Elysium's Love Triangle (24 page)

No fear, no anger.  I repeat these four words over and over.

He could kill me.  He is such a strong man
.

Things are okay.  This is a good place.  I say it to myself five times.

A plan forms from nowhere.

I try to make my voice as sweet and innocent as possible, “Mr
.
Vale, actually, we could do the reading now.  Just, if you would do me a favou
r, could you use my name ‘Katy
’ when you are asking the universe about my future?  I am no
t used to people calling me Ethereal
yet so th
e universe mightn’t recognise this name as mine
. . .”

Greg
told me all about fortune telling and his family’s abilities earlier.  They can ask the universe and spirits about the person’s future.  Sometimes they get answers, sometimes they don’t. 
The spirits are very picky about the wording of the questions put to them.

My
‘
husband
’
gives me a relieved smile and I know
that
my last move was a good one.  The spirits will on
ly tell them about my good side if asked specifically about ‘Katy’.  They won’t mention anything about Ethereal
.  Th
e future shown won’t include the bad side of my soul.  They
won’t see her motivations within m
e.

Mr. Vale doesn’t
suspect any kind of trickery in my demands.  He quickly agrees to them
and takes my hand again.  Riley and Greg look
very interested now too.  They are
probably hoping to hear something about themselves.  Mrs
.
Vale looks, as always, like she has just swallowed a prune.

Mr. Vale
starts off by explaining that the universe usually takes about half an hour to give him a reading about someone’s future.  It can’t just be hurried up and there are a series of delicate steps that one must go through be
fore they can possibly expect a spirit
to show them something.

He is about to tell me of stage one of this process when his eyes go completely blank.  The colour in them just completely disappears and it freaks me out so much
.
I almost scream.

I breathe in quickly a couple of times; one must not get scared so easily.

Cairo
can’t believe it.  His Dad is getting a prophecy alre
ady without even asking any questions
.  Now everyone else is deeply intrigued.  I’m getting the feeling
that
this kind of thing has never happened before
, or else it is
an extremely rare occurrence.

Mr
.
Vale suddenly speaks.  His voice is lower and it sounds as if someone else is speaking through him.  I guess it
must be one of those spirits Greg
told me of.

Mr. Vale grips my hand tighter
, “The girl before me is good hearted but her destin
y is entwined with that of two
boys.  One of the boys has the power to permanently change her
in
to an evil queen and will st
op at nothing to do so.  The other
boy, the only good o
ne, has the power to keep her as she sits before me now, good hearted
.  Who she will be
,
forever
,
will be decided
by which boy she loves and chooses to be with.  O
nce she chooses
,
her identity will be
locked and irreversible
.  This is what we know; this is what is to be.”

Riley stays long after the Vale family leave.

I am still reeling from the revelation.

My future will be decided by who I choose to love.

There are two boys.

Loving the wrong one will change me permanently into Ethereal.

Loving the right one will keep me, forever, as Katy.

I know who the two boys are.  They are Greg and Daniel.  There is no doubt in my mind about that.

I just don’t understand how either of them could ever want to be with her.

One of them has been lying to me.  One of them is evil and wants me gone.

I have no idea which one.

Riley thinks that it’s all very interesting, “So, Ethereal is a dark part of your very own soul. . . Tell me, how do we bring her out?”

I don’t answer him.

Greg does, “You don’t want to bring her out, Riley, trust me.”

“You’ve seen her?”  Riley asks, amused.

Greg nods in response.

“So not fair!” Riley complains.  “I really wanted to meet her.”

I shake my head, “You don’t.”

There is a whirlwind inside my head.

I keep seeing the world, covered in ice.

I cannot choose the wrong boy.

I look at Greg.  I cannot regard him without a certain amount of suspicion now.  Neither can I think of Daniel without a certain amount of wariness.

I wish I could trust them both again.  This prophecy has really decimated my world completely.

Riley snaps his fingers, “Threatening you, making your emotions peak.  That’s how you bring her out.  That’s why young Cairo was so afraid of someone upsetting you.”

Greg and I meet each other’s eyes.

Rejon has just figured it out.

Greg tells him that he is completely wrong.  Isn’t it time he was going home anyway?

Riley ignores this comment about him overstaying his welcome.

My uncle is now staring at me with renewed interest, “Katy, let me tell you a story.  Once there was this boy, right, and he was a really annoying boy.  He was always getting in the way of bigger plans and just, in general, ruining things.”

I wonder what he is talking about.

He continues, scrutinising me, “I can’t even tell you how much this jerk used to ruin everything.  Somehow, I don’t even know how, a wonderful girl fell in love with him.  Now this just wasn’t right at all.  She should never have been with someone as lousy as him.  She made a total mistake and got herself knocked up by this loser.”

This story is beginning to sound familiar. 

I don’t like the way it is being told.

Greg stands up very quickly, “Riley you should leave.  Right now.”

Riley shakes his head, smiling, “Oh no, I’m not even at the good part yet.”

“Leave,” Greg demands.

My uncle ignores him, “The teenage girl had this loser’s baby.  She was a very beautiful teenage girl, but she was stupid.  She agreed to marry the loser.  Now, none of this was right at all.  Somebody decided to step in and put things right, not a moment too soon.”

He stops.

I can feel the rage rising within me.

How dare he talk about my Dad like that.

His own brother.

“What do you mean somebody put things right?” My voice sounds slightly lower.

Alarm flashes across Greg’s eyes, “Riley, Shut Up!”

Greg turns to me.  He tells me not to listen.

Everything is fine, he assures me.

I look into his eyes.

I cannot let her come back.  She would hurt him.

I keep my gaze on his.  It calms me.

“What I didn’t tell you was that this loser-boy had an awesome older brother,” Riley smiles as he continues.  “His older brother was an Arachne.  Not just any ordinary one either.  One with special powers.”

I notice that something changes in Greg’s eyes.

There was alarm there before.

Now there’s something else.  Recognition. 

He has just figured something out.

Greg speaks, trying to keep a calm tone for my sake, “Riley, I beg you to shut up.”

Riley doesn’t heed this warning, “You see loser-boy had a great fear of sharks.  His older brother decided it would be funny to manifest this fear . . . you know, make it appear.  One day he did.  Everyone lived happy ever after.”

I’ve never felt like this before.

The whole world seems to go dark.

Everything is decimated.

I look at Riley.

He looks pleased.

I can’t control it.

In a second I am running for him.

I am screaming.

He murdered my father. 

He is the reason I had to live without him all these years.

Greg is holding me back.  He is trying to get my attention, to calm me.

“Your Mom always belonged with me, Katy.  I just saved her from making a huge mistake,” Riley says.

I can hear Ethereal’s thoughts now. 

The dark part of my soul is majorly concerned with the weather.  It isn’t nearly cold enough, in her opinion.

Riley is a funny guy, she thinks.  She likes him.

I spot the tips of my hair.  They are going ever so slightly red.

I fall to the floor.  I put my hands on my head.

This cannot happen.

Greg kneels down beside me, “I’m here.  I’ll never leave you.  Take my hand.”

I do.

Riley keeps talking, saying horrible things.

Greg talks too.  I cling onto every word he says.

He won’t let anyone take me away from him.

He knows who I truly am.

We can get through this.

I let his words build my world back up.  The world Riley broke a few moments ago.

I focus on the warmth of every look Greg gives me.

Eventually I can’t hear her thoughts anymore.

I stand up.

I tell Riley to get out.

I tell him that he made a big mistake the day he killed my father.

His empire will crumble.  It will topple. 

I will build up a new one.  I will show the Arachne people true justice.  I will show them that they don’t need to be monsters, like him.

He just smirks.

He has no idea just how serious I am.

Then he leaves.

I wait until I know that he won’t hear me.  Then I cry.

My Dad trusted him.  He was his brother.

Greg lets me cry onto his shoulder for a few minutes.  He doesn’t say anything. 

The doorbell rings.  Greg goes to get it.  I try to compose myself a bit.  It could be some visitors after all.

“You better come to the front door,” Greg arrives back in the dining room.  “It’s London, and she says it’s really important.”

London is wearing a purple robe.  It seems very formal.

She looks relieved to see me, “Oh great, you’re here.  Your presence is requested at a trial in the court-building.  It is a big case.  The judges want the guidance of the Great Goddess on what to do in the matter.”

At first I don’t like the sound of it.  I’ve been at a trial before, my own.  It really wasn’t that much fun.

Then I realise that this is the chance I’ve been waiting for.  I can show the guy on trail some mercy.  Maybe the judges will follow my example, in future, and stop feeding people to animals.

I could use this opportunity to make a point about the justice system around here.

I tell London that I’ll be there in a few minutes.

Greg says that he will accompany me there.  He wants to see this trial after all.  The whole town does.  Trials are their form of entertainment here.  This one is being touted as ‘the must see trial of the century’. 

This is good news.  The more people there the better. 

I wonder what is so exciting about this particular trial.  They really are building it up for the people.

Greg and I hold hands as we walk there.  We are meant to be smitten newlyweds after all.  There are crowds of people making their way to the court-building.   They are all wearing brightly coloured robes.  Seeing all these people makes me nervous.  I am going to have to talk in front of all of them.

I tell myself that I can do this.

Greg assures me that I’ll be fine.  The audience will probably be distracted by Judge One’s outfit.  He has an outrageous fashion sense.  He and his clothes are all anyone ever talks about after the trials.  Chances are they won’t even notice anyone else on the panel.

I try to think back.  I didn’t notice anything different or outrageous about his outfit at my trail.  I smile.  The people here are a wonder really.

We enter the court-building.  Unfortunately Greg can’t sit with me.  He has to sit in the audience.  I must sit with the judges, at their table. 

Riley is at this table too.  I sit at the opposite end of the table from him, wishing to be as far away as possible.