Pale moonlight fell onto Melanie´s face, causing her eyes to flutter open, and with a groan she tried to roll away, into the shadows… only to roll off her bed, face first into the ground, causing her to grunt in displeasure. Throwing a look at the clock, it read 20:00, 30th October,1990. She was thankful that father did not insist on that whole PM/AM debacle.

"Mom should be arriving soon." A slight utterance, more so to justify to herself why she didn´t get more of the rare, rare sleep she has gotten.

Yes, indeed, she took the definition of a night owl a bit more seriously than others. She had trained herself to be able to function at night, often doing her homework in the literal hours before the school begins, often slouching half asleep through the classes, only to teach herself in the night after.

Having put on her clothes, black tank top and jeans, and added her beloved top-hat with a twirl of her hand, she felt ready to come downstairs. Still, she first had to check if everything was presentable.

They weren't exactly living in a mansion. Dad was not that rich, and while Mom could probably steal the legendary infinite credit card from her dad, that would draw attention. Hades, they could deal with it. The Tax collectors for moving a sum that huge across the pond… not that likely.

But.. she liked the house that they had. Two floors, the upper one nearly to herself while her dad inhabited the ground one. Technically, they were two different pads, only connected by an outdoor staircase. This was part of his training and her reward. She could cook when she wanted, and basically do as she wished as long as she kept in shape, her grades were acceptable and she took care of the place. Sure, it wasn´t the most solid parenting, but both of them knew that the average measures would do little to actually help her.

Now, admittedly, she had some problems with the last one, she had no idea how to clean a bloody sink for example, but she slowly learned the required skills for her to keep her own little sanctuary clean, though dad helped out and taught her a lot.

The one thing they never agreed on was what constituted clean and ordered, but that was merely because he didn´t understand her brand of chaotic order. They had a gentleman's agreement that if it didn't bite her in the arse, he would not complain. If it did, he could be smug as much as he liked.

With that thought, Melanie nearly jumped down the staircase and stepped onto the lower floor. And was promptly tackled from behind. Luckily, they had carpeted the floor, so she didn't break her nose when she fell face forward into it.

"Hi, Mom."

"Hi, Daughter."

She was promptly let go as her mother grinned eye to eye. "So, today is the big day! The first time I am gonna take you with me to spook around. I found that house that some paranormal investigation show wants to investigate and they are always so fun! Their screams are just the right mix between scared kittens and bulls that lost their manhood! Are you still up for some time with dear old mom ?" The ghost queen nudged her daughter with an arm.

This was, perhaps, the oddest thing about their family. The godly parent was not an absentee father and or mother…. Greek were weird like that. It was admittedly abusing a loophole. See, King thunder thighs had that little decree that Gods were not to play favourites.. after he was banned from having children. The horse lord may be the lord of the ocean, but thunder thighs is certainly the master of being salty. Regardless, Mom argued, to herself, that she is just repaying Melanie for the happiness she brought in her life… Yeah, literally not one member of their family had much faith in that argument. So, they keep it on the down low. It was their precious little secret quality time.

"Well, Mother dearest." Melanie spoke with a poor man´s mimicry of a posh voice. "Certainly I would like to spend some- Yeah, no" She broke up, sharing a snicker with her mom. "Can´t keep that voice up." She returned to her cockney accent. "Sure, you know I love to hang out with you, though, I have a different idea~" A Cheshire grin grew on her lips.

"Some folks in my school want to investigate some 7 mysteries of my school. Most of which happen at night. While a TV crew is nice, you do always say that the screams of little ones are the most delicious to hear." Well, that sounded more twisted than it really was, but that was the fun of it.

Mom nodded along before humming."You drive a hard bargain. Suppose that is something you have inherited from Father." A mischievous chuckle came from her. "How about we make a game out of it ? A challenge if you will. Your first divine quest." She made what looked like jazz hands.

Still, surprise flooded Melanie´s mind. A quest indicates that mom won´t help with it beyond some pointers, but a quest naturally means that there is a reward in it for her. Likely nothing amazing, yet, she could not help being interested. Sue her, she wanted some bling.

"What are the rules for this challenge ?" She enquired. Mom and Dad raised her better than being an idiot who took every challenge without asking some rather pointed questions.

"You, my amazing daughter, have this night, till midnight, to scare your fellow students to the point where they flee in wild abbadon. You may not cause them direct physical harm, but you are allowed to recruit local spirits to help you set up scares. Should you succeed …. I will upgrade your umbrella. Sounds good ?"

Now Melanie paid full attention. Her umbrella was perhaps the single most important item in her life. It was the first and only gift that was by it´s nature divinely related. See, Melanie knew that most demigods had issues with carrying weapons in this day and age, and so, she had fantasized and sort of designed, read, drawn, the idea of a weapon concealed inside an umbrella. She is nowadays aware that it is not really original in thought. Still, she liked the idea… and so did her mother. And so, during her 5th birthday, she received an umbrella.

It was of high quality. There was just a sheen to it that screamed "Look how grand I am." Naturally, it's canopy was coloured black, because despite how unoriginal that was, it was kinda their colour. Despite that, it was actually silk, spidersilk to be specific. Apparently, Mom had made a bargain with Arachne. The shaft and crook was , in sharp contrast however, made from Quince wood, the warm colour hinting at the nature of her mother. Dad also helped out here, enchanting the wood to be nigh unbreakable. But the true special feature of the umbrella was in the mechanism inside it.

Where normal umbrellas had a bottom spring, this one had two. One would be permanently a normal bottom spring, allowing the umbrella to function as one, while the second, so Mother explained, was connected to the dial ring below it. It would allow her to decide if she wanted to release the celestial bronze blade, of a rapier-esque design or any future modification that it would get.

Mother had paused, before adding slightly. "You know, I never knew that your school had that sort of stuff,"

Melanie shrugged "It hadn´t. They were mostly caused by me breaking in to get some things or prepare pranks. That whale needed a lot of lessons."

"Nice. So, deal or no deal ? Either is fine with me." Mom said, offering her hand to her daughter.

Mel smirked, sharing it with her Mother. "Deal. You are on!"