“We need a plan, stat,” Chronos announced after an hour of lazing around. “We’re here to save the world, not to relax. That goes for you too Selene.” He gave her a knowing look that kind of creeped me out but that’s different. Well, let’s come up with a plan right now,” he directed. Ever since the new look, Chronos had been scaring me big time. “We can assume that he has told no one of his plans to steal my power; it would be troublesome for him. We can also say that he will strike soon, this is the best time to do so. All of us together in one place, he won’t be able to pass it up. All we need to do, is take the necklace around his neck; it’s the source of his power.”

We were all silent as Chronos spoke, trying to think of a situation where he’d let us get that close. Erebus was only a few years older than me so he wouldn’t be as cautious as Chronos or Selene and that helps to an extent. Noah spoke up for the first time in this conversation, “Don’t you guys have magic or something? Can’t you just stop time and take it from him or make yourself invisible, then take it?” Chronos and Selene exchanges looks and nodded.

“You’re a genius,” Chronos exclaimed. “Now I know adults are supposed to be ‘mature’ and ‘wise’ but they overthink things too much. Well, I guess we have a plan now. Get some rest, we start in an hour.”

My hour was spent lazing around, lavishly munching on any snacks we had. Noah has tried to strike up a conversation but he was interrupted by a door opening, rather loudly too. In walked a man I remember seeing somewhere before in this dimension. The tower. He was the one chasing us out…! The power in the air grew stronger and everyone grew tense. We stumbled closer to him, just as he spoke.

“I am Erebus, the new god and you shall obey my every word!” Selene looked terrified and scooted closer to Chronos and Noah. Noah’s wide eyes confused me. Has he not seen any movies containing a bad guy? Nevermind, of course he hasn’t. Erebus raised his arm halfway and a beam of light emitted from his palm.

“MOVE!” Chronos ordered. The light blared a giant hole through anything in its way. I stalked behind him and pulled his arms down, trying to get the necklace off but a light appeared once again, right where my feet were. Just then, Noah pushes me out of the way, grabbing the necklace as well. It was fairly easy to remove it, it was those necklace made with thin cord and it loosened quite a bit. The light cancelled and Erebus’s Hans moves to his eyes. They were disintegrating. Where his eyes were, there were empty sockets, no blood, nothing. Chronos smiled a sad smile.

“The only thing keeping him alive was hat necklace. How pathetic. To boast about all the power he had, not knowing how much it destroyed him.” Chronos walked of the hut and sat down by a tree far off in the distance. “Callum, Noah, come here.” We walked over in unison and sat on either side of him. He looked up at the darkening sky and a stray tear fell down his cheeks. “You’ll be leaving in a few minutes, you have completed your duty. Thank you.” More tears began to fall from his eyes, causing me to cry too. Though I’ve always hated his classes, he was a cool guy and he did rope me into this mess, but it was worth it. We got to save the universe and that’s all that matters.

We stayed like that for a while before he got up, leaving me alone with Noah.

You have to tell him now, Callum. You can’t keep avoiding it.

I decided to listen to his advice for once and said in a small voice, “I like you.”