My stories: Four-headed god's statue
Chapter one: I'm going crazy (not so) slowly
I know what are you thinking. Damn, one more annoying teenager bragging how her life is miserable because of this or that reason. Well, it's not that. Actually, it is. But I have one hell of a reason. As you see, I'm going crazy. Not in sense: 'My parents or friends are driving me crazy'(but there's bit of that too). Not like that. Real crazy!
There I was, sitting on my Physic class and thinking about pale, black-haired woman in long, white robes instead of listening to unbelievably interesting story about Newton, apple and Earth's Gravity force (I think those walls in classroom know this story by heart,but some of my classmates clearly don't).
What did I forget? Ah,yes, introductions.
Shortly, my name is Alexandra, I'm thirteen, I live in small village in middle of nowhere and I love books and movies. On normal days I love physic too, but I haven't slept properly for quite some time already, so sue me... And now when I mentioned sleeping, instead of one, my eyelids weighed two tones(each). But, back to topic.
Now, if I start telling you about my life from its beginning, I guarantee you will all be asleep faster than me in old, good times when I actually could sleep. So, fast-forward thirteen years of life story boring even to me, until last two weeks.
That night I stayed up until late hours, studying(surprise!). After I made sure that everything's ready for school tomorrow, I laid down on my soft mattress. I've been laying like that for God knows how long, just waiting for sleep to overcame me.
Well, it didn't. But, for the first time, those voices did. Screaming voices of people who were dying(probably).Painfully. I got up and looked trough window.
There she stood, in middle of my backyard. Miss Creepy, I named her later. She looked like world's creepiest bride or, even better, like one of those girls from Victorian era who died before first photo shoot, so their families took pity on them and paid people to take pictures of their dead daughters. Dear Heaven, only things scarier than those pics are my yearbook photos and my friend Theodora's selfies, and this lady looked like full-time Victorian photo model, freshly dead, for about a month.
Long, black hair reached her waist. Her eyes were cold as December night, although outside was, like, 30 degrees Celsius, and end of May. You want something colder? Her smile. Yes, you read well, smile. Voices were screaming and wailing around her, but she was smiling, like she was saying: 'I'm cold, aren't I?' or 'My groom just run away. What a moron!'. Or even: 'Soon, you too will die painfully!', but seriously, what are the chances? Right?
I tried blinking this weird picture away, but it didn't work. She still stood on the same place. Suddenly, small room I share with my brother and sister became even smaller and darker. Quickly, I shook my brother awake.
"Do you see her?" I asked him, frightened.
"See who?" he muttered, sleepiness evident in his voice.
"Her!" I was pointing frantically.
He looked trough window for a moment, and then back at me. "You know what I see? I see a witch, who calls herself my sister. And apparently, she's getting crazier every day." He laid back down. "Great! My nightmare is becoming real!" was the last thing I heard before he drifted back to sleep.
One thing about my brother and I. We absolutely love each other!
So, I laid down again, this time staring at cellar. That's how I awaited morning, while mysterious lady disappeared with night, when first bits of daylight came. But, of course, not before she managed to imprint her icy cold smile deep in my memory.
Later that day, when I told my mom about weird night I had, she thankfully didn't say I'm crazy. At mom's opinion, it was either heat or my sorely morbid taste when it comes to horror movies (if you're asking is it really that morbid-it is, and that's everything you need to know).
I would've believe in that myself probably, but whole scenario repeated itself next night. Okay, nightmare reprised. Like 'Only Fools and Horses' which are reprising for a billionth time here in Serbia if I'm counting well. Advice: if someone ask you would you rather watch creepy maybe-dead ladies or Del Boy for whole night, choose the second option. Trust me!
So, my nightmare (if it's nightmare) continued to repeat itself for eternity (next two weeks).
I don't know, I'm not a psychiatrist, but I read somewhere that people become crazy gradually. Is this it?
But, again, the fact I can't tell anyone bothers me a lot, too. Let's face it: if you tell somebody that horde of screaming ghosts is serenading you every night, that person will probably direct you to nearest Mental Hospital and run away like Devil himself is after him,right?
Story of my life. Literally! But if I need to tell somebody, I have just one person on my mind, one and only- Jovana, my best friend.
What to say about her? She's got an attitude, she's very mature for her age and she loves animals. Last few days she looked tired too, but that's probably because of puppy she recently adopted.
So, as a real friend, I decided to add my problems on her own.
I threw my backpack. "Hard night?"
"You could say so. You too?" She looked at me with her half-closed golden brown eyes. "What happened to you? You look like you've been having staring match with Sun. And have you been brushing your hair with Nuclear Bombs?"
One more thing I love about her: she's very honest.
"You have no idea," I mumbled.
"Aww, come on, tell your bestie what's bothering you." She pulled out a hairbrush from somewhere, and started brushing trough my long messy hair. I told her whole story, with occasional 'ouch' here and there when she pulled my hair too hard. I couldn't see her face, but whenever I turned around she was nodding at me like she believes every word. That was nice feeling indeed.
"Wow!" was everything she said when I finally finished. "That's weird, cause-"
Right then, our biology teacher entered the classroom.
"We'll talk later," she whispered.
Again, don't get me wrong, I love biology and my teacher, but what's really confusing me is that how we from story about respiratory organs and breathing ended up talking about political problems on our country.
In which country, you're asking? As you've probably read: Serbia. Where the hell is that place, would be your next question. I won't give you history or geography lessons, nor bore you with unnecessary pile of facts, but here's one sentence. Serbia is one small country in Southern Europe, on Balcan peninsula, whit shitty past and even shittier present. There you go, everything you need to know. And now when you hear name Serbia, you will remember me and say 'Hey, I once read about one crazy girl who lived there'.
And so, since I'm not that much into politics (again,sue me), I drifted into half-sleep. You know what is that? That happens when your tiredness reach that level, and your heart and soul are asleep, but your eyes are still open. For some reason, I've found myself becoming quite familiar with certain phenomenon last few weeks.
Right when half-sleep started morphing into real-sleep, something hit my forehead. It was peace of paper, apparently thrown by Jovana, who sent me one of her death glares.
I've been having this same weird dream for quite few days, too. Do you even call it a dream of you only hear voices, but see nothing? Anyways, those voices were screaming something like: 'Don't start your journey!' What journey? This whole deal kinda creeps me out, was written on paper.
Rest of my classes, and good amount of day I spent thinking about this weird coincidence.
~ffffffff~
That night as I was preparing for bed, I once more deeply regretted being such a coward, otherwise I'd grab closest thing I can reach (my brother?) and throw it straight in that woman's pale face. But nooo, I'm staring at cellar (again) and I feel small traitorous tear leave my eye, just to be followed by Niagara Falls soon after.
Why am I crying? I have no idea. It could be because of ghost-lady in my backyard, ghostly voices, tiredness or the fact that everyone except my best friend think I've gone nuts (even me). I can't choose one reason, but at this very moment I'm scared that much I have no words to describe it. Only thing I know for sure is that I just want to hug mom and cry in her arms like little baby, but she doesn't believe me too.
Have you ever been so scared that you could literally feel fear eating you from inside? If you didn't, you're lucky.
I felt something boiling inside of me. All emotions: frustration, terror, fury... So this is my breaking point? If it is, congratulations on endurance (note sarcasm here?).
And for the worst part, all of this started manifesting as physical pain. My heart felt like time bomb due to explode every second now. At this point I couldn't and didn't want to stop tears, while pain in my chest grow worse with every passing minute.
Suddenly, wind blew from somewhere, and I couldn't figure where from, since door and window were (definitely) closed. Everything became even weirder when wind spoke to me with human voice. I'm not kidding! Such a nice and gently voice, like spring breeze.
"Calm down, sweetie. Breath," she said (voice was female, I'm sure). Wind formed into shape of tallish woman, with elfish features. She was literally quivering, appearing and disappearing like hologram.
Her eyes were so light brown that they could pass for yellow. Her smile and look in her eyes were so full of warmness that she reminded me of mom at some point. She gently placed her hand on my forehead, which was sweating.
I immediately felt at ease, like someone took nonexistent burden from my back.
"W-what are you?" I stammered, and regretted it almost immediately, because it came out pretty rude. I tried to lift myself up, but I felt pain similar to cramp in my arms and legs.
"Woah, kiddo, slow down! Breath in, breath out," she helped me up. "Wind nymph," she said like it's most normal thing in the world. At first I didn't even register she actually answered my question, but the moment it dawned on me, I swear my eyes almost popped out of my head.
"Sure you are," I told her at last. "Sorry for being rude, but why are you here?"
"Because of you, of course!" she replied, matter-of-factly. "My boss is worried for your well being. Apparently, you're very special to him. I know that because I don't see him worried quite often, and I see him a lot."
"And your boss is...who exactly?" I asked her, confused. "Why does he worry about me?"
"Sorry, but I can't tell you," she gave me apologetic smile. "But I'm carrying you his message. He says you should start whit your journey as soon as possible. Your journey will start at the faucet. Search for Yele. Your d- err my boss says she'll help you and your friend," she talked fast. "And take this. Gift from him!" she thew some necklace at her. It was golden, kinda looked like chain, and it had circular golden pendant attached to it. In middle of pendant was eagle, carrying something that looked like lightning.
"Wait! My what? Do you mean Jov-" she disintegrated and turned into small whirlpool, blowing papers from my desk. "You've got long way ahead of you. I wish you luck, young demigod. Heaven knows you'll need it!" That was last thing I heard before she completely disappeared, leaving mess in my room and in my head.
Demigod? What the hell?
Who knows how long would I sit there, staring at place where she stood? But fortunately, my phone beeped.
'Faucet?' was everything that was written in Jovana's text.
'Faucet?' I answered.
What's the deal with faucet, you must be wondering. The faucet is actually public faucet in middle of my village, built in honor of heroes who died in World War II. Villagers believe that water can heal, but I'm doubting that. If you love smell of sulfur and boiled eggs and you passionately want kidney stone, you'd probably love that water. Personally, I'm not big fan of it.
'How much time will you need to get there?' is the next text I got.
'Half an hour if I hurry up,' I answered her and got up. I put on pair of jeans and T-shirt as fast as I could.
'Run like wind!' I tried to tame my dark brownhair (and failed), and rubbed my bloodshot dark brown eyes, hoping to erase last bits of tears.
'Let's not talk about wind, please!' I wrote her back, smiling at my own joke. I ran out of house, avoiding backyard at all cost (that's where my window is. I told you everything).
'?' was the last message I received before I skipped down the pathway.
Needles to say, that's how my adventure started.
To be continued…
AN: BETA READER NEEDED!
Hey guys! So, this is my first story based on Slavic/Greek mythology. Please be gentile! Also one more thing- English is not my first language, so I'll need beta reader. Ones who are interested please PM me!
As for story, I hope you will like it. I had fun writing this chapter! I would like to hear your opinion, so please READ and REVIEW! It means a lot for new authors!
All the best,
Alex