Chaos's Hero

5. I admit to hiding my face

A sigh of relief escapes my lips when my mother appears, sitting on the floor playing with my sister, Estelle. My mom wore a smile of genuine happiness and peace as she watched Estelle push a truck around the carpet whilst attempting to make truck noises with her small little lips. Besides them a little boy crawled closer to Estelle, wanting to play with the truck too.

My mother hands the boy another truck which he gladly takes and picks up the truck to put into his mouth.

"That is not where a truck belongs Mister" My mom smiles, pulling the truck away from his infant face.

My mom looks up and sees me, her smile drops.

"Percy!" She says with surprise, a relieved smile appears.

"Hi mom" I greet with an awkward wave, watching as she stands in front of the boy covering him from my view.

"Please remove your cloak so that I can see your face" She pleads.

"I'm back" I tell her, "At camp"

She immediately understands and nods.

"What are you doing back there?" She asks, folding her arms across her chest.

"We were sent here, camp is under attack and we can't seem to find out why"

"Have you seen her?" Mom asks, "Annabeth, I mean, I know that she misses you dearly"

Not wanting to engage in a conversation about Annabeth and her feelings and guilt of betrayal I change the topic, hoping to avoid the topic of camp or Annabeth.

"Who is that boy sitting next to Estelle mom?" I ask, "I know that I have not called in some time but it has not been that long"

My mom lets out a soft chuckle, "He is not mine if that is what you're implying" She smiles, her chuckle is soothing making me believe that there were no troubles at camp right now, "He is my erm friend's child, her and her husband have gone out for the day and asked me to look after him"

Unsure of whether she is lying or not we change the subject and catch up, eventually she convinces me to pull down my hood for a short time.

"There is my brilliant son" She smiles proudly, "Oh Percy if only I knew of enough words to describe how much I miss you"

"I miss you too mom" I admit, "Maybe when this is-"

I stop myself not wanting to make a false promise to my mother and did not want to get her hopes up and hurt her more than I already was.

"Maybe what Percy?" She asks with a soft voice.

Behind her Paul calls,

"I am home, where is my beautiful family?" His voice is filled with excitement.

"Nothing mom, I need to go"

Sadness fills her eyes and begin to swell with tears, something that I could not bear to witness.

"Call more often, okay?" She pleads, "I love you"

"I love you too" I sigh as I end the call by swiping my hand through the image of my mom and her family.

Not bothering to pull up my hood I renter the tent where Alpha's loud snored echoed through the tent. I tried to rest, my body had other plans of restlessness, as if telling me that now was not the time for the reward of rest.

For an hour I lay staring at the ceiling the scene of my mom with my sister playing on a constant rewind. Before Paul Blowfis had come into my mother's life a smile as genuine as hers today was a rare find but with Paul it had become more common.