Chapter 24: The abyss and my father's sword

Jacob's POV

It was the beginning of college. I walked my way around the campus, avoiding anyone who cocked their head and said, "Is that Jacob Stoll?"

I had enough of people giving me sympathy, I didn't need it, it just reminded me about them.

I stumbled in the class room and took a seat next to some unsuspecting girl. I just hoped she wasn't a Jersey Shore girl who talked to anyone when bored.

She seemed zoned out so I didn't really care, well intill I felt her eyes on me. I turned to her. I could tell that her hair was dyed black and she was wearing hipster classes. Her clothes were vintage and stuff. Yea, she was a hipster.

"Hi." I said.

"When did you get here?" She asked. Her eyes were droopy and she did her eyeliner in a weird way.

"A few minutes ago." I answered.

"You're mainstream." She noted.

"How am I mainstream?" I asked. She had a look on her face like she smelled something that wasn't too pleasant.

"Cause, you're like a minor celebrity." She stated. I ran my hand through my hair. I had a feeling she didn't like me that much.

"Well, I didn't choose to become a minor celebrity." I stated. She stared at me for a long time.

"Don't tell my other friends, but you're alright, for a mainstream person." She mumbled. I shifted a little bit. "By the way, names Lara, Lara Croft."

"You mean like Tomb Raider?"

"Yea, but don't ever call me that, just call me by my nickname, Bread. My parents are big fans of Tomb Raider, so they gave me that horrible name. All my friends make fun of it, they go like 'Oh my god Bread, your birth name is so mainstream!' And then I punch them in the gut for making fun of it and tell them to jump off a bridge."

"Why are you called Bread?" I asked, ignoring the fact that she tells her friends to commit suicide.

"Cause, I really like bread." She said. "I mean I can eat a loaf a day if I wanted to."

"Can I just call you Croft?" She stared off for a moment.

"Sure, I guess. Oh yea, we're not friends." She said.

"Ok." I said. I wasn't actually looking to be friends with her.

"But…" She handed me a slip of paper. "If you want to escape your stupid mainstream life for a moment, you can call me. Cause I hate to admit it, for a mainstream guy, your pretty down to earth, and…" She gagged. "Cute."

Was I just called cute? I took the slip of paper and put it in my pocket. "I'll keep that in mind." I answered. She muttered something that I didn't quite hear, but I think it was, 'you better call me, or I'll push you off a bridge.'

Then class started.

Hailey's POV

I left the house to explore even more. But I tried not to venture too far from home cause here you could be easily lost.

I felt like the weight off my shoulders came off ever since I died. I felt like a little girl again, but all that was missing my Jacob and Rosie, who would usually be dragged to go with me.

I smile as I remember one of our trips around the forests around our house, it was the day before me and Jacob went to camp, our first time at camp.

Jacob brought a frog home after that but mom told him to put it back where it belonged, out in the woods. Jacob liked frogs, but he never actually wanted to have one as a pet. I remembered when we were little kids, before Rosie was born, Jacob found a frog and gave it to dad, then dad put it on mom's head. She freaked out but then dad did his thing where he carried her upstairs against her own will and made-out with her.

For some reason, that made everything better and dad wouldn't end up with another bruise. I remember after they're hot make-out sessions, she would say, "I hate you."

And then he'd say. "No you don't."

And then she'd reply. "Damn it, you're right, I don't." Oh the old times. I walked pass the tree I swung on and found dad. I looked back. I wasn't too far, I guess one more mile and I'll be fine.

Off in the distance I hear crying. It sounds like many babies are crying. I search around. Where was that noise coming from? I searched around, I knew my way home, but then I came to a large hole, and in that large hole, millions of babies were there.

"I see you found this place." I looked down and I saw a young woman dressed in traditional Greek clothing, just as myself. She was beautiful, wavy blonde hair, fair skin; beautiful blue eyes clear like a sky. And she looked like she was the same age as me. She was holding a small baby. Usually, when babies were crying, people would be miserable, but not her, she was smiling.

"What is this place?" I asked, sitting on the edge. She sighed.

"This is the Abyss of Fertility. Babies who die come here. To survive in Elysium, they must grow up, so I nurture them intil they are old enough to leave and find people. But sadly, most die due to abortion, so they have no one, so they go out to families who want them." She paused to give a baby a bottle of milk. "And I am their care taker."

"What's your name?" I asked. She smiled.

"I have many names. But sadly, I have disappeared from history. But I don't mind. I am Maeja. My name means literally, mother. But some call me Alesia, which means aid, or Amaltheia, which means to soothe." She put the baby down and picked up another one and blew bubbles on its tummy, which made it laugh hysterically.

And it made me laugh. "But why are you down here?" I asked. She sighed once again.

"I was alive many years ago, like a lot. I had a husband and we were expecting a baby, our first one. Her eyes were far away and misty. "But when I was giving birth, I died but the baby survived. But then Hera told me that I had a duty in Elysium to take care of the babies. And this was a great honor, so I accepted, so this is where I am now." She looked down. "But when it was my husband's time to leave the earth, I have learnt that he had remarried. I was so excited to be with him once again, but he remarried and sold our child into slavery." She wiped away the tears.

"So I stayed here." She said after all the tears were gone. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch you name." I smiled.

"My name is Hailey Stoll. My first name means hay field in old English, I'm not sure what Stoll means though." I answered. "All though my dad named me after the hail that was falling on the day I was born. Not after a field of hay. I died a few months ago as the host of Gaea, everyone at camp thinks I'm the traitor except for my brother and sister. I am not a half-blood; I am a tri-blood, the blood of Hermes and Demeter. I died due to the guy I loved stabbing me after he kissed me." I took a shaky breath. "I live with my father, who died before me just for being my father and making me, but I don't get why they didn't kill my mother."

She nodded like she knew what I was talking about. "And I died in this dress. And I don't know why I was put here, the gods despise me."

She turned her back to me to put down a baby. "Well, I guess one of them loves you." She said softly.

I looked around, it was getting late. I stood up. "I got to go now." I said. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye." I walked away and back to the house. The only reason I knew that was because I was on the internet and due to my ADHD; I went on Google and searched up what my name was. And then I found out it was unflattering. But I knew I was named cause of hail so that kept me happy and not yelling at my dad for naming me 'field of hay.'

Rosie's POV

I have a sword in my hand, but it's not mine, its dad's. My grandfather came by and said to give it to Jacob, since he is the oldest son and only son. I was about to yell, 'SEXIST!' but like he read my mind, he said it was tradition.

I walked up to his apartment building. It was raining outside and I was soaking wet. I wore the hood part of my green hoodie, but still was making me soaked. Good thing my converse were magical converse, or else they'd soak through to my socks.

My blonde bangs hang in front of my face irritating me. I think about changing in the locker room. All the girls were looking at my scars. I cringe at that. All their stares were scary and they were about to open their mouths to ask why, but I changed fast and ran.

I stood at the door and rang the doorbell and waited. The door opened and a short man with blonde hair answered the door. "WE DON'T WANT YOUR COOKIES! GO AWAY!" He shouted but then he saw me. "Oh, it's you, come in."

I walked in and Caleb yelled for Jacob. Jacob came out with a smear of paint on his face.

"WHAT?" He yelled. Apparently Caleb and Jacob yelled at each other for getting each other's attention. "Oh hey sis." I put the sword down.

"That's for you." I muttered.

"Why are you all wet?" He asked. I sighed.

"The rain Jake, the rain."

"You're gonna catch a cold and then mom will kill me."

"I'll just say I wanted to play in the rain." His eyes locked on the sword that was wrapped up.

"What's that?" He asked.

"It's his." I said. "Bye." And then I left back for home. I needed to change out of these wet clothes.

Jacob's POV

I picked up the package that she threw on the floor. Rosie was becoming an angsty teenager; I guess it runs in the family or what happened to us.

I sat on the couch and started unwrapping it. I picked it up; I didn't recognize it at first. But then I saw what it was.

I held it up and admired it. It was my fathers. "Why are you waving around a drum stick?" Caleb asked. (A/n: and no, I don't mean chicken drum stick, I mean actual drum stick.)

"It's not a drum stick!" But then I remembered that he couldn't see that it was a sword. "You can't see the though the mist, but what I'm holding is a sword."

"Oooh, just like your paint brush is a sword."

"Yes." But I was confused, why do I have this? But then I realize that there was a post-it note that came with it..

Dear Jacob,

Since you are the eldest and only son to Travis Stoll, you get his sword as a memory of your father.

Your grandfather,

Hermes

I balled up the note and threw it in the trash. Caleb gasped. "Jacob Stoll not saving a post-it note? Where did you put the real Jacob?"

"I just didn't want to keep it." I protested.

"Why?" I sighed.

"It's complicated." I stated standing up.

Caleb got his theatrical voice on. "Oh the tragic life of Jacob Stoll!"

"You're just asking for a tomato at the face." I growled. He put his hands up.

"Ok, ok, I give up, just don't kill me."

"With a tomato?"

"Either, way, just don't kill me."

"Ok, fine." Then I turned all serious. "I'll spare you for now."

"Dude, you are seriously scaring me." He said. I laughed.

"Good, so it's working." I walked back into my room and set the sword down. I kept working on the painting I was working on, but I occasionally looked at the sword.

It was his sword, the sword that he let me swing around when I was a kid and before I had a sword of my own.

I remembered swing it around and almost cutting off my leg. Haha oh the good times. Mom would get mad at dad for letting me swing around his sword even since that incident, but his explanation was that it would train me for real life. But then mom gave him 'the glare' but then he fought back by giving her a surprise kiss.

And after that, mom didn't mind. I kept staring at it. I just wanted to go back to the old times when life was brighter than this. When everything was alright and when everyone was alive.

Then I remembered I had to start cooking for dinner, cause in my circle of friends, no one knew how to cook. The only thing Caleb knew how to make was a sandwich.

And his sandwiches weren't even that good. Just don't tell him that.

Thanks for reading; I had to do a lot of research on this one. And the Abyss of Fertility is made up, so is Maeja. I had to go through a list of Greek names and meanings and picked out that. And then I got carried away and did all the main characters names and what they meant. And that's when I found out that Hailey meant 'Hay field.' If you want to know what the rest of the characters names mean than you can ask I guess. Ok then, PEACE!