The Blood of Athens Read online

  June's hands gripped the lapels of his soaked suit jacket and pushed them over his shoulders. She grabbed his tie and pulled him back down to her level. Zach was officially, legally hers. It was time to let her hair down.

  Zach's phone rang silently in his pocket. Eight missed calls that day. All from Dr. Jason Livingstone.

  “Most men are within a finger's breadth of being mad.”

  -Diogenes

  vii.

  In the deepest woods of the wildest regions,

  a towering inferno blazed in the night.

  Drunken women who had abandoned their homes

  danced around the flames.

  This was a temple built beneath the heavens

  without stone walls or doors to keep people out.

  This was the place where they went to worship him:

  King of Revelry.

  And when a beast would wander into their church

  they would pounce upon it and tear it to bits

  as an offering for the beautiful god,

  great Dionysus.

  “For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”

  -Aristotle

  VII.

  The hotel the school had reserved did not feel like an American hotel. It was a narrow building that sat right at the edge of the street. You could spit over the black iron railings on the balcony and hit a passing taxi. Many of the students had.

  The tiled bathrooms were small and so were the rooms reserved for the students. There was no headboard, only twin lamps mounted over each bed on the wall that was half-white and half-black with paneling. Each room had a pair of double beds with bright coral comforters and a small tube television.

  Tuesday evening, after a day of walking in the National Archaeological Museum and dinner outside of a café, the students were back in their rooms. Lewis and Peter had sneaked down to the room that Penny shared with Minnie. Minnie and Lewis were in the bathroom, rinsing out hotel shampoo bottles. They knew their only hope of getting the nectar from the throne room back to the states was in FAA approved miniature toiletry bottles. “Everyone takes the shampoo from their hotel,” Lewis said. “No one will even think twice about it.”

  Monday had been a late night. With jet lag and the day of walking up hills and crumbling stone steps, none of The Pantheon had been too animated. Tonight, however, they had turned in early and had energy to spare.

  “Guys!” Teddy came tearing down the hall. A maid shouted after him in Greek, something he could only assume was a command to stop running.

  He stepped into the girls' room and closed the door. Nick, who Teddy was sharing a room with, banged on the door. “Hey, you locked me out.”

  Teddy opened the door and let Nick inside. When the door was closed, Teddy jumped up on one of the beds to make his speech. His head almost touched the ceiling.

  “I, brilliant and cunning, put a piece of tape over the catch on the back door while a bellhop was out there smoking.”

  “So?” Penny asked.

  “So? We have a way out the back door without going past reception. We can sneak out!” Teddy started dancing on the bed. “Who wants to partay?”

  Nick shoved Teddy, who fell off the bed and rolled on the floor.

  Someone knocked on the door. “What's going on in there?” Mrs. Matthews called through the door. “Open this door. The door needs to stay open if there are boys in here.”

  “Nosy b--” Nick started, but Minnie jabbed him in the side with her elbow on the way to the door.

  “Let's not make her any more angry, Nick.”

  Minnie opened the door and smiled. “I'm sorry, Mrs. Matthews. Teddy was showing us stupid human tricks and fell off the bed when you knocked.”

  Candace Matthews, the frizzy-haired English teacher who was sweet on Jason Livingstone, poked her head in the room and looked around. Her gaze lingered on Penny for a moment before continuing its sweep of the room. “What is Mr. Mercer doing in there?” she asked, pointing to the bathroom.

  “Washing my hands. I hear you get diarrhea really easily in foreign countries,” Lewis said.

  Mrs. Matthews flushed. “Keep this door open,” she said.

  “Yes m'am,” Peter added.

  “Bed check in thirty minutes. You might want to head up to your floor, boys.”

  After Mrs. Matthews left, Lewis came out of the bathroom, carrying a stash of shampoo bottles in the bottom of his shirt. “Everyone takes two. Don't mix them up with actual shampoo. Zach won't appreciate it if he misses Greece and we feed him soap.”

  They each took their bottles and stuffed them in pockets or luggage.

  “Alright,” Lewis said. He grabbed Peter by the arm and yanked him to his feet. “Ladies. We'll be back.”

  “What?” Penny asked.

  Lewis pushed Nick out the door and looked back over his shoulder. “We have to be there for bed check. Then we'll be back.”

  “Guys--” Minnie started to say that this was a terrible idea. Lewis cut her off.

  “Stop worrying, Mins. Live a little. See you at ten-thirty.” Lewis winked and shut the door. Minnie and Penny heard the boys laughing as they ran up the hall to the elevator.

  “Wit is educated insolence.”

  -Aristotle

  viii.

  The child-god Hermes took up the dead tortoise

  and with a silver scoop, he carved out its shell.

  He stretched an ox skin over its hollow side

  and let the hide dry.

  Next he fastened on two segments of bamboo

  and tied a third of the same as a crosspiece.

  He strung the frame with the guts of a heifer:

  a new instrument.

  When he strummed the strings of his new invention,

  The satyrs about him all began to dance.

  None had ever heard such a beautiful sound.

  It soothed their spirits.

  So when Hermes fell in a spot of trouble

  for the thievery of the sun god's cattle,

  the tortoise shell lyre became a perfect bribe

  to please Apollo.

  “Not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.”

  -Epicurus

  VIII.

  There was a knock on the girls' door just after ten-thirty.

  “Is it them?” Minnie asked. She was in the bathroom, changing out of her pajamas from bed-check and back into a fitted t-shirt and jeans.

  Penny stretched on her toes to look through the peep hole. It was Lewis. He wore a pair of black cargo shorts and a white Hawaiian shirt with a white texture palm tree print. It was as dressy as Lewis got without going to a funeral.

  Minnie slipped her shirt on and went to her luggage. “Alright,” she said, “Answer it.”

  “Good evening, ladies,” Lewis said. “The boys are waiting by the ice machine on the first floor. Are you ready?”

  “This is a terrible idea,” Minnie said.

  “Then don’t come and see what trouble we get up to without your supervision.” Lewis said.

  They joined the boys on the first floor. Evan, Astin, Lewis, Peter, and Teddy were dressed for a night on the town. Evan wore a black collared shirt and a pair of brown dockers. As always, Teddy wore purple (tonight it was purple skinny jeans and a white polo). Astin wore a leather jacket, jeans, and an Alabama Shakes t-shirt. For Peter, dressing up meant a simple black t-shirt and a pair of jeans that fit.

  “Where are Nick and Diana?” Evan asked.

  “Diana has a mortal roomie,” Astin said. “That girl, Alexis, from track. She decided not to risk it.”

  “Boo,” Teddy said. “What a downer.”

  “Well...” Astin started, but shrugged off the end of his thought. Astin and Diana hadn't been too friendly the last six months. Diana was still grieving, and she hadn't forgotten that Astin had basically murdered her boyfriend.

  “And Nick?” Minnie asked.

  “He said he had other plans,” Ted
dy said with a shrug. “I didn't ask. Probably got some kinky European porn.”

  Penny wrinkled her nose. “Gross.”

  Astin had his guitar strapped across his back, and he took out his cell phone to film himself.

  “What are you doing?” Peter asked.

  “It’s for my Youtube channel. A hundred thousand followers. I need to upload a video this week.”

  “Does your phone get service here?” Peter asked.

  Astin rolled his eyes and stopped recording. “No, but Wi-Fi is the same everywhere.”

  “Actually,” Evan said, “they are slightly different standards, but most devices support bo--”

  “Alright. If someone's late, they missed out. Let's go,” Lewis said.

  The latch to the emergency exit had been blocked by Teddy’s piece of tape. They pushed it open, avoiding the bar that would set off the alarms, and wandered out into the alley.

  “So, where are we going?” Teddy asked.

  Lewis pointed. Up the street from their hotel, a line was forming for a club. “That looks like the place to be in Athens tonight.”

  The Pantheon got in line. Around them, young twenty-somethings in club wear checked their faces in compact mirrors and chatted to each other. Penny could tell that she was under-dressed in her black denim skirt, pink tights, and black screen-printed t-shirt. “I wish you had given us a better idea of what to wear,” she said to Lewis, who hadn't exactly dressed for his own plans.

  “It'll be fine,” he said. He stepped up to the door man. “Hey,” he said.

  The doorman shook his head. “We have a dress code.”

  “Oh, come on,” Lewis said. “We're only in town for a few days. We want to spend some money and have a good time.”

  He shook his head and stuck his thumb out, gesturing for them to step out of line.

  The group gathered together.

  “We could buy some new clothes?” Teddy whispered.

  “You could buy new clothes,” Peter said. “I’m broke.”

  Minnie added, “And retail won’t be open at this hour.”

  “This can't be the only club in town. Come on,” Lewis said. He waved at the door man. “Hey, thanks anyway, buddy.”

  Lewis started down the street. The others followed. Lewis was gone for an instant. He reappeared ahead of them in under a second and a breeze whipped around the crowd. “What the--?” the doorman said, somewhere behind them.

  “What did you do?” Astin asked.

  Lewis clapped his hands together, dusting them off. He pointed to a restaurant sign across the street that had been smudged by someone's hand. “I put a chalky handprint on the back of his black t-shirt. Guy was a douche.”

  “He was just doing his job,” Evan said.

  “Well his job was to be a douche.”

  Celene returned to her hotel room after bed check. She had taken the first half of the boys' floor. After getting visual confirmation that each of the boys was in his own room and that nobody was hiding in the bathroom, she had gone to get a bottle of water from the vending machine.

  As Celene slid her key card through the lock on her door, Candice Matthews stopped at the door to the room next to her. “Having a good trip?” Celene asked. She was trying to be friendly, despite the fact that Candice had been nothing but cold to her since she'd become involved with Jason Livingstone.

  Candice Matthews nodded. “It's a very nice city. The kids are having fun.”

  Celene nodded. She wished she had said “goodnight” instead of asking a question that had the potential to turn into an awkward conversation. “Penny does seem to be having fun,” Celene said. Maybe she could end it here.

  “A little too much fun, perhaps. Be careful.”

  Celene raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

  “That Mercer boy was in her bathroom not too long before bed check, and there was a lot of loud stumbling around before I came in.”

  Celene had a hard time imagining anything elicit going on in the hotel room while Minnie was there. She nodded her head. “Well, thank you for the warning, but I've been a mother long enough to know that teenagers being noisy is nothing suspicious. It's when they get quiet that you should worry.”

  “Hmm,” Candice said.

  Celene opened her door and entered her room. She threw her key card down on the night stand and collapsed on her salmon-colored bed.

  Penny had visited her room before bed last night and had filled Celene in on their mysterious disappearance at the Acropolis. She knew about the nectar and about the throne room.

  Lewis didn't seem like natural company for Penny or Minnie. Celene sat up. She got the sudden feeling that maybe Candice wasn't just being paranoid. Maybe something else was going on.

  Celene took her key card and left the room. She walked up the hall to Penny's room and knocked. No answer.

  “Nobody home?” a voice asked. Celene spun around to find Nick leaning against the wall behind her.

  “Nick! What are you doing on this floor? You should be in your room.”

  “Yeah, and so should Teddy, but he's out for the night.”

  “Out? Nick, where did they go?”

  Nick shrugged. “Dunno. Don't really care. But, I suppose, if you're curious, we could go look.”

  Celene lowered her voice. “How many of them left?”

  Nick shrugged, “It sounds like Lewis was planning a Pantheon party. I didn't feel like hanging out with Minnie, though. She's been really on my case this week. Thinks she's the new Zach.”

  “So all of them, then? The whole Pantheon just walked out of this hotel?”

  Nick leaned in close. He whispered, “One of the employees sneaked out back to have a smoke and Teddy taped the door.

  Celene rubbed her eyes. “They're going to draw all sorts of bad attention to us.”

  “Well, then, let's go find them before they cause trouble.” Nick rubbed his hands together. He was all-too-eager to get Minnie into trouble.

  “No, you're going back to your room, Nick. I'm not walking out of here with a student.”

  “I could always go and get Ms. Matthews for you.”

  Celene shook her head. “No. That won’t do. Just show me that back door and keep your thoughts to yourself.”

  Nick grinned. “My pleasure.”

  They were admitted easily enough at the second night club they tried. The bouncer seemed more concerned with filling the club with attractive young people than checking to make sure everyone was legal to drink in public. This place, which was lit up with neon and black lights, had a much looser dress code that the club next to the hotel. There was a DJ up on stage. All around them, people were wearing glow stick bracelets and holding brightly-colored drinks.

  “Think I could get a mixed drink here?” Teddy asked.

  “The drinking age is eighteen,” Minnie said.

  “So... yes?”

  “You're not eighteen,” Minnie said.

  “I know.” Teddy smiled and walked away.

  Minnie and Penny went to find a table. The DJ shifted the music to a trance beat as someone walked on stage. They reached down and flicked a switch and an array of lasers came up from the floor and fanned out. The crowd fell quiet and the DJ made an announcement.

  “What are they doing?” Astin asked as he slid into a seat at their table. Evan followed behind him with a glass of cola. He sat down and began to pick lint-- all too visible under black light-- off of his Iron Maiden shirt.

  “I think it's some kind of laser harp,” Minnie said.

  The DJ switched tracks to some kind of accompanying music. It had bass and a beat, but no real melody. The man who had turned on the lasers shook his hands to loosen them up and then started to play. He struck each note by covering a single strand of laser light with a cupped hand. The lasers, which were every color of the rainbow, lit up the palms of his hands as he played.

  “I think this is the theme from Tetris,” Evan said.

  “I think this is the coolest thing I've ev
er seen!” Astin said.

  They watched as he moved through a list of songs. The rest of The Pantheon crowded around their tables. Evan took a pen and a miniature notebook out of his pocket mid-way through the set and started drawing out plans to recreate the instrument.

  When the laser harp player took a bow, the crowd cheered. The DJ switched back into a club remix as the harp powered down and the musician left the stage.

  “That is the best idea ever! I want one!” Astin was jumping around, energized with the possibilities of making music with this space-aged instrument.

  Evan held up the napkin. “I can make one.”

  “Really?”

  “Really. When we get home. Of course, supplies will cost a little.”

  “You are the best!” Astin grabbed the sides of Evan's head. “Evan, if you build me that thing, I will owe you forever!”

  Teddy stood up. “Alright, who wants shots?” he asked. “I'm paying.”

  Celene approached the doorman with the big chalk handprint on his shirt. He looked at Nick, dressed in a polo and khakis, then looked down at the Crocs on his feet, and shook his head. “Dress code,” he said.

  “That's okay,” Celene said. “We're not looking to come in. We're just wondering if you've seen a group of students. They're all between fifteen and eighteen.”

  “I see a lot of students,” he said. It was clear from his perfect English that he was very used to dealing with tourists.

  “This one had a smart-mouthed kid with blonde hair,” Celene said. She opened her wallet and held up a photo of Penny. “And this girl.”

  The bouncer nodded. “They didn't meet dress code, so I sent them on their way. There's one other club in walking distance that allows jeans and trainers, if you go down to the next cross street and take a left, you can't miss it.”