Here it is, folks. The sequel to The Cursed Demigod. Hope you enjoy this story as much as you enjoyed Lee's story.
Just so you know, I don't own anyone or anything that belongs to Rick Riordan.
Search For The Twin:
Freaked Out By A Dream
" Dominic! Dominic, it's time for breakfast! Wake up!"
My eyes snapped open as Grandpa's voice echoed through the door. They flickered to the digital clock beside me. Five-thirty. Great. With a groan, I managed to convince myself to get out of bed, turn on my light and stumble over to my closet. Gran has this thing about being dressed before I go down to the kitchens, regardless of what day it is. It was also my job to make sure that the dogs were fed before I went to school. So I play a little trick on my Gran. I know, I shouldn't. But it is completely harmless.
I pulled out today's clothes and laid them on my bed before putting on yesterday's clothes. Once I was presentable (to Gran's standards), I turned to my chart which I had on my desk next to my calendar. Okay, so today was Friday. I still had to eat, feed the dogs, pack my bag and wait at the bus stop for the school bus. Or was that pack my bag first then feed the dogs? That's when my chart came in hand.
You see, I have long term memory loss (at least, that's what I think it is). I got into a little accident with an over excited adult St Bernard dog when I was younger. The end result was that I ended up in hospital with a split skull and no memory what so ever. I can't tell you exactly what happened because, well, I don't remember. Seriously. All I remember is seeing a big dog at the other end of the run, fuzz and a hospital room.
It took me another three goes looking at my chart just to remember what I had to do in the mornings. Once I was ready, I let the smell of Gran's sausages and eggs carry me down to the kitchen. Now that was one thing I would never forget.
Gran was a stout old woman with a lovely temper and the wonderful ability to cook. She was dressed in her usual white flowery apron over a mauve and white dress. But I warn you. Don't get her mad. She kind of has this effect on people where, even if you've forgotten her, once you've seen her mad you'll never forget it. The entire town knows her as 'the sweet old lady down the road with one hell of a temper'. She piled about three slices of toast onto my plate and handed me my breakfast, not letting go until I kissed her good morning.
Grandpa was already sitting at the table having his own breakfast – four sausages, three eggs, four slices of toast, two grilled halves of a tomato and a massive glass of freshly squeezed orange juice from the jug. He was wearing his usual farm clothes; full-length overalls over a checked shirt. The only problem was that those clothes had been out-dated for the past ten years. In front of him, as always, the daily newspaper was opened.
I poured myself some juice and started digging into the sausages and eggs. After a few more minutes, Gran joined us at the table with her usual smashed banana and jam toasted sandwiches. I say smashed, because she literally smashes those poor things to death. I know it sounds disgusting, but the old girl isn't as young as she once was. With no teeth and no taste buds, you tend to eat what you can.
" How were your dreams last night, Dominic?" Gran asked. This was the morning routine. Not 'how did you sleep' but 'how were your dreams'.
" Same as always." I replied.
" What was so weird about it this time?" Grandpa said from behind his paper.
" It was the same wolf one again. But this time he was in it."
" He?"
I got up and picked up a photo of my grandparents and me with a boy who looked exactly like me. Neat blonde hair that always seemed to sit in a navy crop, sky blue eyes that looked like they could see into the future, a button nose that always looked out of place no matter what angle you looked at it from, a smile that (apparently) could win any girl's heart, freckles under the eyes. The only differences, I was an inch taller and I liked earthen colours. He seemed to like blues. It was probably from the way I was brought up because Gran and Grandpa both said that we were twins. The only problem was I didn't remember him. And as soon as our family reunions were over, I'd forget he was even there. I took the photo back to the table and pointed at the look alike.
" Him." I said.
Both Gran and Grandpa paled. You see, my wolf dream usually had scenes of death in it. To be honest, the wolf was going around killing everybody. It didn't stop until everyone except me was destroyed. Last night, the look alike was at my feet with his neck ripped out. It was the first time he'd been in my dreams. But it was certainly not the first time I had had that particular dream. The reason why I know it so well is because I've been having the same dream every night for the past four months. Oddly enough, they started on July Fourth… the day that I started feeling like a part of me was missing.
" You sure it was him?" Grandpa asked, his usually rough voice tinted with fear.
" Positive. The wolf had got him." I replied, suddenly no longer wanting my breakfast.
There was silence.
Grandpa broke it with a sad nod of his head. " Okay. I'm sure it was just a dream. Go check on the dogs, will ya? Your Gran and I need to talk. Off you go, now."
I looked from Grandpa to Gran before looking down at my plate. There was still half a sausage and an egg left. Usually the plate would have been polished off. With a small nod to myself, I got up and cleared my place. Gran and Grandpa waited until I was out of the room before they started talking. But as I walked out to the kennels, I overheard some of their conversation.
" It couldn't be, right?" Gran was saying.
" I'm not sure, Anna. But I hope not." Grandpa replied.
" And what if Derrick calls this afternoon like he did last time? Oh, Cooper. This is turning into that time when Dominic had that dream about John going missing. What will Tamara say about something like this happening to either one of her boys?"
" Now you listen to me, Anna…"
I'd heard enough. Swallowing down that hard lump that had been growing in my throat since Gran had first asked me about my dreams, I walked outside and towards the kennels making sure that the backdoor slammed shut behind me.
The kennels. Home to nearly twenty purebred St Bernard dogs. And I had to feed them all. That's about seventeen or so large bowls of premium dog food to give to about seventeen large hungry mouths. The only good thing about all this was that the dogs were in large runs with two bitches or one stud to a run. Unless, of course, one of the bitches was due to give birth, then they were moved to what I call the 'birthing pen'.
Half way across the yard, a mass of black, tan and white came bounding out of nowhere and leapt at me. Successfully managing to knock me down, it proceeded to try and lick my face clean off. I'd like you all to meet Jayden. He's a three year old St Weiler. And let me tell you now, he is no light-weight. He's exactly 69 cm, has a shaggy coat like a St Bernard dog, and the head of a Rottweiler. As for his coat, picture a Rottweiler. Now give that Rottweiler a white tail tip, a white moustache and stripe from nose to forehead, white toes on the forepaws, a white patch in the form of a V on the shoulders and back, and a white undercoat going from a sharp point on the chest, down the stomach and branching off down the hind legs similar to a husky. That's Jayden.
To be honest, Jayden was an accident. About three years ago, a male Rottie got into the run with one of our bitches, Teleri. When we found out that she was pregnant, we were praying to everyone and everything we knew that it was going to be a phantom pregnancy (That's where pregnancy signs are shown but there is no baby inside). The reason for this was because Teleri was one of our grand champions and she was seven years old. Considering the average lifespan of a St Bernard is ten years, she was an old girl. When it turned out that she really was pregnant, the first thing Grandpa said was 'we need to get rid of those pups'. Both Gran and I disagreed, Gran saying something about it being too dangerous for her in her age.
So the pups were born. Grandpa didn't like it, but he let Teleri raise them until they were weaned. Then he did the unthinkable. I found out about his plans one night and, in the middle of the night, snuck into the kennels with one of my friends. Lance had agreed that what my grandfather was going to do was just plain wrong and so had agreed to take two of the pups for me… as long as he got to choose one of them. We ended up picking two boys; Jayden and a mahogany brindle and white fluffy Rottweiler he named Chaplin. The next day Grandpa took the remaining seven to the vets, not even caring that two were missing, and came home alone. He watched the vets give the injections.
While he was gone, though, I told Gran what Lance and I had done. She didn't like it, but she agreed to talk to Grandpa about it. In the meantime, both Lance and I had to promise that Jayden and Chaplin would get desexed. Thankfully, we had most of the money combined. Both Gran and Lance's parents helped us for the last bit. When Grandpa found out, I was grounded for two months. Which meant that Lance still had to look after Jayden for me. The first thing I did as soon as my sentence was over was get Jayden and bring him home. Now he's just a pet.
" Yeah, okay, Jayden. Heal." I said.
Immediately, the dog got off me and sat, rather uncomfortably no doubt, on a brick. Unfortunately, Jayden's not the smartest of dogs. He once ran head on into the side of the house. I don't think he's been the same ever since. In any case, I left him on his brick and continued onto the Kennels to feed the purebreds.
Things started getting weird at school. First of all, the new kids wouldn't stop staring at me. They had this same staring problem yesterday as well. I couldn't say about Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday because I wasn't at school. Monday, I had arrived home late after showing one of our St Bernard dogs. Tuesday, I had a specialist's appointment so that was another day off school. And Wednesday, my class had an excursion to some place. They had no chance. But apparently they were now friends with Lance and the rest of my little group. At the moment, we were all sitting in the playground, trading stories and otherwise enjoying lunch.
I guess a little introduction is in order. Next to me sat Lance. He was part Hawaiian, so he had the brown skin and black hair of the Native Hawaiians. However, instead of brown eyes he had green eyes that could be slightly off-putting at times. His eyes were probably the only link he had to his father, though. Well, that and his dyslexia. Everything else leaned more towards his mother's side. A little secret; he was madly in love with this Hispanic girl in our class named Maria.
His older brother, Keoni, sat next to him hand in hand with his girlfriend, Penelope. He was a lighter brown than Lance and had his father's blonde hair. But he had his mother's brown eyes. And unlike his brother, he doesn't have dyslexia. He also had three massive scars on the right side of his head and had no right ear at all. You'd think, at first, that some wild animal had mauled him. The truth was he and his mother had been in a car accident almost a year ago. Now, he can't get behind the wheel of a car anymore without remembering what he did to his mother.
Penelope was busy fussing over the new girl's hair, as usual. Honestly, I felt sorry for her. She had undergone at least four different hair styles in the past fifteen minutes. This is where I think it's safe to say that Penelope wants to be a hairdresser when she leaves school. She had the warm smile and friendly attitude that most people would expect a hairdresser to have.
The new kids sat together. There was a black haired girl who had this uncanny ability with plants. It's like she can control them or something. She seemed to be quite at home in the country… even if it did mean losing her hair at lunch time to a fussy Penelope. To her left sat a Greek looking boy with shaggy black hair and sad grey eyes. He had a cuff bracelet on his right wrist and wore a wolf pendant around his neck along with something that he kept hidden under his shirt. He was also the one who liked to stare at me and seemed to always position himself so that I was always in his vision. But today he seemed distracted about something, almost like he was in pain.
Next to him was a tall, athletic blonde dude I swear was older than what he claimed he was. I also got the feeling that he and I had some kind of family resemblance, but I couldn't figure out how. Not to mention the scary resemblance to our music teacher, Mr Pyrrhus. In any case, he seemed to be worried about the grey eyed one. And, probably not for the first time, I got the feeling that those three knew each other from somewhere.
Last but not least, there was Tristan. Tristan was a quiet boy, usually. He had brown hair and hazel eyes. And I noticed that he was having a hard time keeping his eyes off the new girl. This time, however, he was having a hard time keeping his mouth shut as well as his eyes away. Don't worry. He doesn't have any problems that we know of that lead to him needing to be quietened. Lance had just finished explaining the latest craze in the world inhabited solely by Chaplin. Chaplin was almost as smart as Jayden… which wasn't very smart. But I had a nagging feeling about the new kids, like I was one of them somehow but needed to stay away from them.
" Who are you again?" I asked them, earning a sigh from Penelope as she finally let the girl's hair go.
" Nicky, Nicky, Nicky. What are we going to do with you?" She said, a small smile gracing her makeup coated lips.
" Come on, Penny. Leave him alone. He's getting better." Keoni replied, defending me. Though, I had a feeling that it wasn't going to last long.
" Yeah!" I agreed, having forgotten my earlier question.
" It just takes him a few months."
What did I tell you?
" That means you should take it easy on him, too." Lance said, punching his brother lightly in the arm.
" Why?" Keoni asked.
" Because…"
And that's where the brothers went into a full length argument about whether or not people should 'take it easy on me'. Considering this happened on a regular basis, Penelope, Tristan and I just tuned it out. The new kids just watched in amusement. Apparently, this was a common appearance where they came from because the blonde haired dude was trying to stop himself from laughing. The grey-eyed one, though, seemed to be on the verge of tears for some reason and the girl was comforting him. I figured maybe they were an item or something.
" Gods, this reminds me of Kayla and Austin." The blonde dude whispered. At least, I thought he said 'gods'.
" 'Gods'?" I questioned.
He paled almost instantly. I guess he really did say 'gods'. But why would he plural the word? There's only one God… isn't there? I pushed the thought out of my mind as Lance and Keoni stopped trying to get the better of one another (they had resorted to wrestling in order to sort out the argument). And the fact that they looked guilty led me to believe that Penelope had something to do with stopping them. True to his nature, Tristan had stayed quiet. But he did, however, seem to have his priorities straight.
" So, to jog Dominic's memory, who are you three again?" He said.
" I'm Katyana Rose." The girl said, pointing to herself. " And this is Lee Harvey-King and Will Solace." She pointed to her two companions as she said their names.
That's right. Lee was the one who came out with the words 'you look just like him' when we first met yesterday morning. That was freaky in itself. But he had said the word 'him' to me just like I say the word 'him' to my grandparents. I got the feeling that we were both talking about the same guy because I figured that no one else could look just like me other than him. And the way Will had been looking at me at first, I was almost sure that he was going to burst out with the same words or something like that. I'm telling you now, if he had of, I would have decked him.
I would have said something, but Lee's left arm began twitching. All focus was instantly turned on him as Will started muttering something in his ear. Unfortunately, whatever Will was saying wasn't helping because Lee fell into a fit. I'm ashamed to say that I stood up and ran into the school building, up the stairs to the second floor and curled up in front of the music room. My wolf dreams had always started with a boy, much like Lee, having a fit and the wolf erupting from the body of its first victim. I wasn't keen on having that dream come true.
Unfortunately for me, the empty hallways echoed any noise that it encased. And the staircase was like a perfect tunnel. If something happened upstairs, everyone downstairs would hear it and vice versa. It also made things sound distorted, especially when you're trying to hide yourself from everyone (like something happening upstairs when it's actually happening down stairs). So it was that I began freaking out and pressing myself closer against the wall when I heard the sounds of footsteps and people calling my name.
