Chapter 19: Malls and Madness

The shop was, well, noisy. Music came from every gadget that had a speaker, but it wasn't the same music, oh no.
While one pink boom box played Mozart, the CD-player next to it blared Nirvana and the one next to that added Johnny Cash to the mix. And there were plenty of others.

Now, usually I'm one of those people that likes all kinds of music, but this cacophony was making my head hurt, and made it extremely difficult to concentrate or even hear my own thoughts.

I looked at Ryan, who was – smiling? I stared at him.

"Why are you smiling?" I demanded, raising my voice so he could hear me.

"It's relaxing!" he shouted back, and I stared at him some more. This guy seriously needed to see a therapist, in my opinion. Then again, so would I if I survived this quest.

"What do we do now?" I wanted to know, looking around the shop while stuffing my fingers in my ears. It helped a little.

Ryan motioned to the back, where there was a small doorway hung with black cloth that read: One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.

Somehow this quote didn't really feel like a reassurance, but I nodded and walked through to the back, not sure what to expect.

The room behind the cloth was darker than the front, the only sources of light coming from the walls, where rows upon rows of CDs were being illuminated by different coloured lamps.

I squinted at the shelf nearest to us and read one of the covers: Hermes' hits for hilarious heists.

Okayyy... I thought. Note to self: Never listen to godly pop tunes.

Suddenly something moved in the gloom ahead of us, and I jumped, stepping on Ryan's toe in the progress. He glared at me, but I was getting really good at ignoring him.

"Hello." said a scratchy male voice, "what may I do for you today?"

Its owner was a guy, maybe 25 years old, and wearing the weirdest combination of clothes I had ever seen.

His torso was clad in a black Six Feet Under shirt, while his trousers were of the shape and colour you might find at an eighties rave. His shoes looked like real leather cowboy boots and on his head he wore a white Mozart wig,

Looking at this guy was like listening to the music in the shop, it made my head hurt.

"Er, we we're looking for, er..." I stuttered, too stunned by the guy's appearance to form a proper sentence. Thankfully, my faithfully annoying companion had his wits about him.

"Yeah, hi." he said smoothly, his face completely void of any surprise or judgement toward the shop owner. "We were looking for something special, a birthday gift for a friend of ours."

The shop owner smiled. "Well, you have come to the right place, my friends! I am Datelus, and this is my emporium!". He made a sweeping motion with his hand and grinned at me.

I tried to smile back, but his eyes were almost more unsettling than the rest of him. They were brown, but each had a streak of the most poisonous green, like snake skin. Yet he didn't seem to be a monster...

"What might this friend of yours be interested in?" Datelus wanted to know, still looking at me.

I realised I would have to answer at some point, so I tried my best at behaving as cool and smooth as Ryan always seemed to manage:

"He, er, I mean she, well, she likes, uuhm, all sorts really..." Okay, so I miserably failed. But I just couldn't see what Ryan was getting at, or why the trail had led us to this particular store and this peculiar man.

Datelus lifted his eyebrows, the green streak in his eyes flashing with an emotion I couldn't quite pinpoint. Annoyance?

Thankfully, before he could do something horrible like, I dunno, force me to listen to Tokio Hotel, Ryan cleared his throat.

"Sorry, my friend isn't used to dealing with people." He flashed Datelus a smile, then stage whispered "she doesn't go out much, you see."

That boy was unbelievable, I fumed, but the shop owner chuckled and winked at him in an understanding manner. Great, so now our tactic was to make me look like a complete idiot. Good job this was my quest.

"Anyway, our friend likes relaxing stuff, the kind you can really … open your mind to." Ryan was now continuing, looking around as if on the search for Aphrodite's greatest songs for relaxation.

I guess that's why he didn't notice the way Datelus' eyes suddenly narrowed, hiding the brown and leaving only the poisonous colour. But I did. I knew Ryan had said the wrong thing, and I also thought I finally understood where he was going, but before I could say anything, Datelus asked him a question, his voice as cold as ice.

"Something that an oracle might enjoy?"

"Ryan, don't -" I started to say, but Ryan wasn't listening to me, obviously.

"Yeah, exactly like that!" He said enthusiastically, returning his gaze to the shop owner.

"WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR?" Datelus suddenly exploded, a spray of spit hitting us in the face. Yuck.

This time, Ryan was too stunned to answer.

"Nobody!" I told him quickly. "We just wanted to-"

"LIES! YOU'RE WORKING FOR APOLLO, AREN'T YOU?"
If this guy wasn't careful, he would pop a vessel, I thought, slightly in awe of how red the guy's head was becoming.

"What? No, we were just -" Ryan tried to calm him, but Datelus was enraged. He grabbed some CDs of a shelf and threw them at us, one Madonna album barely missing my right eye.

"Hey!" Ryan yelled, and with a sudden flash of gold his sword was out, gleaming like a ray of sunlight, even in the dimness of the shop.

"Aha!" the shop owner cried. "You're his son, aren't you? Yes, yes I can see it in your eyes and that perfect hair! You're his spies, you've come to force me to take it back, you're going to stop my music and let the voices come back in -"

He was half shouting, half muttering to himself now, which was quite an impressive combination.

His eyes danced with a madness that frightened me more than the anger.

"What voices?" I found myself asking, my own one hushed.

Datelus lifted his eyes to me, and for a moment it looked like he was going to ask for my help.

"The voices in here." He tapped his forehead. "They don't stop. Not since Apollo made me immortal. The oracle – I was just thinking – and when a god wants you-"

He broke off, suddenly. "YOUR FATHER!" He shouted at Ryan, who still had his sword pointed at him, but hesitantly, like he didn't want to kill him if he could help it.

"YOUR FATHER BETRAYED ME! HE USED ME AND THEN LEFT ME WITH NOTHING BUT VOICES AND VISIONS AND – "

Datelus squeezed his eyes shut and chuckled. "You know what, I forgive you. I do! Here, take this as a sign of my forgiveness."

Quite suddenly, he thrust his hand out and let something fly at Ryan, who caught it instinctively. It was a CD, as far as I could tell.

Ryan looked disgusted. "What the Hades?" he cursed, and shook his hand, which was coated in gooey, see through stuff, making the box stick to it.

"Ryan, what's that?" I asked, finding myself backed against the wall with Datelus between me and Ryan.

The shop owner cackled, as Ryan suddenly keeled over backwards and landed on the floor with a loud thump, his body completely rigid.

"What did you do to him?" I yelled at Datelus, shoving him to the side with more force than I thought I could muster.

I ran to Ryan's side. His eyes were open, darting. I knew he must hate being helpless like this.

He looked from me to his side again and again, and I felt like he was trying to tell me something, but when I looked at his hand, I could only see the CD coated in the gooey stuff.

"And now, Apollo's son and his girlfriend, prepare to die." Datelus' voice came from behind me, and I whirled around only to see him pulling a wicked looking knife out of a cardboard box.

"Oh my god, I am NOT his girlfriend!" I cried exasperatedly, grabbing a random object and throwing it at him. He stumbled back, which gave me enough time to look back at Ryan.

"What is it?" I hissed, trying to think of a way of getting us out of this situation. But if Ryan couldn't move...

Again, his eyes darted to the CD, and I looked at it more carefully. It was called Ritual Sounds and had a picture of a woman, clad in a long gown, on it. She was standing in front of a ring of stones and had a regal look on her face. Something about her eyes seemed alive.

I imagined myself standing in front of her. I don't know why, but she looked like the sort of person I wanted to be, who could find a way out no matter what clinch you got yourself into. I pictured the grass under my feet, and the cold feel of the stone as I reached out to touch it.

Just for a moment I felt like I couldn't breathe, then I heard Datelus' cry and felt a thump on the back of my head. Everything went dark.

Yey, another update! Sorry it took a bit longer, I have a concussion which makes it really difficult to focus at the moment. :( Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter! xx Reviews are very much appreciated. :) xx