Elysium's Love Triangle (9 page)

Crimes are dealt with harshly in the plantation.

Rejon has promised the Cezers that
he
will bring them back to Elysium.  Elysium being the ‘P
aradise’ we ancient creatures co
me from of course.  He has convinced them that they are ‘chosen’ and ‘special’.

The Cezers believe Rejon when he says that he can bring them back to Elysium.

Rejon has told them
that
he is
awaiting someone before he does
this.  Her name is Ethereal.  She is a wicked
and unbelievably evil goddess he
met many centuries ago. 
She is the one who must help Rejon
in the war against Zeus.  The prophecies say that he needs her to be successful.

Daniel looks around
,
to make sure
that
no one is listening in on our conversation.  He tells me that he
heard Nate say once that if ‘she’
comes back we are all doomed.  Nate met her centuries a
go as well, being a Greek demigod
himself.  She’s the kind of girl who will smile at you while she slits your throat.  Nate said that she has hair the colour of blood and eyes that match. 

I shiver.

I do not like the idea that
Rejon is working on resurrecting
this particular girl.

The bus that Nate ordered for our trip arrives.

We all make
our way outside and get on.

Daniel sits beside me.

The sun streaming in through the window soon lifts my mood.

So does the irresistible smile Daniel gives me every time I refer to him as my ‘boyfriend’ in conversation.

I am suddenly very glad I got up today.

*

Spiders are a funny kind of creature.

The Black Widow might, depending upon her mood, eat her husband after mating.

The tarantula likes to poison people.

A lot of spiders like to mimic ants.  This way the
ant lets the spider near enough to eat it.

We are looking at a tarantula now, in the reptile house of the zoo.  It is a fearsome sight, a hairy creature of a distinctly disturbing orange and black
colour
.

It would poison me.  It would leave me to die and run away.

This is how it brings things that are bigger than it down to size.

It enjoys it.

I know because I can see its brain.  I can see how it thinks.

I was happier not knowing.

It is so dark in the reptile house, so as not to disturb the animals.  I would very much like to move onto somewhere else.

Not so with the other Arachne
s, oh no.  This place is like a second home to them.  Fifteen teenagers all looking at this tarantula like it’s some kind of god.
  Normal people must
think we’re so weird.

Daniel tells me that each of us is related to a specific kind of spider.

Our behaviour can even be rel
ated to it.  Those of us who had
tarantula blood involved in our transformation have the ability to poison people.

Some of us were changed using the blood of a spider talented at mimicking.  These people can make their eyes seem human, they can blend in better.

Those whose transformation involved the blood of a Black Widow are a threat to their partners.

“Which are you?”  I ask.

“Tarantula,” he says breezily.  “I don’t poison people though. I made that choice a while back.”

He hasn’t taken his eyes off the tarantula since we came in here. 

He explains that Arachnes
are
always enchanted by the spider they
are related to. 

“Which am I?”  I hope that he knows.

He doesn’t.  Nate didn’t examine the blood before it was used on me. 

Daniel
tells me not to worry.  It will probably become obvious before long anyway.   

I leave them staring at the tarantula and wonder through the rest of the reptile house.

The Iguana looks at me funny.  I have a paranoid moment where I think he
knows
that I’m not human.

I would like to be related to the mimicking group, I think. 

I’d be able to make my eyes green again. 

This would make me
feel
a lot more human. 

I like my blue eyes, but they do serve as a constant reminder that I am something new now.

Then a new creature catches my eyes.

I am instantly fascinated.  It seems so majestic and wonderful.

I don’t understand how anyone could look at anything else in here.

A spider.

It is a sleek black
colour
with a red hourglass marking on its abdomen. 

The red
contrasts so perfectly with the black. 

Nature has designed its legs perfectly.  The ends of them jut out like little black swords, deadly and beautiful.  

I don’t even notice the others catching up on me.

I ask Angelica to take a look at this spider.  It just
has
to be the best creature in the world, nothing could possibly beat it.

She doesn’t seem to share my enthusiasm.

She does look extremely amused though, “Do you like this one, Katy.”

“Yeah!”  I exclaim, “How could you
not
love it?”

She laughs.
  Then
she br
ushes my hair away from my neck.

“Nate, look,” she says, her voice heavy with glee.  “On the back of her neck . . . the hourglass symbol!”

Nate comes over to inspect, looking extremely sceptical.  It’s as if he thinks Angelica is trying to play some sort of trick on him.

I don’t pay much attention to either of them.  I am still far more interested in the spider than in anything else going on around me.

Nate seems amazed, “That’s so rare.”

Angelica sounds delighted, “I know.  Isn’t it just brilliant?  I just
have
to tell Daniel!  Hey, Danny, Come Over Here!”

Daniel walks over, look
ing quite reluctant to leave the
tarantula.

“Looks like we’ve got ourselves a Black Widow here,” Angelica tells him.

I am still looking at the spider, “Yes, she’s wonderful.  Isn’t she?”

There is a silence after I say this.

My attention is finally drawn away from the spider by Daniel’s voice.

He
sounds more than a little shocked, “She wasn’t talking about the spider, Katy.  She was talking about
you
.”

What does he mean?  I’m
a
black widow?

For a moment I don’t understand.

Then it dawns on me.

I was changed by Black Widow blood.

This surprises me
.

I think of this spider in the wild, the way she just kills her mate heartlessly.

I remember what Daniel said earlier about the human version also being a danger to their mates.

This isn’t good news.

Angelica walks off; obviously thinking
that
her work is done.

“Daniel, what does this mean?”  I ask.

He inhales deeply, “Let’s go to lunch and we’ll talk about it . . .”

I know by his tone.

This
really
isn’t good.

*

That night I write all about my lunch with Daniel in my diary.

We got a small table for ourselves at a burger place.  I was pleased that we were away from the rest of the group, in a way.  It’s always nice to get some time alone.

He explained everything to me.  Being with a human version of the Black Widow is like a game of Russian Roulette apparently.  You are taking your life in your hands.

You may die.  You may not.  It’s a chance that you take.

Just like with the spider version. 

Depending on her mood she may just let you go.

I was very confused.  I told him that I would never hurt him in any way.

He already knew this.  The thing is, he explained, it won’t
be
my choice. 

He was trying to explain the mechanics of the whole situation to me.  His attempts were kind of hilarious to behold.

He didn’t want to say the word ‘sex’ or ‘mating’ but there was no way to say what he needed to say without doing so.

He kept starting off again.
 

It will only take effect when . . . Well
,
it only happens if . . . You know if we ever . . . It kind of happens when . . .

In the end I said it straight out, “If we have sex you could just spontaneously die.  It wouldn’t be my choice.”

We’re not like the spider version in that we don’t kill our mates ourselves.  Death itself decides whether or not to come upon them.  We just increase the chances.

He looked relieved that I’d grasped it without him having to spell it out, “It’s a fifty-fifty chance, every time.  If the human Black Widow’s mate is still alive twenty hours after they . . . em, you know . . . then he’s in the clear.  The death always happens in the first twenty hours after . . . you know, the
act
. . . if it’s going to happen at all.”

I just sat back, rather saddened.

He was surely going to break up with me. 

There was no way he’d stay with me if that was the situation.

He just bit into his burger and said, “Some chances are worth taking.  I think.”

I don’t think seven simple words have ever brightened my life as much as those.

We would be staying together.

I made a mental note to look into a cure for this condition.

There is no way I’ll sleep with him while there is still a chance
that
it would kill him.

There is no way that I’ll go on forever not sleeping with him.

There is a cure, or maybe a spell, I told myself.

I shall find it.

“What are you writing about?”  Angelica asks me, innocently reading her book about frogs.

I tell her
that
I am writing about nothing.

Nothing at all.

She wonders aloud why I write everything down.  She finds this behaviour awfully unorthodox, she confesses. 

I write because I am paranoid about forgetting my memories.  I am about to tell her this when we are both distracted by someone bursting into the room.

It’s Daniel.

“What are you doing here?”  Angelica chastises, “This is the girl’s dorm!”

He ignores her and closes the door.

It’s then that I notice his fear is at a dangerously high level.

I’ve never seen this amount of terror in someone’s head.

Angelica senses it too.  She asks him what’s wrong.

His hands are shaking.  He can’t speak.

He hands me
a piece of paper.

It is a cut out, from the newspaper this morning.  It’s the article about the poor man who was buried alive and left for dead.

Daniel gestures that I should turn it over.

I do so.

On the back there is a message.

Hi Daniel

It Will Be Your Turn Soon.

Regards,

Rejon

I am frozen.

Rejon, a powerful creature of untold evil, is targeting the boy I love.

Angelica grabs the piece of paper from me.  She reads it.

Her eyes
just
stare ahead when she finishes.

She crumples it in her left hand and throws it to the side, “This means war.”

“Angelica there isn’t anything we can do,” Daniel says sadly.

His tone tells me
that
he is resigned to his fate.  This worries me greatly.

“There is,” she smiles insanely.  “We can kill him.”

“We don’t know what he looks like,” Daniel argues.

I know why he’s arguing with her, why he won’t let us help. 

There is a new fear in his head; it has to do with Angelica and me.

He is afraid that we will get hurt if we help him fight off Rejon.

He would much rather
that
he was only Rejon’s only target.