Prisoners of Prophecy

Chapter 19

Kai - Saturday, July 20th; 2019

Most of my waking hours were spent at the gym, using what little weights and various exercise equipment that they had there. Excitement had left me restless. No matter how much I exerted myself, that energy seemed to come back ten-fold. I felt as if I could run for hours, uproot trees, topple houses. The thought of the power I would surely soon have was the only thought on my mind.
The moment the Sun began its descent to the horizon, I was rushing to my room to shower. Once the time had come for the moon to rise above the trees, I was outside again. Making my way to the house.
That excitement did not go away, even though I was rapidly making my way across the field in the fading light, alone. I was on a roll; I was floating on the wonderful things that I saw in my future. The sight of the derelict house sent fear through me, but that fear was dull, instinctual; as if it were something I had learned from my mother, who learned from her mother, and so on. A generational fear. An ancient fear. Now, it faded into unimportance beneath my haste to meet my fate. My new beginning.
Despite the urgency that I felt to get inside, I forced myself to stop and look at the house. To look into the darkness beyond its shattered windows; to take in its sagging shape and know that it was much larger and much stronger than it presented itself. I studied the crumbling brick foundation, the rotten porch, the fallen shingles, the shards of glass that sparkled like piles of fallen stars in the moonlight. Remembered it. Challenged it.
I took a deep breath, took the few stairs up to the porch, pushed the door open, and went inside.
     The silence of the house caused my confident steps to falter briefly. The atmosphere was the opposite of what it had been the night before. The place felt empty. Deserted.
     "Hello?" I asked the abandoned home. My voice bounced off of the walls. "Anyone here?"
     The door at the end of the hall swung open on rusted hinges. It struck the wall with a dull thump, and closed itself back, but only halfway. Orange light poured out from behind the door, illuminating the hallway.
     I hurried down the hall, that moment of unease slipping my mind like it had never been there at all. I threw the basement door open again, and it hit the wall hard enough this time to turn the old plaster there into dust. I took the steps two at a time, squinting in the suddenly bright light, trying to see anything at all. Where'd this come from? My own thoughts sounded distant and unimportant. Why couldn't I see it before the door opened? Like that door is solid steel and not falling apart? Those things flew by without much acknowledgment. Being careful not to trip did not cross my mind. The only thing that I could think of was what tonight would bring me; and what could possibly be putting out so much raw power.
The weak wooden steps gave way to the basements stone floor.
"Greetings, Kai," a booming voice exploded from everywhere. It echoed off the walls that I couldn't see. It shook the ground beneath my feet.
I closed my eyes tight against the blinding light, against the debilitating energy that was insistently pressing at both my body and my mind.
When I opened my eyes again, the light was not gone, but it was no longer unbearable. For the first time, I could see the entire basement clearly. There wasn't much to see - just four rough stone walls that looked older than the rest of the house, and a puddle of wax in the center of the floor. For a moment, I could not tell where the light was coming from.
Then, he was stepping out from behind the stairs, moving slowly, his hands held out in front of him, as if in surrender. He had to crouch to get beneath the staircase, and I didn't realize how tall he was until he stood up straight. I uttered a gasp which I tried to muffle by clapping a hand over my mouth. He must be damned near eight feet tall! I thought, awed. He was twice as wide as I was, and his biceps looked to be the size of my head. He was dressed plainly in a white shirt - which clung tight against his muscular chest - tucked into a pair of blue jeans. He wore no shoes. His hair was unkempt and ruffled, the same dirty blond as his thick beard. To my surprise, he didn't look much older than me, his handsome features chiseled and youthful.
That light was coming from him. His very aura appeared to glow brilliantly. And that light was full of the absolute power in this massive man's very existence. I could feel the alarming force of it seeping into my pores, traveling at impossible speeds through my veins. It took my breath and made my heart race. The pain and ecstasy that enveloped me fought for dominance in my jumbled mind.
This giant of a man lowered his hands slowly, studying me with his strangely vibrant green eyes. He dipped his head in a silent greeting. "It's nice to finally meet you."
"You... You're a God?" I blurted weakly when I could finally find my voice.
He nodded again. "Yes. I'm Rapa, the God of fire and war."
Awe that was spotted with a deep, ancestral combination of fear and respect consumed me. Though I could see him, could even physically feel his divinity and incomprehensible age, disbelief kept trying to push itself to the forefront of my overstimulated mind. Part of me - the sane part, the one who still heard his parents tell him there were no monsters under his bed - wanted to deny that I was in the same room as someone who radiated the very concept of the infinite.
But, even with that overwhelming sense of fragility, of losing my mind, I was consumed with an irresistible confidence. If insecurity were a wall, my pride was the wrecking ball that would destroy it. A God, I kept chanting in my mind. This is a God.
"Will we rule the world together?" I questioned without realizing I was going to speak, in a tone that was somehow both sure and full of doubt.
He took a step forward - with his long legs it brought him three feet closer to me. Kneeling, he still wasn't much shorter than me. Though the movement seemed but a welcome in a foreign language, I was flooded with an inconsolable horror as well as daunting fascination.
"Kai," Rapa said sternly. "I have honored you with abilities and strengths no other mortal will ever possess. I trust in you to use that wisely. Don't make me regret that." When he finished chastising me, he stood up again. I had to lean back and look up to see his face.
"I will," I spoke slowly, afraid my fear might seep into my tone and make me seem weak. "But isn't that what you're here for? That guy, Achiq - he said you needed our help to be as strong as you once were. So we'll rule the world." Despite the conflicting emotions bartering my mind, hearing the words spoken aloud caused a wave of excitement to run through me.
He took a large step backwards, appraising me with his bright eyes narrowed. "Yes, I may not be how I was in my greater days. And, with your help, I will have the ability to grow powerful once more. But, during the great time that I have existed, I never had the desire to rule the world. No matter how easy it would have been." He spoke to me like he was punishing a misbehaving child and not talking of conquering an entire planet and the billions of people on it. There was also a dull but powerful anger in his gaze that I did not like.
His words came as a shock to me. I couldn't believe that a God - this giant of a man that emitted a supernatural energy so potent that I could feel the heat of it on my skin - did not want to be worshipped so greatly. The very idea of it easily consumed my thoughts if I were to ponder on it for too long.
"Then why do you need my help?" I asked.
"The tribe dying out meant we had no one to believe in us. We thrive on the faith of our people. Them dying meant a part of us died as well." When he spoke of the tribe, the hard glint in his eyes softened slightly. "And we don't have the strength to bring that faith back to us. Not alone."
"Does that mean I'm more powerful than you right now?"
Rapa's look grew guarded once more. "Like the tribe, we no longer have the ability to be on Earth. Their spirits are trapped here. In a way, so are we. This is the space between our worlds and yours. Though there are some things we can do to affect Earth, we cannot physically be here. Except in this place." He raised one bushy eyebrow. "Now, are you done with your questions?"
     My heartbeat, which was already racing, started to pound unforgivingly in my chest - to the point where I was afraid it might break right through my rib cage. I had noted that he had avoided answering the question directly, and it made me wonder if, in some way, that I was stronger than him. Than a God. And that knowledge chased away some of the bewildered terror his presence instilled in me, replacing it with an almost delirious excitement.
     "What if I don't help you?" I continued to interrogate him, despite his obvious annoyance with it. "Will you die?"
     The anger that suddenly appeared in his gaze was frighteningly intense. If his size and his aura was not enough to prove his divinity, then the sparks burning holes in his emerald eyes slammed that reality home for me. Those sparks grew until both of his eyes were entirely red. I flinched away from that unbridled rage, but that confidence remained. The energy coming from Rapa's emotion seemed to fuel it.
     "I will never die," he snarled. "But I want people to believe in me, to have faith in me. It's a wonderful feeling - one you may never know, considering your ambition seems to lack nobility." He paused thoughtfully for a second, sighing. "I hope we did not make a mistake in giving mortals such power." Fixing me with his fiery red gaze, he said the next words slowly, as if to make sure I wouldn't forget them. "Without us, you would have died in your mother's womb. I can take you out of this world - much easier and much less graciously, at that - just as I allowed you to come into it."
     I resisted the immediate urge to defend myself, as I often did. I despised the way Rapa was now looking at me; looking down at me, like I was nothing but an ant he would crush with one foot just for being in his way. It hurt my pride. Deep down, I knew that that really was the undeniable truth. It hurt my pride, though.
     But, I could also see that he was feeling the same way. His anger, though, was deadly; it was raising the temperature in this room horrifyingly fast and making my throat close, my breathing becoming whistling gasps.
After a moment of silence, Rapa dipped his head, as if satisfied with what he saw in my expression. "I've given you the strength to defeat entire armies," he began in his commanding tone. "Don't you dare abuse that. We need you, but I will not hesitate to punish you if you do. You understand me?"
I nodded, stunned speechless with his statement. I was frightened by the intensity of his rage and what I was sure he could do to me, but that persistent confidence still battled that fear. I felt myself starting to wonder how strong I actually was. What was the extent of my abilities?
"What I ask of you is to be ready. The moment the time comes, you all will have to fight. I'm trusting on you to fight the hardest. To defend your people. You can do that, can't you?"
I nodded again, more energetically this time. Though Rapa's gaze seemed to burn holes into my very soul, and the immense power in his presence had over me left me cold with terror, the thought of fighting for Gods was enough to make me giddy with excitement.
I opened my mouth to ask who we'd be fighting, but he held up a large hand to silence me. "Listen to me, Kai. I can see things in your eyes that I don't like. Don't let it get in your head that you can overcome us. Hunger for power is the downfall of many. You don't have to rule the world to be a hero."
"I'm sorry," I mumbled, averting my gaze from his incriminating one. I suddenly felt like a kid who'd been caught drawing on the walls. My defiance had finally succumbed to my horror. His divinity was robbing me of my oxygen, of the ambition that had made me feel almost godly myself. What was left was a terrible exhaustion that sunk into my skin.
"Don't apologize." Rapa now spoke in a softer, forgiving tone. "Just take what I said with you. And think on it." The blazing red color of his irises disappeared and were replaced with the bright green they had been at first. He sighed heavily, his broad shoulders sagging. "I must go. It takes a lot out of me now, to be here. We have some more time to talk and to train. But I fear it might not be much. I'll need you to come here and visit me in a week.
"Until then, Kai." His booming voice echoed for a moment, even after his huge form flashed out of existence, as if it had not been there at all.
Darkness flooded the room in his absence. The heat that had emanated from him left with him, and the basement's chill suddenly seeped into my bones. The deep tiredness I had begun to feel now consumed me entirely. Rapa's power had invaded every bit of me, and feeling it being drained from my system was like drowning under a layer of ice and seeing the sky above slowly turn black.
The shadows were choking me. I could not muster the supernatural flame that usually came to me with ease. Panic stole my breath and made my heart beat against my rib cage unforgivingly. I hated the dark. It made me feel trapped. Useless.
And now it reminded me of Melany; that dark intent in her eyes as that darkness swarmed around her like an army before trying to suffocate me in its endlessness.
I managed to force my weak legs to carry me, as quickly as I could, out of the unnervingly murky, quiet house.
Calypso and Illisha were outside. They were standing forty feet away, and didn't come closer until they had noticed me. Calypso's long legs brought her across the distance in moments, Illisha trailing a couple steps behind.
"What happened?" Calypso asked as she met me in front of the old porch. Her pale eyes glimmered with both moonlight and intrigue. "Did you meet one? A God?"
I felt so drained that any excitement I had left had briefly dispersed. All I desired now was sleep to clear my mind and give me my strength back.
But, Calypso had asked me a question. And no matter how weak I was, I would give an answer. I could not do anything else.
"Yes," I croaked. "I met one. His name is Rapa, and he's the God of war, or something like that."
I heard Illisha gasp softly. She was looking at me, her dark brown eyes wide, like I had just turned into some sort of divine being myself. Her mouth hung agape, an expression of shock that might have been comical in another situation.
Calypso had been looking over my shoulder; looking at the house. Now, she glanced back at me, brows narrowed in thought. "Did he hurt you? You don't look too good, man." She stated sincerely.
"No," I sighed. In my head, I chanted, Please just let me go. Stop asking me questions. Just let me go.
I wondered briefly if that was how Rapa had felt during the time in the basement, which already seemed a million years ago.
     I shook my head in a vain attempt to clear it. "No," I repeated. "He didn't hurt me. Not on purpose, anyway. He's just so... so strong. Took a lot from me to be around him, I guess."
     She nodded, like such a crazy statement made perfect sense. "Well... What did he say?"
     I hesitated. I didn't want to admit I had been chastised by him for my arrogance, or that he had threatened me with my life like it was worth nothing. It was enough to have my pride bruised by his anger, but for them to know about it, too? I didn't think I could handle that.
     After a pause, I shrugged. "He seemed in a rush to get somewhere else. He said we'd have time to talk and train next week. All he said was that I needed to prepare to fight.
     "Oh," I added, almost as an afterthought. "He mentioned that I would have died at birth if he had not chosen me for...for this." I threw my hands up in the air, unable to find a word for whatever it was we had been chosen for. "So that means your crazy idea was true after all. It's been happening a while."
     Calypso's eyes - silver under the clear sky full of stars - widened. "Since before we came to the school," she muttered dreamily, almost as if she was talking to herself. "Since Xantara has been a kid. They made us this way." Her voice had grown sad and distant.
     "So?" I exclaimed impatiently, but deep down that sadness in Calypso's tone, and what she had said, had unsettled me. "Did you hear anything else I said? We're going to be fighting. To save Gods. Can you imagine what shit we'll have to go against? Because I can't!" Speaking of the battle that seemed to be imminent sent renewed energy through my exhausted limbs.
     "I can't, either," Calypso responded, calm once again. "But, we have time to prepare for that. The rest of us haven't spoken to them yet. There's surely more to learn."
     "You think we'll all talk to Rapa?" Illisha questioned tentatively.
     Calypso's gaze was pulled from me to her, and for that I was grateful. I let out a breath I hadn't noticed I had been holding. "I'm not sure," she answered. "Achiq said there were six Gods. And there are six of us. Our abilities, I guess... They're all different, too. From what we know of them. It would make sense, maybe, that we gained those abilities from each one of the Gods."
     "It doesn't make sense," Illisha mumbled under her breath. " But I guess it does, in this situation. Oh, what have I set myself up for," she groaned.
     "Who's going next, then?" I asked.
     "Actually," Calypso started, giving Illisha a smile that appeared to fluster her, before looking back at me. "She wanted to go next. So we both came here, to make sure you came out alright."
     "Really?" I blurted, surprised.
     Illisha looked down at her feet. "I guess I just wanted to get it over with. I'm kinda having second thoughts now."
     Calypso spoke in a comforting tone that eased my tension. "You'll be okay. But, I'm sorry to say, I don't think this is nearly over."