Thread: Chained Souls: Night Thirteen {Book Two of the Chained Duet}

Night Thirteen

I stared in shock, unsure of what to say or how to react.
She wasn't Pandora? How was that even possible?!
"But...how can that be...?"
"She is the daughter of an evil," a voice said from the door way. "It's understandable that she's not Pandora."
I met emerald eyes and a feeling of relief washed over me.
He slipped into the room with his normal grace and, for some reason, I felt like crying then and there. Whether it was from his earlier depature or something else was beyond me.
The three of them went over a few details about my pregnancy and of the twins before I had Tribute and Evie in my arms once again.
Death, through most of it, stayed silent.
"I'll have to run things over with the others," Helios said placidly. "Aphrodite won't be very happy about this."
Pain nodded.
Helios didn't even bother to say goodbye to me or the twins.
"I'll go pick up a few things from the house," Pain said gently, leaning down to kiss me.
"Alright," was all I could say before he kissed me. I thought he lingered longer than neccessary and that there was something different about this kiss but I pushed it off as he left the room.
Death stood silently by the door and I glanced at him, expecting him to leave any second.
After all, did he really belong here? Did he really deserve to watch this?
"Death," I said as he said "Pandora".
We both stopped what we were about to say and the silence resumed.
"What is it?" I asked finally.
"Are you alright?" he asked in his soft voice. He almost sounded...sad. "Things have been hectic for you. With all of them running around."
He didn't need to clarify who 'them' was.
"I've been fine," I lied. "Things have been okay."
Things were not okay. They were far from it--so long as he kept the distance he was slowly piecing together.
His eyes showed that he'd seen through the lie but he didn't push it farther.
"Do you want to hold them?" I asked quietly, breaking the small contact that we'd shared.
He crossed the room and I felt the tears prick at the edges of my eyes, threatening to overcome me.
I handed him Tribute and then Evie. They immediately came to life when they were cradled in his arms.
While each had been held--by one person or another--they'd stayed silent, almost angry, at being handled by someone other than me.
I blinked as I realized that Pain hadn't even asked to hold Evie. He'd practically said he didn't want to touch her by not even noticing her save the comment of calling them both beautiful. He'd never even addressed her.
Tribute was just the opposite. While the gods and goddesses had ignored him totally, Pain had given him his full attention.
Death, on the other hand, held both of them with the same amount of care and love.
Why, when they weren't even his children, did he show so much love to them?
The tears fell then, flowing in paths that caressed my cheeks.
"Pandora, what's wrong?" Death asked immediately. "Are you hurting?"
His voice, though still soft, held a note of concern. It just made the tears worse.
"Why," I managed, my voice showing the breaking inside of me. "Why are you doing this? How can you even be here? This isn't...You should...I..."
"Mommy, don't cry," a small voice said sadly. "I don't want to see you cry."
I looked up to see Evie, her arms around Death's neck, looking at me with sad eyes.
"Did you just...?"
Death was staring at her in awe and I knew the same look was on my face. I hadn't even given birth to her no more that a handful of hours ago.
Evie pushed against Death until he let her go.
In almost a second her body grew, lengthening and twisting until she stood at exactly my height. Her hair grew to her waist and was in large curls at the ends.
The blanket that was wrapped around her entire body only wrapped around her torso and fell to about mid-thigh now.
Both Death and I stood staring at her in disbelief.
"Ev...ie?"
"I've been able to do this since the beginning," she explained. "Tribute can do it to. But with all of them around here..." She shuddered. "I thought it best that I didn't grow to my actual size."
Tribute reciprocated the show and stood in front of me at Pain's exact height, the blanket around his waist.
"But it's better kept a secret," Tribute said in a dark-toned voice. It was the polar opposite of Evie's soft, lilting voice. "If too many knew about it...it wouldn't be good."
"Then why did you transform in front of Death?" I asked, my gaze flickering to him. Death's original look of shock had passed and he was listening intently.
"Because in the fu--"
"Evie," Tribute said darkly, cutting her off. "Don't say anything like that."
"Oops," she said shyly. "Well, let me explain. I can see the future while Tribute can phase through solid objects. We can both fly and...well, we can both be taken into your body--like the others."
"The others?" I asked. "As in the other evils? How do you even know so much?"
"Your body coached us," Tribute said as Evie padded off to the bathroom that coupled with the room. "While the tattoos and your being Pandora kept us good, the evils inside of you taught us about the outside world and how to survive.
"They also trained us on how to fight."
"Greed taught me," Evie said, slipping back into the room with something shiny in her hand. "Along with Lies and Lust."
"I was taught by Strife, Disaster, and Violence," Tribute said, summing everything up, in a way.
Death's eyes met mine and Evie padded over to Death, wrapping her arms around his neck as she hugged him.
He stiffened noticably and I heard her say something unintelligible to him before letting him go and going back to her brother.
"So let me get this straight," I said as the door clicked open. "You--"
"Pandora, I'm back," someone said as they entered. "And Helios wanted to--"
Pain stopped dead in his tracks as he met Evie and Tribute's gazes, shock showing blatantly on his face.
Evie smiled and giggled as she wrapped her arms around Tribute's waist. In turn, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
If they didn't look so much like siblings it would've looked as if they wete together.
The bag in Pain's hand landed on the floor with a 'thunk' as Helios entered the door.
Helios's gaze landed on Evie and he sized her up, dragging his eyes over every inch of her statue. He reciprocated the action with Tribute.
"This isn't good," he said calmly.