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The kitten once again follows me as I continue to walk in the night. She stays about two feet behind me the whole time. I ignore her. She will go away. They always do.

I walk deeper into the city. Buildings seem to be falling apart, shops have broken windows, and there is less noise although you can hear it in the distance.

I keep going.

The buildings begin to look like they are decomposing. The active shops become less and less. All the lights are busted out. The shadows seem to move to mortals, yet i know the shadows truly are moving.

The small cat becomes on guard. She should. She shouldn't be here. Truly, she shouldn't have followed me from the start. This kitten is strange. I think I'm starting to appreciate this weird little animal.

I keep walking. Everything is dark. The buildings stand tall and block any light from any outer source. Shadows seep into every nook and cranny, even open space is dark. There are no voices, no bodies. No lights. It is all darkness here.

I keep walking. The kitten keeps following.

Creatures of the dark of all kinds walk around here. The shadows move. Dark vines grow on the deteriorating buildings. A pomegranate tree grows every 80 feet. Different jewels litter the ground, it's suicide to collect them. Large and small cracks can be found on the ground everywhere. They lead down to the underworld.

Nothing living of the mortal world belongs here, yet the cat continues to follow me, hissing with every step. I see a harpy in the sky, she swoops down and lands in front of me.

"The cat. Is it yyoouuurrsss?"

I stand still, void of emotion.

"What if it is."

I feel the small calico kitten getting ready to defend if needed. Shes not brave, shes stupid.

The harpy bares her fangs. I can feel her hunger. "I want it."

I sigh and kneel down, the kitten comes right up to me. I continue to look the harpy in the eye as I pick up the kitten in my arms and stand once again.

"The cat is not food. Now go."

The kitten hisses in my arms at the harpy.

The harpy growls the takes flight once more.

I once again continue my walk deeper into the city. I am in the heart, now i need to go to the center of the heart.

I hold the kitten in my arms as I walk, head down and ignoring all that is around me. The kitten stares around at everything but makes no move to defend or harm. The damn thing knows I will protect it.

A large house can be seen in the distance. It's design is old, and should be crumbled yet it is the most in-tact building around.

I walk through the mixture of skeletons, hellhounds, and harpies until I reach the house. No one tries anything with me.

I'm the son of Hades.

Of coarse they don't try anything.

I walk up the steps and will the large double doors to open. I enter the silent house and the doors shut behind me.

The cat jumps out of my arms and begins to circle my legs, I ignore it.

"Nico?"

I turn to my left and see my sister Hazel walking to me. She is my sister because she is another child of Hades-or an aspect-, but is a bit different than I. Many people think we are adopted because of this, yet no one knows our parents so we never need to worry.

"Are you okay? I was worried about you. OH! Is that a... Kitten?!"

I nod and look down at her as she kneels down and begins to pet the happy kitten.

"Yeah. The stupid thing followed me home."

Hazel looks up at me, "That's strange...No living things from the mortal world ever comes near here. If they do they run or get eaten."

"Almost did by a harpy. I picked it up and told her to go."

Hazel continues to pet the calico but stares at me. She seems to be concerned or curious. I'm not concerned at all.

"Well," she says standing up with the cat in her arms, "Have you named her?"

I shake my head slightly.

She coos the kitten and the kitten rubs against her cheek, "Well. I'll name her... Mocha, for the way she reminds me of mocha coffee."

I smirk, "you sure it has nothing to do with your skin color?"

I say it with a slight upbeat tone. She knows I'm teasing her.

"Hey," Hazel playfully shoves me, "don't be a jerk Nico," and she laughs.

I give a slight smile. Hazel is the only one who doesn't get nervous around me and who knows when I am showing emotion.

"Alright. So her name will be Mocha for whatever reasons I decided on and that's that."

I nod and begin to walk away, planning to go to my room.

"Hey wait!"

The kitten- now Mocha- jumps in front of me and sits, looking up. Her tail happily swishing side to side.

"Awe...Seems she likes you Nico."

I turn my head and give Hazel a glare yet she only giggles. I look back down at Mocha. She purrs.

Sighing I ignore the kitten and continue to walk to my room down the hall. Hazel does not follow, she knows better. The kitten is not as smart.

The house is large for a house, but it is not a mansion. Father, has his castle in the underworld. This house in the heart of the city is just his staying location in the mortal world. Every god has an area in the mortal world. Father's area is the heart of the worst shit city. His domain is in this location.

Other gods have different domains in the mortal world where things manifest and reside much like here.

I walk up the three-sets stairs up to the fourth floor and then to the back hallway. Ignoring the view out the window. I pull the ceiling door open and pull the ladder down and climb up into the attic. This is my room.

The kitten jumps up on each rung and then jumps onto the attic floor. Stupid animal.

I pull the ladder up and the door. I am alone in my "room".

The attic is cold-although most of the house is cold-and dank. I keep it clean. There is only one electrical light fan attached from the roof/ceiling, the rest of light sources come from candles I rarely have lit. There are two small windows. One looking out over the back, one looking out over the front. The floor is wooden and some nails stick up. The roof is strong and stable and never leaks but there is no insulation. Wooden beams hold up the roof and a row of four support beams goes along the center of the floor to ceiling. The walls are unpainted dark wood, same for the floor, beams, and ceiling.

I have my king-sized bed near the front, the head against the low diagonal ceiling and small wall. The blankets red and black. My tall book shelf is in the center of the 18 by 15 attic against the center wooden beam. The book shelf is over flowing with my books, books are scattered around the attic. My dresser is near the entrance to the attic near the back. I have jackets hanging from the ceiling/roof above my dresser. My desk is across from my bed against the other roof/wall. A laptop sits waiting on my desk, among pens, pencil, paper and a few sketchbooks under the desk. A small pile of dirty clothes lies on the floor in the center behind the book self against the wall, out of the way. I have a bed-side table with drawers between the front wall and my bed. I have a second dresser near my bed closer to the center of the room. On it, my tools... Around the room I have band posters and my drawings and other items hanging or taped on the ceiling, walls, and support beams.

I walk in and flop onto my bed. Macha walks over to my pile of clothes and snuggles up into them.

"You like those huh?"

The only reply I get from the kitten is silence of her sleeping.

I roll my eyes and turn so I can look out the small window.

Hazel and I have lived in this house our whole lives. We've either walked, had the hellhounds shadow-travel us, or I've shadow traveled us to the schools we've gone to. As children it was harder to keep the secret that we were not mere mortals and how to explain how lives. It was also complicated when a parent needed to come into school or sign something. When that happened, one of the demons always took on a human form and filled in what needed to be done, although there is never any affection. The parent-fill-ins only go through the motions necessary to fool the mortals enough.

Since Hazel and I have been old enough to go to schools, we've jumped from school to school. We normally spend about three years at the same school. We've never done any extra things or gone to the parent-child activities. We don't go on field trips or get involved in school clubs. It was harder to blend when we were younger but as we got into the older grades, we just became the outcasts.

Hazel has always had it easier than I. She talks to others, laughs, can blend in better and spend time. They just think shes weird. Normally she goes and blends with the goth or punk kids. She says they accept that she's a bit different and don't ask questions. Some are rude and others are kind to her. But its never been like that for me. Hazel is able to express herself more easily than I can. Hazel can't do the things I can do.

I can't talk to people easily. I don't have the same sense of humor as everyone else. I think differently and don't like to be around many people. They are too much for me to be comfortable. People fear me and do not understand. They look at me and quickly look away, trying to pretend I am not there. I make them nervous. I do not have to say a word, I do not even have to look at them. People instantly do not like me. They talk about me. Sometimes the "brave" and "cool" ones will say shit to me. I've always held it in and not cared. I'm alone. That's fine. I don't need them. They would never understand anyways.

That is how elementary and middle school always were, each in their own way but always the same. That hurt as a kid, I grew to ignore it. Now i don't feel it, nor do I care. Now Hazel and I are going into our first year of high school. A different district.

Father last week came up and told us that we will be going to a high school in a decent area. He said that it is possible other demi-god children are going to this high school. He said that he hopes that this school will be easier for us since it is a mixture of mortals and demi-gods. I don't believe him. Every school is horrible.

What I was just coming back from was the school. I went to see it. The high school is about an hour away so Hazel and I will have to shadow travel. The school is enormous. There are classes for every thing you could imagine being taught in a school. Five different language classes, seven different artistic classes, and four computer classes. There is a team for every sport that has competition. There are multiple history, language arts, math, and science classes to choose from. There are multiple different club activities.

Every mortal student's dream for a school with this many options. For me though, it's a hazard. A larger school with more to offer means more students. More students and activities means more cliques. More cliques means harder for me to blend in. Which means I will stand out, and that is more problems for me.

I fall asleep in my clothes thinking about how shitty the high school was going to be for me. I was wrong.

It was worse.

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