Dionysus (Hades Series #1.5)

Chapter Fourteen - Kenzie

Chapter Fourteen

"Mamma."

I'm running through my house. I'm surrounded by bright orange flames that morbidly dance everywhere, swallowing everything in their path.

"Mamma."

I'm frantic, trying to find something, but what? All of a sudden I stumble over something and crash to my knees; when I look up, Grace's face fills up my entire vision, her curly brown hair crackling and her face being gently licked by the flames.

"Mamma!"

The ground is shaking, my whole world is shaking, everything is so hot I feel like I'm trapped inside a slowly erupting volcano. As I lay coughing on the ground, unable to move an inch, the house starts falling down around me; flaming planks of wood rain down from the ceiling, burying Grace's burning body under their fiery depths.

"Mamma!"

Jasmine! I open my mouth to scream. I'm trying to find Jasmine before-

Suddenly, the burning house disappears from around me, and my entire body is plunged into an icy cold lake.

I bolt up in bed with a loud gasp. Jasmine's sitting on my lap, holding an empty glass in one hand and my buzzing phone in the other. She beams at me contritely.

"Jasmine!" I shriek, brushing my sopping wet hair out of my face. Apparently she felt the need to empty the entire glass of water over my head. "Why?!"

"Aunty Jo is calling." She tells me simply, shoving the phone in my face.

"Oh my god Jassy." I snatch the phone off her and sit up against the headboard, rubbing my face with my free hand. "Hello?"

"Kenzie?" Jo's frantic tones seep through the speaker, waking me up instantly. "Are you okay?"

"Um, yeah?" I pull my phone away from my ear briefly to check the time. 6:53am. I try not to groan out aloud. Oh my god Jo. "Why?"

"I just heard about the fire!" She snaps, and immediately I'm filled with guilt. Crap.

"I'm so sorry Jo." I groan, hitting my head against the headboard. "I meant to call you, I did."

"Well thanks for the sentimental thought Kenzie." She drawls sarcastically. "Where the hell are you? Have you got Jasmine with you? Jasmine survived, didn't she? I heard about your dad and your sister and-"

"I'm at Spencer's Jo. Jas is with me." I wince slightly, refusing to acknowledge the rest of her sentence.

"You're at Spencer's? Why are you at Spencer's? Why did Spencer know about this before me? I'm your goddamn best friend!" She practically explodes, yelling into the phone so loudly that I have to pull it away from my ear so I'm not deafened.

"Is Aunty Jo mad?" Jasmine whispers as Jo continues to rant into my ear. I nod at her . "Do you want me to talk to her? I'll calm her down."

My lips quirk up a little. "Sweet offer Jassy, but I think I got this."

I tune back into my phone, rolling my eyes a little when I realise Jo is still yelling at me. "-and I've been up all night worrying my ass off for you two, nobody had any idea where you'd gone! It's like you disappeared off the face of the planet! I can't believe you chose some guy over your best friend for twelve years, this is exactly what happened when Kyle-"

My patience snaps, and suddenly all humor I felt for the situation evaporates. "This is nothing like then Jo! The only reason I'm at Spencer's right now is because he was the one who found my house on fire, and he was the one there for me when I found out that my entire family was dead! So I'm sorry if I acted rashly and took up his offer for a place to stay!"