Chapter 3: Wake up sleepy head
I can't say I enjoyed being in the infirmary again. At least this time I wasn't going to be spending a lot of time there. With some extra nectar and ambrosia my wounds healed fine, it didn't even leave a mark. Given the scars I had I should have had this stuff way earlier in my life. I didn't really mind the scars as much as you'd expect. Remembering how I got them all would have been nice though. I was sitting on one of the beds. Luke was sitting across from me. He cheered up a little. His words were still engraved in my mind. He had said many things that I didn't agree with. But I had nothing to tell against his valid arguments. The only thing I was certain about was that I was going to find out who I was no matter what he said. I knew there had to be pain in my past, the old wounds of my body told me that much. But pain and loss shapes a person into who he is. I never believed that someone was born good or evil. Everything you experience shapes you into who you become. Whether or not you should be proud of yourself in your dying moment was a different thing all together.
Me and Luke didn't talk. I didn't know what to say and I guessed he didn't either. I looked around the room aimlessly. I saw the person laying in the bed at the far end of the room. She had turned around now and I could see her face unlike when I lay in the infirmary myself. She seemed to be in a peaceful sleep. "Who is she?" I asked Luke. He probably knew. He seemed like someone that knew everything that was going on around camp. Then again maybe I was the only one that didn't.
"Her name is Evie. She's been in a coma for the last month. None of us can figure out why. Not even the Apollo kids know." He said.
"What's so special about the Apollo kids?" I knew that Apollo was god of the sun but I didn't understand why his kids would know why Evie was in a coma. It didn't make any sense to me.
"They're pretty much the doctors of camp. Apollo is god of a lot more things than just the sun mate." I wanted to ask what he was god of but I decided against it. I didn't really care about Apollo or any god really. My mind was focused on one thing only, getting my memories back.
"Could they help me with my memories?" I asked Luke. If they were 'like the doctors' maybe they had some mojo to fix my amnesia.
"Still after your memories huh? Well I can't blame you. Anyway, that's not the Apollo kids. If you want to fix your memories you need Hypnos kids." I didn't get that. This time I wasn't going to stop asking though.
"Why Hypnos kids?" I asked. This was important to me, I had to know everything there was to know. I wondered why Luke hadn't told me before. Maybe he really thought I was better off without my memories. I couldn't agree with him. I felt like no one, nothing seemed worse than that.
"Well Hypnos is the god of sleep and memories. His children can get you into a deep sleep that could fix your memories. Sadly there's only two on record at the moment. One's in New York and won't be returning for a month, and the other is right there." He pointed at Evie. I didn't feel like waiting a month, and it wasn't very likely that I could wake up a coma patient. I was determined to try though. I got up and walked towards Evie. "We tried that." Luke said with a smile on his face. He probably thought I was naive for trying. But he wasn't the one with amnesia. As I neared her I could see her face clearly. She looked about my age, she had blue eyes and wasn't bad looking. As I looked at her it came to me that I hadn't seen any really bad looking kids at camp. Except for some satyrs (half goat half human thingies) and the camp security guard who literally has eyes all over his body. I couldn't remember his name. Anyway I started to wonder if all demigods had something about them. If you look around any random city you see one or two people that literally scare you. At camp there weren't any of those, they looked closer to celebrities than anything else. Of course the gods were meant to be perfect, and we had half of them inside of us. So I guessed that was the most reasonable explanation.
"What happened to her?" I asked. Even with amnesia I knew that you don't just get into a coma. Of course Luke told me the differ.
"She just collapsed. We have no idea why or how. She's mumbled a name once or twice but we don't know anyone named Michael. There hasn't been one here at camp since before Evie came here." Luke said. It didn't make much sense to me. Luckily for once I wasn't the only one. I didn't know why. But for some reason I grabbed her hand. I guess I wanted to know if it was cold like I imagined it would be. What happened though I couldn't have suspected. She opened her eyes. My face shined out rays of surprise just like Luke's. I didn't get why she woke up, come to think of it I didn't get anything that had been happening lately. She looked at me, straight in the eyes. It wasn't a nice look either. It was a look of pure hatred.
"You!" She said. The next thing I know I get slapped in the face. It didn't really hurt, but its quite a shock. You wake someone up from a coma and she slaps you in the face. No thanks or anything. I backed away from her. With that look in her eyes I didn't think she was going to stop at one hit. "I should kill you for all you've done!" I had no idea what she was on about. All I had done? It didn't sound very promising.
"Evie, calm down." Luke said. "He doesn't remember anything about his past. Do you know him?" He asked. He was as clueless as I was.
"Luke, get away from him. He's a murderer!" Now imagine, you remember nothing of your own past. You meet this girl, she slaps you in the face and then calls you a murderer. Can you imagine how freaked out I was?
"So you do know him?" Luke asked. He was looking at me weirdly. Of course this was looking bad for me. He trusted Evie more than me and I couldn't remember anything. I could have been the one who blew up the twin towers for all we knew.
"Not really. Let's just say that I wasn't really sleeping. I was watching him, all he did. All the people he hurt. He's no better than any monster that we killed!" She hated me, I didn't even know why. She knew everything about me, she knew me better than I did. It scared me. Imagine a person knowing everything you ever did and you yourself don't know anything. Its not very nice.
"Look Evie, let's get to Chiron. I think he should meet Angel. And he will probably wants to see you too." Luke said to Evie.
"So he does remember everything! He's lying Luke! How else would he know his name?" I was surprised to find out that Angel was my real name. That's what she said anyway. And it was close to the truth.
"Angel is his real name?" Luke asked. He seemed to find it funny. After all Angel wasn't really a regular name. I only thought of it so that people had something to call me.
"It's close enough to his middle name. His full name is Michael Angelus Colt."
For a girl who had just woken out of a coma Evie was rather fit. She walked ahead of Luke and I as we walked towards the archery range not far from the sword arena. It was where Chiron was supposed to be now. I still wondered if this was the same Chiron who trained Hercules which seemed a bit far fetched but this entire camp seemed far fetched. As we walked I stood next to Luke and decided to ask.
"So this Chiron...is he the same centaur that trained Hercules?" If it was he was ancient. The story of Hercules was extremely old and if I remembered right Chiron wasn't the youngest of horsies even then.
"The one and the same. He has been granted immortality by the gods so that he can train their children as long as it was needed." Luke said. We walked on a bit further. The archery range was on the other side of camp and unlike Evie, Luke and I weren't really speeding. "So Michael is your real name huh?" Luke said.
"That's what Evie says." I hoped she was wrong. If she was right about my name she was probably right about me being a killer and that was something I wished was a lie or at least over exaggerated.
"I'm right trust me." Evie said without looking back. Apparently we weren't worthy of her gaze, or maybe it was just me that wasn't worthy in her opinion. "You shouldn't be talking to him Luke. You wouldn't be the first friend he stabbed in the back." Evie said. What was that supposed to mean? Did she think I'd hurt Luke? Even if I wanted to I probably couldn't. From what I had seen he was a pretty good fighter.
"He had my back against the manticore that killed Emily. I don't know what you've seen but I don't think you've got the right guy." For a second Evie turned around and looked me in the eyes. She seemed to be inspecting me, trying to make sure she was right. And in the end she decided that she was.
"It's him, I'm sure." Luke walked ahead of me now. He tried to be a bit more quiet so I wouldn't hear but I still heard them talk.
"Look Evie if you're sure we'll find out soon enough. But I think we should give him the benefit of the doubt." I hoped Evie would agree with Luke. And more so I hoped that Chiron would. He seemed like a sensible guy...centaur and I hadn't done anything to make people think I wasn't trustworthy. If there was anyone that I needed to be on my side it was him.
"You have no idea what he's done Luke. I know you want me to give him his memories back but I won't. If I have them it means someone passed them from him to me. He's better off not knowing his past. He might even be a better person because of it." I hadn't really thought about the fact that she could give me my memories back. Of course that's why I had made the effort to try and wake her up but when she started calling me a murderer that thought kind of disappeared from my mind. And now it didn't matter anyway. Evie refused to give me my memories, or at least she said so.
"Even if someone 'gave' you his memories they aren't yours he deserves to know who he is." For someone who thought I was better off without my memories he was really trying to convince Evie but she wouldn't give in.
"No. It's something I have to do and if I refuse that's the end of it." I wondered why we were still going to Chiron. She was so sure not even him could change her mind. But we pressed on until we arrived at the archery range. It was pretty simple. Demigods with bows stood at one side and a target stood at the other. Some of the demigods had stray dummies for targets while others had target boards. I figured dummies was more of a challenge. A bow never seemed very appealing to me. I liked to get close and personal rather than shoot someone from afar. Gunpowder was the worst invention ever in my opinion. Back in the day war was about honour and strength. These days everyone could be deadly simply because all they had to do was pull the trigger.
At the far end of the range stood a centaur with long brown hair and a long bushy beard. I figured that it was Chiron. He didn't look as old as I thought he would. I figured immortality also meant that he didn't look any older than he did back in the day. He had a himself and a quiver hung from his shoulder.
"Chiron." Evie yelled as she neared. Chiron raised his arm ordering the archers to hold their arrows. We crossed the archery range safely and we reached Chiron unharmed.
"Ah I see you're awake. I heard something like that from Grace." Chiron said to me. "Angel right?" I just nodded.
"His name isn't Angel Chiron, it's Michael. And he's a killer!" She glared at me before turning back to Chiron. Evie had to bend her neck all the way back in order to look him in the eyes. She wasn't that tall and even I had to look up and I was 6 foot 2.
"That's quite the accusation Evie." Chiron said raising his eyebrow. He looked at me and back at Evie. I wondered if he believed her. "This is a matter best discussed in private Evie. Luke would you be so kind as to escort Michael back to cabin eleven?" Luke just nodded as he signed me to follow. Before I walked after Luke I turned back to Chiron.
"Angel, please. I don't remember the person Evie speaks of and even if she speaks the truth...that's not who I want to be." I said. It was the plea of my defence. Of course Evie was far more believable especially if she could give a detailed description of my past. In a court of law...my case would be very weak.
The walk to the cabins was far shorter than the one from the big house. The cabins were quite close to the archery range. I wondered which cabin was Luke's. I knew he was the son of Hephaestus but that didn't mean I could spot the Hephaestus cabin just like that.
"So which cabin is yours?" I asked Luke. He pointed to a building that resembled a small factory with smoke coming out of it's chimney's. I wondered what the hell they were burning in there.
"Cabin nine, pretty easy to spot." Luke said. "For now you're in cabin eleven because you're unclaimed and all." Luke said.
"Yeah I know. It's one of the only things I do understand about the demigod life." I said. Grace had explained all about the claiming and the cabins. However I truly hated the Hermes cabin. It was too loud and crowded, not my kind of place.
"Well do you know about the ADHD and the dyslexia?" Luke asked me. My face must have shown that I didn't as Luke started to explain almost immediately. "It's traits nearly all demigods share. There are exceptions but most all have ADHD and dyslexia." I wondered if I had been diagnosed with those things. Among mortals they were known as dysfunctions in the brain but apparently it was a way to spot demigods.
"Why?" I asked. If this sort of information was dropped on me I usually wanted to know more. I was curious like that.
"Well first off let me explain that not everyone with these conditions is a demigod or a demigod who doesn't have them isn't weird or anything." That seemed fair enough to me. "Well the ADHD represent our natural battle senses. We can't sit still or concentrate in normal situations. I don't know if you noticed in your fight with the manticore but you can see every single detail." I remembered it from the fight. I could see the muscles of the manticore tense up, was that because I had ADHD? "The dyslexia is because our brains are hard wired for ancient Greek. We can read the ancient language better than English sometimes. Some people have it worse than others though." Luke said. "Some can't make out any letter in the alphabet while others read Shakespeare without a problem." I wondered if I had bad dyslexia. I remembered in the woods I could barely read the words Shadow-edge on the blade of my weapon but it hadn't been all that bad.
"Okay, thanks." I said simply. It was nice knowing a bit more about being a demigod. It made it easier to understand.
"No problem." Luke said. "You should get to your cabin and rest for a bit. It's been quite a day." I nodded and made my way towards the Hermes cabin. "Hey Angel, don't beat yourself up about what Evie said. Chiron isn't quick to judge, and Evie...well she'll come around." Luke didn't seem very convinced about that. I just smiled and nodded as if I believed him. Truth was I didn't. I was new and people trusted her more than me. If Evie told people about my past I would probably be hated all around. The worst part was that I didn't even know if it was true. People could say all they want about me if I knew that it was all lies. But I didn't know, I believed Evie more than anyone. After all I had woken up with a bloody sword and nearly dead myself. It wasn't so hard to think that I killed someone in those woods. Maybe that's what Evie was talking about. Or maybe I had killed more than one person. The thoughts were killing me. As I entered the Hermes cabin I blocked out all the sounds and threw myself on the bed that had been appointed to me. Was I truly I killer? Again the million dollar question popped into my mind, who am I?