Escape (Book 1 of the Gods' series)

Chapter 3

I was running, I couldn’t breathe, but I kept on running alongside Jessica, Aaron and Dylan, or as Nyx thought Alcyone, Atlas and Cronos. We were running towards the opening, but the closer we got the further away it seemed. I wondered if what Nyx said was true, about me being able to shape-shift, and about us being the Gods’ apprentices, it couldn’t be, could it? I decided to try it out. I stopped running and stepped back a few paces, and ran, I pictured what I wanted to be, I thought like the animal, well not exactly.

Before I could stop to admit failure, the amazing happened, everything began zooming past me like lightning, I stopped, I looked down at myself, I was the cheetah I imagined, sleek and strong, I turned to Jessica, Dylan and Aaron they had stopped running and were staring at me, I scared them, not the best thing to have done without warning I guessed, I slowly padded over to them and signalled for them to climb on my sleek, silver black back, I thought it would hurt, but it didn’t, it felt just like when I had my backpack on at school. I started at a slow jog, then went to a slow run, then full speed belting towards the door, that now looked like it was shrinking! It wasn’t luckily, and I let everyone get off before I morphed into a human, it was getting easier now I knew what I had to do.

Lying before us was a huge obstacle course, with dozens of platforms all made out of the same red stone as there was in the area we’d just been in, it was full of dangers and scares, it all led up to a huge door, that was secured by dozens of locks, “Look! It’s that woman!” Jessica cried and we all looked, and sure enough, she was right, swooping over pools and swinging axes, Nyx was dropping keys in and my guess was, we had to get them, she shot me a evil grin that made me grimace. “Careful of the piranhas!” Nyx yelled to us as she dropped the last key into a pool and swooped out of sight.

“What now?” Dylan sounded like he was asking the whole group, but he was looking at me, I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry, I kept it in and acted strong, now wasn’t the time to cry, “Right well we need to grab those keys that open that door-” I pointed to the big door, “-and then I think we are supposed to be dead, but we won’t be, we will fight Nyx and find out what is going on. Does that sound like a plan?” Everyone nodded, I needed to find the first key,

“Up there! There’s a key on that wheel!” Dylan pointed to the wheel, it made me dizzy with it turning, how I was going to get that I had no clue, “Dylan no!” I screamed, he was running towards the spinning wheels, I realised what they were, they were cogs, spinning, they would probably crush Dylan, I ran, I ran until I was hurting, I leapt into the air and transformed, I transformed into a wolf, a grey, white and black wolf, I sped past Dylan and blocked his path, he was going to run past me but I bared my teeth at him and growled, all of a sudden I couldn’t move or anyone else, the piranhas were still in the clear blue water, Jessica’s eyes were locked on Dylan and Aaron was frozen mid-step running forward to stop him, I noticed Dylan was the only one moving, he was casually strolling past me, how was this possible? Then Nyx’s voice echoed in my head “Cronos, time control.” That was it! Dylan could control time! He held us but it looked like the pressure hurt him, he had to release soon, my body began to move slightly near my feet, then it rose to my upper body.

Dylan collapsed, I ran to him as fast as I could, forming human as I ran, then knelt beside him, I rested his head in my arms while the others came over to us, I fell with a small thud when Jess pushed me out of the way to see him, he wasn’t dead, just unconscious, “Dylan? Wake up, Dylan, please!” Jess was crying, I crawled on my knees over to her then told her to move, when she refused, Aaron grabbed her under the arms and pulled her away. I kneeled there for a second, staring at Dylan’s face, so calm, but cold, I held his wrist in my hand, (careful not to break him, he looked so fragile), and felt his pulse, it was way too slow, and it was slowing, “Dylan, don’t leave me now, don’t-” His pulse stopped, a single tear ran smoothly down my face, we weren’t God’s apprentices, we were just teenagers, teenagers who had lost a friend, I looked at Aaron, he turned to look at the scene behind him, I mouthed “it’s over” to him, he nodded once, then turned back to Jess.

I slowly lifted Dylan’s limp body, leaning his back in my arms, I cradled him, I leaned my cheek against his hair, it smelled nice, a smell I couldn’t put my finger on, I sobbed, wishing he was alive… Suddenly a golden glow appeared from my hands and slowly spread all over his body…