Red Flame

Chapter 1

I woke up with the sun shining on my face. I could barely open my eyes. I had just turned 21 and I guess I stayed out all night. It was such a blast. The party, my friends. I had two girlfriends, Jen and Leah. Both were party animals. Oh, I'm Gabrielle Mitchell. I was now of legal age. I was in my third year of college, and I loved Greek mythology. I always had my nose in the books. When  I was six a book appeared in my room. It was decked in princess decorations. The book had been laying on my bed. 'The legends of Greek mythology.'

Ever since that day I've been into Greek mythology. My mom thought is was unusual, but I was getting a masters in Greek mythology so that I could open a museum of my own, based on the mythologies I read everyday. She didn't judge me though. She said I came to them when they needed a child most, I knew I was adopted. I figured my parents had a good reason to drop me off at their door. Maybe a single parent who couldn't do it alone. But my mom and dad were always so nice to me. They loved me and I loved them. I even had a little sister, her name was Anna. She was sixteen. I was five years older than her. My mother had 2 children, and couldn't have anymore. Anna Grace was my best friend. She did everything with me. I didn't care that she was so young. She acted older. And she knew what she was talking about. She was the more quite teenager. She had two friends who were nerds. They loved the Greek mythology stuff too. Gods, and goddesses. Power and mystery.

Anna knew everything about them too. She loved the story of Thor, the one where he defeated Thanatos. I loved the stories of Loki. He was misunderstood to me. No one knew that. I never told anyone, that was my secret. In some ways, when Loki changed, it upset me, I loved the mischievous Loki. The tricky and sneaky Loki. But I was sneaky too. At Anna's age, I snuck out and went to a party. I actually lost my virginity there, to a jock. He didn't mind that I loved mythology. We dated for a year after, and then broke up. I was tired of all the same things. I don't like routines. I wanted something unexpected.

"Gabbie, we will be late," Mom yelled. I looked at the time, oh, 9:02am. We had exactly 28 minutes to get to the new museum that opened in town. We were all going to the historical museum. My family loved history, real history, and this had both. I wanted to see the Mythological history. So I dressed in skinny jeans, a black off shoulder top, and some sneakers. Being edgy was my thing. And my parents didn't mind it. I didn't get into trouble, so they didn't care.

I ran downstairs where mom was waiting for me. Dad was in the car and Anna was with him. She was always the first one out the door. I didn't live with my parents, but I stayed a week or two over spring break. I lived in a small town in New York. It was very small. The weather here was like 60 degrees. Because it was middle of April. Spring break was fun. This was my fourth day home, and we were on our way to the history Museum. We all loved history, all of us were nerds. Dad was a scientist, but he loved history as much as me. Mom was an archaeologist, but she was working from her lab. We had a huge two story mansion. We were pretty rich. But we were nice, and didn't flaunt it.

"Who's excited for this?" Dad asked. I smiled hugely. Anna grinned at mom. They didn't get to excited, it would ruin the mood for us.

"Well we know Gabbie is, and I don't blame her, she loves mythology, as much as Anna," Mom said. Anna was holding her excitement. In the book I read, They sent the gods children to earth, to protect Hades daughter from being killed, she was important. She was supposed to be the most powerful being because Hades actually slept with a powerful Sorceress and she had a power like no other. She was different from anyone.

"And we are here," Dad said turning in. I was excited, so much I jumped out of the car before we came to a complete stop. Dad braked hard.

"GABRIELLE," He yelled loudly. I apologized to him. Everyone else followed my lead, and walked along the blacktop. The museum was huge and not to mention, new. It had been built in November of last year, and to be honest, I had never been inside.

We got to the door and I was so excited. Mom and dad paid for all of us to go in. When I walked in, their were two sides, one for American history and the other for Greek history. And I looked at Anna, we smiled at each other in excitement. Mom and dad were looking around. There were statues of different people, and creatures, from Jefferson to Poseidon. It was amazing. I was so in love with this place, ad I hadn't seen but just the front.

"Okay, mom, dad, I want to go the the Greek History section, with Anna, we can meet in the middle," I said. They looked at each other.

"Okay, but keep an eye on her Gabbie," Mom said. I nodded and grabbed Anna's arm. We ran to the Greek history side on the right. I was in love already.

The first statue was about twenty foot tall and it was Zeus. His plaque basically told that he was the god of thunder and lightning. He was noble. And his face was bearded, a crown upon his head. The next statue was Poseidon, he was around twenty foot tall too, he had a crown on his head. His plaque stated he was the god of the seas. He held a trident.

The next in line was Hades. He had a crown, but he held a staff. He had a very thin beard, Goatee. His eyes were sad. He looked regrettable. Like whatever happened during the war, he regretted. But as I looked at him I felt some, connection to him. It was uncanny. The world faded out.  I could only see his statue, I couldn't hear anything. My world began to get fuzzy, until Anna grabbed my arm. She pulled me out of whatever daze I was in.

"Next up," I said. Athena, god of war, crown with jewels. She was strong and powerful.I loved how she was a woman and so powerful. Men aren't the only ones. Next was Odin, bearded, staff, He died in battle. His son Thor god with hammer and strength. Also controls lighting and Thunder, took over, as king or god. Next was Loki, he was proud and strong, had a head piece on with long horns on it. Plaque said God of mischief, fought along side of his brother. So beautiful. No one knew the truth, and no one would ask. He seemed sad to me, but strong. His father death couldn't have been easy. But looking at his statue, I didn't know.

"Okay, lets meet mom and dad," Anna said grabbing my arm. I smiled and followed her. We met in the middle where the café was. Weird they would put a small café in this place.

We ate lunch together, and then we left. After seeing the rest, It was getting darker. The night made me eerie. I always felt that way. But I was with my family and that was okay. But on our way home, dad made a pit stop to his lab. He needed something. We didn't argue with him. Mom said she was going in with him, to make sure he didn't get into trouble. Yeah mom, okay. I was not born yesterday. Anna decided to put some music on. We loved singing together. We also loved movies with singing in them. If we weren't studying we were singing together.  A song we knew all to well came on the radio 'You don't own me.' We loved this song. So empowering.

"Don't tell me what to do and don't tell me what to say." We belted. She sang the harmony. When the song finished, I heard a noise coming from the back of the lab, sounded like someone knocked over a trash can or something. Anna heard it too.

"What was that," She asked. I shrugged.

"Stay here," I said. I opened the door. I heard the click behind me where Anna locked herself in.

I slowly walked towards the back of the building. It seemed, quite now, but you never knew. My adrenaline was running to my head, and my heart. I felt my heart pumping so hard, my fear was that someone would be back here making noise to get me back here, just to kill me or kidnap me. But when I looked, there was no one. I couldn't see anyone. I turned to go back, when Anna popped up in front of me and about scared me to death.

"Anna I told you to stay put," I said, She wasn't speaking at first.

"I know but then I got scared for you, and I just couldn't help it," She said. I sighed and relaxed. I grabbed her arm. We walked to the car together. We got back in the back seat and relaxed, until mom and dad joined us back in the car. Moms hair was some what of a mess. We knew what happened. I've been down that road. They smiled at us and then we drove back home.