Deadly Secrets

Chapter 27

        Dizzy, oh so very dizzy. Nausea washed over me as my stomach twisted in on itself. I shake and shiver while I puff air through my nose. My tail twitches constantly thumping against the backseat and the door. A low rumble escapes my chest like a moan. “Hold on, we are almost there.” There? Where is there? Where is here? I feel my conscience start to blur at the edges. I want to sleep, I want to let go. There is relief in letting go. I feel the truth of that as though it was ringing in my ears. I look at the man in front of me and study his profile.

        Who is he? I know him, no, I know his scent. Where is it from? I feel a desire light my gut which makes my fur stand on edge. The desire, it prickles my nerves and I rise on my hunches. “You need to stay still!” I snarl at him angrily. We both lurch forward sharply, I dig my claws in to maintain my pose. “Eleanor?” Eleanor, I know that name. It rolls off his tongue like honey.

        The air shifts, the smell changes to something sharper, something older. “Hold your tongue you insolent beast!” The boy's voice changes to that of a man weathered by age. I yowl at him, baring my fangs. Who is he to challenge me? He is but a man, I am the hunter! I seethe and roll my shoulders. “Look at you, you have lost your bearing to the beast. Heh, I knew you were nothing more than a little school girl hiding under an over grown coat.” A growl vibrates my chest. I will reduce him to nothing. He is nothing. All creatures of man are destroyers! 

        I hurl myself into the light of day and crash into the nearby foliage. I turn and lurk under a bush and watch the man approach. I will strike him first, fast and hard. I will tear his throat- “Eleanor!” I blink, the scent alternated itself once more. The man’s voice fills with worry and panic. “I’m sorry Eleanor! I didn’t- that wasn’t me! It was Ptah, he took advantage of my f- no, I wasn’t afraid. I’m not afraid of you! So please…” I watched him descend into the thrush of green. I slowly circled him as he went deeper and deeper. He stopped near a fallen tree and rested himself against it. He sighed heavily, “This is such a mess. I have no idea what I’m doing. Although you, you seem to be in your element right now. And the Guards? Yeah right, some Guards they are. Little to no help at all is more like it."

        He heaves a sigh again groans loudly. "This is horseshit, all of it. This Neter business is nothing but a death sentence. Further more all it does is alienate those closest to us. I mean, my parents split, your family hides the truth from you, and my aunt speaks more riddles than English. This is just dumb! Did everyone just think we would be able to handle this all by ourselves because, let’s face it, we are alone!” He placed his head into his hands for a moment and breathed in deeply. “But at least, well I thought we could at least suffer through this together. You definitely have some things to work out. Like that growling at me? Not okay. Not on any level. Not even jokingly.” 

        The birds chirped above the foliage where the light was slowly fading from the sky. The forest was quiet, the animals who lived here had moved deeper inward, giving me room. “I have issues too you know! It’s not like I have all day to worry about your problems!” He paused, “Okay, wait no, I didn’t mean it like that. I mean you can talk to me about whatever, whenever really. I don’t actually mind, I actually prefer it. It gives me less time to think about my own.” I nudged his shoulder. His body jerked up and forward, falling over himself. 

        He stared at me with wide eyes while I just cocked my head at him. Somewhere through his rant, I, me, Eleanor resurfaced. I prodded around him, causing him to shift back towards the tree. His body was rigid as if waiting for me to strike. I strode up to his left and slowly laid myself down next to him, with my head on his thigh. I felt his body slowly unwind. “So I’m going to guess you are you again?” I huffed in agreement. He sat back against the tree, finally relaxing. “So, um, do you feel like shifting back yet?” he asked me tenderly. I stayed still and tried to tune out the wildlife noises that were screeching in my ears. “I’ll take that as a no.” He cleared his throat, “So where was I in my lament? Ah yes, my woes. Well as you know my parents ditched me.” 

        My tail twitched, “Yeah I know, I said they left for work and I was fine with staying with Aunt Meg, but reality is; they ditched me. Want to know how I found out about all this? Well nobody told me either, just like you. It went on till the point where I thought I was a circus freak. It started on my seventeenth birthday, which was in December of last year. Now what you may not know about Ptah is that he was known as a god of creation. Creation being that he had the magic of words, whatever he spoke he was able to create. That’s probably why he was one of the big five.” My nose twitched. 

        I didn’t know the Egyptian gods had a hierarchy. “The big five consisted of Ra, Isis, Osiris, Amun, and Ptah. Yeah I know right, apparently this over righteous prick in my head happened to actually deserve acting somewhat righteous.” Well now I feel like peasant folk. So Tristan was part of the big five indirectly. I was related to goddess who often than not got confused with another, more popular goddess. Great, I feel really special now. I felt his strong hand stroke the top my head. The motion caused me to look up at him, “Anyways so as you may have noticed sometimes the god’s gifts are passed onto the Neter.” He continued to stroke my head absently, like he was comforting a child, so I settled back into my previous position. “So on Christmas, the day after my birthday it felt as though a huge weight was placed on my chest. I know how that sounds, but you see Ptah tended to create things that his heart had conceived through the wonders that the world possessed. It’s still there, the weight, but I’ve grown accustomed to it.” 

        I sneezed causing my whole body to shudder. “Bless you. So on Christmas I tell my parents about it, they tell me its heart burn. So I ignore it and continue about, I made plans to go to friends place for a party that night. My parents didn’t say anything so I left. The party was in full swing, everyone having a ball, until some guys who had graduated the year before crashed the party. My pal tried to get them to leave, he ended up getting suckered punched. 

        Now when a guy sees his friend get punched you instinctively punch the other guy, it’s like the law of physics, it needs to happen. Things got heated and my mind blurred. That was the first time Ptah took over my body. You see Baset can only enter your mind, never control it and take over your body. Ptah could if he wanted to, I spent a lot of time building walls in my mind so that he can’t do it anymore, but he slips into my mind if I’m not careful. We have yet to establish any type of curtesy between us.” I wanted to ask him what Ptah did when he took over his body, but I imagine that question could be left to better time. He had confided so much in me I didn’t know what to think. 

        I wanted to comfort him, but was torn by the fact we hadn’t known each other very long. Moreover I felt like I was intruding into his private thoughts. “You know, I can practically see the wheels turning in your head.” I blinked at him and he smiled brightly. “I didn’t tell you that so you felt sorry for me or anything. I was waiting till a good time, I know you’re dealing with a lot and I didn’t want to burden you with my crap. But I felt like that I if I didn’t tell you, we were unlikely to get any closer.” He paused and blinked for a couple of seconds. I watched his cheeks turn slightly pink, “Not that I- I mean I didn’t, I mean it’s not like I don’t, well I mean…” I understood where he was coming from. I wanted to get to know him better too. Even though we’ve only known each other for a short period of time, I felt so close to him, like I’ve known him for a long time. He scratched his neck and looked everywhere except for at me. I rose on my hunches and nuzzled his jaw.