Ajax

I counted them twice in my head. First Poseidon, then Hades, then Hermes. Hades drew a circle in which he pointed at Zeus at the top, the king who needs courage. Then the point next to the king, Poseidon, the moving waters thing. In front of it was the ruler of the underworld, Hades who needs hope. Or was it the center? Then the point that cuts the circle was Love aka Aphrodite. In front of her was Ares, war which means that the rest may be Dionysus, Artemis, Hermes, Demeter, Hera, Athena, or Hephaestus. These were a lot of choices.

The gods that I heard in my dream, what were they again? I couldn't remember, but they weren't from the Olympians. As I was struggling to crack the case Alex broke my concentration by handing me a bottle of water.

I took it while giving him a smile when a question popped up in my brain. ''Alex?'' I innocently asked trying not to seem suspicious. ''Are there any evil gods? Like the ones who want to take over the world?''

''Yes actually there is a lot. Some minors take sides, but they are outnumbered by the good ones, so they can't do anything. Especially when all the giants and Titans were gone.''

That was convincing enough, but I had to spill out more, ''What if the good guys side up with them? What will happen to the world?''

He stared at my face as if searching for something, ''Well, basically they try to over throw Zeus and the Olympians to create a new age.''

''Then what will happen to the world?''

''It either turns to Chaos and darkness or Prosperity to lead a better world. But it's gonna be probably Chaos cuz no one was even born to take Zeus' place.''

''What if he was already born?''

He tuned a laugh and said, ''Eleanor, it doesn't work like that. When a prophecy was made that Metis would bring a child who would overthrow Zeus, he swallowed the woman whole. ''

''So why is the whole prophecy thig going on?'' I raised my eyebrows at his smiley face.

''I don't know. Apollo will tell us. I'm sure of that.''

''Did you know anything about the prophecy? Ares didn't tell you about it?''

He shook his head, ''I didn't even know one was made about me.''

While I was about to say, ''they did it the day you were born,'' Hades' voice echoed in my brain with, ''Alex shouldn't know anything.'' I zipped my mouth and shut off the questions. I decided to reply with, ''This is tricky.'' He nodded back as the captain announced fifteen minutes till landing in Greece, Delphi.

''You need a hand while landing?'' He flashed me a smile.

''I guess,'' I replied while trying to cool off my pink cheeks.

''Eleanor, you this is really serious right?''

''The landing?''

''No,'' he slapped his forehead lightly. ''The Apollo thing.''

''Yeah. Yeah, sorry right.''

''This is serious so we can't hide anything from each other. I need to trust you so that we could survive this.'' His face was dead ass straight.

''Yes. I know. Both of us have the same information about all of this,'' I bit my lips as a shrill of guilt went down my nerves. The attendee politely as us to buckle up for the landing. All the passengers including us obeyed.

''Okay then, next top should be the Temple Of Apollo,'' Alex said while taking my hand into his. Warmth spread in my heart beside the fire of guilt burning me down.

I nodded as gravity pulled me down to my seat. I squeezed his hand when my ears popped at the exchange of atmosphere layers. I felt like screaming, but squeezed that all in Alex's hand. I shut my eyes and opened them when I felt the plane stopped safely on the ground. The attendee announced that we are free to pack our packages and enter the airport. To my right Alex was resting his head on his palm staring at the building past him. We were finally on dear earth.

Into the airport we go, where all the people jam themselves to get past yelling gibberish and something that sounds like cursing. Alex held my hand tight as we squeezed through the crowds.

He was moving fast to follow the directions and get to the entrance so that we could take the bus to Apollo's temple right away. The attendee booked us a place when Alex politely charmed her into it. If I wasn't too sure I would say he was totally flirting with her back there. Even though she's like his grandma's age. To our luck there was one available in thirty minutes. I almost forgot my phone in the airplane, but Alex went back half the way to retrieve it.

People were still squeezing our brains off, yelling names to catch their children's attention, or sitting on benches to rest their legs from the marathon to catch their flights. I took a look behind me while Alex was tugging me forward. A kid was running in front of his parents. A couple, the girl was white and the man black, were taking selfies with their smiles lighting the place up. They reminded me of the cute couple's videos I used to watch when I was lonely. That actually made me feel more lonely, but whatever.

I saw curly hair bounce off between the people twisted in perfect shape, almost like Alex's, except that those were dark black. Then it hit me. I quickly turned my face as it glowed bright red and ran past Alex. I glanced behind me. The boy was speeding up too. He was yelling something like, '' Perimenete despoinis sas parakalo!''

I ran with all that my legs could manage with my energy. I stumbled down one child and spilled someone's coffee. Glancing back Alex was saying something I couldn't make out. All I thought was run. Run from the embarrassment. Run from the anxiety. Run from all that shit. You can never communicate with him. Then I felt a hand touch my shoulder. Please be Alex, I thought.

'' Parakaló cháste prépei na sas milíso,'' the deep gibberish sounded behind me back. I froze with my eyes shut. I could feel Alex's hand loosen from mine. I inhaled and opened my eyelids and gosh what arrows did cupid hit him with to follow my ass and embarrass me like that.

''Uhh,'' the anonymous person looked me straight with his flashy green eyes. Straps of curly hair were covering the pigment. ''You speak Angliká?''

''Wha…?'' I looked at Alex for some support, but he was too busy clenching his fists and staring at his face with a look that said ''one more word and I'll beat you up.''

''English. You speak?'' His voice was deep revealed his accent which was foreign. Greek, I suppose.

I nodded back in response and he smiled at me. His teeth were too white, I felt like covering my eyes. He was brown skinned kind of a tan, like he was on vacation or something. He had black glasses in his hands and waved them while talking using his English words they taught him in kindergarten.

''You look at me in…' he moved his hand to beckon the plane.

I nodded at him while he even widened his smile and said, '' Megálos! Uhh… me,you… destiny… uh…'' He wandered off his eyes to remember the words that were stuck in his mind.

Alex cut him in and said directly to my face, ''Come on, Eleanor. Let's go.'' He held my hand tight and pulled me.

The boy stopped him and said, ''No! Me talking. Wait, please.'' He inhaled and said, ''Me.'' He pointed to himself and said, ''Me, Ajax. You?'' He pronounced his name like a fluent hot poet. It sounded something like Agax.

''Eleanor,'' I replied shyly, assuming I turned pink. Alex was tapping his foot wildly at the floor symbolizing impatience which I totally ignored cause why not actually?

''Wow,'' Ajax gave me a glace that churned up my intestines. ''Ajax,'' he pointed at himself, ''Eleanor,'' he prolonged the ''r'' just like any French man would do and tapped my heart with his index finger. I paced away from him. He sensed my fear as Alex took a step as if ready to chop him into a thousand pieces by summoning his sword.

''No, no, scared.'' He shook his head. ''Ajax, ''he repeated patiently. ''Eleanor. Destiny.'' He pointed at me and said, ''Number please.'' He flashed me a smile that was heart melting.

I shook my head as Alex has had enough. He took my hand, and dragged me past the people away from Ajax. I saw the curly haired black angle's face fall. He turned his back on me and left ascending away from us until he faded completely. Alex was bolting through the great halls and didn't rest until we were finally at the entrance where a blue bus painted on it Apollo in big white words was waiting for people to fill in.