Elysium's Love Triangle (26 page)

So, he knows I wasn’t lying about my identity. 

Well, that’s why he’s the expert in bad-guys.

I wish Daniel didn’t have to know the truth.  I want him to always see me as Katy, the way I was when we first met.

I worry that he mightn’t see me the same way, now.

I take a deep breath.  Then I tell them everything.  How I lied to protect myself when I first got here.  How I discovered the ‘dark side’ of my soul.  I even tell them about the prophecy.

There is a completely stunned silence.

Daniel is the first to speak, there is an urgency is his voice, “You know that Greg is the evil liar right . . . I mean, you know that I’m the one who wants to keep you here, as yourself?  Katy, I would never lie to you.”

Andrew undermines him, “If I was the bad guy I’d say that . . .just saying . . .”

Daniel rebukes him, “I am
not
the bad guy.  Katy,
you
believe me, right?”

I can’t answer.  I know nothing for sure.

He is hurt by this.  I can tell.

He takes my hands, “I swear to you . . .”

“Daniel, I can’t . . . risk her winning,” I say.

This is the truth.  I can’t afford to choose him now, as he would like. 

I do not know for sure.  The consequences of choosing wrong are too harsh.

“You don’t trust me,” he sounds extremely hurt.
“How can you think that I’d betray you like that?”

“It’s not like that,” I protest.

He looks down at the ground, “I love you, Katy . . . I thought you loved me too. . . Now I realise the truth. You don’t even
know
me, at all.”

He turns to go up the stairs, obviously wanting to get away from us for a while.

“Danny, I do know you,” I say, desperate to get him back.  I hope that the truth might just do it.  “I do love you.”

He stops, before turning back to me.  His eyes are wet, “No, you don’t.  If you did there wouldn’t be a
choice
here.”

I have absolutely no answer for that.  There is a truth in it that can’t be denied.

Still, I know that I love him.

It breaks my heart to look at him now.  I just wish that there was a way to show him how I feel.  A way to prove it.

Choosing him is still far too risky.

I feel so frustrated.

He stalks up the stairs, obviously dealing with frustrated emotions of his own.

I sigh, “Life sucks.”

Andrew agrees with me.

Nate comments that, on the contrary, life can be very good sometimes.  His own parents are billionaires after all.  This allowed them to take in loads of lost Arachnes, and even to put them through education and all.  The universe can really be very kind sometimes, you have to agree.

Andrew just smiles and shakes his head.  This is when I realise that his expertise could be a vital tool for me now.

“Andrew, I need your help . . . Which one of these boys is the bad guy?”

He should know.  He is Andrew after all.

“I don’t know,” he confesses.  “Daniel seemed very genuine just now, he wasn’t faking those emotions . . . On the other hand I just don’t see it being Greg.  He always seemed pretty transparent to me. . . This is so weird.  I should be able to figure this out!”

The poor boy looks quite anxious now.  He could always read people before.  The fact that he can’t read these boys is unsettling him.

He comes up with an idea, “Katy, why don’t you see what Ethereal thinks?  Maybe she knows.  Check her thoughts for a second; it could give us a major clue.”

I am reluctant at first.  The dark side of my soul is not a place I wish to revisit. 

Still, it is the only hope we’ve got.

I close my eyes. 

Slowly and timidly I check what she thinks.

She can’t stand either of the boys.  She abhors Greg because he brought me back.  She absolutely detests Daniel, pretty much because he makes
me
happy.

I am rather confused by this. 

Andrew is not.  As per usual he can analyse it.

He had suspected that Ethereal wouldn’t love either of the boys, yet.  She will love her king for
the very fac
t
that he brought her back permanently.  She will have no allegiance to either of them before. 

“Why would either of them love her?”  I ask, puzzled by it.

Andrew thinks for a few moments, “The evil guy doesn’t
love
anything.  He just wants to rule the world.  He’s like a boy version of
her
.  She is simply his way of getting the whole world under his feet.  Katy, we are dealing with an evil being here, one that is worthy of Ethereal . . .  One that can even fool me.” 

I sigh.  The news is getting better by the moment.

The evil boy is obviously only gaining my trust so that I pick him.  He obviously knew, all along, that I would be the one to make the decision.

That is his simple, and only, reason for being around me.

“I don’t like the bad guy very much,” I say.

“Can I give you some advice?”  Asks Nate.

“Sure,” I answer.

“Choose right,” he finishes

“I’ll try,” I sigh.

*

I don’t want to go home without making up with Daniel first.  The fact that we are fighting really bugs me. 

It takes me a long time to build up the courage to go and talk to him.  I am nervous. Deep down, I’m afraid that he will break up with me.

I wouldn’t blame him.  Being with me has been a bit of a nightmare so far, to be fair.  What with all the kidnappings and just general badness happening.   Now we have this prophecy thing, just to top it all off. 

Eventually I bring myself to knock on the door of the room he’s in.

I open it to find him lying on the floor, staring at the roof.  There is a bed right beside him, why he chose to lie on the floor is quite the mystery.

He smiles when he notices my presence, “Hi.”

I am put instantly at ease.

“Hi,” I say back.

Then I lie down beside him.  Now I see what he sees.  There is a circle of spiders on the roof, the normal bug ones, not Arachnes in disguise.   

After my change I began naming every spider I see.  I even attribute personalities to them and worry about them when they disappear.  I called a spider back at school ‘Henry’.  He went missing from his web.  It caught loads of flies while he was gone.  I still find myself hoping that he managed to get back.  I feel genuinely sad that he mightn’t have.

It is so weird to suddenly really
see
these creatures as being like myself. 

It is completely different than when I was human, I didn’t even notice spiders then.

Now I pay attention.  I notice just how many of them there are.

I have a connection with them now.  Weirdly, I don’t think I’d change that for the world.

I check to see if my Henry is here, on the roof.  I reckon I’d know him anywhere.

No, none of them are him.  The search goes on.

He can’t be dead.  He’s
my
spider.

I turn to face Daniel.

“I’m sorry,” I say sincerely, “for everything.”

I mean it.  I am very sorry for all I’ve put him through.

“I’m the one who should be sorry,” he replies.  “The whole world is relying on me to show you the truth and what do I do?  I go and throw a hissy fit.  That’s hardly going to convince you. . .”

He has nothing to be sorry for.  I can’t believe how harsh he is on himself. 

“I tell you what, let’s just forget about all the bad things in the past,” I say, giving him a hopeful smile.  “Let’s just start over again, here, now.”

A bit of happiness returns to his eyes, “I think I like the sound of that. . . Hi, my name’s Daniel Knight, what’s yours?”

“Katy Darkwood, nice to meet your acquaintance,” I finish and find myself giggling.

He laughs softly too, “I like when things are simple.  Can we stay here for a while, together, and just pretend that they are.  Let’s deal with the world tomorrow.”

I agree.  I’d like nothing more than to stay with him now, happy, away from all that would try to hurt and separate us.

This is when he produces the camera from his pocket, “Today’s photo, anyone?”

“Totally,” I answer.

We both look surprisingly contented in this photo.  I think it’s because we’re together.

In a moment like this you can almost believe that we always will be.

“I don’t have a pen with me,” Daniel searches his pockets, just in case. 

He is obviously disappointed that he can’t write his message.  He must have thought of a good one.

Now I really wish I had a pen.

One appears beside me.

I laugh.  I have
got
to learn how to use my soul’s powers.

I give the pen to Daniel.  He writes the message quickly this time.  Then he gives the photo to me.

The message he wrote makes me feel like everything, in the world, could just work out okay.

I meant it when I said I loved you earlier.

I always will.

Have you ever seen something so beautiful that it makes you want to cry?  Well, that’s how I feel now.

I find myself quite unable to say anything, once again.

Writing a message back just isn’t good enough.  I really just want to prove my love to him.

I wish I had a way to prove it.

Something new appears beside me.

The Black Widow Mist that Tanya gave me.  It’s here now, right beside me.

At first its presence confuses me.  Then I realise that it’s the answer to my wishes.

A way to show Daniel that I love him.

The universe has just given me a major hint.

I take a deep breath and glance at him.  I love him so much. 

Tonight I will give him everything.

I take the pen to write my note on the back of the photo.

It simply says

I’ve found a cure for the Black Widow Curse

Okay, so it’s kind of a lie.  The Black Widow Mist only works to save him.  I’ll be in danger instead, I know.

Still, he doesn’t need to know that.  He won’t be hurt and that’s what matters.

He reads my message a few times, as if to make sure he’s read it right.

“Really?”  His attention comes back to me.  Suddenly he’s a bit shyer, trying not to catch my eye, “I thought there was no cure for that.”

I pick up the bottle of Mist, “Oh, there
is
a cure.  I have it here, look.”

I spray the mist on myself, as if it’s perfume, all the way down my body.  Daniel looks on, completely captivated already.

I leave the bottle down beside me.  I begin to feel a little bit nervous now.

Still, he is as gorgeous now as the day I met him.  He has his eyes locked on me.  I find myself wondering how I resisted him for so long.

I give him a passionate kiss that he eagerly reciprocates.

He whispers it, lowly, “I really want you, right now.”

As luck would have it that’s exactly how I feel about him. 

Sometimes, on a night like tonight, you get exactly what you want.

Nothing seems bad this morning.

I feel happy, content and satisfied.

I think I was humming a few minutes ago.  I don’t ever ‘hum’. 

Everything’s just seems . . . great.

Best of all I found Henry.  He was in the kitchen of our Ten Agonies house.  How he got here I don’t know.  There must be something kinda special about him.

I can’t tell you how happy it made me to find him.  It was like finding a long lost family member, albeit one that doesn’t understand that you missed him.

I’m up early enough, making breakfast.  Daniel is still asleep.  I plan on surprising him with breakfast in bed.

I had to go out and get the food this morning.  There hadn’t been any in the house. 

“Henry, do you think Daniel would prefer rashers or sausages,” I ask my spider-friend.

He doesn’t answer. 

I decide to go with both.  My boyfriend used up a lot of energy last night.

I find myself giggling again.

“Hi, Katy,” A small, non-threatening, voice comes from behind me.

I turn.

It is a little girl, probably about six.  Her appearance is startling.  She has shining orange eyes, glowing silver hair and black feathered wings.