Dreams.
When you hear this word what do you think of? Peaceful nights and a long slumber? Fluffy pink clouds with ponies and unicorns? Being a superhero and having your very own super powers? Winning the lottery? Meeting your idol? Having a loved one return to you?
Well you'd be right to think that. Those are what I call human dreams. They are the things that keep humans going, that keep pushing you to reach your goals in life. They provide you with entertainment or something to share with your friends during a sleepover or get-together. They provide you with endless daydreams and thoughts to keep you occupied during a boring meeting, lecture, class or errand of some sort.
They are, in my world, non-existent.
Why? Because a demigod's dreams are different. They either make you or break you, and it's because our dreams show the future, present, and past.
The future is what every demigod wants to see; they make.
The present? Well during a demigod's life span, they see a lot of things and not all of it good; these dreams break.
Now the past is something that no one wants to know. It's the past, over and done with. Every demigod has a bad one; these make or break.
You know that saying 'the past will come back to haunt you'? Well mine comes back to haunt me every time I close my eyes…
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"How many times do I have to tell you this Bella?" Chiron Bellowed.
I flinched. "Twenty times, give or take?"
He sighed and accompanied me to my empty cabin. Once we came a foot from the door he pointed at it and commanded me to "Sleep. Your quest is tomorrow and you'll have no energy if you don't. It's a miracle the kindly ones haven't eaten you yet."
"But I don't want to!" I felt like a little girl again. Zeus ordering me to sleep whilst I held a tantrum in front of my bedroom door, insisting that I didn't need it.
Chiron's tone became softer, just like Dad's after I had calmed down. "Bella look at yourself. You have dark bags under your eyes, you can barely stand upright and not only that, your eyes are bloodshot too!"
"Fine."
One, two, three hours past till I finally pick up the courage to shut them. I have to do this, I have to re-live that night.
My eyelids droop, and the world is enveloped in complete darkness.
"Bella, run." This is always the first thing I hear.
Those were the last words I had heard Charlie Swan say.
The past.
Those are the dreams that I get.
With these dreams you don't see it from the point of view that you did when you were there. It's kind of like you're there but you're not there there. Like you're a ghost; not seen or heard, not even acknowledged by the people surrounding you. Your vision is never perfect, the dream always makes it slightly blurred around the sides of your eyes no matter how good your eye sight is. When you visit the same dream, you see it from a different view point.
I look at my surroundings. It's dark and there's light flashing from the TV in the room in front of me. That's weird. The dream never puts me near here. It's usually somewhere near the bathroom or in one of the bedrooms.
I put my hands out in front of me and feel a wooden bar along what I think is a wall. I'm on the stairs this time. This is perfect. I have a clear view of the living room, the top of the stairs and the door. But I can't move, this always happens. During the dream you cannot move no matter how hard you try. You are stuck wherever the dream puts you. This is why I always go back. To get closer.
It was just another typical night where Charlie and Billy would get together and watch hours of football whilst drinking bear and snacking on chicken wings in the living room in front of the TV. Their complete focus was on the flat screen that Charlie had newly purchased solely for their Saturday night get-togethers. After a few hours fast forwarding and rewinding the live footage to confirm the referee's fouls, and hours of shouting until their throats were raw, hours of gulping down what seemed like gallons of beer but was actually two bottled each, and devouring three whole buckets of chicken, Billy and Charlie finally called it a night after Billy's team had won. Charlie unwillingly handed him the ten dollar bill.
"Nice doing business with ya'," Billy smirked at Charlie's sour expression and called Jacob from upstairs to help him onto his wheelchair.
I remember Jacob teaching me how to identify the personality of a driver by his or her vehicle, when we heard Billy call him down.
"... Those are always the worst types of drivers you can meet." I hear Jake groan and Bella giggle. "I gotta go," I hear Jacob tell her.
"See you later?" My past self asks shyly.
I remember him grinning then nodding his answer.
We were always close, but never couple close. I could never betray Edward. But that was then. Now? I probably wouldn't say the same thing.
I see him now. He's bolts down the stairs and goes straight through me, like I'm smoke. It's a funny sensation that runs through my whole body. That's never happened before because the dream never puts me anywhere near the action.
I watch silently as Jake and Billy leave the house, Jacob pushing his father down the ramp Charlie had placed on our front door for Billy's sake. I watched myself help Charlie clean the room. That was a hard job and took an hour to do. Who knew two men could make so much mess in the span of a few hours? Once the house was restored to its original state, Bella announced she was tired and going to bed.
The clock showed that it was midnight. There was a loud tapping on our door and Charlie looked at it and seemed to pale under the yellowish lights that the living room light bulbs seemed to give out.
"Charlie?" She asked, her tone even.
"Bella, whatever happens know that I have always loved you. Know that you're still my baby girl, even though your not," he replied seriously looking at her dead in the eyes. I couldn't see from where I was standing, but I remember that his eyes were full of pain, like he knew what was going to happen.
She nodded then gasped. "You know?!"
"I've always known."
"B-but how?"
"When I married Renee, we had three stillborn babies in our first year of marriage. She went to the hospital and found out she had some sort of form of cancer in her womb and couldn't have children." His breathing became laboured as he realised the tapping had stopped. "Then you showed up on my doorstep with Renee fourteen years after the divorce, and she is wholly convinced that her and I are your biological parents. She tells me that you've been coming here every summer since you were a little baby and only stopped going when you were seven. I mean, I think I would've known if I had a daughter, for gods sake, and then that's when I realised that I was clear-sighted, just like the others and-"
There were others? Why hadn't I remembered that he mentioned others? Did he mean demigods at Camp Half-Blood?
"Stop!" She yells. He looks at her blankly and shuts his mouth. "You said 'clear-sighted' and 'gods'. You mean the Greek ones right?" He nodded. "And you can see through the mist?" He nodded again.
The tapping started up again, but both of them were too focused on the conversation to notice something so quiet. I wanted to scream at their stupidity. My stupidity.
"So you've known," she stated.
How is this even possible? Did I go momentarily deaf at the most crucial part of Charlie's life?
"Of course I knew. Once I found out your name was Isabella, I continuously searched for legends on Isabella and when I asked specific people they just gave me a blank look, so I decided to tell the others, because they were all clear-sighted too, and-"
He mentioned them again. Twice and I didn't even notice. Who are these others?
"Charlie the tapping."
He continued on with his story.
"Charlie the tapping," Bella said, louder this time.
He continued, but she wasn't paying attention.
"CHARLIE SWAN, LISTEN TO ME!" She shouted. He stopped and realised what she was trying to warn him about.
"Bella, go." He kept his eyes on the door. She stayed where she was and I watched in terror. I tried to move but I knew it was pointless, the dream wouldn't allow me to do it anyway. I pulled at my feet in vain.
"Bella, please, run!"
"I am not leaving you with that thing. Whatever is behind that door is not good."
"Bella, I love you baby girl, but I have to do this. I'm going to lead it off into the woods. Then you'll run. You won't stop running until you reach La Push. Got it?" I remember saying yes.
The tapping increased and a flash of light came from the door before the glass shattered into thin pieces onto the wooden floor. The flash was too bright and I covered my eyes with my hands. I didn't have time to see the thing because Charlie ordered Bella to start running so the dream moved me with her. She did what she was told and didn't stop. She didn't even stop when she passed the Black's house. She made it to the beach and cried. I think she passed out after that, because the next thing I knew I was looking at Bella on Jacob's bed. She had a wet cloth resting on her forehead. Billy was the one to give her the bad news.
I still remember his exact words: "Charlie was found dead in the woods this morning. Bear attack. I'm sorry Bella."
She cried and I woke up with a start. Strands of loose hair stuck onto the sweat that was pouring down my ice cold face. My breathing became laboured, like it always does when I wake up from this dream.
"Bella?" A call comes from the other side of my door. It's Nico.
I looked around the room for something to tell me if it's still evening; please be evening. Bright lights shone through the windows. Its winter. Shit. (A/N: I'm not sure if this happens in America, but in England we change the clocks by an hour in the winter and the summer because of the amount of sunlight we get and all that. Sorry if this confused you.) I ran towards my wardrobe hoping to find something, anything, decent to wear for the quest today. It feels like it's the start of my first day at school again. The knock comes again, more loudly this time.
"Bella are you ready yet? We were meant to leave over an hour ago!" Nico calls.
Wait. Nico?
My curiosity takes hold of me and I just end up picking a random pair of jeans and a top, throwing them on, grabbing my duffel bag and flinging it over my shoulder. I don't stop to bother reading what's written on the shirt. I drag my feet out the door, yank open my door, and squint like crazy. Where were my sunglasses (or shades, same thing) when I needed them? I give myself a minute before I lifted my hand over my sore eyes. A messy, raven-haired boy grinned at me.
"Nico," I greet.
"Bella."
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm joining your quest, Dad's orders. And I'm also here on a certain Goddess's wishes." He snuck a quick look behind my shoulder and laughed. "Annabeth was in here right?"
I smirked. "Totally. She completely trashed the place."
He played along. "Yeah. The spotless carpet does not go with the pile of clothes peeking out from under your bed, there's no more food stains on the floor, and don't even get me started with the bathroom…"
"Well hello to you too Nico."
Oh Hades we're in trouble.
Nico gave a weak smile and gulped before turning to face Annabeth. It would have been funny if Annabeth didn't look like she was about to kill him!
"Annnniiiiiieeee! Good to see you. It's been a while, hasn't it? Well just came here to drop Bellsie off somewhere, so see you in let's say… thirty seconds?" Nico's words were rushed and he seemed like he didn't want to take a breath in case it gave Annabeth the chance to strike at him.
"Wait, what? Where am I going?"
He turned away from Annabeth's death glares and grabbed my arm tightly. "No time for explanations, you're going to be late…"
"Niiiiiicc…!" my screech was muffled by a gust of wind. It blew through my hair, stinging my eyes and rendering me momentarily blind. It was like I was behind a black curtain. Behind it, whispers and screams on the dead's last words filled my ears and their transparent bones grazed my skin. I felt like I was going to be sick. Another gust of wind hit me like a brick, flinging me away from the curtain, and then silence.
The sea's waves crashed against the rocks and little drops of salty water made its way to my mouth. I could hear seagulls squawking above my head, probably looking for the best place to drop its poo on me. I could almost hear its thoughts, will it be the head, or the foot? The shoulder or the back...? I opened my eyes and reflexively covered my head with my hands, not this time you feathery fiends.
I was at a beach, Nico was gone. I checked my surroundings. The sand was completely wet all over and covered in sickly green seaweed, the sea was a murky grey, and the sky seemed to have a gloomy feel to it.
I was back.
La Push.
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Hey, hey, hey! How were you guys? Having a good holiday? So I've finally finished 'editing' this chapter, and when I mean editing, I mean redoing this whole chapter all over again because honestly? The last version I was about to put up sucked. Totally sucked. So I hoped you like his one because I think this is like the third version. I deleted version number two the other day, because no one wants to read about the close death of Nico di'Angelo. Or at least I don't… face it girls, you know for a fact that Nico is hoooooottttt ;)
Just to clear this up, in one of the chapters after the fight scene when Bella gets injured by Apollo's weapon, I mention that a red substance or something is surrounding the weapon. It's still red because she's still a half-goddess. I explain it a bit in the next chapter. Hoped that helped.
So I just want to say thank you to all who reviewed and PMed me, it was much appreciated and great fun to read.
Question (If you were wondering, some of the questions I come up with have absolutely nothing to do with the contents of the chapter the question is asked in): A present under the tree that you were so hyped up about… until you realised it wasn't actually what you thought it was, only something that looked like it because it was wrapped up? Because let's face it, it's happened to all of us.
Till next time
-M. Phoenix xxx
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