AJ Hale & The Olympians: Son of Lightning

Chapter Nineteen: I Have Dinner With A God

                I woke up in a strange room. My body was sore and tired. I groaned getting up out of my bed. Looking around the room, it looked like it was straight out of a different time. There was a Beatles poster on the wall, a Woodstock '69 poster. Ticket stubs to Woodstock and a bunch of random toys and junk on shelves.

The room smelt familiar, like my cabin back at Camp. The walls were the same color, plain white marble. But it was littered with stickers and posters from old-looking movies and bands. The Who, The Doors, The Kinks, The Zombies, And The Sonics. And movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Night of the Living Dead, Psycho, and The Birds.

Junk-littered dressers and musty clothes lay on the floor, almost like they hadn't moved in a few decades.

The room was still and deathly quiet. But had a warm feeling and another bout of déjà vu. It felt like I had been in this room a long time ago. Everything felt so familiar, but the more I searched my mind for it, the harder it was to know if I had lived in this room or not. The cold feeling I got in the room and the smell filled me with a nostalgic warmness. Then it hit me. This was my room back when I lived with Zeus in his palace. Which meant... I'm in his palace right now!

Knock-knock

Someone knocked on the large bronze door to my bedroom before swinging open. A man walked in; he had on a golden tunic that seemed to glow like the sun. His hair was bright blonde, and a smile that was brighter white. His skin was tan, and had startling blue eyes. He seemed to glow like the sun.

"Sup bro," he held up his finger. "Wait a minute..." he cleared his throat. "Roses are red, violets are blue... You passed out cause... you were tired... too."

I blinked.

"Hang on, that one sucked," he cleared his throat again. "I'm your brother, Apollo; here to heal you; I wanted to say mahalo, and hope you didn't die...boo?"

I blinked again. He cleared his throat, about to try again, "Don't do any more of... whatever that was."

"Right," he smiled. "we've met before, at Woodstock," he smiled dazedly. "But you probs don't remember, I'm Apollo, God of Healing, Music, Art, Poetry, Truth, Light, Disease, Plague, Reason, Archery, And Prophecy," he smiled. "Oh, and the Sun, I forget that sometimes."

"You forget the...Sun?" I said.

"Yep, especially when I lose the keys," he nodded.

"The keys? To the Sun?" I asked.

He starts patting his tunic, "Oh yeah, you won't believe how easy it is... it... is to..."

"You lost them again?" I asked.

"Uh... you're fine, by the way. Just exhaustion caught up to you, and you slept for a few. Nice to meet you, but I got to go!" he ran out of my room. "My keys!"

"A few?" I said to an empty room.

I shrugged and left my room. I entered a large hall with busts of the Gods. Hera and Ares are missing. I reached an open courtyard in what looked like the center of the palace. It was a beautiful large garden, made more beautiful by a fiery sunset. Apple trees with golden apples that looked delicious. More flowers than I could even name. A stone pathway led through it, over a marbled bridge over a creek that led to a large pond. Large koi fish swam around under the water.

A white one said, "Blub."

In a pure white gazebo, was a girl sitting there and reading a book. I went up and knocked on a post of the gazebo.