Corinthian style columns decked the hallway elaborately carved with depictions of what I could only assume were ancient Greek myth scenes.
Atlas caught my slack jawed stare and grinned proudly, “I restored it myself.” I was momentarily awestruck, turning to him with praise in my eyes and my former panic forgotten.
“It’s gorgeous.”
“It’s the entrance way.” He laughed as he started up the hallway. “You should see the throne room.”
Wow, this guy took his Greek God fetish to an extreme by recreating a palace for the Gods. That was intense dedication that I didn’t even think ancient Greeks had possessed.
“This is a chronologically ordered account of the history of the Titans and Gods. From their inception to their downfall…” His finger pointed out the iconic scene of Cronos eating the rock that was passed off as Zeus and then further down the Olympians laying waste on the Titans and locking them
away.
My eyes devoured every image I passed until I came to the end, to the part of the story that no one had ever written about because by then no one had cared about the Gods. My feet came to a standstill as I stared at the frieze showing how the Gods slowly began to lose their powers because of the lack of belief in them by people.
It showed Zeus had ordered a Titan from his captivity. This Titan took the main Gods, putting them into the core of the earth for safe keeping while the lesser Gods went to the sky and became the constellations we now know.
The earth continued to revolve and the Gods never made an appearance again. Then, by the door at the end of the hallway there was one last image. The Titan holding Earth in his hands opened it up once more and released the souls of the Gods. The souls were sent into the world, pushed into humans on every continent. This Titan then set about gathering them all again and bringing them back to Olympus where they belonged.
My eyes shifted from the image and to the man beside me, who looked like the Titan in the carvings. “Atlas.” I said simply.
He nodded, a small smile lighting his face, “I am the Titan who was asked by Zeus to look after him, his brothers, his sisters and his children until the time was right.”
“Titan?” I repeated back incredulously, my eyebrows rising slightly.
“Son of Iapetus and Clymene, daughter of the Ocean, I once fought against the Great Zeus in the war but in the end turned my allegiance to him. Fair and mighty Zeus then tasked me with the weight of bearing the sky on my shoulders to keep him separated from mother earth that they could not resume their primordial embrace. When the power of the Gods began to wane, once more Zeus came to me and asked for my help. He asked me to lay the Gods to rest and watch over the earth as I bore the sky. When the time came that the world once more needed its Gods I was to return them to their rightful place in Olympus.”
My head spun at the onslaught of information and I shook my head, unable to believe what he was telling me. It couldn’t be true; it was too unbelievable.
“There is no such thing as Greek Gods, they’re myths… stories.”
“You believe that because in your lifetime and in the lifetime of your forefathers there has not been any evidence of their existence. They’ve been erased from time and history but now the earth cries for its devout leaders. It’s time for it to be
returned to the glorified state it once belonged to before it is lost completely to the augury.”
“Right…” I spoke slowly, my mind still reeling and trying to make sense of this. “, saying I believe you – and frankly I don’t – you’re saying I’m one of those God soulthings you released into the world?” He nodded, an almost devilish smirk on his face.
“Yes. You are much one of the Gods, one of the twelve Olympians in fact.”
“Okay…you’re saying I’ve been living this crap existence for the last 21 years when in fact I could’ve been living in the lap of luxury as a Goddess. This is where you lose me because if I was a Goddess shouldn’t have things worked out a little better for me?” I had moved my hands to my waist and raised an eyebrow at him trying to analyze what he was saying.
But he only calmly shook his head at me, “you’ve lived the life you have because of who your Goddess is. Your experiences and your life is what makes you the perfect vessel for who you are.”
“Sure… But then, who am I?”
“That, I’m afraid, I can’t tell you. But when the time is right, you will know and you will remember everything.” I found it hard to believe what he was saying. In fact, the more I spoke to him the more I realized this guy was three fries short of a happy meal and had kidnapped me to fulfil some sick, sex fantasy.
Atlas was completely oblivious to my disbelief as he pushed open the door and slipped through before pausing to hold the door for me. I cast a wearier glance on the frieze beside me before stepping through to whatever was waiting for me on the other side.
My anxiety and disbelief was short lived, however. If I had found the previous hallway to be elaborate and beautiful, no words could describe the next room but I was certain it had to be the throne room he had spoken about before.
The floors were tiled with heavy marble slabs, the outer edge carved ornately with flowers and foliage. From there they moved toward the center in an elaborate diamond shape, accented with small golden tiles appearing like flecks in the design. In the center of the room lay a massive flat sundial, different from any I had ever seen in real life or in books.
It was white and gold, according to the color scheme of the room and laden with small gold carvings of each zodiac sign – Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius with smaller carvings in ivory of the moon cycle. Two hands adorned it, each pointing to the position of the moon in the sky as it currently was and the other to the astrological sign in which the moon’s position sat.
I stared in awe at it; fascinated by how it worked when I looked up at the scene before me. Two nearly identical chairs were at the highest peak of the room, enclosed by four Corinthian columns atop the main platform of steps.
At the bottom of the steps sat five chairs on either side. Each similar but uniquely different at the same time, no doubt each one meant for a certain God.
I turned, surveying the rest of the room and took in the illustrations on the wall. Lined with ornate depictions of each major God of the pantheon the wall was separated into twelve different friezes, each acting as an illustrative offering to a God.
Zeus, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, Athena, Ares, Aphrodite, Hestia, Hephaestus, Demeter, Apollo, and Artemis; each had a tableau addressed to them, represented with a central statue carved in their likeness. But only certain statues bore faces, others were blank as though Atlas was waiting to finish them.
I realized that sunlight was streaming through a window somewhere despite the pillars of fiery incense burners lined behind the ten thrones. My eyes glanced around for the source and as I turned my head to the ceiling and gasped in surprised to see there wasn’t one.
At first I thought this to be impossible, but there were no glass panels to protect the room from the elements and certainly no support beams to hold any glass that could be up there.
It was simply an open roof allowing the occupants to view the sky in all its glory. Only to further my awareness of the open roof, dark clouds began to roll in and before I knew it raindrops fell into the room.
“Oh no!” I said quickly, looking around for shelter but Atlas only laughed at me and I realized the rain fell but I didn’t feel it on my skin. It was as though it lost its physicality the moment it struck a surface, leaving no trace of its former existence.
“How…?” I turned to look at him but he merely smirked. A man of many secrets, I didn’t know whether to be annoyed or intrigued.
“Zeus must be in a mood right now.” His eyes were cast on the sky still as the clouds grew darker and lightning threatened. Shaking his head, he moved forward from my peripherals and stopped before the wall w
e had entered.
The door we’d come from was long gone, and Atlas swept his hands from the center to the sides drawing the wall like a curtain with his hands. Before us was the biggest high definition screen I’d ever seen, that is – I assumed it was high definition because surely Athens wasn’t on our doorstep as it appeared.
Atlas flicked his wrist once more and the image changed; we were looking at Times Square in New York City. And another flick revealed my mother, a small, excited gasp escaping my lips. She was leaving work and she looked tired, no doubt
worried too about whether I’d made it okay to Greece.
“Do we get CNN too?” I joked but Atlas turned and there was no humor in his expression. I offered him a smile and then turned to take in the brilliance of the room once more. It truly was magical but surely some of these things had to be illusions.
“I told you.” Atlas drew my attention to him and I nodded dumbly, no words could describe the sea of emotions flooding the flow of my thoughts.
“Anyways, if you’re done… I’ll take you to your room and you can sleep. I’m sure that nap in the car wasn’t nearly enough for you.” He stepped away, giving me another moment alone with the room around me. I followed slowly toward the passage he had revealed in the walls of the throne room, each step reluctant and worrisome.
As beautiful and magical as this place seemed to be, all I could think of still was the image of myself in the car. She had been adamant that I didn’t come here, that someone – a male – would hurt me, that he wanted my power. Her power? Surely that had to be it. I wasn’t powerful. And who was he?
Was she talking about Atlas? Or was there a greater danger lying in wait for me? But, despite my reservations, I still followed Atlas out of the room, taking in the next part of the mountain.
It was a maze of corridors, each lined with a few intricate doors before we entered one at the end of the hall. The layout of the ‘manor’ and mountain lacked any sort of logic. Although we had entered from the bottom, the throne room was located on the uppermost level to overlook the rest of the world as the Gods were meant to do. We moved downwards through hallways toward the room I was meant to live in.
“Here we are. The penthouse.” I turned toward him, unsure if Atlas knew the meaning of ‘penthouse’ but dared not correct him because for all I knew I was back at the peak of the mountain again.
“It’s all mine?” I looked about the length of the wall and imagined what laid behind it for me. The wall itself was longer than any house or apartment I’d ever lived in. Hell, it looked bigger than the nursing building on campus.
He shook his head, “no, everyone shares a floor with someone else, but it’s still pretty big. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.”
He nodded toward the door, allowing me to go forward first and open it. As I reached for the door a lock clicked and the door opened before I even touched it. Surprise jerked my body and I stepped back in alarm, Atlas reached out urging me forward with the slightest touch to my lower back and reluctantly I made my way inside to look around.
I’m not sure if it was possible to take it all in at once. There was much to look at from the décor to the design. Atlas had somehow managed to transfer all my bags into the room and unpack them before we even got there. My things were arranged as they would have been at home or even in the dorm room of my exchange school had I made it. I turned in surprise to look at Atlas, who merely shrugged.
“I’ve been observing you for some time. I hope it’s set to your taste. I tried my best… Modern female design and architecture is not my forte.” I laughed; I couldn’t help it.
“It’s fine… It’s perfect.” Despite being potentially kidnapped and incarcerated he had certainly gone out of his way to make me comfortable. It was starting to get hard to feel worried over the whole experience when everything was magical and wonderful. He had almost managed to convince me, subconsciously, to stay.
“, let me explain how everything works.” He moved further into the room, leading me through the living room. “TV, Blu-ray, stereo system if you need anything else let me know but most of the basics should be here. This is your bedroom…” He opened the next door in the apartment, revealing to me a room made for a Goddess – literally.
A huge King size canopy bed filled only an eighth of the room. A hand carved desk sat against a wall with an attached bookshelf filled with books I had always wanted to read. A massive window decorated the opposite wall, giving me a stunning picturesque view of the forest and villages below us.
“The bathroom, filled with everything you should need. When you throw something out here…” he pointed to the garbage can; “it should be replenished in here immediately. You should never run out of any amenities.” Unable to help myself I moved forward, opening a cupboard and retrieving a tube of toothpaste. Squeezing it out into the sink I tossed the crumbled and curled tube into the garbage bin where before my eyes it disappeared.
Disbelievingly I reached out and opened the cupboard once more and there, where I had found it, was another tube.
“Wow.” I said softly, shaking my head at the impossibility of it all. He smiled almost knowingly and left the room through a second door. I paused for a moment, glancing around at the bathroom bigger than my bedroom back home. The bath was the size of a Jacuzzi and the shower stall big enough for a small sports team to use collectively. I had to shake my head. I could no longer process or worry about everything that was happening to me and simply followed him out into the next room.
“Kitchen, same as the bathroom only when you open cupboards and the fridge it’ll be stocked with your favorite food. If there’s something you don’t have that you want, close the door, think about it and reopen. It should be there. Would you like to try that too?”
I nodded, going forward and opening the door to see what was there first. A small search revealed that he had packed the fridge with everything I tried to eat daily. There were also basic things needed for survival, I closed the door and thought about bacon.
When I opened the door, on the first shelf were fresh butcher wrapped strips of bacon. Incredulity filled me and I laughed, shaking my head because now that was the only logical thing I could manage.
Glancing at Atlas I mumbled, “anything else freaky I should know about or is this it?”
“this… Do you have any questions?”
I had a hundred but I didn’t know where to begin. One burning question sprang forth and I quickly wondered: “what do I do here then?”
You live, as you would at home. Tonight, there will be a mixer for everyone to meet and greet. You’re the last to arrive and the others have, for the most part, met each other but you’re the new girl be ready for an interrogation.”
“Others… do they know who they are?”
He nodded slightly, “yes, some of them have awakened already and know who they are, while others are still trying to figure it out. Meeting everyone tonight will help you find out who is taken and who is left to choose from. Think of it as a mystery, I know you liked Scooby Doo as a young girl.”
I laughed yet again, I couldn’t help it; the statement was strange hearing from a man I’d never even met as a child.
“Totally different from Scooby Doo but yeah… okay, I guess I can play along. I don’t suppose I have a choice do I?”
Atlas shrugged, “no, not really. You can’t leave until I say … But there’s no reason for you to need to. Everything you could want you’ll find here. The others will show you around. When the time comes, I’ll be back and I’ll help you with full recollection of your power and memories. Until then, be normal. That’s all the Gods ever were.”
“Normal? But they were Gods. Normal is... mortals. Abnormal is believing that Gods exist and can be normal.”
“No, normal is the Gods. Mortals were simply made in
their image. Who do you think was the original ‘Bachelor’ and the first ‘Desperate Housewife’? The mortals simply copied what their leaders
showed them to be.”
I nodded, my head swimming with more questions and more disbelief. But how could I say none of this was real when I had witnessed for myself items appearing in places they hadn’t been before. Maybe I was tired and hallucinating. Maybe I was still asleep… A power nap would certainly help with some clarity right now.
“I guess. Are you not going tonight then?”
“No, I have other things to do now that I’ve brought you together. My role in this is not important, as the Olympians you’ll do what needs to be done. I had to bring you all together. But we’ll be seeing each other again. Not to worry Savannah.” I nodded once again and followed him to the door before seeing him out, as I closed it I turned the lock and leaned against the door letting my eyes closed.
This was a dream and when I woke up, everything would be normal again. Maybe I’d still be on the plane.
Chapter 3
Upon waking up the first thing I did was go to the fridge, think about chocolate milk and when I opened it up there was 4 liters. It was more chocolate milk I was ever going to drink but it was there, out of the blue. Like magic.
Okay, real magic if I was going to believe Atlas. And what other choice did I have? I didn’t think I’d be able to find the exit if I went looking for it. I could get lost for hours and from what I’d seen there was no one around to save me or direct me back to my apartment.
But there was that party tonight. Party implied people could at least get some more answers there. Find out if I had gone crazy or not.
With no sense of time in this place my eyes fell to the clock and I sighed. I had little over an hour before the party. It was enough time to get adequately ready but not to my usual standard.
Arming myself with a tall glass of chocolate milk I returned to my room to take stock of what was there. Unsurprisingly there was everything I needed and even things I suddenly had that I didn’t know I had had before. Like designer brand makeup that in my old life (that was a strange thought) I wouldn’t have been able to afford. I wasn’t going to say no though, captive or not if he wanted to supply me with high street products I wasn’t going to let them go to waste.
Grace of Gods Boxset: Reincarnated Greek Gods YA/NA Series Page 2
