Chapter Text
The two officers talked behind the glass window of the station as i tried to process everything that happened around 2 hours ago:
my mom is dead. the minotaur killed her. monsters are real. or maybe not. maybe i was so stunned that i was seeing things. maybe it was all just a dream? no, i have a headache and my arm is hurting. but monsters probably don't exist. yeah. they don't.
but no one would belive me if i said that, and i would probably be send to a mental hospital.
So this is what i have to say: we were coming home from our annual trip to Montauk. She swerved to avoid something in front of us and hit the guardrail. i didn't see what sehe avoided. i do not remember more. I passed out and woke up in the road.
The door opened as a black lady with box braids and deep brown eyes that looked around thirty walked into the room followed by a tan man with dark blond hair and grey-ish blue eyes about the same age. They sat down in the chairs on the other side of the grey metal table. The woman looked at me with curiosity and the man handed her what i guessed to be my and my mom's informations.
"Perseus Jackson. I'm Officer Evans, but you can call me Eliza. This is Officer Wilk"
"Hi"
"Could you answer some questions, dear?"
i didn't want to, but i nodded.
"Okay. How old are you, Perseus?"
"Percy" i said faintly
"Huh?"
"you can call me Percy, miss"
"alright then, Percy. What is your age, dear?"
"I'm nine, miss"
Eliza looked at Officer Wilk with something in her eyes that i didn't know the name of but remembered it from my mom's eyes when she saw new the cuts and bruises that she never knew who were from. I used to say it was from skatebording, but she never belived me. But it didn't occur frequently enough for her to question me - i learned how to use my mom's makeup to disguise the bruises that didn't bleed. She never knew it was from him.
"Is she really dead? My mom?"
"We're sorry, kid. She was alredy cold when we found her." Officer Wilk said. Eliza couldn't bare to look at me.
I didn't saw my mom after i woke up. I was alredy on the other anbulance when i woke up. They said i had a "mild traumatic brain injury" and that i was uncounsious for around 25 minutes, i think. It's not like i was really paying atention, scince my mom was-
"kid."
"yes?"
"could you tell us what happened?"
"We were coming home-"
"from where?" Officer Wilk interrupted me.
"From Montauk. She got distracted and didn't saw the mi- the thing she avoided. So she took the curve and accidentally hit the guardrail".
"Did you happen to see what she avoided, dear?"
"No, miss"
"Not even a little bit?"
"All i saw was a weird silhouette, but it was really quick, so i couldn't catch the shape of it."
"Okay, then in that case-" Eliza explained,while picking a pencil
"Had your mother been drinking, kid?"
"No, sir. My mother does not usually drink, tought she does enjoy occasionally a glass of wine after dinner, but i don't think it would be enough to get her mind blurry, and she would never risk my safety or hers over a drink."
The thought of my mother drinking enough to make her drunk made me want to scream. The thought of her having anything even simillar to my stepdad made me want to vomit all i have ever had in my life, wich wasn't little.
"Am i free to go now?"
"No. We have to call your stepdad to come pick you up"
"Oh, uh... he's at...work. Couldn't you just...drop me off? My house isn't far, and i know the way!"
Eliza says she could drive me to my home, since her shift is finished. We get in the car and i point to an apartment one block away from mine. I enter the building and watch as the police car drives out of sight, and then i go back down and walk to my appartment.
The fear walks through my body, as i try to keep calm while walking through the busy streets of New York.
I hope he won't be angry.
I hope he won't be angry enough to hit me.
I hope he won't beat me.
I am sure he will beat me.
Ugh. I wish I had my extra layers. That way it would hurt less.
As I walk into my apartment quietly, I notice that he isn't in his usual spot, on the chair on the living room, playing poker and drinking. Thank goodness. I turn to walk into my mom's bedroom when my smile quickly dies.
"Hey, Brain-Boy."
"Hello, Gabe."
"Heard your mama died. And i heard it's your fault your mama died"
"No it isn't"
"Oh, you didn't know? Little baby Percy thinks he never did anything wrong. Is it? Is it what you think, idiot?"
He grabs my ear and pushes me, making me hit the wall.
"Well then let me tell you this: If you hadn't begged your mama to go on that stupid trip, she wouldn't have died. Yeah, it's your fault, because your little brain didn't notice she was tired-"
"Not that you ever cared how she was feeling." I regreted those words as soon they left my mouth. Gabe turned towards me slowly, raising his fist. I braced form impact, but nothing happened. Maybe he passed out from drinking so hard. But he was wide awake. Infact, he was so awake that instead of drinking, he slammed the bottle into the wall, and threw the sharpest glass fragment into me. My reflexes acted quicker then my thoughts, as i covered my face with my arms and dove down. It ripped the back of my shirt, and cut my skin. The sharp pain made my legs give out, and as i fell on my knees, Gabe chuckled and turned to his bedroom.
"Clean this shit afterwards, idiot. Your beloved mom isn't here anymore to clean up your mess."
that was the breaking point for me.
I couldn't live with someone like him. No one could.
At midnight, I sneaked out of my room and entered my mother's bedroom.
And it was all gone. Her jewllery, her money and ever her clothes were all missing. Gabe probably took it and sold it, but my mom had told me before about a hidden cash she had hidden under a false botton on her wardrobe, if anything happened.
The money was now in the bottom of my backpack, under some changes of clothes, some food and a sack of my mom's blue candy that she had gave to me last Tuesday.
Before I closed the wardrobe, something caught my eye: a silver necklace with a small blue pendant. It was my mother's favorite necklace, but she hadn't took it to our trip because she was scared of the saltwater damaging it.
I took it as I wiped a tear at the thought of my mother, my beautiful mother, wearing the necklace and smiling, alive, here.
Dressed in all black, I walked on my tiptoe to the door of my apartment, taking the keys. I passed the door and locked it, leaving the keys on the trashcan of the hallway.
I saw the front of the apartment complex, opened it and ran, fearing that someone would see me.
I ran with no destination, but without looking back.