Bandages and Salt (PJO X BSD AU)

Chapter One

Numb.

Numb was the only way to accurately describe what I was feeling. Even as the heat of the distant flames seemed to lick at my skin, I couldn't seem to feel it. There was a coldness in my chest that had never been there before. Not when I thought I saw my Mother die last year, not when leaving camp today with no intention of going back. No this coldness came from seeing my apartment complex up in flames in the middle of the night, and knowing that everyone in there had burned.

"There were no survivors," was what the firemen and police said to the press when they appeared on scene.

Just... numb.

—

After leaving the infirmary, I went and tracked down Argus and asked the eye covered man to drive me into town. He was reluctant at first, shaking his head not, but something in my eyes, some look on my face must have stopped him because the next thing I knew was on the road in the camp van with me having nothing but the things I could hastily throw in my bookbag. I guess he knew that even if he didn't do this, I would just hitch hike.

Argus drove me as far as he would normally for any demigod mission. The walk to my apartment wasn't a terrible one, but it would take a few hours to get there. I couldn't help but sigh. I have the time.

As I finally make it to the block my apartment complex is one, I start to get a headache from the smell of smoke. Not an uncommon occurrence in the city, but it's also not normally this strong either. The smell only gets stronger the closer I get to the apartment. I can almost taste the smoke on my tongue, and hear the sirens in the distance.

When I finally got home, the place was in flames.

I stand on the street, watching the vultures people deem fit to call humans, as they gather outside the building. Not a single one of them lived in the building. There's an alley close enough to the commotion that I can still hear the people and the police scanner talking. It's cool in here, letting me catch the breath that I didn't know that I was missing. Something swirled in my gut, and I puked up my lunch from earlier. Even then, crouching in an alley, staring at my home as it's in flames, knowing that my Mother was in there, that she's dead, I didn't cry. It was like something in me burned along with them, and I didn't know how to get it back.

I didn't even know if I wanted it back.

—

I ended up having an all night dinner not far from the apartment complex. The place was popular with college students during the school year, but only had a few customers at the moment since it was summer. I had dragged myself here and all but threw myself into the nearest seat to the T.V. The news was going, showing convergence of the fire.

"Just in," an over excited news reporter chirped, "a local apartment building has been set ablaze," my attention caught on the word set. Set meant it was on purpose. "The fire department and police department are working together to find the arsonist. Officers on scene have reported that there were no survivors of the incident."

Annoyance flashed through me. Of course it's arson. And of course it had to be my building at a time when I was away with no true alibi and a very strange criminal history for a thirteen year old. It was just a matter of time till the police saw this and decided that I was their pyro. It was ironic in a way, being the son of Posiedon and all.

The way I saw it, I had two options: since Posiedon has made his position on even visiting very clear I couldn't stay with him. Best case I end up in the foster care system, worst case, jail. Neither was all that appealing to me.

I left the dinner with a plan in mind for a third option.

—

There's a local library near the apartment building and the dinner. The place is small and not very popular, but there are enough students and scholars in the city to keep the place a float. The library itself was one of the shorter buildings in the city, older too, and possessing an olf money sort of feeling. There were only two stories to the building, made of dark brick and large windows thst open out onto a sloping roof. If i looked carefully, i could just make out what looked to be a hidden flat spot where all the sides of the roof meet. Looking at the library, it truly did seem like something found in the pages of the Great Gastby, a book that Annabeth had made me read during the school year. It was beautiful, ethereal.