Skeleton Keys (on hold)

Chapter Twenty

I was in the dark again, the night air was cool to the skin. The clouds moved above me, casting shadows as they moved, glided across the two crescent moons. I recognized where I was immediately. The moons weren't as bright or as close as they were the last time I had stepped into Apollo's memories.

Glancing around, I found myself alone. Hypnos was gone and I don't think that was a good thing. He'd warned me about messing around with others memories, but I still didn't understand how I kept ending up in Apollo's memories to begin with. What was it that constantly drew me to him?

I walked through the maze of bushes as I thought, studying roses that seemed to glow in the night. I found Apollo sitting on the bench by the fountain where I had first seen him and Lily together. His hair was as it had been the last time, dark with out the streaks and all of equal length that fell to his shoulders in waves. He was hunched over, the fall of his hair hiding his face from me. I moved closer, bending down to a knee so that I could see his face. It was wet as he fought off silent sobs, gasping for air. He only managed to let one word escape.

"Lily."

Hypnos appeared beside me, and I noticed that I was no longer in the memory, but watching play before us in the frame. The white gallery was too bright for my eyes after the darkness of the night within the memory.

"We really need to work on this fascination of yours-" Hypnos started, but I interrupted him.

"What happened to him? Why is he..." I couldn't bring myself to say it. I turned to him. Hypnos let his face betray nothing.

"Like I said before, Apollo has had a very hard life; it takes a strong man to survive what he has been through. But not even a saint could come through all those troubles without some sort of scar on his soul."

I looked back at the memory, now frozen. What happen to him? Had Lily changed her mind? I thought back to the last memory I'd seen of the two of them and remembered the love on her face. I was sure that she wouldn't have left him willingly.

I had a hard time getting into the rhythm of training the next day, but by the time we'd finished I felt like I was finally, really, starting to get the hang of things.

I followed Apollo up to the apartment, since the office fridge was out of water. Stepping in and seeing Grandpa's things didn't hurt as much as it did the first time I visited, but there was still a twinge in my heart.

"Here," Apollo said, tossing a bottle of water my way.

I caught it, twisting the top off. "Thanks."

He shrugged and pulled one out for himself before shutting the door to the fridge.

We stood in silence for a moment, just drinking our water, and I fought the desire to splurge and tell him everything I knew. How could I just stand here, inches away from him, and not talk about the memories of his that I'd seen in my dreams?

I was about to give in, to say something, when my phone rang, vibrating wildly in my pocket. I pulled it out and grimaced at the caller ID. I silenced it, sending it to voicemail.

"Was it not important?" he asked, tossing his empty bottle into the recycle bin.

"Just my mother, again." I sighed and climbed up onto one of the barstools at the kitchen bar. "She's been asking me non-stop about when I'll be home, and I just don't know how to tell her that I'm here for good."

I looked up at him and saw a blank expression on his face. "I'm afraid I don't have much experience with mothers, but wouldn't it just be best to tell her the truth?" He leaned back against the counter next to the fridge. "Or, at least, as much of the truth that you can? Why not just say that you've decided to stay here with your father?"

A laugh erupted from me before I could stop it. "Because she wouldn't believe me. She'd think that Dad had put me up to it, or tricked me somehow, or manipulated me. She'd never believe that I would make the choice to stay here."

Apollo winced. "That sounds..."

"Insane?" I supplied for him. He nodded. "Yeah, well she's a little crazy. The good kind, anyway." I looked down at my phone, and contemplated calling her back, but it just brought back to me that I didn't know what to say to her.

"You miss her," Apollo stated.

"Yeah."

He pushed away from the counter, heading into the living room, to pick up some of the books left out on the table.

"I just guess we need to get Grandpa's things out of your way," I said, thinking about it.

Apollo took the books over to the bookcases, shelving them. "It's not like they're in the way, you can do it once you feel ready."

Relief welled through me. "Thanks. I'm sure Dad would want to help, too."

"Probably."

Urgh, the awkward conversation was painful. What were we supposed to talk about other than Reaper duties? I was hit with the sudden urge to know everything about him. Not just his past, but what his hobbies were, what his favorite foods and books were. I wanted to be closer to him.

My phone started ringing again, and I glanced down at it in my hands, ready to send the call to voice mail again if it was my mother. It was Lizzy.

"Hello?" I answered, trying to think if Lizzy had ever called me before.

"Mary?" Lizzy sounded odd over the phone.

"Lizzy, what's wrong?"

I heard a huge sob on the other end, and then she said, "He left me."

I let out a sigh, rubbing my face with my free hand. Apollo took the hint and left me alone, heading up the stair case to his room.

"Oh Lizzy, I'm sorry."

She started crying all over again, and babbling about how she didn't know what to do.

"Lizzy, first thing you need to do is calm down and pull yourself together. You've got the kids with you, right?"

She made an affirmative noise.

"See if you can drop them off with Elise and come over here to the store. We will have a girl's day and figure out what needs to be done." We really weren't that close, but I couldn't think of anything else to do but what I would of done for one of my friends down in Florida.

"No, I – shouldn't. I'm sure you're busy and I just..." she started crying again.

"Shh. Lizzy. Just pull yourself together and come over here." I gave her the address and she promised to see me soon.

"I don't think Edward or your great grandfather ever had any family over, except for their heirs of course." Apollo said from the top of stairs leading up to his room.

I looked up from my phone. "It is not against the rules, is it?" I asked, suddenly worried about what might happen.

He shook his head and came closer. "There is nothing against it, as long as she doesn't know about what really happens here it should be fine. Although, you could have asked first," he said, and vanished in a flash of orange smoke to reappear in the kitchen.

"Oh," and it dawned on me that I should have. "Apollo, I am so sorry-" I watched as a smile grew on his face, before he started laughing. It took me a minute to realize that he was just messing with me.

"Hey!" I said, hitting him on the arm as I fought to keep myself from laughing. "It is technically my apartment in the first place, I shouldn't have to ask you anything!"

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Thanks for reading!! If you enjoyed the chapter, please remember to vote, comment, and follow to get notifications for future updates. I'll post the chp 21 on 12/30/15.