Chapter 1(RW): Fun times

Heather doesn't remember much of her childhood. Or what she could call her childhood. Her earliest memory was of her almost getting eaten by a chimera.

Fun times indeed.

She lived in the world of monsters for as long as she could remember, not really having a childhood to look back on. You could call it 'just how it is to be a demigod', and she would agree, but sometimes she would look at the mortal kids hanging with their parents, having a good time, and it would make her a bit jealous.

Though she wasn't truly alone. She had her twin brother and best friend, Logan. They were attached at the hip, doing everything together. Sure, they scooted further from each other as they got older, but it made both of them happier when they would lie in bed at night and talk about their days, a habit they developed over the years.

She also had another friend, Paris. He's the one who saved them from the Chimera. He's like the big brother they never asked for, but the one they very much needed.

Paris took them to what he called 'a sanctuary for the disowners', which, in Heather's mind, was a fancy way of saying a village for kids who hate their parents.

Willow is a place covered by trees and a large barrier that protects them from the watchful eyes of the gods. The Elders created it and have extra protection thanks to the mist that hides the monster world from the human world.

As said before, it was a place for them to get away from the gods. It's not like they hated them. Wait, never mind, they did. But can you blame them? If you found out that your parent wanted you to kill a giant monster instead of them getting up off their tails and doing it themselves, you would want to get away from them to.

Heather had known who her father was ever since he appeared in her dreams, telling her to stay away from his world for as long as possible, which was what she was doing in the first place.

Hades wasn't the worst dad, but he wasn't winning the 'dad of the year' award. He knew he couldn't get to her, so he made it a thing to come into her dreams every night to either lecture her or simply ask her where she could be, which, to her, confused her since he could go into her dreams, why couldn't he know where she is?

But she never thought about it too much since she never told him.

Speaking of dreams, she would have these dreams of someone every night. It was the same dream. A brunette girl is pinning her down with a dagger to her neck. It was a strange dream, but it always happened. The girl would be yelling at her, telling her to snap out of it–whatever it was–and the dream would blacken out and she would wake up. Every single time.

She never met the girl, so it confused her as to why she was having dreams of someone she had never met. Even though she never talked about it to anyone outside of herself, her brother, and Paris. She didn't think it was important enough to explain to anyone else, especially since the dream doesn't really give her any other information than the one she keeps seeing every night.

She just turned 12 when things started to change, not just with her dreams, but with everything. She woke up in a cold sweat that morning. Her dream changed. The girl wasn't just pinning her down. Someone tried to stab her with a sword, and she used one of her hands to grab the sword and swat at the person with it, knocking them down. Her attention went back to Heather as she kept yelling at her.

Then something sharp went through her, and she woke up. She started to think that it was more real than she thought it was.

She groaned as she dangled her feet from the top of the bunk. Yes, she had and shared a bunk bed with her brother. Logan told her it was for 'protection' but Heather knew that it was for Logan to get to the shower faster than her. They already banned her from shadow traveling. What more could they do?

Heather took the fact that Logan was still asleep to sneak into the bathroom, carefully closing the door behind her.

Leaning against the door, Heather let out an exhausted sigh. She prepared to get into the bath when a sharp pain went through her. It was a pain she was more than familiar with. She grumbled as she sank into the water.

This wasn't the first time she dealt with selective mutism. As long as she could remember, she had had this curse where she suddenly lost the ability to speak. It would last for hours or days at a time, sometimes even months. After the twelfth time, she thought it was best to stay silent. For that reason, people thought she'd grown mute, which is not the wrong response to what's going on.

She heard the bed creak from the outside. She continued with her bath as Logan realized she was gone and groaned.

"Man, you woke up before me?" He shouted. "That's what I get for staying up late playing Mythomagic with Paris and Amaltheia yesterday."

Heather ignored him and finished with her bath. As she was drying up, she looked at herself in the mirror. She didn't get as much sleep either. She kept thinking about the dream. It felt too real to be just a dream.

She got out of the bathroom wearing a black t-shirt with navy blue jeans. Her curly hair was tied up in a ponytail, and her hands were bandaged.

Reasoning for the bandages? Her hands burned every time she left them bare. She would've worn gloves, but she couldn't find fingerless ones, which are the only ones she'd willingly wear. The bandages are a good substitute.

Logan looked at her as she came out. "Finally," he stood up. "It took you forever!"

"It was only thirty minutes," Heather signed, not being able to speak.

Logan groaned. "More like thirty hours." He sluggishly moved to the bathroom door. He then paused. "Can't speak again?"

Heather shook her head.

"Well, Amaltheia might have some medicine in her cabin if it's a sore throat. If not, then there's cold water in the fridge."

Heather thanked him, deciding to take both and walked out of the cabin, the heat of summer hitting her once she stepped out.

She drank the cold water as she walked down the hill her cabin lay towards the stores below. Well, to Heather, they were less like actual stores and more like thrift stores for different things. They barely paid for the things they bought from there. Why would they? It's not like they'd use it for anything useful.

Heather walked into a store with crystals lining the walls and the smell akin to a batch of cookies coming out of the oven.

A black woman with an afro tied back with a headscarf stood on the other side of the counter. She wore big, baggy clothing with crystals hanging from her skin. That was Amaltheia. The people in Willow called her the "nice voodoo lady". She came from New Orleans and brought her love of prophecies and fortune cards with her.

"Hmm?" She looked up from what she was doing and saw Heather coming into the store. "Oh, Heather! Come on, honey, what brings you here? Need another one of my remedies?"

"Another silent thing," Heather signed.

"Oh, honey. Well, as much as this is happening, I think this isn't something regular remedies can fix," Amaltheia said. She then smiled. "Lucky for you, what I have isn't some regular remedies. This is something straight out of the old Book of the Bayou."

Amaltheia dug into a box, taking out different vials and crystals before pulling out a tiny, empty vial. Heather was going to question its use until Amaltheia pulled out a small crystal and placed it in there. She then poured a yellow liquid over it and topped the vial before shaking it a few times. The vial began to glow a bright yellowish purple color. She held it out to Heather.

"Drink it," Amaltheia told her. Heather hesitated for a minute. "Don't worry, honey, it's not poisonous."

Heather took it and looked at it before taking a big swig. Her work began to spin before she steadied herself.

"Doing okay?" Amaltheia asked. Heather nodded. "Okay. Speak."

Heather opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

Amaltheia winced. "Man, I thought that would've worked."

"It's okay, Amaltheia," Heather told her. "At least you tried."

Amaltheia smiled. "Don't feel so down now, honey. I promise you I'll find a way to cure this curse."

Heather smiled. "Thanks, Amaltheia."

Amaltheia nodded as Heather walked out of the store, still holding the glass of water in her hand. She drank it all before heading to the armory in the woods, far from the cabins, though still close enough that they could find their way back with no problem.

Heather walked until she could spot a rundown building, previously used for woodworking and other crafts, now turned into a training area, as the elders thought the Armory and Crafts buildings should be further away from each other.

There were already people there, such as Paris and other older teens. He was teaching them to fight. Heather watched from the sidelines as Paris and another kid were swordfighting, with Paris smoothly taking the other kid down.

The kid tried to come at Paris by swiping him from the right, but Paris ducked away, and once the sword was on the other side of his face, he grabbed the kid's arm and threw him to the side in one swift move, leaving the kid on the ground.

The kid surrendered just as quickly, leaving Paris feigning a stunned look.

"Quitting already?" Paris laughed. "Your father would be disappointed in what you've become."

Heather got a sour feeling at the mention of fathers. The kid, however, glared at him and made Paris help him up, which he did.

When Paris pulled him up, his eyes locked onto Heather's, and his teasing smile turned into a genuine one. "Heather! How long have you been there? Come on, come train with us."

Heather looked at the kids, who looked back at her with fear and contempt.

"I'd rather not," She signed.

One of the kids scoffed. "I'm glad you're not," he muttered.

Paris smirked at him. "Why? Because you know she'd beat you?"

"No, because she's a curse who'd mess up the entire thing."

Paris smile dropped. Heather expected he'd say that, so she wasn't all that surprised.

Paris glared at him. "Say that again. I dare you."

The kid put his hands up defensively. "I'm just saying, you know how many things have been going wrong cause she can't keep her powers in check? I don't want her training anywhere near me."

Heather just shrugged, moving to the water jugs to pour another cup.

She heard the comments from people more times than once. Some people call her the curse rather than her having one. Ever since she found out her dad was Hades, things have been going wrong for her. From that time, she accidentally crumbled the wooden boats to keep people from going out into the sea. Or that time when she led a horde of Zombies into the village, and they chased off some of the kids, ruining the plans they had for the day. She swore up and down that she only summoned them to help.

It was no use, though. Everyone hated her for it; they'd whisper about her and what kind of mistake she'd cause next. Because of that, people refused to hang out with her.

Heather quietly escaped the room before a fight could break out. Her eyes locked onto the sun in front of her. She walked towards the beach and sat down in front of the water.

She heard footsteps behind her. Logan sat down at her left side, and the two stared out in silence.

Unlike Heather, no one thought her brother was cursed. No one bunched the two together, so Logan was basically the 'good one' out of the two. Heather would've hated that if she cared.

She noticed Logan staring at her, so she turned to him to see that he was still staring.

"What?" Heather signed.

Logan's eyes narrowed before he sighed. "I know this place is to shield us from the gods, but..." His gaze moved to the sun. "How desperate would they be to find us?"

It was Heather's turn to glare at him. "Dude, don't jinx us!"

Logan raised his head defensively. "I'm just saying. If a group of their kids just up and vanished, would they be at least a bit worried?"

"They're gods," Heather told him. "Don't you think they're gonna be too busy sitting high and mighty on their thrones to care about us?"

Logan opened his mouth before closing it. "Touche."

Heather and Logan looked at each other before they agreed to sit at the beach and relax.

Everyone here agrees not to talk about their godly parents. Not because they're proud, but because they don't want to live a life where their parents are constantly in the picture. People come to Willow to get away from the monsters and the threat of dying when trying to live a mortal life.

Some people even agreed to refer to a group of people by their epithets instead of by their godly parents. Those who are children of Athena? Teachers. Children of Aphrodite? Charmers. Children of Hades? Reapers.

There are rarities like Children of Hecate, also called Hexers, Children of Hypnos, also called Dreamers, and Children of Nyx, also called Nocturnals.

Heather mostly hangs out with the Nyx kids. They're all introverts, which she thinks is the right type of group to hang out with.

Heather looked up at the sky, watching as it became a cloudy gray. Heather was confused since she didn't think it was going to rain today, especially not early in the morning when it was previously sunny and hot out.

The twins noticed and gave each other a confused look.

"I didn't know it was going to rain today," Logan muttered.

The rain started just as fast as the clouds came. Though the shield protected them, it didn't keep them from the weather. Others came out, confused, as the rain made everyone pack up and run to their cabins or nearby stores as it got harsh.

"Come on," Logan told Heather. "It looks like it's gonna get bad, we gotta get to our cabin."

Heather nodded, but she kept watching as the thunder began. She ran with Logan to their cabin, quickly closing and locking the door behind them.

Logan groaned. "Welp, there goes my plans for the next three days," he grunted.

Heather kept looking out the window of the cabin. "The weather was never this harsh before," she signed. "Do you think it's something bad?"

Before Logan could answer, a loud crash shook their cabin. Something struck the roof. It was hard enough that it made the roof to dent in.

Logan then realized something. "Something bad is happening," He huffed. He turned to his sister. "He knows we're here and he's out to get us."

Another strike came to the roof, causing pieces to fall, creating a large hole in the roof.

"We have to get out," Logan muttered. He threw open the door, and they ran out of the cabin just as more lightning bolts came down, blowing up the entire cabin.

"We can't stop, he'll kill us while we're out," Heather signed.

Logan nodded. "You're right," he said. "But...we can't stay here, or he'll kill everyone else."

Heather nodded, standing up. "But where are we gonna go? We can't leave here without immediately getting killed."

Logan huffed. "I don't know," He said, looking around. "But all I know is that we're going to be alone together once again."

Heather pursed her lips as the two ran to the entrance, out of Willow, and into the world they never thought they were going to go back in.