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Chapter 24 - Sealing the Tunnel

Chapter 24 – Sealing the Tunnel

Weaver

Once I was a hundred years old
My mama told me
Go make yourself some friends or you'll be lonely
Once I was a hundred years old

They were back early. I had thought they'd be celebrating over dinner with Selene's family. I was trying not to beat myself up about it.

"I'm sure you overshot that by ninety-three years," I told Francis who kept singing as he rummaged the fridge.

"Well, I was a hundred years old when Mother encouraged me to mingle with the satyrs and the sirens," my youngest brother replied.

Encouraged. I scoffed at the word. Mother never encouraged me to do anything. She often restrained me. She even forbade me to continue any interaction with Arachne, the mother of all spiders. Arachne wove stories almost as well as she spun web. She was also more maternal to me than Nyx ever was. If this were a dream, I would've thought perhaps Mother was just jealous.

The idea was preposterous.

Francis sat at the table where I was drinking warm milk. I was getting ready to sleep. And dream.

"You missed it," he said. "It's not every day that a three thousand year old former god gets to graduate high school."

I grunted in response.

Francis scowled at me and said, "Selene was looking for you. Again."

I stood up and rinsed my glass. These mundane tasks had grown on me. In the old world, a goblet would materialize or vanish upon whim.

Francis followed me and tapped my shoulder. "You're being ridiculous, you know. Why are you hiding from her?"

I gritted my teeth and faced Francis. Why couldn't he understand?

"I am being ridiculous? Have you forgotten what happened? I almost killed Markus!" I snapped at him.

I was a weaver of night terrors, but I had been gripped by fear the past weeks. One time, I was reminded of Selene sitting on the curb with Markus beside her. In the next second, a giant snake with a triangular head on each end, each head with three emerald eyes and razor-sharp fangs, started slithering out of the sink's drain. It slid out of the house and almost ate the neighbor's cat had I not caught it.

I hadn't been dreaming and I had to find a way back to the tunnels and return the serpent where it came from.

Another time, I remembered Selene at the park, drinking her disappointments away. My shadows immediately appeared and started crawling at the walls, itching to strangle the person who had made her sad. Markus.

They had almost killed Markus once. I had almost killed him once.

"You merely ripped off my beautiful, imaginary wings," Markus replied. I was surprised he was here and hadn't headed back to the university. I was sure there was another dull girl waiting for him.

I glared at Markus. I remembered the agony I had seen in his eyes. Those wings were real. Just as real as the torture he'd endured in my hands. He may pretend to be indifferent, but I had inadvertently maimed him. I was unstable.

What if I unleashed that kind of nightmare on mortals? On Selene?

"I had hurt you, brother. I am truly sorry," I told Markus. I may create nightmares, but I never reveled in causing anyone pain.

"Oh, stop it," Markus said. "You're being overdramatic. You're not neurotic. You could control this."

"I almost incinerated our house and the two of you!" I cried. And my creations had started crossing over. There was something seriously wrong. With me.