Chapter Seven
NERO
Dare Enterprises - December 4th
The twins' fifth birthday
"What was so important that you had to call me out on my children's birthday, Rachel?"
Percy Jackson sat at the head of the long black table in the large business room. He was dressed formally, in a black suit with a crisp white shirt and a black tie. His cuffs were pinned back with the same golden cufflinks he had worn on his wedding day. Aged twenty-four now, Percy was a rising figure in the celebrity world as a personal trainer, but also taught sword-fighting and other combat activities daily at a summer camp for... unique children.
Rachel Elizabeth Dare sat opposite, in a more casual attire of a grey pencil skirt and a red silk blouse. Her auburn hair was straightened and plaited to the side, and her green eyes were outlined with dark pencil and smoky eyeshadow. She smiled dazzlingly, showing off her newly-set glamorous teeth. She was the most famous businesswoman around, owning Dare Enterprises after her father passed away when she was eighteen. She was just over a year older than Percy, but she acted much older, unlike the fourteen-year-old Percy had met all those years ago.
"Tell the children I wish them a very happy birthday," she said politely. "My present should've been posted yesterday morning, meaning it will presumably arrive by tomorrow afternoon in the mail. I do hope that Esme likes jewellery and Nerovian likes tractors. Otherwise, they will be very disappointed young people."
Percy nodded. "I'm sure they will. Um, look, Rachel - I've only got half an hour. I told Annabeth this was strictly professional for clientele. Which it is, right?"
"If you want the honest truth, Percy, then I cannot lie." Rachel sighed and stood up, walking down the room towards Percy. "I cannot conceal my feelings towards you much longer."
Percy felt his face flush scarlet. "U-um, feelings?"
"Yes. You see, I am deeply and irrevocably in love with you."
The words shocked Percy to the core. Rachel said it with no emotion, like she'd rehearsed the lines a thousand times and couldn't quite get to grips with the whole idea.
"If I could control it, then I most certainly would. You'd be anyone's last choice, if I must confess. You've never really been husband material."
"Annabeth seems to disagree!" Percy snapped, utterly uncomfortable with everything his friend had just confessed.
Rachel scowled. "That's always been the problem, Percy. Annabeth. You always loved her, right when we first met, yet you never quite admitted it to yourself until I pushed you away. But I pushed you away because you were too young, too immature, and you loved her. She was the centre of your world and you led me along like a little lost puppy, giving me hope!
"Nobody had ever loved me like I thought you did. My father showed me compulsory love - meaning he only did because he had to and he had no choice. My mother was long gone, not that she'd been much better. All I wanted was to be loved by someone who I could share everything with.
"And that person was you, Percy Jackson. You were so much like me; impulsive, creative... and looking for a getaway. I gave you that. We had fun. There were moments when you could've kissed me. But you didn't.
"No matter. There is time now."
Suddenly, Rachel pounced on Percy like a hungry panther, her hands working at the jacket of Percy's suit. He pushed her off, furiously panting as they stood and faced each other, Rachel looking hurt.
"I don't love you!" Percy yelled. "Rachel, I'm sorry, but Annabeth is my life! She always has been and always will be. We have two beautiful, beautiful children together. Do you... do you seriously think I would jeopardise that for a silly fling with some delusional nutjob?"
If he was expecting a reaction, Percy was mistaken. Rachel simply brushed her fringe out of her eyes and calmly walked back to where she had sat at the head of the table. Percy could smell her perfume, clinging to his clothes. He felt sick.
"I had no idea you felt that way," he admitted, reluctantly sitting back down.
"This way," Rachel corrected. "My love for you is still very much present. Something so precious does not go away in a mere eight years. I fell in love with you when we were sixteen, after two years of getting to know you. Three years later, you had children. Now, we can be together. Forget your children. Forget her. Start a new life with me."
"What? Rachel, are you out of your -"
"Hear me out, please. I have money. Lots of it. We can begin our eternity to together based on it."
"Rachel -"
"Of course, you will have to contribute too. As Annabeth is a rather successful architect, I'd be truly surprised if she had no money stowed away. And you're a teacher at the camp and in New York. Two income families must be -"
"You're -"
"- reasonably capable of paying all expenses required. We can put the money together and catch a flight midday tomorrow. You'll simply have to call in sick and tell Annabeth not to worry her pretty little head about you. After all, you'll only be jetting to Majorca with your true l-"
"RACHEL!"
Rachel stopped talking, astounded. Her eyes welled with tears as she saw Percy's nostrils flare with anger.
"I do not want to go away with you!" he shouted. "I will not spend MY family's hard-earned money on some sleazy getaway with a woman I don't love! Get it into your thick skull, Rachel. I LOVE ANNABETH. That will never change, Rach. I don't want to hurt you, but asking me to leave my family - my beautiful family who I adore - and use our savings - for our children's FUTURE - that's too far!"
Percy stood up and walked towards the door. He held the doorknob, ready to go, but knew he had to say one last thing. "This is me, walking away," he said firmly. "Get used to it. Goodbye, Rachel. I'll see you at Camp."
And just like that, Percy Jackson left, and Rachel Elizabeth Dare was alone in that big empty room. Finally dropping her calm façade, and displaying her tear-stricken grief as the love of her life would never be her true friend again until the very day she died.
I gasped, my body numb. Dad and I shared a look.
"That was my memory," he whispered. "You... you've just been inside my head. You've seen my memory!"
This was too much. "Dad, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to -"
"That was private." He continued to speak in a low and scared tone. "Nobody has ever seen -"
"Please Dad, it was an accident!" I insisted. "I didn't suddenly just wish to look through a little window in the side of your head, did I? I'm sorry. I really am. That was your private thought and you're grieving..."
I swallowed, not sure whether I should say my next words. "Dad... now that - now that Rachel is dead... do you regret turning her down?"
Dad gazed at me and I have never forgotten that look in his eyes of sheer sadness. "No," he said. "I don't regret it, not at all. I still love your mum and you kids very much, Nero. That won't change because of Rachel's death, I can assure you." He gulped. "Nero, it was like... you didn't just see my thoughts. You read them. It was like I had a little image of your face in the back of my mind, reading every thought that I... well, thought. Like they flashed up on a screen before you and you read them, like a transcript. Like subtitles."
I got up and walked out of the cave, hands on my head. I'd just seen the one person who I thought could help die, and then discovered my dad's memories of her were none too pleasant, and she tried to destroy my family.
Dad joined me as we walked back down towards camp. For a while, we were silent, trying to get our heads round things. Rachel Elizabeth Dare had just died, poisoned to the point of ageing too fast. I knew what I'd done. By looking into her head, I'd seen the words needed to grant her into the afterlife, to streamline her appliance by Hades. I felt like I'd killed her. But in the end, it wasn't murder. She was dying. She wanted my help. All I did was help her realise what she needed, and in the end, she was happy. A young beautiful woman again.
"I understand now," I told Dad. "I'm a Borne. I can read minds and see words and images that people think. I can see the past through other people's eyes, like a film before me. It's not a curse, it's a gift. In Rachel's last moments, she wanted to see me, to help me. She was a Seer too. She could see the future. I can see the past. Together, we would've been unstoppable."
I suddenly felt myself being pulled into a hug, and I didn't object. I never hugged my dad. He was too cool and I was too nerdy, in both of our eyes. I saw it in his mind. I wasn't the son he expected. He wasn't disappointed in me, but I wasn't like him. That upset him.
We made our way back to the Big House. In the middle room around the ping pong table, sat three people - one, Chiron the centaur; two, my sister looking decidedly grumpy; and three, a potbellied red-faced man wearing a loud Hawaiian shirt and khakis.
"Nero," Dad said through gritted teeth, "meet Mr D."
"It's Dionysus. But, great. Another brat." The podgy man's voice dripped with bitter sarcasm. He held a can of Diet Coke in one hand and a few cards in the other. I noticed that Chiron and Esme also had cards. "To make it worse, you're Peter Johnson's son too."
"Who?" I asked. Esme nodded at Dad in reply.
"Hello, Nero," Chiron said. "How was Rachel?"
And I realised, he knew. He knew Rachel had been poisoned and didn't have much time left. When he sent us, he knew what would happen. He knew she would die.
"Dead," I confirmed.
Chiron sighed and threw down his cards, announcing he'd won whatever game it was. Mr D - Dionysus, whoever - grumbled and sipped at his drink, whilst Esme looked purely relieved to finish the game. However, her eyes met mine, and - although I knew I shouldn't - I briefly searched the very edges of her mind. She was thinking how sad she was, seeing me like this. How disappointed she was that Rachel had no answers, and then feeling bad because she was disappointed.
"Chiron," Dad said. "A word outside, please."
The old centaur and my father left the room, leaving me and Es with Mr D.
"I'm camp director," he introduced himself as, in a bored tone. "You cannot come to me for advice or any other boring yak, blah blah blah, and some more blah blah. If you have a problem, tell someone who cares. I'm here out of duty. Nothing else."
He looked at me, and his face lit up with a smug kind of glee. "Tough road ahead of you, kid," he said, smirking. "That power of yours is a danger to you and others."
"I know how to use it now," I told him.
"Whoa, time out!" Esme protested. "Nero. You know your Borne power?"
"He does."
We both spun round to face Thalia Grace, standing with Will Solace and the bodyguard, Drake. None of them looked happy.
"Facility centre," Drake grunted. "Now."
***
WE HAVE A POWER FOR MY LITTLE CHERUB NEROVIAN!
Sorry. I'm just excited for my Nero! He's just so innocent, and he's still sporting those injuries from the first two chapters. And now he's just seen a woman die, and imagine how uncomfortable it would've been to see someone you knew draped over your dad. I'd have died, so good on Nero!
I like his power. It will prove very useful. He's a mind-reader - he can read any mind from the present, but he can see someone's full history too, like the family tree or something. It's incredible.
But don't think I've left Esme out. I think she'll be less pleased than Nero with hers because she will think his is better and needed a lot more, but she will end up with perhaps the most effective one.
Have a go at guessing what it might be! Clue: it is counted as one power BUT it is sort of a combination of two...
Okay. So thanks you all SOOOOOO much for your LOVELY comments and inboxes. All the people who were harsh on me have apologised and of course they are forgiven, you're my little Lozzeee Wattpadee people thingies!
But thank you to the support and consideration of some of you in particular, and you WILL be rewarded for it.
Vote and comment!
OOH I almost forget! The Jacksons has passed the 1K mark! That might not seem like much, but by Chapter Seven of Percabeth, it only had something like 400 reads? So keep going my Cherubs! (That's what you were now!)
SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE!
Aaaaaaand breathe. Mental outburst over now. :)
~ Lauren x