The Forest Gods' Reign [Published]

Chapter 8: A Flash

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"Can I come up there?" Cole shouted at me from somewhere down below.

"Sure," I yelled back reluctantly, knowing Cole probably wouldn't leave me alone. Then, turning to Alec, I whispered, "Hide." With that, the dark-haired boy disappeared over the peak of the roof and into the darkness. 

Meanwhile, Cole climbed his way up the side of my house, though it was much less graceful than when Alec did it. By the time Cole sat down next to me, he was breathless, and I was certain that Alec was snickering at him from the other side of the roof. When he finally regained the ability to speak, Cole said, nodding to the colorful sky, "Great fireworks, huh?"

"Yeah," I agreed, tugging at the end of my ponytail in thought. "The colors remind me of when you pulled that prank on Matt six years ago."

Then we both started chuckling at the memory of an angry Matt covered in paint. "That was a good one, wasn't it?" Cole remarked, running his fingers through his caramel-colored hair, and I just smiled.

After a long pause, I offered, "Popcorn?" for the second time that night. Like Alec had done only a few minutes earlier, Cole nodded and took a handful. Our conversation turned back into awkward silence, and again I pictured Alec laughing hysterically at Cole and I. Then I shook my head and closed my eyes, trying to get him out of my head. I found the fact that Alec was listening in to every word we said to be kind of unnerving, and I wondered what he was thinking about Cole.

After a while, Cole whispered, "What's really in there?" I didn't have to open my eyes and look at him to know he was talking about the woods. That's the question everyone around the county wanted to ask the Monster Watch. And really, who could blame them?

But sometimes, the truth is so outrageous that it's better to actually tell a piece of it than to lie. So, in the spookiest voice I could muster, I told him, "Monsters."

"Ha ha," he laughed sarcastically. "No, just tell me. Ever since that day Josh and I pulled that prank, I keep thinking I made a mistake by not going in there. Is that crazy?"

Trapped in an awkward moment and not exactly sure what to say, I sighed and said, shrugging, "Well, everything happens for a reason." Even if it really is the Fates that control our destinies.

Cole and I sat quietly for a few more minutes, watching the fireworks burst in the night sky, but I couldn't sit still at all. As the seconds ticked by, I became more and more restless, silently wondering what time it was because I had promised to train Alec after the show. Over the past six years, my life as a god had slowly become my first priority over school and home life, and I knew the same could have been said for the rest of the gods, too. We couldn't exactly prevent it from happening, however, because we had so much to keep track of, not just in the Woods, but all around the world as well.

Eventually, Cole broke the silence and asked me, his gentle brown eyes looking straight into my stormy gray ones, "Can you take me into the forest some day?"

I froze in place and chewed my lip. What am I supposed to say to that? I thought to myself, slightly surprised by Cole's question, although I knew he would have asked it sometime or another. Even if I wanted to (and I'll admit I was tempted to) give Cole a short tour of my second home, the decision of whether or not to allow people into the forest wasn't really mine to make. The majority of the Olympian Council had to agree on what was best.

Just then, I heard the familiar sound of my father's old pickup truck drive up to the house. "We'll see," I told him honestly, considering the timely arrival of my father to be very lucky for me. "But right now, you have to go." I practically shoved him off the roof, and he obediently took off running down the road. He didn't need to be told twice in this case; the entire town knew my father wasn't the nicest guy.