The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell

Percy Annabeth had left to go grab the others to join us. I was still in a slight state of shock, I had just found my mother. I could tell it was true, when I looked into her eyes, I just felt at home. When she wrapped her arms around me I felt like I was safe, for the first time in three years. Paul had left us alone in the cabin to bring in the food. One of the plates he brought in held a large blue cake. My mom must have noticed my confused look, “Don’t tell me that in the three years you’ve been gone you’ve lost your taste for blue cake?” “To be honest, I haven’t had much cake period. I did eat anything that was blue when I had the chance, but I wasn’t sure why,” I told her. I had always gravitated toward blue, but looking at the blue cake, something just clicked from my memory. I looked at her, “It was a joke between us wasn’t it?” A smile came across her face and she nodded, “Yes, my first husband had told us that there was no such thing as blue food, so we made it a point to prove him wrong.” “First husband?” Her face fell a little, “Yes, Gabe, I married him a few years after you were born. He helped provide for us, but… well it didn’t work out,” she said rubbing her side. That’s when I knew that this, Gabe, had hurt us. At least my mom and that seemed to stir up some memories. Nights when a chubby short man came home late, smelling of stale beer and cigars. He would knock things onto the floor, throw my mom into the wall, and then hit me across the wall when I’d try to protect her. Anger flared deep inside of me. I suddenly found myself hoping that he was dead already, because if he wasn’t, he would be wishing that he was soon. I was brought back to reality by my mom rubbing my arm looking up at me concerned. My vision cleared and I looked around the room. Paul was standing by the table looking at me scared. Annabeth suddenly ran into the door way, slightly out of breath, “What’s going on? I could feel your anger from down the beach.” Mom looked back and forth between us, looking like she was trying to figure out a puzzle. “How can you feel his anger?” she asked Annabeth. Annabeth looked shocked, “um, I only meant that uh-” “Annabeth! Thanks for bringing my shirt!” I cut her off before we told mom too much. Walking over to her I could see her thanking me with her eyes. I grabbed my shirt and I pulled it over my head. I turned back toward my mom and she was looking at us suspiciously. “Percy, can you help me carry some bowls inside?” she asked me. She walked towards us and stepped between me and Annabeth, looking at me with an evil grin, much like my own. “Yeah sure,” I said. I nodded to Annabeth, “I’ll be right back I guess. I’m assuming the others are coming soon?” I asked her as I walked away. She nodded to me, “They were packing up and then were headed here. I will help Paul in here,” she said pointing into the cabin. I nodded to her, then I turned around and followed my mom back to the car. She was standing at the back of the car, leaning up against the trunk laughing to herself. “So you disappear for three years, then decide to show up here and surprise your mother, on your birthday, with a girlfriend?” I started choking, “What?! Annabeth is not my girlfriend!” My head was spinning around, trying to figure out where she got that idea. “She is one of my biggest enemies! Plus she is an annoying know-it-all who I can’t stand!” She chuckled a little more, “That’s how the best ones always start Percy. When I met your father, Poseidon, I couldn’t stand him. We grew up down the street from each other and so we got to know each other really well. He was always starting arguments in class or playing his music too loud next door or trying to get me to ditch class. But I grew to love him, the qualities that I hated originally, became endearing, also he was kind, gentle and loving. The only person that I’ve loved more than him, is you.” She was looking at me, but the way her eyes looked, it was almost as if she was looking into the past, seeing the scenes unfold in front of her. She finally focused back on me after a minute, “So what I’m saying, be careful who you find irritating. They may just become the person you can’t see yourself without.” “Well, if you knew everything between us, you’d see that it won’t ever happen.” I wished I could tell her everything. She felt so safe and so much like home that I wanted to just tell her all about me being a devil and being destined to fight the biggest, meanest devil that the world has seen since Lucifer. But I couldn’t, not if I wanted to keep her safe. “I’m sure that’ll change with time,” she said to me. She reached up and placed a hand on my cheek. “But I won’t bother you anymore about it. Just remember what I’ve said. Don’t close your heart from the world, there is so much love in it that if you don’t let some of it in, you will be miserable.” I nodded, it felt good to have her hand on my cheek. “Now, let’s get this food inside before the rest of your friends get here.” ≈ After we had all stuffed ourselves of my mother’s exquisite cooking we were sitting around a bonfire on the beach. The big topic seemed to be me, my mom was telling us stories about me when I was little. It was a little embarrassing, but after a little while I decided that I needed to get away from everyone. I stood up and started walking away, until I heard Jason call out to me. “Hey Percy, you alright?” I turned back and gave them a smile, “Yeah, just gotta get a little air. You guys keep talking, I’ll be back in a couple minutes.” I walked slowly toward the edge of the water, stopping just out of its reach. I put my hands into the pockets of my sweat pants. Looking out over the water I felt at peace, it calmed my buzzing mind. I couldn’t believe how crazy today had been, finding my mom, learning about my past. Finding out that today was my 22nd birthday. Then there was the whole thing about my mom thinking that Annabeth was my girlfriend. What the hell was that all about? We didn’t act like a couple did we? Sure she was really pretty, and smart and fun to be around. But she was an angel and I was a devil. Her stare was so scary that it would make anyone quiver in fear, those gray eyes were harsh. But they were also beautiful, especially when she laughed, they seemed to take on a silver tint when she was happy; much different than the ominous dark clouds rolling in from the storm of her anger. “Hey there seaweed brain, everything alright?” I jumped when I heard Annabeth walk up behind me. As she came up and stood on my ride side looking out over the water, I could see her eyes shining from the moonlight; they looked really pretty. I shook my head hard, trying to get those thought out of my head. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine. Just trying to process everything from today. I mean, can you believe that we found my mom?” She let out a small laugh, “It is definitely hard to believe. Especially since she is so pretty, I guess you get your looks from your dad,” she said as she nudged her shoulder into my side. I looked down, trying to put on my best offended face, “Excuse you Annabeth Chase! I happen to think I look quite handsome, I thought angels were supposed to be sweet and nice!” She gave a crooked smile, “That’s just how we get you to let your guard down, when you fall in love with us, that’s when the teasing really gets started.” Love, whoa, where did that come from. She must have realized what she said as soon as I did because her eyes grew to double their normal size. “That’s not what I meant!” That’s when I started laughing at her; then she followed suit, pretty soon we were laughing so hard we were crying. I turned around to look at our group back at the camp fire. I looked at my mom and she was looking at us. She had a smile that was touching her ears and she gave me a thumbs up. I quickly turned around and reached up with my left hand to start rubbing the back of my neck, praying that my face wasn’t as red as it felt. That’s when I felt her head fall to rest on my right arm. She let out a sigh and her shoulders relaxed. I tried to not imagine my mom grinning even more than she was before, but I had a feeling that was probably the case. My face felt so hot that I was probably glowing in the night. I won’t lie, it felt nice resting on my arm. I looked down and I saw that her eyes were shut. She looked so peaceful, I didn’t want to disturb her. I mean, she didn’t get much rest as it was, so it would be mean to disturb even the smallest rests. So I just looked back out over the ocean. “Percy, are you glad that you joined us?” she finally asked after a few minutes of silence. “I mean, everything about your life has changed since you joined us. Do you resent us for that?” I looked down at her, she was still looking out over the ocean. “Of course not Annabeth. Of course, before you came along I thought my life was great, but it wasn’t; or at least it wouldn’t have been for much longer if I had been forced to work for Kronos. Don’t think for a second that I regret meeting you and going with you to get intel on Kronos.” She looked up and locked eyes with me, “Even though I’ve caused you to get your ass kicked multiple times?” I could hear a tiny amount of teasing in her voice, but it was covered by a lot of worry. I gave her a smile, “Don’t worry about it Wise Girl, I’m sure that you’ll think of a way to make it up to me.” She nodded, then she turned back to the ocean and set her head back on my arm. I decided to comfort her a little more, so I moved my arm around to wrap around her shoulders. When I did that she wrapped her arm back around my waist. I felt a little uncomfortable at first. It was the first time that I had really embraced anyone like this. But it started to feel good after a few minutes. It started to feel similar to how I felt when I hugged my mom. This felt safe, it felt right. We may be enemies, but for that moment, I decided that it didn’t matter who was what. In that moment, we were friends; very close friends perhaps, but we were friends who would fight and kill for each other. I could almost feel my mom’s smile boring into my back. I could hear her voice in the back of my mind as well. “I told you so,” I could hear her saying. I shook my head slightly, smiling. I wouldn’t admit that she was right, but I also wouldn’t say that she was wrong.

Notes