Olympus School- The Son of War

1. Justin

I push my body to move faster with the hope of making all these bad thoughts go away. They don't. They never do. That's the thing about pain. It demands to be felt. I have felt more of it than I ever thought possible. After her death...I thought I would break...thought I couldn't make it but here I am.

I jump over a pit of fire without any sign of fear. Fire can't hurt me. Actually it's the only thing that can't hurt me. My legs feel heavy. My lungs are on fire. Sweat runs down my face. I'm breathing loud and hard. But exercising is the only thing that keeps me going. The first few days without her, I could feel myself drifting towards that edge she was so dangerously close to. I knew that I had to keep going though. Otherwise she would've died in vain and I'm not letting that happen. The physical pain helps me coping. Besides I want to be ready. I have to be ready. I have to be ready to avenge her, to make sure she gave her life for something. I want to at least be able to say that she died giving us a chance to win this war and that we took that chance. Skyla always told me that she wasn't a hero, that she didn't believe in heroes, but she died a hero's death. And though she claimed to not believe in heroes, she thought that I was one. She believed so strongly in other people, in me, because she already gave up on herself.

And now, all that we have left of her is a ring. We burned all the dead, but Skyla's body began to glow and disappeared, just like Dominic's. Only her ring remained. We tried turning it into Hope, but it didn't work. Tristan couldn't do it, Jaina couldn't, Parker couldn't. Not even I could, despite my power to manipulate weapons. Tristan told me that I could keep her ring because it was her weapon and I gave her the strength not to throw that weapon down and give up. Actually I think both of us just couldn't stand the constant reminder. I gave the ring to Parker. He wears it at the necklace around his neck, together with his mother's ring. It feels like the right place. Hope in his backpack and Hope around his neck.

Nevertheless all of us seem to have lost their hope. No one knows what to do. It's been almost a month and nothing happened. We elected Alicia, the tactics teacher, as our new headmaster and are preparing for a possible attack by training harder than ever and trying to gather information.

A month is a long time you might think, but it did nothing to dim the pain. I'm still heartbroken. I don't sleep well and don't eat much. Skyla always used to tease me that I'm always hungry. I'm not anymore.

I cross the finishing line and stop the time on my phone. I've gotten a lot faster than the first time, but I can literally hear Skyla's voice in my head telling me that good isn't good enough. Good isn't what we want. Powerful, hard to kill, strong...that's what we want.

Trying to control my breathing I bend over a bit. Sweat trickles down my face. I'm tired, though I'm not sure of what. Everything? Shaking my head to clear the depressing thoughts away, I decide to take a shower.

As soon as I step out of the shower, I miss the warm water on my skin. My body changed along with everything else. It's hard and strong. Lean muscles under skin covered in scars and ink. I get dressed. All in black of course.

Someone knocks on the door. A bit confused I shout, "Yes?" and quickly put on a black t-shirt. The door opens and a pretty blonde girl enters. Bella. What is she doing here?

"Hey," she says and sits down on my bed. Sure, get comfortable.

"Hey," I reply running a hand through my hair. Being alone in a room with a girl that is not Skyla or Dahlia is weird somehow. Suddenly I remember Sky's naked body pressed up against mine, her cold skin under my fingers. All the scars and muscles, telling stories of all the times she suffered. I bite my lip and look away from Bella.

"Look, I know that we don't really know each other, but I'm worried about you, Justin," she says looking at me out of curious eyes.

"I'm worried about me too," I say quietly and slump down on the bed next to her, falling on my back. She lets herself fall back too, her blonde hair fanning out around her head. It's the same color as mine. She seems to notice too.

"You know, when I first saw you I thought that your mom was Aphrodite."

"Really?"

"Yeah, you didn't look much like a warrior to me back then."

"And now?" I ask staring at the ceiling.

"Now you do," she says touching the scar on my cheek.

"Skyla gave me that one," I say not unfriendly. Her touch feels only friendly, nothing more. "We had an argument and she threw a knife at me."

"I'm sorry," Bella says quietly and pulls her hand away. "I'm just a sucker for scars."

I chuckle and turn my head to find her already looking at me. "If you need someone to talk to, I'm um I'm here for you," she says. I study her, only now realizing that the makeup around her left eye looks like her hand was shaking and that she has bags under her eyes.

"Why?" I ask. We've never been friends and she looks like she has enough trouble on her own.

"Because I think that you need someone, but everyone's too busy with their own grief. You try to act so strong, but actually you're falling apart."