Pandora's Box: Maenads (Book 2)

Controlled Chaos

Barely controlled chaos is everywhere.

A car pulls up to the school and parks in the Principal's parking spot. Pandora and Jove get out. In front of them is a still partially vandalized school with graffiti and physical damage to various benches and walls and enclosed gardens all around the outside of the school. Quite a few of the students are busy trying to clean it up. Some of them are washing graffiti off, others are picking trash up, while others are trying to make repairs to the enclosed gardens and trees.

"Wow, looks like the clean up is going pretty well. You really got them all to pitch in? You didn't have to give them detention?" asks Pandora.

"I did for a fair amount of them, but a lot of them volunteered. It seems the students here have a healthy dose of school spirit. And I suspect that a not small amount feel guilty for the things they did while under the control of the Horme spirit Jemma was possessed by." explains Jove.

"How does that work exactly? You said that Jemma would remember what she did but not why." Pandora wonders as she and her father make their way into the school, walking past many of her classmates who are cleaning up.

Jove continues with his explanation, "And it's mostly the same with everyone else. The majority of people don't believe in spirits and magic and all the things that are out there in the world. So they just dismiss their behavior. They assume it was something they took or come up with some random explanation. Most of the time they're right, but not when a spirit is involved."

They enter the school and much like outside, there's quite a bit of a mess. Paper from ripped school books and spray painted lockers are everywhere.

"Are you sure I shouldn't be helping them?" asks Pandora, obviously concerned.

"You did help. Your job was the keep the spirit at bay and return it to The Box as quickly as you could. That's what you did to make things better." insists Pandora's father.

Pandora comes back at him, "I guess, but I did kinda cause it to happen in the first place. I opened The Box at the party I was throwing. If I hadn't, none of them would've been possessed and none of this would be happening."

Jove turns to his daughter and it makes her stop with him, "People made their own choices Dora. Spirits like Horme don't create ideas, they simply lowered the inhibitions of people that kept them from doing what they wanted. Not all spirits will be like that."

"What about this new one? What will it be like?" asks Pandora.

"There's no way to know for sure without more information. We told you, every spirit is different." insist Jove.

Pandora sighs, "And you're sure there's no manual for this right?"

He smiles at his daughter, "Sadly, no. Your mother and I are the closest thing to a manual you'll ever find."

Pandora watches her father for a few long moments.

"You'll be fine honey. Just keep your eyes open and you'll see it eventually." Pandora's father suggests, "Now go, be a normal high school teenager."

The young woman with a destiny smiles halfheartedly at her father, "Fine."

Her father heads off to his office as Pandora turns to her locker. She opens it and starts rummaging through her books for her first class of the day. As she pulls out her first book and closes her locker, Jemma is standing there. The tension between them is very obvious and neither is sure what to say and who will speak first.