Chapter 18 ~ Elektra
Elektra put on a black leather jacket over her aqua blue tank top and hung her quiver of silver arrows over back, tucking her bow inside the quiver as well. She kept a small knife tucked inside her belt and her healing bag attached to the bottom of her quiver. Just in case.
"Ready, Vytoni? Adrian?" Elektra asked, packing a small snack in case she got hungry. Adrian nodded and wrapped an arm around Trudy's waist and gave her a slow -and agonizingly long- goodbye kiss. Vytoni strapped her bow staff onto her back, slipping her swords and daggers into their sheaths. Elektra sighed and stretched a little. She had a feeling she would be fighting monsters today.
"So you all know your destinations?" Enryx asked, packing up his arrows and putting on his crimson coloured hoodie and slipping on his green sneakers. Everyone nodded, holding up their phones or maps.
"Trudy, Nethrys and Lysandra, you'll head out to the Sunflower Mines first," Enryx ordered. Elektra was so proud of her brother - he changed from a sad little boy who would cling onto his twin sister. Well older by a minute or so. Trudy had pulled away from her long kiss with Adrian and hugged him tight.
"Everyone iris-message if you need any help whatsoever- you got your drachma's, right?-" she didn't wait for them to finish. "Remember to meet back here in three hours and a half," Rosamynd informed the others.
"Stay safe, sugar lips." Adrian said, as he tenderly hugged back.
"I will - you too, sir." She said, blowing him a kiss on her way out with Lysandra and Nethrys- which Adrian caught and put in his pocket. Their group went out first, with Lysandra holding her inscripted dagger and Nethrys with his shield and sword- typical son of Enyo, always ready for battle. The remaining six of them were waiting around, making sure they had everything ready for their mini-mission and had the location details.
They waited around fifteen minutes before Elektra's group left for the Domes of Casa Grande. They all said their goodbyes and good lucks on their way out. Vyt led the way, practically running while the others followed briskly, with Adrian at the back, on the lookout for any sign of trouble.
"So how are we getting to Casa Grande?" Adrian asked,
"Cab?" Elektra suggested. They all agreed and called a cab. Adrian got into the front seat alongside the driver and Vytoni and Elektra got into the back. It was a pretty long trip to the Casa Grande but once they were there, they joined the crowd of tourists. They took out their mobile devices to blend in and not look so not-mortal.
"Hello everyone. My name is Lucy. On behalf of Casa Grande Tour Guides. I'd like to welcome you all to the wonderful land called Casa Grande. The bus ride to the Domes will take about fifteen minutes." The tour guide announced. She had platinum blonde hair swept back into a neat gelled ponytail. She had a navy blue business jacket over a loose white tank top and a navy blue skirt, which was all part of the uniform. She held a clipboard in one arm and a handful of brochures in the other. Lucy led the group of tourists onto the big bus that were piling on. Elektra, Vytoni and Adrian sat behind the bus driver on a three seater. There was something sketchy about Lucy, once she had instantly got onto the bus she put on some sunglasses that covered her dark, stormy eyes- almost as if those weren't hers.
"Hey guys, I think there's something up with Lucy," Vytoni glanced suspiciously at the tour guide.
"She seems pretty normal to me." Adrian shrugged, biting on a burger. Elektra turned to look at Adrian.
"How do you manage to always have food in your mouth?"
"What?" He shrugged once more, shamelessly finishing his crusty, oily hamburger. It had sesame seeds on the tops, with red, juicy tomato slices and green, crumbly pieces of lettuce between the brown pieces of bread. Mmh! Elektra felt her stomach, and heard it growl.
Suddenly, after about a ten minute silence - the only sound coming from the laughter and chatter from the other tourists- Vytoni spoke."Hey- she said the bus ride would take fifteen minutes, we've been on for about thirty minutes."
"And we're not even there yet," Elektra frowned.
"Yeah!" Whined Adrian, putting down his sandwich. "Lucy? Lucyyy?"
"Yes?" She said from behind them. Her voice was inhumane, clearly different to how her voice had sounded earlier. But when Elektra turned around, Lucy looked same as she did before- same old uniform, platinum blonde hair.
"Huh? You were there, though. Wait. What? How did you even get here? I'm so confused," Adrian replied, shaking his head, clearly dazed by confusement.
"I am allowed to stand on the bus, little boy, and we had to take a longer route to the Domes, sorry for the inconvenience," Lucy apologized in a monotone voice, rifling through the brochures. Pretty soon they arrived at the Domes though; they got off first before the rest of the tourists and scanned the area. Elektra could see a massive collection of large, abandoned, dome-shaped buildings. There were four structures including three that were long, caterpillar-like structures, and one separate flatter dome that resembled a "flying saucer". It looked like a suitable place to be hiding the god of fear.
"As you can see, these are the Domes of Casa Grande, there were supposed to be three more of these, but they were never built," Lucy announced gesturing to the domes behind her. "Underneath the domes there are passageways and tunnels but there are long destroyed and unable and impossible to find."
"Perfect," Vytoni muttered under her breath. She was right -this would be a perfect hideaway for a particular Greek god that comes into mind...
"So can we go in or not?" Adrian shouted out.
"We may go in but only for a short while," Lucy led everyone to the entrance on the Domes. They wandered into the Dome slowly, everyone being cautious even though no one told them to. I guess it's an instinct. There were large, empty doorways and holes in the ceilings creating strong acoustics within the buildings.
"Hello!" Adrian yelled into the hollow cave-like Dome. The echoing noise with an intensity that made the place even spookier. The echos and the sounds of wind passing over the holes in the ceiling were one logical reason for the eerie "whispering", Elektra often heard. They walked deeper into the Dome, taking caution wherever they stepped, careful of fallen rocks and pits.
"Please stay close together, we don't want anyone getting lost in here," Lucy said, guiding them through the Domes. They all arrived at a huge empty room.
"The thing that most mostly scares trespassers away from the domes is the dark, shadowy figure said to lurk in the back dome," Lucy started to explain and pointed out the window and to the roof of the back domes. "The phantom is not confined to this dome, either. He also moves from dome to dome, roaming around on top of them, and can sometimes be seen outdoors in the surrounding desert."
The tourists awe-d in amazement while others looked down. Goosebumps instantly rose from Elektra's skin and she shivered, drawing her hood up. The tourists mumbled amongst themselves, speaking in different languages and dialects. She didn't need to be fluent in their language to be able to understand what they were saying.
"In addition to echoes and whispering noises, the many sounds of screaming children have been reported, and footsteps are often heard when no one is moving. Many people have reported tapping noises on their cars while parked outside, and once, one man says that something invisible slammed down onto the hood of his car."
"Our internet research shows that individuals have also seen a figure hanging from a barbed-wire noose, and only seconds after the noose was empty, and when they tap lightly on the outside of a dome only to hear loud banging in reply, coming from the inside." Lucy explained showing everyone around the room.
"I did some research on the internet before I came down here and I saw that apparently one group of girls had a rock thrown over their heads while they stood outside the domes with no one behind them; the rock went over all of them and hit the wall of the dome in front of them." A man in a suit reported to Lucy, "Is this true?"
"Yes, that is true," Lucy clarified, pulling at her blue jacket.
"Then what are we doing here? This wasn't part of our package tour!" A woman shouted out.
"And this play is freaking scary! It's haunted!" A man next to her agreed. Her husband maybe. He ripped up his brochure into little pieces and threw it at Lucy. Lucy frowned as the other people within the tourist crowd agreed with the young couple. There was a riot of yelling and complaining at the poor tour guide who tried to calm down the crowd. I almost feel sorry for her. The thought cleared when Adrian nudged her and nodded. Elektra understood what they had to do. They slowly crept out of the huge auditorium, making sure no one had spotted them on the way out.
Once they were out of sight from the crowd and Lucy, they all sprinted away from the auditorium-like room and crouched down behind a huge structure -Elektra wasn't sure what it was but it didn't matter right now.
"Okay, I think we know for sure there is some secret within this dome," Vytoni whispered as she gripped her bow staff at the ready. Adrian nodded in agreement.
"Do you think this is Phobos' hiding place?" Elektra asked, her heart was thumping rapidly. She wasn't an adventurist - she was more of the stay at home type of girl. She loved cooking, learning, reading and writing. She wasn't up for all that battling, excitement and thrill. She heard a rush of footsteps heading towards the structure she and her friends were hiding behind. She held her breath, afraid that they were going to get caught. But the footsteps passed their hiding place and disappeared.
They all came out from behind the structure cautiously and sprinted off to the auditorium they had just come from and standing against the graffiti painted wall, they crept along the dome.
"Where are we going?" Adrian whispered into Elektra's ear from behind her.
"No clue," Elektra whispered in reply. They followed behind Vytoni, who was leading the way through the hollow, dark dome. They clambered up a steep staircase at the end of the first dome and walked through a low doorway which they all had to bend over to walk under it. Adrian stood up too quickly and banged his head on the roof of the doorway.
"Elektra, I think it might be time to bring out the healing kit," Adrian whispered rubbing his head.
"I'm sure it's fine," Vytoni interrupted as Elektra was going to agree. Adrian pouted and whimpered as they continued to walk towards to second dome. They roamed around for about an hour, keeping eyes and ears out for possible secret staircases or rooms that might be concealing the God of Fear. However, no luck. They were all out of breath and tired by the time they had reached the last and final dome.
"There's nothing here!" Adrian complained, leaning over trying to catch his breath.
"We just need to look harder," Vytoni persisted, tapping against the dome walls, looking for any possible secret doorways. Elektra nodded and joined Vytoni. Soon a chunk of the wall started to grumble, there were cracks beginning to form on the wall, they all backed away quickly. Elektra quickly notched an arrow into her bow and held it aimed at the crumbling wall at the ready. The rocks crumbled down one by one, revealing a narrow corridor with a low archway. Adrian nudged Vytoni to go forward and through the corridor. Vytoni walked over to the narrow corridor and took lead. Elektra followed behind Vytoni while Adrian followed behind her. The rocks started to float up to their original place to fill up the gap in the wall again. It was pitch black.
"I can't see anything. Where are we going?" Adrian whispered, stepping cautiously forward. Elektra thought of something that could possibly help this situation. Elektra held up a silver arrow into the darkness. Elektra waited a few seconds before the arrow lit up. The arrow shot moonbeams across the dark hollow corridor. Soon the grey empty room shone bright with the arrow as the moon. Vytoni muttered something under her breath, and a dull glow emitted from her palm.
"Whoa, that's so cool," Adrian awed in amazement. Suddenly behind them, the doorway they had come through was beginning to crumble and fall once more. Elektra could only see the silhouette of another person, a girl. The silhouette stepped into the light and the girl turned out to be Lucy, the tour guide.
"Looking for something?" Lucy glared, her hands on her hips. Her straight platinum hair now out loose, her jacket sleeve was ripped and there was a tear down the side of her skirt. The heel on her left shoe was broken and there was a gash on her shin.
"Wh- What happened to you, Lucy?" Adrian asked, his jaw dropped as he looked her up and down.
"Tourists happened, bloody foreign people," Lucy answered without looking away. She snarled, "What are you doing here?"
Lucy edged closer towards us, the doorway fixing itself back up again behind her.
"We -uh- we got lost!" Elektra exclaimed.
"Don't lie to me, girl, I can see that arrow of yours!" Lucy nodded at Elektra's arrow. Vytoni had extinguished her light when Lucy entered. Elektra stared defiantly at their 'tour guide', but her brave demeanour faltered as Lucy looked right into her eyes. Elektra felt paralyzed, and her breath caught as icy dread trickled down her spine.
Lucy thin blonde strands of hair slow turned into living, venomous snakes. Her hands slowly turned a shiny brass gold. She smiled a poisonous smile as her front teeth lengthened into sharp fangs.
"Medusa?" Adrian asked, as he gripped his duel swords.
"I'm Eurayale, her older and wiser sister," Eurayale sneered, "That means, I'm stronger, faster and better than my mortal weakling sister."
"Unfortunately I do not have the lucky power of turning people into stone with one look in the eyes like my sister did, but I can kill you anyways!" Eurayale snarled.
She lunged at Vytoni who was in front of her, which wasn't a good place to be fighting the Euryale since they were lining up one after the other. Elektra released grip on the bowstring and the arrow hit the Euryale on the cheek. The Euryale growled, her strands of snakes hissing at the Godlings. Vytoni aimed for Euryale's windpipe, and hit the head with her bo staff, and the Gorgon's head snapped to the right.
Elektra shot another gleaming arrow into the monster's stomach as Vytoni continued dodging and stabbing at it with a variety of weapons. Adrian was attempting to swipe at the monster from behind Vyt, managing once in awhile to swipe at its face. The Euryale started falling back, edging back towards the door.
The rocks disappeared from the doorway once more; they edged the monster through the auditorium. It was deserted this time, but there was more space to move around. The monster screeched and swiped at the three of them and Elektra backed up and looked around frantically, searching for an exit. We need to end this battle, fast. Suddenly, she had a marvellous brainwave as she spotted the crumbling ceiling.
"Adrian!" She called the blonde Godling over. He dodged another blow and stumbled to her, trying to stem a steady trickle of ichor running down his face.
"What!" He sucked in a sharp breath, and Elektra reminded herself to check on his gash in a while.
"I need you and Vyt to distract Euryale for a while."
"What are you going to do?"
Elektra rummaged for the particular arrow she needed, "I," She said grimly, "Am going to bring down the structure - just enough to crush her."
Eyes wide, Adrian nodded to show he understood and sprinted back to a battling Vytoni and Euryale. He rejoined the fight, and Elektra carefully notched the explosive arrow onto her bow. She aimed with caution, wondering whether to shout out a warning Adrian and Vytoni. They'll be fine; she decided grimly, I only have one shot. She let her arrow loose, and it exploded when it hit the ceiling, showering derbies everywhere. The rubble crushed Euryale, and she let out an inhuman shriek and slumped onto the ground, unconscious. She's not going to be unconscious for long; we better get out of here. Elektra opened her mouth, about to suggest going back, when Vytoni walked to the Gorgon, with a strange expression on her face. Elektra saw Vyt kneel down in front of Euryale, drawing a dagger from her belt.
"Not so tough are you now," Vytoni hissed, as she brought the blade to the monster's head. Elektra saw Adrian start towards Vyt, but Elektra shook her head slightly. Vytoni's dagger sliced one of Euryale's wriggling snakes, and it spat and hissed at Vyt. Euryale shrieked and let loose an array of curse words, and Vytoni surveyed her for a moment, and then plunged the knife into the Gorgon's chest. Euryale let out a bloodcurdling scream and burst into a pile of golden sand.
"You didn't need to do that," Elektra said nervously, as she watched the snake in Vytoni's hand writhe one last time before it turned into a small stone bracelet.
"Spoils of war," Vyt shrugged pocketing the snake/bracelet, "Besides, hundred drachmas on needing this in the future."
"Let's get out of here," Adrian said, still eyeing Vytoni warily, as if the serpent would come bursting out of her pocket and eat them, "It's already three."
~~~END OF CHAPTER 18~~~