Athena's Story - Chapter 1

         Darkness fell over the town square as the fading pink and orange sunset disappeared behind the hills. At first glance everything was quiet. Out of the five street lamps placed around the square, two were dimly lit, one of which flickered miserably, sending out Morse code into the silent night air. Shadows seemed to dance about, slipping in and out of view in the soft glow of the lamp lights. Somewhere in the distance a dog barked, answered by a chorus of barks and howls before falling back into the void of silence.
         A cat slunk into the square, pausing at the perimeter of light. It raised its head and sniffed the air, whiskers twitching. The cat turned its glowing eyes toward the East, ears pressing flat against its head, tail brushing across the cold cement. With catlike ease, and a frightened hiss, the animal turned and slipped into the shadows.
         In the East, something breathed, biding its time.
         *          *          *          *          *          *          *
         Athena slumped in her seat, propping her chin on her hand, staring blankly out the window of the car. She hated moving. She hated many things, really: snakes, insects, clowns, math class. But most of all, she hated moving. In the past three years, she had been to more states, and more schools, than she had ever cared to. Her father was a business man, finance consultant, not the most interesting job in the world. He worked for one of the biggest financial and legal corporations in the states, if not the world, and was moving quickly up the corporate ladder. That meant being reassigned to different branches across the country with every promotion. That meant he and his daughter and their dog, Sera, were constantly relocated. That meant moving, and Athena hated moving.
         Their destination was called Gloryville, and from the research Athena did on her laptop, it was just a backwater town in a backwater state. How it got it's name, she wasn't sure. The high school she would be going to was possibly the worst looking place she'd ever seen. Forrest Green High, she suppose it was named after someone who's parents had been a couple of smart-asses, but it was certainly no one she had ever heard of.
         She looked away from the window and the never-ending brown and yellow stretches of land dotted here and there with patches of trees or a house or a herd of cattle, turning her head to look at her father. Both his hands were on the wheel and he looked as if he had died and risen in his sleep, a zombie, just endlessly driving. She sat up in her seat and tapped her foot a little impatiently, looking out the windshield at the long straight road.
         "You know, Dad," she said in the most sympathetic and sweet voice she could muster. "You're looking awfully tired. You've been driving for nearly..." She glanced at her watch. "nearly seventeen hours now. Don't you deserve a little break?"
         She looked innocently back down at the floor mat, staring intensely at her Converse and willing her father to give in to her silent plea.
         "No, Athena, you cannot drive." His reply was curt, but his voice was gravelly and marked with tiredness.
         "But, Daaaaaad," she whined. "I do have my permit on me, and the road isn't going to turn any time soon. How am I ever going to get in the practice if you won't let me drive?"
         "I'm not going to argue with you." He let out a sigh and shook his head, his eyes never leaving the road. "You aren't experienced enough for me to let you drive without supervision. Also, you've never handled the car when it was hooked to a trailer before."
         "Oh, please, Daddy!" She tried turning her charm on, looking at him with large puppy-dog eyes and pouting. "The road won't give me any  trouble and you need to rest."
         "I said 'no'," Athena, and that's the final word." With that he reached forward and turned on the radio. Queen sounded through the car, halfway through "Bohemian Rhapsody".
         Athena turned back to the side, slipping down again in her seat and, knowing how much it annoyed her father, put her feet up on the dash. She slipped her headphones on and rubbed her thumb over her iPod, turning it on and shuffling through her play list to find the same song on the radio. If she was going to listen to it, she was going to listen to the song in its entirety. She let her mind wander as the music filled her ears, watching the dull world go past. She wondered how all her friends were doing back in her last school. She had been in Chicago for longer than any place since before her father had landed the job at Fisher, Brown, and Thompson Inc. and had made a few good friends that she had wished she never had to lose. She knew they would keep in touch for a while, but like always, they would fall out of contact and the story would repeat.
         Thunder rolled in the distance, loud enough to sound through her headphones and make her look up. Dark gray filled the afternoon sky, casting the endless fields in gloom. Raindrops started to splatter against the windshield and streak across the side windows. Perfect. Now Dad would never let her drive, not in this weather. He looked tired enough to have given in the next time she had asked, but in the rain, there was no way she would get a chance behind the wheel. She watched as the rain fell to the ground, vapors rising from the pavement as the cooler moisture hit the hot, sun-soaked ground. It was amazing how fast the weather could change, especially out here. From everything she'd heard, she had a lot of rain to look forward to.
         She switched her iPod off and pulled off the headphones, turning once more to her father.
         "Dad, I know you're tired. Just let me drive for a little bit?"
         He sighed, but as he felt the pressure of an long drive on little sleep weigh down his eyelids, he slowly applied pressure to the brake and pulled to the side of the road. Unbuckling his seat belt he took a deep breath and opened the car door, barely having time to move out of the way as Athena bounded from the car, around and into the driver's seat, buckling up and waiting for her father to get back in. As soon as he was belted, she checked her side mirror and, seeing no incoming cars, which was to be expected until they neared civilization, pulled back onto the road.
         As she drove, John Boyd felt the drone of the engine lull him, his heavy eyelids falling shut. Despite his worries that something horrible and possibly fatal would happen with his young daughter behind the wheel, Athena handled the driving well. She knew her dad cared and all, but sometimes he was just so smothering. He'd been this way since her mother had died four years prior.
         They had called it a heart attack. Alice Boyd had been a fairly healthy woman in her late thirties, but when she didn't come home from work one day, her husband and daughter had been fraught with grief and worry. Alice had turned up in the park, curled up in a fetal position on the side of the path. Athena knew her mother had liked to take the long way through the park occasionally, especially when she was under a lot of stress at work, but had never thought she'd lose her to the same place her mother had most loved in all of New York. One day she was there, the next she wasn't and Athena was wearing black clothes and attending the funeral she had least wanted to be at in all the world.
         The young girl snapped out of her stroll down Painful Memory Lane and watched the road. She stared through the never-ending rainfall, the windshield wipers splashing away the droplets, matching the beat of the current song on the radio, which was being half drowned out by her fathers snoring. She laughed to herself. That man could snore loud enough to wake the dead and then make them crave the silence of the grave again.
         A few hours later, they passed a sign that read "GLORYVILLE 10 MI". She gave a nervous little smile. That was it, her new home. She certainly hoped it didn't end up being too much of a bore. With a population of only 4,186, it wasn't a big city by any means. As they neared the town limits, she nudged her father awake.
         "We're almost there. What's the address again?"
         "439 N Kinsey Rd. I was told it was sort of a main street, but it continues out. Ah, there, make a right turn." Her father pointed at a street sign, looking at his Google Map directions.
         He never went anywhere without checking Google first. She slowed to a stop at the corner, turned on her blinker and made a right turn, keeping it wide to mind the small trailer they were hauling. She watched the buildings pass. They were nothing impressive, but neither did they give off the feeling of rare use. Braking at a stoplight, she watched an elderly woman slowly cross the wet crosswalk, cling to an umbrella and a shopping bag.
         As they got into the right residential area, Athena slowed down more, her father watching for their new house. After a few blocks of watching the numbers grow, they stopped in front of a faded lavender house. It wasn't bad. Two stories, three bedroom, two and a half baths, a nice front yard as well as back yard and enough rooms for both of them to be able to have their own space. As much as she hated to admit it, she thought she could grow to like this house.
         "I know that look in your eyes, turtle. I knew you'd like this place when we got here."
         She had been called turtle since she was 5 and had gone to the zoo. She particularly liked the turtles, though she wasn't sure why. And after reading a pop-up book on them, had taken to snapping at anyone who got too close, just like her favorite turtle, earning her the pet name. She got out and let her father back the car and trailer up the driveway, watching from the lawn.
         "Go pick out your room, Athena. Then come back down and help me start moving this furniture in."
         "Okay, Dad." She called, turning and running into the house, her long brown hair bouncing behind her.
         She stood in the doorway, astounded by the size of the living room. She wandered down the hall and into the dining room and kitchen, fairly impressed with the size. It was certainly a nice enough house. She walked back down the hall, opening the basement door and staring down the stairs. Walking back toward the door, she turned and trounced up the stairs. At the top she looked both ways down the hall. A bedroom and a bathroom to her right, another bedroom and the master bedroom to her left. Another closed door stood in front of her, its off-white paint peeling a little.
         Being curious in nature, she strode toward the door and turned the nob, opening the door to reveal a set of old stairs leading into the attic. She crinkled her nose, reaching in and flipping the switch, flooding the room above and the staircase in light. Walking cautiously up, she expected to see a dusty old room filled with junk, but was nicely surprised to see a well lit, spacious area. In one area, there were a few antique items that had been left behind, but the majority or the room was fairly well kept. There was even a skylight put into the roof. The rain was still pitter-pattering against the roof, hitting the skylight glass. She took a deep breath and ran back down the stairs, down to the first floor, out the door and over to where her father was shuffling around plastic covered furniture.
         “Dad, I want the attic as my bedroom.”
         “The attic?” He raised an eyebrow at his daughter. “Isn't that all dusty and whatnot?”
         “Not at all. And there's a skylight. I really want the attic room. Please?” She put her hands together, pleading her father.
         He chuckled and pulled at his chin, looking up into the sky as if putting a lot of thought into the decision. “Well alright. You can have the attic for your bedroom.”
         Athena squealed with glee and picked up an end table, carrying it into the house and setting it down in the living room. Walking back out to help her father carry the couch. Thankfully it wasn't too heavy. She was a strong girl, but a couch can be quite heavy, and her father had a bad back from the last move. She walked backwards, carefully picking her way down the path and up the stairs. They tilted the couch to make it fit through the doorway and set the thing down in the living room, heading back out for more furniture. As the hour went by, they had emptied the trailer of most of the boxes and items and taken them all inside. Athena carried a box of cookware into the kitchen, once more marveling in the fineness of the sparkling tile floor, the marble counters, the steel appliances, knowing quite well that all of it would require time and effort to keep it clean. She turned and rushed back down the hallway, grabbing a blanket and throwing it on top of a box of her clothes and such. The rest of their belongings probably wouldn't be arriving until early the next day or so, so they had packed a few changes of clothes, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and some makeshift bedding for just-in-case.
         Climbing the stairs to the second floor and then toward the attic, she set her box at the top. Beginning to turn she spotted the junk piled in the corner and moved back up, shuffling across the floor to see if she could find any treasures amidst the heap of unwanted artifacts. She knelt before an old rocking horse, setting her hand on it's wooden neck and pushing slightly, causing the toy to rock forward. Releasing her hand, she watched as it rocked a few times before settling back into place. It was a good toy, the paint wasn't chipped or faded, and, although it was covered in a fine layer of dust, it was in excellent repair. She crawled over to a trunk next to the horse. Opening the heavy lid, she peered in to see strange looking instruments and papers with unintelligible writings. Picking up a piece of paper, she stared at the words, wondering if the writer merely had atrocious handwriting or if perhaps it was a dialect she didn't know. Replacing the paper on the stack, she picked up a jar from the bottom of the trunk. It was filled with a yellowish liquid, but didn't appear to hold anything. She crinkled her nose in disgust, hoping beyond all hopes that the fluid in the jar wasn't anything gross, such as urine. Who knew what eccentric person had left these behind and what they were capable of.
         Deciding that she'd had quite enough exploring for the day, Athena set the trunk lid back down and headed downstairs, pausing at the bathroom to wash her hands. Once downstairs, she located her father in the kitchen. The smell of hamburger browning in a pan filled the room, making Athena smile. She could cook fairly well, herself, but her father was an excellent cook. She sat on a stool at the pass and watched as he mixed in seasonings, chopped onions and minced garlic into the meat. In a separate pot, noodles were slowly softening down in boiling water, the steam fogging the lid. A smaller pot held a gently bubbling sauce, which her father poured over the meat once the pan had been allowed to cool slightly. Pasta for dinner. De-lish. Setting out two plates on the pass and finding a couple of forks, Athena twirled the scrumptious pasta around her fork and slurped it down.
         “Good as always, Dad.” She smiled as her father sat on the stool next to her, digging into his own plate of pasta.
         “Mm, hank oo,” he mumbled through a mouthful of food.
         It was past midnight when hey had finished putting away the few boxes they had brought and headed upstairs to bed. At the foot of the attic stairs, Athena turned and bid her father goodnight, closing the door behind her and feeling her way up the stairs. Crossing the attic and sinking onto the bedding on the floor, she rolled to her back and stared up at the window. The rain had cleared several hours before and the sky was pitch black, sprinkled with stars. Athena smiled as her eyelids grew heavy, falling quickly asleep under the twinkling stars and the pale moonlight.