Muse Unexpected (8 page)

Sophie didn’t know what to do, so she stood there, waiting for something to happen. Everything seemed to be on edge. The air was electric. The grass and trees seemed to be suspended in time.

The clouds above shifted, creating nine twisting whirlpools. The clear night sky and stars were visible in the center of each vortex’s eye. A rumble of thunder and a crack of lightning shot through one of the holes, striking the field a few yards from where Sophie stood and rupturing the ground. An intense light glowed from the crevice. A woman dressed in white appeared, standing in the center of the rupture. Sophie blinked to make sure she wasn't imagining things.

“This isn’t good,” she said, running in the opposite direction of the woman. She didn’t get far as another lightning bolt shot out of another hole in the clouds, striking a few feet away from her. Nearly falling into the newly formed crater, she stumbled back and hit the ground again.

“You’ve got to be kidding. Wake up, wake up, wake up.” Scrambling to her feet, Sophie could see from the corner of her eye another woman in white, standing on the far edge of the crater. She ran, not caring where she was going, ignoring the fact that there wasn’t anywhere to run. All she knew was that she needed to keep dodging lightning bolts.

It is a shame the people at the Guinness World Records weren’t around to record this. Jesus, I must be breaking some sort of freaky record.

The ninth bolt hit close, missing her by inches. She couldn’t feel her toes and a massive shock shot up her legs, right before they gave way. She fell face first, onto the ground with enough force that her mind swam near total darkness.

She whimpered as she turned over. Her head was throbbing. She tasted copper in her mouth and reached up to find a small trickle of blood coming from her right nostril. Every muscle in her body ached, screaming for her to stop whatever it was that she was making them do. Sophie got to her feet and cried out. The pain in her right ankle told her she twisted it.

The entire field was dark except for the occasional wave of lightning shooting inside the mass of clouds. Sophie let out another whimper as she saw the nine women in white had gathered around her in a large circle. She had no way to escape them now. They all seemed to glow, but she realized the glowing was the least of her worries because the women’s feet didn’t touch the ground at all. They weren't merely floating; they flew.

From the corner of her eye, she saw one of the women now stood next to her. She cringed, thinking the women had to be some sort of vampire bride, hungry for blood.

The woman said something that sounded Greek, but Sophie didn’t understand. The woman grew even brighter and began again, speaking in perfect English. “Don’t be afraid, Sophia. We won’t harm you.”

She glanced into the woman’s face, which she thought had to be the most beautiful face she had ever seen. Long blonde hair crowned delicately built features and a pair of deep-set eyes of a startling shade of dark blue with star-like specks of light watched Sophie. The woman offered a soothing smile, but Sophie was still afraid.

She attempted to ignore the pain in her ankle and limped for two steps before backing into another woman. She looked into the woman’s eyes, and Sophie’s fear and anxiety lessoned. The woman moved closer and Sophie didn’t bother moving. She sensed she wouldn’t be able to, even if she tried. A wave of warmth radiated from the group and she was comforted by it.

As a woman with hair the color of dark cinnamon sticks stepped forward, her fear melted away.

The woman said, “Once in a millennium comes a soul that possesses such power that its very existence has the ability to tilt the world back to its correct balance. Until now, we have suffered the slow death of inspiration in this world, as one war after another tore at the flesh of our very souls. For so long, we have hoped and prayed such a soul would restore the balance of good to this world, allowing us to once again walk the path of light.”

“But I don’t understand,” Sophie said.

The redheaded woman stood up and gave her a single kiss on the forehead, and her mind spun. Sophie’s body slowly drifted to the ground. She was conscious, but couldn’t move.

“It is time. Her mother approaches and we must be quick,” the women said, as they surrounded Sophie and reached down to gather her into their arms. A wind rushed forward, lifting the group upward towards an opening in the clouds and the glowing beams of the moon bathed the women as they disappeared into the sky, the clouds closing behind them.

Callie rushed through the woods as roots and branches tore at her. A leafless branch slapped across her face, drawing blood. Tripping, she cursed under her breath as her shin scraped across a fallen tree. The wind had picked up to compete with Callie’s fury, and a violent downpour of rain made it difficult for her to keep her footing. Georgia caught up to her and helped her to her feet.

“This is crazy,” Georgia shouted over the rain and claps of thunder.

A lightning bolt struck a nearby tree, shattering it and sending shards of smoldering wood in all directions. Georgia tackled Callie, sending both women sprawling to the ground as a large shard of wood landed behind them, missing them by inches.

Callie shouted in frustration.

“Callista, they won’t let us out of this wood until it’s over. It must be done. Stop fighting it.”

“Stop fighting?” Callie yelled. “Never, Georgia. Not when it comes to Sophie. I have to stop it. I have to.”

She pushed her mother away and scrambled to get up. She could barely see the clearing, but still fought her way through the underbrush. A faraway crash of lightning, followed by eight similar crashes, shook the ground beneath them. The shaking stopped and the forest fell into a deep hush as the now gentle rain died away.

Callie had heard the nine lightning strikes and knew what they meant. Defeated, she walked out of the woods, not surprised to discover she had been only a few yards from its edge. She told Georgia to stay back and ran toward the makeshift temple.

Sickened by how much it resembled the temple where her mother had taken her to receive her gifts, Callie dashed around, trying to find a way in–but there wasn’t one. An intense interior light shot from every crack in the structure’s exterior and she cried out in anguish, the anger building in her heart. She saw Georgia fling an energy blast that struck the temple and sent shards of wood into the air. She rushed into the hole Georgia created, ignoring the splinters of wood tearing at her feet. Callie stopped and dropped to her knees as she saw her daughter suspended by the arms in a cruciform pose, supported by invisible hands.

Oh, no
.
You aren’t getting off that easy.

“Show yourselves. I know you’re there, the cause of all of this. You were never cowards. Do not hide from the mother whose heart you have broken.”

Blinding light appeared around Sophie and then died away as the Muses materialized. The group drifted to the ground. Sophie, still sleeping, didn’t stir as she was laid onto an uprooted pile of moss. Without a word, a redheaded Muse stretched out to the heavens and shot into the air, followed by the other Muses.

Callie stood up and walked to her daughter. Sophie lay sleeping. She was a living and breathing piece of sculpture by some Old Master. Her once unruly hair now cascaded into reddish brown pools. Her face, which she had always believed to be beautiful, was so breathtaking Callie couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy. Sophie’s skin was smooth with a touch of summer tan and Callie noticed the slightest dusting of freckles on her nose and cheeks.

Georgia
walked up from behind. “She’s breathtaking. I expected incredible, but this is…”

“Yes, you’re right, except she was always beautiful. She didn’t need this.”

Georgia
became silent and reached out to hold her daughter’s hand, but Callie rejected the gesture. The strange buzzing moved through her head again.

“She can’t live here in this world anymore, at least not until she can learn to control her powers,” Callie said. “We’ll have to leave before anyone sees her. How could I possibly explain the way she looks to anyone who has seen her before? We have to return to Greece and set up residence at the Vasilikós.”

Sophie stirred and opened her eyes, which now twinkled with starlight. Callie knew Sophie hadn’t become the same as she or Georgia. Sophie wasn’t a run-of-the-mill-Muse.

“So much more,” Georgia said under her breath, and Callie cringed at the greed in her mother’s voice.

Sophie’s cries echoed in the large room and she thrashed her arms with such force she threw herself off the bed. She was dreaming of attending her own funeral. As she stood in front of the open grave she turned to see a perfect version of herself staring back at her. The clone’s perfection was like a slap across her face and she wanted to cry. She tried to call out to her mother and tell her she wasn’t dead, but a flash of energy was thrown at her and she fell into the grave, crashing through the coffin. She landed on something cold and damp. It smelled like the frogs she had dissected in biology class. Dead arms wrapped around her and a mouth with a foul smelling breath whispered ‘die, filthy Nothos’ in her ear. She tried to yell for help but the coffin gave way and she started falling towards a fiery pit she knew was Hell.

The fall from her bed brought her fully awake. Sophie shuddered at the thought of her dream. She sat on the floor, not sure what to do.

Where the heck am I? This isn’t my room.
She shuddered again as her feverish skin dropped in temperature.

The room was vast; the bed she rested her head against was huge and ornate, it belonged in a museum and not a bed she would choose to sleep in.

Sophie examined the rest of the room. Two large stone fireplaces flanked it and without doing so she knew she could easily stand in the mouth of each of them. She walked toward one of the ceiling-to-floor windows and touched the heavy embroidered drapes hanging from iron rods. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and couldn’t help but smile because the scent of the sea brought back fond memories of family vacations she had long since forgotten. The breeze blew a thick strand of her hair across her face, and once her eyes focused on it she panicked.

“My hair…oh my God, my hair. What is wrong with my hair?” Sophie said, grabbing and examining a clump of it.

“Nothing’s wrong with it. It’s beautiful,” Callie said, closing the door behind her. She stood for a moment, staring at her daughter and then walked toward her.

Sophie looked at her mother. “Where are we?” Her hand drifted to her stomach and she looked down when she didn’t encounter the amount of stomach she expected.

“Mom?” she wailed and started to sob. “Have I been sick? What’s happened to me?”

Callie walked toward Sophie and embraced her. “Oh honey, no, you haven’t been sick. It’s, well—sweetie, come sit down over here.” Callie motioned for her to sit on an overstuffed couch. “I know you have a lot of questions, so let me start with an easy one. We’re not in Ohio. We’ve come to stay with Georgia, in Greece.”

“Greece? Mom, I don’t even have a passport. How can we be in Greece?”

“Well… Let’s not worry about how we got here and deal with
why
we’re here.”

“Mom, did you do something illegal and we had to leave? Were you selling drugs? Oh my God, you’re like that mother on
Weeds
.”

“Oh God, no, that’s not it at all,” Callie laughed. “Honey, do you remember anything about Daddy’s funeral? Do you remember what happened after we left the church?”

Sophie didn’t know what her mother was talking about. She shook her head.

“Okay… here goes…I need you to suspend your disbelief,” Callie said, “because I’m about to tell you myths, fairytales and things that go bump in the night are real.”

“What?” Sophie said, starting to get frustrated. She glanced over her mother’s shoulder and noticed a floor length mirror. The mirror’s massive frame, with gold gilded swans, mythical creatures and reclining cherubs almost took up the entire wall. Callie’s eyes drifted toward the mirror and she threw up her hands, sending a burst of light towards the heavy curtains on each side of the mirror. The curtains abruptly closed by themselves.

Sophie’s mouth flew open. “Mom, how did you do that? Did you just do what I think you did?”

Callie stood up and walked towards the mirror, and turned back to face Sophie, gripping the curtains behind her.

“Honey, I have so much to explain and I’m not doing a good job of it. I never thought I would have to have this conversation with you. Think of your soul as a small room with millions of tiny doors. For most, the majority of those doors are shut.”

“Mom, step away from the mirror. Let me see what has happened to me.”

“But I need to explain first. It’s like this, some people may have a few additional doors open and because of those open doors, they have some extra abilities like being able to tell the future or being able to speak with the dead. Now, beings like us have the majority of our doors opened and our soul is expanded to allow us to do the things we can do. Otherwise, our soul would be ripped to shreds.”

Sophie’s arms shook; a searing heat building inside her as crackling electricity filled the air. “What has happened to me, Mom? I need to see.” She lifted her head; her eye’s meeting her mother’s. The heat was almost unbearable, burning in her eyes and moving toward her clenched fists. Her hands tingled and burned. She was sure they were going to explode.

Callie held firm. “Honey, calm down. You don’t have control of your emotions. It’s always difficult at first, but—”

Sophie was furious and she let whatever control she had slip away. Her eyes were burning through her mother, in an attempt to reach the covered mirror.

With a steady voice, Sophie said, “Let me see.” She shook her hands, in an attempt to shake off the heat pooling in them. Instead of feeling relief, the energy surged from her.

Callie threw herself out of the way, falling forward onto the floor as the energy burst hit the mirror, ripping the heavy curtains and massive iron rods off the wall and cracking the mirror from top to bottom. Sharp pieces of mirror rained down, as both women crashed to the floor.

“Ow!” The slivers of mirror glass sliced her palms. She grew silent watching the mirror-shards pushing themselves out of her skin. The cuts bled a little then stopped bleeding and healed before her eyes. She stood, afraid to move, trying to get her mind around what she was seeing.

“What the heck is wrong with me?” Sophie said, as she burst into tears.

Although a good portion of the mirror was destroyed, Sophie could still make out most of her reflection. She lifted her right hand and touched her face, realizing she was staring back at the girl from her nightmare. It was the girl who had pushed her into the grave.

This is more than just a little liposuction or a hair straightening. Am I a victim of an alien attack? Was this the work of body snatchers?

The voice coming from Sophie’s mouth was sorrowful and lost. “Was I so hideous you couldn’t stand another moment of looking at me and you had to change me into this?” She gestured at herself, feeling years of fear and inadequacy bubble up inside her. “What did you do to me, Mom? Knock me out and put me through some sort of
Princess Diaries
program from hell? Did you look at me and wonder how something so ugly could be created from you and Daddy? Do you finally have the daughter you’ve always wanted? I always knew I was a big disappointment, but this is…are you happy?”

Callie stood there, eyes downturned.

“No, Sophia, she’s not happy. If there is someone to blame, blame me.” Sophie was surprised to see Georgia standing in the doorway.

Georgia
walked deeper into the room and noticed the shattered mirror.

“Now, I know my daughter didn’t do this because she knows how much this mirror means to me.” Georgia stooped to pick up a few pieces of mirror before throwing them onto the floor. “Sophia, was breaking the mirror necessary? You are going to have to get control of your powers because I can’t have you tearing this Vasilikós apart. Not to mention I find such wasteful demonstrations of your powers vulgar and tasteless.” Georgia flicked the tips of her fingers away, as if brushing a piece of lint off her dress and the motion swept the pieces of shattered mirror into a neat pile. Again, she flicked her hand in dismissal—sending the fallen curtains, brackets and bar back to their rightful place. “That mirror has been in our family for longer than I can remember. It was given to this Vasilikós by Athena herself. I believe it was forged from late evening mist, Hades gold and starlight.”

Sophie snorted in response, unable to stop the laughter from bubbling out from her. “Evening mist and starlight? Don’t forget pixie dust and cotton candy.”

Georgia
grimaced. “Callista, you will teach your daughter to hold her tongue and to give a Demigod of my status the respect I deserve or I will bind her tongue until she learns her lesson.”

Georgia
clapped her hands, which sent the pieces of mirror into the air. They hung like miniature prisms, filling the room with a light.

“Assemble,” Georgia said, a spark shooting from her right hand. The pieces zoomed around each other, each acting like they possessed a mind of their own, as they located their original starting place.

“With all due respect, Georgia,” Callie spat out, fighting the buzzing in her head urging her to remain quiet, “stop showing off.”

Callie stood and walked over to the floating pieces of mirror and placed her hand flat against the mirror’s surface. Her hand began to spark and glow with heat, and with a slight push the floating wall of glass slammed into the mirror’s frame with a loud crash.

Sophie walked past her mother and stared at the mirror, while dripping bits of light slid over the cracks, fusing them together and restoring the mirror back to perfection.

“Are we witches? Vampires?” Sophie asked.

Georgia
snorted. “Goodness, no. How silly to even suggest such an idea. In addition to requiring a natural ability to cast, witches require spells, potions and other nonsense. I’d go out of my mind having to remember the correct pattern of words or carry a wand. Don’t misunderstand me; some of my good friends are witches. As for the vampire thing, we are a far cry from those horrible creatures. Vampires aren’t the tortured, brooding creatures that possess a strong jaw-line, piercing eyes and six-pack abs. Such rubbish, but I digress,” Georgia said, as she walked toward the hallway.

“Callista, why you have such difficulty doing a simple task like this, I’ll never know.” Georgia stopped and straightened a tilted lampshade. “We’re Muses,” she said, glancing at Sophie, and walked out the door, calling behind her. “Hopefully your mother can explain the rest without my help.”

Without anyone touching it, the door slammed closed behind Georgia.