The Revelation (Pandora's Harem 1) A Reverse Harem Tale(15)
At Mary’s apartment, I raise my hand to knock, but the door opens on its own. “Hello?”
I lean in, but refrain from crossing the threshold. “Anybody home?”
The scent that permeates my apartment is far more intense in my neighbor’s place. And it definitely is some sort of spicy rose fragrance.
Curiosity prompts me to go inside. I really shouldn’t. Going back home and calling the police would make the most sense, they can enter the apartment and search for the woman. But I really can’t help myself. I must know what is going on.
Bad Pandora. Will I ever escape her? Probably not. One’s values are formed way before one’s twenty-first birthday, and considering my real age, I am so not going to learn new ways of living at this point.
My feet shuffle ahead. k12
The apartment is sparsely furnished, though I have to admit, I don’t remember it being this empty the first time I met Mary. But that was three years ago, when I first moved in after being accepted at college. I was lucky to get the apartment as all the others I looked at were double the rent, in not-so-nice areas, and half the size. At first I thought it too good to be true, but time proved me wrong.
My neighbor’s living room is totally void of all human life. I trek in to the kitchen. Same thing. I scan the counter top and appliances. The stove doesn’t even look used. If I didn’t see Mary coming and going every now and then, I’d almost say no one lives here. But I know that’s not true.
The bedroom is next, and I really hate snooping like this, but the woman could be in danger. I also don’t see any of her candle making supplies like the ones she so proudly boasted about when we first met. It was the only time we actually had a real conversation.
I walk down the hall and open the first bedroom’s door. My place is smaller, it’s on the one-bedroom side of the building, where Mary’s apartment has more footage and two bedrooms.
I peer into the room, but the space is too dark to see anything, so I slap the wall with my palm and finally find a light switch. I flick it up. Much to my surprise, the room holds three single beds. What the hell? Never have I seen anyone coming and going from this place, save for Mary.
Maybe I’ll find something in the other room. I go to switch off the light, but freeze as a slight noise thumps in the background.
I listen. And hear it again. It’s coming from the closet. I search the room but find nothing I can use as a make-shift weapon, so proceed unarmed.
At the door, I grip the handle. I count to ten.
With a deep breath, I pull the closet door open.
Shock slams me like a semi. There are boxes and jars and containers of all sizes, stacked everywhere. A good number of them look to have been dismantled in some way, their lids partially melted, cut, and some even look chewed. Who would do this? And why?
A sigh comes from somewhere behind me.
I turn around, slowly. And meet Chaos. “I knew I’d have fun with you, Pandy.”
“What are you doing, here? Where is Mary, the woman who rents this apartment?”
Chaos comes closer, her feet floating above the floor. “I only needed her long enough to make you believe this was the perfect place to live.”
So, the gods lured me in here, too. Not just to the university. “Is there anything about my life that is true?”
Chaos twirls a strand of her long, blond hair, wrapping the ends around her right forefinger. “I’m not sure. The gods have been using you for so long, I don’t think any of us know the truth about you anymore.”
I’m starting to realize why I change bodies so often. I’m probably running from the gods and if that is the case, then I also have to accept that they find me each time. I guess Dora, the woman I thought I was up until yesterday, was probably coming to her time’s end, but nothing in my memory makes me think I was about to realize the real me and go look for another body to inhabit.
Something is different this time.
I have my Spartans now. And I honestly don’t think I’ve had them in the past, because that I would remember, even in a new body. Though it probably is a good idea to ask them flat out. But for now, I must contend with Chaos and figure my way out of this little run-in with the crazy-ass goddess.
“Oh, you won’t be escaping me this time,” Chaos says.
“But what good do I do you? I don’t have my box.”
“No, not now. But eventually Hope will reach out to you and when she does, you’ll be the magnet I need to destroy her.”
I’ve caused enough problems with opening that damn box. If I ever find it again, I am going to make sure it remains sealed. Make sure Hope is safe and secure so mankind never loses her, never stops believing in her. Which I need to remind myself right now because I don’t see any hope of me surviving Chaos at the moment.
The goddess reaches out to me. She drags her bony finger down my cheek and over my chin. “My sweet little Pandy. Like I just told you, I have no desire to kill you yet. I need you to first locate your lost box.”
“If you think I’ll help those sordid grandsons of yours, you’re sorely mistaken.”
Chaos’s thin lips curl. She raises her right arm and flicks her wrist.
Wind and rain hail down on me, swirl around my body. I struggle to breathe.
“See, I can very easily make your life miserable. And I do prefer that to killing you, while I still can use you. Of course once I’m finished with you, there will be no reason to keep you around. That’s when I’ll officially gift you to my grandsons.”