Disclaimer: I realized that I haven't done these for the other chapters, but I will do it now. I do not own anything related to Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Heroes of Olympus, any characters or concepts included. All of them belong to Rick Riordan.
Chapter 3: Abandonment"We're going to the park today!" Thalia's mother announced.
"What?!" Thalia was stunned- her mother had not made a conscious effort for their entertainment in a very long time. In fact, most of the time, she lay drunk on the floor, unaware of the world around her.
"Yay! The park will be fun," Jason said, "Thalia takes me to the park all the time." It was true- she had taken him to the park before, and lied whenever someone asked where their parents were. "Yes," Mother said, smiling, "Why don't you go and get ready?" While Jason bundled off happily, Thalia watched as her mother's face fell into something akin to misery.
It's just a trip to the park, Thalia thought, what's wrong with that? She swept away her uneasiness. Maybe she had changed- maybe she had started to care about her children. With this giddy thought, she went to get changed.
The car ride there was mostly filled with the memories of irritation, because Jason had been asking "Are we there yet?" every few seconds. Thalia watched as her mother's knuckles became whiter and whiter on the steering wheel, and every so often looking at Jason in the back seat in the mirror.
It was as if she were trying to memorize his face.
The park that they went to wasn't exactly what Thalia was used to in a park. It was pretty much just a burned out house, and there was no one else there. Something in Thalia's mind screamed at her to get her family and run off, that she was on enemy ground. But Jason looked enthralled by it, and she had to grin and bear it for her little brother.
"Thalia," her mother stopped walking after they had been there for about five minutes. "I forgot the picnic basket in the car. Could you go back and get it?" She handed her the keys. Thalia nodded, then turned around and lightly jogged toward the car.
Lifting the trunk door easily and grabbing the basket, she walked briskly back, hoping that she could still find them.
As she walked back, she heard a curious noise. It took her a while to recognize it, but she did eventually. It was the sound of her mother sobbing. She eventually traced it back to the burned out house, and sprinted there, the picnic basket fallen to the ground and forgotten.
When she reached the clearing where her mother was, she was rocking back and forth on the front steps. Jason was nowhere to be seen.
"Mother," Thalia ran forward and grabbed her mother's shoulders. "Where's Jason?"
Her mother, in response, cried some more. "He's as good as dead," she choked out, "He's dead," Thalia felt as though she had been drowned. She spent the first few minutes screaming in denial, and then when her mother reasserted her statement, broke down and started crying.
This seemed to snap her mother out of a trance, and she was dragged away, kicking and screaming. As soon as her mother dragged her home, she got to the phone, called the police, and called for a missing child alert. The police had a tough time getting anything out of her, she was hysterical and could barely speak in coherent sentences.
But her mother took her away and told the police calmly that there had been a mistake. Her eyes were still rimmed with red, but she hung up. The look in her eyes was all Thalia needed to see. She would be drinking that night.
It turned out that her prediction was correct- her mother was now passed out on the couch, oblivious to the world. Thalia couldn't take it anymore.
What's the point in living here now? Thalia thought as she furiously stuffed some things in a backpack. Jason's not here for me to protect, because I couldn't do it for him. She grabbed a fistful of hundred-dollar bills from her mother's abandoned wallet- she wouldn't miss them anyway. What she took wouldn't put a dent in her bank account.
She was running away- from this house, from her mother, from the memories of her little brother. Her mother had sacrificed him- for what? Did Hera threaten her life? Did she simply want to get rid of a child she couldn't take care of?
The thoughts spurred her forwards towards the door as she pulled the Mace can from her pocket and flicked it, watching it turn to a seven-foot long spear. She felt reckless, and she wanted so much to meet a monster and beat it to a pulp.
She slung the backpack over her shoulder and walked out the door, not bothering to leave a note. Mother would know exactly why she had left. She knew that Jason was the only thing keeping her with her mother, and since he was gone, it only made sense that she would leave, too.
Years later, when Melinoe took the form of her mother, she felt regret. But when she took her normal form, a hag with no particular fear-inducing properties, she said something that made her feel worse than her mother ever did.
"He's a ghost that's not really dead."
Hope rose up in her throat, only to be pushed down again. Did he even remember her? No, it was just a trick, Melinoe wanted to torment her. But subconsciously, she held onto that hope, that somewhere, her little brother was alive.
Thanks for reading the third chapter of Children of Lightning! It's longer than my other chapters, but hopefully, you, my readers, like it. Thanks to kit catt luvs Percy j and VirtualViola03 for being my first two reviewers, and to the rest of my readers, please review! I'd love to read what you think of my story.
-PheonixCycle