Chapter 5
Declan could tell that the boys were nervous for their shot; he dealt with nervous kids every day. So he did what he always did. He reassured them that it would be a quick little stick, just a little poke, and then he would put a bandaid on and they could have a treat. He even had star wars themed band aids, he would let them pick which one they wanted. Then they could have a cookie or cupcake for being a good patient, and one of the little trinket toys he had stashed in his bag.
Declan thought that everything was going well. The boys were tense, but they weren't crying or screaming. They weren’t trying to run away. So he was surprised when shortly after he administered the shot, Marc screamed ‘no’ at the top of his lungs and jumped off of the couch. Declan reached out to steady the boy who was teetering where he stood. Perhaps a reaction to the shot?
Declan did not expect the child to bite his hand and to clamp down. Declan tried to keep a grip on the child, unsure of what was going on. The boy was much more steady now, but he was clearly in flight or fight mode. He feared that if he lost his grip on the boy they might hurt themself, or run off.
“You're ok, it’s ok, you need to let go leanbh.” He ground out, pain evident in his voice. But the child just clamped down harder, digging his teeth in like a dog with a bone. He had broken the skin, blood was flowing down Declan’s hand and dripping onto the floor. “Cnag.” He moaned as the boy ground his teeth together. Declan had to get his hand away, he tried pulling back. His action caused the boy to release him; his hand looked like a dog had mauled it. He could see bone.
The boy, for there was no telling who was in control now, ran for the door. Selim and Khonshu ran to block him, but the child bowled through them, somehow managing to trip both Selim and Khonshu with Khonshu’s staff. The two became tangled up in the staff and each other, leading to Khonshu falling to the floor and Selim landing on top of him in a heap.
As the child got closer to the door Yatzil made a grab for him. She managed to catch the child by his arm, and moved to bring him closer to her. But the child lashed out and pushed her away. His shove pushed her away from him and into the end table. Her head hit the table with a sickening thunk, and she passed out. With no one to stop him the child ran out the door and down the street.
Hathor rushed to Yatzil to check on her avatar. Horus joined her so that he could heal her; while his avatar was injured head wounds were far more serious and required attention first. Also, his avatar was a physician and could render first aid to himself. Yatzil was unconscious with a concussion and a head wound.
Maya came over to Declan to help him with his wound. “Hana ran after them, but I don’t think she will be able to keep up with them.” Maya grabbed a roll of gauze out of Declan’s backpack and opened it. She used it to wrap up the man’s hand and put pressure on the wound. While Declan could heal wounds on his own using Horus’s power, he found it better if Horus tended to his injuries when possible. It would not take long for Horus to finish his work with Yatzil; in fact she was already waking up.
“What, uggh, Where are the boys, I have to get to them.” Yatzil tried to sit up, but was held back by Hathor. Horus was just finishing up on her wounds, she would be fine, but she would be dizzy and weak for a while.
“Stay still, Hana went after them.” Yatzil’s goddess reassured her.
Selim, bruised but uninjured, turned to his friend. “I am going to look for them with Osiris and Khonshu. I am sure that between the four of us we will find him in no time, ok? Just stay here with Declan and see to your wound. We need someone here anyway, in case he comes back to the house, all right?”
Selim figured that the four of them could go out and start searching for the boy. Hopefully with the two gods assisting it wouldn’t take too long to find the children. Yatzil and Declan had been injured; although Yatzil was healed she still needed rest. And Declan still needed the attention of Horus. It was best that they stayed behind with Hathor. Maya would stay behind, that way there was at least one uninjured human in the house.
“I have healed your concussion, and a cut to your head. You should take it easy today, you may have some lasting dizziness and pain.” Horus stood up, finished doctoring Yatzil’s wounds. He moved to his avatar and took his injured hand. Horus let his powers sink into the wound and carefully knit the muscles and skin back together. He burned out any traces of infection, connected minute nerves, and joined ligaments back together. All together it took him less than five minutes to heal Declan’s hand, and the avatar wasn’t even left with a scar.
“The hand will be stiff, but there will be no lasting damage. Stretch it out, that should help. An anti-inflammatory would not be amiss either.” As if Horus would let his own avatar be left with an impairment he could fix. Horus always took care of his avatars and he prided himself in that.
Declan withdrew his hand from Horus’s grasp and slowly flexed it. He was stiff, but he could move all of his fingers, and his sensation was intact. Good. A tetanus shot might not be amiss, but he would take care of that later. He walked over to Yatzil and sat next to her. He didn’t mind sitting on the floor, and he felt that his friend would like the company now.
“Horus, do you know what happened? I believe the boys had some sort of panic episode, what are your thoughts on this?” Declan asked Horus for his opinion on what had transpired. He, of course, had his opinions, but Horus may have more thoughts on the occurrence.
“They became quite panicked, their breathing elevated, their heart rates high. They were putting off high levels of adrenaline, and they were sweating. I agree they had an episode of panic, but I do not know exactly what kind of panic episode it was.”
Horus’s analysis was helpful, and helped Declan solidify his diagnosis. “I think they had a flashback. They likely have some sort of trauma in their past and have PTSD from it. Something triggered them, causing them to have a flashback and lose touch with reality. They should be set up with a therapist, someone who deals with childhood trauma.”
Yatzil leaned onto her friend. Despite the healing she was tired and had a lingering headache. She was also extremely worried for her boys. They were missing, and Declan had just said that it was likely that they had suffered from a flashback brought on by PTSD. They were likely confused, scared, and upset. She felt terrible that she couldn’t go out and look for them, that she had to stay here. She felt something wet on her face and realized that she was crying.
—---
Hana hadn’t thought when she ran after the child, the others were in no condition to chase after him. But she was no runner, and her outfit was certainly not designed for marathons. The skirt restricted her legs and her heels threatened to trip her at any moment. She was able to keep the fast child in her sight, but knew that she wouldn’t be able to keep up with him, not for long. The boy was weaving in and out of people pushing and shoving any who got into his way.
“Isis! Isis, I need you now!” She called for her goddess as she panted. She was out of breath, and feared she would soon lose sight of the child.
Isis appeared next to Hana. The goddess started running to keep up with her avatar. “My child, what is wrong?” she questioned Hana.
“Follow that boy!” Hana panted, pointing at Yatzil’s frantic son. Isis, for her part, did not question why Hana needed her to follow the child, she just did. The goddess increased her pace and ran after the child, allowing Hana to stop running and catch her breath.
Hana, confident that Isis was on the trail of the child, took a moment to catch her breath. She pulled her cell phone out of her skirt pocket and shot a quick text to Maya, letting her know that Isis was now on the trail of the boys. She then took a seat on a nearby bench and closed her eyes. She focused and listened to the people around her. Hana, like Declan, had gifts from her goddess. For her, this meant that she could do small pieces of magic. Right now she was trying to use her power to find the boys, and place a tracking charm on them, but it was proving difficult. They were moving too fast, and they kept switching which was making it hard for her to get a solid hold on them. She didn’t want to try anything and mess up, so she decided to leave the tracking to Isis.
Hana kicked her heels off, and put them into her hand. Without her heels she at least didn’t have to worry about breaking an ankle. She stood up, and started following after the goddess. She was able to easily track the goddess, so she could continue on after her even though she was no longer in her sight. She hoped that Isis had been able to catch the boys and calm them down, she hated to think about them being scared and alone.
—-------
Isis ran after the boy that Hana had pointed at in the crowd, a small child maybe five or six years old. The child was running quickly, but Isis was able to keep up with him with ease. She was unsure why her avatar was having her chase after this child; perhaps she knew the child or something. Isis would ask her later, it had clearly been important to her avatar, so she would follow the boy for now.
The child was running down the road and seemed determined to go somewhere. Isis concentrated, keeping her eyes on the little boy, not wanting to lose track of him in the crowd. It was easy for her to track him and keep up; she was a goddess after all. She stayed a short distance behind the boy, watching him and making sure he was safe. He didn’t seem to be in any danger; he was giggling and smiling.
Soon the little boy turned off the road. Isis realized that there were many other children milling around, children that the little boy soon joined. Looking around for clues as to where they were, Isis saw a sign, Central London Primary. They were at an educational center. The child had joined some of his peers and was playing on a set of swings. Isis decided that the best thing for her to do was to stay nearby and keep an eye on the child Hana had been so worried about.
Isis stood and watched the child play with his friends for a short while. She loved seeing little ones having fun. It was so refreshing seeing children being care free, having fun, and just being kids. She was so absorbed in watching the children play that she almost didn’t notice Hana approaching her.
“Where is he? Is he OK?” She asked Isis, concerned.
“He is right tere, playing on the swings with his friends.” Isis pointed at the little boy, smiling. He was so relaxed and having so much fun.
Hana looked where Isis was pointing. How had the child gone from sheer panic to complete relaxation so quickly? It was then that she noticed the child Isis was pointing to was young, maybe five. He wore a plain t-shirt and jeans, and his hair was straight. She groaned. “You followed the wrong boy!” She got her cell phone out and sent another text to Maya, updating her on the status.
Hana: Isis followed wrong boy. Lost track of Marc/Jake/Steven.
Maya: How? Well Selim, Osiris, and Khonshu are out looking. Thanks.
“Well, the good news is that some of the others are looking for the boys. Yatzil is worried, but Maya is with her, as well as Declan, Hathor and Horus.” She still couldn’t believe they had followed the wrong boy, they had been so close but he had slipped right past them. “Khonshu is going to be so pissed when he hears you followed the wrong boy, I don’t envy you.”
Isis was confused. Why would Khonshu care, and why was Hathor’s avatar so worried about this child? “Who is this child, exactly?” They must be important for her avatar to be so worried about them.
“Really? I thought you were at the meeting the other night. They’re Khonshu’s avatar. The boy that Yatzil is going to adopt, and that Khonshu all but adopted. They’re also the godchildren of Anubis and Anput.”
“I did not get a good look at the child, Khonshu was protective of them. He kept them shielded and covered, so I only got a small glimpse of them. I did not realize the child we were tracking was his.” This was not good. Khonshu would be so mad at her, she had followed the wrong child. He would surely find a way to make this her fault. And Ra help her if Anubis and Anput got wind of her mistake; not even her friendship with Anput would save her.
“Perhaps we should retrace our steps and try to find the lost one?” The only thing that she could do to save her skin at this point was to continue looking for the little avatar. Hana sighed and started walking away from the school. Isis followed her, keeping her eyes diligently peeled for any signs of the missing child.
—-----
Selim, Osiris, and Khonshu looked for any signs of the boy outside of Yatzil’s house. However there were none to be seen.
“There are three paths. I will go left, Khonshu, you go straight, and Osiris, you go right. He had to have taken one of the paths.” Selim thought that splitting up would be their best bet, they could cover more ground and have a higher chance of finding the child before they got too far. Based on the nods from Osiris and Khonshu, the gods agreed with him.
Selim ran down the sidewalk heading to the left, and looked for any sign of the child. Any yelling, any signs of a struggle, anything. The path he was on was crowded, and there were a lot of people milling about. Surely some of these people would have noticed and cared about a panicked child running around? It was hot today, the man tugged at the neck of his sweater, trying to get a little cooler. He would have to put up with the heat, he didn’t have time to stop and take the sweater off, he needed to find the child.
Selim had been wandering down the path for minutes, and he was starting to think he was on the wrong path. He was drenched in sweat, and his skin was bright red. He was about to give up when he noticed something. A small spot of blood, fresh. It could be nothing, but based on the way the child had been fighting at the house he was willing to bet the child had scuffled with someone. Selim looked around to see if he could find anyone who looked injured. Then he could sit down, rest. His muscles were cramping something awful and he felt sick to his stomach.
There, a police officer with a bloody hand. That must be who the kid hurt. Maybe he could point Selim in the right direction. “Officer, I um, it’s hot. Umm, I need to sit down.” Selim was feeling very dizzy, and his vision was swimming. He all but melted onto the ground and groaned.
“Hey….OK? Get…Ambulance. Heat Exhaustion.” Selim could only hear parts of the officer’s conversation, but he heard enough to gather that he was calling for an ambulance and that Yatzil was right, he was going to die because of the stupid sweater. Should have taken the rotten thing off. He groaned, and passed out.
—------
Hana and Isis retraced their steps, heading back to where they had lost track of the little boy. They soon came upon a frenzied scene. There were police cars and an ambulance, with medics crowded around someone. Hana and Isis rushed up, fearing that they were crowded around the little avatar. That he had become hurt in his anxiety. However when she got closer she found that it was not the child, but Selim that the medics were tending to. The man was laying on the ground, unconscious.
“Officers, what happened, that’s my friend! He’s visiting from Canada, is he all right?”
The officer turned to her. “He collapsed from heat exhaustion. We’re taking him to the hospital for treatment.”
Shit, Yatzil had warned the fool about the sweater. “Can I come with him, I don’t want him alone.” The officer nodded at her and she clambered into the ambulance. The medics busied themselves loading Selim in, and strapping him down for transport. Hana looked at Isis, and mouthed ‘go’ to her. The goddess nodded and continued on, still looking for any hints of the little avatar. Hana quickly sent a text to Maya.
Hana:Selim has heat stroke, going to hospital with him. Isis still looking.
—--
Back at Yatzil’s house, Hathor was doing her best to keep the woman calm. Declan had helped Yatzil up off the floor and onto the armchair where the woman was now worrying. She was teary, and fretful for her boys. She had lost them not only a day into being their mother. She felt horrible, like she was the worst guardian ever.
“Yatzil, hey, none of this is your fault. We had no way of knowing that they had this trauma. We will find them, and work with them to overcome the trauma they have. Do not blame yourself. I am as much to blame. I work with children and did not recognize the signs of their panic.” Declan gave his friend a hug, reassuring her.
“Yatzil, Hana has called for Isis. She has joined in the search.”
“See? There are three gods and two avatars looking for them. I am sure that they will be back here in no time.” Hathor laid a reassuring hand on her avatar’s shoulder, hoping that this news would calm her down.
“I know, I just feel so horrible. Did I push them too far, too soon? I should have waited.” Yatzil knew about children, she taught them. However, having a child was completely different. She was amazed by how she was second guessing herself so much, how she just wanted everything to be perfect for them.
“No, you did nothing wrong. They needed the exam, we needed to know that they were OK. we could not have anticipated this. You can not blame yourself. I’m gonna tell you something I tell new parents when they come to my clinic. There is no such thing as a perfect parent. You will make mistakes, Your kids will get hurt, they will cry. The perfect parent is the one who is there for their child, and who lets their child grow. The perfect parent knows that they are human, and that humans make mistakes.
“You, despite being an avatar of Hathor, are human Yatzil. You have been a parent for less than a day. You don’t have a newborn, you didn’t have nine months of planning. You have a traumatized eight year old with three souls in one body. There will be mistakes. But the four- no five if you count Khonshu- of you will be closer and learn from those mistakes.”
“Thank you. I just want to do everything right for them. And my head, it still throbs. It’s hard to think clearly.”
Declan nodded. “That will be a while. Hydrate. That will help.”
“Guys?” Maya called as she read a message on her cell phone. “So, apparently Isis followed the wrong boy. The two of them are going to retrace their steps, see if they can pick the trail up again.”
“Only Isis. Khonshu will be so livid with her.” Horus commented from his perch on the couch.
The small group waited. Maya checked local news feeds, twitter, anything that may have mention of a small child wreaking havoc in the streets. She had not come up with any reports yet and was unsure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Ten minutes had passed since Hana had last sent an update, and Maya was contemplating bringing Tefnut in, when her cell phone pinged.
She read the message and sighed. “So, Hana and Isis have not found him, but they did run into Selim. Who has passed out from heat exhaustion. And is being taken to the hospital in an ambulance. Hana is going with him.”
Declan actually facepalmed. They had warned the man that it was hot and he should take his sweater off, but he hadn’t and now he had heat exhaustion. Just great. “Horus, think you can let Osiris know about his idiot’s condition, and maybe go fix him up?”
“Of course. I will return once I have attended to your friend.” The god stood up, and vanished from the living room.
“Great. I swear, he is a smart man, but sometimes he lacks common sense. We told him to take the sweater off. So now the search party is down to just Khonshu and Isis. Isis has already managed to track the wrong child, and has been delayed by Selim’s medical emergency. Khonshu is Khonshu.”
“Hathor, Maya, get your asses out there and start looking, or so help me I will find a way to make you suffer for the rest of your lives.” Yatzil ordered the two physically fit individuals in the house to join the search. She punctuated her order with a gesture to the door and a glare. Hathor listened and quickly vanished, going to join the search. Maya paused for a moment.
“I’m going to call for Tefnut. More eyes on the ground. Teffie, please come here.” Her goddess responded to her call quickly, appearing next to her. “Khonshu’s avatar, Yatzil’s adopted son has gone missing. We need to look for him. Join me. Hathor, Khonshu, and Isis are already looking.”
The goddess smiled at her avatar and friend. “Of course. Don’t fret Yatzil, we will find the little child quickly! To the streets!” Tefnut took a hold of Maya’s arm and dragged her out to start searching.
—-------
Khonshu had been searching for his little moon to no avail. There was no trace of him in the park surrounding Khonshu, no evidence that his moon had passed this way. He was so on edge; he wanted his moon home safe and sound now. But finding him in this big city was proving difficult. So Khonshu made the decision to call for reinforcement.
“Anubis? I need your help. It’s the boys.” He called for his friend, hoping that he could hear him and would come. If Anubis was busy with souls, it could take him some time to answer Khonshu’s call. He hoped that today was a slow day for his friend.
Khonshu was relieved when, only a few minutes later, his friend materialized at his side. Anubis looked at him. “What is amiss? I had to leave Taweret in charge of the boat.” While Taweret could deal with the souls on the barque, Anubis preferred to take care of them on his own. Taweret simply didn’t have the experience that he did, and she had a tendency to be over-exuberant which frightened some of the souls.
“The boys, they became startled, and ran off. I need help searching for them. And since you appointed yourself godfather…”
Anubis sighed. He should have known that any child of Khonshu was going to cause chaos. “Let’s hunt.” The jackal god said, as he turned and ran off in search of the child. Khonshu quickly followed him. Hopefully he had caught scent of his little moon.
—---
In the Duat, the three boys walked through the cursed sands. They saw no sign of civilization, no sign of escape. Every now and then they would pass a strange statue carved out of the sands. They were frightening, people contorted into strange positions who looked terrified. The statues scared the boys, so they gave them a wide breath when they came upon one.
“How are we going to get out of here?” Marc asked his brothers. He was tired, and wanted to go home. He wanted Khonshu and Yatzil.
“I don’t know. I know that Osiris’s gates could let us out, but I don’t know how to find them. We could try finding Anubis’s Barque. Khonshu said that he was our godfather, he would help us.”
“Si, but how do we find him?”
“Um, I duno.” Steven knew about Anubis and his ship, but he had no clue how to find him.
“Do you guys think that maybe we should try staying put? I remember in school they said if you are lost, you should stay in one place. We could try staying put, resting for a bit, see if we can think of anything. Someone might even be looking for us, but we keep walking away from them.” Marc offered his suggestion to the others. It seemed the best choice for now.
“OK.” Steven agreed and sat down in the sands.
“Ci” Jake said. He flopped down onto his back and started moving his arms and legs back and forth.
“What ‘cha doing?” Marc questioned him as he sat next to Steven.
“Making sand angels.”
“Fun. Want to make a sandcastle Steven?” Steven nodded, and the two boys started making a sandcastle with the sands of the Duat. Eventually Jake sat up and shook sand out of his hair. He slid over and joined his brothers to work on the sandcastle.
“Someone will come for us. I know it.” Jake told his brothers as he worked on a moat for their grand sandcastle. He knew someone would come for them. They had to.