There is something in here that if you pick up on you are a genius or I a horrible writer... just saying.

Chapter 4

House of Magic

"I was younger than you when I came to this school," Nina began to explain. "At the start of my Sophomore year I came here from America, like you. When I arrived Eddie's wife, Patricia, and I didn't really hit it off. She hated me actually and locked me up in the attic I now call home. There I discovered the first of many clues that would lead me to your great-great Grandmother, Sarah and a secret she'd kept for a very long time. The Egyptian gods are not fantasy, Eve. I've met them. Heck I was married to one for a short period of time. I was, and now you are, the Chosen One of my annulled husband, Anubis." Of course, it would be the death god, wouldn't it? She couldn't have picked a friendly god to weave into her hallucinations. "I don't know how to make you believe Eve, but what I say is true."

Nina most certainly seemed to think it was true, Eddie, Fabian, and Claudia too from the looks on their faces. No one but me seemed to associate her words with the concept of insanity. Yet how? How could she get so many people to truly believe what she said, and they did. I can always tell when someone knows they're lying and none of these people were. That left two options-truth or insanity,and I'd place my bet on the latter.

"She doesn't believe us," Claudia, who clearly was as intelligent as her mom said, decided sitting back in exasperation. "And you can't blame her. Neither of you were told what you were, you proved it to yourself by being the Chosen One, by being the Osirian. So unless you have an Egyptian mystery for her to solve you're not going to get her to believe you."

"It's not that I don't believe you," Okay, maybe it was exactly that but I wasn't about to crush them anymore than they already were. "It's just this is a lot to take in. You can prove you're my biological parents, and you did, but I am not a faithful person. We have the here and the now and that's it so unless you can give me real proof…"

"You're right," Fabian sighed sitting up. "We shouldn't expect you to take us on our word alone, but you're here and that's all that matters. We understand that you have another mom and we don't want to take her place, but please. You don't have to accept our faith, but for now can you accept that we want to try and build a relationship with you. Can you believe that."

The way Fabian spoke clicked in my mind that maybe their religion, albeit being ancient and abnormal, was no odder than people who believed in the great spaghetti god.

"I believe you are my parents," science told me that, "and I believe you do love me despite not knowing me," life told me that, "and I think maybe we can make this work," and my optimism told me that.

"What about Colton though," Eddie muttered from the chair in which he sat not looking me in the eye. "I mean what do we tell him."

"Look," I told them putting my foot down. "The probability that your long lost daughter would show up at your school is next to none. Having your long lost son show up the same day is not even possible. I mean even the fact that there is a kid here named Colton is amazing."

"You don't understand this place," Eddie told me looking deep into my eyes as if seeing a golden soul within me. "It will bring my son to you if it hasn't already. You might not believe but I have faith enough for us both. If the Colton sitting downstairs isn't my son, which I doubt, my son will be here soon enough. He'll come when you're in danger and knowing your mother that will be yesterday."

Nina smiled and slapped her old friend gently before heading towards the door. "It's up to you who you tell about any of this," she reminded me. "And I agree that until we know a bit more we shouldn't tell Colton. He's the opposite of you so convincing him…"

I just accepted the opposite thing as part of her erratic faith and smiled before leaving the room and my new-found, but still lost, family behind.

Sleep didn't come easily. Despite Nellie asking repeatedly what was up and why I refused to look anyone in the eye at dinner, I hadn't spoken much leaving my mind to its own devices.

I believed in specials.

I believed Nina and Fabian were my parents.

I didn't believe I could possibly be what they thought I was.

Maybe some people have remarkable abilities, and maybe even Nina did, but I don't. I'm just Eve, not some freaking Chosen One of a nonexistent god whose house I slept in.

"Nonexistent," a masculine voice murmured causing me to jump from my skin and my bed. "Your mom always went with mythological. But then again you're not Nina. No one could ever be like Nina."

"Who the heck are you!" I went to yell, but with a flick of his hand the boy somehow made my voice soft as a whisper.

"You wouldn't want to bring your mom running. We have spoken since I annulled our marriage and left her here on earth no longer a goddess," Anubis ( or the man who thought he was Anubis) told me with a sigh. "As horrible as that sounds it was for the best. Otherwise you'd never have been born."

"So do you have that weird brain condition where you think you're god? Because you're not really Anubis. You know that, right." How many nutters does a girl have to deal with in a day?

"If I wasn't really a god how did I silence you?" Anubis asked openly before a chair slid next to me and he sat on it backwards. "See. More magic. Do you believe yet."

"Schizophrenia runs in families," I muttered, but I knew what I'd seen, what I'd felt. Call him a god or a warlock-whatever you'd like. Anubis had power.

"Good, we've gotten past the nasty bit of disbelief," Anubis told me grinning though how he knew my conclusion I wasn't sure. (Might have something to do with the aforementioned powers.) "Now I have a job for you."

"Why me?" I asked before remembering Nina's words. She might be the pagan, but according to everyone I was this 'god's' Chosen One.

"Because making you the Chosen One was the only way I could guarantee your safety, and that was the least your mom deserved from me." Only in his words was the tenor that made me wonder if really his claim to being ancient, if not a god, was true. He'd lost so much and felt so much pain, and it seemed my mother brought that all to the forefront. "Actually, I can't guarantee you safety. I got your mom killed, and possessed, and well a whole load of other things too. Still, at least this way I have a right to come to you. Otherwise Raet would be all over me. Speaking of which… why did Raet let you return? What's her end game?"

Raet. That was the name of the women (or goddess so they claimed) who stole Eddie's Colton and me from our (respective) mother's arms.

"Maybe this Raet didn't know what would happen. Y'all seem to think it's some sort of destiny bringing me here so maybe she left me to die, I got adopted instead, and now 'the universe has brought me home.'"

"You don't need to be so sarcastic," Anubis noted with an amused smile. "But maybe it is a coincidence. Still, she'll be coming after you soon enough so watch out. If anything seems out of the ordinary, if you ever feel like something is wrong only say my name. I have a very old debt to the Chosen One and maybe it's time I start being a better patron."
"I'll call if something seems off," I promised unsure whether or not I meant it. "Anubis, You better come now because I just found my long lost birthparents and now there is a magical man in my room claiming to be god!"

"All the sass," he noted apparently shocked. "If I hadn't watched you be born I'd swear you were Patricia's daughter, not Nina's. Alas, it seems that genes do funny things sometimes. Bye for now Eve, I'm sure we'll meet again."

As I plopped down on my bed once the 'god' left I only wondered when this insane dream would end.