The Twelve Heroes: Finding Our Identity (Editing)

Events (Edited)

Sophie's P.O.V.

I was in the living room when Cameron punched Vincent and Brooke. They were both clutching where they got hit. Brooke was crying and she stomped out of the room, followed by Vincent, so she could get an ice pack. I assumed that it really hurt. 

"Wait, Brooke!" Cameron ran after Brooke. I assume that he wanted to apologize because Brooke was his only friend, well, the only person who wasn't scared of him.

I was kind of offended, though. Cameron had been avoiding me the whole time we've been at this mansion. He probably thought that I was frail and fragile because of my injuries. I wasn't. Phillip had told me that I was one of the strongest people he's ever know because I recovered quite quickly. 

On the bright side, I was trained! Anthony trained me about one week after I was healed. I was glad it was him and not Vincent. Vincent had quite a temper. He would get upset about the simplest things. But that wasn't the only reason I was glad that I had Anthony. I liked him. And Josiah. And Riley. Which terribly confused me.

Josiah was so sweet and quiet. Riley was just the opposite. Riley was sweet, too, but he was also loud and obnoxious and playful. Anthony was caring and protective and I just absolutely loved him after he saved me from that mysterious guy. All the guys were so nice to me.

Now, to get back to where I started, Anthony trained me. Phillip conveniently had a training room. It was it the back on the mansion. It was a huge room with practice dummies, benches, and everything that you would need to practice for sword fighting! Training was a grueling experience. I still wasn't 100% but I was close to it.

First, Anthony had me run about a mile a day. Then, after two weeks of runningy, he started getting me back on track with Archery. I'm happy to say, I still had good aim! Good thing to, because I wasn't that good at sword fighting. At first, at least. Anthony had to wrap his arms around me, which I liked, and guide my arms so I would know the correct swinging position. Maybe three weeks later, Anthony and I had a practice duel. It was so tiring but yet so much fun.

I came close to winning, but Anthony would always win in the end. I knew how to sword fight, but I'd still prefer Archery if I had to pick from the two. After I learned how to sword fight. I had to learn how to sword fight while holding a shield or just using a shield to defend myself. I must say, that was extremely hard, so hard in fact that at one point I just gave up. I just threw down the sword and shield and sat down on a bench.

"I give up!" I sighed. I was sweating in my black tank top and sweat pant-cut-offs. I felt all sticky and tugged at my shirt, rolling it up above my stomach.

"Don't give up, Sophie! You'll get the hang of it." Anthony came and sat next to me.

I redid my ponytail and looked at Anthony.

"Archery is easy for me. Sword fighting is okay. But sword fighting with a shield? That's impossible!" I said, exasperated.

"You are a pro at Archery and you're a decent sword fighter," Anthony agreed. "But Austin got the hang of this after a few tries and so will you!"

"Psh! Why does everyone have to compare me to Austin? He's a musical genius. He gets straight A's. He's my parents' dream child! But what am I? I'm good at Archery, sure, but that won't get me anywhere, especially with my grades, which are B's and C's, sometimes D's. Musical talent and good grades will get you scholarships! What will Archery and barely good grades get you? Nothing!" I just let all my anger slip out and then I sighed to myself. I couldn't believe I just let all of that slip out.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to say all of that." I mumbled.

"It's okay. I can relate to not being the perfect child." Anthony replied.

"How?" I asked.

"Now's not the time to discuss it. Let's just get back to training now." Anthony rose off of the bench and pulled me up.

After that, I felt that Anthony had closed himself off from me even more. It didn't help with my focus, either. Once we got back to training, I was distracted and Anthony seemed stressed so he started yelling at me when I zoned out. Pretty soon, I just threw the sword and shield onto the ground again and left the training area.

The next training practice went much better. Anthony was more relaxed, but I still felt like he was closing himself off from me. When I finally beat Anthony in one round, while using the shield and sword, I smiled from ear to ear and went over to Anthony and hugged him. Anthony gingerly hugged me back.

"I finally beat you!" I bragged.

"Yeah, finally!" He joked. I lightly punched his arm.

"Alright, well, I'm going to go get changed. See you in a bit!" I put away my sword and shield and headed out of the room.

After that it was pretty good. Anthony was sort of avoiding me, but I just stopped worrying about it. 

Now to present day time. Today was okay, besides the fact that Brooke was crying loudly and Cameron and Vincent were yelling at each other. I was just lying on one of the small leather couches. I was sore from training that I did this morning. Everyone had pretty much evacuated the living room after Cameron punched Brooke and Vincent. Only Austin and Anthony stayed.

Austin's P.O.V.

Anthony and I were playing War (The card game) and I was winning. Sophie was laying on a couch across the room from us. It seemed like she and Anthony gave each other a wide berth. 

"Anthony? Why do you avoid Sophie?" I asked.

"I don't avoid her. I just don't...hang out with her, besides training." Anthony answered.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Nothing." He responded, as he glanced over at Sophie, who was now curled up on the couch with her eyes closed.

"What did she tell you?" I asked.

"Nothing recently." He said.

"Recently...," I thought, "What happened before? She must have let something slip during one of her trainings."

"She just said that she wasn't special." He replied, I assumed he was just giving me a summary of what she had really said.

"Ahh..." I said in understanding.

Sophie often said that she wasn't special because our parents didn't praise her at anything. She was flunking some classes and was often stressed at home. But all her worries went away when she played Archery.

I won the game of War and then went back to my room to play guitar. I really needed to practice because I hadn't been doing it lately. Before I left the living room I saw Anthony put a blanket on top of Sophie.

Sophie's P.O.V.

I cracked open my eyes and saw that everyone had left the living room. It must be late in the evening. I sat upright as somebody walked over to me. It was a woman in white robes. She held an arrow at her side. There was a small stag at her side. On closer inspection, she looked misty, ghost-like.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Artemis. As long as I am in you I will be giving you rules. If you do not follow my rules only bad things will come to you. Here is my first rule: You shall not have any relationship with a guy. As long as I am in you I will not tolerate it." Artemis stated.

"And what if I don't obey your rules?" I asked.

"You don't want to know." She said ominously.

"I think I do." I said with a smart-alack tone to my voice.

"You will feel an intense burning pain." Then the goddess came at me with an outstretched hand, reaching for my throat. I screamed and woke up with a start, still screaming.