Stormbreacher - Book 1 of Titanomachy Series

Chapter 12: Naivité

I spent the whole entire week studying up on Veridian's underground. And hoooooo, boy, the more I learned, the worse and worse it seemed to get.

So, quick rundown on the Veridian underground:

1. It's about five hundred years old and a hundred and fifty years older than the city itself. It's a network of nuclear bunkers that was developed before, during, and after the Titanomachy and later grew out onto the surface and into a full-blown city.

2. They got flooded a little over seventy years ago by a certain Hurricane Walter and are in extreme disrepair, which is a problem because they're pretty much the foundation of the entire city above

3. An estimated 70% of murders occur down there. It's an estimate because nobody knows how many murder-ees were actually killed in Veridian proper or in the Veridian underground. Dead bodies are surprisingly good at getting from point A to B.

Yup.

Great vacation spot, with direct transportation straight to heaven. Except it's a one-way ticket.

I think someone punched my dad a one-way ticket to heaven.

"And probably the same someone had the crass to put a goddamn government genetic engineering facility down there!!" I suddenly exclaimed like an idiot in the middle of my research. Stinger freaked out and ended up tumbling off the lamp he was sitting on. "Don't do that! That was loud!" he mumbled.

"No one's here, Stinger. No one would've heard me shouting."

"But what if they did!" Stinger spread his wings out wide and shrugged. It became clear to me that he was joking. "And they'd throw you in jail!"

"I'm sure, I'm sure."

The doorbell suddenly rang from the other side of the house. I thought it was Mom at first, getting back from whatever she was doing with Persey, but she would've had the keys, I realized. "One sec. Stinger, stay hidden." I pointed at my pillow, Stinger's newest hiding spot. It seemed to work pretty well. He gave me a little salute with his wing and darted to the pillow, slamming his face into the scratchy pillowcase. "Oof!!"

I walked out and opened the front door. And whaddya know, I was met by my Aunt Kia. In the same exact clothes and stuff from the first time I saw her moving in, except add a couple thousand more bags.

"Hi, Athena!!" she exclaimed. "Is your mom here?"

"Uh—...no. Just me. She took Persephone out for a dentist's appointment." That was a lie. I had no goddamn idea where either of them were. "What are you doing? Couldn't you have just called?" I asked.

"Well, where's the fun in that?" Aunt Kia helped herself into the room and obliviously plopped half of her couple thousand bags down right on my sneakers. "Did you just go to the mall or something?" I exclaimed, quickly moving the bags off of the shoes. "What the hell is all of this?"

"Gifts!"

Oh. Oh, great. Gifts. Yeah, she did just come back from the mall. I hate Aunt Kia's gifts, they're always trashy appliances that break within the first week. Or never worked in the first place. Or they're stuffed animals that we end up donating to the local orphanage. "I thought you would like these!" she exclaimed.

"Aunt Kia, I'm not eight anymore. I'm fourteen. I don't play with dolls." I grunted.

"Well, then, what do you do?" Aunt Kia asked. "I mean, I'll get you that stuff if you want!"

"No! I don't want more stuff!" I exclaimed. "You see how tiny this apartment is? We can't fit another ten thousand XXL plushies in here even if I wanted them like we did in Vermont."