CHAPTER TWO: YOU DECIDE.

5 MONTHS AGO

A girl was running as fast as she could, she did not stop, deep in the dark forest. She was being chased by a dark spirit, "stop running!" it said in echoes. She was panting, running for her life she said with the little life left in her, "leave me alone, I'm not the one you want".

"You killed me" it said angrily.

"I'm sorry, we're sorry, he didn't mean it" she said helplessly.

Back in real life, in the middle of the night Iris was on her bed sweating and murmuring faintly I'm sorry, we're sorry, he did not mean it repeatedly. Apollo was forced to wake up and attend to his sister's need. He woke her up using his night voice quietly he said "iris, iris , iris wake up, iris!". Immediately she woke up gasping, she was crying, "brother I saw her, I saw her" she said trepidly. Her brother, concerned asked her, "who, who did you see?". She said while trembling with fear, "Agnes". Apollo shocked and appalled he said "No, no no she's dead, I killed her. I made sure she was dead".

"She chased me Apollo, she wants us dead" she gave him a worried look in the eye.

PRESENT DAY

12 of the the students came into the training ground astonished by what they saw, it looked like a war zone. They all wondered about the place. Gia moved together with Auriela,

"Have you told Jason you like him yet?" Gia whispered in Auriela's ears with excitement.

"No, what if he doesn't like me back" Auriela deplored in a lowered tone.

"Aurie, I've seen the way he looks at you, he definitely likes you" Gia stressed. They were both walking together wondering about the place when Gia bumped into Iris and Sebastian, "Oh my God, I'm so sorry" Gia said.

"It's okay" Sebastian assured her. Gia and Auriela continued walking about talking.

"You can't hide that for long" Sebastian turnee to Iris and said in a lowered tone.

"F**k off" Iris said in annoyance.

"I want to help you Iris, God knows what they'll do to you if they find out someone has been sucking on you" Sebastian stressed.

"Lower your god-damned voice" Iris said

"Listen, I care about you and you know that, just please let me help you" Sebastian begged.

"What makes you think you could help me get rid of this!" She said as dragged the sleeve of her jacket up in annoyance to show Sebastian. Iris gasped in pain and shock as she saw the marks were growing worse.

"It's getting worse" Sebastian said wearing a pity face.

"Yeah" Iris added as she adjusted her jacket.

Alexander, Julius and Mila also paired up to wonder about the place.

"So how was last night?" Julius asked interested. Mila and Alexander looked at themselves confused.

"I don't understand" Mila said shaking her head in confusion.

"Let's see, we were chained up like some f**king animal, and when the full moon came, every bone in our f**king body broke- " Alexander was interrupted by Julius,

"Every bone? Oh my God" Julius said terrified.

"Every bone." Mila added.

"How excruciating" Julius said. Mila and Alexander both looked at themselves again, this time with a grin on their faces.

"It's not that bad, you know." Mila said calmly.

"What?!, Are you delusional?!" Julius said to Mila.

"Yeah, she's right, it not that bad, the feeling after the excruciating pain makes it up for all the pain you endured." Alexander said smiling.

"It's europhic. Howling back at the moon." Mila added.

"It's like I'm telling my annoying elder sister shut the f**k up you don't own me!" Alexander said hysterically. They all laughed for a short while, "I do miss-" Alexander was cut short by Mila, "shhhh, don't, I know" she said as she went in for a hug.

Arthur and Jason moved together as they toured the room. Aurther saw a bowl of water and decided to do magic with it,

"Surge sursus." Which means rise up, the water begins to rise up slowly. Arthur was beamed with joy on his face, while Jason was surprised, "woah, how did you do that?" He asked in amazement.

"There are books in my room, grimoires even, Alan told me and Auriela all about them, they're in Latin though, if we just concentrate, and say any of the words on the grimoires, it executes itself. I learnt this one just yesterday." Arthur said.

Greta and Apollo paired up, as they both wondered about the place too, they walked passed Arthur and Jason. Jason as mischievous as he was carried a short mischievous looking grin on his face. "I have an idea, hold that water up Arthur." Jason said as he called out greta's name, Greta turned back wondering why Jason would be calling her.

"What do you want?" Greta asked as she walked closer to Jason and Arthur.

Jason turned to Arthur and asked, "how do you say splash in Latin."

"Respersio." Before Arthur could realize what was going on, the water had already splashed on Greta, Greta screamed with annoyance. It caught the attention of everyone in the room, they all watched as Greta turned into a full mermaid. Her straight dark hair became wet, her breasts were covered with the finest embroidery, she looked glorious as a ray of sun light graced her. Her tail wagging and hitting the floor as she begged for water. Everyone began to murmur at what glorious creature thier eyes gazed upon. Jason bursts out into laughter,

"I'm sorry" He said as he continued to laugh, he couldn't help it. Hamilton hands Greta a bottle of water, she gulped the water begging for more. Julius rushed to meet Greta to feed her two pieces of mermaid kelp; in order to change back into her human nature. Greta slowly transformed to her human self and wasted no time to confront Jason.

"You're a f**king cunt!!!!" Greta yelled at Jason.

"Calm down Greta." Hamilton tried to calm her down. She got agitated and started singing. Julius raised his voice at Jason and told him to cover his ears. He did likewise. Everyone was unease until, Alan entered the room,

"Welcome to one of finest and bewildering room in HMA!" Alan said with a smile on his face.

"How are we all feeling today?" Alan asked the students. They all composed themselves.

There were series of different answers, some said they were good, some said they were surviving, some said they were pumped.

"Good to hear- he joined both his hands together with delight- so, the agenda for the day" Alan said as he walked to something covered with a tarp. He pulls the tarp and said,

"The drawing board"

The whole students were baffled at what they saw. They all murmured indistinctively.

"Quiet, quiet now, what you see here is part of the reason you're here". Alan said.

"Though you are not complete, so I won't say too much. One more student will arrive this week, I trust you'll all treat her well?" Alan added.

"What is she to begin with?" Mila asked concerned.

"She'll decide" Alan said in a nefarious manner. At this point the students were perplexed.

"What do you mean she'll decide" Hamilton asked. Alan stood up in the podium smiling at all of them. While Iris and Apollo looked at themselves.

5 MONTHS AGO

Apollo was at the supermarket with tattered clothings. He picked up some stuffs for him and his sister Iris. A man was watching him throughout. He went to the counter to pay for what he bought. He had only 10 dollars with him.

"I'm sorry, your 15 dollars short" the cashier said.

"What? Are you sure?" Apollo asked.

"Yes, I'm sorry" the cashier said.

"Okay what should I return, I have with me only 10 dollar" Apollo said wearing a long face. The man who's been watching him all along came up to him at the counter and gave him a 100 dollar note. He was shocked as to why a stranger will do such, by the time he could thank him he had already gone.

"Good people are hard to find these days" the cashier said with a smile on her face as she packaged the stuffs Apollo bought.

"Yeah" Apollo said in amazement. The cashier gave Apollo his stuffs and as he was ready to go she called him back,

"Hey!" She yelled. Apollo turned back, then the cashier raised a white envelope in the air. "A souvenir for our customers" The cashier said with a smile on her face. "Thank you" Apollo said and collected the souvenir from her and he left.

In their home, Apollo and Iris, Apollo came back with the packages, Iris gave him a big hug. She looked at his hands and she was shocked, "Apollo, how did 10 dollars afford all these?" Iris asked with concern. "It didn't, my love, a man, he saw me, he gave me the money when the cashier told me I was 15 dollars short" Apollo said with joy. Iris screamed and leaped for joy. They were both laughing and happy. Then Apollo remembered the envelope.

"Oh, the cashier also gave me a souvenir, she said they give it to all customers" He said with excitement.

"Well, open it" Iris said in awe. Apollo opened it. He saw a note inside, he opened the note and it read; "HMA". They both looked confused. "What's HMA" Iris asked her brother. "I have no idea, look there's something written at the back". They bought read it out loud, "Agnes is not dead, she'll come for you and your sister, she'll either kill you both or you kill her, you DECIDE." Iris started panicking, she was breathing so loud, she was scared, she was in tears now, "no, no, no!!!! Apollo, you told me, you told me she's dead, you told me you killed her, Apollo we're gonna die, we're gonna die" Apollo held her tightly, looked into her hazel nuts coloured eyes and said to her,

"we're not going to die, I killed her, I know it"

"Then what does this mean" Iris said holding the note. "It says, Agnes is alive, she's not dead!"

"The note also says either she kills us or we kill her we decide, she's going to die Iris. I promise you that" Apollo assured Iris and kissed her on her forehead.

PRESENT DAY

At the Callum's, dinner was served. They were all on the dinning table eating, Ophelia looked down, "Ophelia, what's wrong?" asked Ophelia's mother. Ophelia was already tearing up. Ophelia's father looked at Ophelia's mum and they both nodded at each other. "My darling pls don't let it bother you" Ophelia's mother said.

"I know I'm going to die" Ophelia said hitting the table with her palms. After that she wiped her tears. Her mother and father looked at her siblings, they were all wearing long faces. Ophelia turned to look at them.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make everyone so gloomy." Ophelia said sadly.

"I know this cancer is eating me up, you don't have to act like it isn't, I'm going to die and that should be my daily reminder, excuse me" Ophelia said terrified. She went up to her room slammed the door closed and there herself on her bed. She laid there for some minutes, then she stood up, looked for her bag, sat down on her bed and brought out a green, red and purple tonic in a bottle. She gave them a long stare. Then she had a flash back to when she opened her envelope and it read;

"Cheat death, you know you're dying, take either one of them and see what happens, take all and embrace whatever happens, or take none and suffer the consequences, you DECIDE"

Ophelia comes back to the present and still gave a long and decisive look at the three tonics. She inhaled and exhaled deeply. She takes a picture of her mom and dad with her siblings and stares at it with tears in her eyes.

5 MONTHS AGO

Apollo ran into the room as fast as he could, he called Iris, "Iris!! Iris!! Where are you!! Iris!" He was very angry and scared at the same time. He saw a note filled with blood which read; "I'm back". Filled with rage Apollo destroyed everything in the room. He screamed in anger. He saw something shiny by the corner, 4 bottles of tonic, two red, another green, and the other purple, he goes closer to them, he picks them up by the side of the bottled he saw a note, he read it aloud, "it changes it all, drink either one, drink all or drink none, you DECIDE." He sets out to find Iris. It was already raining, he kept on screaming under the rain Iris, Iris, Iris. Until he found her with Agnes, he was already soaking wet as brittle as he were he screamed at Agnes,

"leave my sister alone you f**king bastard."

"Oh, Apollo welcome! I've been waiting for you." She said with a grin on her face.

"It's me you want! I was the one that killed you!" Apollo said wailing.

Agnes steps down from the shade dragging Iris by the hair along the waters, under the ugly rain.

"Apollo go!" Iris cried out

Agnes let's go of Iris and grabs Apollo by the neck. Agnes looks Apollo straight in the eye, "What an unfortunate boy!, You're going to die and what better audience to witness it than your unfortunate sister."

"No," Apollo said faintly, "you either kill us or we kill you"

Agnes laughed in a mischievous manner, "you fool!! How could you possibly kill me? You're the one who's neck is in my hands and almost about to walk with the angels in heaven"

Apollo shouted, "Iris now!!" Iris took the knife on the floor and stabbed Agnes repeatedly on the back crying and screaming. Agnes hands left the neck of Apollo. She fell down, dead. Apollo ran to Iris who was miserable, he brought his bag and removed the bottles and gave Iris to drink the red, purple and green bottles of tonic, "here take this, drink it Iris, it changes it all." while he took the other red bottle.

PRESENT DAY

Ophelia was still staring at the bottles, "okay, here it goes, cheers to cheating death." Ophelia drank the first one, she felt nothing, she drank the second one, she felt different then she drank the third one, that's when she she felt something changing in her body, she fell down, staggering, she was breathing heavily, "what's going on." She said In distress. She began to scream uncontrollably. She was in great pains. She continued screaming.

5 MONTHS AGO

Iris and Apollo took shelter from in a damaged uncompleted building. Iris shouted, " Arrrrghh!!!" Apollo was carrying her then he stopped, "what happened?" Apollo asked concerned.

"Something's happening." She continued screaming, she did not stop. Apollo ran to her to try to calm her down, "Iris what's going on, everything's alright now, Agnes is dead, Iris?" Iris looked Apollo straight in the eye, her eye colour had changed into red, her bones breaking, she was in anguishing pain. She was transforming into a jaguar, Apollo frightened tried running away, she chased after him, then she stopped she was changing, she began to belching like a gorilla, she was slowly transforming into a gorilla.

Apollo watched as his sister turned into an ape, he was in tears. She continued chasing him then she stopped, he made a mighty roar, she began to spit fire from her mouth, she rose to the sky and turned into a dragon, Apollo watched all that in disbelieve and pure sadness and sorrow for his sister. Few moments, a man came with his arrow, he targeted it at Iris, way up in the sky, he shot her with it, and she fell like a mighty iroko tree. Apollo saw this too, he ran to his sister, she had already changed to her human self, frail and weak. Apollo asked the man that shot his sister with an arrow,

"who are you!!, What have you done to her".

The man took some powder from his pocket and blew it at Apollo, he fell on his knees then to the floor, out cold.