TEENS FROM OLYMPUS

Chapter 24: The Box

101114: Late dedication for DreamsAndStarlights! <3 sorry it took a month for your dedication! :)

My dad owned an IT company, and with technology at its peak, IT companies got their glimmer of spotlight. Woods IT was the biggest in North Carolina, and at age thirteen, I was relieved that my dad was rich from a decent job. By then, I thought he was a terrorist or a drug dealer or a syndicate of some sort. "No, Yhanie. I'm not a drug dealer, and I'm not running a porn site, too." He told me that night when I asked him what job he had. I laughed, and he chuckled with me. My mom heard our laughs and I told her about dad being a drug dealer, and we found ourselves laughing and making drug puns. At age thirteen. Now that they're gone though, the lawyer thought it'd be best to sell the company and have me handle all the money they left. I easily became the richest kid in the city, and the most hated one, too.

We were back at North Carolina, me and Athena, and we were rummaging around dad's untouched office. I never cleaned there. It was just locked. I felt like I was intruding whenever I entered the room. And right now, in the middle of the night, in the abandoned, dusty office of my late-father, I felt like it was haunted. "God, I swear I heard breathing." I yelped. Athena rolled her eyes. "That was me, knucklehead." She groaned. I shrugged. "You breathe like a man, how am I supposed to know it was you?"

Property papers - that was what we were looking for. Not just any property papers, but yachts - I know my dad had a yacht, and I think it wasn't selled off either. I hope. "So, what was the name of the yacht anyway?" Athena said. "You know, in case it was named Amy. And we overlooked a folder named Amy?" She added. I turned around. "Who the fuck would name their yacht an Amy? I thought yachts were named after stars or something." I answered. She shrugged. "And popes. And gods. And people names like Amy." Athena said, and I shrugged back, resuming to my hunt for property papers.

The plan sounded simple. Find the property papers. Find the yacht. Sail to Scylla. And then fucking improv. But of course, we were in the middle of step number one and I was already cursing Scylla under my breath. "Fucking Scylla," I muttered. "Bitter old bitch. Does she even understand meaning of 'moving on'?" And I don't even know where that thought came from. The light from the office started to flicker, sending chills down my spine. "Ah, fuck! Not now. Not in the middle of the night." I yelped. Athena laughed. "There's a stock of extra light bulbs in the basement, do you want me to get it?"

"We, Athena, we." I snapped, and she smirked back at me. "And later, perhaps, if you behave."

We've been looking for about an hour now, and I was getting used to the gross termite-bitten papers and the smell of old books, of old paper. And I was so happy when I found what we were looking for that I just stood there, frozen, a smile etched on my face. I was about to tell Athena when she spoke up. "Please tell me the yacht was named Reana." Athena sighed, and I felt the smile fade from my face. "Reana?" I muttered.

"Yeah, is that what it's named?" She asked, and I shook my head. "It's named Moondust." I answered when I turned around. She was holding a box in her hands, and she nodded at my answer. "Guess our work here's finally done. Yay!" She cheered, but I was so curious about that box. "What is that you were holding earlier?" I asked, pointing at the shelf Athena was standing by.

"A shoebox." She said, taking it and placing it on the table. It was an old, brown shoebox with what seemed like brown crepe paper tied around it. There were scribblings of a Sharpie, 'Reana' and underneath that 'positively do not open' which I guess Dad got from our trip to the Warrens' house. He wouldn't shut up about it ever since. "Positively do not open the bathroom, a bomb exploded." He said one day after he took a dump.