Chapter 21- Dionysus: Lies Are To Protect and Destruct

Dionysus's P.O.V.

"Tag!" I panted as I caught my friend, Castor (Or was it Pollux?), who was participating in our game of chase and run. I sprinted away from him and stealthily managed to avoid his deadly point finger from touching me until he decided to drift his attention to other players.

Classes have ended and I was just spending my free time waiting for my Mom, playing. The usual schedule was during Hera's lunch break which was around 12 to 1 PM, she will go out of her office and fetch me from school. Afterwards, she will drive me home and then leave again to continue her shift. Half-Blood Campus, my Elementary school, was near to my Mom's workplace. And the house wasn't too far from here. The time length was approximately twenty minutes from the campus up to our home.

Dismissal time was eleven sharp which always leaves me hour duration of bonding with my classmates. Well, playmates who weren't fetched yet by their parent or nanny. It always gets sad whenever one of our comrades in battle had to lessen our numbers. Speaking of, I saw Dakota waved goodbye reluctantly at us and left the playground's premises. Nevertheless, the rowdy children resumed their exhausting racing.

Gwen was the hunter now and we are her preys. Since she's a girl, her legs were quite slower than the boys. A reason why she was easily targeted by Castor (Or maybe again, Pollux, but they look so much alike so never mind who it was) and quickly tapped by his 'tagging' finger. Gwendolyn here, knowing her weakness averted her strategy of heaving for the girls instead of the boys. Wise choice, I repeat, wise choice.

She flailed swatting for her new victims, and eventually stumbled. I almost chuckled observing her but as I took my next step, a rock obstructed my toe and I was the unlucky boy who tripped. Everyone laughed at me and I shrugged it off, chortling as well. Gwen witnessed my idiocy and stared at me long and hard. I am aware she was debating over her mind whether should I be her succeeding objective or not. Since I am also smart like her, I admit I am in a disadvantage. That's when I raised both of my hands and shouted: "Time first!"

Carefully, I sat at the grass, checking out my body for wounds. My legs were covered in grass and dust but I shoved it aside and stood. I limply staggered for the swings, the impact of my knee to the ground was giving me soreness. Apparently, my fall was hurtful than what I expected. Adjacent to

the swing I was seating at, was Rachel Elizabeth Ramirez-Arellano. Also sitting but not swinging. She was drawing in her coloring book.

"Are you playing too?" I asked but I realized that was a stupid question which she responded sporadically.

"What do you think I'm doing?" She countered, drifting her red head from her sketch pad to me.

"Drawing."

"Am I playing?"

"No."

Rachel returned to her sketching. I just stared at her dumbfounded. Her fingers tightened their grip over her Faber Castel No. 2 pencil, she drew strokes and lines over the blank sheet of paper. Even when we're together inside one classroom for a few hours, Rachel and I never acquainted. She was that lonely girl at the corner of the room, her attention avid at her paper. She never joined much in games obviously and always remained desolate from us.

The kids who were playing started to lessen drastically. The group of 12 who began the game was now reduced to three. They lie down on the Bermuda spikes, panting and giggling. The twins, Castor and Pollux, that I am sure of and Hylla who I remembered was Rachel's adopted sister. They were fetched together by their nanny. Hylla and Rachel's mother was actually officemates with my Mom. We only discovered this last Parents' Day, when Mom suddenly waved at one of the parents and discoursed afterwards. She mentioned that Reyna, Mother of Hylla and Rachel, was a great friend and co-worker of her.

"I'm sorry." Rachel blurted out. I swiveled my sight towards her frame, wanting to ask again what she had just said. Her face remained bowed, gaze directly at her art. But I got the feeling that her mind was far from appreciating her drafts.

"Sorry for being rude to me? That's okay. I'm kind of used to it." I said. Though maybe suspicions will arise, I had told her the wrong thing in reality. I'm not totally used for people acting horrendously to me but I'm used of Rachel, being the girl she is –unapproachable.

"I mean-"

"I'm sorry because I'm going to say something really bad." Oh, so she wasn't apologizing for her behavior. Why do I have the urge to sputter a 'sorry' speech for my 'sorry' attitude?

"What is it?" I asked, prepared for any insult to be slapped upon my face. Or maybe she'd mutter some dirty, nasty words that casually slips off Ares's vocabulary? The words that make my mom lid my ears with her palms so I couldn't learn the bad language. Albeit I've heard it a few times, not just from Ares but from my other siblings as well.

"Your Dad is cheating on your Mom."

Ah, pardon?

I couldn't quite hear you.

"Are you joking? 'Cause I think I just might laugh from that." I nervously stated. My mouth forming a weird fake-up smiles that I wish were true. Rachel can certainly create a nice, unordinary joke! Who knows? She and I might be friends for the conceding days.

"That's just impossible! My Dad will never cheat on my Mom." Haughtily, it escaped from my lips when Rachel didn't damn me an explanation. I crossed my arms and looked at the dirt where I tripped. I don't want to see Rachel at my peripheral vision but I hear the cranking of chains as she gently tips the swing forward and backward.

Rachel is lying. She doesn't know anything about mom and dad. She doesn't know how Zeus treated Hera as if she was the Queen of the universe. My Father loses his cool whenever he's around Mother. They've been together for two decades and still counting. They have seven offspring in our little home. Mommy is Snow White, Daddy is Prince Charming and my siblings and I are the seven dwarves. Rachel is lying. She doesn't even know anything about me. We're not close. We're only classmates sharing the room. This is the first time we've talked. We're not playmates, we're not even friends!

…Only Reyna and Hera are.

"How can you say that?" I croaked up. How can a girl spread a lie so vicious and scary? Why is she doing this? The crinkling sounds of the metal swing repeats.

"Mama and I saw your dad kissing another woman. I remember your parents' faces during Parents Day. She wasn't the woman who's kissing your Father. It was a different one. Mama said she should-"

"Shut up. Just stop." I begged because I couldn't take all the lies and trash this girl was saying. I begged because there's no way I will accept what she had just done. I stood from the swing set as soon as a glimpse of Dad's BMW (driven by Mom today) snaps at my eyes.

I walked away from that dreaded play set, not bidding any goodbyes or farewells. Simply exiting the scene. Because Mom emerged from the car, with her sweet, caring eyes, welcoming me.

"Dionysus." The sound of my full name emitted from a liar scorches me. Her voice was so hollow and haunting. The playground's innocent aura degraded into a haunting, ominous atmosphere. And I know, she was producing this.

"I'm sorry." Rachel pardoned. I glanced at her, the portrait of a family which she illustrated were drenched in tears. The beautiful picture was slowly, but surely, shattering. I blinked the oncoming tears away. Because, Rachel's tone of voice was sincere and I know it but I was in denial.

I heaved myself speedily towards Mom's warm embrace.

"I trust that you finished your food whole. No remains?" Hera interrogated as she swerved the car left at an intersection. I let the cool hushes of wind coming from the air conditioner calm my senses. I tried to forgive and forget Rachel's ordeal because maybe she was suffering from some family problems. I was just being caught up in her web. I need to be more understanding and aware of the people surrounding me. The world doesn't revolve on me.

But Rachel, even though reported as lonely and spooky, wasn't described as a prankster or liar. That didn't help in my situation.

"Dion? Are you okay?" Mom queried, cutting off my trail of thoughts and musings. I snapped my head at her, meeting her gaze in the small reflective mirror by her side. Confusion was written all over my features.

"I uh…just…" I struggled for words, what should I speak to the person whom I least desired to incur pain?

An internal war of tug was being conjugated in my brain. The right side hoped to stay silent and quiet, and not to meddle with my parents' affairs. They debated over the law of privacy that I shouldn't eagerly cross. The left side was defending the law of curiosity, that I deserve knowledge about what's happening on our family. They also raised the issue about our other family members hiding something from me.

Oh, my subconscious whispered that it was obliviously obvious that there are some matters they weren't keen on sharing to me. Why are they scared? Was it because I'm young? I would still love them the same even if they admitted mistakes and wrongdoings in the past. I was always in the dark…

And, I was contented with the dark.

But this moment, no more. I don't want to be left out again just like when everyone turned Latin blabber mode and I was listening dumbly, not any stretch of meaning entering my eardrums. I wished I can grow up and leave the expanse of darkness called childhood everyone forced me into.

The tires screeched as we arrived at the house. Mom switched off the engine and unlocked the doors but before she beckoned me to get out of the car, I began unraveling my innocence (ignorance).

"Mom, do you think Dad will leave us and find another wife?"

I thought she didn't hear me. She ditched her seat and went to my door, opening it for me. My feet was only an inch contacting the ground but unexpectedly, she hugged me entirely. Her spring scent in the midst of winter enraptured me. The Snow White had bitten the apple too early. She murmured things in my ear, assurances.

Droplets of hot liquid seared along my skin, tainting myself with my own mother's tears. I immediately regretted what I have done. I shouldn't have…I shouldn't have gave in to curiosity. If the price of it was my Mom's tears, then, I should not have…

My fingers traced soothing circles along Hera's spine, comforting in every way I can. This is my fault, because of my unnecessary thirst for facts I accidentally hurt our Mother. She's the last person I would want to see crying. Her heavy breathing and silent weeping echoed in my hearing. Surely, the saddest melody will be composed from this.

A lump in my throat started burning, my hands clenched at the blouse Mom wore exquisitely and fashionably. And here I am, crumpling it. She retracted and kissed my forehead, holding my hand, leading me out of the frozen car.

I went inside our home, watching by the window as Hera, wiping her tears, pulled the door of the car and drove back to her work. Her final assurance resonated down my consciousness. Filling the empty home I was in with melancholy and abandonment.

"Everything will be alright."

Now, why do I feel like she's lying more than Rachel?

I dreamt I was having a conversation with my Father. I remembered my private discussion with Athena at the kitchen. But in my dream, I was engaging with Zeus not Athena.

He was stirring the Kool-Aid in the icy water as tears one by one, cascaded from his sky lightning eyes. Again, I was lounging at the high-chair which he put me in, silently apprehending his deeds. There was no battle inside my mind, only straight-to-the-point queries that I did not bother to hide.

I've already witnessed my Mother cry. What more do I have to pay just to hear my Father's response?

"Dad," I called. He nodded his head a bit, alerting that he was attentive and listening. Still, his mixing didn't stop. "Will you leave Mom?"

He carried the glass pitcher in his large hands and settled it on top of our woody dining table. He poured the two cups full and gave the other drink to me. I drank and emptied it as soon as possible. My Dad, Zeus, sipped from his juice gradually, like savoring the tangy taste of strawberry.

"I would never leave Hera, Dion." He replied. By the way his index caressed the counter impatiently, my gut reprimanded that he had more to let out. I surveyed him blankly, nonchalantly waiting for his addition to his declaration.

"But you see? She already left me."

My Father's longing and isolated impression disintegrated before me as a harsh banging clouded my auditory perception.

When I woke up from my Toy Story beddings, my eldest sister wasn't beside me anymore. At first, it chilled my tranquility and erupted myself in a hysterical train of 'what ifs'. I shouldn't be a boy who'd jump first head into assumptions. So I shook my groggy face and perfectly hushed my rapid, anxious inquisitions.

Did Athena say she'll stay with me until I woke up?

No.

Did I think Athena will be by my side when I woke up?

Yes.

Did Athena say she'll never leave me?

No.

Did I think she will?

Maybe.

I exhaled and thought of peculiar shenanigans. Then, my dream with Dad resurfaced from the bottom of my shady memories. My ponders resulted on why I jolted awake when I could have let him elaborate himself more. I have so many concerns regarding of the things I do not know. Like, did you truly cheat on Mom? What are you hiding from me? From us? If she already left you, what will happen to us? Your under-aged children?

But I was distracted. I wished that the dream prolonged, I wished that I had more time in that illusionary world where I managed to confront my Dad about these occurrences which I wouldn't be able to tell him in real life. I wished that I could have heard his answer…but I didn't.

I climbed off the double-sized mattress and wore my Mickey Mouse house slippers as I abandoned my bedroom and head downstairs. I checked if the night lights were still on, which luckily wasn't. I crept downstairs, step by step, I'm kind of scared I may slide and tumble again. And that transpired not less than a week ago.

Five steps before the first floor, voices travelled in the atmosphere. Artemis's, Apollo's and Athena's. The twins went home early? I softly subtracted the five steps, turning it into four. My dainty head peered over the wide halls. I could barely see them since the kitchen area was far from the stairs. I can only make out their silhouettes. The twins stood in front of Athena who was postured impeccably at a chair.

"Just saw the car outside, where's Mom?" Asked Apollo. He was about to leave the place and search for her until Athena disallowed him by her statement.

"Don't. I- I think she knows. Hera knows."

A single admission enough to freeze and silenced the trio. Minutes passed before Artemis spoke again, reveling out of her reverie.

"Wha-..How?" She inquired it so light and feathery that I almost didn't catch it.

"Dionysus knows."

And the knowledge lingered on me, that the word 'knows' has a price that will suck at us until we dry.

Short again but everything I needed is there. Sorry for the late upload. I should have posted this last Friday but I was out of town so yeah.

REVIEWS

Now there's this guy named Aphordite as a guest who reviewed in my story posting something about Making America Gay Again. In relation to LGBT etc. I have nothing against them but please make sure next time you're posting it on a right place. Maybe at Facebook or twitter, not at a random story at Fanfiction.

MeridaAtMidnight,

I feel your sentiments with the other characters...I hope you may feel Hermes next time too when I post his chapter. That guy has a lot going on for him. Thank you again for supporting me in my story. It's a big help, your analyzing to the story inspires me a lot. And TQOO, yes, I'll give Heph's chapter soon to you. Lovelots.

To Queenmelvy who reviewed in Ch. 4 (SHE's NEW TO THE STORY LET's WELCOME HER!)

I like irony very much. Thanks for reviewing. I hope you don't stop reading and reach this chapter to see my response.

NEXT ON OBHF:

Chapter 22: Hera

All These Wasted Years

-Miss Incest

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