Chapter 3

"Athena, this is dangerous, are you sure your willing to do this? You could end up hypnotized or worse." My mom said placing her hand on my head.

"Mom, this is what I want to do. I need to help the others, they need me." I responded covering Tancred's hand with mine. Tancred moved his hand angrily.

"This is stupid and dangerous. Thena, I don't want you at Bloor's." Tancred said as lightning struck outside. I ignored it.

"Tancred stop. Please? I need to do this." I murmured softly as I turned away facing the window, my mom kissed my head.

"If you're sure, we'll sign you up tomorrow. But, Thena, they will not know your endowment. They find out, I'll pull you right out and we'll move…understand?" My mother said staring into my eyes.

"I understand, thank you." I pulled her into a hug. The sound of a door slamming made us jump apart.

"He's just worried about you, He'll get over it." She said as she turned away.

I sighed, "Yeah I know." I spotted Tancred walking into the woods. I'll give him time to cool off before I reproached the subject; in the meantime, Mike was ascending to my front porch. I walked to meet him.

"Hey, Mike. Sorry I ditched you, I just…there was something I had to attend too." I greeted him as I sat on the porch swing next to him.

"It's cool, I was just wondering if you were okay, you looked really stressed and I was worried about you." He said as he casually placed his arm around me.

I shrugged out of his embrace and glanced towards the woods, rain began to pound on the roof. I rolled my eyes. "I'm fine, just Tancred. There was a little trouble with him up at his school and I was getting worried."

Mike's face fell, as he looked away from me. "Tancred. He's trouble. I don't like him. He's causing you all this pain."

"You don't even know him. I love him, and he loves me…it's just there's more to him than meets the eye." The storm worsened around us. "You ought to go, Mike. Before the storm gets worse."

Mike sighed and nodded as he stood up, "I'll always be here for you Athena. Remember that." He pulled me into a tight hug. The embrace was warm, but uncomfortable.

As soon as Mike disappeared I ran off towards the woods. I wanted to find Tancred, something awful was going to happen, I could feel it in my bones. I ran farther and deeper into the woods screaming his name. The wind whipped around me tossing my hair in front of my eyes, blocking my vision, the rain felt like ice cutting away at my skin, still I pushed forward desperate to find Tancred. I screamed his name louder, but all sound was lost in the wind. Tears mixed with rain making it harder and harder to see. Up head there was a clearing, and a break in the storm, as I raced towards it fighting branches that appeared in my way.

Reaching the clearing, a sight that I will always remember appeared before my eyes, Tancred lying face down in the middle of the clearing, in a puddle of blood and mud. I screamed louder as my feet pumped toward him. Using all my strength I managed to roll Tancred over. His electric blond hair, lay flat across his face, stained with blood, cuts ran deep. His beautiful eyes were closed and his heartbeat was faint. I tried to calm myself, I closed my eyes. I opened them to find my endowment did not work.