Thanks all for your patience for this story! I try to do better and update a little more often... But anyways, THANK YOU to all who read this story!
I was running home. The school was so boring I was relived it was over. And I was glad I could see my mother soon. She had been away for a while, in a different state in some teacher conference. I was glad I didn't have to be with my grandparents anymore. They were harsh and old fashioned people, and my Mother was the youngest child of them. They loved her, but hated me. That is because my mother is not married but still has a child, me, and that I was the 'creation', as they put it, of a one night stand. Mother always said that I was not a mistake, and that I was the best thing ever happened to her in her life. And it wasn't any better that I didn't really look like the rest of my mother's family. I looked very much like my father. I had his eyes, his hair but my mother's hair color. I also got his nose and the chin, my other features from my mother. So all in all, I was a female version of my dad.
I meet my father (though daddy when I wanted something, he never could say no to me) once in a year. First he would come to Boston for two weeks and hang out with me as much as possible, the second year we would go to San Francisco to him for a week and then the third we were in Texas with him. And then the circle starts all again. He also sends me cards and gifts on my birthday. He also sends money to mother every month, four hundred dollars per month, but my mother doesn't use them. She is a stubborn woman and wants to raise me up without the 'pity money', as my mother put it. She gives almost all of them on charity, but I knew she always keeps some of it. We weren't rich and I wasn't an easy child. My ADHD couldn't let me stay put and studying was hard because of my dyslexia. I also was a magnet of misfortune. I was kicked out of almost every school when something weir happened, like an explosion or some weird mans' trying to get to me… There was always something. We had moved closer to my grandparents in Boston two years ago and I have managed to stay in the same school for the same amount of time. My mom and dad were proud of me, my other family despised me.
Also my uncle was a horrible man. Once, when mother would arrange him to babysit me, he tried to do things to me. I was five and he said that we were going to play a fun game… Though I really didn't like it when he took my shirt off. That's when I heard an angry voice in my head. It sounded a bit like my father… Yeah, I'm losing the track of my thoughts. So, I was sitting on my uncle's lap when I thought I heard my father. And I think my uncle did too, because he dropped me on the sofa and moved away from me, shaking. He was nodding like a crazy person and threw my shirt back to me. Then he started to mutter something too quiet for me to hear. He never came too close to me now days, which I was grateful for.
And after the "incident" my mom never wanted to leave me alone with my uncle. So she had to rely on her parents. They were a bit better, but it wasn't pretty. They didn't beat me or touch me, no. It was more like I didn't exist. I had to take care of myself and make sure that I got food. They didn't care for me at all. At least I thought so.
But my mother, she was amazing. She never shouted at me or ignored me, she always listened to me when I wanted to talk and was the best mom ever. I could handle anything if I had my mom with me, even the bad relatives.
Plus my dad, he's amazing. For some reason I really feel like he gets me, even if we don't see each other but once in a year. And the time with him is never awkward, I always have fun. But even if he was the best father, he wasn't there all the time. Only for the two weeks in the summer, and then he was gone. Sure, I could call him but he did call me.
And there was one thing besides all this. Whenever strange things happen to me, there is this voice in my head. The voice belongs to a male, and he really sounds like my dad. He always tells me what to do and nothing usually happened to me then, if only I listened to the voice. I have heard the voice as long as I remember. It was a voice to save me when my mom wasn't there. It managed to make me feel always save.
And strange things happened aside from school. I could swear that I saw a man with one eye, a lady with tail and no legs or a huge hound, bigger than any other dog. Usually in these cases the voice ordered me to hide, or walk away calmly, not to react. Sometimes these… monsters noticed me and then the voice told me to go in a crowd. Usually they left after that and forgot about me.
I had just opened the door to our small apartment in row of houses and shouted for my mom.
"In the back yard, honey!" I heard her answer to me. Our apartment was really small and some way away from the downtown. I threw my back somewhere in the house and ran to the garden. It was a real small piece of land, but my mom loved it. For some reason she raised there Phlox flowers, all in different color. She loved them and because she was so passionate about them, I loved the flowers too.
When I saw my mom, all my worries vanished. It didn't matter that the school (me) got a new stalker, who followed, surprise, surprise, me everywhere. I swear I have seen the guy in front of our house! But he never did anything more but talking to me and following me. And he was the same age that I was. So how bad could this kid be? I was in the fifth grade with him. Maybe he has a crush on me. And it didn't matter that I was the freak of our class. I don't know why, but I could always tell how other people feel and where their loyalties lay if they even were loyal. And that scared other people. Like, our teacher was very depressed and when I asked her why, she just looked at me with wide eyes, unblinking. Then she started to stammer something about me not supposed to know blah blah blah…
I looked at my mom and could see the pure happiness radiating from her when she saw me. My mother has curly dark brown hair and blue eyes and she has really small structured body. I was only a little more than ten centimeters smaller than her and I was eleven years old and my mother was barely over thirty. I hoped that I inherited my dad's genes when it came to length. She smiled and widened her arms so that I could run in her arms. And so I did.
We hugged for some time, just enjoying each other's warmth. "How was school, Cara?" my mom asked after a while. "Good." I replied. "Though there is this new boy in our class. He feels strange."
"Feels strange?" My mom asked without sounding like I was mad. That was one of the perks also, I could say anything to my mother and she didn't think I was strange or mad.
"Yeah… You know how I can always tell how others feel?" My mom nodded and waited for me to continue. "Yeah, well… He doesn't feel like human. His emotions are a little different and… like, colored in a different way."
And my mom just smiled at me and kissed my forehead. "I wouldn't worry about it, dear." She said, but she was starting to feel sad and a little scared. "Are you sad?" I asked with wide eyes. She fidgeted a little but kept the smile in place. "No, honey. Everything's fine. How about you do your homework and I make lunch, yes?" I nodded and smiled at her, turning to do my homework.
After an agonizing hour and a half I was done and eating chicken and rice my mom on the other side of the table. We were chit chatting about nothing important, when the doorbell rang. "Are you waiting for somebody?" Mom asked as she rose from her chair and went to open the door. "No." Was my answer as I, too, went to the door.
Before we could even take three steps the door crashed open with force. Mom's aura changed to fear immediately without me being far behind. Soon I was shaking.
In our hallway was a weird lady with a leg of bronze and a hoofed foot of a donkey but upper body of a woman. She was real beautiful, if you could ignore the lower body. I felt like I was going to be sick. She started to hiss and looked straight at me. Behind her, or it, I saw a boy lying on the floor. "Grover?" I asked, amazed. That was the new stalker boy of mine, lying on the floor hopefully unconscious. "You shall die, demigod!" She hissed, but my mom came in between us two.
"You wish to die too?" The lady asked, turning her head to the side. "Don't you dare touch my daughter." Mom said, sounding scary calm. I was trembling behind her. The intruder looked like she could eat someone, growing some fangs while she was on it. My eyes got even bigger. "Strong father she has, such a strong and-" she licked her lips "-delicious scent."
The atmosphere suddenly changed, making the monster shiver. Her aura gave away her fear but unfortunately she seemed to steel her nerves. I on the other hand got some much needed confidence and it seemed like mom did too.
But I really didn't know how we were going to beat this thing with no weapons or what so ever, when she had pointy fangs and sharp fingernails. And those legs would hurt, too.
Mom threw a vase to her head, hitting on the target. She turned around, grapping my hand on the way and running to the back door. I hoped that Grover would be okay. We were on our back yard, the monster surely not far behind, and the fences were blocking our way out. Mom ran to the furthest corner of our small back yard and picked me up. "Climb." She ordered me. I did as I was told. I was just on the top when the monster came to the yard behind us, looking dangerously amused.
"Nowhere to run now." She hissed, looking straight towards me. I knew mom could not climb to the fence, she was too short. And she knew it too. She stepped away from the fence, looking at me sadly. "Mom," I said with warning in my tone. "Yeah, I know honey." She said, sighing. "Should've made a door here."
"Mom, come on!" I shouted, but she just shook her head as the weird lady came closer. Run, Cara. I heard the voice say. "Go." She said before I jumped off the fence. I didn't dare to jump right back to the back yard, so I ran around the house. In the front Grover was trying to get up a little shakily. "Cara?" He asked. "Come on, Grover! We have to help my mom." He seemed to understand and got up, taking out reed pipes, or at least I thought they were, from somewhere. Where, I have no idea. Maybe I didn't even want to know.
I was running back to the back yard, again without anything to defend myself and mom with. The scene I ran to was horrible. My mom was on the ground, with blood on her much adored flowers along with the ground. The monster was kneeling beside mom, face close to hers. Before I could stop it, I screamed. A very angry scream.
The lady turned to look at me, smiling with her bloody lips. Grover started to play his reed piped before I had a change to do anything. The monster was caught by some grass. While she had trouble getting those off her, I saw a small flower shovel on the corner of the yard. I took it and advanced the monster. She didn't get any chance but hiss when I already screamed with anger and hit her with the sharp end of the shovel. The monster turned almost immediately to golden dust.
I stood there, blinking. How could the thing just disappear? That was until I heard my mom's weak moan and Grover's steps behind me.
"We have to go", he said.
"What do you mean? We have to help my mom!"
"Cara! This is about you!"
"Are you BLIND! MY MOM IS FREAKING -"
"Fine, give me a phone."
"I don't have one…"
"Is there one nearby?"
"In the kitchen." That was when Grover disappeared into the house and I could… do something with mom. I was sobbing silently and begging mom to wake up when Grover returned. "Let's go", he said.
"What about my mom?" My voice was only a whisper, but I was glad that Grover heard me.
"An ambulance is coming. She is going to be alright. Now come on." He said, taking me by the shoulders, lifting me up and guiding me towards the front of the house. I was shivering and a little out of my mind, because I was going to some unknown place with a stalker and leaving my injured mom behind. I would kill Grover if she wasn't going to be okay.
Grover hailed for a taxi and told the driver an address after showing him the money. I was just starting to panic when the ambulance's sirens were heard. "What was that thing?" I asked, still with a small voice.
"Look, Cara, I will explain everything to you later."
"NO! Grover, I need to know! And what were you doing in front of our house knocked out?"
He blushed when I said this. I still didn't feel any shame, we weren't exactly friends. "I was protecting you." he said, with uneven voice. "Yeah, I can see that." I said, voice full of sarcasm. Grover blushed deeper and let out a soft bahaha, like a goat.
"I was following the Empousa, when it came to your street. I knew it was after you and tried to get you out but it noticed me and followed me… I was the one that brought her to you."
I was just gaping at Grover. Did he say Empousa? I think he did.
"Excuse me?" I asked, a little angry.
"Of course I didn't do it on purpose-!"
"Yeah, whatever." I felt a little bad of how bad I was treating Grover. He did the thing with the reed pipes after all… Wait! Did the grass really grab the Empousa. Am I finally going mad?
"Where are we going?" I decided to ask an easy question for change, so that I might get an answer.
"To the camp."
"Camp?"
"Yeah. You'll be save there."
"Um… I don't really have any money so…"
Grover laughed, sounding a little like a goat. "It's free, don't worry."
"And it's not like I'm going to stay." The look Grover gave me made me think otherwise, but Grover didn't comment.
There was at least thousand questions in my head, but I decided not to voice them. Instead I looked out of the window, watching the scene change. "You did well, by the way." Grover said after a long silence. I didn't answer. Instead I was in my memories, watching how pale my poor mother looked and how helpless she had been. I really have to see her soon.
After a long trip for an ADHD child we were on our destination. Grover paid the taxi driver and he drove off. "Are you sure this is the right place? Here's nothing but field!" I was starting to get frustrated. "Yeah, this is the place." He said and started to walk towards a huge tree on a hill. I had no choice but to follow him.
I was pretty tired when we made it on the top. My body was still in shock and the adrenalin rush was long ago gone. I looked at the valley under the hill and all I could see was a big farm house. "Grover, is this is a joke-" Before I could continue, he cut me off. "No, this is the place. Let's head to that big house." And again he was ahead of me.
When I took a couple of steps after him, I came to an stop. The valley was gorgeous. There was twelve cabins, very different from each other, a beautiful beach and couple of sports center along with weirder things. There was stable, which looked like it was inhabited by winged horses. In the center was a climbing wall, but was that lava that was pouring from it? And it looked like the kids here all had an armor on… Were those swords?!
"Cara!" Grover stopped me from fainting. This was all too much. Weapons? Lava? A perfect beach? How come I didn't see this on top off the hill? Yeah, I was crazy. I turned my gaze towards Grover.
"Keep moving", he said, snickering at me. I just nodded and made my feet move.
When we (finally) arrived to the big house, I was amazed. The place was really, really different in a good way from all the other camps. The campers looked at me when I walked by and started to whisper, someone's even smiled at me. I smiled back at those who did and did my best to keep up with Grover. He had longer legs than I, even if he did walk funnily, like his ankles were hurt. "Be polite." Grover whispered to me as we approached the porch.
"Ah, Grover", said a man in the porch. He was a kind looking man in a wheelchair, with brown hair and eyes which looked like they held all the knowledge in the world. Beside him sat a bulky man with red eyes and nose, and his eyes were beautiful purple. He was wearing funny clothes, not really fashionable man I see. They were playing cards. The funny thing was, there were two sets of cards hanging in the air, like two invisible hands were holding them.
"New arrival, I see." Said the brown haired man. "What is your name, child?" He asked. "Carol." I said, a little shyly. "But everyone calls me Cara." The man nodded and smiled a warm smile, when the other man didn't even look up from the game. "Why wouldn't you come and sit?" The man said and pointed at the two seats. Grover sat first next to the bulky man and was extremely nervous, I could tell. I sat between Grover and the man in the wheelchair. The cards floating in the air came down as we sat in front of them.
"Well, are you going to take your cards or not?" Asked the purple eyed man. I took the cards along with Grover and tried to make some sense to the game. "You do know how to play, don't you?" Continued the man eying me warily. "Um, what are we playing, exactly?" I asked as politely as I could. "Pinochle. The best game there is after pacman."
"Um, I'm afraid not." I said as I laid the cards on the table. There was a pause as the man eyed me angrily, Grover was fidgeting and the wheelchair man didn't look faced at all. "Care to explain thing to me now, Grover?" I asked with anger in my voice.
But he still ignored me. "Chiron, Cara here has real strong scent. She's only on the fifth grade and an Empousa was after her today."
"Really?" Asked the man, eyeing me with great interest. "She could one of Poseidon's daughters."
"But he rarely has daughters. All of them are boys." Pointed out Grover.
"Hm, true. But she might be an exception." The wheelchair guy, Chiron, said and smiled a little. "She sure looks a bit like him." He said. The second man eyed me for a second before looking as bored as ever.
"Um, excuse me, but what the hell is going on?" I asked, almost panicking again.
"She doesn't even know anything?" Chiron looked amazed. "No, I promised to tell her here."
"I am sitting right here." I said, through gritted teeth. All three looked at me a little. The bulky man decided to break the ice. "So you have a mother… Well, kid, you daddy is a Greek god, and yes, like in the myths but no, they are not myths and are still alive and blah blah blah." I just looked at the man like he was crazy, until he waved his hand making a glass of wine appear.
"Mr. D." Chiron said in a bored tone.
Mr. D. sighed and waved his hand again, making the wine to diet coke. I just looked at him, as if I was going crazy. "My dad is a god?" All three just nodded.
"But that's crazy!" Before I could continue, Mr. D. interrupted me. "Better just believe it now. You are ADHD, dyslexic and you know only one of your parents and weird thing happen to you."
"Well, yes, but I know my dad. He visits us once a year." That made them all stop their movements. "What did you say?" Asked Mr. D. with a dangerous voice. "I know my dad. And he is no god." I said matter-of-factly. "Then your mommy lied to you. That isn't your real daddy." Said Mr. D. with bored tone.
I was getting more and more angry and frustrated. Why couldn't anyone just say thing as they were? "No. he IS my father. We look so much alike it's hard to fake." I said. They looked like they didn't believe me. "Look!" I said and took out a photo in my pocket. Yeah, heh, I know. I have a photo of me and my daddy with me. But I have always kept it with me.
Chiron took the photo from me. Wait a moment, if this guy claims that Greek gods exists, monsters clearly do too, are the all myths true? Is this the Chiron my mom used to read me about in a bed time story? Well, the supposed to be centaur eyed the photo carefully. "I have never seen a god looking this." He said and handed the photo to Mr. D. He eyed it for a moment before saying: "Gods can change their appearances. But who is foolish enough to brake the ancient laws?"
They looked at me like I had an answer. "Do you have any special talents? Like… Bending water or sensing something… Just tell the truth."
I gulped nervously. "Yeah… I can sense ones loyalties and emotions." I said. I felt like someone had pressed the mute-button. It was so silent in the porch. "I have no idea who your parent may be, then." Chiron said. Dionysius on the other hand, was pale and looked like someone had stolen his favorite thing in the world. He cleared his throat before Chiron would notice, but he was a second too late.
"Why don't you go and run around with Grover. I-I had to… talk to my father and- yeah. Go along, girl." He said and started to shine so bright I had to cover my eyes. When it was gone, I looked at Chiron. "What was that?" I asked. "I have no idea, I have never seen Dionysius so nervous before."
"No I meant the- WAIT! That guy is a god?" I asked, still trying to keep everything understandable. "Yes, he is the wine god. I wonder what…" He cut himself off before he could say anything else. "Why don't you go and show Cara around? I see you at the dinner." He said and smiled kindly, though in his eyes was a weird glint. And his emotions were in a mess. I decided to ignore it and learn more about the place.
That's how my life as a half-blood started.