𝖦𝗁𝗈𝗌𝗍 𝖧𝗎𝗇𝗍𝖾𝗋 (𝖭𝗂𝖼𝗈 𝖣𝗂 𝖠𝗇𝗀𝖾𝗅𝗈)

four

chapter four
perhaps your mother being a crazy person is something you should tell your friends before they come over

—NICO STARED AT SAMAEL'S back looking both impressed and questioning at the same time, he didn't like this expression that had been etched on his face since arriving at the gate. the last person he'd given this look was percy and he didn't like it, not one bit but he couldn't not feel these emotions.

samael seemed well versed in graveyard etiquette, from greeting the guardian to apologizing when stepping on someone's grave (samael accidentally stepped on one isaac oliver's grave often if his knowing the dead man's name was anything to go by) and he seemed to have the utmost respect for the dead. nico knew this as samael had apologized to isaac oliver in portuguese, the dead man's native tongue samael had told nico (nico wasn't sure how samael knew this but he didn't question him).

while it was impressive as this respectfulness wasn't shown as much in this time as it had in the past (before nico's time even) it did bring up questions.

first and foremost why did samael learn this? surely there was more to it than want to prove that ghosts were real. none of the ghost hunting shows he'd watched took their hunting all that seriously, at least not seriously enough to learn and respect the etiquette of interacting with the dead.

also who had taught him? who had taught him that the dead respected as much as he gave them. and his latin upon entering was much too smooth to have been learnt from reading or those sometimes inaccurate language apps. in fact the only latin that nico had heard that could be compared on the same scale to samael's had been that of the demigods of camp jupiter.

as more questions filled his head nico couldn't help but wonder if there was more to samael moriarty than what he'd initially thought.

—AS SAMAEL LED NICO to the forest that was home to the older graves he couldn't help but be uncomfortably aware of the di angelo boy's eyes on him.

he couldn't see nico's expression with the boy being behind him but he could feel the stare, it made him ansty.

as they passed the outskirts of the forest samael caught sight of a familiar dark haired woman. she was watching samael and nico with calculating eyes while holding a shovel firmly at her side.

samael smiled at his mother and continued on, not offended that she gave no greeting of her own in return that's just how she was. it took him a moment to realise that nico hadn't followed.

trailing back samael found nico seemingly having a staring contest with his mother. "nico?" samael said bringing attention to himself. nico's head snapped to look at samael. "you coming?"

wordlessly nico followed, shooting one last glance at the woman only to find she wasn't there anymore. samael smirked to himself, his mother liked her escape tricks.

"who was that?" nico asked.

"the groundskeeper, lilith. she's also my mother," samael said the last part offhandedly.

"she's..." nico was quiet for a moment trying to think of a word to describe the woman that samael assumed tried to sound not offensive. "interesting."

ah yes, interesting, the word one uses when they can't think of anything nice to say. sadly samael was unsurprised that this word was used to describe the woman that birthed him, she was... interesting.

"she's not good with people," samael said. "my grandmother wasn't the most humane," he said the word carefully as if his grandmother would jump out from behind a tree and attack him for insulting her, "so my mother didn't have much of an example on how to deal with people."

"but you're not like that?" nico questioned.

samael snorted. "i was when i was around six until my mom stepped into the more parental position."

they walked silently for a moment. "was it your mother that taught you graveyard etiquette?"

samael pursed his lips and shook his head. "no, that was my dad."

he said the words as if they pained him because they did. his father wasn't able to be around much when he was younger. he only visited once a month, twice if samael was really lucky. at first he didn't understand it but then the incident happened and he realised perhaps there was more to his dad not be around than what he thought. it still hurt when he stopped showing up though. samael hadn't seen him for over five months now.

nico seemed to realise this was a sore spot and stopped asking questions.

"we're almost there," samael said after minutes of silence. "just around the bend." the pathway they were on within the forest was well maintained (his mother wouldn't settle for less) but there was a wildness to it that the outskirts of the forest didn't have.

"here we are." the graves in the clearing were clearly much older with the words on the tombs fading and the quality of the stone not in the state it used to be.

samael placed the bag down and zipped it open. he put up the stand for the larger camera and clipped the device itself on. he then pulled out his EMF meter and his hand hold video recorder and placed them in his front pocket, he handed one of the two torches in the bag to nico and stepped back.

"you okay with sitting on the floor?" he asked nico.

the di angelo boy nodded wordlessly and moved to sit cross legged on the ground.

"awesome." he clicked the on button of the large camera and pressed the record button. "rolling in three," he ran to sit beside nico. "two," he crossed his legs and allowed himself to sit comfortably. "one."

961 words

short chapter, sorry! the next one will make up for it i promise.
how'd you guys like it? thoughts on lilith? i'm going off on a limb now and letting you know that she isn't entirely human. how about samael's father? we all know who it is but it's interesting to see samael's journey in finding out.
-Jupiter (he/they)