Mortals meet demigods

Skye Alexander

TW for death and mentions of ab*se. Stay safe y'all, love you. 

"Skye." The brown hair, red dip-dyed girl looked up from the worksheet she was struggling with. Her dark red eyes saw the principal in the doorway. Skye Alexander hadn't done anything bad, had she? Hesitantly, she got up and followed Mr. Bernesky to his office.

Mr. Bernesky's office is not what you would call "normal." Every inch of his walls had posters with weird puns or sayings on it. Rumor has it, he got every single one of them from Inspirobot. In one corner, there was a manikin with his coat and hat on it, standing in a scolding position. There was a board saying "bus passes of shame" with a fair amount of old and worn passes stapled there. He had a small bowl of slime and putty and playdoh sitting on the corner of his desk. His desk had neon wallpaper wrapped around it and a sign taped. It said, "speak freely or receive punishment" with a little picture of the Floss. Every single spare space of counters or shelving had a lava lamp, obnoxious enough to send anyone to crazy town. If they were on. Skye's braided hair whipped back and forth, slapping her in the face as she attempted to take it all in.

"Sit down," Skye sat but ended up fidgeting so much she would have fallen off. "Nevermind then. Now, let's get to the point. Your brother's body was found in an alleyway, 5 minutes ago. The police just called."

Daren Alexander was dead. Her abusive brother was dead. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. First her dad left, then her mom was killed by a gang, now her brother was dead. It was just Skye left and she had never been happier. Skye would never have to come to school, hiding a new scar or sporting a new bruise on her face. She continued to sit there, numb as could be. Skye looked down at her feet. She brought her hand up to cover her mouth, but dropped it when she saw how badly it was shaking.

"Do you want to go home?" Skye nodded and left to get her stuff.

As she was sifting through Daren's belongings later that day, she came across a series of letters,written in a different language. They were between Daren and the leader of the gang who killed her mom. As she read them, there were words written in her brother's handwriting like "I did it, now you have to cover for me." Or, "this is getting boring, can't we just initiate the next phase already?" "I hate her" was written in nearly every single letter. Skye had the nagging feeling that "her" was herself. Why was Daren in contact with the Ravens? Does this have anything to do with her mom's death, 1 year ago, or was it just a coincidence?

Skye couldn't think so she went to bed. While she was asleep, Skye dreamt of a dark night. There were clouds blocking the full moon and there was a woman running down a street. Her head kept on turning back and forth, so many times she didn't realize someone was standing in front of her. The second person, a boy, pulled something from his jacket and stabbed the woman in the stomach. As the woman sank to the ground, the boy ripped his knife out and walked away. Skye's dream zoomed in on the knife and she saw the blood dripping. Drop by drop. Very slowly.

She bolted upright in her bed, panting and sweating. Skye glanced at her alarm clock. 5:10. About an hour before she needs to be getting up. Skye knew that she would never fall back asleep so she went to start her morning routine early. Get dressed, cover up a few scars, have breakfast, brush teeth and braid her hair. Of course she still had an hour until she actually had to leave.

Skye had a nagging feeling in her gut, a feeling that her brother was worse than she thought. Skye didn't want to be right but her gut was telling that it was not a coincidence. After a good half hour of shifting through her brother's letters, Skye was fed up. There wasn't much difference in her brother's words after reading them for ages. Just the same thing over and over again. She headed for school, not caring about being there half an hour before it opens.

At the school, she saw 1 other kid. Not like she was going to engage in socializing, no point and besides, Skye was way too shy. Sadly, the kid came over to her. He was wearing all black and had a skull ring on. "When does the school open? I've been standing here for 10 minutes. I'm Nico Di Angelo, by the way."

She looked up at him, "I'm Skye Alexander. Riverton opens in about... 25 minutes. Why are you here so early?"

He shrugged and asked her the same question. Skye glared at him before explaining. "Huh, no wonder I can sense the death coming off of you."

Her eyes widened, "You can do that too?! I thought I was just a weird, one-off. Actually," Skye paused for a second, "I can sense it on you. But lots more. Wow, what the hell have you been through."

Nico eyed her, clearly weighing what to tell her. "Too much," He settled on. 

When school opened, Skye helped Nico get around. They became friends, which was surprising for each of them, introverts and all. They even were in the same classes together. As they got to know each other, it was creepy how similar they were. After school, Nico went home with Skye to help her in her mini investigation. They were reading even more letters but Nico got bored, he stood up. "Maybe there's something hidden, not written. In a secret compartment, or something."

She scoffed, "What? Are your senses tingling? Are they telling you something's in the wall here?" Skye put her hand up against a random spot on the wall and her hand turned numb. "Holy shit. There's actually something here," she whispered.

Together they cut open the wallpaper and managed to open the secret compartment. There were 2 short letters and a knife. It looked like there was a dried up puddle of something red. Skye guessed it was blood, it was on the knife too.

"Okay, this one says, 'I killed her. I actually killed my mom. I need help, what if the police or Skye find out? Oh jeez. Please help me!'" Skye read out loud.

"Wow. K, 'Stop pestering me. We will get to your sister in time. You must be patient or we will get you instead.' So, your brother killed your mom." Nico pointed out the obvious.

"He was going to kill me. He killed Mom. What happened to Dad then? He may be a stinking Raven too! Or Daren killed Dad too!" Skye said. Realization hit her and she stood up quickly. Nico peered at her, as if suspecting Skye to go mad. "HE KILLED MOM! HE KILLED THEM! I HATE DAREN! DAREN, SHOW YOUR DEAD SELF SO I CAN KILL YOU AGAIN!" Skye screamed. The house began to tremble and Nico scattered back. After a moment, he got up and cautiously walked towards Skye.

"Skye, Skye, SKYE! STOP! You have to stop! Anger isn't going to fix it! Skye, please!" Nico begged. Nico tripped on a hole that was opening in the main-floor bedroom. "Schist. Skye, look at me. You need to calm down. The dead, obey me. Leave now. Dam it! LEAVE, SKELETONS! GO BACK TO THE UNDERWORLD!"

Skye's red eyes had turned all blood red. The sclera, iris, pupil, everything. Her hands were splayed at the side and she hadn't stopped screaming yet. Unknowingly, Skye had summoned so many skeletons and ghosts that the bedroom and even the house were overflowing. Each spirit was getting angrier and rougher as Skye's control was lost and she spent all of her power, trying to exhaust her anger. She finally fell to the floor, sobbing and all the spirits were being sucked back into the hole. Nico was trapped in the corner while spirits grasped at Skye, trying to stay in the mortal world. As the last spirit had fallen through the hole, it closed up and Nico ran to her side and grabbed her. They just sat there with Skye sobbing into Nico's shoulder while he held her. "Mia sorella." (My sister.)

After a long time of sitting on the floor, Nico got up. "Come, mia sorella. We need to pack you a bag."