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I wake up in a totally different place. Or maybe this is just another trippy dream.
"Haley. You're awake." I find myself on a huge bed in a different forge. The man was extremely tall, and his voice gruff. He was standing at a table, his hands working with something like they have a mind of their own. "Who are you?" I ask, swinging my legs over the side of the bed. "Where am I?" "What does it looks like, girl?" "A forge..." "So then who do you think I am? It's really not that hard to figure out." I stand, and walk around for a moment, looking at all the different little contraptions. "You're Hephaestus. God of fire." "Bingo!" He turns around and faces me. He had an.... interesting face. And a beard. "Ah, even you judge me. So much like your mother." "Wait, what? What about my mother? You know her?" Hephaestus laughs a deep and hearty laugh. "Aha! You must be joking, sister." I think as hard as I can. Thinking back to school and what I know about the gods family tree. "You're Hera's son. So that makes you.... wow." It's so weird I don't even try to think about it. "Now. Why, exactly were you in my forge?" "Your forge?" "Yes, 'my forge.'" I tell him about making weapons, and then finding Nyssa trapped downstairs. "Though the fire was your fault, I will forgive it because you saved my daughter. But you shall never again step foot in my cabin. Understood?" With him waving around a screwdriver that look about as long as my arm, I agreed. "But how is it my fault?" I asked, because I didn't even do anything. "You are Hera's child. That is enough. There is a curse on the Hephaestus cabin, in case anyone like you ever came into existence. Since Hera hated me and threw me off Mount Olympus, I made sure that any other spawn of hers could ever make it into anything I've ever made. How you got Valerie's staff I have no idea. But it is yours." "Who's Valerie?" He turns away from me, pinching the bridge of his godly nose. "Go away." "But-" "GO AWAY!" He turns and swings the giant screwdriver at me, effectively dissolving the vision.

---

I found myself being carried up the stairs to the main level of the Hephaestus cabin when I awoke. "Hey! What are you doing!?" I argued as a guy and girl took me outside. "We had to evacuate. For some reason the blast doors didn't work." "Wait. Blast doors? You guys have freakin' blast doors?" "Of course. Can't play with fire without a little precaution." They set me underneath a tree behind the cabins. I check myself for injuries, and surprisingly I don't have any. I smell like smoke and my clothes are singed and blacked with ash, but otherwise I'm fine. I'll be sure to give Hephaestus a portion at dinner tonight. A bunch of campers calmly walk out of the cabin, glancing at me, walking in the opposite direction. I try and breathe normally, thinking that I have a little smoke inhalation. Leo and Harley help Nyssa out of the building, leading her to a bench. She glances at me and gives me a thumbs up, saying she's okay. Thank goodness. I didn't want to accidentally kill my only friend. I get up and walk over towards her. She sees me and gives the slightest shake of the head, silently saying "not right now." I wipe my eyes out of frustration, which probably wasn't the best idea considering that I just rubbed ash into them. Without even meaning to, the pent-up tears for over the past few days start to flow. I miss my dad. I miss Liam. Kayla was a vampire. Everybody hates me. I almost killed my best friend. Gods, Haley! Can't you do anything right? Apparently not. I run through the forest, away from all the coming spectators to see what happened. Eventually I hit the Long Island Sound. I'm so tired of running from everything. I sit on the sand, watching the waves crest and crash. Silently watching and comparing that the waves have such a short lifetime; like demigods. Like me. I take off my shoes and socks and wade out into the water. Letting the ocean slowly sink me.
"It doesn't help," says a voice behind me. I just stare out at the ocean and it's beautiful colors of sunset. "I've tried. It doesn't work." I turn my head just enough to take a glimpse of who's talking. Nico. "I've went through this too. I know that it's like. It really never stops." He sits down next to my shoes and socks. The tide rose enough to get the bottom of my shorts wet, so I surrender and go back to the beach, sitting next to Nico. "Can you just... hand me my shoes?" He silently reaches for them and hands them to me. "I never thought you to be a purple person." "Uh, what?" "Your socks." I laugh at that. He gives me the slightest smile through hollow eyes. "Thank the Aphrodite cabin. None of this is mine except the shoes." "Ah." Neither of us say anything. We just watch the water slowly lap its way up the shore. "Come on. I want to show you something." Nico stands and offers me a hand up. I ignore it and stand by myself. He leads me down a path into the now dark woods. After a few minutes he stops, gesturing to a pool of water. He kneels and looks in. "You too." He motions, and I look in. "What am I looking for?" "Nothing. Just look." I look and see a few fish, rocks, and dirt through the placid water. "What do you see?" Nico asks. "Rocks, fish, dirt. Why?" "Look on the surface." I see a few water skeeters, and a lily pad. "Your reflection," he says annoyed. "What do you see?" "I see my face." "And what do you look like?" "Um, like me." "Describe 'me.'" "Brown hair, tan, brown eyes. Tired, lonely, sad." Nico leans back and sits. "See, that's what you think you look like. But everybody else sees someone you don't. They see how bravely you're taking learning all this in 3 days. They saw you take down Clarisse. They may hate your mother, but they don't hate you. My dad's the god of death, and they don't hate me for each demigod who dies. That's because I didn't cause it. He might be a pain in the butt to everybody, even the other gods; but he has to be there. Get it?" I stare at him for a moment. "Yeah," I say quietly, "I think I do. Thanks." "No problem." He stand and offers me his hand again.

This time; I take it.

Notes