The Extinction of Heroes

Chapter 5: I Wake Up In a Bathtub of Maple Syrup

Brace's POV:

"They will parade upon your victory.

You'll put a smile upon their faces.

The world will be yours for the taking,

The story you birth will be ageless.

Just learn to love pain and be patient."

The Weekend~ "Devil May Cry"

Elena walked with me to the room. This hotel must've been pretty nice before they shut it down. The dining room was huge. All the windows were boarded shut, and there were lots of candles since it was shut down and there was no electricity.

Elena pointed towards a middle table. "There's Percy and Will, and that Gracson dude."

"It's Mason," I correct, rolling my eyes and smiling.

"Gracson, Mason, same thing, don't really care," she defends. All I can do is grin.

We walked towards a center table. It was bigger and grander than the rest. Sitting there was Percy, Annabeth, Will, and Mason. They were the only ones I knew. There was also a small dark skinned girl with stunning golden eyes, a Chinese boy next to her. He was muscular. on the end of the table there was a tanned, currley haired boy. There was another blonde dude, and a girl. She looked like some army chick, and her attitude seriously annoyed me. There was an empty seat, and across was a pale boy.

Elena had her eyes on the pale boy. He looked our age, maybe younger. He was all dark and seemed depressed. Elena would not stop staring at him. I elbowed her to get her to stop staring. She looks over to Percy.

"Hey," she says,"We were wondering where we were supposed to sit?"

"You sit with your cabi-, I mean siblings," he answers. Elena gets really excited about siblings.

"Um, Percy, are you going to introduce us?" the dark girl said.

"Oh, right! This is Elena and Brace. Elena's a daughter of Apollo and Brace of Ares." He gestured to us when he said our names.

"Elena, Brace this is Hazel daughter of Pluto," he pointed to the dark skinned girl and she waved. "That's Frank son of Mars, and your Roman half-brother, Brace," he pointed at the large boy next to Hazel. I studied him, then nodded. "Between Frank and Will is Leo son of Hephaestus." He pointed to the curly haired boy on the end and he waved.

"Next to Will is Octavian, a he's a Roman descent of Apollo," Percy introduced the pale blond guy. "That's Reyna, daughter of the Roman goddess Bellona, she leads the Romans with Octavian, I help a little too." Octavian rolled his eyes at the last part.

"And next to Mason is Nico, son of Hades," the dark boy looked up when his name was said and turned to look at us.

"You're telling me these are the girls from the prophecy?" Octavian asked, gesturing to us. I glanced down at what I was wearing Workout clothes, probably smelly, and running shoes. My hands were bandaged, but despite that, I defiantly looked at him, I didn't ask for this, but I was working pretty hard to help.

I was about to say that, too. But Reyna spoke up, "Don't be rude Octavian. Thank the gods that they sent someone to help us, they know we need it."

Will offers to take Elena to her table and suggests Frank take me to mine, since we're half siblings-kind of.

Frank walks toward the table, and I follow.

"Everyone, this is Brace, she's your half-sister. Brace, this is Clarisse, Dallas, Cassius, Hudson, and Dean," Frank said. I took my seat.

Clarisse was maybe three inches taller than me, and she had light brown hair and eyes. Dallas had features that matched mine, and he was really muscular. Cassius had raven hair and brown eyes, and he was really tall and athletic looking. Hudson had really short brown hair and grey eyes. Dean had curly dark hair and brown eyes

"Gotta go, Hazel needs me, you know how it's been." Frank walks back to his table. I wondered what he meant by 'you know how it's been,' but I didn't ask.

They were a violent bunch. Every word that came out of their mouths also came with a shove or a light punch. They were also loud. They made dirty jokes and erupted in laughter.

Hudson turned to me,"So, you're the prophecy girl, huh?"

"Obviously," I say sarcastically.

"Oh, she's got a temper," he pats me roughly on the back,"she'll do great with us." Everyone smiles or laughs. I look down at my lap. These kids are a rough crowd. I mean, I've never had siblings before, but you'd think they'd be nicer to their sister.

I glance over at Elena's table. She's laughing and talking with them, and they're treating her great. I once again find myself feeling jealous of her. She has a great relationship with everyone. Her training is easy, fun even. Her siblings treat her like family.

My trainer seems dead set on killing me, and my siblings seem to think there's a "kick me" sign on my back.

+++

After dinner all the Ares kids walk to their room. There's two queen beds, two twins, and a foldable couch bed.

Dallas and Dean share one queen bed, Hudson takes a twin, Cassius takes the couch bed, Frank takes the other twin, and Clarisse takes the queen. She gestures for me to sit next to her, I'm guessing since we're the only girls.

Everyone changes into pajamas, black cotton pants and a grey tee shirt. It's November, and it's getting pretty cold at night. There's no heating in this room, so I'm hoping these clothes will keep me warm.

They talk a bit, but they go to sleep minutes after that. I lay awake for a while, thinking about how crazy this day has been. My mind is practically exploding with what may happen soon. But after a while, I find myself drifting to sleep.

+++

The first thing I notice when I wake up is that my entire body feels sticky. I don't immediately open my eyes. I assume it's sweat, because I had numerous nightmares during the night.

The second thing I notice is that I'm not in a bed. I can't reason this, and curiosity forces me to open my eyes.

When I do, I can't help the scream that rips from my throat. I'm in the bathtub. But it's full of blood. I'm wearing my pajamas still, so nothing was done about that. I'm wondering how I got in here.

It smells weird, like a mix of blood and pancakes, but it terrifies me. Where did it come from?

I jump out of the tub, slipping and sliding as I do so. I try to run the water in the sink, but it doesn't run. It occurs to me that it's an abandoned hotel, so it probably doesn't have running water. I groan and check my watch. It's seven fifty! I'm supposed to be at training at eight! Mason will kill me if I'm not on time.

I run through the halls. There's gotta be water somewhere. They must shower. As I run the blood drips down my body. It's really sticky. I run outside the door. As soon as I do, water rushes at me. It doesn't stop for at least a minute, and when it does I'm pretty clean.

I look at the source, and see Dallas holding a water hose. I don't know where it's hooked up to, but I don't really care. Behind Dallas is all my siblings, except Frank. They're all laughing their heads off. Anger rushes through me.

"What was that?" I yell, stopping their laughter.

"Relax, it was just your initiation, now you're really part of our family," Dean says, looking at me.

"My initiation? You soaked me in blood, it stained my skin, and I'm already late for training!"

"It wasn't blood, it was syrup with food coloring. No big deal," Dallas says.

My eyes narrow so much that if looks could kill I could take out an entire army. "I don't have time for this. I'm not part of your family, and I never want to be!" My voice cracks at the end in anger, and I run back up to our room.

There's no way I'm related to them. I don't want anything to do with then. I hate them.