by Nicole Thorn
Already, the three or four that were down here were overflowing with bright flowers that made my studio look less bleak. I hadn’t realized it looked that way before, but now it was pretty hard to deny, with the bright splashes of color. Often, Kezia and I would open the garage door, so that she could enjoy the rain and that also made it less bleak.
At the same time, as much fun as she was having with the flowers, I like to think she enjoyed messing around with all my stuff too. I liked watching her make things out of clay, because she’d make faces at them. When I let her paint something, she’d get covered and it was adorable. Most importantly, she seemed to enjoy goofing off with me. I needed that in a way that I hadn’t realized before.
The door opened and Kezia stepped out. She was in shorts and a t-shirt that said ‘Han shot first.’ I smiled at her and she returned it. She walked over and gave me a peck on the lips. Those never freaked her out.
“Morning,” I said. She smelled fresh out of the shower and for some reason that turned me on a little. I breathed deeply, getting as much of the scent in my nose as I could. It was oddly divine.
“Morning,” Kezia said. She looked at her little table with all the paints on it. She picked one up. “Do they always look this dull?” she asked, even as she walked over and hit the button to open the garage door. It was drizzling outside, but not bad enough to affect anything in the garage.
“No,” I said. “You heat them up and they become really bright, so be careful which ones you put together.”
She nodded. “You know, you don’t actually have to put Inigo up, right?” She said. “He’s just a silly little clown and he’d look weird all by his lonesome up on the wall.” Kezia glanced at me sideways, trying to see if this was working. I liked that she was embarrassed that I enjoyed her sad little clown.
“First off, Inigo?” I asked.
She shrugged. “He has a face,” she turned the clown to me. “I had to name him. It’s the rule, that if it has a face, it needs a name. Inigo works. I’ve also named all the animals in your little village. Would you like me to go through them?”
“More than you will ever know, but second of all, if you’re afraid Inigo will be lonely, why don’t you make a happy clown? That way I get to put two things up that remind me of you.”
Her cheeks reddened. “Oh, you devious man.” She sat down and started looking through the washed out colors. She picked one up and said, “Red… for the nose, obviously, but should I give him red hair? Or blue hair and be different?”
I smiled and went back to my work. For the next hour, Kezia and I were pretty quiet, working on our own projects. My music was playing at a docking station in the corner, safely away from the rain. I’d invited Kezia to add her own music, but she hadn’t gotten around to it yet.
Kezia waved a brush in the air. “Don’t worry, Inigo. I shall make you beautiful!” She grinned and it was a maniacal one. I laughed, wondering if she was doing that on purpose.
The door opened and my sisters came out. Zander was on their heels. He looked irritated, which was concerning. Like I’ve said before, when he wants to whip the god part of him out, it’s scary. He doesn’t get upset easily, so him being irritated meant that something else had gone wrong.
“What’s up?” I asked. That’s another thing. I’d never had this many people in my studio at once. So, the sky was probably about to fall on us. Or Zeus had decided that we’re obnoxious brats and was about to collapse the house on us. Something along those lines, where we end up in agony, writhing on the ground and crawling towards a slow death.
“Dad called,” Juniper said.
Oh, it was so much worse than all my previous options.
Kezia looked ready to do damage. “What does he want?” she demanded. “Let me guess, money for his yard?” She rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t that much damage. How much could repairing a fence and a mailbox cost anyway?”
Jasmine sighed and perched on one of the spare stools, with Zander just behind her. “Apparently a lot. He wants two thousand dollars. It seems like a lot for the fence, but he says that’s how much the estimate was.”
Zander scoffed. “I think that’s what he thinks he’s owed, for your not immediately handing over the money. Also, you aren’t handing over the money. Right?”
My sisters stared at him like he suggested they kick the man when he was already writhing on the ground. “Why not?” Juniper asked. “I know Kezia was willing to take the blame, but we can’t make you pay our father for something. It’d be rude, as your friends. We’ve got the money, so.” She shrugged. “Why not?”
“Because he’s cheating you,” Kezia said. “Even if he was the world’s best father growing up, he’s clearly taking advantage of you now. He makes you feel guilty and sad and like you’re letting him down, then he asks for money, like that’s the only way to make it up to him. You shouldn’t give him any.” The anger was very clear in her voice and her eyes.
Jasmine looked torn. “It’s not like that,” she said. “He’s very stressed. He had to raise us all on his own after our mother left, working a job that was barely over minimum wage.”
She stopped talking, because both the demigods were shaking their heads. “No,” Zander said. “I’m not saying that didn’t happen, but I am saying that’s no reason for you to still be paying.”
“And I said even if he was a great father you shouldn’t be doing this. He wasn’t a great father,” Kezia said. “He was a terrible father. I haven’t heard one thing redeemable about him and I’ve been living here long enough that I should have. You’ve heard me talk about my mother and I’ve said nice things about her. Yes, she could have been much better—”
Zander took over, “And they could have helped us more, but the one thing I can say about our parents was that they loved us. Not once in my life have I doubted that my mother loves me. Can any of you say that about your father?”
My sisters were quiet.
“Jasper?” Kezia said. “What about you?”
I sighed. “I wasn’t planning on giving him any money, even before I knew he was still after it,” my voice was very quiet. Despite having a clearer vision of my childhood, the decision still left a punch of unease in my stomach and guilt in my chest. I could still hear my father’s voice telling us that we owed him for not giving us to the system when our mother left. For not leaving us to figure out what we were and could do, all on our own, because no one would be willing to take triplets. Twins, maybe, but never triplets.
I could still hear him telling us that we needed to be grateful, because he loved us, despite how our mother tricked him. Despite how she left him to raise children he never wanted. All of it was in my head and I wasn’t sure I’d ever get it out, but I didn’t want to give him money.
The demigods were right. He had been a terrible father and I didn’t want to keep him in my life.
Kezia’s hands touched the sides of my face and lifted it up until I was looking at her. She looked so concerned, but she knew me well enough not to ask if I was okay in front of people. I didn’t want to lie to her, but I wasn’t good at being myself, either. “You don’t want to give him money?” she asked quietly.
I shook my head. “No. He doesn’t deserve it.” Just saying the words made another wave of guilt hit me. If it weren’t for the relief in Kezia’s eyes, I might have changed my mind. I might have agreed with my sisters and handed over the money. Instead, I admitted this was probably the healthiest decision I could make.
“Why?” Juniper asked, confusion in her voice.
Kezia spoke up before I could and I was grateful for that. She knew that I’d need a minute to collect myself if I was going to argue with my sisters. I don’t generally have confrontations. I was bad at them, because I was bad at interacting with people in general. The only people it always felt easy with were my sisters and Kezia. Because I knew they wouldn’t walk away if I said the wrong thing.
“If he insists, I will cough up the exact amount it cost to repair the damage
. Not a cent more. He will have to show me the bill and I will pay for it, just so he has nothing to bitch about anymore. After that, no more money, guys. You can’t give him anymore.”
“But—” Jasmine started.
“No,” Zander said, his voice as gentle as he could make it. “I know it’s hard to accept, but look at what he’s done so far. He gets money from you every month, enough to pay his bills, buy his groceries and then some left over to keep him comfortable and already this month, he’s asked for more. Now the yard thing? What did he do with the extra money, if it can’t be put towards his yard?”
Jasmine looked baffled. She sat back in her stool, worrying her lower lip. I hadn’t even thought of that until Zander brought it up, but he was right. When the Fury attacked us at his house, I had been bringing him money. So, what did he do with it, if he can’t fix his yard?
Juniper wiggled uncomfortably in her seat. “Maybe his car broke down or something. We don’t know.”
Zander shook his head. “You don’t really believe that.”
Juniper looked away, proving that no, she didn’t believe that. But she wanted to. My sisters were still in denial, because that’s what we’re good at. We can deny that our father was a terrible parent. We can deny that we ran away from him the second we got the chance. We can deny that he took advantage of us and we can deny that we’re really messed up. Because the denials are so much better than the truth.
“We can’t give him anymore,” I said, on a helpless shrug. “We can’t, because if we keep giving him money every time he asks, he’ll ask for more. Like he has been doing.”
“What?” Kezia asked.
Juniper started worrying her lip too, making my sisters looked almost the same. “He used to just want a little. To help him get by. But he lost his job. Was laid off and he needed more, or he’d lose the house. Then he would have nowhere to go except…” Here. She didn’t say it, but we all knew that was where she had been going.
I never realized how wrong that was, either. My sisters and I would do anything to keep our father from showing up at our house, including sending him increasing amounts of money. Yet, we insisted that we loved our father and that he was a good man. He wasn’t and it was painful having my eyes opened to the fact.
“We can’t,” I said again. “I know that it might sound cruel—” the demigods scoffed, but I chose to ignore it. “—but he really hasn’t done anything to deserve the money that we got from Mom.”
“We haven’t really done anything to deserve it, either,” Jasmine pointed out.
“I call having visions you can’t control deserving it,” Zander said. “I call being raised by that man because your mother took off the second she was legal to drink, deserving it.” The words were harsh, but the tone was gentle. Like he was talking to someone who just didn’t get it.
Because he was.
Our mother, we had no illusions about. We had discussed her growing up and we couldn’t shake the feeling that she had us as soon as she could, just to get rid of her visions. There were only three Seers at a time. When one generation was born, the last generation lost their abilities. When Juniper had her triplets that she was convinced would never exist, we’d lose ours.
She met our father when she was sixteen and he was twenty-four. Within that year, she got pregnant with us and now that I’m looking at it seriously, I realize how wrong that was on my father’s part. He should probably be in jail, or dead, but he isn’t because no one ever caught them. Then my mother took off when we were almost four. The second she could legally drink, she was out of our lives and her siblings went right along with her.
Maybe we were doomed from the start.
“You really don’t want to send him anymore money?” Jasmine asked, her voice hushed.
I nodded.
Juniper swallowed. “What am I supposed to tell him?” Most people wouldn’t recognize the look in her eyes as fear, but I did.
“Just hand the phone to me,” I said. I could keep him from upsetting my sisters over the phone, at least. Kezia rubbed my arm. I guess because that was safe. She was still trying to find where her boundaries were and I was more than willing to let her figure it out at her own pace.
Juniper nodded. “I’ll bring you the phone next time he calls. No more money,” she whispered. “We can do that.” She and Jasmine looked at each other, both of them with the same small panic. I wondered if they were hearing the same voice in their head that I was hearing in mine. The one saying that we were doing something bad. That we were terrible children and didn’t deserve the money if we weren’t willing to share it with the man who raised us.
I shut the voice out, because I knew, logically, that it was wrong. I didn’t think it would be that easy for my sisters.
Zander clapped his hands together. “All right! We need to brighten the mood. Who’s up for some ice cream?”
Jasmine perked up immediately. “Ooh, ice cream… with caramel… I must have that.” She popped off the stool and wrapped her arms around Juniper. “You should come with us. You can have a sample sized serving and that’ll make me happy. Otherwise, you can glare at other people and act like they are the scourge of the planet.”
Juniper rolled her eyes. “I don’t do that.”
I held my forefinger and thumb an inch apart and she lightly smacked my shoulder. “Don’t you start!” she said. “If it were up to you, Jasmine would never leave the house.”
“She shouldn’t leave the house,” I said. “Ever. I’m not convinced she should leave her room.”
Jasmine rolled her eyes. “It’s not a crime to think men are pretty.”
“Definitely shouldn’t leave the house,” I said. Kezia nodded her head in solidarity and I loved her a lot in that moment, for that small thing. We closed up my studio and went to get ice cream. Jasmine got her caramel and Zander got something with a lot of chocolate in it. I got straight up strawberry after Kezia stared at me for long enough and I remembered that I was supposed to be eating. Juniper didn’t get anything.
When we got home, the rain had dried up and Jasmine decided to take advantage. She started running up and down the street and we had no choice but to pace her. Zander wouldn’t let her out of his sight and Kezia didn’t want to leave Zander behind, so Juniper and I trailed the insane people and my girlfriend.
I offered Juniper a bite of the cream that I was still working on. After some pestering, she finally caved and took a bite. She looked equal parts happy and unhappy with herself.
We ended up at a park. Jasmine had shoved Zander onto a merry-go-round and was twirling him with the help of Kezia, while he shouted random and ridiculous things. Juniper tensed next to me. “Coming… closer…” she whispered. “Bad children, must be punished.”
I dropped my ice cream in the trash next to me and turned her towards me. “Juniper?” Her eyes were distant. She had sunk into a vision, which almost never happened for her. A certainty took place in the center of my chest and I turned to everyone else. “Fury!”
Jasmine whipped around, forgetting completely about the merry-go-round. Kezia’s eyes widened, but Zander was stuck until the playground equipment stopped. The word was barely out of my mouth before the shadow flew over us. I looked up and my breathing got tight.
The Fury looked back at me with eyes gone mad. In this form, the Furies lost all their beauty, turning into precisely what they were meant to be. Killers. The justice they are supposed to bring, when sane, doesn’t change the fact that they are monsters that kill things. Deserved or not. Leathery wings beat at the air and the skin was withered and mottled. Gray.
And those burning mad eyes were locked right on us. This wasn’t good.
The merry-go-round came to a stop and Zander spilled off it. “Run!” he shouted at us. We were humans and they were demigods. Running would have been smart. Only Juniper was still in a vision and Jasmine was far away. She turned and began jogging towards us, but the Fury was swooping down.
Zander made a
dash for Jasmine but his speed wasn’t enough. The Fury went low and talon like fingers latched onto my sister’s leg. She screamed, a sound so full of pain that I almost felt the injury myself. The Fury darted into the sky, Jasmine dangling. She circled around us twice and dropped my sister.
It was almost like it was happening in slow motion, watching her fall from the sky. She was all arms and legs, kicking. Then she landed. She hit a tree and branches broke and fell to the ground with her. She landed on her back. She hadn’t been far into the sky, but another sound of pain erupted from her mouth. Kezia reached me. She grabbed Juniper and started saying her name, over and over, trying to draw her out of the vision, but Juniper was lost.
I took off after my other sister, while Zander began screaming at the Fury. Words and sounds. Anything to get her attention. I reached Jasmine. Her eyes were wide, but she looked like she was in shock. Blood was pooling under her. Her arms and legs were scratched up from the branches. I grabbed her by the shoulders. “Jasmine? Are you okay? Did you break anything?”
She shook her head, slowly.
There was a sound from above. I acted purely on instinct. I snatched up one of the branches that had broken off from the tree. Whipping around, I swung with what meager power my human body could muster. The branch was thin, yet sturdy and smacked the Fury right in the face. A thin line of blood appeared on her cheek and she spun out, away from me.
I knew I’d pay for that.
26: Forward
Kezia
There was no time to be in shock. We had to keep moving anyway. So I decided to do something very stupid. Still, I wasn’t quick enough.
I left Juniper and ran at the Fury, to Jasper. I loved him, very much, but don’t pick a fight you can’t win. He’d just hit the Fury. A solid hit that I would be proud of later. She was winding up her claw, about to kill the person I loved. He wouldn’t survive a thrashing like that.
But I would.
I shoved Jasper, probably too hard, but it got him out of the way. He landed in the grass. He could run now. But he wouldn’t. Not when we were all still here.
