Hey guys, yes this is a story that I already had up, but deleted. I hit a dead end and decided to rewrite. So I hope you guys like it. I'm sorry to all the people who liked this story before (All six of you, LOL) but I've rewritten it and hopefully it's better.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Percy Jackson series.
If I did, we would be gossping about the recently released House of Hades...
Arabella Summers hated the darkness
She often had dreams when she fell through a dark pit of nothingness or when she was running down a dark tunnel being chase by something. Arabella was deathly afraid of it, but honestly, who did like darkness? Besudes those really creepy goth kids...
And vampires. Definitely vampires.
But Arabella was not a goth kid or Kristin Stewart; She had emotion.
Point proven.
Arabella wasn't ever populaqr, but she wasn't a nobody either. She never picked her nose, when she thought no one was looking, when in reality everyone was staring. She never attempted to make friends, in fear of losing them. She never laugh in some poor boy's face when he asked her out, not like any boy had ever her asked her out though.
She couldn't sprint as quickly as JoEllen, the track champ of her school, holding two state records for the one hundred meter and two hundred meter dashes. She was a musical prodigy like Kelsi, who could hit a high A, twice above the staff. She was as smart as Bridget, the only girl who maintained a 4.0 average since kindergarten.
Arabella was in no-man's land.
She never tried out for any sports teams, never tried to sing or play a musical instrument, nor did she try to be the smartest. She preferred the unclaimed territory.
In the unclaimed territory, no one paid Arabella much attention, and she could get by with minimal damage. And she didn't have make friends. She didn't have to tell anyone her secrets. She would never tell anyone the things she kept hidden: the monsters that stalked her and the creatures that attacked her. She never told anyone, well except Melany a few years back.
Melany was a teenager who had found her soulmate in eight-inch black pump heels. All she ever wore was black, just black, contradicting with Arabella's favored color: yellow. Her hair had been died black, with it's natural blonde showing at the roots. Her leather jacket smelt like motorcycle exhaust and whatever guy she had spent some quality time with the night before.
Melany smoked and thought nobody knew, but after Arabella had found stray cigarette studs on the carpet in the living and the fire alarm disarmed, Melany's "secret" had been exposed.
That earned Arabella an extra five bucks a week, to keep it quiet.
Melany never believed Arabella when she told her about the monsters. She had tried to tell Melany about a giant pig stalking her, but she just muttered something about drugs, and turned back to her Biker's Weekly Magazine. Two weeks later, Arabella had come bursting through the front door and to Melany, screaming about horse people chasing her. Melany yawned and promptly told her to "suck it."
Arabella didn't like Melany, and wish she'd just disappear.
Arabella never saw Melany again.
She had even resorted to asking her overworked attorny of a mother about what happened to her.
"Mom, where's Melany?"
"Who?" Her mother asked, not looking up from her case. "Ari, I have no time for your imaginary friends right now."
"She's not an imaginary friend, Mom." Arabella insisted. "I'm too old for those. Melany's real."
"I'm sure she is sweetie. Now go and play, I have work to do."
And that was how each of their conversations ended, Now go and play, I have work to do. Her mother would never crack, it was like Melany really didn't exist. Her mother was really good at it too.
"Melany is..." Arabella once started an improvisation game between the two.
"Not real. The end."
Arabella was actually beginning to believe Melany was just someone she imagined, though she wasn't sure how she had come up with a cigarette-smoking, biker eighteen year old babysitter. She had stopped asking, thinking Melany was fake; that is, until she heard her mother arguing with Honey Boy.
Arabella had come home, surprisingly with no monster attacks, and knew immediantly something was wrong. It was quiet, way too quiet. Her mother was always home now, working. There was always something being printed, a pencil being sharpened, or french-tipped nails typing away at a keyboard. But now there was nothing.
Arabella slowly closed her mother's imported ten thousand dollar Spanish Mahagony wood, French brass-knobbed, and African white stone, door.
Translation: It wasn't from Home Depot.
She had once questioned her mother's reasoning on purchasing such an expensive door, that at some point was bound to be covered in mold and rust.
"Because it's my money, and I decide what I want to do with it, that's why."
Arabella was about to climb the stairs to her bedroom, when she heard him.
"Joanna, I have to take her." It was a voice, obviously male, that she didn't know.
"No!" Her mother argued. "You've already wreck her life, and mine, enough."
"Joanna, she isn't safe here. She's already seen the monsters; she must go to camp."
Arabella slowly declined the half-staircase she had already traveled towards her mother's office, leaving her books at the edge of the stairs. She crouched down by the entry way, and listened.
"You had your chance to protect us, but you left!" Her mother said.
"They made me leave!" His voice was smooth, and light. "I did give her protection though."
That set her mother off, "Sure, curse her, why don't you?! That makes it all better."
The man remained silent, and Arabella took a chance to look at him. He had red RayBan sunglasses pushed up against his blonde head of hair. His evenly tanned California skin stuck out against his white t-shirt and jeans. He wore converse sneakers that were just about as worn as Arabella's own two-year old pair. And the thing that scared her, was his honey blonde hair, the exact color of her own.
Her mother spoke again, "You and I both know, that it was unsafe and you had no right without my permission."
"She can handle it." Honey Boy insisted.
"And what if she can't?" Her mother said, abruptly.
He looked away.
"And what if she can't?" Her mother asked, a little louder,
He took an interest in his shoes, still not answering her question, but he didn't need too.
Her mother's eyes watered with greif-filled tears, "She dies, doesn't she?"
His opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again.
"She dies." Her mother fell back against her office chair, a worried hand covering her mouth, slowly rubbing it.
Honey Boy moved forward, arms wide, as if to give her a comforting hug, "Joann-"
"Get out." Her mother pushed his arms away.
"What?" Honey Boy sounded surprised.
"Get out. Leave! And never come back!" Her mother spat out. "Why don't you just stab her on the way out and save the monsters the trouble?"
"Joanna, please." Honey Boy pleaded. "I'm here now. Let me protect her."
"Just so you can leave us again? No way! All you care about is your stupid prophecy and your own sorry life."
Arabella could tell by the way Honey Boy drew in his next breath, that her mother's words had been a hit below the belt. It had really affected him, whoever they were talking about was important to him. When Honey Boy turned to leave, Arabella immediantly dove from sight, in fear of being discovered, but he never walked out. Arabella slowly went back to her spot and peeked into her mother's windowless office.
Just her mother, sitting alone typing away with her french-painted nails. No Honey Boy.
He had managed to disappear from her mother's exitless office. First Melany, now Honey Boy. Perhaps Arabella was delusional. Arabella tapped into her mental reservoir, and took out her last bit of courage, and walked into her mother's office.
"Mom?"
"Not now, Arabella." Her mother sighed. "I'm very busy. Would you mind grabbing some headache pills from the cabinet in the upstairs bathroom? They're next to my face cream. Thank you, dear."
"Mom-"
"Arabella, headache pills. I'm developing a migraine."
"Who was that man?" Arabella asked.
"What?" Her mother looked up, her eyes wide.
"What was he? That man you were talking to?"
"What man? There was no one here. Are feeling all right dear? Perhaps we should've signed you up for therepy."
"I know he was here. I saw him." Arabella was certain he was real. "He looked like me. Who is he?"
"Arabella, you're being ridiculous. Now, go get me my headache pills, please."
"Mom!" Arabella slammed her hands down onto the desk, causing her mother to jump. "Stop lying to me! I know he was here, you were talking to him! The man with my blonde hair and my tan! The man in the white t-shirt, red raybans, and old converses! That man!"
"Arabella!" Her mother stood. "Don't speak to me like that. There was no man, here in a white t-shirt, red raybans, and jeans! Understand?"
"Jeans?"
"What?"
"You said, 'jeans.' I didn't say anything about jeans." Arabella looked at her mother.
"I-"
"He was here wasn't he?" Arabella questioned. "You lied to me! What else have you lied to me about? I bet Melany is real too, isn't she?"
"Yes."
"I knew it! Got anything else to share."
Her mother took a deep breath, "Ari, you're a-"
Suddenly there was a large crash, as the imported door flew off it's hinges. When two bird ladies, like the ones Arabella had seen before, flew in, her mother growled. She flipped her desk over, like a shield, and pulled her daughter behind it.
"Where is she?" One bird screeched out. "Where is the Bane?"
"This is all his fault." Her mother hissed.
"Who's fault?" Arabella asked. "Mom, I'm scared, what's going on?"
"Listen to me, Ari." Her mother sounded urgent. "I am going to distract them, and you're going to sneak out the back door."
Her mother shoved a huge wad of cash into Arabella front pocket, along with a slip of paper.
"You get a taxi, and go to this location."
"What about you?"
"And don't look back." Her mother sadly kissed her head. "I love you."
Her mother stood up, in full veiw of the monsters.
"Mom?" Arabella looked at her. "What are you doing?"
"You!" The second bird, chirped, evilly. "Where is the Bane?"
"She isn't here. She's already gone."
"I can still smell her." The first said. "Her scent is strong, she's near."
"You're wrong. She left hours ago."
"We can tell that you're lying."
The first bird swooped down and picked up her mother by the color of her grey pants suit. She flew to the high ceiling of the second, and screamed out.
"Come out, come out, little girl." She taunted. "If you want your mother to stay alive."
"Don't look back."
Arabella remained silent.
"Fine, then." The bird then dropped her mother.
Gravity had chosen to come to work that day, and things get three times heavier when they fall. She landed on the bottom floor, making a dent in the hardened tile. Arabella could hear the crunch of bones on the impact. Red fury blinded her vision, but she still did not move.
"You don't care for your mother, I see?" The second bird, cackled.
It arched it's wings, and made a swooping arch towards her mother, razor-sharp claws extended ready for the kill. Arabella could no longer stay quiet, she stood up.
"Stop!" The bird halted at her command.
"Look you decided to join the party." Bird one smiled, showing off her rotted teeth.
"Ew." Arabella remarked. "Ever think about dental hygiene?"
The bird cried out in anger, "I don't care any more, I will kill this girl."
"No!" Bird two, protested, but she was too late.
The action was already in movement, and Arabella was frozen in fear. She didn't know what to do, none of the other monsters she'd seen had actually attacked her.
"I did give her protection." Honey Boy had told her mother.
Arabella wanted that protection, badly. Suddenly a bright light overcame Arabella, then the darkest darkness to ever be shown to mankind.
And Arabella was afraid of the dark.
So? What did you guys think of the first chapter? Tell me if I should continue, and review!
Love Story: A man gave a woman twelves roses, eleven real and one fake. With the rose, he gave her a note: "I'll love you until the last one dies."
I am a mushy romance person like that.
REVIEW!
You guys are such Awesome Possums! :oD
