City of Dreams

Darian Comes Back

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, places, or anything else from the Percy Jackson world mentioned in this book.

Sigh. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Mom, I—are you okay?"

Mom was obliterating her fingernails and her feet would not stop tapping. Plus she kept murmuring, trying to reassure herself, "It's okay, it's okay. They won't come for her. It's going to be all right—"

"Who's going to come for me, Mom?" I almost screamed. 

"No one is going to come for you, Raven," my mom said as firmly as she could.

"But—"

"Maybe you are hallucinating. You do stay up unreasonably late reading. It could have been lack of sleep. Or hunger. Or—"

"Mom you had better tell me the truth or by all the gods I will—"

And then her lips wobbled...and she let out a whimper...and then she was crying. I froze, not sure what to do. She hadn't cried for years. Not since...

"Aron, my baby," Mom sobbed, her body shaking. I hesitantly put my arm around her trembling shoulders.

"Mom, it's—it's okay. Aron will come back. we'll get him back. I—"

"No, baby, we won't. Not for a long time." I didn't know what else to do but hold her as she wept for her lost son—my brother—until she exhausted herself to sleep.

I gently pried her off my shoulder and arranged her limbs into a more comfortable position on the couch before tucking a blanket around her.  

I rubbed my eyes, trying to make sense of her reaction. Yes, Aron had disappeared with no trace, but that had been two years ago, and my mom ad I had healed as much as we could. So why the tears now?

It must be connected. if there was one thing books gave me other than an enormous vocabulary, it was an imagination, finding ways to solve problems like the heroes in books. Aron disappearing, my 'hallucinations' and my mom's weird reaction. She talked about someone coming for me... 

Had someone come for Aron? But we had gone to the police. We had tried everything, only to find dead ends.

Unless whoever took Aron wasn't of this world.

That thought creeped me out more than Aegis, more than 'seeing' Percy Jackson. After all, I had been seeing things that weren't of this world, right? So what if they weren't hallucinations? What if...

I didn't let myself finish the thought. Instead, I drank a full glass of water, splashed water on my face, and finished my homework. When my mother woke, we ate dinner and I went to sleep.

The End.

~*~        

Much later, I wished it really had been The End but nooo. Of course, the Fates had to ruin my life.

I was in the middle of a nightmare, this one more vivid than others I had experienced. I was battling a creature with the head of a lion, tail of a snake, and a goat's head sprouting from the middle.

A chimera.

I slashed, rolled and defended as the three heads tried their very best to kill me. I thought I was doing pretty well, but then the snake knocked the blade out of my hands. Just as the lion head was about to close its jaw around my throat, I woke up, breathing hard. I shook my head, realizing it wasn't real. I really shouldn't read so much.