The Fears of a Madman

Chapter 2

"Kai! We need the floor." Luke called. Kai turned around. She was about average height for her age, nineteen. Her dark brown hair was down as usual, despite Luke asking her to put it up when fighting. She had icy blue eyes and pale skin.

"For what?" Kai asked.

"Lord Kronos wants me to train Nakamura here." Luke said, gesturing behind him where the boy stood.

Kai glanced at him. "Hmm. Can he fight?"

"He said he can."

"I could test him." Kai took a step toward Ethan, but Luke stopped her with his hand.

"No." He growled. "I was told to train him, I test him, you leave and let me work."

Kai scowled. "Fine. Have fun."

Kai turned and stalked away, a few snowflakes falling softly onto Luke's golden colored locks of hair. Whenever Kai got angry, snow tended to fall from the sky. Only a little bit usually, considering it took quite a lot of energy to use her powers. (According to her.)

Luke slipped off his jacket and set it on the floor outside of the fighting area. "Ready Nakamura?" Luke asked, turning to face the boy.

Ethan pulled a knife from... somewhere. He moved so quickly Luke couldn't tell where the knife had been hidden.

"Yup." He said.

Luke brought out Backbiter with a flourish.

"3,2,1." Luke counted down. The second he said one, Ethan lunged, faster than Luke expected.

Jump to the left. A voice whispered in Luke's head. He did as it said without hesitation.

The strange thing about the voices in Luke's head weren't that they were there, no, they had always been there. But they weren't his own. The voices and his thoughts were separate. It was like he had multiple minds, all ready to flare up and order him about should they ever need to. Luke couldn't explain why his mind worked in that way. Perhaps it was only him.

Ethan came forward again, wasting no time in his second attack. He hadn't lied when he said he knew how to fight.

Back then lunge. Luke did as the voice commanded, leaping back and reversing direction and jumping back at Ethan, Backbiter ready to knock his knife away.

But Ethan seemed to have expected it, as though he could see what would happen before it did. Or maybe he just moved too quickly for Luke. Either way, the black haired boy jumped out of the way, spinning as he did so, therefore giving himself space to work.

The fight continued in this manner, neither of the boys being able to hold on to an edge for very long. Ethan would be one step ahead of Luke and then Luke would do something unexpected. Luke would be about to get a hit in and then Ethan would slip away.

If a person were to watch the two boys they wouldn't be able to tell who was winning. They seemed to be evenly matched, despite the fact that one of the boys had no sight in one eye. But what he lost in vision, he made up for in speed, because Ethan was very fast. Not just anyone could keep up with Luke Castellan.

Eventually the boys tired out, their breathing coming heavily and sweat making their shirts stick to their skin.

"That was good." Luke heaved. "I don't know why you would need training."

Ethan shrugged. "I guess." His voice sounded strained, which made sense considering he had just fought quite the impressive fight.

They sat in silence, just looking out over the waves.

That's Percy's dad's area. But soon, if all goes to plan, it won't be. A voice whispered. It was cold and dark, sounding similar to the voice of Kronos in the respect that it had waves of evil threaded into it. But it was almost more evil. Because Luke knew that that voice was a part of him, despite it not being him.

Do I really want that? Luke wondered.

Yes. The voice answered.

"Is there a reason you do that?" Ethan asked. Luke turned to Nakamura to see that the boy was staring at him.

"Do what?"

"Glance around like you're looking for an escape." Ethan said. "Like you've been cornered and are trying to find a way out, but you can't because something is blocking all your exits."

"I don't do that." Luke exclaimed.

Ethan grinned. "You're doing it right now. You just glanced over my shoulder."

Holy Hades, he's right. Luke had never noticed that he did that before.

Luke felt a smile tug at his lips. Something about Ethan made him want to smile.

"No there's no reason." Luke said, forcing the urge to smile away.

Ethan nodded sarcastically. "Sure."

Luke scoffed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Ethan looked straight into Luke's deep blue eyes before responding.

"It means that maybe you should let someone in."

~

CRINGE CRINGE CRINGE!! Oh well, cringey chapters are now and forever will be my thing.

Hope you all enjoyed!

See yah luvs! 😘

(I'm kinda obsessed with that emoji, lol)

(843 words.)