Belonging

by P M Cole

I looked around, but still could not see any sign of the young man I had come with. “Colin!” I whispered as loudly as I could.

  “Over here!” he whispered back.

  I followed the sound, to another door, this one already open, revealing a new set of stairs, these leading up. He was at the base, ready to ascend. I held his arm. “I should go first.”

  He rolled his eyes, and I moved past him, taking each step as quietly as I could. Looking up revealed a vaulted ceiling a storey or more above. This had to be one of the main aisles. I neared the top and strained my human senses for any sounds, but there was only my heartbeat. I then turned to the gifts I was born with and pushed my other non-human abilities out into the stone and marble structure, instantly feeling something I had not felt before. An object of incredible weight. Something constructed, not naturally occurring was ahead of me, within the Cathedral. It had to be the bomb.

  “Finally, you made it here!”

  Hades' voice echoed from all of the hard surfaces around me, and I instinctively crouched ready for an attack, but none was forthcoming.

  “Don’t hide in the shadows, daughter!”

  Hearing the word ‘daughter’ leaving his lips made me feel weak. It was a label I did not care to have.

  “Tonight is a time of celebration. You know—” I looked back to Colin who was on the step behind me and waved my hand for him to stay there. I hoped he would, “— I have tried and tried to make the humans, or casuals as the magically inclined of us like to call the wretches, see how magnificent this realm could be.” I took a deep breath then rose up the final step. I looked along the hallway, which ran along the side of the huge open space in the centre of the building. He wouldn’t be here alone. The others must be with him. Hades continued. "How it could be once again like the times of old, where gods would walk freely amongst them, giving them what they needed. Direction and meaning to their short lives.” I walked quickly to a square pillar. Rows of wooden chairs were visible on the other side. “For hundreds of years I have tried their way of doing things. I even created you and the others to help them. Create beings that were hybrids, one part human, the other having the powers of my own kind. But even that was not enough for them… Come, come, daughter. I know you are here, I can sense you! You and I are connected, you must know that by now!”

  He was right, no matter how much I hated the idea. There was no point hiding. I straightened my back and walked around the pillar into the nave, moving in front of the first row of wooden benches. Hades in all his natural demonic glory stood just twenty yards from me, and behind him a wooden construction supporting a metal cylinder, with a series of pipes flowing from it. Next to him and it, as if they were awaiting my arrival for some special family event, were my godly kin. Cassandra stood to his right, dressed in overalls, with Heather dressed in her usual black, next to her. To his left, stood Byron, recovered from his ordeal. Still though, I noticed one of the clan was missing.

  “No Alex?” I posited.

  Byron sneered at me then looked up at the demonic figure of his foster father towering over him. “Let me kill her now. Get this over with before she causes mischief!”

  Footsteps echoed around the hallowed walls from somewhere behind me. “She’s not alone,” said Daniel.

  “You side with her!” shouted Byron. “After what she did to Grace!”

  I briefly turned to Daniel, his eyes aflame. He walked to my left side.

  “You think I wanted her to die! You think I want any of this?” Daniel's pain was obvious, and it was not physical. “We never asked for the trial! And Grace made her choice to fight!”

  I had no idea where Lucas and Melanie were, but I hoped they were going to start the spell soon because I wasn’t sure how long this strained conversation was going to last.

  “Where’s my mother?” I shouted at Hades.

  “Somewhere safe. Far enough away that when this little innovation of human ingenuity goes boom—” He opened his arms like this was just a carnival side show to him, ”—she won’t be affected.”

  I was glad for that at least.

  I looked at Heather, who tilted one of her heels back and looked at her nails. “Heather, you can’t want this?” I had no idea what went on in her crazed mind, but I hoped, unlike the others, she didn’t completely despise me.

  “Hmm if it’s what father wants, then… I guess it’s what needs to happen.”

  Hades smiled, his eyes not having left me. “You can’t stop what’s about to happen, daughter.”

  “Stop calling me that! You had the only man who had a right to that word murdered seventeen years ago!”

  The god of the underworld, who stood at least seven feet tall looked angry. “Whether you like it or not daughter, my blood runs through those veins of yours!”

  “What is the point of this! We don’t have long!” said Cassandra.

  “I can sense the metal your bomb is encased in; I will destroy it!”

  She raised one eyebrow as if the notion of me doing so was preposterous. “And then it will detonate…”

  I visibly sighed. They needed to think that was why I had come. To stop the detonation. “Then why are you here! It will kill us all!”

  “Oh, we will be leaving soon,” said Hades. “As soon as you are taken care of… I have given this much thought, and even your mother agrees, for us to survive… you must not.”

  His words struck deep. “You lie! She would never let you—”

  There was a faint breeze. I knew what it meant. Byron was on the move. I threw myself to the side, just as a blur moved past my vision. He reappeared for a fraction of a second, but it was enough for me to track his trajectory. The wooden benches that filled the nave had iron supports, obviously missed by the others, but it was enough for me. The iron bars broke free and flew to my aid, surrounding me in a swarm of constantly moving metal. There was a blur, then Byron fell back, holding his face, he tried again, this time doubling over in pain as the rods sliced through his shirt.

  “Take care of her, Heather,” said Hades.

  I looked desperately to the youngest-looking of us all, hoping some kind of sense would spawn in her disturbed mind, when a wave of fatigue hit me. I tried to move forward, but I could feel my life draining away. Just as I was about to drop to the ground, my lungs labouring, the feeling stopped. I looked at Daniel, walking towards his foster sister, she keeled over, her skin becoming covered in red blotches, but still angrily looking at him. He too was in pain, his skin tightening around his bones. He fell to one knee. I had to act.

  A piece of my artificial tornado detached, flew across the nave, and sliced through Heather's dress and arm, causing her to fall backwards, as she did, Daniel fell to the side, with only one of the seats stopping him from falling all the way to the floor. Even from a distance of some yards I could tell he was no longer a young man.

  He looked over to me, the light in his eyes fluctuating. “Keep going!” He then switched his attention to Hades who was about to storm forward but fell backwards when Daniel's glare fell upon him.

  There was more metal high above and across the almighty doors which secured the building, all of it now detaching and flying through the air towards me. As it did the ground shook and dust fell. The tiles across the floor began to crack, the gaps quickly widening.

  Cassandra was waving her hands as if in the midst of an exotic dance. Dark grey reeds burst through the foot-wide ravines which littered the floor, all heading in my direction. But, unlike the night of Byron’s ball, I was ready. The newly salvaged metal sliced them apart just as they were about to touch me. I looked across at their master, her face one of frustration, her hand movements becoming more aggressive. Windows shattered as more flora came from every aisle, tearing through the wooden seats, doing its best to reach me. A fury of metal fragments swirled about my person defeating her attempts, but this was all a distraction. I needed to get to Hades who was fighting Daniel's fading abilities, and then to the bomb.

  I
went to direct an iron spike at Cassandra, but a reed caught my boot, then quickly wrapped around my ankle, pulling me to the ground. The metal around me moved to cut the offending reed from my person, but not before I saw a blur nearby, and blood flew from my mouth. I fell back against one of the pillars, pain already shooting across my jaw, and my wall of metal protection fell to the ground. Gathering my senses, I looked at Byron materialise just a foot away, in his hand a plank of wood from one of the benches. He raised it high in the air, meaning to bring it down upon my skull, when there was a clunking sound. His eyes closed and he fell to the cracked tiles. Colin was standing behind him, with an iron pot in his hand. Near him were Lucas and Melanie, but they were already engaged in their own fighting.

  Streams of blue fire flew from Lucas’s hand, cutting a swathe through Cassandra's plants and hit her square in the chest, causing her to scream in pain. He then looked at me, pointing to the knife with my blood on its blade sticking out of his coat pocket.

  “Start the spell!” I shouted.

  He nodded and grabbed Melanie’s hand, both starting to murmur arcane phrases.

  I looked back to Hades and my heart sank. He had made it to Daniel and now held him by the neck with his large clawed hand. He turned to me and grinned. In his other hand was his walking stick. “You will never defeat me, daughter, I am a god, whereas you will always be held back by your human weakness.”

  I started to scream for him to stop, even before the crunch of bones in Daniel’s neck rang around the stone arches and pillars. Daniel's body fell to the ground, as all the metal around me sprung back into the air and launched itself in Hades' direction.

  The ghastly figure of a god slammed his stick into the broken tiles and my projectiles slammed into the hide of a beast standing twenty-feet high. Cerberus roared then stormed towards us. We scattered in all directions, as the three-headed monster crashed into the nearby pillar knocking the masonry from it and creating an explosion of thick dust.

  I ran into the southern aisle, peering around another of the huge columns. Daniel's body lay stretched out, his foster kin, seemingly left for dead by their ‘father’. Hades was nowhere to be seen, but I didn’t need to see him. He was right, we were connected, and I could feel where he was heading; towards the eastern part of the building. On seeing all three of the snarling heads were looking in the other direction, I sprinted forward, keeping to the shadows. He was not getting away. Not this time. A roar rang out, and I knew the giant canine was about to descend upon me, but then it growled and looked the other way. Fiery explosions and howls of pain from the creature told me Lucas and Melanie were distracting it.

  This was my chance, I ran as fast as I could, my godly senses being my guide and then I saw him slipping out of a door, shrinking in size to move through it. I sprinted across the nave and through the same exit, just as a carriage with four horses at its helm was pulling away.

  “Not this time, father…”

  I threw my hands forward and felt the metal in the chassis across the wooden wheels and gripped it fast. The carriage jolted to a stop, causing the front horses to rear up. Then I pulled them and the carriage back, back across the snow-covered, cobbled street until it was just mere yards away.

  As more roars rang out behind me and the ground shook, the carriage door sprung open and out leaned Lord Cannington, the human mask of the demon within.

  “Must we always play these games?” He walked down the carriage steps. “You are strong. You truly are of my blood! You do not need to die here tonight. Come with—”

  The metal had been detaching from the carriage as the poisonous words were dripping from his mouth, and now they wrapped around his neck, squeezing the life from him. He dropped his stick, but I pulled it through the air and into my hand before it hit the ice. I let the silver top melt between my fingers.

  Hades' arms and legs briefly increased in size before falling back to the more human facade, his skin colour changing to red, then doing the same. He wanted to change to his natural form but fighting for his life was preventing it. I looked to a nearby shop, ripping the nails from its boards, then the metal from its machinery inside, all of which flew under my control and further wrapped itself around the man in front of me. He fought against it, but my rage meant this time I was stronger.

  I turned and walked back to the entrance to the Cathedral, my abilities dragging my father and his metal cage with me.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Rasping came from the god of the underworld just a few yards behind me as I walked along the aisle, his body suspended like a doll, encased in metal. It was hard to see what had become of Lucas and Melanie as the nave was full of dust, and I noticed more large chunks were missing from a number of columns. Also missing was Cerberus. No doubt returned to the hell it was charged to protect.

  I ran forward into the central area. “Lucas! Colin! Melanie!”

  “We’re here!” shouted Lucas from somewhere within a cloud of particulate.

  I walked forward, the wooden scaffolding the bomb was sitting on revealed itself from the mist, and then so did Lucas and the others.

  I looked around the broken floor of the cathedral, noticing Hades' foster children were nowhere to be seen. One though was still there. A man with some wrinkles around his eyes walked towards me, smiling, then looked at my captive. “You did it!” said Daniel.

  “I thought he killed you!”

  Daniel slid his hand across his neck. “Take’s more than a broken neck for that.”

  I gulped as I felt Hades fighting against his restraint, and with my mind, tightened it. I then remembered what Cassandra said. I ran to the wooden beams and climbed up upon them, looking for any indication of how long we had before the infernal weapon destroyed the city. Luckily amongst the various dials on the side of the metal casing, was a clock face. Both hands were almost exactly aligned on midnight.

  “We don’t have long! It’s going to explode!” I looked at Lucas and Melanie, who had now joined hands with Daniel and even Colin. The former two chanting in unison. Lucas then threw the knife, its blade glowing, to the base of the wood supporting the bomb.

  “Whatever you are going to do, you need to do it now!” he shouted. “We can’t keep this going for long without the necessary power to enhance the spell.”

  I had known this moment was going to come about, and I had tried to prepare for it, but now I wasn’t sure if I would have the strength to complete the task.

  I jumped down from the scaffolding and stepped back, and back again, taking the others with me, knowing each step could be our last. I stopped when the bomb was twenty yards away.

  I looked at the others, I wanted to tell them to leave, to get as far away as they could in the remaining seconds, but I knew it would be pointless. We were all in this together. So instead, I closed my eyes, pushing my senses out, through the stone walls, columns, and arches, out past the borders of the property to the buildings beyond, sensing what metal there was, and pulling it towards me. Nails, cans, sewing machines, tools, metal window frames, railings, spokes, pans, cutlery of all kinds and then onto the larger pieces, safes, boilers, pipes which lurked in the nearby businesses. I feared for any passersby that might get caught in the metallic storm, but I had no choice. For my plan to work, I needed it all.

  It poured in through the main entrance and then through the gaps which Cassandra had created. A torrent of useful items from homes and businesses. As they streamed past us, I began to melt and meld the items to form a shell around the bomb. The first layer crushing the wooden supports. The bomb dropped a few feet until the bottom of the metal sphere that was forming, caught it. More metal, all warping and combining completed the first layer which sealed the bomb inside, then more, thousands of items collecting and becoming perfectly smooth layers, one on top of another, the sphere growing larger and larger. Ten feet wide, then fifteen, then twenty-five. I kept thickening the circular walls not knowing how strong it would need to be but added my own abilities
to the construction for extra effect. An immense metal ball now completely filled the centre of the nave, but still I piled the metal into it, until… I blacked out.

  An age or a moment could have passed, I did not know, but I opened my eyes to dust, shadows, and flickering light from lanterns.

  A hand was on my shoulder. “You did it!” said Colin, who then coughed. His face and hair were covered in a light grey dust.

  I looked around me. I was on the floor near one of the broken benches, but ahead of me, in the centre of the building were two almighty hemispheres, fallen to their sides. Between them a swirling vortex of colour and fizzing energy lit the whole area with a blue ethereal light.

  A number of hands helped me to my feet. I felt light-headed then panic came over me. While I was unconscious had he escaped? “Hades! I—” I looked a few yards away, near what was left of a pillar. Daniel’s eyes were aflame. Dimmer than before, but fixed on his foster father, who was bent over, his human form weak and diseased.

  “Daniel has it under control, Cog,” said Lucas. He held my shoulders. “You did it!” I meekly smiled.

  A worry then came to me. I turned to Lucas. “What’s stopping him from just returning once we send him back?”

  Lucas smiled. “The spell that was cast merely reverses Chronus’s spell. It unbinds him from this realm but binds him to the other. He will never return.”

  I walked to the pitiful figure of my father on the ground, pieces of metal still surrounding some of his limbs.

  “Clever girl,” he croaked. “Using the power of the device to open the portal—” I waved my hand, and the metal he was still chained to tugged, pulling him towards the portal. “— Wait! That witch hag, she lives!” I stopped his momentum just yards from the portal. “What do you mean? Charlotte is alive?”

  “He’s lying, Cog!” shouted Lucas.

  Hades smiled. “She was alive when I sent here there. She’s a strong witch that one. She could well be alive. If you send me through—”