Prisoners of Prophecy

Chapter 18

Xantara - Friday, July 19th, 2019; 10:22pm

     I reached for Melany's hand at the same moment she was grabbing onto my own, squeezing like she had been drowning and I was the only thing now keeping her afloat. Her touch seemed to send bolts of electricity through my veins, as comforting as it was odd. Her skin, which was as cold as ice, kept my mind clear enough that my panic would not drive me mad.
The moment that figure made of fire had appeared, I had been filled with a terror that froze my limbs and brought my rationality to shambles. Not even the feeling of the constant current of blood running down my face and soaking my shirt had shaken me as much as the presence of this otherworldly thing had. I could have been dying and the importance of that would be second to seeing this... this thing; this creature of an age I would never understand, possessing a knowledge which I would never come close to grasping. I had seen Kai create flames from nowhere so many times that it had become normal to me. But this was different. It had showed up and turned its burning gaze directly at me and nodded. It had acknowledged me. And, even, to my surprise, the slight movement had somehow been a respectful one. Then, it had began to talk about the most bizarre things I had ever heard. Freeing tribes. Freeing Gods. I had known tonight would blur my reality even further than it had been already, but being chosen by Gods? That seemed outright impossible.
     "Our Gods are only strong enough to speak with us here, in this sacred place," Achiq was saying. "But they deserve to roam freely as they once did, to rule and to keep our people safe. And you can help. They would like to speak with each of you before this continues. They wish to meet each of you alone first, for it may come as a great shock to you, and we do not wish to overwhelm you with everything at once."
     "I'll go first," Kai blurted. The fear that I had seen on his expression as he had tried to make himself as small as possible in the corner of the basement as we all had done was gone. Now, he was standing tall and smiling. I was annoyed with his arrogance but also shocked by how quickly he could dismiss how insane it all sounded and turn it into some sort of game. Or fight.
     "The power of Gods!" He said proudly, looking around the room at each of us. "Can you believe it?"
The blazing pillar in the center of the room - which sort of looked human but at the same time like nothing I had ever seen before - inched towards Kai, as if blown by an invisible breeze. "Beware of what you possess," Achiq warned him in a powerful voice that demanded all to listen. "Nothing comes without a price."
Then, that flame seemed to rotate, to spin in my direction. It - no, he, I reminded myself - danced closer, and I could finally see what this unbelievable apparition had been hiding. I could not discern his features entirely - but I could see the shape of his broad shoulders and long torso; the hint of his legs moving behind the illusion of the fire. I could see that his eyes - though they were a scorching red and flickered like two pits of Hell - were full of both torment and unending respect.
And, to my disdain, he seemed just as lost as we were.
He stopped a couple of feet away, and bowed deeply. Part of me wondered briefly if the others were seeing him as I was. The other part - the part that still seemed distant but familiar, powerful - was sure that they were not. His fiery eyes, which sparked with emotions I could not define, were on me only.
"Xantara," he greeted me, speaking my name in a low tone that caused goosebumps to prick my skin. "They would like you to be the last to come."
I forced myself to swallow the refusal that had almost come from my mouth. Whether there was a flaming ghost addressing me or not, I wanted to scream that this wasn't real, none of it, and that it never had been, until whatever nightmare I was trapped in would release me. At the same time, I knew that it would do no good. It was just the way that he looked at me, like there may be hope. And there was something deeper, too - something I'd be happy to never know.
     "Could I ask why?" I finally managed to ask, feeling that Achiq would have studied me expectantly until I had given him something.
     His bright light dimmed. Grew weaker. "I'm afraid I can't say much about that. It is not my place." He floated back to the center of us all, his shimmering form throwing unnatural shadows on the walls and across our stunned faces. "For now, my time is done. The Gods look forward to meeting you."
     And then Achiq was gone, darkness flooding the basement disarmingly quickly. My grip on Melany's hand tightened. For a few moments that dragged on like hours, everyone was silent. The voices were no longer deafening, as they had been when we had first entered the house what felt like decades ago - they weren't audible at all. I was numb with shock. I wasn't sure what to think, or how to feel. There was a brief sense of grief that flowed through me. I wondered if it was grief for the person that I had been only minutes ago. That person was gone now.
     "Is everyone okay?" Calypso's soft whisper broke the quiet. I let out a breath I didn't realize I'd been holding.
     On the other side of the room, a small flame flickered to life and died out again instantly. For a second I was sure it was Achiq, coming back to tear the fabric of our reality even more. Or, maybe, he would bring back the Gods this time who he said needed our help. Now that would be something, wouldn't it? My frail mind wondered helplessly.
     But, when the flame came alive once more, this time a bit larger and brighter, I noticed that it was dancing above Kai's upturned palm. His eyes were wide and scared. "Finally," he sighed in relief. "I thought for a moment that that thing had taken away my power for good."
     Now that the room was slightly illuminated again, I could see that it was once again just the six of us. We looked around the room with confused and horrified expressions, squinting our eyes as if we had been stuck in the dark for much longer than a few dragging seconds.
     All of us except for Melany, who was staring at Kai with wide-eyed amazement. "That's the first thing you're worried about?" She exclaimed, seeming to have momentarily forgotten herself how insane what had just transpired before us was in her shock. "Did you even hear anything he said?"
     "Well, yeah," Kai chuckled. "We're going to be rulers! The whole world will know of us!" He stood tall, puffing out his chest and grinning handsomely.
     "You're getting ahead of yourself," Cato warned in his deep, stern tone. "We have no idea what will become of us."
     "Yeah, and I want nothing to do with it." Melany surprised me with the anger in her tone. It was harsh, unforgiving. "What kind of Gods think that the best way to get us together is to make us all murderers? And, more than that, what do they think we can do? Come on, guys, you can't tell me this makes any sense!"
     I turned to her, fear suddenly causing my heart to race erratically. I let go of her hand and placed both of mine on her shoulders. Her dark blue eyes looked black in the murky basement. "I know that this is unfair. Ridiculous. But we can't give up. You know that, right?"
     For a moment I was sure she was going to take off, run away from us and from whatever had brought us here. The hard determination in her eyes was insistent and stubborn and strong. I could see she was fighting with the impossible, as all of us were. But she was full of a rage that was bubbling in the surface of her gaze, one which chilled me to the bone. If she ran, what could we do then? The thought came to me suddenly, and it sent another blade of fear through me. She's strong. We might could do it. But not without her.
     That certainty came and went in a flash, but it had been there. And what made me so sure of that? The question only terrified me more.
     After a brief silence, Melany took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly. Her gaze softened. "I know. It's just... It's crazy. I know it's real, but it doesn't feel like it should be."
     I hadn't noticed that Calypso had come to stand next to us until she spoke. Her tone was soothing, and it sent a pleasant chill through me that both relaxed my nerves and left me dizzy with longing. "It's alright, Melany. We're all scared. But we're all here for each other, too. Let's just all sleep on it. How about that?"
     Melany nodded. She pulled her gaze, which had clouded with a similar lust, away from Calypso's, to give me a small smile. She then started up the stairs first, seemingly unafraid of the darkness that would surely greet her upstairs.
     I gave Calypso a grateful glance before following. The rest trailed after us, Kai's flame enveloping us in a small dome of light.
     The house's emptiness was eerie. It did not feel as if the voices had just been silenced, it felt as if the presence of all those countless spirits had just simply disappeared. The place seemed deserted. Worse than that, it seemed dead.
     Outside, a storm raged. How had we not heard that inside? I wondered, but only for a moment. Thunder roared and rain pummeled the already muddy ground ceaselessly. Jagged stripes of purple lightning shot across the clouded night sky.
     "Where'd this come from?" Kai asked.
     Before anyone could respond, Melany walked out from under the poor shade of the porch and started across the field. Without looking to see if anyone else was coming, I went after her. My clothes were soaked through almost instantly. I trailed her a few steps behind, studying her tense shoulders and the stiff way she walked. She left a mixture of fear and anger in her wake, and getting too close was like getting a glimpse into her soul. It was hard to see much of anything in front of us between the night and the downpour, but she led us easily, as if it didn't bother her any.
     There was a moment where I was afraid there would be a guard waiting for us inside, and that he would wonder where all of us were coming from - us six young adults who looked like they had seen a ghost and fought the storm outside to get away from it.
But when Melany opened the door and the only thing that greeted us was the familiar dim hallway, I had not been surprised. It seemed as if the whole school had been deserted just to make sure tonight would happen. Achiq claimed the Gods needed our help to be as powerful as they once were. But were they still strong enough to wordlessly convince the entirety of ShadowWood to stay inside for the night? I thought it could be possible. Anything could, couldn't it?
When we all stopped with Melany at the door to her room, she turned and looked at us cautiously. "Can I help you?"
Calypso spoke up then. She laced her words with that comforting yet commanding edge that I didn't think anyone could refuse. "Let's all come in for a moment, please?"
Melany opened her mouth as if to refuse, and it snapped back closed immediately. She nodded and unlocked the door, swinging it open and stepping aside to gesture us inside. "Sure."
We all filed into Melany's room. Calypso shut the door behind us. Melany collapsed on the couch. I sat down beside her. The rest of them gathered around us.
For a moment the only sound was the water dripping onto the floor from our wet clothes. Then, Kai spoke, running his hand through his ruffled hair. "I don't see why we're here. We all saw it. We all know what happens next."
The rage on Calypso's face was intimidating, even though it was not directed at me. At the same time, it made her unearthly beautiful. I fought both fear and longing beneath the force of those pale gray eyes - which seemed to even have streaks of purple flashing across them like the lightning in the sky. Part of me despised the fact that her allure was just as strong, even after talking to a supposed messenger of the Gods. But I could not resist it.
And though my terror of the future made it impossible to focus on anything else, I caught it being diverted anyways - to the droplets of water looking like diamonds on her ivory skin, and at the way her clothes clung to the shape of her body...
In a movement so fast I hardly saw it, Calypso had reached out and shoved Kai's huge form towards where Melany sat next to me. He stumbled forward, though it didn't seem to me that she had pushed him that hard. She spoke through clenched teeth, her rough voice drilling both dread and awe into my mind. "We won't be here long. But we need to get some things straight." She went to Melany's side and fixed Kai with her fiery gaze. "First, you need to apologize to Melany."
"But -" he protested.
She narrowed her eyes and he was silenced instantly.
He exhaled heavily. He pulled his attention - with visible effort - from Calypso to Melany. "I'm sorry." The apology seemed forced, but then his frustrated tone softened and the truth came out. "I thought you'd be too afraid to come, and I wanted this badly. I want to be powerful. Respected. But I could have gone about things differently."
Melany rubbed her arm, below one of the burns that Kai had caused. I felt a pang of anger at Kai. But Melany eyed him levelly, even dipped her head in respectful acceptance. "I can't blame you for it. We have no choice but to follow the rules, and that's what you were doing."
Calypso watched her as she spoke. It was almost as if she were admiring her. I was sure that if Melany had noticed, she wouldn't have been able to form a single word.
Calypso then regarded everyone in the room with eyes that no longer sparked with anger but which were still just as formidable. "We're stuck in this. I'm sure we're all having doubts. So we need to get over our differences and disagreements right now. Throw them out the window. Because we're a team."
We all muttered our assent.
It couldn't have been longer than a couple of minutes that passed where we stayed silent, but they dragged by torturously slowly. In that silence, the only noises were the muffled thunder, the heavy rain pelting the building, and mine and Melany's breathing - mine quick and ragged, her's slow and steady. My whole body trembled with a desire to run until I couldn't anymore. Whatever it took to get as far from that basement as possible. The days of meeting in the basement - just five of us then - wondering what was asking for us down in that cold room was over. But the unknown still stretched vastly ahead.
Melany's pained voice startled me out of my panic. "He said the Gods were only strong enough to talk to us in the basement. I don't know if that's true."
"What do you mean?" Cato asked from his position by the door.
"If they are that weak, why do I feel like they would stop us if we tried to leave?"
"I'm sure they would," Illisha sighed forlornly.
"You told me that you thought we'd have a fighting chance." Melany turned to look at me, piercing me with large, blue eyes that were so dark they appeared almost purple in the dim light. "Do you still believe that?"
"I don't know what to believe anymore." I answered desperately.
"We have to try," said Cato. He was addressing us all, but his one hazel eye was on me. "We do have a chance. We wouldn't be here if we didn't."
There was another thoughtful pause.
Then, Calypso nodded once, as if satisfied. She looked to Kai. "You want to be the first? To talk to them?"
"Of course I do!" Kai answered, seeming alert for the first time since being out of that basement.
She shook her head. "Of course you do," she scoffed. "Well, I guess that's it, then. You'll go alone. Tomorrow. And I'd like to see you afterward."
"Do you think we'll come back alright?" I surprised myself by asking.
Calypso's gray stare fell on me. It was somehow both soothing and unnerving at once. "I expect us all to. It seems they need us."