The baby screams.
Shade transforms into an
anode.
The humans jump up. In a flash
Jasmina is pulling out a throwing knife, Mario is raising a gun and
Petra has her bow out and is drawing back an arrow.
Hades sweeps his hand around
and they all turn to stone. 'Not so quickly,' he says, chortling to
himself. 'Take your time.'
Then he eats the baby. Alive!
It kicks and screams as he munches on it.
I throw up all over Pollux's
moon. It's the grossest thing I've ever seen. To make it worse, the
human statues are watching. Their eyes are alive and seeing. They
stand tortured, watching, but unable to help.
Zeus slams his fist against the
side of the moon, knocking me off my feet and making Izzy cry,
'Damn!' he bellows. 'Evil, just like his father.'
'
Your
father,' corrects Pollux.
'Don't remind me!' shouts
Zeus.
Once the baby is gone, Hades
wipes the blood off his face with a serviette and chortles to
himself. He holds out his hand and The Book rises from its hiding
place in the roots of the olive tree and floats across into him. He
holds it high above his head and shouts, 'Now the power of The Book
is mine. Earth belongs to the Titans.' Lightning shoots up from The
Book into the sky.
'Whoa,' I say, lost for
words.
The next scenes are from the
last couple of months. Hades has rearranged the human statues
around the courtyard to give them a good view and sits at the table
with his precious book, opening it and writing in a quill pen. When
it closes it, bolts of lightning shoot up to the sky, harbingers of
disaster.
'This is just coming in,' says
Pollux. The image is crystal clear and seamless. Hades is talking
to Petra, with his nose just inches from hers, 'My beauty, my
lovely, innocent, naive Petra, my granddaughter!' He rumbles with
laughter, 'Yes my granddaughter. You are about to help me finish
life on Earth; to wipe the slate clean. I might just let you live
long enough, if the radiation doesn't kill you first, so that you
can meet my side of the family, the Titans. We are going to party
until the Ozone is gone, then use the wasted planet as our
home.
'You, my dear, will send the
order to fire the missiles. You'll enjoy that, won't you? Signing
the death warrant for Earth.'
'We need to do something. NOW!'
I shout.
I pick up Izzy, grab Zeus's
hand and click my fingers.
Blip!
We're back on my front
lawn.
Blip! Blip!
Jesus and Azziz arrive.
Jesus clicks his fingers.
Blip!
Tat arrives, holding a staff,
his weapon of choice.
I run in and grab my photon
canon.
We are just about to go when
Mum and Dad come running around the corner.
'What's going on?' screeches
Mum.
I spin round and blast a couple
of slimeballs out of the sky, before Pollux can get a shot in. I'm
in no mood for messing today.
'Mum,' I order. 'Take care of
the kids.'
'Ready?' asks Zeus. Him, Jesus
and Azziz all change into anode form.
'Ready,' we say, and are
gone.
37
We tumble to the ground in the
walled garden on Mulo.
'Darn kid,' curses Zeus,
standing up and trying to shake Izzy off his ankle.
She giggles. I grab her and
duck behind the nearest cover. Lightning bolts fly in all
directions, smashing holes in the walls and setting trees on fire.
Then all goes quiet. I wait for the smoke and dust to blow clear
then giving Izzy my fang to play with, I whisper, 'Stay there,
don't say anything; don't do anything. I'll be back.'
She smiles at me.
I scamper across to behind the
statues, sure that Zeus and his sons will have finished off
Hades.
'Oh do come out my dear,' says
Hades, in a sickeningly playful voice. 'Come and see your
friends.'
There's no point in
hiding. Me coming out might give Tat an opening. I stand up and
walk out into the courtyard. The immobile bodies of Zeus, Jesus and
Azziz lie smoking on the ground at the feet of the statues. If only
I could bring the statues back to life.
Hades is standing by the table
with his book. He looks at me with his evil red eyes.
I relax, I think Zen. I click
my fingers. It happens in a flash. The statues reanimate. The twins
run away, as the knife, arrow and bullet find their mark on Hades
forehead. He staggers back.
Yes! We got him.
He staggers forward as another
volley hits him. He sweeps his hand to turn his attackers back to
stone and laughs, a deep rumbling laugh. 'Wonderful, Emily my dear,
you are a feisty one. I'm so glad you came.'
Faster than he can see,
the photon canon is in my hand and I blast and blast him, knocking
him back against the wall. I keep blasting until it runs out of
charge. He straightens himself out and gives a little shake like a
wet dog, 'Oh Emily that was good.' He lifts his hand and the canon
is torn out of my grip and flies over the wall. Will nothing stop
him?
'Now Emily, I'm so glad to have
you in the audience. Let's get down to business; we've got your
planet to destroy. Petra, my dear, I need you to sign The
Book.'
Petra's statue walks stiffly
across to the table. I can see in her eyes that she's fighting
every step of the way. When she reaches the table, Hades opens The
Book and flicks to the right page. He places a pen in Petra's hand
and says, 'Now, sign here my dear.'
I see a flicker out of the
corner of my eye as Tat cartwheels across the courtyard swinging
his staff. As he reaches Hades, a bolt of lightning hits him,
sending his flaming body spinning over the wall.
'This is getting a little
annoying,' says Hades. 'Is anyone else coming to the party?'
Izzy lets out a little cry and
toddles into the courtyard. 'What is this?' laughs Hades.
'Breakfast?'
My blood boils, I charge
towards Hades, pulling my arm back to strike. At the last moment,
the fang appears in my hand and I sink it into his
throat.
Blood spurts out.
'What was that?' exclaims
Hades, putting a hand to his neck. 'Emily, you are testing my
patience. First we sign The Book, then I have breakfast.'
He raises his hand and a
lightning bolt knocks me back across the courtyard. My body is torn
and burnt but I refuse to lose consciousness. This monster is not
eating my Izzy for breakfast. Over my dead body he will!
I can't move, The Book will be
signed in a few seconds. It's all over.
Something nudges me, again and
again. It's in my pocket. Summoning the last of my strength I reach
my hand in and flick open the cage with my fingertips. The last
thing I feel is the cold sensation of Enzo brushing past my
hand.
38
I wake up on the sofa on my
veranda. It's the middle of the night. I feel like I've been asleep
for a thousand years. My body is numb and aches all over. I
remember Mulo and being hit by Hades's lightning bolt. I should be
dead. I feel a breath of cold pass down one leg. It reaches my
toes, then turns and comes back up. I give an involuntary shiver as
it passes over my groin, then it crosses my stomach and up to my
arms. It slowly moves over my whole body, round and round and
round, sucking out the toxins, healing me and giving me new energy.
Once it's finished, it snuggles into my pocket. I reach in and
close my palm on Enzo and bring him out where I can see him. I
watch his gently glowing surface with its swirls of orange lava
then pull him close and give him a kiss, his fiery surface burning
cold on my lips. 'Thank you Enzo,' I say. 'Thank you for taking
care of me.'
He gives a barely perceptible
shake, just a little shimmy, emits a few rays and tucks himself
back in my pocket.
When I reawaken in the morning,
I'm under attack. I'm being pulled and tugged in all
directions.
'Mummy, mummy, mummy, mummy,
MUM, wake up!' yell my attackers.
My eyes flicker open and
there's my kids, all four of them.
'Mum, mum, are you okay? We
thought you were dead,' they say, jumping on me and giving me a
lots of hugs.
'I was dead,' I say, 'but I'm
back with you now. Someone special has been looking after me.'
'Tea mum, tea,' they say
pushing a steaming cup of tea into my hand.
'Toast for
M
um,' says Vinny's little
voice, 'I made it.'
I struggle around to a sitting
position and drink my tea; savouring every golden sip.
Mum and Dad come to see
me.
'Oh, thank God you're alive,'
says Mum. 'When we found you last light, you looked dead. That
horrible black kitten was sitting on you, guarding you. It was
ferocious, it snarled and scratched and blew fire at us. It
wouldn't let us near.'
'That's
Negri
ta,' I say, laughing.
'Isn't she adorable?'
'Not at all,' says Dad,
holding up a badly scratched hand. His shirt sleeve is burnt and
the hair singed off his arm.
'We were going to call an
ambulance but a voice from above told us to leave you alone, that
you'd be okay. It must have been God.' says Mum.
'No, Zeus got
zapped;
it was probably
Castor. He keeps an eye on us.'
'Me too!' calls Pollux.
'Pollux too, the two of them
watch over us and protect us. They're always there to help.'
'Like God.'
'Sort of, but they're more
useful. I'll take you to visit them sometime. They love
visitors.'
Zeus arrives, in human form,
wearing a long flowing robe. He makes himself a cup of tea and sits
down beside me. 'I feel like I've been run over by a bus,' he says,
stretching painfully.
'I know the feeling,' I say.
'I'm having a bit of a shaky start myself.'
'Emily, I don't know how you
did it, but Hades is defeated and The Book destroyed.'
'Girl power,' I say,
looking into his greeny-brown eyes. 'What happened?'
'That's what I
should be asking you. When I regained consciousness, Jesus and
Azziz were still down on the ground. I freed the statues and they
told me what happened, how you tried everything and got beaten by
Hades at every turn, about Tat's attack and you being zapped by
Hades' lightning bolt. Petra said that all was lost and she was
signing Earth's death warrant when a small black glowing ball
appeared in front of her. Hades swiped at it but when his hand
touched it, it sucked him and The Book in. No drama, just a
gentle
plip
and he was defeated and that darn
book destroyed
.
The ball then went over to you,
tucked itself in your pocket and you disappeared.'
Zeus looks into
my eyes and smiles. '
Plip
?' he
asks.
I reach into my pocket
and gently open Enzo's cage. Enzo flies out, circuits around my
head a couple of times, then shoots across the lawn. Negrita
springs out of long grass and wrestles him to the ground. He shakes
himself free and they chase off along the beach playing
happily.
'That's Enzo, I say. 'He saved
my life.'
'He did a little more than
that,' says Zeus, smiling.
After we've had breakfast, Zeus
says, 'You've done a great job of Camillo, I couldn't have done it
better myself.'
'It's not my doing, it's your
son Jesus.
'Get off. No way!'
'Yes, Jesus is running
it.'
'Well, I'll be, I never thought
I'd see the day!' says Zeus, twiddling with his beard.
I spend the day curled up on
the sofa, trying my hardest to do nothing. Mum and Dad walk the
kids along the beach to the cafe to get them out of my hair. I see
Jesus pass them, coming the other way arm in arm with a tall,
elegant anode. She looks pregnant.
'Emily,' he says, introducing
us. 'This is my friend, Valeria.'
'Congratulations,' I say,
giving her a kiss on both cheeks, 'It's wonderful to finally meet
you. I hope he didn't keep you waiting too long.'
She rolls her eyes to the
heavens, 'Just a couple of thousand years!'
39
Having kids, there's not
a moment to sit back and gather my thoughts. I'm dragged back into
the routine of daily life, of cooking and laundry, of running them
to school and soccer practices, and telling them bedtime stories.
Zeus comes round for breakfast every day, just like he used to. He
gets to know me again and meet my family and my kids, and his
grandkids too. He’s gained a few of them while he’s been away. He's
always said how cold and unemotional he is but, from what I can
see, he positively adores them.
'Sorry for being gone for so
long,' he says, apologising for the last few years. 'When you were
first pregnant I thought that it was my sons' fault.'
'And what would have been so
wrong with that?' I demand. 'You sons are wonderful. They're quite
a catch for any girl.'
'Nothing. I just thought that
they weren't good enough for you. I felt like I needed to protect
you. You're special.'
'Thank you.'
'I can see by your kids
beautiful dark skin that it wasn't my sons' doing. Emily, you're
full of secrets, who's their dad?'
'I hope you'll meet him
someday. He's needed elsewhere at the moment.'