The Stolen Jewel of Hecate

Chapter 5

" Hello?" I asked. It was black. I looked around to see nothing. " Hello?" I said again. I heard footsteps behind me. I turn to see a tall figure. "Who are you?" I asked. " I'm a friend." the voice said. I looked into the blue eyes that stared back into mine." What do you mean 'a friend'?" The figure laughed. I was confused. All of a sudden a hand covered my mouth and I was picked off the ground. I screamed and opened my eyes. I had cold sweat running down my back and tears in my eyes. A dream. It was all a dream, it can't hurt me. I look to my right and look out my window to see a bright night sky with lots of stars. Then I looked to my right. I see my nightstand and one of my pillows on the floor, with a figure sleeping and snoring, very loudly I might add. So it wasn't a dream. Hephaestus, the necklace, the hero thing, everything was real. Why was it real? Why couldn't this happen to some other girl? Why me, what made me so important? " You alright Sam?" I heard Hephaestus say sleepily. " Yeah, I'm fine. Nightmares, that's all." I said in a bored tone. They did occur a lot. Not for anything specific I was just prone to them. Hephaestus looked somewhat concerned but went back to sleep. I picked up my phone to check the time. It was four in the morning. I guess I could go on a walk. Clear my head a bit. I put on my running shoes and leave Hephaestus to sleep. No one in their right mind would cause problems this early in the morning. I walk downstairs and head out the door. With me and my amazing fuzzy pajama glory, I start walking down the street. I look up and see the stars. They glow brightly in the night sky. I look back to wishing upon the stars when I was a kid. Hoping your dreams will come true by wishing on a bright light that has probably gone out by now. Thinking if you wished hard enough you would get what you wanted for your birthday or that annoying girl in your grade one class would get what she deserved for putting paint in your hair. I daydream some more and decide to go to the park. I head to my favorite oak tree where I normally go if I have problems. It is my happy place. I never take anyone else here because this is the place I go if I want to be alone. I sit down and lean my back against the tree trunk and let out a small sigh. I hear the crickets and frogs singing their song of the night, with the occasional firefly dancing along with their lights. I breathe in the pine air and just think about the day I had. I started my day with a random insult, get threatened by the school's new kid more than once. I get threatened by Emma more than once. I had a mental breakdown in front of Jackie and complained about how life isn't fair. I came home to a box with some magic necklace that had a greek god inside and now I have to save the world. What in the world is going on with my life? I had plans to have a carefree life in high school and work at that music store to save a little for college, but it ended up me struggling through Emma's insults with everyone on her side and me almost getting fired and somehow getting a magic necklace because someone messed up. I don't need to be a hero. I can't be a hero. I don't have what it takes. Hephaestus is wrong about me and so is that keeper dude. I look down at the necklace around my neck and sigh. What am I even doing with it on? I don't deserve it to be on. I looked back at the sky looking for some advice I knew wasn't coming. " Sam?" I heard a male voice ask. I turn my head to see Steven. My friend since seventh grade. " Hey Steven, what's up?" I asked with a small smile. " Ellie told me what happened. I'm sorry about that, I can talk to Logan about it for you. I'm sure he will understand." He said with a confident smile. I sighed. " There's no point Steven, I don't need that jerk to know I'm nice. It's his loss that he thinks Emma's stage tears are real." I said with a chuckle. Steven laughed a little too. "Sam, he really isn't a bad guy. He just got a bad first impression and walked into the room at a bad time. That's all. Besides, Ellie tells me he's been staring at you." Steven says with a cocked brow and a smirk playing across his lips. " Oh please, says the one that gives Ellie the lovey-dovey eyes whenever they talk." I say with a returned smirk. Steven froze, and his smile quickly faded. I knew I was right. " How long have you liked the girl Steven?" I ask looking back at the stars. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him blush. He must really like her. " A long time Sam. A very long time. I try other girls to get over her but no one can be as great as Ellie. No one has her smile. No one has her beautiful eyes. No girl will compare to her." He says with obvious admiration. I smiled at his honesty. This is what I love. I love this kind of love. It's sweet and sincere. Steven looked deep down inside Ellie and found a girl with an amazing personality. He looked under the surface and found a girl he loved. He didn't just look at the surface and said ' It'll do.' He took the time to get to know this girl and loves her for her. It's refreshing. It brings humanity to relationships. It brings flaws and mistakes and that's OK. Everyone makes mistakes. It isn't something pretending to be perfect. I love it. " You know she likes you too right?" I say in a knowing tone. Steven shakes his head. " She thinks I'm just some flirt, which to be fair is true, but she doesn't know why. She doesn't and might never understand I do it to get over her. I do it because I can't get a girl as smart as her. I do it because I can't be her number one choice." He says with a frown. I look back at Steven. " I never knew your love for this girl went so deep." I said with empathy." Steven nods. " I really like her Sam. I really do. I just don't know how to get her." He says as a small tear runs down his cheek. He really loves this girl, and it truly shows. It's heartbreaking to know a man feels this way and never let it out. Never let the girl he loves see his emotions other than the ones he's confident with. He loves being a smooth flirt. He loves being the clown he is. He hates being vulnerable and that's what Ellie does to him. In his eyes, he thinks showing his sadness is shameful and no girl wants their knight in shining armor to fall every once and awhile. They think they should always be strong and there are no exceptions, but he's wrong. Steven doesn't understand it's respectful to show girls you trust your feelings with us. It shows you really trust us and want us to know how to make you feel better. " Steven. Trust Ellie a little. Let her know how you feel. She doesn't need a knight in shining armor to be her boyfriend. She wants a friend to battle through life with. She knows you're not a robot and you have feelings, show her your feelings. Show her you trust her." I say with a small smile, kind of wishing this was a guy who liked me asking advice about me to a friend. Steven smiles at my wisdom, but then frowns again. " What if she says no?" he asked with hope in his eyes that I have a good answer. I gave him a look to trust me. " Steven if you focus on the 'if's' and 'what will happen's' you won't see the outcome of your goal. If you want to buy an apple for example and you focus on what if they sold out, or what if they got all rotten you lose hope in your goal and won't go to accomplish it. You think it won't be worth it because it's possible that it won't work out. If you focus on what you want to happen you set your sights on it and you will accomplish what you want. Don't expect failure and just go for it." I say as I pump my fist in the air as a sign of encouragement. Steven smiled at me. " Thanks Sam. What do I owe for your therapy visit?" He says with a chuckle. I laugh at his comment. " Just get the girl and make her happy. That's the payment." I said with a laugh. Steven stands up, bids his goodbyes and leaves me on the ground by myself once again. I take my phone out of my pocket. It was six in the morning already. I felt eyes on me but didn't pay it any attention as I walked home. I opened the front door to see Hephaestus waiting for me on the chair in the living room. "Sam. One, why didn't you take me with you? Second, Where did you go?" He said in a stern voice. I sighed. " You're not my parent so you don't need to know, but since we just met and need to get along 'cause I have a feeling this will last a while. I was at the park hanging out with Steven and I didn't take you with me because you were happily sleeping and didn't want to disturb you and no one in their right mind would attack people this early in the morning." I said truthfully. " Fine. It's good you told the truth." He said in a relieved voice. " What do you mean? Why would I lie to you and how would you know I'm lying?" I questioned. " Me and your necklace are connected. I can track where you are and listen to your conversations if I please. I did that as soon as I realized you were gone and I was relieved." He said putting a hand over his chest. I froze. He heard everything. All my stupid wisdom and all my friend's love confession basically. " You heard everything?! Have you heard of a thing called privacy.?" I whisper shouted to not wake the whole neighborhood. Hephaestus looked at me confused. " You do realize I did that so I knew you were safe? I can't have a hero killed or something." He said in a frustrated tone. " I don't need you watching over me, I can manage, and second stop calling me a hero. I haven't done anything hero related in my life and probably never will. I don't care about what you said about me being stuck with the responsibility of the hero of fire. I'm finding this keeper and giving back the necklace and you can't stop me." I huffed and walked up the stairs to my room. " Sam. For the last and final time you can't give the necklace back. Also you need to realize that you can do it. So stop being so nerdy and shy and just accept it. It's exhausting." Hepheastus said with a growl. I almost feel bad for what I said." I would like to think I'm a pretty laid back guy, but that actually hurt. I just worry about you. You seemed like a promising hero and I got excited, even if I didn't show it." He said with a cold stone face and tone. I walk up the rest of the stairs with a small tear falling down my face. I didn't know I would hurt him that bad. I didn't really mean to hurt him. I'm just frustrated with how life is going. I would hope he would know that. He would know I like having him around. Sure I freaked out when we met and we only met yesterday, but he proved he was a good friend. I walk in the bathroom and have a shower to hopefully wash out all my frustration. To wash away my problems. To wash away my newly found regrets.