Ayla's Supernatural Love Dungeon

Althea wrapped her arms around herself and paced the living room. Nekros and Raven watched on, concerned.

            “All right so tell me again what happened,” Raven said.

Althea continued her pacing almost digging a figure eight into her carpet. “Ever since November, I’ve been getting postcards from Requiem. All of them from different cities as he’s making his way here.”

Nekros handed over the small stack of postcards to Raven. She flipped through them as Althea continued to explain the situation.

“The latest one is from Spokane, Washington. Where he mentions that he ran into my father.” Althea paused in her pacing and faced the rest of the trio. “My father, who abandoned me when I was eight. Who moved one state away and never bothered trying to contact me since he left! The same man is now a professor in Greek Mythology at some big university in Washington!” Althea complained. Her arms flailed angrily in the air as she ranted about her father.

            “I get the mini-rant, but focus on the main issue,” Raven urged.

Althea shook her head to get refocused. “Right. Anyway, Requiem found my dad and threatened my dad’s life with his ‘add to my collection’. This basically means that Requiem has a trail of bodies that he murdered ever since I resurrected him.”

Raven dropped the postcards on the coffee table before she rubbed her hands over her face as if washing dirt. “Okay.”

Nekros sat still next to Raven. His face was puzzled. Raven glanced at him before she released a heavy sigh.

            “Althea, you need to tell your boyfriend,” she paused to jerk her thumb at Nekros, “everything.”

Althea mirrored Raven’s sigh and nodded.

An eight-year-old Althea and Raven clasped their tiny hands together and quivered their bottom lips as they pleaded with Althea’s parents. Tia placed her hands on her hips and shook her head incredulously at the young girls. Hilo, however, laughed.

            “What’s with the puppy dog eyes?” he asked with a smile.

Raven and Althea tiptoed over to where he sat in the recliner reading a book.

“Can I spend the night with Raven and her parents at the hotel please?” Althea pleaded.

Hilo pushed his glasses up his nose and turned his attention to Raven. “Have you asked your parents yet?”

Raven nodded like a bobblehead. The action caused Hilo to laugh again. He twisted his head to face his wife. “I don’t see a problem with it if the Grimms are on board.”

            “Fine,” Tia sighed. “However, you girls must be on your best behavior, you hear me.”

            “Yes, momma!”

            “We will,” Raven chimed.

The girls hugged each other and jumped up and down excitedly.

Tia and Hilo stood outside as Raven and Althea clambered into the SUV. Raven’s father sat behind the wheel as her mother talked with Althea’s parents.

            “Call us if there’s any trouble,” Tia expressed.

            “We will. Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be fine,” Mrs. Grimm insisted.

She waved goodbye as she climbed into the car. When all doors were closed and everyone was buckled in Mr. Grimm turned out of the driveway and drove off. Raven and Althea swayed in the backseat singing to Mr. Grimm’s mixtape. One of the tires hit a slick spot and sent the car spinning out of control. Eventually, the car stopped sideways on the road. Mr. Grimm turned his face to check on the young girls in the backseat.

            “Is everyone okay?”

            “We’re okay,” Raven and Althea answered slight panic still in their voices.

            “Hunny!” Mrs. Grimm screamed.

When Mr. Grimm turned to see what his wife was screaming about, he was blinded by headlights coming through his window. Screams, the sound of metal clashing with metal, and screeching tires were the only sounds that filled the air.

Althea struggled to open her eyes and groaned from the pain. When she did manage to open her eyes, her right eye was blurry with blood. Weakly she reached to her side and pushed the release button on her seatbelt. The action caused her to smack her head on the roof of the overturned SUV. After a few heartbeats, she crawled out of the wreckage. When she was two to three feet away Althea called out to Raven.

            “Raven.”

No response.

Althea tried again. “Raven? You, okay?” She looked anywhere besides the wreckage. When no response came the second time, Althea turned around and saw the accident in its terrible glory. Her hazel brown eyes narrowed as she saw a small figure, lying motionless on the roof of the overturned vehicle. Whatever pain Althea felt, it disappeared as she bolted towards her best friend. She skidded her knees against the asphalt, glass, and other sharp objects on the ground as she slid to her friend’s side. “Raven?” she called out again. Althea reached out a hand and touched Raven’s wrist. Her body was cold to the touch. Tears welled up in Althea’s eyes. “No…This can’t be happening.” Althea weakly pulled Raven from the destroyed car and pulled Raven into her tiny lap. “Please don’t leave me, Raven. I need you.” Althea cried.

As the overwhelming sadness overtook Althea, a small voice spoke quietly into the back of Althea’s mind.

            “You need to bring her back.”

            “How? How can I bring her back?” Althea asked the voice.

            “Prick your finger,” the voice ordered.

Althea grabbed a piece of broken glass and did as the voice commanded. “What now?”

            “Find a needle.”

Althea looked around, but all she could find within her arms’ reach was a paper clip fastened to Raven’s clothes. She grabbed it. “Will this work?”

            “Yes. Now find loose thread.”

Althea picked at the hem of her blood-soaked shirt with the paper clip until the thread unraveled. Althea had watched her mother sew a few times and figured out the next step. She bent one end of the paper clip to form a small hole and threaded it with the thread from her shirt.

            “Cover the thread with the blood from the finger you pricked.”

Althea did as she was told.

            “Now recite these words as you sow the wounds on your friend.”

            “All life hangs by a thread. A fragile bond that only a necromancer can mend. With my blood, the blood of the Goddess Clotho, I erase death from my sight and make this right,” Althea chanted as she sowed Raven’s wounds with the blood-soaked thread. When she tied off the thread, the stitches glowed a neon green before turning invisible.

The scent of mint overpowered the smell of death that surrounded the young girl. Raven blinked her eyes as she returned to the living world.

            “Althea?” she asked. “What happened?”

Althea said nothing but pulled her friend closer to her and cried.

Hilo held his cell phone to his ear as he ran down the road.

            “Keep talking to me, baby. Just keep talking,” he shouted into the phone. Panic rose in his voice as sirens wailed in the distance. He ran faster as he saw the remnants of the car accident. As he grew closer to saw two small girls standing off to the side of the road. He picked up his pace until he stood in front of the downtrodden girls. He flipped his phone closed and wrapped his arms around Althea and Raven. “It’s going to be all right girls,” he said in an attempt to soothe everyone. Both girls, however, stared blankly at the ground as if a thousand miles away. Althea held Mr. Grimm’s phone loosely in her hand.

Raven fell fast asleep on the couch in the Hoomake home. Hilo pulled a throw blanket over the young girl. Althea grasped the side of Hilo’s pants. He glanced down at his daughter. “What’s up kiddo?” he asked.

            “I…” Althea mumbled.

“Hm?”

Althea raised her head to look into her father’s eyes. “I brought Raven back from the dead. I…I don’t know how, but I did it.”

Hilo stared down at his daughter, his mind unable to connect what she was saying. “What?”

Tears welled up in Althea’s eyes. “She was dead daddy. I had no choice. I couldn’t lose my best friend. There was so much blood and…I don’t know. There was a voice inside my head. It told me what to do to save Raven.” As she finished the last sentence Althea broke down crying. “Daddy, am I evil?”

Hilo reached down to pick up his daughter and hug her so tightly. “No hun. You’re not evil.”

Althea had cried herself to sleep. Hilo placed her on the couch on the opposite side of Raven. When he turned around, Tia greeted him with a glare.

            “You lied to our daughter.”

Hilo stepped back from the anger in Tia’s voice. “What?”

Tia narrowed her eyes on her husband. “You heard me. You lied to Althea. You told her that she wasn’t evil for bringing a corpseback to life. That goes against life itself.”

Hilo threw his hands up in the air. “What do you want me to do? Tell her that she’s an abomination? She just lost her best friend and was in a car accident! She needs comfort not preaching.”

Tia growled and walked off with a huff.

            “You’re coddling her!” Tia screamed at Hilo.

Hilo quietly closed the door to Althea’s and Raven’s room. It had been a month since Raven became an orphan and was taken in by the Hoomake family.

            “Will you keep your voice down? The girls just barely fell asleep,” Hilo growled.

Tia stormed off to the kitchen with Hilo hot on her heels. When they entered the kitchen Tia turned on her heels and jeered at Hilo angrily. “Althea needs to be told the truth.”

            “No, what she needs from her parents is to be comforted. When the world is harsh and beats her down, we’re supposed to encourage her to get back up and try again. We’re supposed to love her and help her navigate life. Not turn our backs on her with the rest of the world.”

            “If she were a normal child yes. But she’s inhuman!”

Hilo shook his head and attempted to leave the conversation.

            “You care more for her than me!” Tia yelled.

Hilo paused in his tracks. He turned his head to the side. “She is our daughter. You should care for her as equally as I do, but you only see her as a burden.” He turned his head and continued walking out of the kitchen. “So, I have to care for her enough for both of us.”

The next night Tia kicked a suitcase towards Hilo.

            “What’s this?”

Tia glared at him. “I want you gone. Get out of my house now.”

Hilo sighed and grabbed his suitcase. Before he left the house he stopped in Althea’s bedroom. He stroked her cheek with his finger as he crouched beside her bed. Althea blinked at him with half-lidded eyes.

            “Hi, daddy.”

            “Hi baby,” he whispered. “I found something.”

            “What did you find?” Althea asked groggily.

Hilo pulled out a small box and held it up to her. “It’s a note passed down from generations from the 1800s. It’s a special needle and spider thread.”

            “Really? What’s it for?”

Hilo kissed the top of Althea’s head and placed the box on the nightstand next to him. “It’s for your necromancy. There’s even a letter on how to use it and the incantation.”

Althea yawned. Hilo smiled softly before he kissed the top of her head again. “Go back to sleep, baby.”

Althea nodded tiredly. “I love you daddy.”

            “I love you too, baby girl,” Hilo whispered. He bit back the tears as he stood up and left the house as per Tia’s wishes.