Trials of Tartarus

Chapter Ten 

Caltaya’s POV

With great effort I walk over to Timothy, placing a hand on his heart. A white glow with strands of purple and blue erupt from my hand. And slowly, his head stitches itself back to his body.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, touching Timothy’s forehead. “You will not remember what happened here. And you will not remember coming here.”

I sort through the memories in his head, finally finding the two I was searching for. The one of his fight with Mutt, and his death. The other, of him walking up to this building. We couldn’t risk him bringing anyone back with him.

When they were both fully erased I send him back to his home. It’d be like he never even woke up.

𝌀

Mutt was still asleep when I went into the room the next day. Walking over I open the notebook he had been writing letters to Moon in. Leafing through them, reading some, burning others.

“It’s for your own good,” I say when I was done. “Your humanity will end up killing you, and then what? You’re already dead down here you know? Might as well be by your own choice.”

I roll my eyes after reading one of them, carelessly tossing it back into the drawer.

“Why do you hold so much love for a girl that doesn’t deserve it?” I demand. “Honestly? I mean, she’s… She’s not worth it. She won’t even tell you who she really is.”

Anger started radiating off of me in waves as I remember. Remember the pain.

“She’s the one that doesn’t deserve your love. She doesn’t deserve anything but pain. And after what she did, I can’t believe that she even dared to show her face again! She had to have known that I would come back.”

It was getting harder and harder to control my temper.

“And I will take everything from her. I will make her suffer just like she did to me! She should’ve been smarter than this. Coming back. Going into Tartarus, the prison that she locked me into!”

I clench my fists, glaring at his sleeping form.

“It’d be so easy for me to kill you, then she’d know what it’s like to lose the love of your life. She’d know what it’s like to feel her world ripped from her.”

I walk over, placing my hand on his heart. The steady beat hums against my fingers.

“But no,” I say, backing away from him. “First, first you will survive. And you will love. And you will be together. Make a life. And then I will kill you and everyone else that she has ever cared about. Only then will I rest. Only then will I walk away. While the bodies of her loved ones lay at her feet.”

With a grin I turn towards the door.

“It’s nothing personal,” I add. “Not between us anyway. But Manoa Dragon will feel pain. I will take away everything that makes you someone that she loves. And we’ll see how much ‘always, forever, and an eternity after that’ means then.”

I sigh, leaning my head against the door frame.

“You really are sweet, it’s such a shame that you had to fall into her trap. Just so you know, I take no pleasure in having to kill you. She never deserved such a great guy like you. Alas, she loves you. She always has. Over and over and over. Every. Single. Lifetime. It honestly didn’t take much to convince Zeus to curse you. Even less for him to sleep with Moon’s mother and have her born again.”

I shake my head.

“I’ve been planning this, longer than you’ll ever know. And I will not stop until Moon is left as broken as she left me.”

𝌀

The next time I walked into the room Mutt was awake. He was laying on his back, tossing a ball of water up and down.

“Hey,” he says, throwing his legs over the side of the bed and sitting up when I walk in.

“Bored?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.

He looks at the ball and chuckles lightly, waving his hand so that it disappears, “A little yeah.”

“Well, have you figured out a genius plan yet?” I ask.

“You said that you used to be a god right?” He asks, pulling his legs up so he was sitting crossed legged on the bed.

“Yes, I think I did,” I say, pretending to be confused. “Why?”

“Then we use that as our secret weapon,” he says.

“I don’t think that’s going to work,” I say. “I can almost guarantee that he knows I used to be a goddess.”

“Used to be,” Mutt repeats. “He think you used to be a goddess.”

“Well he’d be correct, because I’m not one anymore,” I point out.

I refrained from rolling my eyes. How could someone be this stupid? That they can’t even see the clues that are right in front of them? Too stupid to see that everything he knew was wrong. Including me.

“What if you were?” Mutt asks.

“I mean, that could totally help us, except for the one small problem. That problem being, I’m not,” I say.

“You said that you followed the rules and the person that believed in you enough to make you a god stopped believing in you,” Mutt says.

“Yeah, that I remember,” I say. “What’s it got to do with anything?”

“If you maybe go to that person, explain things, get them to understand, then they’d believe in you again,” he exclaims.

“Therefore making me a goddess again,” I say.

Mutt gives a nod.

“It’s smart,” I say. “Except for one simple thing.”

“What’s that?” Mutt asks.

“She hated me so much afterwards that she murdered the love of my life, and so I erased all of her memories of me right before my powers were fully depleted,” I say.

“Oh,” Mutt says, eyes wide. “I’m so sorry I- I didn’t know,” he says.

“Of course you didn’t,” I say. “I never told you.”

“You should’ve,” he whispers.

“It doesn’t matter,” I say, waving my hand. “Revenge isn’t my style.”

The lie slid so easily off of my tongue, making me grin on the inside when he nodded. Completely believing me.

Such an idiot he was, to trust so wholeheartedly. I was like that once. A mistake I will never make again. I almost felt sorry for him, falling in love with that… demon.

My hands fist at my sides as I think of her, and it took all my willpower not to take a knife and jam it into his heart. It would be so easy. He wouldn’t even expect it. It would happen so suddenly.

“Cal?” Mutt asks. “You good?”

Jolting out of my thoughts I look up at him, “Yeah. Fine. Why?”

He points down at my hands, which were still balled into fists.

“Oh. Right,” I say, uncurling them. “Yeah no, I’m fine. Just a little on edge I guess.”

“Anything I can do to help?” he asks immediately.

“Not this time,” I say.

But soon, so very soon.

When the time is right I will drive a knife through your heart, just like the love of your life did to mine. At that moment you will help me. You will help me by helping me destroy Manoa Dragon. You already are, you just haven’t realized it yet.

Mutt clears his throat, pulling me out of my thoughts. He was staring at me expectantly, like he had asked a question.

“What?” I ask.

Mutt laughs softly, “Forget it. Wasn’t anything that important.”

I shrug and stare at him, “You sure?”

He smiles at me, “Yeah. Positive.”

“Okay,” I say, smiling back. “You better get some rest. The next trial will probably start soon.”

“I don’t wanna rest!” Mutt exclaims like a child. “It’s boring.”

“The important stuff usually is,” I say simply.

He groans and falls back onto the bed, closing his eyes and throwing his arm over them. I head towards the door.

“Hey Cal?” he mumbles.

“Yeah?” I ask, turning back.

“This may seem selfish and wrong, but I’m really glad that you’re down here with me. It’s been really nice having a friend,” he says.

I smile lightly, even though he couldn’t see it. Even though I shouldn’t have.

“Thanks Mutt,” I say. “It’s been nice having a friend too.”

𝌀

The regret I felt after leaving that room plagued me. It wrapped around me and refused to let me shake it off.

STOP THIS! I mentally shout at myself. HE HAS TO DIE! It is the only way!

I take a deep breath and walk down the hallway. I had been planning this for years! Why was I suddenly choking up?!

Because you never thought you’d like him, my inner voice whispers.

It was of course correct, I had thought that Mutt would be arrogant. Rude… Not nice.

I had never thought that I would befriend anyone that Moon talked to. And here I was, doing everything I never had wanted to. I shout and slam my fist into the wall.

The anger and disappointment I was feeling stirred up my powers, I felt them rushing up to calm me.

No! I shout at myself, squashing them down. I needed to save them. Build the power up until I could finally kill Moon.

Oh the look on her face when she sees me again. She probably never thought that I would escape. But falling into Tartarus was a stupid mistake on her part. For I had conquered Tartarus.

And the second I felt her energy in there, it had given me enough power to break the chains that were holding me back And finally my plan was able to be ignited.

But as I followed them through Tartarus for days Moon never once noticed by presence, which I thought was extremely weird. Then again, while underground was now my domain, Moon’s had always been anywhere the sun would shine.

Maybe she was just too weak to feel me when she was underground. Either way, the way her and Mutt had acted, so in love. Well, it had made me remember a time when I was in love.

And it made me hate her so much more because she had taken that away from me. Love, love was a curse. She had taught me that. And I would repay it in anyway that I could.

Even if it meant killing someone who didn’t deserve to die.