No More Olympus

Chapter 4

"Hey, Athena," Wayne called out with his phone in his hand, running up to the gate she was leaning against.
Wayne was an old friend of Jacobs from high school. The two had both stayed in their hometown up through their adulthood.
He was likely here for the same reason Athena was there, to pick up his son, who was about to be dismissed from school. His son Tyson and her son Alexander would regularly have playdates on weekends and could typically be seen chasing after each other around during recess.
"How are you, Wayne?" Athena smiled, "How's the missus?"
"I'm fine," Wayne responded, "Crystals got a little bit of a cold but a little time off work, and she'll be fine. What about you?"
"Eh," Athena shrugged, "Can't complain, I guess."
"Nah, something's bothering you," Wayne guessed, "What is it?"
"It's nothing," Athena said, "Just some family drama."
"What? Is Stuart back in town?" Wayne asked, referring to Jacob's cousin who always made it an event when he came to town, an event Athena usually despised.
"No," Athena shook her head, "It's on my side this time."
"Oh," Wayne nodded along, that is until he remembered who he thought he was talking to, "Oh!" he repeated with far more emphasis.
"Yeah," Athena sighed.
"This some long-lost relative?" Wayne guessed.
"You could say that," Athena responded.
"What do they want, money?" He asked.
"Thankfully, no," she sighed.
"What does he want then?" Wayne asked.
Athena paused for a moment.
"What did you want to show me?" she asked, quickly changing the subject.
"Oh right," he said, pulling out his phone, "You're Greek, right?"
Athena nodded.
"And seem to know a lot about Greek mythology and Greek culture and Greek history," Wayne continued.
"Wait, since when?" She interrupted sarcastically, "What's your point?"
"I thought you would get a kick out of this," he answered, handing her his phone, "Some rich archeologist dug up a bunch of secret temples in Greece."
"Temples?" Athena questioned.
"Tombs, shrines whatever," Wayne shrugged off.
Athena quickly skimmed the article.
It was about precisely what Wayne had said.
While employed by some obscure American company, a professor named Wallace King had unearthed several hidden temples all around Greece, temples that were currently being excavated and studied. King would go on to say that he believed that these sites, which were being kept hidden from the public for one reason or another, were evidence of the existence of ancient Greek gods. The reporter who interviewed him seemed to have interpreted it as a joke.
"When did this happen?" Athena asked, doing her best to hide the desperation in her voice.
"About a week ago," Wayne estimated, "Pretty cool, right?"
Athena had since stopped listening. She was distracted by a photo of King and his team, all of whom seemed to be covered in a thin layer of grime. Under King's arm, he seemed to be holding a pithos about the size of a football. It shined with bronze that reflected off the camera light making it difficult to see, she zoomed in on the photo for a better look.
'That's not it,' Athena thought to herself, 'That's impossible.'
The school's bell rang through the air, startling Athena and pulling her out of her trance.
"Can I have my phone back?" Wayne requested.
"Uh... sure," Athena hesitated, handing it to him.
"You okay?" Wayne asked, "You look pale."
"Didn't sleep great," Athena excused, "I'll be fine."
It was at that moment that Alec's kindergarten class began to file out of the door. Tyson and Alec were last to appear, both sprinting out of the building as fast as their five-year-old legs could carry them.
She bent her knees as Alec charged straight forward, and the second before they would have collided, Athena slipped her hands under his armpits and lifted him off the ground with her trademark superhuman grace.
"Hello there," Athena greeted as she lifted her son above her head.
"Hi," Alec grinned.
"How are you?" she asked.
"Good," he answered.
"What did you do today?" she asked.
"Finger painting!" he said with excitement.
"Let me see your hands," Athena demanded.
Alec lifted his hands in front of his face, displaying the entire rainbow's worth of colours stained on his fingers.
"Oh my gosh," Athena joked as she rested the boys' feet on the ground, "My baby's turning into a chameleon."
Alec's eyes turned intense as he considered this idea.
"I would be the master of hide and seek," Alec realized, his voice understanding the ultimate power this would give him.
Athena chuckled at his realization.
Her smile disappeared quickly. However, with her trained godly hearing and through the sound of parents and children reuniting after the school day, she could hear a very faint sound of multiple hissing snakes and scratching claws.
"Mom?" Alec called out, waving his arms to get his mother's attention.
"Yes?" Athena snapped her head toward Alec, "I'm sorry, kiddo, I thought I heard something."
"Can I go play?" Alec requested, tugging on his mother's shirt.
"Go ahead," Athena agreed, trying to locate the source of the sound, narrowing it to a tree across from the playground.
Alec whipped off his backpack and threw it at Athena's feet. She slowly bent down to pick it up and place it over her shoulder, all while never taking her eyes off of the tree.
"Hey Wayne," Athena called out to her friend, "Could you watch Alexander for me? I have to... make a call."
"Sure thing," Wayne accepted, thinking nothing of it.
"Thanks," she said before making a beeline for that tree,
She materialized a small dagger about as long as a pencil in her hand, hiding it from passersby by pressing the blade into her wrist. She cursed herself for not wearing the long sleeves that would be required to hide a longer blade, but she had to make do with what she had on hand.
Her heart accelerated as she approached the tree. With each step, the situation became that much more real, her best bet would be to scare whatever this was away before it could hurt anyone or to kill it as quietly as possible, grab Alec and make a break for it before anyone discovered the body.
She gripped the handle tightly as she looked behind the tree.
She breathed a sigh of relief when she found no one there,
She noticed that a massive piece of bark had been freshly ripped from the tree by some sort of incredibly sharp blade. She also noticed a very pungent foul smell clung to the grass, almost as if death itself crop-dusted the ground.
The cell phone in Athena's pocket then began to vibrate, She quickly turned on her phone to check who was calling, A photo of Jacob passed out on the couch was displayed on her screen alongside his name. Jacob hated that photo. Athena had made it his contact picture on her phone for solely that reason.
"Hello," Athena said, picking up the call.
"Hey hon," Jacob greeted, "I lost track of time. You're picking up Alec, right?"
"Yeah, I got him," Athena reassured him, "He's doing that thing where you jump off the swing set mid-swing."
"Good times," Jacob remarked, "Hey, I wanted to talk to you about something, but you just took off before we could."
"Sorry about that. I had a sudden errand to run," she lied, making her way back over to the playground, "What did you want to talk about?"
"Whose Ares?" He asked, making Athena stop in her tracks, "I mean to you, something tells me that 'Orphanage Friend' isn't the whole story."
Athena hesitated for a moment.
"You're right," she admitted, "Ares is... my brother."
Jacob was silent for a moment.
"Your brother," he repeated.
There was a moment of silence between the two.
"Do you have any questions," Athena asked nervously,
"Why didn't you tell me about him?" Jacob asked.
"Because we didn't part on good terms," she explained, "Last time we spoke, we basically told each other to go to hell, and I never thought I would see him again. So today caught me off guard."
This was partially the truth, but Athena purposefully left out the specifics.
"I wasn't in a good spot at the time," Athena continued, "I'm not proud of... anything I did during that period in my life."
"I can understand that," Jacob accepted, "Okay, I'm gonna let you get back to Alec, we'll talk about this later."
"All right," Athena agreed, "See you at home."
"Love you," Jacob said.
"Love you too," Athena reciprocated before hanging up.