Darkness Before The Light Ch.4
I really don't remember when I fall asleep, it's like my body just shut down after I sit down. Never in my life I have ever felt this tired. I awake just as the plane touch down in JFK Airport. For some reason the trip fell short. The three of us got off the plane and headed out of the airport where Mac get us a cab in record time and it drives us to a huge park.
"I have to go make a call, so please, stay right here, trust me on this" Mac plead as he runs off towards a fountain.
"Emma... This is freaking me out..." I whisper as I scan our surrounding. The park seem quiet except for some noise make by the fountain and the local fauna. I turn my attention toward Mac who's throws something that look like a golden coin into the fountain, and starts talking to some unseen person I assume is on the phone.
"Me too." Emma replies after a long silence as his big brother walks back over to us.
"Okay I've already inform the camp about our situation, however we have to stay here for about half an hour and wait for Argus to pick us up. Don't worry Argus is the head security at the camp and he's going to drive us there." He says and we go sit down on the nearest bench. My stomach rumbles as I see a hotdog stand.
"Hungry?" He asks me. my face was red from the embarrassment.
"Yeah..." I slowly admit looking hungrily at the stand.
"I'll go get us some food." He says and runs over to the stand, and comes back a few minutes with six hot dogs with ketchup and mustard on them. Each of us takes two and devour them within minute. We sit contently. We still have about fifteen minutes until this Argus guy comes. I look around at the strange place. This was the farthest I had ever been away from home, and even under the circumstances I was in awe.
A few minutes later a van with a strawberry farm logo pulls up along the street and the side door opens revealing a guy around my age with short blonde hair, tan skin, gray eyes, and a blue hoodie on. He had a mischievous smile that contrasted his intelligent eyes. He waves us over. Mac climbed in the van as soon as we see the driver, both Emma and I freeze. The driver was looking at us, but not in the usual way. He was looking at us with six sets of eyes. He was bald and had eyes all over his head, and they were all looking at different things taking in the world around him. I am jerked out of my stunned freeze by the boy. He grabs my and Emma's wrist and pulls us into the van.
"Hi! I'm Janus son of Athena, and this is Argus... He keeps his eyes on things at camp." The boy says as he laughs at his own joke. "What's your names?"
"I'm Johanna, but you can call me Jo." I say, finally being able to look at the boy fully now. He had a dusting of freckles on his nose and a scar on his collar bone. In all he was pretty cute, with the brains and the sense of humor. But I wasn't able to concentrate on that because of what he said. 'Janus son of Athena'. What the hell did that mean?
"I'm Emma, and what do you mean by 'son of Athena'?" She asks voicing my question.
"Hi Emma! I'll explained later. I see that my older half brother brought you here, how'd you guys meet?" He asks remembering who else got in the van. We start driving down the road.
"What do you mean half brother? He's my full brother. How is he your half brother?" She asks confusion obvious in her face and her voice.
"He is a son of Athena too, we share the same mother, meaning you're my a half sister too!" He says and without warning, hugs Emma. Emma just sits there confused. I look between the three of them and notice the resemblance between all of them, the same hair, freckles, and eyes, they even wore similar clothing. I am the odd one out with my leather jacket, Auburn hair, and extremely pale skin.
As the van drive down the road, Janus just keep talking and joking the whole time, barely stopping between topics. I soon tune him out and watch out the window as the city slowly turns to country. We drive past farms and wineries. Soon we pull off into a driveway and stop. There is a big hill with a big house at the top, and a large pine tree too. We get out and start walking up the hill. What I see at the top blows me away. There is a strawberry field, but below that is an amazing camp. There was a rock wall spewing lava, and a large group of cabins with new ones under construction. There was Pegasuses flying over our heads, and strange women in the water off of the beach. I was so busy looking at everything that I tripped on a rock at the top of the hill and start rolling down the other side unable to stop. I crash into someone and we both rolling down the hill when I finally stop at the bottom. I look ahead of me to see a girl with long curly black hair, caramel skin, and gold eyes, sprawled on the ground looking back at me. She smiles, standing up and offering me her hand. I take her hand and she helps me up. I hear footsteps coming down the hill behind me and see Emma, Janus, and Mac all running towards us.
"Are you ok?" Emma says just as she reaches us.
"I'm fine, this girl broke my fall" I say and smile back at the girl. She looked to be about my age. the smile on her face was still there.
"Ya, it was fun!" She says and laughs. She had an unrecognizable accent, that sounded like french, but also jamaican, it was a strange accent, but beautiful at the same time. "My name is Mara, daughter of Thanatos. What's your name?" She asked.
"I'm Jo, and this is Emma!" I say holding my hand out to her. She takes my hand and shakes it in greeting.
"You new here?" She asks "I just came here, so I don't know anybody." She looks around and sees Janus. "Well, except him! He helped the stoll brothers pull a prank on my cabin!" She growls in an accent, as she balled her fists and looks like she is about to clobber him.
"Hey! I was framed! I am innocent! Plus there is only you and Mcnamara in there!" He says throwing his hands up and backing away. He is still unable to wipe the smile off of his face.
"Come on! We have to talk to Mr. D and Chiron. We can't waste any time." Mac says grabbing Janus by the arm and dragging him along. We follow after waving goodbye to Mara.
We run up the hill, and I realise I still have my bag. Quickly, I reach in and hold my cell phone with one hand keeping it in the bag, like a beacon of comfort. All of a sudden I stop dead in my tracks, because with all the weird camp stuff I see the strangest one. A horse dude.
Sory for the lateness! It was kinda a hard chapter to write, but I had ALOT of help from Zero Son Of Seven in editing and this looks SO MUCH BETTER than my first draft!