House of Forbiddens [COMPLETE NOVEL]

29: The Sacrifice and a Whole Bunch of Other Stuff

Kaden

The world dimmed and disappeared around me as I fell to the ground. Apparently being a sixty-year-old lady had done something to my athletic abilities the few I had this is.

The darkness seemed to take over, but in the mist of it was a girl. She was older than me, looking like she was in her mid-twenties, but she was beautiful, her dark skin flawless with back hair falling to her waist. She looked at me, laughing quietly.

"I tried to imagine how I would repay my debt to you Kaden, but never in my life span would I have expected it to be like this." The girl laughed, and I had the suspicion that she was a goddess of sort.

"What debt do you have to me?" I asked confused, as far as I knew most of the gods didn't know I existed.

"You rescued my child." The girl smiled at me.

"Your Hebe, goddess of youth, Lauren's mom." I said, finally discovering who this person was.

"Correct," she laughed, waving her hand then dissolving into the darkness leaving me to sit there.

Jack

Instantly our surroundings changed to one that I hadn't seen in so many years. I glanced at Audrey who was watching me with pain, fear, and anger in her eyes. Did she remember this place? it was almost eight years ago after all. How did we get here anyway? Those questions were going to have to get answered later. Glanced at the golden knife in my hand, when did that get there? When suddenly an unknown force caused me to raise the knife and get ready to stab one of the girls. In an instant Audrey had her bow raised to my chest.

Kill her A voice in my head said. A ghost, great now I was possessed. Then I remembered what Riley had told me when Kaden had gone to get Ian. A sacrifice from the rightful child of night. Not by the rightful child of night, not of the rightful child of night. These girls didn't have to die. At least that's what my mind said. The ghost had other ideas.

"Audrey get out of here," my words strained as I fought the ghost for possession of my words. Her eyes widened and she grabbed Christine and ran.

"You ignorant little fool," the goddess, Eris, said with disgust, "I give you the opportunity to prove yourself once and for all, and you mess it up." She howled.

"Sorry mistress, he intervened." My voice replied though it wasn't my words.

"Then don't let him!" She screamed, "Send him away, replace him with you."

"Of course Mistress." He answered, and I went spiraling out into a world of darkness.

This time I had no idea where I was, but I knew I didn't have a body (does that count?). But after several minutes of wandering my stomach (did I have one?) dropped as the realization of where I was hit me. Tartarus. The second I thought it I wanted to quit, the last thing Audrey was going to think about me was how I was struggling not to kill her. Now it was completely possible that she was going to get killed by the spirit that had decided that my body was a good vacation spot.

I had tried to stab Christine, though she was one of the nicest people I knew. I would have fallen to my knees and wailed in pain like you see in every movie, but my new spirit form didn't really allow me to do so. So instead I began to wander, not really expecting anything, but to examine my new surrounding that I would be sentenced to for the rest of eternity.

"Why are you here?" spoke a quiet voice, unlike something that should be heard in Tartarus.

"I, I don't know." I responded, looking around for the source of the voice.

"But you're a human, you must have done something dreadful to get sent here," the voice continued. "There was another spirit in my body, he sent me here somehow." I admitted to the voice, still searching for the source.

"Was it, was it one of Eris' followers?" The voice got quieter, as if scared of the answer.

"It was. How, how did you know?" I questioned. suddenly on edge.

The voice sighed and a small, pretty nine-year-old girl appeared in front of me. It was quickly obvious that she was a goddess, her pale, but not chalk white skin, her piercing blue eyes, gold hair, and crown of roses made of gems was enough to convince me of that.

"That's how Eris causes so much discord, she pulls from equality. Here in Tartarus, it's a soul for a soul, but she can confuse it where she can wait to repay the debt. The ghost that took your body from you belongs here, he was able to send you here as his replacement." She explained to me.

"Who are you and how do you know this?" I asked. Unlike some of the other people in the house, I didn't have every god and goddess in all of Greek Mythology memorized.

"My name is Hemera, the goddess of day, daughter of Nyx, goddess of night, and I know because Eris belongs here too. She captured a spirit, so that she could roam the world of the living freely."

"So if the spirit that she had captured was sent back into the other world, would Eris have to come back?" I asked, and the girl nodded. Removing something from her dark black dress. It was a white glass ball, with something gold whirling inside of it.

"The spirit has said that anyone who lets her out will be able to go to the land of the living with her." Hemera's voice was wishful, as if the thought couldn't be true. "I've lived my whole life down here in the dark depressing place," she seemed to be talking more to herself than me. "But you, you haven't." She said shaking her head, she handed me the orb, which surprisingly didn't fall out of my spirit hands.

"Brake it, go home," she urged me.

"But what about you?" I asked staring at her.

"I've lived my life down here, I know what I'm doing, you don't. Your life belongs up there." She replied, with a sad smile. "Besides it makes it worthwhile knowing you're doing something noble."

A sacrifice from the rightful child of night.

With those words I shattered the orb against the bottom of the pit. The golden dust formed a girl's body her arms grabbing my hands and, dragging my spirit to the world of the living, and back into my old body.

I was holding a knife to Christine's throat, daring Audrey to take a shot, when I took control of my body again. Quickly I pulled the knife away throwing it down into the dirt. Falling on my knees to take my first breaths back in the world of the living.

"Jack, Jack are you there?" Audrey asked, pulling Christine behind her.

"Audrey it's me, I promise." I managed to say.

"Forgive me for not believing you right off the back, but tell me something only Jack would know." Audrey said, being completely logical.

I thought for a second looking at my surroundings. "This is where we were poisoned Audrey, this is where my dad tried to kill us." I told her and she smiled pulling me into a hug.

By this point I was scared when the world around us changed, but this time I was relieved.

We were back at the baseball stadium, most of the chaos had dissolved, and we quickly found our family.

Kaden

I have never been so happy to see my whole family in one place as I was when William and Ainsley (two demigods that had taken refuge in my house) helped me to my feet. Ian was covered in minor injuries that would need attending to, and Riley had a long cut down his arm. Christine's leg would need attending, along with the multitude of smaller cuts and scratches that Audrey and Jack had. But we were all here... alive.

Do you crazy kids need a ride home?" Asked a voice and I whirled around to see my dad.

By: Marie Fay

The FINAL chapter will be posted Thursday, January 19th.