Ode to the Queen (3 page)

I’m not sure if it was possible to take it all in at once. There was so much to look at from the décor to the design. Atlas had somehow managed to transfer all my bags into the room and unpack them before we even got there. My things were arranged as they would have been at home or even in the dorm room of my exchange school had I made it. I turned in surprise to look at Atlas, who merely shrugged.

“I’ve been observing you for some time. I hope it’s set to your taste. I tried my best… Modern female design and architecture is not my forte.” I laughed; I couldn’t help it.

“It’s fine… It’s perfect.” Despite being potentially kidnapped and incarcerated he had certainly gone out of his way to make me comfortable. It was starting to get hard to feel worried over the whole experience when everything was so magical and wonderful. He had almost managed to convince me, subconsciously, to stay.

“So, let me explain how everything works.” He moved further into the room, leading me through the living room. “TV, Blu-ray, stereo system - if you need anything else just let me know but most of the basics should be here. This is your bedroom…” He opened the next door in the apartment, revealing to me a room made for a Goddess – literally.

A huge King size canopy bed filled only an eighth of the room. A hand carved desk sat against a wall with an attached bookshelf filled with books I had always wanted to read. A massive window decorated the opposite wall, giving me a stunning picturesque view of the forest and villages below us.

“The bathroom, filled with everything you should need. When you throw something out here…” he pointed to the garbage can; “it should be replenished in here immediately. You should never run out of any amenities.” Unable to help myself I moved forward, opening a cupboard and retrieving a tube of toothpaste. Squeezing it out into the sink I tossed the crumbled and curled tube into the garbage bin where before my eyes it disappeared.

Disbelievingly I reached out and opened the cupboard once more and there, just where I had found it, was another tube.

“Wow.” I said softly, shaking my head at the impossibility of it all. He smiled almost knowingly and left the room through a second door. I paused for a moment, glancing around at the bathroom bigger than my bedroom back home. The bath was the size of a Jacuzzi and the shower stall big enough for a small sports team to use collectively. I had to shake my head. I could no longer process or worry about everything that was happening to me and simply followed him out into the next room.

“Kitchen, same as the bathroom only when you open cupboards and the fridge it’ll be stocked with your favourite food. If there’s something you don’t have that you want just close the door, think about it and reopen. It should be there. Would you like to try that too?”

I nodded, going forward and opening the door to see what was there first. A small search revealed that he had packed the fridge with everything I tried to eat on a daily basis. There were also basic things needed for survival, so I closed the door and thought about bacon.

When I opened the door, on the first shelf were fresh butcher wrapped strips of bacon. Incredulity filled me and I laughed, shaking my head because now that was the only logical thing I could manage.

Glancing at Atlas I mumbled, “anything else freaky I should know about or is this just it?”

“Just this… Do you have any questions?”

I had a hundred but I didn’t know where to begin. One burning question sprang forth and I quickly wondered: “what do I do here then?”

“You live, as you would at home. Tonight there will be a mixer for everyone to meet and greet. You’re the last to arrive and the others have, for the most part, met each other but you’re the new girl so be ready for an interrogation.”

“Others… do they know who they are?”

He nodded slightly, “yes, some of them have awakened already and know who they are, while others are still trying to figure it out. Meeting everyone tonight will help you find out who is taken and who left you have to choose from. Think of it as a mystery, I know you liked Scooby Doo as a young girl.”

I laughed yet again, I couldn’t help it; the statement was strange hearing from a man I’d never even met as a child.

“Totally different from Scooby Doo but yeah… okay, I guess I can play along. I don’t suppose I really have a choice do I?”

Atlas shrugged, “no, not really. You can’t leave until I say so… But there’s no reason for you to need to. Everything you could want you’ll find here. The others will show you around. When the time comes I’ll be back and I’ll help you with full recollection of your power and memories. Until then, be normal. That’s all the Gods ever were.”

“Normal? But they were Gods. Normal is... mortals. Abnormal is believing that Gods exist and can be normal.”

“No, normal is the Gods. Mortals were simply made in their image. Who do you think was the original ‘Bachelor’ and the first ‘Desperate Housewife’? The mortals simply copied what their leaders showed them to be.”

I nodded, my head swimming with more questions and more disbelief. But how could I say none of this was real when I had just witnessed for myself items appearing in places they hadn’t been before. Maybe I was just tired and hallucinating. Maybe I was still asleep… A power nap would certainly help with some clarity right now.

“I guess so. Are you not going tonight then?”

“No, I have other things to do now that I’ve brought you together. My role in this is not important, as the Olympians you’ll do what needs to be done. I simply had to bring you all together. But we’ll be seeing each other again. Not to worry Savannah.” I nodded once again and followed him to the door before seeing him out, as I closed it I turned the lock and leaned against the door letting my eyes closed.

This definitely was a dream and when I woke up, everything would be normal again. Maybe I’d still be on the plane.

Upon waking up the first thing I did was go to the fridge, think about chocolate milk and when I opened it up there was 4 litres. It was more chocolate milk I was ever going to drink but it was there, out of the blue. Like magic.

Okay, real magic if I was going to believe Atlas. And what other choice did I have? I didn’t think I’d be able to find the exit if I went looking for it. I could get lost for hours and from what I’d seen there was no one around to save me or direct me back to my apartment.

But there was that party tonight. Party implied people so I could at least get some more answers there. Find out if I had actually gone crazy or not.

With no sense of time in this place my eyes fell to the clock and I sighed. I had little over an hour before the party. It was enough time to get adequately ready but not to my usual standard.

Arming myself with a tall glass of chocolate milk I returned to my room to take stock of what was there. Unsurprisingly there was everything I needed and even things I suddenly had that I didn’t know I had had before. Like designer brand makeup that in my old life (that was a strange thought) I wouldn’t have been able to afford. I wasn’t going to say no though, captive or not if he wanted to supply me with high street products I wasn’t going to let them go to waste.

40 minutes later I managed to clear off every layer of makeup I had been wearing since leaving Baton Rouge and replaced it with a fresh layer. I had curled my hair to perfection, or at least my standard of perfection and wandered off to the closet to find something to wear.

I didn’t know what dress code would be at play tonight so I went with a little black dress, it seemed like the best option and it could be casual and classy – right? Hopefully people would like it, and me.

My insecurity has always been a problem for me. Since I was young perfection has always been the level I have strived for, compromising my health and myself in order to attain it. It was the basis for my track record with men, a sad pathetic attempt to try and tell myself I could live up to the standards of the other women around me as well as justifying that I was likeable. And as aware as I was of these problems I couldn’t stop myself.

It was like a sickness. I would stare in the mirror and scrutinise every inch of my body, searching out all the flaws so I could squash them. In the last year things got better, I started being a little more careful with myself, I maintained a healthy diet and workout regime in order to stay skinny in a perpetual fear of getting bigger than a size 2.

Still though, every day I would spend at least 40 minutes making sure every flaw on my face and on my head was covered before I left the house. Some girls were comfortable with mascara and a bun. But my bun had to look chic, casual and perfect and I always had to have foundation, eye shadow, blush, lipstick and mascara and nothing less that that.

This was where my vow to give up that life and turn over a new leaf came from. Not just with boys but also with myself. I wanted to get better but it was so hard. I felt like I was drowning in the pool of my own shallowness, and the only one who could throw the buoy to save me was myself but I couldn’t be bothered to reach for it.

No amount of self-help books had even been able to crack the surface and help me. My life seemed to be a circle of seemingly getting better and then giving in to a boy who eventually destroyed what little self-esteem I seemed to have built up.

This was why I wanted to give boys up, this was why I didn’t want to fall for another one of those charming, good looking bad boys who wanted nothing more from you than a little something to play with until they grew bored or got another toy. This was why I was going to stick to my vow.

When I was as satisfied as I was going to be with my appearance I grabbed my phone, mostly out of habit, and made my way to the door. As I walked out and the door clicked closed behind me I realised Atlas hadn’t given me a key. When I turned back, the door clicked open again.

The door seemed to be programmed to respond only to me to ensure only I allowed in those I wanted in to the haven of my apartment. Atlas wanted me to believe that it was true magic, but I reminded myself that a good computer programmer and the right electrician could make a trick door like this. I could be on candid camera and somewhere Atlas was sitting in a control room watching me.

Shaking my head, resisting the desire to further scrutinise the new things in this place I made my way up the hall toward where I thought the throne room would be. But just as I knew would happen the route that Atlas had led me through earlier that day was much different from the one I happened to take in hopes of retracing my steps.

It didn’t take long before I was wandering through the hallways hopelessly lost and desperate to find someone who could whisk me away to the throne room where I was meant to be. But no one came and the longer I remained on my own the longer I worried that maybe this was all a ploy by some psychopath to collect girls for a sex ring and I was the first victim.

Worst-case scenarios ran rampant through my head. I envisioned death, rape and never seeing my mum again. It was juvenile and silly but I couldn’t help but long for her. I wanted my mom to come and find me, wrap me up in her arms and comfort me because this was what mothers did best. But no mother came, as did no one else, and eventually I gave into confusion and sat down against the wall to wait.

I was sure I had been there for hours when the door across the hall opened and another girl stepped out of it. She was beautiful and immediately I was overwhelmed by my sense of inadequacy in her presence. This was a woman who commanded the attention of the room around her, she knew what she wanted and she got it every time. Flicking her long curly brown hair over her shoulder I heard her door click and in sync we both looked at each other.

“Lost?” She said with a grin, something bordering on being overly nice and dangerous at the same time. It was a smile that told me I should keep myself on her good side or else.

“Yeah, unfortunately.” I stood up carefully, manoeuvring in my tight dress somewhat awkwardly before offering her my hand in greeting.

“Savannah.”

“Charlotte. Charlotte Ferguson.” Ferguson. She could be related to the Fergusons who were some kind of business tycoons up north and always in the papers, but I had never been bothered by the who’s who so I didn’t really know.

“Just Savannah.” I joked as we shook hands, a small jolt of jealousy and anger coursing through me as we touched. I frowned, unsure of why I suddenly felt the urge to throw her head first into the wall and pulled my hand away, wondering if she had done that to me. I couldn’t be sure in this place; God only knew what sort of tricks everyone had up their sleeves if Atlas was right about everything.

“Were you heading to the party? I can take you. This place is hard to navigate the first time around.” I nodded in agreement and followed her as she led the way from where I had first come. I trailed silently at first, watching the perfect sway of her hips and how her hair flicked just like a princess’ would’ve. She seemed like the perfect candidate for a Goddess, the role suited her and I could tell she very much agreed with it.

My stomach knotted uncomfortably, wishing that I could take such an abrupt upturning of my life with grace like she had. But I wasn’t walking perfection and I certainly wasn’t meant to be a Greek Goddess, no matter what Atlas told me.

“So, who are you?” Her eyes met mine as she spun around, still walking, before glancing back to the direction we were going.

“Savannah…” I said, trying not to be rude even though I internally questioning whether she was deaf or not.

“No, I mean your Goddess… I’m Athena. Do you know who you are?” Athena? I never would’ve imagined she was the Goddess of wisdom and warfare. She didn’t look like someone who could be found on the front lines of battle, overseeing strategy. She seemed more suited for Aphrodite.

“Uh, nope. Not yet.” I said slowly, wracking my brain for any kind of hint that would lead me to discovering my ‘second’ identity. But there was nothing because I was absolutely certain that this was a terrible, terrible mistake. Even if this all turned out to be real and we were all Greek Gods and Goddesses I definitely was not one of them. I did not fit in with people as good looking as her, I tried to but they never had to put in half the effort I did.

“So, does this mean you believe everything Atlas said? You really think we’re Greek Goddesses?” Charlotte stopped short and turned to face me incredulously.

“Of course it’s true!” She stared at me like I was the biggest idiot in the world and for a minute I agreed with her. Of course Greek Gods were real, what was I thinking? What planet was I from – wait what? No. This wasn’t real; this wasn’t so easy to accept… Why had I agreed with her? Had she done that? How had she done that?

Looking up bewilderedly I found Charlotte was grinning at me, “cool, huh?”

Cool? The fact that she’d brainwashed me into believing what she wanted? No. That was terrifying. What if I did get on her bad side? What if she saw me for the fake I was… Could she use that trick to make me believe or do something dangerous? An involuntary shudder coursed through me but I forced a smile,

“Really cool. I hope I can learn to do something like that.” Not really, or at least if I got that power I definitely wouldn’t use it on people I’d just met and had no idea about, well- anything.

Charlotte grinned to herself, pleased at having impressed me and continued on her way to the throne room.

“I knew who I was the moment she arrived in me. I was 18 at the time, in the backseat of my car with my, then, boyfriend and boom! There she was. She told me it wasn’t worth it; he wasn’t worth it because he was just going to hurt me in the end. So I convinced him we didn’t need to have sex and he took me home. Best decision I ever made because a week later I found out him and my best friend were doing it behind my back. I was absolutely gutted.” She chattered away like we were good friends and I was just trying to concentrate on where we were going so I knew how to get back.

“She helped me ace my SATs, not that I really needed the help. I’ve always been very studious and gifted in school but having that extra mental boost – ooh, so helpful! And then again with the LSATs, she was most helpful then. Warfare and law are quite similar don’t you know…” She lost me after that. I couldn’t care less about her law school experience and really… finding my way back to the apartment after this party was much more of a priority than befriending the type of girl who made my life miserable in high school.

As much as I wanted to turn another leaf and start afresh this year I just knew that wasn’t going to happen with Charlotte, we were not birds of a feather and I was definitely going to flock somewhere she was heading.

“I was just about to graduate with honours and write my BAR exam when Atlas came for me. I’d met him before actually…” I tuned in at this point, surprised to find that Atlas had come for people before the time that he was supposed to.

“Really?”

“Oh yeah, he knew that Athena and I had already united so he checked in occasionally to make sure she had adjusted to the new world but she loved law school so it was perfect for us.”

I wasn’t sure if it was just me, or if it was just how Charlotte was talking, but she sounded crazy. Like – Grade A, should be locked up crazy. She sounded like she had split-personality disorder: ‘Athena and me.’ Athena wasn’t a person, Athena and she were one in the same, or did I have this all wrong? Maybe I didn’t understand because I wasn’t really a Goddess. That had to be the real reason. I’d never felt her or sensed her and so she didn’t exist because I wasn’t her.

“Oh, that’s cool. He kidnapped me from an exchange program he faked to get me here.” Charlotte laughed and I got the distinct impression she thought I was joking until she saw my face.

“Wow, really?”

“Yeah… I just…”

“Oh, you don’t have to explain yourself. I get it. This must all sound crazy to you… But trust me, when you figure it out… When you unite… You’ll never believe you doubted it to begin with.” I smiled, not at all comforted by what she said but just wishing she’d go back to rambling because she was better at talking about herself than giving advice. Plus I got the distinct impression she really liked the sound of her own voice.

“Being united is like…” She paused in her words, searching for the right description. “Being united is like taking off that mask you wear for other people. Pretending to be someone else to please everyone else when really you just want to be you. Uniting totally rips the mask from your face and leaves you bare. It’s like reincarnation.”

Well, technically it was reincarnation if I understood Atlas’ story at all. But the mask thing – the mask thing I totally got. Wearing masks was like wearing your baby blanket like Superman’s cape as a kid. It kept you safe from the world outside because your cape made you invincible. You were untouchable and free.

To take off the cape was to accept that nothing was safe and life was an existence constantly teeming with possibilities of being hurt. Sometimes it was only scraped hands or skinned knees, but sometimes… Sometimes life hurt so irreparably that you picked up that blanket and dusted it off for comfort even if the age we needed it had long since past. That’s what masks were and that’s why I wore mine because I wanted to believe that the next time I fell it wouldn’t hurt so bad because no one had seen under the mask.

“We’re here.” I realised I had been so lost in my own thoughts that she’d walked me right into the throne room, which was now swimming with people. I had no idea where they had all come from but there they were, chatting and drinks in hand.

“Want me to introduce you to people?” She smiled at me, again with that unnerving grin like she had ulterior motives. So I shook my head and declined. I was capable of socialising. I wouldn’t have made it this far in my life if I weren’t.

She said goodbye and wandered off to some guy hanging around the centre of the room, grabbing onto him with obvious interest in him for something more - despite being a virgin Goddess supposedly.