Nearly Witches

Chapter Eight

Alysanne groaned as she pulled herself up, Captain Justice and Tribe had left thirty minutes ago, and she knew they were long gone. She couldn’t see them on her security cameras nor could see Mors or his family on them either. Again, when she tried to see what happened before she woke up in her backyard, her cameras stopped working and then she was just watching herself being carried into the house by Captain Justice.

‘f**k a duck,’ Alysanne thought to herself.

‘I don’t think the duck would enjoy that,’ Ghost told her as he jumped onto the couch, putting his head on her lap.

‘Then it’s good for the duck; that I’m not interested in animals,’ Alysanne retorted.

‘What’s wrong?’ Nymeria asked her.

‘Mors and his friends don’t show up on the cameras, they stop working when they’re around it would seem,’ Alysanne told them. ‘This is the second time they’ve stopped working; each time Mors was around.’

‘So, you watched yourself sleep?’ Ghost asked her.

‘For a few minutes,’ Alysanne told him.

‘How creepy is it to watch yourself sleep?’

‘It’s creepy to watch others as they sleep, it’s strange to watch yourself.’

‘Maybe it’s time to sleep?’ Nymeria asked her.

‘I should be able to walk,’ Alysanne told them, while pulling herself from the couch. ‘I’ll text father before I go to sleep.’

Alysanne couldn’t believe all her wounds had been healed as she slept, she had been shot in the leg and that had healed before her very eyes. She knew that she couldn’t freak out when it happened or else someone could’ve shot her in the head.

Nor did she know what Mors, or his nut-case friends had done to her while she was out for the count, but she couldn’t help but wonder. Why was she still alive? Why didn’t they just kill her? And what did Hecate mean they couldn’t leave her without arrows? Did they have her spare bow? Would have to take the ask and buy or make a new one?

All she knew was that something had been done to her, when she walked into her bedroom and paused. Someone had been in her room, there was a silver bow leaning against her bedframe and there was a few notes on her desk.

“Artemis of the silver bow,” Alysanne whispered to herself. None of this made any sense to her; something had been done to her bow and something had been done to her arrows. Why would they help her?

There was more to his plan than she first thought, more than any of them thought and she didn’t know what to think about it. The old gods are returning; something about that sentence was important but she was too tired to think about it.

What did they want from her? What did they think she was? Was there something that Alysanne didn’t know about herself? She could think about it in the morning, right now she had to text her father and tell him that she wouldn’t be going to school the next day.

She needed to ring her school tomorrow. Then she could worry about Mors and his plans, somehow, she had to act like she didn’t know about the three other people who thought they were part of the Greek pantheon.

Why was her life like this?

“I need to sleep,” Alysanne said as she sat on her bed.

‘Not in that dress,’ Nymeria told her.

“Dress?” Alysanne asked before looking down, she guessed that Nymeria had a point. It looked like it belonged in a museum about the Greek Gods. “Okay, get changed and then sleep. Today’s been one mess after another.”

‘One less human trafficking group,’ Nymeria reminded her.

“Well, there’s that,” Alysanne admitted. “At least one good thing came out of today, even if we don’t know what happened to them.”

‘Doubt anything bad,’ Ghost asked.

‘They did tell you about them,’ Nymeria added.

“I’m going to get dressed,” Alysanne told them as quickly went into the bathroom to get changed from the Greek dress, oddly enough, she knew how to take it off; almost as if she had been wearing this style of clothing her entire life.

‘That looks normal,’ Ghost told her.

“Thanks, Ghost,” Alysanne told them sitting on her bed.

‘You’re welcome.’

 “Goodnight; Ghost, Nymeria.”

--

“My temple,” Alysanne hissed as she walked around a room with white stone walls, when she turned around a male with bright blonde hair, long enough to pull into a plate sat leaned against the wall next to a bed. His sky-blue eyes followed as her as she continued pacing.

“I know Arty,” he told her. Alysanne spying a silver bow sitting next to a desk, silver arrows sitting in a leather quiver next to the bow. Somehow, the bow seemed similar, even if Alysanne couldn’t recognise anything else in the room. “Achille’s did the same to my temple in the Trojan War.”

“Apollon, they dragged a maiden. A maiden from my temple and killed her on the steps,” she told him as she sat down on her bed. “At night, they did it at night. She was meant to be safe, Apollon, my temple was meant to be safe.”

“Artemis, there was nothing you could have done to stop it,” Apollon told her, putting his arm around her shoulders when he sat next to her.

“They killed someone on my temple steps,” Alysanne said again. “She might have been a princess, a queen, but she was child. Nothing more than a mere child and she was meant to be safe. May Mark Antony rue the day he spilt blood on my temple steps.”

“Hera won’t be happy about this,” Apollon told her.

“Hera hasn’t been happy with us since we were born,” Alysanne reminded him. “Nor was she happy with you in the Trojan War, or Aphrodite as she helped her son to safety.”

“And our siblings being born,” Apollon added, pulling her closer to his side as he laughed even as they kept an eye on her bedroom door. “Apart from Ares, but I don’t think she’s been happy with him for a while.”

“If Hera wanted us to continue helping Antony; then she should have warned him against this,” she told them. “Should have warned him to watch his spending, or for falling for that woman’s charms; he should have done better for Rome. Stupid male.”

“You know I’ll stand behind you.”

“As I did for you in Troy.”

Apollon smiled at her, while Alysanne put her arm around Apollon pulling him into a hug. The gold and silver twins; neither of them would do anything to help Rome while Mark Antony was still in charge and he had no one to blame but himself.

--

Alysanne woke up with sweat going down her face, her heart beating loud enough that she could hear it behind her ears. Putting her arm over her eyes, she thought back to her dream and how realistic it felt, almost as if it was one of her memories. Like the memories she had of her mum practicing with her when she was younger, or balling ball in the yard.

Sighing, she removed her arm and push herself up. She might as well read the letters on her desk now that she was awake, thankfully, she kept her desk next to her bed. At least she wouldn’t wake up Nymeria or Ghost.

The first thing she picked up was an envelope with several pictures in it; it was of people hugging each other; children hugging adults or children hugging other children, even of adults hugging other adults. It took a while for the images to click in her mind, they were pictures of the people those horrid men had trapped in cars or on that bus.

She knew what they were trying to do, they were trying to show her that they had kept their word about not killing them. Alysanne just wished they had done so in a way that didn’t break their privacy, they had already been through hell and back, they deserved to reunions with their loved ones in peace.

There was also a note from Hecate and Mnemosyne about what they had done to them, Alysanne couldn’t make heads or tales from the note. They had written it in another language, one that google translate didn’t recognise.

Then again, google translate didn’t recognise Gaelic half the time, Irish or Scottish, nor did think she it knew Cornish or Walsh. Not that she checked if they could, she didn’t need any help translating Spanish or Irish Gaelic.

“What a strange dream,” Alysanne whispered to herself as she put the note back, she would burn those photos with the other ones. Quickly putting them with the other photos she was going to burn, she could put them in the fireplace in the morning, but she might as well keep together so she didn’t miss one.

Thinking about her dream, she wondered why they were never taught that Mark Antony was stupid enough to have maiden killed in front of one of Artemis’ temples. And shouldn’t it be the temple of Diana? It was in Rome after all, where in about in Rome she didn’t know since the empire covered most of Europe at one point.

So, what did she knew about her dream, that Mark Antony and a woman -most likely Cleopatra- had someone killed on the stairs of Artemis’ temple. Did she know who they had killed? No, she didn’t, and it didn’t give her a lot of information.

“I’m giving it too much credit,” she whispered to herself. Alysanne knew she could investigate it, but she doubted she would find anything. Not about a murder that had happened over two thousand years ago and she doubted she would find any information from the time; just records written by the Romans three hundred plus years after the fact.

That was what happened with Cleopatra’s suicide. Pluto had been the first one to record it, but he wrote it around three hundred years after her death, she couldn’t trust anything that Octavian said about it; who would want to admit to killing an Egyptian Queen? She had a feeling that Roman people wouldn’t have agreed with it, or they would have since Cleopatra was the reason two of their Emperors had been killed.

Looking at the silver bow, Alysanne felt blood leave her face. It was the same one that had been in her dream; even the quiver and the arrows matched. The arrows that Hephaestus had made for his half-sister, along with the other thousands of things he would have made for his family, demigod, god or goddess.

Picking up the next note, she blinked when it told her to touch the bow. Before she looked at her wrist to see if she could find the bracelet she wasn’t meant to take off, but she couldn’t see one on her desk or anywhere in her room.

“Touch the bow,” Alysanne whispered to herself, they must have been high when they wrote this note to her. Or they must have thought she was some kind of naïve moron, they could even be playing a track on her, wasn’t there a poison that could kill if touched or breathed in.

‘You’re awake?’ Nymeria asked her.

‘I am,’ Alysanne told her. ‘You don’t smell anything unusual?’

‘No, but I need to pee.’

‘Go outside.’

‘Yes mum.’

‘What’s wrong?’ Ghost asked her the moment Nymeria had left the room, Alysanne only looked at him.

‘Hecate wants me to touch the silver bow,’ Alysanne told him.

‘Then do it.’

‘That would mean trusting them.’

‘They haven’t harmed you so far.’

‘Mors threw her off the roof,’ Nymeria reminded them.

‘He tried killing me when I first met him,’ Alysanne agreed. ‘Hypnos also knocked us out, while Hecate who knows what during it.’

‘But only Mors has tried killing you,’ Ghost said.

‘Don’t do anything until I’ve returned,’ Nymeria told them.

‘I’m not going to touch it,’ Alysanne told them, pouting when both her partners snorted at her, like she was to touch it at some point. Curiosity killed the cat after all, but she wasn’t a cat nor was she a cat person.

She could respect them, but some cats terrified her with how dark their thoughts could get and how they planned to take down their prey or scum food out of people. Or how they were going to get pets or attention, she had fallen for their cute faces more than once only for them to draw blood when they were done with it.

“I’m going mad,” Alysanne whispered as she looked at the silver bow. “I’m going to touch it after all, huh. If I die get someone for me.”

‘You’re not going to die,’ Nymeria told her.

“Thanks for the confidence boast.”

‘You’re welcome.’

Not answering Nymeria, Alysanne swung her legs over the bed and walked over to the silver bow leaning against the end of her bed.

‘Aren’t you going to touch it?’ Ghost asked her as her fingers covered near it.

‘I don’t know if I should,’ Alysanne told them.

‘She doesn’t have to, if she doesn’t want to,’ Nymeria told him.

‘What kind of reverse psychology is this?’ Alysanne asked her, before gently touching the silver string with the tip of her fingers.

‘What the?’ Ghost asked as Alysanne looked at the silver bracelet hanging around her wrist; it was simple thing. There were three charms hanging off the metal; a bow and arrow, a crescent moon and lastly; a deer.

“That explains the bracelet comment,” Alysanne told them. “Now I have to learn how to use it, guess all I have to do is touch the bow charm.”

‘Seems like,’ Ghost told her as Alysanne touched the charm, her bow appearing in her hand, while her quiver was where she normally kept it on her back. ‘At least you don’t have to worry about forgetting them anymore.’

“Or the police finding them,” Alysanne replied, she never worried about forgetting her bow and arrows. They were usually the first things she grabbed before leaving to make her rounds, she had a system, so she didn’t forget anything. “I don’t think they’ll believe me if I told them my bracelet turned into a weapon.”

‘More so with how delicate it looks,’ Nymeria told her.

Alysanne just sighed before turning her bow and arrows back into its bracelet form, she would have to reread that note from Hecate in the morning. More so, if she didn’t want the bracelet to turn into a weapon when she was in class.

How would one explain a random weapon appearing out of nowhere?

“It’s far too early for this s**t,” Alysanne stated before sitting on her bed and falling backwards, it was strange since she had to check if the bracelet was still on her wrist. It was weightless to the point that she could forget that she was wearing it. “I don’t even know if this fits the school’s dress code.”

‘Just wear long sleeves,’ Ghost told her as he put his head down, Nymeria going back to her bed whacking him with her tail before lying down.

‘Worry about it later,’ Nymeria told her.

“Here’s to no more strange dreams,” Alysanne said, she would write them down in the morning, if she still remembered it by then.

‘We’ll need to talk about that in the morning young lady,’ Nymeria told her.

“If we have to.”

‘Just go to sleep.’

--

Arsinoe the fourth, Arsinoe the fourth of lower and upper Egypt. Queen Arsinoe, who was only Queen for a few short weeks before being exiled from her home. Alysanne walked through the stone hallways before slowly walking down the steps, a temple, she was at a temple. Water as far as the eye could see, but the thing that drew her attention was the body on the steps.

Blood underneath her, blood staining the stone. All Alysanne could do was stare at the slim figure, the girl’s soul looking at it as well. Dark hair, dark eyes and brown skin, she was a beauty and Alysanne couldn’t help but wonder where her gods were.

“Hello Arsinoe,” Alysanne said after looking at her for a few seconds, looking towards Egypt and then back at the temple behind her. It would make sense that Egyptian gods couldn’t enter a Roman or Greek temple.  

Maybe, I could have Hermes take her to Hades, Alysanne thought. Hades wouldn’t judge her for wanting to protect her people from Rome. Standing with her brother and king, even it meant that her sister and queen was exiled.

“You’re Lady Artemis,” Arsinoe said.

“That I am child,” Alysanne told her.

“It would seem that Ra has forsaken me.”

“Ra cannot enter a temple of another.” Alysanne sat down next to her. “Only two males can enter my temple; my twin brother and Hermes.”

“But the guards entered anyway.”

“That they did child, they have displeased me, and they shall know it.”

Arsinoe just looked at her, before giving her a small smile. Most people would be screaming and crying, but Alysanne guessed that a princess was taught better, to hide your feelings in a world were anyone could be plotting your demise.

“You should have been safe, out of her reach,” Alysanne told her; she should have been safe in her temple. She was in her temple; she was the Goddess of Maidens and innocents. Arsinoe had been exiled to her temple for the rest of her life, never once trying to leave in the last few years she had been there.

But it would seem the Queen of lower and upper Egypt wasn’t happy about her little sister being alive, even if she was miles away from her. She had killed her, like she had killed her brothers and Alysanne knew she should be glad that she would never face Hades wrath.

There was nothing worse than someone who’d willingly kill their family.

“If you never want to see your sister again,” Alysanne told her after a few seconds of silence, as long as Arsinoe’s ghost stayed in her temple. Neither Osiris nor Anubis could get to her, could not force her to enter their underworld. “You can come with me; Hades would never allow her to enter the Asphodel field or even the fields of mourning.”

“Cleopatra is the reason I was killed,” Arsinoe stated.

“She is.”

“I never have to see her?”

“I can take you to my brother, or I can escort you to Hades myself.”

“If you take me?”

“Then I cannot take you to Hades’ halls.”

Arsinoe just looked at her, before looking at her body. Alysanne had watched her for the last few years; she might be small in body, but she was strong in spirit. Brave enough to run into a complete war zone to get away from the Romans and back to her own people.

She had fought back and won the light tower, it might have been her only win in the war, but she had stood up for her people anyway. That was something that Alysanne could respect, that Ares could respect.

“I would like that,” Arsinoe told her putting out her hand for her to take, Alysanne took it into her own and preyed that Hades would allow her this one request. Even if it meant haunting down something for him at a later date; animal or flower.

“I’ll take you to Hermes, maybe he’ll allow me to tag along,” Alysanne told her, standing up before taking her hand and helping her to her feet. She would take Arsinoe to Hermes, instead of waiting for someone else to collect her. “He’s a jokester, a trickster.”

“Like Set?”

“Sort of, Hermes is nicer, and he can guide you to Hades’ halls. You’ll be able to bypass the three judges.”

“Why? I’m not Roman my lady.”

“But you do have Greek blood,” Alysanne told her. “You were killed at my temple; no one should be killed in a place of worship. A place of refuge.”

“Lady Artemis, it’s not your fault. My sister wanted me dead and she would have gone to any means to achieve it.”

“Then may her heart weight heavier than Anubis’ feather.”

“And may lower and upper Egypt find peace.”

“Apollon and Hermes will like you, Queen Arsinoe the fourth.”

--

Alysanne groaned as she woke up, at least now she had a name. But she didn’t know that there had been a Queen Arsinoe the first, let alone a fourth. She could look up at the name at another time, when it wasn’t likely she would be caught.

Putting her hand to her check, she blinked when her skin felt warm. Covering her mouth as she coughed and looked at her alarm clock, which she didn’t set last night and blinked when it read two forty-five in the afternoon.

What a time to get a cold.

‘You’re sick,’ Nymeria told her.

‘Guess I’m making chicken soup,’ Alysanne told her, looking at her partner before sighing and frowning at her. ‘And feeding you two before doing so, you must be starving.’

‘Yes,’ Ghost told her.

‘Come, I’ll feed you two. Still have cow tongue and chicken bone.’

‘I will accept your bribe.’

‘Thank you kind sir.’

Alysanne didn’t know why her dreams had to be so strange, it wasn’t like she knew much about Egypt’s history and if wanted to understand her dreams, she would have to research it and hope that it connected back to Mors and his merry band of weirdos.

It might also help figure out why she was dreaming about a Queen Arsinoe and how she was connected to Queen Cleopatra. Or how they were part of this mess overall, Alysanne didn’t want to enter the argument about Cleopatra.

She honestly didn’t care if was cold-blooded killer or if she ended her own life before she could be dragged through Rome in shame.

‘You’re sick,” Ghost told her as she walked into the kitchen.

“It’s just a cold or flu,” Alysanne told them; whatever Hecate had done to her had messed up her immune system and given her strange dreams. “So, I’ll either be out for a day or a few weeks. I’m not going to die from it.”

‘Food?’ Ghost asked her.

‘And your dreams?’ Nymeria asked her.

“They’re just strange,” Alysanne told Nymeria, before taking out the raw meat she would put into their bowels. Cow tongue for muscle, chicken bone for bone, beef for meat, cut up carrots for vegetables and five blackberries for fruit.

Putting them down, she went to cook her own food. Chicken soup, the best thing for colds she had been taught. What was it, feed a cold and starve a flu?

‘Captain Justice is at the door,’ Ghost told her once her soup was done, Alysanne just blinked before turning her stove off.

‘You sure?’ Alysanne asked him.

‘It is,’ Nymeria echoed.

‘How can you tell?’

‘It’s her scent,’ Ghost told her.

‘We’ve been around enough to remember is,’ Nymeria added.

‘Why is risking her identity?’ Alysanne asked.

‘She’s gone mad,’ Ghost suggested.

‘Or she’s worried,’ Nymeria suggested. ‘Why don’t you answer the door and find out.’

‘That I will,’ Alysanne told them as she walked towards the front door, opening it only to blink when she saw Rosalie about to knock on the door again. ‘Wait, Rosalie’s Captain Justice?’

“Alysanne, you weren’t at school today,” Rosalie said.

“I’m sick,” Alysanne told her.

“I was driving past when I spotted your car in the driveway.’

‘No, she was here last night,’ Alysanne said to Ghost and Nymeria.

‘But you can’t tell her that,’ Nymeria stated.

‘No, I can’t.’

“Mary helped you find my house, didn’t she?” Alysanne asked her.

“She might have,” Rosalie replied.

“I made some soup if you’d like some.”

“I would, but Mum will want me home soon.”

“Come on in.”

‘Should we go upstairs?’ Nymeria asked her.

‘Or can we stay downstairs?’ Ghost asked.

‘Stay,’ Alysanne told them.

“Who is this?” Rosalie asked her as she spotted Nymeria and Ghost at their water bowls. “I didn’t know you had pets.”

“Many don’t,” Alysanne told her. “But this is Ghost and Nymeria.”

“I’m guessing they can’t have puppies?”

“They can’t.”

“I have your homework, Mrs Black collected them for me.”

Alysanne blinked as Rosalie took a folder out of her bag, putting it on the kitchen table as she sat down. “Thank you. I found more information for our project, if you would like to read it as well before we write anything.”

“Just email them to me,” Rosalie told her as Alysanne placed a bowel of soup in front of her, she just smiled as Rosalie blinked at her and slapped her forehead.

“No need to hurt yourself,” Alysanne told her.

“You don’t have my email address.”

“Just text it to me, I’m sure I can figure it out.”

‘You’re horrible,’ Nymeria told her.

‘That I am,’ Alysanne agreed.

“You look horrible,” Rosalie told her as Alysanne returned with her own bowl, handing Rosalie one of the spoons in her hand. “You’re not going to be for the rest of the week.”

“It’s possible,” Alysanne told her.

“I can collect your homework, if you want.”

“If it’s not a bother.”

“I think my parents will be happy I’m talking to someone outside of school.”

“Would you like a drink? I have orange juice and water.”

“Water would be nice.”

Alysanne nodded before walking back to get two glasses of water, if Rosalie was Captain Justice then at least she knew how she had found her house. She had a feeling that Rosalie didn’t even know who Mary was, but jumped at it because it would explain how she was at her house.

Without making herself look like a stalker.

“I’ll wash up, then get out of your hair,” Rosalie told her.

“You don’t have to,” Alysanne said without thinking. “I can wash up.”

“I know, but it would be polite, since you made me food.”

‘Just let her,’ Nymeria told her, glaring at her as she walked past. Ghost following her example as they walked into the living room, where they curled up on their beds. ‘You need to rest; rest is the best cure for any illness.’

‘Stop being stubborn,’ Ghost scolded.

“If you’re sure,” Alysanne told her.

“Wouldn’t have offered, my sister’s and I do the dishes at home,” Rosalie told her, looking at her slightly stunned, before smiling. “It’s Sakura’s turn anyway.”