𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐎𝐒 | "Doom; fate" the personified spirit of impending doom, who drives mortals to their deadly fate.
Esmerelda thought she had left all those feelings of pain and suffering behind once the Second Titan War ended, but another war was brewing...
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▬▬▬ CHAPTER THIRTYFOUR ▬▬▬
ESMERELDA AND HER FATHER HAD only been in the world of the living for about an hour and they were already being hunted down by the police.
It started the second they left the Underworld:
"Get down!" Esmerelda hissed, grabbing her father's shoulder and dragging him to hide with her behind the massive 'H' sign.
"What? What is it? Don't tell me there's more monsters after us," Regulus groaned in annoyance.
"No. It's worse: tourists," she said grimly.
He gave her a weird look. "What?"
Wordlessly, she gestured for him to peek out from the 'H' sign. Beyond the hills were a group of tourists on the road, trying to take pictures of themselves with the Hollywood sign behind them. So far, none of them noticed the two teenagers on the hills.
"What are they doing?" Regulus asked curiously.
"Taking pictures of the sign we're hiding behind," she answered.
He looked even more confused. "Why? It's just a sign, isn't it?"
She shrugged. "It's special to them, I guess. My biggest concern is getting out of these hills without getting caught on camera..."
There were a bunch of bushes around that could provide them some cover, but it really wasn't much...
Ugh, whatever. We just came back to life, it's too early to start caring about any witnesses, she decided.
The top of the hill led to a road, and it was a lot closer than the bottom of the hill, so she tugged at her father and told him to get started on hiking up. She would occasionally glance over the back of her shoulder and spy the tourists pointing excitedly at them or even snapping pictures and videos. She couldn't hear what they were talking about, but she wouldn't be surprised if they were making TikToks out of this. TikTokers would make a video out of anything at this point.
Climbing the hill... was a lot harder than she thought it would be. Usually she would've been able to do it without breaking a sweat, but now it felt like it was her first time walking up a hill. She had been dead for a month now and apparently that was all the time her body needed to forget what it was like to be alive.
She glanced back at Regulus, who was definitely struggling a lot worse than her since he had been dead for almost two decades.
"You okay?" She asked in concern. He already looked out of breath. Hecate hadn't been kidding when she said they would need some time to adjust to their living bodies.
"Just fine," he panted.
Esmerelda just nodded and continued her trek upwards.
After reaching the top of the hill, they finally came across the City of Los Angeles Central Communications Facility which was basically just a tower full of metal, wires, and antennas. According to the informative sign in front of it, the building supported all cellphone, microwave, and radio towers used by the Los Angeles Police Department, the Fire Department, the Los Angeles Unified School District, and other municipal agencies.
