Solstice - The Goddess Awakens

Lola was beginning to come round, her head was still thumping, and she feared that if she opened her eyes she would throw up. She could hear the soft hum of a car engine and could feel the motion as her clammy face clung to the leather seat. She must have been drugged, there was no way four glasses of mulled wine would have knocked her out. Her arms were like rubber as she tried to sit up. Giving up she slumped back down onto the seat again.

‘Well, it looks like our guest has decided to join us, Alex!’ laughed Carl Stein. Lola forced her eyes open, praying that it had all been a bad dream. But it wasn’t a dream. There, facing her, were Carl Stein and Alex. Commanding her arms into action, Lola finally managed to sit in an upright position.

‘Where are you taking me?’ she asked, her speech still slightly slurred. ‘What have you given me?’ she demanded as she realised she had little control over her body.

Laughing, Carl Stein handed her a bottle of water. ‘Why, Rohypnol, of course. It’s most unfortunate, I usually don’t like to use drugs, but after our last encounter, I guessed it would be good to even the playing field a little. It taints the blood,’ he sighed, ‘but where you’re concerned, my little treasure, that’s a sacrifice I’m more than prepared to make.’

Alex sat silently, looking straight through her as if she weren’t there. She had been so stupid. He had clearly spiked her drink. Lola felt the wave of nausea forcing its way up to her throat. Yet again Aibgrene had warned her and once again she had ignored her. Lola wondered if she had seen something in her dream visions. She must have.

‘I must say, Lola, you do look ravishing tonight, and you really do know how to dress for the occasion.’ Lola watched as Carl Stein’s eyes drank in every inch of her body. Normally she would have had some witty retort for Carl, but her brain wasn’t working that fast at the moment. Instead she was using whatever grey matter was working to find a way out. Her eyes darted around the limousine for an escape route. ‘There’s no way out, all the doors are locked, my dear,’ said Carl as he followed her eyes.

‘You won’t get away with this!’ she said, feeling for the chain around her neck. Her heart sank when Carl dangled it in front of her.

‘Is this what you are looking for?’ Lola lurched forward in an attempt to snatch it, but her lethargic movements were no match for him.

‘That ring is no good to you, Carl; it only obeys its master. So I’m of no use to you.’ This seemed to amuse him even more, as he let out a deep chuckle.

‘I must concede, Lola, I did underestimate you in the past, and you have surprised me, but my goodness you are naive, darling. You’ve had the Cube the whole time and to think,’ continued Carl in fits of laughter, ‘to think you used it as an ornament to hang from your window. Either you are very clever, or very stupid, my dear. My son here had a great time watching you dress tonight. I don’t know how he managed to contain himself. You do make a man wild.’

Lola felt as though she had been winded, slumping back on the seat, her body started to sweat. Arthur had given her the Cube! The sun catcher was actually the Cosmic Cube! Then she remembered what had been missing from her room tonight. Alex had been there the entire time. He had watched her from the shadows. Lola started to hyperventilate. How could she have been so careless? Arthur was right; she had all the answers she needed. She cast her mind back to the note he had left her, ‘Gaze upon it with infinite wonder and discover all the power it possesses, contemplate its mystic crystal revelations in your voyage to the mind’s true liberation. Remember, What Lies Within, Reflects Without!’

Now she understood it all. She had the Cube all the entire time, and she even knew how to activate it. The smug sneer on Carl Stein’s face never wavered.

‘Alex, hand me the bag please,’ he commanded.

Reaching under the seat, Alex gave his father a black velvet bag, from which Carl Stein pulled out the five crystals. Lola decided it would be best to play dumb, pretend she was as stupid as he obviously thought she was.

‘I thought you had the Cube, Mr Stein,’ laughed Lola, now seeing a bit of doubt creeping into his face. ‘That’s my sun catcher, you moron!’

She was beginning to feel a bit more like herself, her senses returning.

‘Nice try, Ms Paige, but perhaps it’s time for a little lesson,’ he said, and holding up the shapes he continued. ‘These, my dear, are what’s known as the Platonic Solids. Do you know what that means?’

Carl Stein was becoming more and more patronising by the second. Lola glared at him.

‘I’ll take that as a yes,’ he smiled sweetly. ‘Well, as you may know, they are the building blocks of nature. Every living thing on this planet, from a sunflower to a snowdrop, will consist of at least one of these structures.’

‘That may be the case, sir, but it’s still not a cube, even I can see that,’ commented Lola petulantly. Undeterred Carl Stein continued.

‘And right you are, Lola. However all these shapes, these building blocks of nature and the universe, fit into a Cube perfectly.’

‘So why are they still apart, why aren’t they together?’ said Lola, knowing the answer to her own question. Only a true descendent of the House of Danu could activate and control the Cube, which was why she was still alive.

‘I think you already know the answer to that, Lola. Why else would you be here?’

‘Ha,’ snorted Lola. ‘Do you really think I am going to help you? That ring is no good to you, and I’ll die before I’ll give you what you want. Arthur died to protect me and to protect the Cube. Do you think I would sell his sacrifice so cheaply?’

‘How valiant of you! All you people are the same, so willing to give up your lives for others,’ he taunted. ‘This may persuade you to change your mind!’

Lola had almost forgotten that Alex was still sitting there. She had been trying so hard to block him out. He handed her a small flat screen.

‘I think you might want to have a look at that before you make any rash decisions,’ said Alex coldly. His voice was so harsh that Lola barley recognised it. Touching the screen she watched in horror as she saw Liam tied to a chair in a dimly lit room crying for help.

‘I don’t believe you, there is no way you could have got to Liam or any of my family,’ said Lola, hoping that she was right.

‘Liam and I are old buddies,’ smirked Alex. ‘All I had to do was offer him a ride in my car. It was that easy.’

Tears began to rise in Lola’s eyes at the thought of her baby brother alone and scared. Propelled by the pure rage inside her now, she lurched forward and punched Alex flush on the nose with her fist.

‘You utter piece of shit! If you dare, if you dare harm a hair on his head, I will kill you! I will. I’ll kill you with my own hands, you monster.’ Alex tried to push her off, but she was like a wild cat, punching and pulling at his hair. The car came to a sudden and abrupt stop and Lola was flung back onto her seat. She was about to get up again, but Carl Stein hit her a blow across her cheek, leaving a cut where his ring had broken the skin.

‘Such energy!’ he said somewhat excitedly. ‘Hate is such a powerful emotion, isn’t it, Lola?’

‘You touch him and I will destroy you! Do you hear me, you devil?’ she shouted back through the tears.

‘If you’re a good girl, and behave, and do as you’re told, then he will be fine. I’m a man of my word.’

Alex wiped his bloody nose with a white handkerchief, as Lola rounded on him again.

‘A busted nose will be the least of your worries, Alex, if Liam is hurt. You repulse me!’

‘I didn’t always,’ sneered Alex.

’Oh you had me fooled, it’s true. I thought, deep down, that there was some semblance of good in you. Something worth saving, but that vulture you call a father, stole that from you, and now your soul is as black and dead as his.

‘I loved you, Alex, and because of that I could never hate you. I could never hate anything. I feel sorry for you, Alex, because you will never know what it is to love.’ Lola’s temper seemed to subside as quickly as it had erupted. ‘I really do pity you.’ There was no mistaking the honestly and tenderness in her voice now.

‘I will never be ashamed that I loved. There is nothing wrong with love. It’s what makes us human; it’s what makes us different. You may have everything money can buy, but you have nothing, because you have never tasted love. You have allowed your nurturing to overcome your true nature. That man there,’ Lola pointed an accusing finger at Carl. ‘That man there extinguished that light when he murdered your mother.’ Lola noticed Alex stiffen.

‘Don’t play the innocent little girl with me, Lola,’ spat back Alex. ‘You have always known what I am. You have never trusted me, yet you always went against your better judgement. You are only kidding yourself when you say I deceived you. You deceived yourself.’

His candid rebuttal silenced Lola momentarily. He was right. She had known all along. Time and time again she had told herself he wasn’t the bad guy, but the night they had first met told her all she needed to know about Alex Stein. Yet, in some twisted way she was drawn to him because of it. She was drawn to his darkness as much as he was drawn to her light.

‘Even your father, the great Carl Stein is not impervious to the clutches of love, whatever his motives.’ All traces of humour were now removed from Carl Stein’s face and Lola could see that he was growing more and more uncomfortable.

‘Have you been keeping secrets, Carl?’ scoffed Lola. ‘I thought you Stein boys liked to share everything? Well, since we are having a heart-to-heart, perhaps we should lay all our dirty little secrets on the table. I’ve started; I fell in love with a soulless swine. Now are you going to share, Carl, or would you like me to start for you?’ goaded Lola. ‘Okay then. You murdered his mother, minutes after she gave birth to your son. Isn’t that right, Carl?’

Carl didn’t offer a reply, but his face spoke a thousand words as the rage trembled inside him. Suddenly Lola felt her airway constrict as though a pair of hands were physically wrapped around her throat, choking her. Her head began to throb, she felt dizzy and slowly she lost consciousness for the second time that night.