Through the Lies
2268 Words
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“What do you want?” asks Darius to her sister.
Smirking, she walks to her shelf beside her bed. The way she slowly pulls the drawer, makes him gulp. Then he raises his eyebrows after she pulls out a doll and a thin book. She returns and gives the book to him.
“What the hell is this?” he asks.
“Read me the story,” she yawns. “I'm sleepy.”
“Why don't you read it yourself?”
“Just read it!” she blurts out, hitting his face with the book. Then she proceeds to lie on her bed, hugging her doll.
“Okay, just this once.” He looks at the book. His eyebrows are crashing into each other as he tries to read the title. “‘Tehe… The… P… Pri… Princess and the… Sh… Shark.’—What the hell?”
“You can't read?” she questions.
“Of course I can!” he forces. “Who do you think you're talking to?!”
“Fine! Just read it already or my sleepiness will go away.”
“Alright,” he nods before opening the book. “‘The… are…There on… ke… once was… a… prin… princess… in… te… he… mid… dle… of… t… the sea. Not–’”
“Your reading is so bad,” she giggles.
“Shut up and sleep already.”
He continues reading what he can and her sister just smiles while looking at him squinting his eyes and meeting hard words to read at his level. It is like he is reading a foreign book. His pronunciation of most of the words is so bad that even himself could not understand. All is well for Guiria since her mother has read it for her a thousand times. She misses her and hopes to dream about her when she sleeps. Having Darius reading like an infant beside her bed makes her feel that she could have the best sleep she can get. A good sleep enough to plunge her into a happy dream.
“‘-lee… ved… hap… pily… ev… ver… after. The end.’” Slowly, he puts up a wide smile, knowing that his painful reading is over. “See? I told you-” he stops.
His sister is now sleeping soundly. He wonders when did she start sleeping. All the time he was reading, all of his attention is focused on it that he even lost track of time. For a few seconds, he sits there on the chair looking at Guiria sleeping. He allows no movement as if a single twitch could make a loud noise that will wake her up. He is done here—he thinks but as the last thing he could do, he covers her with her blanket and places her properly on the bed. Finally, he leaves.
He senses that the two demigods are still behind the door, guarding the room. Regardless, he opens it and sees both of them leaning against the wall, sleeping. After slowly shutting the door, he grabs both of their heads and bashes them to each other.
“Argh!!” they scream in a painful wake.
“What the hell are you two doing?!” Darius rages, glaring at them. “You're tasked to keep my sister safe and do you think you can do that while sleeping there like a pair of idiots?!!”
They stand up and confront him. The one on the left says, “You can't tell us what to do, you street child!” He points at his face.
“Yeah!” agrees the other. “Even if you report us, they won't listen to someone like you!”
“Next time I see you two slacking, I won't report you, instead I will throw both of you out of the Earth!!”
His taunting faint with his fist is so unexpected that they put up their stances. He smirks at them. They frown in irritation, watching his back as he walks away.
“What happened to his face?” whispers one of them.
“I don't know but let him be. Everyone will say he's an i***t because of it.” They chuckle.
A faint smile is on Darius's face as he walks alone in the passageway. He recalls his time spending time with his sister and agrees that it is worth it. Now, he understands how Leo feels about his sister and why he is so affected by her disappearance. His face changes into his usual frown. As much as he cares about her sister, he also wants Leo to find Hera.
The door to their room is already in front of him. He opens it and Leo is not there. Even checking the whole place with his senses, he cannot find him.
“I wonder where the hell is that guy,” he mutters.
All of a sudden, he notices a strange presence inside the shelter. A presence that he has never sensed before. He grabs his dagger and goes to where he senses the presence. It is very powerful and he notices that he is the only one who can sense it. The other people do not talk about it but instead, laugh at him whenever they see his face. He thinks that they are weird so he gives not a single care about them.
His nose leads him to Mila's door. The presence is blazing behind it. No doubt that it is behind this door. Holding the hilt of his dagger with his right hand, he uses his left knuckle to knock. He hears footsteps and the sound of the doorknob's mechanism jingling. It opens and he sees Mila's worrying face turning into disgust.
“Is this some kind of a joke, Darius?” she asks.
“What do you mean?” he asks, letting go of his dagger. “Anyway, I sense a strange presence here.”
“What? You can sense it?”
“Yes.”
“How? Even I-” She shakes her head and looks around suspiciously. No one is there but walls and floors. “Let's talk inside.”
He clears his throat, looking confident. “I'm sorry my lady but my heart belongs to only one goddess.”
She narrows her eyes and the next thing that happened is him sitting on the chair, wiping his bleeding forehead, looking at Leo on Mila's bed. Already discombobulated with the hit he took from Mila, it is enlarged by his confusion about why Leo has this presence and this glowing colorful hair.
“What the hell happened to him?” he asks.
“I don't really know. It just happened while we're out on a mission. And don't even think about mentioning something weird or I will kill you this time!” she threatens.
He shows her both of his palms while saying, “Chill, my lady. I won't.”
“Uh-huh?” she questions. “And what is this prank your pulling with your face? What about it?”
“My sister did this to me.”
“Well, wipe it off or I'll lose my patience again.”
“Will do, my lady.” He starts to wipe it off.
She puts the back of her hand on Leo's neck to check his temperature. She feels nothing. He is not cold nor hot but just nothing. This worries her even more.
Mila speaks, “How is it that you sense his presence while everyone including me seems to be not noticing at all?”
“It's just the way it is, my lady. I don't know why I can. When I get near enough, I can sense where he is even though he's using his Immunity.”
“Maybe it's because both of you are training together for so long that you cracked his concealment. Also, you developed your Strong Force to fight against him.” She looks at Leo's face again. “Has this happened before?”
“No, my lady. This is the first.”
“If so, did he show some signs or hints that he could've done this?”
“He did mention a lot of times that his headaches are getting often. He reasons it's because of his technique of knowing the future.”
“Maybe it is. The power of seeing the future is very powerful after all. It's also the reason why it's very hard on him. He saved us many times.”
“Many times, indeed, my lady.”
“The power of the Oracles is still a mystery for us. Even for the Original Olympians. All we know that it's a power that needs the great power of the mind, exhausting it to its limits. Or eventually, destroy it.”
Darius's eyes widen. “Is it true, my lady?”
“I'm not entirely sure but based on what we observed from Leo, maybe it is. We need to do things that will make him avoid using this power or else, he will be taken away from us.”
“I won't let that happen, my lady!” He rises from his seat. “He can't go yet. He still has to become the greatest King of Olympus so I can beat him then.”
“Not only you, Darius but all of us have to work together if we want to lighten up the load. We are putting too much on his shoulders but he still has a responsibility as a brother to find his sister. He is trying his best in every way he can. I think my effort is not enough in trying to find Hera. If she could return to him, it could help him get better.”
“I don't want to ask this but… is she still alive, my lady?”
“Of course, she is. I'm sure since I know the souls that enter my Realm.”
*
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She's lying…
I knew it.
Her lies cannot hide from my eyes. Although shut, I can see through them. She's lying about having the ability to know the souls which pass through the river Styx. The truth is that she can't and she tries to hide it from me. If she didn't, she thinks I'll go madder than ever. A part of me is mad because she lied but mostly I feel nothing. The feelings are fading. Anger, fear, joy, sadness… somehow they're nothing but words for me now. Is this bad? Or is this better?
Darius is pretending to care as if he knows how to. The truth he is hiding is only pity. He has his sister now but I lost mine. “Too bad for you because you don't have what is mine,” is what he means. I lost Macky, the girl I love but now, he has Eleanna. What I lost, he gains. I can't be mad about it can I? I'm his friend and I should support him in any way I can if it's good for him.
The House Leaders want Gwen for themselves to achieve domination and power. A lot of humans are starving because of it. Old disgusting men even want to marry her so they will belong to them. These deities don't think of us as people but livestock for prayers. I've known this for so long but it's different when seeing from the inside. It's raw, n***d, and nothing else for it to hide behind. It's in plain sight.
Everyone in this shelter has motives of their own. Nobody else knows about them. They put a great wall between their thoughts and their actions. They don't want their selfishness to show. Why is everyone like this? I can't see why they have to. They should do what they think. The rules and law don't exist. They're only made up by the people who they thought have the right to do so. The universe has simple rules. Nature is the simplest rule and the only rule. Other than that, any rule is nothing. I must show them this path.
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Leo's eyes open. They are grey as he looks at Darius. Mila is talking to him and does not notice until Darius looks at him.
“Leo!” she exclaims. “you're awake!”
Flawlessly, he rises sitting on the bed and answers, “I am,” on everyone's minds in the shelter. His lips spoke no words but his words reached their minds. All of them panic.
“Leo?” she asks. “Did you just speak?”
Darius rises from his seat, sensing that this is not right. Leo is acting strangely. Mila also steps back as she suddenly feels a huge amount of power swelling from him.
“Everything is not alright,” he speaks in their minds once more. “but do not worry.”
He floats from his bed and his feet land softly on the ground. As if everyone feels that those feet are million tons heavy. His face is emotionless. Sadness, anger, or any emotions, do not exist.
“Leo,” is the only thing Mila could say. She is trembling as everyone is. Although, only she and Darius can see him.
Spoken through his lips, he says, “I will restore everything now.”
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- Writer
