Time's Daughter

by Anya Breton

  My stomach flipped fearfully. I went on the defensive because of it. “Until a few months ago I didn’t know there was anything abnormal about the world. Two nights ago I finally believed it. And tonight I know I’m not alone. How am I dangerous when I know so little?”

  “I don’t think you’re dangerous, Aeon.” He paused a beat then amended, “At least not to us. But until we know exactly what you are and where you got this power, we can’t be sure.” His tone went soft and urging, “I’ve stalled them as long as I could. Please, tell me the answers. It is the only way I can protect you from them.”

  There was no way that I was going to come clean with my secrets. He’d given me no reason to. It was the opposite. Whatever Alex Chattan was seemed far more dangerous than what I was.

  My lips pursed momentarily. “I’m supposed to trust you when you just attacked someone in front of me?”

  “I attacked him to protect you.” His words were rapid as if he were feeling defensive.

  “So it’s okay for you to grab me and shove me against walls but it’s not okay for my co-worker to put a hand on my shoulder?”

  Alex exhaled noisily through his nose. “No. Neither is okay.” He was silent for a long moment before speaking with a hard tone that was at odds with his words. “I am sorry that I grabbed you like that. I was angry.”

  I folded my arms in front of me. “Well, I’m angry right now, Alex, but you don’t see me manhandling you.”

  “We believed Junction Hill was free of witches. To learn that we were wrong upset me. And the fact that it was you…” He lowered his gaze. This time he was remorseful, voice softening as he said, “I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”

  “If I’m so dangerous then why are you trying to protect me at all?”

  Alex’s pretty steel blue eyes lifted again. “Because I believe that you know nothing of the supernatural things around you. That makes you an innocent and when I am able, I protect any innocent.” His head snapped to the left like he’d heard something. “I have to go and you need to go inside,” he told me in distraction before darting away.

  I watched in disbelief at his speed. It was far faster than a normal human could run. That wasn’t the first time I’d seen him move fast.

  I went inside like he’d said, tiptoed into the bedroom and then sat staring sightlessly at the wall.

  What was Alex Chattan? More importantly, what were the things he was supposedly protecting me from?

  Did I want to know? No. I didn’t. I would be happy to never learn the answer.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “They are going to come for you.”

  I looked up from the tray of developing solution to find Alex standing beside me in the darkroom. His low voice had sent my heart into a rapid pace.

  “Tonight,” he added. “I couldn’t convince them to let me try a little longer.”

  My eyes rounded but I didn’t know what to say.

  “If you care about the safety of your cameraman you’ll ditch him before it gets dark.” He turned to leave me but paused a step away. “Please, Aeon, tell them the truth when they ask you. Don’t lie like you did to me. They’ll know.”

  He was gone seconds later.

  I stared mindlessly at the dim red light in the dark room until the bell rang. The print I’d been making had been ruined because I never pulled it out of the developing solution. I used the tongs to fish it out so I could throw it away.

  Like the shambling dead I walked to the next class. When the bell rang at the end of seventh period I looked down to find that I’d done nothing at all in class. A flush colored my cheeks but faded when I saw that no one noticed.

  During our game of flag football, Alex avoided me as he’d done for days. I didn’t understand why he would follow me after school and speak to me outside my house at midnight but wouldn’t so much as look at me during class. It was as if he couldn’t be seen speaking to me on camera.

  The trip to the library after school was a quick one. I checked out five books on my history topic so that I could do the research at home. Lugging them to the apartment was no picnic.

  “I’m going to be working on homework all night,” I told Guy after I’d set the books on the top stair inside the side porch so I could rummage for my keys. “So you get another night off.”

  “Okay. See you tomorrow,” he murmured as he drew the camera down off his shoulder.

  I waved limply and hoped that he was right.

  * * * *

  In front of the television I tried to skim the books for excerpts about my topic. It was impossible to concentrate with the sense of impending doom hanging over me. I flipped the television off and tried again without the distraction the flickering light posed. It hadn’t helped. After stowing the books beside my bed, I returned to the living room for some mindless entertainment.

  As the sun set outside I wrote a note to my mom letting her know I was going to be out late studying at the library and not to wait up for me. I knew I’d probably signed my death warrant. But if Mom thought something had happened to me she would try to find me. She needed to stay safely inside the apartment.

  There was a loud bang on the door. My heart jumped into my throat. On silent feet I walked to peer out the peephole. No one stood on the other side.

  I turned to walk back to the television but was stopped by another loud knock. Still, no one appeared in sight of the door when I looked.

  I knew this was the part where the monster got the stupid girl who dared to open her door. But the monster had already attacked one person because of me. I didn’t want them to hurt anyone else.

  So I flipped the television off, took a deep breath for courage and then I took hold of the knob. Nothing was in the stairwell exactly as I’d seen. They were going to make me go outside, away from the cameras. It made sense really.

  Still terrified of what I’d find but concerned for everyone else, I made myself step onto the landing. Once out I closed the door behind me and went down the stairs.

  Something large hit me from behind the moment my foot stepped off the side porch’s final cement step. I careened forward with a startled yelp. Before I could think to struggle my limbs were yanked back so my attacker could bind them behind me while another person covered my eyes with a blindfold.

  I was quickly gagged to keep me from screaming more than the initial yelp. Then someone hoisted me across the sidewalk. Moments later I was dropped onto a frigid metal floor within something that had an idling engine. A rolling door shut beside me and the engine gunned.

  If there were others with me I couldn’t tell. No one spoke, coughed or so much as moved. There were no sounds other than that of a moving vehicle and my heart pounding in my ears.

  I prayed to someone, anyone, to keep me alive through this. Only the thought that if they’d wanted me dead they wouldn’t have taken the trouble of tying me up gave me hope that I’d live to see tomorrow.

  I couldn’t gauge how long I’d been inside or how far we’d traveled before the vehicle’s engine went quiet thanks to my inability to see. Once again I was lifted, carried a good distance and then dropped on a hard floor, this one stone. The room smelled of fire as if a wood-burning stove was in use. I could make out the crackling in the distance but it seemed to be doing a poor job of warming up the place.

  My legs were freed roughly before someone yanked me into a standing position. I stood blind and shivering in a strange place with what I assumed were abnormal creatures. I’d never been more terrified in my life.

  The blindfold and gag were removed with little care for my hair. I winced as a few strands were ripped out of my scalp.

  Slowly, reluctantly, I drew open my eyelids. Now that they were open I wished I’d kept them shut.

  It wasn’t one, or two kidnappers but five black-haired individuals standing in front of me. Out of the corner of my eyes I could tell there were more beside me and no doubt a few behind me. My terror grew in the form of faster shivers.

  The f
igure at the center had an intimidating frame and regal air that marked him as the boss of this gathering. This man with raven-hair and penetrating dark eyes shared many of Alex’s traits, that Nordic nose, those unremarkable lips and a lack of cheekbones. He was certainly a relation perhaps thirty-years Alex’s senior, and he was a fine looking man.

  To his left were two men, one who appeared to be twenty and the other older than anyone in the room with his dark hair threaded with silver hair. To the man’s right were two women with straight raven hair that fell to the middle of their backs. They shared Alex’s steel blue eyes.

  “You are the one who has been time-stopping,” the man spoke gruffly in a voice that was deeper than Alex’s. He hadn’t worded it as a question so I didn’t try to answer him. “And yet you refuse to declare yourself to us.”

  My eyes narrowed in confusion. I knew I would have been annoyed if I hadn’t been so fearful of the gathered beings. They were new in town. If anyone was supposed to be declaring themselves, shouldn’t it be them to me?

  “What are you?” He demanded in a voice that couldn’t be ignored.

  “I don’t know,” I answered truthfully with a frightened croak.

  The man’s eyebrows drew inward, clearly irritated. “You’re not a Time witch?”

  I was too scared to even shake my head. A high-pitched, “I don’t think so,” escaped me.

  Still the man pressed. “How is it that you stop time?”

  Pitifully I answered above a whisper, “I’m not really sure.”

  “What did you do just before you stopped it during the most recent incident?”

  I mimed my movements as I explained. “I held out my hand, inhaled and wished I had more time to stop the mugging.”

  “The mugging?” The man’s head swiveled to the side.

  I resisted the urge to look. No doubt Alex Chattan was one of the figures in my peripheral vision to the left. “Yes, I saw someone in a black hood with his hands hidden. I assumed he was going to mug my friends and me. So I froze time to stop it.”

  The man grunted, drawing his attention back toward me. “Where did you get this power?”

  I inhaled an unsteady breath. I was near to tears. I could barely admit the truth to myself let alone a room full of scary strangers.

  “Well?” He demanded fiercely.

  I remembered what Alex had said. If I lied they would know and by the look of them, lying would be worse than telling the truth.

  “I don’t think I’m allowed to say,” I said in a quiet voice.

  “Girl,” he said above a low growl. “You are here because you refused to tell my son the answer to this question. You will tell me or I will be forced to do something rash to protect my clan.”

  “Please,” I pled miserably. “I don’t even know how to use it and the few times I have, it hasn’t affected Alex. I’m not a danger to any of you.”

  “A Time witch can wreak all manner of havoc that we can’t control,” he argued. “An untrained Time witch is far worse. You aren’t just a danger to us, you’re a danger to the universe.”

  A danger to the universe? That was serious!

  My head shook wildly, “But I don’t think I’m a Time witch!”

  The man stepped forward until he was halfway between the line behind him and me. “Were you born like this?”

  “No,” I admitted quickly.

  “Did someone give you this power?”

  “Yes.”

  “Who?”

  My eyes slid shut. Tears slipped from beneath the lids and streamed down my face.

  “Look at her, she’s terrified,” Alex’s anxious voice spoke from beside me.

  “Silence!” The older man snarled. “Girl, who gave you this power?”

  I was crying in earnest when I answered. “My father.”

  “Now we are getting somewhere,” one of the females behind him chimed in. I didn’t like the bitter, sardonic delivery of it. Wasn’t it enough that I had the patriarch shouting at me?

  He continued with his interrogation with an impatient, “Is your father a Time witch?”

  Without realizing it, I nearly laughed. Little more than a breath left my nose.

  “That is funny?” The man roared and took two steps toward me.

  I shrunk back, wide-eyed and petrified but I managed to answer him. “My father isn’t a Time witch.”

  “What is he then?”

  My breath exhaled raggedly. I looked the man in the eye and gave him the answer he was looking for. “Time.”

  The slate eyes narrowed at me angrily. “Time? Are you toying with us, girl?”

  “My father is Time,” I answered him in a steadier voice.

  There was a commotion from all around as the figures spoke over each other furiously. I didn’t understand any of what was being said but I heard many snarls and growls.

  “You are toying with us,” the man deducted. His face turned to Alex. “You told us she truly didn’t understand.”

  “She doesn’t,” Alex assured him.

  He pointed a long golden finger at me furiously. “Then what is this blatant defiance?”

  My schoolmate defended me again. “She isn’t lying. You know she isn’t. Ask her another question. Aeon, lie to him.”

  “Who is your father?” The man demanded once again.

  “Bob,” I answered with a lie as requested.

  The man grunted but turned away. He walked back to stand between the others. “Time,” he repeated. “How can something abstract like ‘time’ be your father?”

  Clearly they weren’t going to let me go until I explained more.

  “His name is Aeon,” I responded. “You might know him by his alter ego Chronos.”

  “Chronos?” Someone echoed from behind me. “The Greek god?”

  “Yes,” I answered.

  The leader snorted sardonically. “You expect us to believe that you are the daughter of a god?”

  “No.” I quickly qualified my answer when the man’s face darkened, “I barely believe it myself so of course you shouldn’t.”

  “How did this happen?”

  I couldn’t look him in the eye when I relayed the tale. “I don’t know the full story but I know he met my mom seventeen years ago at a picnic in the park. They hit it off and nine months later I was born.”

  He laughed harshly and repeated himself. “The daughter of a god.”

  “Maybe she’s delusional,” another male voice spoke from beside me. “She truly believes this madness.”

  Rather than comment on the theory, the leader turned back to me. “Why did your father give you this power?”

  They already knew the most ridiculous parts of the tale. I decided I might as well come clean with the rest of it. I lifted my eyes to hold his. “He told me something bad was about to happen in Junction Hill and that I’d need part of my heritage to stop it.”

  Many of them exchanged looks and several began quiet conversations.

  The leader questioned again. “Part of your heritage?”

  I shook my head because I knew he wanted a better explanation and I knew I didn’t have one. “He didn’t explain what any of it meant. Just mumbled some words in a language I didn’t understand then disappeared.”

  The longer I spent surrounded by these menacing people, the more I began to think they were the “something bad” Chronos had warned of.

  The menacing guy demanded, “Do you know of any other abilities you have apart from the ability to stop time?”

  “No,” I was quick to reply.

  The leader made a dismissive gesture. Not a second passed before someone tugged me back roughly. I saw Alex watching me with pained eyes during the half second before I was twirled around and forced forward.

  Apparently they’d gotten all of the information they’d wanted out of me. Now it was time to dispose of me and they didn’t want to mess up their nice floor. Would they take me out back and shoot me like a rabid dog?

  I was shoved through a do
or into a pitch-black room, a space little bigger than a closet, and left alone. Outside I could hear the raised voices of an argument but I couldn’t make out any of what was said. Perhaps they were debating over who got to do the honors.

  CHAPTER NINE

  With my back to the wall I slid my fingers around until I found where the doorknob was. Gingerly I tried it but it was locked. I stepped aside to stand where they’d look last, directly behind the door.

  The voices quieted over time until fewer and fewer could be heard. Then it went silent. That was when I began to truly fear.

  I heard the doorknob turn quietly and then light poured into the room around the silhouette of a man. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him without looking for me.

  Thoughtlessly I launched myself into him. He nearly fell over with a ferocious snarl but somehow he maintained his balance. I was shoved back with enough force that my teeth snapped down onto part of my tongue when I slammed into the wall. I howled in pain.

  “What the hell are you trying to do, Aeon?” Alex’s annoyed voice cut through the darkness. “You’re lucky it was me. If it had been any of the others…” He trailed off without finishing the thought.

  Until the pain subsided I couldn’t speak and I didn’t know what I’d say anyway.

  “Aeon?”

  “Ouch.” Apparently that was what I’d say.

  “I’m sorry,” he apologized but didn’t sound all that regretful. “You startled me. It was reflexive.”

  I snorted. I could care less if I’d startled him. His family was going to kill me.

  His sigh filled the tiny room. “They’ve sent me in to see if I can get more information.” When I refused to respond, he presented the question. “What is supposed to happen in Junction Hill that you have to stop?”

  “I don’t know,” I grumbled. “I already told you guys that.”

  “Is it us?”

  I nearly smiled until I realized that it was possible somehow they could read minds. How else would they know when someone was lying?

  “I don’t know,” I repeated. “But I can say that right now you guys do seem like the most dangerous things in Junction Hill.”