by Candy Crum
Flashes of the mountain flooded Joe’s mind. Flashes of several things passed through.
Cronus, the voice said again.
A face flashed before his eyes. A man in white. His face peaceful, yet strong. Blonde hair; blue eyes.
“… one of the Fated…”
“What does that mean?” Joe asked, unsure if he’d get an answer.
“You… You are one of the Fated.”
“What’s happening?” Joe asked. “Who are you?”
“I am Apollo. I do not have much time, or strength. Cronus is coming. You can see… I gave you the gift. Do not fear it or me. Open your mind.”
Before Joe could respond, he was bombarded with images. He saw a temple in the clouds and several men and women in ancient clothing collapsed on the floor. He saw a cave in a mountainside that was full of massive dead bodies. The volcano. He saw his mother in labor, the hospital lights flickering as a storm raged outside. A news broadcast dated for his birthday about Mount Vesuvius beginning to show signs of erupting after a very long dormancy.
A sharp sting on his face jolted him awake, his cheek burning terribly. When he opened his eyes, Alee was hovering over him, her arm pulled back ready to hit him again.
“See?” she said. “Told you it would work.”
“Next time I think we should wait on the ambulance,” Mr. Santos said.
“Ambulance?” Joe asked. “Did you guys call one?”
“Your sister says that you used to do this as a kid. She said it’s completely normal and that you didn’t need one. I called your mother and asked her what she wanted. She, too, said that this was normal for you. She’s on her way to take you to the doctor,” Mr. Santos said.
Joe grumbled. He didn’t want to go to the doctor. It had been years since anything like that had happened, even then it was rare. His mother thought he was sick, but soon realized there was something else there. When he correctly predicted the death of one of his father’s friends, not once, but twice, they knew something was different about him. His father left soon after that. Grace always told Joe that it was because he simply wasn’t ready to be a father, but Joe knew the truth. He was a jerk that couldn’t accept that his child was a little different.
“How are you feeling?” Alee asked. “It’s been a while.”
“I’m fine,” he said as he sat up. “Too fine to go to the frickin’ hospital.”
Alee rolled her eyes. “Get over it. We just need to make sure you aren’t loopy. Or dying. That would suck.”
“Why are you here anyway? Did they come get you?” he asked.
“No. I felt it. I was sitting in math and I started feeling really anxious. I hadn’t felt that way in a long time. I tried thinking back to pinpoint the last time I had. When it got worse, I remembered. So I told my teacher you were in trouble and I left,” she replied.
Joe nodded. “Thanks for coming,” he said.
“Anytime, little brother.”
Joe shook his head, forcing himself to stand. Mr. Santos instructed him to go sit in the nurse’s office for a bit until his mother arrived. Alee accompanied her brother, Mr. Santos having written her an excuse to do so. The two walked in silence as Joe thought over and over again about the images he’d seen. It had all seemed just as real as any other vision he’d had, only that was far more terrifying than the rest. Joe focused on breathing, doing his best to slow his racing heart. As they sat down in the nurse’s office, Alee grabbed hold of his hand with the very one she’d just hit him with, squeezing gently. Though his face still hurt, it was nice to have the comfort of having someone with him that loved and understood him and his strange ability. He only wished that he understood it himself.
Κεφάλαιο V
MONDAY
Southern Indiana
“That was so lame,” Joe said as he exited the car.
“Which was worse?” Grace asked. “The ER, or passing out in class?”
“Class. Hands down,” Joe replied.
“That’s what I thought,” Grace said, smiling. “Now stop whining at me for forcing you to go.”
“Well, it’s not like this hasn’t happened before, Mom. I just hate this. I don’t even know what happened,” Joe said.
Grace didn’t reply, staying quiet for a few moments. Finally, she spoke.
“What did you see, Joe?” she asked.
Joe looked up, knowing without doubt what she’d meant.
“Did you see something?” she asked.
He sighed. “I’m not even sure,” he said. “There was so much; I could hardly see anything.”
“You said something about Cronus and Apollo,” Alee said. “I don’t know what you were talking about, but that’s what I managed to pick out of everything that you mumbled.”
Joe stayed quiet, remembering back to the man speaking to him. His voice was so weak, but still so urgent.
“Joe,” Grace said.
“Hmm?” Joe mumbled, still lost in thought.
“Please talk to me,” Grace said. “You saw something. You had to have.”
“It wasn’t like the other times,” Joe said. “It was way more powerful. So vivid, but there was too much to process.”
“Well,” Alee said. “What was it?”
“We were watching that Italian video of Mount Vesuvius. When Mr. Santos started talking about Cronus, who was a Greek titan, I started hearing a voice. He kept telling me Cronus was coming. When the video started, I passed out. He sounded exhausted, or sick, or something. I don’t know,” he said.
“Did he say who he was?” Grace asked.
“Are you serious?” Joe asked. “You actually believe that? You don’t think I’m a raging basket case? I’m hearing voices.”
Grace shrugged. “I learned long ago never to question that part of you. If you see something, I believe it. You’ve done it too many times for me not to.”
“He said his name was Apollo,” Joe said.
“The Greek god?” Alee asked.
“I don’t know,” Joe said. “That’s the only Apollo that I know of. I really don’t want to talk about it anymore. Like I said… this time was different. I think I’m just going crazy. I don’t think it’s any kind of premonition.”
“You should be careful, Joe,” Grace said. “A gift like that shouldn’t be dismissed. This hasn’t happened in years. Something was important enough to draw it out and clearly in a big way. Don’t just let this go.”
Joe sighed. “I’ll keep an eye out, okay? I just don’t want to talk about it anymore, or worry about it. It kind of freaks me out.”
“I know. It has ever since your father left. I will never forgive him for making you doubt yourself. Just let me know if you need me,” Grace said.
“Thanks, Mom,” Joe said as he sat back in his seat and closed his eyes.
“I’m going to skip the tournament,” Alee said.
“Are you joking?” Joe asked. “You’ve been waiting forever for this. You’ve competed all season. Don’t do that. Please.”
“Mom needs to go back to work, and you need a babysitter. This is my decision. I’m not mad about it. Don’t make a big deal about it,” Alee said.
“What if I go with you?” Joe asked. “You drive. I’ll just hang out in the stands. No big deal.”
“I think that would be fine,” Grace said. “The docs cleared him. He’s fine, medically.”
“Yeah. See? I’m fine,” Joe said.
“Ugh,” Alee said, rolling her eyes. “Fine. But if you spaz out again, don’t blame me when you tell everyone Cookie Monster is coming to eat you.”
Joe laughed. “Solid deal.”
The tournament had gone very well for all contestants involved, but Alee shined. She was an incredible archer, and it was something she took great pride in. She’d taken many shots and completed a few challenges, all with high marks. It was her turn again, and it was to be her final shot. It would determine her the winner.
Tiny bumps raised on her skin, but she barely see
med to notice as her eyes locked on her target. Alee was one shot away from victory, though she’d won already. There weren’t many other kids her age that had much of the concentration, determination, or the skill that she did. There were none in the competition that could match her. Still, she did her best, not accepting any less of herself.
Joe sat in the audience as he’d promised. She could barely see her brother because of the others in front of him, but she already knew that he wasn’t watching. She’d seen him with a book earlier when she’d taken a previous shot. A cold chill passed through Alee, that time causing her to shiver. Her eyes closed for a moment as a bit of dizziness took hold. Joe pulled his attention away from the book when he felt Alee’s apprehension. It felt very familiar to him, just like he had experienced earlier, but he couldn’t understand why she felt it.
A large shadow passed over, covering quite a wide area. He looked up to the sky, searching for whatever may have belonged to such a thing, but there was too much cloud cover for him to make out what it was. Still, he knew that it was certainly too large for a bird, but too low and too small to be a plane. Joe shivered as it passed over, also getting a bit of a head rush. The twins locked eyes for a moment, and he wondered if she’d seen what he had.
Alee, fighting her strange feeling, lifted her bow once more and shot. The arrow landing an inch outside the bullseye. It wasn’t enough to make her lose, but it was enough to annoy her. Everyone cheered as Alee turned and bowed slightly before walking away.
Once the tournament announcer went through his final speech, the crowd began to disperse. Alee grabbed her things and headed toward Joe. He had just finished putting his things in his bag and stepped off the stands when Alee approached.
“Great shot!” he said with a smile.
“Oh yeah?” Alee replied. “How good was it exactly?”
“You hit it dead center – just like always,” he said.
Alee smiled. “You jerk. I knew you weren’t watching. I missed. Not by much, though.”
“Sorry,” he said. “I got a bit distracted.”
“You were distracted by whatever you were reading.”
They started to walk away from the crowd, grabbing the rest of her gear on the way. Once they were separated from everyone, Joe spoke.
“Did you see that? Whatever flew overhead?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Did you see what it was? I just saw the shadow pass over the ground. It was massive. I looked, but I couldn’t see anything.”
“I didn’t see it either. When I looked, all I could see was a black mass behind clouds. I’m honestly not even sure how it cast such a large shadow with total cloud coverage,” he replied.
“I’m not either,” she said, confusion in her tone.
Joe looked at his sister, seeing the distant look on her face. Had it been anyone else, he may not have known what was wrong, but they always seemed to be able to feel each other’s distress.
“You want to say something else,” he said. “What is it?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “It’s kind of weird.”
“I doubt it’s that weird,” he said. “Just think about what happened to me earlier. That was weird. I’m sure whatever you have to say is normal by comparison.”
She sighed as she shut the back door on the four-door truck they’d borrowed from Grace.
“It’s a little chilly out here today. That’s what it was. It was nothing.”
His brows furrowed. “What was nothing? You felt something earlier, didn’t you? It felt kind of like what I did earlier.”
Alee’s eyes widened as she quickly looked at her brother. “Yes, I did.”
He nodded. “At first I thought it was the cold. It’s definitely a little chilly. But then I saw whatever that thing was. You saw it, too. I looked around the crowd and no one else seemed to notice. At all. Everyone was watching you, or playing on phones. Not a single person looked to the sky, even when you, and I did.”
Alee thought for a moment.
“We’re weirdos,” she said finally.
Joe laughed. “We really are. It was probably a drone, or something like that. Or maybe some kid flying one of those model planes over.”
“That makes a lot of sense,” Alee said. “Let’s just go.”
“Where is your trophy?” Joe asked.
“I didn’t want it. I just come to these for fun. The girl in the second spot was really, really good. I overheard her talking with a friend earlier, before the match even began. She said she’d never won anything big like this before, which I don’t understand. She’s pretty awesome. Before I came back out, I gave it to her and told her not to give up. She deserved it more than me. It didn’t have my name on it, or anything.”
“Okay, then,” Joe said, climbing into the passenger’s seat. “Well, I think it’s time to go home, eat some pizza, and take a nap. I feel like crap. It’s been a long day.”
“You had me at pizza and nap,” Alee said.
Κεφάλαιο VI
TUESDAY
Texas
Cass sat across from Jess in the school cafeteria, watching her unblinking eyes stare at him with what looked like concern and pity. He sighed, hoping she would look away, but she didn’t. He took out his iPhone and started to watch YouTube to pass the time. He was looking through recent videos and came across the Mount Vesuvius footage.
“Is this that video that you were telling me about?” Cass asked, doing his best to ignore the disappointed look on Jess’ face.
She rolled her eyes. “Yes. A full day later. Are you going to ignore me the entire lunch?”
“I’m trying to,” he said. “No offense. I just know what you want to talk about, and no.”
Jess groaned.
Cass watched the video that had been circulating around all forms of social media.
“What is this? Do people actually believe this is real?” Cass asked.
“Yes,” Jess said. “I have cousins over there and they are actually quite worried about it.”
“Well, it looks cool and all, but it’s fake. Everything you see on the internet now is fake,” he said.
He backed out of the video, not even finishing it. He started looking down through the other recent videos, most of them revolving around Mount Vesuvius. Finally, he saw that one of his favorite YouTube comedians had released a new video. The videos were a favorite pastime for him. Full of sarcasm, perfectly timed jokes, and a family bond with his brothers and sister that Cass admired. They had everything that he enjoyed.
From Cass’ peripheral, he could see Jess still staring at him, silently eating her food. He focused on his phone, quietly watching the newest video that had been posted on his favorite channel. He laughed hard, catching the attention of some of the students at the next table, but he didn’t care. Jess sighed, and he followed suit. He knew that she wanted to talk about what happened in the pool, but he’d been trying to stay as far away from the topic as possible. It looked like his time had run out.
“Oh my God!” he said finally. “What?”
“It’s been days,” she said. “I know that it makes you nervous to talk about what happened. That’s why I haven’t brought it up at all. But I’m dying over here. If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine, but I need to.”
“And how do you propose we do that? How do you talk about it with me without me talking about it?” he asked, taking a bite from his chicken.
“I don’t know. I’m hoping that I will say something that makes you want to respond. Cass, that didn’t just happen to you. It happened to me, too. Granted, I wasn’t the one caught under water, but I was there. I was…” Jess stalled a moment as someone passed by. She forced a smile and nod to one of her classmates before focusing back on Cass.
“I understand that,” Cass said, interrupting her next sentence before it even began. “But I have no idea how to explain anything. I can’t even figure out how to put into words what happened in that pool. I don’t want to talk ab
out it.”
“Fine,” she said. “Then I’ll talk and you can listen.”
When Cass didn’t respond, she continued.
“I came up to take a breath. I brushed my hair back and wiped the water from my face and eyes,” she began. “When I opened my eyes, you were gone. Gone, Cass. Vanished. I called out for you, thinking you’d gotten comfortable enough to mess with me. But nothing. Then I realized that it was impossible for you to have gotten out of the pool slowly enough to not make a noise in that short amount of time. Even less possible for you to make it far enough away to get into a hiding spot in the in only the amount of time it took me to clear my eyes. Impossible. That’s when I started worrying.
“I looked around the pool, and you weren’t under the water anywhere. I screamed your name. Over and over. Nothing. But I did see water splashing everywhere. Those splashes were far too large to be just you. But… it couldn’t have been you… right? Because you weren’t in there. Anywhere. So how could that water have been splashing around so violently? Where did all of the air bubbles come from? Because it couldn’t have been you. And yet… the water turned red from blood. From the blood of someone that wasn’t in that pool. So forgive me for being a little confused about what exactly happened in there, and why I shouldn’t be asking you questions,” she said, sitting back a bit.
“You really didn’t see me at all?” Cass asked.
Jess shook her head. “No. The only thing that I saw was the water churning, but I could see straight through to the bottom. It was crystal clear, minus the bubbles. No one was there. It was so horrible. It was swirling and splashing from one side of the pool to the other, but it was more violent toward the center of the deep end. There is literally no way that you could have made that much water move with just you thrashing around. Especially an invisible you.”
“It doesn’t make sense to me either, you know. I don’t know why it went after me, but I’m glad that it did, and not you,” he said, poking his food around with his fork.
