CASSIDY'S POV
"Eddie, wake up. Eddie, get your butt out of bed!" I scream in a whisper. I shake him furiously, but he's so content with Patricia, he's oblivious to anything outside of his dreams.
I resort to the last excuse I can come up with.
"Eddie! Madame Kahn is taking Patricia!"
Eddie shoots upright, his senses clicking into gear.
"What! Where is-wait Cassidy?" I can see that Eddie is angered; he was worried, even in his sleep, that Madame is coming for Patricia.
"Eddie, I'm sorry, but I had to wake you. Patricia is fine."
Eddie glares at me, clearly cross I awoke him by saying his girlfriend was in trouble. "What to you want?" he sneers.
"It's our turn to guard," I lie. I had actually just told Fabian to go back to bed and I would guard. I never mentioned Eddie, and I never mentioned needing to talk to him.
"Why am I paired with you and not Patricia?" he asks, suspicious of me.
"Fine. I told Fabian I would guard so I could talk to you in private. Now move your butt, cul paresseux," I whisper.
"What does that mean?" he asks.
"Nothing…" I smirk. I yank his arm and drag him down the hall. He is tripping over his heels trying to keep up.
"You're giving me whiplash in my arm," Eddie complains. This is what I get for waking a teenage boy in the middle of the night. "Is it even possible to get whiplash in the arm?"
"Don't know, don't care. C'mon," I urge.
I continue to drag Eddie to our post outside the drama studio. He sits on the stage wrapped in his navy blue robe. I become immediately jealous of his warmth; I'm only wearing a camisole and shorts.
I saunter around the room and pretend to be on the lookout, delaying speaking to Eddie. Maybe this was a mistake.
As if on cue, Eddie says, "Didn't you want to tell me something? You said you knew about my past?"
I groan and bite my lip. Of course he remembered. Grand. Tout simplement genial.
"I do. I do know some- er, everything," I stutter.
"How is that possible?"
"Just listen, vous cretin impatient."
"How do you know French?" he asks.
"I have sailed all around the world, living on a yacht with my mother. 33 countries speak French, and I've lived in most. I also have an eidetic memory. It's not challenging for me to pick up a new language. I prefer to use it when I insult people."
"That's- wait what?" he asks, shocked, as if he just figured out that I have been insulting him all this time.
I giggle melodiously. He's sitting confusedly on the stage, and I stagger next to him, and being the klutz I am, trip over numerous chairs along the way. I finally sit next to him, but every position feels awkward. Sitting away from him seems hostile, but being to close to him is just dead wrong, especially after what I'm about to tell him.
"Eddie," I begin. "What do you know about yourself? Tell me what you think you know about your past."
He eyes me suspiciously, but relents. "All I know is that my parents divorced when I was really young and my mom moved to America with me."
"How old were you when they divorced, exactly?"
"Why should I tell you this?"
"Were you 5 Eddie?"
"Cassidy…"
"Well? Were you?"
He sighs. "Yes. How do you know that?"
"Just piecing the information together."
"What information?"
"The truth."
I see Eddie scoot further away from me. His face is swirling with confusion… and fear. I know it's abrupt to come out and say I know everything about him, but how else am I to put it?
"Look, Eddie, your parents didn't divorce because they were… 'having problems.' They separated to keep you safe."
"I'm sorry? You're telling me I'm responsible for the separation of my parents?"
"No! The Osirian was." Eddie is growing apprehensive. "I mean… let me start over. You see, your parents knew everything about the Osirian. Your mom's family has had Osirians in it's ancestry for centuries. The day after an Osirian dies, a new one is born. There has to constantly be a protector on the earth at all times."
"I was born the day after my grandfather died…" Eddie recalls.
"I know. Now, the thing is, you believed that you were the descendant of an Egyptian pharaoh. It's true that you are of Egyptian descent, but not of a pharaoh. You… you're family is descended from the god Osiris himself. Osiris morphed into a human form aeons ago and… well let's just say it's your old fashioned love story. Poof! Next thing you know, there's a half god half human child roaming the earth with all this crazy power he couldn't control. The power somehow has been passed down for generations."
"Wait," Eddie interrupts. "If Osiris could take on human form, how come the god inside Madame can't just do that too?"
"I've thought about that," I admit. "I'm wondering if the god isn't powerful enough yet. I can't help but think it's waiting out, waiting to gain full power."
"But…" Eddie's thoughts trail off. "If the god isn't at full power now and it's still caused all this chaos, what's going to happen when it reaches full power?"
Chaos.
"Eddie, chaos! That's it!"
Eddie looks at me perplexedly. "I'm sorry?"
"I bet the god possessing Madame is Set, the god of chaos! No other god would be so… so evil, so vile. Chaos is the Egyptian belief of evil."
"Tell that to Fabian, I don't care about it. I want to know what you mean when you say you know about my past."
I smirk. "I knew you'd be curious. Ok, anyway, like you mentioned, your grandfather was probably an Osirian. Your dad learned all about the history when he married your mom, so he was in on the secret. He knew you needed to be away from Anubis until it was time to fulfill your destiny. They couldn't keep you away any longer once you turned 16; that was the year you defeated Senkhara. But before that time, your parents agreed to split apart, to take you to America and raise you safely, away from the power within Anubis. Your mother moved away, not knowing that she was pregnant at the time. By the time she found out, your dad and her had already agreed to prevent all contact from each other. She had no way to tell him.
"Now here's where it get's really weird. The last time you saw your mother was when you were five. She took you to live with her identical twin sister in Chicago when you were five so she could keep you away from the baby. You haven't seen your real mom in 13 years."
Eddie stares at me, slack-jawed. "What?"
"You heard me!" I defend. "Look, the thing is, no Osirian has ever had a sibling. It's been… physically impossible. Sorry if that just gave you nightmares, but it's true. Your mother realized that the ability to have another child could only mean one thing - another Osirian. It previously had been unheard of the have two Osirian siblings on earth at one time, so your mother dropped you with your aunt and left to keep you two apart. Double the Osirians meant bad things - double the trouble. She knew that the only way it would be fated to have two Osirians was if there were to be some powerful evil - er, chaos stirring. When she had the baby, she had to be sure it had powers. Of course, she was right. There was another Osirian."
"Another Osirian?" I can see Eddie is confused beyond belief, perhaps even downright terrified, but I have to continue.
"Yes. Another. There are actually descendants of the major Egyptian gods all over Anubis. Nina was one - a descendant of Horus, hence the locket. I just don't know who the other descendants are. But your dad was determined to have you return. He became the principal to ensure a spot for you at Frobisher. Your dad never found out about the baby. Your aunt was the one who brought you back, and he was to believe it was his wife."
"So where's my real mom?" Eddie asks. He says it in an almost childlike way, as if he truly misses his mom.
"Eddie, don't you get it? Haven't you figured it out, added the pieces together?"
"Cassidy, what? How could I put this together? My entire life has been one complete lie!"
"Yes, but for your safety. I just don't see how you're missing this. Haven't you figured out why I know all of this?"
"Missing what? Cassidy, what is going on?"
"Eddie…" I say breathlessly. "I'm your sister."