Demigod of Prophecy

My mother was never really demanding or one for yelling. In fact, most of the time when I got in trouble it was worse. She would give me a disappointed look, like she’d failed me, and ultimately let things go. So after I was discharged from the hospital and we got home, I was completely caught off guard by her reaction to the day’s events.

She went straight to our fireplace and started building the fire. Right then, I knew she was upset. It wasn’t cold enough to use the fireplace yet, but mom would use it on the hottest day of the year if she was mad or upset. The fireplace seemed to comfort her. I tried to give her space to think, since she usually just sits and tends the fire for a while when she starts it. The routine wasn’t new to me. I’d been in trouble before. This wasn’t even the first time I’d been questioned by police.

“Don’t you dare walk away from me, Selene!”

I stopped dead in my tracks. Typically when mom started working with the fire, she tuned everything out until she was ready to face them. I dropped my backpack and leather jacket on the floor of the hallway heading towards my bedroom and went back to the living room.

“I thought you wanted space, Mom. You usually do when you start tending the fire.”

“How could you be so irresponsible?”

I was dumbfounded. She never automatically assumed I did things, even when I knew she was sure that I had done them.


“What do you mean, Mom?”
“Don’t play innocent with me, Selene? How could you be so careless and burn down that library?”

“Wait, how do you know I did that?”

“I’m your mother. It’s my responsibility to know what you do. Now, how could you do that?”

“I don’t know what happened. I panicked and it just happened.”

“Panicked about what? Why were you in there when the school librarian was not in there? Why was the door locked from the inside?”

“They locked it. I didn’t realize the librarian wasn’t there until it was too late. They had locked me in with them. I couldn’t get out.”

“Who were they?”

“New students Mr. Willis was making me take around because I owed community service hours, detention hours, and was late.”

“Do you remember their names? I would like to find them and find out what the hell happened in there.”

I hesitated a nanosecond too long.

“No. They were triplets.”

“You’re lying to me.”

I may have come to the realization that they were telling the truth about being the Furies, but that didn’t mean that my mother would accept it.

“I’m sorry. I don’t remember.”

My mother’s eyes flashed dangerously. For a split second I swore the color disappeared and was replaced by fire. I recoiled, for the first time in my life nervous around my mother.

“Don’t lie to me, Selene! Not now!”

I stayed silent.

“Go to your room! If you try to sneak out of this house, there will be hell to pay. Until I find you a new school and find out what happened, you’re grounded.”

In shock, I nodded and left the living room. I grabbed my things and went to my room. Once I was in there I began looking through my old books for the tales of Greek myths my mom gave me.

Notes