Chapter 7: Piece of Nero's past and witnessing a claim
Nero was in his cabin, well it wasn't exactly his since it was the unclaimed cabin but it was just like his. The cabin was quiet as the kids were afraid of him after punching a legit god in the face. So because of that all he did was just look out the window and sigh. He had been sent to stay in this cabin because of the actions earlier that morning.
"Sorry Nero," he remembered Chiron saying to him, "But you must face the consequences. Go to the cabin and stay there until diner." Chiron said.
Nero sat perched on his bed and eating a snack from his bag. Thoughts of his mother crossed his mind making Nero worry, which he never was one to do unless it was his mother. What if the demons got to her or even the monster from ancient times?
"No." Nero whispered to himself, "Can't think negative thoughts."
He pulled up his sleeves to reveal ninety two straight lines on his light tan white skin. Ninety two… white scars. Nero's arms were the battle ground of an everyday of onslaught of knife attacks. His arms used to protect many people, but they couldn't protect himself from himself.
"You cut?"His friend's words echoed in his head.
"I told the truth, I stopped cutting." He said as he laid back looking at his arm which was lifted up, he then lifted up the sleeve his other arm and looked at the scars that had formed from wiping an extremely hot steel blade on the skin and slicing it.
He let his arms falls down on the bed as he just began to slip into unconsciousness, he felt as if he was back in the restroom, blood trickling down his arms after the knife met his skin.
His eyes closed and his dream began.
Nero's mother walked into the apartment smiling as she held a pot of flowers, that day was her favorite day turned worst. It was the day Nero was born. It was his fourteenth birthday.
Nero was in the bathroom, laying on floor with his razor in his right hand and blood flowing from the open veins on his left arm.
"Nero?" I'm home early." Nero's mother voice echoed in the apartment as he laid on the soaked floor.
"Mom," He moaned softly as his eyes began to close, "Don't… come in." He said as tears began to stream down his skin, the tears of a broken sorrow guilty boy. "I cut too deep…" He frowned.
"Nero? His mom repeated as she approached the door. "Hey sweetie are you ok?" She asked, as the blood made its way down it fell into the cracks of the tiles and flowed out into the other side of the door.
"OH MY GOD!" She screamed as she opened the door, she had clearly saw the blood flowing out. She looked and had taken in the worst image of her life, the only child she would have in this world with deep red blood flowing out of his veins.
"NO NERO BABY I'M HERE DON'T DIE PLEASE DON'T DIE!" She begged her son but though she knew he had no control over the life he gave up on now. She held him and pulled out her phone from her pocket and quickly dialed it as Nero began to black out.
When Nero woke up, he found his mom crying as people in white pushed him through a hallway. He blinked and he then saw a machine, another blink, he was being worked on. In specific, they were working on his left arm.
"It's just a small cut." He mumbled but no one heard him due to it being not loud enough for someone to hear.
"What does he have?" A doctor with brown hair and blue eyes asked as he walked in putting on a surgical mask. He was fairly handsome and about in his mid-twenties, he would seem to be an assistant but he had been called Doctor so that must mean he was a certified dr.
"Rapid blood loss, his artery has been severed, and many more deep gashes but all the others on his body aren't near any arteries but all are self-inflicted wounds." A raven haired nurse said giving the doctor a silver tube.
"Who brought him here?" He asked as he began to push the tube into Nero's right arm with a needle tip and hooked it up to the little water and blood bag near him. He didn't really have any strength, his vision fading.
The nurse to the left of the brown haired doctor looked down into Nero's eyes and held his cheeks. "You'll be ok!" She said.
"Joyce, who brought him?"
"Catherina, his mother." She responded hastily.
"Catharina has a son?"An assistant asked, he was more like his twenties.
"Yeah, God, Nero bud hang on! Don't close your eyes, not even for a single second please!" She yelled.
Nero looked up with a groggy expression, he was about to puke due to the lack of blood and the feel of his stomach needing food. He starved himself too, it made matters worse.
"Damn he severed two arteries! How is he even alive!?" Asked the assistant.
"A miracle that's how, just here! Hold his Artery tight and Greta get a transfer tube and put it in his artery and attach it into his other. We need to the blood to flow through." Doctor brown hair said.
"Doc." Nero whispered in his daze and pained voice.
"It's Gavin," The brown haired doctor responded. "I'm a friend of your mom's." Gavin said.
"Oh…" Nero said as his eyes began to glaze. He coughed and frowned. "Tell her I'm sorry, take care of her for me please." Nero said.
"NO YOU'RE NOT SAYING YOUR GOODBYES!" Shouted Gavin as he began to shove a tube into Nero's second artery. "You're going to need to fight." Gavin said.
Again Nero's vision began to fade to black and once more he was plunged into darkness. After he shut his eyes, he felt his senses go away. But after sometime he heard something, it felt like he had always heard it, this strange beep, beep, beep sound. It was a heart monitor, the beep of it was so common that it was a dead giveaway.
"Sorry son, I don't know if you heard all of that but I meant it all. Every word." Nero heard his mother's beautiful voice mixed with sobs. "I wish you told me sweetie. I just, God forgive me." She began to cry and squeeze Nero's hand, he didn't even know she was holding it. Then again his eyes were still closed shut.
"I saw the signs but thought I was being paranoid," She continued, "You aren't to blame though Nero, I am. I've spent most of my time at work and school that I thought mostly of that, because I needed to… no grades, my job, nothing matters. If I ever lost you I would cry till I came with you. I love you baby so much, you're my only son in this world and I can't bear the thought…" She stopped and cried on his chest. "I can't bear the thought of ever losing you my love."
Nero felt his eyes water but he couldn't let the tears out, he wasn't too macho or anything, his eyes were shut tight. But finally he opened his eyes only to see his mother's tear-filled eyes looking at him.
"Mom…" He weakly spoke and felt his hand get gripped tighter. "Mom stop please don't blame yourself. This isn't your fault. It's mine," He coughed a little as he was still weak, "I just was so sad that I ruined your life. I love you, I'm so sorry." He said. "You gave it your all. You smile all the time but I can hear you sometimes... crying in your room, it's my fault."
Nero awoke sweating and shaking from that memory. He felt the feeling of death, the angel wrapping its arms around him and lifting his soul out of his body. He never wanted to feel that ever again, he didn't like the thought of dying after the brush he had with the angel. He had developed a phobia of dying, the fear of losing the chance to be with his mom again. It terrified the young boy.
With heavy but quiet breathes he said, "God, I hate that feeling so much." Nero looked about and saw from the window that the sun was going down forming dusk. With a sigh and wiping some of the sweat off his forehead, he got up and walked to the door. He opened it… and he quickly jumped back as a boy ran past by with an incredible amount of speed. He was stunned and nearly fell back.
"Oh sorry new guy! I didn't know you were even awake, I came to get you for dinner since the bell rang like ten minutes ago." The boy said, he had a childish smile with beautiful brown, and green eyes. No one eye was brown and the other was green that was amazing.
"Oh yeah, uh I yeah… well I'm awake so let's go?" He said.
"Gladly! I'm starving." The little boy said as he walked with his hands behind his head and looked up.
Nero followed the boy making twists and learning the land marks so that he could get to the pavilion later if he didn't have someone to take him like the small child before him. He was in thought, everything was so simple and plain, his brain was stuck on his nightmare. One of many things he had suffered.
"Hey uh what's your name?" Nero asked.
The boy kept walking but answered. "Kris. With a K." He probably was smiling, "Like the guy from Frozen, uh Kristoff." He laughed.
"Heh, cool, nice to meet you I'm N-"
"I know who you are man! You're the crazy dude who smack that drunk in the face, classic might I add. Oh did you know that you aren't the first one to do that? Well never mind I think a titan punched him once." Kris said quickly, this kid walking in front of Nero could talk a mountain to sleep. Kris explain how he was the son of Hermes and how his half-brother saved the world with this guy name Percy. Nero began to fall asleep himself as he was walking which would have had a bad result.
"Oh we're here, catch ya later new guy! Sorry we couldn't take you in like our cabin use to do, but you know that we are kinda over booked. Later!" He said and with that he sped off to his seat and sat with his siblings.
Nero sighed and looked for a seat to sit in and he saw the hunters. Since he only knew them and no one else he decided to sit with them and see if it will be ok. As he began to walk, a person got up from their bench seat and bumped into Nero causing the both to fall.
The place went silent. All Nero heard was a heavy breath and bits of campers saying stuff like "he has the worst luck," and other junk.
"Sorry man," Nero said rubbing his head and getting up, he extended his hand to the guy and asked if he was ok.
"What did you call me?" A gruff feminine voice came from the figure who slowly got up. Nero didn't realize but some spaghetti flew onto the guy's head.
"What did you call ME?" The person asked again.
"Man?" Nero asked. "Should I have said dude?" A couple of chuckles came from the beautiful girls sitting with some handsome boys.
"I'm no man." The person turned to the girls who still were in front of the both of them, the giggling instantly stopped.
"Oh crap don't tell me," Nero said. "Look I'm sorry I didn't know I am so used to bumping into heavy set guys like yourself…" He stopped and bit his lip. "I mean gals."
She turned around with a fist and swung at Nero's head, but missed as Nero had dodged by ducking down. He went back up and asked for her to stop but instead a second fist came and hit him right in the stomach and it sent him staggering back into a group of kids.
"NEVER SAY I AM A MAN! I AM A DAUGHTER OF ARES!" She roared.
Nero regained his balance and looked up and tried to say he was sorry but the air had been hit out of him.
She quickly grabbed Nero by the wrist as he had tried to reach for her to stop and flipped him to the ground only to pick him right back up again and threw him over the table and made him hit his back.
Nero coughed and rolled over to stand up but once he did so she had already jumped over the table.
"Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight." The chanting began from all the campers who were previously silent.
"Fine…" Nero demonically whispered with a huge grin, he lost control to the inner self who would come when he gets mad or when he would get into fights. He called that person, the other him… Jack.
He stood straight up with his hair starting to spike up from a surging power, it seemed as if it would be a scene for an anime, he had his red eyes looking up along with his head and a huge grin with a k-9 showing. He then turned to face the daughter of Ares with his devilish eye. Instantly the girl stopped walking towards him.
"So you're the one who wants the die?" His voice was hollow, not filled with any mercy.
"What?" She asked. The silence once again filled the air as the evil presence of Jack. "Who are you?" She demanded.
"The one who is going to kill you for striking me you pathetic human." Nero said.
"What?" She asked.
Quick as a bolt Nero appeared in front of her with a devilish grin, "Boo." He whispered making the girl scream, she was barley his height so she had to look up into his eyes. He looked like a demon.
"AH!" She shrieked.
"Hahaha, you think you can hit me again?" Nero asked only to see her eyes go wide.
She swung but hit air, he had backed up so fast.
"Enough!" Chiron's voice yelled, Nero just looked back at him with a blank uncaring stare, Chiron looked at him and just frowned. "Nero enough." He calmly said.
With one deep breath and exhale he turned to the girl.
"Sorry about that, sometimes when I feel threatened I just lose control and get a little defensive." Nero said with an apologetic and sad tone making the girl before him blush. "I didn't mean to... I just sorry." He said making all the girl's squeal in a cute way.
"I, it's... it's my fault, I have an anger issues." She said calmly. "I am so sorry."
"Well now, let's eat now that your little bickering is done." Said the Centaur.
Nero made his way to the hunters but instead of sitting with them he had just walked on past them. He sat down at an empty table. He didn't think they would want him near them and just sitting a table away from them is bad enough.
He began to eat after the plate and cup were place and he just simply said Wonton soup. He ate in silence, only thinking of his godly parent, he wanted to sock his father in the face. He left his mother, he left him...
Nero looked around and watched some kids and then looked at the hunter's table. He saw that a girl was beginning to glow faintly, she seemed to be more beautiful than what she previously looked like. It was incredible.
Nero thought about what a claim would look like, and his wish was answered. Well it wasn't a wish it was more like a want of sorts.
"Oh my gods, Ruby! You're, you're claimed!" A girl from the hunter's table said.
Nero looked at the hunter who was now glowing and saw that above her head a glowing pink dove, a neon looking dove was floating over her. Nero's eyes grew wide and he stood up along with everyone else.
Ruby looked beautiful before, but after this whatever it is happened to her she looked like an angel, she was so beautiful, her hair had straightened and it just looked so amazing. A purple dress wrapped around her body while a lace type of material on her torso.
"Is that... what happens to us all?" Thought Nero, he hope that didn't happen to him if he was claimed. He really didn't like the idea of being dolled up by some fashion god, if he was the son of one, then again he must be the son of one crazy powerful fashion god.
"You're so…" Someone began to say something, most likely a compliment on how beautiful she is.
"All hail Ruby, daughter of Aphrodite." Said Chiron.
Nero looked around, with a crazy start they began to clap for her, cheers of joy and laughter carried on but not on Ruby's face. She just stared blankly and mouthed.
"No."
Nero just looked at her in awe. She was claimed, her mother acknowledge her existence yet who ever this powerful god he is the son of, he has not even bothered to claim him. Nero's mouth began to twitch and his eyes began to water, all this time. These many years he had been wanting to meet his broke ass father yet he just so happens to be a god who doesn't have a damn time to be with his child. If he had more kids then Nero's beautiful mother was just another pretty face that god had his way with.
Hate… burning hatred consumed him, a volcano in his bother that seemed to boil and bubble up in his stomach. Ignored all his life by a father that he longed to have, his mother was put so much pressure on her life yet she forced a smile when she saw Nero. He was guilty, it was his fault he was alive and making his mother miserable, that is why he tried to cut his life short, he didn't want to but he felt responsible. This claim only added more to the pain of his depression and hate as he thought about all this.
"My… mom is Aphrodite?" The girl named ruby asked. "No… I wanted to be Athena's." She said.
Nero just sat back down with an angry expression on his face. His anger towards the girl, towards the world. The unfair world that was made by a cruel God. He ate his soup as the camper all went to the girl and congratulated her on being claimed, some even hitting on her which caused the hunters to nearly break their arms.
Claimed… the word was so sad. To claim is to just notice and possess an object, the children were just objects. Or they were making a claim that they have a child and taken responsibility to it. It just was depressing to wait so long for something you know may never come.
The way Ruby showed her shock was heartbreaking, to know she wanted a mother this whole time. But now that she was claimed by her she had only felt resent and anger towards her as she had only cared about was getting to know her mother and having a personal connection with her.
"Alright guys time for music." Said Chiron who stood up and walked with kids.
"Yo Chiron sir, can I play my new song." A short blonde haired boy with stunning purple eyes looked at the man with a horse butt.
"Why not, but I swear if it's another Justin Beiber song I will clomp you." Responded the horse.
"Never mind go to the stadium." Chiron then turned to Nero. "Boy, how are you? Hope you got a good rest." Chiron smiled politely.
"Yeah, but I just wish you didn't have to make me go to the stupid cabin for the whole time." Nero said.
"Well you did punch," Chiron was cut off.
"That drunk freak?" He asked.
"Yeah." Chiron said. "I did it to save you. If I didn't then he would have to do something. Then he would have just used the opportunity to kill you." He explained.
A groan from Nero was audible.
"So what does Mr. D stand for? Douche or what?" Nero asked.
"No but I do think that is a fitting name." Laughed Chiron.
"Huh." Chuckled Nero absent mindedly.
"Well, let's go Nero. I think you wouldn't want to miss this." Chiron said.
