Set Me Free

25. Golden Heart

     Argh!

     A pang pumped inside my chest, where my heart was. I was sure that this was some kind of fucking thing that was foreshadowing my death. I licked my lips and shut my eyes as Zeus raised his fiery axe above his head, with glowing, demonic, red eyes. The last thing I saw was a confident scowl before the sound of a blade came down.

     Death. Take me.

     "Dan!"

     My eyes snapped open immediately. It was the sound of Kyle's cry. Not realizing I had been staring downwards this whole time, I looked up, shocked to see a golden, protective shield-like atmosphere around my body. Particles fizzed around the sheer layer of golden light as Zeus backed away from me in what seemed to be fear and shock mixed together.

     I stood, and the shield followed my moves. The Helldeer demons backed away further, seemingly frightened of the golden aura that lingered around me. I lifted a foot, scared what would happen if I moved it around. My sole gently stepped down on the grass under me, and a massive wave of golden particles swept the Helldeer off their feet before the wave of gold retracted back into the ground underneath my feet.

    "The necklace!" Apollos shouted. "Look at the-"

    His abrupt pause caused me to turn around. Zeus had impaled his son with the spear. My mouth dropped open as I clutched the necklace in pure shock. Except...there wasn't any blood, instead, there were red and black particles beginning to swirl around Apollos from his feet. Feeling panicked, I did just as Apollos had said, and lifted the stone of the necklace into my view.

    "Oh my gosh."

    They look exactly like the position of the reindeer in this carving.

    Fuck.

    Then, I had realized what was happening to Apollos. He was being transformed into a Helldeer, as his father aggressively clenched the spear in his hands as he stood face to face with his doomed son. On instinct, my feet started to take slow and long strides towards the father and son. A golden spear materialized within my fingers as I got closer.

    Zeus' back was facing me. I looked down at the weapon laced in my hands. Was it really worth killing if I was possibly going to die by fate? Voices and decisions whirled inside my head as I panicked, seeing the demonic dust reach Apollos' chest. If I were to do the deed right now, how was I supposed to kill Zeus? Then another pang came.

     "STOP!" I screamed as my arms let the spear thrust forwards.

     Saliva pooled from my mouth as I frantically wiped it away, shocked to see what I had done. Apollos was on the ground, the fiery spear now ashy black with no flame left in it. However, Zeus was still struck, stuck in an impaled position with both ends of the spear protruding from the front and back of his chest. I had stabbed him in the heart- dead centre.

     "NO!" A chorus of screeches and hisses cried out from both front and back.

     I flashed my head to see the three Helldeer morphing back into their demonic deer form before they disintegrated into thin air. A wave of dust provoked me to turn around, now witnessing the once powerful Helldeer king collapse to his knees before my eyes. Gold covered his entire body before he turned to ashes. A golden wind carried away his remains.

     "Apollos!" I cried once reality hit me hard in the face. I ran from the aura as it disappeared into golden dust. "Don't die!"

     Red covered both him and I as I fell to my knees and grabbed him, trying to shake him awake. I was crying. Really hard. The shadows of my band mates covered us as I lifted the boy and set him down in a better position. Then, a single red drop cascaded from his eye as he slowly came to and softly looked up at me. His hand became light as air.

     "Wha-no...no!" I sobbed harder. "Not like this!" Tears came crashing down.

     "You're the best, Dan," he weakly spoke as his body began to light up with golden sparks. "You really do have a golden heart."

     "N-no! You can't lea-"

     "Thanks for setting me free."

     Before I knew it, Apollos' hand disappeared from my grasp as his entire body lit up with a golden hue, and then...he was gone. My mates laid sympathetic hands on my shoulder as I let the red tears run into clear ones. It was better this way. I just couldn't deal with it because of my bond with Apollos over this month.

     I stifled a final tear before slowly standing up. The necklace still hung loose from around my neck as I walked to Will's truck. Grief had consumed me too much for me to utter a single word. And my band mates knew that too. With no words spoken, I was dropped off at my flat. My body depressingly sulked its way to my front door, and into my bedroom.

     My eyes were too dry to produce anymore tears.

     Suddenly, the necklace lifted, with the stone becoming a heart shape. A beam of gold struck the necklace as it morphed into a pure gold, still maintaining the heart. It had come from the bathroom. And never in my life had I ran so fast and urgently. But by the time I had reached the bathroom, no trace of the beam was there- or so I thought.

     On the mirror, was a phrase that brought a smile to my face. I felt completely warm with a sudden drift of happiness as I removed the necklace and looked down on it as my hand held it loosely. To get a final glance at the mirror, I looked up, straight into it. I have never seen such a truthful message.

     You saved both of us.