Mostly Normal: Hearts and Spades

Chapter Seven: Zniszczony

When summer finally arrived, it seemed like it never would be the cold again. Nero sat on the roof without a shirt on, laying out (getting rather sunburnt) in only a pair of swim trunks.

Victoria sat on her boyfriend's lap inside of the infirmary tent. There were only a couple of children in there, four out of five of them were Apollo children, counting Gilbert of course.

Gilbert had been shirtless before, but Victoria had eventually convinced him to wear a camp shirt in the end. She herself wore a white tank top and denim shorts. Her sunglasses were mirrored and very useful, and Gilbert had said they made her look cool, so they served a double purpose.

The son of Apollo named Will was drinking a glass of lemonade. "Rio was back in here this morning," he said, trying to strike up a conversation, "he keeps losing his meds. He had an MPD attack where he couldn't say anything but 'crap' and he seemed rather overstressed, too. We fixed him up, though; Hanna discovered a root that soothes the effects of Multiple Personality Disorder like what the Janus kids have."

Hanna blushed with pleasure and ducked her head. "Thanks, Will," she said, "It wasn't too hard. I just dug up a root and researched it."

Victoria hummed and let her head fall back onto her boyfriend with a small smile. "Really?" Gilbert asked with a lazy fascination. Ethan then walked into the tent with a sad expression.

"Tori, you need to come see this," he said, his breath was almost a whisper. Victoria jumped out of Gilbert's lap and followed her half-brother.

When they arrived, they were in front of what should have been the Nemesis cabin, instead all that lay in front of them was a charred pile of paint.

"What happened here?" Maxine asked from behind them, her hands on her face and her biceps flexed so that her tattoos warped awkwardly.

Victoria's eyes were round with shock. "No idea," she whispered, and then a sudden thought occurred to her. "Where's Nero?" she asked, panicked. The three siblings looked at them frantically, searching for their youngest half-brother, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Victoria's heart beat faster, and she could hear herself beginning to hyperventilate. The edges of her vision started to get black, and she knew she was about to faint. "Nero," she whispered and collapsed once more to the ground.

There was a coughing sound that came from the edge of the forest. There was a tall girl standing there. She radiated magnificence, as though she was a horse. It scared the two awake siblings how much she seemed like a centaur. In her arms, she had a sleeping (unconscious?) boy in her arms.

Maxine surged forward to the woman and grasped the small boy.

When she turned back to Ethan her face was ashen. "It's Nero," she whispered, "I think he's alive."

Ethan nodded and turned to the centaur-like girl. "What's your name?" he asked her.

She smiled slightly. "That is not relevant," she said softly, "but I will tell you if you wish me to. After all, I did save your brother from the burning building."

"B-burning?" Maxine stammered, her eyes widening further. The girl nodded silently.

Ethan's mouth twitched in a worried frown. "Who would burn our cabin?" he murmured.

There was a small pile of something on the ground. Maxine wasn't sure what, all she knew was that she needed to make sure her little brother was alright.