Rise of the New Olympians (TNOS #1)

Epilogue

A few weeks earlier. . .

Benjamin waved goodbye at the bus carrying his dear friend's daughter as it went off to its faraway destination: Olympian High. When the vehicle was gone into the horizon, he turned away and walked off towards his car for him to go home too.

As he strolled along the sidewalk, he had many thoughts jumbled in his head, distracting him from his surroundings, but the thing that concerned him the most was Amelia and the path ahead of her. He always knew that she was special, not because of the powers she inherited, but because of the way she acted and reacted to the world around her.

For instance, like one time at the museum, when he disclosed to Amelia how he met Dmitri and Gabriela, his closest friends, she said that she didn't mind him being private about his parents' life. Then, just earlier today at the hospital, when he tried telling her about her necklace, she got upset and didn't want to listen to him because he hesitated at the last second.

She got her complex attitude from both of her parents. Just like the two sides of a coin: very different from each other but both equal in importance.

"When you think about it," he began mumbling, "it was my fault that she acted like that in the first place."

Ben continued walking, glancing here and there at his surroundings. Even though he didn't look like it, he was always been cautious and weary ever since Amelia transferred schools. Just the day after he got back home from Olympian High, he started to see mysterious people snooping around his house.

At first, he thought that he was just being paranoid, but when he saw those people more often in the neighborhood, he suspected that they were trying to find a way to break into the house and steal something. He thought of what would be valuable enough to be stolen from the house, but there wasn't a single thing that came up in his mind.

Except for Amelia's necklace.

He wasn't sure how valuable the talisman hanging around Amelia's neck was since his late friend didn't have the time to tell him, but he knew it was priceless.

Ben tried informing the authorities and reporting about the suspicious people he saw, but his alleged 'sightings' were only ignored, telling him that he was just getting old, which got him even more worked up.

Amelia often called him 'old man' as a way to tease him because he acted too wise for his age, but he never thought that other people saw him as old.

I'm not even that old! I just act old, right?

Going back to the subject at hand, the strangers he saw just kept looking around the house, which was odd. They were doing their 'inspections' for more than a month, but they didn't make any move at the house. What's even stranger is that those people Ben kept seeing around were normal people.

They were normal-looking people, and some of them were his neighbors.

He didn't know why he got suspicious about them, but whenever they got close or came up to him to make small talk, he had this feeling deep inside him, telling him that there was more than what his so-called neighbors seem to be.

Shaking off the uncomfortable memory, he quickened his pace as he saw his car in the distance.

Finally. I could use some time to think about all this.

He finally got to his car. He was about to take his car's keys from his pockets when suddenly, large, beefy arms covered his mouth and grasped at him, almost like hugging him, but in a dangerous way.

Surprised and frightened, he struggled at his captor's hold, kicking and elbowing him to get free. The man held him quite tightly, and Ben wasn't as fit and athletic as he used to be in his youth, so his efforts were in vain.