Escape

Chapter 11 pt. 2

We walked for a couple minutes, me trying to keep up with Erebos and Erebos trying not to laugh at my awkward attempt to walk through the sand.

Finally the little sand path, lined with tall grasses, emptied out into a long stretch of the stuff. I squinted ahead, only to see nothing but water. "What is this? Some kind of prank? Where did all of the ground go?"

Erebos sat down, facing towards the water, and chuckled. "It's the beach. Haven't you been to the beach?"

I walked over to where he was sitting, and plopped down a couple of feet away from him. He had yet to explain himself, and I wasn't going to take any chances until he did.

I fidgeted in place and rubbed my hands on my pants. "No...I haven't."

He eyed me, then turned his head and stared out towards the water. "No freedom, huh?"

My eyebrows knitted and I looked at him in confusion. "What?"

Erebos kept his eyes focused on the water. "They tell you it's for your own good. They say that you're meant to be there. They convince you that you're special, that you have to be there." He paused, then looked over at me. "How long?"

My voice cracked when I spoke, and I cleared it and started again, "How long...have I been there?"

Erebos nodded slowly, almost sullenly.

I cleared my throat again, "Uhh...a little over...fifteen years..."

"That long, huh?" Erebos swallowed, and looked back out to the water.

A long moment passed before he spoke again, and when he did, his voice was much more distant than before. "They found me when I was an infant. They took me in, fed me, trained me, taught me. They did just about everything for me...except bring me outside."

The pit in my stomach from before darkened again. This was almost exactly like what happened to me. But if Erebos lived at the main safehouse, then...why didn't he now?

"When I was fifteen I became curious. I asked around about what's outside, what we were all so afraid of. It didn't make sense to me. And it still doesn't. I had been training my whole life, I had- have- these rare gifts that can be used to save people. But all they want to do is keep them...me...locked away. Why protect me, when I'm supposed to be protecting them?

I left the safehouse about a year after -when I was sixteen. I-"

"You just...left?" I asked, cutting him off.

He nodded, then gave a smile that was more of a grimace. "Well, escaped...really...I ran away. I couldn't take it anymore. I came all the way here, and found that forgotten, old house that nobody uses. I started my new life, as a normal person...as normal as I could get. I still practice my powers here and there. But I never needed them. Not once have I encountered a monster, not once has a monster come and attacked me. Maybe they can't find me, maybe they don't care. Or maybe they don't know I'm alive, but that's a crazy thing to imagine because of the amount of magical radiance a dominant protector gives off. Monsters can smell it for miles. I don't know, maybe I'm just lucky.

But despite the whole 'becoming normal' thing, what I really learned is that Bastien and all of his official noob-brains make us all believe that what they are doing is right. That keeping us locked away is the smart thing to do. Well," Erebos climbed to his feet and swatted sand off of his pants, "it's not."

I stood up with him, and held my arms. A cool breeze blew through the air, slipping through the tangles in my messy hair. The beach smelled salty, which I found very odd. Sand, endless water, salt? This is all so new to me. But it wouldn't be if I hadn't been locked away in that safehouse my whole life. Maybe Erebos is right. Maybe Marshall and everyone is wrong.

"So, yeah, I've been living here since I was sixteen. Alone and free. And I'll never go back."

"But you did come back. You came back for me. Why?"

Erebos and I started back to the wooden path. We walked side by side, even though his legs were much longer than mine.

"Gossip among the protectors, the regular protectors, runs very fast, and from time to time I pick up on some of the stuff that's going on in the godly world. And something as big as the fourth...well, third, not including me...dominant protector being revealed is way too important, and sure enough it got around town pretty easily."

We stopped at the end of the wooden path, and from there I could see the old blue shack peeking out from the tall plants.

Erebos turned to me and sighed, "Look, Ariadne-"

"Aria."

"Look, Aria...I don't believe in Bastien and what he's doing with our powers. From your lack of knowledge about me, I'm sure he has told you that my dominant power hasn't been found yet, or that I'm dead, or some made up piece of shit. But Bastien and the others know damn well about me, and yet they continue to brainwash you and the rest of them. I came to get you to take you away from them. I came to show Bastien and the others that I'm still here, that I haven't gone away. And neither will the monsters that are killing innocent people. We have to do something, Aria. We have to help.