Disclaimer: Uncle Rick owns all characters in this story aside from my OC.
Percy
When the last day of the term came around, I was practically shaking with anticipation. I probably would have slammed all of my clothes into my duffel bag haphazardly, leaving stuff behind or something if Cai hadn't made me pack everything neatly the night before.
I watched the other kids joke around while I waited for Cai to finish whatever he was doing. Some of the other kids were talking about all the cool vacations they'd be taking this summer: ski resorts, cruise trips, islands, and different countries… These kids had it so much different than Cai and I did, but it never really bothered me that much knowing that I had Mom and Cai.
I don't know what I'd do without either of them, to be honest.
"What about you, Percy?" one of them asked.
"Huh?" I asked.
"What are you going to do this summer?"
That was a pretty good question…
"Probably finding out about what happened to Mrs. Dodds," I blurted out.
Did I really just say that out loud?
"Oh." They said. "That's cool, I guess."
I watched them go back to their own conversation as if I'd never existed.
"Is he still on about that?" one of them whispered.
"He's weird man, I don't know."
I felt my cheeks burn. What was taking Cai so long?
"Percy!" Someone shouted.
I assumed it was Cai, thinking we could finally leave, but when I turned I was disappointed to find that it was only Grover.
The disappointment must've shown on my face because he winced a little when he saw me.
I hadn't said much of anything to him since the field trip happened, but it's not like I hated him or anything, it was just kind of hard for me to ignore the fact that someone I trusted could just look me in the face and lie. Even if they were doing it to help me.
"Look, I just thought that m-maybe we could patch things up?" Grover stammered.
" Sure, man."
His face brightened.
" Just as soon as you stop lying to me about Mrs. Dodds."
"Percy, h-how am I supposed to tell you about someone who's never existed?" He said as his face twitched.
"By admitting that she was real?"
"I-I don't know what else to tell you, Percy. This monster-teacher that you dreamt up just isn't real, you were probably really stressed out about your classes or something. M-maybe trying to find a teacher to blame?"
He was really starting to get on my nerves. How important was this secret to him?
I thought about just ignoring him and moving on, but then something about what he said caught my attention…
" I don't think I ever said anything about her being a monster, Grover."
His ears pinked, probably because he knew when he was caught out.
He went silent for a moment before he sighed and said, " Look, I'm just trying to look out for you, what you know can hurt you more than you know. I'm just trying to help you."
He dug out a card from his pocket and handed it to me.
It was a little bit tough to make out the words.
"What's this?" I asked.
"My, um…summer address," He said.
" Just call it whenever you need my help."
" Why would I need your help?"
It came out harsher than I meant it to.
" I… I kind of have to protect you."
I looked him in the eye for a second before asking, "From what?"
"I- I still can't tell you that."
More secrets. Just when I thought we were getting somewhere, it was still nowhere at all. Ugh.
"Yo!" someone said while tapping my shoulder.
Cai. Finally, we can leave.
"What took you so long?"
"I'll show you later," Cai said. "What's up, Grover?"
"Uhh… nothing much?" Grover said weakly.
" Right, well it's about time Percy and I get out of here. We've got a bus to manhattan to catch, peace bro."
Grover fished out a crumpled piece of paper that looked a lot like the ones in Cai's hand and stuttered, "Y-you guys wouldn't happen to have room for an extra bus buddy would you?"
I stared at Grover sightly bewildered, cutting glances back in forth between Grover's ticket and Cai.
Eventually, Cai just shrugged and said, "Sure, why not?"
I dragged off to a corner of the room and whispered, "What do you mean sure?"
"I mean, why not? He's your friend right?"
" Yeah, but he's keeping secrets from us. We don't even know we can trust him."
"Whatever he's keeping secret from us he'll have to tell us eventually, plus, he knows mom, and mom knows what he knows. If mom trusts him enough to do whatever he's doing then we can too. Besides, if he gets too weird we can just ditch him."
That seemed like a good enough idea to me. Why did Cai always have the good ideas? Why can't I have good ideas?
" Fine."
" Then it's settled."
"Uhh…" Grover said. " If we don't head for the station now, we're going to miss the bus."
"Crap!" Cai and I groaned.
-BREAK-
The race to the station hadn't been fun at all, but we made it, probably only because the bus was broken down or something. Grover ran pretty fast for a guy with crutches. I guess he was one of those guys who did stuff well under pressure or something.
We got onto the bus alongside the other passengers without much issue, with Cai leading us to a group of seats on the left side towards the back.
When I sat down I noticed, through the window, a trio of old ladies knitting a pair of socks on the sidewalk across the street from the station. It didn't seem all that weird to me… until they suddenly looked straight at us, knitting with a lot more speed and skill than they were just a second ago.
"Are you guys seeing what I'm seeing?" I asked.
" Yup," Cai said.
"Oh gods, this can't be happening," Grover mumbled.
Just when I thought old ladies knitting socks couldn't possibly get any creepier, their super knitting came to an abrupt stop.
This time it looked like they were focused on me, and me alone. The lady in the middle took a strand of the blue yarn they were knitting with and cut it with a snip, I swear I could hear.
I paled. Three old ladies synchronizing their knitting while staring at you is pretty intimidating; Somehow them shearing yarn is way more threatening.
"Percy, w-what did you see?" Grover asked gravely. " What did they do?"
I was in too much of a daze to respond. It felt like I got clocked in the head with a bat that had vertigo written on it.
I thought the ladies would've stopped at that, but then they shifted their attention to my left, to Cai. I tried to pay attention to what they were doing, but for some reason, I couldn't see what they were doing this time.
The lady on the right took out a ball of green yarn, while the lady on the left took out an ancient-looking one that could've been the same shade, and the lady in the middle took a strand from each and tied them together.
I turned to Cai when I heard him suck in a sharp breath.
"What'd they do?" I asked.
But it didn't seem like he would say anything.
I cut a glance back to the ladies, but when I looked they were gone, almost like they just, up and vanished or something,
"What did they do?" Grover pleaded.
"What did you guys see?"
"They cut the yarn…" I mumbled.
"I'm not sure..." Cai muttered.
Grover's face went pale.
" Why is it always middle school?" Grover breathed.
"Why do they never make it past the eighth grade?" he choked.
At first, he looked like he was about to start crying, but after a moment he wiped his eyes and with a stony face he said:
" Let me walk you guys home from the station…please."
It seemed like a request, but it didn't really sound like one. I wasn't about to question it though, the only other time Grover ever got so serious was when he tried to get me away from Mrs. Dodds.
Did that mean those old ladies were monsters too?
I looked over to Cai who still seemed a little out of it.
"Uh, sure, I guess?" I responded.
The bus finally started pulling out of the station, but I wasn't as relieved as I should've been about leaving. Something about those ladies really spooked me. Like somehow they started something I couldn't stop.
-BREAK-
We called a cab home after hitting our bus terminal stop.
The anxiety I felt most of our way back all but melted when I reminded myself that mom was just 10 minutes away.
Mom was probably the greatest person on earth and the second-best definitely wouldn't even be able to hold a candle to her. Is that a certifiable fact? Maybe not, but I'll deck anyone who even thinks of saying different.
Here's a little bit about her:
Her parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by her uncle after that, she spent all of her time in high school saving up money for a good college, and then her uncle got cancer. Senior year she quit school so she could take care of him, and when he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.
Mom's only lucky break was when she met my dad.
I don't remember him much and neither does Cai. Maybe a warm feeling, or a smile, but not much else.
Mom doesn't like talking about him much, Cai and I knew it made her sad for her to try so we never pushed it.
She did tell us that he was supposed to be rich and important or something and that at some point he had gotten lost when he set sail Across the Atlantic for something.
Not that he was dead, but that he was lost at sea.
When I was younger the other kids would make fun of me and Cai for not having a dad, "He's not dead! He's just lost at sea!", I used to scream. But I'm older now, and I know that mom was only trying to give us an easier truth, I wasn't as mature as Cai, but I at least understood that even if dad really had died, mom tried her best to spare us that pain.
When mom had me and Cai, she took on odd jobs when she could, took night classes for her high school diploma, and somehow raised me and Cai on her own. That has to count as some sort of superhuman world record-breaking feat, by the way, because I was by no means an easy child to try and wrangle. But through it all, she never complained. Not once.
Around three years back she ended up marrying Gabe Ugliano, a pudgy, greasy man, with three hairs on his head, who was nice for a good thirty seconds before he made the quickest personality switch ever to being an asshole. He used to make life pretty hard for all three of us but now it wasn't so bad.
-BREAK-
I was hoping that mom would be back home by the time we got home, but all that was waiting for us was Smelly Gabe and his group of no-life buddies that sat around and played poker with him all day.
The apartment was dingy and smelled like it nested a bunch of sewer rats. The t.v. was blaring an episode of seinfeld. Beer cans littered the floor everywhere and there were strips of duct tape plastered all over the table Gabe got knocked out over, a year ago.
Grover was looking around the place disgustedly, covering his nose like it was about to eject itself from his face.
"You're back," Gabe grumbled.
"Where's our mom?" Cai asked.
"Working," he said. "Now get the fuck outta my sight, I'm busy."
Cai lead the way to our room while I ushered Grover out of the living room.
Cai and I dropped our luggage on the bedroom floor. That's when I noticed that Grover didn't seem to have any luggage of his own to drop.
"Where's all your stuff dude?" I asked.
"Huh?" Grover blinked. "Oh, uh… d-don't worry about it," he said scratching his head.
"So do you want to tell us who those old ladies were?" Cai asked.
" Not particularly, no."
" I thought so, I guess that's why I went out of my way to get this."
Cai pulled out a big worn-out-looking book that I recognized.
"Dude, is that Mr. Brunner's book? Did you steal Mr. Brunner's book?" I hissed.
"Mhm," Cai responded.
"Is that the reason why it took us so long to actually leave the school?"
"Yup," he popped.
"Sick!"
"No! Not sick! You can't just steal from C- ! Are you crazy?!" Grover squealed.
"Yeah well, how else were we supposed to figure out what these weird things chasing us were? You aren't telling us, and we're not waiting around for another one of these things to come around." Cai said bluntly.
I nodded my head in sage-like agreement.
"L-look! I promise I'll tell you guys at some point but for now, you'll just have to tru-"
A knock rang out from our bedroom door.
Then I heard mom's voice. "Percy? Cai?"
She opened the door and I instantly forgot about whatever we were talking about at the moment.
She looked as beautiful as ever. Sparkling eyes, a warm smile, and that aura of kindness that floated around her.
Before I knew it I was being held in a tight hug right next to Cai.
"I can't believe it! You two have grown so much since Christmas!" She said ruffling our heads.
She was wearing the blue uniform she always wore for her job at the candy shop in Grand Central, with two goodie bags she always had in hand for when Cai and I came home.
She stared at me for a moment and said, "I saw your report card, Percy."
It wasn't all that hot at all in our room but I could swear I started sweating when she said that.
"I. Am. So. Proud of you!" she squealed this time she grabbed me in an even tighter hug. "A B? In Latin? Color me, impressed young man!"
The way she said it. Like I saved the world from the greatest threat instead of getting a grade higher than a C in one of my classes. It felt so good I probably looked like a toddler that just discovered ice cream or something.
"Cai helped me out with most of it," I mumbled.
" Yeah but you still put in the work," Cai grinned.
Mom turned her attention to Cai with a smile.
"Don't think I forgot about you, young man. I hear you were running laps around the competition at your swim meets. I'm proud of you sweetheart."
"Thanks, mom," Cai said with a soft smile.
It was around then, I think, that mom finally noticed Grover sitting in the background. He looked like he was trying his hardest not to interrupt our reunion only to find out he'd failed anyway.
"Right! Mom, this is Grover."
Midpoint
Mom's eyes narrowed in a sharp expression that I'd only ever seen her make once.
"H-hi, we've met before," Grover stuttered.
Cai and I glanced at each other.
In an instant, the peace I found within mom's presence faltered, because now it was a fact that mom knew Grover. That somehow she knew about the things Grover wouldn't tell me and Cai. That there was something she hadn't told us.
"You said they would be safe for at least another year," she said coldly.
"T-their scent is too strong, they're attracting too much attention. Them being out in the open, for even this long is too much to ask. It's best they leave for camp by tonight. " Grover said.
Our scent was too strong? I know Cai and I don't use deodorant as much as we should but I didn't think that we smelled that bad. Right?
"A Kindly One almost killed Percy earlier this year, we're lucky that he made it out of the encounter alive…"
Grover was not picking his words carefully, because that seemed to blow a fuse in mom, I didn't even think existed.
"What do you mean, he almost got killed?" She demanded. "You promised me that nothing would happen to them while you were there!"
"Hold up! What's going on?" I asked.
"I know, and I'm sorry that it even got that bad, but if we want them to live a day longer, we'd best leave-"
A deafening boom cut Grover off, the sound of rain hitting the pavement following soon after.
"Now, the king knows, and if he does, then there's no telling who or what else might." Grover continued.
"Seriously! What's happening?!" I demanded. "Cai? Hello? Are you listening to this right now?"
But he was too busy stuffing more clothes into the bag he brought back from school. Why the fuck was he worried about clothes, now, of all times?
Mom looked like she was playing and losing an intense game of tug of war with herself. A range of emotions warring on her face: sadness, anger, and resignation until finally, she sighed:
"Okay, okay fine. Just- Just let me have a few more moments with them before we leave, please."
Grover looked unsure, casting a glance outside, through the window, it had gotten dark, and it looked like a particularly nasty thunderstorm would be making a show tonight.
He glanced back at mom, his gaze wavering before giving her a nod and making his way outside of the apartment.
Once mom was sure he was gone, she turned back to us, a tear streaking her face.
"I always have and always will love you two no matter what. I-i never wanted this for you. I tried and tried my hardest to keep you two away from it, but I guess it was just a little too much for me to expect."
She gave us a smile that seemed anything but cheerful. It hurt to look at. It hurt and I wanted desperately to make it go away.
She gave us one more hug. " You two grab your bags, we're…we're going to go on a trip."
Cai hauled both of our bags over his shoulders in a rush, while mom went to get the keys to Gabe's Camaro.
"-getting them until I know where you're going!" Gabe fumed from the living room.
"Montauk!" Mom snapped. "We're going to Montauk, and we'll be back after a couple of days."
Montauk…mom took us there at least once every year, she said it was the place where she met dad, it was always the highlight of the year…But that didn't make any sense, why would we go to Montauk now? During a thunderstorm?
"C'mon, Perce. Mom's waiting,"
I looked over to Cai was waiting by the doorway to our room with our bags.
"Are we really going to Montauk?" I asked.
"I doubt it, but mom is serious about this. C'mon, hurry up."
How was he taking this so easy?
We'd only just gotten back home, barely enough time to spend with mom, but we were leaving already.
Ω
"We're almost there," I heard mom whisper.
I was a little surprised. The ride there had been short, almost half the time in length it usually took for us to get to Montauk.
I thought that maybe mom had found a faster route there or that there was low traffic because of the storm, but even then it still felt like we got there a little too fast.
I peered outside of the car window looking for any hint of the beach or any of the familiar landscapes or buildings I was used to seeing in Montauk, but there weren't any.
All I could see was a range of trees that seemed like they went on for miles.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"Long island…" Cai mumbled.
My brows furrowed in response.
Wasn't Long Island, like, an hour away from Montauk? How could we possibly be anywhere close to getting there?
"Mom?"
"Yes, honey?" she said absently, too focused on the road to give her full attention.
" Where are we going?"
"Somewhere special," She mumbled.
"But what happened to Montauk?"
She looked at me from the rear-view mirror and said, "Percy, just sit tight, I'll explain everything when we get there."
Alarm bells started ringing in my head. Some part of me understood that something important was going on, but a greater part of me just wanted to ignore whatever was happening in hope that things would just settle down and we could just have fun together as a family for another summer.
"Dad isn't actually God and the Devil isn't actually trying to kill us. Right?" I blurted.
Cai stared at me like I suddenly declared myself the chief goblin of the gang warriors. Grover let out a cough that sounded too much like a chortle.
"What?" she asked distractedly.
" W-well, I just thought that with all the monsters from hell chasing me and Cai, and with Mr. Brunner and Grover going so far to protect us, w-we might be children of God?"
"Honey, please, just let me focus on the road, the sooner we get to where we're going the sooner I can-"
"WHOOOOAAAAH! WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!" I interrupted.
Cai groaned and said, "Shut up man, mom's trying to–"
"NO SERIOUSLY, LOOK AT IT! IT'S FUCKING HUGE." I shouted, pointing a finger towards the woods on the right.
A seven-foot giant freak of pure muscle in white underwear with what looked like a bull's head was standing a few yards away from the road in the most menacing way possible.
"This can not be happening," Grover whimpered.
"Holy Shit," Cai breathed.
I felt the car lurch forward as we picked up speed. Mom's face fixed in a grim determination.
What happened next was a blur:
One moment, the bull-man was stamping its left hoof in a strut.
The next, our car was flipped over on its side almost a hundred yards farther than where we had been.
Whatever happened, had left me a mess. My vision was blurry, my head was ringing, and my breathing was shallow.
"-CY!" I heard someone shouted.
Loud was all I could think.
"-ERCY!".
My name, I registered.
"FOR GOD'S SAKE PERCY, WAKE UP! PLEASE!"
Cai, I thought.
I gaped at the destruction surrounding me as my vision steadied. Glass spread out in a radius around the car. One of the car doors battered and removed a good meter away from us. Smoke billowing from the engine at the front of the car.
Grover was beside me mumbling incoherently about wilderness and enchiladas.
"C'MON, PERCE! GET UP AND GRAB GROVER." Cai yelled.
I fiddled with my seatbelt frantically trying to get myself out of the car as fast as possible. A brief feeling of relief settled over me when I heard the click that released the metal fastening on the safety belt.
I clambered my way out of the back window of the car before I reached for Grover's seatbelt, and pulled him out next to me once he was free.
I looked over to Cai, he was carrying mom on his back, blood pooling over her face, her frame expanding in a pattern of deep breaths.
" What happened?!"
"That happened!" Cai pointed behind us.
The bull-man. It caught up to the car and knocked us over in a matter of seconds, and now it was standing just fifty yards away from us like it, menacingly, like it knew it was the villain in a horror movie.
"Get up and grab Grover!" Cai hissed. "We've gotta get out of here!"
" How are we supposed to get away from a monster like that?!"
"Doesn't matter! Just get up and move!"
I hauled Grover up and haunched one of his arms over my own as we made an escape from the bull-man. Escaping from a monster that could tackle a speeding car didn't seem at all possible, but what else could we do.
"...ne tree…" mom said weakly.
"...what?" Cai asked.
Mom took a deep breath before rasping, " Head for the pine tree…camp…barrier."
Pine tree? Camp? How were we supposed to find a pine tree in the woods, when it was raining in the middle of the…
Just over in the distance stood a two-hundred-fifty-foot tall pine tree.
Cai and I looked at each other before we made a beeline toward it not daring to question any sort of lifeline.
A signboard came into view once we'd actually made our way over to the tree. It read:
CAMP HALF-BLOOD
Ironically the badly scrawled-out letters made it easier for me to read than it would have been otherwise.
I glanced over to Cai my face asking my question for me: Do we go in?
Cai nodded with a certainty I was thankful to rely on.
I carried Grover past the signboard and through the camp entrance waiting a moment for Cai and mom to follow.
Right as Cai got to the entrance he stopped moving.
"Dude! What are you stopping for? Let's go!" I said.
" I can't!" he said.
" What do you mean you can't?"
"I mean I can't move forward! There's some sort of wall or barrier or something stopping me."
"...It's me…" Mom rasped. "This camp… It's only meant for children– special children with the blood of the divine flowing through them."
What?
"What?"
"I…I can't go with the two of you. You've got to set me down and go on without me."
"We aren't just going to leave without you!" I said fiercely.
"You have no choice, Percy. I can't pass through. Set me down, Cai. Now."
Cai set her down reluctantly, a marked uncertainty on his face.
"There has to be someone in that camp that can help us," Cai commented.
He rushed over to where I'd lain Grover, grabbed him by his shoulders, and started jerking back and forth before he finally woke.
"Wuh-wahts going…." Grover mumbled.
"Wake up, Grover!" Cai commanded.
"Urghh…Hmmm?"
Cai snapped his fingers in Grover's face impatiently until he got his attention.
"Get in that camp and find get someone or something, to help us!"
"W-what's happening…?"
A loud THUMP! Rang out through the clearing.
"Guys?" I said shakily. "The things back…"
"Hurry up and get someone, Grover!" Cai ordered.
The bull-man stood only a few yards away from us. Our only safety was an invisible barrier that mom couldn't get through, and we weren't going to just leave her. We were cornered, and it seemed like the bull-man knew it too.
"Please! Just go!" mom begged.
"NO! I'd rather fight than leave and let that thing kill you!" I denied.
I looked over to Cai hoping he would back me up, his face was fixed in a frown, but his posture made it seem like he was just waiting for a chance to tackle the bull-man.
Cai looked me in the eye for a moment and asked, "You still have that pen, right?"
I blinked. Why would…THE PEN-SWORD.
I reached a hand into my left-hand pocket hastily pulling out a blue fountain pen. I took the cap off, and in an instant, a short sword was in my hand.
"Good," Cai said in a nod, just before bolting to the right, away from me and mom. "C'MON, SHIT-LIPS! OVER HERE!" Cai hollered.
I froze.
What the fuck? Was he trying to get himself killed?
I watched worriedly as the bull-man gave a very angry snort in response before it started charging toward Cai like he owed it money, and it was only then that I realized that Cai was trying to be a distraction.
Cai ran straight towards a tree while there was still some distance between and leapt in a roll to the right just as he was about to get skewered. A loud THUD! rang out as the monster's head made very violent contact with the tree.
Whoa, I thought.
The monster stumbled backward in a daze and shook its head trying to stave off the very painful headache it probably had.
"I KNOW YOU LOOK DUMB, BUT FUCK, MAN! YOUR DUMBASS IS DEFINITELY ON SOMETHING ELSE!" Cai goaded.
"GRAAARGH!" The monster bellowed.
This time it leaped in the air towards Cai's position, arms above its head ready to slam down on Cai as it landed.
It looked like Cai was about to get crushed, but just as the monster landed, he rolled backward, landing upright just in front of the monster's fists.
The bull-man gave another snort before it started swinging its fists toward Cai, its reach making it hard for Cai to avoid. Every fist thrown at Cai from one direction was followed immediately by a grab in the direction Cai had dodged.
Cai ducked at one of the fists thrown at him, jumping immediately after. With the short time he had in the air, he reared his right arm behind him and shot a right hook straight into the bull-man's left eye.
"AURGHHHH!" The monster roared holding a hand to its injured eye.
"GET HIM, CAI!" I cheered.
But in retaliation, the bull-man snatched Cai in its free hand just as soon as he landed on the ground, and threw him straight into a tree.
"CAI!" Mom cried.
The monster turned its attention towards, me and mom, reminded that we were still there.
I gave a glance between mom and the camp entrance, hoping that maybe someone would show up at any second, but I was losing faith that anyone would.
Not wanting to take a chance on waiting, I took a deep breath and clutched the sword in my hand tightly.
"Percy…?" Mom questioned.
My legs were already carrying me toward the monster
" Percy, no!" she pleaded.
I was never any good at following instructions.
I raced towards the monster and shouted, "YOU WANNA GO, BIG GUY?"
"GRAAAGH!" It shouted, swinging its fists at me in much the same way it had Cai.
I dodged the attacks the same way Cai had. It wasn't long before the monster and I found ourselves in a rhythmic pattern of attacks and dodges, but it didn't last long. An opening came through when it tried to trap me in between both of its hands.
I jumped up and brought my sword above my head, aiming a slash at the monster's good eye…but I missed and ended up lobbing off one of its horns instead.
The bull-man caught me mid-air and slammed me straight into the ground, my sword falling out of my hand and onto the grass.
"AANGH!" I cried.
JESUS FUCK, THAT HURT.
"PERCY!" mom screamed
I opened my eyes to find a hoof hovering just a few inches above my face.
Well shit.
"NO!" Cai's voice rang out.
The ground suddenly tore open right underneath the bull-man's grounded hoof swallowing it up to its thigh, the monster staggering its stomping hoof forward missing my head just barely by a few inches.
"NOW PERCY! KILL IT!" Cai cried.
As if on cue, I rolled over to my feet with a grant, picking up the sword and the bull-man's fallen horn on instinct.
It made another grab for me, but this time I dashed up to its chest and took advantage of its shortened height to slam the horn into its good eye, drawing out a pained cry from the monster.
I finished the bull-man off with a stab into the center of its chest. Almost instantly, it crumbled to dust, its horn the only thing to remain whole from its remains.
"YES! YES!" I cheered. "Mom! Cai! Did you see that!?"
The sky rang out with a crackle and a boom almost like fanfare to my victory against the most muscled-up thing I'd ever seen.
I looked over to Cai to share in my victory, but all I saw was him looking up towards the sky with a worried look on his face.
"What's wrong!" I yelled.
He yelled something in response, but it was hard to hear him with all the rain falling all I could make out was:
"MOO…!" while he threw his hand in a swiping motion.
Moo? I figured he was trying to make a weird cow joke light of everything, but before I could figure out what he was trying to say mom ran at me from the left and shoved me away from where I was standing.
Before I could even think about asking mom what she had done so a loud CLAP! rang out as an arc of lightning struck mom right where she was standing.
Right, where I was standing.
"Mom?" I whispered.
But she didn't respond.
"Mom?" I called again.
But only rain fell.
"Mom?" I choked. "Wake up?"
But she didn't.
"Please? Wake up?"
She wouldn't.
"Mom?"
I kept on like that. Calling her, begging her, hoping that eventually she would get up and tell me not to worry. But some part of me knew that she wouldn't. That her stopped breath and her charred flesh meant that she never would.
But I kept on, because if she didn't wake up, then it would mean I wouldn't have a mother. It would mean that there was no home to come back to with the warmest hugs and the sweetest smiles. It would mean she was gone forever.
So I kept on, even when Cai pulled me away with tears streaming down his face. Even when the pattering footsteps and the faint whispers of people I'd never seen before surrounded us.
I kept on…but she never got up.