Wade

The winds suddenly calm down. I turn and look at the daughter of Sky. She has an almost soothing look on her face. It was a good idea I decided to take a detour through the park. It’s hard for me to not look at her. She has such gorgeous brown hair that reaches just below her shoulders and bright blue eyes with a hint of olive green around the pupils. She doesn’t speak as I guide her through the park. Dead leaves start to swirl around us. People start to look in our direction. I hate when people look in my direction, but there’s one person in particular that narrows his eyes when he sees the girl. He glares at me. Do I know the guy?
He starts walking toward us. Sky’s daughter closes her eyes and leans her head against my shoulder. I feel my ears burn. This is embarrassing, good thing she can’t see me, but the guy can.
“Liora,” the guy yells.
She opens her eyes, and stops abruptly in her tracks. She starts to turn her head in every direction as to figure out where the voice is coming from.
“Jeff,” she mutters. She says it in such a way that I believe the guy is her ex-boyfriend.
“He’s walking in our direction; directly in front of us. Oh gods – he looks extremely ticked off.”
Jeff’s face is turning a bright shade of red. I let go of Sky’s daughter’s hand. She reaches for it faster than I could put it in my coat pocket. Jeff is standing directly in front of us. The veil starts to go up involuntarily.
“Don’t.” Sky’s daughter pleads.
I start tearing it down with a struggle. The guy is a violent violet-red color now. He has his hands in fists.
“Who is this, Liora?” he shouts in my face. He spit on my face. I pull my empty hand free of my pocket and clean my face off with the coat sleeve. I pull my sleeve away from my face, and reach a hand out.
“The name’s Wade. I saved her from walking into traffic.”
“So you’re a wise guy, huh?”
“Pardon me?”
“Jeff, please, cut it out. You broke up with me, don’t you remember?” Sky’s daughter says.
“I didn’t think you would go out looking for another guy right away.”
“Jeff, stop there. He saved my life then he treated me to hot cocoa.”
My eyes go wide at what she just said. Does she want me to get hurt? Jeff swings his arm back. His fist connects with my jaw. My hand slips out of her hand. I tumble to the ground. Jeff is upon me.
“You stole my girlfriend,” he sneers through a clenched jaw.
Sky’s daughter searches for something to hold onto. I can’t do much if I’m on the ground being pounded by her ex-boyfriend.
“Look, I have no interest in fighting you.”
“Jeff!” Sky’s daughter hisses.
He looks from me to her. He stands and straightens his clothes. He doesn’t reach a hand out to help me out which is fine by me.
I stand, and walk away from them.
“Wade,” she pleads, “don’t leave.”
“How do you know he’s walking away? I thought you said you were blind, or was that a lie?” Jeff asks angrily.
“No, it wasn’t a lie. I really can’t see, but I can sense whether or not Wade is near me.” She says matter-of-factly. I find it a bit chilling that she can sense my presence, but then again she can sense my ability when in use. I feel people’s eyes on us. I touch my cheek which feels warm, and then I touch my lip which I find is bleeding. People are probably wondering why I’m still standing here.
The veil goes up faster than ever before. Sky’s daughter turns her head in every direction. She knows it’s covering us.
“Thank you, Wade,” she says.
“Quick question, what is your name?”
“Jeff,” the guys says.
“Not you,” I say factiously.
“Liora,” she responds.
“Liora, give me a shout if you need me. I need to make a phone call. I won’t be far.”
I walk away, but stretch the veil as I walk away from those two. I pull my handkerchief from my inside coat pocket, and start dabbing at my bloody lip. I take my phone out of my pocket, and dial my father.
“Hello,” Snow says.
“I have her.”
“Good. Bring her immediately. Several people are going to want a blind demigod to possess. Did she say what would break the blinding?”
“No, but you know how Cloud is.”

Jeff

Standing here staring at Liora I’m starting to believe she really is blind. Who knew that was possible. She had perfect vision back in Chicago before she left for London. She departed late in the evening yesterday. I took her to the terminal, and gave my good-byes. Then my dad had a sudden business trip and invited me to go with him. What a great surprise it would have been had Liora not been blinded in the less than twenty-four hours.
“Have you spoken with your mother?”
She turns her head in my direction, but her eyes wonder as if she is searching for the face that she can no longer see. Tears stab at the back of my eyes. I want to kiss her, and tell her everything is alright, but I broke up with her. I don’t want to be the one who gives in.
“Yes, she wants me to go back home. She also told me a secret. Look I’m sorry we had to run into each other like this. Do you remember those old looking books that sat on my desk day and night?”
I think back to what her desk looked like the last time I snuck in at midnight. I remember very distinctively the five leather bound books that sat on her desk constantly. She would occasionally read them. I read a snippet once. She panicked when I did. “Yes I do.”
“Do you remember what you read?”
“Pieces of it,” I say.
“Tell me what you remember,” she demands.

In a place long ago there lived people, but not ordinary people we call humans who are much too mundane for anything but ordinary. On another planet far, far from Earth, our planet, others live with abilities that even we humans believe to be fiction. We call these people with abilities Gods or Goddesses. Here on Earth they have the abilities to control our weather and seasons. . . .

I notice Liora is crying. I reach my hand out and brush her tears from her cheeks.
“Don’t cry, Liora.”
“You know too much,” she sobs.
“What do you mean?”
“Wade!” I turn in the direction that guy walked. He looked over his shoulder at us. He muttered one last thing then pulled the phone away from his ear. He put it into his coat pocket, and started walking back in our direction. He was still far enough away from us that I turned back to Liora.
“Liora, tell me why you trust him? He just saved your life. You could have walked away from him. Leave him. Don’t trust him. Trust me, please. Come on. We can walk away, and we can get my dad to book us the first flight back to Chicago.”
“No. You know too much. You know things that no human should know. Only demigods, demons and druids, gods and goddesses, and others can read those books, but yet you did. I have to take you to someone. . .” She stops talking.
Wade stand beside us both. He looks at Liora with analyzing eyes. He knows something is up. I glare at him once more.
He clears his throat.
“We have to take him to Snow,” Liora says.
Wade’s eyes go wide at what she just said. He looks at me.
“What did you tell him?” he demands from Liora.
“It’s not what I’ve told him, but something happened awhile back.”
Wade’s face turns a light shade of red. His hands ball up into fists. He keeps himself in check. He slowly releases the breath that he’d been holding.
“Start walking,” he says.

Liora

Wade brushes past Jeff and I. I grab onto his hand. I can tell he stopped dead in his tracks when I held onto his hand, and refused to let go. I can feel the heat coming off of Jeff at what I’ve just created. I can feel a spark between Wade and I that I might be imaging. Jeff tries to grab my free hand. I quickly pull free, and shove my hand in my coat.
“Follow,” I whisper to Jeff.
Jeff walks on my right side, and Wade to my left. Jeff brushes his arm across my shoulder occasionally to let me know he still stands beside me.

Wade

It was a little odd that Liora grabbed my hand instead of Jeff’s. He became quickly jealous that Liora wouldn’t hold onto his hand as well. A spark ran through me as Liora refused to let go. I could be imaging things. I’ll keep this to myself. I start walking, and they fall into step with me.
Jeff looks over at me often enough that I know he’s noticed my scars.

Jeff

Every time I look at Wade I see a new scar. They guy is covered in them. His hands, face, and neck are scarred badly. It’s hard to know whether he’s scarred anywhere else on his body, but I’m not sure I want to know. They look almost like claw marks. He has three large deep claw marks going from the edge of his hairline to the tip of his nose and the edge of his lip all on the right side of his face. The side I happen to be walk on. He catches me when I look in his direction. He has a suspicious look on his face.
We walk through the park, and find ourselves in front of a gorgeous apartment building. Wade turns pale at the sight of the building. He apparently doesn’t want to take us to see this someone. He looks at Liora then at me. He pulls Liora forward toward the building.
We cross the street, and turn back up the street toward the apartments. He pushes on the key code pad to let us in. Once he’s done the door swings open. He walks us over to the elevator without a word. The front desk attendants don’t even take into account that we have walked in. It’s as if we are blind to them. They can’t see us. The elevator chimes to signal that it’s reached the lobby. One of the attendants looks up, but shrugs when no one gets off. I notice he mutters to himself something about long hours and in need of sleep.
We step onto the elevator. Wade presses the top floor button. His free hand fidgets with the buttons of his coat as if he’s debating on whether or not to keep it on. The elevator chimes once we’ve reached the top floor. As the doors open I first take in that it’s a penthouse, and second that a teenage girl stands before the elevator with a face as cherry red. She looks like she might explode with anger at anytime. Wade stops fidgeting with his coat, and has his hand frozen on the top button.
“Why did you bring a human here, Wade? You know the rules better than I do,” she says with a shrill. She has beautiful caramel hair and ice cold blue eyes. She looks at me suddenly.
“Stop checking me out, and avert your attention elsewhere.”
“Velia, come on, don’t do this to me now,” Wade pleads.
“Not now? When is a good time then?” Her cheeks turn a bright red rose color. Her Italian accent is prominent when she talks. It practically rolls off her tongue plus with such a tall thin body fit for a model it sounds sexy. She turns her eyes back toward me. “What did I tell you? Avert your attention elsewhere.” She glares full out at me.
“What did I ever do to you?” I ask.
She snarls, “So the human speaks. Be a good boy, and keep your comments to yourself. Or rather, don’t think at all. You’re clogging my thoughts.”
A confused look came over my face. Wade turned a pale shade, and Liora turned a bright red color.

Velia

This human is clogging my thought process. I can still his remark, it practically rolls off her tongue plus with such a tall thin body fit for a model it sounds sexy. What is it with male humans?
Don’t ruin this, Velia. You will REGRET it. Wade.
Typical Wade such a buzz kill when it comes to confusing humans. He knows I love doing this, but this human is tormenting my mind. He’s everywhere. It’s like a catchy song that you can’t seem to get out of your head. Gods! I want to slap the guy.
She talks as if she can read thoughts. What if she can read them? Liora thinks. I can’t tell if she’s actually looking at me physically or mentally.
Liora is blind. Wade.
That simple thought makes everything make sense. The reason why she won’t look at me, why there seems to be no mental picture running through her head, and for why she seems to be squeezing Wade’s hand. Wade’s hand!
That little twerp, he has the daughter of Sky by the fingers, literally. My eyes dart toward Wade with a devilish look. Wade, the Irishman he is, turns a bright red as he realizes what I’m indicating to.
“Wade, Wade, Wade it won’t be my fault if father yells at you,” I say. Just at the mention of the word father I feel Snow’s thoughts strike me in the back of the head.
Velia, I know you are keeping something from me. Come to my chambers immediately. Bring the other three people with you. Why are there three bodies on the elevator? I was expecting two. Who’s the third? VELIA, ANSWER ME!
The last thought vibrates out of his brain. It practically vibrates throughout the penthouse.
“What was that?” Liora asks.
“Snow, our father,” I respond simply.
“Come let’s enter the penthouse and follow Velia,” Wade says more to Liora than to the human.
They follow me to the upper level of penthouse where Snow has his sleeping chamber, office chamber, bathroom chamber, et cetera. Wade’s, mine, and the guest chambers are on the lower floor. Snow doesn’t like to be disturbed. There’s no other way of putting it.
I glance back at the others as we get closer to Snow’s office. Wade is a pale shade. He’s scared it’s obvious. We’ve heard stories of what the gods do when they find out that a human knows our secrets. It’s not pretty. Yet, he’s relieved to know that Liora is blind. To be honest, so am I. If anything happens to the human I don’t want her to witness what Snow does to him.
We halt in front of the office doors. Wade contemplates whether he should knock. The human’s thoughts are in awe at the décor of the penthouse. Everything in this place is either white, very white, crystal, or pale blue.
“Come in,” Snow says before Wade or I can even knock on the door. I lightly put my hand up to the doors and they swing open with a soft creak.
The human’s thoughts are just flowing out of him like a waterfall. By gosh, look at this place. It’s amazing. I can’t wait to tell my father about this. I turn sharply at him. He notices too.
I put my right pointer finger up against the human’s nose. I press my finger into his nose. “You will not tell your father anything,” I say through my teeth. I pull my finger away from his face. He shies away from me. I wouldn’t blame him. He knows something, but he refuses to think about it.
I walk through the doors, without a second thought, first. The others follow right behind. I can feel Snow lingering in the back of my head. He won’t let me in, but I also can’t get out. Only the gods can control whether to let a demigod hear their thoughts, but it’s harder to control when the demigod has the power to hear thoughts.
Come stand next to me, Velia, Snow commands. I glide around his desk, and position myself beside the chair Snow lounges in. Snow has snow white hair that almost looks like snow sitting upon his head. He doesn’t look old. He has the looks of a man in his late twenties or early thirties. His aging completely stopped as well as the other gods’ when they first reached Earth. Snow looks business-like in his charcoal grey suit.
“Wade, my son, tell me who this,” Snow sniffs the air, “human is.” Snow glares at the human with amusement in his eyes. He has great pleasure in the fact that a human is in his penthouse with two demigods that brought him. Snow knits his fingers together and rests his forearms on his desk as he leans forward. I can feel Snow’s thoughts wondering to dark things, torching the human, electrocuting the human, keeping the human, or setting the human free. At this last thought I look at him with shock written on my face. His face goes grim when he realizes I’ve read his thoughts.
“Velia, get out of my office, now!” Snow shouts at me. My face turns pale as I realize what he’s truly asking me. Once I’m outside the office Snow will put up a barrier to where I can’t hear anybody’s thoughts. “Go,” Snow says through gritted teeth. His tone makes the room vibrate. I slither past everyone as I leave the room. The doors to the office shut close behind me with a bang. I feel deaf. I can’t hear what is going on in the room, and Snow doesn’t want me to either.

Liora

Snow sounds agitated at whatever has bothered him. He yells at Velia that’s all I know. I don’t even know what she looks like or what she’s done. Wade squeezes my hand. The doors slam close a few seconds after Velia walks past. The room feels like electricity. The sense of shocking someone doesn’t leave the room. The feeling is making me nervous.
“So, as I was saying. Who’s the human?” Snow says. He has curiosity coating his voice.
I debate on whether to speak. Wade takes a deep breath as if to speak, but doesn’t. I hear someone start to tap. The only person who would do that would be Snow. He’s growing impatient as the silence grows longer. I finally can’t take it anymore, and neither can Jeff.
“His name is Jeff,” I say. Just as Jeff says, “My name is Jeff.” I would look at him with shock, but I don’t know where to turn.
“Splendid,” Snow says with too much enthusiasm. He continues without hesitation, “I call myself Snow. Human, I mean Jeff, what brings you to my penthouse with two demi—I mean with my son Wade and the blind one, Liora?”
I feel my face turning red at the thought that Snow just called me the blind one. How rude! “How so righteous you must feel Snow to call someone the blind one? I must say even if I can’t see you I most certainly can still hear you. Keep that in mind,” I say with a little too much dignity. No demigod has ever talked back to a god. Maybe Wade was right; maybe I do have a death wish.
“Brava,” Snow says, “You truly are the daughter of Sky, love.”
“Your mom’s name isn’t Sky,” Jeff whispers to me.
“No?” Snow says aloud. He heard Jeff. “However, her father’s name is Sky. Why would you think Liora’s mother’s name would be Sky? Leaf would never name her daughter Sky. Aadi seems to be a more likely name from Leaf. Am I right, Liora?”
“Yes,” I whisper. I feel everyone’s eyes on me. Snow gives out a low chuckle.
“I hear you want to go to South America to find Sky.”
“Yes,” I say.
“Then Wade and Velia shall go with you. I have business to attend to in Russia. It’d be best if I didn’t put it off any longer. Bon voyage, but first I must speak with Liora alone.” He says this last part to Jeff and Wade. Wade releases my hand. I hear two pairs of feet shuffle out of the room. My flesh crawls at the thought of being left alone in a room with a god. The doors open and then close. Snow’s chair makes a loud scraping noise. I feel a hand on my shoulder. I start walking forward. Snow guides me to a chair. I hit my foot on the leg of the chair.
“Sorry,” Snow says, “Please sit.”
I place my hands on the chair, and feel my way into the seat. I heard Snow pull his chair, and sit in it.
“Liora, I have something very important to tell you. You must not get upset that nobody has ever told you what I am about to tell you. Only the gods know what I am about to share with you. Well, with an exception to Wade and Velia. Every god and goddess can tell two of their children and then one other. You, my dear, are my other one. I can’t tell another living soul until one of you three pass on. Do you understand?”
“Yes, but why are you going to tell me?”
“You’re blind.” He says it as if it’s as simple as that. That being blind, as I am, is the easiest explanation to give.
“I don’t know what you mean,” I say.
“Let me tell you what you don’t know first, and then my reasoning will be easier to understand.”
“Ok.”
“Where to begin . . . oh I know where. When the Earth was first created, back on my planet the leaders wished to send nine new gods to Terra Firma. And so they did. Leaf and I had been close friends at the time and still are. Flower and Cloud had been best friends from the very beginning. Heat and Sky were buddies in school and mischievous ones when they applied to come. The three other gods were really close friends. They had their own agenda for this planet. I’ll tell you what they do and their names are: Sol the sun god, Sea the water goddess, Gra the land goddess. Then there is Arth the god with the most power and who controls the balance. Arth was here first and is the reason why nine other gods are as well. He decided to have ten gods on this new planet and start a civilization. The only problem was that we all had different ideas for this young new planet.
“We had several arguments before we reached this planet about what would be best. We had to wait several centuries for the planet to mature, anyways. We sat on Jupiter while the planet was awakening, Arth’s word not mine. We were finally able to sit on Earth, the planet. Everywhere Gra walked grass grew. That’s where the word comes from. Sol made the clouds disperse and the closest star to the planet shined through. Sea had issues making water for it was all in the air. Sky made his first thunder storm, and Cloud made her first bolts of lightning. The season gods couldn’t do much at that time.
“Pangaea was the result of us working together as a unit. During the era of Pangaea there were many stages of dinosaurs. Beast that ruled the world, and had no care for what we did to it, either. We let the monsters run wild, do what they wished, and had plenty of freedom. The season gods, Cloud, and Sky grew tired of the beast toward end of the Jurassic period. We argued with the other gods for days to end the rein of the beasts, and start something new. Sol, Gra, Sea, and even Arth voted to keep the beast ruling the planet. We out voted them. A meteor was already coming toward Earth. It was set to go around the planet, but we pulled it toward us. We left the planet it time to let it strike.
“We each went our separate ways. Cloud, Leaf, and Flower wandered to Venus. There they meet a goddess who discovered the thing called love.” Snow says the word with disgust, but continues, “Your father, Heat, and I wandered back to Jupiter. As for the others well Arth tried to remain neutral through it all, but it doesn’t work; he favors the three who disagreed. We all know he does though he denies it. Sol, Gra, and Sea hated the concept of creating a being that looked identical to us but was average. They went their separate ways. They swore that they would find a way back into ruling power.
“A blind demigod is the worst possible curse a god or goddess can bestow. Do you understand my reasoning now,” Snow says. He’s sincere about it. He gave me the run about of what happened when they came to Earth, my planet. It’s impossible to comprehend, but I now know why the books I’ve read always have black splotches in the text. It explains everything about the books.
“I understand. But, why is being blind bad?” I ask still confused on the fact that that’s still his reasoning.
“A blind demigod can be used to put the six of us at our weakest including when you’re the grandchild of Leaf and the daughter of Sky.”
Everything makes sense now. If one of the other four gods finds me they can use my power. That would be bad.
“For now, you must be on a plane to South America. Sky will most likely be found in Rio, Brazil. Your flight shall be in the morning. Have a good night’s rest,” Snow says. His chair scrapes the floor. He shouts Wade’s name. Wade grabs my hands and helps me stand.

Wade

Liora looks pale. I don’t make a comment about it as my father leaves his study. Listening to hear where he is going in the penthouse is a fail. There’s a great whoosh coming from the direction Father walked. Slowly I release my grip on Liora, but she quickly grabs one of my hands back. I guide her to the door, and find that Snow had his bed chamber doors ajar. I can feel the winter air breezing in. Snow has left. He’s gone, most likely on his way to Russia. He has always preferred to travel by clouds. Makes him feel more “god-like” or so Velia says.
I glance at Liora who searches aimlessly to see anything.
“How was your talk?” I ask without thinking. It took me a second to realize what I had asked. Why in the gods’ names would she want to tell me what she and my father talked about?
“Everything,” she answers.
The answer strikes my interest. What exactly is everything? Did he give her the run about of my exotic life before he found me almost dead in a ditch? Or the time I ended up in a bar fight that resulted in me getting the nasty scar that runs across my face from a broken beer bottle? What does ‘everything’ mean?
“Do Arth and the others know I’ve been stuck blind?” Liora asks suddenly. Now that sounds like the ‘everything’ she was referring to.
I contemplate my answer. Do I wish to scare her into going back home to Chicago, or do I wish to help her on her journey to South America? “Most likely not yet, but they will soon,” I lied. If Snow knew that I would find a blind demigod in the crowded streets of London, than more than likely every god knows that Liora is blind. I try to hide the fact from Velia, but I can feel her shutter at my thoughts. She comes storming toward the stairs as we are landing on the lower floor. Rage dances behind her glacier blue eyes.
Wade, tell her before I do, Velia shouts in my thoughts.
No, I think firmly.
I can hear her thoughts. She’s already been informed about everything. Just tell her the truth, she strikes back at me.
“No,” I say without realizing I’ve spoken aloud.
“No to what?” Liora asks. A puzzled look crosses her face.
“Tell her before I do,” Velia threatens. A murderous look is plastered on my face. Velia knows better than to second guess my decision. Velia swallows long and hard. She starts to sweat, and I know that my killer ability is showing.

Velia

My body goes rigid. Sweat covers me, head to toe. My thoughts as well as everyone else’s I can hear start to become fuzzy. Wade showed me once before what he meant when he could kill someone with just a look. He had saved me when I was exploring the Safari, and Heat was after me. I had snuck up behind him and took photos. Heat thought I was human and I thought I was human, too. He can after me to kill me for getting photos of him. The only reason I found Heat was because I could hear him. I was pronounced with schizophrenia. Would explain the voices I heard, right? But in honesty I could just hear people’s thoughts.
Wade had one of Heat’s demigods following him. Wade found me, and the demigod revealed himself. He jumped Wade, and scratched him across the cheek. At that moment a scary look came to Wade’s face. His glacier blue eyes, like mine, became venomously frigid. His face looked like it was set into a permanent scowl. The demigod froze in place. Sweat covered his entire body. Shivers pulsed through his body as he tried to recover lost body heat. He attempted to heat himself repeatedly. I stared in awe at what Wade was doing. Wade never so much as touched the guy. He sat in a chair, and stared at the demigod. The demigod cried for hours. His tears froze against his skin. Help me, the demigod pleaded. I didn’t think he knew I could hear his thoughts, but he wanted someone to help him. I had reached for Wade, and was shrugged off. I stood in front of him in hope that that would break the spell, but instead I was paralyzed by the stare of Wade. My body convulsed at what was happening. Shivers spread across my body. I was able to get out two words, “Wade stop.” I could see my breath come out white. I was cold but that was an understatement, I was freezing.
I stayed conscious long enough to see Wade’s expression soften, and the spell was broken. The next thing I knew I was on a private plane. Wade sat beside me flipping through pages of my photography books.
“Nice photography,” he said, “Especially the ones of Heat, hilarious.” A smile spread across his face when he saw the nude photos of Heat. They were funny, I had to admit.
“What happened,” I had asked.
“You fell into my line of sight. Don’t ever jump in front of me if you wish to freeze to death,” he said with a grim look.
“What happened to that guy?” I asked.
“He’ll most likely be unconscious for about a week, maybe less knowing he’s the son of Heat. I would consider yourself lucky that you were only knocked out for an hour. If a human had done what you’d done the human would have gone straight into a coma and who’d know what time the human would wake up.” All conversation ended there.
That was enough of an explanation to know what had truly happened. Shivers convulsed through my body.
I feel static. What the hell is going on? Liora.
Why can I hear her thoughts so clearly? That has never happened before.
Wade, Liora thinks. She knows he doing something, but doesn’t know what. I’m able to comprehend that Liora’s hand trails up Wade’s arm, up his neck, and then she turns him toward her. She kisses him. Wade is in so much shock that the spell breaks, and I collapse on the floor.

Jeff

I walk out of the kitchen just as Velia collapses to the floor.
“Oh my god,” I shout without thinking. I run toward Velia, and that’s when I notice Liora had her mouth on Wade’s. “What the hell?” I shout, also, without thinking.
Liora pulls away from Wade. She obviously can’t see him so I’m curious as to how she knew where his lips were. Wade has his hands securely on her hips, as if they belong there. Anger boils through my veins. How could she? I stand there clueless and speechless. Wade glances at me, and slowly pulls his hands away from Liora. Liora reaches for Wade’s hand before he can fully pull away from her, but he hardly notices. He stares down at Velia. A tear comes to his eye, but he quickly brushes it away.
“Human, come help me over here,” Wade says to me. Why must he insist on calling me human? He wrestled Liora’s hand out of his. He grabbed Velia from under her armpits. He gestured toward her feet for me to grab. I reached down for her feet, and she kicked. Hit me in the thigh.
“Come on, Human, I don’t have all day,” Wade hisses.
“What happened to her?” I ask.
“None of your business,” he states. A glare shines in his eyes. At that I don’t bother asking more questions. I know that the conversation ends here, and all future conversations will cease to exist. We walk away from Liora, and take Velia to a room at the end of the hall.
The room is decorated with photography everything from Polaroid to black and white shots and to colored photos. I take in the amazement of the place. The bed covers are black and white with splatters of paint. Paintings sit in the corner leaning against the wall. A new canvas sits on a stand ready to be painted. Paints sit in a box with brushes sitting in a cup. Wade and I place Velia on the bed. Wade notices me taking in the bedroom.
“Velia’s bedroom,” Wade says simply.
I don’t comment back. It obviously has the touch of Velia. Velia has great taste in the arts. I turn toward the bed, and that’s when I notice stacks upon stacks of music. It’s music galore. Wade grabs me by the shoulders, and guides me out of the room. I want to stay longer and admire everything, but I know that I’ve over stayed my welcome.
I shrug off Wade, who doesn’t take offense to what I’ve done. I go up to Liora, and grab her hands. She looks forward, a flash of hope spurs through me.
“Who’s this?” Liora asks. I give out a heavy sigh.
“Jeff,” I say. “I have to get back to my dad, Liora. I’m going to be leaving. Have a good trip.”
I start to pull my hands from hers, but her grip gets stronger.
“We’re not done discussing something,” she states as if I know what she’s talking about. A puzzled look comes to my face, and I know Wade’s notices.
“And what’s that?” Wade asks.
“He’s read the book,” she mutters. Wade loses some of his color in his cheeks. Anger shines in his eyes. I gulp loudly. He grabs me by the arm. Wade’s grip is stronger than I thought it might be. He starts to drag me to the kitchen. He shoves me into one of the chairs. He goes to one of the drawers by the fridge, and pulls out duck tape. Before I can even comprehend what he’s going to do with it he has my hands bind behind my back and my legs taped to the legs of the chair. He disappears into the hallway again then brings Liora in. He helps her sit in the chair beside me, but doesn’t tape her to the chair. It would be pointless to do that.
“What does he know?” Wade says through gritted teeth.
Liora places her head in her hands. Her chin rests in her palms as she tries to think back to that day. I however remember it clearly. I remember knocking on her apartment door, her mom opening the door in a hurry surprised to see me, she told me that Liora was in her room and to let myself in. Liora had her bedroom door open. I knocked on the door frame to get her attention, but I noticed her headphones were in her ears and on full blast. I could hear the rhythm of Perfect Stranger. Liora’s favorite band being Civil Twilight I wasn’t surprised she wasn’t paying attention to me. I snuck up behind her and placed my hands over her eyes. I felt her smile before I asked “guess who?”
I had noticed that she had one of those rather large leather bond books placed in front of her. I watched her slowly slam the book shut, but fast enough for me not to catch a glimpse of what the book said. Liora had turned her head to where my hands were no longer covering her eyes. Her eyes were wide in shock that maybe I had read something in it.
“Did you see something?” she had asked. She knows that I have a photographic memory so it’s not difficult for me to glimpse the page in my head.
“Strange book you got there, love,” I replied.
Her smile falters ever so slightly. “Could you see the words in the book?” Her voice had become slightly chilling. I remember my spine straightening and chills running up and down.
I tried to play off a laugh, but my voice quivered betraying me, “Isn’t that the point of reading? Being able to see the words in the book?” But I know that’s not what she meant.
“We are to never speak of what you saw in this book. Ever,” she said it with such finality I don’t question what she said.
Until today when we were in the park and she asked me if I remembered what I read in the book a few months ago. I gulp loudly as I stare at Liora than at Wade. Wade keeps taking quick glances between me and Liora. I’m guessing he finally gets fed up waiting for Liora to make up her mind. He spins the chair I’m taped to toward him.
“Since she’s taking her sweet time, why don’t you tell me what happened?” Wade says in a chilling voice.
I’m so paralyzed and intimidated by Wade that I give him a straight answer, “A few months ago I had gone to Liora’s apartment to surprise her, to stop by unannounced. She wasn’t in anyway expecting me. I had snuck up behind her ‘cause she had her headphones in and hadn’t noticed that I had knocked before I came up behind her. I have a photographic memory, and well she was reading this giant leather bound book with this strange story about gods and goddesses from a far off planet that came to Earth and built the civilization we now live in.” I have so much fear that the words sound like they jumble up together.
Liora looks like she finally knows where to start, but I’ve already told the story of the day.

Wade

Only demigods and such can read those books, I think to myself.
I don’t have to obscure my thoughts for Velia is unconscious. She won’t be awake for maybe four or five hours at the least. I contemplate what Jeff has just told me. Liora starts turning a bright shade of pink in the cheeks as if she’s furious that Jeff told the story of that day rather than her.
“Only demigods and—“
“I already told him what you’re about to tell him,” Liora says cutting me off.
I study Jeff for a second as I think about something. Sometimes a pure demigod has descendants that are able to read the books. I look deep into Jeff’s eyes to indicate whether my theory is right. Jeff seems unnerved by what I’m doing. His eyes keep darting every which way just to avoid my stare. I grow restless at his indecency. I grab his chin as I say, “Stay still and let me see your eyes.”
He does as he’s told. He stops fighting me, but I can feel his nervousness building up inside him. Jeff’s eyes have a hazel touch to them, but there is no masking the sea foam color.
“Sea,” I mutter.
“See what?” Jeff asks.
“No, sea as in a body of water, you’re a descendent of Sea the water goddess,” I say. Liora seems puzzled by what I’ve said.
“How is that possible? Wouldn’t I have known?” she asks.
“No. It’s rare that a descendent ever meets a pure demigod, or further more three demigods and a god. He’s maybe third or fourth generation down the line.” Liora seems to understand now, but Jeff doesn’t.
“I still don’t understand,” Jeff says confirming my suspicion.
“You have demigod blood running through your veins that’s why you were able to read the book. If an actual human were to come across the books they would see empty pages, would probably mistake it for an empty diary.”
Jeff seems surprised at what I’ve said. I walk around the chair he’s sitting in, and start taking the tape off him. He winces when the duck tape is pulled off his skin. I wouldn’t blame him. Once I have the tape off him I leave the room to check on Velia. When I get to Velia’s room I peek in to make sure she’s still breathing. It’s only been thirty or so minutes since she passed off, but she’s already stirring. Maybe she’ll have a fast recovery. I feel horrible at what’s happened. I close her door, and go back to the kitchen.
As I’m about to open the door I hear Liora and Jeff arguing.
Jeff says, “Liora I want you to leave with me. Come back to the hotel my dad and I are staying at. You’ll be safe, I promise.”
“I can’t do that. I need to go to South America,” Liora retorts.
“Please. I don’t trust Wade. He’s dangerous hazard. You know what he’s capable of even without seeing it,” Jeff says harshly. At this I push past the doors. Jeff is hovering over Liora while Liora cowers away from his voice.
“Call your dad,” I say.
“Excuse me?” Jeff questions.
“You heard me. Only male descents can receive the powers of a demigod, and the gene to read the books lies in only males.”
Jeff pulls out his phone as I take the seat closest to Liora. Jeff turns red. I know what I’ve created, and that’s jealously in Jeff. He turns away from us as he calls his dad. I smirk to myself at what I’ve interrupted, but Jeff is right I’m exactly the right person to trust.