Destiny (1)
Chapter 17

I opened my eyes, and I was certain I was dead. I didn’t know how it could have happened, but I was so sure. Every muscle in my body ached, and my left calf throbbed painfully, my head spun and as looked I could swear that I saw blue sky above me. I squeezed my eyes shut, and opened them again. No change.

Then I realised what the throbbing in my left calf was. Something hard was slapping against it.

“Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up.” A young man’s voice spoke to me, and I rolled over.

“Alright! If I’m dead, then why does it hurt so much?” I moaned, scrambling up and brushing down my jeans. I turned around to face the man and froze.

The hunched over figure of our waiter greeted me. He grunted. “You’re not dead. You’re training,” he spoke again in his young man voice.

“Bu- wha- huh?” Ash materialised next to me, standing up. He screamed and windmilled his arms before falling over backwards. His eyes shut.

“Oh, Ash. So inexperienced. They’re always like that.” The man hobbled away from me, over to a barn that I hadn’t seen before.

“Wait!” I called. Glancing regretfully at Ash, I ran after the man.

“Who are you? Where am I? Are you sure I’m not dead?”

“Hm. Pretty sure.” He pinched me. “Yeah, sure.”

“You had to check?!”

“Not really. Dead people are usually more quiet.” He chuckled. “Okay, that’s a lie. Dead people are usually screaming about how they can’t be dead.”

“You’ve met dead people?”

“No.”

“Huh? You weirdo.”

“You’re not one to talk.”

“Excuse me!”

He eyeballed me.

“I know you well, Fay Thorwood. Us Destins have been watching you. Hestia won’t stop bragging about you.”

“Who’s Hestia?”

“Your Destin.”

“But I thought that my Destin was male?”

“Your Destin is how you picture them.”

“Right…” I said sceptically.

“Humans never understand,” he groaned, and strode with surprising swiftness.

“Oh yeah?” I replied reproachfully. “Then what are you, of you’re not a human when you’re in a human form?”

“Huh?” He said absent-mindedly. “Oh, I guess I’m a solid conscience.”

“Sure…” I mumbled. “That makes total sense.”

“Hm,” he grunted.

“Will you give me some answers?”

“No,”

“Why?”

“I said I wouldn’t answer your questions. That’s a question.”

I rolled my eyes, and looked ahead. We were coming up to an empty barn, which I hadn’t noticed before. The old man opened the door, and trotted inside.

I stared at the ground, expecting a wooden floor, dotted with straw, and instead I widened my eyes at the sight of marble. Air conditioning almost swooped me off my feet in surprise, and I turned my head upwards.

Doctor Who’s Tardis couldn’t compare to this. Talk about bigger on the inside.

We were standing in a grand hall, but there were no dining tables. Suits of armour lined the edges of the hall, and weapons were strapped to the walls. In the centre of it all, a huge fountain stood, two women in long dresses, water flowing out their mouths and down their bodies. It was silent, other than the soft trickle of water.

“I can’t stay long,” I said conversationally. “I need to go somewhere. The deadline’s in a day.”

“Don’t worry, I know your game. Time doesn’t pass here. When you finally-” he emphasised that last word. “finally leave, it will be the same time as it was when you left.”

“What? Wait, how-”

“Don’t ask me how, I ain’t got the answer for everything.” He shrugged.

“What am I doing here?” I interrogated.

“I’m going to train you,” he mumbled. “Damn! I said I wasn’t going to answer your questions.”

“What are you training us for?”

“I’m not answering that,”

“Oh, come on! Please?”

“Alright, fine!” He threw his hands up. “I will answer three questions, and three questions only.”

“Number one,” I stuck up one finger. “What are you training us for?”

“Your destiny. Next.”

“That’s not an answer!”

“Yes it is. And I just gave it to you. Next.”

“Fine, what’s my destiny?”

“Can’t tell you that, it’s classified. I’m not sure you would want to know it anyway.”

“You said any three questions!” I protested.

“No,” he corrected malevolently, “I didn’t say any three questions. I just said three questions.”

“That’s not fair!”

“Life’s not fair. I should know, I control Ash’s.” I didn’t like the way he said the word control. Like a dictatorship. “What’s your last question?”

“Woah, woah, woah! The last question? What do you mean? The last one didn’t count!”

“Yes, it did.”

“No, it didn’t. You said that you’d answer three questions, and right now you’ve only answered one.”

“Okay! You noticed that, did you?” He cried, exasperated.

“Yes. Where am I?”

“The GTGD. The General Training Ground for Destins.”

“OK. When I go back, will I be in the restaurant with Thalia? Where is she, anyway?”

“She’s gone,” he said casually.

‘WHAT?” I yelled. “What do you mean, gone?”

“She’s back in London, with no memory of you or that boy,” he shrugged. “It’s for the best.”

“How is it for the best !?”

“It’s better if no one else is involved in this,”

“WELL IT’S A BIT LATE FOR THAT NOW!!!” I screamed. Thalia, poor Thalia, with no recollection of the past two days, living on the streets of London.

“What’s going on?” Rushed in Ash, a concerned look on his face.

“Tell him,” I crossed my arms, tears welling in my eyes. “Tell him what you’ve done.”

Ash turned from left to right, confused. “Who are you?” He asked quizzically.

The man’s face softened.

“My boy, I am your friend, Dean.”

Ash paled and passed out on the floor.