Austin Cooper 1: Son of Athena

I meet a skeleton with an unusually high voice

Hey! I have been thinking about writing story about Egyptian magicians. Thoughts? Hope y'all have been enjoying the story!

Bella stayed in bed for the rest of the day. I stayed with her as much as I was allowed, but finally May said I had to get some sleep or I would end up sick too.

I sat by the lake and stared out at the peaceful water. I had tried to sleep, but I kept having nightmares. I had visions of skeleton hands reaching out to grab me and watching Bella stumble through a dark room, yelling my name, but I never had the voice to call back to her.

The quest was coming soon and the dreams weren't exactly boosting my confidence.

"Can't sleep?" Asked a voice, making me jump from my thoughts and spin around in surprise.

  Alice was standing behind me. Her hair was turquoise now, and I suddenly realize that in the dark she has a soft rainbow glow around her.

"Yeah," I admit quietly, looking at her with a tired smile.

"I'm guessing you can't either?" I ask with a cocked eyebrow. She shakes her head and sits down next to me.

"How's Bella?" She asks, pulling her frizzy curls up in a bun. "She was asleep most of the day," I respond, shifting uncomfortably on the wooden deck. "May says that she is healing slowly."

We stayed quiet for awhile, just looking out at the lake and letting the question hang in the air that we were both thinking, "Why are we both out here?"

"Are you having bad dreams?" She asks, letting the question ruin our silence and turning to me.

   I kept my eyes fixed on the reflection of the moon against the lake water. "Yes. I think it's part of the Warrior of Athena thing." I didn't want to worry her with more details.

  She looked stressed with Bella sick and the quest coming up. Telling her my dreams will not make that any better.

She nods slowly. "I don't want to go on a bloody quest," she mutters bitterly, turning away from me and looking at the water again.

We sit in silence for another minute.

Then I break the silence, "why did you come to camp?" I ask looking into her multicolored eyes.

   I don't know where the question came from, but it was always something I wondered about her in the back of my mind.

  Logan and Tyler have told us about their families, and how they came to camp, but Alice never said anything.

  She always stayed quiet when the topic came up.

   She looked at me sadly. "My step-mum, step-brothers, and dad were killed in a car accident," she said slowly. Her eyes showed the raw pain of saying those words, as if it had just happened yesterday.

"I was in the car with them, and was the only survivor because Iris put a protection shield around me." She seemed to get lost in thought, her eyes got a distant look.

  I didn't know how to respond.

Unlike most demigods I have a mom, dad, and even a sister.

I have a family. Alice had lost everything.

   "I'm sorry," I say quietly, wishing there was something I could say that was stronger than just those two words.