Prisoners of Prophecy

Chapter 17

Cato - Friday, July 19th, 2019; 9:45pm

     Calypso stopped abruptly in the anxious line she had been treading, back and forth in front of the house. The rest of us stood facing her, watching her raptly. Between her alluring presence and the house's growing magnetism, we had become frozen, even awe stricken. I felt close to some sort of divine epiphany, and the thought was more horrifying than exciting. She commanded all of our attention instantly by only addressing us with eyes that reflected the sky, therefore looking like two small moons themselves. Her hair had turned silver under the light of the stars.
     After she examined us all, her gaze landed on me. "I would understand Melany being late, maybe not even coming at all. But Kai?"
     I nodded. "Kai seemed to have been looking forward to this. It is kind of concerning that he hasn't showed up yet."
     "Hell, he should have been early," she remarked.
     "Maybe they're coming together," Illisha suggested shyly.
     Calypso shot her a doubtful glance at the same time Xantara spoke up from beside me. "I don't really see that happening," she said worriedly. "They're okay, right?" she asked Calypso.
     Just then, another sound emerged from the constant song of the crickets and the calm breeze gliding between the branches of the countless trees that surrounded us - the sound of two sets of footsteps coming closer. I spun around at the same time the wind started to pick up. They all followed my movement, Calypso coming to stand beside me.
      Kai and Melany were moving towards us, Kai treading a little behind. He was eyeing her closely, even a bit suspiciously. The nearer they got, the more that the reality of this settled in for the final time. I would have doubts on sleepless nights, but no more. Though this was not the first time we had all been together, it was the first time we had come together willingly. Knowing that we were a group with a purpose. It was an eerily beautiful moment which felt both like a tumultuous ending and a new beginning. The whole world seemed to respond to it. There was no sign of a storm, but thunder rumbled all around us. It appeared to shake the ground minutely. The growing breeze had a deep chill to it, despite it being a warm July night a few moments before. Lightning flashed purple in the distant sky. Electricity filled the air.
     Xantara broke the silence. "Melany?" She exclaimed. "What happened? Are you okay?" She hurried towards her.
     Before she had stood in front of Melany and hid her from view, I noticed the nasty welts on her arms below the ragged ends of her short sleeves. They were burns. I looked to Kai, my heart sinking. He had walked past Melany slowly, not letting his eyes off of her until he was out of her reach. Then, he looked to the ground and started making his way to the porch.
     I stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. He glanced up at me. The fear in his eyes was unusual, and it only made me dread what his answer may be even more. "What happened?"
Calypso shoved me aside to stand in front of him. He seemed to shrink under the ferocity of her stare. Her voice was rough with fury. "What did you do to her?"
Though he seemed to be afraid of more than just Calypso's anger, there was still a hint of arrogance in his tone. "Ask her what she did to me."
Me and Calypso shared a confused glance. Before she could interrogate him further, Melany had come to join us. Xantara and Illisha weren't far behind. Standing together, in a tight circle, in front of the abandoned house, sent a chill through me. In the brief silence that had fallen during the shocking feeling of their proximity, two words repeated in my mind, not feeling like my own thoughts but one placed in my head by some unknown force. It's time. It's time. It's time. The presence of the basement tugged at my limbs and at my racing heart.
     There was no fear coming from Melany, unlike what I had expected. And trying to delve into her mind was like trying to walk through a cold and solid wall of stone. The look in her eyes - as deep and blue as the untamed ocean - was even a little frightening. The scared, shy Melany that I had met in a time that already seemed so long ago, was gone. What had replaced her was a haunted but sane woman, one who had found herself in an impossible situation and conquered the terror and doubt and turned it into a formidable strength.
     "Seems we had a little bit of a disagreement." Melany said simply.
     "A disagreement?" Kai scoffed, but the short look he gave her was guarded. "She came to this school acting like she was better than us, like she didn't know what was going on here." He was talking to me now, almost even pleading. "But she sure does know about whatever evil powers she has!"
     "Kai," Calypso hissed. His focus was instantly and entirely her's in an instant. "When will you learn to stop putting all the blame on someone else? She is not the only one here with inhuman abilities, and I'd say that we are all evil for even having them. For using them like we did. And we all see the burns on Melany's arms. What happened?" She backed a step away from him and turned her gaze to Melany. "What happened?" she asked again.
     It took Melany a moment to respond. She had been studying Calypso's features as if she were engraving the image of her into her mind to remember forever. Then, she cleared her throat. "He came into my room, angry. I guess he thought I might not come here tonight and wanted to make sure I did." She threw her hands up defensively. "I didn't even know anything about any superpowers or whatever, honestly. Not until he was trying to attack me with his." She put a hand to her forehead and sighed heavily. "I don't understand. How can any of this be possible? When are you going to tell me that all of this is some stupid joke?"
     "And you thought that would surely bring her here, do you?" Calypso roared at Kai, ignoring Melany's last couple questions. "What were you -"
     Melany put a hand on her shoulder, and to my surprise it silenced her immediately. She turned to look at her with her alluring gaze momentarily stunned. "There's no reason to chastise him now. I'm sure he won't do it again. It wasn't just him, either, I don't think." Her gaze flicked to the house and quickly back to Calypso. "It was this place, too. And it wants us inside. Might as well get this over with."
     I could finally see her terror, swimming in the murk of her eyes. She had pushed it down deep into the recesses of her mind, hiding it there until she had the time to process it. I both pitied and admired her. "I'm sure he won't do it again", she had said. "- whatever evil powers she has!", Kai had said. I could only wonder what she had done, for her mind was gated off by a strength I hadn't known of until her. And she was right.
It's time, my mind was still chanting.
"She's right," I repeated out loud. "We've got to go in. Whatever it is, it's getting impatient."
Calypso dipped her head in assent. Wordlessly, she turned to look at the dilapidated house. Even what I thought of as our fearless leader was uneasy. She took each step slowly, the wooden stairs creaking ominously in the otherwise quiet night. I followed. Melany hesitantly filed behind me. Xantara was next. Illisha came after, and Kai took up position at the end of the line. Watching Calypso disappear in the dark doorway made my stomach churn.
Walking into the house was like discovering another world. It took my breath away for a few frightening seconds. The voices that I almost always heard were rarely above nonsensical whispers, but tonight it sounded as if the house were full of chattering guests. I could only discern separate conversations if I focused on them so hard that my head would throb, and what I could hear either made no sense or was just enough to make me feel like my sanity was on the verge of shattering. There were plenty of "Hello!'s" and "Welcome!'s" in the midst of countless voices, but there were other things that hinted at our purpose and our future - things I couldn't grasp. In the deep darkness, the hallway appeared to stretch on infinitely in front of us. The size of the rooms off to either side of us seemed to have grown drastically. I had an unsettling image pop into my mind of crowds of ghostly figures filling every suddenly monstrous room, conversing and having drinks in the dark. Inside the house was impossibly cold, and it smelled of mildew and stale cigarettes and old books. All the presences in the place weighed down on me heavily, causing me to move slowly.
     The loud voices fell silent abruptly. I could hear Xantara mutter, "Shit!" under her breath before they came back as if they had never stopped at all.
     "Look! Her!" I heard a stranger exclaim before the rest of their sentence was lost under the chaos of all the others.
     "Are you okay?" Melany asked, having to raise her voice above the noise. "Oh! What happened?"
     I stopped, my stomach lurching at the sound of the fear and worry in her tone. I turned around, trying to study their shadows until my eyes would focus. Melany was facing Xantara, reaching for her face.
     "What's going on?" Calypso's voice sounded miles away. Then, her footsteps - only a couple - brought her so close behind me that I could feel her intoxicating aura sink deep into my pores.
     A small light sparked to life somewhere in front of me. It took a few seconds for me to realize that it was a flame dancing on the tip of Kai's finger. It hardly broke the shadows deeper into the house, but it did illuminate all of our pale, terrified faces.
     There was a collective gasp as our gazes fell on Xantara. Melany was gripping her shoulder, her dark eyes wide and concerned. The scars that had just shown up on her cheeks a few days ago had split open. Blood spilled down her neck and onto the collar of her shirt in thick rivulets. She was staring dumbly at her hand, which had been stained with blood from where she had smeared it across almost half of her face. The bright red against her alabaster skin briefly made her look like a corpse, and it was hard not to flinch away from the image.
     "Oh, god," Kai exclaimed. The flame cast shadows over his shocked expression. "Are you okay?"
     Xantara didn't answer until Melany asked, "Is it real?"
     "I don't think so." She spoke slowly. I thought that I saw a flash of white teeth behind her frayed skin, and I hoped that my mind was only playing tricks on me. "I don't feel anything. Maybe it's just a part of this. Let's go on."
      "Go on?" Melany asked incredulously. "We can put this off, can't we? You're bleeding a lot."
     In the short look they gave each other, it seemed they shared a thousand words. Melany's shoulders slumped, as if in defeat. It was hard to read any emotion on Xantara's bloody face, especially with the wounds looking like a permanent and gruesome ear-to-ear grin. But her solid black eyes softened with a care I don't think even she fully understood. The small moment was both beautiful and unnerving. I had not noticed until now the bond that they had formed in such a short time. I wasn't sure that they knew the magnitude of it yet. The house was bringing it out. It was as if they were surrounded by this forcefield of stunning energy that no one else could quite enter.
     Then, the moment was over and the reality of the cacophony of voices all around, which sounded like they were multiplying, crashed down on me once again. Xantara was almost yelling over them now, strands of bloody spittle flying from her lips and running down her chin. "We don't have a choice now. Let's go!" She shoved Melany gently, and, like we were one, we all faced the closed door at the end of the hallway and started towards it.
     Calypso pushed the door open slowly. It creaked shrilly on rusted hinges. The darkness that greeted us made the rest of the dim house seem welcoming in comparison. It was like the house held a portal into the endless infinity beyond everything. I could feel everyone crowding close behind me, peeking around me to take a look into that abyss. It was like staring into the open mouth of some giant monster, ready to swallow us whole.
     And we were going to let it.
     Calypso turned to look at us, her pale face ghostly in front of that dark, dark doorway. "Is everyone okay?" She shouted over the noise which was sounding less and less like a party in an old house and more like screaming.
     The sound of all of our doubtful agreements were hardly audible.
     "Grab onto each other," Calypso said as she took hold of my hand. Her touch sent a bolt of electricity through my veins so debilitating it took a minute to regain my composure. "It feels so... so big in here. You feel it?" No one answered, but Melany grabbed onto the back of my shirt and balled it tightly up in her fist. Her hand was as cold as ice.
      "Kai, please don't burn me, okay?" Illisha begged quietly.
     A second passed and what little light there had been was gone. I could see nothing but utter blackness all around me.
     Each hesitant step we took was synchronized, a steady beat below the continuous shrieking which was growing louder. I felt my way carefully down the stairs into the basement. It was freezing down here, but somehow, Melany's touch seemed colder.
      We made our way to the bottom of the creaking staircase, each step bending dangerously under the weight of us.
     An eerie silence came over the room the instant the last of our feet landed on the stone floor. In the basement - which seemed to stretch, forever, in all directions - that quiet felt timeless. Not even a breath broke it. Goosebumps covered my skin. 
     After a pause, we wordlessly shuffled around. I couldn't see anything, but I was still certain that we had formed a circle around the puddle that used to be a candle. Like we had done many times before, but never with all six of us. The final group.
     "Any time, Kai," Calypso mumbled. Her voice shook slightly.
     "I... I can't!" He exclaimed frustratedly. "What the hell is going on?" His deep voice echoed loudly off of walls that I couldn't see. I could feel the fear coming from him in waves.
     An intense pressure fell upon my shoulders. The air had become difficult to breathe. I wanted to run from the power that was flooding the cold room, but I couldn't move. I was sure that there was something here; I thought I could feel many pairs of eyes on me.
     I flame sparked to life in the center of our tight circle, but it didn't come from the candle - it floated a foot above it, coming from nowhere. It grew quickly. We all stumbled back from the large fire, which was already my height. I flinched away from the sudden heat of it, backing up until I was pressed against the rough stone wall.
     "Hey!" Calypso yelled over the roar of the flames. "Stop that! What in the hell are you doing?"
     "I'm not doing anything," Kai said. Now that the room was illuminated, I could see that he was also cowering against a wall, looking at the fire as if it would pounce on him at any moment.
     "Do you see that?" Illisha asked.
     I peeled my gaze away from the blaze just to see that her wide eyes were locked on it as well and turned my focus back to it. At first I couldn't see anything. I had started to ask Illisha what she was talking about when I finally did. There was a face made of the fire it was floating in, drifting in and out of comprehension. The craters of its eyes were like burning pits of Hell. I was afraid soon the heat from it would char my skin and the absurdity of the sight of it would drive me insane. The power that I had felt creeping into the basement was now so strong that I thought the whole house would explode.
     "You are all here." A deep, booming voice cut through the roaring flames. It shook the floor. The heat had disappeared though the size of the fire did not. The chill was back in the air.
     A short silence passed before I realized that Calypso was studying me expectantly. I tried to keep my eyes on the constantly morphing and hard-to-see figure in the blaze, trying to find my voice. "Who are you?" I questioned timidly. "What are you here to tell us?"
     "Ah, Cato." The flame danced. "It is nice to finally meet you. And the same goes for the rest of you. I am Achiq. I was the last leader of a tribe called Hawaykaw."
     "Why are you here?" Calypso asked. I did not have to look at her - and could not, for the apparition in front of me and the strength it possessed had frozen me - to feel her shock and desperation. It had been easier to accept these things before, but now that the time was here, I could feel from all of us that we had not prepared at all for something like this. Something that felt so important. "Why us?"
     "My tribe met a sudden and untimely end." There was a heavy sadness in his powerful voice. "That time is now only a blur in what little remains of my memory. We died, and the Gods almost did, in a way, along with us."
     "Gods?" Kai questioned skeptically. Fire reflected in his hungry eyes.
     "You have six Gods, yes, Kai. And they have chosen you to help them - and us - to come back to our former glory. To have another chance. Our souls are lost in a space between life and what greets us after.
     "We just want our freedom. Our peace. And our Gods to reign again, and forever more."
     As the shock began to course coldly through my veins, numbing my body, Calypso asked the being more questions. "Chose us? Why? What do you think we can do?"
     The fire, which had slimmed and started to resemble a large human figure, flickered and moved in a small circle in the center of the room. "As I'm sure you've already learned, each of you have qualities that mortals don't usually possess."
     We all shared an uneasy glance. Calypso returned to gawking at the inhuman thing before us like it might disappear in the blink of an eye. Melany and Xantara, who huddled together against the opposite wall, started to reach for each other's hands.