Girl Enchanted (Book 2 of The Girl Trilogy) (12 page)

The giant growled at my statement. I
sure was glad he was trapped in his cage and couldn’t get me. “That
arrogant David, under the name of God…” he said, “As our fight was
to begin, he somehow used Godly power to make me stick to the
ground like I was nailed down. Then I couldn’t raise my spear. And
the pompous slayer shot a stone from his sling into my forehead.
That measly midget cheated. How could I fight when I couldn’t even
move! Grrrrr…” Goliath, as he called himself, shook his mane of
hair angrily at the memory. “When I fell, he cut off my head with
my own sword!”

“
Calm down there, Fatso,”
the zebra girl said harshly.

But, Goliath turned to her and stared
at her until she stiffened like a statue. I thought it was ironic
how he tapped into the dark forces to immobilize her while he was
complaining that David used Godly power to immobilize him. What a
hypocrite!

Then he turned to me and I was afraid
he was going to do the same to me, but he didn’t. The dark magic
started to wear off on the zebra girl. Not for long though because
he turned back to her with his stare and she froze back
up.

With his eyes still directed on her,
he continued in his grumbled voice, “I was a powerful warrior.
Nobody was stronger than me. But, now look at me—trapped in a cage
in a dim room.” He shook his head again and let up on his powers
directed at the zebra girl.

Slowly, she came to and collapsed to
the bottom of her cage. This time she didn’t fight back. I think
she was afraid of what he might do to her if she did.

Goliath seemed slightly calmer now.
“Before the Economy Crash and Great Sun Scorch, the United States
government owned these underwater warehouses. They used them as
research facilities where they hid and experimented on the
archeological findings of giants’ bones that they were hiding from
the public.”

I was surprised by what he was saying.
“You mean the U.S. government knew that giants were real and they
lied to everyone about it?”

“
Yes,” he moaned. “They
wanted to hide evidence of giants because their existence disproves
evolution. Not only did they find bones, but they actually found
live giants in countries like India and Egypt. From the bones and
live giants, they were able to use their genetics to recreate more.
They were able to take mutations and create a giant race that could
live and breathe in either water or on land. The underwater giants
they stored here and the land giants they kept in
Washington.

“
After the downfall, the
serpent people confiscated these government structures with their
entities. Lord Shaul and Lord Aver retrieved the skull of Goliath
and with incantations and from the bones, they were able to
recreate me with my former memories. They want to use giants and
crossbreeds in their hell on earth. We are naturally gifted in the
black arts.

“
Are giants a rightful
breed according to the bible?” I asked.

The giant looked at me carefully for a
moment and I feared that he might hurt me, but to my relief he just
scratched his healing arm wounds and continued. “Adam said that God
flooded the world because of interspecies breeding at the time of
Noah and his ark. God does not look favorably on that kind. There
is legend that giants are the product of fallen angels who mated
with human women. We are also an abomination under God. For now, we
just wait until our time of glory rises. We wait for hell on
Earth.”

The zebra girl was swimming around and
kicking her legs. She was probably trying to loosen her joints and
muscles after being unable to move for so long. “Because you too
are a crossbreed…” she said, standing still for a minute, “…you
will have power over the humans too when hell on Earth arises. The
serpents will be the rulers, but we will hold prestigious positions
and be able to have our way with the humans as our
slaves.”

“
Oh,” I said hesitantly. I
didn’t know the proper way to respond to her horrible
talk.

“‘
Oh’?” she said mockingly
with an spark of suspicion in her fire blue eyes. “Has not anyone
told you of such?”

It appeared as if I said the wrong
thing. “Sure, I’ve heard stories, but now that you are telling me,
I know the rumors are true.”

“
Rumors?” She asked,
looking at me fixedly. For a moment she swam around the cage and
then she tucked her hooves under her lower torso upon the ground in
what looked like a resting position, but she kept her eyes fixated
on the tiger fish that slept in its aquarium. After a short time
she fell asleep too.

When I looked over at Goliath, I saw
that he was starting to fall asleep too. He was slumped over in his
chair, muttering lightly with his eyes closed. Moments later he was
snoring, fast asleep.

I was alone now and there was so much
to contemplate. If only I could escape from this cage. Now that I
knew that everyone I loved, betrayed me, I was certain, I wanted to
find a new home far away from Seneca Mountains and far away from
this lake.

But, then, I thought about my genetic
mother and father, Telly Belle and Zikron Baro. Though I hardly
knew Telly and I had never met Zikron, according to the story, they
loved me and each other. They had wanted to escape this place as do
I and they had risked everything for their pursuit.

I knew that the community leaders and
the serpent people could find me in Aurora Springs if I was to live
with Telly there. But, it sounded like Zikron was gaining control
over Shaul with his siren song. He seemed powerful. Zikron might
protect me. In fact, he probably would. If I find a way to break
free from this cage that is where I will go.

Now as I swam around the cage in the
dim light, I thought about Shaul and Aver. I was crazy for feeling
such love for Aver. He was truly evil. My yearnings for him and the
empathy I felt for him shamed me. I was glad he was dead. Now that
I was away from him, I felt relief. It shocked me how deeply I had
fallen for him when I didn’t even know him at all. I didn’t
understand it. The desire was unfathomable.

But, Shaul and I had spent so much
time together in the dungeon while we were locked away. He treated
me very well. He made our time there even magical. I wanted a life
like that. I wanted to be with someone who even in horrible times,
could make life beautiful.

My heart yearned for Shaul. I just
couldn’t believe he was evil like the giant and zebra girl said. I
loved him. And that was what made me feel so mixed up. Did I only
love him because of the siren song playing in my head? Or did I
love him in truth? Did he love me?

Oh, he was truly evil. He was the
incarnation of the devil. How could the devil not be bad? But, he
didn’t want to be evil. I knew that. He did so many heroic things.
I could tell he was always trying to control himself from his
selfish desires. He couldn’t help it if he was just bad. He didn’t
create himself. Maybe I could reason with him. Maybe I could change
him. Maybe I could make him good.

But, I was so angry with Shaul for
lying to me. He didn’t tell me about these warehouses, the
crossbreeds, or the giants. And what about the Adam crossbreed?
Shaul didn’t tell me about him. But, that made sense actually
because if Shaul did love me, Adam would be a threat to our love.
My heart warmed at that thought. That must be why he didn’t tell me
the truth, why he didn’t tell me the alternative scenario for
entrance into the Garden of Eden.

Now with the information I had
learned, I wondered what would happen to Adam and me if Shaul put
the DNA of the original apple only on the Tree of Life. Would Adam
and I cease to exist, would we become slaves damned to a torturous
existence, or would we be like Goliath and the zebra girl said—the
second ruling class beneath the serpents, but above the humans? I
didn’t want to be evil like that. I didn’t want to enslave humans
for my own power. I would rather die than that.

And I was not able to deny the
connection I felt to Adam when he grabbed onto me in that dark room
where I saw the vision. It was amazing—without being told, I knew
who he was. Truly he was my soul mate. I knew that now. I saw our
grave in the Cave of Machpela like the zebra girl spoke of. And in
that cave our matriarch and patriarch, Abraham and Sarah were
beside us. Being with Adam and the instigators of the belief in one
God was the true splendor.

But, I knew I was unworthy of such
holiness. I was bad and I knew it. I was the one who fed the apple
to Adam in the garden. My desires for the serpent were stronger
than any connection to God, Adam, the patriarchs and matriarchs and
all that was pure. I was a curious creature who wanted to explore
the bad even more than I wanted peace on Earth.

Just then I heard the door open to our
room. It was Aver!

12

“
Mealtime!” Aver called out
as he entered the room, shutting the door behind him. He carried a
huge bag over his shoulder like Santa Clause. When he opened it,
thousands of colorful fish swam out in varying sizes.

He was in the form of a merman. His
fish tale was green and his lean body looked fit and strong. His
hair was in a wild mess that looked sexy as hell on him. Nobody was
more attractive than Aver. He was physical perfection.

And of course, the music went wild and
out of control in my mind. I won’t even tell you the kind of
thoughts I was having. They even shocked me considering my romantic
life had been the epitome of innocence. Becoming a josephine really
put those hormones in full throttle!

But, more than anything, I was furious
at myself for my attraction toward Aver. I hated him. He was
entirely bad. But, no matter how much I tried to convince myself
how unhappy I was to see him, I couldn’t. And this made me even
angrier. I just wanted to kill him. Really. He deserved to
die.

The colorful fish swam around
everywhere now, but Goliath, the zebra girl, and that weird tiger
fish still slept. This surprised me. Didn’t they want to eat? To
me, I couldn’t imagine eating a live fish, but they were used to
that sort of thing.

“
Hey there, wild child,”
Aver said as he swam gracefully by my cage. He was carrying another
smaller bag with him.

Ignoring him, I wanted to rip his
heart out, but he didn’t get close enough for me to try
anything.

He swam around to the side of the
tiger fish’s aquarium and lifted the lid. Immediately there was an
enormously loud roar. The sound hurt my ears.

“
Hungry there—aren’t you?”
Aver said to the creature. He poured the contents of the bag into
the aquarium. Big fat water moles swam around and the tiger fish
gobbled them up at once.

Aver looked over at me and
winked—probably just to annoy me. “You hear that music too, don’t
you, wild child?”

“
Let me out of this cage,”
I demanded.

“
Gladly,” he said. “But,
you have to promise not to bite.” His eyes sparkled when he said,
‘bite.’

He put his hand on one of the bars of
the cage and concentrated. I had no idea what he was doing. But,
then this red light started exuding from his body. The bar started
to shake. I saw letters in the water. They began to swirl around
the bar. With that, he let go of the metal for a moment and smiled
mischievously at me. Then, while the letters were still swirling
around the bar, he bent the thick steel easily.

“
There’s enough space for
you now. Come on out.” He held his hand out to me.

I pushed him away and swam out. The
giant grumbled in his sleep, but he didn’t wake up. And the zebra
girl was still fast asleep with her head nestled between her knees
on the floor of her cage.

“
You’re a feisty one,” he
said in a flirtatious voice that made my blood boil with
hatred.

At once, I jumped on him and started
scratching him anywhere I could get my fingernails into. But, he
didn’t flinch and just grabbed me by the wrists and threw me over
his shoulder.

“
Let me down, let me down!”
I screamed. My hair was tangled all around me.

I saw that the zebra girl was awake
and bucking in her cage from the excitement. Then she stopped and
whinnied loudly. Her eyes were wide with the spark of an internal
thrill that I had only ever seen on the face of a crazy
person.

Aver held my wrists firmly. “Settle
down, hot stuff. We’re going on the adventure of our
lives.”

“
No! Let me go.” I
struggled to get away, but my mermaid tale wasn’t a very good
weapon. I wished I had my feet so I could have kicked him in the
head.

He carried me over his shoulder out
the door and locked it shut. “You know, wild child. You are
powerless against me. If you’re a good girl, I’ll let you down and
you can swim beside me. But, if you insist on being naughty, then
I’ll just have to carry you.”

“
Ok, set me down,” I
screamed. My hair was in my face and I couldn’t see
anything.

“
Remember, be
good.”

I knew I should just succumb. It was
clear to me that I was powerless against him. How could I hurt a
serpent person? He was practically omnipotent.

“
I’ll be good,” I said in a
frustrated voice.