A BIT OF MY PAST

Disclaimer: We do not own the characters that Mr. Riordan had made for his series.

A BIT OF MY PAST

"What a weird place" was my first thought when I woke up. I had a dream including something about gods, something like a pitchfork, a lightning bolt and something called the "Helm of Darkness."

The place had twelve cabins. One had lightning bolts engraved on its walls. The one next to that one had peacocks on its walls. Near the other side of the lightning bolts one, there was one with waves and other things that reminded me of the ocean. Next to the ocean one, was one that had a dead boar head hanging above its door. Next to "Boar Door," was one that sort of reminded me of the sun. Then two more on that side, one that clinks and a few sparks came from, the other was poorly built. On the side of the peacocks one, was one engraved with pictures of grain/wheat; then one with owls engraved on it; next was one with moons/bows; another one that had a "love" effect somehow; and the last one's walls were practically grape vines. Maybe thou has heard of it.

Miz Liz entered my room. She's my mother's friend. "How was thy night?"

I forced a smile, trying to cover my confusedness from the dream. My family and a few of my mother's friends still use "thou," "thee," and "thy." And whenever we write what is now currently "Miss" we write "Miz" or "Missus." "Fine, Miz Liz. How was thy night?"

Miz Liz nodded. "A good night, but not as well as others I've had."

Trying to stop from laughing, I nodded. Miz Liz always said that whenever she was replying to me about her night; but when she's replying to others, she says a great night every night.

Miz Liz smiled, knowing what I was trying to do. "Well, Miz Enella, I know not why thee is laughing, for this is not a matter to be laughing upon, but, as rude as it may be, I must say, I'd be laughing too."

I was able to stop after a few minutes. "Any news from my father?"

She nodded after a long pause. "Thy father is ill." Miz Liz said with a frown. "Ill while at Chancellorsville."

"And Pierce? Is Percy OK?" Pierce, or Percy, was my older brother. His name at birth was Reginmund, or, at least, that's what my parents tell me. When he was learning his name, no matter how much my parents told him it wasn't his name, he wrote "Pierce" for some reason. So, everyone began calling him Pierce, though some called him Percy. He would be twenty next week. My mom, Miz Liz, his friends, our family, and I hope he can even live until then. But Miz Liz and Mother already knew what happened to him.

"I'm sorry, Ellie," Miz Liz began.

My hope for Percy fell. People called me Ellie if they wanted to pretend they weren't talking to me- like times when something bad happened. I knew why Miz Liz was calling me Ellie now.

Percy was dead.

"He died at battle, didn't he?" I sobbed. Why, why did he have to leave? Why did he have to leave me, when I only knew him half of my life? He was out at war for the past two, and I first met him when I was three, for he and Father went to find a new place to live. Percy. Dead. Father. Ill. My Mother may be lost too if Father died, her cause of death would be grief. I would follow then soon after, once being forced to live on the street, from lack of food and probably water. I started to cry.

"Oh, Ellie." Miz Liz placed her arm around me. I quickly pushed it off. "Pierce died in battle. He died a strong young man. A proud young man. We should be proud that he didn't die a coward."

"It doesn't matter. He's dead. I lost him..." I stated. "He's gone..." My eyes drifted to a place in the room, the far wall, the bottom left area.

The ring.

I waited until Miz Liz left me alone in my room before I removed two bricks. There was a small black box tied with a piece of twine.

The ring was inside the box. The ring Pierce was going to give to the woman he loved, who loved him back.

I slowly untied the box, and unwrapped the small circlet of metal. Engraved on the ring was "The Love of My Life" in curly letters. I didn't read that; I never learned how to read. Pierce told me what it said. The five years he was here, he spent about ten minutes each day polishing the ring. When I was six, he decided to let me keep the ring in my room when he wasn't polishing it.

Rubbing the circlet with my right hand, I thought how I would tell Brittany.

Brittany said she would wait for Pierce to come home so they could marry. They both believed neither of them would leave until they wed. They thought neither of them would move, fall in love with another, or anything. But I don't think they thought one of them would die first.

"Enella, can I come in?" It was Brittany.

"All right," I said quietly. I sniffled.

Brittany opened the door and sat down with me in the corner. She stared at the ring in my hand. "Was that... Percy's gift... for me?" She asked softly and slowly.

I nodded. "He polished it everyday for at least a good ten minute. He started to let me hold it for him when I was only six. When he left for battle, he told me to take care of it for him 'till he came back." I started to cry again.

"Oh," Brittany wrapped herself around me. This time, unlike with Miz Liz, I let her. "I know, Enella. I miss him too,"

"I wish he never left to go to the war. Then, maybe this would have never happened." I sobbed.

"So do I, Enella," Brittany whispered.

We cried for a good hour together in the small corner of my room.

-Present-

I just thought you would want little of my history there. I was only ten. My brother died in the Civil War. My father died of his illness in the war too. My mother, she died of a high fever; that or some sickness without a cure- well, a cure then. Miz Liz had lived with her husband, who died at war too, and Miz Liz got shot while working at her small garden. She said in her will, either, if she had any, her children would have her property if her husband died already, or the next family member or friend that could get it. Guess who got it. If you said me, you were wrong. Brittany is her niece, so, she got it. My becoming an orphan and Brittany getting Miz Liz's house was within a week of each other. Brittany took me in, knowing I would have no home, since I barely turned 11 and wasn't old enough to take care of a house myself. Brittany died at the age of 24. Cancer. A lot of death in a four-year range.

Here's a time-line of my life so far:

1853: I am born on July 24th.

1856: I meet my father and brother.

1861: Civil War starts.

1863: Pierce, aka "Percy," died.

1864: My father died.

1865: Civil War ends.

January 1866: My mother died.

August 1866: Miz Liz died.

1867: Brittany died.

1868: I am declared missing.

April present: I am found, after a few long hundreds of year.

July present: I turn 15.

Now, let's see. If the year now was, say, 2008, I would be dead, right? And yet I'm here? I don't know how, either. I stayed at a motel or something which let me stay for free. I sewed most of my time there in my room, locked up. It seemed like no one knew I was still there.

Then, one day, a man wearing weird clothes- or what seemed weird to me, but what I wore was weird to everyone else- came into my room, without opening the door. I didn't notice then, though.

"Enella, you are in the wrong place," The man said. He held a weird staff in his hand and I swear, that his shoes suddenly got wings and he was floating for a few minutes. "You should be back in New York,"

New York.

The place where Mother died.

The place where Miz Liz died.

The place where Brittany died.

The place where they left me for the dangers of nature to take care of.

I shook my head fiercely. I would not go back to a place where so many horrible things happened to me. "No. I won't go back."

He sighed and floated over to where I sat. He sat down next to me. "Enella, your father is alive."

I stared at the strange man. "First of all, how does thou know my name? And second, my father died during the Civil War."

"That wasn't your father." He said after a while.

"OK, let me guess, next thou is going to tell me that my mother wasn't my real mother; that my brother wasn't my real brother." I snapped.

The man seemed shocked a bit. He stared away from me. "No. Your mother really was you mother, as Reginmund was your real brother. But the father that died in the war wasn't really your' or Reginmund's father."

Now it was my turn to be shocked. Only my mother, father, Pierce himself, and I knew Pierce's real name.

"As for how I know your name, now is not the time." Then, he quickly added, "Nor how I know your brother's real name."

I sighed. "Fine. I'll go."

Even though the man turned his face away, I could tell that he was smirking.