𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Moral choice. Nothing is properly considered either good, or bad, aside from those things that are within our own power to control, and the only thing fully in our power to control is our own volition.
Esmerelda's attempts of...
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▬▬▬▬▬ CHAPTER TWELVE ▬▬▬▬▬
LOCKING UP HIS BEST FRIEND in a dog cage wasn't exactly the reunion he was hoping for. In fact, now that he thought about it, it was probably a little bit of an overkill...
Ethan honestly had no idea how he ended up so... wrong.
When he was a kid, back when he was still living with his grandparents and back when his dad was in jail and he thought he was a good guy for defending that woman, he yearned to be like the super cool characters he watched on television. Heroes like Hercules (the Disney kind, his grandparents wouldn't let him watch the other ones), or Batman, or Shang from Mulan.
His most favorite hero was Robin Hood (the fox guy from Disney). Stealing from the undeserving rich and giving to the poor? How awesome was that? Count him in! He loved that movie so much that his grandparents bought the Blu Ray version and he even remembered the lyrics to all the songs (he could sing them even today but he would never admit to it).
He looked up to people like Robin Hood, who gave retribution to those who deserved it and helped those who needed it. He looked up to his dad, who his grandparents said was wrongly sent to jail after protecting a woman from a powerful man with many connections. It cost him, but morally, he had done the right thing.
But then his dad came back from jail with a mean look on his face, poorly done tattoos all over his skin, and an addiction to all things bad. His father terrorized him daily, he didn't seem to recognize his own son and treated him as a stranger taking up space in 'his' home. He screamed at his grandparents, stole their money and wasted it on alcohol that he'd throw at Ethan and cigarettes that he's threaten to push into his skin if he didn't move out of the way.
He didn't get why his grandparents couldn't just kick him out. He wasn't his dad anymore, and he was mean to everyone. It was their home, so why bother keeping his father with them? He didn't understand their logic, so he ran away. He was nine years old so he didn't last that long in the streets before he got scared off by a group of frightening men. Luckily for him he was saved by a nice looking lady who took him to her home.
Well, it turned out the nice looking lady was actually an empousa who wanted to eat him alive. Naturally, he freaked out, ran out of the house and quite literally ran into a Satyr, Ash, who got him out of the situation. After that, he was debriefed on the whole 'you're a demigod' explanation and instead of doing the normal thing and being confused he was actually super excited.
He was a demigod. Like Hercules. Like one of his favorite heroes of all time. What little boy wouldn't be excited to hear that? He could be a hero just like him and all the other heroes he looked up to! He could be like Robin Hood and get vengeance on those who deserved it and save those who needed it!
It was a dream come true that came crashing down when he arrived at Camp Half Blood and remained unclaimed for a week. People were no longer friendly to him. They'd whisper and give him looks of pity and soon enough, they ignored him altogether. He was just another unwanted leftover sleeping on the floor of the Hermes cabin.
