Chapter Three: The Note

Demeter sighed and let her head fall onto the table. That "discussion" with her mother had been the last thing she needed right then. Why couldn't her family just realize that she and Kore could live happily by themselves? Why did she have to constantly worry about the fate of mankind? And why had the Fates hated her so much as to make her be born a Goddess?

"Well?" came an angry voice from beside her.

She slowly raised her head to look at her daughter and the change in her was frightening. Demeter hadn't seen that side of Kore (was she even Kore when she looked like that, or had she changed to Persephone?) since the ancient times. The girl's normally sea-blue eyes had hardened to ice and were flashing with an uncontrolled rage. Her very soul was churning with immense hatred, and its power radiated out through the entire room. If Kore had been aware of her true abilities as a Goddess, her mother knew that it would be incredibly dangerous to be in that room right then. It was going to take all of Demeter's own powers to make her daughter forget what she had just heard.

Kore didn't give her mother time to answer. "What was that conversation all about? Seems like you've been hiding a hell of a lot of information from me. Since when do I have a grandmother? Since when am I a Goddess? Why would you do this to me? Are you really so cruel as to keep the fact that I have a family a secret?"

'No!!!!' Demeter screamed inside herself. 'I just wanted to protect you from the horrible curse of immortality! Don't you understand what a burden it is, trying to help the humans survive all the time?' Aloud she calmly stated, "You must have had a bad fall, Kora. You're imagining things. You do not have any family besides me." Destroying her own daughter's memory made Demeter feel awful, but she believed that anything was better than letting her rejoin the Underworld, or forcing her to work so hard to keep the mortals alive.

"Mother, I know what I heard!" Kora shouted, but the anger in her eyes was slowly being replaced by a hurt confusion. "You said.....you called her your mother.....and she said that I was a Goddess.....she called me something.....Perse-"

"No, Kora. You fell down and hit your head, and you thought you saw something. I came home early because I had a headache, and I found you fainted on the ground, but now you're awake." Demeter pushed her mind's power against Kora's, and the girl's weakened and broke. She could now only remember what her mother was telling her, and she believed it wholeheartedly.

"Oh.....it was so real.....I thought it had really happened."

"You should go to your room now and rest. You don't want to have any more of those frightening visions, do you?"

"No, Mother." Kora walked carefully up the stairs, thinking about what had just happened. For some reason, she couldn't shake the feeling that something more important than a bump on the head had occurred. Her mother seemed upset and angry, but she couldn't figure out why. She tried to search her memory for any idea to what might have happened, but it was like trying to decipher one of her cryptic dreams. There was a brick wall preventing her from finding anything useful.

Inside her room Kora plopped down on her bed and then started up again in shock as she noticed an owl staring at her from outside the window. It had a piece of paper clutched in its beak, and it looked at her quizzically as if to say, "Well? What are you waiting for? Let me in!" She tentatively opened the window, and the bird flew inside, dropped the paper, and soared back out again, clearly happy to be done playing messenger.

The paper turned out to be a note reading,

'I'm sorry we didn't have more of a chance to talk before your mother came home. I find it hard to believe sometimes that she is actually my daughter, but I know she is doing what she thinks is right. It has gone on for too long though, and it is far time that she allows to become your true self. Zeus has given her a week to tell you of her own will, but I know her well enough to know that she will never do that.

'When you go to school tomorrow, you will meet a few "new students" who may seem rather odd. I apologize for them in advance, but they are not accustomed to the mortal world. Do not be scared off by them, they are family and want to help you.

'I hope to speak to you again soon,

'-Your grandmother.'

Kora stepped away from the note as if it were a bomb, her heart pounding fast in her chest. The memories that her brain had blocked out suddenly came rushing back at her. It hadn't been a dream after all. It had actually happened.

The rational part of her brain told her that it couldn't possibly be true. There were no Gods, the lady in the kitchen had been insane and she was lucky that her mother had come home before someone had gotten hurt. Kora decided not to believe it and turned back to where she had placed the note on her dresser to tear it up.

But the paper had disappeared. The only clue that it had ever been there was a single white owl feather. And by the time Kora woke up the next morning, she had forgotten everything about the night before.