I ask.

  Tanya thinks my question is silly.

  Of course Rejon wants him back.

  The boy escaped after a mere one-round of torture. Then he joined a group of Weaklings.

  The boy has yet to learn the meaning of ‘punishment’. The things Rejon has planned for him are beyond our darkest imaginations.

  I shudder at her words.

  I look at Greg again. I remember his words last night. He said that he was joining our group for ‘safety’ reasons.

  He must have known they’d come for him.

  I won’t let anything bad happen to him. Riley will have to kill me first.

  I will not join the Cezers. Not if they hurt Greg.

  Heck, I won’t join them either ways.

  I don’t know if I’m being stupid or courageous. Something within me just won’t let me join this band of killers, no matter what the odds are.

  Tanya announces that we’re nearly at the ‘Plantation’.

  I can feel the terror within me spike.

  So that’s where they’re bringing me.

  The home-place of Rejon’s cult. I remember Daniels words about his followers here being cannibalistic psychopaths.

  My heart sinks.

  There is no way I’ll get out of here alive.

  Tanya laughs, “Your fear is delicious honey. We should get you all scared more often.”

  Cairo seems a bit more awkward, “It is really nice actually . . . Way better than the average persons. How do you do that?”

  He looks back at me now. In his eyes there is an enchantment.

  I know he is still feeding on my fear.

  I try to be calm as possible.

  I do not answer his question. No one ever told me that my fear tasted so good before. I have no idea why it would taste better than the average persons.

  The rope around my body is getting extremely uncomfortable now. I begin to wish I hadn’t woken up.

  Cairo gives up on me and looks forward again. He urges Tanya to drive faster. They don’t want to miss ‘the resurrection’ today. They’ve been waiting years for it after all. To miss it would be a real shame.

  Tanya seems excited now.

  I am not so happy. Fear grows within me once again.

  Daniel did tell me that they were trying to resurrect some evil goddess. Rejon must have finally found a way to do this.

  I cannot believe how insane my uncle really is.

  How did he manage to hide it from us all for so long?

  I think of my Dad. If only he was here now. I just know he wouldn’t have let all this happen.

  He isn’t here though. I can’t change that.

  I shall have to look out for myself.

  Tanya takes a turn off the road.

  For what feels like miles we drive down a dusty road. There is nothing but fields to the side of us. An astounding number of them seem to be growing corn.

  We pass a shack where an old man is sitting on his porch. He is holding a shotgun.

  Tanya and Cairo wave to him and he smiles back.

  I guess he is the one who keeps a look-out. They don’t exactly want any uninvited guests at the plantation.

  Tanya confirms this for me.

  ‘Billy’ there isn’t the only security they have. Rejon is able to make the whole place invisible to the human eye when he needs to. This is why absolutely no one knows about the place.

  I swallow.

  The odds are bad. Daniel probably won’t be able to save me this time.

  We’re in Tanya’s car. Angelica won’t have a tracker on it.

  Daniel told me to wait for him. I shouldn’t have left by myself.

  I hadn’t even been thinking of the danger. I just wanted to figure everything out so badly.

  Daniel knows I’m gone by now. He would have come looking for me the second he got out of the Principal’s office.

  I wish, in my heart and soul, to see him again. I can’t bear the thought that I won’t.

  We come to a clearing and Tanya slows down.

  My heart beats faster. I am very afraid of what will happen when this car stops.

  There is so much dust rising from the ground now. All I can see are the people who crowd around our car. The outfits are striking. They are all wearing black robes; some of them even have cloaks. Those are the young ones. A five year old girl with perfect blue eyes stares through me. The teenage boy beside her looks scared, he is too pale. They all are. The older one’s even more so, they are dressed like monks from the old days with blood red habits.

  Tanya turns and smiles at me. She tells Greg to wake up.

  He opens his beautiful eyes. It takes about two seconds for horror to fill them as he looks out the window, “Oh no.”

  He glances at me. The fact that they have me too doesn’t cheer him up much.

  I can’t even think of words to say to him.

  Cairo gets out of the car.

  He opens Greg’s door and says, “Welcome home.”

  Greg is violently grabbed and jerked out of the car before I can do anything. I hear him pleading with some people for ‘a bit of mercy here’. It doesn’t seem to be working.

  Greg was my final bit of security. Now he is gone. I find myself screaming for him.

  Tanya grabs me from the car herself. She calls me a ‘bitch’ and tells me that she will get her Daniel back when I’m dead.

  They dated for two years, she says.

  I never knew they were together in the first place. My surprise must be obvious.

  She smiles, “Didn’t he tell you?”

  He really didn’t.

  He must have thought Tanya was human. He would never have been with a Cezer knowingly. She must have lied.

  I must not die. I will not give her the chance to get back with him.

  Tanya tells me that Greg and I really insulted the Cezers with our ‘escapes’.

  We insulted them so much, in fact, that they drag us both into some old grey building to the left of where we parked.

  I begin to protest. Rejon is my Uncle I say. He would not like them to treat me like this.

  They don’t believe me. That’s what everyone says, they tell me.

  I sigh. It was worth a shot.

  It appears that we are on trial for some major violation. The place they have brought us to is very much a courtroom.

  Four men sit at a table that spreads across the top of the room. They are judges, here to decide our fate.

  These judges sit facing the Cezers who have, at such short notice, filled the many seats spread out across the room. These Cezers are here to watch and to have an opinion.

  I know this without anyone telling me. It’s like I’ve been here before. A strange feeling of destiny comes over me.

  I am too afraid to speak. Greg is standing in the centre of the room. He never stops talking to me. He tells me that things will be fine. We will get out of this.

  He doesn’t seem very confident.

  Then he begins cursing Daniel. That boy was supposed to keep me safe.

  I tell him that it wasn’t Daniel’s fault. It was mine.

  He doesn’t seem satisfied with this. Daniel made a promise to him.

  The four judges call a start to proceedings by ringing four cow bells.

  Yeah, these are the people farming those fields.

  The four judges take down their hoods. All of them are bald. Two of them have distinguishing grey eyes like Cairo’s. It makes me wonder if they come from the same family. The third is frailer than the others and has a scar across his cheek. There’s some
thing about him I don’t like. There is only one thing that takes my notice about the one on the very left. His deep brown eyes, they look like my Dad’s used to.

  The first one speaks and his voice is surprisingly shrill and high. “Outsiders do you wish to make a case or shall we slit you open and feed your insides to the dogs.”

  That is not a promising start.

  They are just as nice as I thought they’d be.

  Greg swallows, “We’d rather not be cow food thanks. We’ll make a case.”

  The second judge barks at him to be quick. The special one is coming today. They must clear up this matter; we have so ungraciously brought upon them, before she gets here. Everyone nods at this. That little blue-eyed girl is still staring at me. I feel very self-conscious. The girls around here are all very well covered up, with their robes, especially the teenage ones. I get the feeling that I am showing way too much skin for their taste. A few of the men are looking at me in a way that confirms this for me.

  Greg clears his throat and begins, fully realising that his words mean life or death. “My name is Greg Harshaw. I beg absolutely forgiveness, which I do not deserve, for my abandonment of the faith. This girl here is my friend. I am sure she too begs your forgiveness.”

  Even more people look at me. There were gasps when he said his name. A lot of them seem to know him.

  I realise people don’t often abandon ‘the faith’.

  The second judge is even more worked up now, “How dare you boy! You are a dirty deserter of the ways and shall be put to death. You know the penalty for deserting the cause, it was very much folly on your behalf to do so. To add extra insult you ask forgiveness for a temptress-girl! She has temptress-outsider blood. I can see it in her skin.”

  There are more nods from those around us. A few of them repeat the words ‘temptress’ and ‘outsider’.

  Temptress. It doesn’t take me long to figure out that this is their word for all women from the outside.

  I realise that this is a very in-house operation. They don’t tolerate ‘outsiders’ at all.

  I decide not to speak. Greg knows how these people think. I could make things a lot worse for both of us if I say the wrong thing.

  Greg takes a deep breath and speaks over the few voices that are now baying to see the blood of the temptress which is here before them. “Yes, she may have temptress blood in her, and I may have deserted, but you should not kill us. You see, I believe that it is within the plan of the Great Goddess herself that we should be here, alive, today.”