The Child of the Moon

Chapter Two

2.

I use Google Maps to get to the destination. It ends up being right next to Main Street. I shove my phone into the pocket of my jacket, and when I remember I forgot my beanie, I'm already five minutes away from home and too lazy to turn back, so my awful hair will give me public embarrassment.
I pace across Main Street, with an attitude of determination. If I've been having this dream for months now, and I have a lead, I'm going to take it. I'm sick of having this occurring dream on repeat, and waking up startled.
The stores all have diverse touches to them. For example, a bakery may look like this place that looks like cupcake frosting covered it, while the antique store looks like the smell of a Grandmother. It's so weird passing by all these stores and seeing different color schemes according to a different shop. And what trips me up even more, is that it seems like one store has the same color scheme as the other, but then they both look like they've developed cultures of their own.
Eventually, I come upon the street the building was said to be on. It looks shady. There is only a ripped up concrete between the torn down houses. Some of the houses don't even have roofs. I double-check Google Maps to make sure I'm on the correct street. There is only one house that is moderately decent. It's a two-story house with only a shattered window. It's painted a dull green with a slanted, dull gray roof. That house is the place Google Maps wants me to head towards.
When I approach closer, my phone calls out, "You have reached your destination." I press the "End Route" button and shut my phone off. I shove it back into my pocket and knock three times on the front door.
I hear a couple a screams, which makes me uncomfortable and uneasy about coming hear. Then, a shout and heavy steps. The steps glide to the front door, and the peephole is opens up. Blueish-purpley eyes poke through the hole.
"Yes, dear?" A voice inside calls. "How can I help you?" The voice is sincere and passionate, like she's putting love into each word she speaks.
"Uh, yes," I spit out, trying to sound as kind as her, but that doesn't work out. "Is this 478 Magihild Street?" I fold my hands together and twist my thumbs on top of each other as I speak. It's a habit I gained when I was younger.
"Yes," the voice responds, "it is." I can almost hear her smiling.
What do I say? I can't just tell her all of what happened in my dream. She'd think I'm crazy if I told her that. She'd kick me out for sure. She's such a nice lady, too. What can I do that won't make me sound crazy?
I attempt to recall what happened in the dream last night. There has to be something that won't make me sound like a complete idiot. Wait.. that's it! One person said to the boy a name. That must have been his! What was it? Phoebe? Phoelic? Phoebus!
"Is Phoebus here?" I ask, with a genuine smile. "I would like to talk to him." I continue to twirl my thumbs around.
"I, uh, one second." The lady closes the peephole. I hear more shouting and a male yelling back. More voices and all of a sudden, there's apologies all around. The peephole slides open again, and I cross my arms. "Yes, dear, sorry about that. Come in darling."
I hear the clangs and scratches of locks coming undone, and it's not just one. It's at least three. The door swings open and a quite decent house is revealed on the inside compared to the outside. There is a staircase planted right at my feet, and there is wallpaper peeling at the corners of the wall. The staircase has a burn mark at the edge of it. The woman is right behind the door. The door inside has a scratch mark on it, and the paint is peeling off. The wooden floor beneath my feet creek every time I step into a different place. But located right under the staircase is the kid, Phoebus, from my dreams, along with the three other people in the forest.
"You actually came!" Phoebus grins, nearly jumping up and down from excitement. "I didn't expect that would work! I can't believe-"
"We get it," A girl interupts. She shoots a glare at Phoebus, and rolls her eyes. "You can activate into people's dreams! But you didn't do it easily. You needed our help. Plus, if it wasn't for me, you would have kept rambling and we wouldn't have even been able to tell her." She's a young Asian teenanger, looking similar to my age. Her hair is a bright orange color in a long braid going down her back.
"Oh, come on, Jove," Phoebus smirks, putting his arm around Jove's, playfully,"Be nice, introduce yourself. She might be working with us for a while." Phoebus looks back at me.
"Woah, woah," I step back, putting my hands in front of my chest. "Working? Sorry, but I only came here because I wanted to get rid of that awful dream I've been having." These people are crazy if they make me work here. "And you were behind it? I don't get it. How did you see into my dreams like that?"
Phoebus lifts his arm off of Jove. The lady behind the door raises her eyebrow and Phoebus sighs, "I know you may think this is strange," Phoebus gives me the same concerning look he gave me in the dream, "but we can explain everything."
I shake my head, "No. What if you guys are mass murderers or something! Why should I trust you if you've literally entered my dreams? All I wanted was answers."
Jove rolls her eyes, "And we'll give you answers if you-"
Crash.
I shuffle back, and almost fall outside of the house, but the elder lady slams the door behind me and shoves the lock closed. She raises her fists, and says to one of the other figures, "You know what to do."
Phoebus looks to the other figures. He nods at them and they jog off into a different room.
The woman bites her lip and pushes her blonde hair out of her face, so her bluish-purple eyes are revealed. "Everything will be explained soon," she grabs my hand and races into the room to the left.
The room has a large round table placed in the center. There are old antique chairs carved with unusual markings and green cushions placed upon them. The wallpaper is homologous compared to the one in the entrance room. There is one lonely, gray rug lying under the circular table. The crash happened to be a window that shattered in this room, and what happened to cause that accident, was a man staring directly into the eyes of the woman leading me here.
The man is wearing silver armor that the light gives a sleek shine to. The armor has gray shoulder pads, along with a P with a horizontal line at the bottom of the it located on his left side of his chest. The armor is very similar to a knight's armor from Medieval Times. He's gripping onto a longsword, that is about three feet long. It is also made of silver and has the same symbol onto it.
"I see you have a new companion, Halley." The man smirks, and puts one hand on his hip. "Do you know who her parent is? You and I both know Orion will be eager to discover who."
My eyes widen, and I feel fury rush into my face, as I burst into rage at the man, "Leave me alone! Don't you think it's just rude for a stranger to do that? Why should it be your business anyway?" My face is red by the time I finish, but I don't care. He shouldn't barge in like and and ask about my personal life like it's nothing.
"Ooh, fresh." The man snickers, which makes my nerves bulge out. "Daughter of Mars maybe. Don't you think so? Children of Mars tend to be quite... vicious." He stabs his sword into the ground and taps the tip of his fingers onto the hilt of it.
"How do you know if you've never met one?" The woman asks, looking offended.
"Oh, Halley. Did you forget that I was here with you all before? Pretending to be innocent and knowing nothing? Ha! It was so naive of you to not think anything of it." The man chuckles and gives a sly grin.
Halley is taken aback by the comment. She stumbles back and stares at the floor. Her voice has lost its ability to function properly and her words have disappeared into thin air.
All of a sudden, the man grabs the sword out of the ground with no effort, and starts heading towards the elder woman. He strikes down, prepared to hit the woman, but another object jumps in front of it before it can do any harm.
Phoebus is there, with a long golden staff, that has flames running up and down the pole. The staff is my height (maybe a little shorter), and obviously strong compared to the resistance it just pulled off.
They both pull back with force, and keep their weapons hanging in front of their face. Phoebus's hand start to grow aflamed and starts to cackle like firewood. He thrusts his fist at the man, but the man dodges it with ease. Phoebus holds the staff out and creates a fireball from some of the fire on his stick and hands. He shoves his hand in the man's direction and the man screams out in pain. A blister and red burn wounds start to form on his cheek, right where he got hit.
"You're not as clever as you think, Honos," Phoebus glares, putting one side of the staff on the ground, and holding his weight on it. "You act like you know every move but then you don't even know I'm coming."
The man, Honos, grunts. He strikes out of anger, like I did with my voice when I snapped at him. He goes to hit Phoebus, and Phoebus jumps out of the way, way before it will even hit, but Honos still aims for that spot because of his fury. Honos clashes into the wall with a huge bang.
Black and blue spots form on his skin, as Phoebus says, "Orion sent you, didn't he?" Honos stifles a nod. "Well, tell him that sending you was a mistake. I'm literally the Son of the Sun. You need to learn that."
"The Son of the Sun?" I whisper to myself, confused.
"But," Honos grunts, pushing himself back up, with the sword now looking heavy in his hands, "if your new friend would like to join us," he smirks at me, "she's always welcome to."
"You and I both know that will never happen." Phoebus locks eyes with Honos. "I recommend you leave now, before things get messy."
"Fine, fine," Honos shrugs, moving towards the window. "But I'm telling you, Orion is going to recruit all of the children of the dwarf planets." And with that, he jumps back out of the window.
After a moment, the other people run in with their unique weapons.
Jove glares at Phoebus, "You could have waited just a little longer for us!" She has two sais that are made out of copper. The handles have dusty, brown wraps on it, with a symbol, like Honos did on his sword, but it's different. It looks like a fancy four:
♃
The next two people follow in behind her. One is another female. She has a deep, metallic, blue bow, and a quiver of arrows the same exact color. The arrows are sharp and pointed, and can pierce through a body with ease. She also has a symbol on the bow the quiver. There may be some on the arrows, but they're too small to see. The symbol has an oval, and then dots following behind it:
☄︎
The other person is a male. He has a small thieves' dagger, like the ones from the fairytale stories. The details and a tiny bit of rust tell me it's iron. The handle is the only part that is rusted, not the blade. And like the others, this one has a symbol. It looks like the female gender sign, but with antlers:
☿
And believe it or not, when I look closer to the flaming staff Phoebus is holding, his has a symbol, too. A circle with a tiny dot in it:
☉
The elder woman named Halley turns towards me. "I think it's time we explain what's going on to Cynthia," She gives a faithful look to the girl with a bow and arrows. "So she's prepared for the next attack."