Dramatic much?
Still, it was either her or the spiders, so I took my chances. Hunter and Co. were still choking to death, so it wasn't much of a rush. It was only when we entered the bordering forest that the questions came (talk about late bloomers)
Who is this girl?
What did she do to the hunter?
And why does she smell like strawberries?
If you're wondering about the last one, let's just say we got acquainted, with a broom closet while some poor janitor was making his rounds. If you want to know more, find another book. This isn't about you.
I also felt weirdly tired, but I chalked it up to the fact I was out of practice when it came to making shadow monsters.
A boy's voice broke through the silence.
"Circe!"
He was young, maybe seventeen? He jogged up towards us, his dark-blue hair bouncing on his head.
"Where is he?" he asked. Circe smiled.
"Asphyxiating with his pets."
Sam's face seesawed between "Oh my god you are amazing. Can I please have your autograph?" and "Get the hell away from me!"
"Alright. We'll take her to camp then. Her dad's already been taken care of."
I decided now was the best time to interject and ask them what the fudge was going on. You know, before I threw the whole "stranger-danger" thing out the window.
"I'm sorry, who are you? And what do you mean 'taken care of'?"
"Sam. Now, come on."
"I'm not coming with someone I just-hey!"
I wrestled my hand from his grip and turned to face them.
"I'm not coming with you until you explain what's going on, now."
Circe rolled her eyes as if she was the one with the headache.
"What did you do to that guy?" I asked her. Monster or not, what she'd done still scared me, no matter how much I tried to explain it away. Take it from me: death isn't something you can reverse. Life is precious. It isn't meant to be taken away so easily.
She rolled her eyes again. I was worried she'd develop an eye-mobility problem, but I've always found myself to be strangely resistant to pesky things like illnesses or other health problems. It wasn't too much of a stretch to assume things were the same with others like me.
"Calm down newbie. It's my thing. I make people hallucinate."
Speaking of her eyes, they were the color of rainbows. I tried not to focus on them too much.
"You made him think he was suffocating?"
Was it just me, or were they red before? They were blue, and now yellow. Actually, they seemed to be composed of every color all at once.
"Think?" she asked.
I blinked. When I opened my eyes, I was one inch tall.
"What the hell?" I shouted, my voice as squeaky as a newborn's. She laughed, and with a snap of her fingers, I was back to normal. In a single day, she'd managed to completely destroy anything I thought I knew about light.
"Funny how the mind works, right? I don't make people think things. I make them experience things. I shift their perceptions and change what they see. Sometimes that means firing off their neurons in some way or putting a subtle layer of fear over their visual processors. It's a useful gift, though it can lose its effect when I use it too much. Something about the mind getting used to my powers."
She punched the guy (Sam?) on his shoulder.
"Also keeps me from pulling this guy's leg too many times."
Something about the way she said it felt weird. Like saying "aloha" while simultaneously decapitating a unicorn. It just wasn't right.
I didn't have time to dwell on this though. I was too busy getting a nose piercing with an arrow. It whizzed past me, burying itself into a tree trunk and sending two poor squirrels tumbling out from their branches.
"Oh, come on. There's more?" Circe asked, her eyes wildly scanning the wilderness around us.
Thirteen voices sounded out at once, each impossibly deep.
"Surrender, in the name of Abaddon!"
***
I don't know how it happened.
A volley of arrows flew toward us.
"NO." I shouted, my hands flying up to cover my face in vain.
I expected pain. I expected suffering. I expected my life to fade away in a few flashes of light as the shadows whistled and roared with glee, ready to cause suffering to some other poor soul instead.
Instead, surprisingly, they'd helped out once more.
"Whoa," Sam gasped.
The shield looked more like mist than anything tangible, but it held up just fine (actually, the arrows had only been a few centimeters from my face when I made it, but beggars can't be choosers).
My ankle throbbed like it would never throb again.
"Can't-hold-it." I winced with every word.
More arrows shot into the shadows, only to be caught in midair. I made out thirteen eight-legged creatures, each armed to the teeth with knives and arrows. Their bows seemed serpentine in nature. Something right out of a storybook.
Circe peered through the tinted shields before turning back to Sam. She looked like she had a plan. I hoped she had a plan.
Another arrow pierced through the shadows, only a millimeter from my nose.
"Guys?"
"Boston," she muttered, staring at Sam. I wasn't sure what she meant, but he understood immediately. His face knitted itself into an expression of focus, as if trying to discern the true nature of reality with dinner plates.
"Bangalore, maybe..."
"Las Vegas?" I offered, both because I was at least partially delirious and also because I needed something to give me strength. These two had saved my life. Well, one more than other, but you get the sentiment. I wasn't going to let them die here.
Las Vegas seemed to trigger unwanted memories in both of them though. They were as pale as the dead (why did I have to make that comparison?)
"Do not. Mention. Vegas." Sam said, his eyes as wide as a fish out of water.
If you're wondering what happened, trust me, you're not gonna get an answer. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. At least until I find a way to blackmail them with a working cookie recipe that they won't sabotage.
Another arrow shot us out of our little Vegas bubble (Get it?). Back to the real world, I guess.
Speaking of which...
"Agh!"
I screamed, nearly falling over as my ankle flared up again.
"Of all the times you could've picked-"
"Let down the shields." Sam ordered.
"What?"
"Wanda, we need you to listen to us, okay? Let down the shields, and close your eyes as fast as you can."
A few moments passed by in a second as I examined their faces. Nope. Not crazy, as far as I could tell, though Circe still wore her trademark creepy grin.
"If you're sure."
I felt a feeling of horrible foreboding enter the air. Nonetheless, I took down the dome.
The last thing I saw before closing my eyes was a bright flash of light. What followed was a chorus of screams and horrified howls of pain.
"Go, go!" Sam screamed, and together we made it all the way to the road. A white car stood parked to the side, surrounded by some very angry demon-dogs. Circe's face scrunched up in concentration as she growled at them.
One or two took a step back. Some looked dazed and confused. One whimpered.
The other thirty-or-so attacked on sight.
Golden light blasted itself from Sam's outstretched hands. Not as bright as before, but enough to fatally blind a man. Or in this case, thirteen hounds from hell itself. A collective cry of agony erupted from the forest as we hopped in the car.
Circe thrust the key into the ignition and drove the hell out of dodge.
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