Prisoners of Prophecy

Chapter 25

Melany - Monday, July 22nd, 2019; 6:03pm

     The thought of the house had plagued my mind more than usual the entire day. Kai had gone as well as Illisha. Calypso would be there tonight; was probably there now. And that mysterious being, Achiq, had ordered Xantara to go last. The reason for that haunted me, left me with more questions that could only clog my racing thoughts. That left me and Cato. Each with our own Gods to meet. My time was soon. And, as the hours passed, I became more sure that my time would come tomorrow. Whether I wanted to go or not. The shadows - My shadows, my mind kept taunting me - had followed me around, even during school. They flickered in the edges of my vision, slipped out from corners, sometimes swarmed the students' feet. They went ignored, unnoticed.
     Now, as I stood under the hot water in the shower of my room at ShadowWood - Where all dreams come true, ha ha - the Voice had come back again. That damned Voice.
     I am proud of you, Melany, that Voice whispered, as its dark power entered my veins. I could imagine the blood flowing there turning black - a terrible, eternal black. You are accepting your darkness. And you must. Tomorrow you will meet someone who possesses the same.
     That Voice was gone almost as soon as it had come, its malevolence gone with it.
     There was a heavy knock on the bathroom door. The water, which had been scalding hot, turned freezing cold. I gasped, pulled back the stained shower curtain, and jumped out of the shower. My heart was in my throat, my breathing harsh. The knock came again. Louder this time. I grabbed a towel and wrapped it around myself hastily, shivering, my teeth chattering.
For a moment, I was sure it was Kai, here to really drag me to the house this time, whether I liked it or not, perhaps charring my skin with his flaming hands as he did.
But it wasn't Kai on the other side. The door shook, the knob turned back and forth, and the whispers started. A chorus of hushed voices, full of pain and anger and grief and so, so much more. A million voices; the ones from the basement. All saying the same thing.
     Follow us. Follow us.
     And then they were gone. Silence fell. Did I turn the shower off? I wondered. I didn't think so, but that didn't really matter, did it?
     I got my clothes on quickly, my mind racing. I was still cold and trembling even after I had gotten dressed in sweatpants and a warm, long-sleeved shirt. Because some of that chill wasn't just skin-deep, it sunk to my very bones.
     I opened the bathroom door on darkness. It wasn't just dark, it was the purest black. It could have been an inch deep or it could have been hundreds of miles, but I couldn't tell. I could have stepped out into what should have been a hallway and fallen for the rest of time.
     I inhaled sharply and slammed the door back closed. I waited, the sound of my heartbeat echoing loudly in my skull.
     When I opened it again, I saw only the dim hallway I was quickly becoming familiar with.
     I heard no more from the voices as I left my room and made my way outside. They had not spoken since telling me to follow. But that was alright. I knew where they had wanted me to go.
     About twenty feet away from the house, I saw Calypso come out of it and shut the old door behind her. She noticed me at once and stepped off of the porch, coming to meet me halfway. I prepared myself for the agonizing pain that the invisible force field around the abandoned home would send through my entire body, but it was not there. I wondered briefly if it disappeared once the God inside did.
     "Melany," Calypso said. "What are you doing here?"
     For a moment, I could not answer her. As always, the sight of her stunned me, brought me to a loss for words and for even clear thought. Her hair looked silver in the moonlight, and her eyes glowed brightly, like two stars themselves. Her supernatural magnetism pulled at me; desires sprung into my mind like once-dormant volcanos.
     Once I could take control of my thoughts once again, I realized how shaken she looked. There were things in her cloudy gaze that I couldn't quite understand, but they gave me chills all the same. She seemed distant, part of her mind still pondering over something else.
She has seen her God, I thought, a shiver running through my body. And if that God is anything like her... But I didn't even want to consider that. The absolute power that God would have - it was terrifyingly unfathomable.
"I came to make sure that you got out of there okay," I responded after finally finding my voice.
I took a glance over her shoulder at the house. Its windows peered back at me like dark, glittering eyes. I'll be back for you, I told the house silently. I had a feeling it would hear me. Tomorrow, I'll be back for you.
"What happened?" I asked her once I pulled my eyes away from the abandoned building. "You look shaken up."
She exhaled heavily and nodded. "I'm okay. It sure did shake me up, though. That's not even the beginning of it. I knew I couldn't really prepare myself for seeing a real God, but I had not expected that at all."
"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked, both curious and horrified by the idea.
She nodded. That was when I recognized one of the many emotions in her mesmerizing eyes - fear. She was afraid. "I need to. We need to tell everyone."
     I felt my racing heart drop to my stomach. I recalled earlier today, when I had seen Calypso briefly on the way to her first class she had said she thought something was watching us. "Did you ask about that?"
     "Yeah. That's about all I could ask, before she had to leave. To go talk about it with the other Gods."
     "It must have worried her, then?" I questioned.
     "Worried her a lot more than she showed." Calypso glanced around us, scanning our surroundings with the attentive eye of someone who believes they are being hunted. "Let's head to our rooms as we talk. I don't think we should stay around here."
     She started across the field without waiting for an answer. I had to quicken my pace to keep up with her long stride. "So you really do think there is something after us?" I asked as we distanced ourselves from the house.
She shot me a glance - it was sharp and as cold as ice - before looking ahead again. "I know it. I knew it the moment me and Illisha heard that guy yelling at us." I wanted to ask her to explain, but at the same moment dreaded to hear any more on the subject. "Talking to her..." She paused, shaking her head as if to clear it. "That only confirmed it."
"What did you talk about?" I asked her as we passed under the large tree that stood between the school's main building and the office.
"It was me doing most of the talking," she murmured. "She had me blabbering like an idiot."
"What do you mean?" We were passing the office now.
She didn't talk again until we had made it to the heavy metal door on the corner of the large dorm building. She held it open for me as she replied, "I think I finally know how everyone feels now. When they see me."
We both stepped into the hallway. The old lights swung back and forth restlessly, rusted chains that they were suspended on creaking. The dim light threw dancing shadows on the walls, which were stained yellow with time. In the quiet of the building, Calypso's sigh was very loud.
"Really?" I asked curiously as I turned to face her, all of my fears momentarily silenced.
She nodded. "It was awful. I could hardly think." She winced, as if the very memory of the feeling made her head hurt. "I had even forgotten to mention the thing following us, until the last minute."
"Yeah, it sure is something," I said simply, not wanting to elaborate on how her eyes could make you say anything; about how her touch was somehow the sort of pain that would leave you weak and longing for more so badly that you could not focus on anything else...
I was glad Calypso spoke again, for my mind had been drifting; it had been falling into a place where only darkness and desire could reign. "I think she knows more about it, but decided to keep it from me."
We were standing in front of the door to my room. I couldn't remember us moving further down the hall, but I did remember what had happened on the other side of that door very clearly. I shivered.
"Why do you think that?" My voice shook.
"Well, when I got around to telling her about it, she looked shocked... But she didn't look surprised, if you know what I mean." She must have read the cluelessness on my expression, for she continued. "Something I said must have struck her as familiar. I could see it on her face."
"She didn't say anything?"
"She told me that there are evils in the world, and that some of it is dangerous." She clapped a hand to her forehead, dumbfounded. "I mean, we all know that. She told us to be wary. We know that, too! I thought meeting these Gods would give us answers. Why does everything have to be spoken in riddles?"
"They'll have to give us something soon," I said. My words were not only to reassure her, but myself as well. I was tired of feeling so helpless, so out of control of my own life. "How will we help them if we don't know what to do?"
"It's you and Cato next," said Calypso. "And then Xantara. And the next week, they'll want to see us again. At least, that's what the first three have said." She took a deep breath, let it out slowly. "I guess you're right. There's still time for us to figure this out."
"Speaking of," I started hesitantly, the mere thought of tomorrow freezing the blood in my veins. "I'm going next."
"You are?" She asked. I thought I heard a hint of surprise in her tone.
"It's not like I want to. But I don't have a choice. I can't put it off another day."
"I can tell Cato to-"
"That won't work," I interrupted. "It's my turn."
"Why do you think that?"
"Achiq made it seem like, other than Xantara, we could pick the order we went in. I felt that barrier around the house when it was Illisha's turn, though. But she didn't. She did, though, when she was with you and Kai was the one in the house. How else would the right God know to show up? If they're so weak they need messengers on Earth, they wouldn't know who called dibs for what day.
"And then tonight. Those voices came to me, told me to come meet you at the house." I decided to keep the other Voice to myself, the one who had actually told me that tomorrow I would meet my God."
"Voices?" She asked. "What voices?"
"The ones from the basement. I was taking a shower when there was knocking at the door."
"In here?" She exclaimed, pointing at the door to my room with her gray eyes wide.
"In there," I agreed.
"I thought that they were trapped down there."
"So did I." I lowered my voice, even though there was no one around that I could see. "And, here's this," I say in a conspiratorial whisper the frightening idea that has just come to me. "What if even the Gods had no clue about this preordained order we're meeting them in? Does that mean that there's something greater than them?"