Prisoners of Prophecy

Chapter 21

Illisha - Sunday, July 21st, 2019; 5:19pm

I took one last look at them before I turned and went the other way. Though the barrier between us was invisible, they appeared to be a whole world away.
I trudged towards the house on legs that wanted to give out under my weight. Since meeting the others, I had noticed that each of them had a magnetism about them, a strength that I did not see in myself. Cato was smart; Cato could hear the whispers better than anyone else; Cato could read minds. Kai was strong, and could conjure fire just by thinking of it. Xantara was charming and protective. Calypso could bring anyone to their knees with a glance. Even Melany, who I had not known long, had something about her which I could not place but could feel. Despite her calm - albeit a little shy and frightened - behavior, there was a darkness about her. Some darkness with a strength I could not fathom.
     I felt out of place in the group. Weak and useless. I had no special ability, no charisma. What could I possibly do to help something so grand, so infinite.
     The front door was wide open, as if the house were inviting me inside. I supposed that was exactly what it was doing. The doorway was full of shadows. It looked like the gaping maw of some huge monster, preparing to swallow me whole.
     I walked inside.
     My fear was dimmed instantly, though the dark and silence of the place normally unnerved me, even when the rest of them had been with me. A calm acceptance drifted over my senses. My tense and aching muscles relaxed. The chill in the house dispersed as well as the musty and moldy smell that all abandoned buildings seemed to have. The smell of age and desertion. It was a lonely smell.
     What abruptly replaced it was the taste of fresh air on a clear Summer's day. I thought I could even feel the warmth of it on my skin. Or was it real? I wondered briefly.
     But there was something else, too. Suddenly, there was an energy in the place that made all the hairs on my skin stand up. It seemed to fill the entire house. I half - expected the ground to start trembling, the old foundation crumbling, and finally the house exploding from the force of it. That energy was full of life and light and pleasant warmth, but also a formidable strength that I had never felt before. It flowed through me, soothing my thoughts and my panic. But, I could also feel it draining me at the same time it filled me with its stunning power.
     A few months ago, the thought of there being multiple Gods would never have crossed my mind. Now, though, I was certain that I was in the presence of one.
     The door at the end of the hall, which had been shut, was now opening slowly. Light spilled out from the crack, which poured out onto the floor the wider the door opened. That light was bright, brighter than anything I had ever seen come from that dark room; brighter even than the light Achiq had given off, as a man-sized spire of flames. By the time the door had eventually hit the wall with a gentle, almost inaudible thud, the entire hallway had been illuminated. The light even slipped into the rooms enough for me to see the faint outlines of discarded furniture and piles of things I couldn't quite discern. Before, those rooms could have been nothing but endless chasms of darkness, for how unnoticeable they had always been. For the first time, I could clearly see what kind of shape the inside of the abandoned home was in. The wallpaper - which appeared to once be white with little cardinals on it - was now yellowed and peeling off the wall in places. The birds now looked like splotches of dried blood. The image made me shiver. The carpet was tattered and stained. Trash littered the floor.
     The light coming from the basement was now a blinding white so brilliant that it hurt to look at. But, that enticingly powerful energy was coming from it, and it drew me in as if it was calling my name. I closed my eyes, shielding them with a hand, and shuffled towards the doorway blindly.
     When the wooden floor gave way to a soft surface instead of the first creaking step down into the basement, I opened my eyes again. What greeted me was not the perpetually dark and cold room that I had become familiar with.
     I was in a clearing in the middle of thick woods that seemed to stretch endlessly in all directions. The unbearably bright light was gone. It was night, and what illuminated the foreign forest were the stars and the moon... No, moons - there were two of them; one looked similar to the one that hung in the sky every night, but the other was large and orange and looked to be so close it might crash into whatever planet I was on now. For a moment, all I could do was gape at the unbelievable scene, awed.
     Then, the fear was back. Where am I? The panicked thought echoed in my mind, a lonely sound. Did a God send me here? Am I trapped?
     But, then, I noticed her, and my terror subsided once again. She came from the darkness of the woods. I could see her quite a distance away, for she had her own glow about her. The closer she got, the stronger than stunningly painful electricity that ran through my veins got. I felt both on the verge of fainting and being able to destroy this forest with my bare hands.
     The stranger that had now reached the clearing didn't look much older than me. Mischief danced in her brown eyes. She wore a white dress that trailed a few feet behind her. It dragged across the forest floor but somehow didn't gather dirt and twigs and whatever else it passed over. The dress had a slit in it on one side, starting at her upper thigh, and it showed off her long, tan legs. Her black hair looked as smooth as silk, cascading around her beautiful features, hanging down past her waist. Her skin was dark and flawless, the color of caramel. She wore a crown of flowers, and her wrists were adorned with many gold bracelets.
     "Illisha." Her voice was soft but commanding. And though there was a naive look in her gaze, there was also some sort of ageless knowledge I would probably never even get a glimpse of. "It is nice to meet you."
     "You chose me?" I could not help but blurt out. "But you're wonderful!"
     She chuckled softly. "As are you. But, yes, I am the one who called for you. The one who has given you the task you have now, and the abilities you possess to complete it. I am Layqa, the Goddess of creation and healing."
     "Creation?" I exclaimed. "As in life?"
     Layqa nodded, smiling. Though the fact that a Goddess was standing only feet away from me should have left me so baffled that I could not think of anything else, that smile seemed to calm every singing nerve in my body. Not only did she radiate that immense power, she also embodied a deep warmth and kindness that instantly soothed me. She had admitted to being capable of things I had only heard of in books, and I had accepted it easily, despite how impossible it sounded. Despite all the questions that I had.
     "But... I've heard only God can create life from nothing. You know, like, Jesus?" My bewildered voice sounded a million miles away. For a horrifying moment, I felt how small I really was. The universe was much larger than I would ever comprehend. Maybe it was limitless.
     And, somehow, my infinitesimal existence had drawn the attention of the oldest beings to have ever - and will ever - be.
     "Oh, no," Layqa cooed sweetly, as if she were only talking about how her day went instead of taking away everything I thought I had known. But, there was a darkness that passed over her expression as she spoke. "That is not the true religion, contrary to many of your kinds' beliefs. That's some of the reason we're in this predicament, actually."
     "What do you mean by that, exactly?" I asked. "Achiq said you needed our help, but I just can't understand how. I'm sorry that your tribe died, but I don't see how that could stop you."
     She nodded, that dark look in her eyes deepening and growing sad. "I understand that this has disturbed all of you, and I do apologize for that. And if I may share a secret with you..." She sighed. "We don't really know how well mortals would cope with something like this. It shouldn't have come to this. But, those decisions were made without me, in the end." Her tone lowered and grew thick with a horrifying rage in the last sentence.
     I resisted my immediate desire to get away from that wave of anger that had momentarily pulsed from her in powerful waves. I knew it wasn't directed at me, that I was safe. But, for a few scary seconds, the very force of it had become painful.
     "You've lost me," I muttered after I got my breath back.
"Oh!" She exclaimed, that look in her gaze clearing. She put a hand to her brow and shook her head as if exasperated with herself, laughing softly. "You're right. I don't have the time right now to explain it, though, I'm sorry. You see, it's taking a lot of my strength to come here on Earth. For now, at least."
My head was spinning with confusion. I had hoped that maybe meeting one of the six supposed Gods would provide some sort of clarity, but it had only succeeded in conjuring up more questions. "Well, could you give me something?" I pleaded. I felt more lost than I ever had. Never had I been so out of control of my own life. "Why is it so hard to be here? What happened to you? And why us; what do you think we can do?"
     "You mortals are a lot more resilient than you think. The faith of our people gives us the strength to be on Earth in a way that we no longer can be. We have worlds of our own to reside in, sure. But, those are lonely worlds. To be worshipped was not to rule. To be worshipped was to be loved. That's why we never desired to spread the knowledge of our existence across the world. We didn't want power. We just wanted love. But..." She sighed. "I suppose that's why that knowledge died with our tribe, and we became lost and weak."
     "So... We're like, uh, your prophets?"
     "What?" She asked dazedly. Then, she shook her head, as if to clear it. "Oh, yeah. Right. That's a good way to put it, I guess. We need your help. To bring the story of the Gods back to Earth. The real ones."
     "So, what? I start a church and bring a man to life and tell them it was the Goddess Layqa who has blessed me with-"
     "No," Layqa interrupted. "You can't create life. That would be too much power for a mortal to possess."
     "What can I do, then?" I said desperately, hating the defeat leaking into my tone. The horrible image of my mother disappearing beneath the deadly bulk of a semi truck that had seemingly come from nowhere tried to plague my thoughts. I found the fortitude to push it away, knowing that anything else could easily drive me over the edge and into madness. "All I do is mess up."
     Layqa reached for me, her expression solemn and apologetic, and then hesitated a moment before slowly lowering her arm to her side again. "Don't say that. Illisha, I know this may seem like an impossible feat to you. But you have a strength that no other person does. I chose you for a reason."
     Her words, deliberately spoken slowly and seriously, eased my feeling of uselessness. But, hearing from an ageless Goddess that she had chosen me - me, out of billions of people - and given me abilities that should have never been introduced to humans, was like receiving a fatal blow to my skull. I had seen Kai create flames like it was nothing. I had personally fell for the irresistible presence of Calypso. I had felt Cato in my mind, reading me like a book. But to think I was capable of something similar was enough to make me afraid that I would soon lose my mind, even though I had at first been scared I had not belonged with the others. Now I wanted those abilities gone. I wanted the responsibility gone. How could I handle this?
     "What do you mean? How?" I asked, my voice shrill. "Is that how my... My mom, and the..."
     Layqa suddenly looked around, her eyes wide, as if she had heard something that I had not. When she looked back at me, her gaze was bright and attentive, still taking in our surroundings at the same time. "I'm sorry to cut this short, Illisha. But I must go now. Come back here in a week. We'll have more time to talk. Until then."
     She gave me a beautiful smile and then that brilliant white light filled my vision once again.
     I had had no time to object, or to ask any more questions. When that light was gone, so was Layqa. And I was in the dark basement, alone once more.
     It was a long way to the front door. It seemed almost as if the house had doubled - maybe even tripled - in size. There seemed to be too many steps, and my legs were aching by the time I had reached the top of them. The door - which I didn't remember closing, but it was closed now nonetheless - looked small, at the end of a long and murky tunnel which sunlight had never touched. The silence was daunting. I could hear my shaky breaths and the sound of my pounding heartbeat echoing loudly in my skull. The shrill creak of the front door opening on its old hinges was piercing.
     Even the dim moonlight hurt my eyes for a moment. The house had not just been dark, it had been black; black and abysmal; empty and endless all at once. I breathed the night air in deeply, trying to rid my lungs of the basement and the power it had held.
     And then I noticed Calypso. She was slowly making her way towards me, and waved when she saw she had gotten my attention.
     Her beauty stunned me as it always did, momentarily driving everything else from my mind. It was both horrifying and insanely attractive how easy it was for her very existence to demand the attention of everyone in her vicinity. I could feel longing for things I couldn't even explain running through my veins. A question came to my mind briefly. If Calypso could bring any man to their knees - as I'm sure she could - what could the God who chose her be capable of? But I shoved that thought away instantly, not wanting to consider that sort of power.
     By the time I had caught my bearings and my breath, Calypso had met me at the bottom of the porch steps. The way she looked at me, narrowed eyes silver in the moonlight and her rosy lips parted to ask me something, was enough to make my face flush and my heart to start racing all over again. I was her's, without thought. She could have told me to go back down into that scary basement and curse all of the Gods and I would. Without her having to utter another word.
     "Did you see Rapa?" She questioned. "Or was it someone else?"
     "Someone else," I answered after a moment. "Six Gods for six people. I guess they all really did choose one of us."
     She nodded, as if that was what she had been expecting. "So who was it? You don't look nearly as horrible as Kai did, coming out."
     Kai had indeed come out of the house like he had fought some battle and lost, looking exhausted and defeated. Layqa was as pleasant as I was sure the God of war would be stern and callous. But I didn't think that was what had tired Kai so much, at least not the whole reason. I could feel it, too, now that I was away from that strange powerful portal that was the basement and the Goddess that had come from it. It was the divinity of Layqa leaving my body and taking my energy with it, then the shock of the interaction finally settling like a heavy stone over my weary bones.
     "Layqa." Even saying her name sent a chill through me. The image of her was as clear as the memory of the forest we had been in had become distant and cloudy, as if the place were nothing but a dream. I sighed shakily. "She said she was the Goddess of healing and creation. Creating life, Calypso. I mean, this is crazy. What the hell have we gotten ourselves into?"
     "Come on," she responded gently, and turned away from me and the house looming behind me. "Let's head to our rooms. Before anyone sees."
     I nodded, relieved to distance myself from the place. What would have happened if none of us thought to go in there at all? I wondered. Or if the school had actually bothered to tear the hazard down? What then?
     But, as me and Calypso started across the field, the answer came to me. That couldn't have happened. Kai had said Rapa told him he would have died at birth if he'd not been chosen. And Xantara had known Melany before her arrival at ShadowWood, had even sort of felt her coming, in an odd way. It didn't matter how little sense it made. Everything led us here. Now we had to figure out the rest. We had no choice.
     "I know," Calypso mumbled, as if she had been reading my mind. "This is a lot. It keeps me up at night. I don't know how any of it is possible, or how we'll be able to do what they're asking of us. But you and I both know that we've got to try. We can't run from it, try to avoid it, barter with the things who've brought us into this. We've got to be strong, Illisha."
     "I'm trying," I answered after taking a deep breath. I was glad I wasn't alone. I don't think I could have handled it then. But, at the same time, I felt hopeless and guilty that the rest of them were just as stuck in this insane situation as I was, with no idea of how it would turn out. "It's just... It's hard."
     She stopped outside of the door, studying me seriously. "How was she?"
     "Huh?" I said, dazed. For a moment I had fallen into her pale, captivating eyes. It was like getting lost in a daydream during class, but somehow infinitely more distracting and alarmingly disabling.
     "Layqa. How is she?" She repeated. "What did she say?"
     Another wave of exhaustion ran through me. I wanted nothing more than to lay down and pray for a deep sleep to come and drown out everything I had learned at this awful school, even if only for a little while. But, at the same time, Calypso's attentive and inquiring gaze was demanding, and once she said something it seemed near impossible to refuse it. It was yet another internal battle, and I was so physically and mentally drained that I could do nothing but surrender to her, which felt like the easiest thing to do.
     I looked around us for a moment, to make sure that we were alone. Anyone who overheard us would try to get us sent straight to jail or a psych ward or anywhere at all with no options for people like us to ever escape. Then, I chuckled to myself. The sound was odd and jarring. Of course there would be no one around. After school let out, even the guards seemed to disappear.
     And what about that? I wondered briefly.
     "She seemed nice." I found myself whispering anyways, even though we were alone. "She was beautiful. She glowed. It was crazy." For a few seconds, I was at a loss, unable to find the words to describe the Goddess. I didn't think there were any.
     "What happened?"
     I didn't want to think back to the time with Layqa, which already felt like a distant memory instead of something that happened only a half an hour ago. But the thought came anyway, because of both the absolute magnitude of the situation and Calypso's desire to hear it. "It's hard to explain," I sighed, knowing I would try to either way. "The basement wasn't even the basement."
     "What do you mean?" Calypso pressed insistently, her gray eyes wide and curious.
     "It was just a bright light at first. So bright I just closed my eyes and felt my way to the stairs. But... There weren't any." I spoke slow, closing my eyes as I had said I did. Now I opened them again to see Calypso was watching me raptly. "So I looked, and I was in some forest, at night. There were two moons, Calypso, and one was so big I thought it was about to crash into me. This wasn't Earth. This was somewhere else. I'm sure of it. She was there, and she lit up wherever she walked."
     "Hey!" Someone yelled from a distance away. A voice I did not recognize, but something in it made my blood run cold. Calypso glanced towards the direction of the voice, grabbing my wrist tightly. If not for my sudden terror, her touch would have sent me to my knees. It was like being electrified and hypnotized all at once. "What were you doing over there, at that house?"
     "Let's go," Calypso hissed urgently in my ear. She started dragging me towards the door before I could even think to do it on my own.
     She pulled me into the hallway, which seemed to be even dimmer than usual, and let the door slam shut behind us. The noise was deafeningly loud. She released her iron grip on me, and I was both relieved to be rid of it and disappointed that it was gone so soon.
     The terror in her gaze cleared my clouded mind, and the urgency of the situation crashed down on me. That voice had scared me so badly because it hadn't been anyone from the unlikely group we had formed. It now felt that anyone else in ShadowWood was an enemy. But there was something else; there had been a dark intent in that stranger's tone that was unusual. I had gotten in plenty of trouble before I had learned how to avoid the guards and other staff, and none of them had spoken to me in that way. Almost hatefully.
     "What do we do?" I asked Calypso fearfully, hoping she would have an answer that would ease my panic, like she always did. "He's gonna come in here and see us!"
     She had a thoughtful, almost dreamy expression, which was completely opposite from the horror I had seen there just a moment ago. "But we wouldn't be in trouble, would we?" She asked calmly, and her tone soothed me as if it were my own mother's. "That house isn't blocked off. And it isn't past our curfew. It's not even close."
     "You're right," I mumbled, but my fear was strong and more persistent than before. "But why'd he sound so mad, then?"
     "That's what I'm wondering," she answered in a low, rough voice. "And another thing. I've been here long enough to know who works here. I have no clue who that was, yelling at us."
     "We should hide, then, right? He didn't sound far away." My racing heart pounded loudly in my ears, making my head throb.
     "I don't think he'll come in here. Not right now. Not if all of us are in here somewhere."
     Usually, Calypso's relaxed and confident demeanor was comforting. But, right now, it was almost unsettling. She seemed distant, as if she were removing herself from reality, from all the worries and responsibilities that had suddenly fallen onto her shoulders. For a moment she didn't seem there at all, that she had left her body on Earth and went somewhere far beyond my comprehension.
     Then, her eyes cleared and became alluring and lovely once more. "I felt something out there, before we heard that man. It felt kind of like how the basement felt, when we were all down there at once. It's the feeling of divinity, I think. But this divinity was bad. Corrupt."
     "What do you mean?"
     "I mean, I don't think that was anyone who works here, or even any of the students trying to be funny. It could be something that has to do with whatever the Gods want us to do. Something that doesn't want this to happen." She chuckled sourly. "Anything could happen here, right?"