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Okay then. I exchange a look with Perseus. He is as lost as I am.
“I am actually looking for him. Do you know where he is?”
“Oh, yes, how silly of me, the cabin in the woods. So very, very far. But he must, you see, he must go into the cabin in the woods to plan his revenge. He must get revenge on the evil hag who has so much when he now has so little. She took it, you see. She did not come from power. She should not have power. Power is for those who are born to power.” Ellen is rocking faster now, her arms waving in the air and her voice becoming louder and higher pitched. “Yes, yes, yes, he will kill the witch and take her power, and her snakes. This Medusa has so many snakes, all slithering and striking. She took my son with her power and made him a snake. She ensnared him, but he broke free when he saw the truth. He broke from her spell. She must suffer. He must save the others and take the power back.”
“How do we reach Paris?” I ask.
She calms down, and her rocking slows again.
“As long as the witch is dead and the snakes are set free, he will marry the angel, and he will return to me. Return to me whole again. Make our family whole again. We will get it all back, you’ll see. My son, the hero, he will save me, and return what was taken from me.”
She is speaking in circles. She is clearly very ill and requires round-the-clock care. I can’t leave her like this. And I can’t shake the terrible sinking suspicion I know who the hag is in this story, and it breaks my heart.
It isn’t Ellen’s fault, though, whatever her son did. Ellen needs help, and I need to find Paris.
Eros was right about Paris. I hate to admit it, but there is no telling what Paris is going to do next.
Ellen sits in her rocker, her eyes glazing over as she stares at her TV. I’m pretty sure she isn’t paying attention to the old soap opera, but if it comforts her, who am I to stop it?
“Text Heph and tell them to bring something simple, like chicken soup and fresh bread. She needs some protein, but I don’t know what her body can handle,” I whisper to Perseus, who just stares at Ellen. He doesn’t move, doesn’t even blink. Waving my hand in front of his face doesn’t get his attention, so I punch him in the arm.
That does it.
“Ow.” He rubs his arm, and I smirk.
“Text the others, tell them chicken soup and fresh bread. Now.”
He steps out of the room, and I look around. The curtains are tightly drawn, and a rickety bed stands in the corner. Calling it a bed is generous. It’s really more of a metal frame with rusted springs holding up a thin mattress pad with a flat pillow. Ellen is one bad night away from tetanus. I pick up the pill bottles that are strewn all over the floor. They are all for Clozapine. A quick google search on my phone tells me it’s an antipsychotic and a very high dosage.
That explains a lot.
I tidy up her room as best I can. When I go downstairs in search of a broom, dustpan, and something to dust with, I find Perseus sitting on the floor in what I assume used to be a living room.
“Are you okay?” I ask, sitting next to him.
“How did I not know?” He is staring at a knot in the wood floor. “How did I not know he needed help? He was drowning and sold off everything. How could I not have seen it?”
“Because he didn’t want you to.” This is the only plausible explanation I can give him. “You know Paris better than I do. So, I’m not going to sit here and guess what his motives are, but I know that whatever he did or didn’t do, his mother needs help.”
“Why should I help her if he took Freya from me? I know she was your mother by blood, but she was mine by choice.”
I wince as his words cut into me, but he is right. Whether she chose to leave me, she chose to raise Perseus, and her love for him was laced throughout her journals.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean it like—”
“It’s okay,” I interrupt him. “You aren’t wrong, but Ellen isn’t the one who may or may not have betrayed all of you. And she is clearly unwell. We don’t know how much of what she is saying is true.” I take a deep breath. “In her diary, my mother said she and her boys were a family. Is that true?”
“Yes.” He doesn’t even hesitate.
