As Luck Would Have It 「 Jiper 」

iii

Thalia Grace slapped her mother in the face. How dare she. How dare she abandon her own son, her own blood. Thalia knew that her mother was emotionally unstable, being left not once, but twice by Zeus, her and Jason's father, leading the woman to resort to alcohol, but she didn't know that it would come this far, leaving her own little brother to suffer.

What stood in front of her was no longer the dazzling TV actress the world once knew. What stood in front of her wasn't human.

"Where is he?" Thalia demanded.

"I-I don't know," Beryl slurred with panic at the edge of her voice. "H-He disappeared, b-believe me, Thalia, you have to!"

"Liar. I'm leaving."

Thalia ran up to her room and took out her backpack that was already filled with clothes. She had been waiting for the day when she could finally leave this horrid house of bad memories, and this was it—this was her chance. All she had to do was find her brother and get as far away from their mother as possible.

Thalia stopped in her tracks to see her mother at the bottom of the staircase, holding out a knife.

"M-mom...P-put that down."

Her mother smiled and took a step towards her. "Yes, but you have to be a good girl first. Go to your room and we can forget that any of this ever happened."

"You're fucking mental." Thalia spat.

"Now, now, dearie. No need to be stubborn, or else Mommy's gonna have you kept quiet permanently." Beryl took another step towards her daughter, her smile getting more and more sinister by each passing moment. Surely her daughter would not hesitate to obey her at the sight of a sharp weapon such as a knife.

But Thalia had enough. She looked at her left and spotted a wooden chair.

Beryl didn't see it coming.

Thalia took the chair and charged towards her mother, aiming for her head, calculating the force enough to knock her out and have the knife drop, out of their way. Beryl tumbled down the stairs. There was a small gash on her temple, blood staining the beige carpet.

Breathing heavily, she cautiously moved towards where her mother lay, and kicked the knife towards where no one could reach it. She checked for her mother's breathing, and was proclaimed unconscious. Thalia dragged her mother, let her lay on the sofa, and bandaged her head to avoid further damage.

She contemplated on whether or not she should pack food, but in the end decided that she didn't as she didn't want her mother to starve. Sure, she was almost killed by her, but she didn't want to resort to any choices that could have anyone harmed.

Taking advantage of her mother's unconsciousness, Thalia went out of the door and didn't bother looking back.