The Mark of Athena

Chapter 14

Well here's chapter 14. Haven't uploaded in a while, but now I'll try one chapter every week. Gonna write so much new stories after this one. Doing this one, I came up with like a hundred other ideas.

Enjoy. =D

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Frank Zhang, was weak. He was  a glass fragment. Every step threatened his existence. His stick, that his life depended on had been cut in two. He walked as if the weight of the universe was on his shoulders. He took a breath. A long relaxing breath. It made him want to breathe again and again. He wanted to. He wanted to live. Life was precious. It was an hour glass. And his was running out of sand. Frank was back in human form. He was at the entrance to the Underworld. He saw a man. A grim man. With his head down into the shadows, but tall too.

"I-want---to- mom- cave--destiny--passagewa-chaos." Those words Frank stuttered just barely. The man seemed to understand. He threw Frank into the river styx at full speed. And a moment later he was with Frank. But they weren't in the river. They weren't in the acid torrent, that surrounded them with water, pain or any of that. They were on land. The man snapped his fingers, then time overlapped. It was like chaos. A second seemed like three days. And the turmoil, got to his head. Frank was dizzy, about to throw up, then relax and die. Then he saw a field of barley. Then his grandmother's bickering, from the movement in her mouth. Then his mom embracing him. Mars his obnoxious, annoying, but okay dad. He saw himself win the spelling bee a couple years ago, at his school. He remebered he hoped his mom would hear about this in Afghanistan.Then he saw his mom dying, protecting other soldiers taking the hit. Putting duty first. Isn't your duty taking caring of me? Frank asked in his head, tears bubbling in his eyes. He saw Juno, presenting his mom and grandma the burning stick. More tears, bubbled his eyes. And more and more and more. They were never going to stop.

Frank wanted to shout, shout all his sorrow out. But the shout never came. It wasn't fair. Those words banged against the outskirts of his mind. Frank froze. His brown eyes wet. He was the same person. Just Frank, but he wasn't. It wasn't fair. Frank clenched his fist. He wanted to go kill Gaea, to kill her beat her to the ground, pound her into a million pieces. He was angry, he was miserable, and he was going to make her pay. But those thoughts were interrupted, as the man said,

"Frank Zhang we are here."

Frank wondered how the man knew his name, when he didn't tell him. But then again, Frank didn't tell him a lot of things, and he knew exactly what Frank wanted.

Frank saw darkness, it was dark. But he couldn't see a thing. And a feeling of dread was beginnning to overwhelm him. The man just ignored this, and drew a shining sword as bright as who knew? The sword had letters on them, in another language. It wasn't Greek, Roman, or English. Then what was it. Then came his mom.

"M--om. Is that really you?"

Then Frank looked to the right and saw a boy, a boy about Hazel's age. Yeah, Hazel's age. In an aviator jacket, jeans, and unconcious. Or it seemed as if he was in endless sleep. Gods, the kid was Nico di Angelo. What was he doing here? Frank thought Gaea had captured him. But that must mean that the man worked for Gaea... Or did he?

Frank then turned around, and saw the man holding his sword at his throat. Frank was stuck. He was stuck right on the spot. He couldn't move.

He still saw the ghost of his mom. She was urging him on, to kill this guy but Frank couldn't. He was too weak.

He then was lost in a possibly delusional conversation with his mom, in his head.

"Mom. Why? Why, did you have to leave? WHY DID YOU HAVE TO, YOU FILTHY YELLOW WOMAN?!?!

"Frank, I had to it was my duty for my country and you."

Frank began to whisper,but it was as loud as a shout as tears began to fill his eyes, " Why, you're my mom. You're supposed to take care of me. You're supposed to be-- my mom. Why? It's not fair! It's not fair!" Frank wailed, breathing, maybe the man hadn't happened.

 "Listen Frai you s-"

" No you listen, you listen. Railway accident. I know Canada is important to you, but how could you go to it for your son. I want to be loved. I don't want to be a hero. I want to be happy. Not, all serious, and into duty. I don't want to. It's not fair." Frank knew he was crying like a baby now, but he didn't care. He knew now it had all gone downhill from his mother's death. Frank took out a dagger from his pocket, and pointed at his neck. He was going to die. The pain would be gone. And anything would be even better than pain right now. This pain, the pain of losing.

"If you attempt suicide... Frai Zhang, you'll be missing out on life.You regret having pain now. You'll regret the happiness that waits after it. Yes, I know the pain is hard,-"

"SHUT THE-"

"FRANK!!! PAIN IS HARD BUT IT DOESN'T LAST FOREVER." Frank opened his mouth to say something but, " You'll be happy, I'm dead but I'm still your mom. I'll still take care of you. I'll always be there in your memories. I know. It's not real but, it's all you got." Her voice became quieter, " I wanted to die in Afghanistan. I wanted to return back to Canada, when I realized I wouldn't I tried to suicide. But then I remebered you, and I kept going, I was going to fight, fight for life. And that's the most honourable death, dying fighting. Lupa taught you that. And it's a lesson you have to learn as life goes on. I love you Frank. I love you. I love you. UGGH, I want to say it so much times, until everything's better, but it's not. Frank you can be anything. You can be happy, just dig deeper, it gets harder all the time, but if it wasn't, then you would be nothing."

Frank knew she was right, he had to keep digging, he had to, but he couldn't. He would be happy again. He would be, then he got a glimpse of the man again, and as the voice disappeared, Frank took the dagger and jabbed it across his neck. He was shaking, face burning with steam. Eyes bulging. He was a drunk man. Or he looked like an exaggerated example of one. It was all black from then on.