Muse Unexpected (7 page)

Without hesitation, the woman grabbed her arm, helping her to stand.

“Thank you, so much,” She tried politely to release herself, but the woman didn’t move. “I said I was sorry. Please let my arm go.”

The woman stood there in silence. Sophie panicked, trying to get away, when a rumbling in the sky made her look up. She was surprised at how dark it had gotten.

The stranger moved closer, bringing her face within inches of Sophie’s face.

“My name is Aletheria. I am the Oracle serving your grandmother,” the woman said.

“The what?” Sophie asked, attempting to scream over the wind.

“I serve the Vasilikós of Greece and Italy.”

Crazy. This woman has bought major property in crazy town.

“Why am I not surprised Georgia has failed to prepare you for any of this? I’m sorry, dearest. I hope one day you will forgive me.”

“What are you talking about?” Sophie croaked, her voice trapped in her throat.

Aletheria raised her arms towards the sky as the wind rushed from behind her and whooshed upward, sounding like a freight train at full speed. Sophie lost her footing, stumbled and fell.

Cowering on the ground, fearing she had somehow managed to end up in the path of a spring tornado, Sophie began crawling on her stomach. She made it a few feet before being stopped by Aletheria, who didn’t seem to move but rather materialize out of the gathering darkness and wind. The woman took a few steps closer to her, ignoring Sophie’s attempts to scramble away. Aletheria reached down and lifted Sophie's chin with one hand, and with the other lifted her own veil, revealing a face of ash and waste with blue-hot coals for eyes, which seemed to burn the flesh in the woman’s eye sockets.

Sophie yelped, slapping Aletheria’s hand and pushing herself away. Aletheria straightened and tore at her clothes, which appeared to grow in length the more she ripped, the veil now reaching the ground as it billowed in the wind. Loose ash flew up into the sky, feeding into what was forming into a tornado. A rolling curtain of black clouds that crackled and sparked with lightning joined the funnel cloud. Sophie glanced back to where Aletheria had stood and only found the dress and the veil, which remained standing for a few seconds before the tornado sucked it up. The forest, which had seemed so far away, had shifted and moved in closer to her, as trees were twisted and uprooted by the funnel cloud, and slammed down closer to her. Several massive trees fused together in groups, forming what appeared to be the four corners of a rectangular space, the center of it being where she lay.

Terrified to the point of almost blacking out, Sophie struggled to her feet. She ran in the opposite direction of the first line of tree columns, but was stopped by several other trees slamming down in front of her, missing her by only a few feet. She reversed herself and ran toward another opening. Like the previous one, several other tree columns blocked it. She attempted to run between the trees and was violently shoved back by several branches. They reached for the neighboring branches, intertwining themselves and creating a natural barrier. What holes remained were filled with the forest debris being gathered by the storm, as vines, leaves and bits of rock wedged themselves to form solid walls. There were now four sides to the structure, which was the size of a football field. Unsure what to do, Sophie wandered towards the center of the space, as the funnel cloud disappeared into the clouds.

What am I going to do?

Feeling helpless, she cried out, “Mom…”

Callie stood in front of the grave, her eyes closed in silent prayer. A shiver ran up her spine as she heard a whisper on the wind that sounded like, “Mom.”

She jumped, like someone had thrown cold water in her face. She grabbed Georgia’s hand, who stood next to her, her head also bowed, eyes closed, reciting the Lord’s Prayer.

“Mother,” she said, touching Georgia’s arm. Callie glanced around and then panicked. “Mother, where’s Sophie?”

“Callista, she’s right—” Georgia paused as she scanned the group, who stood motionless, frozen to the ground. “Well, she was right over—” Georgia pushed her way to the back of the group. “Has anyone seen Sophia?”

Each of the guests remained motionless and unresponsive, as if suspended in time. She saw an expression of dread appear on Georgia’s face.

The vile word came back into her mind.

“Nothos. Filthy Nothos. A good Nothos is a dead Nothos.” It’s what they used to say. The Olympians killed people like us. They enjoyed it. They killed girls like Sophie for sport.

“Oh please, God, not Sophie. Please, anybody but Sophie,” Callie prayed, hoping Sophie had gone back to the chapel. She rushed towards it. Understanding the funeral party was oblivious to everything around them, Callie disappeared in an explosion of light, reappearing in the chapel with a loud crack. Georgia appeared in a split second at her side. The chapel was empty, except for a single woman dressed in black who sat in the front pew.

She rushed forward, but Georgia held her back with a violent jerk. “Be smart, Callista. We aren’t dealing with something from this world,” Georgia said.

“Who are you?” Georgia shouted. “What have you done with Sophia?”

The woman stirred, as she shook with the laughter spilling out of her.

“Done with?” the woman said in a heavy Greek accent. “I haven’t done anything. I am just the catalyst, not the creator.”

Callie ripped her arm away from Georgia.

“Enough of this. Are you the one who killed those poor children? Tell me where my daughter…” Callie shouted, rushing towards the woman. She stopped when she recognized her. “Aletheria? What are you doing here?”

Staring back at her was the ancient Oracle, someone Callie didn’t expect to see and then it hit her, like a hundred-pound weight. She glared back at Georgia.

“What have you done?” Callie demanded, her voice shaking with rage. “What have you set in motion, Georgia? Tell me.”

Georgia
walked towards her daughter. “Come away from Aletheria. I haven’t done anything. I don’t know what—”

The Oracle laughed. “Careful Georgia, you’ll catch yourself in the web you’ve been spinning for years. You wouldn’t want to lie in church.”

The color drained from Georgia’s face.

Callie could see her mother was hiding something.

I could kill you right now, old woman.
Electricity crackled around Callie as her hands channeled the energy around her. The irritating buzzing in her head she had been feeling grew stronger, bordering on being painful, urging her to get control of herself. She closed her palms, snuffing out the energy surge.

“We don’t need your gift of sight. Go away, Aletheria. You aren’t wanted here,” Georgia said.

The Oracle raised her left eyebrow. “I believe your daughter thinks differently.” Aletheria reached into the pocket of her suit and produced a handful of casting stones, which fell to the ground with a tinkling clatter.

“What would you like to know? I’ll give you this knowledge for free,” the Oracle said.

“What is to become of my daughter?”

The Oracle glared at Georgia, saying “The question should be, what
is
Sophia about
to
become.”

Callie knew what the Oracle spoke of.

“Ascension?” Callie said. “But, Sophie knows nothing of us, of the responsibility that comes with the power. She has the right to choose. It is written we are given the right to choose. You can’t decide one day you want to change my daughter into a Muse. I demand you follow our laws.” She looked at the Oracle and then back at Georgia.

She closed her eyes and raised her right hand to her forehead as she realized she couldn’t run from it anymore. After years of trying to forget, trying to be normal, she admitted the truth. She was a Muse.

“I’m a Muse who has forsaken her gift, and now my daughter is going to pay for it. But this is my sin, not Sophie’s and I can’t let this happen,” Callie said, backing away from the two women, the buzzing in her head returning. She ran down the aisle with the sound of the word Nothos ringing in her ears.

“I have to stop it.” She hit the door and disappeared with an explosion of light. The doors were thrown open and slammed into the walls.

***

In the same clearing where Sophie had entered the woods, two bursts of light shot into the glen as Callie and Georgia appeared.

Callie took in her surroundings and saw Georgia standing in her way, staring back at her.

“Get away from me,” she said. Her words more of a slap than a statement. She attempted to push her mother out of her way, but Georgia held strong to her spot and put her hands on her shoulders.

“Callista.” Georgia shouted, but she couldn’t hear her. Callie was running on pure protective mother instinct. Georgia grabbed her head and made her look into her eyes.

She couldn’t make out what she was saying. Her mother’s hands were burning into the side of Callie’s head and her entire body shook as a jolt of electricity from Georgia’s hands almost made her fall over.

Georgia
held firm. “Nothing can be done. We have no control of this. This has been written by the Fates ever since Sophia was born. This is her destiny.”

She pushed her mother away and began to pace as she ignored the torrential downpour soaking both of them to the skin.

“Bullshit, Georgia. Not true, not true, not true. This is all you and your hunger for power. Sophie isn’t a part of this. There are people out there murdering children, branding
Nothos
onto them. Your desire for power will not put Sophie in jeopardy. It’s your job to catch whatever vile creature from Olympus is running lose. It isn’t my job anymore and it certainly isn’t Sophie’s. ”

Hysterical, she rushed to her mother and threw herself on her knees, pleading. “I turned my back on the power. I wanted a normal life, to have a husband who loved me, and a child. A child not damned to this existence. Please Mama, please, not her. I’ll go back and do whatever was destined for me, but please, not Sophie. She’s just a girl. She can live with Stephanie. I can give her up to live like a normal, average girl. She deserves happiness. Please. Please.” Callie groveled, as she touched her mother’s shoes in total submission.

“I can’t,” Georgia said. “This isn’t my doing.”

Callie cried out in agony. “But she’s not like us. She doesn’t have the power within her. I would have seen it. Why is this happening?”

The disgust in her mother’s face was all too apparent.

“Get up. Get up, Callista.” Georgia demanded. “And stop your sobbing. You have always been a selfish, weak woman, never grateful for what was given to you.”

“What? Given? What are you talking about?”

Georgia
reached down and grabbed Callie by the arm, pulling her up by force.

“Do you think the time you had with Angelo wasn’t a gift? Do you believe you had the power to turn away from them, the Elders, the gods, like handing in your two weeks’ notice at some job? Is your ignorance so great? They allowed you to leave, to bring Sophia into this world. It was their plan, not yours.”

Callie stared at the ground, still sobbing. Georgia reached over and smacked her across her face.

“You need to snap out of your sorrow because you have little to be sorry about. You don’t think for one minute I would have loved to have the life you had with Angelo. To…to…to have simple moments not associated with my duties to the gods. There are moments when my body is so tired and my mind wishes I would tear it out of my head so I could have a moment or two of peace. And you stand there crying, not because of what is happening now, but because you want more, because it wasn’t enough. Well, my little girl, there isn’t any more. What you got came at great sacrifice and now the Sisters have returned for payment. So it is better to embrace what the Fates have given us and be thankful for the gift Sophia is about to become.”

“But she has a choice. They have to ask.”

Georgia
took a step closer. “Not this time. You were right when you said Sophia wasn’t like us. It is frightening how she’s so beyond what you and I are. It is as if Zeus’s hand has reached down to bless your child. Be happy, Callista.”

The annoying buzzing sensation in her head made it difficult, but she ignored her mother and walked past her.

“Callista, where are you going?” Georgia asked.

“All you’re trying to do is delay me with all of this grandstanding. I’m sick of it. Screw the blessing. No one is going to kill my daughter and brand her a Nothos. No one is going to force her into the dangerous life I was forced into. I will take her so far away from you; even the all powerful Georgia will never be able to find her.” Callie continued to walk, expecting the warm sensation to build inside her, as it always did when she used her powers. She felt nothing. She tried again to concentrate and realized she wouldn’t be able to call upon her powers. It wasn’t going to be that easy.
Georgia
bound my powers.

“I don’t need it,” she said under her breath and ran into the woods, leaving Georgia alone.