Realms Apart - Chapter Three - A Little Help From Grandma

Zoey Redbird -

We sat in a loose circle in one of the deepest tunnels.

Aphrodite had just finished explaining her vision, and none of us seemed able to speak. Aphrodite has had many visions of death before, but never for all of us. No wonder she had screamed.

The twins and Damien were dangerously pale and shaking violently. Aphrodite seemed shaken after experiencing so many deaths and leaning against Darius who was giving her his full attention, still holding the bottle of water she had been drinking. Stevie Rae was at the opposite side of the circle, with Rephaim a statue at her side – Kalona was his dad, of course, who had just been murdered by us in the vision– and the red fledglings were gathered around them, a glazed look shadowing their eyes which had been unblinking since Aphrodite had finished. I was with Stark, next to Aphrodite.

We needed to get it together, to find out what we were going to do. Aphrodite's visions always became true if ignored – not that this one would be easy to forget. I frowned. Something was bugging me. Something didn't seem right. Then I realized what had been bothering me so much - Why would Kalona apologize? It wasn't like him at all, he was too proud and confident to apologize, but he had in the vision. Why?

"Y'all will want to see this. I wrote it just last night." Kramisha's voice broke the silence, taking a well worn sheaf of paper from her pocket. I took the paper and gasped as I saw that it was written in blood-red writing, in an elegant old fashioned script. It read:

She is my moon

The light in the night

Her hair so dark

Her eyes so bright

My fire in the cold

My light in the dark

The truth, not lies

Shown in her mark

Our lives intertwined

Two souls, one strand

Bound with Darkness

As we walk the land

For if one should perish

Their fates are shared

One tethered to the other

Their souls are paired.

After my eyes read the last words of the poem, I passed it around until everyone had read it. Meeting their eyes, I could tell that they had found the poem just as confusing as I had. I felt as if we were totally helpless, just small fledglings in a messed up vampyre world, but then I thought of the one person who loved me whatever I was, who could help us understand the meaning of the vision.

Sylvia Redbird.

We travelled up to Grandma's farm the same night, not a moment to waste. The soft breeze tinted with lavender told me I was home. Grandma opened the door and I threw myself into her arms. I hadn't seen her for so long and we hadn't spoken properly since our departure from the House of Night. As we crowded into her living room (It was quite a squeeze with everyone, even the red fledglings had tagged along), I realized that I had no idea how to start explaining what had happened in the last few hours. But Grandma, as calm and intuitive as ever, got down to business. "Aphrodite, why don't you start by telling me about your vision?"

Aphrodite told Grandma in as much detail as she could remember, about Kalona's death, my death (Gulp!) and Neferet, who had used the Darkness to literally tear apart those that were left. As Aphrodite recited her vision, the well weathered lines of Grandma's face seemed to become etched permanently into a frown. When Aphrodite had finished, Grandma took a deep breath and seemed to pull herself together before she began to speak. "Aphrodite, which perspective were you watching from?" She enquired.

"My own, which is unusual. I've never had a vision from my perspective before, but everyone involved was murdered, except the murderer" She replied grimly.

Grandma asked "Did Kalona call Zoey 'A-ya', or 'Zoey'?" This question seemed as if it would matter a great deal to Grandma, she was perched on the edge of her seat, giving Aphrodite her full attention.

"Both. But he only called Zoey by her name near the end, when he was becoming really desperate, right before he-…" Aphrodite stopped talking mid sentence and her eyes widened as something seemed to fall into place. "Before he…" Grandma pressed, understanding that what Aphrodite was about say would help us a great deal with decoding the vision.

"Right before he apologized." Her eyes widened. "It was like he was unable to talk; he was choking trying to get the words out." At this news, Grandma's eyes narrowed and her lips pressed together in a tight line.

"Zoeybird," She began, her eyes filled with worry, "I believe the vision was a warning. Kalona does not apologize. It seems to me that he knew what was going to happen to you after you destroyed him" Her face became even grimmer.

"Zoeybird, you must find Kalona."

Authors Note: Hi everyone, that was chapter three. I did write the poem in blood red writing and used different font, but the site didn't seem to like it and so changed it after I uploaded the chapter! A HUGE thankyou to cookievb123, Luna-Cara, AnnieHonson and StarksGirl1995 for reviewing the last chapter - They are all really nice reviews, so I wrote another chapter!