Athena

Chapter 2: Hail Athena

Ivory enjoyed long calming walks during the day, especially in the beautiful spring. The scent of blossoms fills the air while the song of happy birds set the scene. After splitting up with Emily and the girls, Ivory begins to make her way to the rural circle of the city, where the Kidemones home is located.

It is a large house, almost a mansion, surrounded by dirt roads and trees. It has a large front garden filled with beautiful roses of all colours and a single sturdy apple tree. The house is entirely built of red brick, and you can tell it's an old house due to the veins growing on the side of the house and all around.

This has been Ivory's home her whole life. She was told it was inherited from ancestors from previous generations. Ivory was raised with the idea that she comes from a very powerful bloodline, with a line of work which was respected by humanity, however, when she inquires what this line of work is, she is told that she will find out when she's 'old enough'. Ivory's parents, Alya and Evan Kidmones take part of this secret line of work which Ivory will too join when she comes of age. They travel in and out of the country frequently, meaning Ivory is home alone every other week.

Although Ivory was raised with this secrecy, she still finds the situation very strange, being the curious teen she is. She, in fact, finds many things strange about her parents behaviour, well her parents in general. For example, how they only ever travel to Greece, but refuse to share the exact location of where they spend the week, or how there is never any evidence of travel, like boarding passes or even a passport. The whole situation is a confusing spiral for Ivory, as nothing seems to be normal about her family. She barely sees relatives, and when they do come, they always show up in pristine white attire and are invited to brief, closed door meetings with her parents and then leave, barely speaking a word to her. Her whole family, or at least the members she is familiar with, have green eyes and natural blond hair, while Ivory is the only one in the family with black curly hair and blue eyes, which would lead her to think that she is adopted, if it weren't for the DNA test she forced her parents to take during a breakdown when she was fifteen years old, stating that they are, in fact, her biological parents. The house which Ivory lives in has very few family pictures, and some of the pictures Ivory herself barely remembers. This may not seem strange as not many kids remember early childhood, however most kids at least have glimpses of certain events from childhood, especially resting on the fact that she seems to be nine or over in some of the photos she doesn't remember. There are many, could even be described as countless, occurrences where her parents have behaved strangely, but the most significant is the office in Kidmones Manner, which her parents keep locked 24/7, with Ivory being forbidden from setting foot inside this room. She had tried to get inside on multiple occasions, yet had failed to do so.

Ivory creaked open the front gate, while it screeched annoyingly. Walking though the long driveway, she felt as if she was being monitored. With this feeling overwhelming her body, Ivory does a 360 degree scan of the property. When this appears to be checked out, she proceeds to make her way down the long driveway to the front wooden door to the Manner, forgetting to also check the dirt road just outside the Manner, where a familiar black rover with tinted windows had just parked.

Her five minutes walk felt like hours while her mind was filled with replays of the days events. Suddenly, Ivory stops in her tracks remembering the vibrating hand which had become more noticeable.

'Oh crap! I forgot to visit the doctor.'

The light grew more evident. This made Ivory panic, contemplating if she should tell her parents about what had been happening to her.

'What if they think I'm a freak and take me to some mental asylum, or to some lab to be experimented on?' She thought to herself. 'But they would never do something like that, for all I know, this may have something to do with all the secrets they had been keeping from me.'