||Chapter 17 ~ Part 2||

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Something moved near the entrance of the temple, drawing Momo's attention from her thoughts and back across the square. She squinted through the smoke. And her insides chilled.

In front of the building, four darkened figures had appeared from the smoke. It was too dark to see their faces, but Momo knew them: her mother and father's tall, delicate frames, Tokoyami's raven head, and Kyouka Jirou's cropped hair.

A sickening horror wrapped around her heart, squeezing until Momo could barely breathe. She knew what this illusion was now. This was her dream, the nightmare that had been haunting her since their arrival on the island.

Momo's heartbeat raced loudly in her ears as she stared dizzily across the plaza at all the people she had considered important in her life. She had known Overhaul's powers could draw from her memories, but this was too much.

Momo clenched her hands into fists until she could feel her nails sinking into the skin as Momo tried to control herself. This wasn't real. Her parents were dead, and Jirou had been taken away. This was only a nightmare. She needed to ignore this scene and figure out how to break Overhaul's spell. But she couldn't tear her gaze from the dark shadows.

As Momo starred transfixed, the figures moved. Momo's parents stepped forward towards the burning temple.

"No! Don't go!" Momo shouted. Unconsciously she moved forward, and her foot caught on something. She fell, her knees scraping against the stone road.

Momo looked down at what she had tripped over, and her eyes widened in panic. A disjointed hand lay underneath her sandal.

Momo drew in a sharp breath. She jerked back. But the hand was alive. It reached out, and its bony fingers caught Momo's chiton.

She screamed and kicked out.

The arm let go and dissolved back into the ground.

Momo scrambled to her feet. But there was nowhere to go; the plaza was suddenly filled with the dead. They had risen out of the shadows and lay sprawled in distorted poses; their faces were frozen in horror and pain as if they were victims of Medusa's curse.

For a moment, the corpses lay where they had appeared. Then their bodies twitched, and they lunged across the ground towards her.

Momo gasped in terror. She stumbled back. A decomposing corpse reached for her, and she kicked it away.

"I'm dreaming. I'm dreaming. I'm dreaming!"

Momo pushed another dead body away. Her heart was beating so hard; it felt as though it were being bruised inside her chest. This was all a distraction. She needed to wake up. There had to be a way to break Overhaul's spell.

Around her, the temperature dropped rapidly. Momo's body grew heavy as she fought to keep the dead from pulling at her, but it got harder and harder. There were too many. She couldn't keep going on like this; she needed help.

Momo's gaze darted up. Tokoyami and Jirou were standing in front of the temple, watching her struggle.

"Help! Please!"

She knew they weren't real, but still a part of her desperately hoped they would respond. But Tokoyami and Jirou didn't answer, only continued to watch dispassionately as the dead closed in on her.

Fright beat in Momo's chest. She was trapped. All alone.

'No one is going to come for you.' A voice like grinding stones hissed.

Momo looked down, and she choked. Her heart stalling as she met the lifeless eyes of the head priestess of Apollo's temple.

Unbidden, Momo's mind was suddenly filled with memories of her life in Troy — beatings, loneliness, and cruelty. This woman had allowed that, even encouraged it.

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