Hallucinations and Dreams Ch. 1
I was finally getting a perfect score on Sniper when Nico came charging into the Hotel.
Up until then, I was having a great time playing on the new game system the Lotus Hotel and Casino had installed. Sniper was my favorite game ever, mainly because you get to sneak up on people and threaten them with weapons. It's quite violent.
I was getting ready to jump the guy and thrash him into human soup when Nico di Angelo ran into the Hotel. He was wearing an all-black camouflage suit, his messed-up hair looking as shaggy as ever. The Hotel's servants seem to shrink away from him. I watched all this out of the corner of my eye, since I was keeping an eye on the virtual dude I was supposed to be beating up.
He spotted me and came over, keeping one hand on his sword, made of some solid black iron stuff. I knew Nico from the time he stayed at the Hotel, but then one day he mysteriously left for no reason. Now he was back.
My heart leapt as I thought about the cool things we could do before he would have to leave again. Maybe he could be my partner for the last mission on Sniper, when you have to assassinate a government official. The guy had some seriously paranoid bodyguards.
Nico walked over to the game system and I noticed he now seemed a touch older, with pale circles under his eyes and a stiffer bearing. Wonder what happened out there. I went back to my game, but then he grabbed my shoulder and shook it, hard.
"Elia, we have to get you out of here." I ignored him.
"Busy." He shook my shoulder again, and tried to wrestle the game console from me. I fought back, but he pried my fingers apart and turned the game off.
"Hey! What did you do that for?" He shook his head, grabbed me by the arm and tried to drag me out of the Hotel.
"Elia, guess what! I'm beating your high score!" said Ria in a singsong voice.
"Who's that?" Nico asked, a strange look on his face. Ria was another of my 'game buddies' and had recently come to the Lotus Hotel. She was in her late teens, but unlike other teenagers she was really cool.
"Ria's my friend. Could we abduct her, too?" He nodded and motioned for me to take her by the arm. He started walking towards the exit, pulling us along like we were in kindergarten again.
To my disappointment, none of the Hotel personnel tried to stop him, to convince him to stay one more night. He dragged us all the way out to an alleyway before I reclaimed my memories. In a flash, I remembered who and what I was.
A demigod. My mother abandoning me to Wild Orphanage, 'When the kids become animals'. The orphanage's foster mom, Lydia Wiles, beating me to a pulp. Running away, driven by dreams and hallucinations about my past and a strange camp where people like me (as in not normal) lived. I gasped, and Nico smiled sadly at me.
"Good to be back?" he asked.
I shook my head, still reeling from the pictures flashing before me, each scarier than the last. Nico whistled, and the sun disappeared. Standing in its place was a tank-sized dog.
"Di immortales." I had a sudden thought: Nico di Angelo is going to kill me. Then I realized the dog wasn't attacking, but wagging its tail like a…dog. Nico walked right up to it and put his hand on the dog's side, whispering to it. When the dog thumped its tail in response, he turned back to us.
Ria was staring at everything dully, like she was in a dream and wasn't sure she would like wake up. I wondered why. It wasn't like this was the greatest thing that could happen.
"Ria, Elia, meet Mrs. O'Leary. She's a hellhound and will accompany you to Camp-"
"Um, what is this camp and how are we going to get there please don't tell me we are riding this tank-dog, I mean Mrs. O' Leary what kind of name is Mrs. O' Leary and what is a hellhound is it like-"
"Elia. Elia. You sound like Rachel." I opened my mouth to ask who Rachel was but he gave me one of his don't-you-dare glares and I shut up. He sighed.
"Move now, questions later." He seemed agitated, like he wasn't supposed to be here. Ria and I got on Mrs. O' Leary hurriedly, unnerved. "Just hold on. Don't resist the pull."
Before I could ask what he was talking about the hellhound took a huge leap and everything disappeared into darkness. It was awesome, but that's just if you like the dark and scary noises and going really fast. I did.
When my eyes finally registered, my brain demanded another look. But we are! My eyes protested. It's really there. A perfect rectangle of cabins, all different in size and shape and color. A campfire and the mess hall stood to one side, while the woods and training arenas stood on the other. A bungalow, old and creaky and welcoming, stood out on the far end of the valley. I was standing on the hill, right next to a beautiful pine tree embroidered with a golden fleece.
"Wow." I glanced in surprise at Ria, whom I had forgotten was here. Gazing back over the strawberry fields covering the valley, I felt a sense of familiarity. Had I been here?
With a gasp, I realized I was staring at the place I had been driven to in my visions.
"This is…Camp Half-Blood."
"Yep," Nico said proudly. I jerked backwards.
"Where in Hades did you come from?" He grinned.
"Shadows. We just shadow-traveled."
"Riiiight. Can I ask-?"
"If it's got anything to do with shadow-traveling, yes. Otherwise, no." I glared at him.
"Helpful, aren't you? Anyways, how do you shadow-travel?" He smiled, a creepy smile that reminded me of something.
"Shadow-traveling is done by bending the shadows. Most children of Hades can do it." I wasn't surprised that Nico was a demigod. I don't think anything could have.
"Hey, cool cabins. Is that a Greek training arena I've heard of those OMG that is not a beach I see over there! I love beaches, so relaxing." Ria gushed enthusiastically. A furrow appeared on Nico's brow.
"Wait, you can see the camp? You can see through the Mist?" Ria looked puzzled, and she tilted her head to the side.
"Um, it's not that misty," said Ria, missing the point. Nico shook his head.
"I'm talking about a different kind of mist." I half-listened as Nico asked Ria questions, trying to figure out if Ria was a Mist-Seer or a genuine demigod.
"Well, I do have ADHD and dyslexia, but it's not much and I can still read stuff without too much trouble. Is that ok?" Ria said hesitantly, blushing. Nico frowned thoughtfully.
"A minor demigod, then. Well, it still counts." He set off down the strawberry field path, leaving Ria and I having to run to catch up to him.
"That's Hermes', this one with the grey owl thing is Athena's, and that one to the right is Ares'. Look out for Clarisse when you see her, she's not as welcoming as the rest of us."
Ria and I nodded as Nico continued. Nico was acting weirder that than I thought he could, all distant and distracted and staring at Ria. Even his voice was wrong, more like a really bad recording on an outdated computer. Ria wasn't taking any notice. She was busy studying everything, wiping her finger on the dust under the Hermes cabin, sniffing at the Ares cabin's horrible stench, tracing the outline of the grey owl above the Athena cabin. It was like she was writing a report on this place.
I felt really bored. All those years running from everyone, seeing visions of this place made me feel like I was watching a movie for the 54th time this week. I yawned, and on impulse, slipped off into some bushes. I stepped back into the sunlight and came up against a tall, muscular guy not more than a 100m away. He was banging away at a piece of metal, molding it into a shield with strange patterns on the front.
A Hephaestus kid. He put the shield into the furnace and I wondered what would happened if he fell into the furnace accidentally. I could almost see him screaming and yelling when a shout broke into my thoughts.
"Ahhhhh! It's burning! Get me out!" The guy was hollering all over the place, clawing at himself. I watched, puzzled. I was just imagining that, but he hadn't fallen into the furnace. I don't think he would have fit anyway.
Then he stopped and his eyes came back into focus. "Wait, what…" I hurried back to Nico, who I could see still chatting to Ria, on the way to the bungalow. I reached them and realized Nico hadn't even realized I'd left. Strange. When we were in the Lotus Hotel, he knew exactly what I was doing every second of the day and night.
We jogged up the steps of that old house and I saw a familiar-at least in my visions-sight. A centaur playing pinochle with a small baby angel-I think you call them cherubs-like man with a Hawaiian shirt and purple jogging shorts. The centaur looked up casually.
"Ah, Nico, you're back. That took faster than we estimated. Sit down." We sat on the creaking floorboards, and Ria looked like she could faint.
"You are a…centaur. A real centaur, with the back of a horse and the fore body of a man. Like the kind you see in Greek Mythology." She was taking this better than I'd expect. I would have thought most demigods stayed silent when they saw Chiron, the wisest and bravest of the centaurs, the trainer of heroes. Chiron smiled warmly at Ria.
"Yes, child. Your name?"
"Ria. Ria Goldman."
"Ah. Nico has explained what you are, correct?"
"Um, sort of. I still don't understand. You mean to say that everything in Greek Mythology is real?"
"Precisely, my dear. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood." He shifted and looked at me. "Elia, correct? You are a demigod I have not come across in a long, long time. Not since the 1900s." I looked up at him.
"What-what do you mean?"
"Your father has been completely forgotten. Even I have forgotten his name. He simply faded from the lack of belief in him. His shrine was forgotten, his realm considered a sin. I'm afraid you are the last of your kind, in a manner of speaking. The last demigod your father sired."
I reeled. My dad was…not here? He was a god. He couldn't do such things. He was probably ashamed for having me. Perhaps he broke an oath, and was abandoning me, disowning me because he couldn't face the accusing glares of his powerful relatives.
I hardly registered running down the steps and into the woods. Running headlong through the forest was quite painful with all the prickly shrubs and branches jutting out, but I didn't stop until I reached Zeus' Fist, which actually looked more like a deer droppings pile. I didn't say that out loud, though. Zeus would've fried me. I settled into the crook of the rock pile, furiously stopping tears.
I hate you, dad, I thought, I hate you.