Chosen (30 page)

             
I was reminded of the one way I could die, as I blinked my eyes open through the pain and made out her form as it hovered above me.  Keto floated down toward me, more eels dancing around her face; enhancing the psychotic grin playing on her scaly lips.  She held up her dagger and winked a cold black eye at me. 

             
“Tell your mother hello,” she whispered in my ear.  In a last ditch effort, I extended my arms and dug my hands into the sand.  Instead of pulling energy from the sand, I pushed my own energy and essence into the sand at my back and throughout the water that surrounded my body.  I sent some upward, on a journey to find the currents of air blowing across the surface.  As I felt Keto’s dagger pierce my heart, I smiled and thanked the majestic world around me that had so eagerly taken me in and changed my life.

             
A light singing tickled my ear drums and I listened intently as it flowed through me; a symphony of sounds that touched and soothed me to the core.  The ocean’s song.  As my soul was swaying back and forth amidst the magical current of the ocean, I knew the song was playing just for me.  As a loud whooshing sound drowned out the singing, I began to sense an immense pressure building up around me.  Someone gasped as my inner damn broke, releasing the pressure around me, and filling my body with a million sensations at once. 

             
The sound of the rolling ocean waves on a hot summer’s day roared in my ears.  The smell of sea grass and midnight flowers filled my nose.  The cooling ocean breeze blew across my hot, sun-baked skin. The warm, soft feel of sand shifted beneath my feet. 

             
“No!”

             
My eyes snapped open at Keto’s shout, and I suddenly realized that all of my pain had disappeared.  I ascertained that my entire body had been healed, and all blood in the water had vanished.  Keto’s dagger lay beside me in the sand; the tip of its blade snapped off, and the rest bent at an odd angle as if she’d tried to stab concrete.  I glanced down at my heart and found no puncture wound.

             
“No!” Keto thundered again, her now green, wide eyes staring at me.  She had gone from Medusa’s half sister to sea goddess in a split second, and was moving backwards frantically, devastation written all over her face.  Her eyes darted behind me and then she met my gaze with panic in her green eyes.  The water swirled around her, imprisoning her.  I watched, dumbfounded, as she tried to shoot out energy that was quickly absorbed by the swirling water around her.  A wave of devoutness and passionate protectiveness washed over me, as a mass of creatures emerged from the darkness.  The largest school of jellyfish I’d ever seen bore down on Keto, who was rendered helpless in her prison of water.  They circled her with a fierce determination and suddenly squeezed around her, all stinging her with their burning poison at once.  I couldn’t see her, but I heard her screams filled with pain.  The jellyfish dispersed, as a cloud of resentful electric eels flew around her, betraying her orders.

             
I watched on with split emotions.  The very ocean that she was connected to had turned against her.  It had healed me, and was now punishing her.  I knew that she deserved this, but I couldn’t bear the sound of her cries as the eels set her prison on fire with electric current, sending her body into convulsions.  Once satisfied with their attack, they also dispersed in order to leave room for the next attack.  As Keto’s body went limp inside her water cage, a familiar presence descended on me.  I turned to see hundreds of sea turtles flying toward the scene.  As they all rested silently on the sand around me, one large turtle in particular swam up and nudged me with her head. 

             
She greeted me like an old friend, and I recognized the brown and gray markings on her back.  She was the same turtle that had first greeted me that day so long ago, as I swam in the ocean with Phoebe.  I’d seen her memories and faced her energy.  I ran a hand over her shell and soaked in the love and adoration she held towards me.  The sight of hundreds of sea turtles resting on the sea floor with me was surreal and comforting, and was a vast departure from the dense hatred I could feel emanating from the next arrivals.  The feeling cut me like a knife, and their conviction told me what they intended to do.  I got to my feet as five great white sharks soared out of the darkness; the moonlight above glinting off of their bellies as they swarmed around Keto.  One in particular dove down suddenly and headed straight for me.  I froze as he circled me once, and then rubbed up against me.  I briefly perceived Finn’s warm darkness and knew he had sent them.  I also sensed the task he had impressed upon them.  It was simple and straight forward: kill.

             
My heart stopped with terror as the shark ascended to join his brothers.  Their insatiable hunger and rage pulsed through the water as they slowly circled her; flicking their tails back and forth with anticipation.  I pushed off of the bottom and swam toward her.  As much as I appreciated Finn’s help, I couldn’t allow five great white sharks to consume her.  Her body still hung limp within the tube; unaware of the danger. 

             
“Stop!” I shouted.  I experienced the sea turtles’ surprise as they followed my departure from the sand.  The largest of the great whites suddenly broke the circle, creating a wider one in order to gain speed for her attack on Keto.   I had to get to her!  I had to stop them!  With a flick of her tail, the largest shark set her sights on Keto and shot straight at her limp form.  My body flew through the water and arrived at Keto seconds before the shark.  I snatched Keto from her prison, just as the shark’s jaws opened and clamped down on the water where Keto had just been. 

             
“Stop!” I yelled again with renewed conviction.  I could feel their disappointment, so I sent them a dose of my own disappointment at their willingness to eat a sea goddess alive with no hesitation.  I knew they were protecting me, but that was not the way.  They circled us several more times before their hunger dissolved and they glided away. 

             
I laid Keto’s body down on the sea floor and retrieved my dagger from a section of coral to my right.  I swam over to her and she opened her eyes with effort.

             
“She chose you,” she croaked. “You are truly her child.”

             
“What are you talking about?” I asked. She must be delirious from the poison and shock of electricity.

             
“The sea,” she sighed and closed her eyes once more, her words forced and choppy. “She protected you.  I should be dead.  She wanted me dead.  I could feel it.”

             
“I couldn’t let that happen,” I whispered in shock.  I couldn’t argue with her words.

             
“You wanted to do it yourself,” she accused. “Just get it over with.”  I looked down at the dagger in my hand and flipped her on her back.  Her skin had become pale and discolored, while her face was sunken in with defeat.  This is what I was here for.  I held the dagger above her heart.  She had challenged me.  My hand gripped tightly around the handle.  It was my destiny to be the Leader of the Tydes.

             
But I couldn’t end her life.  I slowly lowered the dagger and tucked it into my jeans.  I took her limp hand and she opened her eyes in disgust.

             
“What are you doing?” she shot at me. “Are you a fool!  You won!”

             
“It’s not about winning,” I told her, as I held her hand in both of mine.  I fought the conflicting emotions that were storming within me.  Hatred for what she’d done to my mother. Vehemence for what she had intended to do to me. Resentment for what she had taken from me. Sorrow at the many lives she had taken in her quest for power.  And finally, a release.  I didn’t want to carry the burden of those disabling emotions anymore.  This needed to end. 

             
“I forgive you, Keto.” I met her exasperated gaze with empathy.  As I gazed into her suddenly unguarded eyes, I entered her memories and gasped at what I saw. 

             
A young girl with long dark hair and bright green eyes, as she stared at herself in the mirror.  She looked away as the sound of laughter filled the room, and six other girls bounded in with flowers entwined within their hair.

             
“Keto, come on!” a brown haired girl called to her. “You need flowers!”

             
Her heart filled with happiness and she sat very still as they twisted her hair, pinning it up with beautiful blue and yellow flowers.

             
“It’s perfect!” a blonde girl with bright blue eyes squealed. “We should put-“

             
“Keto!” boomed a deep voice from the doorway.  Her heart skipped a beat and she bolted off of the chair.  She walked over to a brooding, monster of a man with white hair, highlighted with blue streaks.  He squeezed her arm and yanked her into the adjoining room.  He ripped the flowers out of her hair and stomped on them with frustration.

             
“How many times must I lecture you!” She began to shake as he scolded her. “You do not belong with the rest!  The only place you belong is the blackest depths of the ocean.  Your calling requires poison and darkness!  Not flowers and pony tails!”

             
“But Daddy-“ she pleaded, as tears flowed down her cheeks.

             
“No!” he shook her a little too harshly. “Do not make the mistake of believing that you belong with your sisters.  You are the Nereid of sea monsters!  Now act like it!  You will spend a fortnight locked in isolation to think about what I’ve told you!”

             
The memory blinked away and was replaced by another.  A lonely Keto was perched on the sand looking on as her sisters practiced in the ocean with an older woman.  They were laughing and splashing as she watched; her resentment changing to bitter hatred.

             
I wrenched my gaze away, unable to feel her sadness any longer.  She stared at me in defeated silence as I processed what I had seen.  She cringed in pain as a spasm shot down her back and finally went limp again, as her eyes rolled back in her head.

             
As I stared down at her beautiful face, I couldn’t help but see the monster she’d shown me just moments before.  Which one was the real Keto?  Was she truly a monster who only belonged in the depths of the ocean, cursed to endure an existence without family or acceptance?  To be ingrained with such powerful self-loathing at that tender age could only be heightened by the isolation from her sisters.  It didn’t surprise me that she never felt like she belonged.  And maybe she didn’t.  Maybe it was better for everyone if she remained separate and distant.

             
I sighed to myself and slipped my arms under her motionless body.  I stood with her in my arms and turned toward shore.  As I swam with her, the ocean’s song filtered through my ears and soothed my heart.  Sea creatures of every shape and size followed our path to the beach, marveling at a helpless Keto.  Their energy swirled around me and filled me with so much love and acceptance, I thought I would burst.  As I approached the shore, I sent out a line of energy and split the waves so that I could walk easily out of the water.

             
Exhausted and drained in every way possible, I barely noticed my friends running towards us as I lowered Keto onto the sand and sat down beside her with my head in my hands.

             
“Stasia!” Finn was at my side first, and I latched onto the warmth of his darkness as he held me in his strong arms.  I looked up at him and grinned.

             
“You defeated her?” he asked with obvious pride.

             
“I guess you could say that,” I chuckled.  He helped me up the beach as Elina and Natasha carried Keto to a patch of soft sand where Zara was waiting.  My roommates hugged me and I did my best to describe what had transpired in the ocean.

             
“The sea chose you?” Phoebe gasped.

             
“I don’t know how it happened,” I scratched my head. “I felt the dagger go in, and then I just stopped fighting and handed my essence over to the sea.”

             
“It doesn’t surprise me,” Zara piped up. “It takes a strong goddess to trust the sea with her essence.  That kind of sacrifice isn’t left unappreciated.”

             
“Wow,” Carmen shook her head in disbelief.

             
“Speaking of appreciation,” Zara walked up to me and pulled me up from the sand. “I have something I need to give you.” I searched her blue eyes in confusion, but was nowhere near prepared for what she did next.  Her image blurred in front of me and she began to change before my eyes.  Her warm auburn hair shed its dark shade, in favor of a pale blonde color with long streaks of white.  Her face became more heart-shaped and her body firmed up, presenting a very tone and very strong beauty standing before me.  Her ordinary clothes were replaced by a white dress, criss-crossed with golden strands of rope which held it in place.  Lastly, a crown of flowers appeared on her head and my eyes almost popped out of my head.