Nico

A young waitress at the café I’m sitting in comes over to me and quickly tells me that if I don’t order something, they will have to kick me out. It’s a nice day, and my table is in the corner in the shade, so I order a soda and a sandwich. She smiles, relieved. I don’t think the café would have kicked me out, everyone being scared of me and all, so it’s better for them if I order. Five minutes later, the waitress comes back with my sandwich on a plate in one hand, my Coke in the other. I flash her a smile, a beam of white from a shadowy figure. She giggles, showing me that she’s not intimidated. I pay her there, and tip her well. Again, she giggles and walks away. Despite my scary and intimidating attitude, I'm still a good-looking guy. Did I say good-looking? I meant devilishly handsome, and girls always fall for my cheeky grin. I slowly eat my sandwich.

Sitting here at this café starts to get boring. The sun starts to invade my space, signaling that my time here is up. I quickly finish, and exit the café, recieving a smile and a wave from that waitress as I leave. I walk around aimlessly. I bump into strangers who don’t have time to avoid me, I take twists and turns down roads I wouldn’t have known existed. Finally, I reach a pier. I think I took the long way, but I found my unknown destination. I walk down the pier and towards the entrance to the beach. Nobody’s here, even though the weather is next to perfect. I look around and start to leave, until some magical presence smacks me in the face so hard that I almost fall down. I turn around, looking for the culprit, but I don’t see anything unusual. Unless you count one other person on this beach who wasn’t there a minute ago. I put my hand up to cover my eyes from the sun, but I can’t make out what they look like. I walk in their direction, but no matter how much I walk, they don’t seem any closer. Finally, I reach the person, who turns out to be a girl about my age. Her arms are crossed, and she’s looking out to the ocean. Her long black hair whips back from a wind that doesn’t seem to be blowing anywhere else, and the sun hits her face in just the right way. I don’t think she’s noticed me just yet, but in this one moment I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything or anyone more beautiful.

“The ocean looks so pretty at this time of day, doesn’t it?” It takes me a while to realize that the girl was speaking to me. I mean, who else would she be talking to?

“Uh, yeah, I guess. I don’t really come to the ocean at this time of day much, but it looks really nice now.” My words stumble out of my mouth, and she turns around to look at me. Now the sun’s behind her, outlining her with a golden glow. She looks like something out of a movie.

“I do. I come to the ocean every day.”

“Hey, what’s your name?” I ask. When the girl doesn’t answer, I take a step forward. This whole time she hasn’t made eye contact with me once. “You there?” She looks up, and I am greeted by two sea-green eyes. They remind me of something, somewhere. I swear I’ve seen them before. Is it possible that I met this girl before?

“Yeah, I’m here…” She seems kind of sad.

“Are you ok?” I ask. I can’t seem to break eye contact, even though I want to. She doesn’t answer again. When she tears her gaze away, I feel as if something was dragged out of me. Or, more like dragged off of me. A spell or something. “I don’t mean to bother you. You haven’t told me your name yet.”

“Lila. Lila Evans.”

“Lila Evans, hi. I’m Ni-”

“At least I think.” Her quiet words stop me from continuing, and I almost didn’t catch what she said.

“You think? Do you have amnesia? Do you need to talk to someone?”

“No, please! Don’t bring me to anyone, I can’t. I just can’t!” That’s the loudest I’ve heard her speak so far, so I don’t argue. I’m not very good at comforting people, much less giving advice or all that crap, but people seem to tell me their problems anyways. Not this girl. “Please don’t.”

“Don’t worry, it’s ok. I won’t take you to anyone you don’t want to see.”

“I can’t leave the ocean, you see? It comforts me. Makes me feel safe.”

“I know what you mean, it is pretty relaxing…” I trail off as Lila, or whatever her name may be, starts walking down towards the shore. I follow her, and only then realize that she’s barefoot. She’s wearing worn-out cuffed jeans and a flowy white shirt, very plain and very old-looking. Can she not afford new clothing or shoes? “Lila, what are you…?” I call out. she doesn’t stop walking until she’s standing right at the border between high tide and dry sand.

“The waves make such a sweet sound. Listen.” She closes her eyes, listening. Nothing this girl says seems to make sense, or is concrete. She sounds like she’s dreaming.

“Lila…” I reach out to touch her arm, but when I get close, a shock through my hand and up my arm, startling me. Like a friction shock, but more powerful. Lila starts walking into the ocean, as if nothing happened. I rub my hand, and watch her. Taking small steps, she chases the wave back into the sea. But when it looks like the next wave is about to crash down, it just shrinks away and flows back with the rest. I also notice that where her feet step, the sand dries out as if the water was never there. When she gets ankle-deep into the water, the waves start flowing again normally. But Lila doesn’t stop. She wades in until she’s knee-deep. “Lila, you should probably get out now.”

“But why? This is where I belong.” And with that, Lila runs further into the water and dives into the next wave. I instantly perk up, trying to sense with my Hades-power if she’s in any mortal danger, but I don’t pick up anything. She’s ok. At least, on a dying scale. But when I don’t see her come up after a while, I get nervous.

“Lila!” I call out. Nothing. I start walking towards the ocean, wondering if anything happened to her, when her head bobs up.

“It’s alright! I’m ok. Better than ok, actually. That was so refreshing, you have no idea.” With each word, Lila takes a step, walking back to shallower water, but not completely out. All I can do is turn my head to follow where’s she’s going, but aside from that I’m shell-shocked. My mouth doesn’t seem to be working properly, and I’m frozen in place. “What are you staring at?” Lila tilts her head, black hair falling over her shoulder, covering one green eye. I close my mouth, which I didn’t know what open. Think. Physics. Lila just took a bath in the ocean, which would soak her head to toe. But when she tilted her head, her hair fell with it. Her hair is completely dry. Her whole body is completely dry, and she doesn’t even notice.

“Why aren’t you soaked?”

“What??” Lila looks down at her body as if she mutated. “I-I-I’m sorry. I have no idea. I lost all my memories and just woke up on this beach a few days ago. Sometimes I go into these trances, it’s really strange. Who are you?”

“You just completely changed the subject. Ok, whatever. So is your name actually Lila Evans?”

“I think so. It’s either Lila Evans or Liliana Rose.”

“Those are two pretty different names.”

“Same-dif. Anyways, you were telling me your name.”

“No I wasn’t.” Lila frowns, but I don't cave in. “I’m going to call you Lila, if that’s ok. So you really lost all your memories?”

“Dude, I don’t even remember my name. Yes, I lost my memories.” Ok, now she’s talking like a normal teenager.

“Sorry. But I can relate.”

“How? Were you a teenage amnesiac at one point, too? Wonderful.” Her voice is loaded with sarcasm, and suddenly I’m missing the dream-trance Lila.

“It’s a long story.”

“I’ve got time.”

“You… You really don’t want to hear it.” Lila frowns again, then sits down on the beach right where she was standing. Again, the sand around her dries, and the water doesn’t flow there. She pats the sand in front of her, motioning for me to sit down. I sit, and she clears her throat, clearly waiting for me to start talking. “What do you want me to say?”

“The truth. Your story. I really want to hear someone else’s tale, especially since I don’t know mine.” Lila looks away. Thinking of it that way is actually pretty depressing, so I talk. Of course, I had to tweak a little bit. A lotta bit.

“When I was little my... I witnessed a really traumatizing event. My mother had died during a freak accident, and I forgot what happened that night, because I was so young. But I only recovered that memory recently. Until then, I had no idea what happened to my mother.”

“Wow, that’s really sad. I’m sorry if I crossed the line or something.” Lila’s voice sounds so genuine, but she doesn't know the half of it.

“Anyways, what do you remember about yourself? Do you remember anything?”

“Well, I wasn’t born here, and I never lived here. I’m fifteen years old, turning sixteen, I just don’t know when. My father was never present throughout my childhood, and my mother died giving birth to me. But that doesn’t really help me. I’ve been trying to piece things together, but it doesn’t help that I can’t get off this island. I also don’t know where to start.”

“Percy!” I blurt out. Percy! Lila’s eyes reminded me of Percy. He’s the only other kid I know with eyes that pure shade of green. I swear, it’s the exact same…

“Percy? You mean Perseus, like the greek myth?”

“Funny you mention that… You said your dad was never present?” My mind is racing with possibilities, but I can’t jump to conclusions.

“Yeah. I don’t like to think about that, because I don’t want to imagine the kind of person he was.”

“More like god,” I mutter, lost in my thoughts.

“God? No, my father was definitely the opposite of a god. Why would he leave me stranded, all alone if he were so godly?” Lila’s eyes burn with anger, and the water around her starts to bubble, heating up. My eyes widen, and my thoughts are confirmed.

“That’s just it.”

“Now you’re the one who’s not making any sense.”

“Does this happen to you a lot? Don’t lie to me, now, I’ll know if you’re lying. I promise I won’t freak out, and I won’t tell anyone. Just tell me what happens when you are around water. Especially the ocean.” Lila’s eyes widen, and her face slacks. She looks as if I told her I read her diary, or simply read her mind.

“Look, I don’t know who you are, or what you are, but you’d better get away from me!” Lila stands up.

“Hey, calm down, I just want to help-”

“UGH!” Lila pushes her arms out as if she was going to shove me, but instead she creates a giant tidal wave, which races towards me, but avoids herself.

“Woah!” I leap to the side just in time, thanks to my ADHD. Instinctively, I pull out my sword, forgetting that I’m not in any kind of real danger, and that I don’t actually want to hurt the girl.

“Who are you?” She yells. “Don’t come any closer, and put away your sword!” She doesn’t flinch away, and her face doesn’t falter. Huh. She’s not intimidated by me. I feel slightly insulted, but then again I don’t know this girl, and she has no idea who I am and what I can do.

“I just want to talk to you.” I lower my sword. “I know you must have a lot of questions for me, and about yourself. I’m trying to give you answers. Nobody else has been able to give you answers, have they?”

“Nobody else has tried because I don’t tell them. And of course I have questions about myself.” She somehow rolls her eyes without dropping her threatening stance.

“But I’m not only talking about your amnesia, I’m talking about your powers. You must be confused about them.”

"I have no idea what you're talking about... but if you have answers I'd love to hear them.”

“So lower your defense, stop yelling at me, and listen.” I sheath my sword, and she lowers her arms. Lila’s scowl turns into a frown. A little better, I guess. She walks towards me and sits down again. Reluctantly I sit down too. Already I have sand filling every pocket of my jeans, and it’s moving from uncomfortable to unbearable. But I don’t let that show.

“So, do you want me to ask questions first, or do you want to give me answers?” Lila says, moving her hands in an ADHD fashion, but not breaking eye contact.

“Let me start. And don’t freak out. I wasn’t kidding when I said you father wasn’t a person, ‘more like god’. I wasn’t trying to anger you. Your father probably was a god, and he abandoned you because he had no choice. I don’t know what happened to you between your birth and losing your memory, but I think I know how. I didn’t actually lose my memory because of trauma, my father dipped me in the River Lethe. The river of forgetfulness and memories that flows in the Underworld.”

“Hold up.” Lila raises her eyebrows. “So you’re saying that Greek Gods are real? And who’s your godly parent?”

“You’re surprisingly calm.” Lila rolls her eyes. This girl is really starting to bug me. Forget my first impression.

“Well?”

“My godly parent is Hades, Ruler of the Underworld.”

“Ok…” She still doesn’t seem intimidated. Hmm. Challenge accepted. “So who’s my godly parent?”

“Haven’t put it together yet, have you?” I can see the gears turn in her brain. When she does put two and two together, she doesn’t say it at first. Lila sits there, chewing on the idea that her father is a god.

“Poseidon.” She finally says. “Ruler of the oceans. One of the top three most powerful Greek gods, up there with your dad, and Zeus.”

“Yup.”

“My father is Poseidon. Well, that can’t be real. Shouldn’t a god know how to raise a kid? Shouldn’t they care, and take responsibility? I mean, they must have tons of kids, being immortal and shit, but they should know better than to just leave us to our own devices!” With each word, Lila gets angrier and she clenches her hands.

“Woah, calm down there. Breathe. I know it’s hard to think about, but the gods keep their distance for a reason.” Lila’s too frustrated to answer me, I think, so I keep going, “If they personally raised us, if they gave us more attention, we’d be in more danger than if we raised ourselves. In other words, the more godly attention you get, the more dangerous it is. Monsters and other gods would be able to find you. You’d be killed in an instant. So the gods keep their distance.”

“Monsters. Death. Wonderful. At least I know that if I die, you’ll be there to greet me at hell’s gates, Death Boy.”

“‘Death Boy’?”

“Well, I don’t know your real name.”

“Nico DiAngelo.”

“Hm. I think I prefer Death Boy.”

“No. That makes me seem a lot less intimidating.”

“Ooh, so scary! Mr. Nico DiAngelo, all powerful son of Hades with his black sword, I’m terrified! Dude, it takes a lot to scare me, and even more for me to show it. So keep trying.” Lila’s sarcasm hits me in the face. What an attitude! And people think I’m bad.

“Wonderful. Well I guess that’s what kept you alive for this long, until you somehow took a swim in the Lethe.”

“Can we please not talk about that?” Lila flinches. I close my mouth. “Instead, let’s talk about you.”

“Not exactly my choice topic for conversation…”

“Too bad. So, how did you manage to survive all these years? You’re, what, thirteen? Fourteen??”

“I’m fifteen, for your information, also turning sixteen. And I had training from the best.”

“Ooh, hero training. Where’d you get that?” At first I think she’s being sarcastic again, but her face is plain.

“Camp Half-blood. That’s where most Greek demigods go to train. They’re usually found, and taken to camp for their own benefit.”

“Who finds them?” I hear Lila’s unspoken question. Why didn’t anyone find me?

“For Greek demigods, satyrs. Or other demigods. It’s an… interesting system.”

“So, next time I’m in danger I’ll look for a half-goat man and hope they take me to safety.”

“Whatever.” I stand up and turn away. “You’re not taking any of this seriously, and even if you are, you’re turning it into a joke. I can’t listen to this.”

“Wait, hold up.” Lila stands up. “Nico.” She reaches out with her arm and puts her hand on my shoulder. Again, I feel the shock, but this time it was more intense. Almost as if we were electrocuted. “Ouch, what was that?”

“Now you feel it.”

“Yeah, I felt it! It fucking hurt! What do you think it was?” Man, she curses a lot. Where was she raised?

“I have no idea. Maybe a clashing between our auras of power.”

“So you’re saying that for some reason your death magic doesn’t like my water power.”

“Basically. But I don’t have ‘death magic’.” She’s smarter than I thought.

“Whatever, same-dif. But you aren’t finished. I need more answers.”

“Don’t we all.” I pull away and start walking. Lila chases after me.

“You can at least take me to your Camp Half-blood. Where is it?”

“Long Island.” Lila stops walking.

“So why are you here?” I stop, but don’t turn around to face her.

“Even if I wanted to take you there, which I don’t, I couldn’t.”

“What, are you kicked out? Did you do something terrible to cause them to hate you, or fear you? Are you some kind of magic-realm criminal?”

“Oh, look. More sarcasm from the foul-mouthed princess. You don’t know anything.”

“That’s why I’m asking you. I need your help, and you’re giving up on me. Don’t just walk away, I need you to take me to Camp Half-blood.” That’s it. I turn around and storm over to her, as if I were to hit her. Instead I get up in her face and growl at her.

“You can’t say shit to me. Don’t go asking for any favors. I owe you nothing, and I don’t have to answer any of your questions. Go bother someone else.”

“Ok.” Lila says, shocked. She speaks very slowly. “I guess I struck a nerve. I’m sorry for bothering you, and for asking so many questions. I was just… confused. But I’m glad you told me as much as you did. You were helpful, and no matter how much you yell at me or almost fight me, I’m glad I met you. So, I guess I’m saying thank you.” Those sea-green eyes pull away from mine, and she backs up. I’m still scowling, but I do ask myself, where does she have to back up into? There’s only the ocean behind her. But that’s just it. I straighten my back and try to calm down, while Lila runs off to the ocean, and dives right in. Right, children of Poseidon can breathe underwater. I shake the sand off and out of me, and make my way back to town.