RE: The story in series: Chapter Two
Okay, I'm pretty sure I am too late to be a contender. (AND I found out - thank you @michalis and @dante31 that I put my entry in the wrong place! Geez!) Anway, here it is for what it's worth....
Marcus goes back to his regular life, under the thumb of his overbearing and sometimes violent father and mousy mother. But something is off. He can feel it. Why did Zoe seem to know him? It seemed crazy, but she was so vehement and so certain that they had some past. Was he somehow responsible for what was happening to her?
He begins to get word of Zoe. She is in a low-security prison. He knows he cannot visit her under the watchful eye of the police, so he sends his friend Nick Stavros, who is a propeller-head techy guy and inventor who leads an undercover life that will only be revealed over time.
Nick finds that Zoe is living under horrible conditions, with guards leering at her and making lewd suggestions, and Marcos who has always found Zoe amazingly attractive (even though she is totally off-limits because of who her father is), decides he has to do something.
Marcos and Nick contrive to set off a bomb at one end of the prison (to avoid any casualties) and send in drones to rescue Zoe. The plan is to whisk her away to Crete and disguise her as a peasant on an olive farm.
Marcos has to secretly get supplies for the rescue from his home when his mother and father are out, which proves to be incredibly difficult since they are always around the farm. But there's a death in the community - an old friend of Marcos' father who has been found mysteriously shot in his car. Marcos is secretly relieved that the police are distracted by the murder, even though it does not bode well for the way things are going. On the day of the funeral, he pretends to be very ill, then gathers what he needs from the house.
That's when he discovers a cache of high-tech weapons and realizes his father is dangerous and possibly involved in a crime ring, and that he and his brother and mother are all in grave danger. He takes one of the guns, fearing that he is going to need to protect himself and his family.
He leaves the house, not knowing whether it is for the last time and looks for a place to hide the things he has gathered until it is time to meet Nick and put the plan in place to rescue Zoe, and he finds a door, hidden in hedges and overgrowth at the edge of his family's property.
The door looks ancient, and as he brushes the overgrowth away, he sees that it is covered in ancient symbols that are strangely familiar. His head starts to throb as he looks at them, wondering where he has seen them before and feeling that they have some kind of power over him.
He begins to step away, fearful that his parents will return soon from the funeral, and that going through the door will make him miss the connection time with Nick. But he is compelled, and touching the door he finds that it begins to move. Instantly, he is sucked inside into an enormous chamber, and the door slams shut.
Suddenly he remembers everything from before he emerged several days before to find police at his home arresting Zoe. He realizes there are two concurrent realities, and that he has no idea which one is real, or if somehow they both are. His leg is not broken, but Zoe is in prison. His head aches.
Suddenly, he hears voices. He crouches in the shadows behind a giant pillar. They are voices he recognizes. One is another friend of his father's, and the other is one of the police officers who arrested Zoe. They are talking about how their plan is going well, but that Zoe's antics have thrown a wrench in things because of her father's status.
As Marcos tries to make sense of what they are saying, there is a faint rumbling that grows louder. The earth is shaking. He realizes it is an earthquake, and he is likely to die here before he can rescue Zoe, figure out what scheme his father is involved in, and save his family.