It was like a dream. When he learned what he was (special) and where he belonged (with family) and his talents (killing) and his friends (his cabin) and his enemies (whoever his mother was fighting with at the time.) A little sliver of Greece flung into New York. Kids like him (special) and teachers that understood.
Like a dream, his sword falls on the neck of the (monster) and her (it's) face is evil yet so normal at the same time. Empousa, they're called, and he has to reminds himself of it because she's evil (even if she's kind of hot) and evil things must be killed, after all. And she explodes into yellow dust and vanishes and there's blood on the floor and blood on his clothes and there's nothing to show for it but dust (and yellow dust is the sign of true evil.)
Like a dream, and he walks through the streets knowing, knowing what they do not. He sees what they do not (evil) and he can fight it. He has weapons in his pockets and he knows and it's so much harder yet at the same time he feels above them, just a little (because he's special) and his classmates laugh at him and he smiles (because he could kill them with hardly trying, weaklings.)
Like a dream, he lasts that first year.
But he wakes up when the little girl doesn't.
He's never seen a body before. Everything has fallen into dust but she has just fallen. Eleven, twelve, flesh torn away, half her face clawed off by the Monster. The Evil that he has to kill when it comes after him because they won't stop won't stop won't stop until they're dead (because they're special.)
There's more dead bodies after her, of course. There always are. But he doesn't feel special, not anymore. Her blood never leaves his hands (she tried to climb half-blood hill she got so so close) and he looks over his shoulder. Can't trust (because they might be evil) can't talk to them (because he might let something slip.) And when his classmates laugh at him he doesn't even notice.
He's not special anymore. He's hunted.
It's like a nightmare, but this time it's real. He runs, he hides, and when they come for him (they always come) he kills because that is what he has to do to stay alive with his blood in his body and his internal organs internal. Looks over his shoulder so much that he wonders if his neck will be permanently stuck and his eyes peeled back and the only place he is safe is in his cabin.
Like a nightmare when the walls break down that one summer and the monsters are in camp and he kills and he kills and they never die and he kills and he kills. They're Evil, all of them, no purpose but to wipe him out and he's thirteen and he doesn't want to die.
So he runs. He's Hunted but he can still run. All the monsters are going to camp so he goes away from it. He runs and he runs and they don't follow (because he isn't really special enough.)
And then he's trapped on That Boat (the one full of zombie people with the plastic smiles) and they're Evil but this time the Evil is people and when he kills one she doesn't fall apart, she just lies there (like that girl with the blood) and so he runs but he's not the Hunted anymore, he's the Hunter, and he'll kill them all. He runs and he kills but they don't stay dead.
And then like a nightmare he's back at camp (he doesn't know when he decided to go but he always goes there eventually) and there's a fleece and someone has saved the day but it's not safe, nowhere is safe. He's the hunter but all he wants is to breathe.
And before he can think it's another nightmare, long, drawn out and they're fighting and there's people all around him, people he's supposed to be killing in an empty New York so he fights and there's blood (his blood or theirs?) and they fall and they're like him, he thinks, like him but they're not.
(And when he was five his dad would take him to the park every week and push him on the swings. He looked forward to it, every time. Going higher and higher until he felt like he could leave the world behind. And his dad would laugh and he would squeal and for those few hours everything would be perfect.)
Swinging (faster and faster) and leaving the world behind. The sword swings, the shield swings, the sword swings faster and he doesn't move. (Back and forth back and forth backand forth backadnforth backandforthbackandforth went the swing) and they're fighting and there's a hole in his body somewhere and as he falls all he can do is think, finally.
But then his soul is in Hades (waiting in line to see if he can be Special again) and it never really ends.
(oneshots don't count as writing fanfiction but you should review anyway.)