When Alessia got home, Gabe was there, sitting at the table, smoking and playing poker. "Girl," he sneered. "Skipping school? I should call the cops on you."
Alessia rolled her eyes. Gabe had enough illegal items at the apartment that if the cops came, they'd arrest him instead of her anyway, and they both knew that. "I got expelled. Is my mom home?"
"No, she's working, like you should be. Gentlemen's Club down on eighth opening up, maybe you should go there." He laughed, and a couple of the other guys around the table, who were well aware she was underage, laughed awkwardly. Alessia just scoffed and brushed past him. This infuriated him, and he grabbed her wrist hard enough that she knew, without a doubt, it'd be leaving bruises. "Don't ignore me, girl! When you're under my roof, you will respect me!"
Alessia winced, and her headache came back in full force. Gabe continued. "Give me your money. You took a Greyhound, no doubt. You smell like cigarettes and piss." 'Pretty sure you're just smelling yourself.' She thought.
"I don't have any change," she replied.
Gabe looked at her, narrowing his eyes. "Don't lie to me. I need a buy-in for the next round, and since you're living off of me, I expect you to chip in." Gabe made minimum wage at some convenience store. Her mom, on the other hand, worked two jobs - a diner in the morning, and a candy store in the afternoon. And she was the one paying for everything while Gabe wasted his wages away on drinking and gambling.
She scoffed and ripped her wrist free of his grasp, and threw her fifteen bucks of change into his lap. "I hope you lose." She said, retreating to her room and slamming the door. She breathed comfortably as she got inside, immediately opening her small window and plopping down on her bed. She drifted off to sleep.
A couple hours later, Alessia woke up to a knock on her door. A quick glance out the window showed that it was probably mid-evening. She groaned as she sat up, popping joints like they were bubble wrap. "Hello?" She called out. Her door slowly opened, revealing the tired, but smiling face of her mom. "Mom!" Alessia smiled.
"Hey there, sleepy head," Her mom replied softly. "How are you feeling?"
"Better, now that I can see you," Alessia responded, entirely honest. Her mom's face brightened a bit, and Alessia was glad that she could at least lighten up her day.
Lillian Mason was a young woman, only 36, but life hadn't exactly been kind to her. Her parents had died in a plane crash when she was young, and then she had been sent to her aunt's house until she was 18. She had gone off to college, but came back to care for her aunt when she fell ill. Then, once she died, Lillian was left with no savings, no degree, and no family.
That was when she had met Alessia's father.
"I heard that you were expelled..." Alessia was surprised at the change of topic. Usually they toed around it for a few days. "Don't worry, I'm not mad. I know whatever you did, you did it for the right reasons."
Alessia smiled a half-smile. "Fighting injustice and idiots wherever I go." The two looked at each other for a moment, and then cracked up.
"So..." Lillian started when they were done laughing, "I've been thinking... And I think we should take a trip down to the beach. Just the two of us."
"Montauk?" Alessia nearly gasped in delight when her mother nodded. "Why?"
Lillian smiled, now a bit sad. "I've missed you, and I wanted to hear about your year." She leaned forwards conspiratorially. "And, Gabe is being more annoying than usual." They started laughing again, a bit quieter this time. "I've already got permission from both works, all I need is for you to say yes."
"Won't Gabe be upset?" Her concerns were waved off.
"I made him his casserole and cookies, enough to get him to not care too much."
Alessia frowned. "He doesn't deserve to eat your cookies. They're too good for him." Her mother blushed in appreciation and giggled.
"I'm sure you can steal some as we go. He's asleep on the couch."
Alessia's eyes widened as she realized the implication. "We're leaving tonight?" She squeaked.
"As soon as you're ready to go," came the affirmation. A dangerous twinkle entered Alessia's eyes as she grabbed her backpack.
"Let's go."
By the time they got to the cabin in Montauk, it was dark, and clouds covered the moon. Alessia hopped out of the car before her mom had even stopped completely, and ran towards the water. The breeze smelled better than any rainy day in New York ever could.
They unpacked quickly, and before long, were sat on the beach. "There's something troubling you, Ali," her mother spoke, using her childhood nickname for her. She was still looking out on the water, a light fog rolling over it.
"I never could fool you," Alessia smiled bittersweetly. "Yeah, something... weird happened at school." All of the sudden, she remembered - her phone! She had never plugged it in.
"Weird... how?" Her mother turned to her and grinned. "Is it a boy?" Alessia blushed, and her mother squealed, but Alessia quickly shushed her.
"Not like how you're thinking, mom!" She facepalmed, dragging her hand down her face. Honestly, you even mention the mere idea of grandchildren-. "Have... Have you ever heard of the Greek God Perseus?"
Her mother spat out the Coke that she was drinking. 'Oh, that's never a good sign.' Alessia thought. Her mom took a moment to recover. "Yes... Yes I have." She spoke slowly. By this point, Alessia was now getting invested in the conversation, leaning against the arm rails of her faded beach chair. All of the sudden, like a switch flipped, her mom changed the topic. "Did you know that I met your father on this beach?"
Stunned by the change in topic, Alessia all but forgot about Percy, or Perseus, or whatever his name was. This was so much more important. "I... didn't. What?"
"Oh, indeed!" Her mother smiled, reminiscing. "It was just after Aunt Helena died. I had come here to cope, get my mind off of things, and then... I saw him. He was surfing..." For the next half hour, Lillian told her daughter everything she could remember about the week she had met the man she considered to be the love of her life. Up until she saw the girl yawn. "Looks like you're getting tired. Why don't you grab the chair and head inside. Storm's about to come in, wouldn't want anything to get soaked!" They laughed together, and headed inside.
Alessia's dreams were full of turmoil, as per usual. Women erupting into swarms of bats, but then... It was dark. This... this was not a normal dream. She looked around, attempting to see anything. She looked down, and saw her hands and her body. Definitely not a normal dream. Something compelled her to walk, so she started moving forward.
Eventually, she realized that she was following a path, and the world around her slowly became washed in a purple light. She stopped walking. Before her was a massive hole. She found a rather large rock at the end of the pathway, and chucked it in. Waiting for a minute... she never heard it hit the bottom. She shivered, suddenly cold. A voice boomed out, but only a single word... "Soon..."
Alessia bolted up, covered in sweat. Her eyes were wide as she breathed heavily. That... Hadn't felt like a dream. It had almost felt... real. But that was stupid, right? Right...? The way her life had been going the past few days, she wouldn't have been surprised if she was about to become a psychic or something.
She then focused. Voices... from inside the house. She opened the door slowly. One of them was definitely her mother's, and the other was definitely a male's. She held her breath. Had Gabe come to take them back home? To ruin the only time she had spent with her mother in months? She crept around the corner, only to find that it wasn't the back of her stepfather's ugly, balding head, but rather...
Raven-black hair.
I'm not going to lie. For some reason, I had... a lot of difficulty writing this chapter. I worked on it for three separate days, finally getting up the courage to just knock it out finally tonight. I hope you enjoyed it, it had a lot of work and rewriting put into it.
Sorry for the delayed update,
PJO Fan Power.