Muse 2: "Reluctant Titans"

I wake suddenly and completely.  There's no gentle transition by sunlight.  No comfortingly annoying clang of an alarm clock. I am unbelievably aware of weighted darkness. All five senses on overdrive, trying to gain anchor in any recognizable dimension. There is no light to grab onto, my eyes feel better closed as a pounding headache and nausea threaten to overwhelm me. My dry mouth tastes bitter bile. What the hell did he shoot me up with?  My nose thinks it smells clean sheets. My extremities have gone numb.  I feel that I am encased in ice, rendered immobile.  Fighting the panic of the incurable claustrophobic, my ears take over. There's a grinding, a dull roar. Impressions of glaciers implacably progressing over rock. The hum of the...airplane engines? A ship's?  The mechanical beast's inner workings are barely muffled by the thick, satin lining of the coffin.  I must have been given the almost, high tech, noise canceling headphones.  Forcing my fists to unclench, I stretch them to explore the short distances boxing me in.  It seems to be a high-end casket.  It reminds me of the one my cousins purchased for Grandmother.  Why a corpse would need to be comfortable was beyond me.  Personally, I believe in cremation, we need the land.  Well, at least I am finally traveling first class.  Hysterical laughter escapes my lips.  It's deadened abruptly by the padding.  So disturbing. I begin to shake uncontrollably.  The vibrations and noise are unbearable.  There's a tank of some sort pinning my legs. I repeatedly scream my horror, pounding the lid. Gasping for air, adjusting the oxygen mask on my face.  I can only sob helplessly.

A warm breathe, a golden glow.  My grandmother's voice slips across my mind.  "Darling Amelia, you are not earthbound, come back to me, visit the heavens later..."  Something she always said when she caught me daydreaming. Calm enters me.  I realize where I am heading, at least, and even have a vague idea on the why.  They are taking me to New York.  My mouth turns up, at least they don't have the amulet.  When I fled Grandmother's house I had just enough time to hide the real one and substitute it for another ancient, but inert amulet.

Thinking back, uneasiness sets in. I remember nothing during my unconsciousness. Normally, I have impressions from fading in and out of worlds.  I am always cognizant of every detail around me.  A family curse and blessing for one never feels truly rested.  But my last memories are like a rewind of one man only, since I fell and surrendered on the gravel.  His tanned, inscrutable face, incredibly handsome in that classical way. The cliche of the sun highlighting and haloing his beautiful, wheat hair and shadowing his bottomless gray eyes.  Eyes that apologized. A soft, sonorous voice wishing me a good journey into the dreamless space of deep sleep.  Did he say that for a...fourth time? There's something about him.  He is familiar to me and he's not right, not vibrationally of Earth.  My intuition shudders. Grandmother's lilac scent wafts around me as I recall her words, "Amelia, you will be saved by one of your enemies.  A reluctant, one of the offspring of the Titans."