I felt my neck and the chain was there, suspending a set of dog tags. I flipped them up with my thumb and my father's initials glinted across the silver.
JONATHAN. T. A.
My hands found their way into my pockets. I took out my phone, all the more marveling to be back in modern civilization. Luckily, the water had not gotten to it. I turned it on and looked at the date.
Friday, November 22, 2013.
I gasped, the phone trembling in my hands. It was the same day. The same time. It was like I'd never left.
"You okay there?" a voice asked. I turned to find a man in a Hawaiian shirt docking his boat. He was holding a coil of rope, a concerned look on his face.
I didn't answer. I simply got up, adjusted the bag on my back, and walked out of the dock towards the kerb, my sneakers squelching after me. But I did not care. I saw my bike. It was right where I left it. I took it but did not ride. It was still rickety just as I remembered it. I felt tired, as if the weight of the battle had followed me here but I had no wounds or scars. I hurried all the way until I had made it, rushing through the neighborhoods and streets of Midtown.
There it was. Welcoming me back. Home. I dropped my bike and turned the doorknob delicately, afraid it might all vanish at my touch. The door swung open. I ran my eyes all over the place like it was the first time I was seeing it all. I stepped into the kitchen and there she was, her back to me as she worked on a set of photos spread out on the counter.
"You're home early." Her voice was literal music to my ears.
I stopped, still caught in a debate between what was real and what wasn't. My mom was in her nurse's uniform. Her dark shoulder-length hair had been tied up in ponytail, a few strands falling over one side of her face as she stooped towards the counter, shuffling through a set of documents.
She turned around after my growing silence and her smile turned into confusion and concern. "You know sneaking up on me never—" she eyed me from toe to head. "You know better than to walk with shoes in here, young man. You're even leaving prints on the—"
I rushed towards my mom, startling her with a hug. She hugged me back.
"I love you, mom," I finally said and was glad I was all wet. My tears would not be seen.
"Whoa," my mom chuckled, "I love you too, son. Now, would you care to explain why you're dripping water all over my carpet?"
I withdrew and it was only then did I notice how actually drenched I was. Okay, time for a quick lie.
"I-I fell with my bike into a puddle—"
My mom placed a hand on my shoulder, sighing. "I keep telling you to leave that old thing alone."
"I guess I should've listened," I smiled shyly.
"Go wash up, birthday boy," my mom shook her head and waved me away.
I stood there, still staring at her. She frowned at me and snapped her fingers. "Hello, you're still dripping!"
"Oh, sorry!" I raced to my room, smiling all the way.
By the time I'd finished washing up and put on a fresh pair of jeans and a green T-shirt, I was tidying my hair while looking in the mirror. I had even forgotten it was my birthday. A fairly tall seventeen year old looked back at me. He wasn't as scrawny as he had been earlier that day. He had been changed by something. He had become something else.
I looked back into the six days I'd spent on that island. How had that even happened? My eyes were lost in my own reflection and I saw Pisces standing there but her image drifted and disappeared. That pang of misery returned. So much had happened. I was glad I was back, having endured all those tribulations. . .but not all of it had been bad. It was only dawning on me I would never see Zak again. I chuckled silently. I'd forgotten to ask if there was any chance he was related to the Hemsworths. He would have probably replied by asking back: "What is a Hemsworth?"
At least he was still alive. It's her I would never see again. I fell back into my gaming chair, still looking into the mirror, though at nothing in particular.
"Desmond!" my mother called, "a Sabrina Lin is here to see you!"
What? I frowned. What was she doing here?
"Should I send her over?" my mom asked.
Oh, what the hell. My room was neat enough and I did not feel like getting up. The least I could do was hear what she had to say.
"Sure!" I responded.
Seconds later, there was a rapping on the door to my room.
"It's open."
The door slowly swung open. I watched from the mirror as she stepped in, and so did all the events prior to my ending up in Abinor. She was still the same as I remembered as she stood by the door, especially her black hair. Her bangs rested above her eyes, contrasting with her pale light brown skin. She had on a blue checkered shirt, the sleeves folded above her wrists. Her jeans were of the same color.
"Hey," she muttered, her voice almost as low as a whisper.
I did not respond.
"I—"
"Do you guys need anything?" my mother's voice cut her off.
"No, mom!" I called back, "We're good!"
My eyes still fixated on Sabrina Lin's reflection, I spoke. "You ask me to meet up then you stand me up. Not cool."
"But I didn't," Sabrina Lin looked at me, meeting my eyes from the mirror. "I came. You weren't there."
I twisted my chair in an attempt at a dramatic swing but only ended up embarrassing myself. The chair got stuck mid swing. I silently cursed and tried to fix it. I yanked too hard and the chair spun violently, nearly sending me to the ground. I glanced at Sabrina and she quickly averted her eyes, smacking her lips.
Grunt. . ."I waited for you," I regained my composure, "I stood at the bridge like a moron for almost an hour."
"But—"
"If you didn't wanna meet, you could've just told me," I shrugged, regretting why I'd even let my mother let her in.
Sabrina shut the door behind her and approached me. I tensed a little. What was she doing?
"There's something I need to tell you," she said somberly.
"Oh, not even an apology," I had a mild expression on my face, "sure, go on."
"It wasn't supposed to happen that way," she started.
"What wasn't—what are you talking about?"
"You were only meant to find it."
"Find what?"
Sabrina Lin's eyes were down to the floor. "The bow," she muttered.
I sat up in my chair. "What. . .?"
"I sensed your connection to the bow. I didn't believe you'd even find it, well, until you did but then everything went wrong and you. . .you ended up in Abinor."
I narrowed my eyes at her. "W-What did you just say?" She wouldn't meet mine. I pressed, "Who are you?"
Sabrina Lin walked over to my bed and sat there. Then she met my eyes. "Desmond, it's me." It took only a second for me to catch on and Sabrina's eyes lit up, shifting from brown to an ethereal sapphire.
No. It couldn't be. I had to support myself in my chair. Was it really her?
"P-Pisces?" I let it out.
"You've come a long way, hunter," she said and I was no longer looking at Sabrina Lin. Her eyes were no longer glowing and she was still the same with her bangs but it all hit me like a wave. I suddenly felt like I'd known her my whole life.
She brushed back a fold of her hair over her ear and I saw the tattoo on her inner right wrist. It was as I remembered it the first time I saw it when we'd been paired together in that Chemistry practical. The same symbol that I had seen with Pisces back in Abinor. It was all starting to make sense.
"But I-I saw you die. . ." I was freaking out. "Aries—he. . .the sword. . .how—"
"Hey, hey," Pisces calmed me down. "yes, I died. But only a part of me."
"I don't understand," I muttered. I felt a strange sense of excitement combined with misery, as if the universe was playing an honest yet cruel joke at me.
"You know how our kind has an expiration period when it comes to earth," Sab-I mean Pisces. I mean. . .you know what, I'll just call her Pisces Sabrina. She started, only confirming she really was there, talking to me.
"Seven days, but I think it would've been poetic if it was twelve days, matching the Zodiac. . ." I caught the patient expression on her face as she waited for me to finish. "Sorry," I quickly added.
"Yes," she went on, "I had barely come to terms with my existence, having only been created by the gods not so long ago when Aries banished me into exile. I could not return to Astra. My essence could not sustain itself for long as I wandered the cosmos. I thought maybe if I found Sage's bow, maybe it could help me."
"You never found it," I said.
"No," Pisces continued, "my essence waned and tried to connect to the last place I had been before drifting off to space—Abinor. But things had changed. Time had passed and I found myself here." She looked up at me. "I found you."
"But I didn't have the spirit—the. . ."
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
"The Spirit Equine," Pisces Sabrina shook her head, "not yet but I'd grown desperate. I'd learned a little for the seven days I was here before I found you, and was surprised to discover how much humans emulated the Zodiac in their daily lives, especially in this thing called the Horoscope."
"Told you, you were popular," I remarked and Pisces Sabrina tried to hide a smile.
"The ideas behind the Zodiac in this Horoscope sounded a little far-fetched but it was the order in which they were presented that got to me. Aries believed himself to be the first Zodiac to ever be created and he would always appear first on the Horoscope. I was last and so was my Horoscope. I wondered whatever made your kind come to this conclusion until I followed the one criterion they'd use in all of the Horoscopes."
"The dates," I offered. "That's how you found me. Today's my birthday—November twenty-second—Sagittarius season."
"I still have no idea how some of our names have changed so much over time," Pisces Sabrina mused.
"But I couldn't have been the only one in that season when you arrived," I levelled.
"There's only so much searching you can do when you've just found yourself in a new world, but then I ran into your friend and she was talking about your birthday. The exact date that marked the start of Sage's season. It couldn't have been a coincidence. I had to try."
Finding Sage's bow and discovering it to be in the same town where I found you only strengthened my faith in you. I had to believe and so, I enchanted your mind and decided to test fate."
"That's why you made me go to the Tower Bridge."
"I could feel Sage's bow. It was there somewhere but my magic was still weak. Sage's power was stronger and more ancient. I knew I would never pin point the exact location of the bow. I couldn't even see it if I found it. But you did. It was supposed to end there. I watched and waited and I'm sorry for standing you up but I had to be sure."
"Could've just given me a heads-up," I shrugged.
"And that was my mistake. You were taking too long to find it. I thought I was wrong. . .until you did but then you vanished."
Pisces Sabrina looked away, silently in conflict with herself and I noticed her ball her fists in her lap.
"And I met you," I added, trying to lighten the mood.
"You found me hurt and Aries was right. I did do that to myself but not on purpose. The moment I realized you were gone. I cast a spell over the water. I tried to recreate the events and find out what happened to you. You had been transported across time, back into ancient Abinor. I had to find you. I tried bending reality, unaware of the limits of my powers. I tampered with the fine line between time and reality. It didn't go so well for me and somehow, I ended up splitting myself in two. A part of me was thrust into the past, taking with it all the damage from the result of my magic."
"That's why you were bleeding," I offered and Pisces instinctively passed a hand over her torso.
"You know what happened after that," Pisces muttered, as if trying not relive her own death. "And now the other part was left here. I was thrown out of time, separated from my other half and I found myself back at the bridge. You weren't there. It was not long before the events of my other half caught up to me. I knew you had to be back and. . ." Pisces Sabrina looked up at me, "I'm sorry, for everything."
"Are you kidding?" I exhaled, smiling, "I was on the greatest adventure of my entire life for over a week, kicked some serious ass, made new friends and still made my way back home like I'd never left!
"Y-you're not mad?" Pisces Sabrina asked.
"You still have your mind reading mojo, right?"
Pisces Sabrina's cheeks flushed. "It's Sabrina Pisces, actually."
Sabrina Pisces. Sabrina Pisces Lin. Sabrina P. Lin. I felt like smacking myself upside the head. How had I missed that? It had all been right there from the very start—how all her books had been tagged back at that Chem practical.
The little things. . .a Seer's wise words resonated in my mind. I finally understood.
"So, what should I call you now?" I asked. "Sabrina or Pisces?"
"Whatever suits you but I have a feeling it would be much easier with Sabrina instead," Pisces said. She would always be Pisces to me.
"I had a glimpse of what your world was like. Now, let me properly introduce you to mine." I extended a hand. "Friends?"
Pisces's face beamed. She shook my hand. "Friends."
"Wait," I frowned, "you said you've been here a week, right?"
"Eight days, if you count today."
"Aren't you supposed to like. . ."
"I thought so too." Pisces had a mysterious look on her face. "My essence isn't fading away. I think it's because I am now tethered to this world, never having really connected to Astra."
"Does that mean you're here to stay?"
Pisces smiled in response and I only had one last question: "Where have you been holding up all this time?"
She frowned. "Well, I—"
"Desmond!" came my mom's voice, "are you still going to the party? There's something I wanna show you before you go!"
I really smacked myself this time. "Dang, my birthday. Carmen must be going crazy." I smiled to myself, "I'd pay good money to see that."
The movement caused me to knock aside my backpack which was still dripping wet. A book fell out of it. I hunched over to pick it up and caught the title: 'Ancient Symbology: A Relation between the Metaphysical and Spiritual with Human Evolution'. The book Mr. Rogers had given me to assist him on a research project. You remember him, right? The suave gentleman who would have passed more for Neil deGrasse Tyson than a local Stonewall High History teacher. It felt as if he'd handed me the book ages ago, when, in reality, it was only hours. What had even the topic of the research been? That's right. He never told me. What had he said—to look out for the little things?
I frowned at the big brown book, recalling someone else who had used those same exact words on me. My eyes caught the inscriptions on the already open pages. There was a bunch of complex symbols, though, the more I scanned through, the more the symbols became less complex and more familiar. But there was one symbol I couldn't remember ever having seen. There was a large patch of water over this symbol, actually the only patch on that entire page. The patch caused the symbol to appear darker and more concentrated.
The symbol was made of two zig zag lines lying horizontally, perpendicular to each other, almost like waves. It only got stranger from there as I read the caption directly below it:
Aquarius — the Water Bearer.
Aquarius? I traced my eyes across the page and caught the other symbols. They were all Zodiac symbols. I recognized them all. I had seen them in the flesh, all except for that one. . .
"What is it?" Pisces was approaching me but then my mom called again, snapping me out of my thoughts. I would never get to find out what I had come across as I slammed the book shut and placed it on the table with the rest of my books.
Pisces and I made our way to the living room.
"Your mom is really pretty," Pisces said full heartedly.
"She's not the only one," I tried hard to say that out loud but, much to my own dismay, this is what came out instead, "I wanna say thanks but I think that should be my mom's queue. Pisces smiled some more. Huh, it was still a win—anyway, I looked around for my mom.
"Mom!"
"Over here!" she was outside.
Pisces and I walked around the house into the backyard and I was met by an. . .unexpected sight. Yes, that's what you come up with once you've seen what I saw.
Remember when I told you I hated presents? Well, I totally loved this one!
"Mom, how did you even. . .?" I was at a loss for words. "Wha. . .?
"Are you just gonna keep standing there or are you going to take your girlfriend?"
I coughed and my delight instantly turned into hot embarrassment, my face flushing. "She's not my—" I looked at Pisces. She simply beamed, her eyes widening with a polite smile. I couldn't tell whether she was masking her own nervousness but she seemed to be taking the remark far better than I was.
I motioned her. I wanted us to leave before my mom could whip up some more fire from the embarrassment bowl. I knew she was enjoying it—making fun of me.
The sun was already sinking over the horizon. Carmen had sent me a tad too many texts and it was about time I showed up to the party.
"After you," I opened the door of my present—my black Mustang present— and its chipped hood, slight dents, fresh from a tuning garage.
I was in the driver's seat and even the smell of a new second hand car was still better than anything. It was even a manual. I turned the ignition and the engine revved to life.
"Seatbelt," I said to Pisces and had to demonstrate buckling up. She followed suit.
"Have fun!" my mom called from the house.
I smiled back at her before pressing on the gas and the car lurched forward.
"Let's see what this baby can really do." I shifted the gear and the car was soon raking against the asphalt, the needle rising quickly against the speedometer. My dad had taught me how to drive and those skills had stuck like glue.
I turned on the stereo, toggling different frequencies and as if my day couldn't get any better, one song came up, fitting the mood just right.
I beamed at Pisces, increasing the volume. "This is the song! The song I was telling you about by Nirvana!
The lyrics of Heart-Shaped Box filled the car as Nirvana sang over the Mustang's engine.
? She eyes me like a Pisces when I am weak. . . ?
"Woohoo!" I cried ecstatically and Pisces joined me but I knew I would soon have to turn it down a notch lest I got a speeding ticket for my first motorsport outing.
I was lifting my foot off the gas pedal when a familiar eerie feeling returned. I instinctively glanced at my arm. It was happening again. Sage's insignia—which I suppose was now my insignia—returned on my arm as a black arrow tattoo. Something was wrong.
"Look out!" Pisces yelled, pulling me out of my stupor.
I gasped, wrapping my fingers around the wheel and twisting it hard after something appeared in the middle of the road. The car swerved, veering off the asphalt. I frantically held on to the wheel, trying to regain control. The Mustang came to a halt, alongside Heart-Shaped Box's beats, barely inches from crashing into a light pole.
Clouds of dust engulfed us from outside as I looked at Pisces. "You. . .okay. . .?"
"Mhmm," Pisces nodded in response, her eyes indicating she was just as shaken.
The car was still in good condition, thankfully, but then there was the thing that had appeared on the road. I could only hope it wasn't a person and pray I hadn't hit them.
There was too much dust. I couldn't see anything.
My insignia was still glowing. What was causing this? Pisces's eyes flashed blue. She was suddenly apprehensive. I followed her gaze towards my own window and there she stood, her image drifting into view as the dust cleared, revealing her form in a long brown overcoat but it was her distinct golden hair, and face that stood out.
She stooped, bringing her face closer to the window so I could catch the Omega symbol with a straight horizontal line running perpendicularly beneath it. Her insignia.
She rapped on the glass with her knuckle, signaling me to open the door. I rolled down the window instead.
"What are you doing here, Zygos?" I asked, ready for any kind of attack.
"Relax," Zygos twisted her lips, revealing her golden glowing eyes by sliding down the pair of sunglasses she had on, "you know I don't engage in combat."
"Then what do you want?" Pisces asked.
"Oh, look at you," Zygos chuckled, regarding Pisces interestedly, "you're still alive and have somehow grown even smaller."
The clouds cleared from the windshield. Zygos leaned in towards the window as if she was about to ask for my driver's license. "I see you created your own choice beyond life and death," she was particularly looking at me as I wondered what thrift store she'd robbed for that coat. "You chose to defy the scales and created your own balance by destroying Aries. But there's a consequence to every action, especially for those who defy the scales."
"What the hell are you talking about?" I shook my head, silently cursing at how my life was already finding its way back into the mess I had worked so hard to get out of.
Zygos laughed and looked ahead. I followed her gaze through the windshield. The light poles were acting up, flickering in the setting sun. Something was out there. I could feel it. Something was coming.
"Mark my words, Zodiac Hunter," Zygos pushed back her sunglasses, her voice drifting away as well as her form. "Consequences come for those who defy the natural balance of the scales." She vanished and blended with the environment.
"How did she even get here?" I asked.
"It's not possible," Pisces also looked ahead, "There's no way she could've come here by herself."
An explosion rented the air and Pisces and I caught the sight of a wave of bright light spreading out in the distance. I could hear car alarms and people wailing. The atmosphere was changing. It no longer felt like the light and laidback Sacramento. There was something darker.
I was opening the car door when Pisces stopped me. "Wait. Listen. . ."
There was a low whooshing sound, like something darting sharply through the air—like an. . .
I watched the arrow fly uncharacteristically into the car as if it were being controlled by a remote, through my open window and lodge itself into the stereo. Electrical sparks shot out as I observed the projectile. Sage's arrows were quite the sight, but this one was different. It was more ethereal, longer and more powerful. It burned in scarlet brilliance as sparks intensified around it.
We both jumped out of the car right before it went up in flames and the once gorgeous present from my mom was no more. Oh, she was so gonna kill me, that is, unless whatever was attacking us didn't beat her to the punch. Pisces got up from the road while I met her from the kerb. "Where'd that come from?"
She looked ahead and more explosions followed. "From him," she pointed.
Something was materializing from the chaos. I couldn't make it out. It was too silhouetted by the fires but there was one thing that was unmistakable. The figure wielded a bow.
"Another Zodiac?" I asked, now that it was becoming apparent more of them were making their way into my world.
"That is no Zodiac," Pisces uttered in a dawning tone. "Orion. . ." she shuddered, her face twisting into a mask of uncertainty. "He is supposed to be dead but he's here and I can only think of one reason why that might be," a frown took over, "to carry out the deeds of his master."
"Any chance you might know who this master is?" I already knew the answer, though there was no harm in confirming.
"Aries." Pisces's eyes transformed to sapphire and she was shrouded by an aura of the same hue. I guess we were at it again as my bow materialized, however, the cape and the cool outfit did not.
"Ready?" I sighed, an arrow nocking itself. I aimed in the distance.
"Ready when you are," Pisces answered, conjuring bright blue flames around her hands.
I released the arrow and, as I watched it sail through the air in a trail of lightning towards the chaos, I had a harrowing revelation that my life would never be normal again.
Okay, then, let's do this one last time, shall we? My name is Desmond Turner and hardly minutes ago, I never thought I would be fighting for my life, again, instead of stressing about the kind of birthday party my best friend was setting up. . .
*
T H E E N D
Hello again,
You made it. I really wanna thank everyone who stuck around this journey with me. I couldn't have made it this far without you guys.
So, what are your thoughts on the entire story? Favorite characters? Favorite moments?
Thoughts on where the story is headed after this?
You won't have to wait long though, because the second book titled "Zodiac Hunter: The Quiver's Curse" will be be releasing soon in 2025!
There's a little sneak peek of what's to come in the following chapter. READ ON! AND STAY TUNED!
P.S. You can find more on my character concept art designs on my Instagram
P.P.S. What is your favorite Zodiac sign?