Scratching The Surface

Chapter 21

Jason and Piper sat on one couch, Nico and Hazel sat on the other. The coffee table between them was set with cups of coffee and some snacks, but nothing was touched. Nico sat with his knees to his chest and his eyes downcast, while Hazel gripped onto his arm as if he'd be the only one in the room to protect her. Piper could feel another presence in the room but decided not to comment. Not yet, anyway.

"So, let's all start from the beginning." Piper offered. "Does that sound good to everyone?"

Jason and Nico nodded, while Hazel gave her a small smile and a "yes, ma'am." Once everybody had consented, Piper spoke again. Spoke of everything her and Jason had been through.

"We met in highschool." she started, her hand gripping onto her husband's. "We got married right after. We were tight on money, so we got a small apartment. We had our two kids, Katie and Maddie. My mom is an actress but I don't speak to her, and my dad is an actor (that I also don't speak to)."

"My dad is dead." Jason continued. "Died when I was a kid. I have an older sister, Thalia, that lives about an hour away. She helps take care of my mom. My mom and I...aren't on a good basis. She claims she's a physic and I never believed in this stuff growing up."

Nico snorted in amusement. "How perfect."

Jason glared at him. "Your turn, old man."

Nico glanced from Piper to Jason before clearing his throat. Hazel gripped his hand to let him know that she was there, to let him know that she was his support. Once she did, Nico started the old tale that he had kept inside him for so long.

"My parents, my sister and I moved here from Italy when I was a toddler." Nico started. "My...my mom died...when I was four... My sister died later, from a sickness that had been going around. I...I killed myself when I was seventeen, in the attic. My father died a couple years after I did. After that...it was lonely until the slave owners moved in. Brandt Newport moved in here with his wife, son, and his slaves in the early 1800s. That forest back there was farms."

Hazel peeked her head up as the time period came to her living period. "I...I was one of his slaves, a house slave. My mother was sold off and my father was beaten to death. His son...Frank...I fell in love with Frank..." She looked up towards the corner of the room, towards where Piper felt another presence. "And he found us one day...and...I woke up as I am now, and Frank woke up with me."

"After slavery became illegal and that man's heritage moved out and everything, the house was left for ruin for awhile." Nico picked the story back up. "The forest grew, Hazel and Frank got weaker, everything got...darker. Then Percy and Annabeth moved in with their kids, in the 1990's, I think."

"They drowned in the lake in the forest," Jason remembered. "There was a lake in farmland?"

"The farmland was around it, I think." Nico looked thoughtful. "I don't know. I couldn't see much from inside here."

Jason nodded. "And those have been the only owners?"

Nico nodded. "Yep. Me, Hazel, and Frank are all alone here. Percy and Annabeth have their family in the woods. But they're still there."

"Okay..." Jason had seemed calmer now, now that he knew everything. All he had ever wanted was the facts so that he could keep his family safe. "May I...may I ask...whose body...we found in the stairs and barn thing...?"

Hazel raised her hand. "M-Me."

Jason nodded, his face calm as he looked at her, knowing very well that she didn't deserve to be scared. "What do you want us to do? Bury or something?"

"My grave's still back there." Nico pipped in. "They took my gravestone out during the slave area, but Percy was nice enough to put a new one in."

"That's...nice." Jason looked back to Hazel. "Whatever you want, we'll do it. Just name it."

Hazel smiled a soft, sad smile. "Thank you, Jason. I would...I would appreciate being buried by Frank. He's in the cemetery down the road."

"Okay, I'll take care of it," Jason promised. "Don't worry about it."

For the first time, Hazel wasn't worrying, wasn't sad, wasn't scared. She was finally happy. When Jason buried her body, when she and Frank felt as light as a feather, they floated up and away from the dark, blood-stained home. They finally moved on to where the good spirits went.