It's a good thing I spent the passed few months working on these chapters on Wattpad so I can also post them here as well. I'm gonna have to put a link on my profile. Anyways, it's December now and I'm feeling generous, so here's the next entry. Enjoy.
It was Saturday morning in the Mercer household, and Patricia was in the midst of serving breakfast. Maggie was already at the kitchen table and shuffling pancakes and egg whites down her mouth. Patricia had told her daughter to slow down once before in the past. It clearly didn't take, and it seemed like a miracle that Maggie hadn't displayed a hint of bloat. Another plate of food was on the table waiting to be consumed. John eventually entered the kitchen with a bit of a spring in his step. He was feeling better, almost fully recovered from his prior ordeal. That was when he noticed that Corey was not present.
"Morning, Dad." Maggie greeted.
John leaned over and gave his daughter a light kiss on the cheek, saying to her, "Morning, sweetheart."
"How're feeling, John?" Patricia asked.
"Better, thank you. Where's Corey?" John said.
"He ran away and joined the circus." Maggie joked, earning a scowling glare from her father.
Patricia replied to John, "Corey wanted to go to the town library so he left early."
"Did he take his bike, or did you give him a ride?" John asked with curiosity.
"I think our son is old enough to handle himself on the road, honey. He did promise to where a helmet, so we shouldn't worry." Patricia said.
"It's only because he's my son that I worry, but maybe I'm just getting too old." John admitted and soon sat at the kitchen table for breakfast.
Maggie asked, "Is Corey in trouble, Dad?"
"No, baby. I just want him to be safe, and the same goes for you." John replied, secretly hiding away a strange feeling of dread.
In the back of her mind, Maggie thought to herself, I hope Corey's okay.
Corey had arrived at the Dover Public Library just half an hour after it opened that Saturday morning. The intent was to catch up on his homework, which Corey had previously neglected when everything happened with Athena and the Minotaur. Then again, Corey wanted to not think about any of that in the slightest. He still had homework to do and he wanted to catch up so the teachers at school wouldn't scald him. As luck would have it, he didn't have much homework left to complete anyway, so it would be easy.
Within another hour and and half, Corey was already done. His books closed up and set aside, he leaned back in the library chair and breathed a sigh of relief. He could go home now and take a rest, or he could go to the local park to ease his mind. It was nice enough day to do the latter. But an entirely different idea came to mind that Corey wasn't anticipating. He rose up from his chair, grabbing his backpack and wondered through the library until he reached the section he was wanted to reach. Or, at least his subconscious did.
It was the fictional section, the space where all the make-believe, nonsensical reading material was located. Corey didn't have a single idea why he was even there in the first place, yet he felt at the same time that he needed to be there. He searched along the shelf for the particular book he was searching for, and he eventually found it. He pulled out from its place and on the cover it read: Greek Mythology. Corey huffed at the notion, still unwilling or unable to believe everything he'd experienced recently was real. But morbid curiosity took hold, and he took the book from the shelf and went to sit at the nearest table.
Corey opened the book and looked through the contents of it, doing so with clear disinterest. Page by page, word for word and illustration by illustration, Corey read through the book. Every bit of what he believed to be fictional silliness made him chuckle. Stories about ancient monsters and places that he was so certain weren't real, was right there in full view, and Corey still seemed unconvinced. That was up until he reached the section of the book that dealt specifically with the Greek Gods.
The first god he found in the book was Zeus himself, and Corey suddenly became a little more interested. He studied every word about Zeus, every single detail he could find. His eyes caught sight of the symbol that represented the so-called King of the Gods, and it was the exact same symbol as the mark on his right hand. Corey stopped his reading for a moment and looked at his hand where the mark rested, and he started to get the sense that maybe everything that happened recently, as much as he wanted to deny it, was real.
Am I really the King of the Gods? Corey thought.
With a labored breath, Corey turned the page to the next Greek God, which turned out to be Athena. Corey shook his head in considerable amusement. He'd only seen Athena's true form once, on the night they met. The picture didn't seem to do her justice, but it was still only a picture. He studied it closely all the same, noting the spear and shield and the golden helm and armor. Corey couldn't help but wonder how good Athena might've been in a fight, while also wondering why she didn't help him that night against the Minotaur. Was she testing him, or was she manipulating him?
The next page was dedicated to Poseidon, the Greek God of the Seas. Corey wasn't the most savvy when it came to the water outside of the multitude of times he'd gone fishing with his family. The image that he found of Poseidon himself wasn't anything special. It was an image of a figure with a thick beard, flowing locks of hair and a trident, and the figure was surrounded by rising tides. An impressive image to be sure, but Corey was still having a hard time processing everything.
He kept flipping pages in the books, making quick note of every god or demigod or creature he found. There were pages dedicated to gods like Ares, Hera, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Artemis... and Hades. Corey paused on the page detailing Hades. Something felt different, like a sudden pang of adrenaline working its way through Corey's being. A string of miniscule sparks appeared on Corey's left hand, like the fuse on a stick of dynamite. Corey clenched his hand shut to stifle the sparks. The last thing he needed was to accidently blow up the library. He closed the book and pushed it aside before grabbing his hand through his hair.
"This is ridiculous," he whispered with a mild chuckle and, as he was standing up from his chair, he noticed a familiar face nearby. "Is that?"
Standing in a separate section of the library was that bespectacled girl Corey bumped into back at school; Serena Laramie he recalled to be her name. She didn't exactly look out of place, at least not so much as Corey did himself. Haley only looked as normal as could be; long-sleeved flannel shirt, light brown pants and sneakers, medium length red hair tied in a ponytail slung over the right shoulder and the same pair of eyeglasses as before at school. She had the hallmarks of a typical tomboyish nerd, and not the type of girl in which Corey would've been interested. So why was he approaching her?
Serena seemed oblivious to her surroundings. Her face looked almost buried in the book she was reading, the only move she made was with her hand slightly adjusting her glasses. She had no idea then that Corey was silently approaching until he was right next to her. Corey reached over and touched her shoulder. All at once, Serena jumped and screamed and very nearly dropped her book. At the same time, Corey was almost tripped and he barely managed to get his feet underneath him. The commotion drew the attention of a few other people in the library, some not to pleased with the disturbance.
After gathering himself, Corey said, "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."
Serena gathered herself and replied, "Yeah, I'm okay. Hey, you're Corey, right. I heard about what happened to your dad. Is he okay?"
Corey was slightly taken aback, but he steadied himself. "He's fine, actually. He's home resting."
"That's good. I'm, uh, glad to hear it." Haley said, and Corey noticed how she was blushing.
An awkward silence followed between them, with Corey experiencing a moment of blushing himself. But he found a means of changing the subject when he looked at Serena's book and he said, "So what're you reading?"
"Oh, uh, Astronomy. You know, the study of our Solar System and the planets and constellations..." Serena listened off.
"And even other galaxies, right?" Corey added, surprising Serena.
"Yeah," she said with a hint of glee in her voice. "So, you're into Greek Mythology."
"Huh? Oh, you mean this. It's just silly nonsense written by weirdos of a bygone era." Corey said dismissively.
To Corey's surprise, Serena took the book and opened its contents herself. "I don't know; I actually find it interesting."
"You do?" Corey said.
"Yeah. I mean, what's there not to like stories from ancient times about gods and monsters and heroic figures?" Serena wondered aloud.
"Honestly, I'm surprised you'd even believe that kind of thing." Corey said.
Serena nervously looked at Corey and said to him, "I think you believe it more than you'd let on, with that tattoo on your hand."
Corey felt his eyes widen before he brought his hand in view of Serena. "You mean this? It's nothing special."
Serena brought the book further to Corey's face and pointed at the symbol. "That tattoo is identical to this image in the book; that's supposed to be the symbol for the King of the Greek Gods, Zeus, right?"
"Like you said, it's just a tattoo. I might as well be a Harry Potter fan, which I'm not." Corey said, and Serena began giggling at the remark.
"You're much funnier that I expected. I thought you were just an average jock from school." she claimed while holding in her laughter.
"I'm so glad I got your hopes up," Corey said with a chuckle in his voice. After another brief but far less awkward silence between them, Corey asked, "Hey, you want to take a walk with me?"
The local reservoir had been quiet since the morning began. But that pristine silence was about to face a bizarre case of disturbance. A hooded figure suddenly appeared, clad in a black robe that covered their face. The moderately burly build would've enough to identify that figure to be male, but there were no other distinguishing features beyond a barely visible plume of black smoke. The hooded man stood near the edge of the reservoir and looked toward the town. He silently murmured something unintelligible before he knelt down to a knee, pressing his hand to the grass. The grass seemed to wither from first contact, as though its lifeforce was being drained away.
The ground began shaking and then a wide fissure opened, and a massive beast emerged with a ravenous growl and disturbingly menacing blood red eyes. It towered over the man but went almost docile and submissive. The man stood upright, his hood still concealing his face. The beast, which resembled a lion but far larger and potentially hungrier, growled when the man touched its giant nose. It didn't attack, instead remaining in a state of obedience.
"Go, and find Pandora's Box," he whispered to the beast. "Kill anything that gets in your way."
Hidden in the trees and out of sight, Athena had been watching the scene. "He's here."
"So, your parents actually let you ride this thing?" Serena asked Corey about the motorbike.
"Well, yeah but with a bit of a caveat. Dad made me promise to wear a helmet." Corey claimed.
Serena was holding the helmet for Corey while had the bike, and she studied it closely. "I like the design. The eagle wings suit you."
"You think so?" Corey asked.
Haley looked away, trying to hide the fact that she was blushing. "I mean, it's just my opinion and all."
Corey felt a smile form on his face, and he could tell that Serena was nervous around him. "So what is it about Astronomy that interests you so much?"
Serena gave the question some thought and replied, "Well, there's still much we don't know about the universe beyond our Solar System. There could be other worlds like ours that could potentially support life."
"Like, I don't know, Krypton?" Corey jokingly implied.
"What? No, Krypton isn't even real." Serena said with a giggle.
"Well, you never know. There could be a world of giant robots or something." Corey implied again with a bit of a wry grin.
"See, now you're just being silly. But I have to admit; it's kind of funny," Serena said, and Corey began chuckling to himself. Afterward, Serena asked, "What about you, Corey? What're your plans for the future?"
Corey stopped walking and went into a deep consideration about the question. "I don't really know. I never thought that far ahead."
"You don't have any goals in mind? No ambitions?"
Corey shrugged and replied, "When I was a kid, I wanted to be a cop like my Dad, but things never came together."
"Do you still want to be a cop?" Serena asked.
"I don't know. I guess I just want to do right by the people I care about the most. I want to do good. I want to be a protector, no matter what form that takes. Does that seem weird to you?" Corey wondered aloud.
Serena was not taken aback nor was she baffled. She instead smiled and replied, "I think it just means that you're a genuinely good person at heart."
The reply brought a bit of a smile of a smile to Corey's face, and though he wouldn't admit, Serena was growing on him. "Thanks. It feels like things just got put into perspective now."
Serena blushed again with an added smile, but that expression vanished as soon as she looked ahead. "Oh no."
"What's wrong," Corey asked, and Serena subtly pointed toward the black limousine parked nearby. A man in a suit with balding brown hair and a mustache was waiting beside the limo. "Who's that guy?"
With a labored sigh of annoyance, Serena replied, "That's Winston, my butler and chauffeur."
"Wait, you have a chauffeur? Does that mean..."
"That means I have to go home now," Serena said, her voice awash with disgust. "It was fun talking with you, Corey. I'll see you Monday at school."
Serena was already halfway to her chauffeur when Corey called, "I'll see you Monday."
Spinning around briefly, Serena called back, "Give your Dad my best."
Corey watched Serena enter the rear seat of the limo, the door held by her chauffeur, Winston. Winston looked back toward Corey and gave the younger man a subtle but telling nod. Corey didn't sense any ill will from the older man, but his instincts told him that Serena wasn't enthusiastic about returning home. He also had the sense that Serena wasn't the typical tomboy he was expecting. Serena took one more glance at Corey, smiling as she did before Winston closed the door before entering the driver's seat.
The limo drove away and Corey was left to ponder his next move, ultimately deciding that now was the time for him to return home. Then he heard the call of an avian creature from above; the call of an owl. He looked and found the familiar white owl flying overhead. Knowing it was Athena in animal form, Corey instantly surmised that there was trouble and no sooner had he determined this fact, screams were heard from the same street that the limousine traveled seconds ago.
"Corey!" Athena called out just as she landed atop a streetlight.
"Athena, what's happening?"
"Trouble!" Athena replied.
In that moment, Corey couldn't only contemplate and wonder to himself, What do I do now?
Author's Note: That's the end of this chapter, and Corey appears to have made a new friend in Serena while trouble brews on the horizon. How will our young protagonist respond to the new threat? Only one way to find out, so leave so feedback and I'll be back soon. Adios.