EDEN WAS CASUALLY showing off new outfits to Connor when the door opened and Kaleidoscope walked in with a bag and a sleeping bag.
"That's extra," she commented, looking up and down at Eden before dumping her stuff on the ground, sitting next to it and taking out a brush to brush her hair.
"Just because you're a pick me girl doesn't mean that I have to miss out on the finer things on life," Eden snapped. "Like planning masquerade balls because the fact that those went out of fashion is fucking idiotic. Now, what'd'ya want?"
"I said during breakfast," Kaleidoscope simply said, taking out all of the tiny braids in her hair. Fuck. Eden hated it here.
"I'd forgotten about that, wish your priorities were in order," Eden sighed. "Just take a bed. I don't know why you brought a fucking sleeping bag. Don't take those two over there, though. One of them smells like old gym socks and the other is probably broken from a cyclops sleeping in it."
Connor wrote on her skin. You're sure.
Too stubborn. I'll be fine. Eden rolled her eyes and stepped back to change, Connor throwing her pajamas back at her.
"You're really gonna make me be in a cabin with my siblings." Connor stared at her as he opened the door.
"Alice and Julia aren't that bad," Eden scoffed.
"They're horrible!" Connor said, his voice raising slightly as he left. "Horrible, I say!"
Eden giggled as he left. "Fuck, I love him," she said to no one in particular, looking over at Kaleidoscope who was reading a book. "You know how to read?"
Pretty Girl looked up at her. "You don't?"
"My mom never taught me," Eden grabbed a paintbrush and started painting. She missed doing it, and she needed a distraction from the girl behind her. "Too busy snorting cocaine and drinking vodka. But no duh, I know how to read."
"Really?" Kaleidoscope asked, sounding suddenly curious. "How'd you raise yourself?"
"Roman demigods."
"Really?" she repeated.
"That's what I think," Eden shrugged. "They were too powerful for being mortal. But not quite Greek. I wouldn't know, Hera got them murdered six years ago."
Kaleidoscope flipped a page. Eden couldn't believe that she was reading and talking at the same time. That was hot. "Is that what's causing the insomnia?"
Eden hated her now. She hated the imposing questions. "Sometimes."
"Then what's causing it?"
"Worse things," She looked over at Kaleidoscope. "Survive another battle, then you'll know. I ran around with Percy and Annabeth for years and didn't get as bad ones. Some of them were awful, still."
"Were you close with him?" Kaleidoscope asked, gesturing to the cleanest bed, because of Princess Peach taking him. "Percy?"
"Sure," Eden painted with a smaller paintbrush to capture some details. "If you count being able to fight together but conversations last about two seconds."
"Really? I thought you'd be closer," Kaleidoscope said, surprised.
Eden looked over at her. "Siblings don't need to be close," she said, hearing her voice become flatter. "Look at you and Drew."
"Drew's just a mean bitch," Kaleidoscope frowned, closing her book. "That's just it."
"She's actually really nice," Eden stared at her painting, deeming it good with a few more white strokes. "Maybe it's a you thing."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'll let you figure that out."
Silence. It was deafening, and Eden hated it. But she didn't want to talk to the love child anyway. She finished her painting and left it to dry.
". . .that's really good," Kaleidoscope breathed out. "Does painting help with the sleeping?"
"Maybe," Eden mumbled. "Abstract's good for getting thoughts out. Playing my instruments helps more, though."
"You're one unique woman, Eden," Kaleidoscope looked at her with grudging respect.
Eden shrugged. "Just multitalented," she flopped on her bed. "I like pouring myself out in art. It was ever since I thought she was art and . . ."
Shit. She hated talking about Silena.
"Who?"
"No one. It's fine."
Kaleidoscope hesitated. "You mean . . . Silena? My . . . sister?"
"No shit," Eden snapped, and sighed. What was this girl doing? "Heard about you taking the counselor from Drew in the name of Silena. Impressive. I'm sure it's what she would've wanted from the cabin."
Bitterness was embedded in her words, so what?
"You mentioned her a lot during the quest," Kaleidoscope noted. "So . . . were you, like, in love with her or something?"
"And that's my queue to turn the lights off," Eden snapped her fingers and the lights shut off, except for the led lights that Lia had bought her, which glowed purple.
When Eden's eyes adjusted ( quickly, duh, she was, after all, Eden Fairchild ) she saw Kaleidoscope's multicolored eyes looking over at her. "G'night, Eden," she said.
Needless to say, it took a while for Eden to fall asleep.
* * *
Screaming. Pain. Heavy.
Eden guessed that being so close to Mount Tam had caused this. Caused her nightmare.
"Just give it to me!" Eden had snapped to her brother, who was holding up the sky.
"Eden, you can't take it!" Percy said, with a lot of difficulty.
"You're holding it, aren't you, and you're weak," Eden retorted, rolling her eyes. "Give it to me! You need to use your powers. I can't use mine."
He looked up at her. "Why not?"
"Because mine don't exist, obviously," Eden grumbled, kneeling down and getting under. "Just go. Seriously. Or I will kill you, under this weight."
Once she was situated, Percy got out and collapsed.
It was so. Heavy. Heavier than Eden's burdens. Her body would probably be broken and dead by the end of this, but it didn't matter. Not when they needed to stop Luke, for Silena's sake.
"The fuck are you doing, go!" Eden screamed, and Percy got up and went after a little bit.
God, he was so stupid.
The weight was overbearing. She wanted to sob, but she didn't have the strength for that. She needed to stop holding up the sky.
The rest went by in a blur — Artemis and Percy pushing Atlas to Eden, letting go of the sky, Luke falling, Zoe's death.
And then it was like she was in water. Drowning.
But she couldn't drown.
Eden gasped, awake now, her vision tinged red. And, yet, she could see Kaleidoscope leaning over her.
"Oh, god, you're finally awake," Kaleidoscope sat Eden up, because her limbs felt like shit. "Are you alright?"
"Do you really think that I'm alright?" Eden snapped, feeling the heat of her touch on her back, her hands, everywhere even if she didn't touch her there.
"Sorry," Kaleidoscope said, quietly. "Do you need anything?"
"A second, for one," Eden gasped, trying to make her limbs have feeling to them. Shaking them wasn't working. Screaming at her limbs in her head wasn't working. If Kaleidoscope took her hands off her, she'd probably slam her head on the headboard.
". . . Are you good?" Kaleidoscope asked. "Can I, uh, let go of you now?"
"My body's immobile," Eden sighed. "Process of shock. Put me against the headboard."
"Please?" she prompted.
"Are you really asking me to beg for you to prop me up against a fucking wall?"
Kaleidoscope propped her up against the wall.
Eden avoided her gaze, staring up at the ceiling with the led lights on and outside was strangely quiet. She hated it. Quietness was a fucking scam. She hated it, especially after the war and battles.
"What was it about?" Kaleidoscope asked quietly.
"Is it any of your business?" Eden rolled her eyes. "And why are we whispering, is this a high school hallway?"
"Eden, I just want to help you," Kaleidoscope pleaded.
Eden stared at her. "That sounds like half of every female protagonist ever."
"You don't read."
"I watch movies."
"Like my dad's?"
"Sure. Connor has a massive fucking crush on him."
Kaleidoscope snickered. "That's weird to hear that people my age have a crush on my dad."
"The struggles of fame," Eden sighed.
"Well, you're a right famous person yourself," Kaleidoscope said to her. "Blowing up a skyscraper without it toppling? Bold. Apparently you've done more?"
She shrugged. "Just toppling businessmen's egos and careers. Con and Trav are always happy to do it with me."
"If you need another, you can ask me," Kaleidoscope said. "I stole to get into the Wilderness School, remember?"
"Right, you stole a BMW," Eden nodded. "Respect. I would've done a Lamborghini myself, but whatever floats your boat, or whatever."
Kaleidoscope snickered. "I'll consider it for next time, I guess."
"Funny. I thought that someone like you would vow to not," she tilted her head.
"Maybe you just bring out the crime in me."
Then came awkward silence, because what the fuck kind of line was that?
"So, was your nightmare bad?" Kaleidoscope asked quietly.
"Not as bad as other ones," Eden replied, her tone a little hard.
Kaleidoscope looked over at her. "Like the cafe one?"
Ouch. Did she really have to pull that card?
"Like the cafe one," Eden repeated.
"Was that one a nightmare you have often?"
Eden thought about it for a second. Because that quest actually had good memories in it — hanging out with Thalia, like good times, Grover was okay too. Eden had adored Zoë, and so had the Huntress with her, it had hit her when she'd died, for sure. And Bianca . . .
If Eden had known that she'd been a child of Hades, she definitely would've made more of an effort to get to know her.
Even her horrible, stupid brother, Percy, wasn't that bad on that quest. Except for the fact that he'd tried to make himself the main character, and he was so clearly lovesick over Annabeth.
Well, at least he hadn't dragged her along on that quest. Eden was content with Thalia tumbling her along with Grover, Bianca, Zoë, and Phoebe.
Did the bad memories outweigh the good? No.
Were there still some? Yes.
"Not really," Eden finally said, realizing that she had control over her limbs, drumming her fingers on her thigh to some invisible tune. "We'd gone near Mount Tam. That's probably what caused it."
"You'd mentioned that," Kaleidoscope noted. "You had something with Atlas?"
"More like carried the sky," Eden separated the strands of hair she knew were gray, before she'd dyed it to be the same color as her normal hair. "This used to be gray, from the burden. You know the myth?"
"Atlas was trapped under the burden of carrying the space between where the earth and sky meet. But why did you have to carry it?"
"He'd kidnapped Annabeth," Eden said, a little bitter in her tone. "We went on a quest to save her and Artemis. Percy carried the sky when we got there. Then I had to because we'd needed his powers."
"But you won, right?" Kaleidoscope asked.
"Not without sacrifice," staring outside at the window, Eden wondered if Zoë's constellation was out there. "And death. That's when it really hit me that a war was happening. When Bianca died."
Kaleidoscope frowned. "Who's Bianca?"
"Someone that wouldn't matter to you," Eden said coldly.
"What does that mean?" Kaleidoscope said angrily, and god, did she show her growing anger.
"You know what kind of person you are, Kaleidoscope," Eden turned to look at the love child, whose eyebrows were burrowed. "You're so enraptured by the hero, that you don't think that other people matter to you. Not ones that help you in the shadows. You would give them a small thanks, and for what? Them saving your life, on multiple occasions? It's sickening, that you don't notice what really goes on when you take your eyes off of the hero."
She looked sideways at Eden, but she could still see her anger. "You know an awful lot about this, you sure you weren't the hero?"
"If I was the hero, it would've been over a lot sooner," Eden said quietly. "But I'm not, aren't I? No, I was told that by her brother."
"Who's?" Kaleidoscope asked dumbly.
"Bianca's, weren't you listening?"
Eden sighed and got up. "Well, good talk. I'm not falling asleep anytime soon, care to look at the moon and stars with me?"
Maybe she shouldn't have offered her hand to the other girl. Maybe she shouldn't have offered to lead her to her favorite spot. Maybe—
"Sure," Kaleidoscope took her hand and stood up. "Next time, though, we're trying to make you fall asleep again."
"Yeah, yeah," Eden rolled her eyes. "Come on, they're not gonna be out forever."
anyways ignore how bad this chapter is i promise the others are better 😎
<3 maybel