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“It’s him,” Lennox says, pointing to Eric. “You said this Gaia person sent you here. Why?”
Eric rubs his face with his hands as if trying to get the story straight. “She sent me to find Harlow’s sister. She said she couldn’t risk coming herself. That coming to Styx would kill her. So, after reviving me, she sent me to this place.”
“Why does Mother Earth care about you, and who is Harlow?” I ask, needing to get the facts straight.
“Harlow is the daughter of Poseidon and the love of my life.”
“Are you fucking kidding us with this?” South asks, but Lennox raises a hand, wanting to ask Eric a question of his own.
“You’re in love with Harlow? Not interested in anyone else?” he asks.
Eric nods.
“Are you freaking serious?” Ten asks, turning on Lennox, South, and me. “You’re a bunch of macho assholes, you know that? When you look at me all you see is a piece of meat. And you can’t imagine me talking to a man without plotting how I might hook up with him.”
“You haven’t done much to help that, have you?” Lennox pushes.
“You know literally nothing about my ‘sex life’, Lennox. Maybe ask me directly if you want information, okay?” Tennyson crosses her arms, seething across the room.
Eric whistles, two fingers between his lips. “Hey, you guys, look,” he says and points to Marden. We were so caught up in the argument we missed the fact that the witch doctor is fading, fast.
“Shit.” Ten rushes over to her. She reaches an arm out to the woman, but she brushes it away.
“No, it’s my time,” the old woman whispers. “Don’t play with souls like they are yours to control.”
Tennyson steps back, wringing her hands. “Okay, I didn’t mean...”
“No, my dear.” Marden sits in a creaking rocking chair, closing her eyes, her body turning to a hazy vision. “You may be able to alter the future with the touch of your hand, but what is meant to be will be, no matter how you try to bend it. Stop fighting it.”
“What does it mean, this ability?” she asks, kneeling before the woman. “Tell me.”
“Perhaps a gift, maybe something in your bones from the Gods,” she whispers. “An ability.”
“What good is it if we are all going to fade anyway?”
“Oh, sweet child, you won’t fade, your energy is much too strong. Your life force is intact, just trapped. You’ll be okay, once you figure out where you want to go” she whispers. “And isn’t that life? Having a choice and deciding how to use it?”
Tennyson shakes her head, as if not understanding at all.
“Don’t let fear dictate your present,” Marden adds, before fading away, her body gone, her soul dispersed. We don’t know if she went to the Underworld or the Elysian Fields. We only know she is no longer here.
“Holy shit,” Eric murmurs.
“It’s a scene we’ve seen hundreds -- thousands -- of times, but each time it feels like a loss,” Lennox says.
“How can you lose when you’re already half-dead?” Eric asks, frowning. He’s not from here, he doesn’t realize the life we live is real. Is ours.
“Maybe because you’re are still here, half-living,” I tell him, resenting the fact he had a life Earth-side at all.
“We’ve made lives here, the four of us,” South says. “Not a life like you had, or I had back on the surface, Lennox, but it’s still something.”
Tennyson stands, looking at the empty rocking chair. “It’s not full enough, though,” Tennyson says. “It’s not enough.”
Her words hurt to hear. “It’s still something,” I say.
“The witch said not to let fear dictate my present, right? Well, presently I am still alive.”
“Yeah,” Lennox says. “She said that after she told us you’ve been lying. That you knew we were dying and held that back. How could you, Ten?”
“Hey, hey,” Eric says, stepping off the table and moving between them. “We can’t fight. We have work to do.”
“Work?” Tennyson asks. “What work?”
“I need to get Harlow’s sister to the surface.”
“How will you know who she is?” I ask. “She might have already faded. She could be in the Underworld for all we know, or a soul buried in the Elysian Fields.”
“She hasn’t,” Eric says, adamant.
“How do you know?” South narrows his eyes. He still doesn’t trust this guy, and I don’t either.
Eric sighs and flashes Tennyson a misplaced smile. “I know because she is standing right in front of me.”
8
Tennyson
I would say Eric is full of shit, except when I touched him... something happened. Something deep in my soul.
We have a connection, whether the guys like it or not. And so, I want to hear him out.
“What do you mean?” I ask, looking for a place to sit. I have a feeling this might take awhile.
I don’t exactly want to sit in Marden’s rocker, considering she just faded. I choose a small velvet sofa and pull my cold feet underneath my legs. South sits beside me, and Lennox and Hawthorne sit in armchairs. Eric remains standing.
