Chained Memories: Night Three (Mythology related, mild language, mild sexual conduct)
Night Three
Helios had recovered fast—faster than I expected—and we were in the skies again within five days after the attack.
Thankfully no evils had found us.
“Where are we going now?” I asked as we landed in yet another meadow. “And where are we?”
We had flown several days and things had cropped up in my mind. But there was one thing in particular.
How was Calleah?
She had been knocked out due to Jealousy and with me being kidnapped and school being out I hadn’t gotten the chance to talk to her.
When I finally voiced my question Helios had simply smiled and said she was safe and protected.
“We’re heading for Russia,” he said, pulling me from my thoughts. “Moscow, to be exact.”
I froze.
“Did you say…Moscow, Russia?” I whispered uneasily. “Isn’t that…kind of…dangerous?”
Helios looked at me as if to ask whether or not I was joking.
“You’re not serious are you?” I asked as he stared. “We can’t really go to Russia! We’re only seventeen!”
He looked at me and I blushed.
“I mean I’m only seventeen,” I aid correcting myself. I’d forgotten how old he truly was. “And you never told me where we are.”
“Poland,” he said precisely. “On the edge I believe. We’ll be in Russia tomorrow.”
The rest of our time was dedicated on finding essentials to survive the night.
Over the short time we’d been traveling, Helios taught me how to make a variety of traps without hurting myself, scare away animals using different predatory sounds, and, if I had to, how to run away from animals.
He’d also taught me how to twist tree limbs together and use large leafy plants to create a shelter or camouflage throughout the night.
“It’s getting cold,” Helios noted, staring at the fire. “It’s colder than it has been.”
I gave him a small nod.
It hadn’t been so cold since the night I’d had to clean his wounds.
“Thank you,” he whispered, pulling his gaze away from the fire to look at me, “for helping me after the attack. I would’ve died if you hadn’t disobeyed my orders.”
“What?” I said with a laugh. “So what are you now? Captain?”
“Sure am,” he said laughing.
“Then what does that make me?”
He paused, as if deep in thought, before smiling.
“That makes you Lieutenant,” he said satisfactorily. “Yes, Lieutenant Pandora Avalon.”
“And Captain Helios Pendragon,” I said with a smile. “How odd…it fits perfectly.”
He smiled softly before glancing at the tree-leaf shelter we’d made.
“I’m going to bed,” he stated quietly. “You’re welcome to join.”
My body froze as both my blood and my brain raced at phenomenal speeds.
Was he offering me another chance to sleep with him? Or was he truly tired? Was it another attempt to make another Pandora?
I shook my head.
I was strong, definitely strong enough to resist Helios’s charm.
So what if I was tired? I had the right to sleep just as he did.
“So you decided to join me,” he said silkily.
“Don’t even think it,” I hissed. “I’m just tired.”
A smile slipped across his face as I turned away from him, my face feeling hot.
“Whatever you say,” he said with a shrug.
It took no time for me to fall into a quiet, dreamless sleep.
The air was cold when I woke up but there was a noticeable heat beside me.
I looked up and froze.
Sometime, through the night, I had rolled over to Helios and he had wrapped his arms around me. Our two bodies couldn’t be closer.
I blinked, trying not to wake him as I moved. My head was on his chest, his arms draped lazily around my waist and his hands clasped.
When I looked up I was hit with the full force of his dark scent—and the alarming look of the closeness of his lips.
“Pandora,” he whispered sleepily.
He rolled over onto me and I was pinned beneath his weight.
“Helios?” I whispered back. “Are you awake?”
“Pandora,” he whispered sleepily again. “I love you…so much.”
I stopped breathing then, waiting for what he would do.
His eyes fluttered open then…and he jumped back, completely in shock.
“Pandora,” he gasped, trying to get himself farther away from me. “Get away from me now.”
“Helios—”
“Now!” he yelled. “Before I—”
He broke off with a strangled cry and I ran to him, pulling him to me though he fought to get away.
“What’s going on?!” I screamed. “Helios—what’s happening?!”
He stopped moving and went limp, an abnormal darkness to his eyes as he looked at me and spoke.
“You know who I am,” he said huskily. “Just think for a moment.”
He attacked me then, pinning me to the ground, as he covered my protests with a kiss.
My mind raced trying to process what was occurring.
Helios was sexually harassing me, though he knew how far I would go before he had to stop. This was way past my comfort zone. This led to another question.
If Helios knew how far I would go then whoever this was wasn’t Helios. If this wasn’t Helios, then who was it?
“You love me do you not?” he gasped, pulling away. “Then why have you forced me to wait so long?”
I pushed against ‘Helios’s’ chest in a poor attempt at trying to free myself. He pinned my wrists above my head and recaptured my mouth with his own.
Who was this? Is this wasn’t Helios then who…
My thoughts trailed off and I screamed its name when it pulled away again.
“Lust,” I gasped trying to pull away. “Let go of me!”
“I don’t think I will,” it said smiling as it ripped off my shirt and camisole in one pull. “I think I’ll take my time.”
Again, I couldn’t speak and I started to drift, unable to focus clearly.
What was going on? Who was in trouble? Why did whatever I couldn’t remember matter?
I loved Pandora!
I blinked, trying to focus. Who loved Pandora? Who was Pandora?
So how much do you know about Pandora’s Box?
Pandora’s Box…why did that sound familiar?
I tried to focus but it was as if something was trying to fog my mind purposely. It was…gluey.
That makes you Lieutenant.
Something hit me mentally as if helping me push through the gluey wall shrouding my senses.
Thank you for helping me after the attack. I would’ve died if you hadn’t disobeyed my orders.
Nearly there…I had just a little farther to go before I would break through.
This is our newest student Helios Pendragon.
I shot through it and, with my release, came power shooting from me.
The evil flew out of Helios and he fell on top of me, motionless.
“Helios,” I gasped, holding him. I noted that my pants were gone but I still wore my bra and underwear. “Are you alright? Helios, talk to me.”
“You doll!” Lust screamed, shaking off the last of my electrical residue. “How dare you hurt me! I ssshall kill you!”
The evil shot towards me and I gasped, covering Helios. If I died, I refused to allow him to get hurt.
Instead of my untimely death, the shadow screamed and I turned just in time to see the evil enter me before I blacked out.
I fell asleep in the woods and woke up in quite a different situation.
My body was on what felt like a giant pillow, wrists bound above my head and legs holding separate chains.
“Helios?” I murmured groggily, looking around the room. “Where are you?”
I looked down and around the room.
My earlier conclusion was right—I was on a giant purple pillow edged with golden tassels.
The room was empty of all the natural things like a dresser and a bed but was instead filled with pillows in every direction of variant colors and hues.
The walls weren’t walls at all—they were six, huge mirrors; one for each wall and then one for the ceiling and floor.
I looked at the mirror wall across from me and saw something that made me jump.
There was a small girl with frightened dark blue eyes and shocking black hair lying on a giant pillow—one of the many in the room.
Her clothing was a simple, sky-colored dress that was formfitting but was loose from the hips down to its full length.
The dress was one that would drag the ground when she was standing and had sleeves that didn’t end until they reached her knees.
It was an opened back and was a diagonal cut going from the right to the left that exposed some of her right and most of her left shoulder.
On the top of her straightened black hair was a small silver tiara with one large stone that was the bottom-of-the-sea blue.
I blinked, shocked as I realized something—that beautiful stunning girl was me.
Then I saw the night-black chains around her wrists and ankles.
My wrists were held together in one tight clasp and secured above my head to an opening in the mirror behind me.
My legs were bound by to different clasps—one going on each side of me. The dress was pulled up to the thigh and my thigh was bandaged with paper-like gauze.
“You’re awake,” someone said, jerking me from my thoughts. “I’m surprised. Normally my patients sleep longer.”
“Patient?” I said slowly, my stomach twisting. Had some mad man found me and Helios? Where was Helios? What had happened? “What do you mean? Where am I?”
“You’re in the Carpathian Mountains, my dear,” the man said sweetly.
The man was tall—taller than Helios—with fiery silver eyes and hair to match. His skin was paler than ice but, somehow, it looked perfect on him.
He was dressed in a tailored white suit and white dress shoes.
Everything about him seemed…old, though he didn’t look younger than twenty-one—even with his silver hair.
“Hephaestus, stop teasing her,” a familiar voice said. “And was it necessary to chain her?”
“We didn’t know how she’d react to her treatment,” Hephaestus said defensively. “She could have attacked us!”
“Helios!” I gasped forgetting about the chains until the halted my movement. “What’s going on?! What happened?!”
“Hephaestus,” Helios said with a sigh. “Give me the key before I have to hurt you.”
“I was just trying to protect us,” Hephaestus whispered defensively. He dug through his pocket and tossed Helios a small silver key. “Here.”
Hephaestus left immediately and Helios unchained me. I stared at him, waiting for answers.
“Obviously, that was Hephaestus—the one who crafted your first body,” Helios started. “I thought he was in Moscow but I found out from Draco that he’d just returned here.
“So, I took you while you were passed out and brought you here for Hephaestus’s brand of…healing.” He paused. “You took a lot of damage from Lust—both mentally and physically.
“Unfortunately, your clothes were in shreds so Hephaestus dressed you. To think he’d chose this outfit is an insult to my pride.”
“Why?” I interrupted. “It’s just a dress.” A gorgeous dress. “Why should that matter?”
“That was your wedding dress,” he said quietly, “for when you married Epimetheus. The first you, I mean.”
“That was a different me,” I stated carefully. “I don’t love Epimetheus now. I did once but then he screwed me over.
“To me, this is only a pretty dress.”
I touched his face gently.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered pulling away. That was the first time I noticed what he was wearing. “I shouldn’t have been so weak.”
“Get over it,” I said uneasily. He was wearing a white Russian army uniform minus the hat. Something inside me twisted. “And why are you wearing that?”
“This?” he asked motioning to the outfit. “Unfortunately this is all Hephaestus had of my old clothing—”
“In 1915,” I whispered, feeling sick. “When I saw you get a bullet to the head and thought…Lies got me then.”
“How did you know that?” he asked, surprised.
“I don’t feel so good,” I said dizzily. “Helios…I feel…kind of sick.”
“That’s the brand,” he explained. “It’s used to clear your system.
“A reason Lust was able to trap you so easily was because Jealousy, Lies, and Greed had tainted you—weakened you so to speak.
“With this brand your blood and soul will be regularly cleaned so long as an enormous amount isn’t taken in.
“Like, say for instance, you fell under an evil’s control and allowed it to rule before you reclaimed your body.”
“That large an amount,” I asked, shocked. “That’s really possible?”
“Not that much but to about that extent,” he said, shrugging. “According to Hephaestus it should be about that much.”
I nodded.
“Can I go to sleep without fear of waking up chained to a wall?” I asked tiredly. “Again?”
He smiled and laughed.
“Yes Lieutenant,” he laughed. “Sweet dreams.”
“Thank you Captain…”
And then I fell off.
“Really Helios,” I hissed jerking at my chains. “I thought you said I wouldn’t be chained when I woke up?!”
But, of course, no one was there to hear my complaints. Though, I could see the once frightened little girl in the mirror in front of me looking pretty ticked off by her current situation.
The dress, this morning was the same as the one before only this one was a blood-red color—flaming gorgeously against my caramel brown skin tone.
And the tiara situated on top of my head was the same all but the single stone which was now a deeper red than the dress instead of a bottom-of-the-sea blue.
I let out a sigh.
“Give them time,” I told myself. “They’ll come here eventually.”
I noted different things about both me and the room.
The pillows were matches of my dress and hues that matched perfectly. The mirrors danced with their blood red coloring.
On myself, however, I saw the tattoo for the first time. It was white—nearly a silvery white—and was an intricately drawn dragon coiled to make a P and a B.
Pandora’s Box, I quickly realized, was what the two letters meant. It was a brand of sorts.
Red flashed through the tattoo and I blinked as another red wave flashed through it.
Was this the cleansing?
“I see you’re awake,” a female voice said carelessly. “Perfect, I’ll have to tell Fire and Sun.”
The woman was tall with silver-fire eyes and matching hair. Her skin was a flawless ivory save a variety of scars covering her from her neck down.
She was dressed in a gown similar to mine only hers was a sleek night-black color and she wore no crown. Her scars were her crown.
I shook my head trying to concentrate.
“Who are you?” I asked, slightly confused. “And who are Fire and Sun?”
The woman rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. Her gaze fell to me and scanned me over before scoffing.
“What he sees about you is beyond me,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “I am the Goddess Nemesis. Fire and Sun are Hephaestus and Helios.”
“Why are you here?”
The question was out of my mouth before I could think to hold it in. She replied with a twisted grin.
“I am here to punish Helios,” she said with a smile. “He has broken the taboo—”
“Enough Nemesis,” someone interrupted. “She can’t know.”
“Can’t know,” Nemesis said, turning to face Helios. “Or do you not want her to know?”
Helios hissed out something in another language and Nemesis laughed.
“Afraid she’ll find out about you Helios?” Nemesis laughed. “Why not speak her tongue? Fear? Afraid she’ll turn you away?”
“Helios?” I whispered, tugging lightly on her chains. “What is she talking about?”
“Tell her Helios,” Nemesis said lightly. “Tell her your dirty little secret. Or…shall I?”
That ended in another hiss from Helios and another laugh from Nemesis.
I sat in stunned silence wondering what Helios could be hiding from me.
What did he have to hide? Whatever it was had nothing to with the way I felt about him.
“Helios…?”
“That’s not my name,” he said thickly. “I’m not Helios. I’ve been deceiving you. All of this has been a lie.”
I froze.
What was he talking about? How had everything, every moment with him, been a lie?
“My name is Endymion,” he continued weakly. “I met Helios, Epimetheus, and you when I was young. I found out everything I could about you while you were alive.
“And then the Goddess Artemis took a liking to me and granted me eternal life. Then she moved on and I followed you, taking on Helios’s form and impregnating you.
“I was trying to make Artemis jealous at first but then…I got to know you, I met you. Pandora…I fell in love with you. I didn’t believe it possible until Greed took you.
“And then you were reincarnated and I fell in love with you all over again.”
He paused and looked at Nemesis, wary of what she would do to him.
“Endymion?” I whispered. “You’re Endymion? Not…Helios?”
He nodded sadly.
I stared blankly at the floor. I had fallen in love with a man I didn’t even know. A man who had deceived me all of my life…well, lives.
“No,” I whispered. “You’re lying.” Tears fell down my cheeks and my voice cracked as I continued. “Both of you—you’re both lying.”
I let out a sob and fought against the tears.
“The secret is out now,” Nemesis laughed. “Aren’t you glad you finally told her before she was on her death bed?”
“You demon!” I cried out. “Nemesis—how dare you…Endymion…Helios…what happened to Helios?”
“He’s wandering the Earth in an attempt to find you,” Endymion said sadly. “Pandora I’m—”
“Shut up,” I sobbed. “I hate you! I hate you! I trusted you and you betrayed me! I thought I could count on you to protect me!
“In the end it was you I needed protected from! I’d rather have to die because of an evil than listen to your apologies!
“I hate you! And to think I even loved you!”
“You loved me?” he whispered, crossing the room to me and kneeling down. “You loved me?”
“No,” I said shaking my head, tears still flowing. “I thought I loved Helios. I could never love you.”
I turned away from him, closing my eyes, as my world fell apart.
“I think she should spend some time wallowing in self-pity,” Nemesis said happily. “I love to see people cry.”
Endymion stood, kissed my head softly, before leaving.
See all the secrets he’s kept from you, a voice in my head said. See all the lies he’s told you? He never loved you. He lied to you, right?
I blinked as the voice continued.
You should just let him suffer. That’s how he left you, isn’t it? And this isn’t the first time either. All those other lives.
He was afraid that if he wasn’t Helios you wouldn’t love him. You know that’s true.
“Yes,” I whispered. “If it could all go away…”
If it could all go away, you wouldn’t have anything to worry about. A hard enough hit against the mirror and it would all be over.
You would be with your parents again, right? Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted?
“Yes,” I sighed. “Mom and Dad…I want to be with them again…”
Right…so why aren’t you? You want to leave the liars behind right? You want to end it all…right?
I forced my chains out of the mirror wall with power I had no idea I possessed.
The glass broke under the weight and I stared at the piece that had landed beside me.
Just one hit and it will all be over. Nothing to worry about. What’s a little pain now to an eternity of happiness?
“Nothing,” I whispered, raising the glace piece. “Nothing at all…”
I brought the shard down and pain exploded in my abdomen. Suddenly blood was everywhere and I was burning.
“PANDORA!!!” someone screamed.
I looked at Helios—no, Endymion—and passed out.
The place I woke up to was somewhere far different than before. This time…I woke up in a hospital room.
I was hooked up to an IV and the sounds of beeping machines were evident.
The next thing I registered was the heat on my hand. I looked over and Endymion scent enveloped me—the dark smell invading my senses.
“Pandora?”
Endymion lifted his head and looked at me. He was holding my hand.
“You’re awake,” he whispered. “That’s a relief. When you stabbed yourself…Hephaestus and I both thought you were going to die.”
“Right,” I said icily. “Care about something you’ve lusted after for centuries.”
“What do you mean?”
“I was there when you talked with Nemesis,” I said coldly. “I remember every word, Endymion.”
He looked at me as if I was crazy and shook his head.
“Are you feeling alright Pandora?” he asked, slightly confused. “And where on Earth did you get the name Endymion?”
“Really Endymion?” I laughed. “Did you seriously think I forgot? I know you’ve lied to me for quite a few lives now about being Helios.
“You even had the gall to tell me what he was doing! How stupid can you get?! And when I told you I loved you! That was the most priceless thing of all, seeing as it was so obvious!”
“You love me?” he said, surprised. “But I thought you hated me for what I’ve done to you!”
“Right,” I continued. “Like I’m going to fall for your act again Endymion. How stupid do you think I am?”
Suddenly, Helios pulled back.
“Let me see your thigh,” he said quickly. “Now, before someone comes in.”
“Why should I show anything—whoa!”
He jerked the cover back and lifted my hospital gown up to my hip.
“I thought so,” he said quietly. “Here’s the proof you need. It’s right here.”
The tattoo was black and burning. I took it in remembering its beautiful white-silvery coloring.
“You were attacked by Secrets,” he explained. “I didn’t think it could get into the Carpathians. Apparently I was wrong.
“It had been tailing us for the past few days. Apparently we hadn’t lost it like I thought…
“As for what you thought you saw and heard, it was all lies. Secrets is good at crafting lies that seem achingly real.
“Hephaestus and I were caught in the middle of one of his lies and I broke out but not in enough time to keep you from stabbing yourself.
“What did Secrets tell you? It had to be big to get you this riled.”
I relaxed, suddenly, trusting that I wasn’t being lied to. This was Helios. And an evil had attacked me.
“Secrets told me that you weren’t Helios,” I started uneasily. “Firstly Nemesis came into the room and said how she had to punish you for breaking the taboo.
“You told me that you were Endymion, that Artemis granted you eternal life before passing you on and loving another.
“Then you said that you had come through the centuries and had me birth Pandoras and that you continually fell in love with me all over again.”
I froze, looking at the hurt in Helios’s eyes wanting dearly to free him of it.
“Helios—”
“Stop Pandora,” he whispered. “Close your eyes. And don’t open them.”
I obeyed and I felt his lips brush against mine softly and I felt the caress of his dark scent as he deepened the kiss gently before pulling away.
When he did I opened my eyes to see his jasper, jade-flecked ones burning in front of me.
If I tilted my head I could kiss him again. He was leaving the decision to me.
“Where are we?” I whispered.
“In Hephaestus’s hospital room,” Helios replied instantly, without blinking.
“Will anyone come in?”
A smile parted his lips slightly.
“No one is allowed to come in here,” he whispered, “unless I allow them to.”
“So we’re alone?” I prompted.
He nodded and I tilted my head up and kissed him.
Before I knew it, he was kissing me back. Even faster, his clothes and my gown were on the floor and Helios was on the bed as well.
“I love you,” he told me pulling back. “I always have.”
“I know,” I said, pulling him back to me. “I think I’ve always known.”
Please reply. I apologize in advance for any incorrect phrasing or wording. ****It is copied directly from the microsoft word document so font variations have been canceled out****
