Mostly Normal: Only Half of the Story

(Rio) Act Three, Scene One

Rio was really feeling the aftershock of his sister's death. He tried to stem the tears falling down his face but they just kept coming. He ran back to the cabin and threw himself onto his bed, crying into his pillow.

After a while of crying, Rio took a shaky breath and forced himself to get up off his bed. He fished out the antidepressants that he had tossed under his dresser a couple of days before and popped the lid. He fished a pill out of the little bottle and put it in his mouth, washing it down with water. Then he sighed and stood up again, glancing toward what used to be Ara's bed. Her book was still lying there, forgotten, never to be picked up by the fifteen-year-old girl again. Rio bit his lip. Should he?

He slowly walked over to the bed and picked up the brittle book, inside there was a smaller book concealed with black ink. He picked up the crumbling cover before he sat down on the floor next to his deceased half-sister's bed. He flipped it open to the first page, it read.

Why did I do that? Why did they all scream like that? It's not like I would hurt them. I hate being like this. I wish that I could tell my siblings. Would they reject me like everyone else did?

Rio felt a gentle tear slip down his cheek. She really did love them, she was just scared of being rejected. Like they all were. But now she was gone and there was nothing that the small boy could do about it.

Rio let out a half-frustrated, half-sad breath and turned the page. Maybe he could figure out what Ara had been talking about?

My mother knows something I don't, I can tell, the entry read, but she won't tell me anything. I've asked her about my father for years but she always evades the question in one way or another. I'm getting desperate. I'll have to do something, and soon. But what?

My headaches have been getting worse as of late. I asked the medicine maker if it was normal, he said he didn't know. The fifth Cohort stinks. But the good news is that I got claimed as a child of Janus, meaning that I could always transfer back to the Greek Camp with my newfound siblings. Though I am a bit weary of that Chiron character.

I finally moved into the Janus cabin, they do things quite differently from back home. I almost wish I could go back. But, on the upside I met someone on the roof my first night here. Her name is Genofafa. She said that the Janus cabin's magic always attracted her to it, so she spends her free time on the roof. She's a Valkyrie. From Norse Mythology. She said that there were many others out there away. Chiron never informed us about this. I wonder what else he's been hiding from us.

I wish there was an easier way to find out. But as there isn't, I will have to do this the hard way. I am not happy about it, and if I told my siblings I am sure they would be crushed. I am going to have to die. But when? And how? I only hope it is painless. Or, at least, not worse than the pain I am already in at losing my mother.

Rio blinked. He hadn't known Ara's mother had died! This was all new, overloading him with information he hadn't known before.