The Stolen Jewel of Hecate

Chapter 4

I carefully opened the box to catch a glimpse of a red necklace before a bright light shined from it. I covered my eyes as the light shined brighter. I saw the light between my hands go away and I opened my eyes. Right in front of me was a man. Some random man that looks like he belongs in a historical fiction movie. He looked like he was bored and wanted to get whatever this was over with. I looked him up and down and did the only logical thing to do. Scream and throw things. I screamed at the top of my lungs. My voice started to ache with how much and how loud I was screaming. I grabbed a lamp on my bedside table and threw it as hard as I could. He caught it and put it down. I threw my phone, and he caught that too. I'm screwed. I can't protect myself, but with further examination he wasn't doing anything.The man in front of me just yawned. Why is he yawning? Isn't he going to kill me or something? I stopped screaming and looked at the strange man. He just looked at me. Was he going to stand there all day or tell me something about why he magically appeared in my room. " Who are you? What do you want? How did you get here? Are you going to kill me? Are you here to kidn-" I rambled until he interrupted me. " Kid chill. I'm not going to hurt you in any way. So relax. Second I'm Hephaestus. The god of fire. Third I got here through that necklace you got in that box there. Fourth I don't want anything. That answer all your nonsense questions?" the man said in a bored tone. I slowly nodded my head. He smiled. " Good. Now the reason I'm here. Kid, in a nutshell, you have been chosen by the keeper of the jewels to help save the world." He said, still speaking in a bored tone. I looked at him. This must be Ellie's doing. Trying to get me to believe heroes exist. " Alright, Ellie. You can come out now. I almost fell for this nonsense, you almost had me there. Come out and turn this projector off. You had your fun." I said talking to basically the wall. The strange man looked around the room confused. " Who is this Ellie?" He asked, confused. Then I looked back at the strange man. I stood up, walked over to the tall man, and held my hand out. I slowly and steadily poked him. Felt solid. I poked him again. " Stop doing that. You have by far the worst reaction to this whole thing." I looked up to him. " Ok Hepa- Heffes-hefas-'' I struggled to pronounce his name. " It's Hephaestus. The god of fire. Have you really not heard of me?" I shook my head. I wasn't up to date on this sort of thing. The man groaned. Well, I guess Hephaestus groaned. " I'm a greek god. A long time ago Zeus had the 'swell' idea to put part of our soul and power into a jewel, which is the thing on your necklace. Every planet with life got five jewels. I'm obviously one of those five." He said. I nodded along to show I was listening. " One of the five jewels was stolen. The keeper of earth's jewels needs to use the other four to help get the one back, and it is clear he chose you as the hero of fire." I looked at him with shock. Why the hell would I be chosen? I wasn't anything special. " Look this sounds all hunky-dory, but I am no hero. I'm not anything special. Go find someone else to do this for you. I'm sure they will be better then I will ever be. '' I said, rejecting whatever this was. Hephaestus shook his head. " Kid, that's not how this works. You are chosen and that's the end of the story. As much as you don't want it right now trust you will A) Love it after getting the hang of it and B) you're stuck with me either way. So better start liking it." He said. I just looked at him and I couldn't believe what I was hearing. How could I possibly be a hero? " I can't do this Hephaestus. Where is this keeper so I can give it back?" I asked with hope he would tell me. He shook his head. " Again kid, that's not how it works. You're stuck with this magnificent god until you find the jewel of Hecate." He said in a proud tone. " Hecate?" I said curiously. Hephaestus nodded. " That is the goddess of witchcraft." He said. I wanted to know more about these five jewels. " You said five jewels. What about the other three?" I asked. Hephaestus chuckled at my curiosity. "The other three gods on planet earth are Posiden, Gaia, and Aeolus. The god of the sea, the goddess of earth, and the god of air. The other three jewels have other owners, and they will be your partners in crime." he paused to let me take in all this new information. I looked at him shocked. " Hephaestus as much as this sounds great. I can hardly be a hero. The keeper must have made some mistake." I said. Hephaestus shook his head." Kid, mistake or not it's time you accept it. I'm not going anywhere. Besides, I'll probably be fun to have around." he said with a smirk. His smirk however,disappeared when he heard a knock on my front door. I froze. What am I supposed to say when I have a giant greek dude in my room looking like he belongs in a movie. I looked at Hephaestus and he looked back at me." Get in the closet." I whispered screamed. He just looked at me. " The closet? Are you ma-" Before he finished his sentence I shoved him in the closet and shut the door. I heard him mumble a few words, probably of annoyance, but he was hidden and I was happy. I walked to the eye hole and saw a police officer. I didn't do anything, why was he here? I opened the door and there stood a tall police officer in probably his mid-thirties. " Can I help you?" I said in a polite tone. The officer looked at me. " There was a report about a loud scream coming from this address. We were asked to see what was going on." He said in a professional tone. I looked at him. So much for being low-key with his new superhero thing. " There was a scream. It came from me. I saw a-a-a mouse! A mouse, that's it." I lied. I can't tell him about Hephaestus. The officer looked at me, looking to see if I was lying. I felt sweat going down my back, that's how terrified I was about him finding out. He finally was done looking at me and tilted his hat. " I'm sorry for bothering you." He smiled and walked off. Thank god. I need to be more careful. If he was one percent more gullible he would have searched my house. I walked back to my room to see Hephaestus laying on my bed looking through my phone. " Excuse me, but who told you to go through my phone?" I said giving him a questioning look. He laughed. " So this is what this strange device is. Well, no one did but I need to see what's new about earth. I have been in that damn box for a couple hundred years you know." He said, complaining about his box life. " I have used one before, but not for very long, the keeper helped me figure it out before I was somewhat 'given' to you. Also you should really have a password. With all this embarrassment you should have a ten-digit password." he said with a laugh. I snatched my phone out of his hand. He continued to laugh. " It's not funny. It's my private life you know." I said frustrated. " Kid I am your private life now. I am to be extremely secret and private. This is nothing compared to me." he said somewhat seriously. I gave him an annoyed look." That is something no one needs to know about, even you and also this 'Kid' has a name you know." I stated. Hephaestus sighed." What's your name?" he asked with a sigh. I huffed " Don't sound annoyed, it's the polite thing to do you know. My name is Sam. Sam Brown." I said proudly. " OK, Sam. I hope you except I'm not going anywhere, and know you must never tell anyone I exist. Got it?" he asked, being serious for once since he got here. I nodded my head. " I got it. I promise to not tell anyone, but I don't promise to like it or think it's right. I still think this is a mistake. Now how about we go to sleep and put this probably dream or nightmare behind us." I said. I tucked myself in and got ready to sleep. " Uh ki- I mean Sam. Where do I sleep?" Good question. I can't just have a random grown up man sleep on my couch. " Can't you change into some form to make you smaller or something? Then you could just sleep on a pillow." I said. He took a moment to think. " Well, I can change into the size of a stuffed animal. To, you know, help you carry me around." He said in deep thought about this living situation. " Whoa whoa whoa. What do you mean carry you? I'm not doing that. You can't just stay at home?" I asked. Hephaestus can't come with me. "Do you have any idea how suspicious it would be if a living human the size of a stuffed animal was in my bag?!" I almost shouted. "Look. You have no idea when you will need your powers. You could be at school and need your powers and if I'm stuck at your place then you can't save the world and the world goes boom." I took that into consideration. " Fine. you better not cause me any problems more than I already do." I said sternly. " Yah, yah. Get some sleep Sam. You're going to need it." Hephaestus said. He shrunk down to size and I put a pillow on the floor for him. This probably isn't real and he will be gone by morning anyway. This is all a dream right?