This Never Happened (Olympus Drive Chronicles)

Part 3.5 - Family Reunion (I want to leave this family)

And that's how I wind up, sitting on the curb, in torrential rain, at midnight, to be lectured about, let's face it, one of the less weird things I've done in--- let's go with in the past forty-eight hours, by the most frightening looking person I've ever met.

"Well? Do you have anything to say?" He's standing there, trench coat soaked, in the pouring rain, not even blinking it out of his eyes, still glowing hot white with lightening as it dances lazily on his skin. He doesn't even seem to notice it. It feels weird to think of him as my (maybe) father. He doesn't look a day older than me, sleek black hair now wet down his face, skin smooth, face set with a kind of fierce melancholy. His hands are stiff, hanging at his sides as lightening caresses his fingers.

"How did you get here?" I ask, because nobody else was talking and honestly I want to know how he showed up like that. He just appeared. Behind us. Do all of them do that?

"It's fine Hugh I don't blame you at all. I'm literally just talking to them," he points at Thyme and the little girl. Phineas looks at him nervously. Needless to say Luna vanished when her daddy showed up. Coward.

"Good, cause it's not my fault," I mutter.

"Well?"

"Having fun with the kids?" Thyme says.

"Why are you here?"

"Well you see, you and my mother---,"

"On this continent right now—!" he growls, and more thunder slams overhead, "Do you have any comprehension of what a pain you are to me personally? Do you even know the problems you cause?"

"My kids are not problems—,"

"I'm talking about you. Do you want to guess how many riots are going on in this state?"

"Shit," Thyme says, quietly.

"Fifteen----get the hell out of this country, I'm warning you," our father says, pointing a finger at Thyme, "I don't like striking you but if you're in one of your—,"

"I can control it—,"

"Yeah well you don't always—,"

"I was fine, we were having fun, it's his birthday. You said I could come back," Thyme says, annoyed but not enough to out right argue with his father.

"I said you could come back. I didn't say you could start riots in the middle of state with my nine year old child—,"

"Do you not know our names reliably?"

"Shut up, and you fucking wonder why I drink," he fishes a hip flask out of his coat.

"I was having fun, dad," Lilith says.

"Cool, explain that to your mother when she asks where the hell you've been because I sure as hell don't have an answer!"

"She can say she was with me and Juno, don't shout at her," I say, without even planning it. I just see Lilith's sad little face, hair hanging in wet strings. Sad that her daddy is shouting at her. I mean she was involved in a riot. But still.

"I'm not finished with you----aren't you supposed to be doing some activities to prove you can be a functional member of society not antagonize people who will mind control you to committing atrocities?" he asks, turning on me, his voice harsher now.

"Yeah, I am doing that and then I got roped into hanging with them that has nothing to do with fucking shouting at her," I say, angrily. More thunder cracks over head.

He stares at me, eyes still horrible and glowing. I would be intimidated if I actually had a fear of death at this point. But I don't.

"She's a little tiny kid  and it's your  fault for not knowing where she was tonight," I finish, "And she's fuckin' soaked now. Can we go inside or something?"