Betrayal in the Underworld Chapter 2

Chapter 2
I get a Dream




I ENDED up walking home because, well, my ride disappeared. I didn't realize I was still carrying the nerf gun. That's right, the weapon that destroyed my imagination was a nerf gun. It didn't even have any bullets! I say it was my imagination because that's what I want so bad for it to be. But in reality, that was just too real and elaborate to be my imagination. Anyway, I got home, realized that I was carrying a nerf gun, put it on the coffee table, got ready and went to bed.
Right now it's eight o'clock Sunday morning. I really need to get that paper done. What was it on again? Something about Kronos. . . ? Wait, did the phone just ring?
"Hello?" I answered in a daze.
"Hey, Maria, you're up! Great! Hey, so me and Claire and Bailey are heading down to the river , wana come?"
"Morgan? The river?" I can only ask questions.
"Yes it's me! And yes the river. You know, the Ohio River? We're taking my parents boat out for a ride! Well, one of my parents' boats. Anyway, do you wana come or what?"
"I'll take a heaping order of OR WHAT!" I was furious. He's acting like nothing happened last night!
"Maria? What's wrong? Why are you so mad?"
"Like you don't know! Where did you guys go last night? You left me at some stranger's house! I had to walk home!" The fury is building. Everything's in red.
"What are you talking about?"
"Is that why you want me to come? So you can leave me stranded at the boat docks, doomed to walk home carrying the nerf gun that killed medusa's mom?" My rage is spewing from every syllable.
It got really quiet on the other side of the phone. Neither of us spoke for a long time. Then I heard him talking to someone next to him.
"Maria? It's Claire. Is there something we need to talk about? Something that you said that might make you sound crazy to anyone other than me?" Uh oh, Morgan thinks I've gone crazy.
"Ok, so maybe we do need to talk. Do you remember anything about last night?"
"Yeah, we all spent six hours playing board games at your house. What about it?"
"You mean, you don't remember crashing the party?" The red tent to my vision is completely gone now, the rage replaced by confusion.
"What party?"
"You know, the cheerleaders party."
"The one they have every weekend?"
"Yes! That one!"
"Maria, we've never gone to one. You know that going would just be asking for a smack down from the football team. Are you ok?"
"Um, yeah, I think I'm ok now. How about you and I talk privately later. Is the offer to join you guys at the river still open, or did I scream it away?"
"Hold on, let me check." Then I heard mumbling voices and something about. . . a dream? I guess Claire's covering for my behavior.
"Here's Morgan. I told them about your DREAM, k? Here," guess I was right.
"Maria?" Morgan said cautiously into the phone.
"Morgan! I am so so so so so so sorry! I just woke up and had had a really scary and weird dream and I blew up at you because I was still thinking about it and I'm sooooooooo sorry!!!!! Do you forgive me?"
"Of course I forgive you Maria. We're best friends, remember?"
"Thank you Morgan! You're the best! So, am I too late to take you up on that offer to go on the river?"
"Of course not! Your still welcome to join us. How 'bout I swing by and pick you up?"
"Sounds great! See you guys in a bit then!"
"K, bye."
"Bye"
I ran into my room. Wait, in the living room, didn't I put the nerf gun on the coffee table? Great. Maybe it was all just a dream. . .? No, none of my dreams have been that. . . vivid.
Anyway, I need to get ready!
I ran to my room and packed up my swimsuit, a towel, and an extra set of clothes. I know that if we're going on the boat, we're going swimming. So I changed out of my pj's and now I'm waiting for them to get here.
So, maybe I can write that paper tonight when I get home. I mean, it can't be that hard of a paper, everyone knows the story of Kronos and his kids. Wait, did someone just knock on the door?
I answered the door. "Morgan!" I yelled and tackled him with a bear hug.
"Alright Maria! Haha! Alright! I'm happy to see you too! Now get off of me! Haha! Your squishing the air out of me!"
"Oops! Sorry! Haha!"
"Well someone's feeling better! Come on! We're wasting daylight!"
With that, we ran to his car, jumped in, and headed down to the river.
"Quick question, which boat are we taking?" Claire asked.
"Yeah! Is it the speed boat, the boat that can hold three hundred people, or the boat that could seat fourteen people, but shouldn't try?" Bailey asked.
"It's a new one, smaller than the fourteen seater, and faster, but it's not a speed boat." Morgan replied.
"Cool! Does it have a name?" Bailey asked.
"It's called The Jessie Marie."
"Why is it called that?"
"Because that's the name of the girl that my parents are trying to hook me up with. You know, just a rich family trying to get another rich family to be part of their family through their children so they can get more money."
"Oh." Bailey said. "Sorry I asked." She whispered to the side. I could hear her, but Morgan definitely wouldn't.
"So? Do we ever get to meet this Jessie Marie?" I asked sarcastically.
"No." He answered, quickly, and harshly I might add.
"Why not?" I asked, earnestly curious this time.
"Because she is just as snobby as any other rich kid. I want nothing to do with her. This is all my parents' idea and I hate it!" He yelled. I was sure that if I was him I would have broken the car by now.
"Chill Morgan. I was being sarcastic. Breathe, watch the road, and concentrate on the sound of my voice. Jessie shmessie, forget the snob. We are here now, all your friends. Just us friends, going on the river." I soothed him. It seemed to be working. At least he wasn't shaking in anger anymore.
"That's it Morgan, calm down. Why don't we turn on the radio? Claire?" I asked. I asked her to do it because it looked like Morgan was unable to move very much and she was riding shotgun.
She turned the radio on and Party in the USA was playing. We all made retching noises and quickly changed the station. Taylor Swifts Love Story started blaring through the speakers. The girls and I glanced quickly at Morgan before we changed the station again. Next thing we heard was Martina McBride's Concrete Angel. We stayed on that station. Of course, by the end of the song, the girls and I are all crying and singing along. That's when Morgan turned the radio off.
"Hay!" The girls and I exclaimed in unison.
"We were listening to that!" Claire said.
"Yes, you were, and you were crying your eyes out and singing to it. I couldn't take it anymore." Morgan replied. "Besides, I thought that Martina was just a little flat on the ending there." He teased, smiling. Well, he's happy again.
"She was not!" The girls argued playfully. I just sat back and listened to the playful banter.
"Morgan! You just missed the turn!" I tell him, I have to kinda yell to be heard over them.
"Aww crap! Where can I make the nearest legal U turn?" He asked.
"Why don't you pull into that driveway and turn around?" Bailey asked.
"Ok, here we go." well, at least I realized that we missed it before we got completely turned around.
We got to the docks and we found the Jessie Marie. We unloaded all of our stuff onto the boat, got on and took off. It really was a great day to go out on the river. It was sunny and warm and cloudless. A perfect day.
We got out to the middle of the river when Bailey decided she wanted to go knee boarding. So she got in the water and we handed her the board and the rope. We waited for her to be ready, took the slack out of the line, waited for the ok, and took off! Bailey stayed on for a good ten minutes. She fell off and we swung around to pick her up. I decide I wanted a go at it.
I got my swimsuit on (there is a changing room on deck) and got in the water. They handed me the board and the line. They took the slack out of the line while I got ready. I gave them the ok to go and they took off. I got a good five minutes in before I took a face plant into the water. Now, you would think that would hurt, but to me it felt like the water was embracing me, happy to have me in its arms. I don't know why I didn't close my eyes on impact, but there was no need to close them here. I could see everything down here. Shouldn't it be more murky? You would think it would be, seeing as it's a river. I did have this faint tent of sea green to my vision, but that could just be because of the water, right? Then I realized that I hadn't even felt the urge to take a breath down here. I wasn't breathing, but I wasn't holding my breath either. It was like, somehow, I had stopped needing to breathe.
I heard a boat motor over head and when I looked up I saw someone's legs in the water just above my head. I suddenly felt dog tired. I didn't want to move to get myself to the surface. I simply willed the water to carry me to the surface. To my surprise, that is exactly what it did. As soon as I wished for it to happen, the water pushed me up toward the surface and out of the water. It shot me into the sky and I landed right into Morgan's arms. He just looked at me like I was the strangest thing he had ever seen.
When I thought he was gana say something about how I had just fallen from the sky, he said, "Since when have your eyes been green? I thought they were blue?"
"What?" I asked. Uh oh, my vision still hasn't lost its green tent.
"And aren't you supposed to be, like, soaking wet? There's not even a drop on you, but you just flew out of the river. And that's another thing, you flew out of the river. What was that?"
"Um. . ." I just noticed that as well. I was soaked when I was in the river, but as soon as I hit the surface, it was like I never even got in. I'm so confused right now, what should I tell him? That this kind of thing happens to me all the time, he just doesn't notice it when it does?
"Um, Maria, maybe we should have that talk, NOW." Claire said. She was standing right next to us, dripping wet and panting with her face all red like she was the one who had just taken a face plant in the river instead of me.
"Yes, I think that would be an excellent idea." I replied quickly. We needed to get this over with and I needed her thoughts on this. On everything that has gone on in the past twenty-four hours. I need someone who doesn't think I'm crazy.
Morgan put me down and Claire and I went and sat at the front of the boat while Morgan drove and Bailey continued to knee board. They knew the routine of me and Claire talking. They knew that I would only tell her my secrets. Anyway, I told Claire everything that I remembered of the night before and of what just happened under water. She sat quietly and listened the whole time and tried her best not to think I was crazy like I knew she would if she hadn't witnessed firsthand what I can do when I'm mad and my eyes glow red.
"So," She started, like I knew she would. She always asked questions to make sure she had everything straight. "Mr. McBride was at the cheerleader's party with a nerf gun that he gave to you to kill Medusa's mom?"
"In a way, yes." I knew better than to question whether or not she was making fun of me.
"Ok, and the nerf gun, you couldn't find it when you got up this morning?"
"No, I couldn't. Granted I didn't look very hard, but usually everything stays where you put it when you're in a house alone."
"True. So, you say that Trisha turned into Medusa's mom?"
"Who?"
"The head cheerleader, Trisha."
"Um, Melissa is the head cheerleader. Well, was."
"Who's Melissa?"
"Ok, so that's apparently another thing that I remember that you don't."
"But, I even remember Trisha leading the cheerleaders at the last football game. How can I remember that when it never happened?"
"I don't know. All I know is, I couldn't have dreamt this all up. You know that I have no imagination. But, does that mean you believe me?"
"Of course I believe you. I know you have no imagination, you couldn't lie worth crap anyway. But if I were you, the next thing I would do is confront our Latin teacher. He seems to hold the key to understanding in this. I'll talk to him with you if you want."
"Thanks Claire, that would be really helpful. You're the best, you know that?"
"Yeah, I know!" She said with a playful smile.
"You can stop roaring the engine as loud as it will go now! We're done talking!" I yelled over to Morgan. I don't think he heard me, but apparently he understood because it suddenly got a lot less noisy.
"Good thing you guys are done, we're almost to the docks." Morgan said.
"Good, cause its getting really dark and I can barely see!" Bailey complained.
"Why can't you bailey? I can see just fine." I commented.
"That's because your eyes are glowing and are the color of the moon. They're as bright as headlights on a car." Claire whispered to me.
"Oh." I whispered back. That's why everything's silver. I turned away from the other two and waited for my vision to return to normal, but it seemed to remain silver for the remainder of our trip to shore. Finally we reached shore and I ran to Morgan's car and got in the back and closed my eyes. I didn't open them until I felt someone start to pick me up, clearly thinking I was asleep. My eyes flew open and connected with Morgan's. He put me back down so I could walk inside, but he walked behind me as if he was afraid I would fall over on my way to the door.
I turned around and said goodnight to Morgan, went inside, and started to search for that nerf gun. I searched the entire living room from top to bottom. It was nowhere to be found. So I gave up for the night and went to bed. It had been a pretty draining weekend.

That night I had a dream. It wasn't any ordinary dream. I dreamt of the gods of Olympus. Only, Olympus wasn't on top of Mount Olympus in Greece, It was hovering above the highest point of the Smoky Mountains. I could see the beautiful sprawl of the mountains stretch out beneath me as far as my eye could see. But I had no time to dwell on the magnificence of the scenery, there was a meeting of the gods I had to pay attention to. The gods themselves were magnificent to behold.
Each one seemingly made of the elements that they control. Zeus seemed to be made of the clouds and sky itself. Poseidon was made of sea water, he even made waves in the wind as the sea would. Artemis was made of silver light, like that of the moon. Much like her brother Apollo was made of the light of the sun. Ares bore the garments and battle scars of every war ever fought. Athena, when you looked at her, bore the mark of the smartest scholars, the greatest minds ever known to have walked the earth. Hermes looked like the only normal one out of the bunch. He was dressed as a regular mail man, but if you looked close enough, you could see tiny wings folded on the sides of his shoes. Demeter seemed to be made of flower petals, made in the shape of a beautiful woman. Dionysus was made of the juice of grapes, fermented into wine. Hera bore the colors of a peacock, and she wore a rather large wedding ring that seemed to be made of almost nothing but diamonds. Aphrodite bore the look of the prettiest actress the world has ever known, only prettier, if that's possible.
They were gathered in a courtyard around what seemed to be a hole in the ground. That looks rather odd, my dream-self thought. So I got a little closer.
"Brother, I think we should heed dear Artemis's words, she may be right, it could finally be time for the child to know. She has used the powers of Ares, Artemis, and I just today. Whereas yesterday, she used the powers of Nemesis and Ares combined to kill Mallesandra. That is no small feat for her to accomplish within two days. Not to mention that if she hadn't noticed that her friend missed that turn on the way to the river, she and her friends would have run straight into one of Echidna's sons. That would have been a nasty incident to behold. She deserves answers, and soon, before she squeezes them out of poor Hephaestus." Poseidon was saying to Zeus. Who could they be talking about? This girl seems to have quite a bit of power.
"Poor Hephaestus, pht! He almost gave it all away two days in a row!" Artemis suddenly exclaimed.
"He couldn't help himself, he could feel her power building and it excited him to know that she may be ready in just days! He deserves credit for the time he has put forth to protect her!" Poseidon argued. This girl must be very valuable if a god is protecting her.
"Silence! I will have no more of this bickering! I knew we should not have taken her another night and given her the powers of the minor gods. But what has past has past. We need to come to a decision on what to do next. Shall we tell the girl, or wait until we are sure she is ready?" Zeus asked.
"I vote we should tell the girl now." Artemis said, almost before Zeus had finished.
"I'm with Artemis on this one." Poseidon agreed.
"I vote that we should wait." Ares said.
"Though I hate to say it, I agree with Ares." Athena said with distaste.
"Me as well." Demeter agreed, with the same amount of distaste.
"I'm with Demeter and Athena." Dionysus said.
"Me also." Hermes agreed.
"And I agree with Hermes." Apollo said. "Sorry sister, but the girl is not yet ready."
"Well I agree with Artemis. We may need the girl before she is deemed ready by the rest of you." Aphrodite said.
"I vote that the girl shall be ignorant of the world in which she really lives for a little while longer. She shall find out soon enough." Hera said with finality.
"Well, I do believe that the vote is in my wife's favor. The girl is to stay ignorant of our world until further notice. Until then, ah, poor Maria Chase will just have to go about her life and try to stay out of trouble." Zeus said.
That's when I woke up, scared and confused as to why I was seeing everything in gold.