Escape (Book 1 of the Gods' series)

Chapter 16

When we got outside, Becky walked over to a red motorbike, she tossed me a black helmet with a small rose on the side, and I then understood why she had us both wear leather pants and jackets over our clothes, I was going to wear a dress, so I had to put that in my bag. I tucked my long red hair up into the helmet, fitted the helmet over my head and got on the bike behind Becky who was already revving the engine. I just had time to grab on to her waist before Becky speedily pulled her way out of the car park and nimbly weaved in and out of the cars going down the huge hill, I looked behind me and saw the wrecked version of Asklepion instead of the welcoming one.

We didn’t spend long in town, we went to a nice shop and got me a bikini, it was black and red stripe with a matching bow on the front, we both got changed out of our leather gear in some toilets and had some lunch in a coffee shop, I had a mocha and Becky had a frappucino, I never really knew the difference between a cappuccino and a frappucino. We met a nice girl named Ella who went to our school; she also worked behind the counter of the café we were in. When we had finished with our shopping and drinks, Becky and me made our way to the school’s private beach, I had got changed in the toilets at the café, so had Becky, so we had our swimsuits on under our clothes. At the beach we laid out our towels and Becky went for a swim in the clear blue sea while I got some sunglasses on and sun bathed.

After about 10 minutes of bathing out in the sun a couple of figures blocked my light, I sat up and saw that the figures were Jess and one of her friends, I immediately got scared. I tried to stand but they pushed me down, “You humiliated me, in front of my friends, that is something you don’t, ever, do. Now, you’ll just have to pay the price of that, pin her down Jo.” The girl named Jo grabbed my shoulders and pushed me down while Jess did something weird with her hands, I felt water flowing up my legs, then to my arms and finally to my face, it blocked my nose and mouth like a mask, I couldn’t breathe at all. They were trying to kill me. Suddenly, I saw a silver arrow fly between the sneering girls’ heads, it moved so fast; you could see the ripples it made in the air, it was obviously aimed at between the girls’ heads, not at them. The silver arrow flying past distracted the two girls, and they turned to see where it came from, freeing me of my watery mast, I stood up quickly and the girls spun around, straight into my fists. Jess and her friend stumbled back and fell on the sand with a muffled thud; it was my turn then to look at who shot the arrow. There crouched on the floor with a wooden bow grasped tightly in her small pale hand, was Becky. I ran over to Becky and noticed her eyes had gone from crystal blue to black, like onyx, black and shiny. She blinked a couple of times and her eyes went back to normal again, she looked up at me and smiled, I held out my hand to help her up and she took it, her skin was ice cold compared to mine, and the fact she had just come out of the sea was making her skin colder. I grabbed her towel and she wrapped it around herself. “Whoa, Charlie, check out Dylan and Aaron, they look, erm, never mind.” I followed Becky’s gaze to my boyfriend and sort of friend laying on the beach, their hair was wet and they looked shiny, I guessed they had just come out of the water, it seemed like everyone was coming to the beach today, “Shall we go over?” Becky asked gingerly, “Um, yeah, ok, wait. Do I look ok?”

“Perfect Charlie, you always do, I don’t get why you are so self conscious. I wish I looked like you, even in your human form, you look amazing.”

“Thanks.” I pulled my long red hair over my shoulder and put my red and black striped headband on.

“So.” I asked as me and Becky walked along the beach towards Dylan and Aaron who had now laid down in the sun, “That was a pretty awesome performance, which Goddess are you?” She looked at me for a second before saying, “It wasn’t cool, and I could get into loads of trouble-“

“But those girls will get into more trouble, they were going to kill me.” I added, “- and my Goddess? Well I’m Artemis, I’m a Goddess of hunting, the animals are really supportive of me too, they don’t mind is I need to kill one of their own species for food, if I’m where there is no food.”

“Wow, that’s amazing. I’ll race you to the boys to show you my powers.” I said before going into a slow jog so Becky could get in front of me, then I transformed into a parrot and flew over her to land on Dylan’s shoulder, who took one look at me and smiled I hopped onto the sand next to him and turned human again just as Becky skidded to a stop in front of us, she gawked at me, “How did you. That. And you, wha-?” I giggled and nestled into Dylan’s chest, “My babe here can shape shift, and heal, and is probably the most beautiful girl I have ever laid eyes on.” I giggled and kissed him gently, he put his arm around me. I looked at Aaron who was looking at the ground; I then looked at Becky who was looking at Aaron, “Hey Bex, come sit down here.” I patted the space on the sand between me and Aaron, she nervously sat (nearly on my arm) and smiled, I gave a little wink to Aaron then pulled on Dylan’s arm, “Wanna go for a swim?” I asked, Dylan nodded and helped me up. We ran to the water and splashed about, I glanced at Becky and Aaron and they looked, well, happy, Aaron casually swung his arm around Becky’s shoulder and she didn’t resist, she leaned into him. I smiled slightly and went back to splashing about.

When the time came to go back home, we got changed, Becky and Aaron decided to take the motorbike -so I got changed into my dress, it was a very pale lemon with white flowers on, I had a layered mesh skirt underneath the dress and I looked like someone out of a 1950’s movie, with my hair in a beehive style, and on my neck, I had tied a pretty pale lemon scarf on- So Dylan and me rode home in his borrowed red convertible. The car wasn’t a fancy sports car, the red paint was slightly faded and looked more muddy red than red, and the car wasn’t sleek and made for speed, it was quite clunky, but it was nice, “You like it? It’s a 1955 Chevrolet Corvette V8. My roomie Dean lent me it, it’s a bit shabby, I know, but it’s nice. He said I could borrow it whenever I wanted.” Dylan awkwardly shoved his hands in his jeans, “It’s perfect, I love it!” I said as I placed my overly big, black sunglasses over my eyes. Just like a gentleman, Dylan opened my door; I pecked him on the cheek and sat on the beige leather seats, they were hot when I sat on them and burned my legs, so I perched on the edge of my seat.