by E. L. Davis
“Alexia? Hello in there?” Roman was waving a hand in front of her face.
Suddenly, she blurted out, “We are related, we’re blood sisters.” Roman, Demetri, and Ahaz gave her a strange look, while a light bulb went off in Cheri and Ellie’s head.
“Do you really think that’s it?” Ellie asked. “I mean, that was so long ago, Alexia, you think we all still have each other’s blood pumping through us?”
“Why not, Ellie, I mean, what other explanation is there?”
“Does anybody care to clue us in? What do you mean, you’re blood sisters?” Roman was getting annoyed.
“When we were eight years old we pricked our fingers until we bled and then rubbed our fingers together, mixing the blood. That could be it, couldn’t it?” She turned to Ahaz, who seemed to be considering the idea.
After a moment, he faced Alexia and smiled. “Immortal blood is very powerful. They became part of you that day and you became part of them.”
“Exactly!” Alexia swelled with pride. For once, she knew the answer to what was going on. She was beaming, looking at everybody else’s expression. None seemed to be quite as thrilled that they had figured it out. “What? Why do you all look unhappy to know what caused this?” Nobody spoke for a long time. “Come on, you guys.” She looked at her friends. “Think about it.” She got up and walked toward them. “We never have to deal with one of us dying, and we never have to worry about losing one another! Why are you not more excited about this? You thought a trip to Greece would be fun, we now have all the time in the world to see every inch of the universe!”
“It’s not that they aren’t excited, Alexia.” Ahaz placed a hand on her shoulder and his touch made her jump. “They are in shock.” She recalled how she had felt when she realized it was true that she was Immortal, and how she had thrown up in the kitchen sink. Her friends probably felt similar, and she felt like a bad friend.
“Are you going to be sick? Should I help you to the bathroom?” Her joy had been washed away and replaced by guilt. Maybe they didn’t want to be Immortal, or maybe they were mad at her for causing this problem. Perhaps they regretted ever being such good friends with her. Alexia started thinking the most horrible thoughts.
She imagined her friends leaving the house in the middle of the night without so much as a goodbye. Then she imagined them yelling at her when they finally snapped out of their trances. They would say something like, “You caused this, Alexia. If it wasn’t for you, we would be able to grow old and die.” She knew her mind was running wild, but she couldn’t stop it.
“We’re fine, Alexia, I’m just amazed that something we did as little kids… turned into this.” Ellie seemed distant. Even though they were sitting right in front of her, their minds were a trillion miles away. Alexia didn’t know what to do. She felt like crying and running. She felt like throwing something or smashing something. She felt like shaking her friends to make them realize how many good things would come from them all being Immortal together.
“Maybe we should stop this little gathering,” Ahaz wisely suggested. “I know you have many other questions, but they can wait until a better time.”
“No!” The words had barely left Ahaz’s mouth before Cheri protested. “Why are we in danger? This is our second day here and we still don’t know much about why we are in danger. Silos told Alexia that Amarantos, or whoever the hell it is you replaced in The Union, wouldn’t stop until Alexia was dead. He wanted them,” she pointed at Demetri and Roman, “to suffer the ‘ultimate punishment’.” At the mention of what Silos had said, Alexia remembered she still hadn’t filled in her friends about what else he told her, that which she wanted to keep a secret from Demetri and Roman, about how the man told her they were lying to her about how she became Immortal.
“Amar never wanted the Punishment Games to end,” Ahaz clarified, “and that’s why he wishes to kill Alexia.” Roman froze and his face went white. Demetri clutched the edge of the chair and looked to the roof while mouthing the word ‘why?’
“The what?” Alexia looked around in confusion.
“The Punishment Games… the fight for your love…” Ahaz was speaking to her as if this was the most common piece of knowledge in the world. It didn’t make sense to her at all, but then again, nothing seemed to make too much sense in her new life as an Immortal.
“The fight for my love?” she looked over at Demetri who had sunk low in his chair and wouldn’t look at her. His bed head hair that she may have thought was cute didn’t even distract her for a second. Roman was beet red and looked like he was about to burst into explanation, but Ahaz spoke before Roman even had the chance.
“Didn’t you wonder how you became Immortal, Alexia? When they told you, you never thought to ask how you died?” She backtracked to the moment where she had been told she was Immortal. She hadn’t believed it at first but then right after she realized she was Immortal, she threw up in the stainless-steel kitchen sink. Then Cheri couldn’t find a glass to get her water and she got super angry. That was when they realized that Cheri and Ellie were able to use the anger defense too. No wonder she hadn’t thought to ask, as she was too focused on her friends.
“Right after I was told was when we realized Ellie and Cheri might be Immortal too, so it was driven from my mind… What happened to me all those years ago? All you told me was that something ‘went wrong’ and I was put into reincarnation… is there more to it than that?”
Ahaz turned his gaze on Demetri and Roman, and he looked angry. The colors of his tired eyes had darkened slightly, a warning of rage. If the chair Alexia was sitting in hadn’t been so heavy she probably would have inched away from him. The longer he glared at them, the darker his eyes got. Maybe he was just trying to scare them, but it looked like he was about to lose all control.
“I am afraid my time is being wasted here,” he said to Demetri and Roman. “If you don’t wish to be honest with the girl, then perhaps you do deserve to be punished until the end of time. How do you expect her to understand why she is in danger if you are keeping her in the dark? You’re lying to her about everything, aren’t you?”
Before turning to leave, he looked back at Alexia. “You deserve a fair chance against the dangers that are coming for you. If they continue to lie to you about your past, you won’t stand a chance against Amarantos.” He threw Demetri and Roman one last disgusted look before spitting out, “Ask them to be completely honest to you about how you died three hundred and fifty years ago, and they will tell you how they caused your death.” With the snap of his fingers Ahaz was gone, leaving the remaining eyes to fall on Demetri and Roman.
∞ CHAPTER TWELVE ∞
It took Alexia a moment to catch her breath and then she was out the door in an instant. Running, running away from what she desperately didn’t want to be true, running away from her friends who would soon be consumed by rage and most likely attack the people who had caused Alexia’s death. She had never been this fast before; perhaps it was the anger pumping through her body that caused her to rocket past trees and jump over fallen logs that she barely had the time to see. The trees had gotten so thick, she expected to fall flat on her face, but she didn’t.
Before she knew it, the trees were starting to thin out again, and she had run through the whole forest. She came out of the trees and into a field of high grass. In the center of the field was a small mobile home. It wasn’t ancient, but it wasn’t new. She noticed two men standing outside the home, and before they saw her, she ducked down into the high grass. It wasn’t fear that caused her to duck down into hiding; she just didn’t want to fight off anybody right now. Without a doubt, the anger that was pulsing through her body would cause her to beat them to a living pulp and she didn’t want to get covered in blood this early in the morning. Even though they were far away, she could hear what they were saying if she strained her ears.
“It won’t be long until they have to leave that house. They can’t keep her locked in there forever.” The
man’s voice was rough like he had been smoking his whole life.
“You know what they are doing in there though, don’t you?” The second man’s voice sounded young, much too young to be involved in the execution of Alexia.
“I’m not stupid, and neither is Amarantos. They will be training her to use the defenses against us and no doubt to use her own.”
“You believe it’s true then?”
“Amar says it’s true, so I believe it.”
Frozen in the grass Alexia prayed silently that they would mention what her ‘special defense’ was supposed to be. She knew Demetri was super fast and Roman had mentioned something about having heightened hearing. But not once had they mentioned to her that she would be getting her own special defense. And how did Amarantos know what it was, if Alexia didn’t even know what it was yet?
Wasn’t your special defense supposed to come to you after you became Immortal? Was it possible that when she was still a Tera, before she had died and was sent into reincarnation, that she already had a fourth defense? With all these questions running through her mind, she knew she would have to go back. Back to the house where the people who caused her death were surely getting beat by her best friends.
∞
After Alexia took off, Demetri and Roman braced themselves for the worst beating from her friends. But it never came. The girls stared at them, waiting for some sort of explanation or perhaps waiting for them to go after her. Nobody moved for a long time, and Roman knew there was no use to go after Alexia, since she could be miles away by now. Demetri knew there was no use in explaining to Cheri and Ellie when they would only have to repeat the story to Alexia when she returned.
Demetri was running over the story in his head, trying to decide the best way to tell her what happened so long ago. He wanted to tell her it in a way that made him look like it wasn’t his fault. He planned to put most of the blame on Roman, and truthfully most of the blame had been on Roman, but he knew that her death was partly his fault, too.
Roman had been doing the same thing in her absence. He tried to find the words that would make her see how guilty he felt. He wanted her to see how much it pained him to have her be reincarnated over and over, never knowing who he was. He had to find the words to tell her how much he loved her then, and most importantly, to find the words to tell her how much he loved her now.
There was a light knock on the door and everyone shot out of their seats. Of course, Demetri reached the door first, and when he looked through the peephole to see Alexia standing there, he wrenched the door open. He looked her in the eyes for a moment, trying to get a sense of how she was feeling, but he got nothing. She searched his eyes for that magnetism that she always felt when she looked into them, but she got nothing. Without saying a word, he stepped aside to let her in.
The feeling of everyone’s eyes on her would usually make her feel empowered, but this time, it wasn’t because she was rocking a new outfit to school. Without saying anything, she looked at each person, trying to feel out their emotions. Ellie and Cheri were anxious. Roman and Demetri were nervous. Before taking a seat in the living room, which seemed to have been the place where the biggest life-changing stories came out, she went into the kitchen. Nobody followed her, as they didn’t want to put any pressure on her. It took her a minute, but she finally found a tall glass and filled it with ice cold water. She downed the whole thing and then poured another one to take with her.
When she went back into the living room, they were all sitting stiff in their chairs. Roman sort of looked like he was bracing for an explosion of accusations. Even though there was still an empty armchair, Alexia took a seat on the soft carpet and crossed her legs. With her glass of water beside her and the hardwood floor just behind her in case she had the urge to throw up, she finally spoke.
“I want to know everything.” Both boys jumped at the opportunity to tell their side of what happened. Alexia held out her hand to motion for them to stop talking. “I’m assuming you both have your own sides to the story. I don’t want some sugar-coated version you have thought up to make it seem like it wasn’t your fault. I just want the truth.” They both sighed and looked at each other a moment before nodding in agreement. It was as if they had passed a message to each other without even speaking.
Roman began, “Three hundred and fifty years ago, we all lived in Greece in a small village that was mostly populated with Tera’s. In case you haven’t caught on yet, that is where our people originated from. You lived right up the street from us, if you could call it a street back then, and our families were very close. We spent a lot of time together growing up. You had an older brother then and he was our best friend. When we were younger, we used to pick on you a lot, since you were kind of like the little sister we never had. But as we got older, things changed.
“You weren’t that little kid that we liked to pick on anymore. You were that teenage girl who suddenly was beautiful and graceful and attracting the attention of many other guys in the village. I would be lying if I didn’t tell you that you were the most beautiful girl any boy, man, or elder had ever seen. It didn’t take long for Demetri to swoop in on you and, of course, it made me jealous. You were so innocent, and it took you a long time to realize how hard Demetri and I were fighting for you.
“You were probably about sixteen when you finally clued in to our feelings for you. Then you changed, the innocence left you, and you started playing both of us. One day you would be hanging around with Demetri, flirting with him and kissing him when you couldn’t be seen. The next day you would be with me, flirting with me and kissing me when we couldn’t be seen. I believed that when you were with Demetri it was still that brother and sister vibe that we all had when we were young, and it was only after you died that we realized you had been leading us both to believe you truly loved us.”
Roman stopped speaking and motioned for Demetri to take the lead on the grand finale.
“It was the day after you turned seventeen and I was taking you to this cliff right by the water. It had the most beautiful view. You were, as always, beautiful, your hair was blowing in the ocean breeze, your skin was glowing in the sun, and I’ll never forget how beautiful you looked. As we usually did when we were alone together, you were kissing me, and you were more forceful than ever. I thought it would be that moment when, you know…” he paused “we would… uh…”
“Do it?” Ellie suggested.
“Thank you,” he blushed, “and then Roman appeared and he was furious. There was never really reason for us to be angry back then, as we were both so happy because we believed that we had you all to ourselves. When he saw us together, he lost control and he hit me, which made me lose control, too. You tried to stop us, but it’s hard to stop a Tera once they lose control. You could tell that we were getting dangerously close to the edge of the cliff and you were pulling on us, pleading us to stop, but we continued rolling around on the ground, beating every inch of each other we could reach. Then Roman went to punch me and missed, hitting the cliff hard. When we get mad and lose control we are so strong, especially when we don’t lose control often, and it was one of the first times for both of us.
“The power of it broke the edge of the cliff right off, and we all fell down into the jagged rocks, and, well, died. Of course, we didn’t really die, and we knew that when you died you would see an explosion of white light and your whole body would go into a fit and then, when it stopped, that was it, you were Immortal. We searched for you in the water, but couldn’t find you. You had disappeared. At first, we assumed you made it away unharmed and swam away from us in anger. Neither of us heard from you for the whole night, and when your mother came to our home in a panic because you had not been seen for hours, we had to tell her what happened.
“They took us to the Union immediately. We didn’t understand what was going on. We knew there was no way that you had died, as that would have been impossible. Amarantos was the leader then and he was the one who told us one rule
that we never knew about Teras and Immortals. I’ll never forget the feeling that took over me when he told us; it was horrible.”
Roman took a turn now. “He told us that when a Tera causes another Tera to die things can go wrong, you were sent into reincarnation. Amar was furious, he had a witch curse us and he started something called The Punishment Games. Basically, we were already bound to you, by the third defense, but with the witches help Amar was able to shut that defense off and turn it back on when he wanted us to find you.
You never remembered us, but every time, you fell for one of us. They loved watching us struggle against each other to make you ours. When one of us won, they let us be with you for a while, but then they would… they would kill you. Once again, our third defense would be turned off and you would be born to another family. When it was time, they would turn the defense back on and we would find you. This has been happening to us for the past three hundred and fifty years, all for their own amusement.
“This time around, most of The Union wanted it to be the last round. They weren’t amused anymore and believed we had been punished enough. Amar, however, disagreed. To his dismay, The Union made an overall decision to end The Punishment Games. He told them the curse would never end if he was in power. The night we came to Java’s to get you was when he was voted out of The Union and Ahaz took his place. Now he is after you because he doesn’t want our punishment to ever end. When Amar was voted out, the curse automatically ended, and you finally became Immortal.”
They had been speaking for so long that Alexia usually would have zoned out, but she clung to every word. This was it, then? This was why she felt a special connection to Demetri and Roman, this was why she got that déjà vu feeling around them all the time. Three hundred and fifty years ago she had played them out, making them think that she was loyal to them and them alone. She had the feeling history was repeating itself.