"I will never let go" he assured the girl beneath him, but she knew it was too late. He looked into her bright eyes full of fear and this new feeling that crawled up to her bones. His grip was the thightest he has ever held on something before. She...
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AFTER THAT NIGHT ASPEN didn't return home. She got lost. Aspen walked where the Sun pointed at her, getting lost inside a forest that is too familar to her. Aspen recalls the day she walked out of Camp Half-Blood and left for good. That was the day the Seven returned from fullfilling the Prophecy of Seven.
Somehow, Aspen never really wanted to be there. It seemed to her that everyone was so busy with their own quests and lives, that a missing daughter of Apollo would make no harm. What she don't know is that they looked for her. They stopped after two months. Will- her half-brother just stopped. It was useless, she left a note though.
"I'm sorry. I can't do this anymore" it read. Will almost took it as a joke, but he knew his sisten didn't want to be found, not after her last quest. Not after what she saw.
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YES, ASPEN DID RETURN home after that day. The next month letters and bills started to arrive. Aspen wanted to drawn herself on the bath. Or to burn her face into the stove. The blonde girl only wanted her family to be there. Or even her father. But her father disappeared. No sign of him.
The lights had been cutt off the past week, and water just yesterday. Why them? Aspen couldn't helf to think. Why not other family? But Aspen knew what to do. Aspen knew where to go. The only place safe for her. The only place where she might hear about her father, or about Will. Because no one was closer than Will Solance in this moment when everything changed.
So that morning, silently, Aspen took a back-pack, and stuffed her most important belongings inside. A pair of shorts, underwear, a toothbrush, a hair comb, extra pair of sneakers and a bunch of socks, and most important: that orange t-shirt.
The daughter of Apollo made sure her jeans weren't too thight, and her hoodie not too thin. And she stepped outside. The crowds of the city was the first thing she noticed.
The world did moved on without her after all. The city of New York was crowded with people as it has always been. Aspen ventured rather between shadows, and kept a low profile. All she wanted was to hug her friends thightly, as she told them about the events that a) made her leave the camp, b) made her return. She wanted to make silly jokes with Will, and to have the reasurance of him telling her that it is going to be okay.
Aspen nodded, while walking straight through Time's Square. Voices echoed all around, as Aspen wondered about the lives of these strangers. About their lives. Do they have someone that expects them to return home at the end of the day?
The young girl pulled her hoodie up, and disappeared into the crowd. Leaving no trace behind her. And, after hours of walking, she finally made it to the outskirts of the city. The details are un-important really. As Aspen didn't had any encounter with monsters this time. This gave her thinking time though.
