Plight Of Olympus

TEN: AS THE PROPHECY FORETOLD (I).

“Leumin Hades. Yes, I’m the son of Hades. Yes, I’m a half-breed, and apparently, your cousin.” He said, more to himself, than to me.

I sighed, with a nod. It was starting to get harder for me to be surprised. “So, you know about the uhm… prophecy? What happened in Olympus?”

“Don’t ask me… I haven’t been to that place since my mother died. That was seventeen years ago… and about the prophecy, yes, every person, monster, creature, being or whatever that has a connection to the Olympians knows about it. So yeah, I know about the prophecy.” Leumin shrugged.

  “Leumin… I’m sorry about your mother.” I apologized sadly, also remembering my own foster mom, and my biological mother.

   “God, no. it’s not Le-o-min… its Lee-yuh-min. Its Korean it’s not that hard. Argh, forget it. Just call me Lee or Leo if it’s easier. That’s what the witch calls me anyway.” He grumbled, changing the topic and getting off the bed.

  “Oh, and Caterisa…”

“Call me Cali…” I interjected.

   “I’m not calling you that. It sounds like short for California. You know what? I’ll just call you Calista. Is that okay?”

I nodded.

“Okay, Calista. I found the stones of guidance three days ago… I wanted to get to Olympus so I can see Hades. I can give them to you, but on two conditions.” He offered.

“What?” I asked curiously.

   He eyed the bathroom of the hotel room cautiously and replied. “One, you have to take me along with you on your quest. I just want to get to Olympus… plus you could use my help. And two…”

“Yes?” I encouraged.

He glanced back at the bathroom again, and then quickly whispered. “The witch took away my headphones… she said it was payment for killing Becca the truck. The thing is, I need those headphones… they were a gift… from umm, someone important. Just, help me get them back.” he shifted from one foot to another.

  “Deal.” I swung out of the bed and stretched my hands toward him, with my palm wide open.

  “Hand them over… And isn’t Hades supposed to reside in the underworld?”

“The underworld is empty. He left.”

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  Here’s the thing about weird noises… When you hear them at 2am while you’re lying in the dark alone, you should never try to investigate the source. That’s how people get murdered in horror movies. But when you’re lying in the dark with an annoying snore from the son of Hades coming a few feet away, and a witch mumbling about wanting to turn into a cat just so she could taste cat food, investigating is just another word for escaping.

    So I took the first sharp item I could find, which was a crystal shard of glass Silver had kept on the bedside table, and silently crept out of the hotel room.

The hallway was dimly lit, showing just exactly how run down and rusty Alverton was. That, or Leo just checked us into a really cheap hotel.

After a few silent steps, I realized the weird sound was coming from the room next door. The sound was like a French lady trying to mutter words in Korean, but then gave up and decided to mimic an animal scratching the wall.

I figured the people next door must have been playing a weird radio station or maybe there was really a French lady in there. I turned on my heels and made to go back when I heard a deafening crash, and someone’s scream.

   My feet had minds of their own as I walked to the door and knocked several times, sparing a “hello?” and an “is everything okay?”

There was silence from the other end and panic began to settle in me. What if the person on the other side was unconscious and needed help? What if they wanted help but couldn’t scream for it because someone else was holding them captive? I was about to try my luck to see if the door was unlocked, when it abruptly swung open.

    The chocolate skin guy who opened the door smiled down at me and I lost focus for a few seconds.

 His hair was a mass of black, sticking out in weird angles, which gave way down to his chiseled face. He was really tall, like one of those Greek statues that were sculpted only by the most skilled sculptors and shaped down to perfection.

  His pearly white teeth were still smiling down at me expectantly. It was like he was whisked away from Hollywood, and his modeling job to this run down town with rooms that had dim, yellow flickering lights.

I suddenly felt very self-conscious. My chestnut hair was probably looking brown, dull, and unwashed, and the bags under my eyes must have made me look hideous, since I haven’t slept in almost 24 hours. My lips were chapped, and the black hoodie I was wearing wasn’t exactly the hoodie of the year.

  “Can I help you?” the guy asked, seeing that I was making no effort to speak and was just staring at him like an i***t.

Why was I here again?

“I heard noises and I thought something was wrong. Is everything okay?” I explained, thankful my voice hadn’t failed me.

“Everything is fine.” He smiled again.

   I tried looking past the doorway but his form was blocking the view. Something strange was going on. Despite his smile and attractiveness, my brain was telling me that something was wrong.

That was when I noticed it.

 Part of his shirt, just below the abdomen had a thin line of crimson red. Blood.

My eyes went wide, as I looked back up at him. Suddenly, the crystal shard I had in my hoodie pocket felt heavy and I instinctively reached in to clutch it tightly.

  “There’s blood on you. Are you sure everything is fine?” I mustered enough courage to keep eye contact.

His smile seemed more strained now, as he tried to keep himself from gulping loudly. “We didn’t call for room service. Everything is fine, thanks for your concern, but I have to go.”

   “We?” I asked suspiciously and in reply, he swung the door, intending to close it. I thanked my fast reflexes, and stupid thinking that resulted in me wedging my foot between the door and the frame before it closed completely.

I felt a sharp pain shoot up my leg and I cursed under my breath.

    “Oh my God, ya, Adam, its moving, it’s still not dead. What do I do?” a sharp female voice came from within the room in an alarmed tone, distracting the guy and I took the opportunity to push the door wider and step through.

As I took in the scene in front of me, I almost hurled out the snickers chocolate bar I had for dinner.

  “You shouldn’t be in here. I’m calling security.” The guy, whom I figured was Adam threatened, his voice barely shaking.

I looked to him, and then to the dead thing on the floor and back up at him again.

    “Okay and how will you explain to them that you have a dead person-thingy lying on your floor?”

He looked almost as shocked as I was.

“Wait, you can see it?”