Chapter 5: Reunions and farewells
I woke up in the Erebus cabin. All of the people that were there when Colt took over knew I could handle a choke hold from a chain and a kick to the face. The wound in my shoulder was more serious but that was something that I had before. It was a pretty bad wound and given I was knocked out they couldn't give me much nectar or ambrosia. So for the first time in quite a while I had bandages. It felt weird but...normal. Once you get used to miracle medicine you feel bad for all those poor sods who needed to heal for weeks. I raised my feet over the side of my bed. Unlike Colt I did feel the pain caused by the wound. A shock went through my arm and instinctively my left hand covered the main point of the pain. I could already tell this wound be an addition to my collection of physical scars. It didn't matter. My right shoulder was all scarred tissue as it was, it didn't matter how many times someone opened that old wound up it would barely make a difference any more. I raised myself from the bed and tried to find a shit somewhere. I was still wearing the same jeans (I really needed to wash them soon) but I had been robbed of my shirt. I personally stopped minding the scars but I didn't really want to parade around camp with all of them visible. Some were always visible. The burn which started at my shoulder and led down my arm was visible when I wore a T-shirt. I figured that now I had to go towards the storage room in the big house to get myself a shirt. I slightly opened the door of the cabin checking if there was anyone there. In front of the cabin stood two guys that I knew all too well. I was happy to see them together, it reminded me of old times. The sucky thing was that they weren't here for a friendly chat, they were here as guards.
"Hey guys." I said. Both of them turned around. Luke Ford and Maximus Meridius, the closest thing I had to family these days. The three of us had started the quest to defeat Phthonos last year and even though a lot of stuff happened along the way in the end we fought Phthonos together. Of course Maximus paid a huge price in that fight. The chain he had wrapped around his arm in the fight was burned into his flesh. I could see the chain come out of his arm at certain parts. It looked extremely disturbing but personally I was glad that he didn't pay for that fight with his life like Lucio Fortis and Dean did. Lucio, another death I felt responsible for. It was his own choice to go into that battle but I always felt like I should have protected him. But it was too late for that now. Lucio was gone.
"Angel, is it you?" Luke asked. There was never really a way to know for sure. Of course for me there was, I knew when I was in control. But Colt could act like me pretty well and knowing for sure if it was me or him could be a hard feat to accomplish. If anyone knew if it was me it was Luke though. He knew me and he knew Colt, he could spot the differences.
"It's me." I nodded. I stepped down the small steps leading to the door of the cabin and sat down. Colt was back, I knew that for sure. That was something that had to sink in. His return ruined everything for me. I couldn't live in LA and try to be normal now that Colt was back. I could only do one thing and that was stay at camp. At least here I wasn't as dangerous as I was out there. That showed. If it hadn't been for the fight with Ethan then Luke could have beaten Colt with ease and Max did it so as long as they were around I wasn't such a threat.
"You all right?" Max asked me. He was the one that got me. The chain burned into his arm had become useful to him thanks to Luke. He crafted a glove that connected with the chain and could extend it at will making it a pretty useful weapon. There was no way the chain could be removed without permanently damaging Max's arm so he had to make the best out of it. He was a good fighter with then chain and it made some things quite easy, like reeling me in as if I was a fish. That was a definite advantage.
"I should ask you lot the same question." I said. I usually caused a lot of damage when Colt took over and I didn't doubt that I caused some now. Thankfully Colt hadn't hurt anyone physically as far as I could remember. He had given Sophie a couple of good kicks but that was nothing all too serious. It could have been far worse. "What about Ethan? What happened to him?" I asked. I remembered beating him to a bloody pulp but what happened after that?
"He got a way while we were all dealing with Colt." Luke said. That was something that pissed me off. Because of Colt Ethan was still out there. Of course what were we supposed to do if he was still here? Kill him, no we couldn't do that. We weren't executioners. But we couldn't keep him at camp for the rest of his life. At least he would have been off the streets. Now all we could do was wait for him to make an appearance in our lives again. I didn't doubt that he would. After all he hunted us and he wouldn't stop doing that because of one setback. At least now we knew there were mortals hunting us. At least we could do something against it now.
"How's Sophie?" I asked. She was the only one Colt had hurt and she wasn't here. I wanted to know how much she hated me after seeing me as Colt. Usually that kind of ruined the friendships I had.
"I've never seen anyone take your change so easily." Luke said. Everyone who had met Colt had been affected in some way. Was Luke trying to say Sophie hadn't been? "She called Colt, and I quote. A arrogant, spineless idiot who should get a life. She did say she underestimated his fighting skill but other than that she doesn't seem to be impressed at all." In one way it was a relief, but on the other hand it felt bad. Colt had used me to get to Sophie and her not even caring made me feel kind of meaningless. Maybe that was stupid but it was just the way I felt.
"That's new." I said. For a second I wondered if it was a daughter of Aphrodite thing. When Maria spoke to Colt when I was locked up underneath the armoury she didn't seem very affective but Luke had said that some of the things Colt said got to her. Sophie being indifferent towards the things he said was unexpected.
"That's what I said." Maximus said. His voice sounded heavy and gruff as he usually did. I thought he'd lighten up now that he was free of Phthonos. I understood why he was like that when he was a slave but he hadn't really changed. I figured he still had something bothering him. That or maybe the tone in his voice was something he couldn't control.
"I want to go see her." I said. "Any idea where she is?" Luke shook his head but Max nodded.
"I saw her sitting at the top of the hill earlier." Maximus said. That seemed like enough information. I got up from the steps and made my first steps towards half-blood hill. Of course I was forgetting something.
"Angel. I forgot to give you this." Luke threw me a black tank top, it was better than walking around half naked. "And by the way Grace is getting her last rites this evening. Make sure you're there." Luke said. I wished I didn't have to be but I wasn't going to miss it. It was important to me. I nodded with a sad look. I put on the tank top and started walking towards the hill where I hoped to talk to Sophie.
The spot where Sophie was sitting was a place I remembered. It was the exact place where Luke, Maria, Max, Grace and I met a year ago. It wasn't all that far from the guardian dragon Peleus. He had grown pretty big, mostly wider. After all the only thing he ever did was lay around. Sometimes he'd catch a bird that dared to come close but other than that he wasn't very active. Still though he was still a very capable guardian for the golden fleece. I doubted anyone could defeat this dragon without becoming its next meal. Actually, I doubted anyone could come close without becoming its next meal. We sat at safe distance though, the dragon would have to actually get up to get to us and given he was busy with his afternoon nap (which is the nap between his after lunch nap and his early evening nap) I doubted that he would be bothered to do so.
"Hey." I said as I sat down next to her. I didn't know what to say or do. I never knew that stuff after someone met Colt. The only thing that seemed right was to apologize but I was sick of apologizing for something I didn't do. Of course I could hardly act like nothing ever happened.
"Hey." She replied. After that we fell silent. I was the one that came here to talk but I couldn't think of a single thing to say. That's when I started on the first few words of an apology but Sophie stopped me. "Don't apologize. It wasn't you. It always seems like you think none of us know that. For some it's just hard not to imagine him when we see you. But we know." Sophie said. I wondered if she saw me as Colt or Angel now. Luke said she didn't seem very affected by meeting Colt but she hadn't looked me in the eye even since I came to the hill.
"So how about you?" I asked her. That's when I figured that her not looking me in the eye hadn't been intentionally. She turned her head towards and stared at me with a exploring look.
"Nope, still you." She said joking slightly. Sophie was quite funny, we didn't always laugh about the same things but I figured someone with the same sense of humour would be in stitches because of her. "Look...things were said and even though I'm acting all tough I can't say I want to meet him again but truth is...he's overestimated. Especially by you. You think he's some kind of god but he's just you acting like a total s.o.b." Sophie was right about that. Although I couldn't help but think of Colt that way simply because that's how his presence made me feel. Mostly that was because about 99% of all my confidence and arrogance went into his personality leaving very little for me. I tried to be confident and all that but I knew that I would easily crack if push came to shove. My mental health in general wasn't very stable. "Anyway enough about Colt. How does it feel being back?" She asked me in an attempt to change the subject. I decided to just go along with it.
"Pretty much the same as it was last year. Too much death and me getting kicked in the face. It's exactly how I remember it." It might not have been a very serious answer but it was kind of the truth. It was almost exactly the same. That and I hadn't really been here long enough to actually feel anything but grief and rage. I was happy seeing my friends again but other than that coming back to camp had been a stupid decision. "How is it for you? Weird?" She had been gone for double the time that I had and she had been here a lot longer than I had. She had called this her home, now she was back.
"Too weird." She said while rubbing her temples. "It seems like nothing has changed you know? That's what freaks me out the most. I left without any sign and they all thought I was dead but now everyone acts as if I've never been gone. I hate it. I figured they'd be angry or at least say something about it but it's completely ignored. It doesn't make sense to me at all." For a second I thought 'why should they be angry?' I did the same thing but if Luke or Max had gotten pissy about it I would have told them to sod off. But then I realized her situation was very different from mine. Even though I had been trying to sneak out I had said my goodbye's when I left and I kept contact. Sophie only told her friends and family that she was alive a few months back. At first she made me swear that I wouldn't say anything to Luke or Max or anyone else I happened to talk to. I left she had disappeared. After figuring it out I shared her question, why weren't they pissed off?
"Maybe they're just happy to have you back?" It still didn't make sense to me but that was a possible explanation. One Sophie didn't think was the correct one.
"Maybe but no sign of anger at all? I'm not that popular around here." Hearing that from an Aphrodite kid was very rare. I befriended two of them but one of the traits about them that could seriously annoy me was that they could be quite arrogant. Some were more arrogant than others but one claiming that weren't more popular than anyone else was something that should be put on a calender.
"Seriously? I figured you'd be the prom queen or something like that." I said joking around a bit. Of course I actually did believe she was popular. She was an Aphrodite which usually made you very popular with the guys and she was nice too so I figured she'd have a lot of friends. On top of that she was a known hero so I figured everyone at camp wanted to be her friend. After all what movie stars and singers are in the mortal world are heroes in the demigod world. They're praised into the heavens and all that. It was the one thing about saving camp that both Max and I couldn't stand. We hated to be in the centre of attention. Hell I was the son of darkness and now I was being put in the spot light. It really wasn't my kind of thing.
"You should talk, pretty much all the girls at camp talk about you and Max. Although mostly you, the chain thing creeps them out." That felt pretty bad to hear. I envied him for getting less attention but he couldn't help it that Phthonos chose that as his punishment. He deserved the title of hero far more than I did for making a sacrifice like that. "I can't believe how many of my sisters asked me if you really are as muscular as you seem." Sophie said.
"That's just creepy..." I said. I didn't know how to handle attention and I really wasn't eager to learn. I had actually hoped no one would have noticed me coming back but the entire thing with Ethan and Colt probably ruined that. As soon as I thought about that moment again I wondered where Ethan was. He couldn't be. He had to be in New York somewhere. That penthouse maybe? I didn't know for sure but I was going to find out. I didn't know how I could stop him from killing us without killing him but there had to be a way. When there's a will there's a way.
"Meh, maybe it is maybe it isn't, truth is you need to get yourself a girl." Sophie said. I really wondered where this was coming from. Me needing a girlfriend was like a gas station needed a fire. That happening would be catastrophic. Now it would anyway. If Colt was still gone it would be a different story but he was back. I couldn't afford to care about anyone like that with Colt around. He would use it all against me and against them. The less people I knew well the better.
"With Colt around? Hell no, it's better if I stay alone the rest of my life." I meant that. It was better if I did but it wasn't what I wanted in my heart. The truth was Colt had been speaking the truth in his own deranged way. I had been thinking about Sophie, not in the perverted way he meant when he spoke to Sophie but she had been on my mind...a lot. I tried to forget about it but the harder I tried the less it seemed to work. It was a horrible feeling. I wished I could just shut it off but it wouldn't go away. I once heard a quote which said: 'when we give up on love, we give up on our humanity.' hearing that made me wish I wasn't human at all. Even though I tried, I guess I proved the fact that no guy can spend a lot of time with a daughter of Aphrodite without falling for her. "So how about you? I can't imagine you've ever spent much time without a boyfriend." Only after the words spit from my mouth I realized how idiotic they were. I knew Sophie and I knew she wasn't like that. A lot of people thought the daughters of Aphrodite were girls who had a different boyfriend every odd week and there were a few like that but I was the one that should know better. Hell Maria was marrying Luke in two weeks and Sophie hadn't shown a single interest in getting a boy friend in the entire year that we shared an apartment in Los Angeles. "I'm sorry about that...that was uncalled for." I said. I didn't want to be seen as a jerk especially not by her.
"No it's fine." Sophie said. I could see that it wasn't but apologizing again would only piss her off more. "I had a boyfriend for a few months when Hyperion started causing trouble. Alex Alias, Luke's little brother." It was weird to think that Sophie used to date Luke's younger brother. Two Aphrodite-Hephaestus relationships. Were those two meant to be or something like that? "Not long after I returned from the quest with Jake and Ashlyn he got invited by his dad to work at his forge. Alex took the invitation and I haven't seen him since." Given that was like three years ago she hadn't seen him in a long time. Truth was, I didn't think that was a bad thing.
"Do you miss him?" Hell we were on the subject anyway. Might as well fish a little. I wanted to know if she still had feelings for this Alex guy. I hated it but I wanted to know if I had a shot with her.
"Sometimes but more as a friend than as a boyfriend. He was a nice guy, a lot like Luke. I think you two would have gotten along great." She said. I wondered about this Alex Alias. I figured since he was Luke's brother I would ask him about it. He probably wouldn't mind. All I had to figure out was a reason why I would ask about him. Ah well, I'd improvise. There were few things I was better at than thinking on my feet. It was a trait that came in useful many times. Sophie looked at the watch that was wrapped around her wrist. She usually kept track of time unlike me. I never knew what time it was nor did I really care. All I cared about was when the sun was going to set and that was something I could feel coming. Once the sky started to became darker my heart would pound and my eyes opened wide. It was a good feeling. "It's almost 6, the funeral is starting soon."
It wasn't really a funeral but we didn't know what else to call it. Maybe cremation was a better word. Grace would be given her last rites and she would be burned, our ceremony for the dead. Before the body got burned her friends and family would talk about her, music would be played and tears would just like funerals the mortals held for their dead. This wasn't the first time I had been at one of these ceremonies and it wouldn't be the last. I didn't want to go and I doubted that Sophie did but we wanted to pay respect to our friend.
Sophie and I sat on the wall of the amphitheatre where Grace's body would be burnt. There were people all around, Grace was loved all around camp. I saw Luke, Maria and Max sitting on the back row on the east side of the amphitheatre. They had saved two spots for Sophie and I but me nor Sophie wanted to be down there. We knew that we would be asked to talk and neither of us wanted to. Sophie said that she would probably burst into tears before she said one word and I didn't believe there were any words I knew that could explain how Grace was. It was better to just stay out of sight. I saw Luke and Max talk before Max turned his head to me and Sophie sitting high above everyone and pointed at us. Luke looked our way nodded and turned his head back to a daughter of Iris who was speaking about her sister. After she was done talking about her sister she walked over to the bare wooden coffin in which lay Grace Harper. The girl touched the wood and it changed from it's original brown colour to every colour you could think of. It was now a coffin worth of Grace's personality. The girl sat down not far from the coffin and Luke stood up and made his way to the middle of the amphitheatre and started talking.
"Grace was different from the rest of us. Everyone is his or her own individual of course but Grace...she was something else. She was kind to everyone, when everyone turned against you Grace was the one that would be there for you." For one second Luke's eyes turned to me when he said that. It was true. When everyone suspected me of killing Evie and Tom Grace still treated me like a normal person. Even after meeting Colt she still acted kind to me. I would always be thankful for those things. "No matter how dark the days you could find Grace smiling and she would want to make you smile. You could always trust her with her troubles and always have the best time with her. There are few that deserve to live forever, Grace was one of those that do. Not only because she deserves to walk the earth for the rest of time. But also because the world deserves someone like her." Luke stopped talking. There was some clapping while Luke walked to the bench where Grace's siblings sat. He mouthed the words 'my condolences' and walked back to his seat. Luke gave one hell of a speech. I knew that I couldn't have thought of those words, it was better that Luke went up there. He was much better at speaking whether it was for someone's memory or for motivation or anything else really. Luke knew what to say. The song 'ain't no sunshine' started playing as one of Grace's sisters picked up the torch and put it on the coffin. The girl bursted into tears and was welcomed back to her siblings with open arms. I looked to my right, Sophie was crying as well. I wanted to comfort her but didn't really know how. I was really bad at this sort of thing. In the end I wrapped my arm around her hoping it would help. Sophie lay her head on my shoulder and continued crying. A shiver went up my spine when she did that but that wasn't important. She seemed better and that was what mattered most.