Prisoners of Prophecy

Chapter 36

Melany - Wednesday, July 24th, 2019; 10:12pm

Xantara and I were the last ones left in the dimly lit hallway. The others had already separated, going into their own rooms to sleep. I was hesitant to do the same. After all I had learned today, the idea of being alone frightened me. Calypso had told us, before we had left the house, that we should stick together and stay vigilant. That there was power in numbers. So what if this God decided to get us, one by one, while we were all asleep? How would we know, before it was too late to do anything?
"Are you okay?" Xantara asked. She was eyeing me curiously. I could see worry in her expression.
"Not at all," I admitted before I was even sure I was going to speak at all. Not for the first time, I was shocked at how easy it was to talk to her about things I would have never been able to say to any of the friends I had had before. It was almost as if, even though almost all memory of her had left my mind, they never left my soul.
She nodded. "I'd be more concerned if you were okay with all of this, I suppose."
For a few moments, she only studied me with that dark, intense look of her's that I was already so used to. The countless emotions swimming in her coal-black eyes I could not precisely define somehow comforted and confused me all at once. Two weeks ago, Xantara was only just one of the strangers in the school I had been forced to go to. Now, she was an old friend who had arrived in my life, once again, when I really needed it. Her presence had went from foreign to familiar, even in some way desirable, in what felt now like the blink of an eye. That could be no coincidence. Had it been the Gods who decided we meet so many years ago?
Or had it been something else?
Xantara sighed, and it snapped me out of my thoughts. She had averted her gaze, and now she was staring at the floor as if she had suddenly found something terribly interesting there. "To be honest, I don't know how you're handling it so well. The rest of us had time to prepare for this, and we still didn't expect something of such magnitude. You walked through the gates to this school and everything you knew was immediately and savagely proven wrong."
"It's a lot," I agreed. "If I was going through this alone, I would have lost my mind already. Though the reasons were all here disturb me - why it happened this way, or if it had to happen at all... I'm glad I know that you guys aren't out to her me. Hell, I'm the safest with all of you."
Xantara offered me a small smile. Her scars were now nothing but faint pink lines, hardly noticeable against her pale skin. "I think we all feel a lot better now. You know, since we're all here." She reached out and squeezed my shoulder gently. "We ought to go to our rooms, too. The guards usually make their rounds about this time."
Another bolt of fear pierced my heart. "Actually, could you just stay with me?" I blurted without thought. I immediately felt the heat of my embarrassment rise to my cheeks. "I mean, you don't have to. I just... uh..."
Xantara interrupted me by grabbing my hand. Her touch was warm and soothing, yet also dauntingly powerful. That energy coming from her seemed much stronger than even earlier today.
I had caught myself reaching for her more and more often, relishing the calm protectiveness that radiated from her. Sometimes the longing for her presence frightened me with its intensity, but resisting it was starting to feel almost as difficult as I thought it would be trying to tell Calypso no.
"Of course," she said softly. "Let's go to your room. If we can stay out in that house so late at night, they shouldn't say anything about this. They didn't mind last night, right?"

10:47pm
For a while, we only sat next to each other on the couch, watching whatever played on the television. I could not really focus on it, my thoughts were too busy replaying my short but life-changing stay at ShadowWood.
Our lapse in conversation was not awkward, as it seemed to be with anyone else. Just knowing she was here with me was soothing; the open concern and strength in the very air around her made me feel safe. I wondered - with a grief if never felt for my forgotten past - how many times we had done this before, and why it had ever stopped.
Xantara took a deep breath and exhaled heavily. I glanced to my right to see that she had her hands clenched into fists in her lap, her head hanging so her black hair obscured her face. "I didn't realize how terrified I was about this until now," she muttered dejectedly.
"You mean, about meeting a God?" I asked softly.
"Well, everything. But, yes. That's the biggest thing on my mind right now." She looked up at me. I could see the fear swimming in her gaze. My heart ached for her. "I've been thinking about all the dreams I've been having since I've been here."
"Have you had more than what I know?"
She nodded. "Most of them are relatively the same. There's one, though, that's really been on my mind."
I placed a hand on her thigh, above her clenched fists. She gave me a tired but thankful smile. "Which one is that? If you don't mind me asking, that is."
She put one of her hands on mine. Her skin was warm, but for a moment, her touch had sent a brief chill through me. "I had almost entirely forgotten about it. It had no importance to me then. I had the dream before I was sure you were a part of this. But, it had crossed my mind again and..." She took a trembling breath. "Now it means a lot more. It only leaves me with more questions, though."
"It seems to be that way with everything here," I remarked sourly.
Xantara nodded, looking back to her lap. "I don't know where I was. It looked so real, but there's no place on Earth that looks like it. I'm sure of that. The Sun looked so close that I thought I'd burst into flames. I'm not even sure who I was."
"Why do you say that?" I questioned in a shaking tone. The terror and confusion in her voice had me fearing what she could possibly say. I felt it on the verge of learning yet another thing that would shatter what little remained of the world as I had once known it.
"I mean... The voice sounded like me. But I couldn't say what I wanted to say. I couldn't move, either. I wanted to look at the person next to me, but my eyes were locked on the field of wild horses and the huge forest beyond that. And the crazy thing is, is I felt this person's presence before she spoke. It had to have been the energy she was giving off. It was kind of like how the basement felt tonight. But a lot more intense. I've never felt anything like that in a dream."
"Did they say who they were?" Picturing the dream was enough to cause my heart to start beating erratically. It doesn't have to mean anything, I tried to tell myself. But it was hard to believe.
     "She didn't mention her name." She paused, and I could sense her horror growing in that small span of silence between us. "But she mentioned Ter... His. His name." She looked at me with wide eyes and I knew who she meant. "She had told me that he suggested they spread the knowledge of their existence. Before they... or we, she said. Before we got too weak.
     "I guess I can't call it a dream any more, can I? It was some... some sort of memory."