Lost Souls | Luke Castellan

01 | Why Can't God's Look after Their Children

__Why can't Gods Look after their Children__

DEATH HAD ALWAYS surrounded Megaera and she had always found herself heartbroken, she didn't know why but everyone she got close to always ended up dead or leaving her, from the time she was a baby. First, her mother died giving birth to her, and then her father abandoned her without so much as a goodbye and he didn't even bother to claim her

She was the oldest demigod to live in the camp and not be claimed.

At first, she didn't really understand the fuss of it all, what did it matter whether she was claimed or not? She had found her friends within the Hermes Cabin and they seemed to like her but as she grew older, she noticed the strange looks she would get from people and how they always seemed to stay away from her. She got it, she didn't really fit in with the rest of camp, she liked to stay by herself and despite being one of the older campers and being trusted with teaching the younger campers. She didn't really like kids and found them rude and impatient and it often left her hot-headed and losing her temper so maybe that was why she didn't have many friends

Apart from Luke and their younger blonde friend Annabeth

Maya Jones was okay as well but Megara never really spoke to her as the young eleven-year-old hung out with her siblings (mostly Selina Beauregard) but Megara never really interacted with Selina unless she was having a flying lesson but the pegasi never really liked her anyway, she didn't know why but she never really questioned it, preferring to have to feet on the ground -- thank you very much 

She was interrupted from her thoughts by Luke shoving an elbow into her ribs, causing her to wince and her eyes to flitter up to him in annoyance as she narrowed them slightly, but he just grinned in her direction giving her a bright smile "What's my pretty best friend thinking about now?"

Megaera felt her heart flutter "You think I'm pretty?"

"No. I just heard from the Aphrodite Cabin that girls like to hear stuff like that" Luke grinned, humour swirling in his eyes and Megaera shook her head, but she couldn't help the annoying little flip that her heart did as Luke removed her raven hair from framing her face 

"Do I look like every other girl in Camp?"

"No. You're scarier"

"Ah-ha so you think I'm scarier than you?"  Megaera asked him with a raised eyebrow

"No, I know you are"

"Fair enough"

"Hey, you two quit your flirting!" Travis Stoll called across the Hermes table and the table fell into laughter. Fortunately, Megaera's face remained cool because if it hadn't it would have been a major giveaway to her crush on Luke although pretty much everyone knew about it anyway and she knew that Luke knew about it but both of them just pretended it didn't exist apart from them slipping into the occasional game of flirting but it never crossed that line, no matter how much Megaera wished it did

"Oh shut up we all know how you look at the child of Demeter" Luke snapped, tiredness shining in his eyes and honestly Megaera understood the tiredness, they both were the oldest in the camp and had been close friends ever since Luke came to camp as a broken child and helped him show the ways of being a demigod, and Luke was one of the first people to look at the raven-haired demigod as an actual person 

She did however feel better when Travis went a little pink

Though Megaera would only keep that as a quiet observation since she had a feeling that if she was to say any of this to Luke he would tease her relentlessly and she would never hear the end of it

They only got closer after Luke's failed quest at the age of sixteen, Megaera was the only one to not look at Luke like he was a poor soul and that's when Luke's resentment of the God's hadd actually started taking root, he kept asking why hasn't you're father claimed you? and his personal favourite Why can't the Gods look after their children?

That was the million-dollar question, that Megaera hadn't figured out yet

She knew Luke felt abandoned. He felt betrayed

Honestly so had she, the more Megeara grew the more she understood the world within Camp borders, she had been waiting her whole life to be claimed...To be wanted by someone, only to stand by and watched as younger campers found their sancutury within Camp borders and got claimed within a few hours or days at least, of course, there were ones that never got claimed and they would bunk in Hermes Cabin for all eternity but those were few and far between...Plus no one had been unclaimed for eighteen years 

For a moment the bitterness and hatred twisted within her like an ugly weed, that twisted around her skeleton and organs so tightly that you couldn't just rip out and she sat there stewing in her bitterness and lack of hope for a future...Demigods rarely had a future and even if she hadn't left Camp borders especially since Chiron changed the rules so that they could only go on a quest if the Oracle (that was stored in the attic...While it was always creepy for Megaera but in a way she had also found it oddly comforting) issued one ever since Luke had his incident 

She wasn't a bitter person by any means...Or at least she tried not to be but it was the small things that got her down, nagging on her mind...Sometimes she felt like she was drowning but then she looked back at Luke through her dark eyes and she knew this man would always pull her out of her tightest spots and care for her any time she needed it 

Megaera could only hope he wasn't going to be her downfall.