Scars of My Past

Chapter 12

         Gabe scowled and slashed his knife at the boy's face just as the boy raised his hands to try and deflect the blow.

           From the boy's view all you could see was a glint of silver and then blood.

         It hurt. Percy wasn't even sure what had happened. He was sure he had raised his hands to try and deflect the blow. And yet the side of his face felt sticky with blood.

         He looked down at his hand and found a deep cut in his left hand as well. Somehow the knife must have hit his face and hand and cut both of them.

         How was he supposed to hide this from his mom? It would surely leave a scar.

          "Did it?" Will asked. His voice was weak. He examined me with such rigor.

          I turned to look at him confused? "Did it what?" I didn't really know what he was talking about.

           "Did it leave a scar? It should have. That cut was pretty deep. I don't see a scar though."

          The others muttered in agreement. I remembered that day. It had hurt a lot afterwards. I think I was in shock or something and I couldn't feel the cut until a couple of minutes after Gabe had left.

           "Yeah I have a scar." I responded with a shrug. I had many scars. That one wasn't that bad. The only thing that made it dangerous was that it was visible to my mom and she could have seen it.

          Annabeth frowned and raised her hand to drag it across the the side of my face trying feel the scar. She stopped at my cheek and I knew she had felt the line where my scar was. "But I can't see it." Annabeth frowned, her eyebrows coming together in confusion.

           "I had to put some concealer on it back then and I guess I've just gotten used to people not seeing it that I didn't really see why I had to show it to you guys." I shrugged again. It wasn't that big of a deal. It was just a small cut. They shouldn't have to worry about it.

            And yet... it still felt like a big deal. I don't know why but I didn't want to show anyone the scar. They would probably think of me as weak anyways. I was better off without them seeing it.

Annabeth frowned and shared this weird look with Will. Nico seemed to be in on the look as well as he was studying me with his eyes all squinted looking.

          I shuffled in my seat a bit feeling uncomfortable with all the people staring at me and looking at me like I'm a specimen.

          "Can we continue on with my memories...please?" I asked with a big smile as if that would help me.

          This time it was Clarisse who frowned. She studied me for a minute before sighing and shaking her head. "This is not over Percy Jackson." She warned before turning to look back at the screen. I shuddered. You never want and angry daughter of Ares on your tail. Especially if it's Clarisse.

Gabe left after being satisfied with all the damage he had left. Percy squeezed his eyes shut and tried to force back and tears that were threatening to fall out.

He took a shuddering breath and carefully and silently walked to the bathroom in his room. He was quite thankful for that bathroom. It was so easy to just go in there and wash off all the blood and dirt that would all over his body. He walked inside and looked at himself in the reflection.

Like many times before, he stared at himself through the reflection. What was it that his mother saw in him. What was it about himself that made her smile every time she came home from a long and tiring day of work. He was exactly what Gabe had called him all these years.