by Mary Ting
“Mason! Where are you?” I hollered over the noise.
“Sky!” I heard, but I couldn’t locate where he was.
A shoe appeared in my sight…jeans…then a brown sweater. To my relief, I saw that Mason was fine, but I wasn’t. Something was pulling me. I could feel the strong tug on my body from behind me. When I turned to look, I could see a hole that was getting bigger, and endless darkness that would swallow me up. I tried shooting with my volts, fire, and even water, but whatever was holding me would not budge.
“Mason!” I screamed.
“Sky. I’m coming.” That was what I heard.
The kitchen’s double doors shot open. Nick’s eyes went from Mason crawling on the floor, and then to me. He tried to enter, but the wind wouldn’t let him in. Every time he stuck his feet or hands inside, it pushed him back out. Everett, Hades, and Zeus tried to enter as well, but the same thing happened to them.
I managed to give Mason my hand when he extended his arm to me. Planting his feet a distance apart on either side, he wrapped his arms around my body like a blanket.
“Let go, Mason, or you’ll end up sucked in,” I said aloud.
“I’m not letting you go, Sky. Don’t let go, you hear me? If you go, I go. Don’t you remember? Wherever you go, I follow. My heart lives inside you. When I count to three, light up with everything you’ve got. Give me your best love shock, baby. One…two…three!”
Mason’s body glowed with mine, making the intensity of the volts light up the whole kitchen…so bright that our light took up every inch. Mason and I were thrown, sliding, across the tile floor. Everything in midair dropped to the ground, and the wall closed as if nothing ever happened.
Our hearts pounded against our chests in unison, as our breaths escaped in relief. Fear written on our faces had been replaced by disbelief. Still on top of Mason’s body, my muscles began to relax, but I couldn’t help the tremors that controlled me.
“You didn’t have to make a mess in the kitchen and give us a show. All you had to do was let us know you wanted to be alone,” Nick joked, then his tone changed. “But seriously…both of you okay? And what the hell was that?”
Mason helped me up. “Are you hurt?” When I shook my head, he turned to Nick and Everett. “I have no freakin’ clue. Do you know, Hades? Zeus? You have enemies, don’t you?”
Hades’s eyes flamed up. He really needed to learn how to control that. “Are you blaming me?” He leaned in, standing in a challenging stance.
Nick pushed his way through the narrow space between Mason and Hades. “We’ve got a huge problem and we’re not adding more mess to this mess. We’re opening in one week. We need to get our shit together. Zeus, please ask the Oracles to come here. We need them to investigate and find out what caused the black hole. Meanwhile, I pray this doesn’t happen again.”
“Nick is right,” Zeus added. “Let’s try to clean this place up and find some answers. I’ll ask the Oracles to come here.”
Mason and Hades backed away, turning their backs on each other at the same time. We all started to clean up the mess. I grabbed a broom and swept the broken dishes to a pile, then picked up some utensils and placed them on the stone counter. But while I was cleaning, I couldn’t help the panic creeping along my spine. My muscles became tight and I couldn’t shake the fear growing inside me…building up until something burst through the wall. Chunks of wood and cement were thrown across space.
Something hard hit the side of my head, knocking me down. My vision became blurry and humming sounds filled my ears. Dazed and dizzy, I managed to hold onto the counter and pull myself up to see…what in the world? I blinked my eyes because it was so unfathomable; a giant fist had punched through the empty black space. It happened so fast that my judgment was out of whack.
“Mason!” I screamed from the top of my lungs. The huge hand was so big that it had completely wrapped around Mason’s body with its fingers. I could only see Mason’s head and his arm pressing on top, trying to get out. Lunging toward it, I was able to jump on it and held onto Mason’s arm.
The hand vacillated from side to side, knocking and blocking others from helping Mason escape. No matter what we tried to do, there was no effect.
“Get out!” I tugged and yanked the top finger as I felt it sliding back into the hole.
“I can’t,” Mason said, trying to twist and turn to loosen himself. “I can’t even light up. Sky, get down.”
“No, Mason.” I grabbed his hand, panicking, as terror pricked achingly through me. “Don’t let go. Wherever you go, I follow, too.” I was afraid for Mason. We had no idea what had happened, and not knowing what it was or where it came from was the worst. We wouldn’t even know how to search for him.
“Mason! Hang on. I’ve got you.” I heard Nick holler, while shooting out his energy. Everett threw pots and pans at it, and Hades busted out his fire. Zeus, without his staff, shot out lights from his hand, but it was all to no avail.
Mason didn’t look afraid. He was more concerned about me. Damn him! For the first time, I needed him to think about himself. “Let go, Sky. You can’t come with me. I love you, Sky. Sending you a love shock, baby.”
“Mason, noooooo!”
Mason was determined not to have me follow. Using all the energy he could muster, he sent me his love shock, causing me to fly through the air and land with a thud. Something else came flying with me, but I didn’t know what it was and I didn’t care. My engagement ring fell in front of me, spinning, just as I cried out for Mason. My Mason was gone!
“Mason!” I cried, running to the wall just as it had closed back up. I pounded my fists desperately against it, like I was playing the drums and I wanted the whole world to hear my agony…until I could feel no pain…nothing…because I was in a state of shock. The blood from my hands marked the wall over and over again.
My mouth parted to cry out, but no sounds escaped. All I felt was the wetness on my face, streaming down faster than I could blink. Someone grabbed me from behind, forcing me to stop beating the wall, but that didn’t stop my legs from kicking and my arms from flailing, trying to get back to the wall.
“Let it all out. I’ve got you.” It had to have been Hades’s voice, because Nick and Everett were cussing and hammering against the wall. I knew their pain, because it was my pain too.
Lighting…water…fire…all three energies were shooting out from me, but Hades had lessened the impact by holding me with all of him.
“Nooooo!” I heard my cry. It came out like a balloon finally letting out the air, softly, then louder. “Mason!” I continued to reach for the wall, as if I could go bring him back.
Hades kept me in his arms, and when I had no fight left in me, I turned to him and bawled my eyes out. Pain had swallowed me so tightly that there was no way out. My lungs hurt from all that screaming and crying, but I didn’t care. My Mason was gone. He was just…gone.
“Sky, we’ll find him. We’ll search to the ends of the earth to find Mason,” Nick seethed through his teeth. I couldn’t see what he was doing since I had my eyes closed, pressed on Hades’s arm. Too shocked and worn out, I had no life in me to move.
“Stay with Sky. I’ll go get the Oracles now,” Zeus said to Hades.
“Do you have any idea what or who it could be?” Everett asked.
Neither of the gods said a word. I dabbed my eyes with my sleeve, and caught Hades’s eyes when I peered up to see why he hadn’t answered. The fear in his eyes told me he knew.
“I do,” he said finally, looking at Zeus. “It was Cronus, our father.”
The air was still, and not a breath was released. Mason was in the hands of the worst beast there was. Hades’s tone alone expressed that he was frightened beyond anything measureable. My heart stopped and fear crushed my soul, and I prayed Mason would be found quickly, and unharmed. There was nothing I wouldn’t do to find Mason…nothing.
I gently pushed away from Hades’s arms and said, “I’m coming with you. We need to tell
the other gods and my parents.”
“Wait. There is someone else.” Zeus showed us a golden apple in his grasp. “This came through just as the portal closed.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“The only person I could think that would throw a golden apple would be Eris, the goddess of chaos,” Zeus answered, looking baffled. “She was angry when she wasn’t invited to King Peleus’s wedding. On that day, she warned us of the day that would come to destroy us all. She also warned that Hades would curse us. I think she was referring to the vultures. Just before she disappeared, she tossed a golden apple down the middle of the aisle and said ‘This belongs to the fairest.’ She caused confusion and chaos that day.”
As I began to grasp what the gods had told me, something in me changed. I pushed my pain away, for Mason’s sake. I needed to shake out of it. I had already wasted time crying. Mason needed me to find him, and that was what I intended to do. It was time to be the descendant I was meant to be; after all…I was from the origin.
“Cronus…I’m coming for you,” I seethed under my breath, feeling energy run through me in anger. Though I was deathly afraid, I had to be strong for Mason. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for him. I was ready...I had to be.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Author Mary Ting resides in Southern California with her husband and two children. She enjoys oil painting and making jewelry. Writing her first novel, Crossroads Saga, happened by chance. It was a way to grieve the death of her beloved grandmother, and inspired by a dream she once had as a young girl. When she started reading new adult novels, she fell in love with the genre. It was the reason she had to write one-Something Great. Why the pen name, M Clarke? She tours with Magic Johnson Foundation to promote literacy and her children's chapter book-No Bullies Allowed.
Website: www.authormaryting.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CrossroadsBook
www.facebook.com/AuthorMaryTing
Twitter @MaryTing
Email: [email protected]
Blog: www.marytingbooks.blogspot.com
Follow Mary Ting & M. Clarke on Goodreads.