Author's Note:
Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, or the idea of writing a story about a demigod.
All I own here is this Very Short Story of an Unfortunate Demigod. I hope you like it!
The Very Short Story of an Unfortunate Demigod
Mom always said I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was right, of course. She always was.
I never knew my father. Mom never spoke of him. I have no memories, no photos, not anything. Just an empty feeling inside. I didn't look like my mother. She had straight brown hair and hazelnut eyes and tanned, freckled skin. I had blonde hair and blue eyes. Sometimes people didn't even know we were related.
Anyway, one day – well, one night, actually – two nights before my fifteenth birthday – Mom and I had a fight. I couldn't even remember what it was about. I just remembered yelling and me throwing a dish that shattered against the kitchen wall. "That's it!" Mom screamed. "You're going!"
Whenever we fought, which was more often than not, she threatened to take me away and never come back for me. It was an empty threat, I knew – she wouldn't really do that. Would she?
Mom grabbed my wrist and marched me out to the car, all but tossing me in the back seat. She got in, gunned the engine and drove out of our driveway.
"Where are you taking me?" I shouted.
Mom didn't answer.
"Where are we going? Let me out!"
Still no reply.
Mom pulled onto a street that was obviously not used very often. She ploughed down it faster than I thought was safe. Furious, I opened the car door while the car was still in motion. "I'll jump out if you don't tell me where we're going," I said.
Would you believe it: Mom kept going, without saying a word.
"I'm going to jump," I said.
Suddenly she braked so hard I was thrown back in the seat and the door slammed shut. "We're here," Mom said, her voice flat. "Now get out."
"What do you mean, 'we're here'?" I said. "We're nowhere." And we were. In the middle of nowhere.
"I said get. Out," Mom repeated through clenched teeth. I climbed out of the car, leaving the door open.
"Now what?" I yelled, holding out my arms exasperatedly.
Mom rolled down the window so she could see me. "Hey, guess what, Samuel? Your father is the messenger of the gods, Hermes. Over that hill is a camp where other demigods like you go to stay to learn how to battle monsters, which, by the way, are probably coming after you right now. You'd better get a shuffle along. Bye!" And with that, she rolled up the window, leaned behind to close the door, and drove off.
I stared after her. "What?" I screeched. "What the hell? What are you talking about?" I watched the car disappear into the night. "MOM!" I hollered. "Come back!"
I felt drops of water pricking my skin. I looked up just as thunder rumbled across the sky and rain started to hammer down. "Great," I muttered. I turned around. I had no idea what crap Mom just babbled off to me, but it's my best bet. I shoved my hands deep into my jean pockets and trudged towards the hill.
After what felt like hours, I still wasn't over the hill. I couldn't see two feet in front of me what with the darkness and the rain, and I was soaked to the bone. Shivering, grumpy and abandoned, I kept walking on.
The distant sound of heavy footsteps caused me to turn around. The footsteps quickly came closer and closer. I squinted through the murk to see the source. A loud bellow sent a shudder of fear through me. What is that? I thought. The silhouette of a really bulky dude with horns was growing bigger and bigger by the second. Then I realized he was coming after me.
That's when I began running. "Oh God, oh God, oh God," I gasped, blinking needle-like rain out of my eyes. I could hear the deadly-sounding thud of each footstep of the bulky horn-wearing dude, each one a little louder than the last. Another bellow sent jitters like lightning through my veins. Maybe if I just get over that hill, I kept repeating to myself, it will all go away. Maybe if I just get over that hill...
I half-turned to see the big horned dude less than three body-lengths away and getting closer. I screamed and faced the front, but my shoe caught on something and I fell hard. Pain flared in my wrist, telling me it was broken, and mud splattered all over me, including my face. I rolled onto my back to see the horned dude reach down and pick me up clean off the muddy ground. I screamed again and struggled in his massive grip, kicking my legs and tugging on his big fingers.
The giant horned dude had the face of a bull and smelled like a barnyard. Minotaur, I thought. So Mom wasn't lying.
And she just left me there? Without even a 'good luck, I hope you make it'?
The Minotaur raised me above his horned head with both hands. "No!" I hollered, writhing in a desperate last attempt. "No, I don't want to die!"
But it was too late. With a roar, the Minotaur brought me down onto the ground with enough force to smash the roof of a car. My head hit a rock, and everything went black.