-slightly rewritten first chapter, combined now with the second and third.. and a whole new beginning..-
"If I were to come back in another life, I'd like to be reincarnated as my own clone."
― Jarod Kintz,
The beginning of the end...
"Who do you choose?"
He whispered, his voice almost breaking...
But she didn't answer, she just stared at the blue horizon behind him. The ocean, wild and turbulent, full of life and death.. and him. Sea Green Eyes, and Black hair. Lost forever...
Or so she thought.
Because now, it's standing right in front of her: her way to have him back. A way with a name. A beautiful name she had cherished for four long years full of adventures, fears, happiness... and love.
Four Years of laughing at the goofy kid.
Three Years of admiring his bravery.
Two Years of sharing with him every moment of her days, every laugh, every tear...
One Year of loving him, with whole her heart.
One month of finally excepting that even while he wasn't his reincarnation – as he'd swore her many times – , he would still be her future. And that Percy, after almost seventy years, finally lay in the past. As a memory of so much joy and happiness... and love... she would cherish it with whole her heart and all her eternal life. A life she would share with the other, another who hold her heart, just like he did. Another with blond hair, and brown eyes... and just as big a hero as him.
"Who do you choose?"
At least, so she thought until one hour ago. Until that moment when he finally told her the truth. A truth tearing her apart. A truth breaking in a few words every stable thing in her life. A truth destroying her peace and her future in one single sentence.
"I lied to you. I am."
And now she was standing there with him, on the beach, looking at the ocean, avoiding his gaze. Not able to move, not able to speak, not even able to cry, because she didn't have any tears left. With such a pain burning in her chest that she could almost not breathe...
Because she could have him back! Because he wasn't lost forever! Because she could hold him in her arms again! Because she could tease him and joke with him... and love him... again.
Because the only thing that would have to be done to bring him back – him: her Seaweed Brain – was to the other to die. For her handsome, funny, smart, kind, loving Straw-Head... to die.. to disappear of this world, to stop existing. Because he would have given his place to one another. Another wit Sea Green Eyes.
Just as simple.
"Who do you choose?"
Just as heart-breaking.
...
"You would wind up as a cat, I told her. They don't need anyone else.
I need you, she replied.
Well, I said. Maybe I'll come back as catnip."
― Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper
...
Chapter One: The moment you suddenly realize that this weird dream... is actually not a dream. You really are here, in a camp of fools!
You know, the things is about having weird dreams... is that somehow they ruin your whole biorhythm. And it's worse of course, if you're having those dreams every night... no exception. And so when you wake up somewhere in the middle of UNKNOWNLAND (because honestly I don't have any idea where am right now!) with a blond girl sitting at your side, sobbing... Wait sobbing...? And saying that she misses you... What the...! You really think that you're still in that stupid dream...
But the last thing YOU remember about your dream, is having your head being pushed into some toilet, with the toilet in question exploding just before they can actually do it. And find the logic between exploding toilets, and sobbing girls, please.
And don't start about stupid things as: there is no logic in dreams. I've heard enough of that bullshit. Perhaps that counts for you, but my dreams are always completely logic. Believe it or not.
However, the thing is, that waking up in an UNKNOWN place with such a girl sobbing, it kind of makes you feel really really weird – having a sobbing girl next to you is already awkward enough... but having a sobbing girl next to you when you don't even know where you are... that... let's say: complicated. - As if, at one hand, you want to give her a hug so she would stop crying – hey, I am a soft guy! - and on the other hand you want to fly as fast as possible, and never meet her again. And if you can't choose between the two... than you're the idiot called Sea'n Weedbrain. – You guessed it, that is me! – And in that case you start rambling like a fool:
"Who are you? And how do you know my name? And why do you miss me?"
"What?" (that's the girl)
"You just said it, you said you missed me.. me.. Sea'n WeedBrain. Why?"
"What...?" (come on, is she stupid, or just really, I don't know, obvious...?)
"Why did you say my name?" Be really clear, then she won't miss the point.. Hopefully.
That's when it hit me: I must have lost my memory, just like in such a stupid cliché story. She knows me, I don't remember her. She doesn't understand why I don't remember her... and.
Come on!
"I don't know you, don't I?" Can't be proud to tell that I was slightly panicking. "Why... d-do you miss me? Are you f-family of mine?" such a beautiful girl..? That would be awesome! "And why..." Did I just say all that aloud?
Oh god, perhaps she didn't even know me... I'm making a fool of myself again... Come on Sea'n. Remember! Remember... And I remembered the cow. The big giant angry cow, chasing me through miles and miles of forest, in the dark. Walking on it's posteriors! With pants on. What the...
Oh god. I killed the cow. Holy fucking shit.
Have you ever seen the movie Scott Pelgrim v/s the world? With the vegan bad-guy with superpowers, who ate some meat by accident and was severely punished for that (as in being ripped off his fantastic superpowers by the Vegan Police, and killed by the good-guy) Killing a cow must be much worse than eating some meat...
Oh god oh god...
I looked at the nearest door, almost expecting the VeganPolice to burst inside. I may have no superpowers (except if you call weird dreams: superpowers) and may have never met the VeganGuild... But you never know.
Oh god oh god.
I killed a cow. I killed an animal. A sweet gentle sympathetic animal. Who could have been my best friend... because hey cows are fantastic!
Oh god!
The last thing I knew before blacking out, was the girl pushing my hair out of my eyes and whispering something as:
"Trust me. Save. Remember. Friend."
When I woke up again, it was because some guy was shaking me like a fool. And when I say, like a fool, I really mean it! I had been lucky not to been shaken out of my bed.
"Percy Percy!"
What the..?
I tried to sit up, but the guy didn't give me the time for it. He pulled me into his arms, hugging me as hard as he could. Guess my ribs haven't forgotten their meeting with the giant angry cow yet, because I felt them crack and a blast of pain shooting through my body.
But even though I yelped of pain, the guy didn't calm down. He just pressed me closer. And so I waited, 5 long, suffocating minutes, until he pulled me just far enough away to look me in the face.
"Oh Perce, it so..."
The guy stopped in the middle of his sentence, fault of worlds, with panicked eyes. It gave me a precious few seconds to look at him. The guy was kind of a Latino giant Elf (as in Human Height), with curly black hair, pointy ears, and his eyes.. I guess he must have drugged himself, or something... or a least have drank kind of ten litre coffee. Not the kind of guy you want to meet at an unknown place.
I tried to pull away from him, just before he would completely go insane. Just in case.
His face dropped.
"No Percy...?" he asked with that same panicked face.
"Nope."
"Really not..?"
Did I really have to answer that one? I guess so...
In my head I quickly counted my options. a) just lay down again, ignore the guy – with the risk of being shaken like a fool again – b) continue his game of weird conversation we had at the moment – risking to make it even weirder – c) just present myself and hope that he doesn't turn insane.
Let's stay on possibility c).
"So... nice to meet you... My name is Sea'n." I said. "And you are...?"
The guy blinked at me.
"Yes...?"
And realized suddenly that I had been speaking to him.
"Oh I am Leo.. The Leo, as in Awesome, Team Leo, The Fantastic Repair Boy, yeah: the Leo!"
The guy smirked sadistically.
Oh great...
Can I please go back to the giant angry cow?
"Leo.. The Leo, as in Awesome, Team Leo, The Fantastic Repair Boy, yeah: the Leo!" was now, still sitting on my bed, trying to make a.. something... with a lot of stuff he just pulled out of a really really little pocket in his belt. And don't understand me wrong.. I am not implying he's some lab freak making things as little as molecules or so... not at all. It's just that all the materials he needed to make his... helicopter?... were pulled out of a pocket big as my fist, while the thing was much much bigger than that. Find the logic in that, please.
"Hold this."
Wh-hat? Before I could protest, a sort of... yellow stick? was pushed in my hands. At least I thought it was a stick, because having a better look at it, I saw that the stick had some strange button on it. A red button. A fascinating red button. And so, just like any twelve year old boy would do when he sees a red button you clearly shouldn't push on, I pushed on it.
Three things happened at the same time:
Leo yelling: Don't push on that! (seriously?)
Leo yelling: Gaia! you did it.
Leo yelling: hide yourself!
And don't ask me how he was able to yell this all at the same time. He just did.
My eyes widened: "What?! Is this going to explode or s..."
Leo was already gone.
I looked at the stick again. It hadn't changed a tiny bit. Leo wouldn't have given me a really dangerous thing, don't you think...? Nobody would give that to an unknown kid...
Then I remembered his eyes, his creepy drugged eyes... his weird elfish face, and the 'shaking me awake'... Leo definitely could!
At that moment, the stick began to glow.
Oh god. Oh god oh god...
I looked around me... nobody else here... at least, so it looked... and there was a window – an open window! at only three meters. I threw the stick out the window. I tried to throw the stick out of the window. The stick was glued to my hand.
Oh god oh god oh god.
"LEO!"
The stick was glowing really really bright now.
Seriously, I haven't survived a fight with an angry cow to be killed in some explosion because of a foolish elf! I grabbed the other side of the stick and pulled as hard as I could. Trying to unglue the now dazzling stick.
Great. Now both hands are glued.
So you guessed it, I did the only logical thing to do: I ran out of the room, shouting for help. Yelling my lungs out: "Heeeeeeelllluuuuupppp!"
I ran a while like that - like ten meters or so - until I suddenly realized that not only nobody reacted to my 'Yelling my lungs out ', but also that was in the weirdest place I had ever seen. And I like watching weird places on my computer.
The first thing that stuck me, were the buildings: they were all antic, old, as out of another time. I had seen such buildings once or twice in my live, at school when studying the prehistory (which is everything before the Renaissance, at the time people still put woman knowing about medicinal plants on fire, because they thought they were some witches or so... – now we are more evolved, we put them in a madhouse!) But I'm still in my time, right? In my sympathetic year 2074.. right?
Then I noticed the people. They all wore orange shirts - shirts! I must be in my time, in prehistory they didn't know T-shirts! And they all had a weapon in their hand or hanging at a belt. And I am not speaking about a laser-gun, or teaser, or something like that... no I'm speaking about bronze swords, spears, daggers, shields, axes... prehistoric weapons!
And none of them was holding a phone, or had lighting sneakers (most of them we wearing leather sandals), or even a cam-recorder flying above their head, following every movement, so they could share their live on the internet! There was not even a robot or an outside TV-screen in sight!
NOTHING was normal!
Not a person (wait were the all kids?!) had something a NORMAL kid would have.
Even I hadn't. I had a fucking glowing stick that could probably explode every minute!
And as it had heard my thoughts, the stick started to count down out loud:
"10...9... 8..."
At that moment one of the non-normal kids in orange T-shirt with strange weapon saw me (you also realized they didn't seem surprised at all when I came out of the building, shouting? And didn't even give me a second look?). The kid looked at the stick and became white:
"Hephaestus Alarm! Hide yourself!"
Oh Great!
"7...6..."
I tried to shake the stick as hard as I could.. hoping it would come of.
"5...4..."
All the kids were gone. -Not as if one even thought about helping me...!"
"3...2..."
Get the fuck lose!
"1..."
A hand appeared out of nowhere, and a finger pressed on the button. The glowing went out.
Instantly. And the button came loose, coming out of the stick... and – as I wasn't really holding the stick as it had been glued to my hands anyways – the stick itself fell on my feet.
"Autch!"
Somebody laughed. A scaring, weird, cat-like laugh.
I lifted my head, and looked right into the eyes of the Death!
I almost yelled, tumbling backwards, biting my tongue, looking him right in the..face?
He actually was a person. A real human being. A weird one. Sure. But still a Homo Sapience Sapience – we now are twice as smart you know, so the second Sapience is more than earned!
The Death was a actually even a skinny, pale person, and quite young: he looked like a freaking lunatic goth teenager! Still... His skin was so thin I could see his bones and the red lines of his blood vessels... and his eyes were deep, endless deep, so deep I almost lost my guts.. just staring in them...
I quickly looked away – before I would crash down to the ground in the most less honorable way – , and noticed his clothes: dark. So black you're wondering if they're really there... or if you're just looking at Nothing. A Nothing with a skull-form of white Something in the middle of his shirt..
With red stains on his pants. With skulls on the toes of his black shoes with spikes...
Oh gods...
The Death suddenly grabbed my shoulder, with his long bony fingers... Smiling... showing to lines of snow-white teeth...
"You're the new one, aren't you?" his voice was as creepy as the rest of him. Much to high for a guy...
He pulled me closer, breathing deeply in (as in smelling my scent/taste?!), still smiling.
"I am..." smiling sadistically.
Smiling dangerously...?
"N..."
I yelled.
The Death stumbled backwards as quick as he could, protecting his ears. Looking at me with wide eyes.
"Wow-wow-wow.. cool down kid!"
He extended his hand towards me, in a way I would think he was trying to calm down a frightened animal. As if I were afraid!
"Cool down... Sea'n.. isn't it?"
I did a step backwards. Just in case.
"I am just Nico... okay..?" The guy was stepping closer. "Just Nico.. okay.. son of Hades..."
What?! I had read enough books about Greek to know what Hades meant. My best friend – or former best friend - had even an action figure of that... Hades. My friend had been some fan of an antic game – mythomagic or so – but that was normal, his dad was Archaeologist.
And now I was standing in front of a guy pretending to be a son of Hades, god of Underworld. Guess I hadn't been so wrong about confusing the guy with the Death.
Then it stuck me. The kid who had shouted to everyone to hide, had yelled something about Hephaestus.
Another god, of that same stupid Greek game.
And then another thing stuck me. Because I suddenly realised what the cow had been. I had already seen it before. It had been an action figure, too. An action figure of the unbeatable Minotaur of the Labyrinth. Who ate virgin kids.
Do I really have to precise that I am a virgin too...? I, a twelve year old kid... could it be otherwise..?
I had almost been eaten by a humanivore cow. Not killed, no: eaten! And now I was in a UNKNOWN place in front of the child of Death.
A Ghost Prince, perhaps...
I never had such a vivid weird dream... wake me up... please.. wake me UP!
"DiAngelo!"
Someone indeed did wake me up... not out of this dream (who actually isn't really a dream.. I'm afraid)... but out of my daydream letting me hope that maybe – even while I am standing in front of a freaking son of HADES! – there still was a little possibility to have no crazier things then the Death and 'Leo... The Leo, as in Awesome, Team Leo, The Fantastic Repair Boy, yeah: the Leo!' around here.
There was. Something much weirder, and much more freaking, and much more dangerous than Leo and the Death combined.. there was the grandpa...
The Yelling-Museum-Relic
"DiAngelo, over here right now!"
Even the Death turned white when hearing his voice – and he already was impossibly pale! –. He turned around, completely frozen in his movements, watching the old man hobbling towards him – toward us! I suddenly realized.
The Death tumbled backwards, looked at me with wide, frightened eyes... and then had the idea of the century: he hide himself behind me!
And now I was standing there, while an angry old man came hobbling/running toward me, yelling. The man was probably old enough to be in an museum and was as curved as an banana. He of course was also holding that kind of grandfather cane – richly decorated and all – that shouldn't been given to any old angry person. That's much to dangerous! But what hit me the most ,was his hair: it was completely blonde – as in sunshine blonde; as in that kind of blonde that shouldn't even exist. – And no old person should have anything else than no- or grey hair. Right?
But the most frightening about him was not his strange hair, no it was the way he was looking: so much anger was in those eyes, he could probably make Superman pee in his pants...
And I was standing between him and his victim.
Oh god!
"DiAngelo! Get your ass over here if you want me to still look at you for the coming ten days!"
The Death made himself much littler behind me.
"I warn you..."
"You can always kiss me eyes closed!" I heard the Death say behind m... wait... what?!
"And you can sleep on the floor also, DiAngelo... now get your ass over here!"
Sleep on the floor.. what am I missing?
I didn't have much time to think about it, because by now the Yelling-Museum-Relic was standing in front of me, looking right at my chest, as if he could see through it.
"DiAngelo..." there was so much warning in that old voice, I would have stepped out of his way if the Death hadn't decided to grab my shirt right at that moment. It was the last straw. The Yelling-Museum-Relic did one step aside, turning half around me, and kicked the Deaths skull with his cane...Hard... Really really hard... I feared to hear some bot break. But the Death only howled out of pain and stumbled backwards, trying to flee away.
In two movement much too quick for an old man, the Yelling-Museum-Relic kicked him in his stomach, so that he fell on his back, and put the pointy point of his cane on the Death throat. The Death stopped moving, completely panicking and... smiling?
"Come on, mio Buio, I was just teasing you..." He pleaded... "I haven't done anything wrong..."
The cane pressed harder on his throat, and he closed his mouth as fast as he could.
"No DiAngelo, you did everything wrong... how much do I have to tell you again: no Shadow Travelling by day in the light?!"
"But I'm..."
The Yelling-Museum-Relic bended down and grabbed the Death by his collar, speaking up again:
"No listen closely... who is the doctor here? I don't care a shit you pretend to be immortal and all, but immortal or not you can still become an angsty Puddle of Shadow. And I don't want you to become an angsty Puddle of Shadow. So you will not become an angsty Puddle of Shadow... Do you understand me?! No Shadow Travelling in the light! And I'm not saying it an fortieth time!"
My head was rambling... Shadow Travelling? Immortal? Puddle of Shadow? It was way above my capacities of understanding. I had to get out of here. And quick!
But at the moment I decided to just turn around and run and that I'll just see where I would end up, the Yelling-Museum-Relic looked up at me:
"And you, newby, you better not move a feet! – And Sunshine," he was speaking to the Death again, "I give you three seconds to go in there, take some nectar, and jump under the sheets of some bed, and not move out of there before I come to get you!"
The Death was already gone, laughing, disappearing in the building I just came out. The Yelling-Museum-Relic sighed, and brushed some hair out of his face.
"That kid is becoming too tiring for my age..." he tried to stretch himself, but curved as he was, it failed miserably. He then turned over to me again, "So, newby, what's your name?"
"Sea'n... I mean Sea'n Weedbrain!" I quickly answered. This guy was not someone I wanted to upset, not at all. Apparently I still did, because I saw him frown at my answer, eyes widening. He stood there silent for a moment, before smiling brightly. His smile was so stunning I stumbled back – I was looking at a smiling sun! What the...
The Yelling-Museum-Relic laughed at my reaction:
"Oh don't worry kid, just a present of my dad – comes of it if your Dad is the God of the Sun. So I am Will Solace, the head of the infirmary even if everybody want to have me to retire. As if I am that old!" The Yelling-Museum-Relic – no: Will – laughed again (not that I saw it, I was literally blinded by his smile...)
"And that guy you just saw me beat the Underworld out of him – even if I doubt I would ever succeed in that, it's complicated as he's a big part of the Underworld himself... but however that's Nico di'Angelo, my annoying idiot of a husband."
Oh.. right... a 17 year old kid married with an old man... I have to get out of here...!
"No you don't, Sea'n, stop acting like a kid!" I AM a kid! "And no, I am not some kind of pedophile, my husband just happens to be immortal and hasn't grown older since 64 years... but it has its perks! You know in..."
Will smirked. Oh great, a non-pedophile sex maniac, apparently.
"I am twelve years old, Sir."
Will got red:
"Oh shit... sorry I forgot a moment that you're that young... we have so much of people walking around here who are much older than they seem... that you sometimes forget... I'm keeping my mouth shut and..."
Now he was rambling... what does this place have with people looking cool and dangerous and everything and the next time searching their words in panic?
"It's, okay, Sir."
"Will! No calling me sir here, I'm way to young for that!" He winked at me. "So, Sean, welcome to camp Halfblood. Do you already know who your godly parent is?"
What the f...
"I don't have a godly parent. And so do you! They don't exist!"
Will's face fell... yup.. I looked straight through your game, old man...
Or not.
"Guess we should begin with the introduction video then..." he mumbled, disappointed, "Follow me, kid."
Introduction video...? Whatever, just don't think about it. The less you think, the less everything will feel weird... and the less you will freak out Sea'n! Just don't freak out! Everybody knows that if you'll have to run for you life because they happen to be disguised humanivore cows, you'll need that clear, awake, non-panicked, non-freaked out head! Or you will die!
And so I followed him through this weird camp, at a obeying kid, while in my head I was already counting my survival/run away options... until I suddenly heard him mumble: "And I would have thought it too... I... guess it's not him, than."
No! Just don't say it. He is not speaking about me. He is NOT!
I lay in my bed in the Hermes cabin... thinking. Trying to get this all right in my mind. So I was the kid of some Greek God – Guess they weren't going to eat me after all! – . Who I never have met, and I wouldn't even know it when I would meet him, because I wouldn't even recognize him... or even know who he is – what God. I just know it is a man, because I know my mum... I'm sure she's my real mum.. completely sure.. yeah...
Oh stop rambling!
And now I am in some camp with kids just like me – and adults just like me,– in the cabin of the God of thieves and travelers. Great. My room mates already managed to steal my boxer while I had him on... Fantastic!
You get the point, don't you?
I also met the Chief of the Camp, Mr. J, some blond 17 years old guy who was in the same case of Nico the Death: immortal. His wife wasn't there, as I heard my roommates say they were in their sixty-fifth 'I need some time for myself" what I translated to 'breakup'. But apparently that happened every year at this period of June, and ended around half- August.
I also met the Camp trainer Chiron – who was a fucking Centaur! But really kind too.
And of course Will Solace, the most weird old man I had ever seen. Quick as a haze, dangerous as an angry Rhino, fierce as a cat, and soft as a Teddy-Bear. Yeah.. kind of the doctor you adore and are completely frightened of at the same time.
But the most weird encounter wasn't even Will Solace and his husband. No it was Annabeth Chase, the sobbing girl. I had seen her again from a distance, and asked Will if he knew her. He had turned pink a moment, then said he did. But it was everything he had wanted to tell me about her. As he said: "Some mysteries are meant to stay mysteries."
So I had asked my roommates and they had all the same answer: Annabeth Chase had been at Camp as long as they remembered. She was never participating to any training, didn't do any Capture the Flag, didn't eat on the same table as all the other kids. She was even rarely there at Eating-Time. And if she was, she was sitting on the Poseidon Table, while everybody knew she was daughter of Athena. They also knew she was probably the most dangerous person in camp, and they all knew the story of Annabeth Chase beating the Hell out of a Hermes Kid who had drawn a mustache on the statue of the Hero of Olympus. The kid had stayed two months in the infirmary before coming out, and Annabeth hadn't been punished. Since then, everybody just walked with a long bow around the statue, because nobody knew, perhaps breathing on it could be enough to upset her. And nobody wanted to come at her bad side.
And most of all, nobody had ever seen Annabeth cry or show any real emotion.
Except me.
The newby.
Why?