𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐨𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐎𝐥𝐲𝐦𝐩𝐮𝐬

2: Lou's PoV

One of these days, I a going to tell Summer the truth about myself.

Today is not one of those days.

We race each other to the small, abandoned shed where we keep all of our belongings in an insignificant, unrecognisable box and Summer gives me her best winning smile as she arrives a few seconds before me. Like most days, she had won.

"I won!"

I grin. "Maybe, but I'm better at long-distance."

She shrugs, still grinning at her success, which I don't get, because she wins every time. I walk over to the box, and begin rummaging in it for my backpack. A few moments later, I find it and step a way so that Summer can get hers.

When she is done, she looks at me. "What day is it again?"

I raise an eyebrow. "Saturday, obviously."

She shakes her head. "Sorry, I keep forgetting the days in the holidays. Especially the summer ones."

I shrug- that sounds like something Summer would do. "That makes sense. Come on- we need to leave quickly, before we get caught."

She nods and we both begin to speed-walk out of the shed. People notice two twelve-year-olds running down a street, and they also notice two twelve-year-olds walking down the street. So Summer and I agreed at the start that the best thing to do is to speed-walk and hope no one noticed us. It works usually, and today is no exception.

We stay in a pretty poor part of the city, so being homeless kind of comes with living here. Either that or being poor. Usually it's the latter. The only people who actually know we exist are a few shop-owners (who give us the leftovers) and all the other local kids (we've had some really good games of football over the past few months).

We walk down the street, all the while making sure we weren't seen by anyone bad. Absent-mindedly, Summer pulls the hood of her hoodie over her face and shoves her hands in her pockets; something she always does when she is thinking deeply.

 I nudge her gently. "What are you thinking about?"

She shrugs. "Just stuff."

I know not to press further- Summer likes to keep to herself a lot and the last person who invaded her thinking space ended up with a broken nose (it was a terrible idea to teach Summer martial arts). So I wasn't going to bother her.

We walk quietly for the next few minutes and I can't help but feel awkward. Then to my surprise, it is Summer who breaks the deafening silence.

Her voice is suspicious and maybe even accusational. "You're hiding something."

The question takes me by surprise. How does she know? "I- what do you mean?" 

She sounds slightly hurt. "I'm not dumb, you know. There's something you haven't told me."

I pause. How on Earth am I supposed to explain everything to her? I'm not in the mood for an argument today, so I may as well make something up. 

"I'm not hiding anything; it's just that everything is so confusing! Us... the dream... Marina..." I trail off to make it more realistic.

Sumer still doesn't look satisfied. "Okay." 

She doesn't say anything else, and I have a feeling she is angry with me. She hates not knowing things, and when people hide things in front of her. I look at the ground, thinking hard. It ia going to be hard keeping the truth from Summer- she's like some sort of master at reading people and searching for clues in their tone and voice. If I spoke less, she would know. Although I hate it, I'm probably just going to have to carry on lying to her...

Suddenly, I trip on a piece of paper (don't laugh- those things are dangerous) and go sprawling onto my face. Despite being mad with me, I can tell Summer is fighting a smile as she pulls me back up. Feeling embarassed, I brush the dirt off my clothes and bend down to inspect my arch enemy- the Paper of Doom.

It is a handwritten note, and is made of old parchment, like the one they use in Shakespeare. I turn it over and quickly read the writing on the back. Instead of a proper message, it had some sort of poem on it.

Cries of fury, a warrior's pain

Many to lose, many to gain

Words of sorrow form a liar

Buried beneath the greatest desire

Journey into an ocean of doom

Light begone, shadows loom

Lost in reality, far from home

A world of secrets, the truth unknown

"What?" I mutter under my breath.

I can feel Summer reading it over my shoulder. "Whoever wrote this must have been loopy." she murmured.

I straighten. "You can say that again. What's it meant to mean?"

Summer raises an eyebrow at me. "You think I know? Trust me- it probably means nothing, or it's just a random poem someone wrote for the sake of it." Even now she doesn't sound convinced.

I fold it carefully and slit into my pocket. "I'm keeping it- it might be of some importance."

"And if it isn't?"

I look at her. "I guess we'll just have to find out."