Volcanoes (4 page)

Thankfully,
Dylan had been in our suite of apartments when Heph teleported me in. I was able to check him for any debilitating physical damage before declaring that we were going home.  The look of gratitude on his face nearly broke me. It just nailed it home that I
’
d been making the wrong decisions for us and that, more than anyone,
he
had suffered unspeakable, lasting damage.

It took us exactly twenty-five minutes to pack everything we wanted to take home and get the hell out of Dodge.

This meant that I
’
d had a tw
enty-five minute reprieve before Diana came into the room demanding an explanation of where we were going. I looked at her with all of the anger and resentment that I
’
d been holding in. We were here in this moment because she couldn
’
t leave well enough al
o
ne. If she
’
d just left me be in the first place, none of this would have ever happened. Sure, I
’
d probably still have been overweight, wishing for something more in my life
–
and alone - but we
’
d have been safe.

Did I want to have an understanding, loving
mother and love her back? Yes. Did I want to rip her face off because she
’
d put my family through this hell? Absolutely.

She stepped back, her face a mask of pain and confusion so profound that I had to force myself to keep my mouth shut and not apologize
. She deserved my anger, didn't she?

After hesitating, uncertain of what I should do next, I nodded to Heph, grabbed a hold of my son and said, "You know where we will be if you need to speak to me. Please give me some time to get situated first. I need t
he downtime."

She nodded and we teleported without another word.

The smell of an abandoned house hits you in phases. First, you get the dried musty smell of dust and mildew spores. Then any lingering scents from left-over dinner or the last occupants hit
s the senses. I scrunched up my face, trying not to exclaim that Dylan and Drew hadn
’
t lived up to their promise of cleaning up after themselves on their last Xbox foray. This wasn
’
t the time.

The last scent hit me by surprise as I traveled to the kitchen to see what they
’
d left out. It had a metallic tang with undertones of rotting meat. I was transported immediately to the night I
’
d walked into my house to find my carpet had been soaked throu
g
h with the blood of Geb
’
s monsters.

It occurred to me with sudden panic that we didn
’
t have Scooter with us. I would feel much safer with him here to guard my son. I
’
d ask Heph to make that happen as soon as I figured out what the smell was.

My feet slowe
d of their own volition. They knew that even though I was stubbornly still moving forward, my mind wouldn
’
t want to know what the smell was. My subconscious was terrified of what I would see and it was trying to protect what had become my very fragile min
d
.

Really, what else was I expected to take? What else did I have to go through before I broke?  Hadn
’
t the last nine months of my life been enough? It was like I
’
d been pregnant and the baby I
’
d carried was an intact sense of sanity. 

Congratulations, Ms
. Murphy, it
’
s a bouncing baby
–

The words cut off in my head as I spied what was causing the smell.

"Grace?" The voice traveled down the hallway and enveloped me in a sense of safety. It was okay. Hephaestus was here. I didn
’
t have to face this alone.

"Yeah, I
’
m just checking the place out. Can you take Dylan back to Olympus for me really quick? I forgot my laptop."

"No you didn
’
t," the kid started.

"Yes
–
I
’
m sure I did. Can you please just go get it?"

"Mom, I see your laptop case right here." He soun
ded exasperated with me. I kept dragging him all over the place, expecting him to be resilient. Maybe it was time for me to realize that he was losing his sense of humor.

‘
He can
’
t see this.
’
I projected the image and the thoughts to Heph.  Three seconds
later I heard, "Dylan I
’
m pretty sure I forgot the stash of weapons I wanted you to work on, since you won
’
t be at the forge to do your apprenticeship. I
’
m going to teleport you there and I want you to gather everything that you
’
ve been working on, as wel
l
as some sharpening and polishing tools.  Grace," he called to me casually. "I
’
m going to take Dylan back to Olympus. He
’
ll probably be gone an hour or so, but I
’
ll come back right away to help you get settled."

"That would be great," I called, surprised t
hat my voice wasn
’
t shaking with my terror.

"Okay then, see you in a few minutes."

I waited a moment for them to be gone, then opened my mouth and screamed. My knees buckled beneath me and I collapsed, unable to take my eyes off of my ex-husband
’
s body th
at had been skinned and pinned to my foyer wall like a butterfly on display. 

A note, neatly scripted in Brandon
’
s blood, filled the wall next to him.

I owed you this one for my brother. I
’
m trying to decide how many I
’
m going to take for my mother.

I h
adn
’
t seen Brandon in months. For that matter, when Athena had
‘
taken care of things,
’
she'd convinced him that Dylan would be better off in a private school out of state. I'd been nervous that he would balk but someone had implanted the thought that Dyla
n
needed special attention that neither he nor I could give him.

Once that had been done, there'd been no reason for us to communicate. He was sent progress reports from someone in Olympus with pictures of Dylan doing extracurricular activities at this “
sc
hool.”

I could only imagine his shock and horror as this had been done to him. My heart hurt thinking about his pain and confusion.

I was quietly crying and mourning the life I
’
d shared with this man
–
both the good and the bad. He hadn
’
t deserved to die,
no matter how often I
’
d wished he'd get into some kind of fatal car accident on those nights I'd waited at home alone, knowing he was with someone else while we
’
d been married.

I could feel Heph behind me before he reached out to touch my shoulder. The m
an filled my house with a quiet, protective presence that was worth more to me now than all the gold in the world.

"Do you know who it is?" His voice held the hushed tones of a man in church as though he were afraid to disturb the dead.

"Yeah," I answere
d flatly. "This is Brandon, my ex."

I was surprised to hear Heph
’
s gasp. "How did they know about him?"

"Athena
‘
took care of him
’
when Dylan and I moved to Olympus. He hasn
’
t been here long, maybe a few days, at best. Dylan and Drew were here just days ag
o playing the Xbox. The blood looks dry, though, so it has to have been longer than a day, right? Honestly I don
’
t know. I
’
m babbling aren
’
t I?"

I turned into his waiting embrace and rested my face against his massive chest, letting my tears soak into his
shirt.

"You
’
re babbling a little. It
’
s okay, though. You knew him. Hell, you loved him once. It
’
s okay to be a little hysterical."  His words were tight with leashed rage. He hadn
’
t known Brandon, but this hit too close to home.

Suddenly I was fearful for everyone I
’
d ever known. I did a running crawl to my kitchen where I yanked my phone off the wall and quickly dialed Rose
’
s number.

She answered on the third ring. “
Imagine my surprise when your number came up on my caller ID,”
she drawled.

Instant relief filled my body at the sound of her voice, even if she was being snarky.  "Has anything odd happened lately? Have you seen any strangers lurking around your house?"

"No," she answered, her tone showing her impatience and anger.
"What now, Grace? Is my family in danger
again
? I thought that by distancing ourselves from you, we
’
d be safe."

"You are safe," I replied. "I just wanted to make sure. I won
’
t bother you again."

"Please don
’
t," she said before hanging up the phone.

Had he
r voice held an edge of regret? I hoped so. Rose had been my best friend for as long as I could remember. Not having her around to talk to about all of this was excruciating.

"Will you have someone keep tabs on her and her family for me until we can resol
ve this, please?"

He nodded at me and walked over to the cupboards. "Where are your glasses?"

"Second door to the right of the stove," I replied.

"These are the wrong glasses. I think you could use some wine."  He turned to me and for the first time in o
ur brief relationship, Hephaestus looked worried.

"Maybe you could use some, too." He was paler than usual and the tightening around his mouth said more than anything else that he was at least a little unhinged.

"Never touch the stuff. I like having a cl
ear head."

I nodded, brushed past him and pulled out a wine glass. "There should be a couple of bottles in the cupboard next to the hall closet. Can you grab one of the red, please?"

"You keep your wine in a closet?"

“
It
’
s a mini wine cellar. Zeus installe
d it when he rebuilt the house. Said leaving it out on the counter was barbaric.”

His short bark of laughter was a balm on my frayed nerves. "Leave it to Zachary."

If anyone could have diffused the tension it would have been my stepfather. Zeus was larger
than life on most days and utterly ridiculous the rest. 

Hephaestus handed me the bottle and I had it uncorked and breathing in moments. I was infinitely calmer right now. When faced with extreme situations, one can either fall apart or shut down. Anyone
that says that they can deal with it right then and there in a logical and emotionally stable manner is lying.

Call them out on it, because they
’
re a fucking liar.

I shut down. I pretended that the body of the man I
’
d loved and slept next to for years w
asn
’
t pinned like a butterfly to one of the walls of my house. I pretended that I wasn
’
t going to have to tell my son that the man he
’
d thought of as his father for most of his life was dead.

I poured a glass of merlot and drank it down in gulps. It could
have turned to vinegar and it wouldn
’
t have mattered in that moment. I needed a little liquid courage to help me along. On second thought, schnapps would have been better.

I
’
m not much of a drinker, though, and the harder stuff generally wasn
’
t stocked i
n the house. I had either red wine for drinking, white wine for cooking or Scope for fresh breath. That was the extent of my liquor cabinet.