(Holy crap.)

Mars POV

When I wake up, I go over to the kitchen and see Korri chewing on a pencil eraser while examining a drawing.

"Hey," she says without looking at me.

Which is kinda weird.

She looks me in the eye normally.

It's like she wants to scare me and have me go running.

"Hey," I reply. "Whatcha doing?"

"I'm drawing." She frowns. "Where were you last night? I noticed you were gone."

"Can I see?" I ask, ignoring her question.

"Sure, after you tell me what you were doing." she sighs. "You can at least tell me that,"

"I was out by the lake. Happy?"

She hands me her drawing.

It's a sketch of Lola.

Holy shit, she's good.

"It's awesome." I grin. "How in the hell....?"

She frowns. "I dunno, I just started drawing recently."

A fuzzy feeling starts up in my hands, and I feel weird.

She licks her lips as she goes back to drawing. "You okay?"

"Uh huh."

I hate lying.

I hate doing it, but she wouldn't get it, she would never understand.

I hate how grown-up I sound. Like my father.

I hate who I am.

A son of Zeus,

A demon,

A murderer.

I run a hand through my hair.

"Hey, um, I'm gonna go out for a bit." I say quickly, wanting to get away.

"Okay,"

I leave the house once more, and sit on the log I had sat on the night before.

A storm starts up above me.

"What do you want?" I ask no one in particular with as much rage as I can muster.

No one answers.

But I know good ol' dad's up there in his stupid little mountain castle watching me with the other stupid little gods.

Stupid stupid stupid.

Soon after a few minutes everything stopped like it did a few days earlier.

☪

Well, I came to see you," Zeus says finally.

I glare at him. "You know perfectly well that I want nothing to do with you."

"Why?" His tone is so filled with confusion it lights my temper. "Why do you want nothing to do with me?"

"WHY?!" I laugh darkly. "WHY? WHY! YOU DITCHED ME AND YOU LET HER DIE! THAT IS WHY!!!"

When I finish, my voice is echoing in the clouds like thunder.

"AND," I continue, "IF WE'RE ASKING THAT QUESTION, WHY DID YOU DITCH ME?!?! WHY THAT?!"

"Oh," is all he says. "Y-you realize, I had no choice, I would have turned human-"

Rage bubbles up inside me like hot magma and lava kept dormant for far too long. "AND THAT'S A BAD THING?!"

"FOR A GOD, YES!" Zeus snaps; making thunder crack.

I lick my lips. "LOOK AT ME. I'M A GOD WITH A CURSE, I'M A GOD WHO'S BEEN CAST TO THE SIDE UNWANTED FOR YEARS, AND YOU'RE WHINING ABOUT BEING HUMAN?!" I shout. "I HAVE BEEN PLAYING HUMAN FOR THE PAST SEVEN YEARS!!!"

"WELL YOUR BROTHER APOLLO HAS HAD CURSES TOO AND LOOK AT HIM, HE'S FINE!"

I wince. "Yeah, BUT HIS SISTER WASN'T DELIBERATELY KILLED, AND HIS FATHER HASN'T DITCHED HIM!"

"WELL APOLLO IS ALSO PURE!" He snaps, then regret floods his expression.

"What?" I whisper, and everything goes black.