New life

This time there wasn't any prehistory. I went straight to the arms of the golden hair man. He touched my hand without saying anything. From his touch small lines walked all over my hand, burning every cell. It was a real fire, the fire of fear, passion and madness.

The lines went through my shoulder and were going straight to my heart. I knew it. The lines were in two seconds from my heart when l pulled my hand away from the tight grip of the man and took a step back.

"Oh... You want to fight against me... You resist me and these feelings... Why?... Um, let me guess? Your daddy told you. Of course he did. He said something like "You have to fight with all bad in this world", am l right? Of course l am!"

The man smiled and the fire in his eyes flashed with blinding red color turning into black in some places. I understood this fire. That was just madness filling his whole being.

"But you CAN'T fight! You CAN'T run from me! I WILL chase you wherever you are! I WILL take all your life! All your fear!"

As the man said this he rushed towards me and took my head in both hands. The pain was awful. It burned my head and was ready to reach the brain. It wanted my mind to be burnt, otherwise l could not tell. The pain surrendered all my nerve endings, but I was still conscious. I continued to struggle with pain, tried to escape, to drown her. But nothing helped.

I looked into the eyes of this man. They were still full of madness and undisguised pleasure. The heat emanating from his eyes burned the air. The fire broke out somehow brighter, trying to get into me and reach my mind and heart. Then I gave up and fell into a quiet, peaceful, and pleasant silence, knowing that this man will come tomorrow.

I woke up and sat on the bed breathing heavily. The clock said that it was only 2 am. I turned to see Percy. He was lying near me and drooling. I smiled. He was so cute (yeah, and drooling, too). His face was calm and relaxed. I would never have thought that he might have nightmares, because he was so funny and cute when he was snoring and drooling. I felt that he had a dream about his Annabeth and that's why he looked so happy in his dream.

I laid down on the bed and turned away from Percy. I had a feeling in my chest... l didn't know what feeling it was, but l made a guess. You can easily understand what l thought about... But THIS would never happen.

I have been lying for a while thinking about the camp and the man from my nightmare when l felt Percy cuddling me. I stopped breathing and tried not to move. Firstly, l thought that Percy took me for Annabeth. But l was wrong. "Stef..." Percy whispered right into my ear.

My heart started bouncing fast. "What was that? Is he having a dream about me? What is happening? Ughr! That's impossible! He has Annabeth. He swore that he loved her. He told me how happy he is with her. And what's now?! I. Don't. Know! But, Stef, you have to admit something... No! I can't! That will break everything! I won't say that! Never!"

I knew for sure l wouldn't sleep that night. Because of the man. Because of Percy. Because of Charlie.

I felt more frequent breath on my neck. Percy had woken up and was thinking about the whole situation, l thought. I felt Percy's arms trying to get out from mine. I pretended to be asleep when he finally got out of the bed. Percy made a deep breath. He had to be cursing everything on this earth and himself especially. He went to the bathroom and l heard the water running. After a few minutes Percy went out of the bathroom and came towards me. He was standing near me watching me "asleep". Then he sat down and spent a few minutes in that pose. He was looking at me, l knew it for sure. I felt his look on my eyes, then on my nose and on my lips. I suddenly wanted to take off the blanket and kiss him, but l just made a deep breath and turned on the other side. As l did that, Percy made a deep breath, too. But his was so sad like none of the words could be. I could understand him. I felt like my soul was tearing apart by two people, too. But, Percy, that would never ever happen.

Pers stood up and sat on the bed's edge.

"Hey, Stef" He shook me by the shoulder "Wake up. Wake up, sleepyhead!"
"Um..." l rubbed my eyes "Percy? What happened? Why do l need to wake up? You know, it's really amazing to lay in your bed... l mean that, um, the bed is so, um, soft and warm..." Damn you, Stef!
"I understand you. But you need to get up and to be prepared to spend all day with Jason"
"And what will you do?" I asked biting my lip.
"I promised to help Annabeth" Percy said like he begged my forgiveness for something.
"Um, okay"
"So, l need to go..." Percy stood up "Did you have a nightmare tonight? You didn't scream..."
"Yes, l didn't" l lied.
"Um, great! And you slept well? Without even waking up in the middle of the night?"
"No" Another lie. But l had to "Why are you asking?"
"Um, nothing. Just curious!" Percy smiled. He, l could say for sure, felt like a hundred millions tons fell from him "I'll meet you in the evening. Bye!"

Percy went outside the cabin leaving me alone.

I took shower and got dressed trying not to think about the night and the morning. And that time l succeeded, because l was thinking about my future training with Jason. I wished and hoped l would understand my powers and l could prove Charlie that l's a demigod.

As l got dressed in black shorts and white shirt, l went to the pavilion. All the demigods were eating and chatting. My eyes walked from a table to table and finally met the eyes l was looking for. As green eyes met mine, they looked down.

I went to my table watching Percy. He tried not to look in my direction. He knew l was watching him. And he made some guesses why l was doing that. As l sent another spoonful of porridge to my mouth, l noticed Annabeth walking towards Percy. She took his hand and went with him to the exit smiling. As she was going through the exit, she glanced at me. "I won" her glance said. I looked down thinking about my morning behavior.

"Stef, l guess we need to start" Jason said and l nodded.

We went to the climbing wall. There were some demigods climbing and chatting. Among them l noticed Piper and Leo.

"Hey" Leo smiled.
"Hello, Stef" Piper walked towards me and Jason. I nodded ignoring Leo. "How was your first day? Hardcore, yes? Yes... Percy is a great teacher... Um, l don't know why, but he..."
"Have you ever tried climbing?" Jason asked cutting Piper's speech. He glanced at his girlfriend. There was something he didn't want to tell me. Or he was told not to.
"Yes. It's easy" l said like l didn't notice that glance between them.
"So, show us how good you are" Jason smiled.

I went towards the wall. It was rather high. I looked up. There were some demigods climbing. They were moving carefully, like they didn't want to face something on this wall. I guessed that there were some thingummies hidden in this wall. I didn't like that. Because that meant Jason laughed at me. He thought l was too cool, too glamorous, too stupid, too selfish and too self-confident for this camp.

I looked back at Jason. He had a poker face, but l knew he was rather nervous. Ha! I need to prove that l's not a dull chicken that can only cry and complain about her life.

I turned to the wall and started climbing. Every part of the wall was under different slopes, so it was hard to climb the wall. No, it would be difficult if l didn't train with Charlie. He always took me by the hand and led to the gym where we had been climbing walls for hours.

I was easily climbing to the top. Then l heard something. The sound was like some technic turned on. I didn't like that. Like at all. Then the wall's temperature started rising. My hands could be burnt if l didn't jump to the left part of the wall. But this part had its secrets, too. The wall started moving. Like really moving. I had a good position in one second and lost it in the other. I smiled. I won't give up. I started climbing a little bit faster as it was possible. I leaned on my right hand and nearly fell. I looked down. I was pretty high. But still my aim wasn't reached. So, l went on climbing.

As l reached the top, l looked down. Jason... I understood that l was thinking wrong about him. He didn't think that was too glamorous, too cool and etcetera for this place. No. He wanted to see what l could do as his sister, as Zeus' daughter. So, as l looked down l saw Jason's satisfied face. He was a little bit proud of the fact that l was his sis who came in this camp and climbed the wall with the first try.

I looked at Piper and Leo. They were smiling. Piper was proud, too. She is... my sister... Forget!
I started going down on the ground and soon was there. As my feet touched the earth, l went to the three.

"That was great! I never could to climb that wall!" Piper pointed at the wall.
"Wow! Stef, you're just... a Spider-woman!" Leo gesticulated showing how I climbed the wall.
"Leo, l don't think l was bitten by a spider..." I smiled. I didn't know why l didn't like that guy. He was funny and you can spend a great time with him... But why? Why didn't l like him? Hell knows. “Why didn`t you tell me that the wall has secrets?”
“Um…” Jason looked down.
"Hey, look" Piper pointed at somebody. "Clarissa is climbing... She's angry, because you, Stef, who so easily climbed the wall"
"And what? I need to be frightened? She definitely isn't scary at all" I said and added to myself "she isn't that man... Only he scares me..."
"Well... She can easily cut your head off" Jason was looking at Clarissa.

That girl was climbing really fast. All her moves were sharp and trained. Muscles helped her to climb. It was a real machine with rehearsed movements, embedded in her memory and barricaded deep.

Clarissa was climbing. I started thinking that she defeated me as she wanted. But in the next moment her leg fell from a protrusion and she hung on her hands holding a small mount.
"She is going to fall" l whispered.

In the next moment the protrusion, on which Clarissa was hanging, fell off the wall with Clarissa. She climbed pretty high and it would be really painful if she fell on the ground. Jason didn't have enough time to fly to the girl and catch her. I needed to do something. But what? I couldn't just stay there and watch her falling down. I felt like l could do something. "Air... Concentrate on the air..." somebody whispered in my head.

I strained the muscles of the face (no idea why). I imagined a kind of trampoline under Clarissa from the air and held out my hand forward. I saw how the girl was falling. My power didn't work! Why! Concentrate, Stef! I tensed, imagining as the energy was flying out of me, out of my whole body and running over to the girl not giving her to fall down on the ground.

In a few seconds Clarissa slowed down her falling. When she wasn't high from the ground, l let her fall down. I felt like l was about to burst with the whole energy inside me. I suddenly understood all power l had. It was inside me, trying to go, fly away. l understood what my dad had said about my power. Yes, it was air... I felt it around me and others, flying and moving, heating and cooling down, inhaling and exhaling in lungs of others. I felt the air. I was the air.

"Oh my god, Stef!" Piper screamed. "You've just....!"
"Hey, my congrats! You've just saved Clarissa! I guess it's a good start!" Leo smiled.

I lost my concentration and saw only black spots. I spent too much energy for the first time. I hugged myself as l felt freezing. But in the next second, as l was listening to the air and l understood that the air is warm around me and it can warm me up, l was okay again.

"Hey, Stef?" Jason was holding my face. "Are you okay? Stef? Stef? Do you hear me?"
"I...l'm fine... Please, stop screaming..." l heard too much, including breaths and whispers.
"I started to worry..." Jason made a step back. "You've done... What you've done was great! And cool! And... I can't even do that!" He smiled.
"Thanks... But l'm not sure if l can do it one more time... I don't know how l've done it..."
"Don't worry. Jason will teach you" somebody said.

I turned around and saw a girl whom l saved. She was big, tall with long, stringy light brown hair, pig-like brown eyes and strong looking. She looked much stronger than some boys.

"I'm Clarisse. Clarisse la Rue, daughter of Ares" the girl said giving me her hand for shaking.
"Stefania. Stef, um, daughter of Zeus" l shook her hand. Firm handshake. Gaze. Appraising glance. Cool! She obviously displeased that some daughter of some Zeus saved her.
"I needed to say you thank you. So, thanks!" She said and turned away going to some people.
"I guess you're not at all thankful. Or you think l'm nothing comparing to your figure and your status here?!" I shouted. I didn't like the way she spoke to me.
"You understood me wrong" she whispered to me when she went back. "I just... Thank you... I was terrified... I thought l would break something... Or worse... Thanks, really... l just need...yes, my status..."
"I accept your "thanks"..." l said coldly, but l guessed she understood that l was on her side.
I turned to the trio. They were looking at me with unspoken question.
"What?! You think l can't speak to the storm of this camp, to the princess of the army?" I smiled. "Jason, you know what? I guess we need to continue our training."

The whole day we spent fencing. I tried to defeat Jason, but that was really hard. He was strong and smart and always knew what l was about to do. That really made me angry and mad! So, l tried harder and harder. Sometimes we spoke. Jason told me about him and Piper, that she wanted to talk with me about daughters-of-Aphrodite stuff. He said l needed to learn more and try harder, but there would always be someone to help me (Saying that he winked. I didn't understand if he was talking about the seven or just Percy...). Talking about Percy... Jason described his and Pers' relations, how they started and that he, Jason, always saw him, Percy, like a team leader.

When it was 4 pm, we had a little brake. Jason and l sat near the big tree. From that point we saw the whole camp which was living its own life. We saw demigods shooting, climbing the wall, fighting, playing volleyball and...

"What is it?!" I stood up and pointed at a horse. "Is it a Pegasus?!"
"Yep" Jason said like it was normal. Oh, of course it was normal for him, but for me... No, definitely no. When l was little l always dreamt about a Pegasus or an unicorn. And at that moment l saw my childish dream...
"When can we go to them?" I turned to Jason.
"I guess tomorrow... if Percy isn't busy..." my brother was looking at some point in the camp.

I turned to see at what he was looking. It took me a few seconds to find... them. I saw Percy and Annabeth fighting. Both had smiles on their faces. They both knew what another would do in the next moment. They were invincible when they were together. A seaweed brain and a smart girl. Here were they. Happy, caring, loving.

Annabeth in the next moment made a step back, so that Percy was about to fall. And he fell. Annabeth walked towards him and sat beside him on the ground. She leaned to him and kissed. He wasn't resisting. He maybe even wasn't thinking about me. Why should he do that? He had Annabeth whom he loved and without whom he would be unhappy.

I turned away trying not watch them. I suddenly remembered that l wanted to kiss him in the morning. What the hell was that? Stef?! But he was looking at me... at my lips... And what?! You're his... cousin! But... No! I've said you would just ruin everything! I can't rush in this life and take the first boy l like. He is my friend. I need a friend. Charlie...

My soul was about to break. I thought about Charlie... What was he doing at that moment? What did he said to my parents? What did he feel? I suddenly understood that l wanted to go home, to Charlie, to the place where l can sit next to him, put my head on his shoulder and spend in that position the whole day watching TV or just talking...

"Hey, Stef..." Jason said and l came back from my thoughts. "I don't know what's going between both of you, b.."
"Between whom?" I asked like l didn't understand.
"Between, um, you and Percy..."
"What do you mean, Jason? He's my...cousin! And my friend" l lied. My heart started bouncing like it would escape from the breast.
"Um, l... Okay. Then, l guess, we need to continue" Jason said. I didn't know whether he understood that l had lied to him or not, but he definitely started to think about something.

After our conversation we trained without speaking at all. Each of us was in his thoughts. I tried hard. I wanted to defeat my brother. At the end of the day Jason finally took pity on me and pretended that I beat him. At that moment l didn't understand that. I was just happy to him smiling and acting like it was me who defeated him, the amazing son of Zeus.

During the dinner l sat with Jason and didn`t want to talk to anybody. I was exhausted from training and feelings that absorbed me whole.

That night l decided to sleep in my cabin with Jason. The cabin number 1 was quite beautiful. In the center of the room Zeus stood watching us with his unmoved stone eyes. The whole room was painted in white, silver, blue and yellow colors. The walls were decorated with painting and photos of the sky and shots of Jason's friends.

This cabin wasn't comfortable for me... I mean l felt like everything in this cabin wasn't mine, like l shouldn't touch anything, l felt cold and a little bit terrified of that statue.

I definitely couldn't name this place my home. But l had to. Zeus was my dad and Jason was brother. I needed to be with them, not with Percy.

I laid under the warm blue blanket that couldn't completely warm me and melt that inner cold sitting in me. I closed my eyes. "Dad, thank you for your help today... I...I've finally understood what you meant. Air... Yes... Thank you... l guess, good night?" I thought. "Good night, my dear" the voice said in my head.

I took a deep breath and fell asleep. I was too tired to think about something or worry. Only sleep could help me. But l forgot that sleep didn't help me anymore.

Notes

God! Finally! Here is the next chapter! Sorry, guys, l had a terrible writters block... l thought l would go insane! But, finally, my muse decided that l shouldn`t suffer anymore...
Hope, you enjoy my fanfic)))
P.S. This writer`s block l spent on checking out my grammar and spelling in previous chapters. So. l guess, l spent this time for the best)))